Disclaimer: Fate/Zero isn't mine (do Irisviel and Saber look like a non-depressing couple to you?), and neither is the list of prompts, but I've no clue who that belongs to, as I acquired it probably about ten years ago. Ah, well.

A/N: I apologize for any redundancy, as I do refer to the same event more than once (although I try to cover different angles and different interpretations), but I did largely want to keep within the actual storyline, adding things in but not changing existing ones (except for 68, which is a plot-defying twist on certain events that I just need to be true). They go through the whole spectrum of genres, so you've got some humor, some fluff, some tragedy (okay, a lot of tragedy), some cute romance, some blatant romance...but nothing graphic, just implied (albeit potentially graphically implied). Keepin' this rated T.

A/N the second: Also, I took some serious liberties with the definition of a "sentence", and if I didn't already have a love affair with semicolons, boy, would I be having one now!

Read, enjoy, and as always, reviews would be love! Support Saber/Iri!

a hundred beats per minute

1. Introduction

When Saber, newly summoned and radiant in her gleaming armor, boldly demands, "I ask you, are you my master?", Irisviel has to bite her tongue to keep from claiming, Yes, yes, yes.

2. Love

It is the way Saber always stands a half-step in front of her; it is the gentle voice and the kind eyes that Irisviel had once saved only for Kiritsugu; it is the little smiles, the little glances, the little touches; it is everything at once and almost nothing at all.

3. Light

Saber's fingers are hesitant, the tips barely skimming Irisviel's skin, and the Einzbern smiles and sighs and forcibly molds the Servant's hand to her hip, quipping as she does so, "You needn't be so careful, my knight; I'm not going to break."

4. Dark

At night, Saber keeps careful watch over her Master's wife, protecting her from enemies both real and imagined; for the former, she has Excalibur, and for the latter, she has a gentle hand, glove temporarily removed, trailing down Irisviel's ivory cheek to soothe the troubled dreams.

5. Seeking Solace

After being grilled and derided and insulted by Rider and Archer, Saber turns to her with distressed eyes and asks, so quietly, if she also believes that Arturia's methods and ideals were hopelessly flawed; Irisviel does not think thusly, but if she did, she would have lied—anything to smooth the crumple from Saber's brow and lift the frown from her lips.

6. Break Away

It seems to Irisviel that she has spent hours building the new barriers and securing the perimeter—an intensive and exhausting task—and she looks curiously at Saber when she enters the room; the Servant simply pulls the car keys from her pocket and says, "I thought perhaps you'd like to go out for dinner tonight."

7. Heaven

Saber gives little thought to paradise, forever moored in her own private hell, but self-destructive though she may be, even she cannot deny the happiness that swells her soul whenever Irisviel smiles at her.

8. Innocence

Irisviel possesses a purity of heart beyond the outward illusion of clean, fresh snow, and Saber is afraid to touch her, for she has so much blood on her hands.

9. Drive

With the wind whipping their hair back, Irisviel clings tightly to Saber—arms around her waist, chest flush to her back, cheek resting on her shoulder—and unseen to the Einzbern, the Servant grins, because this motorcycle really is so much better than the car.

10. Breathe Again

"Irisviel, Irisviel, Irisviel," Saber demands frantically, her heart wrenching in her chest as she crouches beside the bloodied and unmoving homunculus in this forest of death, and it is not until the other woman answers her plea and narrowly opens her eyes that the Servant can find the space in her throat to breathe again.

11. Memory

Saber never speaks of Irisviel after the Fourth Grail War, not even to Illya—her heart is too heavy; her grief too profound; and she has buried the memories too deep.

12. Insanity

Irisviel wonders for a while if she's losing her mind—she fixates too much on Saber's every move, perennially distracted by the way the light flashes in her emerald eyes or how her lips curve in the smallest smiles—but then she realizes she's just losing her heart.

13. Misfortune

Kiritsugu laments the circumstances of being paired with a Servant of the noble Saber class, but Irisviel disagrees before she even meets Arturia Pendragon, and after…after, all the way through her dying moments, she knows that she could not have been more fortunate.

14. Smile

On their initial romp through Fuyuki, Irisviel drags Saber into a photo booth, but once the little pictures print, she remonstrates the Servant for looking dour in every one; Saber arches a world-weary brow but nevertheless capitulates to Irisviel's insistence that they try again, and then again, until the Einzbern is pleased with the result (she's not exactly smiling, but there's something breathtaking in her eyes).

15. Silence

Saber's not the most eloquent, at least with her words: her actions speak volumes, and it is a language that Irisviel devotes herself to learning to the point of fluency; once she does this, she finds herself in the grip of constant, acute, wonderful heartache, as it's now painfully obvious how much Saber loves her.

16. Questioning

When Irisviel reaches over to straighten Saber's tie, it is an absentminded action, and she hardly realizes she has done it at all until Saber calls it into question; blushing, she stammers an excuse, but she notices afterwards that Saber's tie is now constantly crooked, affording opportunity after opportunity to straighten it again.

17. Blood

Irisviel knows that, as a Servant—and more than that, as a warrior king—Saber is made for fighting and made for bleeding, but that does not take the edge off her distress when her brave knight is wounded and she cannot heal her, because Saber has become so much more than another weapon in Kiritsugu's arsenal, and Irisviel does not wish to see her bleed.

18. Rainbow

The sunlight slanting through the window is cut into the spectrum, splashing stained-glass colors on the floor, but Saber pays this fleeting beauty no heed, too distracted by another; her concerned gaze remains upon the still figure of Irisviel, who is recuperating in her newly-drawn magic circle, and her hands clench into fists that are ultimately futile, for there is no way to keep sunlight—or Irisviel—from slipping through her fingers.

19. Gray

Irisviel is white like snow and Saber black like smoke, but snow melts and smoke blows away; together, they are no more substantial, for together, they are gray, gray like a shadow that is cast upon the earth, a shadow that will one day flicker and fade and leave no trace behind.

20. Fortitude

"I'm glad that Avalon is helping you so much," Saber remarks one day as she observes Irisviel go about her daily tasks with fragile but omnipresent determination, and the Einzbern looks at her strangely, sadly, and replies, "Avalon has nothing to do with it."

21. Vacation

Irisviel lies awake at night, thinking of the world she will never see, and as her gaze drifts across the shadow of Saber keeping watch at the door, she is overcome with the desire to travel to Wales; she wants to stand upon its cold shores and gaze across its gray waters and hold the Servant's hand and whisper, "Do you like the sea better now, Saber?"

22. Mother Nature

Winter in Fuyuki is cold and dark and brutish, just like the Grail War, but Irisviel doesn't notice the chill, not when she has the warmth of a certain golden-haired Servant to infuse her final days with summer.

23. Cat

As they stroll through the city, Irisviel's hand tucked in the crook of Saber's arm, an alley cat yowls and darts across their path; startled, the Einzbern yelps and ducks behind the Servant, who chuckles and asks teasingly if she may have permission to use her Noble Phantasm—"It is such a formidable foe, Irisviel."

24. No Time

Irisviel doesn't know how they got here: tangled against a wall, desperate for any scrap of contact, and Saber's breath is so hot on her neck that it's somehow sending chills down her spine…but she knows that she will not waste this opportunity, for it's not as if they will ever get another.

25. Trouble Lurking

When Saber senses Lancer's presence, there is a half-second in which she doesn't want to tell Irisviel—she wants to stay here, on the beach, and continue their conversation, and maybe afterwards they can return to town and get more of that delicious ice cream, and the Grail War can carry on without them; it is a foolish thought, and she disregards it, but it lingers in the back of her mind, a cloying whisper that there could've been more.

26. Tears

Her keen ears detecting the muffled sound of sobbing, Saber tentatively ventures into Irisviel's room, and the other woman mumbles something about missing Illya in a tone of voice that suggests this isn't a problem worth crying over; Saber doesn't buy it, though, and she sits on the edge of the bed and says softly, "Tell me about her."

27. Foreign

It is unusual for Saber to focus on something past the knot of regret in her heart, but the more time she spends around Irisviel, the more she finds that she wishes to devote that space to something else.

28. Sorrow

Sometimes Irisviel is amazed that she can feel things—she is a homunculus, after all, an artificial construction, and it is a credit to the Einzbern mages that they so accurately replicated the human heart—but sometimes, she hates their mastery, because it hurts so much and so deeply whenever she remembers that regardless of whether or not they win the war, in the end, she's still going to lose Saber.

29. Happiness

Saber places a trail of tired, tender kisses along Irisviel's jawline, and the Einzbern sighs softly and gazes up at the moonlit ceiling through the hazy shadow of her lashes, just reveling in the weight and warmth of her beautiful knight and wondering how, in this darkest of hours, they managed to carve out a sliver of happiness.

30. Under the Rain

The storm breaks out without warning, and Irisviel cringes, not prepared for this freezing deluge, but the pounding droplets are held at bay in the next moment; she looks up, bewildered, and sees that Saber has shed her jacket and offered it as a makeshift umbrella, even though such an action causes her to become rapidly soaked to the skin.

31. Flowers

Flowers of the battlefield—they were described like that once, and Saber disregarded it as a frivolous and potentially insulting statement, rendering them delicate and demeaning their strength; Irisviel, though, likes that it suggests that she and Saber are somehow the same, but mostly she likes that it also seems to imply that together, they can bloom and flourish and maybe, just maybe, live.

32. Night

"I don't require sleep," Saber explains with a small shrug, and when Irisviel frowns at her and asks, "What if you want to dream?", Saber does not reply, uncertain how to say that her waking hours are fulfilling enough as long as Irisviel remains nearby.

33. Expectations

Irisviel expected the Fourth Grail War to yield nothing more than Kiritsugu saving the world—no small feat in and of itself, to be sure—but she never would've anticipated that she would fall in love with the legendary king of knights herself; in the end, she is glad she did, because she didn't have to die empty-handed.

34. Stars

"You can make wishes on them, you know," Irisviel remarks as they gaze up at the inky night sky, and she giggles as Saber dryly observes, "And we all thought we needed the Grail for that."

35. Hold My Hand

Heat rises to Irisviel's cheeks as she stares at the Servant's bared hand and gallant gesture, and when she raises her gaze to Saber's striking, half-smiling face, her blush only deepens; she nearly stumbles getting out of the car, except that Saber is there to steady her, and she realizes with a touch of rueful amusement that she'll never be completely composed around the blond again.

36. Precious Treasure

"The Grail is invaluable," Kiritsugu says blandly, as if reciting from rote, and Saber, looking at Irisviel, thinks, Yes, yes, she is.

37. Eyes

When Saber kills Kayneth el-Melloi in one swift, clean strike, Irisviel cannot bear to watch her kind and noble knight being forced into the role of executioner, even if it is a merciful one, so she averts her eyes.

38. Abandoned

Saber hears the optimism ringing false in Irisviel's voice as she appraises the Japanese-style house that is their new base, so while the Einzbern recovers in her magic circle, the Servant labors to make this place truly acceptable: cutting the grass, fixing the roof, dusting the fixtures, washing the floors; when Irisviel awakens, she is astonished and touched by the change, and she flings her arms around Saber in an unexpected embrace and confesses, softly and sincerely, "I'm glad that I rested enough to have the strength to do this."

39. Dreams

Saber, ostensibly, doesn't have dreams: she has regrets, and she has desperate wishes; but something turns to ash in her mouth when she watches Irisviel collapse in front of her, and as the homunculus' unmoving body hangs limply in her arms, Saber realizes that she does still have dreams, because they just died a little.

40. Rated

The Saber class is well-known to have the highest-ranked battle statistics and the most glorious, impressive skills, but Irisviel privately believes that even if Arturia Pendragon materialized as a mere Assassin, she would still have found a way to take Irisviel's breath away.

41. Teamwork

In the first battle with Lancer, Irisviel feels unbearably helpless—all she can do is offer medical aid, and the cursed yellow spear has put paid to even that—so she is bewildered when Saber smiles at her and remarks that she could only fight knowing that Irisviel was behind her, as this seems to suggest that they are somehow equal partners in this war; she returns the smile, though, because she likes the idea.

42. Standing Still

Eventually, time runs out, and even though Saber wants the Grail more than anything, and even though it is hovering there in front of her, she cannot force herself to approach it; for the first time, it seems hollow, and she just wishes that Irisviel were here again.

43. Dying

In truth, Saber has been dying the entire war, forever trapped on the brink back in Britain, but even so, she has never felt more alive; Irisviel is like the last, heady breath before the plunge when the heart beats the strongest.

44. Two Roads

They both know that they're walking separate paths, and they're both grateful that those paths have been contorted by the Grail, twisted through time and space until they're parallel so that they can briefly walk alongside each other.

45. Illusion

"I don't know; sometimes I feel so terribly weak," Saber murmurs, her eyes dimming, but she looks sharply at Irisviel when she grabs onto the Servant's arm and says, with her own eyes blazing, "Your strength is no illusion, Saber—it cannot be, for it is the only thing carrying me through this hell."

46. Family

Saber has had several families—her real father, Uther Pendragon; her mentor and confidante, Merlin; the Knights of the Round Table, brave Lancelot and loyal Bedivere and pure Gallahad—but when Irisviel welcomes her into the bizarre Einzbern-Emiya clan, despite all the strain of Kiritsugu, Saber feels as if she truly belongs.

47. Creation

Irisviel weaves shapes in the air with her curious magic, breathtaking and beautiful creatures wrought of a lattice of light, and Saber wishes bitterly that she could do the same because for all her own power, she can only destroy.

48. Childhood

"I want Illya to have what I never did—a happy childhood filled with love," Irisviel whispers sadly as they watch the girl play in the snow beyond the window's glass panes, and Saber grimaces and agrees, "Yes, I wonder what that would be like."

49. Stripes

The worn paint on the asphalt blurs into a long, winding line beneath the motorcycle as Irisviel clings to Saber, her tears soaking into the Servant's suit jacket; they travel this lonely road until the sun rises in front of them and blinds them with the crushing prospect of tomorrow.

50. Breaking the Rules

Saber's code of honor and chivalry is a rigorous thing, but she finds herself breaking one of its most basic precepts with alarming frequency—Irisviel is married, and to her sworn Master of all people, just to compound the sin—but still Saber cannot keep her thoughts from straying down forbidden paths, and once (or twice, or often), she cannot keep her body from doing the same.

51. Sport

"Let's play a game," Irisviel suggests cheerfully as they wander into a green, sun-washed park in Fuyuki, and the Servant looks blankly at the plastic disc she's been handed until the Einzbern explains with a giggle, "It's a Frisbee, Saber."

52. Deep in Thought

Saber sits in the half-lit shed with Excalibur balanced across her knees and a distant, pensive look on her face, and Irisviel straightens from her slump in the magic circle and asks teasingly if she can hold the sword, just to startle Saber out of her reverie; needless to say, she is taken aback when the knight wordlessly offers the sacred blade, and as she tentatively accepts the weapon, she is struck by how very heavy it is: the ultimate burden of a lonely king.

53. Keeping a Secret

Irisviel doesn't know if Kiritsugu would mind, exactly—after all, he is having a not-so-subtle affair with Maiya; at the very least, he cannot judge her—but she refrains from confessing her own sins, partially to protect Kiritsugu and partially to protect Saber but mostly because she wants this bittersweet love to be shared only between their two hearts.

54. Tower

"There is a story of a girl locked in a tower, and one day, she is rescued by a brave knight who takes her away from the castle and shows her the world, and of course they fall in love, like all such stories go," Irisviel chatters as they sit on the plane to Japan, and Saber hopes that in their story, she is the knight and not Kiritsugu.

55. Waiting

"Is war terrible, Saber?" Irisviel whispers as they linger in the Einzbern's castle, and the Servant, seated calmly, glances at her sidelong and admits, "Yes, but I find this period, the calm before the storm, to be far worse; at least in battle, you can do something," and while it's not the most encouraging statement, Irisviel is comforted nevertheless.

56. Danger Ahead

As they venture into the poorly-lit warehouse district along the waterfront, Irisviel begins to question their bold decision to confront their yet-unknown enemy, but then she looks at Saber's back in front of her and notes the confident tilt of her head, the strong set of her shoulders, and suddenly, almost inexplicably, she feels like nothing in this world could possibly hurt her.

57. Sacrifice

Once, Saber would have given her life for her country; once, Irisviel would have done the same for Kiritsugu's ideals; but now they just long to give their lives, and their hearts, to each other.

58. Kick in the Head

Berserker's boot smashes her head brutally into the concrete pillar, and were she anything less than the Servant that she is, she would have died then and there—but she is a Servant; she is Saber; and she will allow no one else to touch the Grail, to touch all that remains of her Irisviel—so she knocks his sword away and rises through the smoke and fights and fights and fights, because there is nothing else she can do now.

59. No Way Out

"You're like a maze," Saber confesses hoarsely, haltingly, and she hardly dares to raise her eyes to Irisviel's, but she does, and the other woman listens with a swelling joy in her chest as Saber concludes, "I'm so lost in you."

60. Rejection

Saber wasn't expecting to get rebuffed by Kiritsugu at every turn, and she hardly understands why he bothered summoning her at all, but she will gladly endure his rejection time and time again if that is the price for remaining at Irisviel's side.

61. Fairy Tale

Irisviel suffers from no delusions; she is well aware that there will be no happy endings; but sometimes, she forgets that, because she is the beautiful, brave princess and Saber is the beautiful, brave knight and they're in love and therefore, according to the fairy tale's own goddamn formula, they are guaranteed that elusive ever-after.

62. Magic

Her world is steeped in magic—hers and Saber's very existences are owed entirely to magic—but she cannot shake the conviction, giddy and sentimental as it is, that the real magic lives in the link that connects their hearts.

63. Do Not Disturb

Maiya knocks on the shed's door and inquires, "Are you feeling better, madam?" only to be greeted with Irisviel's rushed and breathy voice replying, "Ahh…s-so much better, Maiya…but, uh…you should c-come back later…I'm…er, rather indecent at the moment…oh, god, Saber—!"

64. Multitasking

Irisviel is a flurry of activity—keeping an eye on the remote-viewing crystal, instinctively monitoring the magical barriers embedded in the forest, all while still managing to hold a conversation with Kiritsugu and, of course, look flawless doing it—and as her Master steps out of the room, Saber observes, "Your skills as a tactician are impressive; I could've used someone of your caliber in Camelot," and Irisviel consequently loses every last shred of her concentration.

65. Horror

Saber has experienced many terrible things in her day, but none of them compares to the piercing horror that fills her lungs with acrid poison when she arrives at the shed and Maiya is mortally wounded and Irisviel is already gone.

66. Traps

As a knight, Saber disapproves of the cowardice of traps and bluntly informs Kiritsugu of this opinion; unsurprisingly, he ignores her and continues setting the tripwires, forcing Saber to retreat to the castle's dining hall and slump besides Irisviel; the Einzbern rests a gentle hand on the Servant's shoulder and chirps, "Don't worry, Saber; I know you want to take the fight straight to the enemy, but like this, you can stay here with me," and almost against her will, the knight is pacified.

67. Playing the Melody

"You play beautifully," Saber says, coming to stand beside the grand piano, smartly dressed in her new suit; Irisviel flushes, her fingers stilling momentarily on the keys, and with a nervous little laugh, she dismisses, "Well, I've had plenty of time to practice."

68. Hero

Irisviel thought that everything was over when the false Rider arrived in a blaze of fire and violence to carry her away, but then she heard Saber's furious shouts and was momentarily blinded by the carefully aimed, golden slice of Excalibur; the next thing she knows, she is thudding into her knight's arms, and as Saber races quickly back to her motorcycle, Irisviel smiles weakly up at her and teases, "My hero."

69. Annoyance

Frustrated, Saber fumbles with her tie, trying to fasten it for the seventh time, and she is ready to cut the damn thing in half with her sword when Irisviel glides over and gently bats Saber's hands away and, in the space of three seconds, twists it into a proper Windsor knot ("Thank you," Saber mutters, embarrassed, and Irisviel just smiles and straightens her collar).

70. 67%

"I don't like the odds," Irisviel murmurs, her eyes narrowed as she surveys the battlefield, and Saber hefts Excalibur and grimly replies, "It's not as if we have any choice."

71. Obsession

Irisviel doesn't know what it is about Berserker that compels him time and time again to attack Saber with an exclusivity that is plainly terrifying, but she wishes that she had more than her meager magics—she wishes that she had power enough to fight a Servant because then, perhaps, for once, the princess could protect the knight.

72. Food

Japanese cuisine is entirely novel to Irisviel, and to Saber as well, but it is the Einzbern who insists that they purchase and sample every last thing they come across; after their third bowl of ramen ("This time with pork, Saber!"), the Servant cannot understand how Irisviel can still move, let alone run towards the latest amusement Fuyuki has to offer, but she follows her anyway; even at this early point, she already knows she would follow her anywhere.

73. I Can't

Irisviel shakes her head, choking on her tears, and Saber raises a gloved finger to catch the salty droplets and says in a low, rough whisper, "It's okay, my princess; you don't have to."

74. Are You Challenging Me?

"You realize that I'm a Servant," Saber drawls with an arching eyebrow, and when Irisviel just grins wider, more pleadingly, the knight concedes with a shrug and steps level with the Einzbern, saying as she does so, "Very well, then—don't say I didn't warn you—and…ready, set, go!"

75. Mirror

"Wow, don't you look dashing—I did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself," Irisviel giggles as she looks at Saber, suited up and considering her reflection in the full-length mirror; the Servant just tilts her head to the side and frowns faintly, unaccustomed to receiving any commentary, good or bad, on her appearance, but before she can speak, Irisviel is smiling in a sort of good-natured exasperation and insisting, "God, Saber, you do know you're beautiful, right?"

76. Broken Pieces

"I'm so sorry, Saber," Irisviel sobs, collapsed on the kitchen floor and surrounded by shattered porcelain, but Saber does not acknowledge her apology, instead just crouching down and lifting the frail and faltering woman into her arms; when she straightens, Irisviel cradled against her chest, she dusts a kiss on her forehead and murmurs, "Plates can be replaced, princess; you can't be."

77. Test

Saber has spent a lifetime resisting every conceivable temptation, all for the sake of keeping her selfless focus on her country, but in Fuyuki, she isn't really king, and she could never hope to resist Irisviel, anyway.

78. Drink

Following the awkward conclusion of the summoning ritual, Kiritsugu departs almost immediately, leaving Irisviel with the new Servant; not being one to tolerate an uncomfortable silence, the Einzbern slips seamlessly into the role of hostess and cheerfully offers Saber a cup of tea, which elicits…not a smile, exactly, but less of a frown, and stumbling gratitude: "Oh, yes, I…I quite like tea."

79. Starvation

Irisviel's fingers ghost down the curve of her cheek, along the line of her jaw, and the touch is gentle but shocking in its newness; Saber fails to suppress a shudder, and neither can she quell the sudden churning hunger in her soul, causing her to wonder distantly how she never noticed that she was starving.

80. Words

"They are little words, I know, but…I dearly long to hear them," Irisviel ventures, so quietly that Saber can barely hear her, even though she is less than inches away; the Servant willingly complies, as she dearly longs to say them, and she leans in until her lips brush the shell of Irisviel's ear so that there can be no doubt when she softly breathes this ultimate confession.

81. Pen and Paper

Irisviel keeps a list of places she wants to go, and needless to say, it is a very long list; Saber sees it once and notes that Japan, at the very top, has been checked off, but as she glances down, she also sees, at the very bottom and written in a different color—as if this entry has been added recently, long after the rest of the list was compiled—the words Britain (Camelot?).

82. Can You Hear Me?

Abducted by Kotomine Kirei and taken to Caster's foul lair—which still reeks of blood and death and horror despite the fires—Irisviel lies weakly in the crimson-glowing magic circle and wills Saber to rescue her, crying out with every fiber of her being for her knight's swift arrival; but she does not have Command Seals, and she is not Saber's Master, and her knight never comes.

83. Heal

After the first battle, once they arrive in the safety of the Einzberns' Fuyuki castle, Irisviel leads Saber to one of the bathrooms and commands her, businesslike, to shed her armor; the blond obeys unquestioningly and watches Irisviel retrieve a first aid kit, and as the homunculus winds a bandage around the Servant's still-bleeding arm, she mutters fiercely, "Trying to keep me from healing you—like that'll ever happen," and Saber hides a smile.

84. Out Cold

Finding air travel rather duller than she'd hoped, Saber flips through a magazine, but she is distracted when Irisviel leans against her shoulder; at first, the Servant thinks that her Master's wife needs something, but after a moment, she realizes that she is just asleep; carefully, Saber withdraws the provided blanket from the seat's pouch and spreads it over the other woman, and then, feeling oddly content with the weight of Irisviel's head on her arm, she returns to her reading.

85. Spiral

In a fit of whimsy, Irisviel decides to teach Saber how to dance (at the fault, perhaps, of that suit), and after a few false starts, the Servant takes to it with the grace of someone for whom moving is easier than breathing; Irisviel cannot keep from blushing as her knight spins her around and then draws her close, their cheeks brushing, and with a shaking exhale, she remarks, "You're just perfect at everything, aren't you, Saber?"

86. Seeing Red

Rider has taken Irisviel, and there will be no strategies this time, no qualms about being seen, no proper duels and honorable exchanges; this time, there will just be Excalibur unleashed; this time, she will destroy everything in her way until Irisviel is safe in her arms once more.

87. Taste

Saber tastes like iron: like her armor, like her sword, like blood—or at least, she does on the surface; Irisviel steadily breaches the Servant's walls, unfurling layer after layer, and underneath…underneath, Saber tastes like something pure and golden and warm; underneath, Saber tastes like summer.

88. Pain

Lancer's cursed wound is a constant, crippling burn, and Berserker's single-minded killing intent scares Saber with its sheer hatred; the prospect of fighting both of them is a sobering one, as she knows she cannot possibly win, but she also knows she cannot run—she has to buy Irisviel time to escape, for as much as the thought of losing her chance at the Grail hurts her, the thought of losing Irisviel hurts her even more.

89. Through the Fire

Excalibur is a blinding golden blaze, so bright that Saber all but disappears in its glow, but Irisviel resists the reflexive urge to close her eyes or turn away—she doesn't want to miss a moment of this miracle; she wants to see her knight's greatest glory—so she peers determinedly through the undying fire, and she is simply overcome by the sheer, poignant beauty of it, of her.

90. Triangle

"I think it's all about triangles," Irisviel ventures as she and Saber stand in the dimly lit pool hall, the latest stop on their Fuyuki tour, as pool was a game that Kiritsugu had mentioned was fun; the Servant looks politely at the yet-untouched billiard balls and idly passes her cue to the other hand as the Einzbern continues with zero confidence, "Or maybe some other kind of angle…?"

91. Drowning

"Oh, god, I can't—I can't breathe," Irisviel gasps, one hand rising towards her chest, the other fisting in the sheets; Saber smirks in a truly maddening way but refuses to relent, instead choosing to huskily tease, "You say that like it's a bad thing."

92. All That I Have

Saber doesn't have much in the way of earthly possessions—and what she does have (her motorcycle, her suit) were gifts in the first place—but she has shoulders that support and arms that protect and hands that steady, and these she gives, time and again, to Irisviel.

93. Give Up

"You're never gonna guess," Irisviel declares impishly, waggling her eyebrows, and Saber huffs and concentrates fiercely on the riddle, grumbling, "I'm King Arthur; I don't give up."

94. Last Hope

Irisviel endures the madness of the Grail's magic, clinging to a last vestige of sanity; it would be a relief to let go, to succumb to the agony and fade away into the darkness, but she cannot surrender, not if she wants to see Saber again…and she knows she will see Saber again, one last time, before all the lights go out.

95. Advertisement

Unable to do much in her weakened state, Irisviel spends her time curled up in the shed's magic circle, reading the newspaper, and as she's browsing the classifieds, something catches her eye; suddenly, she's flooded with energy and desperate to find the phone, and once she does, she calls Maiya and explains, both excited and nervous, "I need to ask a strange favor of you…yeah, I need you to buy a motorcycle…"

96. In the Storm

The rain cascades against the windows in blinding sheets, and somewhere close, thunder cracks out sharply as lightning fills the night with sudden blazing white; Irisviel cringes at the ear-splitting boom and burrows further into Saber's jacket, mumbling embarrassed apologies as she does so, but the Servant just sifts her fingers through the other woman's snowy hair and soothes with a hint of humor, "Trust me, I don't mind the circumstances, princess."

97. Safety First

When Irisviel tells Saber to fasten her seatbelt, the blond remarks dryly that, as a Servant, she would hardly die from something so minor as an automobile accident, but Irisviel chuckles in a truly evil way and quips, "Not with the way I drive, darling."

98. Puzzle

"Do people really consider this entertainment?" Saber wonders doubtfully as she eyes the shallow pile of cardboard fragments on the table between them, but Irisviel shushes her and continues digging through the pieces, remarking glibly as she does so, "Would you stop being such a killjoy and just help me find the corners already?"

99. Solitude

Saber dreams of a forsaken hill, steeped in blood and strewn with bodies and burning beneath the unforgiving gaze of a dying sun, and it haunts her doggedly, whispering that soon she will be back there, soon she will be alone; around Irisviel, though, the phantom fades, until she almost manages to convince herself that she'll never be forced to endure that hell again.

100. Relaxation

"We should do this again sometime," Irisviel murmurs drowsily, referring to their exhausting but successful whirlwind tour of Fuyuki, and she yawns and cuddles more into Saber's arm as the sun begins to dip below the trees, casting the park into warm shadow; the Servant glances down at her and then sweeps her gaze across the tranquil scene, and something aches in her chest as she softly replies, "Yes, I…I would like that."