I'm back! The fluff won't die down for a while, let me assure you. It may not be like last chapter, but it'll be present until we return for the 75th floor boss. Enjoy!

Kirito started his day by landing on the floor. He jerked awake and groggily looked around, wondering where the hell he was. Oh, that was right. He was at the house he shared with Asuna, on the 50th floor. Asuna. Speaking of his partner, he heard angelic laughter from somewhere. Looking up the side of his bed, his eyes landed on his chestnut haired partner clutching her sides, laughing very hard. She was still in her nightgown, and Kirito couldn't help but notice she actually seemed relaxed.

"Why?" He asked, and Asuna seemed to notice he was awake.

"Oh, morning Kirito-kun" She said, wiping her eyes from the laughter. "Sleep well?"

"I was" He snapped, laying his head back on the floor. "Until I was rudely interrupted by someone pushing me off my bed" Asuna seemed a little confused, but Kirito saw the playful glint in her eyes.

"Really?" She asked. "Who would've done that?"

"Don't know" he replied. "But whoever it was is in for it, I can assure you that" Asuna placed her hands on her hips as she watched him playfully.

"What'll you do when you catch them?" She asked. Kirito shrugged.

"I don't know, I may tickle them to death" Kirito's threat got the intended reaction, as Asuna's eyes widened a little.

"Really?"

"Yep." He stretched and yawned. "I really feel bad for whoever pushed me, they'll pay for it" It took Asuna all of four seconds to jump off his bed and sprint away, and Kirito sighed as he got up off the floor and walked leisurely through the house looking for her. "Asuna? Asuna, where'd you go?" he obviously got no response, which only made him grin. "I don't know why you're hiding from me, what did I do?" Silence replied to him, and he sighed. "Are you trying to teach me what happens when I solo floor bosses? because if that's the case I'm really disappointed in you" He was met with silence again, and Kirito chuckled. He stepped into her room and did a quick sweep, not seeing anyone around. He looked at her closet closely, trying to see through it. He sighed again. "Alright," he called loudly. "I'm going to leave, stop hiding when I come back, got it?" He wasn't actually leaving, mind you. He opened and closed the door, pretending to leave. After that, he laid down in front of the couch and waited for her. Sure enough, he heard Asuna step out into the living room, and she sighed.

"Did he actually leave?" She heard her ask, and he repressed a laugh. As soon as he heard her get close, he jumped up and grabbed her, throwing her down onto the couch, and she squealed. "Kirito-kun, where the...?"

"Never mind that" Kirito replied, pinning her down. "I told you whoever woke me up so rudely would be punished"

"But.."

"No buts. Now..." Kirito placed a hand on Asuna's side and began to tickle her, causing her to squeal again. Kirito laughed along with her. "What was that, Asuna? I can't hear you"

"Sto-sto-stop Kiri-Kirito-ku-kun, I-I can't..."

"Sorry what?"

"Sto-stop!"

"Are you sorry?"

"Y-yes!"

"Sure?"

"P-positive!"

"I don't believe you."

"Wha..?" Kirito released her wrist and began to tickle her with both hands, and she began to laugh even harder, her words not even making sense anymore. All Kirito understood was a series of words that sounded like stop and maybe a 'I'm going to die'. He laughed.

"Are you really sorry?" He asked sweetly, causing her to nod her head vigorously Kirito finally decided to release her, and she stopped shaking violently, taking a few shaky breaths before she laughed.

"Why..." She managed to say, and Kirito smiled.

"Because you were rude when you woke me up"

"Fair enough, I suppose" They were quiet before Kirito stretched again.

"Now, what's for breakfast?" Asuna sighed.

"Why do I have to make it?"

"Because if i did we'd have to find anew place to live:

"Well, can't argue there." Asuna got up and walked to the fridge, quickly checking inside for anything they could eat. "There really isn't anything here, so you're out of the luck"

"Damn" Kirito replied, hanging his head off of the couch. "Well, where are you taking me for breakfast?"

"Where I'm taking you?"

"Yeah, I took you out last time, now it's your turn"

"I didn't realize we were taking turns." She was silent for a moment as Kirito rocked his feet up in the air. "Well, there is this one place back on the 1st floor."

"What city?" Kirito asked.

"Tolbana" Asuna replied. "The city we met in, remember?"

"Yeah" Kirito remembered that day well. He and Asuna had partnered up for the boss raid, and had worked together ever since. They had interacted before that, but not to any real extent. "What's so special about it?"

"Nothing much, really. Just want to go there for nostalgia is all"

"Never pegged you one for that kind of thing"

"You don't really know all that much about me anyway, Kirito-kun" She replied. "Our partnership has always been very uptight, in case you don't remember." Kirito knew what she meant. The first few months they were partnered up Kirito was a pretty closed book. That seemed to change somewhat after the whole Black Cats fiasco. Kirito felt rather bad that in all the time they'd spent together, neither had taken the chance to open up about their real life to the other. Kirito nodded.

"Alright, let's go" She nodded and went back to her room to change, and Kirito waited. He contemplated what they could do, and Kirito decided that he was going to try and get to know her, in real life. It could go either way truthfully, but Kirito felt like he should know something other then what she looked like. Asuna came back out and they left the house together, and headed towards the teleportation gate. "Teleport to Tolbana" Kirito said, and they disappeared.

Kirito followed Asuna through the city, and reminisced about it. Asuna pointed towards a plant in the middle of a formation of stone.

"Remember that?" She asked. "That's where you gave me that butter for my bread" Kirito remembered that now, and nodded. Asuna seemed to be dragging him in a specific direction, and he followed loyally. Finally, they reached a little quaint place and took a seat across from Asuna. He ordered what he wanted and waited in silence, finally deciding to speak up.

"Hey Asuna" he said. "This morning got me thinking."

"About what?"

"About how we don't really even know each other" he watched her gaze carefully, trying to discern what she was thinking. "Don't you think it would be a good thing to do?" Asuna hummed.

"I kind of figured we would do that after we cleared the game." She replied, playing with the napkin dispenser.

"Assuming we don't clear the game."

"That's a bit morbid."

"Asuna..." He trailed off, watching her innocent look. "Alright, how about he start with real names?" Asuna gave him a confused look.

"You know it"

"What?" It took Kirito a moment to realize what Asuna was saying, and he chuckled. "Your game name is your real name? Who does that?"

"Shut up, I couldn't think of one" She replied. "What about you?"

"Kirigaya Kazuto, at your service" He replied, doing a pathetic little bow over the table. Asuna giggled.

"Yuuki Asuna, nice to meet you" They shook hands, and Kirito couldn't deny he felt a little stupid, acting like they'd just met. Asuna shrugged. "I'm still going to call you Kirito-kun, though"

"More used to it, I'll wager?"

"Yeah"

Asuna burst out laughing at Kirito's story, and he couldn't help but feel a little offended.

"I told you not to laugh, Asuna" He said sheepishly. Asuna continued to laugh though, and he couldn't help but feel a little stupid. Asuna wiped the tears from her eyes.

"I'm...I'm sorry, Kirito-kun, I'm being rude...In front of everyone?"

"...Yes" Asuna entered a fresh wave of laughter and Kirito grumbled angrily. "Can you stop laughing at me?"

"I'm sorry, really. It's just..." Shes stifled another laugh. "I wasn't expecting that when you said embarrassing story you can't forget about."

"Good to know you find my insecurity so entertaining"

"I really do" Kirito did a quick time check and noticed it was about no one now, four whole hours since they'd started talking, and although Asuna had laughed at him, he did feel a lot better knowing her a little bit. He now knew she came from a protective rich family (Although he'd already known that, as she'd known about his family a little) and that her mother was controlling. Well, Asuna had said it like 'controlling was putting in nicely' or something like that. Kirito yawned.

"Maybe we should go now" Kirito said. "I'm getting bored."

"Oh, sorry my life story isn't worthy of a movie"

"Nah, more of a soap opera, honestly." They glared at each other for a moment before Asuna nodded.

"Alright, let's go"

"Where to?"

"I don't know, where do you want to go?" If Kirito were to answer honestly, he'd have to say the front lines. He knew Asuna wouldn't like that answer, seeing as they were on vacation and all, but Kirito couldn't lie and say the lack of action in the past few days was making him antsy. He shrugged.

"I don't really care, truthfully" He watched Asuna tense up a bit.

"Well, I had this idea, but.. I wanted to okay it with you"

"What is it?"

"Ever since the whole thing with the Black Cats, I've wanted too..." Asuna trailed off, and Kirito wondered what she wanted to do. "I've wanted to pay my respects to them, at the Black Iron Palace." Kirito was silent for a moment, mauling it over. He'd wanted to do the same, but his pain and insecurity from the memories often kept him away. He could tell it would mean a lot to Asuna, and the whole point of this vacation was too help her relax. Kirito sighed.

"Sounds like a great idea" He replied. He could tell him agreeing brightened her up a bit, and he followed her back to the teleportation gate and they went back to starting town.

Kirito's feet felt like lead as he followed Asuna into the palace and towards the wall. Asuna headed straight for the part of the wall where floor 22 was. Kirito followed her and he watched as Asuna ran her hand down the list, until she found their names.

"There they are..." She murmured. "Sachi, Tetsuo, Sasamaru, Ducker..." Kirito placed his hand on the names as well, feeling a wave of regret wash over him. Why had he been so stupid? He promised to protect her, and he couldn't. He paused his hand over Sachi's name, and he felt Asuna place her hand over his. "Stop it." She hissed. "It wasn't your fault, we did everything we could"

"I know" He replied quietly, "But sometimes I feel like our everything wasn't enough"

"Of course it wasn't" Asuna hissed. "If it was, we wouldn't be here feeling sorry for ourselves. Sachi said it herself, if she was dead it wasn't your fault." Kirito nodded as he fought the tears back from his eyelids, doing his best not to break down in front of her as he'd done when they received Sachi's Christmas message. Kirito slowly looked across the wall, seeing a name here and there he recognized, and it only made the pain worse. When he reached floor 74, he saw Kovats' name on top of the other two men who had died fighting Gleam Eyes. Kirito felt as if he was being punched in the gut when he realized Asuna had expected to see his name here, right along with Kovats and his men. Would she have been able to handle that? He doubted it. If he felt this bad for people he'd already known and a guild he'd been in for a few months, how could Asuna handle losing him after two years? He couldn't fathom it. He was going to do another loop around the wall when Asuna tugged at his arm. "Come on." She mumbled. "This place is depressing me" He nodded quietly as they exited the palace, Kirito keeping his depressing analogy about her losing him to himself. He wasn't going to depress her any further.

"Well" Kirito said, trying to regain some sense of control over his emotions. "What now?" Asuna sniffled as she shrugged.

"I don't know, it's getting kind of late." Kirito noticed this as well, they had spent quite some time in the palace, and Kirito noticed he was pretty hungry. "How about we get something to eat?"

"I was hoping you could make something, honestly" Kirito replied. "I'd just like to go home" Asuna nodded, deep in thought.

"Alright" She replied. "You go home and relax, and I'll go get some ingredients, alright?"

"Don't run off" Kirito warned with a small grin. Asuna punched him in the shoulder.

"As if" She replied. "I didn't go through all that emotional trauma of almost losing you too run off."

"Just checking"

"Yeah, yeah" Kirito watched as Asuna strode off away from him, throwing a wave over her shoulder as she did. Kirito chuckled as he went to the teleportation gate, going back to the 50th floor.

Asuna had been gone for 4 hours, and it was now seven. Kirito tapped his finger on his leg impatiently, his patience having long since disappeared to make room for his growing appetite. Kirito wondered where the hell Asuna had gone. She was getting ingredients, not beating up a floor boss. Kirito sighed as he began to pace the room in irritation. Just as he was about to go and look for her, the door opened, revealing his partner in question.

"What the hell took you so long?" Kirito demanded, and Asuna stuck her tongue out at him.

"You'll see"She replied coyly, turning to the kitchen and taking her ingredients out of her inventory and began too cook.

"So," Kirito began. "What's on the menu tonight, princess?" Asuna gave him a look halfway between irritation at the nickname and a smirk.

"Well," She began "I did want to try and find a possible substitute for Ragout Rabbit, but that's..."|

"Impossible"

"Yeah. So, I just looked around for any decent meat and found this."

"What is it?"

"Not sure, but the rating was pretty good, so I grabbed it" Kirito rolled his eyes at his partner's way of choosing what to eat. Sure it made sense, but still. Kirito felt his mouth water as the smell hit him in full force, and Asuna giggled. "Why does my cooking always have that effect on you?"

"Maybe because it's amazing" Kirito managed to reply, staring into the bubbling vat as Asuna put it in the oven.

"Now," She said. "We wait"

"I hate waiting"

"I know, I know"

Kirito sat back on the couch and sighed as he reminisced about the meal he'd just finished. It was no Ragout Stew, but it was still pretty damn good. Asuna sat next to him and she yawned.

"I'm beat" She murmured. "Today's been pretty busy."

"Between eating, tickling, getting to know each other better, and paying respects, I have to say I agree with you." Asuna nodded and Kirito saw her eyes droop. He chuckled.

"You should go to bed, Asuna" he said, pushing her slightly with his arm. "You're going to fall asleep"

"I'm fine Kirito-kun...really..." Asuna replied, doing her best to keep her eyes open. "I'm not that tired..."

"You are, don't even lie" Kirito replied. "Go to bed"

"Don't tell me what to do" Asuna growled, but it sounded more like a whine. "I can go to bed if I want to"

"Alright, whatever you say" Kirito said with a grin. He sat in silence, enjoying way to much, the fact that Asuna was trying so hard to stay awake, if for nothing else then to prove a point. He felt her head connect with his shoulder, and he chuckled. "Told you" She didn't respond, and Kirito looked over to find his partner out cold, sleeping soundly. Kirito didn't, unfortunately, have the heart to move her, she looked to cute. Kirito made himself as comfortable as he could, moving back slightly to get better support for his neck. Kirito watched as Asuna curled up against him like he was a pillow, clutching him tightly.

It was going to be a long night.

This chapter was nice and useless, but, it's just to ill in the space between the break and floor 75. Hope you enjoyed, leave a review!