Millie could not believe a shop existed specializing in clothing for babies and children. She picked up a white onesie made out of the softest material she had ever put her hands on. It had long sleeves with extra material that could be folded over the hands to keep sharp little fingernails from scratching tender cheeks. The legs had feet covers that would keep the newborn extra warm.

She lay the piece of clothing over her belly that seemed to be getting bigger by the day. Smoothing out the wrinkles, she dreamed of the moment she would hold her daughter for the first time. She would count tiny fingers and tiny toes and kiss every inch of her precious face.

Gliding her hand over her belly, she smiled contentedly not allowing any misgivings or fears to creep into her mind to ruin the happiness of this moment. It won't be much longer until their daughter arrived. She couldn't wait for her to meet her father.

"You're going to love him," she whispered to the unborn child. She received a kick against her palm as if the baby understood and confirmed her mother's statement.

"Did you find something?" Emilia asked, holding what looked like a pile of white chiffon in her hands.

"I did. I think I should get several of these. One in every color. Maybe a few with short sleeves and no legs?" She began searching through the stacks choosing different colors and styles of the basic but necessary piece of baby clothing.

"That's a good idea. The weather changes fast around here sometimes."

"What did you find?" she asked Emilia, nodding to the garment in her hands.

"Oh, I wanted to get this for the baby. As a gift," she added, unfolding the long gown of white silk covered with a layer of gossamer chiffon adorned with lace and silk ribbons.

"Oh, Emilia," she gasped, tears filling her eyes. The baby dress reminded her of a Christening gown used for dressing a child when dedicating their babies to God in a church ceremony. "It's beautiful." Her breath hitched a little when she inhaled to speak. "You really don't have - "

"I know I don't have to," Emilia rushed forward, taking Millie's hand in hers. "But I want to do everything I can for this baby." Gazing into her friend's eyes swimming with tears, she squeezed her hand to reassure her. "I want to be sure she has all sorts of beautiful things here... beautiful clothes, a beautiful family..." She paused to sniff. "A beautiful life."

"Emilia," she breathed, leaning forward to give her dear friend a one armed hug because the little clothes were stacked in her other arm. "I am sure this baby will have a beautiful family. I have never doubted that."

Emilia stood up straight, wiping away Millie's tears with the edge of her long fluttery sleeve. The women caught each other's eyes again causing a blush to color Millie's cheeks a bright pink.

"I'm sorry," she apologized, sniffing loudly to prevent more tears from falling. "I've been so weepy here lately. Must be the hormones."

Emilia smiled. "Whatever it is, I don't mind. It's quite all right. Are you ready to go home? It's getting late. I'm sure you're tired too."

"I want to make one more stop. I need to pick up ink and quills. And paper. Lots of paper. Do you think they sell blank paper already bound into books?" Millie inquired in a rush of words.

"Yes, of course," Emilia replied, assisting her with carrying the dozen or more small pieces of clothing. "But why do you want those things?"

"Because I'm going to write down everything that happens every day so Subaru can read it. I need to write down everything that has already happened. How we met..." Her blush darkened to crimson. "How we fell in love. The birth of our daughter. I will have to write down absolutely everything no matter if it's just a plain old boring day or something interesting and exciting."

"So you're going to write him the story of your lives?"

"The story of our lives," Millie murmured pensively to herself. "I like the sound of that Emilia. Yes, it will be the story of our lives. He can read it every day. When he starts to forget, he can remember for at least a day. And maybe...when his memory gets bad...hopefully, at the very least..." She sighed shakily, waiting for the urge to sob to pass. "He will fall in love with me all over again on some of those days when he reads our story."

~\'/~

Meanwhile, at the mansion, Subaru was engaged in a conversation with Roswaal neither one of them really wanted to be having. Bi-colored eyes glared at him. An impossibly thin indigo eyebrow raised questioningly from the dubious request he just made. Subaru paused from his anxious pacing.

"Well...what do you think?" Subaru inquired, his voice wavering.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Roswaal asked him.

Subaru sighed, hanging his head. "No. I'm not sure. But it's the only way to keep her safe. I have no choice."

"Of course you have a choice. She choose to stay with you despite the danger. I swore to protect her. She fully believes I will. Obviously, she has the same faith in you, that you will protect her. Why can't you just - "

"I don't think I can protect her! I couldn't protect Rem! I can't risk losing another woman I love!"

Roswaal sat back in his chair, steepling his fingers under his chin. "So that's it? You're real reason for sending her back?"

"Part of it."

Subaru inhaled deeply to regain control over his escalating fear and anger. Clasping his hands behind his back, he resumed pacing to avoid the knowing stare of the Lord of the manor. The powerful mage had sent him back to his world after Rem died to punish him. There Subaru had the audacity to fall in love with another woman who was brought to this world to be condemned to an early death.

"I won't selfishly hang on to another woman because I'm too much of a coward to let her go...to truly keep her safe. This is the only way to save her and my child. Besides, the Witch had added a fresh new twist, a fate almost worse than death, for both Millie and me."

"Worse? What could be worse than the threat of her losing her life?" Roswaal asked, genuinely unable to imagine anything worse.

"In the world we came from, there's a disease, a brain disease, called Alzheimer's. It gradually steals away people's memories. Eventually, it erases everything about their lives, including everyone they loved. I don't want to forget her." Subaru stopped, looking straight at Roswaal. "I don't want to break her heart when she says I love you, and I can't say it back to a stranger. I don't want to fear her or hate her because I don't know who the hell she is anymore. I can't put her through the pain of watching me forget...forgetting her and my own daughter."

It was Roswaal's turn to sigh with resignation. He frowned deeply, profoundly sad as if he would be the one experiencing the consequences of Subaru's unilateral decision. But the man did have a tendency to genuinely care about those he deemed worthy of being an official part of his household.

"Please," Subaru begged, squarely facing Roswaal. Bending deeply at the waist, he bowed to show his sincerity. "Please, help me. Send her back home...to the other world."

"You're asking me to do this against her will. Her wishes, in no uncertain terms, were to stay here with you," Roswaal reminded him.

Subaru's eyes were clear and direct when they met Roswaal's.

"She's annoyingly stubborn. Sometimes she sacrifices herself, her own mental or physical well being, to help others when she should be thinking of herself. She's already done that for me so many times. Now I need to do that for her. I'm thinking about what she needs and what is best for her." He inhaled a quivering sigh. "I am not what is best for her right now. She needs to go home. To be with her sister and brother-in-law." A tear slipped from his eye but he ignored it. "She should be with the people I'm sure have not forgotten her. She can raise our daughter in peace and safety there. Send her home. Please."

"You're going to hurt her in a way from which she might never recover," he warned the man determined to go against his wife's decision but for totally unselfish reasons.

Subaru scrubbed his hands over his face as if he would wipe away the doubt and fear. He wondered if he would ever recover from this decision himself. Rubbing his sweaty palms on his pants, he realized he would not be the first man to ever devastate her emotionally. He just never imagined he would be joining the ranks of such scum as Hal the asshole ex-husband.

"It would be better than hurting her on a daily basis, forcing her to watch me lose my memory of her and my daughter until I could no longer remember them at all."

How would he feel forgetting her? Sad? Frustrated? Angry? Subaru could not bear to think about the day when he would blankly look at her or gaze at his child, and not have a clue who either of them are. They would be strangers, people he would be meeting for the first time every single day. There would be no connection, no love. He couldn't bear it.

Millie, ever ther reluctant romantic, had insisted she would be happy just being near him. She promised she would make him fall in love with her all over again. That they would always be together no matter what.

However, he was positive the Witch of Envy would manipulate him in such a way that he would never be able to develop feelings for Millie again. That was her whole point in doing this anyway. To forget Millie and his child so she would have him all to herself. They would be the only ones erased from his memory. His memory of everyone and everything else, his entire life in this world, would remain intact.

"Millie is going to hate you, Subaru," Roswaal warned once more.

"That's fine. At least she, and my little girl, will be alive to do so. And I will never forget them."

~\'/~

The merciful respite of sleep eluded Subaru. Since his return to Lugnica, he was well aware the Witch of Envy would want to kill her once she learned of Millie's presence. Witnessing her getting hurt when the Witch summoned her made that possibility all too real and heightened his fear to pure paranoia.

Millie moved against him and his arm instantly tightened around her shoulders protectively. His other hand went to her belly. As if sensing his closeness, his little girl started to move around. The soft pokes against his palm brought a smile to his lips.

His wide open eyes stared at the blankness of the ceiling above him as his mind, overfilled with many colorful thoughts in contrast to the stark white expanse, started to replay the conversation he had with Roswaal earlier. It had been one of the most difficult and heartrending discussions he had ever had in his life.

Millie whimpered in protest and wriggled when Subaru's arm tightened even more around her shoulders squeezing her like a boa constrictor.

"Subaru," she moaned, patting his chest. She yawned, wiggling a little more in hopes of loosening his bone breaking grip on her. "You're hurting me."

"Oh, sorry," he apologized, loosening his viselike hold at last.

He rolled over toward her, dropping little kisses all over her face. Guilt boiled in his gut making him feel like throwing up. She had no idea how much he would hurt her soon. But it was for her and their baby's own good.

"Subaru," she giggled, pushing him away playfully when his lips touched her collarbone.

"I'm so sorry."

Millie's eyes popped open, and she grabbed his shoulders pushing him back. Her eyes shifted back and forth anxiously between his. His eyes were rimmed in red, watery, but he had not been crying - yet. Her hand cupped his jaw as she stared into his bloodshot eyes.

"What do you keep apologizing for? What have you done?" She paused when the first tear slid from the outer corner of his eyes to soak into the pillow under his head. "Or...what are you going to do?"

"God, you know me too well," he sighed, wiping at his leaking eyes with the back of his hand. "Why don't we go downstairs to the kitchen. We can have a snack and talk."

"I'm not hungry, and I'd rather talk here," she said, sitting up. "What's going on with you?"

Subaru did not answer but flung the sheets off to slide off the side of the mattress. Millie's eyes followed him as he walked around the bed to go to the window. He opened it, allowing the night breeze to come inside. The stifling atmosphere made it difficult to breath.

Millie climbed out of bed, her stomach somersaulting with concern as she watched him lean out of the window to take several deep gulps of the cool air. She placed her hand on his back between his shoulder blades, patting as he breathed in deeply and exhaled loudly. He sounded like he was on the verge of hyperventilating.

"Sweetheart? What is it? You're scaring me," she said, her voice tremulous and weak.

"I'm scared too," Subaru returned, straightening up to turn and face her. "I'm so damn scared of losing you."

Tears gathered in his eyes like diamonds shining in the moonlight. When he blinked, they overran the dam of his bottom eyelid to streak down his face. He visibly shook as he reached out to grasp her upper arms bared by the short sleeves of her frilly white cotton nightgown.

"I can't let you die. I won't let the Witch kill you like she did Rem," he said.

Millie bit her lower lip to stave off her tears as she gazed up at him. The vibrations from his body entered hers through his trembling hands making her feel as if she were shaking apart.

"I love you, Millie." He pressed his palm to her belly. It felt as if his child were practicing her karate kicks inside her mother's womb. "I love our little girl."

"I love you too, Subaru. I'm sure our daughter already loves you. She recognizes your voice, your touch, after all." She gripped his forearms to steady herself when he suddenly moved them both, putting her back to the window. "What's going on?"

"Please understand why I have to do this. I have to protect you, keep you both safe. You're too stubborn and prideful to see what's good for you sometimes," he said, his voice breaking as the tears flowed faster.

"What are you talking about?"

Subaru pushed her backwards until her behind pressed against the windowsill forcing her to sit. An invisible hand clenched her heart but it was not the Witch of Envy compressing the organ and slowing her pulse. It was the absolute terror of realizing what he was about to do when he kept pushing her backwaqrds, sliding her across the wide sill.

"Why? How could you do this?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. She could hardly breathe as the fear got stronger, compressing her heart and lungs.

"I'm saving you the only way I know how."

"I want to stay with you. I love you! Please don't do this!" She attempted to bring up her hands to clamp down on his forearms, but he pushed out his elbows to force her arms down by her sides and prevent her from clasping onto him.

"Forgive me." He leaned forward, giving her a forceful kiss on the lips. "I won't forget you now. Please know, I love you."

Letting go of her arms, Subaru pressed his palms against her chest below her collarbones. Giving her a hard shove, he forced her out of the window.

"No!" she screamed when she became airborne.

It was as if time has slowed to a crawl, almost stopping. Millie's eyes locked onto Subaru as he watched her fall. His face crumbled into an awful mask of anguish when he opened his mouth and screamed to release his grief. Squeezing her eyes shut tightly, she needed to block out the sight of his despair, of hating himself for the decision which she was sure had made in good conscience.

What the hell have you done, Subaru Natsuki? Why? Why would you do this?, she pondered. But in her heart of hearts, she knew why. She would make the same decision to save him.

A sudden powerful wind surrounded her, gradually halting her fall until she was suspended in the air. Opening her eyes, she caught of Subaru again. He was red faced and crying, in horrible torment.

"Forgive me. I love you," he said. She could only see him mouthing the words because the wind around her deafened her.

Emilia appeared beside Subaru, taking him into her arms. She was crying too as she looked down at Millie. When Subaru dropped to his knees, she knelt with him not allowing her embrace to be broken.

Oh, my God! I'm losing another family...again, she thought, unable to cry due to being in a state of shock.

Orbs in shades of red, yellow, green, and blue appeared around her and began to circle her body. The increasing speed at which they rotated created tails, eventually leaving trails of their brilliant color behind them until they merged forming a dazzling white light.

So this is Roswaal's magic. It won't be much longer now, she thought, glimpsing up at Subaru and Emilia one last time.

Raising her hand, she waved good-bye. She understood what was happening, where she was going. Although she was leaving her new family to return to her other family. she was not happy. She would be returning without Subaru, the love of her life.

But he would remember her now. He would remember this moment, and it would cause him pain each and every time he recalled it. Her own tears started falling at last, cooling instantly on her cheeks from the magical tornado surrounding her and keeping her suspended while Roswaal opened the portal between their worlds.

Millie was falling again. The sight of Subaru and Emilia above her disappeared. There was nothing above her but darkness. A tunnel of swirling white light surrounded her.

She tried to scream but there was no sound. There was no air at all. As a matter of fact, she felt as if the air had been sucked out of her lungs. Blue streaks of light started to appear in the white around her, giving the impression of movement as they rotated around her.

Oh, God, oh, God!, her brain shrilled trying to make sense of everything. This can't be happening! This can't be real! Am I dreaming? I'm dreaming! WAKE UP, MILLIE! WAKE UP!

~\'/~

Marianne stood at her sister's beside with a tissue clutched in her hand and pressed to her nose to catch the snot unleashed by her flood of tears. Bo's arm around her waist was the only thing holding her up because her knees had turned to jelly.

When Millie had gone into labor around three that morning, the hospital immediately called her. The breathing tube inflating and deflating her sister's lungs had been removed as had most of the other tubes before her arrival. The nurses were still gathered around Millie's bed, preparing her for the C-section. The baby would have to be taken quickly. Once Millie was prepped for surgery, they would leave and allow her to say her good-byes.

Marianne sniffled and whimpered, followed by a hiccup and sharp inhale. One of the nurses pulled several tissue from the box beside the bed, bringing them to her.

"I'm so sorry," she apologized. "We'll only be a few minutes longer."

Marianne nodded, taking the other tissues offered to wipe at her eyes that would not stop producing tears.

"You know, we could leave while they do this then come back," suggested Bo.

She shook her head vigorously. "No. I want to spend every second I can with her."

"Okay."

Suddenly there was a rapid escalation in the beeping of the heart monitor. The beats per minute started going up and up until they reached one hundred forty and alarm started to sound. Her blood pressure shot up quickly adding another alarm.

"Wh-what's happening? What's happening?!" Marianne cried out, stepping forward but Bo's hand clamped down on her arm to keep her beside him.

"She's having a stroke."

"What?! Why?"

"Go get the doctor," the head nurse ordered one of the others. "We've got to take this baby now before they both die."

Millie's body jerked upright causing all of the nurses in the room to lunge forward to push her back down onto the bed. She convulsed and writhed until finally her body sat bolt upright again. Her hand reached up to rip off the mask forcefully blowing oxygen into her lungs from her face.

Millie's eyes opened while she simultaneously pulled in a loud, gasping breath. She started coughing profusely, only to be interrupted by wheezing inhales.

The nurses were frozen in shock, staring in disbelief at the woman who had unexpectedly awakened from her coma. A few minutes before, she had been on the verge of death, her respirations falling and her blood pressure dropping after the breathing apparatus had been removed. They were preparing to rush her to surgery to take the infant before her dying body could no longer deliver oxygen to her.

Millie's wide, wild eyes glanced all around the room. Before she could climb out of the bed, the nurses rushed forward to grab her to force her back down flat onto her back.

"Subaru! Subaru!" she screamed, mad with fear and fury. She thrashed and screamed, fighting against the four nurses trying to hold her down. "Let me go! Stop! Help! Someone help me!"

"Let her go!" Marianne yelled, pulling at the nurse's hands who held her sister's left arm pinned to the mattress. "Stop it! You're scaring her!"

"We're trying to keep her from hurting herself or the baby!" bellowed the male nurse holding onto her wiggling right leg across the bed.

"Get your hands the hell off of her!" hollered Bo, shoving the male nurse away.

The man bumped into the IV pole knocking it over causing the female nurse beside him to scream and let go of Millie's right arm. When the large male nurse lunged at his attacker with a fist raised, the frightened nurse backed into the corner to distance herself from the men ready to brawl.

Millie kicked the nurse holding her left leg with her freed right leg, knocking her backwards into the chair behind her. The woman fell into a sitting position from the seat hitting the backs of her knees.

Millie screeched like captive animal, clawing at the remaining nurse's fingers which prompted her to quickly give up her hold on the belligerent woman.

"We're just trying to help you!" the nurse shrieked, backing away.

"I don't need your help!" Millie shrilled back. "I need to know what the hell is going on here!"

"I would like to know that too!" the doctor demanded when he entered the chaotic scene.

The bedlam ceased immediately. Bo and the male nurse gripped the front of each other's shirts, their fists poised in mid air with the intent to deliver crushing blows to the jaw. The frightened nurse in the corner cried quietly while righting the IV and the one in the chair sat in stunned silence.

"What the hell is happening in here?!" the annoyed doctor bellowed when no one said a word.

The angry nurse who had held onto Millie to the bitter end stomped up to the doctor to inform him of the situation.

"Millie! Millie!" Marianne yelled, throwing her arms around her sister's neck. "Oh, my God! I can't believe you're okay!"

"I'm fine. I - " Millie could no longer speak when a horrible spasm seized her belly and back. She was sure the Witch of Envy had hold of her and intended to squeeze her in half. Gripping her belly with both hands, she folded her body over the rock hard bulging tummy while puffing out her cheeks and whimpering. "What the hell is happening?!"

"You're in labor. It's a contraction," Marianne explained, placing her hand on her sister's belly. "Breathe. Deep breath in." She demonstrated by inhaling noisily while rubbing her sister's abdomen, the muscles hard as concrete, at the peak of the contraction. "Then out." She exaggeratedly blew the air out. The muscles started to unwind. "It's almost over. Breathe."

Millie inhaled, counting to five. Holding for a count of two, she released with a gradual controlled exhale as the contraction subsided. Recalling her "fall" from Lugnica back into this world, she started to shake and cry.

"What's wrong? Are you still pain? Is it another contraction already? What's happening?" Marianne inquired in fast succession, panicked by her sister's copious tears and wailing.

"Subaru! Damn you, Subaru! How could you do this to me?" she yelled. When another contraction started, she hunkered down, grabbing the handrails while gritting her teeth.

"Millie, what are you talking about? What did he do?"

"This is perfectly normal. Most women do this at some point during their labor," the doctor interjected, checking the output on the screen from the fetal monitor. "They blame their husbands for getting them pregnant. I've had patients punch their husbands, cuss them out, throw things at them..."

Marianne rolled her eyes and shook her head while peeling sister's hand from the rail to hold it. She knew that was absolutely NOT what was going on here.

"That's not it is it?" Marianne asked Millie in a low voice to avoid more advice.

"Uh uh," she grunted to confirm, squeezing her eyes shut. She was holding her breath to power through the pain. There was no way she could explain exactly what did happen to Marianne.

"Breathe, Millie," her sister reminded her.

"What am I doing here? How am I already in the hospital, in labor? God! Augh!" she cried out in misery from the rising pain of the contraction.

"You've been in a coma, on life support. You just went into a labor a few hours ago. They were about to wheel you into surgery to take the baby. Just breathe," Marianne coached her when Millie's face almost turned purple due to holding her breath. She rubbed her back as well to help with the pain and comfort her as much as she could. "After they delivered the baby by C-section they were going to..."

Her sister's pale face and averted eyes told her exactly what was going to happen. They had no intention of hooking her back up life support after the baby was born. One life would begin while another one ended. The whole circle of life thing in one tidy little sphere.

"Is Subaru here? Surely he's in a coma since I was," she puffed, leaning back on the pillows once the pain subsided enough for her to move. Although Roswaal had already explained to her Subaru was dead, she hoped he was wrong somehow.

"He's dead, Millie. His body was never found. The investigators assumed he burned up in the fire during the plane crash and the remains sank in the ocean somewhere," Marianne explained, pulling her sister into her arm's for a hug of solace.

He's not dead. He's very much alive...in another world, she thought, her rage dulling the pain of labor a little. How dare he! He asked Roswaal to send me back although I had made it quite clear I wanted to stay with him no matter what!

Maybe she had been selfish and foolish, not really thinking of Subaru or the baby at all.

As the agony of another birth pang filtered through her system, she recalled how he had mourned for Rem, all the guilt and shame he carried for not being able to save her. For months he had night terrors, reliving the moment when he lost her, waking up screaming in fear and shaking as if he would break into a million pieces. Perhaps he could not bear the loss of someone else he loved.

If it had not been a physical death, the memory of her would have drifted out of his consciousness never to be regained. Sometimes, he might have developed feelings for her on the occasional day only for them to be gone the next. How dare she force him to endure that?

"The baby is coming," Millie huffed, taking her sister's offered hand in order to sit up and push.

"All right, Millie. You came back just in time to bring this beautiful girl into the world," the doctor announced, taking a seat on the stool at the end of the table as the nurse's positioned her feet in the metal stirrups to get her into the final birthing position.

Two hours later, Millie held her daughter in her arms for the first time. With tears silently streaming down her face, she counted ten tiny fingers and ten tiny toes, all pink and perfect. The baby, tired from the ordeal that took just as much of a toll on her as her mother, fell asleep rather than crying for food.

"What are you going to name her?" Marianne asked, wiping tears from her sister's face and forgetting her own.

"I...I don't know," she sighed, touching the back of the baby's hand. The little fingers spread wide allowing her to press her finger into the palm. The baby immediately gripped her finger. Despite the cloud of sadness trying to overshadow this happy occasion, she smiled.

"Well, you have a few days to figure out something."

The anguish of loss and longing enveloped Millie. She wanted to be angry with Subaru. Being mad at him would be easier to deal with than feeling this powerful grief and total confusion. She began to sob, holding the baby close to her chest. The baby started to cry in response to her mother being upset.

"Millie," Marianne said, taking the baby from her sister to quiet the screaming child. "I know this is difficult, but you've got to stay calm, and strong, for her."

"I know," she sniffled, inhaling a shaky breath. "It's just..."

"It's a lot to deal with. I'm sorry," she apologized, lightly bouncing the baby she cradled against her chest to quiet her. "I didn't mean to make it sound like I was calling you weak. I have no idea what you've been through. You're the strongest person I know."

"Honestly, I have no idea exactly what I've been through. I'm so confused. I miss Subaru," she sighed, her breath hitching as tears threatened again.

"Here." Marianne leaned over to shift the baby back into her sister's arms. "I think she's hungry."

Millie opened her gown, offering her breast to the child. After a bit of rooting around, nuzzling her nose into her mother's breast, the baby found the nipple and latched on. She brushed her forefinger along the baby's cheek while she nursed for the first time.

"You're going to be a great mother," Marianne assured her.

Millie turned her teary eyes to her sister.

"Subaru would have been a great Dad." She chuckled mirthlessly. "He already was really. He loved this child so much which is why..."

...he sent us back. She stopped short of finishing her sentence because her sister would not understand. She barely understood it herself. With a smile on her quivering lips, she gazed down at their beautiful, perfect baby girl.

"I wish he could see her."

"But I can. And she's the most gorgeous thing I've seen since you Millie," Subaru thought wishing his thoughts could reach her through the portal.

Roswaal had performed the "magic mirror" spell Subaru called it for lack of a better phrase. Through the wavering image surrounded by a shifting cloudlike frame, Subaru watched his wife and daughter get acquainted in person. They already shared a strong bond that had developed over the forty weeks of gestation.

Stretching his fingers toward the child's face as if to stroke her cheek, his fingertips touched the surface of the magic. The image wavered like ripples on a pond before the sight of his wife and child blurred and disappeared completed. The portal popped like a soap bubble to close, shutting him off from them.

"I love you," he whispered, closing his eyes to recall the image in his head more clearly. "I love you both. And I will get to you, to be with you again someday."

"That's impossible," Roswaal said, shattering through his thoughts.

"Is it?" Subaru boldly snapped at the man, whirling around to deliver a scathing glower at him. "Don't fucking tell me what's impossible. You sent me back once before. There is a way back, and I will find it. With or without your help."

"But you can't - "

"I will get to them. Some way. Some how. We will be a family. I will make it happen."

Roswaal smiled as the furious and determined man stomped past him.

"I would expect nothing less of you Subaru Natsuki."