It was quiet, when Argo set her sleeping bag up on the floor of Kirito's apartment. Asuna had taken the bed, at Kirito's insistence, though she had left the door open. Kirito himself was asleep in his own bag, lying so still that Argo thought he might have been paralyzed.
The house didn't even twitch when Argo lay down. She would never get used to that, that lack of noise from the house settling or the floorboards creaking. Still, she needed to sleep. It wasn't like there was much to do. She's caught up with her network and was waiting on her editors for the newspaper.
Still, it was difficult to convince herself that it was safe to sleep.
"You're being stupid, Argo. There's no way Kii-bou would sleep somewhere dangerous." The whiskered girl muttered to herself as she flopped down onto her sleeping bag. The bag rustled at her impact, and she felt her heart beat faster. The last time she'd been like this-
DANGER!
Argo flung herself to the right. Something blocked her dodge. Her health bar blared warnings at her, so deep in the red that only a sliver was left.
She ducked beneath the Flying Apes next attack, her hand coming around to grasp at a dagger that wasn't there-
The Cabin flickered around her, and she scrambled over a table away from the ape, one hand desperately paging through her inventory.
She skidded to a stop as her hand closed around a health potion, the glow of the life-giving item filling her with a profound sense of-
[Error]
The Cabin faded around her.
There was no ape. She was in Kirito's townhouse, not The Cabin. She was in a safe zone.
She was safe.
She wasn't going to die in her sleep.
Argo rose from where she'd flung herself, conscious of the chair she'd knocked over in her panic. "Fuck."
She couldn't go to sleep like this, not if she went back to The Cabin when she touched her sleeping bag. She needs to do something, and maybe if she gets tired enough while doing it, she can sleep.
Asuna didn't know why she woke up in the middle of the night, only that something was wrong in her house. She had only lived in it for a week, but already she thought of it as hers.
She rose from the bed quietly, almost a wraith when she walked on bare feet to the half-open door, and oh…
Argo was sitting at the table, staring off into space. She slowly walked up to the table, and pulled up a chair.
It was only when she sat down that Argo finally noticed her. "Hey." was all the Info broker said, before she resumed her vigil.
Asuna sat at Argo's side for some time, not quite knowing what to say. Argo was always more Kirito's friend than hers, and she wasn't quite sure what Argo might need.
"Are you all right?" The question slipped out of Asuna's mouth before she can stop it, and internally, she winced. It's an insensitive question; Argo was obviously not alright, and she probably didn't want to be needled about it, either.
The Info Broker took a deep breath before speaking, "No," She said, and then kept speaking, as if the words were waiting to tumble out. "I shoul' have been able to get out of that house. If I wasn' so fuckin' scared of dogs, then none o' this would have happened." The whiskered girl gestured angrily, working through a buildup of anger that clearly had been building from before she was rescued.
"I've solved quests with more complicated puzzles; Quests that stumped everyone else who tried them. I shoul' have been able to do this one on my own. I shouldn' have needed to get you guys involved, I-I… I." The fencer felt a sharp jolt of pain in her chest as tears started streaking down Argo's face.
Asuna carefully reached out to grab one of Argo's hands with her own, and the whiskered girl grasped it so tightly it almost hurt. "Did I ever tell you about my first month in Aincrad?" The Info Broker shook her head, still holding back sobs.
Asuna shifted in her seat, casting her mind back through the painful memories of that dark time. "Back then, after the announcement I was convinced that we were all going to die here, and I'd just given up. I stayed in an inn for as long as I could, and I only ventured out into the fields because I ran out of money, and didn't want to live on the street." The words come faster and faster, spilling from her mouth now that the dam has been broken.
She's only told Kirito about this before.
"I almost died so many times in that first month, and it wasn't until we beat Illfang that I actually started to believe that we could escape." Asuna leaned forward, tugging her chair around until she's side-by-side with Argo.
"But after that, when I was trying to figure out how to actually fight to survive, you saved me with those books of yours." It's probably one of her deeper secrets. Ever since joining the KoB, she's tried to present as strong and independent a front as possible, which meant burying the parts of her past that made her weak.
It was easier to pretend that she'd always been independent. Not many people even remembered that she partied with Kirito, too many clearers dead or retired, and the rest just not caring.
"I fought, and I learned, and now I'm second in command of the foremost clearer's guild; I wouldn't have been able to do that without you." The fencer cupped Argo's face in one hand, the intimate gesture feeling somehow right in this situation.
"You've spent so long supporting other people with your info and your network; I still haven't forgotten that you found Laughing Coffin's hideout." Argo's eyes grew wide; confused eyes. "You've been so strong for us; I don't think I would be here today without you." Asuna brushed away a tear from Argo's cheek, the info broker leaning ever so slightly into the fencer's hand.
"Please, let us support you, just this once?"
Argo comes undone, throwing herself at Asuna, wrapping the other girl in a hug, tears flowing freely and staining Asuna's nightshirt. The two girls sat together like that, supporting one another for much of the night.