Hey there, as I said I updated faster than usual to make up for last chapter. Hope you like it! And thanks for all the reviews, they've been great.

She didn't keep track of how long she stared at the wooden front door, waiting, and inwardly she knew it felt longer than it was but that didn't prevent her growing anxiety. If a few of them caught Kirito then she wasn't sure he'd be able to prevent them from poisoning or paralysing or tying him up in a rope. They could even kill him (which was hard to think about) if he was being too much of a hassle. It didn't matter how strong he was if they were feeling very ruthless and he probably couldn't run forever either.

Even if he did escape from all the other players, he was still on the very top floor and if he was already hurt and tired then those monsters could be dangerous. She could help out with monsters if she was there, she'd learned how to fight and support him but then she was more at risk from other players now with her weaker stats despite her green cursor. The best thing she could do was to stay where she was. The temptation to run out the door was still there though.

Before she could get anymore worked up, the door handle turned slowly open and Kirito's head, followed by the rest of his body, appeared in the doorway. She found herself smiling brightly and immediately stood up to hug him. He was back and didn't look even a bit hurt! Kirito seemed to relax as he caught sight of her and kindly hugged her back.

A second later she stood back, to a respectful distance though she didn't drop the smile. A part of her wanted to impulsively kiss him but she was trying to be mature and she really didn't want to strain anything, not after all that had happened. Mostly she was just relieved that'd he'd returned and things could be normal again. All the death in the game was awful.

"You alright?" He asked, in a casual tone.

"Oh, I'm fine! I teleported back without a problem," she replied, quick to be reassuring.

He nodded. "We're not safe yet," he replied, quick to be the opposite of reassuring.

Silica blinked, he seemed calm and there was clearly no one with him so what was the problem? They were in a death game, yes, but it wasn't like that was a new development or anything. And the playerbase as a whole didn't trust her anymore but that didn't seem like a very immediate sort of danger. "What's wrong?" She had to ask, hoping it wasn't an obvious threat she was supposed to know.

Kirito walked deeper into the room, suddenly looking exhausted. "That guy, Keita, was able to track you, that's how he found me. I think he must have been following us on the first floor and saw me teleport to the 66th," he explained, not too angry, she didn't think.

It wasn't hard to work out how. "He could see me because we're friends," Silica exclaimed shrilly. Feeling stupid, and a little betrayed, she hurriedly opened her menu.

"Will it be necessary to delete all your friends?" He asked softly, sitting down on the couch just behind her.

All her friends? She had about a hundred of them, loads of companions throughout the game. There were at least four people she still regularly texted for fun and sometimes met up with. A few were incredibly convenient contacts to keep as they helped her to trade wares and find gear and access information and deliver gossip. True, she'd been less reliant on them since she'd begun living with Kirito but even now they were useful to her. In one fell swoop she could lose all her connections and she'd be solely reliant on Kirito and herself. Usefulness aside, it'd still be really sad to lose all her friends.

She found Keita's name and immediately deleted him. That was simple enough really, she knew now that she should never have trusted him, not that she'd ever thought of making friends as a tracking device. There were a lot of benefits to making friends with someone, as well as being able to find them you could easily send and receive messages, view their guild and any other stats that weren't set to private. It also meant that the person was a friend, not because the system said so but because they'd made the choice, if she deleted them then she'd probably never be in touch with them again.

"It's so easy for them to see me and soon the news will spread that I'm with you and then they- they'd track me down... as easily as Keita did," Silica replied, not even trying to hide how upset she was. She'd love for someone to say that it'd all be fine either way.

"Well delete some at least," Kirito suggested.

There was no delete all button so she'd have to do it one at a time anyway and she could get rid of the friends she never talked to. These were mostly from old guilds she'd joined for a short time and made a few friends before leaving. She ignored the more difficult names, the ones she'd genuinely miss but began getting rid of the rest. It wasn't easy but she didn't really have any good reason to keep a lot of them and there was no reason they couldn't track her like Keita had.

The rest of the day was rather uneventful, they didn't dare to leave and the small house was very calm. Dinner was cooked and eaten without fanfare and they didn't really talk. Silica wasn't sure what Kirito was thinking but she didn't want to open any topics that could be in some way painful. It was easier to wait and see how things progressed and there was always the next day. Hopefully, that was the right attitude to take.

She'd left just a couple contacts on her friends list while she thought about what to do with them - surely they wouldn't track her down immediately. She wanted to keep them but then she needed the security now more than ever. Silica also pondered over the rather grim mind-set she'd been in, a holiday or some fun diversion was another thing worth considering.

Silica was grooming Pina whilst Kirito appeared to be reorganising his inventory - an activity he appeared to do way more than necessary. She was starting to relax until she heard the gentle knocking on the front door.

It took her a moment to realise the implications before she stood up in alarm, staring at the door in horror. Someone was out there and presumably knew that they were in here. Had her friends let her down again? So quickly? Once again, the door handle once again turned slowly open but this time, instead of Kirito smiling at her in the doorway there was a girl hiding her face under a cloak. She entered alone but that was more than enough.

"Who's there?" Kirito demanded harshly at the figure. Then he turned to her, gripping her arm. "Let's run out the back," he whispered.

"My, my don't you recognise me? I should be offended. You don't appear to have aged a day since I last saw you, Kirito," the girl said, dropping her dark hood to reveal her grinning face.

"Argo!" Silica said, alarmed. Kirito froze too, beside her. The dark cloak, the whisker marks, the cocky smile and the metal claws - it was unmistakably her.

Argo chuckled as if they were good friends or something. "And Silica too, I'm not surprised to find you here."

"How did you find us?" Kirito demanded again though he sounded more calm.

Argo merrily closed the door behind her and closed the distance between them. "Easy enough really, Keita had tracked down your house and I just bribed him for the information. He's been moody all day though, wonder why?"

Silica felt renewed anger for the guy. He was far too effective at ruining everything. "So why are you here then?" Silica snapped.

Argo didn't lose her smile, well it was more of a smirk really. "Oh you know, it's good practice to gather information from the source," she answered vaguely.

Silica felt the grip on her arm tighten and she glanced at Kirito. "You came to see me purely for business?" He asked. He raised his voice. "I haven't seen you in years and you come to sell all my secrets? For what, money and prestige?"

That caused Argo to look genuinely upset. "For reputation if you must know," she replied stiffly. "And I didn't just come for that, I wanted to see you again."

"Let's just go," Silica requested softly. They couldn't possibly hang around and it wasn't like Argo had anything helpful to say.

But Kirito was distracted. "I've been surviving - being branded a red player for life was purely an accident by the way," he said to her.

"Hmmm... I really find it difficult to believe something like that could happen, it stresses credulity you know?" Argo replied in a weirdly chatty manner. "I don't believe you're a killer though," she confessed.

Silica was getting quickly tired of this conversation. She'd just waltzed in here to confess to what should be common knowledge? And she was far, far too curious, Silica wasn't about to trust an information broker with information that she didn't want anyone to know. But Kirito seemed to still be frozen, he apparently was still interested in meeting new people.

"Seriously what do you want? We don't want you to spread information about us as it could lead to more people tracking us down. It's probably better if we don't tell you anything," Silica interjected.

Argo was looking at her now. "Silica, I have little interest in selling either of you out, but please don't pretend that I can't still provide a service," she said slowly, like she thought she was an idiot or something.

Silica clenched her fists. "I have no reason to trust you more than anyone else. You're probably friends with Keita!"

Argo didn't look annoyed though, if anything she looked amused. "Keita is indeed one of my contacts, you should count that as a benefit though, I can tell you all about him."

"Argo..." Kirito broke in, in his soft voice. "Can I trust you?"

Somehow, Kirito managed to get Argo to be serious again. They stared into each other's eyes. "Yes, I promise. You have my word," Argo finally replied.

To her great irritation, Argo sent Kirito a friend request and he quickly accepted. In an effort to at least be seen doing something, Silica sent her a friend request too, there was no harm in it now after all. Hers was accepted with a teasing grin and Silica had to calm herself down. Maybe she could annoy the girl with chatty messages at the crack of dawn or something? Argo would probably force herself to read them.

"Well we should be leaving then, this house isn't safe anymore, right?" Silica said, giving a pointed glance towards the back door.

"I guess you should. If you don't mind the higher level monsters then the 52nd floor may be a good hideout thought I doubt you'd be able to find yourself a house like this one," Argo offered.

Kirito nodded. "We'll probably scout out several floors." He turned to Silica. "You still certain about coming with me, we'll be in the wilderness from now on?"

She didn't have to think about it. "I'm sure." She'd probably be unwelcome around other players anyway.

Argo finally left then but there was no time to talk. They quickly packed away all the possessions that they could carry, sadly not including the kitchen or the beds though Kirito did manage to take all his smithing stuff. It was late by now so they quickly teleported up to the 52nd floor as Argo had suggested. Silica couldn't help but miss the house, even if it was always raining. She realised now that it was far more comfortable than the wilderness.

The 52nd floor was a noxious swamp. It had some sort of backstory about how all the water had been poisoned for some reason not the Silica really cared about the game's very loose story. Inhaling the air was uncomfortable though it didn't actually harm the player so long as they didn't fall in. If they did then antidotes were a life-saver. Despite how unpleasant the level was, some hunters did venture in because the all the monster drops in the area were rather good for making potions, but they were few and easy to avoid.

Kirito had a passing knowledge on all the levels as he regularly went to the top floors to help with clearing some of the more obscure dungeons alone and had spent enough time on the 52nd to know the places which weren't covered in poisonous swamp and were therefore suitable for setting up camp. Sadly, for some reason all these places were rather rocky.

Still, they set up camp and Kirito got a fire going. The number of people were so few that there was little chance of any being attracted to the fire and most of the monsters on the level actually disliked it as they were swamp-dwellers so it wouldn't exactly increase the chances of a monster encounter. Then he used his hunting skill to make some simple traps. There was apparently also a trapping skill in the game which allowed way better traps and security but Kirito hadn't been interested in wasting skill slots and had instead trained hunting high enough that it would be a decent defence against level 50 monsters even if still imperfect.

Once those preparations had been made, they burrowed up in sleeping bags blankets and tried to get some sleep.

"Kirito?" Silica drummed up the courage to ask. She didn't want to be to meek to say anything and she'd waited long enough.

They'd spent the day fighting monsters on the floor, now that this was likely their semi-permanent residence it was important that they knew how to efficiently take down the monsters. Silica had been forced to get used to taking a few down by herself as it was very possible that it'd be necessary to. Still, she was stronger than she used to be and was getting pretty good at throwing knives at her enemies. Pina's attacks and heals were stronger as a result too. Honestly the monsters weren't too hard so long as she evaded the poisons though killing giant venomous moths was just strange.

"Yeah?" Kirito was broiling some meat (fortunately not from this level, it was all probably too toxic).

"I don't suppose... you know if you like me?" She asked nervously, staring at her fingers.

She couldn't help but look up for his expression though. "Maybe," he answered in the most non-committal voice ever. He took notice of her expression and hurriedly added. "I mean, well, I'd like to find out. If you're interested that is," he replied. She realised that he was really nervous too.

And then she realised he'd sort of said yes.

"Really?" She asked, not wanting to get her hopes up but couldn't resist a smile.

He looked her in the eye. "You've been amazing Silica and I like being around you. So yeah," he finished awkwardly.

He liked her! Maybe he was still uncertain but it wasn't like she was that certain either. So she beamed and shifted herself so she was sitting right next to him. "I like you too! One day we'll get out of this game so we can meet in real life too, okay?"

He nodded. "I'd like that," he said and for once there really sounded like genuine hope in his voice.

Things seemed normal as she helped him where she could with lunch, but comfortable too. After eating, they took a walk round the level, exploring it. Truthfully it probably wasn't that massive but it took ages to move very far with all the swamps and plants and randomly placed walls. It was pleasant enough, particularly with Kirito's darkly humorous comments over the area.

"See here, how there's a clearly marked path on the ground?" Kirito was saying. There was indeed a fairly wide earthy path surrounded on both sides by murky brown waters. "Kayaba probably thought it looked too convenient or something so it's actually not very firm. If you stood still long enough you'd actually start to sink into it. It'd be difficult to get out of so it'd probably be fatal if you got attacked," he continued, smirking slightly.

Silica frowned at it. She wasn't completely convinced but wasn't that interested in trying it out either. "Is that even realistic? Oh and does that mean there's some buried treasure in it?"

Kirito seemed to consider her question. "Maybe there is loads of valuable items at the very bottom of the swamp, shame I don't know fishing or something, and the game is not reality but other than that I couldn't possibly say." He actually sounded rather interested at going fishing in the middle of the swamp.

Later in their walk he pointed out the grass of all things. "The detail on it's really vivid in this part, see?" He said, crouching down and fingering the individual blades. To be honest she couldn't really see any difference. It was grass. A whole patch of slightly shiny grass, but still just grass.

"So?" She asked, knowing he probably had some weird reason for bringing it up. Maybe the grass was secretly plotting to kill them?

"That's because it actually counts as an item, if you pick it up it'll go to your inventory. It probably has some sort of purpose for something I couldn't care less about but that means monster encounters are way more frequent, there's almost certainly guards for these sorts of things," he explained, looking impressively unconcerned with the idea.

"Cool, I wonder what it does?" Silica replied nervously. She didn't care what the grass did but the idea of getting ambushed was not fun. Especially if this secretly turned out to be the most powerful grass in the game and so a hundred grass-loving monsters would be waiting to stop them from taking it.

As it happened, they'd hardly taken a step before a swarm of huge wasps decided that they were worth killing. A single thrown knife managed to kill one of them so they weren't very resilient but they made up for that in numbers. Silica tried to stay calm, she'd gotten used to fighting multiple enemies but she knew that this was definitely a battle designed for more than two players, as one of them jabbed at Pina and did a substantial amount of damage.

They were simple yet elegantly designed creatures, with cool buggy eyes, long yellow and black bodies complete with the obligatory massive stingers at the back and some furiously beating wings. They group quickly surrounded them on all sides so she couldn't easily defend, though it did make them easy to hit. They didn't really seem to possess much of a survival instinct, but then any monster who bothered to attack them was sentencing itself to death anyone. Pina hadn't been that stupid and she'd had to chase him before she could tame him.

Against these numbers, killing them as fast as she could was best so she threw her knives quickly, staying close to Kirito who had no need to move very far for his swords to find an enemy. It was rather satisfying seeing so many of them defeated so quickly though it'd be a chore to try and retrieve all her knives when they were done. And that was the worst of the encounter, neither of them, nor Pina were in much danger. Using potions at the end would be more of a precaution than a terrible need.

Shortly after, Silica had most of knives back and the walk through the level continued. It was far from some sort of romantic date or something but it was interesting anyway. Exploring was fun and simple (and a little scary) in Aincrad.

By nightfall, both of them had retreated to their campsite. It was weird, all the troubles she'd been having with the clearers and their distrust of red players was sort of inconsequential now. She pretty much couldn't do anything now to change their situation and hiding from them was really easy with the game as massive as it was so they'd somehow become a smaller concern. Kirito seemed far from miserable out in the wilderness so maybe he didn't really mind not being a proper clearer.

She'd lost all her connections though. At present there were just five people left on her friends' list. Kirito, Argo, Heathcliff, her good friend Marcia and the cool market guy Jorm whom she'd have hated to lose touch with. Even those names were technically risky but she trusted them. Still, there were so many towns she no longer felt safe to visit and she'd even have to be really careful just going shopping. It was going to be strange.

Silica sighed. The game was just plain unfair but thinking about it wasn't helping either. Instead she could focus on the friend who was probably more than a friend now. Exploring was sort of cool but something closer to a date would be awesome. She made a note to ask him if there were any pretty places they could go that would be a nice relaxing diversion. Like a holiday. She wasn't sure exactly what people were meant to do if they were dating, maybe they weren't supposed to do anything, but something cheerful sounded good.

That's it for now. Hope that was okay, I'm a little uncertain.

Please do review with our comments, they're really encouraging and helpful!

Regarding a couple of reviews I should say that Asuna doesn't really have a very large role in this story, I mention her because I think she's worth mentioning, that all. I don't see Kirito/Silica as a really cracky pairing, and don't really see Silica as a 'loli,' she's a character who has a personality to me, if that makes a difference. Oh and I will update Reality at some point, though this tends to be my priority. Hmm... after writing this, I'm not really sure that all that much happened in this chapter.