And we come to the conclusion of KiriArgo week. Thanks everyone for taking this journey with me, and I hope everyone enjoys this last snippet, which is set sometime in the future of my story "Caring for a Rat" please check that out if you haven't already.

For a final time, I am writing this as part of KiriArgo week 2021, hosted by the SAO Fanfiction Central Discord, link here: sNFEpCSPSc

Thanks again for reading, and please leave a review!

Day 7: Family

I was sitting at my computer when Tomo opened the door. That in and of itself wasn't anything unusual; I spent at least a few hours at my computer each day; working on bug fixing and programming alterations to the SEED software that I couldn't handle from VR.

However, at the moment I'd hit a snag, and didn't know quite how to get around it. There was a visual bug that happened when I tried booting the program up in a simulation that made things greyscale, except for fruits, which were universally colored fluorescent pink. Normally, something like this was somewhat easy to fix—usually it was the result of a misfiled directory or forgetting to assign the color tags correctly, but this one seemed more resilient.

I was probably going to have to go look at the base code, not an easy prospect with Yui off figuring out who she wanted to be.

"Hey, stud~" Tomo purred into my ear, leaning on the back of my chair. "How's the breadwinnin' goin'?"

"Decently," I said calmly. I would forever deny any allegations of my cheeks flushing and my voice jumping half an octave. "I'm just stuck on a bug at the moment."

"Then it's the perfect time fer us ta have some fun, right?" My girlfriend said, her hands running down my chest in a very distracting manner.

I turned my chair around, throwing Tomo off me and then standing up, enjoying the way she shrunk back slightly as I towered over her. I would never be a tall man; SAO had seen to that, but I had had a late growth spurt when I was 18 that put me firmly on the upper end of "average" and Tomo had always been smaller than I was.

"So, what kind of fun were you hoping to have?" I asked, stretching my arms up above my head to get rid of any lingering stiffness from the brief coding session I had done. "We could have the 'standard' fun, or..." I trail off, something rather delightful coming to mind.

Tomo probably guessed what I'm thinking too, because she backed up even further, until she bumped into the bed. She recovered admirably as I started to walk towards her, her hand out in a gesture that's only half-threatening. "Kii-bou I'm warnin' ya, don't come any—"

I leapt forward, my arms stretched out in front of me. Tomo tried to dive to the side, but my reach was long, and I pinned her against the bed, my fingers already seeking out her most sensitive spots.

"Tickle, tickle, tickle!" I tease as my fingers dance, prompting my girlfriend to break into fits of laughter as I take advantage of her sensitive skin.

"Kii-bouuuuuu!" Tomo cried, writhing in my arms as I tickled her. "No! Bad Kii-bou! stop it!" She grabbed my hands, pushing them away as I strained against her grasp.

"Aw, come on, it's cute." I let my hands drop as my partner pushed against them. Her half-hearted glare was outright adorable. "Alright, another time, then." I acquiesced, rolling off of her. "So, anyway, what was it you came in for?"

"Well, I wanted ta have sex," Tomo said, and I winced.

"Sorry."

"Nah, it's all right. I'll probably be in the mood later when Asuna gets home and she should probably be here fer this." My partner shrugged, raising her arms in a manner that bared her toned midriff. "After all, such a stud needs more than one woman." She poked me in the chest, her teasing grin back in place.

"You know Asuna wouldn't mind," I said. It had been years since any of us had felt anything more than a minor twinge of jealousy at the other two members of our triad having sex without involving the third member.

"Still wanna wait fer her," Tomo said, resting one hand on her belly.

"Alright then." I sat up. I still didn't feel quite ready to go back to debugging, but now that I wasn't focused I was awfully peckish. "You want something to eat?"

"Ooh, yes," My partner pushed herself into a sitting position. "Do we have any stock prepped? I'm feeling like Miso right now."

"I'm certain we do." Asuna kept our kitchen well-stocked, and while neither Tomo or I were as good as her at cooking, we'd picked up a few dishes here and there over the course of 7 years living together. "Do you want anything else?"

"Hmm..." My partner tapped her finger against her lips, pondering her choices. "Yeah, I'll make somethin' o' my own, maybe a salad."

"Ok," I said, turning toward the door, only to be interrupted by a petulant whine.

"Kii-bou, help me up!" I sighed, and turned around to face Tomo. She was fiddling with something in one hand, but it vanished back into her pocket before I could identify it. It looked a bit like a mouth thermometer, though. Was she sick? She didn't look sick.

Tomo didn't like us probing into her privacy. Unless she started to show symptoms of illness, I wouldn't pry.

Instead I just walked over, grabbed her outstretched hand, and lifted her up with a grunt. Maybe it was just my imagination, but she seemed a little heavier than I was used to.

"Alright, let's get some food going, it's almost—" I paused to check my watch. "—1:30, huh, I was coding for longer than I thought. Thanks for coming to get me, Tomo."

"Anytime," My partner said, sliding past me in the narrow hallway that led from the computer room past the bedrooms and to the living area.

It was a matter of minutes to get the miso soup and Tomo's salad ready. My partner spent every single one of those minutes in an increasingly obvious state of nervousness, starting to fiddle with bits of her clothing, and holding something in her pocket.

Several times, she moved as if she was going to draw it out, but didn't, instead withdrawing her hand from her pocket without whatever was causing her such distress. As we sat down for a quick snack, I decided that I couldn't let Tomo languish like this.

"So, what's in your pocket?" I asked with all the subtlety of a fire alarm, and produced almost as dramatic a reaction from my partner. She almost toppled her seat over backwards she jolted so hard.

"I-I don't—" She stuttered, her eyes darting around the room; looking anywhere but at me. I simply leveled a patient gaze at her. Tomo shrunk in her seat as the moment of panic passed, her head bowed. "I wanted ta wait for Aa-chan ta be here."

I reached across the table to grab her hands in my own. "We can still do that, if it's not an emergency. You aren't sick, are you?"

My partner looked up at me, frowning. Then she started to laugh. "No, I'm not sick." She reached down into her pocket, and pulled something out. I placed my hand over hers before she could open it.

"If you want to wait for Asuna to be here, then I'm fine with it."

Tomo shook her head. "No, I need ta tell someone, otherwise it'll just slip out, an' I want it ta be on my terms." She placed the object on the table.

It did look like a thermometer, but it was a bit smaller, and capped in pink instead of blue. A pregnancy test, I realized. Oh.

Oh!

I felt my jaw drop, my eyes dropping back and forth between the test and my partner's face. "You're—"

Tomo nodded, and I felt my throat start to close up as a fierce joy welled up within me. We'd discussed having children before, all of us wanted them, but I hadn't expected it to happen this soon after we started trying.

Before I knew it, I was around the table, lifting my partner into the air as a peal of laughter rang forth.

"Kii-bou let me down!" Tomo yelled as I spun in place, clutching my smaller partner to me.

"Sorry," I said, unable to keep the grin off my face. It's just—" I lowered one hand towards my partner's belly, before thinking the better of it. "May I?"

At Tomo's nod, I placed one hand on her abdomen, right above the place where our child was growing. It was still so flat, her toned muscles hard beneath my hand. It didn't seem like there could be a child growing within her, but the test had come back positive.

"We have to tell Asuna," I said, making Tomo sigh in exasperation.

"When she gets home." She grabbed my arm even as I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket. "You know that she can't reach her phone at work anyway." I pouted, but put the phone back in my pocket.

"She's going to be so excited for you," I said, before snapping in realization. "Oh, Yui! She'll want to know too!"

I all but dashed back to my computer, eager to spread the news. Tomo followed behind me at a more sedate pace, smiling gently.

"Just make sure she doesn't tell Asuna, okay?" My partner said as I opened up the program that would let me send a message directly to Yui no matter where she was or what she was doing. "I want to tell her myself." I nodded in acknowledgement, amending the message at the last moment.

After the message was sent, I turned around to drink in the sight of my partner.

"We're going to be parents," I said, unable to keep the stupid grin off of my face.

"We already are, silly," Tomo said, ruffling my hair with one hand.

"You know what I mean."

"Yeah." Tomo placed one hand on her belly, right above the place where even now, our child was growing. "I do."