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Caring For A Rat: Part 17
I started asking questions the second that the door clicked shut behind Asuna.
"How long have you-"
"Known that she loved you? Not long, about a week," Asuna cut me off, "Known that she loved me? About two minutes," My wife sighed, "I was going to talk to you about it, but…" She shrugged. Argo had only started being comfortable on her own for extended periods of time around the same time that we picked up Yui. And with Yui, there was no time to have the sort of private conversation that that would require.
"Are you in love with her?" Asuna nodded, without hesitation. "How long?" I asked, already feeling my heart sink.
"Almost six months," My wife, who would probably ask for a divorce soon, said. "But what matters right now is that I still love you Kirito."
"But I fail-"
"Don't you dare say that, Kirito. I knew what risks I was taking, and it was not your fault." Asuna glared into my eyes, the fire within her burning any response I might have had to dust.
"This is… this is a lot," I said, not sure how else to respond. My wife was in love with another woman, but still wanted to continue our relationship?
"I thought it was strange too, at first," Asuna said, sinking down to sit against the wall. "I mean, who ever heard of someone falling in love with two people at once. But then I decided something." She raised her head to look me in the eye, and her voice rang through me. "If we can become whoever we want to be in SAO, why not love whoever and however we want to love as well?"
"Oh." I sunk down to sit next to her. Back IRL I was a shut-in loner who spent the entire day playing video games, had distanced himself from everyone who cared about him, and only really cared about computers. There were thousands of people like him in Japan.
Here, I was a clearer, part of the elite force that risked death to end the cruel game that we were trapped in. It hurt to even think about it, but SAO had been healing for me, Asuna, Argo, Liz, and Klein had all been healthy for me in a way that I never would have found IRL.
Here, despite all my doubts, people thought I was worth something. I had made my mark on this world, even if it was a far smaller one than most people thought it was. If a weak, shut-in nerd like me could become such a great figure, then why couldn't someone love multiple people?
"That, that makes a lot of sense."
"Yeah, it does." Asuna nodded. "Now that you know that, what do you think we should do with Argo?"
I leaned against her shoulder, sketching out a set of options in front of me with my eyes. "She said she's in love with you."
"She's also in love with you too, Kirito." Asuna reminded me, as if I hadn't seen her flush red in what I now realized was embarrassment, trying to shrink back in her cloak when Asuna had dropped that bomb on me.
I had been almost as embarrassed, and in hindsight, the reason was obvious. I could probably even pinpoint when it had started.
It had been back before I had even met Asuna, before the start of the death game, in the Beta for SAO. Argo had been a well-known info broker even then, and we had had a somewhat looser relationship than we did now. I was the guy who brought her info, and if she needed muscle for an intriguing quest, she hired me.
"I think I'm in love with her too."
The turning point had been one of the elf war missions. The Forest elves were holding a dark elf relic within their fort, and we didn't possess the right combination of skills to make it over the walls or through the sewers to where it was hidden.
Argo, rather than giving up, had decided to take advantage of the heavy-duty AI that Kayaba had worked into important NPCs in the game. She had managed to convince the guard at the gates of the Forest Elf Fortress to let us in, and from there we had been able to use our Hiding skills to get in and out.
It had been one of the best moments of the Beta, and taking it by the normal route in the full game had been comparatively disappointing.
With that realization came questions, and I couldn't help but answer them.
"Do we try to just, what, form a three-sided relationship?"
Asuna was quiet for a moment. "I'd really like to." She laid one hand on my thigh for reassurance. "You're the best husband I could ever ask for, and I feel horrible for asking you to share me, but after… after yesterday, when I was in bed, falling asleep, I decided that I was going to grasp everything I could today, and try to live without regrets, because I might be gone tomorrow."
I wrapped my arm around her shoulders, and she leaned into my side.
"So…" I asked, trying to distract myself from the visions of Asuna's prone body that threatened to flash across my eyes, "How would this relationship work? Are we just going to go in and tell her 'hey, we'd like to date you?'"
"We'd have to be careful," Asuna said, tapping her chin with one finger. "I mean, we're married, and that means there's a level of commitment and trust that won't extend to Argo, which might-"
"Isn't that a good thing, though?" I said, squinting in concentration, "I mean, if we're just experimenting with this for now, wouldn't it make more sense to let Argo feel like she could leave if she ever got uncomfortable?"
"She might get uncomfortable and leave if she felt like an unequal partner in our relationship," Asuna countered, "But, no, you're right, with how…"
"Scared?"
"Yes, that's it, with how scared of damaging our relationship Argo is, she might need some way to ease herself into a deeper level of intimacy." Asuna grabbed my hand with one of hers, squeezing it reassuringly. "We need to reassure her that her presence isn't hurting us, or our relationship, just changing it."
"We're really doing this." It seemed almost unthinkable, trying to add another person to the relationship that Asuna and I had built. But if it was anybody, Argo was probably the best fit. She knew and understood us better than almost anyone in SAO, and was a dear friend to Asuna and I besides.
And to my deep shame, she had featured in more than one of my more risque dreams, Five to be precise from what I could recall, all happening shortly after I helped her solve a mystery of some sort, usually by being the muscle.
She was a very tactile person, and I was a horny teenage boy.
"We're doing this," Asuna agreed, "Assuming Argo says yes."
"Right," We sat there for a moment, neither of us wanting to be the one to get up and open the door. How do you tell someone that you'd like them to join your already-existing, very-much committed relationship?
Gripping Asuna's hand tightly for strength, I rose and opened the door, half-expecting to be met by the sight of an empty room.
Argo was sitting on the edge of the bed we hadn't slept on, kicking her legs against the side of the mattress.
When we opened the door, her head perked up, although it was still covered in the shadows of her hood, her expression unreadable.
"Hey guys," She said, "You took a while out there. Were ya makin' ou'?" She smirked.
Despite the burning cheeks I could feel, I pressed on with the statement I had been preparing in my head when we had come to a decision about our relationship with the Info Broker.
"Argo," I began, and watched as Argo's smirk became carefully calculated, any amusement gone from it. "We would like it if you would-"
"You don' need ta say anythin' else Kii-bou," Argo said, "I'll leave you two lovebirds alone, an' you can jus' forge' all abou' wha' happened."
Asuna strode forward towards Argo, glowering with the annoyance that I had only ever seen when she wanted me to stop doing something, stopping right in front of Argo and kneeling down. Despite how annoyed I knew she was, her words were soft when she spoke.
"Why do you keep thinking we'll hate you?"
Argo was silent for a moment, before she clenched her hands into fists in her lap and spoke. "Happened before." She shrunk back into the shadows of her hood, "Fell in love with a guy at school, asked him ou', didn' know he had a girlfriend. They blamed me when they spli' up a couple weeks later."
"Had ta switch schools after tha'." Argo was slumped over, her eyes staring off into some faraway place, not seeing us. It struck me then, just how much all of us kept from each other, even as we shared our deepest secrets. I still didn't know my wife's last name.
"Well," Asuna said, taking a deep breath. "I can tell you right now that neither Kirito or I hate you." The way that Argo's face cycled through incredulity, disbelief, and hope all at once was almost heartwrenching to watch. "In fact, we would like to invite you into our relationship as an-"
Argo broke out into a laugh. It was a tired, sarcastic thing, far from her normal amused giggles. "Alright, cut it out, Asuna, it's not funny ta tease a girl like that."
"We're being serious Argo," I said, sitting down next to her. "We talked about our relationship with you, out there, and…" I paused, glancing down at my wife, who nodded. That was all the encouragement I needed.
"We love you, Argo." The info broker raised her head to look me in the eyes.
"Really?"
"Yes, we do," Asuna said, coming up to sit on Argo's other side. "I can't speak for my husband, but I've loved you for a long time, even if I only realized it recently."
"I think I first fell in love with you back during the beta," I said, scratching the back of my head, "When we were tracking down the hidden item for the Elf War quest, and you negotiated our way into the Forest Elf stronghold; I've never seen anyone as confident in their own abilities as you."
Argo seemed to almost deflate, her muscles relaxing and her posture uncoiling.
"You don' hate me."
Asuna shook her head. "Of course not. You're one of our best friends, and nothing can change that."
"An'," Argo took in a deep breath. "You wan' me ta, ta join your relationship as what? A side-chick?"
"A partner," Asuna said, sitting down opposite Argo, "And maybe if everything works out, someone to share our lives with."
Argo shook her head. "I-" she began, "I can'-." She let out a long, slow breath. "Can you give me some time ta think it over?"
"Alright," Asuna said, getting up from her seat, "But please, stay with us while you decide? You can think of it as a trial period, if you like."
Argo nodded, still looking a little separated from the physical world. If she didn't reconnect within the next five minutes, I was probably going to have to snap her out of it with a prank of some sort.
"Alright, given that we don't have any other commitments here on the first floor, We should probably pack up and head back home," Asuna said, "Yui, can you-" She clapped her hands, and cut herself off from finishing the sentence awkwardly. "Just, make sure you're ready to head back home soon, please?" Asuna said, looking rather tired.
It was difficult to pack things up. None of us carried much outside of our inventories, but we had left some of Asuna's cookware out yesterday, too tired and worn out to put it away.
Argo had been jumpier than ever, watching us carefully, scanning for any sign that we might be getting angry. Asuna was tired, moving slowly. Despite that, we all moved more freely, the tension caused by Argo's unadmitted crushes, Asuna's indecision, and my own unrealized crush replaced by a different tension.
Where were we going to go from here?
Asuna and I were united in our goal, like we were back in the days of the Elf War, before we had almost irrevocably broken up. But did Argo want the same thing we did? She was so scared of damaging our relationship that she might not date us, even though all three of us desired it on some level.
Two hours later, we were back at the teleport gate, and ready to head back up to the 55th floor, when Argo stopped as a flash of light signaled someone teleporting in.
She stood, gazing at the spot where the man had teleported, her hood covering her face in shadows.
I paused beside her, taking careful note of how her eyes stared through the teleportation gate, seeing something else. "Are you okay?"
Argo stirred at my question, her eyes becoming clearer. "Let's keep goin'," she said, ignoring my words. Asuna reached out for her hand as we approached the gate, but hesitated, letting her hand drop.
