AN: *Minor spoiler for this chapter* As if Kirito wasn't bad enough, now Marzanna too? The mildly angsty misunderstanding between these two is killing me, but I don't really write this story. It mostly writes itself once I get on a roll, it's only the occasional hiccups and starting the chapters that I actually have to think about. Hopefully the story decides that it'll get resolved soon. Although the downside of their misunderstanding is that Kirito scene and Hanna's first scene are similar. Also, Go Argo, Go! Matchmake these silly fools! You've gotta get through to them eventually!...Right? The Kirito/Hanna scene is very clichéd, but it's just what came out, so I hope you guys don't mine clichés.

Review responses:

Tempestae Night- I'm glad you like it, you and a person over on AO3 requested similar things, and your requests were the major inspiration for that chapter.

Kurasabe- The warning for sexual content is mostly for the James/Lily/Dante stuff in the first couple of chapters. As I've said before, I haven't yet decided if I'll fully write the scenes between Marzanna/Hanna and Kazuto/Kirito, or if I'll heavily imply then scene shift. I've never written a sex scene, so I'm incredibly nervous to fully write those scenes, but to answer your question? Mega amounts. They'll put rabbits to shame after they own a boss.

harlequin320- He do this. Hope it's not disappointing.

BootyBootyBooty- Your review made me feel incredulous disbelief. If they explicitly state that Sparda's bloodline will only have boys, I either missed it or forgot about it. If there isn't, well, the only canon confirmed relations to Sparda are Vergil and Dante, Nero is defiantly related to Sparda in some way, but it's never actually explained how. It's entirely plausible that he's only a distant relation, but he's heavily speculated to be Vergil's son. That said, unless it's as I stated previously, confirmed in canon that Sparda's bloodline will only produce boys, then there's no reason that a girl can't be born.

To Everyone- Last chapter had probably the most reviews per a single chapter. It wasn't a colossal amount, but a lot of people enjoyed last chapter immensely. Thank all of you for your support. It means a lot to me. The only reason I've continued this story is because of you guys, otherwise it's entirely likely I would've lost interest within the first five chapters. Thank you.

July 20th 2023- 257 days since SAO launch:

Mike looked around one last time to make sure he'd gotten everything he wanted to keep before closing his trunk. The trunk was a gift from him mother, and was exactly like the one she owned, or rather had owned. It was pretty much Marzanna's now, and Lily had only just replaced it when she bought Mike's.

Less then a month prior the third task of the triwizard tournament had taken place. It had ended in the worst possible way. Having been wanting to see who was trying to kill him, and thinking it to just be an old death eater or something, he'd taken the goblet right from under Cedric's nose with a quickly muttered apology. What he had not been expecting, was to come face to face with a still very much alive Pettigrew and Voldemort.

He'd been stunned before he could get over his shock, and when he'd come to he'd been tied to a grave and forced to help make Voldemort a new body. By the time he'd finally escaped, he'd been an absolute mess of injuries. He hadn't said anything about what he'd seen at first, not wanting to panic the crowd, but he told Dumbledore later. The gleam in the man's eye had been all Mike had needed to see to know that Dumbledore had suspected Voldemort was behind his forced participation in the tournament. It had made him sick to know that the man he'd adored and had complete faith in would use a child as bait to lure Voldemort out. And if that night had taught him anything it was that, that was all he was, a child stuck between the two titans that were Dumbledore and Voldemort.

If that wasn't bad enough, even before he'd spoken to Dumbledore, Mad Eye Moody had turned out to be a death eater in disguise. The death eater, Barty Crouch Jr, had told the whole tale under veritaserum. From Peter hiding as a rat in the sewers all these years, to Voldemort forcibly extracting information from Bertha Jorkins' mind, to Voldemort coming for him and disguising himself as Mad Eye Moody, to everything he'd done to ensure it was Mike who reached the cup first. Then Minister Fudge brought a demeanor into the castle and had it administer the kiss to Crouch.

Dumbledore had gone forward with the information about Voldemort's return that he'd gotten from Mike and Barty Crouch Jr anyway, but the Ministry was denying it. They were doing everything in their power to discredit Dumbledore, but as he hadn't gone forward with the information himself they mostly left him alone. Though they did make occasional comments about him, it was relatively tame. Still, Potter had wanted to threaten to sue them for slander, but Dumbledore eventually convinced him not to. He told him that the Daily Prophet would stop, but would print an issue going into exact detail of what James had said. Potter may have disliked his family name being tarnished, but even he knew such an issue would bring the Potter family under heavy fire, possibly ruining their reputation. At least until people realized that Voldemort really was back. As he valued his reputation and fame more than anything, he back off, though he certainly wasn't happy about it.

He felt like a lost child, unsure of what to do, or where to go. He knew that war was coming whether the Ministry wanted to admit it or not, but he wanted no part of it. Wanted nothing to do with the mess the adults had made before he was born now that it had come back to haunt them. He'd told his mother everything, even confessing how he felt of the situation. In return, she'd gravely informed him of the prophecy that was made just before Marzanna, Neville, and himself had been born. It had been a shock of course, knowing that it was supposed to be up to him, but his mother gently pointed out that it didn't say anywhere in the prophecy that he had to do it by himself. Then she'd told him that she'd been thinking about asking him to move in with her. She'd barely finished her sentence before he accepted. Why wouldn't he? A chance to get away from Potter, live with his mother, and have better access to Marzanna before she came home all rolled into one? On top of that his mother and step family had made it very clear that they'd do everything in their power to prepare him for his eventual confrontation with Voldemort. If there was one thing this school year as a whole had taught him, it was that, that was far more than he'd get from Dumbledore, who'd likely just throw him to the wolves. He felt like he was incapable of saying yes fast enough.

With a sigh he finished securing his trunk. Just as he was about to pick it up and leave though, a very familiar voice came from behind him, "Never figured you to be the type to run away from home pup."

Whirling around, he was greeted with the sight of Remus and Sirius standing in front of the door, both of them were frowning at him. Shit. With everything that had been going on, he'd forgotten to tell them about his mother and sister. Potter was gone right now, having been called to an Order of the Phoenix meeting, but he'd be back in an hour, and while Mike wasn't afraid of him, he knew Potter wouldn't let him leave easily. He'd never become famous himself as he'd hoped, but he was rather famous as the father of the Boy-Who-Lived, even if Mike's name was currently not worth that much, they both knew it was only a matter of time before the Ministry was forced to pull their heads out of their asses and acknowledge Voldemort's return. So he'd never let Mike leave, even if it meant stunning him in the back. So he did not have the time for this at the moment.

The possibility that they may soon inadvertently make him Potter's prisoner frustrated and angered him, and it showed in his voice, "I'm not running away from home, I'm going to it, so get out of my way. I'm going home, and you aren't stopping me."

Remus didn't rise to his anger, instead replying in a soothing tone, "Cub, your dad told us you've had issues with him lately, but this is still your home."

He knew Remus didn't deserve his wrath, but he couldn't stop himself from exploding at that, "That man is not my father! I refuse to call anyplace he calls his my home. What are you guys doing here anyway? Shouldn't you be at the meeting?"

Remus and Sirius shared a glance, then Sirius cautiously replied, "Your dad-" He held up his hands in surrender as Mike glared murder at him, "James was concerned about how seeing Voldemort return was affecting you. He was worried you might do something drastic, something like this, so since we had nothing to report he asked us to come check up on you."

Mike growled, "Is that the excuse he came up with this time? I suppose it doesn't matter. This has nothing to do with Voldemort." Seeing their clear disbelief he sighed, "Well, ok, maybe this has a bit to do with Voldemort, but it's mostly because I finally had my eyes opened to the truth. I finally saw Potter for the monster that he is."

Sirius looked incredibly alarmed, "Pup, your dad isn't-"

Mike cut him off, "I saw Marzanna." There was a deafening silence at his announcement, "And my mother as well. Funny thing, she was remarkably clear minded for someone under love potion."

They were staring at him in shock, and Remus sounded shaky and hesitant when he finally found his voice, "What-" He swallowed thickly, then continued, "What do you mean you saw Marzanna? She- She's alive?" Mike nodded, "But- How? She-"

Mike glanced at the clock and growled again. Then he pulled his wand and pointed it at them. They both stepped back in shock, but he ignored it, "Look, I don't have time for this. I'm moving in with my mother, and I'd rather be gone before Potter gets back. I love you two, so the last thing I want to do is hurt you, but I will if you don't get out of my Merlin damned way!"

Sirius glanced at Remus, but he was staring intently at Mike. Eventually he nodded, "Alright. But we're coming with you. And you will answer our questions when we get there."

Mike eyed him for a moment in distrust, then hesitantly put him wand away and grabbed his trunk, "That's fine. As long as it isn't here I'll answer every single question you can possibly think up to the best of my ability. Let's go then."

Remus and Sirius followed him out of the house and out of the wards. He pulled out the permanent portkey his mother had given him so he could return whenever he wanted, it was a necklace in the form of the Nephilim symbol. The only times he'd taken it off since she gave it to him were for the second and third tasks, as it was a magical item and he wasn't permitted to have it on him. It would've been a breach of the magical contract with the goblet of fire that was forced on him, and would've thus taken his magic. If he'd had it for the third task, he could've just used it to get away before Voldemort used his blood to return, because of that he'd had a crushing anxiety about taking the necklace off again.

So he didn't remove the chain from around his neck, even as he held the pendant out to Remus and Sirius. They both gave him sympathetic understanding looks as though they knew exactly what he was thinking, then they shifted closer and each put a finger on the pendant. As soon as he was sure they were touching it, Mike activated the portkey with its password, "Devil's Den."

When he landed, he was immediately greeted by his waiting mother, she wearily eyed Remus and Sirius, "Mike. There you are, I was worried Potter had stopped you from leaving when you were late."

Mike kissed her cheek in greeting before responding, "I told you he'd be at the Order meeting for another half hour at least. He did however, send Sirius and Remus, as he apparently suspected I was going to do something."

She glanced at them, "I see. Is that why they're here?" He nodded, and she nodded a tense greeting to them, "Sirius, Remus, it's been a while."

They both stared at her intently, and he knew they were looking for signs of her being under love potion. The longer they examined her, the more confused and grave they looked. After a few minutes of tense scrutiny Remus nodded in return, "Lily. It's been far too long. How have you been? We were worried."

Lily sighed, "I'd be better if Marzanna wasn't trapped. I'm assuming you were worried because of Potter's lies about me being under love potion?"

Sirius nodded hesitantly, torn between the harsh truth he could see with his eyes and loyalty to his long time friend, "Ya. Why would James lie to us? And what do you mean Marzanna's trapped? Trapped how? And where? I thought you said you spoke to her Mike."

Lily nodded, "He has spoken to her. It's... complicated, seeing as you don't know much about the Muggle world Sirius, and I've no idea how much Remus knows. As for Potter, well, he spoke the truth when he said I was love potioned by my husband, he just lied about which husband it was."

The two went wide eyed, and Remus' voice was shaky, "You aren't honestly saying- James wouldn't-"

Lily grimaced, "I'm afraid James has been lying to you for quite a while. He drugged me with amortentia in our sixth year. I temporarily got out during my... bachelorette vacation with Severus' help. Which is when I met Dante, my husband, and more importantly my soulmate."

Sirius jolted, "Your- Your soulmate? Are you serious?"

Unable to help herself, Lily immediately quipped, "No, you're Sirius."

He rolled his eyes, "Oh ha ha, very funny Lily."

She shrugged, "If I had to put up with that dumb joke all through our Hogwarts years, and even after, then it's only fair I get to use it against you at least once."

Sirius grimaced, "I thought I was being clever, but hearing someone else say it... I'm surprised you didn't hex me considering how often I used that joke."

Lily gave him a deadpan look, "It was a very close call on more than one occasion."

Remus rolled his eyes, "I've wanted to hex you for that one on more than one occasion myself, Sirius. However, if we could get back on track?"

They both gave him sheepish looks, then Lily sighed and pulled her hair out of the way, exposing her neck. On it was what looked like an intricate tattoo of two guns, one black and one white, crossing in an x. In front of them was a large equally elaborate claymore, it's guard was a demonic looking ribcage, collarbones, and skull. The end of the swords hilt was topped with a crown. The thing about soulbond marks, is that people instinctively know what they are. For Muggles, they'd just get the sense that the tattoo was important to the person, and that they weren't single. Magicals however, instinctively knew exactly what it was second they laid eyes on one.

As such, Remus and Sirius immediately knew upon seeing it that she was telling the truth, at least when it came to her husband being her soulmate and not holding her under love potion. It would take a bit more convincing for them to believe James had been using love potion on her, though the beginnings of suspicion were already forming. After all, if her husband really was her soulmate, she had no reason to lie that they could see. In the magical community, it was perfectly reasonable to leave someone for your soulmate, no matter your previous feelings for them. So even if her wedding was only a week or two away, and she would've been damn near leaving James at the alter, she had nothing to be embarrassed by. It would've been scandalous only up to the point that it was discovered that the man she'd left het fiancé for was her soulmate, then people would've found it perfectly understandable. Oh sure, they would've been sympathetic for James, for the fact the woman he loved found her soulmate a week before they were to be married, but no one would've thought less of Lily at all.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Remus pinned Lily with a look, "While this proves your husband is your soulmate, and hasn't been dosing you with love potion, it doesn't prove that James was."

Lily nodded, "I know. I have a pensive, I can show you the memories pertaining to it, if you think you can handle seeing it."

They glanced at each other, then looked at her in determination, it was Sirius who spoke, "If you're telling the truth it will be hard to see it. To know that the man we thought we knew and was our friend wasn't who we thought he was at all, but we can handle it."

Mike chose to rejoin the conversation at that point, "In that case, allow me to add my memories as well. There are other things you two need to know. If it's alright with you mom, I'd also like to add the memory of yours, Hermione's, and Severus' explanation about Marzanna's situation. It should help then understand, seeing us they're as unfamiliar with Muggle technology as I was back then."

Lily nodded in agreement, stop Mike turned to them, "I should inform your before hand, some of the memories I'm going to show you are Marzanna's from when our twin bond resynchronized."

They started moving towards the study, which was where she kept her pensive. It was a place where one was guaranteed to get some peace and quiet, as it was mostly used by Lily, Vergil, and Eva for important things like going over the Devil May Cry shop's finances and meeting with clients with large or time consuming jobs. Trish had definitely been happy that they took other that from Dante, as she no longer had to worry about not getting paid. Though admittedly that had already started to fade before that, as Kyrie had temporarily started to do it before the others arrived and took over. She may be kind and sweet, but she understood that they needed funds to be able to do their job and live off of, and she could be surprisingly terrifying when someone tried to screw her family over.

Sirius glanced at him as they moved through the house, "About that. How were you not affected by being apart?" At Mike's deadpan stare he hurried to correct himself, "I mean from the bond itself. I- I know you were rather depressed when you thought she'd died, but that was because she's your sister, not because of the bond."

Mike sighed, "You'll see soon enough, I'll just add the entire meeting where mom explained Marzanna's situation to me."

Sirius and Remus shared a glance, then nodded. When they reached the room, his mother quickly brought out her pensive and set it on the desk. She quickly dropped a memory in, then moved aside so Mike could add his own. Putting his wand to his forehead, he concentrated on the first memory, then deposited it into the pensive. He repeated this process four more times. He didn't know what his mother had put in, but he added the memories of finding Marzanna bloody at the bottom of the stairs and her telling him it was Potter's doing, Marzanna telling him about the amortentia and the resulting argument, Marzanna's memory of Potter casting hex after hex at her for destroying the amortentia before dumping her in America, the memory of when he was reunited with his mother in its entirety, and finally Marzanna's memory of Kayaba explaining the death game in the plaza. The memories would be a difficult and bitter pill to swallow, especially actually seeing Potter hurt her, but they needed to know the full truth. Hesitating a moment, he also added the brief memory of Marzanna's message he was supposed to deliver to the two.

He glanced at his mother, "Could you cast an audio translation spell? The second to last memory is in Japanese. I know what it's about, but I don't think either Remus or Sirius know Japanese."

Lily shook her head, "The pensive has more than just the regular runes. It also comes with a translation rune. It'll automatically translate it for us, both audio and visual." He nodded, so Lily glanced at Remus and Sirius, "Are you ready?" They nodded firmly, but when they moved to get up she shook her head, "This pensive also has the ability to project the memory above it. I'll just activate that."

They glanced at each other then nodded. So she put her finger on the rune that caused the pensive to project memories, then pushed a little bit of magic in it to activate it. Immediately the memory she'd added appeared in the air. They watched as she listened in on Dumbledore and Potter's conversation about Marzanna destroying the amortentia, then saw Lily burst into the office and Crucio Potter. Then Mike's memories played out.

By the end of it Sirius and Remus were both pale and shaky, and his own mother was trembling in fury. Likely at Potter's abuse of Marzanna. He watched them quietly for a monument, "One of the things I learned from our bond reconnecting, was that due to Marzanna's increased durability, Potter was never able to hurt her with his bare hands, though not for lack of trying. He had to resort to spells designed for creatures with heightened magical resistance to hurt her at all."

They stared at him for a minute, slowly rage was overcoming Sirius and Remus' shock. Finally Sirius exploded as he shot from his chair, "That bastard! How dare he hurt her! I'll fucking kill him!"

Remus quickly grabbed onto him before he could storm from the office to make due on his words, "Sirius calm yourself!"

He whirled on Remus, "Calm?! You want me to be calm?! He-"

Remus cut him off with a growl, his eyes turning gold in indication of how close to the surface his wolf was, "I'm damn well aware of what he did to my cub Sirius, and I'd like nothing more that to rip him to pieces!" He paused and forced himself to take a calming breath, his eyes turning back to their usual green, "However, if you did that, you'd be sent to Azkaban, and if I did it I'd be executed because I'm a werewolf. I can guarantee you that Marzanna wants neither of those things to happen. She already has enough to deal with at the moment, she doesn't need to worry about us as well. Potter will get his, I promise you, but we're not going to kill him, and it'll have to wait until we're in a better position to retaliate."

Lily smiled at them, "I'm glad to know we have you two on our side. I always did like you Remus, and once you finally started to mature a bit I quite enjoyed your company as well Sirius." Then her grin turned vicious, "If you're pursuing revenge on that bastard, you should talk to Vergil. He's got a cruel steak a hundred miles wide when provoked, and he'd happily get behind seeking revenge for Marzanna."

"Damn straight I would. Who's the revenge against and what'd they do?"

They turned to see Vergil leaning against the door frame. Lily grinned at him, "Potter, for abusing her. What are you doing up here?"

Vergil growled, and his eyes turned red as demonic energy began to spark around him like lightning, "I wanted to see what was going on, since Mike brought guests and you took them to the study. More importantly, that is one endeavor that I will gleefully assist with. I've been wanting to get that bastard ever since I found out about everything he did to you and Marzanna, but much as he hated him too, Dante wouldn't let me. He knew if I took care of it personally I'd give that bastard a tortuous death, and he felt that it would be bad for my mental health."

Remus and Sirius didn't really understand, but Lily and Mike knew he was talking about the fact he was still a bit unstable due to his soulmates death. Mike stood up then turned to Sirius and Remus, "Well, I'm going to assume you two now understand my situation and support my decision to move in with my mother." They nodded, "Good, then I'll leave you to your planning of Potter's demise, or at the very least, ruin, as I need to unpack."

They waved him off vaguely, so he left to do just that. As he was leaving he heard some of the things already being discussed, and dark glee filled him. Oh, Potter was definitely going to pay dearly if the four are coming up with stuff like that strait out of the gate.

Hanna blinked as dark glee bled through the bond from Mike. Normally she couldn't feel his emotions due to the distance between them, but he'd visited her two days ago and informed her of his decision to move in with their mom. She'd been ecstatic about that. So she knew he was now closer. Considering how weak their bond was, it was still strange that she could feel his emotions. She figured the feeling must be incredibly strong for her to feel it and absently wondered what was happening. Then she shrugged it off, she'd ask him later, right now she was relaxing.

As luck would have it, the 26th floor was another desert, she'd immediately informed Asuna that her and Kirito would not be helping out with this floor. She refused to deal with his heat inducted moodiness again. She had figured that they'd just head down to the 24th floor and grind there, maybe focus on upgrading their equipment until the frontlines moved to the 27th floor, but Kirito had insisted they relax for a few days. After her stressful outburst with the boss, Kirito was instant that she unwind. Not that she'd put up much of a fight against it, she'd only given obligatory arguments before happily agreeing.

So they'd spent the last four days relaxing together. It was great, they had a lot of fun. She tried not to think about the fact that she was having alone time with Kirito, and that it was the first time they took more than a few minutes to do something other than mapping, grinding, questing, or focusing on doing some other important thing. It was difficult to keep her mind from straying that way, considering the lack of doing anything left her with quite a lot of time to think. Especially since Kirito napped a lot, so she wasn't even able to distract herself with conversing with him. Not that she minded his sleeping habit other than being unable to talk to him. She'd already known that Kirito was a sleepy head, it didn't bother her.

He was actually sleeping at that very moment, having dozed off an hour ago. She was sprawled out on her own bed next to his, menu open as she chatted with Argo. That certainly didn't help her aversion to thinking about things that should not be thought about. Argo took every opportunity ask how her 'quality time' with Kirito was going. It drove her up the wall. The constant reminder was also rather painful.

She knew Argo didn't mean to hurt her, she was just being Argo and teasing, but it was painful anyway. She kept saying that Kirito liked her, but he didn't. She knew he didn't. Whenever situations started to take a turn in that direction he'd get a pinched look on his face. And it hurt, it hurt so god damn much, Potter's abuse couldn't even begin to compete, Agnus' experiments didn't hold a candle to it, even the great demon that awoke her Devil Trigger and Devil Triggering for the first time was incomparable.

Closing the window after Argo told her she had to meet with a client, she rolled onto her side and watched Kirito for a few minutes. It was slightly terrifying, how much power he had over her without even realizing it. She knew he could crush her in every way with just three words, but similarly if he simply changed one word, he could give her the whole world. All it would take would be an 'I hate you' or 'I love you'. Even just an 'I like you' would change everything for her, as long as he meant as more than friends.

She sighed. That was the problem though, wasn't it? That's all she'd ever be to him. His friend. The thought cut her deeply. Rolling over she decided to get some sleep despite it only being noon. At least in the world of dreams Kirito was more than just her friend, she'd have to content herself with that.

Kirito woke slowly, not in any hurry to wake whatsoever. He'd been having a pleasant dream about Hanna. Not a wet dream, though he had gotten more than a few of those. No it wasn't anything of that nature, but it was nice nonetheless. Opening his eyes, he saw that it was late afternoon, the sun would go down soon. He glanced around the room quickly looking for Hanna. Almost immediately he found her sleeping on her bed. He watched her for a few minutes, then quickly looked away when he realized it might be a little creepy to watch his sleeping party member. When he realized his eyes were drifting back to her on their own, he rolled onto his side, putting his back to her.

He almost regretted insisting on this period of relaxation. He couldn't bring himself to really regret it, considering how stressed Hanna had been, and how much he enjoyed being able to spend time with Hanna with no pressing matters to attend to. However, keeping how he felt about Hanna to himself became more difficult by the day. It didn't help that Argo kept trying to tell him that Hanna reciprocated his feelings. He knew she was trying to be helpful, but she was wrong, and all it did was serve as a painful remainder of what he couldn't have.

With a sigh he rolled back over. After watching Hanna for a minute an idea hit him. A picnic would be nice and relaxing, and if he hurried they might be able to watch the sun go down after they where done eating. Glancing at the clock, he figured he had fifteen minutes to get setup before he and Hanna would need to leave if they were to make it on time. Pushing himself up, he quickly left the room and went downstairs to the inn's tavern and purchased some food. Returning to their room, he sat on the edge of Hanna's bed and gently woke her up.

She blinked in a sleepy manner a few times, then yawned. He thought it was adorable. Impulsively he reached over and started running his fingers through her hair. A moment later he realized he might've crossed a boundary and started to pull back. This is what he meant by having difficulty keeping his feelings to himself. Before he could fully pull away though, Hanna leaned into his hand with a content sigh, so hesitantly he resumed carding his fingers through her hair.

When her eyes closed, he realized she was starting to doze off again, "Hey, don't fall asleep. I wanna go somewhere, but we gotta go soon."

She opened her eyes again and gazed at him sleepily, "Don' wanna. 'm comfy."

He chuckled lightly, "That so?" She hummed in agreement. He shook his head fondly, "Who's the sleepy head now?"

"Still you. Your the one who dozed off while we were talking earlier."

He blushed lightly in embarrassment. He hadn't been able to help himself. Hanna's voice was one of, if not the most soothing thing he'd ever heard. It was so easy to be lulled to sleep by it. The only time that wasn't the case was when she was excited , angry, or passionate about whatever she was talking about. He wasn't about to tell her any of that though. He was sure she wouldn't appreciate it, considering how uncomfortable the idea of a relationship with him seemed to make her.

So he just coughed awkwardly, "Yes, well. Anyway! We should get going. I wanna have a picnic. It would be immensely relaxing, don't you agree?"

She grinned at him, then finally sat up with a stretch, "Alright, Alright. I'm up. If we're leaving town just let me requip into my gear, then we can go get the food and head out. We can forgo the blanket."

He smiled at her while equipping his own gear, "Actually I already went and picked up the food. So we can just head out."

She nodded as she closed her menu, now in her gear, "Well, alright then. Let's go."

Kirito nodded, and stood up. He led her to the teleport gate, then took them down to the 14th floor. When they finally got to where he wanted to go, he'd led them to the edge of both Aincrad and a sparse forest. There was still a good half hour till sunset. It was inaccurate, but in Aincrad when the sun started going down the sky turned golden rather than red. The forest was already beautiful, but with the setting sun painting everything golden, it was absolutely gorgeous. They'd come across this place two months prior while searching for an out of the way quest they'd heard about from Argo. At the time, Hanna had been to distracted by navigating with the map data from Argo to really notice the scenery. Certainly, she kept an eye on her soundings, but she was only paying attention to possible attacks or traps, not the soundings themselves.

Hanna looked around wide eyed, "Oh. Wow. It's- Wow."

Kirito grinned, "I know right? We we're here looking for that quest. The one you got your falcata from?"

Hanna looked startled, "We came through here?" He nodded, and she looked around again before shaking her head, "I didn't even notice."

Kirito smiled gently, "Well, you were a bit distracted by navigating. So it's not too surprising."

Hanna shook her head again, then returned his smile, "Well, I do believe we've a picnic to eat?"

He nodded enthusiastically and she laughed. They spent the next half hour eating, then chatting as they watched the sun reach the 'horizon', which was a thick a cloud bank in the distance, then set. They stayed even after the sun had gone down, as Kirito said wanted to show her something.

They waited for half an hour, then Hanna straightened from her relaxed slump in surprise. Little lights were appearing all over the place. Kirito smiled at Hanna. They couldn't see stars, obviously, but Kirito had picked this floor for a reason. It was one of the few with fireflies. And while they certainly weren't stars, it was the closest there was in Aincrad.

With a content sigh he flopped back so he was lying down, and a moment later Hanna joined him. For A few minutes they just lay there watching the fireflies, then Hanna's hand accidentally bumped his. She pulled it away for a few seconds, then hesitantly returned it so that the backs of their hands were touching. He also hesitated, then slowly grabbed her hand. She entwined their fingers together.

An hour later Hanna let go of his hand and rolled over. He blushed when she was done readjusting. She'd curled into him with her head on his chest and her hand splayed a few inches from her face. He cursed the fact he stuttered when he spoke, "H-Hanna? What-"

He cut off as he brushed the hair from her face so he could look at her. She was sound asleep. He hadn't even noticed her doze off. He huffed in fond exasperation. He didn't want to wake her again, so he'd either have to carry her, or stayed here til she woke up. Hopefully, being asleep didn't count as resisting him moving her, as he really didn't want to get a harassment warning.

Thankfully, when he carefully moved, then picked her up, the harassment warning didn't appear. He carried her back to town, then started heading for the teleport gate. Players gave them weird looks as they passed, but he ignored all of them. When he finally made it back to their room he gently put her under her blankets. However when he tried to straighten up, he quickly discovered that Hanna had grabbed onto his shirt. After trying unsuccessfully to get her to let go of his shirt for a few minutes, he gave up. With a sigh, he unequipped his coat and sword. Sliding into the bed next to her, he briefly spared a thought to what would happen when Hanna woke up. Hopefully she'd give him a chance to explain why he was sleeping in her bed, rather than just slapping him from the get go. Even if he couldn't feel pain itself, it was still uncomfortable to get hit.