Chapter Five

Frost Melt

The following day ought to have been awkward, but something had passed between him and Irisviel when the two of them had watched each other the previous evening. When Kiritsugu arrived in the library after breakfast, Irisviel greeted him easily with her smile, so Kiritsugu managed one too.

And things went on as if nothing had happened. Kiritsugu couldn't help the flutter of his heartbeat and the rush of warmth to his cheeks at the sight of her so bright and eager, but he tried not to let it scare him, for he realized that was part of the problem. Irisviel was evoking these feelings in him, and he knew them for what they were—how could he not, after Shirley? Still, it had been so long, and he had managed his life from a mechanical standpoint without such things that he couldn't help being afraid of them when they came creeping back.

At the same time though, there was the feeling of a light floating inside him too when he saw how happy Irisviel was being with him. He wanted so desperately to hang onto that feeling. It felt so damn good, after harboring a heart that, as hard as he'd worked to keep it strong in its stoic isolation, could not fully escape the dark pain of loneliness.

As far as teaching Irisviel about love, he took a different approach than he did before, and allowed her to pick and choose the materials they would use. This led to Irisviel delving into more on the literature of love, devouring volumes filled with love poems from all over the world. For his part, Kiritsugu provided her with the concept that different countries had different views on love, just as individual people did.

"In Japan, for example, love is perceived as a divine feeling, and sacred in that way," he told her. "To say, 'I love you' to someone isn't something that's thrown around lightly. Actually, there are several different ways to express that feeling depending on the…intensity of it."

"Ah…." Irisviel traced a shape with her finger in the book of Japanese love poetry she was reading, and Kiritsugu recognized the pattern as that one of the new kanji characters he had recently taught her. "Then maybe we should pick up where we left off in teaching me how to speak Japanese."

Kiritsugu couldn't help a small laugh. Even after the time he'd spent amongst the Einzberns, he still wasn't too keen on getting his mouth around the harshness of the German language. "Very well then." He considered her for a moment, reading the enthusiasm in her lovely crimson eyes. "In addition, we ought to discuss the universal language of emotions as well."

Irisviel frowned. "Emotions have a language too?"

"Yes, they do. It's not something you think about until after the fact though, since emotions physically expressed are unconscious. Which is why I haven't really said anything about it I suppose." Kiritsugu laughed again. "You know this's been nearly as new for me as it is for you."

"That is true." Irisviel's grin came back with that teasing air that was particular to her.

And when Kiritsugu returned her grin, he found he was all the more pleasantly surprised to see the color rise in her cheeks and the way she impulsively averted her gaze.

"Is this what you were talking about? Unconsciously, physically expressed emotions?"

"Yes."

When Irisviel ventured to look up at Kiritsugu, the two of them simply watched each other.

And then Kiritsugu very quietly said, "Exactly."

So while the discussion began with language, the subject of emotional language shifted organically towards the concept of dreams.

Irisviel admitted that she never had any, and Kiritsugu likewise admitted that he used to have them (omitting the detail of the recurring nightmare he used to have about the day Alimango Island burned) but didn't have them so much anymore, save for the occasional vague sense of someone speaking to him while he was asleep, but nothing more vivid than that.

In the middle of their discussion, one of the Einzbern maids made an unorthodox interruption to let Kiritsugu know that he was receiving a "message on his telephone", at which Kiritsugu rolled his eyes at the Einzberns' ineptitude with and disdain for technology. Excusing himself, he left the library for his office and looked up the log in the phone and discovered that it was Maiya who'd been trying to reach him. He returned her call at once, and while it wasn't unimportant, it was no less routine as far as conducting his preparatory work for the Grail War. It was enough that he could leave it in Maiya's capable hands and was able to push it to the back of his mind when he hung up, realizing that the call itself had taken up a full two hours.

He returned to the library quite contrite that he had been away for so long, but it turned out that Irisviel had found a way to constructively occupy her time quite easily. She'd settled herself in her usual chair by the fire, resuming the spot she had last read in the book of Japanese love poetry. But then the warmth of the room and the doldrum feeling unique to quiet, sunny afternoons combined with the soft, fuzzy words in the book had lulled her into what appeared to be a very peaceful slumber.

Despite Kiritsugu's feeling guilty about having left her waiting for him, he was struck by the look of her sleeping. He'd never actually seen her sleep before, aside from when he first saw her in the cultivation tank, and at the time there had been nothing very human about her except in her outward appearance. She had a soft smile on her face, and she seemed so content down to the very gentle sound of her breathing that Kiritsugu had no desire to disturb her and couldn't help perching himself on the arm of his own chair and simply watching her. And he was glad he didn't wake her, because she stirred on her own shortly after he came back.

She blinked open her lovely eyes and her smile widened when she saw him, and the sight of seeing her wake enthralled him quite as much as the moment she first opened her eyes for him surrounded by that amniotic fluid, if not more so. And then the color rose in her cheeks like it did earlier and she sat up straighter, brushing strands of white hair out of her face.

"I'm sorry…I didn't mean to fall asleep…."

"No, it's my fault, I didn't plan on being gone quite so long. That was Maiya on the phone."

"Oh…." Irisviel paused to let out a wide yawn and then said, still a little sleepy, "Well, I can't quite remember where we were last…." And then her expression brightened, became more wakeful. "But I think I had my first…what you call a…a dream!"

Kiritsugu raised his eyebrows. "Did you?"

"I saw things…in my head…they were vague but…I was happy…it was snowing…and I heard…your voice…you kept telling me…I would be all right…."

"Ah…."

Kiritsugu quickly put together that Irisviel had had a dream comprised of what her brain remembered from the day he'd saved her from the snowstorm. But he said nothing of what he'd guessed to Irisviel. There was something sweetly childlike in the way she perceived it all as something that may or may not have actually happened. In any case, he knew she was smart enough that she would figure it out for herself on her own. For now, he wanted nothing more than this moment, sitting with her while she beamed with utter excitement at having had a dream of her own.

And then she said, "I don't think I would've ever had such a thing…if you hadn't been teaching me all these things…." She laughed, closing the book of Japanese poetry and handing it to Kiritsugu.

"I think I'd like to try my hand at writing this down, in my own words," she told him. "But I don't want you to read it. I'm going to burn it as soon as I write it down. I just…want to see the words for myself…."

Kiritsugu took the book from her. "Very well. As you wish."

So he watched her as she wrote this dream out for herself, and it was enough for him that he could watch everything that crossed her face as she did so, and then when she tossed it into the fire and the two of them watched it burn up, there was no need for either of them to speak. It was something set between them that couldn't be expressed in words, but something in the way Irisviel watched it burn told Kiritsugu that in writing the dream out, she had indeed figured out that it had been manifested from her memory of him saving her.

He could only guess though how that made her feel, and he supposed he might never know, that this would always be a secret that she would keep for herself.

Being that the Bounded Field the Einzberns used around their castle and forest kept the place sealed in a perpetual winter, there was no such thing as a truly "warm" day, but there were days the sun's warmth would break through the cold shell and touch the ice and snow with its gentle touch.

On one such day, the way the sunlight glistened on the hanging icicles and the snow outside like diamonds, Kiritsugu was so struck by the beauty of it that he was inspired to invite Irisviel to walk outside with him. The delivery though was less than desirable though as tar as gentility was concerned.

"Why don't we do away with structure? I want you…to come outside with me." As soon as he said this he massaged the back of his neck and avoided looking at Irisviel directly.

"Just go outside?" Irisviel asked.

"Yes." Kiritsugu cleared his throat, lowering his hand to dip it into his pocket and fiddle with his lighter, which saw little use since he'd run out of cigarettes. "I'm sorry," he added. "I'm more used to simply giving out orders, rather than…making a…casual suggestion. Let me rephrase that, shall I? I would…like you…to come outside with me…if you please."

It still sounds like an order. Kiritsugu mentally kicked himself.

"Okay, but what did you have in mind to do?" Irisviel asked, already pulling the rope to summon a maid. "You weren't thinking of…smoking one of those…?"

"Cigarettes? No. I've run out. And anyway…they bother you, don't they?"

Kiritsugu had lit one once during one of their lessons. He had been particularly frustrated that day—he had still been somewhat vexed by Irisviel's general nature then—and Irisviel had asked to try one too, for the "experience". She had half-choked on it while the smoke itself bothered her eyes, at which point Kiritsugu had snatched the cigarette from her and snuffed it out, growling that he'd put his out too and never smoke around her again. That was when he went back to strictly smoking outside, until he ran out of his cigarettes of course and quickly discovered that Germany couldn't provide him with anything that could compare with his preferred brand.

"But you like to smoke one when you're frustrated, don't you?" Irisviel asked as the maid came in with their coats and Irisviel's hat.

"I'm not frustrated though," Kiritsugu told her truthfully. "And even if I were…I respect the fact that they bother you, and wouldn't be so discourteous as to forget about that."

Irisviel considered his words a moment as she pulled on her coat, and then her smile returned, as though she'd become satisfied with something. And rather than be vexed by this new habit she had developed of keeping secrets, Kiritsugu was intrigued by it, curious to know what went on in that head of hers. But at the same time, considering his own habit of keeping things hidden in his soul, he was happy enough with the curiosity itself.

Outside, the two of them walked beside each other with no specific destination in mind.

"The point is to free things up," Kiritsugu explained. "We can just…talk to each other about anything that crosses our minds."

"I see," said Irisviel. "Though what I don't see is what this has to do with love."

"Well love is something you can't force to be because you decide it should be there." Kiristugu shook his head as the two of them made their way, side by side, into the Einzbern forest. "It simply happens."

"How do you know then, whether it's there or not?"

"Often you don't. Or maybe you do. With everyone it's a little different. See why I told you that it wasn't that simple?"

"Then why is it…I wanted to know so badly if I could love you? If I should?" Irisviel fiddled with the buttons on her coat. "Is there something underneath that that I'm not seeing?"

"Maybe. I have…the same feeling myself."

Irisviel looked up at him, eyes widening. "You do?"

"Well, yes," Kiritsugu admitted, slightly taken aback.

And then he wondered….

But before he could act on what felt like an oncoming revelation, Irisviel stopped, having spotted something in one of the trees that fascinated her immediately.

"Look, Kiritsugu! It's a bird's nest! I'd love to see if there're chicks inside, just like in those nature books…."

The enchanted Irisviel nimbly scaled the trunk of the tree (it wasn't very tall) and retrieved the nest before Kiritsugu could say a word for or against it, but her face fell oddly blank as she stepped back down from the tree, cupping the nest in her palms.

Kiritsugu peeked over her shoulder and saw what was wrong: the baby robins in the nest were nothing more than little huddled dead husks. Maybe the cold had been too harsh, the parents having for some reason abandoned the nest.

"They're dead," he explained to Irisviel.

Irisviel looked at him again, her crimson eyes shining. "Dead?"

At first Kiritsugu wondered at her confusion, and then he realized that it wasn't so much that she was confused—she knew perfectly well what "dead" meant, but she had never seen it before, never held it in her hands. He, who had held more death in his hands than he cared to remember, forgot what that kind of innocence was like.

Irisviel's crimson eyes shined brighter as they filled with tears. She regarded the dead birds again. "I…don't…why are my eyes filling with…water…?"

But Kiritsugu knew she knew, and that's why she sank slowly to her knees, clutching the nest of death to her heart as she wept like a child over it.

Kiritsugu's heart throbbed in his chest as it brimmed again with that pressure and ache. He didn't know what to do. He'd been alone for so long that crying held no purpose for him anymore, since there hadn't been anyone there to hold him together.

Yet he very vividly recalled that shattering moment after he shot down Natalia's plane, how he'd fallen to his knees and roared at the indifferent heavens, tears streaming down his face, how he'd crumpled beneath the crushing weight of his pain, the strength sucked from him and leaving him crawling on the deck of the rental boat, his heart begging, desperately wishing more than it had his whole life that there could have been another way, couldn't there please have been another way?

"Iri," he whispered without thinking, his spirit reaching out to her as everything came together in his mind.

In her sorrow, Irisviel didn't hear the unintentional sobriquet, but that didn't matter: what mattered was that Kiritsugu now knew what to do, and that's why he'd addressed her as he did. She was small and fragile like those birds right now, small, like the little name, "Iri". And he would cradle her in his hands as gently as she cradled that nest as he recalled for himself again that feeling of helplessness when all hope seemed gone because he had created his own solitude.

He slid to the ground beside Irisviel, and very gently and easily put his arms around her and pressed her close against him.

Irisviel gasped at the suddenness with which he took hold of her like this. "Kiritsugu, what're you—?"

Maybe she thought he was going to try and do to her what Malte had tried.

"It's okay," Kiritsugu assured her at once, resting his chin on top of her soft, silver-haired head. "This is all I can to help you right now."

Irisviel shivered, but after a moment she buried her face in his coat and wept as she hadn't before. Kiritsugu held her tighter, but still with that same fierce gentleness. For a second, he almost succumbed to crumbling too, in face of Irisviel's innocent despair. But he forced himself not to. It wasn't like before though, when he'd simply push the feelings away: instead it was more like they made him stronger.

Was it because, in this moment, he was being fulfilled by watching over someone like Irisviel in this way? He felt almost clean, for while his despair was tainted with the blood that dripped from his hands, Irisviel's current despair was pure and full of light. Yet, as he might've normally done, he did not feel unworthy to touch it in this way.

By now, Irisviel's tears had soaked through his coat, but that just added to the feeling of being cleansed somehow. When at last she raised her head to meet his gaze, she wiped at her eyes with the back of her free hand and gave a watery laugh. "I'm sorry. Was it silly of me to react this way over something like this? Something just tells me that I am."

Kiritsugu offered her a gentle smile—the gentlest he'd offered her yet. "It's fine. Everyone reacts to these things differently."

The two of them were silent for a spell. Irisviel looked about, as if reawakening to the world, and Kiritsugu watched her attentively. Then Irisviel heaved a sigh and at last laid the nest aside at the base of the tree, and after a second's thought, buried the nest underneath some snow, and reverently so.

"Okay, I'm ready."

"Okay."

Kiritsugu helped Irisviel to her feet.

As the two of them walked on, Irisviel did look back at the tree. Sensing she still needed something of a lifeline, Kiritsugu reached out and took her gloved hand in his.

Irisviel gasped as he gave her hand a small squeeze, and when she gave him a questioning expression, he explained that this kind of thing came with love's territory.

"The question is whether you mind if I do it," he told her seriously. "Whether you like it."

"Ummm…." Irisviel gave it a moment's pensive thought before she responded—not in words though: instead she affirmed that she didn't mind his holding her hand by gently squeezing his hand back.

For the present, there was nothing more need be said. All felt curiously right with the world for once, and Kiritsugu looked straight on at the path up ahead, as did Irisviel, and Kiritsugu had the sense of the two of them beginning a strange kind of new journey together, into the unknown.

Despite her cry, Irisviel was still a bit melancholy about finding the dead baby robins. Though Kiritsugu wished that something like that was the only sum of his own troubles, he felt no less pity for Irisviel. In fact, he felt more, because of what he had suffered, and also because it was her.

He wasn't exactly the expert however on boosting people's spirits. So he was at a loss as far as cheering her up was concerned. Certainly he could show more of what was beautiful in this world, but Irisviel couldn't seem to get the birds off of her mind.

In Kiritsugu's experience, activity had always served to help him sever his thoughts from his feelings, going through the motions of an action with only the ultimate goal in mind. It was the basis for why he could do what he could do.

Going outside was out of the question though, and reviewing self-defense didn't seem right either. In Irisviel's case, this had to be something that would affect her feelings, something with sensitivity. Although an alternative did present itself, he was a little wary of it, since for this he himself would need some lessons in it. That and it seemed an oddly opportunistic solution.

Still, it was the first time in a long time that he had wanted to make someone really happy just because. Not since Shirley….

Kiritsugu buried his face in his hands as he bent over the laptop at his desk in his private office, trying and failing as always to completely banish the ghosts that haunted his thoughts.

The next morning after breakfast, Irisviel was waiting for him as always in the library. She was inspecting the phonograph he'd had delivered the previous evening, though not with her usual wide-eyed curiosity. It was more like she was doing it because it was normal, and she felt she ought to do it.

Kiritsugu saw himself in that simple action, and for a moment he observed the scene with that same ache he had experienced when he found Irisviel wounded in the snow, for he realized now that at the time he had been unable to recognize that telltale pressure in his chest as an instinctive reaction of pity.

Then he took a deep breath and cleared his throat, trying again to give Irisviel the smile she needed. "I see you've stumbled upon the basis for today's lesson." He closed the door to the library behind him.

Irisviel looked up, her crimson eyes maintaining that new shaded appearance they'd had since finding those dead birds. "Oh?"

Kiritsugu showed her what was tucked under his arm: a vinyl record, something very different from the CDs he'd been bringing in. He explained to Irisviel what it was.

"It's older than the CD, or it's an older version of what the CD was," he said as he slid the record out of its slipcover. "And while it's more fragile, and more easily destroyed like those cassette tapes I showed you, and the CD has a longer life than both of them, there's something…warmer about the sound of music on a vinyl record. I've found anyway. There was an army captain in Sierra Leone who had a phonograph like this, and he played records like this on it at night. The sound was divine. It was the first thing I heard when I first went to him to offer his platoon my services as a mercenary."

Kiritsugu lifted the needle and placed it on the spinning record at the point he wished the music to start playing, and the warm note at the beginning of a waltz smooth as water came warbling out of the funnel-shaped speaker. That was all it took to catch a hold of Irisviel's saddened heart and tug it back towards the light. Kiritsugu saw it in the change in her eyes, like the clouds lifting to reveal the sunlight hiding behind.

"It's lovely," Irisviel whispered, and without instruction began nodding her head in time to the music.

"But wait, there's more." Kiritsugu took hold of Irisviel's soft, warm, ivory hand and pulled her towards him.

"Oh, you dance to it," Irisviel realized, but then she grew confused when Kiritsugu took her other hand and draped it over his shoulder, pulling her even closer to him—close enough that he caught her iris scent.

She had already learned about dancing, though Kiritsugu hadn't particularly participated, so the music was mostly fare that could lend itself to solo dancing instead. This was wholly different.

For his part, Kiritsugu managed to maintain his usual confidence, as with anything, as he began to lead them both in a casual box-step to the rhythm of the music. At first, the unknowing Irisviel dragged and tripped over her feet a little, but she caught on quickly, as Kiritsugu could have only expected of her at this point.

Even so, her smile, the smile that he liked so much to see, slowly came back, illuminating her face.

"I feel like I'm floating, or flying," Irisviel sighed, and something in her voice caused a thrill inside Kiritsugu.

It wove a kind of spell around him, and he too felt like he was floating or flying, right up there with Irisviel. And aside from their self-defense work, this was the first time the two of them had physically been this close.

Kiritsugu found his heart beating faster to the music, and Irisviel seemed under a spell as well, her bright red eyes like gems as she looked up at him. That illusion of the ropes of Time unraveling overcame them both it seemed, yet at the same time wrapped around them as if attempting to bind them. Yet for all the danger signs this presented to someone like Kiritsugu, he couldn't seem to break away.

Leastways, not until the music stopped and the elaborate spell broke.

Kiritsugu and Irisviel stopped too, and for one still second the two of them simply stayed that way, arms around each other, looking into each other's eyes, hearing nothing but the sound of each other's breathing.

Then Irisviel bit her lip, acting oddly nervous. "Kiritsugu…can you tell me…is this more about love that you're teaching me?"

Kiritsugu swallowed. "I'm not…all that…sure…" he answered reflexively. Desperately he shook his head and stepped away from her, his hands falling away from her touch. "I…only wanted you…to stop being so sad…over the birds…."

Irisviel blinked at him, clasping her hands together. "I see." She seemed to consult the carpet before pressing on: "In a lot of the stories I read and movies we watched, I remember in romantic ones, there were moments when the two lovers would dance, and then…." She took a deep breath as though mastering herself before bringing up something bold. "Something called a—a kiss?"

Kiritsugu sucked in his breath, his entire body tense. He took another step back. He felt about to be cornered again, like on the day when Irisviel first brought up the subject of love.

"No," he said at once. "I can't teach you that."

"Why not?"

"Because something like that…it has to mean something. Anything else—it's the kiss that has to mean something. Otherwise…."

Indeed, when he and Maiya had slept together, they had done everything—except kiss. To him, a kiss was something sacred in sealing two hearts together, perhaps because it was an act particular to human beings. Having sex was common in a myriad of creatures, humans being no exception, but kissing—

But then Kiritsugu looked at Irisviel, and realized that he wanted very much to—

"Does it have to mean that we love each other?" Irisviel questioned.

Kiritsugu sighed. "Yes. You see, there's lust, and then there's love. Lust is merely the desire to touch another, regardless of whether there are feelings behind it. But love…well, you see now, don't you?" He smiled at her, though it wasn't a happy one.

"I think I do." Irisviel dared to take a step toward him, but stopped after that, holding her clasped hands to her heart as though she were offering a prayer. "You see, that day when we found the dead birds, well…I wasn't sad after that just because I'd found them. I had another reason. The entire time you held me while I cried, at the same time my heart beat like never before, like it wanted to burst out of me, like it was reaching for something beyond myself. Reaching for…you." She paused only a moment before continuing. "It wasn't entirely unpleasant, but when you were no longer there, when you had to leave as usual, I wanted that moment back and…I wanted nothing more than to give this beating heart of mine to you, so you could hold it, and…and…."

And suddenly Irisviel broke into a laugh that was clearly out of a fracturing of nerves. "Listen to me ramble…I think I've been watching too many of those movies again…." She withdrew into herself further, clasping her hands tighter. "And my palms are all clammy…."

"Are you saying…you have a desire…to give your heart to me? Fully?" Kiritsugu asked quietly, feeling the rise again of the shadow of his darkness that always followed him wherever he went.

"It was just an idea before, but now…." Irisviel took another deep breath and seemed to harden suddenly in her resolve, her eyes brightening into something brave. "I really feel it!" she exclaimed with fervor that Kiritsugu couldn't ignore.

In fact he admired the passion in it.

There was only one problem.

"I knew this was a mistake," Kiritsugu muttered, shaking his head in regret. "You've acquired too much in what I've taught you."

"And I treasure that," Irisviel insisted. "That's why I want to give you my heart, because you've turned something artificial that only resembled life into something truly alive! It means everything to me now that I know what I know. If I give you my heart, I know that you would take care of it, and I would want nothing more than yours in return, because I want to do the same for you!"

Kiritsugu felt some of the frost return to him, the emptiness. His defense against all that could destroy him as an assassin. "No, Irisviel. I have no heart to give you."

Irisviel was the one to shake her head this time. "That can't be though, Kiritsugu. How could you have given me all of these wonderful things if you were truly that way?"

Even as he'd quickly reconstructed it, the crystals of frost were already breaking under the weight of that gaze. Because unfortunately for Kiritsugu, Irisviel had a point. He was being forced to come to terms with that.

Still, he couldn't trust himself to speak.

So Irisviel spoke for him. "You said the kiss is something that has to have meaning behind it? It can't be simple lust."

"Yes." Kiritsugu could only seem to talk like he was hissing out air, his chest tightening.

"Then how shall we know if it means something unless we try it first?"

"Fine. I suppose you make a good argument."

He was determined to further convince Irisviel that for all their lessons on love, loving him was still out of the question—for if she did, it would be the ruin of him. He took hold of Irisviel by the shoulders, but he found it difficult to be as rough with her as he might've been able to be months ago.

Still, he had to try. He fixed her with a hard look, his eyes sharp. She had to be made to understand, she had to be made to see—

He came down on her lips with more of the intention that he was going to bite her, like the strike of a cold snake, and crushed her against him, digging his nails into her, causing her to give a muffled little yelp of pain.

But then—

Her iris scent and her softness filled him before he could block it, the feel of her lips against his like a drink from the Holy Grail itself, and everything in him relaxed at once, became instantly tender and melted at the touch of her warmth. So what if she wasn't born, but made by the hands of a mage instead? She felt so real, so wonderful.

He turned gentle, and she tentatively opened for him like a flower when she began to see the truth in his heart through the warmth that he now gave to her.

She slid her arms around him as he slid his around her, and he lifted her closer against him, pressed her close until he could feel her heart beating against his. And he drank from her more deeply, and she responded in kind. The depth and fierceness with which she responded to his own moved him beyond words.

And he would've gone on this way if he hadn't needed to come up for air. He pulled away, but reluctantly so, dropping a few small kisses at the corners of her mouth, on her cheeks, to her neck, unable to stop until he reached her shoulder, where he had to stop if only because he suddenly felt drained of strength. Shaking and breathing hard as though he'd been running, he buried his face in her hair, eyes wide in a mixture of fear and ecstasy, surrounded by that scent of irises, like he was in a field of them.

Irisviel too was shaking and catching her breath, her eyes just as wide. It was all either of them could do, to simply hold each other this way, unable to speak in the shattering conclusion that came crashing down on them both.

And then, at a point that felt like the other side of a vast universe, a place that was quiet and peaceful and where only the two of them existed, Irisviel whispered, "Kiritsugu?"

"Yes?" Kiritsugu whispered back, licking his suddenly dry lips.

"What does this mean?"

"You already know. And…so do I."

"Yes. You're right."

Another pause.

And then Irisviel asked, "Can we—can we stay this way? Just for a little while?"

Kiritsugu smiled against her skin, a true smile that reflected all the joy that shined in him now like a polished gem. "Of course we can." He reached up and ran his fingers through her silver hair of moonlight. "I love you…Iri."

Irisviel gave a sigh that was like the wind in the blooming cherry blossom trees. "Kiritsugu…I love you too."