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This was… something new to her. The sheets and pillows caressed her skin, each thread softly kissing every one of her follicles like she was anywhere close to the royalty Saber treated her as. Dim light from a sleepy fireplace covered her vision in a warm orange glow. It was just enough to prevent the darkness from swallowing the face of the girl sleeping next to her.
More than the warmth of the fireplace, or the sheets, it was the heat of her Servant’s body which caused her skin to tingle like this. She was so close, their foreheads nearly touching. Hakuno could feel each and every one of Saber’s soft, restful breaths.
Were digital bodies always this detailed? Perhaps she was only noticing now, with all the time in the world at her disposal and no distance to keep them apart. The little hairs which together made up her eyebrows, the very slightest rosy tint to her cheeks, and each coppery toned eyelash all looked so apparent. She was more than a painted doll; she was something real.
God, had Saber always been this beautiful?
Hakuno sighed to herself at her own silliness. What was she doing, thinking things like this late in the simulated night? But, she couldn’t sleep. The newness of the room caused her mind to wander.
During the Moon Cell Holy Grail War, their room had been a collection of desks, cobbled together with some fabric to make a throne. It was certainly far from comfortable or homey. Each night spent there Hakuno did her best to get comfortable, but sleep was not something dwelled upon. There was no time to linger together like this, bodies intertwined and protected by layers and layers of covers, doors, rooms, guards, palaces. Each barrier kept them here, alone in an empty world. Life outside SE.RA.PH might as well not exist.
Though neither of them were alive, in the traditional sense. Saber was a ghost given form, and Hakuno a mistake. They weren’t supposed to be here, resting peacefully in a bed much too large for just the two of them.
This was a second chance Saber deserved. A place she could call her own, a land to rule free of those who would hurt her, and the one who cared about her more than anything by her side. In her life as an emperor, she must have shared the bed with dozens of others like this, but that was Saber’s story to tell.
For Hakuno, this was her beginning. A first life, with so many things yet unknown to her. She’d never shared a bed like this. In fact, she’d never slept in one. It felt strange to admit that to herself, but she knew what she was, and that was in the past.
The two of them, the mad lone, tragic emperor, and the Master with no past, no history, were curled up in this bed together. Gaudy red and gold surrounded their nest, with shining adorations of Roman beauty and both of their likenesses.
In this room, loneliness burned to death in the fire and suffocated under the pillows. This beautiful, warm, fake room of theirs filled Hakuno with a tender heart. Quivering doubt melted away when Saber made any movement in her sleep.
Hakuno reached out a thumb to stroke her lover’s lips, then closed her eyes to be overtaken by dreams of the digital sea.