11:41 AM

A rare, hot tear runs down my face. I part my dried and cracked lips and I taste the saltiness of the tear against the bland taste of my mouth. I pinch the bridge of my nose, trying to ward off the painful headache, which is still raging at full power. The images and memories still taunting me.

A sudden stream of light distracts me from the pain for a second. I open my eyes just enough to see Asuna standing in my doorway. She sits next to me on the bed and gently strokes my back. Her's is the kind of touch that gives you pleasant shivers throughout your whole body. I uncurl a little at her touch and suck in a shaking breath.

"I was worried something had happened to you. Something even worse than last night." Asuna's voice sounds like a forced calm. It's as if she's afraid that if she sounds afraid we will both fall apart. I attempt to sit up, but I feel like there is an invisible wall three inches above me, and if I hit it I will be bounced back. I reach my hand out and silently wish that Asuna will take it. She picks up my hand and cups it against her cheek.

Then, as suddenly as it started, the headache stops, along with the flurry of memories. I bolt upright and throw my hands in my lap. All the light around me snuffs out and blackness surrounds me like a heavy blanket. And as if a bullet is shot straight at my head, my head jerks back and I am forced onto my back again.

All I can see is black, but then I find my eyes unable to move from a single spot, and I am unable to blink. And then for only a second, a white word flashes in front of me.

YOU

It sparkles and crackles like a group of run away fireworks, but then it disappears as the sparkles die out, and I'm left in that suffocating blackness. I don't know if there was a whole message, or if that was all I needed to see, but I knew something was wrong.

11:46 AM

I try to throw my hands over my face, but find that I can't move. I soon realize that I am still laying on my bed, and have never even left. Maybe my headache made me momentarily blind, but all I wanted- and needed- now was a notepad and a pen. Knowing that I hadn't moved, I rely on Asuna.

"Asuna… I can't move. I can't see either." I hear her voice from somewhere far away, but the words are unintelligible. I cut off her jumble of sounds. "I can't understand you. Just get me a pen and some paper." The mattress rises from beside me, and I know that Asuna has left. I wait for a while in the darkness and soon feel the mattress sink. I feel the texture of rough paper in my hand.

"No. I can't do anything right now. You need to write this word down for me. Got it? Squeeze my hand for yes." Asuna's warm and slender hand takes the paper from mine and then gives it a tight squeeze. "Okay. Now print the letters: Y-O-U. Then leave it on my desk." Asuna squeezes my hand again and I assume she begins writing.

I feel an itch begin on my nose. Not a good time… I manage to raise my hand enough for it to fall hard on my face. I moved! I smile triumphantly to myself. The blackness melts away from around me but is replaced by the navy blue-black of night time.

I sit up, but find myself already standing. I see a simple and small bed with a single person in it. I turn and see a window, so I move over to look out of it. I see street lights and people dressed in familiar but strange clothes. I squint, trying to get a better view of the scenery. A pillar sits in the far off distance and the town scene below.

I know that town. But from where?

I feel another phantom bullet hit my head, and I am knocked back onto the hard wooden floor. The room disappears in a swirl of smoke, and then I find myself laying on the floor next to my bed, Asuna staring at me with wide eyes. She jumps up off of the bed and lands next to me on her knees. "Kirito, are you all right? Can you hear me? Can you see?" I prop myself up on my elbows and then nod at her. I strain my already overused brain for what that place was called.

I lightly gasp in realization. "Aincrad." Asuna pulls my limp self into a hug. "What about that place? What do you mean?" I hug her back and whisper, "Unh-unh. It's nothing for you to worry about. I just was thinking." Asuna lets out a watery chuckle and hugs me tighter. "Well, at least your brain wasn't burnt to toast." I smile and stroke her silky hair. "At least it wasn't burnt like your toast."

Asuna punches my arm playfully and stands up. "You just went through all that and you make a joke about my cooking? You have some nerve, Kirito." I lay down on the floor and stretch. "That's no-" Asuna sits on my chest and puts her finger over my lips. Her hair falls down onto me and brushes my skin. She leans down just inches above my face and moves her finger. "But it is." And then she kisses me. And kisses. And Kisses. I lightly tickle her neck and then move my head to the side of hers. "You better have shut that door tight."

5:34 PM

I turn off the water in the shower and wrap a towel around my waist. I go out into the hallway and shut the bathroom door behind me. "Asuna, is that food from earlier still good?"

"Uhmm… yeah! It's fine, I'll just add some things and touch it up. 6 o'clock sound good?" I move into my room and begin to dry my dripping wet hair with another towel. "Sure!" I call back, "Meet you at the kitchen table!" I go over to my desk and pick up my phone to call up Yui. Seeing as Asuna is going to make even more food to add to the spectacular meal for tonight, we might as well invite Yui over.

"Hello, Papa!"

"Hey, Yui. You're with Sinon Lizbeth and Leafa right now, right?" I set my towel down on the floor- for now.

"Yes. We're heading over to Leafa's apartment."

"Okay. Well, could you come over to meet Asuna and I around six tonight? We have a big dinner planned, so why not have a small family reunion. I heard you went on a lot of quests these past few months."

"Uh-huh. We did. Umm, Papa?"

"Yes?" I sit in the chair by my computer, as I managed to get half dressed during my conversation with Yui.

"Should I bring anything? I learned a new recipe for a special pudding!"

"Well, we already have a lot of food. But if you really want to bring some, just bring a little."

"Okay! I will, Papa! I'll see you at six!" I can hear Yui bouncing around through the phone.

"Okay. See you then. Bye." I hang up and lean back in my chair. These past few days have been crazier than crazy.

5:57 PM

I log in and arrive at my seat at the table, where I was before I was dissconnected. I guess someone was already in my chair, because I was pushed out of my seat and forced to standing back behind the chair. The experience made my stomach churn, but it was over soon enough.

I lean over the chair and find Yui in my place. I ruffle her hair, "Hey, squirt." She looks up at me and uses her hands to keep mine on her head. "Hi, Papa. You were right, there is a lot of food."

"Well, I wouldn't lie to you, would I?" Yui smiles and pulls my hand down farther to her so she can give it a kiss. "I missed you Papa. and Mama." She probably did, after being away that whole time. "You're here now with us, so why miss what you have?" I snag the seat next to Yui, so I can sit next to both her and Asuna.

Yawning, I stretch and bring up my menu. The digital clock says that It's 5:59 PM. I close my menu and peer over the mountains of food on the table and catch Asuna buttering over some corn. "Master Chef! When will this extravagant meal be complete?"

In an instant, Asuna is beside me and shoves an apple in my mouth. "If you're that hungry, eat something that I didn't take so much time to carefully prepare for all of us to eat and wait." I take the apple out of my mouth, after taking a bite of course, and look up at her food battle-worn face. I spot some chocolate frosting on her nose, no doubt from the three-tiered chocolate cake sitting next to me, and reach up my finger and wipe it off. I stick my finger in my mouth. "Mmm… perfection."

Asuna plants a quick kiss on my cheek and rushes back to the kitchen to finally finish preparing the meal. I can hear a smirk in her voice, "It better be, and don't forget the challenge from earlier!" My brain zooms back to earlier today and I remember the Ragout Rabbit Challenge. I take a small bite of the apple that I'm still holding. "Fear not, young maiden, for I fully am dedicated to the challenge awaiting me."

I hear some smacking and mouth-related sounds to my side, and I turn to see Yui already digging in to some banana bread. Gaping, I stare at her. "Ahh-Su-ahh! Why can Yui eat the food and I can't?" Asuna strides over to the table with a platter with piles of buttered corn on the cob. "Because she's a child and needs to eat and grow. You may be childish, but you are a fully grown adult."

Sometimes I forget that I'm an actual adult, but when I think about it, I feel like I should still be fifteen. Carefree, without any worries besides school. I don't ever really think I act childish, I just… am.

I cross my arms and puff out my cheeks. "I am nawt chiwldiwsh." I feel a jab in my side and see that Yui poked me. "You are too, Papa." I look at Yui, with her still youth rounded face and small hands of a child. I playfully shove her head and smile. "Like you can talk!" Yui and Asuna giggle, and I realize that if Asuna has a baby girl, I'll have to deal with three girls in the house. Oh, what fun that'll be.

Heyo! Sorry if this chapter seemed a little rushed, I got really into it and just wrote whatever popped up next in my mind. I'll try to move the plot more without rushing it next, but I really hate deleting what I'd already written. I've got a mild idea of how the story is gonna continue, but if any of you readers want anything to happen or any other characters (no crossovers) to show up, let me know and I may work them into the story. Thanks! -EverChangingLilies