Warnings: BoyxBoy, OC (Original Character), Mild Violence, Language. If any of these things offend you, you are free to exit from the door on the right.

Dreams in the Dying

Chapter 1:

Some come and go…and others go, come back, and stay

As twilight dissipated and stars gathered across the sky, Mika continued to sprint along the dirt path, feet thumping rhythmically as he followed behind the mystery player. Whoever the person was, Mika had a feeling he had seen that form before, but couldn't quite bring the full picture together, as he was still too far behind. The player had been ripping across the trail with a vengeance, and didn't look like he would be shattering his pace anytime soon. With how well he moved around in his virtual body, Mika could definitely say that he had been a beta tester, so it was no surprise that the player seemed familiar. Although, there were 1,000 players who participated in the beta testing, and because of the Mirror that Kayaba Akihiko handed out, the appearances could be grandiloquently different.

Mika sweat dropped. It's safe to say I could have kissed the guy and wouldn't be able to pick his face out of a crowd.

Having been sprinting for five to ten minutes, and still being too far away to view the mystery players name, Mika was now running off pure frustrating curiosity. The blonde thought the chase would never stop, seeing as the person had been shredding through every animal in his way without so much as a blink, until the player suddenly froze in mid step, quickly bracing himself and taking his sword out of its sheath. Mika furrowed his eyebrows, confused at the sudden change in routine, before his eyes promptly popped out of their sockets. Up a head a wolf/saber-toothed cat stood in his path, drawn out by the shadows of night. The animal was a massive wall of meat, bearing threateningly down on them, and Mika knew he should have already had his sword in his hand, handled to kill, but he couldn't tear his icy blue eyes away from the name that was displayed next to the "mystery players" health gauge.

Kirito

No way! Mika immediately grinned at the information, glad he had decided to stalk the player down in reward for a familiar…er…name? The boy quickly shook his head, as there was something more important to worry about, and brought his right hand up to swipe downwards and open his items. He hurriedly picked the one that read 'Flash Bomb', and gripped it in his hand, before taking a few quick steps towards Kirito and willfully hurling the Flash Bomb at the fantasy horror before him; faster than Kirito could get a strike in. The item hit the animal dead between its eyes, and exploded in a bombastic display of white and yellow, contrasting greatly with the shadows around them. Mika quickly covered his eyes with his arm, as did Kirito, while the freak of nature shrieked and wailed in terror, reeling on its hind legs, before scampering off into the morbid darkness, massive tail hanging at its feet.

As the light show dissipated, Mika brought is arm down from his face, eyes instantly shifting to Kirito who had his gaze trained on the direction the animal had run in, most likely to make sure it wouldn't come back. The blonde stretched a sneaky smile across his lips, clasping his hands behind his back before sashaying over to the black haired boy. Kirito had not a clue, and once directly at his back, Mika lifted his hand up and promptly poked Kirito firmly in his shoulder blade.

"Hey there."

"Gyhaaa!" Kirito shrieked in surprise, whipping around and directly bringing the tip of his sword to meet the middle of Mika's eyes. Blue orbs widened and went cross eyed, locking on the sharp steel, while pale hands were immediately thrown up in surrender.

"Whoa, not the face!" Said Mika humorously, with a playful, yet nervous smile on his lips. He used his slender finger up to point to his cheek, "You don't want to hurt this."

Kirito's eyes narrowed skeptically, and quickly shifted upwards to glance at the name next to the health of the boy in front of him.

"….Mika?"

Mika gave a toothy grin, while bringing the tip of his finger to Kirito's sword and lowering it from his face, guessing it was now safe to do so. "In the flesh!" He gave himself a quick once over, before giving a bashful look, "Sort of…"

A smile was already plastered on Kirito's face, and he quickly sheathed his sword, before bringing his arms around Mika's similar frame to give him a quick hug, which the blonde instantly reciprocated. To Kirito, it felt nice to find a tie to something he was familiar with. It was like a gravity switch had just been flipped on and his feet were brought back to the ground, returning from the high he had been on. Flying solo was nice, but with a person you trusted was better. Although, he had hoped that Mika hadn't been caught in this death game.

Kirito stepped back and rubbed the back of his head, "Sorry for the altercation. I was kind of on an adrenaline rush…"

Mika smiled and rested his hand on his right hip, "Yeah, I saw that. I've been on your tail the entire time, and you looked as if you were on fire! Running like crazy and ripping apart all the beasts in your way. Well, except for the last one. I saved your ass there."

The pale blonde nudged his friend with his elbow, "I almost thought you saw me following you and was just trying to show off."

Kirito snorted and pushed the elbow away, before crossing his arms loosely over his chest, "Whatever, I didn't even know someone was following me, I was so goal oriented. Besides, I haven't seen you since the beta test, and you looked way different back then! I wouldn't have been able to recognize you if I tried!"

Mika rubbed the side of his arm in uncharacteristic shyness, "Did…did I really look that different?"

"Well yeah," the raven said, looking thoughtful, "Your hair was a dark brown, you had a tan and your eyes were brown to…."

Kirito trailed off, while raising an inquisitive eyebrow at the apparent uncertainly that now surrounded Mika, before slowly giving a knowing look. There weren't many reasons people would change their appearance so drastically, and be uncertain now, so it wasn't hard to figure out what Mika's dilemma was. Kirito gave the boy an appraising look, before he walked past Mika, playfully shoving his shoulder along the way as he headed off back down the trail.

"Although…" Mika stared after Kirito. "You're such a happy person. Lighter colors suit you better."

Mika stood still for a moment, stunned at Kirito's kind words. Lighter colors…suit me better? That's a first. Kirito stopped in med step and looked back at Mika, "You coming or not, you snail? Or did you just chase me down to say hi?"

The pale boy swiftly recovered and rolled his eyes, before quickly running up to Kirito's side, shoving him as he did so, "Yeah right, you're stuck with me! I can't have you getting caught in a tree or something, now can I?"

"Yeah, yeah," said Kirito with a light chuckle, waving a hand dismissively.

A comfortable silence rained over the two as they made it step by step across the trail, sometimes taking different routes to avoid dangerous paths, and relying on the moon, and their memory of the beta test, to light their way. While walking, Mika's mind wandered off to the first time he had met Kirito in the beta test. It was similar to how they met just now, except instead of saving the raven haired boy from a hybrid, he had stepped in between Kirito and the first floor boss, when the odds weren't in Kirito's favor.

Mika mentally rolled his eyes. He was such a self righteous prick back then. Not even level two and trying to battle a boss…

After that little incident, they'd taken it back to the basics. Back down this trail, and into…

Mika's eyes widened, and he was positive he must have been glowing from the light bulb that just went up in his head.

"Hey," said Mika, breaking the silence.

Kirito looked at him from the corner of his eye with a raised eyebrow, "Hm?"

"Are you still at level one?"

"Yeah…you?"

Mika nodded with a smile tugging at his lips, "Yep! Guess what that means?"

The raven furrowed his eyebrows, trying to recall something he should already know, maybe from the beta test…It hit him, and a smile was now breaking his lips as well.

"I hadn't even thought of that. You think we'll enter before we level up?"

Mika rolled his eyes, "It's the only way we can enter. So yes, we will!"

-Floor One: The Wet Lands-

"This is stupid," stated Kirito, as he kicked the water inside one of the millions of puddles littered around them. The humid air, despite them being in a virtual world, made it feel like sweat was pouring out of their bodies and gluing their clothes to their skin.

"Oh hush," said Mika, waving a hand at him, before wiping the hand across his head and running his fingers through sticky platinum locks, scowling as he did so. "It's not like I'm thrilled to be here either. My hair doesn't need this."

"You would be worried about that…" grumbled Kirito, while crouching down before springing into yet another puddle, splashing water all over his pants, and soaking his shoes. "What if we get attacked and end up raising our level? We can't enter the cavern if we're not at level one. And all this will have all been for" – He jumped into another puddle –"Nothing!"

The humidity and time spent splashing in puddles, just to find the entrance to the cavern was getting to both of them, making it extremely difficult not to bite each other's heads off. That, coupled with the fact that they had just reunited and were now making up many months worth of annoyance between each other, and you now had an angry Mika glaring harshly at Kirito, ready to peel his muffin cap black blue.(1)

The blonde roughly shook off the water clinging to his black boots, before taking a step forwards; hands clenched at his sides, he growled, "You know Kirito..." He took another step forward into a puddle, "I am getting real sick and tired of – AH!"

Instantaneously, gravity grabbed Mika by the head, and shoved him into the dark abyss of the seemingly shallow puddle. Bone chilling liquid coated his skin and pinched relentlessly at him, while also rushing up his sinuses with a vengeance, and giving Mika a moment of tingling brain loss. His breath was seemingly lost to him, as the coldness sucked it out of his lungs. Yet suddenly, all previous feelings of deathly frigid water left him, and he was soon free falling into a crouch on the stone floor, of what appeared to be, the cavern he had been looking for.

A chill scurried down his spine from the immediate alteration between wet and cold, and warm and dry, but he quickly shook it off and rose into a standing position, hand on his hip and eyes on alert. A head of him was a gargantuan cavern, gorgeously architectured to be an Atlantis type scenery, except without the huge amounts of water. Victorian type structures lined the walls of the cave; leading up to a golden building that resembled an ancient, uptown manor or palace. Thin waterfalls fell over the side structures, making it no surprise that large amounts of moss and vines had lined and curled around everything except the bottom of the manor. A wide river flowed from an unknown source through the floor of the cave, leading a path to the golden manor; the water slightly curving around the land covered moss rooted to the ground of the chamber. The scenery was only made that much more magnificent with the occasional beams of light shining down on the structures, as the entire cave simply housed the buildings, giving it light from way up high. That's how big the cavern was.

Mika pierced his lips and attempted to whistle to show his appreciation for the familiar landscape, but failed considerably with only soundless air escaping his lips. He shrugged. I'll have to work on that later. Mika took one step towards the beginning of his trek towards the manor, when a faint wail caused him to look upwards…only to be bombarded with an airborne body. The weight hit him like a brick in the face, and Mika very much wished at that moment that the game had been designed to not only protect your nerves from most virtual pain, but also that of which came from fellow players. Gravity was not on his side once again, and he plummeted to the ground.

The petite boy groaned, while Kirito grunted from the force of landing on Mika's stomach. Kirito had landed stomach to stomach with Mika, as well as face to face. Obsidian orbs bore deeply into icy blues, warm breath mingling between them as they tried to catch their breath, and from the humorous twinkle behind both sets of eyes, the smile tugging at lips like a stitch to fabric, and chests ready to burst; it wasn't long before ageless laughs were bubbling out of them. So much so that tears began pricking their eyes. Kirito's head hanging down with shaking shoulders, and Mika's thrown back. Neither of them could quite put their finger on it, but something about the whole situation, above ground and now in the cavern, was beyond hilarious. Or maybe they both just needed a laugh.

Once all the giggles were out in the open and their friendship was firmly resealed, Kirito stood up from atop Mika and offered the boy his hand, which was playfully slapped away, before the blonde got up himself.

"I'm not an old lady, I can help myself up," said Mika, as he needlessly dusted off his pants.

Kirito dismissed the comment altogether, as he was too star struck with the intertie of the chamber. As the raven took it all in for the second time, he let out a low, smooth whistle.

Mika's jaw promptly dropped down, "Wha-! That's not fair!"

Kirito gave him a quizzical look, "What's not fair?"

The pale boy rolled his eyes and blew out an exasperated sigh, "Nothing…Nothing."

A sneaky glint suddenly started twinkling within in his eye as an idea struck him, and he took advantage of Kirito's confusion by quickly shoving his shoulder and running past him, down through the river and towards the manor.

"Whoever gets there last has to drink cave water!" Mika called out, a laugh not far behind.

Kirito gazed at him disbelievingly, but not one to turn down a challenge, quickly took to the mossy land areas, and in a hop skip and a jump was there quite faster than the blonde, who was still trudging through the river.

The raven had kindly shoved Mika's face into the nasty cavern water.

"You suck Kirito," mumbled Mika, as he wiped the water from his mouth with his long, dark sea green sleeve.

"You called the challenge," he responded coolly, wasting no more time in bantering as he began to walk into the shining palace. Mika grumbled and quickly followed after him.

The inside of the manor wasn't anything special really; it was just extremely spacious, and well…golden. It was more of a rustic gold however, so it didn't blind your pupil with its shiny glare. The area Mika and Kirito had stepped into was something akin to a bare ball room, with only two doors up ahead; one on the right and one on the left.

"Flip a coin?" Mika asked teasingly with a small grin.

Kirito smiled and shook his head, "I can't believe we did that to decide last time…"

The blonde shrugged, "It worked. So left it is?"

The raven furrowed his eyebrows and shook his head, "No…it was definitely right."

"Um, I'm pretty sure it's left."

"It's right."

"Left." Mika got in his face.

"Right." Kirito met his dare.

They starred each other down for a second, before Mika used his right hand to swipe downwards and open his tools so he could get to his items, all while still keeping eye contact with Kirito. He looked down for a second to pick out the item that read 'Coin', and gripped it in his hand.

"Coin flip it is. Heads we go left, tails we go right." He said, nodding his head in each direction.

Kirito rolled his eyes and put his hands on his hips, "What is it with you and being heads? And whatever, just flip so we can get back to leveling up and continuing onto the next village."

Mika nodded and placed the coin on his thumb, before flipping it in the air and catching it on the back of his hand, his other palm covering the answer. The platinum blond lifted his pale hand and both he and Kirito peaked in at the coin, only for Kirito to instantly groan in annoyance.

"I have the worst luck…" he grumbled, already trudging over to the left door, while Mika pumped his fist and did a small happy dance to himself, before letting the coin break into shards and following up behind Kirito.

"If we die in here I'm going to kill you," stated Kirito, a little too calmly as they entered the dismal hallway, a complete contrast to the bright open area they were just in.

Mika waved his hand uncaringly as he trotted beside his friend, "You're such a baby. Nothing is going to happen. I have an innate skill for guessing. I'm always right."

Abruptly, as if to prove the boy wrong, the sound of rock sliding against rock had both Kirito and Mika wiping their heads around to view a big slab of solid aggregate, now rising to block their entrance, cutting off any light they had previously had access to. There was a deafening silence, the boys' eyes straining to listen for anything unusual, when flames suddenly ignited around them, held by multiple torches that cast eerie shadows, which crawled across the stone flooring and up the cold walls, causing the boys to stiffen and get into a fighting stance, skilled hands rising to grip the handles of their blades.

Both of their skittish gazes were set ahead of them, peering at two large statues that looked as if made with cement. They were armored like samurai, and it was not a second later that the statues were moving into a fighting position as well, eyes glowing a malicious red.

"Yep, I knew it," said Kirito matter of factly, drawing out his blade with a 'shink', "I'm gonna kill you."

Mika sweat dropped and laughed nervously, "Yeah…can you follow through with that once we get out of here? I'd like to be breathing fresh air when I die." Mika then slowly drew out his own sword, a half black and half white 27.72 inch long segmented blade, with a width of 9.5 inches. It starts out small at the handle, yet grows wider at the end. Mika had to admit it was a work of art, and Kirito knew he had no qualms about bragging about it.

Kirito hummed softly, looking as if he was contemplating Mika's proposal, "Well… I guess. Since it's your last, dying wish."

"Why thank you, you grace," were the last words to come of that conversation, as the stature on the right took the opportunity to rush Mika, heavy feet creating thunderous echoes within the wide hallway, and cemented blade drawn and handled to kill. The statue samurai thrust his blade straight downwards, causing the sword to split the ground into pieces as Mika dodged to the right, where the statues foot quickly came in contact with the small boy's ribs, and sent him flying backwards across the room, towards the door he had previously entered through. A third of his health dropped from that hit alone.

"Mika!" Kirito called out in worry, before having to quickly dodging a hit from the same samurai by ducking under a side maneuver, and hurriedly crawling between the statues legs before it could split him in half with a swift cut downwards. Kirito scurried to his feet, and saw that he had the statues back to him. He grit his teeth and instantly activated a sword skill, making his blade glow red, planning to cut off the samurais legs all together. He raised his sword…

"Kirito no!" Mika shrieked, "Behind you! Up! Go Up!"

Kirito furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, not understanding until a large shadow was suddenly looming over him, and his heart stopped. The raven spun around and rapidly followed Mika's orders by quickly dragging his blade up the second Samurais stomach, all the way through to his neck. It didn't destroy the thing, but a long spider crack had appeared where he had had cut it, making it vulnerable. Kirito then dashed out of the crevice he was in, between the two statues, while Mika had recovered and was now rushing statue number one.

"AaaaaaaAAAAhhh!" Yelled Mika, jumping above a strike that was made to his abdomen, and putting every bit of his strength into harshly shoving his feet onto the statues face, causing it to tip backwards and allow Mika to strike the second statue behind it with a slice across its glowing eyes. As state number one fell and statue number two wailed and clutched his injured red orbs, Kirito came up behind the injured one and sliced it clean up its back. The samurai was at its limit at three fatal strikes, and finally burst into hundreds of crystals at Kirito's ending blow.

Mika and Kirito knew they could take the last statue easily, so it seemed as if things were looking up, until the whole hallway abruptly started rattling, as if an earthquake had struck the manor.

"What the-!" Mika began to say, but was instantly cut off by a stone hand gripping his neck from behind. The statue Mika had been standing on was now slowly rising, as if a resurrected mummy, and was squeezing the blond's slim neck so hard that his health was slowly dropping into the yellow zone. Mika wriggled around helplessly in the vice clutch, hands vainly trying to pry the cold, cement fingers from around his esophagus.

The room continued shaking and Mika could faintly here Kirito screaming, "It's shrinking, the room is shrinking!"

Mika groaned. Just great. Just…just great. Why the hell didn't I listen to Kirito? He's always right!

While Mika struggled, Kirito had picked up his friends abandoned sword, just in time for the statue to whip around and swing his sword at Kirito. The raven attempted to dodge, but the two swords he was now carrying slowed his agility and his side got nicked, dropping a bit of his health and causing tiny shards to flow from his wound. Before Kirito could activate a sword skill, the samurai brought his leg back and harshly kicked Kirito in the stomach, causing the boy to hit the ground with a force and skid halfway across the floor, losing both his and Mika's swords on the way. His health had now plummeted to half.

Mika growled angrily at the display and began stomping his foot repeatedly into the samurais chest, trying to do some kind of damage and take his focus away from Kirito. Although it caused no harm, it saw to irritate the statue, and Mika was promptly and callously launched out of his stone grip, and straight into Kirito's chest, causing the raven to grunt under the weight. The fact that Mika could feel a wall behind him and Kirito, told him that the room had already shrunk to half its size.

The heartless samurai gave no warning, and zero time to recover as he quickly rushed both the boys. Mika could feel a lump curdle inside his throat, and his heart threw itself erratically against his ribcage. He was frozen, a deer in the headlights. It's running too fast! I don't have my sword, what do I do!?

Although panic was overtaking Mika's thought process completely, Kirito was very much awake and sharper than ever, as just when the statue's sword was about to impale them both, Kirito thought quick and suddenly kicked Mika off of him. The strike had missed the blonde entirely, but his friend wasn't as fortunate. The cement blade, although not reaching both its targets, was now penetrating deep inside Kirito's abdomen, fishing around inside the boy's virtual organs. His health had dropped to 5%...4%...3%. With each second the blade was imbedded within him, a drop of his life span was lost. Gravity seemed to way heavy on Kirito, as many crystals floated around his body, mocking him. It was as if he was playing chess, and his opponent had just put him in check. It was a warning. A warning that he was losing, or maybe had already lost. Maybe he just two moves away from game over.

Mika gaped in horror as he watched Kirito practically disappear. The boy span his mind in circles, searching for a way to make a difference, when he spotted the glint of his sword in the corner of his eye. It was just behind the statue's thick legs and he quickly lunged for it, snatching it off the ground and instantly activating a sword skill. His sword glowed white and he swiftly cut the statue across the chest, causing the monstrosity to stumble and fall backwards onto the floor, giving Kirito the opportunity to shakily raise his hand and pull the stone sword out from his innards, tossing it aside straight afterwards.

Although Mika could see that Kirito's health was teetering on the edge of zero, he kept his eyes trained on the statue before him, and just a little beyond that. He blocked out thoughts of Kirito, and ignored the fact the hallway was frighteningly small now, because just beyond that statue, there was the second statue's sword, glowing a bright red. It didn't disappear, it hadn't shattered along with the statue, and every SAO player knew what that meant. Mika gripped his sword tightly before bracing himself, and at full speed launched his body towards the recovering samurai. Just as the stone warrior was about to stand, the blonde jumped on top of the samurai and thrust his sword securely into the stone chest, hearing the satisfying cracks of stone as the monster fell back down with the damage. Mika grinned and ran over to the glowing sword, his current savior. He just barely touched the object, and as Mika suspected it morphed into a health.

The boy knew he wasn't going to make it back over to Kirito in time, with the statue just starting to get up again, so he thought quick and swiped his right hand down, opening his tools and going to the marriage icon.

"Hey Kirito!" Mika called, making the raven raise an eyebrow as a screen popped up in front of him. "Marry me?"

To be Continued…

(1): It's a prison saying. I believe it means to cut someones dick off. And yes I got that from Kevin Hart.

A/N: Thank you for taking the time to review my story! You don't know how happy I was to see that. Hopefully you'll appreciate the long chapter and review again as well? Eh? Eh? Anyway, I wanted to clear up a few things. One, I know in cannon kicking or landing on a player isn't supposed to hurt them, but I never bought into that. How are you supposed to feel a kiss or a hug if you can't feel pain? The pain doesn't have to deplete their health, but it's definitely going to hurt! So I have used my creative license and changed that little tidbit. I also wanted to ask if anyone would like to see chapters from Kirito's POV, because i think the next one will be. Is that a turn off or a turn on? Let me know!

Chapter 2 Teaser:

"Party up with me?"

"We need to get stronger."

"Oh...you're married?"

"I don't like where this is going."

"Bounty hunts."