This one was a birthday request from clueless1337 on tumblr :3 Takes place within SAO. (Btw there is no timeline in these stories they are all over the place)

Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online.

Chapter 2. Cooking

"K-Kirito-kun! What are you doing?!"

"I'm cooking!"

"No you're not! You're burning it!"

"Ehh?"

Asuna quickly darted forward and killed the flame under the pot Kirito had been 'cooking' in. The blue flame on the burner vanished and the steam puffing up from the pot finally stopped. Kirito waved his hands in front of his face to try and clear the smoke as Asuna coughed several times.

"Okay," he admitted, his eyes watering from the sting in the air. "Maybe I was burning it…" Asuna simply glared at him before letting out a long sigh that suggested he was hopeless.

She still could not wrap her head around exactly why Kirito had been in a 'cooking mood' today. As always, she had woken up several minutes before him that morning, but when he opened his eyes the first thing he said was, "I think I want to try cooking today."

Asuna had never felt chagrined for always doing the cooking in their home on the 22nd floor, not only because she did not care for such sexist stereotypes, but mainly because she simply loved cooking. She loved the technique incorporated, she loved the scent of the virtual food, but most of all she loved seeing that blissful look on his face whenever he took that first bite.

When she had heard his sudden eagerness to help her cook that morning, Asuna had been delighted at the suggestion.

However, 3 shattered ingredient bottles and 2 burnt dishes later, she was beginning to think that the cooking should be left to the person with the 1000-level skill after all.

Asuna removed the lid of the pot Kirito had supposedly been tending to and a hot wave of air hit her face, blowing her bangs upward. The hardboiled eggs that had previously been bobbing up and down in the water were now massacred due to the intense heat they had just suffered, and seconds later their durability gave out and they shattered into pieces.

"I swear," Asuna muttered. "At this rate we're going to go broke because we keep wasting ingredients, and then we'll starve. Imagine, living in this death game for two years and defeating various, demon-like monsters, only to wither away because of hunger."

Of course, there were no intentions of letting that happen and she was merely messing with him, but the seriously concerned look that appeared on Kirito's face at that moment was positively priceless.

"I… I swear I'll get it right this time." He vowed, clenching his fist. Asuna regarded him with a hard stare before giving in.

"Fine. One more try, but if this fails, I'm kicking you out of here." She warned. "Let's see, we've already failed at eggs in every form possible, including omelets so… let's settle for a salad." She called out several vegetables as well as a knife and handed him a carrot. "Cut it. Slowly." She articulated, as though he were a 5-year-old.

Determined to complete his new task, Kirito took the knife (it was somehow much more difficult to manage than a sword) and carrot from her and began cutting small chunks onto the counter as Asuna prepared the other vegetables.

By the time Kirito had finished the first carrot, Asuna had already finished everything else and was currently making the dressing.

Wow. He thought, her talents never ceasing to amaze him. I guess this is the skill of someone who's maxed cooking...

As his thoughts wandered a bit, he did not pay attention to his knife and ended up slicing his finger. "Ow!" He dropped everything in order to stop the bleeding.

Asuna immediately whipped around. "What happened?" She sounded much more startled than she should have been, which sort of made Kirito feel like she had been expecting him to have cut his hand off entirely.

"Just a cut." He soothed her. "Ow, geez why do finger injuries hurt more than battle wounds?"

"Let me see." Asuna gently took his injured hand in both of hers, brushing her soft fingertips over his skin. The bleeding had already stopped, but there was a prickling in his hand that made Kirito grimace. Asuna quietly brought his finger to her lips and kissed the healing wound.

"There. All better." She declared, letting go of his hand. "Now, let's put all this together!"

As they compiled the salad, Kirito smiled as he realized he had actually helped create something decent-tasting for the first time.

They sat at the table to eat as Asuna drizzle the sweet dressing onto their salads. They ate the food which had better taste than anticipated before placing the dishes into the sink and cleaning them side by side.

"That was fun." Kirito smirked. "Maybe next time you could teach me how to make sandwiches."

"N-Next time…" she repeated, breathless at the thought of repeating the ordeal. "Maybe." She sighed. "But I won't teach you how to make sandwiches." She stated firmly.

"Eh? Why not?" He whined.

"Because if you found out, you'd just go selling them off or something!" She huffed.

"I would not!" He defended, pouting.

Seeing his face then caused Asuna to burst out into giggles.

"We'll see." She decided. "Maybe you can help with dinner tonight…"

"And tomorrow!" He added.

"Don't get carried away."

Their playful bickering continued for a while as the two continued to clean the dishes; even though the food they were eating was virtual, the feelings put into creating it together were absolutely real.

~The End~

A/N: Thanks for reading! See you next Friday!

Please review!