Sword Art Online

After The Incident

Chapter 39 – Peace and Quiet

I smiled quietly and sighed from satisfaction as I felt the gentle breeze run across my face, throwing my hair over it. I was currently lying on one of the tallest hills in the greenery area around the main city in ALO, enjoying the peace and quiet around me as I could finally relax.

Sugou was finally gone. Never again would he terrorize me and my family. I was done feeling hopeless, I was done feeling vulnerable. I could decide my own fate now, and it had already been decided a long time before Sugou imprisoned me in ALO.

I smiled a little and opened my eyes to stare up at the white-spotted sky of ALO, the lulling flute of the BG music calming my nerves and making me relax. On my left was Asuna, quietly cradling Yui in her arms as they were taking a nice afternoon nap.

I couldn't help but chuckle as I saw how cute the both of them looked. I knew how lucky I was to still have them around, to still have people around me that loved me. Anyone who would only know me on the surface would have taken a distance to me by now, avoided me because of the trouble I apparently attract. Not Asuna though. Not any of my friends or family. They'll be there to the bitter end for me, and it felt amazing to know.

I sighed and sat up when I began to get a little bored, stretching my arms in a sleepy yawn and running a hand through my hair. I looked around the plains we were laying on, a casual monster spawning here and there as the wind brushing through the trees sang a different song than the one that played in the background.

I stretched a final time before jumping to my feet, feeling renewed and refreshed by the short nap. I turned to the two girls by my side, wondering if I should wake them up. I didn't get to make a decision though, as Asuna's eyes stirred a little, before the rest of her body slowly whirred into action. She sat up with a peaceful smile, looking up at me sleepily.

"Good morning" She mumbled silently as she stretched and yawned "Did you sleep well?"

"For once, yeah." I mumbled as I helped her up by the hand "For the first time in a while, I've actually had some good sleep."

"That's great, Kazuto." She mumbled as she pecked my cheek "Should we wake Yui up?"

"I would rather not to be honest." I mumbled with a soft chuckle "She seems so peaceful."

I smiled quietly as I could see a small smile form on Yui's face, followed by the words "I love you, mama, papa." She always managed to melt my heart somehow, whether she was asleep or not. I would feel bad for waking her up from her peaceful slumber.

"We were planning to take her to the southeastern beach, right?" Asuna said with a giggle "If we don't wake her, she'll miss a great trip to the beach."

"I guess you're right." I mumbled with a defeated sigh "She's just so cute when she is sleeping like that."

"I know right? But she wanted to spend some time with her parents" Asuna said with a heavy expression "After all this bullcrap we went through, we almost deserve a mini family vacation"

I nodded quietly as I sat down on his knees beside the sleeping figure of my virtual daughter. That was true. We had been through a lot, and a nice small vacation and some quality time with my family and friends was something I felt like I needed right now. Though it was still something I had to be waiting for.

Because of the massive sidetrack Sugou had brought me and Asuna out on, the both of us had had a ton of homework we had to catch up on. Every day since Sugou's capture 4 weeks ago, we had met up at least 3 times a week to hold study sessions together, trying to help each other catch up, and reduce the mountain of homework on each of our laps.

I had several funny and fond memories of those study sessions, one of the latest one's being of the more embarrassing nature. Asuna had gone to the kitchen to bring us a tray of ice tea for our study session, when she tripped over the carpet in the living room, and soaked herself completely through, leaving her clothes completely see-through. I could see everything, including her underwear under her clothes.

Now while I can't say that I didn't like the view, I was still obliged to help her as much as I could. Sadly enough, as she hadn't stored any clothes of hers at my house, she had to borrow a hoodie and jeans from me, along with some new underwear from Suguha before she could go home and get a new set of clothes for herself. Though I can't say I wasn't laughing a bit at her miserable state, much to her embarrassment.

It had more or less resulted in a slap for me, a scar for life for Asuna, and one hell of a laugh for Suguha and Midori when Asuna tried to choke me for laughing and staring.

I chuckled quietly at the memory as I lifted Yui up in my arms, earning a certain look from Asuna.

"What are you laughing at?" she mumbled in confusion.

"Oh nothing. Just a funny memory" I said with a chuckle.

I gently began shaking Yui in my arms, whispering to her that she needed to wake up.

"Come on Yui, wakey wakey" I mumbled silently as she fluttered her eyes open "Don't you want to go to the beach?"

She sent me a quiet little smile as she was finally waking up, yawning in the most adorable way as she stretched her arms.

"Good morning daddy, mommy" She mumbled sleepily as she rubbed her eyes "What's the time?"

I took a quick look in my menu, where the virtual clock was sitting in the left upper corner.

"13.45" I mumbled "If we want to have a fun day at the beach, we'd have to get going now"

Her sleepy eyes immediately lighted up in childish excitement, and she began throwing her arms around in excitement.

"Oh, right! Let go of me so I can fly there, immediately!"

I looked at her in mild surprise. It was rare to see her so excited that she would completely forget her normally gentle and polite outer form of expression, and to watch her struggle in my arms to get going was something I was not at all used to.

I chuckled quietly as she struggled to jump to the ground and smiled as I let her go.

"Okay, okay, calm down Yui" I said with a smile "If you fly too fast, you're gonna break the game!"

She didn't listen too much to me though. Before I had even finished my sentence she was already several tens of meters ahead of us. I looked over at Asuna with a baffled expression, before she shrugged with the same expression and began flying after our daughter in a hurry. I quickly flew after them.

After about 20 minutes of flying through the cool skies of the plains, we soon arrived of the map's most southeastern beach. The weather had quickly become too heated to wear armor and such, even in mid-air where it was normally cool, so Asuna and I had both changed into some casual thin clothing while we flew there, while Yui was so excited she didn't even recognize how hot it was.

Though when we finally planted our feet in the sandy grounds of the beautiful white beach, she was panting quietly and humbled over in warm exhaustion.

"Man, I didn't realize how hot it would be around here" She mumbled as she quickly changed into a one-piece swimsuit.

I chuckled quietly and smiled as I walked up to her and rubbed her head.

"That's what happens when you get too excited" I said knowingly as I wiggled my finger at her with a teasing smirk.

She pouted up at me and puffed her cheeks up in an adorable manner.

"I hate when you tease me, daddy" She mumbled as she turned her gaze to her mother "It's much more fun when we tease mommy together"

I facepalmed and chuckled under my hand as Asuna walked over to us with the same pouty expression that Yui had just put on display.

"You're both dummies" She mumbled as she stepped over to us and changed into a two piece bikini "And we're not here to tease each other, we're here to swim, am I right?"

Me and Yui both nodded with a confident smirk and I followed the example the two girls had set, as I changed into a set of blue swimming trunks.

"Heck yeah!" I said with a smirk as I fistpumped "Last man in the water have to give Klein a massage!"

Me and Yui quickly took off down the surprisingly empty beach, leaving a surprised and unexpecting Asuna behind.

"HEY! That's cheating!" She screamed at the top of her lungs as she sprinted after us desperately.

I should never have said that. The girls was both smarter than me, and flew into the water with their wings before I could manage to reach it, landing gently in the knee-high water with satisfied smirks.

"uhh, it was just a joke?" I said tryingly, but they both glared at me and smirked.

"Nope, you're not getting away from it" They both said with a laugh.

I sighed and sweatdropped before following them the rest of the way into the water, diving headfirst into the water in the middle of them so the both of them was splashed over with water, and I gained satisfyingly squeals from the both of them. I chuckled quietly at my mind as I rose back up to the service.

"That's what you get for ganging up at me!" I said with a hearty laugh.

They both glared at me before taking a glance at each other, and my skin suddenly crawled as I got a really bad feeling from them. They smirked at me before sprinting directly at me and tackling me at the same time, making all of us fall into the water with a huge splash.

As we rose back up over the water surface, we all took a long glance at each other, before bursting out into laughter, solely enjoying each other's company under the hot summer sun of the southeastern beach in ALO.

A long while later that day, we were sitting in a couple of beach chairs, sunbathing quietly with closed eyes under the baking afternoon sun. Yui was sitting by the water's edge, getting the last details on a sand castle she had been working on for the last half an hour.

I had closed my eyes and sighed quietly as I felt the hot sun's rays warm my skin, when Asuna addressed me from my right.

"Hey, Kazuto?" She mumbled silently as she looked over at me "Can I ask you something?"

I looked over at her with a smile and a nod.

"Sure, what is it hun?"

She smiled and blushed a little. Huh, I had called her hun before. Why was she blushing from it now?

"Well, I was wondering…" She mumbled silently "Since everything has been solved over with the parasite and everything… And we have this weekend mostly to ourselves…"

I looked over at her with a wondering expression, waiting for her to finish. Her blush was deepening a bit as she took a few deep breaths to calm her resolve.

"I was wondering if you wanted to go on a date" She said with a genuine smile and a dark blush.

I smiled quietly at her smile and widened my eyes when I realized. She wasn't blushing at me calling her hun, she was blushing because she was asking me out. I understood why she was embarrassed about it. It had been quite a while since our last date, so maybe we were both a bit out of practice. And since we had finally settled down and had some peace, I had actually felt a much stronger need to be closer to her.

This would be a perfect way to satisfy that need.

"Sure, that sounds wonderful Asuna" I mumbled as I reached out and grabbed her hand in mine "Did you have anything special planned?"

As I ran a thumb across the back of her hand, she looked up at the sky with a smile.

"Well, we've had a lot of dates where we did a lot of special things" she mumbled as she rubbed her chin thoughtfully with her free hand "But I was wondering if we should do something more personal and cozy… You know, maybe stay at your house and watch a movie?"

Now that I thought about it, it actually seemed like it was true. We had always been in town and exploring, on expensive dinner dates, going to the park and the sorts on our dates before Sugou came back to haunt us again. We had actually never tried to do something in a smaller scale, something in cuddle scale.

I smiled quietly and nodded softly, giving her hand a small squeeze as I looked over at her.

"That sounds like a good idea actually" I mumble silently "You're right, we've never done something small like that"

She nodded quietly and smiled. This actually came with more or less the perfect timing. My aunt was going to a birthday party for one of her high school friends, and Suguha was going to Recon's, or Nagata Shinichi's house, for reasons I was not sure I wanted to know. I chuckled quietly at that last thought before looking over at Asuna again.

"The timing could not be more perfect" I said with a small smile "We should have the house to ourselves this weekend, so we can hang out at my house"

"Sounds good Kazuto" She said with a warm smile "These next few days we should spent more time with Yui after school, when homework and all that is done. Then we can have that movie date this weekend, sound like a plan?"

I nodded quietly and squeezed hand again as I supported my head with my other arm in the beach chair.

"Sure, sounds good"

As I replied to her question, we were suddenly interrupted as I was surprised by a sudden suggesting chuckle from the foot end of the beach chairs.

"Hehe, look at mommy and daddy, being all lovey dovey"

It turned out to be Yui, who was eyeing us with a smirk. I blushed a little and looked at her with a glare, still holding Asuna's hand in my own. I was feeling that it was time to grow up, and not feel so embarrassed about showing my affection towards Asuna in public. We had been dating for several years now after all, and I felt like it would only be natural to hold hands and such with your significant other by that time.

"What, I can't hold mommy's hand anymore?" I asked her as I looked over at her with a smirk.

She giggled quietly under her hands as she jumped up into the beach chair and into my lap.

"Nope, that's my job, you know?" she giggled again and nuzzled closer to me.

"That's unfair, I was there first you know!" I mumbled dissatisfied as I looked at her with a pout.

"That's true, he did hold my hand before you did honey" Asuna cut in with an admitting smile.

"No fair, now you guys are ganging up on me!" Yui shouted with another adorable pout.

"Anyway, are you done with your sand castle, Yui?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

She looked at me a little confused, like she didn't know what I was talking about, until she widened her eyes in realization.

"Oh, right! Yeah, almost!" She said with a happy smile "I just wanted you and mommy to help me with the last details"

I looked over at Asuna with a small smile and nodded at Yui.

"Sure, we can do that" I mumbled as I lifted her onto the sand beside my beach chair, standing onto my feet and stretching from the relaxing sun bathing.

Asuna stood on the other side of Yui and we each took one of her hands, as we made our way down to the water's edge together with her. A/N

Hey there guys! Thank you for reading this week's chapter of After The incident!

I know it's bit short, but when I finished the whole scene on the beach with Yui and her parents, I really thought of it as the perfect way to finish this chapter off. I couldn't help but stop there. Please don't burn ,e at the stake for it.

Anyway, I hope you thought it was fluffy enough for your taste. Personally, my blood was close to turn into sugar when I wrote it, hehe.

Anyway, again, thank you for reading, and I'll see you next week.

Peace out!