Asuna (jeeeez finally I know!)
Something was wrong with Kirito. I knew that much immediately. Ever since we opened the portal and he went off by himself he has been acting weird, like he's trying to avoid me. But I play along, acting like myself as much as possible. It's the only way I can work out what's happened to change him.
I met with my sister, during lunch. She seemed as bored as ever. I can admit that I'm worried about her, especially when she said that she might get fired from her work. If Scarlett loses her job then she may end up living on the streets, and a member of the Yuuki family homeless....it would ruin the reputation...
As Kazuto pulled up in front of the Dicey Café, I thought over the advice she had given me about him. 'Boys are creatures of habit. They can be useful, fun to have around and good partners, and you will forgive them as soon as they wrong. But the minute you make even the tiniest mistake, they will turn their backs and give you the cold shoulder. It takes time for them to recover and accept your apology, but nothing will be quite the same again.'
She was right in a sense. But I have no idea what I have done to Kirito to make him mad or upset at me. I watched as he dismounted the bike gracefully and held out his hand to help me. "M'lady," he said in a joking tone. I giggled and took his hand, clambering down and stand next to him resting my head on his shoulder. Kirito secured his motorcycle and lead me into the noise and warm glow of the café.
Kirito
We were immediately greeted by Rika and Keiko, the two girls whisking Asuna away, energetically chatting about something. I sighed and watched them go as I spotted Kleins vibrant red hair over at the bar. As I walked over I saw him chatting up a girl with long, dark brown hair. Agil was there on the other side looking amused. He was obviously watching Kleins attempts in flirting and trying not to laugh.
I sat down on the stool next to Klein. He looked up at me and grinned, snaking his arm around my shoulders and forcing me to stand again. I stumbled over as Klein exclaimed loudly to the girl, "and see this here is the Black Swordsman, ya'know, the Beater! He's a good mate of mine, aren't you Kirito?" I nodded awkwardly and the girl just tapped the bar, which was a signal for another top up. Agil poured her something that looked like whiskey and she took it and downed it immediately. I looked at her in surprise as she tapped the bar again. Agil frowned at her, clearly concerned.
"Are you sure? This would be your seventh one and this stuff is pretty stro-"
The girl cut him off. "Just get me other one. I know my limit." Her voice had a dark and sharp edge to it, one that was unexpected. Her hair veiled her face, and her dark clothing showed that she probably didn't want to be noticed. Agil, not wanting confrontation, got her another drink hesitantly. When he placed this one in front of her, she left it on the bench, just looking into the glass.
"Klein!" someone from across the room yelled. He and I both looked towards the source, seeing Rika waving him over. The man beside me sighed and he rose from his seat.
"Don't worry sweetie," he addressed to the girl. "I'll be back as fast as I can." Klein winked at her and ruffled my hair as he walked past and went over towards the other girls.
"No, please take your time," the girl muttered under her breath. I laughed and she turned her head towards me, hair still covering most of her face. I saw the paleness of her skin. I could feel her studying me, though after a few moments, she returned to looking back into her drink. I moved into the seat that had up until recently been vacated by Klein and held out my hand.
"Kazuto Kirigaya, or Kirito in game." She took her drink and downed it, slamming the glass back to the table and shook my outstretched hand, quickly dropping her own gloved one to the table. She pushed the three glasses in front of her away as Agil swept them up to wash them. I asked him to get me my usual and another of what she was having, only bigger so she couldn't drink it as fast and on my tab. When he brought the drinks over I slid the one for her over. "You seem like you needed another one."
She took the glass and drank some, seeming confused when she couldn't swallow it in one go like the others. "I got a bigger one. Sorry if you like shots but its less expensive to buy one of the bigger ones than it is to buy two of the small ones." She nodded and mumbled thanks.
She finally looked up at me, pushing her hair away from her face. She looked at me through black thick-rimmed glasses, her eyes an interesting mix with one being a dark and stormy grey and the other a deep blue. I couldn't tell whether this was a lighting or optical illusion or whether those actually where the colour of her eyes. Bangs hung over her face and rested along the rim of her glasses. She had a loosed black scarf partially covering her mouth and nose, which she removed when she looked at me. Her expression was seemingly emotionless, though those strange eyes of hers -that I decided were naturally like that- showed the light of intelligence and curiosity.
Sensing how awkward it had become, I asked "What's your name?"
Her eyes shifted away and she looked down again, shrouding herself with her hair once more. She took another drink and was silent for a minute before finally answering sharply, "Akira."
Forgetting what I had said beforehand, I said a "what?" in surprise. She pushed her hair back so I could see the side of her face closest to me and glanced up.
"That's my name. Akira." She stared back into her drink asking "you from round here?" quietly.
I nodded. "Yeah. And I got dragged here by my friends to meet up with the people around Tokyo who got stuck in Sword Art Online."
"You got stuck there too?" she questioned. When I nodded in response she sat up straighter and stretched her arms out, yawning. "I guess I'm in the same sort of situation. My sister forced me to be here, but I don't even know where she is. So here I am." She gestured to her bar stool and the bench in front of her. I could understand her pain; I had no idea where Asuna and the other were. But honestly, I didn't care. This girl, Akira, seemed nice enough. And now that she had started talking, she didn't seem too intimidating.
I took a sip of my drink and asked, "Is that really your eighth one?" gesturing to the glass in front of her.
"Said these were double shots, right?" I just nodded and she went on. "So technically my ninth. And," she said and she downed the rest of the glass smirking, "This'll be my tenth and eleventh, wont it Agil?" she said louder. The man behind the bar came back over and nodded sighing, pouring another double. As he walked off with the other, now dirty glass, Akira took a swig from it.
"There's no way. You're going to be sick or something. You gotta!" I exclaimed at her. Any normal person would be completely drunk by now, wasted on the floor the bathroom or stumbling around blindly. Either Akira was inhuman, lying about her number or, most likely, had had a lot of experience drinking a lot of shots of strong alcohol.
She sighed and rested her head on her hand running her fingertip around the rim of her glass. She was about to say something but quickly turned her head back so I couldn't see her through her hair, seeming alarmed. I looked for what could've caused this and saw Asuna and Klein walking over. I chuckled slightly and finished what was in my glass.
Asuna sat on the chair next to me and sighed, leaning against me heavily. Klein sat on the other side of Akira and started chatting to her endlessly about himself and throwing around compliments. She just sighed and played with the ends of her hair.
"Kazuto, come and talk to people. We have been here for an hour and you've done nothing but sit over here and drink!" I smiled at her and told her that I would be over in a minute. She frowned, but walked off by herself. After listening to Kleins endless chatter and flirt attempts for ten minutes, Akira was drinking and unexpectedly slammed her glass down on the table. She stood abruptly, causing Klein to fall back of his stool in surprise and look up at her.
"I'm sorry, Klein, I think your name was," she said in a tight voice. "But are you fully aware that I am a sixteen year old girl who has no intention on dating or flirting?" Akira glared down at him while he fearfully looked back and forth between her cold sharp eyes and her heavy and painful looking boots which were right next to his, uh, area.
"B-but," he stuttered out "the amount you drank...you aren't twenty?" She looked at him furiously and flipped her hair back.
"Maybe if you'd taken more time to get to know me instead of straight up flirting you could've seen that my face isn't that of an adult, and neither is my build." Kleins eyes widen in realisation as he studies her face.
But Akira wasn't done yet. "Listen, right now the only thing I want to do is kick your head in and hope that you learn something. But I'm not going to. I'm simply going to leave." She looked at me and nodded. "Nice meeting you Kazuto. I hope to see you again." And with that she turned towards the door and marched out.
I watched the whole scene unfold in horror and awe before getting up and running after her. I burst out into the dark street just in time to see her walking down the end of it. "Akira!" I yelled, trying to get her attention. But if she heard me, she didn't indicate it in any way.
I heard the door open behind me and felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned to see Asuna hugging herself in the cold looking saddened. "Kirito, you aren't in the best mood right now. Come on, let go. Take me home." I looked at her expression, upset that I hadn't talked to her at all tonight apart from the few moments we were together. But I nodded and we went over to my motorcycle. We rode to her house and helped her down, walking her to the door. I didn't dare go inside; I knew how her parents felt about me. I kissed her goodnight and turned to walk down the path when she called out to me.
"My parents are out. Did you want to come inside with me for a while?" I turned back and looked at her hopefully.
"Would that be okay?" When she smiled nodded, I walked back over to her as she unlocked the door. I followed her upstairs, staring at the house around me. Everything looked so...expensive. I felt like I didn't belong. Asuna led me to her bedroom door. She gestured for me to open it.
"Ladies first," she said jokingly. I gasped and tried my best to look offended. Tried. After a few seconds I burst out laughing and opened the door.
And sitting there on the floor, dark and threatening as she had ever looked, was Akira.
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OOOOOOH DAAAAAAAYUM CLIFFHANGER
erm sorry...
i get like this sometimes...
oh yeah sorry if i completely broke your notifications because i was updating.
nothing major, just a few things i fucked up during writing
anyhow see you in the next part!