AN: I'm participating in KiriArgo week hosted by the SAO Fanfiction Central discord server!

Discord link at the end of chapter

Title: Agent Cheeky Meets Agent Awkward

Summary: [KiriArgo Prompt Week 2021] Argo wasn't ready for this, nowhere in her job description was "working alongside her crush who's posing as her date." Unless it all went really well, her best friend was going to die for this.

Prompt 1 - First Meeting

"Hey," Argo's attention was pulled away from her laptop and toward the source of the voice, "have you talked to that guy yet?"

Argo's face warmed, even if just slightly. Usually she was the one on the opposite side of this conversation, being the teasing one between her, and in this case, the girl sitting across the archives table, not the one being grilled for answers and teased.

Still, she rolled her eyes and casually leaned back in her chair, the hood of her jacket sitting comfortably over the top of her head. "Ere's enough goin' on dis week without me proddin' the poor guy Ki-lii."

"As if," Caylee rolled her eyes back at her and adjusted her glasses, "you don't study unless you have to Argo. You're a whizz kid, there's a reason why they put you in information control and undercover agent work, not into surface agents like Asuna, Liz, and the boy ."

"Ima not a kid, nor am I a whizz kid," Argo grinned cheekily, the rank marks on her cheeks that resembled whiskers, wrinkling with the grin. "Ima smart ass, dat's different, dank ya very much!" Still, what Caylee said was true for more than a few reasons. Seeing her studying was an extremely rare thing, as her job wasn't something that she exactly had to study for.

Being naturally very observant made learning the information gathering part really easy, which was what most of her classes and not training courses were about. So if she did happen to be in the archives she was either looking for a specific piece of information or sitting at a table with Caylee, Asuna, and Liz with earphones in and working on her laptop with her feet propped up on the table. Not sitting like she was right now.

"Okay, smart ass," Caylee snorted as she deleted a line of code of whatever she was coding, which Argo had no clue what it was for, "have you talked to the guy you've been glancing at lately?"

"I al'eady told ya no, Ki-Lii," Argo stubbornly crossed her arms over her chest with a frown, "'sides, it's not like Ima avoidin' it ya know. Asuna's always with 'im, bein' field partners ith 'im 'nd Liz, and everyone's busy with finals."

"You say that," Caylee deadpanned as she finished her code, "but you know more about him than he knows you, and you even know his name." She unplugged the now newly coded smart watch across the table to Argo. "Just talk to him, it'll be fine, Akira."

Argo frowned at her birth name and caught the watch before it slid off of the table. "Ima observant Ki-Lii, of 'ourse I know about 'im, it's my job ta know 'eople, plus ya already know 'him." She slid the watch on over her wrist and adjusted the band till she was sure it wouldn't fall off. "Whatcha do with it?"

"Yes, it's your job to know people, and sure, I know the guy since my job is the exact same thing as his backup, but he would be guarding Asuna and not a cheeky but slightly awkward information broker like I am." Caylee closed her laptop, "but unless you talk to him and I don't know, maybe actually ask him on a date, you're not going to be able to get to know him."

"Let me know if you want me to introduce you, since I do work with the guy," she pushed her chair back and stood up.

Argo rolled her eyes, "Ima not awkward, Ki-Lii, yer more awkward dan me, 'sides I've still gotta work ya know."

Okay, so maybe she was avoiding it a little, just a little.

"Introduce yourself by Friday or you don't wanna know how I'll introduce you to him," Caylee smirked.

Argo poked her tongue out at her as a response, not exactly sure how to verbally respond to the very rare threat from her highschool friend. "Go ta class ya geek, this rat's got information to collect!"

"I'm going," Caylee rolled her eyes and started to walk away, "by the way," she looked over at her over her shoulder and the corner of her eye, "there should be an experimental invisibility function now on the watch, have at it."

Argo playfully bowed to her friend, her hood falling lower over her golden blonde hair, "da goddess of technology strikes again!"

"Better believe it, now move your ass," Caylee snorted and continued walking away. Though she raised a hand and greeted someone else, "Hey, Kirito!"

Argo turned away, her ears beneath her hood flushing red.

Damnit.

Argo blinked, then blinked again, trying to make one-hundred percent sure that she had heard the correct words come out of her unit leader's mouth. Though it looked like she wasn't the only one who wanted to make sure.

"Er, can you repeat that, sir?" The surface agent dressed in black with three silver stars and a gold star on his collar asked, which Argo was silently grateful for.

Though the mostly subdued smile on her best friend's face from where she was sitting on the floor with wires and other computer tools around her, told Argo that she not only had heard it right the first time, but that this was definitely her fault.

Argo was going to kick her ass for this.

"You are to accompany information control agent Agent Argo Yuuki and her guardian agent Agent Caylee Mitsuko to the Argus Technology building and retrieve valuable information without being caught while also looking for any signs of problems within the company. You three are the priority team with Agent Asuna and Agent Alice's teams being back up teams. Your cover story is in the folders in my hands and Agent Yuuki is on point."

Okay, so she had heard it right the first time.

Well Argo could kiss her composure goodbye on this assignment, that was for sure.

Oh, and she was going to kill Caylee for picking this assignment for her.

Argo schooled her features into her usual cheeky grin and took her folder from him, "gotcha, we're on it, sir!" With that, she spun on her heel and faced Kirito, her hood sliding off her head in the process, "name's Argo, Argo the Rat, nice ta finally meet ya!" She offered a handshake and a cheeky smirk, "hopefully Asuna's not said too 'any bad thin's about me."

Kirito, looking rather red around the ears and cheeks, much to Argo's amusement and mild satisfaction, accepted the handshake a little awkwardly, "Kirito, the Black Swordsman, and uh, nah, Asuna's only said good things about her sister."

"I knew A-chan wouldn't fail me 'ere," Argo chuckled, though a major part of her wanted to explode or blush, which she wasn't. She looked over at Caylee to give herself a short moment of normalcy and sanity, rather than keep looking and talking to the handsome loner of a surface agent standing in front of her, "ey, Ki-Lii!"

Caylee tilted her head just slightly, telling her that she was listening.

"Can ya tell everyone ta 'eet up in I dunno… ten minutes?" Argo requested of the brunette and got a thumbs up in response, forcing her to pay attention to the man in front of her.

Part of her was excited that she was talking to him.

While another part of her wanted to die of embarrassment.

Oh god. She was going to be working with him all the time for the next week.

Welp, this would be fun!

...And terrifying.

Either way, Argo couldn't get out of it now. She'd just have to roll with the flow and see what happens.

While trying not to die of embarrassment and or losing her job.

Her second real big assignment and she was paired up with the guy she had a crush on.

"ey, mind if I call ya Ki-boi?" Argo grinned and couldn't help having her grin widen when Kirito's ears turned redder and he awkwardly looked away with a mild nod. He was definitely cuter up close, especially embarrassed or awkward. She'd have to tease him a lot more in the future.

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