SAO: The Legend Of The Black Swordsman

Chapter 10

"You don't have to take me to your home, Asuna", Kirito drawled as Asuna dragged him towards her apartment in Selmburg, grabbing his hand. Asuna whipped around and gave him one of her strongest glares, and her hair ruffled by the wind only seemed to aggravate her intended look.

"What's wrong with my apartment? And HOW do you expect me to cook somewhere out of my home?", she countered and Kirito sighed.

"Well, I don't want to intrude your privacy and..."

"Nonsense!!", she snapped and pushed him inside her apartment and slammed the door shut.

"Tell me! Why don't you want to come inside?", she asked him, folding her arms over her chest, but Kirito remained silent.

"Am I making you uncomfortable, Kirito-kun?", she asked him with dejection oozing out of her voice and Kirito violently shook his head.

"Obviously not! Why in the world would you think of something like that?"

"What do you expect me to do? When we face the most difficult of the bosses, you trust me far more than you trust yourself, but out of the battle zone, you don't let me anywhere close to you", she said solemnly.

"If I am irritating you, or if I'm too imposing, just...let me know. I won't bother...", Asuna began, but Kirito cut her off with a hug.

"No. Please. I know that I can be a bit...reserved. But I care for you, Asuna - so much. The last thing I want to do is to put you in more trouble, Asuna. That is why I'm keeping you at a distance - not what I want to do so", he explained and Asuna hugged him more tightly. The next second, she pulled herself from his grip and swatted the back of head, earning a yelp from Kirito.

"If you ever try to ditch me again...", she said, leaving the threat hanging and Kirito nodded his head vigorously, not wanting to receive another smack on the head.

"I didn't want to come inside because...", he trailed and stared at the window. Asuna scrunched her eyebrows, and it suddenly struck her that it was the very window where he received that message from his older guild mate - Sachi. "...it is too painful to remember, both their deaths, and the fact that I killed all those Laughing Coffin members. I know they deserved to die, but did I have the right to kill them?"

"Scum like them don't deserve basic human rights, Kirito-kun. What you did was not wrong - nobody has the right to tell you to do anything else about it, do you hear me?", she whispered to him, cupping his cheeks. Kirito meekly nodded his head in response.

"Thank you, Asuna. I needed that", he said and Asuna simply smiled in response.

"Let's start off with the stew, shall we?", she said, breaking the uneasiness and opened her menu.

Kirito turned around when her finger hovered over the clothes icon and Asuna giggled. "Why are you looking away? I'm just changing to casuals"

"Yeah, but you'll have to remove your current outfit, won't you?", he asked naively.

"No. Haven't you changed your clothes? Ever?", she asked and Kirito shook his head with a blush.

"Well, i pretty much live on a bench, or I rent a room. So, well, I just remove my coat and weapon holsters. Nothing else", he said and Asuna pinched the bridge of her nose.

"You were the one who taught me saying that it would be better to live in the moment, rather than thinking about the future the entire time, didn't you? It's not wrong to spoil yourself, you know?", she scolded and Kirito shrugged his shoulders, avoiding her gaze.

"I just can't bring myself to do it, you know? Live for myself. For some reason, I just can't", he said and Asuna suddenly brightened up.

"Right. Well, we'll keep that issue for another time, shall we? I'll start cooking", she said and hovered her butter knife over the vegetables and they automatically diced themselves.