49. A Slice of Simple Life

_Godrick_

The next couple days passed with nothing of note happening beside the death of Rider, and Artoria having her ass handed to her by a human who wasn't even a mage.

Rin and Shirou had suspected a teacher from their school, the same one Godrick was observing the day he had explored the school, and had decided that they should take action. Godrick had decided that his presence wasn't needed, as he believed that his mother would be more than enough, and wanted to search the city for his target

The trio had returned from their adventure quite battered. And when Godrick had learned of what had happened, he tried, but failed to keep himself from chuckling until a glare from his mother stopped him.

Realizing that he had "overstayed" his welcome, the Juggernaut quickly left to go search the city once more, hoping something might turn up. As he walked from the residents, he saw Archer, who was summoned by Rin to help heal Shirou who had damaged his magical circuits.

Quickly leaving the residence, Godrick soon found himself standing atop the tallest building looking out across Fuyuki City, drinking in the bright light, and the busy streets.

He had never seen anything quite like it, and was astonished that anyone could live so packed together. Where did the energy that sustained the city come from? He wondered to himself about the power that was used to keep an entire city running, and wondered if he could utilize it for himself.

Leaping from the top of the building, he landed on the outskirts of the city amongst thousands of wires and electrical coils. Large towers rose from multiple points across the power plant, creating a static that filled the air.

Ripping apart the chain link fence that surrounded the power station, the Juggernaut walked towards the center of the area, which held the power house. Reaching the building, he kicked the doors off the hinges, revealing the generator. He slowly walked over to it, and placed his left hand on the hot metal, feeling the power it created.

He wouldn't steal all the energy, as he didn't want to screw the whole city over, but he was curious about what this would give him.

He would just absorb enough to see how much it affected him.

Slowly drawing out the energy towards him, he slowly started to absorb it, causing the lights to flicker for an instant.

'It's barely anything…' He thought to himself, drawing out a little more. The lights flickered again, but he didn't notice as he tried to feel exactly how much energy he was absorbing. It wasn't much.

He felt like he would have to wipe out the current supply of energy of the city to gain the amount of energy he had gotten from Frankenstein's B rank Blasted Tree.

Understanding that this was kind of a waste of time, he placed both hands on the generator, and wiped out its current power supply for an instant, causing a massive black out across the city of Fuyuki for a moment.

Stepping away from the generator, Godrick looked down at his armored right hand, seeing that it had become white hot up to the forearm.

'So not that much then.' He thought to himself.

Turning around he saw a man standing at the entrance of the power house, holding a shaking gun towards him.

"S-, s-, stop r- right there!" The man said, fearful of the massive medieval knight walking towards him.

"PLEASE STOP!" The security guard, clearly fearful, pleaded. The man knew that this situation wasn't normal. He was smart enough to determine that seeing a massive medieval knight walking around his power station wasn't something he wanted to get involved in, and knew that things were happening around the city that were out of his understanding.

He kept his gun trained on the Juggernaut, but he was shaking so badly that he didn't know if he could hit the massive figure. Finally, Godrick stood in front of the man, who he thought was about to collapse to his knees at any moment.

Reaching out, Godrick put one of his massive fingers on the barrel of the gun, and slowly lowered it to the ground. The man had closed his eyes out of fear and had turned his head away from the Juggernaut, but when he felt his gun being lowered, he opened his eyes.

Looking at the massive knight, he took a step back, but still held his gun towards the ground.

"W- who are you?" The man asked, still fearful.

Godrick made no reply as he simply walked past the man, leaving him stunned and a little dazed as he looked back into the power house, seeing the two massive handprints left by the mysterious Knight on the generator.

"How am I going to explain this?" The man thought to himself, looking back at the knight that had seemed to disappear into thin air.

Returning to Shirous home, Godrick walked back into the main room, where he heard slight moans coming from one of the other rooms.

Walking down the hall, he heard them coming from his mother's room, and when he slid the door open, he saw something that made him freeze.

Artoria was sitting with her back bared towards Shirou, who had his hands placed on either side of her spine, giving her what looked like a massage. Each time Shirou came to a knot in her scarred back, she would moan in displeasure until he had finished working it out.

The two stopped to look at Godrick, who had opened the door and was staring at them in shock.

"Mama, No!" He signed in a panic, misunderstanding the situation as he slammed the sliding door shut, shattering it as he used too much force.

Awkwardly looking at them through the shattered remnants of the door, anger overtook Godricks face as he looked at Shirou, who must have been trying to swindle his mother.

Walking forward, he broke through the rest of the door, trying to grab Shirou by the throat, only to be stopped by Artoria.

"Godrick, stop!" She shouted, quickly standing up, letting her clothes she had been using to cover her chest fall to the ground in her haste.

Godrick and Shirou both stopped and looked at her. This was nothing Godrick hadn't seen before, as he had helped Morgan stitch his mother up on more than one occasion. But Shirou…

He couldn't move, eyes locked on her chest before Godricks meaty hand slapped the back of his head. Shirou held the back of his head with both hands as he saw Artoria quickly realize what was wrong, snatching at her clothes and putting them back on before explaining.

"I was having problems regenerating Mana, so I had Shirou help me. The quickest way was for skin to skin contact to transfer the energy." She said, a bit flustered as she looked at Shirou, before making her exit.

Godrick looked back down at Shirou, who was still rubbing his head. The boy looked up at the Juggernaut reproachfully before adding his own thoughts.

"Nothing happened ok?" He said.

Godrick knew his mother had never loved Guinevere, and had learned that Lancelot had betrayed Artoria by having an affair with his King's wife. He hadn't pushed his mother on the subject, but he looked at this… Child… In front of him, and wondered if she had feelings for him.

In reality Shirou was just as old as the Juggernaut, but Godricks size and more "mature" nature made things feel different.

Reaching out with his right hand, Godrick flicked Shirou's left arm with his middle finger, sending him through the wall behind him, making him crash into the kitchen.

"YOU BASTARD! THAT WAS COMPLETELY UNCALLED FOR!" Shirou shouted from the other room.

The morning after, Shirou was woken up by someone ringing his doorbell nonstop, and when he answered the door Ride was surprised to see Rin standing at his threshold.

She made no greeting as she walked through the door, only motioning for Shirou to follow her as she walked through the halls and into the dining room where she sat.

"We are going out today. The two of us." She said, leaving no room for argument.

"What do you mean…" Shirou asked, confused. "You mean like a date?" He added after a moment.

"Yes. Like a date." Rin confirmed. Shirous jaw almost hit the floor as he looked at her, wondering if he had actually heard her right.

"Like, a date date?" He ask, putting emphasis on the second "Date". Rin just rolled her eyes as she deadpanned at him.

"Yes Shirou. That's what a date means, dummy." She said, a hint of irritation creeping into her voice.

"Oh, a- alright, when do we leave?" Shirou asked.

"Right now if we can. It's a nice day, though it might rain later. But I think it would be fun to skip school and explore the city a little." She responded.

Shirou practically leaped from his knees to go put on his shoes, not wanting to make her wait.

"What about those two?" He asked, gesturing towards Artoria and Godrick.

"They can come if they want." Rin said, uncaringly.

After Artoria had convinced him, Godrick decided it would be nice to walk around the city and talk with his mother. They had been able to have some private moments to themselves, but it would be nice to relax and just… Live a little.

Walking from the estate, Rin asked Archer to stay behind as she didn't want his foul mood to spoil things with Shirou. Walking down the street, they soon came to a bus station, where they waited until they were picked up, and taken deeper into the city.

"Come on!" Rin shouted, delight clearly in her voice as she dragged Shirou with her into store after store. They visited food parlors, furniture and home decor stores, book stands, plant shops, a place that sold fine tableware and home accessories, a clothing outlet, and many more places.

They visited a restaurant where Godrick found they sold the same chocolate drink he had with Jeanne. He practically forced it down his mothers throat, and to his surprise, she didn't like it all that much. "It's too sweet!" She had said.

'Crazy woman' Godrick thought to himself as he practically inhaled the chocolate shake. After he was done, he felt that familiar urge to smash it on the ground and demand another, but he didn't give it.

They visited a shop where they all tried on glasses, and Godrick caught Shirou staring at Artoria as she put on some slim ones.

"How do I look?" She asked Shirou, a faint blush coming to her face.

"Incredible…" Shirou said softly, getting a small punch in the arm before coming back to his senses. "I- I- I mean, you look good Saber, really good!" He tried to cover for himself.

Artoria held out some sunglasses to Godrick who promptly refused as he thought they wouldn't fit his large head. But when she insisted, he relented and put them on. They had to stretch to fit over his face, and he heard a muffled "fathead" from Shirou.

Turning to him, he held his right hand out again, middle finger cocked back to flick him a second time.

"It was a joke, a joke, I swear!" Shirou said, backing up a bit with his arms raised.

Turning his flick into a middle finger, Godrick went back to looking at his sunglasses in the mirror.

"They look good on you!" Artoria said enthusiastically. He nodded in agreement, and gave them to Rin so she could get them for him, as he had no money.

"Freeloader." She huffed with a hint of amusement as she purchased the glasses and gave them back to the Juggernaut.

Leaving the store, they made their way past a flower stand which caught Godricks eye, making him stop in his tracks. Shirou, who was walking behind him, walked right into his back, making him stumble back.

"Hey, what's the big idea?" He said, rubbing his face. He looked up at Godrick who stared at the flower stand unmoving, causing the crowded street to part around him as the masses went on throughout their day.

Suddenly walking over to the flower stand, the person running it greeted him, but he ignored the owner, as his gaze was dead set on a single flower. He reached down, and picked it up with two delicate fingers, trying his best to not crush it.

"Ah!" The shop owner exclaimed in mock excitement, trying to up play the flower.

"The Celestial Flame Iris. We actually have a wide variety of those for sale at the moment if you want to look around." The woman said, gesturing to the other flowers of her little stand.

Godrick saw multiple types of the Flame Iris. Blues, purples, and a couple with a few hints of pinks and reds. But his eyes were set on the one he held in his hands. It was white in color, and had an orange bud holding the petals in place.

Jeanne's favorite.

Suddenly, he felt a gentle smaller hand hold his right, but when he looked down, nothing was there. He felt the hand gently caress his as he held the flower. It gave a gentle squeeze, then disappeared.

He looked over at Rin imploringly, almost begging for her to get him this flower. She sighed and after asking how much it was, paid for it.

Godrick nodded his appreciation, and held the flower as if it were the most precious thing in the world to him. Having nowhere to place it for the moment, he held it in his hand as they continued to walk, slowly making their way to their next destination.

(A/N: Hello everyone. For those of you that care, my wifes surgery went as well as it could. She currently has an Ileostomy bag for the moment, but luckily, it's not permanent. She was operated on by some of the best doctors in the U.S. and I'm extremely grateful for how things turned out.

Unfortunately however, just before she had the surgery, she had a biopsy done on a small mass in her chest, and we got the results of it Monday. It's what we feared, a Desmoid tumor. Desmond tumors are noncancerous tumors that are extremely aggressive. They grow in scar tissue, which makes it so dangerous. The procedure that my wife had done will leave her with a lot of scar tissue, which is why we are so nervous.

Over the coming weeks, I'm not sure how much I'll be able to post. I had a lot of time to write in the hospital, but I felt as if I had fallen into a deep depression ever since my wife went in for surgery, and only increased when we got the news about her tumor.

In all reality, I've actually found writing to be extremely therapeutic, as it takes my mind off of the grim situation my family finds itself in.

I'm going to do my best to keep writing. I feel as though I've lost all interest in things I used to love and enjoy doing, including writing. I honestly had no desire to write this week, and writing this chapter was extremely difficult for me, but as I neared the end, I finally felt a little bit of the spark reignite when writing about the Celestial flame iris. It just kind of reminded me of the work I've put into this novel, and the things that I have planned for it.

I'm so grateful for you all. This novel passed 1m views, which is pretty big (To me) as I never thought that I'd ever reach this point.

You all keep me going in this difficult time, and I can't tell you all how much I love and appreciate EACH AND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU.

Thank you for being who you are.