Sleep did not come easily for any Arturia in their present situation, and Lily was the worst. Unlike her older counterparts, she did not yet carry the confidence and faith in herself that would allow her to overcome even the hardest of challenges.

Her older counterparts were enraged and restless. If they were failing to fall asleep, it was because of their anger rather than anything else which was a monumental feat because even the alter versions seemed to hold Shirou in high regard.

Already, Lily could picture what her older counterparts were thinking. They were going to slaughter the beast that dared to 'kill' someone that was arguably the first genuine friend that Arturia ever had in her childhood. None of them were as nervous as Lily, but she knew that just foregoing sleep wasn't going to work.

She, just like the other Arturias did not know the mechanics of her current situation. What if because she decided to forgo sleep, the events of her dream played on regardless. In that case, she'd never be able to save her version of Shirou.

She refused that outcome. In fact, she hated it and dearly wished to be able to do something about it.

Her eyes closed in a bid to sleep only to promptly open again in apprehension. She tossed and turned in her section of the open plain that the other Arturias had wordlessly segregated into five regions. She'd made a bed of dried grass and was uselessly trying to get comfortable enough to sleep.

It wasn't working.

Her lips pursed and she could feel sweat building over her palms, making them feel clammy. If she failed, then her version of Shirou was going to die. Worse, if on the off chance that her older counterparts saved their Shirou while hers perished, she didn't know if she'd be able to bear the fact that she alone had not been able to save him. Jealousy and envy would be the following emotions that she would have to cope with in that scenario; jealousy at the fact that she'd be forced to continue watching what sort of man Shirou would become while her version had already died a kid.

No!

She tossed and turned on her makeshift bed, much to the annoyance of her counterparts who were all trying to fall asleep nearby. Eventually, sleep did come.

Before she knew it, Lily found herself within her own alternative record of her past. Different from her older counterparts, Lily's dreamscape had her waking up tiredly on the bed of her own home in Bristol with Sir Ector and Kay presently absent.

Blinking, she noticed Shirou making breakfast in front of her like normal. Ever since she'd brought Shirou back to live with her child self, Sir Ector, and Kay, they'd all fallen into a type of routine of sorts. Sir Ector and Kay would leave for morning activities in Bristol's town hall and Shirou would prepare breakfast and lunch for everyone. Her sole duty was to train diligently and watch and clean after the farm animals.

If there was one thing that all the Arturia shared in common, it was the fact that they were all back to shoveling the shit of treacherous pigs again. She swore the pigs really did hate her. Why else would they only shit when it was her turn to clean the sty?

Grumblings aside, Lily and every Arturia's attention was on Shirou today. In Lily's case, she was already bounding up to him and acting as if everything was normal.

"I've made extra food today," Shirou spoke out just as Lily reached the breakfast table. "It should last long enough until I get back from my trip to the Ashton manor. There are still a few things I need to go grab and ascertain."

Shirou's words jolted Lily into attention. "No don't!" She said involuntarily while in the midst of collecting her thoughts.

"No?" Shirou asked in confusion, and suddenly Lily was on her feet, walking, more like waddling really in her child body towards him. Once she was close enough, she grabbed the sleeve of his shirt and looked up at him in the face.

"Don't go," she pouted using her child-self's baby features, pudgy cheeks and doleful wide eyes staring persistently at Shirou's own. "Stay here for today. No. The week."

"Huh?" Was Shirou's bewildered reply. Evidently, he'd never seen Arturia act in such a way before.

"Although I wouldn't mind staying at home for an entire week, don't you think that's being too lazy? Didn't you say that you wanted to train in order to become a loved and wise King?" Shirou placed a hand over Lily's forehead, much to her embarrassment. She was being treated as a child, granted, she was in a toddler's body.

At the same time that Shirou was checking her temperature, he was waving a piece of freshly fried bacon in front of her face to gauge her reaction.

That was just cheating.

Her mouth quickly began to salivate, but for Shirou's sake, she held herself back and didn't lunge towards it with her mouth. That was the only sign that Shirou really needed to feel that Arturia was fretting over something important.

"If there's something wrong Arturia, you can tell me," Shirou sat right up to her and took her hands in his own. Lovable kid. Endearing even. "You know, I'm actually plenty strong."

"…Not strong enough," she whispered in a small voice.

"Try saying that after you beat me in a spar."

'Try saying that after not dying.'

Lily pursed her lips and huffed indignantly before looking away, missing the contemplative gleam that flickered across Shirou's face. "Listen here Arturia, if anyone in town is giving you trouble, or a hard time, even if you don't tell me I will find out. I guarantee you that they won't like me when I'm mad."

Lily actually blinked at Shirou's words. If she were really just a child, she may have had missed the wider implications of what Shirou had just implied, but she didn't in this case. He was looking out for her and she didn't know how to feel. In anything, her heart was doing funny things. "…" She had no reply.

Just staring into Shirou's earnest eyes was enough to get her to fidget because straight away she knew that Shirou had meant every word that he said.

"Please, Arturia."

She looked up at him then at the ground, then back at him, then back at the ground for an entire minute.

Don't get her wrong; she wasn't entirely swayed yet because no matter what Shirou said, she'd already seen him die. However, the difference this time would be that she wouldn't 'allow' him to die, right?

Rather than fight on her own like her older selves were doing, what if she left with him to Ashton manor and fought together?

"Arturia," Shirou called out patiently to her. "Trust me."

She looked deeply into his bronze-coloured eyes and suddenly took in a breath.

She really hoped that she wouldn't regret this.

Chaldea Alternative Records -(Scene Break)-

"You know when I agreed to you asking me to come along with me, I didn't think that you were going to be this cautious about it," Shirou said flatly while watching the way Arturia forced him to a stop with the excuse of verifying the safety of the vicinity. "We've been to this forest several times already. What are you so apprehensive of?"

"Nothing wrong with being careful," Lily laughed awkwardly. Her eyes never left her surroundings though. "Never know if a 'beast' or something from the stories would pop up."

"Says the one who said goblins kept stealing and eating the packed lunches I gave you," Shirou deadpanned.

Lily shut her mouth in mortification. Her stride breaking into stiff steps before she nearly tumbled. Lying had never been a skill that she was known for or had ever really trained in. She was just lucky that she was a kid because there was no way that she could imagine a grown adult using the excuse of goblins to explain missing food.

"T-This is different," she moved the subject away as a flush spread over her cheeks. "A lack of care can lead to defeat when it matters most."

Shirou raised a brow at the rather mature phrasing. "Quoting Sir Ector, now?"

"Something like that," Lily hummed lightly before growing serious again and wearily looking at her surroundings.

"Arturia?" Shirou asked skeptically.

Lily felt she was going to take a risk here, but based on what she'd seen from the perspective of her child self, reports of the Beast had already been scene in the vicinity. Therefore, it was likely that it was definitely still around. She couldn't explicitly say this to Shirou because she didn't have an explanation about where she'd gotten the information from in the first place. It wasn't like he was going to believe something as outrageous as watching a separate time line of her child self go through an identical experience.

She'd just have to try another approach. Different from her child-self whose life she'd been watching with her older counterparts, Lily had already proven to Shirou that she could be capable.

"Do you feel that?" She tried instigating Shirou to be on guard by acting as if she'd sensed something nearby. Based on the capabilities that she'd shown Shirou that she possessed, there was no way that Shirou was going to doubt her words.

What Lily didn't expect was for him to react so fast as if his detective range was far larger than her own. Moreover, she'd been lying when she said that she'd sensed something, yet the seriousness that made its way onto Shirou's expression depicted a very different outcome.

A part of Lily felt underserving when Shirou stared at her with a look of wonder for 'seemingly' detecting the danger nearby when in truth, she'd been bullshitting.

Without another word, Shirou leapt to a tree to gain a higher vantage point. In the next second, Lily felt a distinct shift in the air, the energy of her Magic Core reacting to whatever it was Shirou was doing.

"What are you doing?" She voiced her silent question.

"Magic," was Shirou's only reply as a sleek black bow and a twisted sword manifested in his grip.

Suddenly, Shirou was exuding an aura and a presence that could scare away lesser beings with just a single glance. Moreover, the sword in his hand was undoubtably special. Lily could feel the sheer energy stored from within it, and even felt a sense of foreboding as Shirou notched the weapon onto his bow.

"I told you," he said while tendrils of pure magical energy swirled around him. "I'm stronger than you think."

An 'arrow' was let loose, and suddenly, Lily was at a loss for words. Sword skills, maturity, intelligence, ingenuity, magic, Shirou wasn't just a child prodigy.

He was a talent not seen in millennium.