Work Text
Heya! Quick character name reminder:
Rika = Lisbeth
Keiko = Silica
Suguha = Leafa
Shino = Sinon
Asuna = well, Asuna
Tsuboi = Klein
Andrew = Agil
Kazuto = KiritoAlright I'll shut up now. Have a 3 weeks in the making 5 am oneshot. Summer in Japan was relentless. Temperatures could range from 84 degrees Fahrenheit to about 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Even sitting in Andrew’s bar, everyone was still moping around, groggy and sweaty from the heat beating down on them. If anyone dared to make a sudden movement, they risked setting the whole place on fire. Klein was sitting on a barstool at the front counter with his chin resting on the table, nursing a now-melted iced beer and chatting idly with Andrew about a blacksmithing quest in ALO. Kazuto sat conversing with Shino and Suguha. Asuna was sitting noticeably quite far away from Kazuto with her back turned to him, talking to Keiko and Rika about school while sipping on an iced tea. As the crew was slow-cooked in their own skins, the conversation slowly quieted, until Rika sat up with a haughty sigh.“Jeez you guys, it’s so hot in here; we can’t just keep sitting around and moping! Let’s do something!”Everyone turned their head to look at Rika. Kazuto propped his head up on his elbow and gazed tiredly at Rika. “Well, got any bright ideas? The beach is closed down because some oil ship rolled over, and the nearest pool isn’t very near, to say the least.”“Well,” Rika groaned, “there goes swimming. Anyone else?”“Maybe… maybe we could just do something inside where there’s air conditioning,” Keiko chimed in. Tsuboi scratched his head, and added “well, since we’re all getting into GGO now, maybe we could try doing something like laser tag? I know a place with AC nearby the guys and I went to a while back if you guys are down…”The room fell silent for a couple of seconds, and as Tsuboi began to sullenly dismiss his idea, the room slowly fell into a consensus. Andrew went into the back and alerted his wife of his departure, and within a couple of minutes, everyone sauntered to the nearest train station and headed off to another area of the city. On the train ride there, the mugginess of the air was laced with tension between Kazuto and Asuna. Picking up on this, Shino gently took Kazuto’s hand, who was standing, and gestured for him to follow her to another part of the train car.“What’s with you and Asuna now? It seems like both of you wouldn’t hesitate to throw the other out of this train if you could.”“I, we…” Kazuto sighed. “We broke up a little bit ago. We’re both still a little peeved.”Shino raised an eyebrow at him.“Okay fine, a lot peeved.”“It wasn’t pretty, was it?”Kazuto shook his head. “That’s the understatement of the century. It was a pretty heated fight. Things were said that aren’t meant for virgin ears,” Kazuto said as his voice began to waver.Shino grimaced and decided that it was best not to pursue further.. “I’m sorry, Kazu. Well, if there’s anything I can do to help, I’m right here,” Shino ended, squeezing his hand, smiling, and returning to her spot with Kazuto trailing behind her. I know I should feel bad, but this is my chance! Shino felt her heart leap a little bit, then she facepalmed in frustration. What kind of a friend am I? I should be helping him, not trying to get into his pants! Shino shook her head and dismissed the thought, deciding to worry about it later. From across the aisle, Andrew watched as this internal exchange happened and chuckled to himself. Young love. So beautiful, yet it'll kill ya. The rest of the ride was filled with quiet, idle banter as the train came to a halt and everyone stepped outside into a wall of heat and descended into the catacombs of the train station.The group finished shuffling their way through the hoards of people transiting to and from work and entered the outside world, with Tsuboi leading the way. Shino stole occasional glances towards Kazuto, noting the forlorn yet mildly angry expression on his face. Something inside of her itched to do something, anything. She wanted to slide her arms under his and pull him into a protective embrace, reassuring him that things were going to pass. An embrace that would open up a once dammed river, with her feelings for him washing away any any aches, burns and gashes. She wanted to bury her face in his chest, feeling his beaten, battered and torn soul pumping stoically away. She wanted to be close to him like during the BoB, but this time, she would be the one protecting him. Most of all, however, she wanted to feel his lips on hers, to feel for the first time what it felt like to show someone how much you truly care about someone. She pinched herself, reminding her that he’s still hurt and needs time to get over Asuna. Or maybe not. Maybe he still wants to date her. Maybe they’d get back together. Maybe they’d- Pinching herself a second time, Shino grumbled and shook her head to clear her thoughts, eliciting a raised eyebrow from Rika, who took a breath to say something, but decided against it. Once the group finally stepped inside the building, cool air washed over the group and immediately caused everyone to exhale loudly, wiping away the sweat beaded on their faces. With everyone perked up, Tsuboi spun around on his heel and put his hands on his hips, grinning.“Alright, we’re here! I’m gonna go pay for the group, and then we’ll organize into teams. Once that happens, the staff will take us to the prep room where we’ll gear up and stuff.”Everyone nodded assent and a garbled ‘thanks’ came from the group, and then they began shuffling down the lobby. Looking around, the lobby was quite dark in comparison to outside. There were lights in the floor placed along the walls with dim mood lights hanging from the ceiling. Following the lit pathway to the front desk, Shino heard the sounds of young children playing arcade games that peppered the second half of the lobby and saw a couple of bored parents sitting on nearby benches, tapping away at their phones or talking amongst themselves. She continued with the group until everyone stopped at the gear room. There were two arenas available, one big and one small. Since their group only consisted of 8 people, they opted for the smaller arena.They milled around outside of the gear room trying to divide themselves into teams. Being conjoined at the hip, Rika and Keiko opted to join Asuna. Andrew, Tsuboi and Suguha were quite riled up and the three stuck together, leaving Kazuto and Shino on their own. Shino decided it’d be best if she save Kazuto some pain, so she moved herself over to Asuna’s team, and Kazuto retreated to Andrew’s team, throwing an unspoken ‘thanks’ over his shoulder to Shino, who gave him a small smile in response.“Alright, teams are set, let’s head in!”Tsuboi’s voice cut through the talking, and everyone began filing into their respective rooms. As Kazuto followed Suguha into their team room, his eyes followed Asuna into their room, dropping a rock onto his stomach at the recent memory of their breakup. It was mutual, for the most part, but someone said something under their breath (neither Kazuto or Asuna would admit that it was them) and things got heated. One thing led to a slap, and Kazuto had stormed out of Asuna’s living room, cheek stinging and tears carving ravines into his face.In trying to shift his attention away from Asuna, Kazuto caught sight of Shino beginning to walk into her team room. He saw her small, yet somewhat fit petite frame, her slightly too large blue-striped tee-shirt that was hanging off her shoulder, her short, brown hair with bangs that framed her face like a painting, and her glasses over her smiling dark-oak eyes as she shot a retort at Rika (who had made a lewd comment). He also saw another worn soul, a kindred spirit for him. She and him had gone through traumatic events in their lives, and they had helped each other learn how to cope with their past. He saw someone who learned to accept her past, move on, and grow. He saw someone who desired strength, but then found it inside of herself, like a small bird learning how to fly. Once she had learned to spread her wings, Kazuto watched her become one of the most compassionate, most caring, and strongest woman and person he had ever met, second only to his own aunt. Looking at her now and seeing how far she has come brought a smile to his face. He gazed at the last glimpses of her eyes before both of them disappeared into their rooms. Before he had realized it, the corners of his mouth had been upturned into a pleasant smile, and a sudden surge of warmth spread throughout his chest, out his arms, and down to his feet. The warmth faded into a soft tingling sensation, sending a not-unpleasant shiver down his spine. It invigorated him; he had never felt anything like it before. Before he could pinpoint the source of the feeling, however, the guy running their session droned on about the rules, their equipment, and gave them information on their time slot in the arena.After watching an instructional video, suiting up and turning on their holo-projection armor, they were herded onto the playing field and shown how to respawn and start up their guns. The playing field wasn't too big, but it wasn't too small, either. It was about the size of the average apartment, if not bigger. Placed symmetrically about the room were tall support pillars covered in a ribbed plastic shell with a foam mat surrounding it. In between them were small obstacles that could be manipulated to be additional cover as they needed it. At either side of the room were metal grate stairs leading to a second, metal grate floor, with a similar layout. The room was dim, with the same lobby floor lights outlining the walls and some of the pillars. Both teams stood at their respective respawn consoles, ready to go, to which employee disappeared into the employee room, sounded the buzzer, and thus began the 4-minute team-shootout. The room quickly erupted with the patter of feet hitting the ground, shouts and taunts hurled across alleyways and over barriers, and laughter as people were sent back to the respawn post. Tsuboi's voice most prominently cut through the rest of the chaos, as the all-girls team decided to gang up on him, and he was send grumbling back to base.From around the corner of a pillar, Shino heard a loud thump, plastic hitting the floor, and a male and female voice spitting verbal insults at each other. Peering around the corner, Shino saw Asuna's heels as she rounded a corner, and Kazuto ducking around a pillar, grumbling to himself, looking aggravated. Her stomach swirled with indecision, which was interrupted by a gentle nudge from behind her. Spinning around, she saw the large figure of Andrew looming at her. She began to recoil to shoot, but Andrew wordlessly put both of his hands up, nodded towards Kazuto's position, and then winked at her. She turned back around to check if Kazuto's was still there, and when she turned back, Andrew was gone, like an anime mentor giving the main character advice and then disappearing into thin air. In reality, Andrew had simply just dove behind a corner out of Shino's line of sight. She saw Andrew's heels disappear behind a pillar, and decided that there was no use arguing now. Before her mind could decide otherwise, she forced her feet to move out of cover towards Kazuto's hiding place.Aiming around the corner of his pillar, Kazuto fired a few shots from his laser gun at Keiko, who had dodged behind a pillar last second. He continued looking around the corner for potential targets until he felt a light tap on his back. Kazuto spun around and saw Shino. Before he could react and shoot her, his senses were barraged with something he never expected from anyone, nor did he expect to want more of. He felt a gentle pressure on his lips, accompanied by a soft and pillowy texture. He registered a sweet, but faint strawberry essence, and that's where his brain went into a state of blankness, like a Windows shutdown sequence. He was encapsulated again by the surge of warmth emanating from his chest, and all other stimuli went into one ear and out the other. Across his shoulders, he felt a pair of arms pull him in tighter, and he subconsciously returned the gesture, wrapping his arms around Shino's waist, hoping to preserve the warmth in his body. He felt his entire body start to sink into Shino's, and pulled her even tighter. His stomach began doing a circus act, with the grand finale being fireworks upon his skin. They drew back and separated, all too soon. They gazed into each other's eyes with desire scrawled onto their pupils, then Kazuto took a breath and began talking.“I, uh, don't-” He was cut short by a finger on his lips, followed by a “shh” and a flirtatious, yet devious all the same, wink. He drank in her scent, a tincture of a fading floral shampoo mixed in with the musk of effort spent running around. He drank in the feeling of the warmth of her breathing on his skin, as it spread and dissapated with each new breath. He imprinted upon his mind the feeling of her body pressed up against his, chiseling the spark of electricity between them into the stone archives of his mind. Why did he want more? He had just broke up with Asuna, and he's moving on this quickly? The girl he had loved since SAO and been with since, whom he had left behind in a flurry of tears and latent wounds. The girl that stayed with him all through SAO, all through the Death Gun incident, and all through his coma. Why was he so ready to throw away his feelings? His guilty conscience was interrupted as he heard a single digitized blaster shot, and his headset spoke at him as Shino ran away, smiling and laughing over her shoulder.“You're dead! Go respawn!”