Chapter 3 also known as the one where there is a lot of really bad time-skipping because Aomine is stubbornly boring sobs

It was surprisingly difficult to fall asleep that night.

Daiki lay awake on the bed, staring at the roof. The room felt big and empty, and its silence felt as if it was crowding him. He'd say he couldn't sleep because he'd slept so much earlier, but he'd never had any problem falling asleep at night when he'd been napping.

The room was too quiet.

He sighed and hauled himself up. Clearly, he wasn't going to sleep much tonight, if at all. He might as well get up and go out and do some levelling up out on some lower floor plains.

He opened up his menu, equipping armour and weapons and skills, then stood, and as quietly as he could, left the room. He tried to maintain the silence as he walked out – other players would be sleeping (Kise would be sleeping) and he didn't want to wake them.

He didn't want to think about what had been keeping him up, but as he walked to the warp gate, his mind inevitably snagged on what was bothering him.

Kise hadn't looked him in the eye once as they'd spoken. He'd looked at him, but...

And that wasn't even going into the fact that apparently, without the sound of Kise's breath in the room, it was too quiet to sleep. Daiki had never found a condition under which he couldn't sleep. He'd slept in full daylight, sun shining on and in his face on the hard, concrete roof of Touou's school buildings, he'd slept in the pitch darkness of his room in the night, he'd slept on a noisy bus and though the chirping of birds, chatter and shouts of kids in a park, and the drone of teachers at school and the silence of the school library as well. And yet, somehow, it was impossible to sleep here now because he could no longer hear the deep, steady sound of Kise's breathing as he slept in the other bed.

Fuck.

As he grunted his destination to the warp gate, Daiki wondered how he managed to become so pathetically co-dependent on Kise.

Maybe it was because he was pathetically co-dependent on Satsuki. After all, he had to admit to himself quietly, he was the one of the two of them who needed the other one. He had needed her to hold onto him when he careened off the edge of his talent and fell into the ocean of boredom and darkness, and she had been the moon shining through the night, quietly urging him to keep going, because there has to be a light somewhere for the moon to be shining.

Their lives were interminably wrapped around each other, and it was, perhaps, the most comforting fact of his existence.

So that was it, Daiki thought as he looked around himself and found himself on the plains where he knew some fairly strong wolves would spawn. Kise's presence substituted for Satsuki, because when they'd played together it had been their lives that had curled about each other, as one death would most probably lead to the other.

He scowled.

Three wolves spawned.

Daiki was several levels higher than he had been when he'd cleared these last with Kise – he killed the first with a sword combination, but the skill cool down meant he took some damage from the remaining two. A few hundred damage. He should be okay through the next two. The same combination took out the second swiftly, then the third. He was still in the green for health.

Kise would be fine without him. Kise would be surrounded by people – he was that kind of person, after all. Even when he annoyed people, they still gravitated towards him. Kise would be safer, he tried to tell himself.

It was just too bad he didn't actually think anyone could keep Kise alive as well as he could. Especially because Kise was just about dumb enough to get himself killed trying to protect other people.

Daiki sighed and readied his blade as the area was bathed in blue light.

The wolves respawned.

Daiki didn't care about other players – but that didn't mean that he wasn't shocked when he got the news that one of the guilds on the frontline had lost half of its members battling the boss on Floor 25. It had been a quiet night in the inn that night – he was on Floor 22 at the time. He and Kise hadn't been in contact since that strange night in mid-January, and it was mid-February now.

He'd spent the whole day alternately lazing under trees and killing the very few monsters that spawned on this floor, and as such, it was late by the time he reached the inn, having finally decided he'd done enough for the day.

It was strange for the inn to be quiet at the time he arrived back. It was when most players went to go and eat, and this was a pretty major town on the floor, so there were a number of good, but not quite frontline-level, guilds in the area who had yet to raise the funds to buy themselves a home. But tonight, the thing that struck him as he walked into the restaurant area was how quiet it was.

He was saved from actually having to interact with anyone to find out what the fuck was wrong with everyone when he found a copy of the newspaper that was left on one of the tables.

Aincrad Liberation Squad Decimated.

More than half of this frontline guild's members were killed earlier today in the 25th Floor Boss room...

Daiki didn't bother to read further. He'd heard of the Liberation Squad, of course. Everyone knew the names of the frontline guilds – Daiki himself knew them and their symbols only to avoid being scouted by them. He had no interest in playing along with other people, nor any interest in throwing himself into dangerous situations such as Floor Boss raids. He planned to make it the fuck out of this place, and by his estimate, the best way of doing that was by not needlessly throwing himself into battles with powerful enemies.

That night was the first in which he opened up his friend list to check that Kise was still alive.

(It was not the last.)

Floor 26 brought a lot of surprises, but the greatest of them was the guild that debuted on the frontline that floor.

The Knights of the Blood Oath seemed to be a small-time guild, from what Daiki gathered from the newspapers and whispers that ran wild. Small, but they had a lot of firepower, with a few skilled, high-level members. Asuna. Heathcliff. Godfree.

The names of frontline players often circulated among the players Daiki kept pace with, and they meant nothing to him.

At least, they meant nothing to him until they started talking about a new sword-and-shield user in their ranks, who was part of the new guild on the frontlines.

"...is in the Knights of the Blood. You know, he was in that art..."

Daiki had only heard the snippet of conversation as he walked through the market, but he came to a sudden stop. He couldn't find the source of the voice – they must have been moving in the opposite direction – his stomach felt somehow hollow.

No, he told himself, they're mistaken, I'm sure.

Apparently, however, Kise was just as popular in the game as he was outside of it, because in the newspaper, there he was; standing next to one of the Knights of the Blood Oath's leaders – the pretty girl one (although she was a little flat for Daiki's tastes). Asuna. Daiki heard her name a lot.

Model Kise Ryouta Joins Knights of the Blood Oath.

Fuck, Kise was so annoying.

(Daiki didn't check every morning and evening after that day that Kise was still alive by looking at his friends list. He didn't, okay.

Or at least, no one can prove it, can they.)

It's just that it bothers him.

Daiki's messing around on the Floor 27 in June, seven months after getting stuck in the death game, when he finally decides to face the fact that checking that Kise's alive every morning and night is probably kind of weird.

Kise's fighting on the frontlines with the Knights of the Blood Oath. Daiki's not a low level nobody player, even if he's not crazy enough to go playing solo on the frontlines; he keeps pace with the players that trail a few floors behind the lead group. He knows the names of all the high profile players, and of course Kise would manage to get himself in the thick of them. Stories run rampant across the player base talking about the speed of Lightning Flash Asuna's rapier, of Heathcliff's skill with a sword and shield.

They talk about Kise.

One of the first times Daiki overheard people talking about Kise, he'd laughed because the nerd was complaining about the accuracy of what people were calling him.

"Valkyries are female," he guy had complained.

"But apparently he looks like a girl," commented the guy's friend.

"Only if you don't see him standing next to an actual girl. He clearly looks like a dude when he's standing next to Asuna-san."

Daiki didn't know what a valkyrie actually was, but he was pretty sure Kise probably looked like one anyway.

But fighting on the frontlines was dangerous. Daiki had always figured he and Kise would hang back from the lead group, keeping themselves strong, comfortable and safe.

It just about figures that Kise would go and do something stupid and annoying like risking his neck to clear the game.

"Okay, I'll grant you he's pretty looking for a boy," Daiki overheard as he tuned back into the nerdy guy's conversation, "but I definitely don't think he's goddess-worthy pretty or anything."

"He's lucky though. Maybe that's it. There haven't been a lot of casualties in parties he's been in."

"That's luck, not divine intervention..."

Daiki tuned out of the conversation again. It was starting to remind him of Midorima, and he was going to have to kill himself if he was actually missing that nutcase.

...he missed everyone, when he thought about it.

He'd never really been alone like this before. It was always only a temporary alone-ness, a temporary sparing of the presence of Satsuki or anyone else. He'd liked those small reprieves, and thought it meant he liked to be alone.

Turns out, he didn't really like it so much. He was even missing the most annoying of his old and new teammates. And he really missed Satsuki.

"I miss basketball," Daiki mumbled, dropping his face into his crossed arms on the table. "I hope you're not too worried, Satsuki. You'd probably be so mad at me right now, letting Kise go off on his own..."

He sighed. "I'm kind of mad at me," he added. "And now I'm talking to myself."

Daiki stood and paid for his meal before leaving. He was sure if he really wanted some company, he could find any number of players willing to party up with him or have him in their guild. He wasn't weak, and people willing to fight in the front were rarer than those who hung back.

He didn't want just any company, though. He didn't want to get to know some strangers who were probably going to die. It would be better to be with Kise. Kise wasn't going to die. (Kise promised.) He already knew Kise too.

"Fuck, am I actually missing that idiot too? Ugh." And he's the only one I could actually see...

There was always the temptation to message Kise. Kise himself hadn't reached out to him, but Daiki simply attributed that to the fact that the blond boy was frustratingly and annoyingly social, and probably had so many people around him that he didn't even really think about Daiki. He ignored the small voice at the back of his head that sounded a lot like Satsuki that said he was so wrong it hurt.

A message alert popped up in the corner of his vision. That could only be...

Kise.

'Aominecchi! I thought you'd probably forget, so I thought I'd remind you it's my birthday soon! I'd really like it if you could come and celebrate with me! It's pretty rude to talk about the real world here, so no one else knows, and then I thought, Aominecchi already knows, even if he's forgotten.

That's okay, right? You don't have to get me a present or anything! If we were home I'd say your present can be to play one-on-one with me. Just spend the day with me. That can be your present to me!

I won't take no for an answer!

Kise'

Hah. Now that he'd been reminded, it was Kise's birthday soon. It'd be his soon, too.

"Satsuki's gonna cry all day, I bet," he said quietly. He purposely did not think about what she was going to be like on his birthday, or on what he thought she would have been like on her own birthday (it had been about one month ago, and it was the first of their birthdays that he could remember not spending with her. He'd spent the day grinding ruthlessly against monsters on Floor 26 to distract himself from the uncomfortable feelings that were prompted by the thought that he was not there for Satsuki's birthday).

'Yeah, okay. Where do you want to meet?'

'How does Floor 28 sound? I haven't seen you on the frontlines, but I'm sure together we can have some fun there!'

'Sounds like a plan then.'

Surely meeting every once in a while couldn't hurt, after all.

And so, the eighteenth of June found Daiki waiting near the warp point for Kise's arrival. He resisted the urge to look up whenever he heard the sound of someone teleporting in.

"Aominecchi!"

He didn't smile, dammit he didn't.

"Kise."

Kise wasn't wearing the white and red outfit that he was usually spotted in when with his guild today. Instead, he'd gone for something a little more normal. He had a bright smile on his face as he trotted over, waving a hand in the air.

"It's been a while, Aominecchi!"

"Yeah." Why did this have to feel so awkward? There was an air of things left unsaid – a feeling as if there was something important that was being ignored. (The way he hadn't looked him in the eye as he left, the feeling that there was somehow something that he had missed, that he had fundamentally misunderstood something...)

"Have you been doing well, Aominecchi?" Kise asks, smiling. "We're going to the dungeon. I want to party with Aominecchi today."

"Yeah, I've been okay. I guess you've been doing okay, I've been hearing about you in the news with that guild you're in."

"Ah, yes! I've been doing pretty well. All the people in the Knights are really nice! Although, most of them are really serious, Aominecchi, they don't take the time to enjoy themselves, especially Asunacchi. They're so driven and focused! I could never be that serious about anything but basketball, I think. I'm sure you understand, Aominecchi." Kise grinned. "After all, it's not like you're fighting on the frontlines."

Daiki frowned. "Satsuki would bring me back to life just to kill me if I got myself killed fighting on the frontlines. I'm not stupid enough to play solo out there."

Kise tilted his head to the side and hummed thoughtfully. "I guess fighting on the frontlines at all is kind of crazy," he admitted. "Ah, but you know, I've really learned a lot from Heathcliff-san and Asunacchi, and I really respect the attitude they take towards clearing the game. Anyway, I bet I could beat you in a duel now." There was a sly edge to Kise's words and smile as he looked at Daiki from the corner of his eye.

"Of course you could, stupid," Daiki told him, rolling his eyes. "I'm a rapier user. You have the unfair advantage of a shield. This isn't basketball."

"I miss basketball," Kise grumbled. "If we were home, your present to me would definitely have to be to play one on one with me!"

Daiki reached out to hit the back of Kise's head lightly. "So, did you have a plan for what you wanted to do today?"

Kise pouted and rubbed the back of his head. Daiki knew he hadn't hit him that hard, and even if he had, it wasn't like they felt pain anyway, so he refused to feel any remorse whatsoever. "We're just going to do some quests and stuff. I just... yeah, I just wanted to spend my birthday with you. Don't you think it's lonely here, after all?"

Daiki shrugged. Like hell he was going to let Kise know he agreed.

(He wasn't going to tell him about the loneliness that permeated the room he slept in at night and the way he still missed the familiar sound of Kise's breathing, or the way that he'd almost cried when he'd returned to an empty room on Satsuki's birthday and then got caught up thinking about how even if she was surrounded by all of their friends, she would definitely notice that he wasn't there because she would notice it every day, but especially on her birthday, and they had never spent this much time apart ever and surely the fact that he wasn't there was as big a hole in her life as it was in his?)

A familiar grip on his wrist broke him from his thoughts, and he looked at Kise.

"Come on then, Aominecchi!"

Kise's smile seemed a little forced, but somehow it still took the edge off his negative thoughts, so Daiki let his mouth twist in a familiar smirk and followed the only piece of familiar left in his new life where he led.

"Happy birthday, Dai-chan."

Even though she knew that he wouldn't have cared for them at all, Satsuki settled the bouquet of flowers she'd brought on the small bedside table in his hospital room.

"Everyone else is going to come by later," she said to him. Her smile was small and trembling. "I decided to come early and have some quality time with you."

She reached beneath the blankets to pull out his hand. It was painful, looking at Dai-chan like this, no matter how often she came to visit him. And she came to visit him often.

He looked small, his body wasting away in this bed. Dai-chan's body had always responded well to any conditioning it went through, and with his childhood spent racing around basketball courts and climbing trees, he'd never really gone through the coltish, awkward, skinny look that a lot of boys developed when they were teenaged and shot up to stand at first just under six foot, then well over it. A life spent doing had built him up, but the last nine months had made his body look odd to her, bony and thin when it never had been before.

"You were supposed to get taller still," she mumbled, gently brushing her thumb across the back of Dai-chan's bony hand. There was no muscle or fat left anywhere his body now, with all these months spent lying unmoving in a bed, kept alive with what sustenance could be imbued into his system through tubes. He was skin and bones beneath her touch.

Dai-chan had never felt fragile before.

"It's been so weird not having you around this summer. Usually you'd drag me out to go hunting for cicadas, and then I'd drag you to go shopping with me. And we'd play so much basketball, with Ki-chan and Kagamin and Tetsu-kun and even Midorin and Takao-kun."

Satsuki took a deep breath. "I shouldn't be crying still, should I, Dai-chan? But it's hard on special days like today not to cry. That's why I came early today, you know. I cried so much on Ki-chan's birthday, Kagamin and Midorin both looked so scared! You would have laughed at them."

She wiped her eyes and cheeks, and tried smiling again. "Dai-chan, I hope you and Ki-chan are taking care of each other." She rested her head on the bed, the top of her head just touching his leg under the blanket, and looked at his fingers. "Midorin hasn't had your lucky item brought in yet today," she noted. "He must be bringing it himself."

She let the room fall quiet, except for the beeping of the monitor that signalled Dai-chan's still-beating heart.

"Please wake up soon, Dai-chan."

She said it quietly. It felt somehow wrong to say, especially when even now, so long after that first terrifying month where the people trapped in the game were dropping like flies, people continued to die. At least Dai-chan and Ki-chan were still alive.

"Momoi-san, good afternoon."

Satsuki sat up and turned. Akashi-kun was standing in the doorway, a tiny smile tilting at the corners of his mouth.

"Akashi-kun, good afternoon!" Satsuki tried to inject as much cheer as possible into her voice. "I wasn't expecting anyone to arrive until later..."

"I have to be back in Kyoto earlier than expected," Akashi-kun admitted, "so I'll be leaving earlier than I had anticipated. I thought perhaps I should arrive a little earlier to compensate. I'll likely leave while everyone else is still here."

He walked over, and rested a hand gently on her head. "I imagine this day is more difficult for you than for the rest of us," he said. His voice was quiet.

"It's almost worse than my own birthday," Satsuki whispered. "My family and friends... you didn't let me spend my day dwelling on the fact that Dai-chan wasn't there, although it was impossible not to feel it. I spent most of the day doing things with all of you. Today... today I'm spending the day with Dai-chan in the hospital. On his birthday we do whatever he wants to do, you know?" Tears were sliding down her cheeks again. This wasn't fair, she wasn't supposed to cry on a happy day like Dai-chan's birthday, and she certainly wasn't supposed to cry in front of Akashi-kun, even if his temperament had markedly improved since that first Winter Cup.

Akashi-kun remained silent, his hand on her head gentle.

"Most of his birthdays we spent in parks playing basketball," she told Akashi-kun, a wobbly smile tugging at her. "I bet you're not surprised at all."

"I can't say I am," Akashi-kun agreed. "I was acquainted with Daiki the basketball idiot, after all."

Satsuki laughed. "Dai-chan is Dai-chan."

"Momoi-san... Satsuki."

She paused, tilting her head as she looked at him. Akashi-kun had, for the most part, always been kind and gentlemanly to her, as would be expected from someone of his background; and as such he had never taken the liberty to address her by her first name like he did the rest of the Teikou team. It had seemed to be a matter of propriety rather than a matter of him not considering her to be an important figure within their little group; she had understood the distinction, and it had never bothered her.

"While I understand that you are much closer to Tetsuya and would likely discuss such things with him rather than with myself, I just wished to extend the offer to listen if you ever wish to speak with someone."

That was... unexpected. Satsuki smiled again, and this time, it didn't wobble. She reached up to clasp Akashi-kun's hand between her palms and bring it down from where it had been resting on her head.

"Thank you. Ah, can I maybe?"

The rest of her question was cut off as she heard Kagamin's argumentative voice travel down the hall.

"Taiga, Shintarou and Tetsuya must be arriving," Akashi-kun commented. There was an amused curl to one of the corners of his mouth.

The addition of the other people brought new life to the room. Akashi busied himself calling a nurse for a vase, then arranging the flowers Satsuki had brought, as Kagamin, Tetsu-kun and Midorin took turns to chatter at Dai-chan, and with each other. Satsuki took the proffered lucky item for Dai-chan, and settled it next to the vase.

Most of them came to visit either Ki-chan or Dai-chan fairly frequently; Satsuki herself spent a large number of the afternoons she didn't spend with the basketball club sitting quietly in Dai-chan's hospital room doing homework, every so often swapping to spend an afternoon in Ki-chan's room. Kagamin and Tetsu-kun visited once a week or so, usually on a day when Satsuki herself would be there; Midorin would visit every fortnight. Akashi-kun and Muk-kun stopped by if either one happened to be in Tokyo, but neither was particularly often.

Satsuki was pretty sure that this little gathering was more for her sake than for Dai-chan's, but it still warmed her heart to see them here together to celebrate his birthday.

Before he left, Akashi-kun pulled her aside.

"You may call me whatever you would like to, Satsuki," he told her, answering her unfinished question from earlier. "My offer will stand in perpetuity."

She should have guessed that he would know what she was going to ask.

Things will be more interesting in the next chapter and less time-skippy and filler-y I promise ;~;