I don't own or have any affiliation with Sword Art Online. I apologize for any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors that were made into the text. Big thanks for the suggestions from some of my friends.

Chapter 23:

Overnighters Part 1: Gaming Battlefield

Friday, August 24th, 2030 12:03 PM

Yumeko's parents had just dropped her off at Kazuto and Asuna's apartment. Clutching onto the handle of her suitcase, she settled it onto the soft mattress and sat next to it.

Click. The clips unclenched serving as an opening for the piece of luggage.

Asuna kindly smiles at the quiet child offering her to help unpack which the girl shyly declined.

Then the young woman told her that when she's ready, the girl can come out and enjoy some homemade treats that recently came out of the oven before exiting the room.

There were several keepsakes inside the suitcase aside from a toothbrush, clothes, personal tablet computer and summer homework. Yumeko couldn't recall the amount of times she had gone through the list of things to take with her, checking them over and over repeatedly, worrying not to forget a single item. A bundled quilt was placed on the bedsheet.

Unfolding it, revealing a bright pink minirature teddy bear with black eyes and nose and an old handmade red scarf.

Feeling relieved having not forgotten anything, Yumeko smoothed her small fingers around the heart-shaped recording pendant and the orange crest that was a piece of merchandise from a very old televised series which was given to the character with the most 'courage'. Yet the girl didn't understand why she had gotten to begin with but secretly wanted to find out the reason why.

A chill ran down her spine as a small knock was made on the other side of the closed door.

"C-come in." Yumeko shouted infirmly.

The door handle unhinged and a little squeak was heard as it widened. A smiling young man in his early twenties entered and crouched down some inches from her.

"It's been a long time since we met in person, Yumemi-chan." He stretched his hands forward.

The kindergartener reciprocated by lowering her head and muttering a simple 'hello' instead.

Shifting his eyes to his right, Kazuto noticed the keepsakes sitting beside her, especially the palm sized bear he and Suguha bought the evening before the child was unexpectedly born.

Next, he moved his black irises over to the two pendants attached to the thin gold chin around her neck.

He and Rinko have been emailing each other back and forth since the two people met. It was only recently that he began to address his niece by real given name, at least in a private electronic form, saying that he felt it was in a way, lying to himself by calling the young one by a nickname that bare absolute no resembalance to the name written on the birth certificate, no matter how special the petname was to him, which at times did not feel right at times.

"You have a lot of things with you. Do you always keep them close?" His voice was calm.

Yumeko gave a minor nod.

"May I ask why?"

"When people give you beautiful gifts like these, that means they put in a lot of thought and hard work to give it to you, since they put in a piece of their soul into it."

Kazuto took a compendious moment to execute a modest smile. "Did you come up with that all on your own?"

Yumeko simply moved her head one side to the next, telling that her 'friend' did.

Hearing that made Kazuto's eyes widen for a second. In the latest email, Rinko mentioned that her daughter had once told her that a so-called friend said that keeping gifts is in a way keeping a part of one's soul alive. The email also said that his niece has no physical friends in school, according to the words of the teaching staff. On the other hand, the troubling electronic letter ended on a cheerier note informing him that the little girl can engage in very good conversations, has a big sweet tooth, a helpful cleaner and a bookworm with a budding interest in computers and cooking.

Kazuto sighed streching his hand out again telling her that Asuna ordered him to tell Yumeko that the cookies and brownies have cooled off, and wouldn't taste good enough if left cold and hard.

Not wanting to hurt Asuna's feelings, Yumeko simply got up and walked out the door.

The brownies had bits of strawberry and vanilla wafers while the medium-sized biscuits contained chocolate chips, walnuts, dried strawberries and small bits of caramel.

Much to Asuna's delightful joy, the child are one of each treat and drank all the milk in the glass. Meanwhile, Kazuto had double her amount with his tea, commenting on how a majority of calories he burns while thinking at work pay off in the long run to enjoy more of his beautiful fiancé's wonderful cooking.

"Hey Yumemi-chan, do you want to play a game?" Kazuto was holding an old white game console and two white remotes with leather straps hanging out.

Looking at the many years old gaming equipment, the five-year-old accepted the fun-looking offer.

They decided to play different kinds of sports by waving the remote in certain motions to get the avatars on the screen to move.

"You beat me. Good...game." Yumeko frowned and her eyes began to water, as Kazuto was rubbing his shoulder.

Asuna came in the living room and placed the tray of cold drinks on the coffee table.

Yumeko ran to her aunt's leg and grabbed onto the apron. Asuna slowly climbed down to her knees and rubbed her niece's soft hair, trying not to ruin the red ribbon with the small golden bells on it. "Uncle's a little mean, isn't he?"

"The real world is even meaner." Kazuto declared and took one of the glasses.

Asuna looked her fiance unamused and back to her niece. "You want to help me make lunch?"

The girl nodded in acceptance.

"Don't go near the knives, you'll get cut and loose all the blood in your body." Kazuto said in an eerie tone.

Yumeko dug in her deep into the woman's apron once more.

"Stop scaring her." Asuna grunted.

"It can't be helped. It's my job as an uncle."

She narrowed her hazel eyes. "You're just lucky she's in the room."

After having their lunch, Asuna spent some time helping the young elementary school student with some of her summer homework.

When Yumeko was left alone sitting on the couch while Kazuto came in with a stack of boxes in his hands.

Being distracted from the imagery Yumeko's attention was transferred from the small tablet screen and read the board game names. Checkers, chess and Go.

Kazuto apologized for his unfairness from earlier and offered the girl to choose which game they should play instead.

The order went from her favourite game Go, then checkers and decided to move onto chess.

After being defeated by her in each game, the 21-year-old recent university graduate challenged the child to a very old video game in which the player must repeatedly slide a two-dimensional rectangular bar up and down the screen to earn points. The match resulted in five games going to Yumeko, and the remaining two were entitled to Kazuto.

The computer enthusiast cringed when he heard the words 'king me' or 'checkmate', his hands clammed as many of his pieces were taken by her fleet of white stones skated around the light brown board. Sighed in defeat when he saw only a single from winning the casual game of strategy and observation.

When onee-sensei and Klein, mentioned she was this good, I should have taken them more seriously. However, Kazuto felt proud of the girl's determination and stamina for her age.

Yumeko let out a yawn and looked as if she was going to collapse right there as her eyes were filled with drowsiness.

He picks her up and completes her request to get the quilt.

The small body nestles into the sofa after removing the necklace and her glasses, yawning again as Kazuto glided his hand up and down her back.

She closed her eyes.

The adult fondly smiles as he reminises the day when all of the then high school students decided to look after her by themselves.

He was alone with her for forty-five mintues before Asuna made it to the apartment.

At first he was a little nervous before finding out he was going to be alone with the colicky infant, but managed well when she broke out screaming three times.

The third time, Kazuto realized it was a nightmare, as she flailed her arms and kicked mostly with her left foot, the screeching made his ear drums start to hurt. Not wanting to see her go on, the teenager swaddled her again and began to smooth her hair, whispering and shushing continously for several mintues.

It was one of the only times he really felt like a good uncle, but that was before he unexpectedly helped the infant give her very first smile that day, the important milestone moved him to happy tears. He had finally forgiven himself for not going to the hospital very often after the day of her birth.

The total of his visitation days was three.

The day of her birth. When he saw his newly operated sisterly mentor and his friends, the psychical description the boy gave that night was from a medical paper on a clipboard that was noticeably still wet with black ink and not from his own eyes as the teenager wasn't able to look at the fragile, palm-sized, miniature figure in the clear plastic incubator that had wires and tubes attached to its paper thin skin. He couldn't watch her suffer. After reaching his bed, he barely slept after silently crying for more than half the night.

The second time was the very next day with his friends came back to Rinko's room to celebrate the 'belated baby shower'.

The third, when he promised Rinko to keep the two certain secrets between them. He still has the piece of paper that his niece's birth certificate name was written on, for some reason unable to get rid of it or write a duplicate.

A vibration was felt in his pocket. It was the alarm he had set to go off after twenty-five minutes.

He poked the peaceful face to wake her up.

"Hey what are you reading nerd?" Kazuto teased.

"It's...my favourite book." Yumeko quietly hinted.

"What's it about?" He leaned over to get a closer look, but the child laid it on the table and covered the opened pages by moving her face towards the text.

"Push yourself any closer, and you'll going to need glasses." He jested.

"I'm reading them and you know it." She replied annoyed cleaning the lenses of her red squared eyesight spectacles.

"Stop teasing her, and help me with the table Kirito-kun." Asuna was taking off her apron.

"I can't help it when she keeps it going." He shrugged.

After the everything was set, the three sat down with their plates.

"So sweetie, what were you just reading?" The strawberry blonde poured a drink for their guest.

"My new favourite book, oba-san." Yumeko showed a half-smile.

"Favourite?" Asuna asked.

Yumeko nodded. "It's non-fictional." She hinted.

Asuna began to think.

Kauzto laughed. "Wow, you really are a nerd. The only non-fictional stuff I ever read is work."

"So who wrote it honey?" Asuna questioned.

Yumeko looked down at her feet. "One of my favourite writers." Her voice was quiet.

"I see."

The girl got up from her chair and brought back the leatherbound book. "I'm...sure you may have seen it before." She placed it left of Asuna's plate, but the child's hand cover the title. "It's about love."

Asuna instinctly patted the small cold hand with her warm one.

"What kind of love?" Kazuto sounded concerned.

"A...strong one." Her voice remained soft and quiet. She brushed her hand away from the cover's title.

Asuna's hazel eyes widened.

Kazuto instantly stood beside his fiance's right side.

A Mother's Strength was the engraved feature title.

They both stood quiet, unsure of how to react or respond.

"Where did you get this?" Asuna turned to her.

"I took it from her study before we left..." Yumeko looked down.

A tear came down her face. "I'm sorry. I didn't know I got Mama sick. I didn't know I was born early. I know I'm a bad girl." Her words were still clear under the bluddering tone as she choked on the tears and dove into Asuna's arms.

"You have it all wrong sweetheart. We're all very proud. Our Himeko-chan is a very wonderful person." Asuna rubbed her back and gently pushed the girl in front of her.

"She's right. You're strong, brave, loyal and very smart. Knowing someone like you is a lifetime blessing." Kazuto brushed the tears of the small face.

"How about I make you a big cup of hot cocoa. With big marshmallows, chocolated shavings and whipped cream." Asuna's hand smooth the very dark grey hair.

Yumeko sniffled. "With wafers and chocolate syrup too?"

Asuna nodded and turned on the cooling stove burner.

"I'll go get the stuff right now. Oh yeah, I should add cookies on the list too." Kazuto went into the coat closet.

"Don't take too long Kirito-kun!" His finace shouted.

"I'll be back in 20 minutes." He swiped his phone and keys.

Closing the door behind him, he drooped his head and leaned his back onto the wooden door. Thank god, it was only pregnancy one.

Yumeko tapped on Asuna's leg. "I'm going to finish dinner now. You put in a lot of effort, and Mama and Papa said it's bad to waste food."

She sat back in her seat, wondering if the main reason her aunts and uncles love her because of the conditions of her birth.

The three sat down to watch to a scary movie.

Asuna had her warm arms surrounding her niece.

Kazuto seemed to be taking pleasure into observing the events on the television screen.

Deciding she had enough spookiness for one night and tired from how her day went, the young woman got up.

However Yumeko decided to stay in the living area and 'complete the quest for the both of them'.

"Good luck Himeko-chan. You're so heroic." She kissed her forehead.

Yumeko subsituted her aunt's arms with a pillow cushion.

"Yumemi-chan if you want, I can change it to something else." Kazuto patted her head.

"I like scary movies."

"But why did you look scare when Asuna was holding you?"

"I thought if I'd fake cry, you'd get in trouble with as payback for earlier, but the time didn't come."

Kazuto raised his eyebrows. "You little..."

"Genius." She finished his statement.

Smirking at the comment, he messes up her long, straight, brushed hair.

A booming sound was followed by a white flash and heavy raindrops.

The girl covered her ears and into a sobbing, shaking curled up ball.

The thunder continued to roar and lightning flash.

The girls sobbing turned into tears glistening down her face.

When the noise returned, Yumeko laid her forehead onto Kazuto's leg.

He smoothed her back until the shaking stopped and her covered her with the quilt.

"Mama." She whimpered.

Kazuto reaches over his phone and texts Asuna to come outside.

Asuna used to have her own fear of thunder, but fortunately was able to confront and overcome it.

Asuna slowly reached for the pendant and pressed the emerald button, putting the speaker near Yumeko's right ear as Kazuto massaged her earlobes. Something he hasn't done in many years.

A while later the thundestorm seemed to have subsided.

Asuna carried her into the spare room as the clock showed it was nearly 10:30 PM.

The 22-year-old woman laid her long, pink night gown on queen sized bed.

"Hey, are you still bothered from before?" Her finace laid next to her in his typical black sleepwear.

She silently nodded.

"Thankfully it was just the pregnancy one. If it was the hospital one..." Kazuto paused and took a deep breathe.

She cuddled closer to him brigding the tiny space between them. "Kirito-kun, do you remember that horrible fever she had after getting discharged?"

His fingers interlocked with hers. "It happened three days after. It was really scary, almost fatal too. She wasn't moving for hours."

"Onee-san didn't eat or sleep at all, it took Himeko-chan two days before she could leave. We didn't even know that was only the beginning of her...other problems." Asuna's voice went a little quiet.

"Remember when she started walking, and the way onee-sensei looked?" Kazuto reached to turn off the table lamp next to him.

"I don't know about her, but I do recall seeing the faces of four certain males on film." She soon-to-be-bride chuckled.

"It was the because of the look she gave when she fell down on her face." Kazuto sounded a little defensive.

"Yeah, but she wasn't the one crying." The woman gave a smug face.

"Those weren't tears, they were liquid pride." He grumbled.

"We should take her take to the mall tomorrow. There's a bookstore she might like." Asuna suggested and snuggled into his chest.

"Is something else bothering you?"

She sighed. "When I tucked her in, she thanked me for making her feel a little less lonely, since she doesn't really have any friends at school."

"She's a little kid, there's still a little more time to make some. Did she tell you why?" He wrapped his arm around her waist.

"I didn't want to ask, she already cried once tonight."

A loud thunder clap was heard and lightning bolt flashed through the couple's room window.

Moments later, a sharp, fast knocking was coming from the other side of the door.

The woman got up and a small body wrapped around hers instantly.

"Can I sleep with you?" The chidlish voice was frightened.

"Come on in." Kazuto made some extra room on the bed. When the girl came in to the mattress he kissed her head, telling her that the storm's only temperoray.

The child snuggled into Asuna's upper body like a kitten. "I love you, oba-san. Good night." Yumeko chimed.

"What about me?" Kazuto patted her back.

"I'll think about it." She giggled.

"I gave you the better nickname." He sighed.

Asuna put her finger on her lips. "She's been helping me all day." She whispered.

Kazuto sighed again and laid back down. "Good night."

Asuna's "fear of thunder" is a reference to momoxtoshiro's SAO fanfic "Waking Up To You" (and was used with her permission). Thank you very much for reading. Leave a review if you want!