Talking

Thinking

Thanks to Azahra, Panthour, Son of Helios, and RomanceDagger for their reviews and concerns. Believe me I feel as sad as all my viewers that I wrote what I wrote. But I digress, read on.

I don't own SAO, but you knew that already.

Chapter VII: Christmas Miracle

"Calm down Aurain." I heard Klein say, before I felt his hand clap me on the shoulder.

I stared at the ground, completely numb. How was I supposed to stay calm? Lisbeth was dead. In my haze, I saw Klein walk past me briskly before opening up his inventory for some reason. A blue gem with a metal holder plopped into his hand. It slowly began glowing brighter and brighter before floating over to the place Lisbeth's body had disappeared. Then, like some sort or amazing miracle, the crystals from Lisbeth's death reformed out of midair. They hovered for a moment before slamming together and creating a blinding flash.

When the light faded, Lisbeth was there again, curled up on the ground in a loose ball. I turned to Klein, confused as hell.

Klein grinned, "You can thank Kirito. He gave that to me last Christmas. It's a one-of-a-kind event item that can revive someone if you get to them ten seconds after they die."

"Seriously!?" I scrambled to my feet and wrapped the older man in a bear hug, "THANK YOU!"

Klein chuckled, "You're welcome. I'm just glad I still had it. Lisbeth's my friend too you know."

"A-Aurain!?"

I broke off my hug and turned to look at the girl I had thought was gone forever. She was rubbing her eyes like she just woke up. I scrambled over to her and wrapped her in an equally tight hug as I had given Klein.

"I died didn't I?" the girl softly whispered, "Is this some sort of cruel joke the afterlife is playing on me?"

"You did die." I squeezed her tighter to make sure she was real, "But Klein had an event item from last Christmas that can bring people back to life if it's used fast enough."

"He's a good friend." Lisbeth rested her head on my shoulder, "I can't believe such an item exists."

"Mhmm." I hummed, "Lisbeth?"

"Yes?"

"I l-l-l-love you."

"W-what!?" Lisbeth's face turned bright red, "What brought that on!?"

"I w-wanted to tell you while I still had the chance." I replied.

"W-well," Lisbeth stuttered, "I l-love you too. It's sort of weird."

"Weird?"

"I didn't really expect to fall in love with an American in a VRMMO of all places." Lisbeth laughed, "What are my parents going to think?"

"W-well the feeling's mutual," I replied, "So uh, are we boyfriend and girlfriend now?"

"We weren't before?" Lisbeth was puzzled.

"Er no, at least not officially," I scratched the back of my head, "We haven't really done anything since kissing in the cave."

"Good point." Lisbeth pouted, "We really should fix that soon."

I gave her one last squeeze before reluctantly leaving her embrace. It wasn't really safe to be having heart to heart talks inside a floor's labyrinth.

"H-hey Klein?" I approached the man who had politely turned his back. I dunno what he thought we were going to do. We didn't even kiss.

"Yeah?" Klein replied

"How'd the fight go?"

"We..." Klein paused for a moment, before continuing tiredly "Lost a couple of guys. Probably would've lost more if Kirito hadn't turned into a demon and fought three red players at once. The members of Laughing Coffin that were here are all dead."

"I wonder how they got the jump on us." I sighed tiredly, "Do you think they had a mole in the crowd at Argo's meeting?"

"Maybe." Klein was unusually subdued. I wondered if Lisbeth almost dieing on top of all the others hit him more than he showed.

"Do you want to grab Kirito and Asuna and go to the 50th floor for some drinks?" I felt unusually thankful for my friends, "I could use some time with you guys."

"Sure." Klein clapped me on the back.

"You want to come Lisbeth?"

"Of course!" Lisbeth smiled beautifully, "I don't want to miss a moment with you now that I've been given a second chance!"

I endured endless teasing from Asuna in the tavern due to how loving Lisbeth was being. My girlfriend was holding onto my arm, and had snuggled into my chest to both my embarrassment and pleasure. It was odd really liking something, but having my immense shyness make me miserable about it at the same time. We ate and celebrated until it was really late. It was around one in the morning when we finally separated and Klein, Kirito, and Asuna went their separate ways, leaving me and Lisbeth all alone next to the fountain just outside the tavern.

"The fountain is really pretty at night with all the street lamps shining on the water." Lisbeth leaned up against me. We had decided to sit and talk a while on one of the benches across from the fountain.

"Yeah it is." I rested my head on top of hers.

"Have you ever though about what we're going to do when the game is cleared," Lisbeth asked suddenly, "We live halfway across the world after all."

"I'll v-visit you as soon as I can," I promised, wrapping an arm daringly (for me anyways) around her shoulder, "And we can keep in email contact."

"Rika Shinozaki."

"Huh?" I was confused as to why Lisbeth had suddenly said a random Japanese name.

"That's my name in real life." Lisbeth replied quietly.

"A-Ah." I shivered a bit in the chill air, and felt Lisbeth trying to snuggle deeper into my side, "Mine's Ryan Kennedy."

"R...yan..." Lisbeth tested the name on her tongue, "It suits you."

"T-Thanks."

"Well while we're talking about the real world," Lisbeth swung her legs back and forth, "Are your eyes that beautiful shade of green in real life?"

"Y-yes," I felt heat creeping up my neck, "I didn't customize them like you did with your hair. It's all natural."

"Good." Lisbeth yawned tiredly, "I want to be able to look at them when you come to visit."

Lisbeth insisted that we sleep in the same room at the inn. Apparently she wanted to spend as much of our limited time together as possible. I wasn't going to disagree with her. It was nice going to sleep looking at her beautiful face. The freckles on the top part of her cheeks made her all the cuter.

I sighed about the corny thought I just had. The whole where has this girl been all my life spiel. It wasn't like I was really even old enough to even think about dating when I entered SAO. I was only fourteen after all. Now though I was sixteen, and I had had all sorts of corny romantic thoughts lately. I wondered how my parents would take the news that I picked up a girlfriend on the internet. They were probably so worried for me at this point that they'd just be glad to see me out of my VRMMO coma. Heck, my dad might even congratulate me.

"Can't sleep?" Lisbeth spoke softly.

"Mhmm." I mumbled, "Too many things on my mind.

"Like?" She sat up in the bed and scooched over to lean her head on my shoulder.

"My parents mainly. They've got to be so worried about me." I looked up at the ceiling, "They probably don't even think I'm ever going to wake up."

"I'm sure they believe in you to survive." Lisbeth reassured me with a smile

"Thanks." I smiled back, "Hopefully I won't disappoint them."

"I don't think you will." Lisbeth kissed me on the cheek, "Good night."

"Night." I closed my eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep.

I munched on a waffle while Lisbeth yawned sleepily. She has got to stop looking so adorable while half asleep

"Say Lisbeth..." I started, "I think I'm going to stay away from the front lines for a while."

"Why?"

"I'm..." I sighed and looked at the ground, "Scared."

"Because I died?"

"Yeah. I don't want some freak coincidence ending my life or yours. I'll probably buy a nice house on this floor and just relax for a while. The game can wait to be cleared. We've been alright for two years or so. I don't think a couple more months is going to hurt."

"Now you listen here Aurain." Lisbeth's voice turned stern. Oh geez. I was in for it, "You don't need to be running away from your fears in the hopes that they go away. You're one of the top players in SAO."

"But-"

"No buts!" She got up right in my face, "After all the faster you clear it, the faster I'm safe right? Isn't that what you're really worried about?"

"I...yeah..." I grumbled in reply, "Could you stop being so perceptive from now on?"

"Nope," She stuck her tongue out at me, "That'd ruin the fun of our relationship. So you'll start training me up so I can help out?"

"Okay..." when I realized what she said my eyes bugged out, "WHAT! NO!"

"Aurain..." Lisbeth's voice turned from playful to angry in a second, "I am not some china doll to be escorted around. I can take care of myself! I want you to try to remember that while you date me!"

"I s-surrender," Lisbeth's face brightened into a smile upon my response.

"Good." she pecked me on the cheek. Somedays I wished she would warn me before she does that, "Then we'll start tomorrow. Where do you want to begin?"

"You're level 74 right?" Lisbeth nodded to my question, "I guess the 62nd floor isn't a bad place to start."

"Isn't that a little low to go power leveling?"

"Nope," I replied, "I can kill mobs a lot more rapidly there and set the experience sharing to go all to you. You'll be caught up in no time at all."

"What level are you?" Lisbeth cocked her head to the side.

"I'm level 90." I replied nonchalantly, swearing that Lisbeth's jaw practically dropped when I told her, "What?"

"But..." she stammered, "T-that's so high!"

"I g-guess..." I scratched the back of my head, "I've still got 30 levels till level cap though."

"Still." Lisbeth asked, "So why were you having so much trouble with the cloaked guy?"

"My strength stat is crap compared to my agility," I blushed, "I really need to start raising it up higher. It's just nice to be able to dodge basically everything and be so fast."

"Ah, okay." Lisbeth nodded, and we went back to eating our breakfast in a nice sort of silence.

"Get your weapon out to defend yourself." I had led Lisbeth to a secluded part of floor 62, "This place spawns mobs at an insane rate. I need you to be ready to defend yourself if any break past me."

"You think you can kill them all?" Lisbeth sounded skeptical and a little scared as the group of around 10-20 mobs appeared in front of us.

"I know I can." I brought out my claws and activated a skill I'd unlocked a few weeks ago.

"FLASH STEP."

To Lisbeth I was probably there for a second and then in front of the first bugbear tearing it in half with a basic Reave skill the next second. I turned around on one foot and reappeared in front of the next two, killing them in one blow, my dark blue cloak flapping in the wind created in my wake. This continued until all the mobs were gone. It had taken less than a minute.

"What was that!?" I would swear later that Lisbeth had stars in her eyes.

"Flash Step." I replied, "As f-far as I know it's a unique skill you unlock when your agility is high enough. I haven't seen anyone else use it, so it might be tied to my claws. Anyways, it allows me to basically teleport around short distances by straining my body to move extremely fast."

"Wow..." Lisbeth said in reply.

"Look out!" I blocked a bugbear's spear that was about to stab through her back, "We really should talk later when there aren't things trying to kill us!"

"R-right."

Lisbeth and I grinded experience for several hours till we went back to town at nightfall. She had already gained a level due to how fast the mobs were being killed. I knew her pace would slow down soon due to SAO's system that started reducing the exp of monsters once you had killed a certain amount. Still though, it was encouraging. The very last thing we did was get her some new equipment and get my drake leather armor repaired. Everything was right in the world for the first time in a long while. I went to sleep with no worries plaguing my mind.

Yeah I wasn't actually going to leave Lisbeth dead. I would feel like garbage. She'd never deserve that. In the end I had to decided between either her or Aurain dieing. I decided on Lisbeth in the end to make her character less of a damsel in distress than she had been so far. On the subject of Aurain's stats, he has exceedingly high agility, slightly below average strength (for his level) and normal health/defense, and low in everything else.

-Forscythe