And now back to your regularly scheduled fluff.

Once Again, I am doing this as part of KiriArgo week 2021, hosted at the SAO Fanfiction Central Discord, linked here: /93AzrN8Emw if you want to join!

Day 5: Rest

It was late at night when someone knocked on the door. I was in the middle of sharpening my sword, giving it a buff for the next day's farming, and missed the last stroke. A quick glance down the blade showed that I hadn't failed the activity and hurt the sword's durability, just not given it a buff. I'd still have the time to sharpen it in the morning, even though I would need to get up early to run to the best farming spot.

I couldn't be slow, not with what Kayaba had turned SAO into.

Whoever was at my door knocked again, harder this time. I got up, carrying my sword in one hand. Even though I was in a safe zone, there were several ways to attack someone that ignored most of the system restrictions. I had even discovered some of them, and I had no clue which ones had been patched out. My fears were unfounded, though, as I pulled open the door to reveal a familiar name card.

"Argo?" I asked, recognizing the name from both my beta days and my friends list. The woman outside, however, was new to me. In the beta, Argo had been about the same height I was IRL, although about as skinny as I was. Now…

"You're tiny." It probably wasn't the best thing to focus on, given the circumstances, but I hadn't expected to see Argo for a while. She probably needed to get her info network up and running; figure out how things had changed in the new Aincrad. She'd mentioned wanting to publish a guide to SAO during the Beta; maybe she'd still do that.

Instead, she had shown up here, at my doorstep on the second night, her clothing showing the signs of more than just travel damage. She'd had to fight at least one, probably more mobs to make it here.

"Could ya make it any harder ta get ta ya, Kii-bou?" Argo drawled, levelling an unimpressed glare at me.

"Sorry," I rubbed the back of my head. "I thought you'd be busy setting up your network again." I shrugged. It was kinda flattering that she'd come after me so soon. I had told her where I was, of course. I wasn't stupid, but even so…

"Eh, that's nothin' hard," the info broker said, leaning against the door. "So, ya gonna invite me in? Or am I gonna have ta find somewhere else ta sleep?"

"Oh, please, come in," I said, bowing and stepping away from the door. "So, anyway, why are you here?" I asked, only to get cut off as Argo brushed past me towards the clearly labeled bathroom.

"We can talk about that after I freshen up," The info broker said, pausing with one hand on the doorknob to turn and wink at me with a saucy grin. "That is, unless ya'd like ta discuss business in the bath?"

"As long as we're actually discussing business," I grumbled. "I'm not gonna get involved in another splash fight with you."

"Ya say that now, but jus' wait until I make my first strike!" The info broker pointed at me dramatically before vanishing behind the bathroom door.

I sighed, then pushed the door open and followed her in. It would be strange, adjusting to Argo's new face, but she had mentioned that she was going to be using a different avatar for the release than she had used in the beta anyway, so I had been expecting something different when we met up.

The bathroom was rather tiny, having been modeled off of a western style rather than a japanese one, with a bath that would barely be big enough for me and Argo. Thankfully it still included a showerhead and running water, Kayaba unwilling to give up the convenience of modern plumbing to fulfil his fantasy realm aesthetic.

Of course, the modern equipment contrasted against the otherwise rustic room, the walls clearly made out of wattle and white daub on a timber frame. It was only the fact that the game wouldn't let structures in safe zones be damaged that prevented the walls from breaking down every time the room got steamy.

It was the work of seconds to strip down, the equipment system making taking my clothes off stress-free. In front of me, Argo was sitting on one of the stools, soaping herself up. It was still surprising just how short she was, even as her body just about rippled with toned muscle. I'd never have imagined that my partner was even shorter than her already short avatar, or more muscular.

And while I could spend hours observing this new Argo and trying to pick out all the similarities and differences to the Argo I knew, I had entered the bathroom for a reason.

"Do you want me to get your hair?" I asked, moving towards the soap dispensers that lined the right-hand wall.

"Ooh, that would be nice," The info broker purred, her head already leaning back in anticipation.

"Don't get too eager now. I'm a couple months out of practice." I poured some of the shampoo onto my hands before rubbing them together to lather myself up, quietly giving thanks that Argo wasn't one of those people who had very particular standards about their body care products.

"I have faith in ya, Kii-bou," The info broker said, her eyes closed as she leaned over so far that her body bumped into my leg. "Ya haven't let me down before."

"If you say so," I muttered, pulling up a seat behind Argo and starting to work my hands into the mess of knots and tangles that was piled on top of her head.

Her hair was messy, a dirty blonde color that hung in an unshaped blob around her head. Two bits of hair stood up on the top of her skull, almost like antenna. As I worked my hands deeper and deeper into the mass of densely packed hair, the info broker started to relax more and more, almost oozing back into me as my hands met her scalp and started to rub.

"That's really nice," Argo said, humming in pleasure as I worked my way through the mass.

"How'd your hair get so tangled?" I asked as I did my best to gently untangle a particularly complicated knot.

"Slimes." Was the only explanation Argo offered, leaning her head back further into my hands.

"They moved the slime spawn areas?" I asked, wondering whether or not it would be possible to hack Argo's hair off with my sword if I was careful. Not even that brief time Sugu had tried out long hair when she was six had I encountered hair this tangled and dirty.

The info broker nodded, wincing as the motion tugged at her scalp. "Got hit by a group of three while I was takin' a shortcut."

"That sucks," I said, curling my fingers against Argo's skin. The info broker's eyes flew open, before they narrowed again and an honest-to-gods moan rolled out of my partner's mouth.

"Ah... Nya…" I paused. Had Argo just mewled at me? As I deliberated, Argo cracked her eyes open and stared plaintively up at me, her voice rising weakly above the sound of the bathtub filling automatically. "Please d-don't stop, Kii-bou…"

With a face about as red as a tomato, I started to rub Argo's scalp again, trying to ignore the little mewls of pleasure she kept letting out as my fingers pressed down on her head.

Was it really that pleasurable to get a scalp massage? Was it supposed to feel this erotic? By the time I had worked my way through the rest of Argo's tangled locks, I felt somewhat dirty, and grabbed the showerhead with one hand while holding my partner's head in place with the other.

"Munyah?" Argo tilted her head up just in time to catch a spray of water to the face.

"Sorry!" I cried as the info broker hissed and tried to jerk away. I moved the stream so that it was running through her hair instead. "There, is that better?" I asked while rubbing her head with the hand not holding the showerhead.

She nodded into my hand, leaning in it's direction. "Much better, Kii-bou." She murmured, her voice languid as the water ran over her scalp.

It felt intimate, to be washing my partner's hair like this. Even beyond the obvious pleasure she was taking in it, Argo seemed… open, somehow. Not vulnerable exactly, but relaxed in a way I'd never seen before, like she'd had her guard up—oh.

I smiled down at my partner as I ran the showerhead along her hair, watching the way her nose twitched as a droplet of water ran down it's length. It had been so long since I'd seen Argo content that I'd almost forgotten what it looked like.

"Alright, I'm done," I said as I moved the showerhead over the last patch of shampooed hair. Argo slowly rose back into a sitting position, looking as if she would have been very much content to stay leaning back and letting me wash her hair forever, but unfortunately, we had things to do.

"Okay, yer turn, Kii-bou," Argo grinned, and I obediently sat down on the stool and let my partner lather up my hair. It felt… nice as she worked her fingers through my much less dirty locks. It should have been stressful to have someone's hands on my head; I knew how many ways that someone could use a grip on someone's head to hurt them severely. Argo had demonstrated many of them after unlocking the [Martial Arts] skill in the beta.

But I trusted my partner.

She wouldn't hurt me.

So I leaned my head back into her hands and let her rub all over my scalp, her calloused fingers massaging my tender skin.

Before I knew it, I was humming in pleasure.

"Alright, I'm going to wash yer hair out now." Argo said, continuing to rub my scalp even as one hand picked up the showerhead and turned it on. As the water fell on my head, I closed my eyes and leaned back into Argo's hand.

For the first time since that awful announcement, I felt safe.

As always, please leave a review to let me know what you enjoyed!