As always, a big thank you to Sherlock. This chapter was voted as MAY's guaranteed update on pa treon, not June. I am late due to irl happenings but thankfully I dealt with them much quicker than I thought I would. Patrons can vote for THIS month's guaranteed update currently, and last month's pa treon story will be posted soon also.

I'll be live-streaming the illustration for What's HP Does it Taste Good on discord in a few hours, then I'll be streaming the illustration for THIS chapter a little after that.

X

He was there again.

A winter day. A lambent, moonlit night. An intimate, serene setting.

And up ahead was…

A little way behind them, Shirou watched as Kiritsugu Emiya and his younger self sat on the engawa, faceless figures staring up upon the full moon.

"When I was young, I wanted to be a hero."

"What did you mean, 'wanted to'? Did you give up?"

"Yeah, unfortunately. Being a hero is a time-limited thing, and it gets harder and harder to call yourself one when you grow up. I wish I'd realised that sooner."

Memories were a funny thing.

He remembered his words. The setting. How he'd felt. It was as easy as But as the days passed, it was harder and harder to piece his father's face together.

Even if it ended up being the day he died.

He braced himself as his younger self brightened up.

"Alright. Since you can't do it anymore, I'll become one in your place! You can't do it since you're already grown up, but I should be able to handle it just fine! I'll make your dream come true!"

Shirou winced.

The idea that he had been so confident, so blasé about such a thing was difficult to swallow. Everyone benefited from retrospect, of course, but here…

It was a reminder that the younger him did not truly understand.

"... Ah." His father's voice was warm with mirth. "I'm relieved, then."

From where he stood, he could not see his father's face.

But Kiritsugu was smiling.

He had to be.

…

Shirou stepped forward towards them, wanting to see it again for himself and put those worries to rest—

X

X

"Oh, you're up!"

Shirou stepped into the living room, rubbing the remnants of sleep from his eyes.

"Why didn't you wake me?"

"Why would I?" Taiga beamed. "You looked like you needed the rest!"

Shirou sighed. "I also have the Kakuni braising."

"It's not going to dry out, I put it on low heat!"

"Oh, you did, did you?"

"I can cook, you jerk! You just… do it better… is all…" she trailed off grumpily. Taiga puffed out her cheeks and looked away.

He chuckled, before heading towards the kitchen and lifting the lid off the crock pot, staying clear to avoid the cloud of steam that escaped, giving the meat a stir and a prod.

"You're staying for breakfast tomorrow, right?" she asked.

He pulled her into a one-armed hug before letting her go with a quick pat on the shoulder.

"Afraid not." Shirou corrected her.. "I'm catching the red-eye tomorrow morning, so you have me for the rest of the evening."

He switched the heat off the stove.

"Alex!" The man called out loud enough to be heard from the other room. "I'm serving dinner. Wanna give your uncle a hand?"

"M'kay!" he heard. Peeking his head over, he saw the young girl drop her crayons on the dining room table and rush over toward him excitedly. At least it was a sentiment that could be attributed to one member of this household.

The doorbell rang just as he was getting ready to sift through the cabinet for the bowls and cutlery. Taiga was the closest to the front entrance and was quick to check the door.

He heard her gasp and speak with some excitement. "You're back? Why didn't you say anything earlier?"

Well now he was curious.

He and Alex left the kitchen and joined the girl's mother at the front. The person at the door had come in, dress shoes already pulled off as Taiga grabbed his topcoat from him. It was a tall, austere-looking man with neatly-cut straight black hair. He and Shirou shared a similar look of surprise—and in the case of the man, resignation—as they recognized each other.

Alex gasped, much like her mother did, before rushing over and squeezing the man's leg as tightly as she could.

"Daddy!" she shrieked joyously.

Her father tiredly – but not coldly – ruffled her hair, before lifting a squealing Alex up in the air and tucking her into his chest.

"And here I was thinking you'd have taken off by now." The man muttered as he rubbed the top of the girl's head, noting Shirou's presence. "I'll offer my greetings, then."

The redhead smiled.

"It's nice to see you too, Waver."

X

It wasn't like either of them had a reason to see one another regularly. One was in Tokyo, the other based in London. It wasn't as if they avoided one another.

But ever since this strange entanglement, by some unspoken rule Shirou and Waver Velvet had taken care to try not to have their visits to Fuyuki coincide with each other's.

That was how it was with in-laws, after all.

Even more so when you only knew them in their professional capacity as a teacher.

To suddenly have to consider them family, well…

The awkwardness of their situation had subsided over the years, but it was still very much there, waiting to be prodded back to life.

Shirou and Waver sat at the edge of the engawa, overlooking the garden of what was once the property that belonged to his father. The two men stepped out for some fresh air after a nice meal with the family.

…

It wasn't quite the same as back then, was it?

The ambience was broken with sounds from the living room as Taiga sang with Alex. It was warm, spring marching into summer. And a thick blanket of clouds ensured the moon was nowhere to be seen.

The pair shared a moment of content silence, only broken by the flick of a lighter.

Shirou turned to Waver, frowning.

"I thought you'd quit," He remarked matter-of-factly, though perhaps his tone held a tinge of accusation. "Aren't you already on patches?"

"I am." The man blew out a plume of smoke that coiled and twisted beyond the glow of soft lantern light. "But it's not the same, now, is it?"

"I wouldn't know, I've never tried."

"Good. Don't."

Shirou mused that there was a cosmic irony as to how most smokers actively advised people from starting smoking, even as they smoked in front of them.

"Taiga will be mad if she finds out."

Waver took another drag.

"She probably already knows," he admitted. "Hasn't said anything, though. As long as I don't do it in front of her or Alex, I doubt she'd mention it."

"You're gonna get it when she does say something. You know it's coming."

Waver sighed.

"Considering the life I live, cigarettes aren't going to be what kills me in the end. Let me have this in the meantime."

There was nothing Shirou could retort to that.

He looked back towards the garden, absently scratching his hand.

"... How's Rin?"

The very second the words left Shirou's mouth, Waver glanced his way and gave him a look.

"And there it is."

"What?" Shirou crossed his arms. "I'm just making conversation."

"Phones exist, you know," the Englishman muttered. "You both seem to forget that whenever I speak to either of you. I wonder why that is."

Shirou wasn't in the mood to humour whatever point was being made.

"I just asked you a question," he said defensively, his brow furrowing.

"It's the same question every time." Waver insisted, sounding a little annoyed. "Give it enough time and one of you will eventually ask about the other. All this tip-toeing, and for what?"

"I'm not tip-toeing over anything." Shirou insisted.

"Then you can just call and ask her directly."

He frowned.

"... I feel like if we do, we'd just make each other sad for a while." He eventually confessed. "I don't think any of us really want to disturb each other, besides the occasional birthday call. It's like…" Shirou pursed his lips. "I know I'm happy, even without her. I just want to know that she is, too."

Waver tiredly rubbed his temple.

"Tohsaka is a splendid magus." He eventually said.

Shirou blinked.

"I already knew that."

"Then that's all I have to say about that." Another puff. "I'm not a letter boy in service of you two's imaginary problems. You're both adults. Act like it." If Shirou felt scathed by the words, he didn't show it. Or look like he heard the other man at all, for that matter. He was leaning back on his elbows and staring at the garden in deep thought.

"How's the missus?" The Englishman eventually asked.

Shirou smiled.

"Busy. Like you. Her brother enrolled this year. Things seem to have gotten lively, lately. She's got more on her plate than usual."

"I've heard." Waver brought the cancer stick to his lips. "A few of my colleagues were wondering about that."

Shirou gave him a look. "There's nothing to wonder about. You've met my wife."

"They haven't." The man shrugged. "Eventually they surmised that her brother is the exception that proves the rule, or something to that effect… but who knows with Shinonono in the mix."

At the mention of Tabane, Shirou could not help from grimacing.

"Is there anything I should be made aware of, regarding her?"

Waver considered it.

"You know the Association." He eventually said. "They very much believe that all this hullabaloo about the IS will blow over soon. There are decades where nothing happened, and years where decades happen, and all that. As far as they're concerned, Shinonono is not an issue, and she's smart enough to not become one."

Shirou frowned. "I don't think she cares if she is."

"Some share your sentiments. But she's insulated herself to the extent that any potential action they take has too many unknown factors."

Waver put his cigarette butt out in the ashtray he brought out with him. Internally, the Japanese man was happy to see that Kiritsugu's home was still respected all these years later.

"As it stands, most people are content to just wait it out, see how the situation develops. If things go pear-shaped, well," his face darkened, "a select few have some ideas on how to manage it."

"Such as?"

"The Red."

Shirou blinked. "I didn't think Aozaki would care."

"She doesn't. Not in the same way you do." The Englishman sighed. "Shinonono is dangerously close to unravelling some of her existing patents with the Clock Tower. Touko Travel, for instance. She's unwilling to share just exactly how she accomplishes her own rumoured method of teleportation to the world – it might just be trickery in the end – content to let scientists take potentially decades to reverse-engineer it, but it's still a potential threat to the Red's finances."

That sounded about right.

"And the Blue?"

"How should I know?" Waver muttered. "Probably chomping at the bit to duke it out with an IS, given the chance, beams firing everywhere like a rave in Shoreditch. But with most IS activity on the island, that's unlikely to happen anytime soon."

He glanced at Shirou.

"Given your proclivity to stick your nose into where it doesn't belong, it'd be remiss of me not to warn you to be careful."There was some gravity to his words, but Shirou could not help but scoff.

"Consider myself warned." he answered, a wry grin pulling at the corner of his lips.

"Please be serious."

"I'm very serious. I'll cross that bridge if ever we happen to cross it."

"'When you cross it'?" Waver repeated incredulously. "You're on the bridge right now, right at the top of the arch. Are you enjoying the view?"

"I don't—"

"Continue to pretend that you have nothing to do with this all you want," the older man chided, cutting him off with clear annoyance. "It won't change the fact that Shinonono dislikes you. She'll cause problems for you. Inevitably, those problems will get you involved with groups that I can only hope you have no desire to be involved with. Do you have any idea what Taiga will do to me if something happens to you!?"

"Better me than Chifuyu, don't you think?"

"You—" Waver snapped, before he collected himself.

It was one thing to tell him not to poke his nose where it didn't belong. But Shirou knew who he married.

For better or for worse, he was already in it for the long haul.

"Forget it," the man decided, "I've said enough." He pulled out another cancer stick and allowed silence to carry the conversation as he puffed away.

"You haven't taken over the shed yet," Shirou remarked, somehow having the gall to change the subject entirely as if nothing happened.

"The shed?" Waver repeated slowly, almost hesitant to ask.

"The shed," Shirou insisted. "It's a decent workshop, I think."

The black-haired man quirked his brow.

"Well, I'm not much of a handyman—you're talking about a magic workshop," he realised too late. The disappointment in his voice was palpable, but Shirou somehow managed to miss it.

"Mhm."

"Have my lectures taught you nothing? That's a terrible idea."

"It worked for me," Shirou tried to insist, feeling a little defensive. "And it's right over a leyline."

"That's not the only factor one should consider. Besides, I would have thought you'd understand the importance of not shitting where you eat."

As a grown man, the redhead felt the need to stop himself from pouting at his professor's crude language.

"What do you plan on using, then? You are moving here for good, soon, after all."

As Shirou understood it, once Waver finally received his magic crest back from Melvin, he was slated to hand over his title as lord back to a waiting Reines. An application would be made for him to become Fuyuki's new Second Owner. For all intents and purposes, in the eyes of his many enemies Waver Velvet would simply disappear.

Waver thought about it for a moment.

"I… recently purchased a particular property in Miyama; I plan on converting it into something usable."

Shirou's eyes narrowed. "Miyama."

"Yes."

"... The last time you dropped by unannounced, Taiga mentioned it was for a funeral there."

Waver Velvet remained inscrutable.

Shirou looked away. "I won't pry."

"... It's a place of some sentimental value to me." Waver finally muttered, taking a long drag. "In any case, it would be best to leave as much of this place as-is, if we're going to be living here as a family. Thaumaturgical clutter is unwanted where it's not needed."

Shirou hummed, noting one point above others in the man's statement. "Do you want to keep magic out of the house?"

Again, Waver thought about it.

"I don't know," he decided.

Several seconds passed before he realised that the redhead was waiting for something more than that noncommittal answer.

A longer answer, then.

"I never wanted to come back here for a reason." He eventually admitted. "In the eyes of any self-respecting magus, this is the boonies, as far as they're concerned. But then again, once I move here for good, anyone who wants me dead either wouldn't be able to find me or simply wouldn't bother once they realise where I am."

Shirou shook his head. "That's not what I was referring to, and you know it."

As if in response, the sounds of Alex laughing were heard behind them.

Against all natural odds, Alex Fujimura had been born with outstanding magical circuits on par with a first-generation magus, and like Tohsaka was an Average One to boot. As far as he knew, Taiga had none, and Waver's were nothing special. As to how Alex had turned out beyond any magus' wildest dreams, Shirou could only wonder.

Waver's shoulders slumped forward as he sighed. He brought his cigarette back up to his lips and gnawed at the filter absentmindedly.

"It'd be a waste for her not to, don't you think?"

Shirou remained silent. Waver sighed, and continued.

"Every magus' main goal in life is to ensure that their next generation continues their family craft. My family crest may have nothing of note within it, but it's still mine, and my family's, and I've worked long and hard for it to be returned to me when the time comes so that our craft can continue on. Everything I've done has led up to this moment."

He looked thoughtful. "I don't come from a particularly illustrious family. My grandmother picked up the basics of magecraft from what she heard in bed with a magus. My mother only practised the errant bit of magecraft here and there to honour her memory. When I was young, full of piss and vinegar, I wanted to be the first to seriously follow this route. I sold my parent's possessions and moved to the Clock Tower. I took umbrage with how old-fashioned they were, and their assumptions I would turn out to be no one special. So I…" he grimaced, "I embarked on some truly stupid endeavours."

Shirou smiled. "That's not so uncommon, I think."

"Were I in front of my younger self, I'd slap him, 'I think'." Waver shook his head. "The point is, I'm the outlier in my family in that I was the only one to take the craft seriously. And though it wasn't how I initially planned it, if Alex does choose to continue on with magecraft, she'd have a far easier time than I did with all the connections I built. She has the talent. She has my connections. Many in my class have already offered their services as a mentor when the time comes."

"Even Yvette?"

Waver snorted. "She was never serious with her inclinations. Even Yvette. Long story short, my entire life I've done what I could to ensure my progeny has it easier than I did were they to continue on with my magecraft. All that drudgery, the sacrifices I made… it would mean something, I guess. For the longest time, I believed that if the chance was not taken, then everything I've done up to this point would be for nothing. Again."

The Englishman looked troubled. "But now that I'm actually a parent, I think…"

Shirou waited for the man to collect his thoughts.

"I don't know," Waver repeated. "I still want it for my daughter, but I feel like seeing her grow into a strong and healthy woman just like her mother is just as important to me. That's not very magus-like of me, I suppose. Or maybe it is. Are those two things mutually exclusive? I'll find out eventually, I think. Taiga understands it's a heavy responsibility. She also knows I've worked my entire life for this; she doesn't completely discount what I want."

Shirou tensed and seemed to shrink in on himself. Part of what Waver said struck him in a way that was a little unexpected.

When Kiritsugu passed his dream onto him… What went through his father's mind, he wondered? Did something similar occur to him? Did the gravity of what Shirou had agreed to undertake in a fit of childish earnestness strike him at all? Something else entirely, maybe?

His father's dream… it was a good dream, Shirou still thought. Of course he did.

Was a good dream inherently a dream that could be shared in good conscience?

"You don't sound very worried," Shirou remarked, keeping his head forward.

Waver scoffed.

"Why would I be? It's out of my hands now. I do know that I love her and that I want to raise her properly. I'll start with what I know, and I'll deal with what I don't a little later. This is a decision that Taiga and I will make together. More importantly, once Alex is older and can make her own decisions, we'll respect hers too. It's not like I can deny her this choice when I had the opportunity to decide my destiny for myself, even when I was young and foolish."

Shirou didn't move.

"You're a cool guy, Waver."

The "cool guy" in question was not one capable of handling such earnest and out-of-the-blue compliments in a similarly "cool" fashion. A blush crept up his cheeks and he babbled incoherently before calling it a loss and coughing into his fist.

"You'll learn to decide things for yourself when you and your missus have a kid of your own," he muttered. "Don't take what I'm saying about that too seriously, please."

Shirou took a deep breath.

"There's something I'd like your opinion on, while we're on the topic of passing things on to our children."

Waver Velvet raised a brow. "Oh?"

"I had a conversation with Raiga the other day. He suggested that Kiritsugu would be happy that I've settled down, and that my father would not have wanted me to follow in his footsteps," Shirou confided in him, seemingly out of nowhere.

It threw the older man for a loop. A long moment passed during which he simply didn't know what to say.

"I'd sure as hell hope not," Waver blurted out.

Shirou gave him a quick side-eye. Realising his misstep, he tried to clarify, "You and I knew him very differently, but our different experiences aside, your fundamentals are awful. I'd think he would at least try to show you the difference between your ass and a hole in the ground if he knew he'd be raising a Power Ranger wannabe, let alone actively want you follow in his footsteps."

Held dumbstruck for only an instant, Shirou burst into a short chuckle. Whatever funk he was in seemed to leave him, at least in part.

"I understand what you're saying, but it's difficult for me to reconcile that fact," Shirou's eyes glazed over, "because I know that when I told him I'd follow his dream in his stead, he was happy. I'm sure of it."

Waver took another long drag, giving himself a moment to formulate another response.

Why did this kid have to wait until Waver got home to let this stuff off his chest? It was seriously tiring.

…

It seemed he'd have to dig deeper, then.

"I've told you about my servant in the fourth war, haven't I?" Waver looked over in confirmation. He received a nod. "The Alexander the Great that I knew was a man I admired above all others. Before we parted ways, I told him that he would 'always be my king'. I don't think either of us knew what that meant, in our strange circumstances, but I'm certain beyond any shadow of a doubt that we were both satisfied with that promise."

Shirou said nothing, signalling to a reluctant Waver to put his professor's hat on after hours. The Englishman used one hand to comb through his hair while the other one fiddled with his lighter.

"How does one serve a king that literally died ages ago?" he asked rhetorically. "He wasn't around to tell me, so I could only come to my own conclusions. I tried to be a better man than I was, for one. Explored the world. Learned to be someone he could be proud of."

"Then—"

"Then the past caught up with me in the form of Reines." Waver wouldn't let Shirou get a word in. Not now. "Things changed, as things tend to do. There are things in life that are within your control, and there are things that aren't. I never forgot my promise, but the beauty of a promise like mine—and a promise like yours—is that nothing is set in stone. It's only ever whatever you make of it. I believe that I can still serve Iskandar the way that I am now. At the very least, I wanted to be the kind of vassal that would protect his legacy."

Feeling like he now had permission to speak after a few seconds had passed, Shirou muttered, "You've put some thought into this, huh?"

"Is that how you speak to someone trying to help you?" the other man grumbled. "That isn't to say that there weren't moments that I felt lost; that I felt I was going nowhere with regards to the promise I made, stuck in London as just a professor reviewing Flat's nonsensical essays and enduring meeting after meeting with Reines and all those highfalutin lords."

A faint blush crept up his ears, but they both pretended not to see it. "Taiga was the one who helped bring a lot of clarity to this, for me, when we met again. I owe her a lot, but you know that already."

"Mmhm."

Waver sighed loudly and got up.

"That's as much as I'm willing to put up with your moping. I'm going back inside to help Alex with that pasta noodle craft thing she needs for school."

He reached the door before Shirou spoke again.

"Thank you, Waver. Really."

"...If you really understood what I was getting at, you'd know that I'm not the one you need to be thanking."

With that cryptic message delivered, Shirou was left alone on the engawa. He checked the time on his phone contemplatively.

Maybe there was one last thing for him to do before he left Fuyuki.

X

Shirou kept an unhurried pace as he walked through the graveyard, keeping his eyes solely on the spot where Kiritsugu was laid to rest. A few spent sticks of incense were the only sign that anyone had stopped by recently; even he came empty-handed.

That was fine, though. Kiritsugu wasn't the sort of person to care.

He crouched in front of the Emiya family grave. At this time of night, he could barely make it out.

I wish I knew what you wanted from me.

His head dropped pensively.

That dream asked everything of him, even if Kiritsugu didn't mean it that way.

Even now, Shirou believed that he would have been happy following the path laid out for him until the day he died, and he'd still be happy that he could at least have done this much.

In stepping away, however, the hard truth hit him.

He was tired.

He was tired. Not anymore. Not since he made the decision to back away.

Shirou wouldn't go so far as to say he regretted taking a step back from it all, but the dream was all that was left of what his father passed on to him. Even more so, after marrying Chifuyu.

In a very cosmic sense, the dream was all he had.

But…

"You weren't wrong," Shirou spoke aloud. "It's a beautiful dream, Kiritsugu. It's not wrong to save people. And I do want to keep saving people; it's just…"

He thought about Waver's words. That their dreams were what they made of them. That pursuing them would guide their fate.

It just so happened that his dream had inexplicably guided him to Chifuyu.

His White Knight.

"Does this dream mean to me the same thing it means to you?"

There were no answers to be found in the grey stone.

Probably not… but that was okay, he decided.

Even now, he hadn't actually let go, had he? Everything that led to where he stood right now. The choices he made. The things he abandoned or held on to. The ideals that Kiritsugu passed onto him were at the helm of all of it.

This, too, was part of his dream.

Just not in the way he thought they would be.

This was a time to make peace with himself and the man who raised him.

The next time he came back, his mind would be clear. That was a promise to himself.

"Thank you. For everything." The pause he took before continuing went unquestioned in thanks due to the nature of the conversation. "I've decided that I'm happy, and I hope you're happy for me too."

Bracing his knees, the man stood up and walked off unceremoniously.

Above him, the clouds parted to reveal a waxing crescent moon.

X

Chifuyu was roused from her sleep by the sound of something.

With eyes that practically refused to open, she waited a moment longer before the sounds of clinking and clanking happened again.

Alert, she dragged herself out of bed and allowed the cold hardwood beneath her feet to shake her back into consciousness. She felt that she was understandably upset: not-quite-awake as she was, she couldn't imagine what could be waking her up prematurely in her own home.

On the weekend, no less.

After dealing with the amount of bullshit her brother and Laura had inevitably gotten into in the tag-team tournament, she felt like she deserved a well-deserved rest.

Grumpily and with purpose, she stomped down the stairs ready to confront whoever—

Shirou's suitcase was at the bottom of the stairs.

Thoughts of violence forgotten, she glided past the entranceway and stuck her head into the kitchen tentatively. Her husband stood over the sink with his back to her. To his right was a pile of cleaned pots and dishes that he seemed to have been working through for who knows how long now.

Another odd addition was the colourful yet barely decipherable children's drawing stuck to the fridge with a magnet. She wasn't sure what that was about, but she could ask later.

Silently, she shuffled up to him and hugged the man tightly from behind.

His body didn't react noticeably to her touch; Shirou must've known that she was there.

"Welcome back," she spoke into the back of his shirt. "When did you get in?"

"Ten minutes ago, but I didn't want to wake you. I figured I'd get a head start on this." His voice was warm.

Chifuyu buried her face deeper, curiously embarrassed.

"I was going to get to them eventually."

He laughed. "I know the pots need to soak, but don't think they need to soak this long."

"...Sorry."

"Don't worry about it."

Her husband responded to her bashful apology by gently gripping her hands against his stomach, wet and calloused and warm as they were. She giggled and pushed her face deeper into his back.

"… Shirou?"

If her husband noticed her hesitation, he made no mention of it.

"Yeah?"

"... There's some stuff that I need to tell you."

"Okay?"

"But let me have this first."

He smiled down at the empty sink.

"Of course. Take your time."

Whatever it was that would come up… he was sure that they'd get through it together.