A/N: Well, it's been a while. You can probably tell I'm getting busier because my chapters are becoming fewer and farther in between, but regardless, enjoy!

Seven - Reunion

"I can sell you the information you want, but it'll cost you," said the information broker in the brown cloak. "I don't take player info like this lightly. Plus, Kirito is one of my best clients, and I'm not sure he wants you to know."

"Please? Argo I'm begging you." The black-haired girl pressed.

"Fine. That'll be… 10,000 cor."

"10,000?! Are you crazy?"

"Info like this doesn't come cheap."

"Fine." Sinon gave up. Opening a trade window to pay the info broker, she sighed. Why am I going through all this just to find one guy?

Argo grinned slyly. "Alright. Kirito is in a guild called 'The Moonlit Black Cats' Their base is on the 11th floor, in the city Taft. Honestly… I don't know why he would join a guild like that…"

"Like what?" Sinon asked, interested.

"It's gonna cost you!" Argo teased.

Sinon ground her teeth in frustration, not willing to give up more cor. "Thanks Argo, that's enough." She turned to leave.

"Okay, come back soooon~!" Argo called after her.

Ugh.

Stepping off of the teleport gate platform, Sinon admired floor 11. Taft was a colourful town, it's design based off of southern European cities. In the day, it was lively and joyful. At night, the candles that lit the streets were welcoming and invited you into a nice inn for a night of rest. She opened her map to find the waypoint Argo had set in her map. Good. It's not too far. Half-walking, half-jogging, Sinon reached the location- a quaint little inn that seemed to be the perfect balance of price and comfort- and opened the door. Heading to where the NPC innkeeper was sitting, she unequipped her armour.

"Hello, miss. Can I get you something?" The kindly old man asked.

Sinon had always felt nervous talking to strangers, especially in situations like this. It's an NPC! She told herself. Get a grip! "Actually, I was wondering if you could tell me who was staying in the inn?"

"I'm not sure I can tell you that, miss. Privacy is important, especially in an inn." He responded. It seemed he was connected to the language core, as his speech was pretty advanced.

"I just need something really vague, I think a-a friend I haven't seen a long time is staying here." She pleaded.

"Okay… I guess I can tell you that. Right now, the only people staying here- hmm, let me see. One with reddish hair, with the same colour armour… Another with blonde hair who always wears a hat… A tall one with a purple tunic. There was also another boy with a green tunic. There was also a very pretty girl in blue. I think that's it." The innkeeper finished.

Sinon's hopes sank. None of those people sounded like Kirito. Plus, what would Kirito be doing on floor 11?! Damn that Argo…

"Wait…" The man's voice broke her thoughts. "There was also another one that came in… One with black hair, and a cloak? That one looked so depressing, dressing in all black like that…" He trailed off.

Sinon unintentionally broke into a wide grin. That was definitely Kirito. "Thank you!" She said, before quickly bounding up the stairs, leaving the innkeeper scratching his head. Knocking on the first door, she could only describe her current feelings as excitement. That was, until she waited… and waited, and waited. Nobody answered. It was the same for all of the doors. Sinon was heartbroken. Nobody was there. Where the hell could he be?!

Ducker, Tetsuo, Sachi, Sasamaru and Kirito were roaming through a dungeon on the second floor. The had decided to farm hard to improve their levels to impress Keita when he returned from buying a home, from the amount of cor the guild had saved up.

"As of this moment, we, the Moonlit Black Cats, have saved up 200,000 cor!" Keita exclaimed.

"Wow!" Everyone had said. With the addition of Kirito, the guild had been grinding more and more, and they had reached 200,000 cor.

"This means… We can buy ourselves a guild home!" Keita beamed.

Shouts of victory and glee could be heard throughout the halls of the inn.

"We should get Sachi better equipment!" One of them suggested.

"N-no, I'm okay," She had insisted.

"Come on, we can't keep making Kirito solo in the front all the time!" Keita joked. "I know switching roles is tough, but you're close!"

"No, I'm alright with being in the front," Kirito had said.

"Hey guys! Look at this!" Kirito was shaken out of his thoughts by Ducker, who was examining a glowing pattern on the wall. Putting his hand on it, the wall dropped away, revealing a room with a lone chest in the middle.

I have a bad feeling about this… Kirito thought.

"Aww yeah! A treasure room!" Ducker exclaimed, running towards the chest, to open it.

"Ducker! Wait!" Kirito yelled.

Ignoring Kirito, Ducker opened the chest. His dismayed look when he saw nothing in it, changed to horror and shock, when the door closed behind them, and the room became tinted red. More walls dropped into the floor, revealing hordes of high-level mobs.

It was a trap! I knew it! Kirito thought, as he hacked and slashed through them. Half of them were dwarf-like things, wielding what looked to be sharpened pickaxes. The other half were unarmed creatures made of stone. He didn't need to be told that getting hit by one of those would probably result in a good chunk of even his HP going down the drain.

"Guys! Get out of here!" He yelled. Complying, the others immediately pulled teleport crystals from their inventories.

"Teleport, Taft!" Ducker yelled. The crystal had no effect. "Teleport, Taft!" He yelled again, frantically.

Realization dawning on her, Sachi was horrified. "We can't use our crystals!"

Ducker, who was still distracted by trying to make his crystal work, was caught by one of the dwarf-like mobs. He was thrown to the ground, and pummelled by multiple sharp blades, until, with a final cry of anguish, he broke into a thousand polygons. The other guild members weren't faring well either.

Aargghh! Kirito heard a yell, coming from his right. Tetsuo was suspended in midair, his mace falling from his hands, breaking into pieces of colourful light. Sasamaru quickly followed, his spear becoming stuck in one of the rock-creatures. Immobilized, he took a swipe from the immensely strong creature, and his HP also hit 0.

Damn it! Sachi! I have to protect her! I PROMISED! Kirito flew into an enraged frenzy, dodging, swiping and stabbing.

"Kirito!" He heard a voice. Sachi was doing surprisingly well, fending off multiple rock-monsters with her javelin.

"Sachi! Hold on!" Kirito yelled.

Turning to the sound of his voice, Sachi stopped fighting, and reached for him.

No! Keep fighting! Ke- Thck! The sickening sound of a rock claw digging into virtual flesh made Kirito scream. "NO!"

As Sachi disappeared into crystals, Kirito fought harder than he had ever fought before. He felt as if the only way to make it up to her would be to avenge each and every one of their deaths. Making his way to the centre of the room, slowly but surely, Kirito sliced through the chest. As it dissolved into floating shards of light, the movement of the mobs around him ground to a halt. It was over… The room returned to it's regular blue ambient light, and the door opened. Kirito vaguely registered a figure standing there before he blacked out, from pain, exhaustion, grief or a combination of all three? He couldn't tell.

"Kirito!" Sinon yelled, as she saw the wall open to reveal a staggering swordsman dressed in black. She ran towards him, a smile plastered on her face, when he tipped, and hit the ground, hard. Her look of happiness changed to a look of sheer horror, as the cuts all over his body gradually began to render. "Kirito?" She knelt down next to him, and shook him. "Kirito!" He still didn't wake up. "Klein!" She yelled to her partner, who had come with her to track him. "I need a hand!" Sinon shoved a health potion into his mouth, slowly recovering his HP, which had dropped to the low red.

Klein ran in, a look of confusion written onto his scruffy face. "Oi, Sinon! What's- is that Kirito!?" He said happily.

"Yeah." Her tone was bitter. "He's unconscious, though. Can you give me a hand?"

"O-oh. Sure." He said, walking over and slinging Kirito over his shoulder.

The sound of the boy stirring in his sleep woke Sinon from her trance-like state. Klein had carried Kirito back to the inn she was staying inn, and said he had had to go with his guild-mates, and for Sinon to take care of him. She had been sitting next to the bed for the past hour, waiting for Kirito to wake up. After ten minutes, she was biting her nails in anxiety. After thirty, she had resorted to resting in a trance-ish state, to wait for him to wake up. Sinon shrieked in surprise as Kirito suddenly sat up.

"What the hell! Where am I?!" He spouted, with no shortage of random cuss words.

"Kirito, calm down. You're safe." Sinon said, worriedly. She put her hand on his, which seemed to calm him down. He lowered his head, and was silent. Sinon swore she could see a tear making it's way down his cheek, towards his chin.

"Tetsuo… Ducker… Sasamaru… Sachi… I failed them all." He muttered, so quietly that Sinon could barely hear him.

Tetsuo… Sachi? Who are those people- wait, didn't Klein say that Kirito was with a guild…? Oh, no… Not again… Sinon thought, dejectedly. Kirito had already been through so much, for her, for everybody else. And now this. What did he do to deserve any of this? She surprised him and herself by impulsively wrapping her arms around him. She was somewhat discouraged when she didn't feel a pair of arms wrap around her as well, but she shook it off. I shouldn't expect him to hug me back. She told herself, sadly.

She could feel him convulsing, fighting back sobs. "I never got to thank you," She said. The convulsions rapidly came to a stop. "Neither did Asuna. We've been worrying ourselves sick. I haven't been able to sleep properly for a whole four months. You jerk." She said quietly, stroking his hair. "Thank you for saving our lives. We would have been dead…" Sinon shuddered at the thought of what the cloaked men would've been able to do to them if Kirito hadn't shown up.

She pulled back to see that Kirito was looking up at her. "You… couldn't sleep? I'm sorry…" He said, with a sad smile. "I… I saved you?"

"Mm hmm. We would've been dead for sure… It was so stupid of us, getting stuck in that dungeon. I don't even know how I was able to send a PM to you… it must've been a bug or something." She said, genuinely grateful. She then felt a sudden rush of anger. "Plus, what the freaking hell were you thinking just abandoning us like that?! You just left. I couldn't contact you, nobody could! I wanted to kill myself, you know? Everything you had to do… it was our fault. Asuna's and mine. We'll never be able to repay you…" She said, calming down again.

"Your fault? No… it wasn't your fault. I didn't even have to kill them. They could have been disabling wounds…" His vision went dark again. He could see their gruesome faces, maimed and beaten. Their voices crying out to him.

Murderer. You're a monster! They screamed.

"Hey, hey. It's okay. They would have killed all of us if you didn't… and even if we got away, they would've been back for all of us, you know that, right?" Sinon's gentle voice brought Kirito out of his visions. Feeling the tension in his shoulders relax, she sighed. Letting go of him to walk away, she was interrupted by Kirito grabbing her arm.

"Sinon… Thank you. I've always blamed myself, and thought I was a monster… But that's okay, because I was saving the people that were… that were close to me." He said.

Touched by his comment, Sinon smiled warmly. "Yeah." She reassured him.

"B-but… Sachi… The Moonlit Black Cats…" He started to convulse again.

"It's not your fault, Kirito! They couldn't have known it was a trap…" She pulled him into a hug again. "Knowing you, they probably dragged you in there against your own will." Feeling him relax a little, she knew she guessed right. "You couldn't have done anything about it."

Kirito was too tired to dwell on the topic. He had just spent an hour unconscious, but that didn't serve to remove his exhaustion from having to clear the trap room. Yawn. "Sinon, I'm kinda tired…" He said, itching to change the topic. "Do you mind if I crash here for tonight?" He asked, too exhausted for awkwardness."

Sinon, completely forgetting that she was in her inn room, which only had one bed, was only thinking of being kind to the boy that had been through so much, when she replied cheerfully. "Yeah, sure!"

Sighing, Kirito flopped onto his back, his head returning to the indentation he had already made in the pillow from the hour he had spent there. In almost no time at all, his eyes had closed, and he had drifted off to sleep.

She had been staring at Kirito's face for a few seconds when a sudden realization smacked her in the head and she fell back. Holy crap! I just let him sleep in the only bed in the room! She thought to herself. Her face turning a deep scarlet red, the realization dawned on her. If I want to get any sleep at all, I'll have to sleep there. With him. She thought to herself, resigning herself to extreme embarrassment, now that nobody could see her. Her ears burning, she quickly changed into her pyjamas, and as discretely as she could, climbed in the covers on the opposite side of Kirito. Turning her back to him, she could feel the still sleeping Kirito unconsciously move a little closer.

It took a while for the blush to leave her cheeks, leaving her only with the feeling of warmth, from Kirito's body heat. She pulled the soft comforter up a little higher- to her cheekbone, and resigned herself to the irresistible call of sleep.

A/N: So there's chapter 7! Yeah... I'm glad that's over. For some reason, I don't like the Moonlit Black Cats. Like, at all. Also, you'll notice I'm back to third person, as a personal choice, because I thought it went back to the roots of the story and the way I wanted to do it when I started it, but if you guys REALLY REALLY want first person back, I'll bring it back. Also, I know this is the dreaded thing, but this concept is only getting SLIGHTLY boring and I MAY OR MAY NOT be implementing a huge time skip just to move things along. Oh yeah, and let me know if you like this idea: Sinon and Kirito are special operatives in real life, OR OR maybe a crossover with FMA where they're state alchemists. If you like those ideas, lemme know. Because that's the next fic I'll be writing - but I want to keep it so I'm only working on one story at a time. Anyway, that should be all this time. OH YEAH and I just uploaded this without the approval of my betas this time, because it's been a while since I uploaded and I wanted to get the chapter out. Plus, I beta'd it myself and couldn't find anything - Sorry, guys :P.

Until next time,

-TheSilentSwordsman