She's Mine Kirito 3
Kirito's statement of Shino hating him made some sense later once Yui had fallen asleep and was handed off to Shino's father so the two could talk, or argue really, away from the girl.
"Kirito, if your reason for not telling me as a retrieval specialist that Yui, our child was abducted is that 'I'm not there enough for her' I swear to god I will knock you out and gladly be arrested," Shino snapped the moment the door had shut, splitting them and the sleeping Yui up.
"You weren't here!" Kirito snapped back in turn, lashing back out at the assumption, "you're off somewhere unknown with Rika, how am I supposed to contact you?"
"With a phone! And I wasn't 'somewhere or just on vacation with my best friend,' I was in another country, locating survivors from an earthquake, you bastard," Shino snarled defensively and stalked toward him. "Part of my job is to go to other places and rescue people when they're trapped and only dogs can find them, or did you forget that?"
"I know that's part of your job," Kirito scowled and Shino cut him off.
"Then why the hell wouldn't you tell me that Yui's been abducted by someone armed?!" Shino spat at him, "just because I don't live with her every day doesn't mean I hate my own child!"
"Then you should've-"
"Should've stayed with you?" Shino growled, "or been more active in her life from the beginning when I was busy trying to heal from the fact that you refused to let me back out of a mistake that you caused and forced me to be responsible for a life that I couldn't take care of?!"
"That's not my fault!" Kirito refused, "just because I was up to making up for that mistake and you weren't, isn't my fault, Shino!"
"It wasn't a case of being up to it!" Shino snarled, "you knew what kind of home I came from, you know what hell Rika broke her arm to pull me out of," Asuna's gaze flickered to Rika, who grimaced at the mentioning, "and you know what being forced to keep a pregnancy I didn't want, did to me! Of course I couldn't take care of another life Kirito, like I've told you a hundred times and you don't understand! Just because I didn't want to go through with it and still can barely cope with the fact that I need to be part of my daughter's life because she didn't ask to be put in this situation, doesn't mean I hate her and you know that! God, I'm the one who raised her alone for the first six months of her life-"
"Doesn't mean I can always trust you with her!" Kirito snapped and when Shino recoiled like she had been slapped, Rika stepped in.
"Kirito, enough," Rika's voice was hard, sharp like flint with a blade sharp enough to cut through leather while Shino looked away from all of them. "You know she was drugged and hallucinating when that happened, it was before Yui was even born."
"While you were being all excited and proud of yourself, I was suffering," Shino stated bitterly. "When Rika called me with Yui to let Yui ask me to be part of her life, I stepped up to the plate. Because I care about her and I know that what happened between you and I isn't her fault. It's mine for letting you in in the first place. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a daughter too frightened to let me go home." She turned on her heel and promptly left, leaving the three of them in the room.
Namely the obviously still angry but angry at himself Kirito, the stiff and cautious looking Rika, and Asuna. Who honestly was still trying to work everything out in her head.
"I've told you a hundred times Kirito, probably thousands by now, that I'm not dating Shino," Rika stated a few seconds after the door had clicked shut. Looking almost hostile for the first time since Asuna had ever met her. "You also know that she will never let me date her anyway, with the amount of times that you throw it at her like you're accusing her of being a horrible person just because she's in love with her best friend."
Ah, so Shino did have feelings for Rika.
"I know," Kirito stated quietly, in an almost exhausted manner. "I don't mean to, I've tried to tell her to ignore what I say and that she should date who she wants to, but she won't."
"Well you've gotten mad at her as teenagers for being close to me because I had a crush on her back then and it wasn't returned, held it over her head throughout the early part of our college years, and so by this point, trying to be civil with her and having a conversation with her makes her on edge and romance makes her shut down, you know that." Rika leaned back against the desk and studied the ceiling, "I don't know what you want from her, she's never going to be your friend again and she's never going to fully split Yui with you, because she knows Yui's very important to you and that you don't trust her with her own daughter. When like I've told you in the past, she's a beautiful mother but only when you're not around making her lock up. And you doing something like this, not telling her when she's literally trained in this field and booked the first flight possible back to make it before the twelve hour danger timer so she could rescue her daughter, just reminds her that you don't trust her."
"I know," Kirito ran a hand through his bangs, "I just… I was so upset and I didn't want to tell her and have her fully take Yui from me."
Rika snorted, "Shi-Shi's not lying when she says she can barely cope with the knowledge that she has to look after another life a few times a month, sometimes a week if she takes Yui with her for a business related trip with me. She'd never take her away, only kick your ass and chew you out. That being said, I have to remind you this because some day it'll actually get through. But just because Yui swears that Shino and I are a couple, doesn't mean we are, we're just roommates. And even if we were dating, you know that neither of us are bound to only one person like you are. Not that that'll ever happen now that she knows that Asuna's your best friend."
Kirito winced and Asuna blinked, startled.
"Wait, what?" She spoke for the first time since the door shut, "what're you two talking about?"
Rika's brown eyes, now warm and not sharp like before, focused on her and she gave her a flirty cheeky smirk while Kirito avoided looking at them both. "Just that you're beautiful and super sweet~ Even Shino agrees and she's nearly impossible to make look up from her laptop~"
Wait… Shino liked her too? How? Asuna didn't recall ever meeting her at their college…
Rika laughed, "Shino's a GGO player by the name 'Sinon' she's watched you play and is always online with me as our back up, so she's interacted with you plenty, she just doesn't really speak in GGO and wears a scarf partway over her face. Plus, she's been with me before when I met up with you here and there, plus she's listened to me talk about you before, why? Surprised that even the ice queen herself can like someone~?"
"No, especially not after the GGO clarification," Asuna chuckled before turning serious, "just mildly confused about what Kirito has to do with this."
Rika sank back on her arms a bit like she was sulking and nodded to Kirito, "ask him. He knows what I'm talking about."
When Asuna turned her gaze to him, Kirito refused to look her in the eye, "Shino doesn't want to have to do with me in any way possible. Including… refusing to be involved with anyone I'm close with."
"Meaning," Rika sighed, "I can't date you and her together, since she'd never agree more than ever now that she knows that you're really close with Kirito."
"Just because I'm close with Kirito doesn't mean I can't acknowledge that he was an asshole as a highschooler and can be a child even now," Asuna grimaced for multiple reasons. From the fact that her best friend really was stupid, and also that fact that the girl she had feelings for for almost a year wasn't going to be able to date her because she was associated with him.
Damnit.
