CW: References to sexual assault in the 3rd section. Nothing graphic, just mentions, but feel free to skip it (or the whole fic) if you want.

Sakura took a deep breath and slowly willed herself to look in the mirror. She didn't always like what she saw there, but today, she seemed...passable. Her purple hair hung down, a red bow on the left side. Instead of a school uniform, she wore a plain, simple, white dress with a thin black ribbon tied around the waist. It wasn't much, but then again, nor was she. The most "exciting" thing she felt brave enough to wear was an old pair of high heels. She knew he wouldn't approve...but...she liked them...

She arrived to one of the quieter parts of town, a local teashop. Rider was supposed to meet her there, but she was sure the other woman would be late. Nobody ever arrived on time for anything Sakura wanted to do. But she was used to it by now. She certainly wasn't worth rushing for, so she couldn't hold it against Rider. Really, it was incredible enough to think that the other woman didn't mind eating out with her. But, to her surprise, the moment Sakura stepped into the shop, she saw that Rider was already there. Even though Rider wore a blindfold, she could still sense where Sakura was and waved to her.

She led Sakura to an empty table right by a window where they could admire the lovely day. She pulled out a chair and helped Sakura in.

"Oh! R-Rider, you di-didn't have to..." Sakura immediately started blushing as she felt Rider's strong, but gentle, hands guide her.

"I'm sorry, it is an old habit, I suppose," Rider withdrew her hands.

"N-no wait! I didn't mean it like that!" Without thinking, Sakura reached out and grabbed Rider's hands. Rider made a noise of surprise and Sakura felt herself turning redder. Oh, gosh, this was so embarrassing! Couldn't she do anything without being so...humiliating?

"S-sorry..." She dropped Rider's hands again.

"Don't apologize, Sakura," Rider's low, calming voice instantly wiped away some of Sakura's fears. "I did not mean to imply that you were unable to seat yourself. As I said, although I know you and I are not master and servant anymore, I still feel a strong desire to...take care of you."

"Take care of me?" Sakura echoed, breathing the words as if she barely dared speak them. When she'd reacted with such a shock to Rider's touch, it wasn't because she was insisting she didn't need help sitting down. It was just because...Sakura looked up at Rider, eyes still wide with wonder. You don't know how nice that is...But I do...

They enjoyed a pleasant teatime together, just chatting about everything and nothing. Rider told Sakura some of her stories from before she became a Heroic Spirit, and Sakura tried to come up with interesting things to tell Rider about school. She felt woefully inadequate beside a literal, actual Heroic Spirit when all she was was just a girl in high school, but Rider encouraged her over and over again. She said that she found the stories very interesting. After all, as a Heroic Spirit, that meant Rider never got to experience things like high school, so what Sakura considered painfully boring about herself, Rider listened to with great intrigue and surprise.

There even came a time when Sakura told a funny story, hoping that at least Rider wasn't secretly bored to death. When Rider actually threw her head back laughing, Sakura was so stunned that she forgot how to speak for a moment. And even when her words returned to her, she'd entirely lost her previous train of thought. All she could think was, It's strange that you think I'm funny 'cause no one never did before. Especially not...Him. She'd spent the last eight months since the Grail War ended thinking that all love ever did was die, but on that Wednesday, in the café with Rider, she watched it begin again.

ooo

The next day, Sakura woke up feeling different, new. And all she'd seen since her outing with Rider in her mind was soft skin, a soft smile, cutting through her dark night. Now all she wanted was to do it all over again. I don't think a casual trip to the teashop should've been so...invigorating! But, oh, was it ever! I...I wonder if...if Rider would be...willing.. to do it again...some time...Sooner, rather than later...Maybe...

It was something Sakura was too shy to ask the day of, but it was as if, overnight, everything had changed. She wanted to know Rider better now. Sure, Rider regaled her with stories from ancient Greece, but Sakura wanted more! She didn't want to sound greedy, but...No, that trip to the teashop was anything but casual. It was one of the nicest things anyone could ever do for me...

All Rider said when they met at the teashop was "Hello, Sakura," but that was more than enough. In those two words, Sakura knew she was finally home. All they needed was a simple day together and everything had change. The walls she built up around herself, which used to be so impossibly high, suddenly felt like nothing around Rider, not because Rider crashed right through them with no heed to what Sakura wanted, but because Rider obviously cared about what Sakura wanted.

While Shinji was the one to crash right through, taking what he wanted and doing what he pleased, Rider knocked, and for that, those walls became nothing because, for the first time in her life, Sakura was willing to open up the door for her. Also for the first time in her life, Sakura felt like a giddy little schoolgirl with a crush.

For once, having such happy, bubbly feelings filled her with excitement and joy rather than shame or fear. It was like her body was making up for all the years he stole from her, and she finally felt right. All Rider did was pull a chair and Sakura was willing to be hers because she was there. It was funny how the smallest of gestures could mean the biggest of things. You don't know how nice that is...But I do...

She wanted so badly for Rider to be here now and tell her how and why it felt as though Sakura had been missing her for their entire lives.

I know we haven't known each other long, but it feels like we've understood each other forever.

And she wanted Rider's reassurance once again. She wanted to know it wasn't all just in her mind. She wanted to know Rider better now.

ooo

At last, Sakura got her wish, and it was sweeter than anything the Grail could've cooked up.

"Sakura, of course I do not mean to detract from anything you have told me, and I certainly am not comparing our traumas, but...I know what it feels like to be...hurt by a man, in such a vile, repulsive way," Rider admitted. This time, they weren't at the teashop. Instead, they were just going for a walk around the block.

Sakura's eyes widened in response to what Rider said. She felt her stomach tightening and her heart starting to pound. There was disbelief and horror at the thought of someone...doing that to her.

"Don't worry, I won't go into graphic detail," Rider promised, her low voice once again soothing the tension rising in Sakura's shoulders. Rider's acute sense of hearing let her detect the way Sakura's heartbeat suddenly sped up, and she knew what the girl was afraid of. Being as nondescript as she could, Rider explained what happened in Athena's temple, with Poseidon.

Sometimes the stories spun it as a beautiful, tragic love affair, but Rider considered them all idiots. If it were actually a love affair, she would've taken Poseidon to his own temple, or to the seas. And anyone who knew anything about the real Poseidon knew he could be violent and temperamental, just like the dangerous and stormy seas and earthquakes he controlled. Of course a man who could change like the tide and tower over her like a wave had not taken her in Athena's temple for any other reason than to humiliate her and Athena both.

The next part of the legend, some said, was a blessing. Athena gave Medusa a deadly gaze to protect her from future harm, should any man or god ever attempt to use her that way ever again. Others said it was a curse, Athena more outraged by the defilement of her temple than the defilement of Medusa. The death-gaze meant she could never look upon, or be looked upon by, anyone ever again. Further isolation from the world. She went from the woman who was too wrapped up in someone else's battles to being the woman thrown to the very farthest reaches of society.

"I...honestly am not sure which it was. Perhaps it was a bit of both...The gods are cruel, after all, and their blessings often come with curses." Much like the Holy Grail, she thought. But that wasn't the end of the story. Although Perseus had only beheaded her, the feeling of being held down by a man as he ripped open her body and ignored her attempts to fight back certainly hadn't brought back pleasant memories.

And then to think, even after her death, Medusa would come back as a servant in the Grail War, forced to spend the rest of eternity locked in a never-ending cycle of violence. But then along came Sakura Matou, so shy and small and sweet. Watching her being so brutally controlled by her brother reminded Medusa of her own darkened history, always cowering under the whims and wills of men who were so much stronger than her. And both of them were thrown into the Grail War. Sakura hadn't wanted to be a master, and Rider hadn't wanted to be a servant.

ooo

By the end of her story, although Rider's eyes were dry, Sakura was weeping quietly. "Rider...I'm so sorry..."

"Don't be," Rider shook her head. "For now that it is over, and now that we are together, I feel as if I am finally ready to move forward." Since Sakura managed to keep Rider by her side, even after the Grail War ended, it seemed as though maybe Rider would never have to compete in one of these awful death-games ever again. She would never fight on behalf of anyone ever again, except those whom she freely chose.

Of course, that didn't mean the nightmare was automatically over. There was a lot for both of them to work through. Rider had to get used to living in peace rather than being at war, and she needed to get used to seeing Sakura as an equal now that they were no longer master-servant. But it was difficult for the woman who was always expected to bow to someone else. She was just as unused to being treated like an equal, by anyone, as Sakura was used to being treated with kindness, love, and respect.

Sakura, of course, had a lot of trauma of her own to work through, and even though eight months had passed since the end of the last Grail War, they all knew it would take far longer than that for all of these bad memories to fade away for good, if they ever truly left her at all. One of the things Sakura struggled with now was physical affection of any kind. Sure, she'd given and received a few hugs with Shirou and Rin during and after the Grail War, but anything else and anything deeper was just...too much.

That was why she'd been surprised and alarmed with herself at the teashop, when, without thinking, she grabbed Rider's hands. She dropped them, not because she hadn't meant to alarm Rider, but because the skin-to-skin contact sent chills down her spine. It was nothing Rider did, it was just that Sakura had never really been given the chance to associate touch with anything other than pain. But it seemed as though her body had other ideas, subconsciously aching for Rider's reassuring hand and reaching out to her, stomach full of butterflies, even when Sakura's head was still too scared to take that next step forward.

Now, hearing the true extent of Rider's story beyond her simple name of Medusa, Sakura felt closer than ever to the other woman and the desire to hold her, and be held by her, was almost overwhelming. But, at the same time, knowing what Rider had gone through made Sakura want to hold back. She didn't want to accidentally hurt or scare Rider. She wanted to know Rider better, wanted to get closer, but how?

Sakura even almost brought him up, but then Rider started to talk about the fun things that her newfound family (with Shirou, Rin, Taiga, and Sakura herself, of course) did and how much she liked it and Sakura found herself wanting to talk about that instead, too. For the first time, just as Rider said, it felt like the past was truly starting to stay in the past.

At one point, Sakura even threw her head back laughing like a little kid as Rider recounted one of the crazy stunts she saw Shirou pull one day while they were discussing the Grail War. Classic Shirou. And Rider paused, pleasantly surprised by Sakura's laugh. She hadn't intended to amuse the girl in that way, and nobody ever considered her funny before, but she was certainly glad it happened. Sakura had a lovely laugh, and all of them, especially and including Sakura herself, deserved to hear it more often.

I've been spending all these eons thinking all love ever does is break and burn and end...But on a Wednesday, with you today, I watched it begin again...And even though Sakura had been the one to want to initiate a hug, only to back out at the last second for fear of upsetting Rider, Rider suddenly reached out to her. She placed a hand on Sakura's arm.

"Hmm?" Sakura looked up at her in surprise.

"Sakura..." Rider began, slow and hesitant. It was strange to hear an ordinarily calm, composed woman suddenly sounding so uncertain, and Sakura felt her heartrate starting to speed up again worriedly.

"I-is something wrong?" she asked.

"No, no, quite the opposite, in fact. I...I...was just wondering...And forgive me, if this is a strange request, and of course, you have the right to refuse, but...would you...? May I...give you a hug?"

For moment, they were both quiet, Sakura's eyes going wide as she tried to process...Had she heard that correctly? Did Rider, someone like Rider, actually want...to touch her? Rider didn't think she was too pathetic or gross?

"Forgive me, I shouldn't have asked, I know you're still sensitive to—" Rider had just taken her hand off Sakura's arm when Sakura cried out.

"NO!" Rider stepped back in alarm and Sakura was quick to apologize. "S-sorry, I meant, please, don't go. Stay." She opened her arms awkwardly, giving Rider a sheepish smile.

For a moment more, Rider continued to look Sakura up and down in surprise, but after that moment passed, she gladly stepped into Sakura's warm embrace. Even though no words were spoken after that, they both reveled in the feeling of being able to hold each other close. Neither of them had ever felt so safe or loved before.

There was still a lot of trauma left to recover from, for both of them, but this was a huge step forward in the process. For the first time, Sakura was ready to dust off her highest hopes and believe in love again. All she knew was, despite the pain, that everything had changed. And Rider had a newfound grace. In all their days they'd know each other's face beyond just simple names and love would begin again.

"I love you, Rider."

"I love you too, Sakura."

AN: This one goes out to Net Neutrality. Hope it meets expectations! LOL!

And trivia fact for anyone who cares, I always liked to imagine "Everything Has Changed" as being sung by the same person, past self (Taylor's part) and future/present self (Ed's part). This is relevant because, for me, this was my Closeted Past Self admiring my Out and Proud Future Self before she realizes they are the same person. Here's a more detailed description, if anyone wants:

Past Me sees Future Me performing, but doesn't get a close look at her face. Past becomes enamored with Future and tries to find every excuse to see her again. As the "music video" progresses and Past continues to follow Future, Past collects items along the way in attempt and preparation to make herself look really presentable for if/when she meets Future. She goes through ups and downs, excitements and doubts, about her choice to pursue Future.

Past gets closer and closer until, at the very end, she enters a room she thinks Future is in. All that's inside is a mirror, and then she realizes that she has become Future over the course of the song and has started to look more and more like Future thanks to the items she found also over the course of the song. That's when Future becomes Present and it's the cliché "you're the hero you've been waiting for, and you grew into yourself without even realizing."

And on the flip side, Future sees Past at the first performance and watches and guides her throughout the song, even though Past doesn't know it. Future is the one that leaves the trinkets behind for Past to pick up and put on, since Past is becoming Future. That's why Future get's Ed's line of "my walls were painted blue, but I'll open up the door for you".

Then Future leads Past to the empty room because right as Past opens the door, Future disappears and all that remains is the mirror where Past and Future realize they have become one in the form of the Present. (It's basically how Past Closeted Me managed to slowly pick up good gay stuff over time and eventually evolve into Out and Proud Future Me, who is now my Present.)

Sorry for all that exposition, it just felt relevant to the Pride fic. Hope everyone enjoyed!