[Nerroth]

A few Crystal Valley updates - though part 5 is the only new (as in freshly typed) one:

Spoiler for Crystal Valley: Part 2:

Part 2


Where will Destiny take you?

- Promotional trailer for Stargate: Universe


BGM: Embassy - Gravity


The Beast lay slain.

A smoking tunnel was piercing through its skull, the remainder of which listing to one side as its slowly-dematerialising form bled into the aethyr surrounding it.

If one were to pull back one's viewpoint, one would find that its un-natural corpse lay in the midst of a scene of devastation. Burned-out wrecks of armoured vehicles, checkpoints and pillboxes were scattered around the grounds of the compound. To one side, one would find a once-proud manor house still standing, albeit in the process of being gutted by a blazing fire. A once-impressive stained glass mosaic, which had faced the courtyard from the flank of the manor, had been shattered into a thousand pieces lying on the ground below.

And if one were to pull even further back, to take in the ruins of the compound in one vista, one might see the one whose actions had brought this destruction to pass.

The silver entity, carefully nestling a human woman under its left arm, rode its halo of light as it circled above the grounds of the compound one last time, before lifting higher into the skies.


------------------------------


"Do you have anywhere safe to go?" the being asked, as it continued its ascent.

The woman shook her head. "No... not anymore."

There was a pause, as if the being was trying not to recall memories from its own past. "I have somewhere you are welcome to stay at. Somewhere safe. Shall I take you there?"

She noted the tone as fairly matter-of-fact - or, at least, as much as one could be when one is in such a circumstance. But then, maybe such a tone was necessary in order to make sense of things.

In any case, she found herself more than willing to accept the offer. "I hope I will not be a burden, azukaru."

Though the currant visage had little in the way of recognisable features - save for those two piercing orbs of light serving as its eyes - she could almost sense a smile in response, as it assured her; "Not at all."


Arcing its flight path to one side, its speed increased, and the woman's hair fluttered in the wind as she was carried along in the rush.

Beneath her passed the twisting coastline, the waves from the ocean lapping onto the shore in the reflected moonlight. Both the land and water were dotted with the occasional artificial source of light, be they from scattered homes, toiling boats, fires lit in the wilderness or the beacon from a lonely lighthouse.

Above her sat the full moon, which looked wider and closer than she had ever envisioned it to be... as if she could almost touch it. Beyond sat nestled an uncountable number of stars, a wider and clearer array than she had stopped to notice down on terra firma.

Beside her, she felt the secure hold of the azukaru's arm, as she looked over and saw its right arm hang to one side, its long-barrelled extension somehow retracted out of view.

Despite how alien so much of it... of him... seemed, there were still no end of signs she could pick up on, to say that there was still a very human quality to his appearance.

She could imagine how easy it would be for someone to recoil in fright at the countenance of this being. Even so, she found herself to feel more secure in its presence than she had been at any stage of her life.


"Do you have a name?" she wondered.

"Once," he replied. "A name I was given at birth... before I became what you see."

She looked up to his face, or at least its closest equivalent. "And now?"

He turned to look back at her. "Now? I find myself still trying to answer who, and indeed what, I currently am."

She smiled. "The 'what' is less important than the 'who', azukaru."

It was the first time he had heard such a turn of phrase since his old life had come to an end.

He found himself suddenly hoping it wouldn't be the last.


------------------------------


Soon, his pace slowed as a dark and heavy gathering of clouds emerged in the distance.

"A thunderstorm," he told her. "I may have to fly around, or try to go over, or even -"

"Take me through, azukaru," she insisted at once.

"Are you sure?" he asked, feeling uncertain. He had never done this before. "I don't know if..."

Her next phrase made her intent crystal clear. "I want to ride the lightning."

He nodded, and shifted his grip so as to hold her in both arms. In response, she held on reflexively, as he rushed beneath the churning clouds.

Streaks of light erupted from one end of the mass to the other, hundreds of forks and bursts of searing light echoed by a rolling cacophony of thunder. This tumultuous piercing of the darkness allowed the pair to witness the kind of sight that would impress upon any being how vast and primal the forces of nature could be.

Bolts burst from one patch of cloud to another, some arcing so close to the halo of light at their back that they could almost feel it.

She howled in exhilaration, any sense of inhibition or self-consciousness cast aside, her voice lost in the awe-inspiring flow of sound and fury, signifying everything.

Indeed, she was so lost in the moment that she failed to notice how the object protruding from her guardian's left elbow seemed to shimmer with an unusual dim light - or how the flashes of energy before her never seemed to quite get close enough to cause harm.


What she did notice was the eventual cloudburst, as enough space cleared for her to be carried into a clear moonlit sky.


------------------------------


Her view shifted from the bright full moon to the string of islands below - two larger than the rest, and each of those in a chain leading up to a peninsula alight with the evidence of human industry.

They raced high above Ilha de Coloane, then Ilha de Taipa, before making a circuit over the peninsula of Macau itself.

This place had been the first of its kind in China - a Portuguese colony present long before the likes of Hong Kong would emerge in later centuries. Perhaps it might even be the last to remain, one day.

After the circuit, the duo descended towards the Baia Praia de Grande, at which the woman expressed her first degree of anythign approaching concern. "What if they see us?"

"Don't worry," he reassured her. "They won't."

At this, he leveled off, and flew low over the waters, weaving its course almost instinctively towards landfall. Its halo dimmed, making it that much more difficult for anyone catching a glimpse of this sight to take it for anything other than the product of an over-worked imagination.

Away from the bustle of the city centre, the pair slowed as they came to a careful landing, on a balcony facing towards an enclosed garden at the back of a two-story house.

She tentatively stepped forward, securing her footing on the solid surface. A sigh was released into the air, as if in remorse at the loss of such a sensation as that she had just experienced.

She stepped back, as her rescuer knelt forth, retracting some of its other-worldly form to reveal a more human visage.

He turned to her, his human face showing. "Ladies first," he offered, as the door leading from the balcony into the residence opened.

There were still so many questions to ask, and answer.

So many ways in which she had to come to terms with what she had lost.

Yet, here and now, Gedatsu Houri - alongside the man born by the name of Andrei Muraviev - could understand at least part of what she had presently gained.

Spoiler for Crystal Valley: Part 3:

Part 3


"Nice, aren't they?"

Seonac had noted Shirou perched against an unassuming corner of the São Paulo Marriott Hotel. The five had landed at the adjacent São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport earlier that day, and were using the next day or two's worth of time to try and adjust for the time difference. They would have to do so again on a later part of their journey, but only by another hour's worth.

While Sakura, Saber and Rin were in their hotel rooms trying to catch some rest, Shirou had taken the opportunity to go up to the roof... and try to get his first look at a Southern Hemisphere sky.

Seonac had followed suit, and was currently referring to two of the most notable objects one could see, the light pollution from the hemisphere's largest metropolitan area notwithstanding - the Magellanic Clouds.


"They are," Shirou nodded. He wondered what they might look like through a telescope, though. There was only so much a Reinforced eyeball could help when dealing with astronomical phemomena, after all.

Seonac sat himself across from Shirou, facing the red-headed mage, who seemed to be lost in thought. "Am I interrupting something?"

Shirou shook his head. "No, I was just... trying to get as clear a sense of this moment as I could."

The meaning was not hard to pick up on. "For Ilya."


When caught up in the ebb and flow of the Fifth Heaven's Feel, Shirou and Rin had not been able to learn more about the young von Einzbern than what they saw in a few relatively brief events. The girl had been a rival Master, albeit one who seemed to have a particular interest in who she referred to as 'onii-chan' - but Shirou had no particular reason to stop and ask why this might be. There were enough things for him to try and get a handle on as it was.

After what was to become her last stand, as well as that of her Servant, Berserker - who had desperately, but vainly, tried to block his charge from harm at the hands of Gilgamesh - he had seemingly been left at a loss as to her true importance.

So it remained until not so long ago, when Saber finally came forth, and told him about her true heritage.

"Saber said that even if she had survived the war," Shirou reminisced, "that she was doomed - that she would almost certainly only have a year or so to live afterwards."

"If that was so," Seonac sighed, "then I wouldn't have had a chance to meet her -"

"- and she would have missed out on being here with us, I know." Shirou wasn't one for holding in to regrets, but the missed opportunity to at least try to find a solution for his sister, or at least to make the most of the time she might have had if one was not to hand, stung more than he was quite ready to account for.

"But either way, I'd like to think that I'm able to carry a piece of her legacy with me, somehow."

Seonac nodded, understanding that sentiment well enough. "You know, one thing I saw during a certain event last year, in the recesses of a mind not worthy to hold such, was a glimpse, or echo... and it's something I've kept with me."

Shirou looked over at Seonac, and tried to wonder what it was he was referring to - but unsure of how to ask. There was another though, however, which sprang to mind. "What's it like, Seonac?"

"What is what like?" came the reply.

"Family," Shirou went on. "I mean, not a guardian like Fuji-nee, or a foster father like Kiritsugu, or a lost stepsister like Ilya. To have an actual flesh and blood relation to your mother and father, and to all of those in your wider family."

While it had been suggested that Shirou try some kind of DNA testing in order to find out about his biological parents, or indeed if there were any distant living relatives of his (or of Kiritsugu's for that matter) he hadn't shifted his focus from the people who were in his life as it stood. Whether it was out of dedication to his current 'family', or out of hesitancy to re-open that aspect of his life, was a matter for debate.

"You can see that for yourself, Shirou," Seonac tried to encourage him. "When you are in my parent's home, you're as welcome around the table as anyone - even me." Not least when Niall, Sadhbh and the others cottoned on to how good a cook the red-headed lad could be.

"It's not the same," Shirou pointed out. "You might not see it, but no matter how much at home your parents make me feel when I'm staying over, you are still their kin. You are the one they hold that connection with."

Even now, after all this time, it was still hard for Seonac to imagine that he was the one who had something Shirou could be envious of. "You know, I don't feel it as much right now, but for a long time I'd felt that it's you who are the one with all of the connections, the bonds, the..."

Now Shirou was the one to try and make an educated guess. "Because of Tohsaka?"

Seonac stopped, and lowered his head a little as he tried to say something he probably shouldn't have left un-addressed for so long. "Not just her. I mean, Saber's always had that strong bond with you, that kind of connection that I often couldn't help but feel I had no place being in the vicinity of. And then there was..."

It wasn't something he felt anymore, but he could feel something of an echo of what he might have felt in an earlier time. Memories never did quite fade out of their emotional context entirely. "I mean, if you had done things differently, you could have been the one to settle down with Sakura."

"You think it's that..." Shirou tried to respond, but couldn't get his head around it.

"You say that I've got this bond at home," Seonac went on, "but I would have answered by saying that my family is stuck with me, through a quirk of biology. You have been able to land yourself at the centre of attention for people who chose to involve you in their lives, because of who you are, and what you have done."

"What are you talking about?" Shirou asked.

"Come on," came the reply. "How many people you know can call a Reality Marble their own, and list the title of winner of a Holy Grail War to their credit? I'm surprised more people aren't trying to get you a matching cape and mask."

"Look, it's not that..."

"I would have asked myself, for the longest time, what right have I to even try..." he was getting a little too close to those old feelings for comfort, "when I would always be compared to you, and found wanting?"


There was an awkward silence, which the not-so-distant sound of aircraft traffic seemed to do little to dispel. The two had almost lost the point they were trying to make, if indeed there was any point to all of this in the first place.


"Those people back in the Clock Tower," Shirou said, trying to get his thoughts on track, "they don't see me as a hero. They don't want someone to cheer on, or hang out with, or form any kind of proper relationship towards."

He tried not to let the anger he felt at what they really wanted bubble forth. "They are only interested in figuring out what makes me tick - in getting the chance have me lying on a dissection table, so they can root around and try to find anything worth sticking in a petrie dish and writing up in a lab report."

The thought of his body being used as some kind of garish display piece at the Association headquarters made his stomach churn.

"And of those who might not be ready to carve me up, how many of them are only trying it on just to try and get at Tohsaka?" He thought of the heated rivalry between Rin and Luvia Edelfelt, and was annoyed at the though that her calling him 'Shero' and trying to act in any way nice to him was likely a ploy to get at the woman he had made a commitment to.

But then, that commitment had trouble enough on its own. "And I don't need to tell you that I've had trouble with Tohsaka, and with Saber, too." There was a time after Saber's disclosure concerning Ilya that Shirou took, before he felt that he could face the rest of what she had to say. In that time, Seonac had felt caught in the middle, as he tried to help Saber on the one hand, and to help bring Shirou around on the other. It hadn't been easy, but it had led to a stronger set of relationships once they were able to confront it together.

Something of a lesson, perhaps.

"And as for Sakura..." Shirou sighed. "Maybe you're right, and maybe I could have noticed things earlier - both in terms of how she felt, and in what she was going through."

That, too, was something he was not entirely comfortable trying to account for. "But even then, there's no way I can say that things would have worked out any better than they are right now, for her and you."

"Well, I did say that this is what I would have said," Seonac told him, "but I guess it doesn't come across all that differently by me saying it now."

"Then what would you say now?" Shirou pressed.

At that, Seonac's expression softened. He smiled as he felt a wave of understanding return - the kind of wave that he found himself more able to call forth these days. "That letting myself live in the shadow of an impossible ideal won't get me anywhere."

Shirou noted those words closely. "Impossible ideals can do that."

"I can't be you," Seonac said. "No matter what I try, I can't go back and live the life you did. I can't be in the places you have been, fight the battles you have fought, and build the connections that you have built in your time."

While that thought might have had a heavy effect once, it didn't at this moment. "But that's okay. As you say, it's not like you can live the kind of life I've lived up to now, even if I'm not overly sure you'd really want to."

"All I can do is be myself, to learn my own options, to make peace with my own failings, and be the best Seonac Ó'Conaill that I can be."

Shirou smiled at that. "You know, I'm really glad to hear that. You're my friend, Seonac - you have as much a place in our group of friends as anyone. And more, I'm proud of what you did to help Sakura. You helped her in a way that I couldn't do, took a risk that could have left you losing everything, and came out on the other side with a legacy that, well, is the reason we're sitting here on top of a hotel in Brazil!"

"And I might add," Shirou pointed out, "you're no less important to Saber and Tohsaka as well. Although, I'd hope I don't need to tell you how Sakura ranks you in the grand scheme of things!"

"That one I think I got all by myself." With that, Seonac stood up and walked over to where Shirou was propped up.

"Look, before we go on," he offered, closing his eyes, "if you want to have a swing at me over what I did back then, I'll understand."

Shirou stood up, and offered something else instead - his hand. "To be honest, I was due that one anyway. And besides, I doubt I'd do worse than what Tohsaka landed you with!"

The two of them laughed at that one, as they shook hands, re-affirming what they had been building from the start, despite getting a little side-tracked here and there.

A friendship of equals.

"We should have had this kind of conversation a long time ago," Seonac said.

"I know." Shirou wondered whether their friendship would be only really starting now. "But better late than never!"


A rumbling emerged from Seonac's stomach, evidence that it was ready to get over the inconvenience of having to avoid the less-than-ideal airline food on the flight in. "God, I'm starving."

"Me too," Shirou agreed. He couldn't stand airline food either. "Come on, let's go eat!"


Seonac remembered one of the other reasons he was up here. "Oh, I still have to write something."

"Write it at the restaurant," Shirou said. "There should be enough room at the table for a pen and paper run-through."

Seonac thought of what the intended recipient might think of the letter being penned in the middle of a meal, and figured it couldn't hurt to find out.

"Will do," he affirmed, as the two headed down to eat.

"That friend of yours still writing to you in Italian?" Shirou asked. He hadn't met Seonac's pen pal in person, but had heard a thing or two.

"Yeah," Seonac answered. "I'm still trying to work out what language to send my latest reply in."

Shirou had an idea. "Why write in just the one?"


Seonac let a grin loose in response. "Now there's an idea..."

Spoiler for Crystal Valley: Part 4:

Part 4


*KA-CHOOM...*


The sudden burst of thunder shook Houri from her rest, and she stirred with a jolt.

After taking a moment or two to re-orient herself, she looked around and saw herself in a room she hadn't remembered visiting, lying on a rather comfortable mattress. The other side of the bed lay undisturbed, though as she took the room in, she found a note placed on the small table near her side of the bed.

She picked it up, and found herself smiling a little as she read it:

Dear Houri,


I hope it's not an inconvenience, but as my guest, it seemed ungentlemanly to leave you lying on my couch.

By the time you read this, I may be either asleep on the couch myself, or up and about doing... I dunno. Something or other.

In any case, take as much time as you like.


Thank you... for trusting me.


Andrei.


She remembered it now. After he had let her in, they had just about spent enough time to give each other's names before he went to try and get her some tea. By the time he came back, she must have fallen asleep - the events of the day finally catching up with her. She wouldn't have minded being left where she was, but was grateful for the act of chivalry.

She yawned a little as she stretched her arms and legs. She got up, and noted there was a few sets of spare clothes and other items resting on an armchair.

On them was another note:

I had a few pieces delivered over. I didn't know what size to go for, so I asked them to send some different options. If you like, the ones that aren't suitable can be returned. Oh, and I asked them for some things to help you freshen up, since I don't make much use of ladies' toiletries.

Bear with me - I'm not quite used to this sort of thing!

She chuckled a little at that.


------------------------------


"Доброе утро - good morning," Andrei offered. He was stepping out of the kitchen on the ground floor as Houri made her way down the stairs. She had managed to freshen up, and was wearing one of the changes of clothes he had ordered. "Did you rest well?"

"Hai," she nodded. "Thank you for letting me use your room, and for going out of your way to make me feel welcome."


He waved his hand, dismissing the need for such comments. "It's not a problem at all. It would be nekulturny of me to treat a guest lightly..."

He stopped for a moment, as she stood before him. "...not least given the circumstances."


Even though there was still a lot to talk about, she could well appreciate that last sentiment.

But, before they went onto the more serious business of things, there was a more immediate matter to attend to. "So, where can I go to make myself some breakfast?"

"That," he smiled, "is already taken care of."


------------------------------


"Mama, look!" the young boy called out, gasping as he pointed his finger out of the train carriage window, and towards the awe-inspiring sight beyond.

The Circum-Baikal Railway was a marvel of engineering prowess, a ribbon of iron which had taken the efforts of thousands to build. Part of the greater Trans-Siberian network which ran here all the way from St. Petersburg in the far west of the Russian Empire, and as far east as the Pacific port city of Vladivostok.

Andrei and his parents had boarded the train at Irkutsk, a place where his Decembrist ancestors had left European Russia for generations earlier. Little Andrei had never been this far east before, and marvelled at the sight of the Blue Eye of Siberia. Lake Baikal was the oldest and deepest freshwater lake in the world, with more water than all five of the North American Great Lakes combined. It had been a focal point for life in this part of the world for a very long time, and its deeply rich colour and sheer size never failed to draw the eye of those who laid eyes upon it.

"Isn't it amazing, Mama?" Andrei asked his mother again, tugging onto her arm with his right hand.

She smiled over to him, looking out onto the lake herself. "Yes, my little Andryusha - it's very special."

At that, he turned and drew himself in, looking up at his mother's face. He didn't need to look at it to know how she was feeling - since birth, he had possessed the secret gift of mind-sight which always told him this. Yet, even so, as he tried to learn the rituals of self-control, he found himself having to get more used to understanding her thoughts and feelings through her words and expressions.

"Why do you look so sad, Mama?" he 'asked' her telepathically, remembering his training, careful not to broadcast the message to anyone else around him.

She traced the tip of her finger against his forehead, and tried to soothe his now-worried mind. "Don't worry - your Mama is going to be fine. I promise."

"Okay," he accepted, before turning back to look out at the shimmering waters the train gradually passed on its journey.


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"So that was the first thing you remember," Houri asked. The two were seated in the living room, and had started to talk.

"Yes," he answered. "I can't remember much of Irkutsk itself, but I don't know whether it was something I have only recentl forgotten, or just never really thought of that much."

She listened to this, as she took a sip of her green tea. "Why did your family leave?"

"My family had heard news of the troubles further west, in Moscow and St. Petersbu..." he still defaulted to the city's original name, but grudgingly deferred to the new name it had been given just five years ago. "...Leningrad."

As a child, he had known little of the horrendous war that the Empire had been fighting against the Central Powers, or understood the repeated tides of unrest and revolution which had been catalysed in its wake. "We decided to move to Vladivostok, where they thought it was still safe - and from where it would be easier to leave the country if it came to that."


------------------------------


While it was no secret that the port city of Vladivostok, lying as it did at the furthest terminus of the world's largest railway, resting at the gateway to the Pacific Ocean, Few of its inhabitants could have foreseen the role that it found itself playing during the Russian Civil War.

The sight of Allied troops marching through its streets, Western soldiers posing for photographs with Russian schoolchildren while taking time away from garrison or expeditionary duty, or propaganda lithographs in foreign languages extolling the cause of 'interventionism' against the Bolshevik forces seeking to transform the Russian Empire into the Soviet Union...

...it was a lot for a precocious young boy to take in.

Andrei passed through a crowd of mingling Allied soldiers, on his way down Svetlanskaya Street. His mother would have been furious to find him out by himself like this, but he couldn't resist what to him seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime adventure.

He liked to try and play a game, based on what he heard being spoken, and what he found while carefully peeking into the thought processes of the array of foreigners. He didn't quite understand their various languages, of course, but that was part of the fun - to try and piece together all of the things they were both saying, and wishing to say.

He felt like quite the little spy.

"So yeah," he heard one foreigner - Canadian, according to the uniform - talk to another... who looked like he was American, "you getting your bags packed yet?"

The other one smirked back over. "Yeah - they're finally going to let us get the hell out of here."

Andrei was suprised, when he realised that some of the man's thought processes were... Russian! He hadn't thought of finding a foreigner who thought Russian before, but his train of thought made it clearer. "After all the trouble I went through to get out of this blasted country, the amerikanskiy bastards put me in a uniform and send me back over! Chush' sobách'ya..."

If Mama didn't know already, Andrei realised he'd have to tell her. Withouut the somewhat intemperate language, of course.

Across the street, Andrei noticed a group of other foreign soldiers marching. They looked very different.

The Russian-American didn't look impressed. "They don't look like they'll be going anywhere. "

"Well, to be fair," the Canadian offered, "Their home's a lot closer to this place then ours are."

"Feh," the other retorted, as he started to turn away. "They're welcome to it."

While the Canadian might not have realised it, Andrei could tell that the other one was somewhat more conflicted about the whole situation than he was letting on.


He didn't like to think he'd feel the same someday.


------------------------------


"The Japanese stayed on for another few years," Andrei explained, "but we left just as the Western troops pulled out, in June 1920. Of course, at the time, it didn't quite dawn on me that I'd never see the place again..."

Houri nodded silently. As it happened, some of her extended family had a son posted in Russia during the intervention, and she knew that the city was now off-limits to foreign citizens. She felt that was a shame - it sounded like it was an interesting place. "So your family came to Macau?"

"Not quite," he replied. "My mother brought me to Hong Kong, while others we knew scattered to places as far as Canton and Macau, Shanghai and Taihoku. Most of them went over to North America or on to Europe, however."

"I wonder if my own family ever met one of them in Taihoku," she offered. Her own parents had moved to that city - which was still known to many as Taipei - from Hokkaido in her youth, before trying their fortune in Hong Kong in more recent years.

Alas, fortune can be fickle.


"Do you have any family you'd like to contact there?" Andrei asked.

She shook her head. "Not at the moment, azukaru."

He noted that even after learning his name, she still chose to use that term for him. In a way, he was glad for this, since that name almost had more meaning for him now than Andrei seemed to.

At least, so it seemed ever since his life was set on a new, irrevocable course.

"While I had the mind-gift from that time," he explained, "it would only be later on that I would become... the being you have seen."

She could tell that referring to whatever had happened was something he was struggling to come to terms with. Perhaps this was the first time he had even tried to. But she was in no rush. "Take your time, and tell me what you are ready to say, when you are ready to say it."

She moved over on the couch closer to him, and placed her hand on his forearm. Her touch was delicate, as if trying to pass through her own support and understanding through her fingertips. "You are there for me, azukaru... and I will be here for you."

He found himself blushing, as he looked into her eyes, truly realising her achingly beautiful features as if for the first time. Yet, he then turned his head aside, not ready to let himself see her in such a way, or even sure if he had any right to. "You should know that I... that even as you see me now, I am no longer fully... human."


She leaned her head over, her eyes still looking at his turned face. It looked human enough.

As she placed her hand against his cheek, she discovered that it felt human enough, too.

"You are still fully you, azukaru, and that is what matters."

He turned back to look into her eyes again, and found himself shedding a tear as he heard her words...

...and realised that for the first time, he could believe them.

Spoiler for Crystal Valley: Part 5:

(The formatting was meant to be different, but it didn't work. Oh well.)

Part 5


With a near-silent click from a card-based lock, the door to the already-dark hotel room was opened slowly. Seonac had taken a little time making up for lost meal time alongside Shirou downstairs, before both young men decided to try and get at least some rest before the group's ongoing journey later that day.

Seonac stepped into the room carefully, trying not to make any noise - or, at least, not enough to disturb his partner's sleep. After entering the room, he breathed slowly as he eased the door shut. Once done, he slid off his shoes and put them beside one of their bags.

Reaching into the bag, he plucked out the nightclothes sitting on top of the otherwise tightly-packed clothes and other items within. Scooping them under one arm, he put the folded piece of paper in his hand to one side before reaching into one of the side pockets for an envelope. It was somewhat awkward trying to fold the letter away with one-and-a-half arms' worth of limbs available, but it could still be done. He sealed the envelope and placed it onto the nearby counter top, though as he did so he wondered if he might have been better off waiting until they got back from Brazil before mailing it.

Well, Seonac, if the worst happens to you on this mad adventure, it won't send itself, he thought in reply. He didn't want to think about that eventuality, but no matter how confident he felt about what was to come, he could not ignore the risks involved.

He left the envelope on the counter.

That matter out of the way, he quickly stepped into the bathroom with his change of clothes in hand. He had been wearing the same outfit since boarding the connecting flight out of Dublin, and wanted to try and freshen up before getting changed. Once inside, he waited until the door was closed before putting the light on, hoping he hadn't disturbed Sakura's sleep already.

Several minutes later, he stepped out again, feeling more refreshed than he had in a while. Putting the other clothes away, he looked over to see how Sakura was doing. In this light, he couldn't tell too much, but could at least see her outline. Her back was turned to him, or rather to the empty half of the bed lying in wait.

Before he climbed in, he took a moment to take in the sight of her lying in rest, her body moving almost imperceptibly as she breathed in and out, her hair falling across the side of her pillow in the half-light.

I could watch you sleep all day, my love, he thought to himself, before the yawn he promptly found himself stifling told him otherwise. Duly taking the hint, he slid under his side of the cover and tried to settle in.

While he wanted to lie facing her, he reminded himself that neither of them were immune to the effects of air travel. So, he turned to the opposite side, and focused on trying to settle into the mattress.


His eyes had only just closed before he felt her gentle hand resting upon his back. "Welcome back, itoshii."

His smile was interrupted by another yawn, one he had more trouble trying to stifle. "I hope I didn't disturb you, Sakura," he tried to whisper through the yawn.

Mercifully, she got the message. "You should know by now..." she assured him, as she snuggled closer, wrapping her arms around him as she cosied herself against his back, her lips resting against the back of his head before moving to rest her forehead there instead. "I feel the very opposite when you are with me, my love."

"My pleasure," he answered her, clasping her hands in his. It really is.

"Did you get your letter finished?" she asked, correctly guessing one of the reasons he had been away from the room. While Seonac had talked about his correspondence with Caren before, Sakura had not met her, despite the two being in the same city for several months.

Seonac nodded slightly. "I did - and I was able to have a long-overdue chat with Shirou in the process, too."

He couldn't see her face, but he could still sense her smile, even without the insight which their close mental link provided. "I'm glad to hear that, itoshii."

"You know," Seonac realised, "we could invite Caren to the wedding, if you like. I'd probably try to ruffle up invites for Mike and David, and a few others, so the more the merrier."

Sakura squeezed his hand with her own at the idea. "That sounds good! I would like to meet her, as well as... your mentor?"

"Mike, yeah," he replied. "You'll like him. I don't know his brother David that much, but he seems like a good guy too."

"There's someone I like very much already," she whispered.

"Well," Seonac whispered back, "I'm pretty sure that someone likes you very much too... Sakura."

"Hee hee," she giggled, squeezing him closely as she lifted her head, turning it to press her cheek against him.


They lay comfortably like this for a while, both tired but not ready to sleep, neither rushing to do more but take in the warmth and comfort of the other's soft embrace.

However, after a while, her hand started to feel somewhat less steady, he breath a little less relaxed than Seonac would have liked.

Eventually, the silence broke, as Sakura said two words which felt like they had waited a long time to be said. "I'm sorry."

There was a sense of weight, of loss, of pain in those words - the kind Seonac had never wanted her to feel for any reason, least of all for his sake. He turned around to face her, stroking the side of her face with his fingertips. "What is it, Sakura?"

She could feel tears welling in her eyes, as she pushed on to the rest of what she wanted to say. "I... I wasn't good enough... I... I..."

The groundswell of emotion tipped over, flooding across the mind-link between the two. Seonac gasped as the meaning behind such difficult words broke through.

He sat up in the bed, cupping her face in his hands as she followed suit, looking as deeply into her rich blue eyes as he had ever done. "Nothing in the universe could convince me that you are 'not good enough' for anything. And nothing ever will."

"But I..." she wept openly now, looking back into his emerald eyes, somehow seeming as if she could see more of the colour, of the blue and hazel flecks racing in thin streaks across each iris. "If I was able to...to manage... to be a better... then maybe..."

The very though cut through him deeply, the wounds made worse by the fears he himself found mounting in his mind. "Sakura... what if it was me?"

"What?" she gasped in shock at the very concept that her lover would blame himself.

"You... you saw the kind of thing that's been happening to me." He saw the image in her mind - the sight of him hovering above the floor in her sister's apartment, wreathed in an unearthly glow, his mind sent racing across the face of the planet and back again.

She shook her head, refusing to accept that. "That was months after, itoshii. It could not have-"

"-but that was not the first time I had felt... something... contact me. Affect me. Change me." The tables had been turned the tables on that monster Zouken, bringing the hateful one to its knees before the final blow was struck. Seonac knew, now more than ever, how much he - they - owed that victory to a force unlike any other.

The force he knew awaited them at this journey's end. "And it's not over yet."

"Itoshii..." Sakura felt the weight of burden in her mind shift, but it was scant comfort.

"You are the one who were poorly-served by me, Sakura." If I were a normal human being, we wouldn't be in this mess.

If you were so, you wouldn't be the man I love. The words he thought had been kept to himself had crossed the bridge between them - as had her words of affirmation.

And there were more to come. "You wouldn't be the man who could give so much for me, who would have done all that you have done to save me... who should have the chance to show me the kind of life I want to live."

"Even if it leads you to a place like this?" he asked, despite himself - despite everything he could see in the link they shared which told him the answer.

"No distance is so far," she assured him, "to not be worth it."

Once again, she had astounded him. Her sheer depth of resolve, her astounding capacity for love and compassion, her gift at turning despondency into determination.

When they were together like this, he felt there was nothing they could not overcome.

"Sakura," he started to say, his mind turning to viewpoints he had not seen clearly before this point. "It may have been neither of us - we still don't know why things went as they are.

"In any case, we haven't lost. What we made together is waiting for us, to be brought home and cherished as a couple. As a partnership.

As a family."

She nodded, smiling again, looking forward to that future. Yet, the loose hand she stroked against her abdomen spoke of a wish left unfulfilled. "I know, itoshii. But still, I wish..."

He lifted one of his hands from her face and down to the one she held to her lower torso. "I know. I wish we could have done that, too."


Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind like an electrical storm. "But you know what? I have an idea."

Sakura sensed that she was about to hear something she was going to like. "Tell me."

"Well, when this is done, and whatever's been going on with me is done and dusted, we can look and see if things are, if not back to normal, at least stable, or something.

Once we do that, we could... you know... try again."

Sakura smiled coyly at that one. "I thought we were going to settle for now with just the two, weren't we?"

"Well, yeah," he went on, "for the time being, anyway. But maybe, three to five years from now, once we're a little more settled in, maybe, if you want..."

"If I want..." she answered, hinting in her tone that by then, she just might do.

Seonac felt a wave of encouragement. "And then, we could be together, through it all - the way it ought to be."

That idea sounded about as appealing as any she had ever heard in her entire life. "We just might try that, itoshii!"

"Oh, just one thing." He thought of a matter his mind raced to, as he followed the internal logic of such a flow of events. "Promise me that , when the delivery comes, you won't ask me to wait outside.

"I want to be there."

She chuckled aloud at his request, knowing precisely what she would want in that situation. "I would not stand for you to be anywhere else, I promise you."

"That's good," he answered - noting how he had exhaled more heavily than he might have expected, given this was still a mainly hypothetical situation. "Just be gentle with my hand when you squeeze it, okay?"


With that, she almost whooped in laughter.

"No promises!"