And here we are with chapter 16. it's been a wild ride, and I hope you guys have been enjoying it. Please leave a review to let me know what you liked!

Caring For A Rat: Part 16

It was a quiet walk back through the hidden dungeon. None of the mobs had respawned yet, and I felt too hollow to speak. A glance told me that Asuna felt the same.

Yui was gone.

There was the chance that someday, I could bring her back, but that couldn't happen as long as SAO was running. She would be identified and destroyed immediately.

I didn't know how long it would be before I could see the little girl who had somehow taken over my life in a few short days. I didn't know when I would see my daughter again. It surprised me just how much I had come to care about her in the little time that we had spent together, but she was important to me.

I knew Asuna felt the same.

Approximately halfway through the dungeon, the silence we had walked in was broken.

"YUUUUUUUUUUIIIIIIII!"

Argo came running around the corridor a second after her yell trailed off, her eyes red, and her face set in a hard line.

"Kii-bou, Aa-chan!" She gasped, sliding to a stop in front of us. She took us in, her eyes scanning over us as if she could see the injuries we had taken. "You're alive!" She flung her arms around us, tackling us to the floor. "You're alive!" She buried her face into my shoulder, clutching the three of us together. "You're alive!"

"Argo…" I raised one of my arms up to wrap around her, holding her close.

"I though' ya died," The info broker mumbled into my ear, her arms gripping tight. "I've never been so happy ta be wron' before."

"We're not going anywhere," Asuna said, one hand running through Argo's hair.

"Please," Argo said, pushing herself up slightly so that she could look us in the eyes. "Please don' ever make me leave you behind again." Her voice trembled as she spoke, and my mouth opened in shock.

"You're crying." it seemed impossible. Argo The Rat was an almost unbreakable reed. I had seen her betrayed, thwarted, attacked, and grieving. Even when she had been breaking down, overcome by the horrid memories of her time in the cabin, she had never let herself shed tears.

"Don't cry Argo," Asuna said, reaching up with one hand to brush away her tears. "We're still here. we lived."

"I though' I saw your name fade from my friends list," Argo said, running one hand over Asuna's hair. "Don' you dare tell me everythin's okay."

My wife blinked, then opened her mouth to protest. "It's okay, Asuna," I said, sitting up so that I could pull her against me. "You're so strong, I don't think I would be alive without you." I stroked her hair as she shivered, "I'm here if you-"

Asuna shook her head against me, gathering herself. "I need to-"

"Righ'," Argo said, pulling both of us to our feet. "We're gettin' out o' here. Jus' give me a lil' time ta go find Yui an we can go home."

"Argo," I called as the Info Broker started to walk away, ready to call out for Yui again. "She's…" How could I explain this? She wasn't gone, per say, because her data was still here, but she wasn't active, oh! "She's sleeping."

Argo eyed me balefully, as Asuna, still somewhat unresponsive, wrapped one arm around me. "Tha's all the more reason ta find her before the mobs get her."

"No, that's not what I… Here." I flicked open my inventory and withdrew Yui's Heart. Argo stepped closer, and let out a breath of air like she'd been punched in the gut.

"Is she okay?" The Info Broker said, tracing the design on the pendant with one hand.

"I don't know."

Argo let her hand drop, and nodded, one hand pulling her hood deeper over her face. "Ya better have a good explanation when we get back home." With that, the three of us resumed walking through the hidden dungeon, each of us feeling the painful absence of the little girl who had come to mean so much to us in such a short time.

The walk home was surprisingly undisturbed. Thinker had messaged Argo about wanting to meet later, but the Info Broker had managed to delay our meeting for a while. It was probably for the best, given that Asuna looked about ready to keel over at any second, and I wasn't sure I looked much better.

I certainly didn't feel very up for anything.

The room felt duller, somehow, when we got back. Asuna barely seemed to notice, collapsing onto the nearer bed. I sat down on bed next to her, and she rolled over, pressing her body up against my leg. It was relieving, to feel this warmth against me. It kept me from seeing her shatter, over and over again.

Argo sat down on the other bed and crossed her arms expectantly.

"Yui was-is, an A.I.," I began, running one hand over my wife's form. Argo made a hum of acknowledgement, but gave no other outward expression. It took a few minutes to piece together what I had learned in the short conversation I had had with Yui that preceded her "falling asleep".

"So Kayaba sealed her away because she wanted ta help?" Argo summed up my ramblings on the matter in a single sentence.

"There was probably a bit more behind it," I said, holding Asuna's hand as she rested, lying across my lap. "She was able to spawn in the [Divine Stone of the Returning Soul] Asuna buried a little further into me, her hand squeezing mine even as Argo gasped.

"But-" The Info Broker shook her head "-That's"

I nodded, brushing my thumb over Asuna's hand.

"Fuck," Argo leaned back, and I desperately searched for something, anything to fill the void in the conversation. If I stopped for too long...

"Kirito?" Asuna said, her voice rough, but not as hollow as it had been. "Can we…?" I squeezed her hand, giving her some comfort.

"Do you want me to carry you?" Asuna shook her head, and I helped her to her feet. She wrapped one arm around me, and entwined the other with Argo's, and we walked toward the kitchen together. We needed something to focus on, or everything would fall apart.

Dinner was a quiet affair, consisting mainly of leftovers from breakfast, although I had managed to fry some fish that Asuna had once again whipped up a sauce for.

She had almost returned to normal in the kitchen, puttering about with the dishes, mixing together ingredients, trying to get just the right amount of heat. But the second she stepped out of the kitchen, she had all but collapsed, leaning against Argo for support as I fed her bits of fish.

The silence hung like a weight as we ate, none of us mentioning the fourth chair that I had pulled up and set a plate in front of. The plate remained untouched even as we finished the scarce food that we had managed to prepare.

When Asuna pulled herself off my shoulder to pick up the plates and other utensils we had used, Argo stopped her with a hand on the wrist.

"You lovebirds go get some res'," Argo said, her token effort at teasing falling flat, "Ya look tired enough ta be mistaken for zombies."

"I can-" Asuna tried to argue, but was cut off by a yawn.

"Jus' go get some res'," Argo said, picking up the plates, "You shoul' get ta bed 'fore ya keel over."

Asuna and I leaned against each other the whole way back, taking careful steps. We had come too close to losing each other, and neither of us wanted to be apart.

It didn't take long for us to ready ourselves for bed, cuddling close as we bathed in each other's presence. Reassuring each other that we were still here, that we had lived. Asuna let me hold her from behind, my face buried in her auburn locks, drinking in her scent.

A set of rapid footsteps ran down the corridor, and Argo burst through the door, panting hard. Her eyes scanned the room from end to end, and she let out a sigh of relief when she caught sight of us.

"Can I…" The info broker trailed off, tentatively approaching the bed. I nodded into Asuna's hair, and she pulled back a section of the covers.

"Of course." Argo crawled into the bedding, but remained distant from us. She looked at once relieved and uncomfortable to be here.

I don't know what did it for me, perhaps it was that Yui was missing, or maybe it was Argo keeping herself separate from us, or even just the simple fact that I well and truly relaxed for the first time since the Fatal Scythe had appeared.

All I knew is that one minute I was holding my wife close, and the next I was sobbing into her hair.

Asuna, oh so kind Asuna turned in my arms, and wrapped her arms around me, and before I knew it we were crying together.

We cried in grief; for almost losing each other, and our daughter.

We cried in joy; for we had survived.

We cried in despair; for today had shown us that we might never make it out.

We cried because this world, the world that Kayaba had created, was a cruel trap, one that we couldn't help but love, despite all the pain it had brought us.

We cried because we failed to comfort each other, even as we tried desperately to offer some reassurance with the warmth of our bodies.

Eventually, we cried ourselves hoarse. Argo had sat up while Asuna and I were weeping. One of her hands hovered over our entwined forms. "You okay?"

I laughed a heaving sob. And shook my head. Asuna gripped the blankets as best as she was able, and pulled them open as far as she could.

Argo moved cautiously, sinking low, and almost skittering across the bed as she crawled underneath the blankets. She crawled over Asuna to wedge herself between me and my wife. She shoved her arms underneath the both of us, doing her best to bring us together into one massive pile.

Argo had almost lost us today. She tried oh so hard not to show it, but she was scared. She needed our presence, to reassure herself that we were still here. Especially since Yui was gone, with no guarantee of getting her back.

The blankets were too narrow for the task that we asked of them, but we were too busy taking comfort in each other to care.

We fell asleep with Asuna and I lying on top of Argo, the small info broker trying to pile as much of our weight onto herself as she could.

Argo had trouble breathing when she woke up. For a second she wondered when Yui had clambered onto her bed, before the events of the previous day hit her. The Info Broker sank into the mattress beneath her as the weight of what happened took her breath away.

I almost lost them. The info broker wrapped her arms around the two people she was lying in bed with. It took some work to get her arms under them, but it was worth it, just to hold them close and breath in their presence.

I almost lost them. Argo slowly, hesitatingly, disentangled herself from Kirito and Asuna and sat up.

I almost lost them, and now I'm getting in the way, The info broker thought. Asuna and Kirito had had to almost crawl over her to reach each other. She was just an obstacle to their relationship

It would be better if she just left. She'd been the one who encouraged going to the hidden dungeon without backup. She'd kept Yui from doing anything until it was almost too late. If she hadn't been there, then Yui would have been able to save Kirito and Asuna before either of them…

She had only made things worse.

As she tried to rise from the bed, something tugged on her wrist.

"Mmmmh," Kirito mumbled something incomprehensible, his hand wrapped around her wrist.

"Let go, Kii-bou," Argo mumbled, tugging her hand away. "Knew ya were a clingy sleeper." She rose from the bed, and equipped her armor. She had a bolthole on the fourth floor that she could hide out at for a while. It was safe, out of the way, out of any wooded areas.

She could go there and come to terms with everything. She'd send a message to Kirito and Asuna when she got there. Hopefully they'd forgive her, eventually.

She paused, and scrolled through her messages, opening a new chat window. She had some orders to make.

"Argo?" The info broker's typing was interrupted by the sound of the person she wanted to hear the most and the least right now.

"Go back ta bed, Aa-chan," Argo said, finishing up her order. When she had opened in desperation to see if she had added Yui, she had been met with the sight of Asuna's name fading. It had been one of the scariest things that had happened in her life, the idea that the woman she loved was dying, and there was nothing that she could do about it.

She hadn't dared to look at her friends list again.

Finding Kirito and Asuna in the dungeon corridor… The sheer relief that coursed through her at the moment had made her rash. A rashness that carried over through the rest of the day. Argo needed to get somewhere to put her thoughts in order, to stop making rash decisions.

With that in mind, she headed for the door.

"Argo? Where are you going?" Asuna yawned, stretching her arms out. It was all Argo could do to keep her voice steady.

"Jus' goin' out for a bit. You stay an' get your beauty sleep."

The Info Broker grabbed the doorknob, and took a deep breath, preparing herself to leave before Asuna had fully woken up.

"Don't go yet," Asuna mumbled, swinging her legs out over the side of the bed and standing up. "We'll go with you."

"Nah, it's better if I do this alone," Argo said, pulling the door open, "'Sides, you look like you need abou' thr-"

She was cut off by a pair of arms wrapping around her torso and pulling her back from the door. "Don't go," Asuna murmured into her ears, the warmth of her breath making her face heat up. "Can't lose you too."

"Whoa, Aa-chan, didn't realize you were so clingy, you really that invested in lil' ol' me?" The info broker tried to fall back on a tactic that had worked before: flustering Asuna until she let go, and slipping away while she was embarrassed. Unfortunately for her, it had been a while since she had tried the technique, and it no longer worked.

"I am," Asuna said, sitting down on one of the chairs, pulling Argo into her lap. "You're important to Kirito and I, and neither of us wants you to go just yet."

Argo sighed, and slumped back against Asuna's body, the warmth trying to lull her back to sleep. "Look, I jus' wanted to go get my thoughts in order, kay?"

"And you can do that just as easily from here," The fencer said, her voice ringing with a note of finality.

"Not when it's my feelin's towards you tha' I'm tryin' ta sor' out."

"Argo…" Asuna started, before hesitating. "If you need any help sorting out your feelings, I'm happy to talk you through them."

Argo closed her eyes and tipped her head back, nearly bonking into Asuna's chin. Why did she have to be so fucking kind? It was unfair, that she liked someone who had already clearly found her match, and was now off the dating market. Even worse that she had a serious romantic crush on someone else at the same time, and even worse that they were married to each other.

It was every bisexual's worst nightmare. She'd be seen as a predator, someone who tried to break up existing relationships to take advantage of vulnerable people. She needed to let them go, to find love elsewhere, and they seemed almost determined to prevent her from doing so.

"This woul' be so much easier if I wasn' in love with ya."

The first sign Argo had that something had gone off the rails was when Kirito shot up from the bed, his mouth open in shock. Asuna's arms slackened from around her middle, and the fencer banged her chin against Argo's head as she sat up straight.

"I said tha' out loud, didn' I?" The info broker asked rhetorically, internally preparing for the screams, and to be thrown out.

"Well," Asuna said, lifting Argo off of her lap and setting her on her feet, although she kept a grip on the Info Broker's shoulders. "That certainly makes a lot of things clearer."

"Argo?" Kirito said hesitantly, slowly coming out from underneath the sheets. "What?"

"I mean, I knew you were in love with Kirito, but-"

Argo tried to bolt for the door, heedless of the grip Asuna had on her. She needed to be far away from here now, before Asuna got truly worked up. She didn't get very far.

"Argo, you are staying, and we are going to work this out," The fencer growled, pulling the info broker back by her cloak.

"What's there ta work ou'?" Argo retaliated with venomous sarcasm. "I'm gonna leave, an' try ta get over my feelin's, an' you won' have ta worry abou' me." She strained against Asuna's grip, not quite willing to leave her cloak behind yet.

"Asuna," Kirito cut in, "How-"

"Kirito, not right now." Asuna grabbed Argo, and sat her down in the chair that she had recently stood up from. "And Argo, there is quite a bit we have to talk about. Now sit, and stay. Kirito and I are going to go talk about this for a bit, and then we'll come and talk to you."