The sun was shining through the windows when I woke up. Sleep in SAO was different from sleep in the normal world. There was nothing save a very few specific alerts that could wake a sleeper up. That was why I wasn't too surprised when I saw Argo and Asuna leaning into each other at the table.
I had been worried about Argo last night. She was looking anywhere except our sleeping bags, and still hadn't been in hers by the time I went to sleep in mine. It was good to see that Asuna had been able to keep her company while I was asleep.
I draped a blanket over the women and started to cook up a field breakfast. While the Cooking skill was required for all advanced recipes and many basic ones, there was a small subsection that could be unlocked through the [Fishing] skill. The recipes were incredibly simple, and didn't taste all that great, but they tended to be better than store-bought food on it's own.
And since Asuna probably needed her sleep after staying up who knows how late with Argo, I had decided that today would be a day for me to try and impress both Asuna and Argo with my cooking. I was probably going to fail. But that was no reason not to try.
Okay, first get the kitchen menu open…
It was almost thirty minutes later when someone yawned behind me. I had barely been able to finish three basic fish dishes, and hopefully Asuna would appreciate my efforts.
"Hey Darling~" Asuna mumbled into my shoulder, wrapping her arms around my body. Her warmth felt nice against me. I leaned back into her slightly, the two of us staying upright by pressing against each other.
"I made breakfast," I said, picking up one of the fish dishes to give to my wife. She gave me a distinctly unimpressed look as she took the plate from my hands. "What?"
"I wanted to cook for Argo," She said petulantly, taking a bite of her food. "Mmh!" Her eyes bulged and she set the dish down on the counter beside me.
"That," She said, shooting an astonished look at the fish, "Was the most tasteless dish I have ever had in SAO."
Oh. I was expecting it to be bad, but for it to be that horrible…
"Relax," Asuna elbowed me in the side, "It's far from the worst dish I've had in SAO."
"But you said it was-"
"Tasteless is very different from tasting horrible; it just needs a good sauce to give it a little flavor and we'll have a serviceable dish. Now step aside, I need to work."
I claimed Asuna's old seat at the table and settled in to watch her work. Somehow, she made the cooking minigame look incredibly entertaining as she measured fluids, pressed buttons, and swirled a pot over the stove to produce the sauce she wanted.
I liked to watch her cook.
It was around the time that Asuna was wrapping up that I heard noises from beside me.
"Morning sleepyhead." Asuna said, turning around with her finalized fish dishes with a custom sauce, much better than my horrid attempts at a meal.
"Munyah?" Argo rubbed the sleep from her eyes, her hood falling off, revealing a rather adorable bed-head.
"We made breakfast!"
"Brekfas'?" Argo sleepily stumbled to her feet and lumbered towards Asuna.
"We have some fish from the 36th floor with a sauce I made myself for you." Argo looked quite hungry. I can't imagine she had gotten much food recently. As if to prove me right, she fell upon the fish like a ravenous beast, and I barely had time to blink before she was reaching for the plates behind Asuna, who stepped out of the way to let The Rat feast.
"So," Argo said as she chewed on a fishbone, seeming to derive some amusement from the action. "What are you all up to today?"
Asuna let out a long, loud, hard-suffering groan.
"What?"
"It's not you," Asuna said, flopping down onto the couch, the sunlight streaming through her auburn hair, making it seem like she was haloed in fire. "It's my absolute asshole of a guild leader."
"Asuna!"
"What?!" She snapped back at me, several weeks of rage boiling over once again. "You know how I feel about Heathcliff." Asuna had looked up to Heathcliff when she first joined the Knights of the Blood Oath, but the further up she had risen in the leadership of the guild, the less and less she liked him.
She still admired his ability to inspire and lead, but found his constant politicking to be distasteful, and disliked how he treated non-guild members. It didn't help that she was forced to put up a ruthless front during boss meetings, most of which Heathcliff was too busy to attend, another thing that rankled on her.
However, it had only truly blossomed into anger when Heathcliff had requested a duel with me, something that could put both of us at risk. Though he had an impeccable record, more than one player had used a duel as a way to legally kill another player, and she hated the idea of it happening to me.
Despite everything, she still trusted him to lead us out of Aincrad, and I could see why. Heathcliff had a presence to him that was undeniable. It reminded me of american comic book heroes, the ones that you could trust to pull through and save the day no matter what.
"Yeah, but do you really want to give Argo something that juicy to sell?" I countered, gesturing at the info broker leaning against the counter. She looked like she'd just been handed winning lotto numbers.
"Oh relax, I won't advertise anythin'." Argo drawled, wearing that smug smile that had been sorely missing these past two days, "After all, I can make more Col on cold, hard, data."
"It's good to see you're feeling better, Argo." Asuna said, her temper once again quieted. "But no, I'll be occupied for the day, dealing with KOB stuff."
"Well, if that's the case, I'll probably tour around the shops and see if i can get any upgrades to my gear," I said, scrolling through my equipment menu. "My swords and armor are good, but these gloves are from the 66th floor, and my boots aren't much better."
"Can I go with ya?" Argo said, tapping her foot against the floor. "I've been thinkin' that i need to get better gear, cause if I ever get…" the whiskered girl trailed off, wilting slightly. It was surprising that Argo, who tended to avoid player-run shops like the plague when she wasn't investigating them for a scam or her newspaper, wanted to shop with me, who purchased almost exclusively from players.
But she and I both knew that the only thing better than player-made gear were rare drops, and Argo had never been a frontline fighter. My answer was obvious.
"Sure."
Asuna sighed, and pulled out a stack of paperwork. "Well, you two have a good day out, I'll do my best-"
"Asuna, is this paperwork urgent?" I cut my wife off. It hurt to see her so worked up about the guild, and besides, we were supposed to be on break now.
"Well, no, I can get Darx to take care of it, but-"
"We're on break, we should be relaxing." I walked over to Asuna and grabbed her hands "Why don't you come shopping with us, and afterwards, we can go on a date."