Waver listened quietly, his hands wrapped around his mug but staying as still as the night air around them. He didn't disagree with anything Iskandar was saying in principle but it begged too many questions and counter points. All of the love in the world couldn't clamp down Waver's tendency to question and make sense of things.

"How do you establish a balance in a relationship that is, by definition, built off of hierarchy?" he said finally. "I swore myself to you, thus, you do hold some power over me. And I'm not asking to be snide, I'm assuming you've dealt with this problem before and have insight I don't."

He had friends, hadn't he? Hephaestion, Ptolemy, all of the generals. Waver knew his history.

"Because truth be told, I don't know where to start. I always thought the only way I'd see you again was through another Grail War, and those are roles we at least know how to navigate."