Chapter notes: Some dialogue is *ahem* borrowed from the first episode of Sword Art Online, and as such is not mine. Also, I didn't edit this extensively like I usually do because I just wanted to get to the next part of this goddamn fic.

"Shouldn't Kagami and Tetsu have contacted us by now?"

It was late afternoon – the beginnings of the sunset caused the sky to take on an orange hue. Daiki was glaring at the menu, waiting for the contact that hadn't come.

"They're probably just held up, or they found a court to play on while heading home, Aominecchi," Kise replied, smiling. "They'll come, I'm sure."

They'd sat down just a bit outside the Town of Beginnings. It was just past the time when Tetsu and Kagami had been scheduled to come and join them, but they were nowhere to be found.

And then bells were ringing, deafeningly loud from the town, and for the second time that day, Daiki found himself surrounded in blue light. When it receded again, he found himself standing next to Kise in the large, circular square in which he'd begun this little endeavour, and they weren't the only ones there. It seemed as if the entire population of the game was there, standing around the enormous clock, and no one knew what was going on until—

"Up there!" someone said, and everyone looked up. A red shape was blinking, and then it expanded, and they alternately said 'WARNING' and 'System Announcement'.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Daiki muttered to Kise, who nodded slowly.

The square and all the players were bathed in red light as the squares filled out the sky. And then, what looked like a thick red soupy liquid dripped from between the tiles and congealed into an enormous, robed person. Their face was hidden in the hood, which only served to make Daiki feel even more uneasy.

Whispers began around them, before the enormous figure finally began to speak.

"Attention, players," the hooded figure began as it extended its arms. "Welcome to my world. My name is Kayaba Akihiko. As of this moment, I am the sole person who can control this world."

"That... doesn't sound good," Kise whispered. There was a nervous look on his still frustratingly unfamiliar face. Daiki couldn't help but agree, and nodded. Around them, people were whispering again.

"I'm sure you've already noticed that the logout button is missing from the main menu," the spectre continued. Daiki felt shock punch through him, and looked at Kise again, who'd brought up his menu, and nodded at Daiki in confirmation, his face pale.

"But this is not a defect in the game. I repeat; this is not a defect in the game. It is a feature of Sword Art Online."

"This isn't real," Daiki heard Kise joining the whispers the rustled through the crowd. "It's not possible..."

"You cannot log out of SAO yourselves," Kayaba continued. "And no one on the outside can shut down or remove the NerveGear. Should this be attempted, the transmitter inside the NerveGear will emit a powerful microwave, destroying your brain and thus ending your life."

This time, Daiki and Kise traded worried looks.

"I'm sure Satsuki will be all over this," Daiki tried to reassure Kise, but his tone came out sounding nervous. He knew she wouldn't let anyone accidentally kill them, but it was still kind of terrifying to know that his and Kise's continued existence relied on her making sure that no one tried to take off the things on their heads...

A pair of players tried to leave the square as protests about the accuracy of this claim echoed around the crowd. They were stopped by an invisible barrier. Kise was beginning to take on a stricken look.

"Unfortunately," the looming figure continued, "several players' friends and families have ignored this warning, and have attempted to remove the NerveGear. As a result, two hundred and thirteen players are gone forever, from both Aincrad and the real world."

Kise was shaking. Daiki just felt numb.

"As you can see," Kayaba continued, as internet pages popped up around his figure, "news organisations across the world are reporting all of this, including the deaths. Thus, you can assume that the danger of a NerveGear being removed is now minimal. I hope you will relax and attempt to clear the game. But I want you to remember this clearly."

This was obviously a last and worst kind of announcement. Daiki braced himself.

"There is no longer any method to revive someone within the game. If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be forever lost. And simultaneously, the NerveGear will destroy your brain."

Daiki had braced himself, but he still felt his stomach bottom out with the information. Kise was still shaking – Daiki reached out a tentative hand and gripped his wrist in the same way Kise had grabbed his arm in excitement earlier. Kise's skin was warm beneath the parts of his fingers not covered by gloves. The contact seemed to calm Kise slightly, for which Daiki was thankful. They'd both need their wits about them if they wanted to survive. And they would. Daiki had absolutely no intention of dying because of this twisted psychopath.

"There is only one means of escape. To complete the game. You are presently on the lowest floor of Aincrad, Floor 1. If you make your way through the dungeon and defeat the Floor Boss, you may advance to the next level. Defeat the final boss on Floor 100, and you will clear the game."

Outrage sounded from the players around them. Someone shouted that the beta testers had never made it even nearly as far as Floor 100. Daiki steeled himself; and Kise seemed to be rallying beside him, because he'd stopped shaking.

"Finally, I've added a present from me to your item storage. Please see for yourselves."

Around them, everyone opened up their menus to check out the item. Daiki followed suit, taking his hand from Kise's wrist.

"A mirror?" he heard someone comment. He looked over at Kise, who had already taken it out. Daiki took it out too.

The players around them were then engulfed with light – and Kise was too, and then Daiki – and the entire square flashed bright and when it receded, Daiki was looking at the mirror again and that was his actual face.

He looked at Kise; and that was the familiar face of his friend, and it relieved him almost as much as it alarmed him to see it.

"Aominecchi," Kise whispered, staring at his face. "Aominecchi, that's my face."

"Yeah," Daiki answered. He felt so useless.

"People are going to recognise me," Kise added.

"Shit." That was going to suck. Daiki hadn't thought about the fact that no one had approached them while they were playing, to talk to the idol Kise-kun, but now he remembered, oh yeah, Kise's kind of famous and all these people are going to recognise him from the advertisements.

"You better get your best sparkle on," Daiki told him, "and hope that no one thinks you were in on this shit."

Kise closed his eyes and repeated Daiki's curse.

They were interrupted from their realisations when Kayaba began to speak again.

"Right now, you're probably wondering, 'Why?'. Why would Kayaba Akihiko, developer of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear, do all this? My goal has already been achieved. I created Sword Art Online for one reason. To create this world and intervene in it. And now, it is complete. This ends the tutorial for the official Sword Art Online launch. Good luck, players."

As quickly as it had come together, the spectre fell apart, slipping back into the cracks between the 'WARNING' and 'System Announcement' tiles, until there was nothing left of the enormous red robed figure that had dominated the square just moments ago.

Many of the players around them seemed to have gone into shock; Daiki himself found he was frozen in place, until the high pitched scream of a little girl echoed out from the masses – and then the people surged, yelling to be freed.

Daiki felt Kise grab his wrist again, and let himself be pulled. They weaved their way out from the shouting crowd.

"Aominecchi, we can't stay here," Kise said breathlessly when they'd cleared the square. "Kurokocchi and Kagamicchi probably aren't here. We need to go out. Ten thousand people are here. I don't play a lot of games, but I don't imagine that we can all safely level up and move along the game from here."

In response, Daiki shook his head. "I don't play a lot of games either," he said, "but yeah, you're right. There's not enough monster spawns for all ten thousand players around here."

"We've been working all afternoon. Together, we should be able to move along to safety. What do you think?"

"We're not going to die," Daiki said. It prompted a smile from Kise that was thin and determined. He wasn't sure he'd ever seen his sunny friend make a face quite so grim.

"We're going to play basketball, right, Aominecchi?"

Daiki grinned; it felt as grim as Kise's smile had been. "Yeah. You're not allowed to die here."

"Because I haven't beaten you yet," Kise finished.

He turned on his heel, and began walking to the town exit. Daiki heard Kise's feet patter as he caught up, and let himself smile – that Kise would chase him and reach his side even here was comforting.

They didn't encounter much trouble from other players as they travelled through the first floor until everyone got stuck trying to find the boss room for the first floor. It was only then, when the town closest to the dungeon started to fill up with players that their problems started to arise.

To be fair, Kise did his best to stay hidden. Daiki gave him that much – whenever they were outside and near people, Kise donned a hooded cloak and kept his face hidden. They kept their heads down and worked hard to level up, but not draw attention to themselves. If a particular quest or spawn spot started to become too busy, they'd move somewhere else, in case of the possibility that Kise's hood would come off his face.

Hanging out with Kise had always carried the risk of the famous boy being noticed, and at home, Kise had taken it all in stride with a cheerful smile. This was just another reminder of where they were, and how vulnerable they were. Daiki knew that Kise, for all that they had promised they would make it out alive, was scared. His position as a public figure, especially within the game, since he was well known by players for his work on the advertisements, made him a target for potential anger and retribution, even though Daiki had reasonably pointed out to Kise one afternoon that Kise wouldn't be stuck here if he'd known about the trap.

Kise smiled as he'd responded, but hadn't looked at Daiki when he spoke. "People who are angry and scared aren't that reasonable, Aominecchi."

Fuck, Daiki hated people.

It finally happened one afternoon. A group of players had called a meeting about finding and clearing the first floor boss room. Daiki and Kise had decided to use the opportunity to farm some of the areas that the higher level players had taken to clearing; it was empty, so they'd known most of them were intent on that boss room. Kise's hood had come down during the fight as they'd switched back and forth, and neither one of them had noticed that some players were coming up behind them until one of them spoke.

"Aren't you that guy from the advertisements?"

Kise's face had paled faster than Daiki had ever seen as they whirled to face the players. There was a dark look in a few of their faces. Daiki looked them and their equipment over. He was decent, but he wouldn't be able to take out all these guys if it came to a fight. Even factoring in Kise to the battle didn't give the pair of them good odds.

"Kise Ryouta, right?" added another one.

Daiki took a small step towards the group. "What's it to you?" he growled.

The first one – he must have been their leader – looked Daiki over. "You should get away from him," the boy advised him. The condescending manner almost made Daiki see red. He started, but Kise had an iron grip on his arm.

"Don't do something stupid Aominecchi," Kise murmured. Louder, he had added, "Yes, that's me."

"I wish I could kill you," said one of them. Daiki moved to place himself between Kise and the group, but Kise's grip was strong and wouldn't let him.

"I had nothing to do with this," Kise said. Daiki knew he was making a valiant attempt at sounding casual, but his grip was far too hard to be anything but nerves or fear. "I wouldn't be here if I'd known we'd all be trapped here."

"Two thousand people have died."

Daiki gritted his teeth. "If you're just going to be stupid, leave us alone," he snarled.

"Are you sucking up to him so he can get you out?" the leader asked. "Hiding yourself away, that's the mark of a guilty man."

Daiki freed himself from Kise's grip and threw a punch.

"Aominecchi!" Kise's stricken cry couldn't pull Daiki from his rage.

"Fuck you, fuck all of you, I'm not friends with him for any kind of superficial reason like that you ugly bastard, not that a worthless piece of shit like you could ever understand—"

"AOMINE!"

Kise wrestled him out from the group that had descended upon him. No one had drawn swords or engaged any skills – no one had lost any health. Daiki could feel his cheeks burning, but remained unrepentant about his actions.

"I won't let them treat you like this Kise," he told him, "I won't, you're trapped here in this death game same as me, same as them, and I'm not going to let some mob get its hands on you and kill you before we get to play basketball again."

Kise sighed. "I'm very sorry my friend hit you," he said to the group. "Please excuse us."

He strode past them – not one of them moved to follow. Daiki snorted, and then went to follow Kise.

"You can't solve this kind of problem with violence, Aominecchi," Kise said. He didn't look back as he said it.

"You can't solve it by hiding, either," Daiki argued, "but that's what you've been doing."

"Timing is important," Kise snapped. "I've been trying to wait for a better time."

"It's not going to get better. People are going to be angry and scared until the day we clear this game, which, by the looks of it, will take a very long time."

Kise sighed. "Aominecchi, of the two of us, who, exactly, has been managing a career that involves being in the public eye for more than four years now? Because I was pretty sure it was me." He turned around – his face was drawn tight with a frustrated frown and pursed lips. "It's not that I'm not thankful to have your support. I am. But I know what I'm doing the same way you know what you're doing on a basketball court, so I would thank you to remember that I actually know what I'm doing!"

Daiki blinked. Sometimes, it was easy to forget that beneath the cheerful smile and playful attitude, Kise was in fact both serious and sharp, especially when it was required from him.

Kise took a deep, calming breath and closed his eyes. "Aominecchi, I would never tell you how to play basketball. Please have the same respect for my field of expertise."

Daiki almost asked, which one; but felt that the joking tone wasn't suited to the request. Kise was being fair – Daiki would probably have been beyond furious if Kise had ever tried to make like he knew more about basketball than he did – and so, he really should swallow his pride and apologise.

"Whatever, fine," was all that he said.

Kise let out a breath, and turned around, pulling the hood back up over his head.

"We should go," he said, and began walking again.

Daiki kicked at the ground as he followed behind, feeling rather too ashamed of himself and his damn pride to walk beside Kise.

As it turned out, though, Kise was right. Just the next afternoon, the players had broken through to the second floor, and everyone was talking about a "beater".

Mixed answers came back about what exactly happened in the boss chamber for the first floor dungeon, but the resounding image was that there was a player who was better than all the beta testers (who had already earned some ire from other players), and gone on to proclaim he was better than all of them.

"The monsters are stronger on this floor, don't you think, Aominecchi?" Kise asked after they finished a quest on the second floor a few days after they'd arrived. They'd both fallen into the yellow in their health bars; they were both still trying to figure out which kinds of styles they preferred with swords. Today, even with the amount of switching they'd done, they'd taken a few too many hits for comfort.

"Obviously," Daiki answered, rolling his eyes. "That's usually how this works."

"I don't think I like using spears," Kise said. "I guess it's just as well that I haven't put many points towards mastery of it."

"I think I like this one," Daiki replied. Yesterday he'd switched from the simple one-handed sword to a rapier, and he was finding that he preferred the agility and speed required in its use, as well as the damage output, in comparison to any of the other sword types he'd tried so far.

"It suits you," Kise agreed absently as he scrolled through his menu screen, deciding which weapon he wanted to use. "It's a bit like how you play basketball."

Daiki blinked. "What?"

Kise looked up. His cheeks were a little bit pink. "Well, if you think about it... it makes sense, right? You're the fastest basketball player, and you were the craziest scorer on a team with a guy who never missed a single three point shot. You're highly agile as well. The rapier – that's what you're using, right? The blade itself is relatively light, in comparison to the other kinds of swords, and good use involves being fast and dealing a lot of damage. If you think about it, doing damage is kind of like scoring baskets. So the way you move and the damage you do, it's a bit like... how you... play basketball."

Daiki almost wanted to say something that would embarrass Kise, like, you spend too much time thinking about the way I play basketball, but managed to hold his tongue. The flushed, uncomfortable look on Kise's face, and the way he'd faltered over the end of his sentence; this, after he'd actually indulged Daiki's curiosity about his absent-minded comment, in addition to the strain their friendship had been under after their first floor spat, warned him away from a teasing comment.

Instead he just shrugged. "Well, okay then."

Kise seemed glad that he wasn't making a fuss about it. "It's too bad that I can't really translate the way I play basketball into swordplay," he whined. "You have it so easy, Aominecchi."

They turned towards the direction of the town. The light of the day was slowly leaving – it was time to head back to the inn. Daiki turned the question of Kise's play and Kise's potential weapon set around in his mind.

Even here, Kise would probably never be able to sustain movement like his for longer than his time limit. The strain of copying was mental as well as physical, after all. Kise could probably use any weapon well, in all honesty, but he would never excel at rapier use the way he would.

"Maybe a defensive and offensive combination," he mumbled to himself. Kise loved scoring baskets, but he could be a fierce defender too. He had to have some aptitude for it in the first place to mimic Murasakibara. And it wasn't as if Kise had never given him reason to change his course during a one-on-one play.

"I'm sorry, what?"

Kise was looking at him. He'd finally stopped pondering over the menu. A quick once over told Daiki that Kise had fallen back on a simple one-handed sword. He hadn't hated that one, Daiki remembered.

"Maybe you need a shield to balance it," he said, feeling awkward. Okay, he was really glad he hadn't said anything before. Kise could be a very shameless person, and he'd struggled with this whole thing – Daiki didn't usually do this kind of crap, but it was Kise, and maybe the gesture could be a bit of an apology for the way he'd been a bit of an asshole the other day.

Kise made a humming noise as he turned the idea around in his head. Daiki looked up at the sky. It was a shame he didn't really have the time for napping. Not that he'd really thought much about napping recently. Every day was consumed with the fierce will to survive; the only sure way to survive was to get out. That meant being strong, and fighting with the other strong players to clear the game, and being strong enough to not get killed needlessly.

"I'll go get a shield tomorrow morning," Kise announced, breaking through his thoughts. "Since Aominecchi thinks it's a good idea."

"You have the Col for that?" Daiki asked.

Kise nodded. "I mean, I'm only getting a basic shield, it shouldn't cost too much. Ahhh, Aominecchi, these clothes make me want to cry."

This was a recurring complaint in the morning. Daiki couldn't help but agree with the sentiment, although not with its extremity. He would never admit it, especially not to Kise, but he actually did care what he looked like.

"Kise, shut up."

"These clothes don't make me look good at all," Kise continued, completely ignoring Daiki's order. Not that he really cared – there was something comforting about Kise's enduring vanity. "They're just so unflattering Aominecchi, how am I supposed to keep wearing this day in and day out?"

"Oh my god, you're such a little princess."

"Surely we aren't expected to wear this for the entire time we're stuck in this place."

"Kise."

"Aominecchi."

Thankfully, they were reaching the town, and soon he would be able to get away from Kise and go take a bath, and then they'd eat and sleep.

Daiki had been hesitant at first, but Kise had worn him down after the first few nights here. It was ridiculous, keeping two rooms at an inn when they could share and split room costs. Saving Col was another way to protect themselves; the less spent on things like lodgings, the more could be spent on weapons and armour.

That's what Daiki told himself, especially when Kise was at his most annoying. The idea of not doing what he could to protect Kise – the memory of his face in the square of the Town of Beginnings was burned into his brain – bothered him almost as much as Kise himself did. Even if they'd spent a lot of time together in junior high, they'd never spent this much consecutive time together, and Daiki felt it grating on his nerves. Kise could be a lot of work to spend time with because he was so exuberant. Besides those times when he went quiet (usually because he was thinking too much about the fact that they were trapped in a death game), he was energetic and excitable and it was so much effort.

Their living arrangements with shared lodgings meant there wasn't much time to be alone, either. Sometimes it was good, the way that you weren't alone, because it was at night when they weren't distracted by the task of fighting to survive that they remembered where they were and why and what the consequences were for failure, and just hearing the other person breathing in the room with you made it feel more bearable.

But it also sucked because Daiki liked being alone sometimes. Satsuki was good at knowing when he needed time to himself, and always let him have the time he needed. And even on the rare occasion that she didn't, he always had his room at home to himself.

Kise didn't understand that, he felt. Kise took his need for alone time too personally, and Daiki suspected that Kise found it difficult to keep his mind off their situation when he was left alone.

"Aominecchi, are you alright?"

Daiki was jerked from his thoughts by Kise's voice.

"Yeah," he grunted.

"It's just, you were about to walk past the inn."

He looked around. Oh.

"Just... thinking," he admitted. "I miss Satsuki."

It wasn't a lie. But it wasn't what he'd been thinking about. Kise nodded and put a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sure Momocchi misses you too," he said quietly. "I bet she's scared out of her wits."

"Satsuki's smarter than that," Daiki replied, but the thought niggled at him anyway. "She knows I'm too stubborn to die this easily."

Kise laughed and walked into the inn. Daiki paused for a moment to look at the sky.

"Satsuki, you'd be proud of me, sticking with Kise like this, I bet," he mumbled, before he went inside.

Kise was sitting at a table pondering over the inn's menu. Inn food wasn't great quality, since it was all pre-made NPC food, but it also wasn't exorbitantly expensive. He smiled when Daiki sat down across from him. Kise seemed to sense Daiki's thoughtful mood, and dinner was quieter than usual.

As they lay in their inn room, Daiki lay awake and listened to the sounds of Kise's breathing.

It's not real, he often thought, except that it sounded exactly the same as it did when they lay in the same room at Teikou training camps, and that was very real.

Even though Kise was driving him crazy, sharing the room at night made it easier to get through it. Daiki had never had trouble sleeping at night before (except after Tetsu and Kagami beat him), but there was something about being trapped in a game where the consequence for failure was death that made him feel restless. There was a constant thrum of adrenaline that had yet to settle, especially when the days were passed with battles, especially on days like today when health bars dropped lower than usual and we could die became suddenly less abstract.

He missed Satsuki and easy days spent napping at school and listening to Satsuki whine about the bitchiness of other girls. He missed the way she would complain about his uselessness but then go and help him out with things anyway.

She would be so much help here. With Satsuki by his side, there wasn't much the world could throw at him that he couldn't deal with. She'd see all the numbers and her brilliant mind and intuition would sort out the best styles for them to use and the best ways to level up and she'd keep a cool, calm head and get them the hell out of this.

He listened to Kise breathe, and the familiarity of it lulled him to sleep.

Kise ends up liking the shield. It works well for their combination, too – they can pull some good switches where Kise comes in with the shield after Daiki does a fast skill combination to catch the retributive attack. It's almost fun now, to go out questing and fighting. Daiki enjoys the adrenaline rush he gets from battle.

It's a bit like basketball. It's not quite as fun, and it's not what Daiki would consider to be an adequate replacement for basketball, but it's good. He gets the same kind of unstoppable feeling sometimes when he and Kise go out treasure hunting or questing.

Things between him and Kise are weird here. Sometimes it's a bit like Teikou, with the powerful feeling like nothing can ever beat them, and the spending time together and eating and teasing and shit, except that all the things that they did at Teikou are gone. And other days, Daiki wants to rip Kise's hair out because he's just so done with dealing with him and his melodrama day in and day out, and sometimes Kise looks at him like he wants to murder him too.

There's just too much history with them sometimes too, and Daiki's good at basketball and fighting and anything that doesn't involve thinking so much as feeling and going with his instincts, and he does, really, care about making sure Kise gets through this shit alive and intact, but he can't hug Kise like he hugs Satsuki when Kise goes quiet and takes on a painful look like he's not really sure they're going to make it out the other side of this nightmare.

Well, he probably could hug him, but it would be weird. He's decided that it would definitely be weird. It's weird that he's even thought about hugging Kise. Arms around necks are one thing. Hugs, like, proper hugs, that's another thing entirely.

They're on the nineteenth floor in January when Kise gets invited to party up with a group of strangers.

In hindsight, Daiki will think that it should have been surprising that it took so long for it to happen at all. They're not in the lead group clearing Floor 20, but they probably could be if they worked a little harder. They're strong – they have to be, since they're going around in a pair instead of a larger group. But at the time, it seemed pretty surprising. Even if Kise was wandering around without a hood, and getting along with people who decided that they might as well talk to the model, he'd never been outright asked to play with any of them.

"You're Kise Ryouta, right?"

It's how most of them start the conversation. Kise turned a bright, cheerful, model smile on anyone who approached him – usually girls, but occasionally guys. It was the same this time.

"You should party with us!" says one of the girls. She's got a cutesy shy smile thing going on. She has a girl friend with her, and they seem to have two boys tagging along too, who seem a bit annoyed by the fact that they weren't able to dissuade them from going up to Kise.

"Ah, that's really nice of you to offer," Kise said, smiling. "I'm partied up with Aominecchi, though."

The girls turned to look at him. "Oh," one of them started, "I didn't know you were like that."

"What the fuck," Daiki said, staring back at them. "What the fuck."

"Oh, no!" Kise had gone really red. "No, it's not like that, Aominecchi and I are just friends! We were teammates in junior high, it's not like that."

Daiki's brain feels like it's come to an abrupt, shuddering halt. "Do they think we're fucking or something?"

It's a pretty indelicate thing to say, Daiki will admit later. Kise looked stricken.

"They've just completely misunderstood," Kise was running his words together. Must be worried about his image. "We're not like that," he says again to the girls, "really."

"Just go with them," Daiki said. Kise has a reputation to maintain, and Daiki wasn't sure why this all of a sudden made him feel so annoyed. "We'll catch up later."

Daiki turned away and opened up the menu to leave the party that they'd set up. When he didn't hear footsteps, he looked up.

Kise was looking at him with an odd expression.

"What are you waiting for, Kise?" he asked. "Just go already."

"Alright," he said softly. "We'll catch up later, then."

He should go down a few floors and do a few quests he knows he can solo and shit, but with Kise had gone, his motivation all but evaporated. Daiki wandered around for a bit before finding a nice spot to lie down in. This floor had nice weather, even though it's supposed to be January.

He couldn't sleep though. He was consumed by thoughts about the assumption those girls jumped to.

Thinking back on the last few months, it all looks kind of suspicious, if he's honest with himself. They share an inn room, even now when they could probably easily afford to have separate rooms. They always party together, and other than the rare occasion when Kise is approached by someone who recognises him, they don't make much of an effort to get to know anyone. Daiki doesn't do it because he doesn't want to care about these people who are almost inevitably going to die. He has all the people he needs in his life at home. But it's weird that Kise hasn't been chatting up a storm. He's always been very sociable.

Maybe Kise feels obligated to stay with him?

Argh, this is all so annoying. Kise is annoying. Why do they stick together, anyway?

Daiki'll probably be better off without him. Kise's reputation won't get shot to shit if they split up either.

He doesn't care if these strangers think he's gay – they don't matter to him, and he'll never see them again. But what if, when they get out, someone says something about Kise?

Daiki closed his eyes. This was stupid. Kise was stupid.

He woke a few hours later, and stood with a groan. He'd woken because it was cooling down, the day reaching its end.

He hadn't sorted out what he was going to do about Kise, but that was okay.

When he arrived back at the inn room they were sharing, Kise was waiting for him, hands clasped loosely between his knees. He looked up as Daiki entered.

"Aominecchi."

"Kise."

It was awkward. That was even worse. They'd argued a few times, but for the most part it was about stupid shit and they settled it with a bit of a tussle, and that was that. They weren't awkward with each other. There was never any reason to be. They'd been teammates and rivals, friends and enemies. Kise'd seen him as a naive kid and a raging asshole.

"I think we should play separate for a while," Daiki said, breaking the extended silence between them.

Kise's lips thinned as he pressed them together, and he looked down at his hands.

"This is about earlier, isn't it?" he asked. His voice was low, but it sounded resigned more than angry.

Daiki rolled his eyes. "Kise."

"Yeah, okay," Kise said. He didn't look at Daiki as he spoke. "I'll... go get another room, okay?"

He got up and pushed past Daiki to leave, but paused in the doorframe.

"Don't be a stranger, Aominecchi, okay? I'd like for us to play together again sometime."

As he stepped out and left his vision, Daiki had the creeping feeling that somehow, there had been some kind of enormous misunderstanding between them, but he couldn't imagine what.

Please don't kill me, this chapter kicked my ass so hard. I hope it didn't suck as bad as I feel like it did.