Heart Stitches ([SAO] Alice x [Female] Reader]

Chapter 13: Rudolph the Red nose Reindeer

Floor 32, an eventual boss was set up for Christmas day.

Alice walks around the small plaza of the town with a large tree at the center, holding closely to her neck her scarf she wrapped a bit too loosely a while ago.

She has been walking around for a while now, looking left and right for any signs of the one she's looking for. Although the lights from the humungous Christmas tree lit up a large area especially including where she was wandering through, the night sky's aura around them still made it hard to walk around without seeing shadows at possibly the most obvious spots.

It's possibly past midnight by now, but time didn't matter at this point since Alice couldn't find (Y/N) anywhere where she said she would be. This morning when Alice woke up to snow frosting their window and (Y/N) ready to head out, Alice didn't know it would be this hard for them after.

"I'll head out for a while Alice, there's something I need to handle"
"Eh..? But it's still morning, can't it wait?"

A kiss on her forehead was placed, seeing (Y/N) look at her with a sad smile.

"I'm afraid it can't, but once I return, I'll make sure you'll fully be rest assured"

That short conversation was usual to their routine whenever (Y/N) would have to leave, so nothing about that morning bothered Alice more other than seeing (Y/N) leave again when the day just started, but at least she didn't leave without a word.

But now that Alice thinks about it, that short conversation they had was all she has that keeps her hope that finding her would be right around the next corner still lit. But it was also a small regret eating her up slowly, the thought lurking in her mind that it might be their last conversation ever.

Leaving a note or a small message for Alice when she wakes up to find no (Y/N) would certainly be even worse than waking up to see her just waiting for her to wake up to kiss her on the forehead goodbye.

But that didn't mean Alice liked seeing (Y/N) go, but she would always see her somewhere within the day that leads to the rest of the day back at the Inn filled with immense cuddling.

But all that seems to be becoming into Alice's mere memory of her times with (Y/N) when the longer (Y/N) hasn't been seen at all to anyone. All except the one person she's looking for right now, Aincrad's top info broker.

But of course she's not called the rat for nothing, being there behind you when you least expect it or even disappearing from sight when she says so.

More or less, Alice pushes herself to keep searching, not seeing (Y/N) for hours that made her worry when she didn't even send any hint of where she went that possibly that only that info broker would know.

Alice was ready to cough up even a million Col just for that information, she can earn it all back from grinding mobs and quests anyway, while for (Y/N), there could only be one (Y/N), and Alice wanted to keep the one she has in her life.

Both Kirito and Eugeo are in it the same way. They too went their separate ways to look for the info broker they have worked with plenty of times, which to speak is Argo. And speaking of the rat, Alice sees her simply sitting on the back railing of a bench that has a wide view of the tree up front.

Alice's eyes narrowed in on where she sat, quickening her pace on the stone bricked floor that echoed out small taps. Alice knew that hood anywhere, even just taking a brief look at it in a large crowd you would know it's Argo.

And when there's Argo, there's information most won't be able to gather in the amount of time she takes to do so, so looking for information about maybe (Y/N), she would have some. Alice holds her scarf tightly with her left hand, involuntarily swallowing before tapping on the small shoulder.