Feelings of Youth & It's Okay

Within an ancient castle in the woods, there currently sat a king.

Tears ran down the kings face, contemplating the life they had once lived.

A life on the battle field, death, sorrow, anguish all around.

A mountain of bodies and blades, lay within a sea of blood.

The walling of those fallen and wounded, sounded to the accompaniment of steal clattering.

Regret, resentment, longing, lingering attachments to the world they knew they could never return to.

Their cries pierce the air, mourning their fate.

The fate of those fallen, deprived of life.

Breaking free from the reminiscences of the battle field which the king had once bleed, and died upon.

The king once more looks to the scene in front.

The room was dark, feelings cold.

Yet the scene in front of the king was anything but.

Colorful, vibrant, full of life and love.

The king watched, as a father embraced his daughter, telling her how proud he is of her.

Once more the king shed silent tears, this time rather then tears of sorrow and remembrance.

Instead shedding tears of joy, as the king saw their own self in the face of the daughter.

Wishing they two could embrace their long deceased father.

The king missed the rest of what happened afterwards.

It wasn't until the room brightened suddenly, that the king was broken free from wandering thoughts.

Looking forward, the king's eyes meet with those of another, a man with deep red ruby eyes that were capable of looking into someone's very soul.

After a brief moment of looking into each other's eyes, the man spoke to the king, "Well Saber how did you like it?"

The king, was Artoria Pendragon, well the red eyed man was precisely, Ryker Akash.

After watching the first movie about a certain king of pride rock, Ryker had noticed that Saber seemed to be strangely into it.

He figured it was because she was able to see parts of herself in the young lion.

So Ryker decided to watch another movie that Saber might be able to relate to, and it seemed to have worked.

Helping Saber wipe off any remaining tears she had shed due to the ending of the movie, Ryker thought back to his childhood where he had once watched dozens of movies at the orphanage he had stayed at.

The orphanage director often didn't want to deal with having to watch over so many kids at once so she had made it a daily 'ritual' if you will, to sit all of the kids down after lunch and have them watch movies until dinnertime.

Thanks to that he had hundreds of movies to use as a reference when he programed the cube.

The cube he created allowed him to transition his memories from his mind to the cube, which then would project them onto the screen.

It was essentially a movie projector with his memories being the film reel.

He had wanted his kids, Iris and Saber to be able to entertain themselves with movies instead of just lazing about all day long. Ryker also wanted to make use of the movies to increase their knowledge about what the outside world was like.

He was originally planning to take Iris, Saber and Illya out of the Einzbern's bounded field and let them experience more of the world, however, the dreams on top of learning that he didn't know his own abilities enough, caused him to postpone the outing.

He may be the strongest being within the entire world, but that didn't mean he would be complacent.

Ryker knew that all it would take was one mishap due to him not understanding his skills enough, to cause an accident. As it stood, he was more worried about the danger he himself could cause, rather then other people.

Until he manages to get a good grasp on his own abilities, he wanted to remain hidden from the eyes of mages or possible enemies. After he managed to understand his skills better he should be comfortable enough to take his family out of the Einzbern castle and experience the outside world.

Ryker estimated that it would take him a few more months before he ended up hitting a dead end on his current progress. This would also allow their family time to welcome its newest member before they started traveling, as Iris was due in about four and a half months. Yet Ryker felt like that time would be shorter then they had originally expected.

He wasn't sure why but he felt like Iris would give birth sooner then one would see in a normal pregnancy. He was estimating anywhere from 3 and a half to four more months. This gave him plenty of time to get a deeper understanding of his skills, as nearly every day his understanding was continuing to grow, so he expected in four months his strength would have experienced a massive growth.

For now though, he wanted them to make use of movies and other forms of entertainment to help his family get a good grasp on the outside world ahead of time, as well as add an extra form of entertainment to their lives.

He had picked the first movie, due to it being one of his favorite during his childhood. The second one was similar to the first but Ryker felt like Saber would be able to connect to it on an even deeper level the he personally had.

After Saber had managed to calm down her emotions she looked meaningfully at Ryker. She had previously been to engrossed with the movie to think properly but now that it was over she realized that Ryker must have chosen that movie specifically for her seeing how relatable it was to her own situation.

The movie was about a young women, who was an only child in her family, she was forced to take up arms for her country and ended up becoming a well respected hero, despite her identity as a women.

Although Saber felt like some parts were different, she still felt like the overall message fit well with her own legend. She enjoyed watching the young women disguise herself as a man and fulfill her duty to her country. A large difference was that the young women in the movie succeeded in her own story, where as Saber herself had failed.

It touched her deeply and caused her to think back to the talk she had with Ryker on the roof.

She knew that he was trying to get her to forgive herself for her failure and move on with her life. He had been trying to get her to do that ever since they had met, and it was working as slowly but surely she had indeed been attempting to move on from her past.

She had researched her tale in countless books and looked at how she was viewed in the eyes of the public during the current era. It filled her with joy seeing that she was looked at as a great king, one of the greatest in history in fact.

With Ryker's constantly wearing down at her defenses, she was beginning to think that she did deserve to be happy, not as the King of Britain, but rather as Artoria Pendragon. Seeing this movie which related to her own situation helped to break any last resistances she might have had, but she still felt some resistance to allowing herself to be happy.

As if knowing what she was thinking, Ryker who had been in front of her waiting for her to break out of her thoughts, began to chuckle.

Hearing him laughing, Saber looked at him with a puzzled expression.

Seeing her expression, Ryker sat back down in his original spot to her side, this allowed Illya to reclaim her position on his lap. Her little head was bobbing up and down, clearly feeling tired after all the excitement. After making sure his daughter was comfortable, Ryker spoke once more to the confused king.

"I want you to let go of your past Saber because I can tell it makes you unhappy. You may say that you dream of Britain's salvation, but I can tell that deep down you want to be able to live a normal life. Even if you manage to 'save' Britain whos to say that things will turn out for the better? That's why I feel like you should focus on the now, and live a happy life, rather then focusing on the past and possible leading your people towards a worse end. I will say what is needed to be said, time and time again, until you decide to allow yourself to be happy. Yet I cannot force you down a path you're unwilling to head down, so for now just continue to think about it on your own, and when you're ready, we will be here for you."

Finishing Ryker grabbed ahold of Iris hand as she leaned back onto his shoulder. After they were ready, Ryker started their third and final movie for the night as he could tell Illya was getting tired.

Their third movie was one of Ryker's personal favorites from his childhood. It was a movie about toys belonging to a kid named Andy, that were secretly alive.

There were hundreds of movies he remembered from his past life, and it would take them years to go through all of them, they may never even finish watching all of them. He didn't want to watch anything that might scare Illya right before bed.

So although he had a lot of movies he liked involving living toys, such as 'small soldiers' or 'the Indian in the cupboard', he wanted something tamer to keep with the trend they had already set with the first two movies.

Left to her own devices while the trio focused on the next movie, Saber was lost in thought, absentmindedly looking in Ryker's direction. Eventually a smile found its way onto her face, she had come to her decision.

Slowly she leaned in and placed her head on Ryker's other shoulder, before allowing herself to relax when she felt he didn't resist.

She wanted to be happy in life, and knew that Ryker would be able to show her how.

These were her last thoughts before she relaxed completely and drifting off to sleep.

Ryker feeling Saber resting her head on his shoulder as she slept, released a smile of his own.

He didn't really have any other thoughts aside from being happy for his friend for being able to move on with her life.

Iris lifted her head up and softly kissed his neck before saying quietly, "Darling~ since It seems like Saber has opened up more, why not make advances towards her?" her tone was almost a whisper so as to not disturb the now, two sleeping girls as it didn't take long for Illya to curl up on Ryker's chest and enter the land of dreams herself.

Hearing what Iris said Ryker was taken back. He turned and looked into Iris' beautiful ruby red eyes which matched his own, before speaking in an equally hushed tone, "Iris be honest with me…are you okay with that? I'm perfectly content where I'm at in life, with you, and I haven't even thought about taking in another women, yet you speak as if you want me and Saber to be together, why?"

Giggling softly Iris stated simply, "I know you wouldn't think about being with another women, but I can tell that you and Saber both care for one another. Maybe its due to me being a homunculus or just due to my lack of knowledge but I feel like it isn't wrong if you end up wanting to take in more then one women. I think that as long as someone loves you as much as I do, and you care for them as well, then there isn't a reason to hold back. Having more people who love you and want to be with you, how could that be a bad thing? Of course ill be upset if you abandon me for another, but I know you aren't that type of person."

Iris' gentle smile slowly faded, replaced by a serious look as she said, "I don't want to be something that holds you back in life Ryker, I want to be someone who you can always return to and feel loved, no matter the distance or the burden you have to carry, I want to be there for you, supporting you. If there are others who also wish to share your burdens and give you their love then I don't want you to hold back due to feeling obligated to only love me."

Once more the gentle smile returned to grace her lips, to Ryker her smile was so bright that it was almost blinding.

Continuing she spoke her final thoughts, "If you and Saber fall in love then you have my blessing, I like Saber a lot and I feel like she would suit you quite well, fufufu~, just make sure you don't hold yourself back because of me otherwise ill be upset, darling~" finishing saying what she felt needed to be said, Iris tilted her head up and kissed Ryker's lips softly before placing her head once more upon his shoulder as she attempted to join her daughter and Saber In the land of dreams.

Ryker hearing what she said began to think deeply about many things, life, love, the future.

Many thoughts shuffled through his mind, as he spent the rest of the night in his own world, unaware that the screen had turned dark long ago, signaling an end to the movie, and their family night.

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(Sorry for the long note, I like talking to you guys, haha~)

(Author's Note: So just to clarify for anyone who may be confused, this chapter may feel like its just repeating already said things, however Saber is a very headstrong women and it took multiple attempts from Ryker to crack her outer shell. Currently, Saber is beginning to truly open up to her womanhood, the two wont become a couple right away or anything like that but they will be in a position of 'Dating but not really' for a while. Saber needs to get used to her feelings as she is inexperienced with a lot of things involving romance and just being a woman in general. As for Iris allowing Ryker to be with other women, its even simpler as she literally allowed Kiritsugu to continue his relationship with Maiya without even bringing it up until the very end in the cannon. She was prepared to die in order to bring about world peace to protect her daughter, her mentality hasn't changed and she is still willing to die if it meant saving Ryker, Illya or their unborn child. If she is even willing to die for them, its not that hard to imagine she would allow Ryker to be with Saber, especially considering, to her Saber is one of her best friends at this point. He relationship with Saber is second only to that of her own family (Ryker, and kids). So that's that, for those wondering, my story plot has already begun, it started from chapter 1, there is a lot in the early chapters that I've hinted at that will connect with the later ones, as for the Fate/Zero plot that hasn't started yet.

Timeline: It's been 1year since summoning, Iris is about 4.5 months pregnant, Forth Holy Grail War starts in 7 Years, Sakura will be adopted in 6 years. She is currently not born, she will be born next march so around the time Iris gives birth, she is 5 at the time of adoption, and 6 at the start of the war, then in Fate/stay night UBW she should be 16 years old, year 1 of high school. For those of you curious why Ryker doesn't save her now, that's why. He doesn't want to just kidnap her but rather wait until the Tohsaka's 'get rid of her', that way he can save her in good conscience, but at the cost of making an enemy out of the Matou and possible also the Tohsaka's.)