As I am reaching forward to use my next summon the system warns me that I am about to wake up so I decided to hold off on it.

I decide to close my eyes and wait to wake up. After a few moments, I feel my body shift and I open my eyes.

Taking a second to take in my surroundings the first thing I notice is that I am back in my room at the house, and the second thing that I notice is Asuna asleep on my bed next to me. I flinch in surprise which causes her to stir.

She sits up and looks at me still half asleep and then her drowsiness seems to disappear as she pulls me into a hug.

"Idiot."

She mutters softly, and I almost say a joke in retort but then I feel something damp on my back. She starts sniffling so I start rubbing her back.

"I'm sorry."

She seems to flinch slightly as my hand touches her back but then she relaxes.

" If you were sorry then you wouldn't do something so reckless again."

I sigh as her grip on my back tightens and the sound of her crying grows in intensity.

" You know I can't do that."

Her grip on my back loosens as she pulls out of the hug to look me in the eyes. As I stare into her chestnut eyes that were puffy around the edges and brimming with tears, I feel my heart tear slightly as she says

"Am I not important enough to help you? With the amount of time that we have spent together and all we have been through am I only dead weight to you? Maybe it would be better if I just left and never came back."

She gets up to leave but before I know what I am doing I grab her hand. She turns back around to continue her tirade but her gaze falters as she sees the tears coming out of my eyes.

"Of course you aren't dead weight. You are one of the most important people in the world to me. I don't know what I would do without you here."

Her eyes meet mine again and in a voice so soft that I thought I was imagining it she asks

"Then why?"

"Why?..." She asks again, but this time she was barely audible.

A dreadful moment of silence passes as we look into each other eyes each holding a myriad of emotion. One pair full of sorrow and pain, while the other full of regret and shame.

"I can't put your life in danger. The fear of losing you would eat at my heart and I don't know what I would do without you. It's selfish, but I never said that I wasn't"

Her eyes widen and she pulls me back into a hug. An unspoken agreement passes between us as we just stay in that position for a while.

Thinking back on it now I never even asked about her circumstances. Is she even the same person from the anime? What if she lived a whole different life than I thought she did. Lamenting my stupidity I muster up the courage to ask her.

"Hey Asuna, What happened before you joined me?" She visibly tenses at the question.

As our eyes meet I notice hints of hesitation in her eyes.

"I..."

She struggles to get her words out and drops her eyes to the floor so I grab her hands and give them a squeeze to show my support for her.

Her eyes raise to meet mine for one last time, but this time they didn't hold any hesitation, only determination.

" I watched as everything I loved fall apart, destroyed by the very person I gave my heart to. As I was dying both mentally and physically, a voice rang in my head and asked me one question...

What do you wish for?...

and that is how my life changed forever."