-September 30, 2026-

"You have got to be joking," Asuna hissed from the open doorway. Her fist tightened into a painful little ball, nails digging into her palm, as she looked down on her boyfriend.

The small green light of his AmuSphere seemed to blink in time with the beat of her furious, racing heart. It wasn't NerveGear and the dangers of SAO were long over. Even so, living through that experience all those years ago stopped her from ripping the system off of his face. What if she accidentally hurt him... more than she intended to?

So she grabbed his computer chair, swiveled around in it to face him and rolled it closer to the bed they shared. Her arms crossed tightly against her chest. Her legs crossed at her knees. After the ceiling, she would be the first thing he saw once he came back to reality. She could have logged on herself and found him in the game, but that would send the wrong message. That would fly in the face of everything she was planning to scream at him.

Two hours she waiting. Her position changed. She stood a few times, but for two hours, she waited in that room. Finally, Kirito showed signs of light and sat up, removing the headgear. He gasped and his eyes grew wide upon seeing her.

"I know," His gaze jerked away from her burning glare as he moved quickly to change clothes. "I'm sorry. I lost track of time. Can we still make it?"

"No," she answered bitterly. "The reservation was made for an hour ago."

His back was to her, but she could see his body react. He winced slightly and his shoulders slumped. At least he was showing remorse. "Alright," he said, trying to sound optimistic. "Well then, we'll just... go somewhere else. Anywhere you want."

Asuna's eyes narrowed further as her anger pulled her up out of the cushioned seat. "You really think that's going to make it better? Just... give me the option of where we go tonight and I'm supposed to pretend you didn't bail on me for that damn game... again! And on my birthday, no less."

Finally, Kirito apparently worked up the gumption to face her. The way he looked at her, showed less remorse than the way he had been speaking to her. "What do you want me to say? I told you I'm sorry! There was this huge impromptu raid that took off and Klein needed-"

"Auuurrrrgh!" A hostile growl tore from the depths of her chest, shaking the tension in the room and cutting off his excuse. "I don't want to hear it, Kirito! You said we were going to have a night out together. You promised me you wouldn't do this and you did. You just skipped out on our plans help /your/ friends."

"They're your friends too, Asuna!" He shot back defensively. "And they /needed/ me, okay? What was I supposed to do?"

"They needed you." She repeated, unconvinced. Her fist resting firmly on her hip, while her other hand hung lazily at her side. "What about me, Kirito? You don't think I needed you tonight?"

One would think she told a bad joke by the flat look that fell over his face. "Seriously?" He shook his head and continued getting dressed. "You didn't /need/ me to go out. You could have gone by yourself or called someone or hell, you could have logged on and reminded me instead of sitting in here like a creep for an hour."

"It was two." She corrected with a sneer and with that, Asuna turned on her heel and stormed out of the bedroom.

"Where are going?" He shouted, but didn't follow her.

In response, all he received was the sound of the front door opening and slamming shut behind her.

To Be Continued...