"Hey, thanks, my man! Come back any time you like!" Agil bid farewell to another satisfied customer, who replied with a grunt and a lazy wave of his hand. Once the customer was well out the door, Agil clicked on his menu to double check the money he had obtained from his most recent trade and smiled. Thirty five thousand Cor in exchange for a class A spear and tower shield he picked up on a monster drop. The last purchase of the day, no bad. Swiping the menu away, he opened up the total Cor he had in his inventory at this time. Two hundred and fifty thousand. Tapping the money icon once, a small prompt came up.
"How much do you wish to drop?" The small prompt asked, to which Agil typed in two hundred thousand. As soon as he confirmed the amount, a large and heavy knotted bag filled with coins dropped into Agil's outstretched hand, making a soft jingling sound. Carrying the bag, he went into the back room and opened up a safe he had hidden in the floor boards. Inside were many bags of similar sizes, all of which Agil was going to give to lower level players at the end of the weak to help them level up. Throwing the bag in with the others, he shut the hidden safe promptly. Satisfied with his days work, he spawned a rag, and ran it under a hot water tap before ringing it out thoroughly. Going back into the front facing half of the shop, he went to the front door and flipped the small sign hanging on it from "Open" to "Closed". Afterwards, he went behind the counter and started wiping it down.
As Agil wiped away, he grew nostalgic of his bar back in the real world. While he grew to get used to life in Aincrad, he missed working at that place. While it was cool having his own shop in SAO – a difficult feat – one thing he did miss was his business, and he wondered if it was being looked after. He hoped so.
By the time he was done, he heard the door jingling, signalling somebody had came in. If it was day, Agil wouldn't have been worried. But hearing that sound after closing hours was enough to cause some concern to Agil. Quickly, he bent behind the counter and picked up a sword he had hidden in the case of robbers. However, as he leapt up over the counter, ready to attack, he quickly eased up and holstered the sword in his belt when he realized that the figure was his friend, Kirito.
"Jesus, man, don't do that to me. I thought you were someone trying to steal,"
"Who knows, maybe I am?" Kirito said in a false, threatening tone, before chuckling slightly. "What's going on, man?" Kirito pleasantly smiled at his friend, and leant over the counter to give Agil his customary fist bump greeting.
"Ah, same old, same old. What's going on with you? What brings you to this neighbourhood at this time of night?"
"Ah, I'm glad you asked," Kirito gave a mischievous girn as he opened up his menu and spawned two pieces of paper, before handing them to Agil. Quickly looking at the title, Agil scowled at his younger friend, as he fleetingly remembered the last time they spoke to each other.
"Wait, could you at least let me have a taste?!" Agil half shouted to Kirito's back as he and Asuna turned around to leave his shop. "I'll write you a two page review. Promise!" "Damn…that is cold…"
"Really? Fucking really, man? You're an asshole," Agil announced, not amused in the slightest.
"Oh come on! I promised you I'd write a two page review of the Ragou Rabbit. I spent two hours writing it last night, which I could've spent hanging out with Asuna!" Kirito said, sounding annoyed.
"Oh man, you are such a good friend…I feel soooo bad for you," Agil replied rolling his eyes with his arms folded, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"And just when I was going to show you the surprise I got you…" Kirito sighed.
Now this caught Agil's attention. Raising one eyebrow in curiousity, he looked down at his friend, who was looking back at him in false disappointment.
"What do you mean, surprise?"
"Well, Asuna and I were going to have the rabbit stew all to ourselves, then I felt bad because I remembered how you wanted some, so…" As he was saying this, Kirito looked back into his menu and spawned a small container before removing the lid. The smell instantly filled the room, and Agil found it very hard to not drool over the mouth watering aroma. Inside the container was a brown stew, with bits of meat of vegetables softly floating around. "But I suppose if you don't want it…." Kirito clicked on the item on his inventory and hovered his finger threateningly over the "Destory" command.
"Hey, whoa! No need for that!" Agil almost shouted, throwing his hands out, causing Kirito to laugh. Closing the menu, Kirito put the container on the counter in front of Agil, and gave his tall friend a warm smile.
"Seriously, I felt kind of bad, so I asked Asuna to keep some aside for you. She freshly reheated it, so enjoy!" Kirito smiled a final time and waved to his friend before leaving the shop. As soon as he left, Agil picked up the container, and took it to the back. Placing the container on the small table that sat at the edge of the room, he went to a drawer and picked up a fork, before slowly taking a bite of the meat.
Before Agil tasted the Ragou Rabbit, he never believed he could have ever fallen in love with a food, but between the gorgeous tenderness and the euphoric taste, Agil's eyes rolled to the back of his head as he let the taste wash over his mouth, not wanting to swallow lest the glorious feeling in his mouth disappear. Finally, he started properly tucking into the small meal with vigour. As soon as he was done, he decided to give the review Kiritio had wrote for him a look, and laughed to himself.
Sure, Kirito had wrote a two page review. The first page was a cover, which read "Ragou Stew", but as soon as Agil saw the second page, all he saw was a small message.
You didn't think I'd hunt an S class ingredient and not let you at least have a little bit? I hope you enjoy it, see you on the next raid. Kirito.
(Notes: Just a stupid little idea for a short fic I thought after watching that one episode of SAO, it's not brilliant but hey ho, I wanted to shell out the idea as soon as Kirito was like "I'll write you a two page review, promise!" Don't really expect you guys to like it, was just an idea I was shelling out while I was waiting for my 3d models to render for my resit. Anyway, hope you guys are well and happy. ADIOS!)