Prompt: "Could I get a Taiga introspection about her worrying over Shirou as he grows up trying to be an ideal?" — Smunch, answered by TungstenCat

"Ahhh, that was great!" Taiga patted her stomach as they walked away from the yakitori stand, stars in her eyes and a bit of sauce still smudged on her cheek.

Not that it will be there for long. He's so fussy.

Sure enough, Waver frowned and wiped it off with his thumb, brow bent in that sourpuss way of his. Taiga thought it was adorable, entirely worth looking a little silly. And besides, she'd never tried to keep up airs around the man — boyfriend now, three dates made it official— and the gaunt professor didn't mind. Found her openness refreshing, even, as he sometimes let slip through his tirades about Clocktower facades and daggers.

"I still cant believe you packed away twelve whole skewers," he muttered as they walked down the shadowed street. "You'd put even Gray to shame."

"A girl needs her sustenance!" she chirped with practiced ease, even as her stomach fell at the mention of Waver's charge. It wasn't Gray's fault — she was a lovely young lady— but that face always reminded Taiga of the other one. The emerald-eyed Servant who had sat on the other side of the Emiya table, Kiritsugu's "foreign friend" according to her little brother's clumsy attempt at a cover story. The one Taiga had to pretend to be oblivious to, when she knew she was dangerous to Shirou, as dangerous as the accursed seals emblazed on his hand.

Somehow he had survived the Grail War, but he had emerged worse than ever. If he had perhaps reflected a little more on his ideals, he clung onto them as tightly as before. Worse, now that he thought he had the strength to see them through in the most direct way.

Taiga shivered in the night coat, barely noticing as Waver helped pull her scarf tighter. She had worried from the first day Kiritsugu had introduced them, sitting around the table, and the boy had smiled and looked right through her. Emiya Shirou was broken. Broken in fire and guilt, making himself an empty vessel to be filled with others' dreams. She had watched him fill himself with Kiritsugu's (another ache in her heart, but softer now with Waver holding her hand), knowing it wasn't healthy but not knowing what she could do to pull him off that unhappy path,

She worried, and she tried. Oh, how she tried. But all her earnest attempts at teasing him, fussing over him, dropping by to share his life… he had opened a little, but never enough. Therapists did nothing, he simply learned to put on a better mask. She tried to talk to him about his future, spark a passion in him that would help him connect to people outside the framework of saving and helping them.

For a brief moment, she thought she had successfully steered him towards law or politics, perhaps even policework no matter how much her father disliked the idea. Even if it would never fix him, never quite fill the void behind his eyes, it was the best she could do for her little brother. But he'd gone and fought in the War, and it had unlocked his circuits and his eyes. And now…

Taiga ran her tongue over her teeth, catching the last bit of yakitori flavour. "It tastes like Shirou's used to," she said, and felt briny tears roll down her cheeks.

"He's a strong boy. He'll be alright, even in Algeria." Waver reached for a cigarette, and frowned but surrendered when she slapped his hand. "He's already learned the language, you know."

"Did I steer him wrong, Waver?" Her shoulders shook with the sigh she'd summoned up to hide a sob. "I should have given him a better dream. I should have—"

"Hush. Ideals are something people choose for themselves. You can show someone a dream, but it's up to them if they want to reach for it." Waver looked out onto the horizon, toward the Mion river, its rough waters reflecting the lights of the city above. "You were there for him. That's something he'll hold onto, even in his darkest hour. He'll remember someone loved him."

"Do you think we'll see him again?" she asked, squeezing his hand a little more tightly. " I kind of do want a cute nephew."

"After all that time you worried about the girls chasing after him.." he groaned. "Why are people so impossible?" Then Waver looked into her eyes, and smiled. "Then, shall we fetch him back together?"

Taiga's mouth twisted, even as her heart beat a little faster in her chest. "It's on the other side of the world. In a war zone."

"I do have contacts." He lit his cigarette, and this time she let him. "And he has many people who love him. Perhaps it's time to remind him of it."

"Let's do it." She breathed out, her eyes shining again. "That delinquent could use a good beating to put him back on the straight and narrow. "

And several hugs too, but that could wait until Tora-Shinai had gotten its share.