Set Myself Free
By SMYGO4EVA
"Sakura? Are you alright?"
Sakura startled at the sound of Rider's voice. "Oh, I-I'm fine." she said, blinking away the remnants of her dream. She shifted her spot onto the bench by the windows.
Sleep was always a welcome reprieve from the life she found herself in. She was always walking on eggshells, her mana too strong and too much for her to handle. It seemed that nothing helped except for sleep, but at times even that didn't help her escape.
Rider narrowed her eyes. She walked up to Sakura and kneeled beside her. "You can talk to me, Sakura. You're safe. There's no need to keep anything to yourself anymore."
"I am fine, really," Sakura repeated, smiling softly. "I must have dozed off, thinking about things, a lot of things."
Rider's gaze softened. She stretched out her hand, placing it gently on Sakura's. "I understand, a lot has happened, with the Holy Grail War, your transformation, with Shirou, everything."
Sakura nodded. "It still feels surreal, that I was at the center of it all," she spoke, hugging her knees to her chest. She couldn't shake the feeling of guilt, sadness, and the pain she went through, and what she had wrought. "I can't help but feel like it was my fault."
"Sakura, you couldn't control what you were feeling, and you are not to blame." Rider said, moving so she could see Sakura eye to eye. "We almost lost you. I almost lost you." She sat down next to Sakura, curling into her side.
Sakura sighed, and then rested her head on Rider's shoulder. "I know that now," she whispered, twining their fingers together.
"Don't forget that you also saved yourself, Sakura. Remember that." Rider replied.
They both looked out the windows, the light slowly fading in the sky, the past soon to be behind them.