Return to Alfheim
AN: This is a AU story, so Alfheim will be a real place, not in game. Alfheim and the human world will be separated by a portal, that will be explained more later. This story will be told from Yui's point of view, and will feature a lot of her mom, Asuna, as well. Kirito will have a very minor focus ar first, but will show up later. I'm writing this from my iPod touch, so the formating might be weird, so apologies for that. Asuna will be human in this story, so Yui will be half and half. Yui will be their biological daughter, not virtual, as the games don't exist here. If you have any questions or recommendations, that would be good. Thanks for reading.
Chapter one: Yui's curiosity
Yui looked as the rain fell from her bedroom window. The sky took on a gray color, the clouds looking ominous. Still, it was her favorite weather, as long as there was no thunder. The thunder was what scared her.
The rain, falling heavily, made a comforting thunk as it hit her window. It reminded her of when she was younger, and she used to be scared of it, her mom would always cuddle her and comfort her through it. Eventually, she grew out of her fear of the rain, but kept her fear of thunder. Now, rain by itself reminded her of her moms comforting scent and soft hair.
Yui thought back to an earlier time, when she was about six, and the story her mother told her. The rain was hammering outside, and there was a faint sound of thunder in the distance. The sky was pitch black, and the power had went out hours earlier, the room lit by a few candles.
She had been to scared to sleep, so her mother had made her special hot chocolate, and began stroking Yui's hair, telling her a pleasant story about Alfheim.
Yui listened intently, about the pixies, the world tree, and all the creatures that lived there.
"The world tree was right in the middle of Alfheim, and was gigantic, you could be a thousand miles away and still see it." Mama told her, "Still, it was very beautiful, the whole world was."
Then her mom showed her a book, which had a very beautiful illustration of the world tree in it. "This is almost exactly what It looked like, though it doesn't do real justice to the beauty of it, and how the sunlight flickered through the leaves."
Yui had asked her mom where she got the book, with the illustration.
"It was in with your fathers stuff..." Yui's mom trailed off. Mama always seemed distant whenever Yui's papa was brought up. Mama blinked twice. "Anyways, you should be getting to bed, the rain sounds like it's slowing down."
Her mother laid down on the couch with her and began stroking her hair again. Yui couldn't help but be a bit disappointed, her mother never talked about her dad longer than she had to, she had hoped that maybe her mom would tell her more tonight. But the warmth of the blanket, and the feel of her moms fingers through her hair, soon sent her to sleep.
It had been over two years since then and her mother had refused to speak any thing more about her dad, so she couldn't help but be a bit curious. Still, she had great mom, who always comforted and listened to her, so she didn't feel she was missing out too much.
'Maybe he's dead and that's why mama doesn't like to talk about him' Yui thought to herself. It made her feel guilty for being curious. Of course it would be difficult for her mother to talk about her father, if that was the case. So, Yui buried any lingering questions she might have about him, in case it upsets her mom.
Yui sighed, and moved away from the window. She debated whether to read a book, for it was still quite early, the sky only looking dark from the rain. She gave up on reading though, her mind too distracted to pick up any words, and decided to rest her mind a bit
With the sound of the rain, the warmth of blanket, and the memory of her moms scent, Yui soon calmed down and fell asleep.
~RTA-YC~
"Yui-chan? Yui-chan, wake up!"
Yui groaned as her moms voice woke her. Though her mom had a very lovely voice, it didn't make waking up any easier.
"If you're not up in five minutes, I'm tossing water on you!" Her mom threatened, her words not matching her kindhearted voice.
"I'm up! I'm up!" Yui exclaimed, raising up in a hurry.
"Oh, so you actually managed to wake up this time?" Her mom questioned her as she left the room, chestnut hair trailing behind her, leaving the smell of her pear-scented shampoo.
Yui grumbled, as she got up to make her bed. Sighing as she finished, she exited the room, went down the hall to the bathroom, and took her shower.
As she finished up in the bathroom, she heard her mom say, "I laid your clothes out on the bed, tell me if you need anything else!"
Yui rolled her eyes at her mothers concern. Her mom never let her leave the house without making sure she had everything she needed, checking and double checking what was in her backpack. Yui's teachers always questioned how she carried her bag, remarking on how heavy it was. "What exactly is in it?" they asked, a trace if concern in there voice, clearly wondering how she was carrying something almost half her weight.
'Oh, just a first aid kit, an umbrella, my lunch, a second lunch in case I lose the first one, a flashlight, a cellphone with my mothers number on it, and about twenty other things!' Yui thought to herself. Okay, so maybe it didn't have that much stuff in it, but still, her mother liked her to be prepared.
Yui quickly got dressed, and stepped in front of the mirror in the hall. Scowling, she noticed her elf ears were out. She closed her closed her eyes and concentrated, eventually there was a flash of blue light, and a mysterious feeling washing through her body. She opened her eyes again and saw she was in her human form again.
Her elf form had an annoying habit of coming out when she slept. If she was just staying home that would be okay, but she was going to school, where the ears and the wings would definitely stand out.
Yui pondered her reflection for a second. She had long, dark hair, the same shape and length as her mothers, eyes, which she always thought were to big for her head, almost as dark as her hair, and long eyelashes. Yui's mother always told her she looked a lot like her father.
"You look a lot like your dad," her mother had told her, " Except for the length of your hair, and the longer eyelashes, and the pouty lips," Yui had pouted at being called pouty, which made her mother grin.
Now, as Yui examined herself in the mirror, she thought about her mothers words. Sure,she wore her hair like her moms, and she had her full lashes and lips, but other than that she didn't really resemble her mom that much, though her mom always insisted that she looks just like her. It made her wonder what her dad truly looked like, and if she really looked like him.
"Yui! Breakfast!" Her mom called from the kitchen.
"Coming!" She called, grabbing her backpack on the way downstairs.
The kitchen had a very warm, welcoming feel, and it always smelled nice, from all the nice food her mother was always making. It was a place you could feel right at home in, though god bless you if you got her mothers way when she was cooking. The cabinets were a warm brown, the stovetop being a clean white.
Yui sat down at the table and chairs, sitting her backpack on the ground beside her. The tablecloth was a gentle pink color, which Yui's mom had dubbed 'fairy pink'
Yui looked at the plate her mother sat in front of her, "Hmm, eggs, bacon, and toast? Not very original for you mom," she teased her mother.
Her mother kissed her forehead. "Well, with it being your first day of second grade, I decided to play it safe." Tears seemed to fill her moms chestnut brown eyes at the reminder she was already in the second grade.
Yui was quick to distract her, "Well, whatever it is it tastes great as always, mom!" Yui's mom was always able to make an otherwise boring meal into something that tasted like it was made by a five star chef.
That seemed to cheer her mother up. "Well, good! As long as your full until lunchtime!"
That made Yui roll her eyes. She swore her mother thought she was going to starve if she didn't have food in her mouth constantly. It was a good thing that her moms cooking was so tasty.
Her mother hummed as she fluttered around the kitchen, cleaning and putting away stuff as she went.
When Yui was done with her food, she got up to wash her plate.
"I've got it!" her mom beamed at her, "I'll clean up today, as a present for your first day of second grade!"
Yui smiled at her mother. "It would only take a second mom."
Her mother waved her along, "it's fine, then let me check your backpack and make sure you have everything you need."
Yui groaned sensing that another five pounds were going to be added to it.
After her mother was satisfied, they headed outside to the car, and went off to Yui's school.
Her mom paused her as she was about to head inside. Her hazel eyes looked stormy.
"Yui, promise me you'll be safe? Never leave mommy, ok?" Her moms gentle voice was full of concern. Though this question was asked a lot, the worry in her voice never lessened.
The way her mom always asked her to be safe, and the way she made her promise not to leave made Yui wonder if her dad really was dead. Her heart ached for her mother, unable to imagine her grief if so. She couldn't comprehend how it would be, losing the love of her life - for her father appeared to be it for her mother, as she still had a longing look in her eyes whenever she spoke of him - and having to send her only daughter away everyday, who looked just like him, with the intense fear of losing her the same way. It must be terrible on her mother, the worry being in the back of her mind, having to focus on her work.
She remembered an incident, when she had injured her wings the night before, she had decided to force herself to attend school, even as the pain made her want to vomit. She had eventually gave up, and practically crawled to the nurses office, begging to go home. The nurse had called her moms work number so Yui could talk to her, and put it on speaker phone. The amount of panic in her mothers voice when the school nurse had said, 'Yui is in a lot of pain, could you come get her?' had made her wish she had put up with her injury.
"Of course I'll be safe mama, and of course I'll come home, you know I'd miss your cooking too much! I'll be fine!" Yui made her words teasing, hoping to make her mom feel mote at ease.
Her mother smiled, "Alright Yui, as long as you come home, mama will always have the best meals waiting for you!" Her mother sounded slightly happier, though still a bit worried. She wished she knew the right words to say to her mother, to get her not to worry.
"You know I'm just teasing mama, of course I'd miss you, and not your meals! I love you, mommy." Though she would miss her moms snacks as well. The 'mommy' was to get to her moms sweet side. She tried not to say 'mommy' too much anymore, trying to appear older, but she knew her mom loved to hear it.
That seemed to cheer her mother up finally. "I love you too, Yui. So much. Alright, head in to school now! I don't want to make you late." Her mother still sounded like she'd rather Yui stay home, but she hoped she'd be okay.
Yui took one last good look at her mothers beautiful face, and went in.
~RTA,YC~
Mrs. Raye, her teacher, finished up the story she was telling them. "Now, that we're done with the chapter, why don't we talk about ourselves a little?"
She had them say their name and something about themselves.
A boy with red hair said, "I'm Kaito, my favorite colors red, and I want to surf like my older brother someday." Kaito told them about all the trophies his brother had won.
One by one the introduced themselves, then a girl to the right of Yui said her name was Yuki.
"Um, my names Yuki, I like to draw, um, I like to dance, I guess, um, and also I live in a orphanage." Her words quieted down at that last part.
"Thats very nice," Mrs Raye said, and asked what she liked to draw.
Yui thought about what the girl had said, how she lived in an orphanage. That meant her parents were likely dead. It made Yui wonder about her own dad, and if he was alive, or not.
'If he was alive, then where was he?' She wondered. What caused him to leave? Surely it had nothing to do with her friendly and kindhearted mom. She couldn't see anybody, ever, being angry with her. Maybe it was because of Yui herself. Maybe he didn't want a daughter, and decided to leave her mom because of it. That made Yui feel incredibly guilty. Of course her mother would have and take care of her at the cost of her own happiness. That's just the type of person she was.
As Yui tried to ignore the direction her thoughts had taken her, she noticed the teacher was calling her name.
"Yui? You seem distracted, do you mind telling us about yourself?"
"Oh! Sorry, um, my names Yui, I like reading stories, sleeping, and eating mamas food!"
Her teacher seemed amused by her. "Well, that's nice Yui, does anybody else have something to say?"
A couple of other kids spoke up, and then bell rang, signaling recess.
Mrs. Raye led them outside, to the playground, bext to the school. It was the traditional playground, with swings, a slide, and monkey bars.
Yui's favorite thing to play on was the swing, but it reminded her of a bad memory, of before she was in school.
~RTA,YC~
Yui was only four, and she didn't yet understand that most people didn't have elf ears, or wings. She knew her mother told her to keep them hidden but she didn't quite understand why. Yui thought It was just something rare, not strange, or weird, or something that could put her in trouble.
Yui had gone to the swings, while her mom sat on a park bench a little ways away. She noticed a red haired boy on the swing beside her.
Yui launched herself off the ground, the chains on her swing clattering a bit. As she got into the motions of swinging, she was soon going higher than the boy next to her.
"Hey! How are you going so high? I'm never able to get that high up!" The red headed boy next to her asked.
"I don't know, just swing your legs like this!" Yui kicked her feet, and went a little higher.
"I can't!" The boy exclaimed, looking frustrated.
"Well, I don't know, it's easy for me!" Yui yelled to him. And it was, she felt she could go even higher, if she wanted to.
The boy made a sound of annoyance, as he kicked his legs out.
Yui continued swinging for a couple more minutes, then did her favorite 'trick'.
Looking back to make sure her mother wasn't paying attention to her, she jumped off the swing. But she didn't fall down immediately. Instead she floated for a while, and gently landed on her feet, much slower than she should have. She looked around and saw that nobody was looking. Only the boy next to her saw.
"Hey, what was that!" He shouted. "You looked like you were flying for a second!"
Yui immediately looked behind her to her mom. She didn't know why she had to keep her wings hidden, only that her mother told her to. But technically she hadn't used them, and had instead used her 'feelings' to fly for a bit. Yui sometimes got these 'feelings', like a warmth flowing through her, that made her able to do special things, things her mom couldn't when the cookie jar had been to high for her to reach, and she hadn't been able to fly that high up, she gad used the 'warmth', and the jar had gently floated down. Yui's mother hadn't understood how she got it down at first till Yui had told her. Yui's mom had told her to only do that at home. But she didn't understand why.
Couldn't somebody else do this? Maybe it was a rare ability, and other people would get sad or jealous that they couldn't do it, and that's why her mom said not to do it in public.
It was just like her mother to consider other people's feelings, maybe it would be okay if she told one person.
"If I concentrate really hard, I can sort of float off the ground a little bit, watch!" Yui pushed the 'warm feeling' to her feet, and hovered above the ground by a few inches.
The boys eyes got wide. "How are you doing that?!" He demanded.
"I don't know I was always able to do this, just try to search for this warm or tingly feeling, and push yourself up." She explained.
The boy slowed the swing and stood up, and tried to follow Yui's directions. But no matter how hard he tried, or Yui tried to help him, he couldn't do it. Yui tried to show him how to levitate a rock instead, thinking it would be easier than his body, but he couldn't do that either.
"Well, whatever then, you must be a freak, nobody else can do that, you're probably just evil or something!" He yelled at her, and pushed her down, then ran off to see his mom.
Yui's eyes filled with tears, he gad seemed so nice at first, she didn't mean to upset him.
"Yui!" Her mom called, having seen her daughter get shoved by the angry boy. "Did he hurt you!? I'm so sorry, mommy should have been watching better."
"It's okay mom, I tried to show him how to float in the air, and he got angry that he couldn't do it too." Tears were falling down Yui's face, and her sentence was interrupted by hiccups.
Asuna's face went pale. "Yui! I told you not to show anybody! We have to leave right now!"
She grabbed Yui's arm hurriedly rushed towards the parking lot.
As they were getting in the car, Yui heard the boy who pushed her yelling to his mom.
"She was lifting a rock up with her mind, and was flying in the air, she must be a witch or something!"
Yui heard the boys mom tell her son that of course witches didn't exist and that he must of imagined it.
Yui tuned them out, and her mom drove them home.
As her mom unlocked the door Yui began rushing upstairs, when her mom stopped her.
"Yui, you can never show anybody that again, alright? Only at home and in front of mama, okay?"
Yui sniffled a little and said, "I understand mom, I won't do it again, I didn't expect anyone to get angry at me."
Asuna smiled sadly at her daughter, "it's not just that people will get angry, it's that somebody could hurt you because of it. Nobody else can do it, as far as they know, and they might try to hurt you, and take you away from mama because of it."
Yui was shocked, "I thought that people would just be jealous I didn't think they would try to take me away from you!"
Her mother looked sad, "unfortunately, most people wouldn't just be jealous, they might be afraid, and fear makes people act horrible sometimes. So you must never do that in public again, alright?"
"I understand, mom!" Yui's mom didn't act mad, but she never took her to that park again. Yui stopped being so excited about her powers.
~RTA,YC~
Yui shook her head, now was not the time to think of that, she knew better than to show people now, so nobody had any reason to hate her.
She decided to try the monkey bars, for now, so headed over to them. Looking over at them she saw the other girl in her class, Yuki, who lived in an orphanage, standing by them.
Yuki's hair was a strange shade of black, looking almost purple. She was wearing a blue dress and white sandals.
"Hey!" Yui introduced herself.
Yuki looked surprised someone was talking to her. "Oh! Hey."
"I'm Yui. You're Yuki, right?" Yui decided to tell her her name again, in case she forgot.
"Oh, yeah I'm Yuki, did you need something?" Yuki, for some odd reason, looked like Yui was going to yell at her.
"No, I was just wondering did you want to be friends?"
Yuki looked shocked at her words again. "Are you sure!?"
"Of course."
"Um, okay then." She said shyly.
They played together the rest of recess.
~RTA,YC~
The rest of the day was quite uneventful. Her mother of course made her tell her all about her day, even if nothing happened, and all about the friends she had made, and made snide comments on the lunch the school had provided, stating she would make it from now on. Yui was now getting ready for bed time.
She brushed her teeth, and changed into her nightgown. She thought about her new friends, and what school would be like tomorrow.
Yui soon fell asleep.
~RTA,YC~
