The River

Alt Title: Peaceful Times

Other Alt. Title: One Big Happy Family

Time is a river that flows forward. It is of some belief the reason for the saying Time Waits for No One.

But rivers can branch out creating more rivers that stream forward until another obstacle is placed in front of it and they are once again force to branch out.

In one timeline, Emiya Shirou, the adopted boy of Magus Killer, Emiya Kiritsugu says goodbye to his beloved Servant Saber.

This marks the end of their story. This is the obstacle that blocks the river and it is forced to branch out in order to keep streaming.

In this timeline, things end a little differently.

-0000-

EXCALIBUUUUUUUUR!

One blast of radiant light, evil is vanquished.

He had averted the disaster from 10 years ago from happening again. He can't help it but crack a smile as he had prevented the same mistake from his past predecessors, mages from the previous grail war from reenacting the same disaster twice.

Somewhere, a little boy like him 10 years ago sleeps peacefully in his bed.

"Shirou…" the airy-raspy voice of his servant calls out to him.

Her brilliant golden hair dances in the gentle morning breeze. The sun was rising behind her, painting a picture of an otherworldly beauty with the mountains in the distance and the sun rising between them serving as a breathtaking backdrop for this masterpiece he is seeing with his own eyes.

"This is it….isn't it, saber."

"Yes."

Her eyes are closed. "Shirou, I want to tell you… I love you." The sun rises, brilliant rays like daggers in his eyes forcing him to squint. He lifts his left arm to block out the brilliant rays, just to have one last look at the woman who had changed his life.

"Saber… I-"

"Saying nothing, my love; let me leave with this peace in mind."

"…." He acknowledges and honors her wishes as the sun continues to rise until it is too much, he closes his eyes and counts to ten internally.

When I open them, she'll be gone…

1….

His thoughts drift back to the night she first appeared before him.

Tell me, Are you my master….

2….

SHIROU!

3….

SHIROU!

4….

SHIROU!

5….

Ah, he was such a bonehead always causing her to worry about him. Then again, the same can be said for her.

6….

He remembers the night they sought refuge in an abandoned building in the Einzbern Forest. He made love for the first time.

7….

The date….

8….

The many times she's saved him.

9….

Maybe Tohsaka was right about him, being an idiot and all. An adrenaline junkie who can't go one day without having some sort of life threatening injury done to him!

10….

Time to open his eyes; first order of business was to get home, clean up the mess there, and then make breakfast and….

"Saber…?"

"Shirou, I…I – uh…."

-0000-

10 years later

Call it repentance.

Her name was Mordred, she was a friend but more than that she was her daughter.

The little girl was in essence a clone of Arturia Pendragon, the King of Knights.

Arturia named her daughter after the Knight of Treachery as an act of seeking forgiveness from her long lost friend and son all those years ago whom she forsaken….and killed.

She wanted to make peace with her past and move on.

Arturia followed the short hallway, rounding a corner and then turning left to a sliding door. She pulls it open, a cool air from the air-conditioner sweeps her as she enters and closes the door behind her.

Her husband and daughter were asleep; Mordred was holding a stuffed Lion Shirou had bought for her fifth birthday. It was bigger than the one Saber had in her and Shirou's room. Mordred loved the color red, loved it so much her wardrobe consisted of red colored clothing.

Mordred had on her red pajamas which consisted of a loose red shirt and red shorts. This was her sleepwear. Anytime there's sleep involved, she would scurry away to her room making loud thuds on the hardwood floor and then come back a minute or two later with her red clothes on; sometimes she'd have her shirt backwards which usually was righted by Shirou or her.

It stemmed from the disappointment she had when she didn't inherit her father's vibrant red hair and instead the dull yellow (which was hurtful to hear) color of her mother.

Mordred kept whining and pouting about wanting to change her hair color so much. Then one day, she took a bottle of tomato ketchup and tossed it on her hair. A bit of it got into her eye and she dropped the bottle, shattering it into a million pieces.

If not for the sound of a bottle breaking, Arturia wouldn't have known her daughter was hurt.

She came just in time to see Mordred wiping her eyes and weeping with a broken bottle of ketchup on the ground besides her.

Mordred feared her mother more than her father. She was afraid now that she had been caught, she was going to get a spanking but on contrary, Arturia pulled the little girl into her arms and hugged her and whispered sweet nothings to her.

"I'm sowwy…I'm sowwy, mommy!" Mordred bawled into her mother's shoulder as Arturia kept a comforting hand on her back to sooth her crying.

Arturia let a smile spread across her lips as the takes a look at the sleeping figures of the two most precious people in her life.

"M-mommy…"

Arturia gets down to join the two, taking the right side where she usually sleeps on, resting her head on Shirou's shoulder the former King of Knights reaches over to brush a hair off her daughter's cheek.

"mmmm…" the little girl moans and then a little smile makes itself apparent on her lips. "Sleep tight, little one."

With her focus now on her husband, Arturia reaches out to touch his cheek, pressing her palm to his face caressing it as he slept. She whispers to him something he can't hear and smiles.

"Thank you…"

It was simple, nothing elaborate. For all those years back, for whatever reason fate deemed well for her to receive such a gift. She wasn't going to stare a gift horse in the mouth.

"Mommy…" she hears the sweet little voice of her daughter Mordred looking at her with half lidded eyes.

"Shhh…" Arturia whispered whilst brushing a stray hair out of her eyes. "Go back to sleep, little one."

Arturia watched as her daughter went back to sleep. Her eyes look up to her husband who hasn't moved but from the sound of his soft snoring, doesn't seem like he will be moving for a while.

As for Arturia, she was dressed in a simple blue spaghetti strap sundress. She gives him a small kiss near the corner of his lips, seeing a small smile make its way up his lips.

The family of three slept peacefully that afternoon, without a care in the world.

The End

A/N: Just a quick one-shot I made inspired by a FanArt of Shirou, Arturia and a child Mordred sleeping.