Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online. The title of this fic is not mine either; it's the name of a PelleK song. I don't have the rights to SAO or the song/lyrics. Everything belongs to its respective owners. Details at the end.

25th January 2025

"It's tomorrow, isn't it?" Asuna said. "The day that letch takes me for his own?"

Kirito sighed, the turbulence he felt in his heart threatening to burst it open. "Yes…"

She looked away, out of the window at the "world". Kirito prided himself on being the only person who could see through her stoic mask, but at this moment he wished he was reading her wrong. She seemed forlorn, someone who's abandoned every bit of hope they ever had. He felt an overwhelming sense of foreboding twist his heart. She looked at him, catching him watching her, and smiled softly, a small, sad curl of her sweet lips. She looked troubled, like she wanted to say something – but it was the way she looked at him, as if she wanted to drink in every detail of his face, chilled him to the bone.

"What is it?" he dared ask.

"I – " She turned to him, looking torn. "You know I love you, right?" she said, her voice strangely high-pitched.

"I – I love you too…" he said carefully.

"Kirito."

"Yes."

"I don't want him to take advantage of me."

"I don't either," he said. "We'll beat the game, and we'll free you from this world," he promised.

"We can't," she whispered. "Not in one day… Kirito…"

"Yes…?"

"I'm going to kill myself."

He froze, as if a bucket of ice had been poured over his head. "What?" he said, slightly dazed.

"I – I can't take this anymore."

He rose from his place. Walking towards her, he fell on his knees before her, and took her hand, feeling it warm between his own.

Warm.

Alive.

"Please don't do this to me."

"I'd rather take my own life, if it means keeping my virginity, than surrender it to him."

Clutching her hand to his chest, he wept, but there was one small comfort to be had. If she was going to die, he would die with her.

xXx

Bitter defeat – yeah, I wasn't so clever

Just give me one dance before I lose you forever

xXx

His breath caught in his throat as he saw her crawl up to him on her hands and knees, clad in nothing but a bra and panties, her firm breasts right in front of him, begging to be touched. She slithered up the bed like a cat, and cupped his face with a warm hand. She leaned forward and captured his lips, her tongue meeting his in a frantic dance of passion, pleasure, pain, desperation, and love. He closed his eyes.

"This is our last night together," he felt, more than heard, her whisper against his lips. He perceived her voice less with his ears than with his heart. "Let's make it the best of our lives."

Nibbling on her lower lip, he drew a few inches back. His breath shallow and ragged, he opened his eyes, and looked deep into hers. She stared back at him, the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, and he felt his heart break in two. Her expression was of the sincerest, purest love, and utter adoration. Seeing him look at her so tenderly, a smile formed on her pink lips. It contained the pain of a thousand years' suffering, and crushed his broken heart into a million unrecognizable pieces.

"This isn't our last night together," he said firmly.

She caressed his face. "How?" she whispered desperately.

He clenched his jaw, wishing he could give her a better answer, but he had no answers anymore. All he could do was make sure to be beside her, at the end of all things. "You won't die alone," he said. "I will die with you."

Stricken, she drew back. "No, you can't! Please, Kirito. You have to live on. Promise me, Kirito," she said urgently. When he didn't say anything, she kissed him, her tongue lingering. "Promise me, please. Promise me you'll forget me. Forget me and find – " Her breath hitched, and tears leaked out from her eyes. "Find another woman. Someone you can love. Someone who'll love you back. Find someone, and grow old together with her. For me. I can't live, so you have to live for both of us."

He raised a trembling finger to her face, and touched her tentatively, as if afraid he'd break her. His heart pounded in his chest, each beat a throb of fresh agony.

He grabbed her wrist – firmly, but not hard enough to hurt. "You don't mean that," he told her gently.

She shut her eyes, and tears still made their way out, as if she were cursing herself for her weakness. "No…" she said. "I don't mean it. I'm so sorry… Don't die, but don't forget me."

His grip tightened unconsciously around her wrist as his heart cried out to the unfairness of it all. What had she done to warrant such torment? What sin was she being punished for? All she'd wanted to do was play a game. He cursed silently. What was wrong with that? She'd been punished with endless torment for two years for wanting to play a game, and now her life was coming to an end. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair that she was now going to die when she'd had a long and full life ahead of her, a life that was only just beginning.

Despite her stoic exterior, she was the most caring person he'd ever met. He remembered when they first met Yui. Asuna'd only been sixteen at the time, but she'd instantly transformed into the perfect mother for the AI child – fussing, caring, and loving. To him too, she was always honest about her feelings. He knew she loved him more than anything, and he her. To him, she was perfect, the most precious treasure in the world. No matter what party they were in, she was able to bond all the members together and make any place home, and her smile lit up the darkest of dungeons.

His grip grew even tighter, and he cursed again. It wasn't fair.

He opened his eyes, and released a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. His grip on her wrist loosened, and her arm fell out of his hand. He couldn't live in a world without her. He wouldn't.

"I thought you loved me," he said.

"I do!" she protested in shock.

"More than anything."

"I do!"

"Then why would you curse me with something like that?"

"What?"

He cupped her face. "A world without you isn't worth living in. Don't forget: I've known the worst pain. In that small instant, when I was fighting Heathcliff, when I thought you died… I know how it feels to live without the one you love. It's insanity. It's madness. Trust me – if you love me at all, it's not something you want for me."

She looked at him for a while, his beautiful girl. Then she drew a shaky breath, and embraced him tightly, falling forward into his arms. "Thank you," she whispered. "Thank you for not giving up on me."

He held her closer. The words sounded so empty now. Thank you for not giving up on me. In the end, he'd managed to do nothing for her. He'd made so many promises to her – that they'd be together in the real world – that they'd get married – that they'd live together – that they'd grow old together – that they'd live with their daughter once again. In the end, he thought bitterly, all those promises turned out to be was empty words.

He pushed her gently off of him. Sniffing, she drew back. Raising a hand, he wiped her tears, and tipped her head up with a finger under her chin to look into her eyes. "Tomorrow we go," he said. "We'll leave this world together, but tonight is for us to be happy, one last time in this life. Let's not think about sad things tonight."

She nodded. "Okay…"

xXx

When we die, we will be lovers in heaven

xXx

The clouds swirled beneath them, the bottom dreams away. Dreams that were now dead. Dreams that had always been too idealistic for a world so harsh.

She gave him a dazzling smile to calm his trembling heart, and for a moment he felt weak at the knees. The love and gratitude he felt for her hit him like a tidal wave, and it was all he could do not to sway in his place.

There were wisps of mist thick in the air today. Overhead the young sun shone bright, stabbing the haze with its rays. In the forenoon light Kirito saw her beautiful hair shine. She smiled up at him again. Even though they were about to die, he felt more alive than he ever had before, and she looked far happier than he'd ever seen her in life. Or perhaps happier wasn't the correct way to describe it. Perhaps she looked far more herself – more at peace with herself – than he'd ever seen her in life.

He took another look around them, one last look at the living world. True, it wasn't the real world, but it was part of life, something you could only experience while you were living. They were surrounded by a dense forest. The trees were not terribly tall, but their trunks were thick, and their leaves plenty, and a deep green. The forest ended with the cliff, but Kirito expected it resumed down below.

The cliff was steep. He did not know how far the fall was, but he would estimate at least a couple hundred feet. That was good, he supposed. It'd be better to die on impact that to lie there awkwardly, feeling the life ebb agonizingly out of them.

"You ready?" she whispered, drawing his attention to herself again.

Of course he was. With her at his side, he was ready for anything. In a different situation, he thought with grim amusement, perhaps he could have used the figure of speech, "with her by his side, he would be ready to face death", but at this point he supposed it would be redundant. After all, he was literally about to die with her at his side.

He clenched his jaw, and nodded.

They stepped forward, their toes off the edge of the cliff. A pebble, moved by his foot, fell into the abyss, its journey so long they couldn't hear it meet the ground. Looking down, Kirito felt his heart soar, as if he were flying high in the air. The sudden feeling of weightlessness took him by surprise, and he had to plant his feet firmer into the ground.

"We wanted to grow old together," Asuna said softly, brushing her hair out of her face. "But I guess this works too."

"Huh, I suppose it does." After a while, he said, "Is there something you want to say before we…?"

She was silent for a moment. "Kirito?" she said at length.

"Yes?"

"Hold my hand?"

He smiled then, and took her hand in his, gripping it tighter than he knew, and she squeezed back even tighter.

"Well…" she began hesitantly. "Mom… Dad… I don't know if you'll ever hear me, but…" She looked at him, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. "This is so hard…"

He caressed the back of her hand with his thumb. "We can go back. Find a way out of this place."

"No, I mean trying to talk to my parents. I haven't spoken to them in two years… I don't even know what to say anymore."

"It's okay," he said soothingly, drawing circles on the back on her hand with his thumb. "I'm here, right beside you."

"Yes… Yes, you are."

And she wept.

xXx

On the starlit stage, we'll be cloud dancing in heaven

I'll kiss and taste all of you

xXx

"Mom, Dad… I don't know if you'll ever hear this, but… I just want you to know… This is my decision. It's not your fault. It's my choice, and I die with a smile on my face. Just know that – that I've never wanted anything more than to die with the man I love beside me. If to do that I have to die at seventeen – well, then I choose that over being with that letch."

As they stood there, his entire life flashed in front of him, but what was most vivid was his memories from Sword Art Online. He looked at her out of the corner of his eyes. He didn't know how, but somehow he knew what the last thought she had was. Maybe it was because his was the same.

The smiling face of Yui.

Their child.

I'm sorry we couldn't be a family, Yui. I just… I'm sorry.

He looked at Asuna. She smiled at him, and he felt himself smile back. It wasn't a forced or fake smile. No, it felt as though he'd taken all of his burdens off his shoulders, and she looked just as free. So free, so happy, so… alive.

The irony.

"Let's make the last thing we ever see each other's smiling faces?" she said.

He grinned. There was a silence between them for a while. They stood, unspeaking, merely basking in each other's presence.

"On the count of three, then?" he said finally.

"Don't leave my hand."

"I'll never leave you."

3…

2…

Never had three seconds gone slower in his life. His senses seemed heightened, and for a moment he heard every sound in the forest, and smelled its every aroma, but the sound that stood out was her beating heart, and the scent that stood out was hers.

1…

A strange calm washed over him. All his muscles seemed to relax, as if they'd turned into water. All the pain and suffering he'd ever felt in his life left him, and he felt his heart pray out to whatever god there was to let them stay together for eternity, whether in heaven or hell or whatever limbo there was between them he didn't care.

Then the last second passed. With the image of her beautiful smile burned into his memory, he held her hand so tight he felt like he'd crush it. Together, they stepped over the edge of life.

xXx

Only you and me in the skies; through dimensions we ride

On a pale horse holding hands we embrace death's dark romance

xXx

The chill that had settled into Sugou's flesh wasn't just from the cold in the room. It had been fifteen minutes since the hearts of the two people who lay side by side before him stopped beating, and the nurses and the doctors rushed to contact their families. Still feeling like he'd been dealt a staggering blow, Sugou stared at Asuna's face. Throughout the duration of her imprisonment in Sword Art Online and ALfheim Online alike, she'd looked stoic, devoid of all expression, hinting nothing at how she might be feeling – which was how it was supposed to be, of course, since the NerveGear intercepted all signals the brain sent to the body and redirected them to the virtual world.

In death, however, peace had taken over her. The tension in her muscles, which hadn't been used in over two years, was released, and her face appeared contented – even slightly smiling.

Next to her, on the same bed, lay Kirito. Or he wouldn't be Kirito in the real world, Sugou supposed, but he gave it no thought. His face had the same peaceful, content expression that was like an icy knife in Sugou's heart, twisting slowly, digging deeper and deeper with each rotation.

He barely noticed that, however. No, all he looked at were the hands – her right and his left. It was all he'd been looking at for the past twenty minutes. They weren't supposed to be able to use their real bodies. Indeed, Asuna hadn't moved in over two years, not a muscle, yet their hands were joined together. Their real bodies shouldn't have been able to move, even twitch, yet their arms had moved until their fingertips were upon each other. They weren't clasping hands like they'd have been if they were living, but this image of their fingers meeting, touching, feeling, but not quite wrapping around each other, was the most chilling thing Sugou had ever seen. They were the image of lorn lovers, torn apart by the the cold hands of fate, lamenting their sorrow until the end of time. Two who, no matter how far they were from each other, were joined together by broken dreams.

It seemed as though they were reaching out for each other, trying to grasp something just an inch beyond their reach. In his mind Sugou thought of two lovers struggling against the flow of the world to be together – but there was no place for love in a world like this – so they decided to leave it behind. Leave the world, and everyone in it, behind forever. Sugou did not believe something so idealistic as love existed. No, there was no love, only lust, and naïveté – but seeing them like this, lying frozen together as the world went on around them, shook him to the core. They'd done it – against all the odds, they'd stayed together until the end. And now they lay beside each other.

Together in death. Together for eternity.

He'd noticed the boy a few days after he joined ALO. It had taken him by surprise, he had to admit, that he didn't notice immediately. He felt blind rage consume him at that point. The insolent brat. He'd told him never to come to Asuna again, yet the boy refused to abandon her. Sugou decided then to disable both his and Asuna's logging out, enable permadeath like it had been in SAO, and expelled her from the cage to roam ALO until it was time for him to abuse her body like he wanted. They moved Kirito to Asuna's room the next day. It was good, Sugou had supposed, that he'd get to violate her in front of her little hero.

The door burst open, and Mr. Yuuki entered the hospital room, his hair disheveled, and his eyes bloodshot. For a moment he looked around, lost. He spotted Noboyuki sitting beside Asuna on a stool, but he shot past him, falling to his knees beside the bed, his body shaking with silent sobs.

His aching heart pounded against his ribs. Just earlier today, he'd seen some semblance of hope. A member of Noboyuki's team had let something slip, leading to one of the researchers becoming suspicious and reporting it to Mr. Yuuki and the cops. Noboyuki's man had cracked before he'd even been arrested, and had promptly revealed everything. It had been a small ray of hope after more than two years of anxious, endless waiting. Now, however, Mr. Yuuki doubted he'd ever feel hope again, as he looked at the cold, decaying corpse that had once been his little girl.

He heard the cops enter behind him and take Noboyuki. Their voices registered somewhere in the back of his mind as they laid out Noboyuki's entire plan to him, as they'd heard from his team, all of whom they'd interrogated. Silence fell upon the room as Mr. Yuuki stared at his daughter's peaceful face. It wasn't long, however, before he realized Noboyuki wasn't saying anything.

He turned around slowly. "You don't even have the decency to deny the allegations, do you, Noboyuki-san?"

The man looked past him, between Asuna and Kazuto. Mr. Yuuki turned around, and with a numb start noticed their hands were joined together. He blinked.

"I was wrong," Noboyuki said. His eyes were half lidded, and he seemed barely aware of his surroundings. "I wanted to marry her, but now I realize that – " He pointed to their hands. " – is something I could never get between. It's impossible, but somehow they moved their real bodies." Mr. Yuuki looked at him, his shock and grief so much he couldn't even muster up rage. Noboyuki seemed numb, as if he didn't know what he was saying. He looked around for a while, then he tsked. "It doesn't matter now."

Mr. Yuuki turned back to where they lay together. There was a commotion behind him; it seemed Noboyuki had finally realized the cops were there, and he'd made a run for it. He heard him cry out as they caught him not two seconds later, and beg for mercy.

He turned to his wife, whom he'd not noticed enter the room. She would not like what he had to say, but he found he didn't care right now.

"We should bury them together," he said. It was a pitiful gesture at best, yet he imagined Asuna would have appreciated it.

Her jaw set and silent tears streaming down her face, his wife nodded. "Yes… I expect Kazuto-kun's family will be here soon. We should talk to them."

"You're okay with this?" he asked, surprised.

She took a deep breath before speaking. "All my life, I've resented the station I was born in. I wanted her to fare better in life than you and me." Her gaze fell. "Now I wish I'd ever once stopped to consider her feelings in all of this."

One of the researchers walked slowly into the room, and stood beside them silently for a while.

"I'm sorry," he said. For some time he didn't speak. "She left a message for the two of you," he said at length. "We managed to record their last moments on a flash drive."

"I see…" Mr. Yuuki said. "We appreciate it."

And he wept.

the song is by PelleK, and it's called Cloud Dancers. just search in on youtube - it'll be there. i don't have anything to do with the song, and i dont know PelleK. im just a fan.

please review and fav this if you liked it. there isn't anything i love more than reviews in the world. even a simple sentence can make my day. please? ^_^

forgive me if there's any errors. i assure you they're most definitely typos. i dont have a beta or anything so i edit and stuff myself.

thanks for reading (and *cough*reviewing*cough*)