Chapter 62: Interplay

Seeing Thomas taking his training seriously, Chloe sat on the sidelines and waited nearly two hours for him to take a break. When he did, she hopped to her feet and sauntered over to him, asking, "So, when do you want to form a contract? No one else is around, and I'm sure Astolfo and Vivi wouldn't mind, even if they were..."

Since it was just the two of them, Thomas was a bit more straightforward than he was the previous day, questioning, "Why are you so eager to form a contract? Even without one, we can travel together. And if Illya comes along, you would only need me to restore your Magical Energy during an emergency."

Shrugging her shoulders, Chloe replied, "Contracts go two ways. I'm not the type to simply trust others, so I would want you to agree to search for and hand over the Install Cards as a condition. In exchange..."

As she was still in her Archer costume, Chloe traced her navel and the line of her abdomen as she teased, "You gain access to all my knowledge and get to order me to do whatever you want. If that happens to be nothing, it lets you send me away with a simple command."

Though Thomas was staring directly into her eyes, Chloe could feel his tensions increasing in response to her actions. However, instead of trying to 'attack' her, he maintained a mask of relative calm as he replied, "Even if you know I won't do anything, you shouldn't tempt me like this. I didn't tell Shirou, but one of my aspirations in this world is to travel around and 'sample' the various cultures. If you continue pushing my buttons, there's a chance you might push the right or wrong one, depending on how you look at it..."

Narrowing her eyes into an impish grin, Chloe replied, "That's fine with me. I shouldn't even exist, so I decided long ago that I would live and die as I please. If I didn't care about Illya's and Miyu's feelings, I would have 'attacked' Shirou long ago. I mean, we risk our lives regularly, and I would rather not die a virgin..."

Directing her gaze to Thomas's waistline, the corners of Chloe's smile curled up like a cat as she teased, "Though, with the differences in our size, I'm not sure how 'practical' such a relationship would be. Should we give it a test run~?"

With a deadpan expression, Thomas flatly replied, "I'll pass. As for the contract, go ahead and lay out the terms. You don't really have anything I want, so as long as your conditions aren't too extreme, I'll agree to them."

Exhaling a pouty sigh, Chloe replied, "You're no fun..." before crossing her arms and adding, "My terms are pretty straightforward. Along with what I mentioned previously, you aren't to lay a hand on Illya or Miyu unless they take the initiative to approach you. Beyond that, it's just the usual Master-Slave Contract."

Furrowing his brows, Thomas asked, "Don't you mean Master-Servant...?"

Shrugging her shoulders, Chloe asked, "What's the difference?" before looking to the Command Spells on Thomas's hand and adding, "Oh, and one last thing. You can't use Command Spells or Mystic Codes to annul or overwrite the conditions of our agreement. I don't mind if you order me to go into heat or alter my common sense to make me addicted to your odor, but attempting to circumvent the conditions of our contract is a big no-no, okay~?"

With his right eye twitching, Thomas somberly remarked, "You have a very active imagination..."

After licking her lips in an overtly seductive manner, Chloe revealed, "A good friend of ours was a Doujin whose talents were sufficient to run a fairly successful booth at Comiket. She primarily focused on BL, but she had a veritable mountain of 'reference' material. After thinking about your reaction and accounting for the fact that we're fictional characters back in your world, I concluded you must have 'perused' something similar. Since you also mentioned we were Heroic Spirits, quite a few...possibilities came to mind."

"..."

Realizing that Chloe wasn't just perceptive but exceptionally smart, a cold sweat gradually broke out across Thomas's body. Using just a few context clues, she was able to deduce the truth with incredible ease...

Punctuating her words with a playful wink, Chloe said, "Relax. There's no one here to judge you. If anything, I find the notion you rubbed one out to me fairly amusing. In fact, I'd like to see you do it in person...I could even lend you a hand..."

Extending her right hand, Chloe tentatively traced the metal of Thomas's belt buckle while staring up at him with visibly glowing eyes. Fortunately, as 'compelling' as Chloe's words were, the fact she barely came up to his navel allowed Thomas to retain his reasoning. Before she could tempt him any further, he plopped his hand atop her head, firmly mussing her hair as he said, "Grow twenty to thirty centimeters, and then we'll talk."

Waiting until Thomas retracted his hand, Chloe took a moment to fix her hair as she replied, "Then I'll just wait until you can alter your size freely. Astolfo already told me about your plans to 'sample' various cultures last night. Once our sizes are more compatible, I don't mind giving you a taste of Germany and Japan."

Finished with her hair, Chloe looked up at Thomas and asked, "Now, are you going to let me kiss you, or do we need to go through the hassle of formalizing our contract in writing? You should know that the latter gives us significantly less wiggle room. Like, we would need to come up with all kinds of rules, penalties, and other restrictions. It's a real pain in the ass."

Shaking his head, Thoams replied, "I'm not going to kiss you. Now, unless you want to start instructing me in the use of the EMIYA Card, why don't you leave me to my training and go prepare the contract?"

Clicking her tongue, Chloe resisted the urge to 'teach Thomas a lesson,' answering, "Fine." before promptly teleporting away in the blink of an eye. Her sudden disappearance caught the latter a little off-guard, but he only looked around for a few seconds before returning to his training. After all, it wasn't the first time a loli had abruptly vanished in front of his eyes...

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After training for several hours, long enough for Astolfo, Vivi, and even Illya to come out and check on him, Thomas entered the Emiya residence to wash up and eat breakfast. Shortly after he sat down, Illya surprised a grand total of zero people when she adopted a resolute expression and said, "There's something I wanted to ask you, Tom-san...can you please permit me to accompany you on your travels? I...I promise to do my best and not get in your way, so..."

Shrugging his shoulders, Thomas casually replied, "Sure, why not? And don't worry. I doubt you'll be more troublesome than a certain bronze-skinned succubus..."

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Adopting a radiant smile, Illya exclaimed, "Thank you very much~!" in a cheerful and sincere tone. Immediately afterward, however, she adopted a somewhat apologetic expression as she met Miyu's gaze.

Without missing a beat, Miyu asserted, "It's fine. I've wanted to have some alone time with Onii-san for a while now. Besides, with Astolfo's Hippogriff, you can come to visit whenever you want. We'll be here."

Though Shirou's smile cramped when Miyu mentioned having 'alone time,' Illya had a far more natural, albeit dramatic reaction as she teared up and held her friend's hands, saying, "If you ever feel lonely, just have Sapphire send us a message. We'll hurry over as quickly as we can..."

Responding to Illya's words, Sapphire gave a 'salute' with her wing-like appendage, replying, "Leave it to me." in a calm, rich, and feminine tone. This was a stark contrast to Ruby, whose voice was somewhat harsh as she writhed about in excitement, exclaiming, "Finally! Now, the marvelous misadventures of the Prism Pirates can begin anew~!"

Seemingly incapable of waiting a moment longer, Ruby darted over to Illya, spinning around above her head as she shouted, "Maximizing Mirror Wor-"

Realizing what Ruby was attempting, Illya grabbed her by the rod and slammed the overexcited wand into the dining table as she exclaimed, "Not in front of guests...!" with a red face. Even after three, nearly four years as a Magical Girl, she still wasn't used to the 'compulsory posing' that occurred while she was transforming. She also didn't want to be seen naked in front of Thomas, even if her body was veiled in blinding light, so she intended to wait until they were preparing to depart before donning her 'Magical Pirate Princess - Prism Pink' attire.

Fortunately, Ruby knew when to stand down, so she just went limp, her 'face' embedded in the reinforced wooden surface of the dining table for the remainder of breakfast...

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Though he was interested in touring Amazon Lily, Thomas refused when he learned that Hancock was currently away at sea, sailing around and conducting raids with the Kuja Pirates. He also wasn't enthused by the prospect of being introduced to her through Shirou, so while Illya, Chloe, and Miyua headed into the city to say farewell to a few of their friends, he enjoyed a nice long bath with Astolfo and Vivi.

While using Thomas's chest as a pillow, Vivi softly muttered, "This is nice. The bath at the palace is also fairly large, but it quickly fills with sand and algae if we don't clean it frequently. It's also much cooler to compensate for the air being hot and dry..."

Raising his brows, Thomas asked, "Your palace doesn't have an AC or an alternate form of cooling? That sounds...miserable..."

Smiling wryly, Vivi replied, "It does, but only in a handful of places. The palace is very large and has many open spaces, so it isn't practical to cool the entire thing. Maybe you can do something about it using Magic...?"

Nodding his head, Thomas answered, "Sure. I'm not sure how long it will take, but I should be able to do something. If not, we could always make a smaller, concealed residence somewhere inside the palace. I mean, this place was literally constructed in a rock..."

Adopting a far more affectionate smile, Vivi replied, "I'd like that..." before planting a kiss on Thomas's pectoral. His face was out of range, so it was the easiest place for her lips to reach until the latter bent down to kiss her properly.

Seemingly prompted by the interaction, Astolfo waited for Thomas and Vivi to stop kissing before inquiring, "Did you kiss Chloe yet? She seems like a fun girl."

Exhaling through his nose, Thomas shook his head and said, "She did her best to try and convince me, but I managed to resist. I'm just not that into girls that look like little kids. I might make an exception in the future, but it wouldn't be until she's at least sixteen. That was the age of consent in my home state of Washington."

"Ah, I guess that makes sense...?" replied Astolfo, clearly unconvinced by Thomas's 'reasoning.' She understood his common sense was grounded in his original world, but they were no longer in it.

Deciding that it didn't really matter, as it meant she would have more of Thomas to herself, Astolfo ultimately just shrugged her shoulders before resting her head against the former's chest. She felt sorry for Chloe, as it was pretty obvious she was frustrated, but Thomas wasn't obliged to help everyone. If Chloe's patience ran out, finding a man with fewer inhibitions than Thomas wasn't exactly difficult...

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(A/N: Round 2 goes to Thomas...)

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