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When he was back from taking a brief shower, Gilgamesh remained standing in the kitchen's doorframe for a while, observing Arturia as she seemed to be completely at ease in the kitchen. Since the cook was not there, they could have ordered something at a takeaway – she could have ordered something hours ago – but it was obvious that she had not even considered such a thing.
"You like cooking."
Startled by his remark since she had not heard him approach, she looked up at him.
"Yes, I do."
He did not say anything else, but simply continued to stare at her, following her movements with his eyes.
By doing so, he suddenly noticed that her fingers seemed to be missing something. And with a strange, unidentifiable constriction in his chest, he realized that what was missing was the wedding band. Lifting his eyes from her hands, he found the chain, barely visible around her neck, and let his gaze linger on it.
Well, he could not deny that they had agreed on the wedding ring matter, but still…
To take his mind off those unreasonable thoughts, certainly induced by tiredness, he addressed her.
"Perhaps, since the Tohsaka girl is indeed very young, we could give her one or two evenings off every week, in which we can go out for dinner, or cook on our own."
She stared at him in surprise, as that suggestion was an unexpected kindness towards Sakura. And the second part of his sentence was actually even stranger…
He had not said that she was going to cook, but that they were. When she registered the implications of what such a thing meant, she gaped at him.
"You can cook?" she asked, complete and utter disbelief in her voice.
He was very much amused by her reaction.
"Of course. Are you surprised?"
She huffed, taking out the dishes for their dinner.
"Of course I'm surprised, Gilgamesh. I had no idea that the king of arrogance actually knew his way around the kitchen. Do you really think that the image of you in an apron is something that would come easily to anyone?"
He merely shrugged as he took a step forward to actually help her put the heavy pot of stew on the table.
"You have made your assumptions without ever confirming them, Arturia."
She sat down, bewildered at his gesture and disconcerted at his words because they were actually true.
All she could think of saying blurted out.
"In any case, as pointless as it is to say… one month of this marriage arrangement is over, and I'm glad it went off rather well, Gilgamesh." Her eyes narrowed for a second. "But next time, please don't take the newspaper with you to work."
He gave her a flat look, understanding that she had seen the picture on the front page of the magazine. Pouring them both a generous amount from his favourite wine, of which he always kept a bottle near the dinner table, he inclined his glass in her direction.
"Your concern is noted. As you said, it is quite pointless to say, but in any case… yes, I find myself having to admit that I am satisfied as well with how this arrangement has worked out this past month… Arturia."
They started to eat in silence and, for once, it was a weirdly peaceful one.
Things were finally settling down, even if slowly, and there was an impression of normalcy, something Arturia had not had in her life for quite a long time. Even sharing a room with Gilgamesh was no longer too strange; they did not have to interact that often, and he had the decency of respecting her 'part of the room', as he had mockingly called it a few months before.
After all, even if she could never like a person like Gilgamesh, she had learned this about him: he did not give his word often, but when he did, he was a man who stayed true to it.
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The following morning, Arturia called Sakura on the phone.
The purple-haired girl was glad to let her know that her sister was getting better, and then proceeded to hectically thank her for giving her the evening free and at the same time apologize profusely because it had been the Uruks' one-month wedding anniversary and she had not congratulated her on it and–…
Arturia stopped her waterfall of words by gently telling that it was no problem at all, and then told her of Gilgamesh's suggestion. Sakura was at a loss of what to say, especially after she heard that Mr. Uruk had been the one to offer it. Then the blonde woman made the Tohsaka girl's brain nearly go in overload when she said that she was about to put her husband on the receiver.
Under his wife's expectant gaze, Gilgamesh enquired about Sakura's sister a little stiffly, and then let her know in no uncertain terms to inform him of any other emergencies she might have. He was not a slaver, he explained concisely, and if she needed time for her sister's health, all she had to do was say so.
When he hung up, he informed Arturia with a clipped tone that, judging from the squeaking he had heard, the girl on the other end of the line had probably had a heart attack.
The blonde woman shook her head and told him that that had probably been because she didn't know how else to express her shocked happiness. She briefly mentioned to him what Sakura had told her about her neighbourhood not being the safest and having already made arrangements to move away as soon as Rin was recovered, and then Arturia asked him something else.
"Gilgamesh, I was thinking about another thing as well. Sakura's younger sister, Rin, is five years old, the same age as Shirou. On days in which I bring my nephew here, would it be fine with you if I told Sakura to take her sister with her as well? This way, she can look after her sister while doing her job, and both children will be able to interact with other people."
He thought it through. As long as the brats did not disturb him in his work when he worked from home, it would not pose a problem. In the contract they had after all agreed on the fact that Arturia could invite whomever she wanted to their place; furthermore, the Tohsaka girl would appreciate such an arrangement and be happier in her job position.
He told Arturia as much, and he was pleased to see that, even though she did not smile – she almost never did, after all – her expression betrayed that she was honestly pleased about his decision.
One month of being married to her, and Gilgamesh decided that, all things considered, the arrangements were going quite well, especially if he thought back on how it had been at the beginning.
All the scattered pieces of their – mainly hers – chaotic lives were finally falling into place… weren't they?
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IRISVIEL (past)
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She and Ria had never had an easy life, that was unfortunately true, but at the very least, they had always had each other. It was one of Irisviel's certainties.
Their mother, Igraine, had been a stunningly beautiful Japanese woman, and had been married twice. The first time she had married a German man much older than her, Jubstacheit von Einzbern, but only a few months before Irisviel's birth, he had died due to a stroke.
Two years of living on her own later, single mother Igraine had moved to England and married Uther Pendragon; Arturia – or rather, Ria – had been born shortly after. While Uther considered Irisviel his own child, both he and Igraine had always had a somewhat detached relationship with the two girls. They cared about them and held some love towards them, but they were not their confidantes. They did not have a relationship that was close enough for that.
That was the reason why Ria and Irisviel had instead always been very close.
Irisviel had been delighted at having a younger sister to teach and care for; soon enough, however, that had changed. Because of her sickly constitution, their roles had been reversed and young Ria had become the one to take care of her.
Her beloved Ria may be three years younger, but she was the strong one. She was the one who stayed up late at night to make sure she took her medicines at the right time. She was the one who, in spite of being so harmless-looking and petite, accompanied her to school to stare the bullies down and chase them away when they made fun of her strange looks. She was the one who comforted her whenever she felt like she was being a burden to her parents with her poor health.
Ria was always there with her – and for her.
If there was a person whose courage and dedication Irisviel would always admire, it was her sister.
Neither of the two cared about the fact that they were actually half-sisters and not real sisters, as their surnames constantly reminded them; that was because, even though their parents did care about them, they had only each other to truly rely on. Besides, they had long since learned that blood relations were not what made a family.
When she was eleven and Ria eight, they moved to Japan, their mother Igraine's homeland. Both sisters loved it there, and the following ten years were of quiet but reasonably peaceful life, even with the money troubles they had. It was true, after all, that they were not rich and her health remained fragile even as she grew up, but they had each other, their family, and that was all that mattered.
As soon as she finished high school, Irisviel decided to take a two-year sports journalism course. She was particularly interested in cars, mechanics and engines; she had a very keen eye for them, and was able to talk and write about them cleverly and in detail. During those two years, she also started to work part-time as a maid in a café to pay for the school expenses, and Ria joined her there as soon as she was old enough.
It was there that Irisviel met Kiritsugu Emiya.
For her, it had been love at first sight. He was a firefighter, he was from America and was in Japan to visit some friends, who coincidentally were Irisviel's friends, too. Slowly, the two of them got to know each other; Irisviel's initial crush deepened and he fell in love with her as well. Not long after confessing their feelings, they decided to get married.
Irisviel was happy then. She had the younger sister she loved dearly close to her, and she was about to get married to her fiancée.
Before that could happen though – they had just received Uther and Igraine's blessing – a terrible event occurred. Her parents boarded a plane for a short routine flight between two main cities of Japan, and the plane crashed in a devastating accident. Nothing could be done to save the passengers.
The two sisters were their respective strength after that. Kiritsugu was Irisviel's silent support as well, and he suggested that a change of places might be a positive influence.
She thought about it and agreed to move to the US with him, but only on the condition that her sister accompanied them as well, to start college abroad. Kiritsugu was not the happiest – he and Ria did not like each other very much and had always had difficulties in getting along – but Irisviel refused to budge on that. Her sister would come with them, or they would simply not go.
Therefore, the three of them moved to the state of New York, where Irisviel and Kiritsugu got married.
Kiritsugu resumed his work as a firefighter and Iri took up a full-time job as a maid once again, while also looking for jobs in which she could make use of her journalist qualification. Ria started college in the field of economics and business management, and aside from participating in many extracurricular activities, she worked part-time with her sister too.
The following two years were relatively peaceful, even though they focused quite heavily on working since they were not all too rich.
Ria and Kiritsugu weren't particularly fond of each other, because they had little in common except their love for Irisviel. Hers was sisterly love, his was conjugal love, but the white-haired woman was dear to them both. As people, they were incredibly different, and had it not been for Irisviel, they would never have tolerated one another. But for the sake of the woman they both cared about, they made an effort to set their differences aside and get along in a passable manner.
One day, however, their lives took another unexpected turn. In a huge fire that killed several families, Kiritsugu ended up badly hurt during his efforts of saving the people, and he managed to bring only a young two-year-old boy to safety. The little child was orphaned because of that fire, and Irisviel and Kiritsugu decided to adopt him.
It was very unlikely they would ever have children of their own because of Irisviel's sickly constitution, but they did wish for a child and were both shaken by the tragedy that had befallen the boy, whose name was Shirou.
Ria wholeheartedly approved of that gentle decision and actively supported them; she was in fact the one who took care of all the paperwork and looked after the little boy during the first few weeks, since Irisviel was with Kiritsugu at the hospital where he was recovering from his wounds. However, the blonde woman was honest, and she told her sister what she thought: it was going to be very hard to afford.
Ria knew that her sister was going to be an attentive and loving mother to little Shirou, and she did her best to become a stable figure in his life as 'Auntie Ria' as well. But she also knew that it was going to be hard to manage, with their meagre incomes, and she did not attempt to make reality appear prettier than it was.
Unexpectedly, the biggest change that ensued was a shift in Kiritsugu and Ria's interactions. Having a son and having been so close to death made her husband a more sombre man than he already was, and that meant that he got along a little better with Ria, whose usual stern and serious expression seemed to have become permanent on her face during that period of time.
After a while, Kiritsugu was released from the hospital, but he wasn't completely recovered, and had to go back for regular check-ups for over a year; he basically went in and out of the place for several months, unable to resume his work.
That period was difficult for Irisviel, who had no choice but to give up her job to dedicate all her time to her son and husband, disregarding her own health as she did so. Those months were torture for Ria as well: even though her brother-in-law was not her favourite person, she had never wished anything bad to happen to him, and she could see how much her sister was suffering. Ria loved her sister unconditionally and became deeply fond of her nephew Shirou as she looked after him; everything was made harder by the fact that in the meantime she had to continue with college as well.
After another month of continuous check-ups, Kiritsugu was given clearance to resume his job once again – but that was what sealed his fate.
The following fire operation he took part in ended badly, and he died after two more weeks of being bedridden.
It was impossible to describe Irisviel's overwhelming agony: the man she loved more than anyone else in the world died, leaving her forever.
But she struggled – struggled hard – to keep up a façade of calmness for her son's sake. She did not want to allow herself to forget that she had a younger sister and a son, not even in her deep grief.
Ria did all she could to be there for her during the weeks of profound sadness that followed. The blonde woman knew that Irisviel loved her and Shirou the most in the world after her husband, and she made sure both of them were there with her.
Shirou was very young and he had already gone through one tragedy before; losing his adopted father was the second one. Ria would never allow him to go through a third one; she also did not want him to witness his mother spiralling into depression, and did all she could to support Irisviel. She had to be even more careful though, because Irisviel's already fragile health could be severely affected by her unhappiness too.
Another huge problem Ria had to deal with in that period was the complete absence of an income. She had just spent the summer interning at a huge company, Uruk Enterprises; since she had not resumed her job at the café because Kiritsugu had not yet recovered completely back then, she had therefore divided her time between classes and taking care of her nephew.
It was her last year of college as well, and Irisviel knew that it had been an excruciating time for Ria, even though she had done all she could to ignore it and not let it show so to not worry her. The blonde woman had earlier taken advantage of the many activities college offered – including some music lessons since she had played the piano as a child – but for the sake of her sister's family, she dropped all classes that weren't strictly necessary for graduation.
Desperate for an opportunity, while Kiritsugu was still bedridden, Ria had decided to apply for a job at the same company where she had been interning and, to her own surprise, had landed a part-time occupation that was well-paid. That did not mean that things got any easier though, because she still had to manage school, family and now work, apparently under a very arrogant and demanding boss who only made her life more complicated than it already was.
As Irisviel knew very well though, Ria was tenacious, and she pushed herself to her limits without letting that affect her.
After Kiritsugu died, it broke Ria's heart, again and again, to see how much her sister suffered, and how she frantically attempted to keep up a happy front for Shirou. The little boy was not daft, and he was glad for his mother's affection, but he could see how hard the situation was being for the two adults; he missed his father, and he knew that his mother missed him even more than he did.
And Ria had to hide her sorrow as well. The little boy deserved better, her sister deserved better, her brother-in-law would have wanted better for them and had done his best to achieve that. But they were breaking, and she needed to be their strength.
Having to finish school, work to support her miserable sister and nephew and also make time for him, because she would never allow him to be neglected… That period was probably the worst of Ria's life.
However, very tentatively, after several weeks of almost emotionless numbness, Irisviel began to crawl out of her shell, because her sister and her son's steady affection was slowly starting to heal her.
She was rewarded with Shirou's smiles and Ria's softening eyes each time she made an effort to go back to her usual self, and that gave her more resolve. Her sorrow had weakened her body and, at first, she had difficulties even in getting up from her bed.
But, gradually, her loving sister always steadfast by her side and her son's happiness as objective in her mind, Irisviel found the strength to try.
She had loved Kiritsugu very dearly, and even though she missed him terribly, she knew he would have wanted her to find it in herself to be happy again.
Seeing Shirou's smile every morning as he jumped on her bed carefully and asked her how she felt both warmed her heart and made her feel an inadequate mother. She knew that his doting over her was a result of Ria's influence; he was able to look after himself and he was more mature than what his age could suggest – there was only one person from whom he could have learned that. In fact, his behaviour reminded her a lot of Ria's sometimes.
What she really wanted – and what Kiritsugu had really wanted as well – was for her son to be happy, and to grow up with love.
Yet she could not give him that in her current state.
However, that wasn't all. She also wanted her beloved younger sister not to have to be her constant support, as she had been ever since she had been born. Ria had the right to live her own life instead of always being burdened by hers.
To do all that, Irisviel needed to be strong. She needed to take responsibility for the decisions she had made. She needed to be a mother, for she had chosen to be one, and it was high time for her to be one for real. She needed to truly be the elder sister, for once.
She needed to…
…wake up.
Not just figuratively, but also literally.
She had to wake up.
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Basked in the dim morning light that was entering the hospital clinic's bedroom little by little, Irisviel von Einzbern slowly opened her eyes.
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