A/N: HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! To me and Fel, anyway. A year ago today, was the day i posted the first chapter to this story! AND it marks my being a continuously active member/writer on this site for an entire year. I consider that a great accomplishment considering i never gave up on my writing. And congrats to Fel for existing for an entire year :)

Chapter 26: Luck and Idiocy

2024/07/18 (elapsed time: two days)

"Ryner, wait!"

The knight looked back at the little thief in exasperation. "Fel, come on! We've talked about this."

"I know we did!" The girl snapped, planting her foot firmly on the ground. "I just—"

"No one hates you, if that's what you were thinking."

"They still do, Ryner, but that's not really what worries me." The girl shook her head and turned her face towards the ground. "I'm really just afraid that he hates me."

The knight contemplated the girl's words as he looked down at her. She stood there, not moving as agitated thoughts continued to swirl around in her head.

His opinion really meant that much to her, huh?

Sighing, Ryner placed a hand on his companion's shoulder. "You guys have known each other for how long? I'm sure he doesn't hate you."

Felicita pouted slightly. "How can you be so sure?"

The knight shrugged. "Well, I've known you for longer and I don't hate you."

The thief frowned in thought at that. Was it really that simple?

Ryner nudged her shoulder. "Come on. Let's go." He urged her, walking ahead. After a few paces, the boy looked back to check if she was following him. Of course, she wasn't. She was just standing there, that doubtful expression still on her face. With a sigh, Ryner turned around and walked back over to her. Filled with purpose, he stopped directly in front of her, grabbed her hand, and began to walk again, dragging the girl along behind him.

Felicita blinked at his forcefulness and looked down at their entwined hands. His hand was a bit larger than hers, and seemed to almost engulf her petite one. But it looked… natural, somehow. And it felt that way too. His skin was warm, maybe a little rough, but holding it just gave the girl a sort of secure feeling.

It was a lot of data considering they were just pixels.

The two of them continued to walk along the streets of Grandzam, their boots clopping against the cobblestone as they went. They were on their way to find a certain someone. A certain darkly-dressed, antisocial someone who tended to keep to himself. They were on their way to find the Black Swordsman, the one and only Kirito.

Felicita wasn't really looking forward to the upcoming encounter with the boy she considered to be her older brother, but she knew that she had to see him. She had to do it and she wanted to… She was just afraid of what was going to happen.

Dammit, there's that feeling again, Felicita cursed inside her mind. She took a deep breath, recalling her new mindset. She had to turn her fear into something else. She had to redirect it to benefit her, keep it from dragging her down. Unconsciously, she gripped Ryner's hand a little tighter.

Finally, the two of them reached the large building known as KoB HQ. Ignoring the guards at the front, Ryner pushed the doors open, dragging the girl behind him. Once they were inside, the two of them stopped in the center of the room and looked around.

Felicita did a three-sixty, or at least, the best one she could while still holding Ryner's hand. She didn't see anyone, which wasn't good, considering her courage was already deflating.

"Ok. No one's here. Let's leave." The thief said hurriedly as she headed back toward the door.

"Wait a minute!" Ryner used his weight to pull on her hand, preventing her from gaining any more ground. "Where are you going?"

Felicita whirled on him, pulling back with her own weight, which really didn't help much so she relied on her virtually acquired strength. "I said, I'm leaving! He's not here, ok! This was a bad idea!"

"No! It's not! You barely looked around!"

There was more struggling as the two of them played tug-of-war with their arms as the rope. If they had been in the real world, they probably would have pulled some joints out of their sockets with the force they were using. There was a bunch of grunting and yelling coming from them, and it could easily have been said that the whole building could hear them.

"…Fel?"

The thief and the knight ceased their struggles, seeming to freeze in place as they stared, wide-eyed, at the place where the voice had come from. Not too far away from them, was Kirito. He just stood there, his dark eyes blinking as he stared at them doing… whatever they had been doing.

"K-Kirito."

"Uh… Hey." He waved awkwardly.

The other two stood up straight, looking at him.

"…Hi." The petite girl said, just as stiffly.

For a brief second, Kirito's eyes fixated on something in between the two of them: their interlocked hands.

The knight and the thief seemed to notice this, and quickly let go of each other, their faces burning.

A small smile appeared on Kirito's lips. "So. How's it going?"

Instead of answering verbally, Felicita's almond-colored eyes snapped to his onyx ones. Their intensity caught the swordsman's attention, so he stared back. They stood there for a long time, just staring at each other, reading each other's faces. Ryner watched on in silence, trying to decipher this unspoken communication between them.

After what felt like an eternity, Felicita began to tremble. Without warning, she rushed forward and crashed into Kirito, her arms wrapping around his middle.

"I'm sorry, Kirito." She muttered into his shirt, her hands were fisted tightly into the back of his coat. "I'm so sorry."

Surprised, Kirito just stood there for a second, his arms in the air by his sides, but after a while of feeling her small, warm body trembling against him, he smiled gently and returned her embrace.

"It's ok, Fel." He assured her, looking down at the top of her head. "It's ok."

The girl just shook her head and leaned back so she could look up at him. "No. No, it's not. After… after everything you helped me with, everything that's happened, I-I just pushed you away. How could I do that? You've done so much for me and I—"

"Hey." The boy said, stopping her midsentence. "It's fine, really. I'm just glad that you're talking to me again."

The girl just looked at him, searching his face once more. In the end, however, she smiled and hugged him again. After a minute of making up with her older brother figure, Felicita let go of him.

"Wait. So what are you doing here? I didn't even know if you would be here or not."

"Uh…" The swordsman glanced behind her awkwardly. Felicita furrowed her eyebrows before following his gaze.

"…Ryner?"

Said teen rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Yeah. I messaged him."

The girl blinked. "You did?"

"Haha… yeah. I knew that this was kind of important to you. I just wanted to make sure… y'know."

"…Aw. That was sweet." The girl finally teased, going up to him to pat his hair. "Thanks, Ryner."

He just narrowed his eyes at her, faking annoyance.

Once the girl was done, she smiled brightly, much more like her old self. "So. I guess next would be Asuna. Did you message her too, Ryner?"

Ryner shrugged. "Didn't have to. She's already here."

"Great. Let's go find her."

"Do you mind if I tag along?" Kirito asked.

The former thief pursed her lips in thought. "I suppose you're allowed to come." She said, suddenly sounding formal. "I bet you're just using this as an excuse to see Asuna, though."

Kirito's cheeks went slightly red. "What? No I'm not!"

The girl shrugged, a smirk playing at her lips. "I can't blame you, I mean, she's pretty hot."

"That-That has nothing to do with this!"

"Ha! So you admit that you think she's attractive!"

"Stop putting words in my mouth!"

A hand suddenly clapped Kirito's shoulder. "Good luck, man." Ryner sighed. He had worked closely with Asuna long enough to know what kind of person she was. The vice-commander was strong and beautiful, sure, with a great sense of duty to help and protect others, but she tended to take things a little seriously, even too literally at times. Not to mention she could be intimidating when she wanted to be. She would be a difficult one.

Kirito looked at the other male, his expression showing just how horrified he was. "What?"

Felicita just gave him a thumbs up, feeling very amused by his embarrassment. As they began to walk, Kirito was quiet, deep within his own thoughts. After a while, Felicita noticed how broody he was and turned to look at him, her eyebrows raised.

"What's up, Kirito-kun?"

His eyes slightly narrowed, as if he were still thinking, Kirito finally answered, "Aren't I on your friends list? Couldn't you have found me that way?"

The girl froze mid-step, her brain going blank for a few seconds. Then, as if realizing she were an idiot, she face-palmed. At this, Kirito smirked, knowing that he had gotten her back. Fel saw his smug face and just continued to walk, more like stomp, down the hall.

"Shut up, Kirito."

A few minutes later, the trio found themselves outside one of the KoB's many meeting rooms. Peeking through the doorway, Felicita could see that Asuna was indeed inside. Her back was facing them though, and Fel could only tell it was her by her hair and the silver rapier at her side. The girl in gray glanced at the boys behind her, a sheepish smile on her face. Ryner just crossed his arms and stood firmly in her way, as knowing that she was considering an escape. Kirito, on the other hand, had a hand on his hip, an eyebrow raised as if to ask 'well?'

With a sigh, the girl conceded defeat and slowly made her way into the room. Almost immediately, eyes snapped to her, and she felt herself shrink at the hostility of them. Ryner may have thought that she was a human being, but that didn't mean that these guys did.

Speaking of Ryner, the knight saw his colleagues' glares and went to stand in their line of sight, sending a glare of his own their way. When they noticed him, they looked at him briefly before going back to their tasks.

"Come on." Ryner muttered, encouragingly nudging Felicita onward. The girl nodded gratefully and began to walk. She blinked as she noticed how Kirito and Ryner were walking on either side of her, almost as if they were her bodyguards.

Finally, they reached the Lightning Flash as she was just finishing up a conversation with one of her subordinates. Apparently, they were almost done organizing their little subjugation force.

"Um… Asuna?"

The girl stopped what she was doing at that voice, and turned to find Felicita standing there, one hand fingering the hilt of the knife at her side. Asuna glanced up to see Ryner and Kirito there as well, before looking down at the small girl again.

"Felicita?"

"Hey." The girl replied awkwardly. "Listen, uh, I just wanted to apologize for how I've been acting lately. It was rude and I shouldn't have—oof." Suddenly, she found herself crushed against Asuna's red and white armor.

"You know what? It's fine. I'm just glad that you're doing better."

Felicita just blinked, standing there unsure of what to do. How could Ryner, Kirito, and Asuna forgive her so easily? Everyone else believed that she was a monster, yet these people still seemed to think that she was someone worth caring about… I'm really lucky to have friends like this, the girl thought to herself. Great, now I feel like crying.

A few moments later, Asuna was smiling as she let her friend go. Felicita blinked a few times as she looked up at the Lightning Flash. "I guess… no hard feelings then?"

Asuna shook her head. "Nope. None."

Felicita sighed in relief. "Good. I'm glad."

"You got a problem or something?"

The girls whipped their heads around in the direction of the voice to see Ryner, his hand on the sword at his hip, Kirito right beside him. A small crowd of knights was forming around them, and Felicita could easily feel the hostility in the air.

Asuna could feel it too, and stepped forward authoritatively, her eyes narrowed. "Is there a problem here?"

"Respectively, yes, vice-commander." One of the knights answered. He gestured toward the small girl among the foursome. "That monster shouldn't be here."

Felicita's breath hitched in her throat at those words, her body seemed to freeze up as she realized just how many people here hated her.

"Monster? What are you talking about? Felicita is no monster." Asuna stated firmly. She stood protectively in front of the girl along with her subordinate.

Discreetly, Ryner reached his hand back and took a few of Felicita's fingers between his own. In response, the girl took his hand, as if asking for reassurance. Ryner gave it by squeezing her hand comfortingly.

"We all know who she is, Lady Asuna. She is the Shadow Thief and she has committed great crimes against everyone trapped in this world. Many of us have even seen her mercilessly kill a defenseless man. She is a savage killer." The knight who was speaking just continued to glare between the two bodies in red and white at the girl in gray. "Working for our guild is too merciful a punishment."

It fell silent for a moment, and all Felicita could feel was the pain steadily eating away her chest.

"Her? That girl is the least of your problems." Kirito stepped forward, his cold gaze seeming to fall upon everyone in the room at once. "In case you forgot, I'm a beater. I think that you guys have something more important to worry about than a petty thief."

Felicita's eyes widened at Kirito's sudden display of his 'public enemy number one' role. He was laying it on pretty thick (and pulling it off rather well). He would really do this for her?

"We haven't forgotten about you. In fact, we think that you and the girl deserve similar fates."

Kirito gave a short, humorless laugh. "You really think you could enforce that fate upon me?" He challenged, his voice dangerously low as he reached his hand up and rested it on the handle of his Elucidator.

"That is not your decision to make." Asuna stepped in front of Kirito to glare at her subordinate. "Commander Heathcliff made the decision to have Felicita work for the guild. He hasn't given any commands whatsoever regarding her or Kirito, so I suggest that you honor our leader's orders respectfully."

In response, the other players just glared at the Lightning Flash, though not as harshly as they had done toward Kirito or Felicita. Asuna was powerful and carried too much authority. They wouldn't dare cross her.

"Of course, Lady Asuna." He conceded, but the foursome got a feeling that he hadn't completely backed down. Instead, he just bowed, being ridiculously formal, before leaving the room.

"Does anyone else have anything to say?" Asuna asked pointedly.

There was silence.

After a few moments of silence, the crowd slowly dispersed.

Sighing in relief, Asuna, Kirito, and Ryner relaxed, removing their hands from their weapons.

"I'm sorry about that, Felicita." Asuna apologized, turning toward the girl. "Some of the members of our guild take their sense of duty a little too far."

The girl stayed silent, and the other three felt slightly concerned.

"Fel?" Ryner asked, giving her hand a quick squeeze.

The girl just blinked a few times. "You… guys just stood up for me."

"What are you, an idiot?" Ryner asked, startling the other three. He just stared down at the girl beside him, his dark brown eyes boring into her almond ones intensely. "We're your friends. Why wouldn't we?"

The girl just blinked up at him, unaware that he was still holding her hand.

Kirito came up and gave her a few pats on the head. "Yeah, Fel. What do you take us for?"

"Yeah. It's what we do." Asuna chimed in, standing with them. Felicita just blinked up at them some more.

I really am lucky… Dammit! No crying!

Through sheer force of will, Felicita was able to keep her virtual tear ducts in check.

Suddenly, Asuna, clapped her hands together. "Alright. Now that we've settled things, why don't we have lunch?" The others just looked at her as she continued. "I think it's about time for a lunch break, don't you? We should go out and eat together."

When no one said anything, Asuna glared at them threateningly.

"Y-Yes, of course, Asuna." Ryner said quickly, trying to avoid the wrath of his commanding officer. "Right guys?"

Realizing the situation, the other two nodded their heads vigorously.

Asuna smiled brightly. "Great. Let's get a move on." She urged, walking to leave the room, but not before grabbing the strap of Kirito's sheath and dragging him backwards. The boy protested while trying desperately not to fall.

Felicita stared after Asuna, her eyes wide.

Asuna can be really scary… good luck, Kirito.

Ryner, on the other hand, sighed in relief before going after his vice-commander, Felicita in tow.

Neither of them realized that they were still holding hands.

2024/08/08 (elapsed time: about a month)

A tinkling sound, reminiscent to that of a bell, rang as the door into the shop opened.

"Welcome to Lisbeth's Smith Shop! Be with you in a minute!" A voice shouted from the back room.

In the main shop, a girl with brown hair tied up in pigtails looked up from her place by the counter and her face lit up at the sight of the customer.

"Felicita!" She exclaimed, running over and practically tackling the girl with a hug.

"S-Silica! Hold on a second!" The former thief protested, trying to keep herself from toppling over into one of Lisbeth's many glass display cases. Finally, after much squawking from Pina, and with some awkward back-patting, Felicita was able to get the dragon tamer to release her.

"Felicita! It's been a while!" Silica said with a smile. "How are you?"

The other girl returned the smile. "Pretty good. You? I can guess that you and Pina are doing well."

Upon hearing his name, the little blue dragon landed on Felicita's shoulder and nipped at her ear playfully.

Just then, Lisbeth entered the room, her gloves disappearing as she went through the doorframe.

"Felicita. Hey."

The girl in gray gave a small wave. "Hey, Liz."

Suddenly, Ryner's head peeked around the doorframe Lisbeth had just appeared through. "Fel?"

The girl blinked. "Ryner? What are you doing here?"

The knight shrugged as he came to stand by the counter. "I figured it was about time that I upgraded my gear. Asuna recommended me to Liz a while back."

"Hm. Well I guess we had similar ideas." The thief mused. Going up to the counter, she removed some of her armor and placed it down, along with her short sword, for Lisbeth too look at. "Do you think that you could upgrade these?"

The pinkette looked down at the items thoughtfully. Finally, she nodded. "Yeah. I think I can do something," she said, "Do you have any materials with you for me to upgrade them with?"

"Yeah. I think so." Felicita muttered as she opened her menu. She scrolled through briefly before opening a trading menu and sending some things over to the blacksmith.

Lisbeth went over the items before nodding again and gathering up the equipment in her arms. "Give me a few minutes. It should be ready by then."

Walking into the backroom, Lisbeth laid out everything onto a wooden table and looked them over again before setting to work on upgrading her friend's equipment. She was proud to say that she was successful in her upgrades. None of them failed, and with the materials, along with a few of her own touches here and there, she was able to upgrade the short sword twice and the armor until it maxed out.

When she was done, Lisbeth spread the finished products out on the table, admiring her work. She really wasn't sure why she had taken up blacksmithing in the first place, she guessed maybe because it was just different, but after doing it for so long, she came to be really proud of her skills. She may not have been as good of a fighter as Asuna or Felicita, but she was pretty skilled for a girl in this male-dominated world.

Suddenly, there was a loud shout of "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?!" before there was a loud crash. Lisbeth jumped in surprise. Rushing through the door into the main part of her shop, Lisbeth was about to ask what happened, when she noticed something… weird.

Silica was standing there beside the door, her back to the counter. She was blushing furiously and holding a whining Pina to her chest. Confused for a second, Lisbeth looked behind the other girl to see just what was causing her embarrassment.

Felicita was on the counter, pinned at the wrists to the wood by a certain knight in red and white armor. The two of them glared at each other angrily, glaring daggers with a fierceness that would send anyone running for the hills. But the most disturbing thing was the way that Ryner was hovering over Felicita's body.

Lisbeth stared at them struggling for a few seconds, not comprehending what she was seeing, before suddenly whipping around to face the same direction Silica was, her face beet red as she felt like she had just seen something she shouldn't have.

"Do they… do this often?" Lisbeth asked Silica. She knew that beast tamer, Ryner, and Felicita had been in the same guild at some point from some of the conversations she had had with the three of them, so she was hoping that Silica could shed some light on just what was going on.

"…You could say that." Silica laughed nervously in reply.

Just then, the bell rang again, signaling a customer, but no one really noticed over the sound of Felicita and Ryner yelling at each other. At least it wasn't a stranger, otherwise, they would have been traumatized into never coming to Liz's shop again, and that would have been bad for business.

Then again, maybe it was a bad thing that it was someone they knew.

It turned out to be Kirito. He walked through the door, and looked up to notice a very disturbing scene. He just stared at it in shock, understanding just as much as Lisbeth had moments before. Barely a few seconds later, his hand was in front of his face, covering his eyes. Moving his other hand blindly behind his back, Kirito reached for the window and flipped the sign from OPEN to CLOSED.

There was another loud thud as the knight and the thief tumbled off of the counter and onto the floor. Almost immediately, the two of them sprang up, continuing their shouting match.

"You're such an idiot! You know that, Ryner? A grade-A moron!"

"What the hell are you talking about? All I said was—"

"No! You know what? I don't even want to hear your excuse!"

Ryner threw his hands into the air in exasperation. "Fine then! I'm leaving! I don't even know why I put up with you!"

"Because you're an idiot!"

The boy yelled in frustration before turning on his heel and brushing passed Kirito, the door slamming shut behind him.

Felicita yelled in a similar fashion. Suddenly, she whirled on Lisbeth. "Are you done with my stuff?" She asked, trying to keep her anger under control.

"Um. Y-Yeah." Lisbeth answered. Hurriedly, she went into the backroom, gathered her client's things and brought them out into the main shop.

"How much?" Felicita asked as she put everything back either on her person or in her inventory.

"…30,400 col."

Immediately, Felicita pulled up a trading menu, sent over what she owed, and stormed out the door, leaving Silica, Lisbeth, and Kirito very confused.

"What… just happened?" Kirito asked.

"…I don't even know." Lisbeth answered, just blinking across the room in Kirito's direction. "Silica?"

"Well," Silica began, petting Pina as he came to rest on her shoulder, "they used to fight a lot, but this seemed a little different."

"They didn't even seem to notice what they were doing." The pinkette in the room marveled. "It was almost like they…" She trailed off, thinking. After a second, she and Silica turned their heads to look at each other.

"You don't think?"

"It just might be possible."

Kirito looked between them in confusion, the creepy smiles on their faces weirding him out. He was already weirded out by what he had walked in on. He had just decided to drop by, since Lisbeth was a friend, when all of a sudden, he caught Ryner and Felicita… doing things on the counter. Or at least, that's what it had looked like at first, but then he realized that they had looked furious with each other, so they couldn't have possibly been doing what he thought they had been doing.

Unless… they're just that kind of couple… No, wait! Where are these thoughts coming from? Off topic.

But now, really just one question was left unanswered in his head:

What had they been fighting about?

A/N: I guess that was a decent celebratory chapter. It turned out longer than i thought it would, which is good. Just some fluff, development, and my attempt at humor. Sorry if it's bad. The next will be a little more serious, i think.

Basically, the moral of this chapter was that you know if your friends are really your friends (or something more *cough* Ryner) if they stand up for you and stick by you (maybe even pick a fight for you) even if it seems like the world is practically against you :) Know who your friends are my good people.

Anyways, i hope you liked this chapter! For those of you who found this story all those months ago, thanks for supporting me and Fel a whole year. For those of you who found it a little later than that or just recently, still thanks. You guys are great.

Review!