A/N: First chapter of the honeymoon! As you know, the honeymoon is pretty much all Warrior-san's work. The only things I can take credit for are flashbacks and a little editing which is barely anything. This chapter is slightly more mature, fyi, but nothing major enough to actually change the rating. I think you guys can handle that right ?;)

Chapter 4: The Honeymoon Part 1

As they settled into their seats on the train, Kazuto and Shino felt a wave of exhaustion wash over them.

"Wow, a wedding really takes a lot out of you, huh?" Shino asked, stretching her arms over her head and yawning quietly.

"Yeah, I thought it would never be over. And then everyone couldn't stop saying goodbye at the station." Kazuto slouched into his seat. "Now we have another two hours to kill until we get to Kyoto."

Shino leaned into his shoulder. "YOU have two hours to kill. I intend on resting against your shoulder, so you better not move. Wake me when we get there." And before he could say anything she firmly planted her head on his shoulder and dozed off.

"She must really trust me if she's so willing to doze off on me like that," Kazuto thought to himself. "Well of course she trusts you!" he mentally berated himself. "She married you for god's sake, which means you'll be sleeping together a lot more than just a couple hours." That thought stopped him dead. Then it spiraled into multiple "what ifs" about their bedroom life and habits. "What if she thinks I'm an idiot for only packing so many shirts? What if she thinks my breath smells in the morning and decides to leave me for some hunky man? What if-?" Shino fidgeted a little in her sleep, completely derailing his train of thought. He looked at her to make sure she was okay, and what he saw amazed him. She was smiling. Actually smiling! Kazuto couldn't help but smile himself. He realized that she would never leave him, especially after all that they've been through together. He shifted, moving to put his arm around her, which caused Shino to be jostled slightly.

"I'll kick your ass if you move again," she mumbled under her breath, and while Kazuto doubted she was coherent enough to even remember the threat later, he had no doubt she would follow through on it. So, he finished putting his arm around her and settled in for a long, if somewhat lonely, train ride.

"So… what now?" Kazuto asked himself. Sighing softly, he turned and gazed out the window, watching the buildings pass by. He stilled as he felt Shino shift against his arm, sighing softly, and let a gentle smile cross his face. He remembered the first time he had actually asked her out on a date, and how it had turned out just like this…

"Hurry up! The train's about to leave!"

"Co-coming!" Kazuto panted, sprinting as hard as he could. As soon as he cleared the doors, they closed and he doubled over, hands on his knees.

Shino smiled in equal parts amusement and sympathy, and the train began to move. "I knew you weren't really the athletic type, but this is pathetic."

"Well I'm sorry… I'm a pathetic person!" he shot back between wheezes, trying to catch his breath as quickly as possible to retain some iota of his dignity.

He heard Shino laugh, the sound light and good-natured, and suddenly it was ten times harder to breathe. "That's not what I said, stupid. I just said this was pathetic."

"You're pathetic!"

Shino rolled her eyes. "Come on, you baby. Let's take a seat somewhere so you can recover yourself."

Kazuto felt a hand touch his arm. Taking in a decent, calming lungful of air, he straightened and faced Shino, watching as she passed him and found a couple seats halfway down the car. He sighed and walked over, taking the seat directly next to her and settling there comfortably. He blinked when he felt a weight drop onto his shoulder, and turned to find Shino resting against him like she owned the place.

"Today was nice," she said. "I'm glad we could go out with everyone. It was fun."

"If you count me butchering the karaoke, yeah, it was the best thing I've ever done."

Shino chuckled, and despite his slightly bitter mood, Kazuto felt himself smile. "We should do this again sometime."

"That's fine with me," Kazuto shrugged his free shoulder. "Just not anytime soon. That was enough social interaction to last me awhile."

"It was only two hours out with our friends."

"Exactly. Two long, exhausting hours of actually talking to people and physically exhausting myself for a purpose other than personal gain."

"You're so introverted IRL. It's ridiculous," Shino said, a small smile in her voice. "Not that you weren't already socially awkward… Maybe next time we can go with fewer people."

"I don't see how that's going to work," the young man grumbled. "If we only invite a few people, the rest will get upset and then we'll never hear the end of it."

"Then we just don't tell them."

"Someone's going to tell someone."

"Then we don't tell them either."

Brow furrowing, Kazuto looked down at the top of Shino's head. "Then how exactly are they going to know we're hanging out?"

Shino shrugged like it was of no consequence. "I guess they won't."

"But then it would just be the two of us," Kazuto protested. Then he froze, staring down at the soft, ebony hair as the strands tickled his neck. The girl beside him remained quiet for a while, as if waiting for something. "…Like a date?"

There was another pause. "Who knows?"

And then it was silent, the train clacking down the track as Kazuto was left to absorb what was happening.

"Is Shino… asking me out?" he asked himself. But no, wait, she hadn't exactly asked him. She implied she wanted to. The actually asking was supposed to be the guy's job.

"I've been thinking about this for a while anyway," he thought. "I just didn't ask because it was never the right time. But now…"

"Hey, Shino…? You wanna go out on a date with me?" And he meant that with everything he had. Shino Asada has been his best, most trusted friend for almost five years now. At this point, taking the next step seemed only natural. They had actually reached that point long ago if you asked him.

"I thought you'd never ask."

"So… is that a yes?"

Her hand touched his, and their fingers intertwined easily. "What do you think?"

And with that, their train ride continued in peaceful silence.

After about an hour and a half of reminiscing, Kazuto realized they were half an hour out, so he decided to wake up a very reluctant Shino.

"What?" she moaned, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. "I was having an amazing dream. You better have a damn good reason for waking me up from that." She scowled at him, and Kazuto realized he should probably get used to this treatment if she usually woke up this cranky.

"We're about a half an hour out from Kyoto, so I figured I should wake you up now so you would be fully awake by the time we get there," he said nervously, hoping she wouldn't take his head off before the twenty-four-hour mark of their marriage.

Shino sat back in her seat and slowly nodded. "Good call," she said, pouting a little. "I'm guessing she wanted a bit more sleep," Kazuto thought to himself. They decided to pass the rest of the half hour by making idle, if half-hearted on Shino's side, chit-chat. Once they reached the station, Kazuto grabbed their bags from overhead and went onto the platform, quickly followed by Shino. After reaching the platform however, they had a small disagreement over bag distribution.

"Let me carry the big bags, or at least carry mine!" Shino said.

"No, I already have them. Besides, it's the man's job to carry the heavier loads!" Kazuto teased. But not really. Shino crossed her arms and quirked an eyebrow at him. "Yes I know you're manlier than I am," he continued, reluctantly conceding that point. "But at least let me have this." He was practically begging, eyes wide and doleful and definitely not manly. Shino smiled cruelly at him.

"Alright. But just because you look so pathetic begging for it." She laughed as she pinched his cheek and walked ahead of him through the station and out onto the street. "So which hotel are we going to?"

"The Mume. It's modern, but also somewhat out of the way. And it has free breakfast!" Kazuto smiled like he had hit the jackpot. "We just need to walk to the bus stop." Shino rolled her eyes as she started walking. Unfortunately, they missed the first bus, and so had to wait ten minutes for the next one. During that time, they talked some more about this or that, both trying painfully to avoid the obvious topic: what were they expecting to do tonight?

Luckily, the bus came and put an end to their increasingly awkward conversation. During the ride, they tried desperately not to look each other in the eye while talking, instead looking over each other's shoulder. Once they arrived at the bus stop they needed to get off on, neither one could even look at the other. At the bus stop, as Kazuto was pulling their bags out, he heard Shino let out what could only be described as a squeak. When he looked over at her quizzically, all he could see was her hastily attempting to cover her face and the tomato-like complexion it had taken on.

As they approached the black and red entrance to Hotel Mume, they were completely silent, both contemplating the night. When they entered the hotel, however, all thoughts of that were completely erased as they took in the sheer beauty of their hotel. White walls lined with beautiful dark color art works, black furniture tastefully dotted in the foyer and hallways. All-in-all, it was magnificent. Kazuto approached the reception desk.

"Uh, hello...?" he asked tentatively.

"Oh, hello! So sorry, I didn't hear you come in!" the receptionist said, coming from the back room and standing dutifully behind the counter. "How may I help you?"

"I, uh, made a reservation here under the name Kirigaya," said Kazuto, hoping not to sound too nervous. "It was for a honeymoon suite?" he gulped as the receptionist quirked an eyebrow at him and looked behind him to where Shino stood, their small bags in her hand.

The receptionist smiled at him and discreetly gave him a thumbs-up. "Okay, Mr. Kirigaya, let me pull up the record." He typed a few things into his keyboard. "Ah, here you are. Looks like you rented one of the best rooms we have! Here are your keys, and you two enjoy yourselves!" he said as he winked at Kazuto, who in turn politely chuckled.

As they headed down the hall to their room, Kazuto was distracted, so when Shino tapped his arm he nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Kazuto, you passed our room." She said with clear laughter in her voice. "Finding yourself somewhat distracted?" she teased.

Kazuto chuckled lightly. "Yeah, you could say that," he said as he handed her the keys and explained "You're less likely to lose them." She laughed at that, turning to unlock and open the door.

If the foyer was amazing, the room was absolutely stunning. A dark, almost black color covered the walls, red, ornamental murals painted artfully above the bed. On one wall sat a vanity, alongside several wooden ornaments. On the opposite wall was the entrance to the bathroom, which seemed to be a near perfect inverse of the room with mainly white tiles and some black strewn about. The shower was huge, along with all glass sinks. But the best part had to be the small windows off to the side where they could look out into the small garden the hotel kept in its center. Kazuto felt he had outdone himself this time, and apparently so did Shino, because right after they looked around, she kissed him quite passionately. They then set about to unpacking, and Kazuto did his best not to look at Shino's bag.

"Kazuto, it's fine for you to see my underwear now. We're married; you'll be seeing me in a lot less soon enough." That was it. That was the statement that caused it to really sink in for them. They shared a surname now, and not only that, but they were about to see each other like they had never seen before.

"You know, we don't need to do anything tonight…" Kazuto said nervously, a crack to his voice.

"I know that… but, we're married, and this is our wedding night… so shouldn't we at least do something..?" Shino asked quietly, which was abnormal for her.

They both sat on different sides of the bed, contemplating.

"So…" Kazuto said nervously, trying to break the awkward silence. "How do we wanna do this..?"

"I don't know. I've never done this; I was just going to follow your lead," Shino answered, turning to face him and crawled to his side and sat next to him, putting her arm around his torso. "I mean, I assumed you and Asuna…" she trailed off, knowing that was still a bit of a sore spot for the both of them.

"No, we never did it. Well, not IRL, anyway, and certainly not after SAO. She said she wanted to stay pure until marriage," he explained, his arm subconsciously moving around her shoulders.

"That's fair enough. I mean, we've waited this long, haven't we?" she asked trying not to dig up too many painful thoughts.

"Yeah, and that was because you wanted it that way. The only reason it was jarring coming from her was because… let's not talk about this anymore. Tonight, and every night going forward, I'm with you and you only." He turned to her, taking her hand and kissing it gently. "After all, we're stuck together forever now." He held up his left hand to show his wedding band. She smiled at him.

"Yep, I'm stuck with you now whether I like it or not." She held up her left hand too. "Forever and ever." She looked up, meeting his eyes and kissed him. And he kissed back. She moved to his lap to get more comfortable during their now rather intense make out session. However, he hadn't been expecting that, and so he actually fell over onto the bed, knocking the suitcases over and breaking them both out of their stupor.

"Maybe we should finish unpacking first…" Kazuto said, trying to hide his very obvious blush.

"Yes, definitely," Shino said, with just as much blush. However, neither of them moved as they just awkwardly stared at their luggage, packed and carefully folded clothes now currently sitting in heaps on the ground. Neither dared to make eye contact as Shino carefully removed herself from on top of Kazuto, and she was the first to start picking up their clothes in silence until she came upon something that made her burst out laughing, nearly causing Kazuto to jump out of the bed.

"What?" he asked suspiciously. Shino could barely contain her laughter before finally saying something.

"I… I knew… I knew it!" she said between breaths as she pointed to the garment on the floor. There, in plain view to both of them, sat a pair of Kazuto's boxers. A black pair of boxers.

"Oh for…" he sighed, knowing full well he would never hear the end of this. He went and picked up the offending garment and started to sort through the rest of his things, placing it in the closet while Shino was still cracking up at this latest development. " You know, that is just one pair of underwear. I have other colors you know," he said defensively.

"I know, it's just absolutely hilarious!" she said, finally calming down. "I made that comment totally at random! I can't believe I was right!" once she finally calmed down, she got to picking up the rest of her clothes and put them in the closet as well. "Wow, your wardrobe looks brighter already!" she teased, causing him to turn a darker shade of red. She smiled at him and pulled a few things from her side of the closet. "I'm going to go get ready for bed, you should do the same." She then took her clothes and toiletries bag and went into the bathroom. Once the door closed, Kazuto slumped onto the bed.

"Oh boy, what am I gonna do..?" he asked himself. "I have the woman of my dreams getting ready to share a bed with me, and I'm too paralyzed with fear to do anything about it." Instead of dwelling on this, he decided the best course of action was to follow Shino's advice and get ready for bed, which for him entailed wearing a sleeveless shirt and boxers, so all he really did was switch shirts. When he got into bed, it hit him again. This was the bed he was going to share with Shino. This thought once again put his life decisions into doubt. What if I snore and she can't handle it and decides to divorce me? What if she snores and I can't take it? I mean, I could put up with it—I love her after all—but for how long? What if-? The latch on the bathroom door releasing yanked him out of his dark cascade of depressing thoughts and caused him to look up. What he saw made his jaw drop.

There, in the doorway to the bathroom stood a VERY embarrassed, and red-faced, Shino, and Kazuto couldn't blame her. After all, the only thing she was wearing were black lace panties and a very sheer black nightie. With no bra. Kazuto could hardly believe his own eyes. He had always found her attractive, even when they first met, but this was the first time he had truly thought of her as sexy. He sat there in the bed in stunned silence until she spoke, bringing him back to his senses.

"W-well? What do you think…?" she asked quietly, putting her arm across her chest, obviously very much outside her comfort zone. "Rika said you would like it, especially, in her words, 'if you guys have some difficulty the first night.'" Shino fidgeted.

"I really like it, but you don't need to impress me. You look miserable in that thing." Kazuto patted the bed next to him. "Come on, let's just let this happen naturally." He smiled and she took the invitation and practically dove under the covers. She then snuggled up next to him.

"I love you, Kazuto," she said. "I just want tonight to be memorable…"

He smiled at this. "I love you too Shino, and I want the exact same thing." He kissed the top of her head and she looked up at him, and onyx black met steel gray. They shared a kiss, but it was different from the one before, more pure love than the last one they shared. Kazuto broke the kiss momentarily to turn out the light and allow them to have their first night together.