Asuna woke up in Kazuto's arms. Her head was nuzzled up against his chest and his arms were around her, hugging her tightly. His breathing was slow and even. Asuna smiled, then closed her eyes again and slowly fell back asleep.
~~~
Kazuto's p.o.v.
I woke up with Asuna in my arms. She was asleep with her head resting on my chest. I smiled and took one of my arms from around her. I couldn't move without waking her up, so I just laid there. I knew that the change in my breathing patterns would wake her up soon.
Within the first couple of minutes, Asuna began to stir. I looked down at her as her eyelashes fluttered open and she looked around. I had never seen her wake up, other than once. I loved the way that her eyes wander around before focusing on something.
She looked around, then picked her head up and propped her chin on my chest, looking up at me with sleepy eyes.
"Good morning, Sleepyhead.", I said.
"Morning.", she said groggily.
I smiled and then brushed a strand of hair out of her face. She sat up and looked around, rubbing her eyes.
"I woke up a little while ago, but I didn't want to wake you up, so I went back to sleep.", she said.
"Oh. Sorry.", I said.
"No, it was nice to sleep in a little bit. I'm so used to getting up early for school that I do it out of habit. It's nice to sleep a little longer than you know you're supposed to.", she giggled.
I sat up and smiled at her. She leaned forward and planted a kiss on my lips. I smiled and kissed her back. She giggled and then stretched her arms upward.
"What should we do today?", she asked.
I thought about it.
"How about we stay in today?", I asked.
"That sounds perfect.", she said, putting her arms back down and smiling again.
I chuckled.
"Yeah, I figured we should at least have one or two days to just stay home. After all, when we get back, we have to make up for the days that we missed at work.", I said.
"Yeah, well I'm using my vacation days, so you might have to, but I will be just fine.", Asuna said.
I worked taking apart computers for the city. I got them in, tested them, took them apart, put them back together, then shipped them off again. Asuna didn't have any idea how I liked that job, but I got to learn about all of these different types of computers, so it was really cool.
"So, what should we do on our lazy day?", I asked.
Asuna thought for a moment. She scrunched up her nose, then looked around. She got up and then got into her backpack. She pulled out a shoebox that she had obviously decorated. It had a pink lid with a couple of bunnies and dogs on it.
"We could look through some of our old memories.", she suggested.
I smiled.
"That sounds good.", I said.
Asuna brought the box over and set it on the bed in front of us. I reached over and took the lid off of it. Inside, there were pictures and trinkets and all sorts of things.
"I put some more in there, but they are from a few years back, so I'm not sure you'll remember them.", Asuna said, sitting down on the bed next to me.
That was probably true. I had a terrible memory. I picked up a photo and smiled. This one, I did remember. We had gone on a school field trip and there had been a bus breakdown. We got out and there was a spot on the hill we were on where you could see the ocean over the hills.
"I remember this one. Wasn't that the same day that you almost got your arm taken off by that tree?", Asuna said, looking at the photograph.
I thought back to when that happened. I had been dared to grab a leaf off the tree that was hanging over the road. To say the least, I accepted the challenge and almost took my own arm off in the process.
"Yep.", I said, chuckling. I set the picture down beside the box as Asuna picked up another one.
"This one is from right before we had our first fight. I remember that day so clearly. I was mad because you were mad that some guy made a pass at me. We took the picture after we made up on your couch.", Asuna said.
"Yeah, I might have overreacted a little.", I said, scratching my head.
"You punched the guy and knocked him out cold. You're lucky that nobody saw you.", Asuna said, lightly pushing my shoulder.
"Well he was hitting on you. You're worth too much not to protect. I was merely sending him a message that told him to leave you alone.", I said.
"Yeah, ok.", Asuna said, laughing a little.
"I remember that fight. I threw my book at you.", Asuna said, her face falling.
I remembered it, too. I beat myself up for weeks after that.
"Yeah, but I didn't blame you for it. I knew that you were pretty justified in doing that, though. I deserved it.", I said, trying to make her feel a little better.
"But I shouldn't have done it. I was just being stupid and acting completely insensitive. I mean, you've never seen me do it, but I get really mad when people act like they're interested in you. One time, I got so mad that I tore a pillow in half.", Asuna said.
I started to feel slightly afraid of my wife at this point. I think she noticed because she laughed and then patted my shoulder.
"Don't worry. I won't do that again, unless somebody is threatening you.", she said, still laughing.
That didn't make me feel very much safer. I nodded and then turned back to the memory box. I pulled out a little white bunny figure.
"You got that for me three years ago, for our first new year's festival. I had thought I lost it, but then I remembered that I put it in here.", she said.
I chuckled. This was from the year that we had finally made it out of Sword Art. I had rolled Asuna around in a wheelchair at the festival because she was still too weak to walk. She got out of it a few weeks later.
"There are pictures that go along with that one.", Asuna said, going through a stack of them and setting a couple of them aside.
I picked up one of the ones she set down. It was a photo of me picking her up. I was in a black t shirt and dark jeans with my jacket and she was in a kimono with pink kittens on it. I smiled. I remembered being scared to death of her father, but now I was cool with him. I was just scared of offending him.
I put the photo down and looked at some of the ones in Asuna's hand. She had a few from when we were in SAO. She had taken a snapshot of me fighting a boss. It was the one that nearly killed me. I remembered that day so clearly. It was the first time that Asuna and I really connected. After that, we grew closer and closer until we go to where we are now.
"I wasn't sure you would want to see these for a little while. After all the things that happened in that game, I figured you would just kind of want to forget about it.", Asuna said.
I looked at her. She was smiling, but her eyes were starting to tear up.
"No. I may not have liked it at first, but after I met you, it became the best mistake- no, the best choice- I had ever made. It led me to you.", I said, putting my arm around her shoulder and rubbing her back.
She nodded and then hugged me.
"Thank you for saving me. You're like my knight in shining armor.", she said.
I hugged her back.
"Anything for my princess.", I said back.
We both laughed then went back to looking through the memory box. After a while, we had only four or five photos left. I picked up one of them and immediately recognized the girls who were smiling up at me in the picture.
The purple haired girl, holding up a peace sign along side of Asuna, who was also holding up a peace sign. I smiled and put the photo down in the stack. It had been two years since Konno Yuuki passed away. Asuna still got emotional at the mention of her. They'd had a lot of good times together and shared a bond that I may never understand.
Asuna picked up the photo that I'd just set down. Some part of me wanted to grab it out of her hand and not let her look at it. I didn't want to see her sad again. Although, this time, she just smiled and touched the photo with her finger where Konno's hand was.
Asuna put the photo down and then picked up the next one. I could see the sadness in her eyes, but she did nothing else to show it as she looked at the next picture. This one was a picture of Yui and Thea on Christmas, wearing their dresses.
Asuna smiled and touched her necklace.
"Do you remember the look on Thea's face when she opened up her dress? She looked like she didn't know what to think. It was like she'd never received anything before. I thought she was sad at first, but then she smiled like I'd never seen her smile before.", Asuna said.
I smiled.
"Yeah. It's funny. She looks nothing like us, and she's nothing but data on a server, yet we've come to love her and Yui like they were born in the real world.", I said.
"Yeah. You know, we know what Yui was created for, but we have no idea why Thea was made. She said that she'd been with that dragon since she was a baby, but I don't know. She doesn't seem to remember much from when she was little, so it's possible that she was created for a purpose, but she never found that purpose.", Asuna said.
I thought about this. It was highly unusual for somebody to just create an AI, then do nothing with her. I hadn't thought about it lately, but initially I had found it really strange.
"I wonder if she was part of a legend that we didn't know about.", Asuna said.
I hadn't considered that possibility. It was definitely possible, though. For all we knew, she could be like Heathcliff. This thought put me on edge. I didn't want to believe it, but it was definitely possible that she wasn't who she said she was.
I thought about this for a minute, though. If she was the creator of the game, why would she be in it 24/7. Unless she was using a medicuboid, which wasn't likely, she would have to log off eventually. Plus, Yui had confirmed that she wasn't a player. Yui had access to all of the game's information. If she wanted to, she could even execute a forced logout on any player she'd met.
"I don't know.", I said.
"Yeah, I guess we should just let it unfold and take it one day at a time.", Asuna said.
I nodded and smiled at her. This would bother me until I figured it out. I felt like I needed to know in order to be satisfied.
Asuna picked up the photos and trinkets and began putting them back in the box. I helped her and picked up some of the ones that were scattered across the bed. We closed the box and Asuna put it back in her backpack.
"I'm going to go out on the patio and sit down and read. You wanna come with me?", I said.
Asuna smiled and nodded. I picked my book up out of the drawer in the nightstand beside the bed, then got up and waited for Asuna to get her book. She got it off the nightstand on her side, then followed me out onto the patio. I sat down one of the big, comfy chairs and opened up my book. Asuna did the same and we sat there and read. I was reading a book about the guy who had created Nintendo.
Asuna was reading a fiction series that I'd never read, but I'd heard a lot about it. A lot of our friends had read it and loved it, but I'd never felt the urge to read it. I wasn't a fiction person like Asuna was. I liked biographies and nonfiction books.
We sat and read for a little while before Asuna put her book down and crawled into my lap. I smiled and let her sit there. She cuddled up and put her head on my chest. I continued reading my book, propping it on her side while she looked out at the scenery. We could see the ocean and some of the beach.
Eventually, Asuna's breathing got really even and deep. I looked down at her to find her asleep. I smiled and kissed her head. She didn't stir as I put my book down and wrapped my arms around her. I pulled one of my knees up to keep her from falling off.
I held her for quite a while and just listened to the sound of her breathing. It wasn't long before I felt my eyelids getting heavy. I laid my head back on the chair and let sleep take over.
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Yo! So how did you like this chapter? I hope that you loved it. I know that it was a whole lot shorter than what I usually write, but considering other book chapters, it wasn't that bad. I'm sorry it took me so long to update. My school has been assigning mountains of homework for me to do, plus I was out for a couple of days with the flu, so I was really behind. I haven't had that much time to write.
What do you think about the situation with Thea? Do you think she is part of a myth? Is she more than that? What will happen? This is where I decided to put in a side plot. Also, we still don't know why Asuna found that legendary sword. Spoiler alert, they are the same plot.
Anyway, Stay spicy, my beautiful magic tacos! I loves you ALL!! I'll talk to you in the next chapter! BYEES!
-Scarlet