Sword Art Online: Altforv

Intermission: Koharu's Birthday

"Wow," a soft voice let the exclamation leave her lips.

A frail figure sits in the doorway of an empty apartment. She strains her neck to look around the corners of the small area, trying to push the restraints of her wheelchair-bound body.

"It's small right? Sorry about that, can't afford anything bigger though," the young woman behind her speaks cheerily.

"Eh? Enough of that Mai," Koharu laughs weakly, "this is great, I haven't had a place of my own."

"Still don't," Mai replies teasingly, "you have any ground rules to set up?" Mai pushes Koharu further inside.

"Yeah," Koharu looks at the small kitchen that was hardly its own room, "the tv volume shouldn't go above five, don't brush your teeth before 7am or after 8pm, and we are going to have hamburgers for dinner every Friday."

"Shall I also wear only blue on Tuesdays as well?" Mai laughs. The two explored the rest of the apartment together, not that they had any other choice. A soft beating of thunder boomed in this distance, as Teal looked out a tiny window, she could see small droplets of rain forming on the glass plane.

"Our boxes!" Mai yelped and slapped her face with both hands, "No! I totally forgot I left on the side of the car! I'll be back!" Mai quickly leaves the room.

"Wait, are you sure you can do it on your own, let m-" Koharu tried to lean forward, but stops herself as she notices an apologetic smile on Mai's face.

Koharu melts back into her chair, "Sorry," she whispers.

"No! Oh- um, it's okay, I mean," she smiles, "I could always use some motivation," she suggests.

Koharu's heart swelled, "You weren't always this nice in college, were you?"

"I was going through a phase," Mai jokes, "I mean, I try to be nice if I can, it can really change your perspective for the whole day if someone is nice to you once."

"I think that's a bit of wishful thinking, but I am grateful for it," Koharu admits, "I should have sat next to you more in class."

"Well, we both had our friends, ready?"

Koharu nods and the two young women quickly make their way downstairs. When they exit the building, the rain lightly caresses their skin and helps the fainting winter cold sink in. Mai frantically picks up the boxes, and, with some convincing, lays some of them down on Koharu's lap. They had a difficult time with Mai pushing Koharu and lifting a few boxes, but in two runs they completed their task.

Boom. Thunder marches closer to their new home. While Mai unpacked her room, Koharu unpacked hers, pushing the wheelchair herself, the small room making it easier to get from place to place without having Koharu exert herself. Her room smelled old and dusty, making her open the window.

As she was unpacking her final box, she grabbed a picture frame out of the cardboard container. She pauses and takes a moment to look at it, her heart pounding her rib cage as if it were a drum. She smiled and snorted some at the goofy photo.

It was a picture from her first year in college where she and her friend took a picture in front of their school. His long brown hair was wild and almost covered his gray eyes, which were squinted in surprised disgust. The reason was a younger, pert Koharu, with full cheeks and bright green eyes. Her onyx hair was caught in motion as she grasped her friend's arms and tugged on to him, puckering her lips as if going to kiss him, to which he recoiled.

She placed the warm memory on a nightstand next to her bed, which also sat a brooch. Just as she thought of moving herself to her bed, her door creaked open and warm orange light peeked in the doorway. Koharu watched as a small cupcake with a single candle entered the room.

"Happy Birthday to you," Mai sang, as she entered the room, her cheeks flushed, but she still sang as she walked over and sat adjacent to Koharu on her bed. As she finishes the song, Koharu laughs and blows out the candle. They split the cupcake and munch on it together. Though as Koharu scarfs down her half, she notices that Mai only nibbles slightly from time to time.

"Are you okay? I know vanilla is everyone's favorite," she remarks popping the rest of the sweet into her mouth.

"Hm? Oh, it's not that, sorry." She pushes a strand of dark brown hair behind her ear, "I've just been thinking. I haven't really shared a place with anyone before, and maybe I am overthinking it, but everything is going through my head at once. I just feel like a lot is riding on me right now, and I don't want to screw it up, or something."

Koharu thinks for a moment and then chuckles, "I had a friend who thought the same way, we used to live together for a while. They were a wreck at first, trying to make sure we had enough money saved up for rent, but we always end up having to scrounge up money anyways."

"That's not comforting," Mai jokes.

"Yeah well, we always at least had each other, that really what counted," Koharu says.

Mai examins Koharu's face, "Was your roommate a guy?"

"Yeah, most of them were, sometimes they were girls, I am not picky if they are cute," Koharu jests heavily.

"Well, my ground rule is no one comes in here without both of our approval, alright missy?"

Koharu laughs, "I doubt I will be seeing much of anyone anyways given my condition."

"I am also thinking about the future you know? I know lots of guys looked at you whenever you had a performance at school. Once you get back up, I am sure you will have guys clamoring for you again."

Koharu's smile weakens, "Yeah, when that happens."

For a moment, neither of them says anything. The pitter-patter of the rain taps against Koharu's windowsill but doesn't blow into the room. Koharu grabs Mai's hand and looks at her earnestly, "Thanks for everything up until now Mai, it means a lot, really."

"Of course," she yawns, "Oof, sorry, guess I am even more tired than I thought."

"Head on to bed then, I'll be fine, thanks for the cupcake," she remarks as Mai gets up and stretches before heads towards the door.

"No problem, see you tomorrow, Koharu, good night."

"Night, sleep well," she waves. The door closes and Koharu takes a moment to move herself to her bed. As she wraps the blankets around her best she can, she wears a smile on her face. It had only been a few months since she escaped the buggy death game. Initally, she had been shocked by the state of her body on top of everything she had lost while she was in the floating castle. She still like she had lost something important to herself, something that the game and time had taken for her. Yet, when she looked around her and remembered Mai was in a room next door, she was just glad she wasn't alone anymore.