Surprisingly, Shirou had not needed Lily to lift a finger in order to hunt down the Beast that had mortally wounded him in another timeline. Instead, he'd safely defeated the Beast from a distance and didn't bother going in close, a red hound streaking across the dim horizon.

Lily opened and closed her mouth, utterly stunned at the development. In fact, she was gradually beginning to realize that perhaps the reason why she'd seen the Shirou of another time line suffer a mortal blow was because of protecting her child self.

"Something wrong?" Shirou asked her after stepping down from the overhead tree.

"Nothing," Lily deflected, trying her best to compose herself, but failing because her eyes kept getting drawn back to the over-sized black bow in Shirou's left hand.

He noticed. Of course, he noticed. He nodded solemnly towards her. "This is my bow," he introduced. "I fire magic swords from it," he explained it childishly so that even a toddler could understand, but Lily wasn't listening.

'Magic sword' wasn't going to cut it. She wasn't the ordinary child Arturia who'd simply nod and agree with such an explanation. She was a Heroic Spirit summoned in her time as a teenager and presently assuming the form of her younger-self in her dreams.

She knew what kind of weapon that twisted sword had been. It was a Noble Phantasm. It had to be, and it had reeked with the intent to seek and slaughter. Perhaps it was a family heirloom. It had to be. All too soon, she began to recall what Sir Ector had told her about House Ashton before its assassination. It was a noble family said to hunt Monsters, Beast Hunters.

Clearly, Shirou was doing his House proud even as a child, but what ate away at Lily more was trying to imagine what Shirou had gone through in order to wield a Noble Phantasm with such potent bloodlust. It was saddening just to imagine.

The murder of his entire family, came to Lily's mind, causing her to purse her lips.

"Hey, if you don't like looking at my bow, I'll get rid of it," Shirou called out in concern while dismissing his bow with a flick of a hand. "See, it's all gone so you don't have to be so nervous. I'm sorry if I frightened you in any way. It wasn't my intention."

Lily quickly shook her head. This was ridiculous. She was the mentally grown one, and she was the one being comforted? Get yourself together Lily! She clapped her hands to her cheeks, startling Shirou who's attention was solely focused on her.

"I wasn't scared," she huffed. "I was just thinking about things was all."

Shirou frowned. "Thinking about what?"

"That it's not safe to go into the forest right now, and that you probably shouldn't be alone," Lily grabbed Shirou's hand and began leading him along. Shirou must have suffered through a lot already. Lily realized that going back to the scene where one's family was murdered was definitely not healthy.

"But-"

"No buts!" Lily puffed up her cheeks and glared in a way that she knew always worked against Shirou. Expectedly, his resistances began to wane before he allowed her to drag him back to her home in Bristol.

The two walked in silence before Lily realized that she couldn't help her growing curiosity. She wanted to verify if her conjecture of what had happened in the memory of her childhood self was true.

'Hypothetically,' No. Too big of a word for someone her age. "Hey Shirou," she began instead. He looked over towards her. "If you saw me in danger, what would you do? Y'know, just asking."

Shirou didn't even blink an eye. He didn't even show an ounce of hesitation. He looked Lily right in the face, and with the least regard for his own safety, he spoke to her in a tone as if it were only natural.

"No matter what, no matter the cost, I would save you."

He smiled. It was that same smile of relief that the Shirou of her childhood-self's timeline had used when he'd suffered a mortal blow, not knowing just what sort of impact it was having on Lily's mind.

On every Arturia's mind.

Chaldea Alternative Records.

When Lily blinked her eyes open from her dream, it was to the sound of crows desperately flapping their wings in order to escape a collapsing section of a forest.

Lily sat up in confusion, only to see a furious Saber Alter punching down a tree with her sheer magical power. "…!" the tree shattered into splinters. "The damn fool!" Saber Alter looked incensed.

"A-Are you alright?" Lily called out meekly. Her designated sleeping spot was the closest to Saber Alters, meaning that they were within speaking range.

Rather than answer, Saber Alter scoffed and walked away, unwilling to speak, but it wasn't the same for her counterparts. Blue Saber and Lily's Lancer variants all had deep creases over their brows before Blue Saber decided to share her conjecture for Saber Alter's behaviour.

Like Lily had expected, her counterparts had chosen to directly Hunt the Beast rather than let Shirou deal with it like she had. Similar to Lily, they all witnessed for themselves what Shirou was capable of, but at the same time, events had happened in the same as child-Arturia's timeline.

Blue Saber and the other Arturia's had been over confident with their skills. They'd grown complacent and had underestimated how unaccustomed they were to fighting in a weakened child-sized body against a foe that could kill them with a single strike.

Of course, Blue Saber and the other older Arturia's didn't need any real help, but all it took was a single moment to slip up. For all of the older Arturia's including Saber Alter, their Shirou's had appeared by their sides fully intent on taking the blow for each of them. Fortunately, it was then that the older Arturia's used Mana Burst and stopped the Beast's attack long enough for Shirou to make a Noble Phantasm that had killed the Beast.

To Lily, the recounting of events sounded like a happy ending; however, to the other Arturia's, it was a wake-up call especially to Saber Alter who'd come the closest to having Shirou decapitated by the Beast in her arrogance of her own abilities.

What irked Saber Alter the most was that Shirou had been willing to die on her mistake. She couldn't understand why, nor wrap her head around the sequence of events. He was a fool. A bloody fool who'd smiled at her in relief just because it appeared as if she'd be safe when he clearly would not be.

Another tree fell in the distance, reduced into tiny splinters.

Wisely, Lily gave her older counterparts their space for the time being.

Chaldea Alternative Records.

As it would turn out, child-Arturia's Shirou had not ended up dying like everyone had believed, and had in fact, defeated the Beast in the end.

The following events had the Arturias seeing child-Arturia's daily life while at the same time experiencing it for themselves in their dreams. Ever slowly, ever gradually, as the days spanned into months and into the years of young adolescence, the way that child-Arturia regarded Shirou began to change.

It all started with a feeling. It was warm, bubbly, and made the heart do funny things that ran counter to what the Arturia's were displaying on the surface. They'd all defaulted to putting on emotionless facades while inwardly processing the gentle and tingly emotion budding from within their chests. What child-Arturia could feel, so too could the older Arturias in order to better understand child-Arturia's perspective and thoughts.

The feeling grew stronger and stronger ever still.

Child Arturia would stare at Shirou whenever she thought that he wasn't looking, and grow red-faced whenever she got caught. She learned to grow embarrassed whenever Shirou cleaned the oil from her cheeks and whenever she ate roasted chicken legs with her hands and he took a napkin and cleaned her fingers.

She started to became aware of all sorts of things, soon becoming self-conscious of herself enough that she'd even asked Sir Kay how to demonstrate proper table manners.

The Arturias could all feel a certain emotion growing as child-Arturia had grown up into her young adolescence hopelessly trailing behind Shirou like a lost lamb.

It was love, an emotion that many of the Arturia had not once personally felt before.

Child-Arturia had developed a crush and was steadily falling in love.

Not for the first time, Saber Alter found herself restless in her sleep. She'd long since stopped trying to understand the situation for what it was and instead focused on what she'd do from here on out.

This was clearly a chance to do everything again. Her past mistakes, her regrets, she could get rid herself of all of them in one motion. She'd be a fool to waste the opportunity.

Hers had been a lonely existence endured for the sake of her country. Was she willing to do so again? The answer was already apparent to her. She'd been a tyrant, an oppressor, but she'd always adhered to her own lawfulness.

She stared up at the stars above and began to reminisce of her time as King. All too suddenly, her figure seated upon a cold throne seemed to diverge from the image in her mind. The throne became two: one located at the center of the room, while another smaller throne was located adjacent to the first.

Immediately, she understood the meaning of the image.

She wasn't alone.

She shrank in on herself, her hands crossing over her chest as she turned to lie on her side fully knowing that when she fell asleep her Shirou, uncaring of her faults, would be there to greet her with a smile.

Ba-bump.

There it was again. This strange foreign feeling that urged her to find a field of flowers and begin mindlessly frolicking as if she had no other care in the world. Preposterous. Her left hand found its way over her heart and squeezed into a fist.

Even now, she could still recall how close her timeline's Shirou had been to dying because of her lapse in judgement when combating the Beast. She didn't think she'd care so much to have him die, but the very thought sent her into a rage. She'd been angry before, not at Shirou, but at herself.

Damn it. What the hell?

She raised her hand up towards the sky as if tyrannically grasping at the moon to focus her mind, yet at the same time, she almost felt herself melting when she imagined an older version of Shirou cupping her outstretched hand in his own and promising her 'the world' if she so desired. For her, her Shirou would even willingly taint himself in the same blood and sacrifice that had paved the way to her Kingship.

Ridiculous, but what was even more ridiculous was how happy the notion itself inwardly made her.

She uncharacteristically tossed and turned. In doing so, she caught sight of the other older Arturias and realized that she wasn't the only one wide-awake and copping with recent developments. Lily was the only exception because unlike Saber Alter and the other Arturia's struggling with themselves to understand what ailment plagued them, Lily just stared in a daze at the moon, her expression beat red and listless. There was even a dumb smile playing on her lips as if her self image towards her counterparts didn't matter at all.

Saber Alter scoffed, but once again found herself restless much like the other Arturias. She growled while immersing herself in the strange euphoria that she'd felt from the perspective of her child self. Grudgingly, it was comforting, just as much as the thought that her Shirou would always accept her for who she was.

The tips of her cheeks tinted red before she forcibly closed her eyes, subconsciously attempting to see her version of Shirou again. Realizing what she was doing however, her eyes abruptly opened, bloodshot before she soon sighed in defeat.

What was the meaning of love, and did someone as tainted as her even have the capacity for it?

For someone like her…it was too good to be true.

She smiled self-depreciatingly. She'd been a dictator, a tyrant through and through, and there was no way that she could easily change. But so, what? Wasn't she a dictator?

The thought took root in her mind, all but convincing her of her plan of action. It didn't matter if she knew what love was or not, she was allowed to be unreasonable. So, she'd do things her way and forcibly keep her version of Shirou near her.

Yes. Yes, this could work.

Her eyes gradually closed as desire pulled her into slumber.

So, keep smiling, and stay by my side until I tire of you.

Her mind began to drift around an inner mental shell.

Don't leave. Don't you dare leave me.

A shell of her own fragility.

Just like everyone else did.

P a treon. com (slash) Parcasious