Requested by cherrupsenpi2! Sorry for letting your request rest too long! >////<

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~Reader's P.O.V.~

"Where's the goddamn knife?" you angrily mutter to yourself. You were standing in the middle of your, well, you could say "virtual kitchen," but having been in an MMORPG for what seemed like an eternity, you think that your "virtual kitchen" as well as your "virtual house" is basically real.

'It's not like you'd be able to see your real home anytime soon.'

As soon as that thought entered your head, you mentally scolded yourself. Sure, it's been quite a long time, but you should never lose hope. Even then, you have to admit your life in this virtual reality is not so bad; you kinda like it.

"Ding-dong~!"

You almost jump to the ceiling in surprise when the doorbell rings. "(Y/n)?" a soft masculine voice calls your name from the other side of the door. Almost immediately, your face slowly flushed red. You know you shouldn't be embarrassed, though, because it was you who invited the famous swordsman over, after all.

"C-coming!" you reply. You silently curse at yourself for stuttering as you walked towards the door. You take a deep breath to calm your racing heart before you grip the doorknob and twist it open. When you pull the door open, you're greeted with a teenage boy with onyx eyes and raven hair with a refreshing (and handsome) smile painted on his lips. His hands were in his pockets, adding to the overall cool aura he had around him.

"Hey (y/n)," he greets you with that smile you've fallen head over heels for. "Thanks for inviting me over for..what was it again?"

"H-hi," you stammer, trying your hardest not to break eye contact, "and you're welcome. I invited you over so that maybe you could, i-if you're not too busy, perhaps try a new recipe I've come up with?"

"Ah, right," Kirito nods, his smile widening. "You said you gained a rare item on one of your hunting trips, right?"

"Y-yeah," you mutter an answer, embarrassed that he had remembered you boasting to a certain orange-haired friend/cooking rival of yours. You then realized that you hadn't invited him into your home yet! "O-oh, um, please, come in," you stammer, mentally banging your head on an imaginary wall. How could you forget to invite a guest into your house?!

"Thank you," Kirito politely nodded towards you as he walked into your humble abode, which made your heart flutter and your face flush a deeper shade of red. You quickly recover, however, and nervous walked beside the swordsman.

'What now what now what now?' You started to panic in your head. 'Sh-should I offer him some tea or something..?'

"Oh, by the way (y/n)." You jolt back into reality at the sound of Kirito saying your name.

"Y-yeah?" you meekly respond.

"What kind of dish will you be making?" he asked, his eyes shining with anticipation, though, you mistook his excitement for something else and started to panic.

'Oh god, he doesn't think I'm actually that good at cooking does he?' You anxiously thought to yourself. Sure, on your good days, you can whip up a pretty good soup or maybe even some ramen, but those kinds of foods were made using a recipe not of your own. You suddenly question why you decided to invite your crush of all people to prepare this dish.

"O-oh, j-j-just a sandwich," you stammer. You admit, that doesn't so like such a hard task, but you were using a rare item that can only be obtained once or twice, and that's only if you're lucky enough. As such, you've decided to give do one of the hardest sandwiches ever to make, the (f/s), which was consequently your favorite kind of sandwich.

A couple days ago, it has seemed like a great idea to invite your secret crush over to try your dish and perhaps piss off your rival. You had heard that she had prepared a sandwich for the black swordsman, so the thought of making a sandwich that was superior to hers excited you, but now you see that that was quite a dumb idea.

It's too late now to turn back however, so you can only hope you don't screw this up.

"A sandwich ka? Can't wait!" Kirito's eyes gleamed with excitement, and he licked his lips at the thought of being able to taste yet another sandwich of pure delicacy.

"Haha, yeah.." You force a chuckle to escape your lips. "I'm going to go prepare it now, hope you won't mind the wait."

"Not at all!" Kirito flashed a smile towards you, making you blush. "I should be telling you that you should take all the time you need. I'm merely a guest here, after all."

'You're more than a guest to me,' you thought to yourself, but you sure as hell was not going to say it out loud. Instead, you said, "Ah, thanks. I'll be going now, shout if you need anything."

"Hai hai," Kirito replied. With that, you hurried to the kitchen before he could notice your red face. You let out the breath you've been holding as you tie your apron to your waist.

'Yosh!' You look back up with a determined look on your face. 'Let's do this!'

~Le timeskip, brought to you by the single (AKA lonely) Klein!~

"I knew it! It tastes horrible!!" you cry.

"N-no! I never said that!" Kirito started to panic. All he did was take a bite of your sandwich and savored its unique taste. To you, however, it looked as if he had cringed in disgust.

"I-it's pretty good!" He tried to console/comfort you, but it obviously wasn't working as you could feel tears brim in the corner of your (e/c) eyes. Kirito's onyx eyes widen at the sight of tears, and this only seemed to increase his sense of panic. "D-d-don't cry! Please!" Kirito wails, standing up from his seat and scrambling over to you.

You were holding your hands over your eyes to try and wipe the tears from your cheeks, but it clearly wasn't working. "A-aw, come on (y/n)!" Kirito pleads for you to stop sobbing, but you don't and just let out another cry. The raven-haired boy was now standing in front of, unsure of how to console you. He pondered how to stop you from crying while being in a heightened panic mode himself. Perhaps if he showed her it wasn't that bad?

And with that thought, an idea popped into the swordfighter's head.

Without giving it a second thought, he grabbed onto your shoulders and pressed his lips onto yours. Your (e/c) eyes grow wide and your hands freeze right above your eyelids in shock and surprise. After a second, however, you let the warmth of Kirito's lips overwhelm you and you wrap hands around his neck.

Some time passed, but to you it seemed like an eternity that went by too quickly as your crush's lips slowly parted from yours. "T-there, see? It's not that bad," Kirito murmurs, his cheeks a pale pink as he scratched the back of his neck. On impulse, you adjust your (h/c) hair and nod. You.. weren't sure how that related to your cooking? But, you weren't going to complain.

"O-okay then," you stammer with your head down, your face a complete strawberry red.

You both stood there in an awkward silence, both of you hesitant to speak up again. You dare to peak a glance at the raven-haired boy, who was also looking away in embarrassment. You couldn't but smile at how adorable the usually-calm boy looked like when he was flustered. You open your mouth to try and speak up, but something abruptly stops you.

"THERE YOU ARE!" The two of you jolt from the sudden noise, and you both turn towards the entrance to your home to see a rather pissed Asuna.

"Do you know how long I've been looking for you?!" the orange-haired swordswoman snapped at Kirito, who raised his hands in surrender as sweat rolled down his foreheads.

"I, gomen.." Kirito sweatdropped. "Didn't I say I was going to (y/n)'s place..?"

"No, you did not!!" Asuna yelled right in the ravenhead's face, which made the both of you cringe. "All you said was that you were going to 'some friend's place'!"

"Gomenasai.." Kirito gave a sheepish smile. Asuna let out a harrumph and shook her head.

"Honestly, Kirito! You're such a pain.." Asuna let out a frustrated sigh. "Well, come on then! Have you forgotten about our meet-up with the rest of the gang?"

"Ah, shimata!" Kirito blurted out, realizing that he and Asuna had promised that they'd meet Klein and the others at the bar.

"You're so forgetful.." Asuna facepalmed. "Sorry for making you look after him, (y/n)."

"O-oh, no no no," you wave off, deciding that now wasn't the time to go into rival-mode. It's not like Asuna ever saw you that way anyways, it was just something you had proclaimed. "I-it's..fine." Asuna offered you a smile and nodded.

"Well then, we'll be off." She forcefully grabbed ahold of Kirito's wrist and started to force him towards the exit. Kirito sweatdropped as he was practically dragged towards the exit, but he managed to look you in the eye and wave goodbye. You shyly wave back, the fingertips of your hand absentmindedly touching your lips when the door clicked close. Blood rushed to your cheeks as you reminisce about the recent kiss.

'Guess he likes the sandwich.'