~Ivystormrandomness~

Nooo! Don't die! XD
~a54321~

I'm glad you like them! It's fun writing these ^_^

~98~

It's coming soon, some time after this random piece XD

~S10MC2015~

Writers Block suuucks XD


Hidden Secrets

Sky blue eyes gazed sadly into eyes the color of obsidian, but now lacked their fierce luster.

"If only…" Alice's voice was quiet as she gazed at the broken warrior in front of her. Knowing full well that by his mute and almost completely unresponsive state, he was currently lost in the memories that daily plagued his mind. "… If only I knew what went on in your head Kirito… I wish I could help."

"You do help him Alice," a naturally soft-spoken tenor voice forced Alice's blue eyes from the warrior and to the other blonde that had just walked into the room.

"He needs help adjusting to loosing both of his legs like that, even if it's just temporary," the blonde told her softly as he removed the sword belt around his waist. Before he almost reverently placed the white and blue sheathed sword up above the mantle of the fireplace, "and you've been helping him Alice."

The gentle smile on his face helped lessen the harsh worry in Alice's heart, but not enough to make it all go away.

"I know Eugeo, it's just…" Alice sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose as she got up from the floor and sat down on the couch Kirito was facing. "Whenever he's like this I have to wonder what happened when we weren't there with him."

Eugeo said nothing for a moment, ever the reserved man of only important words, as he walked over and with his usual careful motions sat beside her on the couch. A sword strengthened yet delicate hand going around the golden blonde's shoulders and giving her a gentle squeeze.

"I don't think anyone knows what truly happened to Kirito's squad during that raid Alice, all of the squads were split up under the sheer number of monsters that flooded the room to protect the Gleam Eyes. Not to mention that we haven't seen the Princess since that assassination attempt on floor fifty-two, and that was almost six-months ago know." Eugeo repeated his earlier gentle squeeze of Alice's shoulders, blue eyes rimmed with concern and full of empathetic understanding. "We all know how close he was with the princess, and even then, the only one who knows the full extent of his relationship with the princess would be the two of them, and the princess's body guard."

Alice leaned forward on her arms, resting her elbows on her knees and burying her head into her hands in a stressed and frustrated manner. Completely helpless to help their best friend. "I know all that," she growled, unable to keep the bitterness out of her voice, "but it's our fault his squad died, and the princess was crippled because of the Integrity Knights' inability to be what we're supposed to be!" She squeezed her eyes shut, fighting the burning tears pricking at her eyes, "we're supposed to be an army! An army that protects the people, the commander, and the princess!"

"And we are an army," Eugeo pointed out quietly, blue eyes straying to his childhood friend sitting motionless in the wheelchair in front of him besides the twitch of his fingers. "We're just an army barely thrown together to protect the human world from the dark forces who suddenly surged forward to take our homelands. It's bad enough that the Underworld is completely over run now, but now…"

Alice took advantage of Eugeo's trailing off of his sentence to continue it for him, "now we're fighting in the multi floored world of Kirito's homeland, Aincrad, where the dark forces lurk around every corner."


Onyx colored eyes blurrily focused properly at the sound of voices. His shaky vision and senses kicking in and allowing him to see where he was for the first time in weeks.

The amounts of white in the room around him nearly blinded him at first, and the boy was forced to sit there. His eyes watering from the pain while his eyes adjusted as what felt like a snail's pace with his eye's inability to squint or close besides blinking and slowly closing on command.

However, judging by the amount of white in the room, the various metal objects and machines he could see around him, and the presence of someone gently guiding the wheelchair's direction while his body worked on autopilot to push himself, he was at a hospital.

Nooo… the possibility of being at a hospital again for the seventh day in a row judging by his shaky sense of smell that had been picking up on the smell of chemicals and sterilizing solution, made him want to open his mouth and announce his return to the conscious world.

Especially when he was being dragged to therapy by his own auto-pilot body's betrayal, but nothing came out of his mouth besides a harsh breath of air. His body still malfunctioning after the soul-link severing that had happened almost six months ago now.

The harsh breath however, was enough for the golden blonde walking beside him with a series of papers in her hands to gently tug on the handle of his wheelchair. Forcing his auto-pilot body to stop the wheelchair.

"Welcome back Kirito," Another voice spoke, and Kirito's obsidian colored eyes turned toward the source along with his head. Revealing the man's best friend Eugeo now crouching beside the chair with a gentle smile.

"How're you feeling?" Alice spoke up, shuffling into Kirito's vision and crouching down beside Eugeo after gathering her skirt properly around her legs. "You've been out of it since last night."

The news didn't surprise Kirito one bit. He was used to having massive blanks of memory regarding the real world and not the world his mind frequently slipped into. A world where his soul-mate and partner was still with him and his mind, body, and heart wasn't reduced to the useless lump of human he was now. He didn't bother trying to speak again, rather he tilted his chin in a little toward his chest in the barest of nods accompanied by the slight shrug of his shoulders. Silently signaling that he felt fine.

Even though truthfully, he didn't. He lost had his squad, his new family just a short two months ago. A mere four months after losing his fiancé, his daughter, and his own family. The only thing driving him after his family's death by Laughing Coffin had been his squad. Ducker, Keita,Tetsuo, Sasamaru, and most of all, the girl practically his little sister Sachi.

Protecting them all had led him to fight, so when they died in the hospital, Kirito had lost everything he was fighting for. The news of his soul-mate's lack of appearance in her homeland Alf-Heim was the final straw, and so without hope of ever seeing her again, their soul-linked had severed. Causing Kirito to retreat into his broken mind and heart, leaving his body crippled under his injuries and incapable of helping himself.

Alice leaned over and brushed his fringe out of his eyes; a motion that made Kirito's shattered heart ache with a reminder of how his soul-mate had always done that before leaning forward and sweetly kissing him.

"Alice, don't," Eugeo picked up on Kirito's emotions before Alice did, and the blonde took a hankerchief from his pocket, before to Kirito's numb surprise, brushed the cloth over the crippled boy's face. "It's okay to cry Kirito," he smiled at him and Kirito blinked, having not realized he had been crying in the first place, "we know you miss her."

Alice's blue eyes were full of guilt as she softly apologized and stood up, busying herself with the papers in her hands to avoid looking at either of them.

Kirito gazed blankly at the air in front of him, his mind lost in memories of his soul-mate's chestnut colored hair and gentle but fierce amber eyes.

"Cheer up daddy!" His daughter's sweet voice giggled as she climbed up onto his lap and threw her arms around his neck, standing on his lap and giggling, "Mama's making sandwiches for dinner!"

Kirito couldn't help but perk up a little at the mentioning of his soul-mate's cooking skills and he lifted his tired from battle planning eyes toward his soul-mate.

Who had been standing patiently beside his desk chair, watching him and their youngest daughter with a loving expression on her face.

At Kirito's gaze on her she smiled, showing him a loving smile that appeared slightly amused before she walked closer and picked up their young daughter in her arms. "Yuuki figured you'd want that after a long day of battle plans," she explained as she set their youngest down and lightly ushered her toward the door. "Go find your sister Yui," she encouraged their youngest who briefly hugged her mother's legs before running off at a speed evident of being her mother's daughter.

Kirito moved his arms, allowing her to sit side-saddle in his lap as he smiled at her with love in his eyes. "I should thank her then," he chuckled, "because she's right, I definitely like the sound of your famous sandwiches for dinner."

His soul-mate chuckled herself and brushed his fringe from his face, amber eyes wandering lovingly over his tired face before she leaned in and sweetly pressed her lips to his for a long moment. Smiling gently at him once she had pulled back slightly, "relax a little till dinner, you need it hun."

"…unresponsive."

Kirito blinked, his eyes focusing on the world around him and nearly giving the doctor standing in front of him a heart attack as his sharp eyes focusing intently on him with a battle worn fierce stare.

"Mr. K-Kirigaya," the doctor stumbled a little over Kirito's name before he sighed and pushed his glasses higher up his nose, "as mentally unfocused as ever," he stated briskly and stepped away from him holding the device that allowed him to check his ears to make sure the young man was healthy. "How old are you now Kirito?"

Kirito said nothing, watching the doctor move around the room and feeling his chest aching with more pain than usual. The pain brought on by the memories of a peaceful moment with his soul-mate. He didn't want to deal with the doctor right now, especially when this doctor always treated him like a little child.

Alice spoke for him, her tone brisk and direct. "Kirito's twenty-three now sir, the very same age as he was during the last visit."

The doctor sighed and picked up a tongue depressor from a jar on the small counter and sick in the corner of the room, "so he still can't speak after two months of the soul-link being severed?"

"Yes sir," Alice told him curtly from the corner of Kirito's vision. "Occasionally when woken up mid panic-attack he struggles to say his family's names, but otherwise he's still mute."

I'm not mentally mute, Kirito grunted, making the words sting his friends minds a little while his eyes narrowed slightly. I'm not stupid.

Alice blinked, obviously surprised, while Eugeo, who Kirito had figured out was sitting beside him broke into chuckles and lightly patted his friend on the back.

"We know you're not mute that way Kirito," Eugeo smiled, "you just don't really talk to anyone anymore."

Usually Kirito would've stayed silent, but this time he wanted to explain himself a little. So speaking in a tone devoid of emotion, he spoke to both of them, I only want to talk to her. I'm saving myself for her, no one else.

Alice smiled a little, and Kirito saw her and Eugeo make eye contact before the doctor was in his face and checking his throat and mouth while asking more dumb questions.

"Does his legs function now with the physical therapy?"

Alice shook her head, "he works in physical therapy every few days, and Eugeo and I work with him on exercises at home, but he's still unresponsive."

The doctor sighed as he moved back, and Kirito already knew what he was going to say before he said it. "I don't know what else we can do for him. The princess is dead Alice, and he still refuses to believe that she's truly gone."

Kirito's eyes narrowed slightly in disagreement, but the boy still said nothing, his voice refusing to cooperate despite how his ears were going red with anger. He knew she was still alive, she just had to be. She and their children had to be alive, otherwise why was he still alive? If he was still alive so was she, and nothing could change his mind.

Alice spoke in a low tone, one that Kirito couldn't hear. "I know," she said quietly, "but if I tell him what they found he won't make it to see the next sunrise, sir."


"Alice?"

Walking through the halls of the hospital again for the third day in a row Alice had never been prepared to hear a voice. The voice of the princess' bodyguard Sinon Asada, the only integrity knight armed with a gun.

Alice slowly turned around, turning toward the source of the voice and found the teal haired cat-sith from the land of Alf-Heim standing next to a windowed room. Leaning against the edge of the window with her sniper and bow slung over her shoulder with a thin sword at her waist. "Sinon?" She couldn't help the confusion and shock in her voice, having believed Sinon and the princess were dead along with the rest of Kirito's family. "What're you doing here?"

"I should be asking you that question," Sinon replied cryptically before explaining herself a little, "you're in the chronic care unit, usually off limits to everyone but integrity knights and royalty."

"I'm an integrity knight just like you," Alice reasoned a little stiffly, "I have every right to be here."

"Maybe," Sinon relented, "but you don't really have a reason to be, I mean Kirito's not with you and even if he was his disease isn't terminal."

The word terminal sparked curiosity and worry in Alice's heart, "terminal? What're you here for that involves a terminal disease?"

Sinon grimaced, obviously she had hoped Alice wouldn't ask her why she was there in the unit. "I'm here on guard duty," she explained vaguely, keeping the details to herself.

Alice gave Sinon an odd look and looked past her, hoping to catch a glance of the occupants of the room. Only to have the window glaze over with white, Sinon having switched the electric blinds on. "Who're you guarding Sinon?"

"It's classified," Sinon replied stiffly, "only ones cleared for access to the knowledge are the general, kings, and myself."

"the general… Kirito? What's Kirito cleared for access but I'm not?" Alice asked, stepping closer to the other knight, a look of suspicion in her eyes. "I'm Kirito's acting guardian along with Eugeo, if Kirito's involved we're automatically cleared for access."

"Trust me Alice, you don't want to know," Sinon explained, her expression remaining stiff and impassive as she spoke, "this is something you don't need to know about."

"Sinon, if you don't tell me in the next five seconds I will pull rank and force you to tell me," Alice retorted fiercely, blue eyes flashing. Sinon's mission involved Kirito, so there was no way in hell she wasn't going to be aware of this particular situation.

Sinon frowned, "don't you dare," she growled, "you're not privy to this information Alice, don't you dare pull rank on me so you can have it."

"I will," Alice threatened, blue eyes dead serious and matched her expression, "if you don't tell me willingly, I'll force you to Sinon."

Sinon pursed her lips, obviously uncomfortable and irritated but she eventually sighed and released the curtains. "You can't tell Kirito."

Alice couldn't believe her eyes.

Sitting in a wheelchair similar to Kirito's, was a particular chestnut-haired woman sitting beside a small hospital bed, both hands gently clasped together around a much smaller hand. A hand belonging to an unconscious girl about twelve-years-old with an oxygen mask over her mouth and nose and bandages wrapped snuggly around her head from her nose and upward.

The woman's gentle eyes were red rimmed and watered with tears, but she seemed to be speaking. Talking to the girl with her hands held close to her face before bringing her hand closer and gently kissing the girl's knuckles in a motherly fashion. Before after a minute or two and the girl's semi rapid breathing slowed and deepened into what looked like sleep, she gently put the girl's hand back down and turned toward the other bed in the room.

Where a much younger child lay, the blankets swamping her tiny form as she coughed and her face screwed up as if she was going to cry.

The woman scooted as close to the bed as she could and slid her arms beneath the small girl's body before gently lifting her and cradling the girl now older than four to her chest. Cradling the little girl close and gently rocking her a little. Amber eyes welling up with tears at the girl, who Alice knew to be her baby, her youngest daughter, beginning to cry and clutch at her shirt.

"The princess…" Alice choked, blue eyes fixed on the three people in the room, "Asuna and her and Kirito's children… they… they survived?"

Sinon nodded and pushed the button to make the blinds return over the window. Forcing Alice to focus on her just as Alice spoke icily.

"Yet nobody told Kirito? Nobody told him that his entire family survived?!"

Sinon narrowed her eyes, "nobody told him for his own health and safety."

"Health and safety-? Kirito's wheelchair-bound and half-unresponsive! How is hiding them from him protecting his health and safety?!" Alice spat, gesturing toward the window, "that's his family Sinon! That's Kirito's wife and soul-mate, his adopted daughter, and their biological baby girl!"

"I know that," Sinon snapped a little harshly, "I know who they are, I was there when Asuna went into labor during a dark force raid without Kirito there! I know better than anyone who Asuna and her daughters are to Kirito!" She harshly poked Alice in the chestplate, "you weren't there having to cover Asuna's mouth to muffle her cries while Yui was born and we were hiding from the dark forces raiding the village!"


Sinon could feel Asuna's tears against the skin of her hands. The birthing woman was shaking hard, shaking with fear at what was going on.

A distant cry of pain from one of the villagers before it abruptly cut itself off with a gunshot made Asuna whimper and Sinon could feel her curl up a little move on herself.

Sinon could barely see her in the darkness of the rubble they were hiding in, only the wide large amber eyes staring back at her highlighted well in the dark. Amber eyes glistening with pained and terrified tears trickling down her face. Pain from her labor and terror of giving birth and possibly having her and her baby killed by the raiders.

Sinon felt a pang of sympathy for the other woman as she groaned in pain through Sinon's hands, her grip on the armplates of Sinon's armor tightening as she trembled violently. Her breath halting as she tried to push, repeating the same process that they had been going through for the past four hours now.

'Where's Kirito?' Sinon couldn't help but curse the man in her mind as she rested a hand on her friend's round belly and uttered soft words in the language of magic, encouraging the baby to come out while also giving Asuna more energy with a stamina spell. 'He's going to miss his baby's birth, plus I'm losing feeling in my hands and wrists from how hard Asuna's gripping me.'

Sinon then flinched and quickly uttered a silencing spell as Asuna gave a high-pitched howl of pain, her grip on Sinon's arms becoming unbearably painful for a few moments before she relaxed. Before finally, after keeping herself together for four hours giving birth to her daughter in a dark enclove of rubble without her soul-mate, surrounded by enemy forces, Asuna gave a shaky breath and began to sob, breaking down.

"It'll be okay," Sinon whispered, trying to make her friend and princess feel better despite their situation, "he'll be here soon," she tried to soothe her, "it'll be over soon…"

Sinon hissed and gritted her teeth minutes later against the pain as the metal of her armplated groaned and began to break beneath Asuna's grip, the birthing mother screaming through Sinon's hands and spell, thrashing a little from the pain her body was in and the fight to deliver her baby without her husband here with her. "Asuna you have to be quiet!" Sinon hissed and hastily cast another silencing spell as Asuna's scream broke through the first one.

"I'm trying!" Asuna panted a moment later, her chestnut-hair sticking to her face from the amount of sweat coating her skin as she shook and took massive gulps of air, "it hurts," she panted, "Only Kirito knows the pain delusion spell."

"Of course, he does," Sinon groaned and mentally cursed him again before she reached down, casing a tiny fire spell to allow her to see if the baby had crowned yet.

To her surprise and relief, the top of the baby's head was visible. Meaning Asuna was almost there. However,…

Sinon looked worriedly at Asuna, she needed to catch the baby and use magic to sever and seal the baby's ambilical cord. Which meant she couldn't keep her hands and silence spell over Asuna's mouth to muffle her screams. "Asuna…"

Asuna looked back at her over the top of her spread knees, the woman trembling and harshly biting her tongue and cheek to prevent herself from howling as her face adopted a a flushed red hue once more. She was pushing again, straining to bring her baby into the world even without Kirito's presence. Which would make the birth only more painful.

Sinon got the message and settled at her knees, holding her trembling hands out for the baby as Asuna pushed harder.

"I can… I can see most of it's head!" She hissed a moment later, and concern shot up her spine, "Asuna hurry! Her skin's going blue!"

Asuna's expression adopted a look of a terrified mother before she squeezed her eyes shut and pushed as hard as she could. Her entire body trembled from the strain and a moment later she bit her cheek so hard that she tasted blood and howled, straining her body in fear of baby's life and disregarding the amount of noise she was making.

Instantly Sinon heard the buzz of dark forces chatter, and tried to put it off, her hands shaking harder as Asuna screamed and wailed, straining to get her baby out safely.

"The cord's wrapped around her neck!" Sinon scrambled forward panic setting in at the blue tint in the baby's skin. Pressing her fingers to the baby's face and uttering a spell for air and wind, filling the baby's lungs with air and allowing some of the blue to fade in the baby girl's skin, "Asuna unless we get that cord unwrapped around her neck she won't make it! I don't have enough mana for another wind spell!"

Asuna's cries took on a panicked howl and Sinon could feel the earth around her rippling from Asuna's loss of control regarding her magic and lack of her soul-mate's presence.

"Come on baby," Sinon pleaded with the baby as the rest of her neck emerged, "hurry and make it, Asuna can't handle a stillborn!"

Asuna was sobbing now, sobbing through her exhausted and pained screams despite the thundering of footsteps and cackling of dark forces as they got closer. "P-please…" Asuna sobbed before breaking off into another scream.

'Lady stacia,' Sinon pleaded to the goddess of creation, Asuna's ancestor, 'protect your kin and this baby girl!'

"Knights of Justice! Converge on the enemy! Protect the birthing princess with your lives!" Kirito's voice powerfully rang through the air, "Charge forward to battle!"

If Kirito hadn't been married to Asuna and she hadn't been helping with the birth of their daughter, she could've kissed him out of sheer relief.

Asuna heard it too, her body seeming to glean strength from Kirito's voice and presence nearby as she tensed up again and pushed hard, unable to speak during the strong push.

"She's almost there Asuna!" Sinon spoke in relief, taking the baby's head and neck into her hands, "keep going!'

"I'm so sorry!" A black clothed man blundered into the small enclove, landing on his hands and knees and quickly taking one of Asuna's clenched hands in his own, "I'm so sorry Asuna!"

Asuna couldn't speak, rather her grip tightened on his hand enough for her, Kirito, and Sinon hear the bones creaking and breaking beneath her hands, and pushed harder.

Kirito didn't visibly react to her breaking his hand, instead he leaned over and kissed her sweaty forehead, apologizing repeatedly while she struggled for the last few moments of their baby's birth.

Sinon felt the baby's weight hit her hands as it started crying loudly and she hastily cast a severing and sealing spell. Unwrapping the cord from around the baby's neck before hastening to bring the baby to her friend, helping Asuna with the ties on her shirt so that the baby could rest on her mother's warm skin. "Congratulations," Sinon panted, taking a moment to sit properly on the ground and just breathe, "you have a healthy baby girl Asuna, Kirito."

"I'm sorry," Asuna spoke through her heaving breaths and released Kirito's hand before shakily raising the other one to hold over his hand, "I didn't… didn't mean to break it… like that."

Kirito smiled that casually half cocky smile at her that he usually had in situations like this, "it's okay, let me do it," he gently pushed her hand away and uttered a healing spell, repairing his shattered bones and hand till it was as good as new and he gently took her hand. Huddling close to her with his eyes fixed on the baby, "she's beautiful… just like her mother."


"Then why didn't anyone say anything about them?!" Alice snarled, "that's his family you've all been hiding from him!"

"Because we didn't know if they would survive the operations to save their lives!" Sinon spat at her and Alice's eyes widened, "There are some things even magic can't heal properly Alice and a shattered skull and damaged brain is one of them! We didn't tell him because they all should've died from the explosion of the cabin on floor twenty-two! Yuuki's going to die any day now even after hundreds of magic spells and technological remedies and we didn't want to subject him to watch his daughter die and wife remain paralyzed from her tailbone down!"

Sinon's silver eyes simmered with anger, "we saved Yui's life but she's still recovering from all the magic and surgeries to repair her ribs and lungs! You weren't there Alice! You didn't see how mangled the three of them were! There was blood everywhere, Yui's chest was practically caved in, and Yuuki's head was smashed beneath a damn boulder! Asuna was pinned beneath chunks of the walls, and yet was still conscious as she healed her children!

She poked Alice again, the blonde looking as white as a sheet, "Asuna can't even use magic anymore because she used so much magic on her children that day to save their lives only to watch one of them slowly die in a hospital and the other be unable to truly run and play like a child again!"

"I didn't… I didn't know…" Alice stumbled over the words, the information Sinon had given her sinking in properly.

"You're right, you didn't know because we didn't want to get Kirito's hopes up only to have all of them pass away in the hospital from their injuries that should've killed them on the spot were it not for their royal blood and Asuna's quick thinking with her magic!" Sinon snarled, "so don't get all pissed off and angry for us keeping it a secret when they all should've died!"

"Sinon."

A third voice entered the conversation, and Alice looked in it's direction to see Asuna sitting in her wheelchair.

Now that the woman was facing her, Alice could see the stress and grief written all over the woman's kind-hearted face. Asuna was clothed in loose white sweatpants and a white t-shirt given to her by the hospital, her hair was braided over her shoulder, and there was a nasal tube in her nose along with two light oxygen canisters strapped to the back of her chair.

In Asuna's arms was a sleeping Yui, her only biological daughter tucked sleeping against her body wrapped in a soft pink blanket with a small teddy bear in her arms and a nasal tube in her nose as well. The black haired girl's long hair was shorter than it used to be, resting midback outside of it's current neat braid by Asuna to prevent it from getting tangled.

Asuna's red-rimmed and exhausted eyes looked back at the two of them, her eyes rather numb with grief and despair. "I'm tired," she spoke quietly to Sinon and looked away, looking down at her daughter who twitched a little in her sleep and nestled closer to her mother's body. "Can you help me return to my room with Yui?"

Sinon's eyes, earlier filled with silver flames, softened into a concerned and gentle look. "Of course, my princess," she offered her a gentle smile and moved away from Alice toward the back of Asuna's wheelchair, "focus on your little one, I'll get us over there. Alice was just leaving anyway."

Asuna nodded slightly and hunched her head and shoulders, snuggling her daughter close. The girl being her only link and reminder of her soul-mate and husband, Kirito. "Bye Alice," she murmured as Sinon began wheeling her away, her attention remaining focused on her daughter.

"Goodbye… Asuna…" Alice spoke once they had turned a corner, her voice still holding shocking and mild confusion at the situation. Asuna's alive…


I have no idea where this came from other than I watched the latest ALicization episode before christmas XD

btw would you guys rather see more Alicization orientated stuff or Moonlit Cradle Stuff? (For those of you who aren't novel readers, it's basically Asuna and Kirito rebuilding the Underworld from the inside)