The bells jingled for what would most likely be the final time that night as the two customers left. It was eight in the evening on Christmas Eve, after all, so it was improbable anyone else would walk through the door.

Agil sighed as he flipped the sign from 'Open' to 'Closed' before retreating back to the counter. Business was seriously low the last few months, with his only real regular customers being his friends from his gaming days.

He was one of the ten thousand trapped inside SAO, almost five years ago now. How the time flew by. It had been three years since they'd escaped that twisted death game, but it felt like so much less than that.

Since that time, everyone he'd been trapped with that had survived the ordeal had been through enough shit to last a lifetime. After the SAO incident, there was the ALO one, where hundreds of survivors from Sword Art Online were then transported using the NerveGear system to some kind of collective hive mind thing that Agil didn't really know anything about.

Then there was the Death Gun incident, where a few members of Laughing Coffin were going around killing people in real life, but making it seem like it was being done through the game, similar to how the NerveGear would kill people who died within SAO.

He could honestly go on for days explaining to someone all the horrible things that had happened to him and all his friends. His gaming days were all but behind him now, though. He'd still occasionally head online to talk and hang out with Kirito and the gang, but mostly he just wanted to focus on the cafe and his family.

As Agil was wiping down the counter, he heard a light tapping noise coming from the direction of the door. He glanced up, seeing a group of familiar faces standing there, waving at him through the window.

He noticed they were all holding something in their hands. Wrapped up presents. A realisation hit him. The present exchange! Agil had totally forgotten that they were going to exchange their gifts today. A few weeks before, during one of their usual visits, Asuna suggested they all buy a gift for someone in the group, with them drawing who they'd have to buy it for from a small box she'd brought, already prepared for them all to say yes and agree to doing it.

It was an exciting experience for him, having never done something like this before. The name he'd drawn was Kirito, and he was quite proud of the gift he'd gotten for the younger man.

There were a total of ten of them taking part, including their newfound friends Eugeo and Alice, who Kirito came across whilst diving into a new game called 'Project Alicization' the year before, and the three of them had "hit it off."

The thing was, Agil had actually met the two of them before as well, when they had come into the Dicey Cafe looking for some cakes. After that, he'd forgotten about them until Eugeo brought it up when they met again, thanking him for the cakes and goading Alice into doing it too.

They all piled in one after another, holding their gifts. Kirito, Asuna, Sinon, Leafa, Silica, Liz, Eugeo, Alice, Klein and finally himself. He'd offered up the Dicey Cafe as a place for them all to exchange their gifts on Christmas Eve, as he knew he most likely wouldn't have many, if any, customers on the day.

Normally, when a lot of them would turn up, he'd have to shuffle two tables together to make room for them all, but usually one of them would give him some kind of heads up, not rely on him to remember they had something planned for the day.

"Hey, man, how's it going? Let me help you with that." Klein said as he came over, grabbing the other end of the table and lifting it up.

Agil was more than capable of carrying a table by himself, as he'd done it a thousand times before, but he appreciated the help offered by Klein, so allowed him to carry it as well. Most of them had already known each other for over five years now, with the exceptions of Eugeo, Alice, Leafa and Sinon, as none of them were trapped within Sword Art Online.

He'd started to drift away from them all in recent years, given he was over ten years older than most of them, already in his thirties whilst everyone besides Klein weren't even twenty yet. He felt a different kind of comradery with Klein, given the two of them were the oldest in the group.

Klein also helped carry and set up the chairs so everyone could sit down, and once that was all done, they were ready to properly start. Kirito stayed standing to address everyone first. "Right, welcome everyone to our first Christmas Eve gift exchange. As we all know everyone chose someone else in this group at random to buy a present for, so let's get started. I'll go first. Here you are, Silica."

The small girl's eyes lit up at being mentioned by Kirito. Whilst all the rest of them had moved on from their childish crushes on Kirito, it was still fun to tease and mess around with Asuna by pretending to still be interested in him.

She took it from him. It felt soft and squishy, possibly clothing? Not wasting any more time, she ripped off the wrapping paper to reveal a small, furry light blue ball. Picking it up from her lap to examine it, she realised what it was. It had to be unravelled, but it was revealed to be a small dragon. She instantly recognised what it was supposed to be. "Pina! I love it so much! Thank you, Kirito!"

She sat there hugging the stuffed toy for several minutes, humming to herself whilst the group moved on to the next person. Alice raised her hand. "I'll go next," she said, turning to Klein and handing a relatively large box shaped parcel over to him.

"Thanks a bunch, Alice. Can't wait to see what it is." Klein said, tearing the paper off in a way similar to Silica, only for the big grin on his face to fall once he saw what it was.

They all looked at him in confusion, whilst Alice sat there with a smirk on her face. "What did you get? Let us see it," Klein kept hearing from all around him.

He pulled the box out of the surrounding paper and held it up for everyone to see.

"You don't have to feel lonely anymore, with this build your own girlfriend set."

Head turned away in shame, he listened as everyone began howling with laughter. He had to admit, it was a hilarious gift, but the sheer embarrassment of being completely and utterly called out like that was too much for him. Agil patted him on the back. "That's an unfortunate gift to get, but hilarious all the same. Who's next?" he asked.

Next up was Sinon and Leafa, who'd both happened to get each other, exchanging their gifts after Sinon revealed who she had, so they opted to open them at the same time. The gift Leafa had gotten for Sinon was an incredibly long, rectangular box, that almost smacked off Kirito's head as she reached over to hand it to Sinon.

Sinon's gift for Leafa was much smaller, so she didn't have the same problems of getting it across the table to her. They both thanked each other as well before opening their gifts. Leafa got through her paper first, catching sight of a folded up piece of green and white fabric.

She held it up, and let it open up, revealing a green and white outfit. "It's your outfit from Alfheim Online." she heard from across the table, looking over to see Sinon watching her open her gift.

She smiled brightly. "It's beautiful. Thanks, Sinon. Now open yours up," she told her.

"I already have," Sinon replied, holding up the box that revealed that Leafa had gotten her a model sniper rifle. She owned several model guns now, her way of continuing her recovery from her traumatic experience with guns before, but she didn't have a sniper one. "Thank you, Leafa."

Up next was Klein, who handed a very small looking present to Asuna, receiving a suspicious look from the recipient. She took her time opening it, delicately removing the wrapping paper before giggling at the gift she'd received once it had been revealed to her. "How to train your boyfriend. Five hundred tips to improve your home life with your man." she read aloud, watching as Kirito's face flared up. "Thank you, Klein. I'll be putting this to good use later."

"Come on, Klein. Why would you give her ideas like that?" he cried out, covering his face in embarrassment, earning himself a laugh in reply.

"Sorry, man. When I saw it in the store last week, I knew I had to get it. Besides, you should be treating Asuna well anyway, so she shouldn't need to train you, right?" Klein replied with a wink.

"C-can we just move on, now?" Kirito stuttered out.

Eugeo, who'd been pretty quiet up until this point, not usually one for big social gatherings, raised his hand next. "I'll go. Here you are, Agil." he said, handing over a weirdly shaped gift to the eldest of the group.

Agil, who'd also been silently watching everything unfold, was caught off-guard by the mention of his name, once again forgetting that he was actually a part of this gift exchange. Taking the gift, he tore the paper off in one go, revealing a pair of bright, sparkling golden die.

"It's a door jingle. I thought it'd be good for this cafe." Eugeo told him.

Agil began to feel slightly emotional. The kid had put too much thought, and probably money, into this gift for him. For quite a while now, he'd been meaning to replace the rusty old bell that hung from the door and alerted him to customers coming and going, and this was perfect for that. "Amazing. They're so shiny as well. I'll have to get them up right away. Thank you, Eugeo."

"I-it was nothing." Eugeo replied, sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

Silica, who hadn't stopped hugging the small dragon toy Kirito had gotten for her, suddenly jumped up, surprising everyone shouting "Me next! Me next!"

Reaching back down, she grabbed a rather large, circular gift. It looked like it could have been a plate or something like that. "Liz! This one's for you, okay. I hope you like it," Silica said with a wide grin on her face, passing the gift down the table to her.

Liz, the only one who hadn't been involved yet, was ecstatic to finally get something to do. Her gift, which was for Eugeo, had sat on her lap since they'd arrived. She took the present and swiftly unwrapped it. Inside, was a giant coin with a knight's helmet pictured on it. Liz recognised it immediately, lifting in the air and flipping it over to reveal "Liz's Smith Shop" written on the other side.

"Aah, I love it! It's just like the one from SAO! I'll put it on my door when I get home. I love this so much, Silica. Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she cried out.

There were only a few more gifts left to hand out. Asuna still had hers. Liz, who'd just received her gift, still had one to hand out, as well as Agil. The three who hadn't received their presents were Kirito, Eugeo and Alice.

One of those was quickly rectified, as Asuna opted to go next, handing over her gift to Alice, who accepted it graciously. Alice was one of the only ones who took her time unwrapping her gift, with some of the others groaning impatiently as she carefully removed the paper. Inside was a large, blue coat with golden thread stitched throughout. Alice enjoyed wearing blue, opting to wear it over most other colours, and the gold mixed into it gave it a nice elegant look. "This is a wonderful gift, Asuna. I shall wear it all the time now," she said, going to put it on straight away.

"I don't think you need to put it on just now, Alice. It's quite warm in here, after all." Asuna replied, quickly. "But I'm glad that you like it."

Two gifts left to be exchanged, with Lisbeth giving Eugeo his present. "Thanks, Liz." he said as he took it from her.

The gift was a strange shape, like a big sheet of rectangular card with a bump in the middle of it. He tore the paper off, and picked up the item inside, grinning when he saw what it was. "What is it?" Alice asked him, curious as to why her childhood friend was smiling so brightly.

"It's a figurine," Eugeo replied. "It looks like you."

He turned and showed everyone the gift. Sure enough, it had a very similar appearance to Alice, much to her annoyance. "It doesn't look like me at all! The hair is completely different, and so are our clothes. We're nothing alike!" she huffed, turning her head away in disgust at the idea she looked the same as this small figurine.

Eugeo laughed at her antics. "Either way, it's a great gift. I'll treasure it forever."

"That leaves only one more gift," Sinon said, looking over at Agil.

"Right. It's through the back, so give me a minute and I'll go and get it," Agil told them, standing up from the table and walking towards the counter.

Kirito looked around the table at everyone chatting amongst themselves, deep in conversations as they awaited Agil's return with his own present. It was great that they could all be together like this, because it was getting more and more difficult over the years to find the time to hang out with everyone. Even with the amount of them that were there today, there were so many that weren't.

They were all originally supposed to do it, but a lot pulled out because they were too busy with work or other plans, so eventually there were just the ten of them left. It was a miracle they could even get ten together on Christmas Eve to do this, with Asuna and himself initially planning a night in themselves before Christmas. As much as he'd have enjoyed that alone time with his fiancee, it was much more enjoyable hanging out with everyone like this, especially since they couldn't do it very often anymore.

Eventually, Agil returned carrying a large, cylindrical package, planting it down on the table, with it making a small thud as it did. Kirito's eyes widened. It sounded incredibly heavy, but Agil was so big and strong that it wouldn't have affected him. Kirito had what he'd heard people call "twig arms" before, as he wasn't very muscular at all, having spent more time gaming than lifting weights in his life.

He got up himself and made his way to the other side of the doubled up table, grasping hold of the large present that Agil brought through. "Just arrived this morning, so I'm glad it got here in time. Hope you like it, Kirito," Agil told him, moving out of the way so the younger man could open his gift.

It didn't have any wrapping paper on it, like the others. It just sat in a large cardboard tube with a lid at the top. Kirito reached up and popped it off, leaning it down to take a look inside, almost dropping the parcel in surprise once he caught sight of what was in there. Everyone else looked on in anticipation as he reached inside and pulled out two items.

It was two swords. The first of them, a long beautiful light blue/green blade with a black handle, the other was entirely black with a silver outline. He knew what they were, and so did all the others who he'd shared two years with trapped in Sword Art Online. The "Dark Repulser" and the "Elucidator" were the two swords that he had used whilst dual wielding his way through the latter stages of their time in the game.

He tapped them both together, with the two of them making a clanging noise, signalling they were in fact both made of some kind of metal. "Agil…these are incredible. But how on earth did you manage to afford this?" Kirito asked the cafe owner.

"Let's just say I have my ways, and we'll leave it at that, okay?" Agil replied with a chuckle. "I couldn't pass up on the opportunity to get these made up for you, given it's essentially thanks to you and these two swords that most of us are even still here today."

"Thank you," Kirito said, tearing up. Sugu had always made fun of him for crying far too easily, and it was a habit he'd never truly grown out of.

"No problem, man. Now, everyone has opened their gifts, how about you all stay for a few drinks, on the house," Agil announced, heading back behind the counter. "Tell me, what can I get for all you fine folks tonight?"