Sooo, it's been quite some time since I've even looked at this story. I originally wanted it to be a fluff piece with Klein, but figured the story needed an introductory chapter. In reality, that just made it harder to get around to the actual plot I had in mind. Also, getting my bachelors and going into grad school ate up my time. Plus, I lost interest in SAO as I grew more distant from the franchise. However, any longtime fans may have noticed I wrote other stuff. I think my skills have improved, and now I have a bit of time to get some stuff done! This chapter will be the last though, and I'll be skipping to after the tournament. This way I can get to what I actually wanted to write. I'm sorry for making everyone wait, and thank you to anyone that stuck around. With that out of the way, on to the show!

Chapter Two: Wanting to Help

Klein had no idea what this vacation was going to entail. Beaches were almost unheard of in ALO, so seeing it beautifully recreated in a digital environment was a delight. It reminded him of his younger years, being out on family vacations and able to live life to the fullest.

"Ohmygod this is the coolest thing ever!" was shrieked next to him.

Yuuki was absolutely enamored with the sparking blue water and tropical houses created for the winners of the tournament. Kirito and Asuna both smiled at her childlike wonder.

"Yeah, they did a great job with this. It's almost like the real thing," Asuna said.

Kirito replied, "Wait, you've been out to the ocean too?"

"Of course I have silly! You know my mom wanted me to travel and be well-cultured and all that nonsense." Asuna couldn't hold back some of the spite, even though her and her mother were on much better terms now.

"Ah, well you don't have to worry about that now. It's just gonna be you and me having time together."

The couple stared lovingly into each other's eyes for a moment, only to have it broken by the sound of muffled laughter off to the side. Looking over, they each saw Klein and Yuuki trying, and failing, to discretely laugh at their cheesy romance.

Yuuki was the first to break as she almost snorted during her loud laughing fit. "Ya hear that Klein?" she asked before grabbing the man's hands and clasping hers over them. Then, while mimicking Kirito's voice saying, "This time will be only for us and our loovveee~!"

Klein kept it up, pretending to be Asuna. "Oh my precious Kirito! I'll never let you see another girl again!"

They both broke the embrace while laughing heartily at the now embarrassed couple. Kirito was glad to see it over, but nearly jumped out of his skin seeing the look Asuna had.

She started with, "Well at least I have my physical lover here, and not some computer program!"

Klein stopped laughing after hearing the accusation, and grew sheepish. Yuuki also stopped laughing just to process what her sister said, and then started laughing again even harder.

"Wait, wait, wait… You tried to hit on an NPC?" she incredulously asked the redhead.

Klein shot back, "Hey now, Freyja gave an actual address! That means she could be a real person just playing a role!"

Asuna didn't let up though, "Ok, well what about when you wanted to get with Suguha, despite not even meeting her?"

"Well if she was related to my bro Kirito then she had to be cool! I just wasn't expecting her to be…"

"Super younger than you?" she said, finishing his sentence. He gave a weak nod and embarrassed laugh in return, causing her to do the same. "Look, Kirito and I are adults and have a perfectly normal and adult relationship."

Yuuki decided to chime in now, "We know ya do! We just wanna let you know when you're starting to talk like a romance book." She gave her sister a cheeky grin after finishing her sentence, which only made Asuna soften and smile back at her.

"Alright, alright, with that out of the way, let's all look at our lodges," Kirito said while leading everyone down the wooden walkway that extended out to the ocean. The game they were in was able to make the beach even more majestic than the real-life. The modest houses were of modern design, yet still managed to seem like a natural part of this digital environment.

As all four of them stood around the space in-between the houses, Asuna grabbed Kirito by the back of his jacket, saying, "Well we both have a lot of planning to do and want to explore the houses together sooo… see you two later!" and with that she dragged him into their resort house.

Although everyone knew that the houses were two-per-person. What they did not know was that the system prevented any changes after the houses had been entered. So when Kirito and Asuna entered their home, the green light above the house turned blue, and both their names were displayed about it now. Connecting the dots, both Klein and Yuuki looked from that house, to their new house, then to each other, repeated that process, and finally at each other.

"Whaaaaa?! I get to room with you?" Yuuki screeched, though not angry at the situation.

Klein double-checked the blue light above the house. Sure enough, it displayed both of their names. "Uh, I guess so. Sorry, I bet you were wanting to room with Asuna."

"I mean, yeah, but nah. She's a great sister to me but sometimes ya just gotta cut loose with the guys, right?"

Klein looked at her, dumbstruck at how casual she was this latest development. "You really don't have any thoughts about rooming with me for this vacation?"

She spun on her heel to look directly at him. "Nope! You're a good guy, so stop overthinking and let's check out the place!" with that, she grabbed his sleeve and dragged him into the house.

Both of them were not prepared for what they saw. The interior was spacious, but not empty, and had the perfect amount of décor. The living room and attached kitchen made it feel like a clubhouse, with their individual rooms still feeling like a natural part of the building.

Yuuki twirled around the room with outstretched arms, laughing the entire time. "This is awesome! I've never been somewhere so fancy before!"

Klein rubbed the back of his head as he followed in after her. "Yeah, me either honestly. This is definitely a step up from my other vacations."

"Oh really? You've had something like this in the past?"

"Eh, I used to go to the beach every once in a while with my parents."

Yuuki looked at him and tilted her head. "How come that stopped?"

"Well I graduated high school and had to move out. Nowadays we only see each other during the holidays."

He found it odd that he was able to speak so freely like this, especially to Yuuki of all people. He had nothing against her. In fact, he really liked the energy she brought to the group. However, she was still someone he had never really had a conversation with before the tournament. Actually, he never really had the chance to discuss any personal news. Any conversations with the others revolved around Kirito.

Yuuki saw that Klein was just standing in place, thinking deeply to himself. The lack of noise upset her, so she promptly tackled him.

"W-What the hell was that for devil child?!"

She stuck her tongue out at him. "You got all sad and had a thousand-yard stare, so I had to snap you out of it somehow!"

"Was tackling me the only option though?!" he yelled to her amused face.

"Yep!" and with that simple answer, she rolled off him, laughing at her own antics.

Although Klein was a little upset from the unexpected attack, he soon found himself laughing along with her. It felt good to just relax and not try to act cool all the time. Once he got up, he saw that Yuuki had started to deviously giggle to herself. Noticing that he saw her doing that, she said, "I bet Kirito and Asuna are having their own tackling going on right now~"

Klein nearly fell back on to the ground hearing that, and wondered if he heard her correctly. He got his answer when her giggles got louder and she knew that she had flustered him. He almost instantly shot back, "Did you just actually say that? How the hell do you even know what… that even is! You're, like, 12!"

She puffed her cheeks as that remark. "I'm actually 15, and turning 16 soon! Probably…" she muttered, but Klein caught that last part.

"Shit, why are you saying morbid stuff like that? You're tied with Silica for most happy person ever."

"Aha, well if you think morbidly then you get to live life to the fullest!" she shouted back with a confident grin. Still though, Klein was not too happy hearing that.

"Either way, you got plenty of time to grow up and live life to the fullest. For now, you just keep playing video games with your friends."

She gave him a mock salute before disappearing into her own room. Leaving Klein to sigh and grumble about those damn kids before heading into his own room.

-o-O-o-o-O-o-o-O-o-

The four of them hung out for most of the day, enjoying the area given to them, as well as the new mobs and equipment. It was late into the evening when Asuna said she had to log off, stating that her mother wanted her to keep up with her studies. Although she knew she would see her tomorrow, Yuuki clamped her sister in a big hug. Kirito logged off shortly after, being as enigmatic at always. This just left the excitable duo to themselves. However, the long day of exploring sapped them of energy too. Klein was on the couch, staring blankly at the ceiling, while his imp partner draped herself over the loveseat, making popping noises to herself.

They sat in silence until she groaned, "Ugghh, I can't take this anymore!" In a flash, she went from being a wet noodle to being on her feet and next to the salamander. "You. Me. Train. Now."

He looked at her with glazed eyes, barely able to process what she said. Once he understood though, he sighed. "I know you won't stop until I say ok, so ok."

After a squeal and a hug, the purple-haired girl rushed out to the beach, already having a sword in hand. Klein groggily marched after her, equipping the katana that he always used. They both stood about 30ft from each other, each getting in a battle stance. Although the samurai still had a few more yawns to get out of his system, his challenger looked like she never lost her energy from the beginning of the day.

"So, standard dueling rules? First to zero HP loses? Anything else?" he sleepily asked.

"No flying! I wanna fight on the sand!" she responded cheerily. He noticed that her boots were not equipped, she really wanted to feel the sand.

They both nodded and Klein checked his notifications. Pulling up the duel request, he accepted, and got into position. Observing his opponent, he saw her transform. Standing before him was not the perky ball of fun he was used to. No, now she was in her natural state – a warrior. He took a step back, not expecting such a fierce edge to be on her face. However, he then righted himself and returned the look. He knew she was only being this serious because she believed he deserved that amount of respect.

The second the countdown hit zero, she was already in his space. A flurry of blade strikes landed on him before he could even begin a proper defense. Once his sword was raised, he began to deflect most of her slashes, yet many still made it through. Realizing that, as a salamander, he had more health than most of her opponents, he had more time. With a critical block that sent her off-balance, he landed a single, mighty blow that knocked her health down hard. Klein let out a holler of satisfaction, not expecting Yuuki to do the same.

"Yes, yes, yes! I finally have someone that isn't a pushover!" she giddily shouted at him before launching a second wave of attacks.

The kept this dance up for a while – Yuuki would land more hits, but Klein would deal more damage. The trading of strikes kept on going as they both yielded no ground. However, things became serious when a distinct purple glow started manifesting. Klein started sweating bullets because he knew what this was. It was the ultimate finisher – the Mother's Rosario. Not helping his mental state was the wild grin on her seemingly innocent face. He knew he could never block all of this. No, he needed to be bold. Instead of readying a defensive posture, he charged straight at her.

Yuuki had no clue that her sparring partner was going to be this reckless, but it made the battle that much more fun. With her attack finally ready, she rushed towards him and began the fatal combo. She noticed the redhead was getting even redder as he readied his own attack. After her tenth hit, he finally unleashed the wave attack. A singular crimson arc shot out from his sword, hitting Yuuki as she delivered the finally blow for her Mother's Rosario. The collision of both attacks caused the sand underneath to be flung up, as well as knocking back both of the fighters. Once the dust was settled, they saw the postgame result:

A tie.

There was a noticeable pause before uncontrollable screaming started coming from the samurai. "I did it! I actually did it! I beat the Zekken or the Absolute Sword or the Black Knight or whatever epic nickname you have!" He laughed so hard that he started coughing, which made Yuuki smile to herself and walk over.

"You sure did bud, lemme help ya up," she said while holding out a hand. Once he recovered from his laughing fit. He told ahold of her hand as her surprisingly strong arm pulled him up.

"That sure was a fight! I'm glad you dragged me out here!" he exclaimed as they both made their way back to the house.

"Yeah, me too! Who knew that you had it in you?"

"I mean, I did lead a guild back in SAO…"

"You did?! You gotta tell me all about it!"

Despite just having an exhausting battle, she showed no signs of slowing down. Klein was now feeling the drowsiness and the fatigue at the same time, so he practically threw himself at the couch. Unfortunately, sleep would not come for him, as Yuuki jumped over the back of the couch and landed squarely on his chest.

After gasping for air and eventually getting it back, he asked, "Can't this wait until tomorrow? You totally wiped be out back there."

"I don't wanna wait for tomorrow! You know me, I wanna do stuff in the present!"

"Ugghh, fineee… but you only get the short version!" he definitively said, to which she squealed with joy again. "Basically, me and my friends all pre-ordered SAO together. You know how that shitshow turned out, but we made a guild, called ourselves Fuurinkazan, and helped Kirito clear the way to the top of Aincrad. We've stayed in touch and still play together, but it sucks trying to get a time where all our schedules match up. You kids don't know how easy you have it right now. Once you're an adult you realize how precious free time is."

While he told his story, she became more and more relaxed, eventually falling on top of him. At this point he was too tired to care, but he did notice how tightly she gripped his shirt when he said that last line.

Brushing that aside, he asked the obvious question, "What are you doing?"

"Uh, snuggling, duh. C'mon ladies' man, I thought you would know what that is!"

"Ugh, not you too… but wait, that's not something you just do with anyone! It's like, super personal!"

"I know that! I used to do this with my sister all the time."

Klein paused after hearing that line. "Wait, you have a sister? I didn't know."

He felt that same tight grip on him before she spoke. "I… used to have a sister, she passed away recently…"

"Oh God, I'm so sorry to hear that, and I'm sorry for your loss. I hope I didn't bring up any painful memories."

"Thank you. I didn't wanna bring down the mood by saying that around everyone else, but you're a pretty dependable guy."

Klein then wrapped his arms around her, giving her a big hug. He didn't want to say anything, but he could feel her muffled sobs through the hug.

He patted her back as he said, "There, there. Just let it all out. You don't have to act strong right now."

"Thank you…" he heard being said on his chest.

They stayed like that for a while, until eventually Yuuki was feeling better. She looked up and into his eyes, where he saw that hers were still a little puffy, but returning to normal. He reached out and patted her head, to which she smiled in response.

"You know, I figured you were too much of a tomboy to like head pats."

She huffed at him and whined, "That's true, but I still like some sweet stuff like that!" However, she then gasped and looked back at him. "Ohmygod, do NOT tell anyone about this!"

"Oh yeah, you really think I'm gonna be boasting about the time a little kid jumped on top of me and held be hostage?"

"Ugh! I'm not a little kid, I told you this already!"

He reached over and flicked her forehead, causing her to let out an exaggerated cry of pain. "Of course I know that. Tonight proves just how much adult stuff you've been through."

"Y-Yeah, about that… remember when I said that I'd probably make it to 16?"

There was a sudden tension in the air that almost suffocated Klein. He was terrified of where she was going with this sentence. "I remember, why do you ask…?"

"Well, I have the same condition that my sister had… I don't know how much longer I have."

For a second, time seemed to stand still. He could feel his neurons firing, trying to process the information he just heard.

"I-I don't understand, how can you be dying if you're so healthy? You've never shown any signs of being sick."

"Oh that's 'cause I'm wearing a Medicuboid. It's a really fancy device that keeps me under. That way my body can try to fight off the infection without having to do the other stuff required when I'm awake."

Klein couldn't understand how she was still smiling talking about this device. Sure it was a wonder of technology, but it wasn't making her get better. He could only sit in silence as he continued to try and process this.

Yuuki. Dead. No, that can't be.

She observed him trying to come to grips about the whole situation. She couldn't remember how that last person reacted, or even if she had ever told anyone before. After all, living in the moment means not remembering the past too well.

The silence stayed in the room for a long time. Klein was rendered speechless while Yuuki just let him handle this on his own. Finally, the silence was broken when the redheaded man said, "I don't believe it."

This was not the sentence that the imp expected. "What do you mean? You don't think I made this all up, do you?" This was the first time he ever heard her with a hard edge to her voice.

"No, no. I believe you. But I can't accept that you'll leave us so soon. You have so much life to you, and I just don't want to think that this will just… disappear."

"I'm glad that you have so much faith in me, but the truth is that I'm not in a bed or something. I'm in an isolation room in a special hospital. That's where I've been for about three years now."

Klein let out a sigh. There was just too much happening to process. However, when he looked back down and saw the heartbroken face of Yuuki, he knew he had to stay longer.

Her voice sounded tiny now. "I-I know you probably want to log off. It must not be comfortable to sleep in VR…"

"No," Klein replied almost instantly. Her eyes widened with surprise. He then continued, "There's no way I can leave you right now. Besides, I wore this thing for two years straight, one night isn't gonna kill me."

She squeaked as she snuggled up to him even more. He sighed, but contently this time as he put his arms around her. "You're a good kid, and I know everything will turn out fine. You're a natural fighter, and whatever is affecting you is just another thing you're going to beat."

It finally seemed like she was becoming drowsy, as her breathing became slower. The last thing either of them heard before passing out was Yuuki saying, "Thank you Ryoutarou. This is the best sleepover I've ever had…"

-o-O-o-o-O-o-o-O-o-

It had been years since that fateful vacation in ALO. The group of friends tried to stay together, even after learning the truth about Yuuki, but time has a way of separating everyone. It had been at least a year since anyone had heard anything from anyone, but that all changed when a text circulated around. It was to everyone in their little group, and it looked like big news. As usual, the Dicey Café was selected to be the meeting point, with Andrew's place able to withstand the years. Everyone walked in and filled out the tables. They were all eager to talk and reconnect, but the one topic that kept coming up was who had invited everyone.

Their question was answered when a familiar redhead burst through the doors, with a now-adult woman behind him. The hair may have been different, but some people were able to put the pieces together.

When Asuna nervously called out her name, Yuuki responded, "Hi everyone, I'm so glad to meet you all!"

What happened next was a massive rush and even more massive group hug, with everyone glad to finally have her here. Now, and forever.

Where there it is everyone! Again, I'm so glad to finally be free of this guilt. I've seen plenty of stories and authors evaporate, and I never wanted to be one of those. If you all have read this in the past, thank you for your patience. If you're a newcomer, well I hope you like the fact that there is a story with Klein as the lead! I look forward to reading everyone's reviews!