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Angra was hanging out in the cafeteria, chewing on some jerky.
He'd just finished practicing in the sims room. His master– god knows why –had been leveling him up steadily and he wanted to get the hours in.
Naturally, he wasn't the strongest in Chaldea, that red haired buffon with the sharp teeth was, but still, considering Angra was the weakest servant,it didn't make much sense.
But then again, his master never did make much sense. He ignored obvious powerhouses like Nero in favour of a middling berserker, a half-assed assassin and an unlucky lancer.
To say Ritsuka's choices were eclectic was an understatement; he seemed to choose the servants he invested and fought with out of a hat. It was so random that Angra couldn't understand it at all.
The door to the cafeteria creaked open and he glanced up. Speak of the devil and the devil will appear.
There stood Ritsuka looking five seconds from collapse, leaning on the door before stumbling toward the back of the cafeteria.
He looked exhausted as he made his way back,and immediately flipped the kettle on before he laid his head on the breakfast bar, not even noticing Angra.
Angra stared at Ritsuka’s back for a long moment before he glanced at the clock.
Oof. Three A.M. He's up way too late.
The kettle beeped and Ritsuka startled upright, practically jumping a foot in the air before he settled. His shoulders returned to their previous slumped position.
Angra saw the little mage sigh; a big deep breath like he had the world on his shoulders, which Angra supposed he did .
Ritsuka made tea– oh yeah, he likes tea, doesn't he –and turned to the tables, only for his eyes to focus on Angra.
He looked… scared, for a moment, before he gave a shaky smile and headed to sit near him.
Angra waved and continued to chew on the jerky he found as Ritsuka collapsed into the chair across from him.
"Hey Angra, what are you doing up late?" He asks, voice tinged with exhaustion. He put his mug down and laid his head in his arms, one eye buried, and the other drooping.
"I could ask you the same question Master. Unlike you, I don't need sleep." He challenged.
Ritsuka wilted a little, his open eye looking distant for a moment. He's quiet before he shrugged awkwardly, his position making the motion look uncomfortable.
"Can't sleep, thought some tea would help relax me."
Angra paused. "But… you're not drinking it." He clarified, pointing to the untouched mug.
The visible side of Ritsuka's face pulled into a pout. "I will. But it has to cool first."
This was even more confusing. "Aren't you the one who begged Da Vinci to make you a fancy kettle so that you could set the temperatures yourself?"
Ritsuka's eyes drifted closed for a long moment, and took a deep breath before opening them again.
"Yeah. But this is black tea, it wouldn't steep properly at a different temperature." His watch beeped and he flinched violently away from it from where his head was nestled, right next to it.
He shut off the alarm before straightening and fishing out the teabag, placing it on the small plate he brought over with the mug.
"So now you just can't drink it? That's crazy!" Angra pressed, baffled.
"Well I will be able to, I've just got to wait for it to cool. Something, something, patience and virtues or whatever." Ritsuka grumbled, settling his head back in his arms again, one sleepy eye watching Angra.
"I don't know anything about virtues." He said cheekily.
Ritsuka shrugged, jostling his head. "But you didn't answer me, why are you here? You have a room, and if you don't like it, you could just be in spirit form. You’re eating instead, so you presumably used up your mana and didn't want me to notice."
Angra narrowed his eyes at Ritsuka. He’s certainly smart; a boon in battle, but often annoying otherwise. "I was training. You leveled me up recently and I wanted to make sure I wasn't left behind." He mumbled.
Ritsuka yawned. "You don't have to train at night, I'm sure everyone would be welcome to have you train with them." He replied groggily.
Angra took another bite out of the dried meat. "Actually, I wanted to ask you about that…"
Ritsuka tilted his head more upright to give him more attention, but his face was still mostly buried in his arms.
"Why…why do you bother? With me? I'm your weakest servant; if you had any sense you'd leave me with the likes of Jasons and Ceasars of the worlds, but you insist on pushing resources into me. I just don't get it. It's a stupid choice."
Ritsuka straightened, raising his head from the bed of his arms. "Wh–why wouldn't I?" He seemed completely thrown by the observation.
And now Angra is confused, so he stared at his master in disbelief. "Because! Because I'm the weakest servant? I told you that when you summoned me didn't I?"
Ritsuka stared at him like he was stupid. "You're stronger than half my servants, what are you talking about?"
Angra was just completely at a loss. What was he… oh . "No, I don't mean by experience. I mean by stats; by stats, I'm the weakest servant. Like, you'll have to invest in me more than others to get the same strength." He clarified.
Understanding lit up Ritsuka's eyes and he nodded. "Oh I see." He dug into his pocket, and pulled out a small turquoise box. It's seriously battered, with the paint scraped off in places and edges banged up as well, he also took out a small black case.
He flipped open the case and pulled out a tiny grey rectangle, fitting it into the turquoise box. "Have you ever heard of Pokemon?"
"Huh?" Angra was thrown by the complete change in topic.
He flipped open the blue box and began to fiddle with it, "You know! Pokemon, Pocket Monsters? Pikachu, the little yellow electric mouse? It's a huge franchise, there's toys and an anime and games and stuff!"
Angra was at a loss.“Nope. Guess the Grail didn’t think I needed to know about ‘ pocket monsters’."
Life seemed to flow into Ritsuka, his previous exhaustion forgotten. He had a big smile on his face and focused on his box. He glanced up with a grin. "Okay, so, Pokemon is a game where you have these little creatures you keep in your pockets and they can fight for you, but you have to catch them first."
Angra nodded dumbly. He'd never seen Ritsuka this excited since his summoning, but had no clue as to where he was going with this.
"And you can only keep six at a time with you, and you have to train them individually, and there's over 700 Pokemon! So how do you choose, right? Well, of course back before the apocalypse, there was a huge debate about which pokemon were the strongest and which strategies were the best, right? Well, do you want to guess what my strategy always is?"
Angra blinked slowly. "...Random?"
Ritsuka looked offended, his mouth falling open in mock-horror. "No! I train the ones I love!"
The metaphor clicked into place and Angra swallowed thickly. His face flooded with heat. "You…think I'm a pokemon?" He said half-teasing.
"NO! Well… I mean, my strategy is the same! I don't care about deep analysis and in-depth meta! The servants I chose to focus on are the ones I like!"
Angra looked at his hands, suddenly bashful, only to jump as Ritsuka sat beside him, dragging his chair close to Angra's own.
"I was actually saving this for a rainy day, but I think you should play it!" Ritsuka held out the turquoise box out to him.
"What?" He blinked and focused on it. It had small grey buttons, crosses and circles surrounding a screen that had a little human on it with a blue frog, a green and brown beaver, and a red fox.
"Pokemon X! I completed Pokemon Y, but you should totally play its twin!" Ritsuka was practically vibrating in his seat, holding the box out insistently, and finally pushing it into Angra's hands.
He took it unsteadily and jerked a little in surprise as Ritsuka settled back into the nest of arms, pressing close to him. Angra hesitantly put his arms on the desk, angling it so his master can see it.
"What do I do?"
"Ok press start first!" Ritsuka said.
The first little while was slow as Angra learned the button inputs and gameplay, Ritsuka coaching him through it the whole time.
But the gameplay was ridiculously easy, and he soon found himself entranced into an easy rhythm, leading him through the early game effortlessly. Eventually, he encountered the first 'gym' and lost soundly, his character 'blacking out'.
"Master? I think I lost." He said, after what felt like both an instant and hours later, only to turn and see Ritsuka fast asleep snuggled into his arm nest, their arms touching, his tea long forgotten.
Angra smiled affectionately.
