Disclaimer: I don't own Sword Art Online or any of Rick Riordan's works.

Warnings: pre-slash, angst, attempted murder, etc. Also a lot of dialogue in this is taken directly from the English dub (yes, I watch the dub, I have my reasons, don't bag on me for it.)

Enjoy!

Kirito sighed, disappointed, as he glanced inside his lunch sack. After eating Asuna's cooking, nothing else tasted good…

He thought about the situation he found himself in. Taking an 'assessment' with one of the commanders of the Knights, to see where he stood skill-wise.

And Kuradeel, who he'd humiliated in a match for the 'right' to hang out with Asuna, was there with him, supposedly because he was on probation or something like that.

He'd rather stay as far away from the creep as possible, but what could he do about it?

Nothing, Kirito thought regretfully, pulling at his new white uniform with red trimming. He wished he'd been allowed to wear his usual black—the colors of his swords totally didn't match.

…Kirito would have to make sure Lisbeth and Klein NEVER found out he'd just thought that, or he would never hear the end of it.

He sighed, taking a sip of his drink before noticing Kuradeel staring at him with a smirk.

A second later Kirito's dark gray eyes widened, throwing the bottle away and falling backwards. He could see the other man, the commander, shudder and collapse to the floor.

'We've been poisoned.' Kirito realized as Kuradeel stood up, chuckling for a moment, which quickly escalated to full-blown insane laughter.

'Shit.' Kirito groaned.

"The hell's going on?" the commander asked, sweat pouring down his face. "You packed the water Kuradeel…what'd you do, you bastard?"

"Antidote crystals, hurry." Kirito bit out, struggling to talk.

The commander tried to reach for the supplies that he'd taken from the other two at the beginning of the trip, but Kuradeel kicked it away.

"Poor, sad old Godfrey." The man sneered. "I always knew you were a colossal idiot. But this proves you're even dumber than I thought!"

With that, he started hacking at the man with his sword, green cursor above his head turning orange.

"Stop!" Godfrey tried, health lowering.

"Here's my plan…we were walking along when—" Kuradeel rambled on, coming up with a sob story that he would return to the guild with, about how they'd been attacked, Kirito and Godfrey were killed, and how he had 'courageously' fought them all off…

Kirito looked upon the scene in horror, trying and failing to move because of the paralytic poison…

Kuradeel stabbed into the older man one more time, keeping his sword there and moving it around, insane look on his face as Godfrey died, shattering into a thousand flecks of light.

Nico was walking around in one of the dungeons, grinding his levels, when he froze, an icy feeling going down his spine.

"Shit!" he hissed, turning back.

He knew what that feeling meant. One of his friends was in danger.

And he could tell which friend, too.

So when he felt a 'blip' in Asuna's soul a few minutes later, he realized that the girl was probably bailing Kirito out of trouble.

He mumbled a few insults under his breath, wondering why his friends—in both SAO and IRL—were always getting in danger.

But at least he and his IRL friends had a reason they attracted trouble like magnets.

What was Kirito's excuse?!

"You know, I just killed an innocent bystander because of you." Kuradeel said conversationally, walking towards Kirito. "How am I going to live with myself?"

"From over here you looked like you were having a blast." Kirito said bitterly. "Why the hell would a guy like you join the Knights of the Blood Oath? You'd be more at home with one of the criminal guilds."

"What an interesting observation. You have sharp eyes." Kuradeel pushed up his sleeve, removing his gauntlet and showing the black-haired boy the image on his arm, of a black coffin with laughing face and skeletal arm drawn in white.

"You're with Laughing Coffin!" Kirito hissed, remembering being attacked by the guild's members before. "The murder guild."

"That's where I got the skills to paralyze bastards like you." Kuradeel said with a smirk. "Where's my head? I better stop talking or the poison will wear off…and we wouldn't want that. Time to finish you off for good."

And with that, he stabbed Kirito's left arm and moving the blade around, causing the boy to grunt.

'The poison's not wearing off.' Kirito realized, watching his health drop.

"How does it feel?" Kuradeel asked, stabbing his right leg this time and moving it around again. "Come on, I want to know how it feels, knowing you're about to die like a dog…what? Is your tongue paralyzed, too?"

Kirito glared, knowing that his health was dropping lower and lower.

'Is this it?' he wondered, an image of Sachi flashing before his eyes. 'Is this where I'm gonna die?'

"Come on now!" Kuradeel said angrily. "It's your last chance to say something. You really are going to die."

And with that, he yanked his sword out, the time stabbing Kirito in the chest.

His health dropped to red.

Good to know, but he couldn't do anything about it, damn it!

Kirito closed his eyes, about to give up, only to see Asuna looking at him.

He opened his eyes again, hand slowly moving towards Kuradeel's sword, which he grabbed and tried to pull out.

The man looked surprised, but recovered. "Why do you keep struggling? Are you afraid of dying after all?"

"No." Kirito answered. "I'm just not ready yet."

Kuradeel chuckled again. "Is that so? Just the way I like it!"

He pushed the sword further into Kirito, who was still trying to remove it, watching his health drop even lower. Just the tiniest bit of red left…

"Die!" Kuradeel shouted. "DIE, DIE, DIE!"

Kirito's hand stopped moving.

Suddenly a burst of green light appeared and Kuradeel was thrown back, the sword immediately removed from Kirito's chest.

He weakly turned to his savior.

Asuna.

"Heal!" she demanded, using a crystal, which shattered immediately.

Kirito's health bar was green again, fully restored.

"I made it." Asuna said, relieved. "I made it in time. Thank god. I made it." Asuna gasped to herself, staring at Kirito as she panted, having traveled as fast as she could when she realized that something was wrong.

She calmed herself slightly. "I was tracking your position on a map the whole time. And then I saw Godfrey disappear. I was afraid something had happened. But you're alive. I'm not dreaming am I?"

Kirito had started to smile slightly, "No. You're not."

Asuna smiled, before the pair heard Kuradeel get up.

She turned and glared, hand going to her rapier as she stood up and began walking towards him. "Hang on. I'll finish this."

"A-Asuna!" Kuradeel stammered. "I can explain everything! We were just training when all of a sudden, there was this—"

Asuna didn't bother to listen, thrusting her blade forward, hitting the rock right next to his head and cutting his face in the process.

"DAMN YOU!" Kuradeel shouted angrily, going to attack her.

He didn't get the chance.

Asuna wasn't called the Flash for nothing. She was probably the fastest player in SAO, and her skill was evident as she sliced away at Kuradeel, who grunted but was unable to attack back as thin red slices appeared all over his body.

Right before he would have died, Asuna stopped, though she still held him at sword point.

"I give up!" Kuradeel said, arms up. "I surrender! Please don't kill me!"

He collapsed on his knees, bowing.

"I'll leave the guild, you'll never see me again, I promise!" the man cried. "Please!"

Asuna glared at him, raising her sword—

"I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" Kuradeel shouted as the blade came nearer, causing Asuna to pause.

He let out a chuckle, grabbing his sword and disarming her, rapier landing meters away.

"The oldest trick in the book!" Kuradeel shouted, raising his sword over his head as he prepared for a swing. "And you fell for it, bitch!"

Asuna's eyes widened.

But Kirito jumped in front of her, pushing her away and taking the blow to his arm, severing his hand from his body.

Kirito screamed, his other hand glowing yellow as he activated one of his skills (AN: is it the martial arts skill that he used, or a sword skill without weapon?) as he stabbed Kuradeel in the chest.

The man stumbled back, health draining to nothing and collapsing on Kirito.

"God damn you." He whispered in Kirito's ear. "You murdered me."

And he too shattered into bright shards.

Kirito panted, realizing what had just happened.

His hand would grow back, but Kuradeel…

He swayed, collapsing to his knees.

Asuna bit her lip, walking towards him, and was about to grab his hand before she hesitated.

"I'm sorry." She said, crying. "This is all my fault. But—"

Kirito made a noise of surprise, turning towards her. "Asuna…"

"I'm sorry." Asuna repeated, tears streaming down her face and falling on her hands. "But I-I should…stay away from you. For your sake."

She closed her eyes, and Kirito panicked at her words, grabbing her shoulder firmly and looking her straight in the eyes when she opened them in surprise.

A moment later, Asuna froze in shock when Kirito leaned forward and kissed her.

When he pulled away, he started talking. "Asuna, my life belongs to you. I'd give it up for you. I want to stay with you until the end…"

Asuna smiled slightly, eyes watering again. "And I promise, I'll do anything to protect you, too. Forever. No matter what. I swear."

"I'll do everything I can to make sure you get back to the real world." Kirito said, looking up at her. "Asuna, could I…stay with you, for the night?"

Asuna blushed, but smiled slightly and nodded.

Little did he know that she had misunderstood his simple request for a guest room and thought he was asking for something more.

Oh well. He'd find out soon enough.

"—and we're together now." Asuna finished awkwardly. "We're getting married tomorrow. Heathcliff agreed to give us some vacation time."

Nico stared at the pair in front of him as they waited semi-nervously for his reaction.

He opened his mouth.

"Finally!" he said in exasperation, throwing his arms in the air, ignoring the whole 'marriage' part. That wasn't as big of a deal in SAO as it was in the real world, and it's not like Asuna could get pregnant in the game, much less in real life, if they went that far.

"You know Agil, Klein, Lisbeth, Silica, Argo and I had a bet going on about how long it would take you guys to get together." Nico grimaced mentally, remembering the resignation in Lisbeth and Silica's eyes, but had known better than to comment. "None of us won, because all of us bet too early!"

"You bet on us?!" Asuna gasped, blushing a bit.

Kirito glanced away, embarrassed and rubbing the back of his neck.

"Yeah, for all the good that did us." Nico muttered. "Figures it took something like that."

Asuna huffed, offended, slugging Nyx on the shoulder. This was not what she had expected his reaction to be!

Nico rolled his eyes. She knew that they couldn't feel physical pain, so why did she bother?

Still, he played along and rubbed at his shoulder as if it hurt.

Kirito, meanwhile, tried not to snicker at them.

"Glad you two are alive, though." Nico said absentmindedly.

And he was, really. He was just very used to people he cared about having near-death experiences, and after a while you started to become desensitized unless they actually died.

Kirito and Asuna smiled at him.

Please review! :)