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Eugeo was never good with people. Kirito, sure, he could understand him better than he could understand himself. But everyone else? They were a mystery Eugeo could never even begin to solve.
Flowers, though? He knew flowers. He could spend hours just discussing them with anyone willing to listen - usually Kirito. He could go on and on about petals and leaves, seasonal blooms and optimum soil conditions. He suspected that to Kirito, his words went over his head, but he kindly pretended to listen.
When they’d finally escaped the Central Cathedral, after a long and terrifyingly difficult fight with the Administrator, the first thing Eugeo had done was tend to his garden.
Kirito gently scolded him for pushing himself too far - he had nearly died, after all - and Eugeo reminded him that he hadn’t made it from the fight unscathed, he should rest too. That comment also fell on deaf ears.
The day three mysterious new figures had shown up had been unsettling and strange. They seemed otherworldly, and they knew his partner, somehow. Eugeo didn’t understand them at all.
There was the one who’d first spoken to him the day they’d met on the outskirts of Rulid. Eugeo and Kirito had returned to their hometown with Alice, finally being able to reunite her with her sister, when the girl had approached them.
“Kazuto?”
There was silence and Kirito looked at her, confused, like he was suddenly disoriented. Eugeo recognised that expression, though he didn’t see it from him often - Kirito was scared.
“Kirito,” the girl’s voice was softer this time, the name passing her lips more familiar. Kirito took a better look at her, then gasped, rushing to her side. He all but collapsed into her arms, hugging her and mumbling something Eugeo couldn’t hear.
Kirito ushered her away, excusing himself. Alice and Eugeo went on ahead, but he couldn’t shake that feeling that something was happening, something he had no comprehension of or control over, and that something was happening to his partner.
By the time the trio met up again, Kirito was joined by another two girls. The girl from before was joined by two more of the most enchanting women Eugeo had ever seen. There was something almost familiar about their presence, and Kirito spoke of them fondly.
One of them stole Eugeo away a few minutes after Kirito introduced all of them - Terraria, as he was informed. She walked with him for a while until they were out of earshot of the others.
“Kirito talks quite highly of you, you know.”
Eugeo blushed lightly. The girl beside him walked over the grass of the field they stood in, daisies suddenly growing over where she’d walked. Eugeo watched her for a moment. Everywhere she stepped, something would bloom. Some daisies, some lobelias, forget-me-nots every so often.
“I speak quite highly of him, as well,” Eugeo looked down at his feet, “I respect him a lot, he’s been my partner since childhood.”
“I know,” she’d turned her back to him, blonde ponytail flowing behind her, “He told me- told us, he told us stories of how you grew up together here.”
There was a certain tone to her voice Eugeo couldn’t understand, a subtle concern under the warmth of her voice, as if she was fretting over the memories the boys shared.
She turned back around with a smile on her face, voice suddenly calmed, “It’s really admirable that you cared for him all this time.”
“We cared for each other mutually,” Eugeo told her.
Eugeo didn’t know how to continue the conversation and Terraria didn’t seem particularly interested in continuing it for herself, distracted by birds flying over her head, so they fell into silence. Eugeo looked back over to Kirito, who was now happily talking to Alice and the other two girls - Solus and Stacia.
He spotted him staring, waving him over. Eugeo almost ran to him, resuming his place beside him like he’d been almost all their lives. They were talking about someone named Yui, another name Eugeo could now recognise as a faceless member of Kirito’s other life.
Of course, he knew bits and pieces here and there. He knew Kirito wasn’t exactly normal in the Underworld, and in hindsight, Kirito being from some other reality wasn’t the most unbelievable thing he’d been told.
Eugeo didn’t quite follow the conversation. Alice seemed to be understanding what information was necessary, but Eugeo felt like he was in way over his head. All these sudden revelations were still shocking to him, and he couldn’t process it entirely.
The days that followed ensured Eugeo remained in that drowning feeling, everything happened so suddenly. One day he’d defeated the woman who lorded over him and his loved ones, the next he was being told the boy he’d silently loved had a wife and child in a different world.
It was only to be expected that Kirito would leave soon after.
The morning had been pleasant, Eugeo was tending to his beloved garden diligently. Terraria helped him to find new flowers to plant and had used the most wonderful sacred arts Eugeo had seen to bring them to life more rapidly than seasons would normally allow.
Kirito had walked out, kneeling down next to the blond. They stayed silent, Eugeo relishing the peace he got from for once not needing to study someone to know how to act.
“These look nice,” he’d finally said. There was something about the way he spoke that worried Eugeo, the mood suddenly dropping.
“Your sister helped me plant them,” Eugeo focused solely on the plants in front of him, using his fingers to carve out space in the dirt for a new rose cutting.
“I’m glad you met her,” Kirito looked at Eugeo’s hands, gentle as they worked.
“Mm.” Eugeo hummed in acknowledgment, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.
There was a silence between them, for once not comfortable. It was heavy, tension thick and nerves restless. Eugeo knew what was coming. It was selfish of him to hope for any different.
“Come with me, Eugeo.”
The words hung in the air. Eugeo blinked. Kirito exhaled deeply.
“In the real world, my world,” he elaborated, “In that world, we could have what we always wanted.”
They still didn’t know how to talk about it, so the topic went largely avoided. Eugeo was still too afraid of any lingering power the Axiom Church and Taboo Index had over him, Kirito was afraid to push him too far.
They both knew deep down how they felt, words weren’t needed. As much as Eugeo would have died to tell him all the feelings he didn’t think he could explain, he stayed silent, for both of their sakes.
“So you intend to go back?” Eugeo bit his lip.
Kirito nodded, “I can’t just stay in this world forever, Eugeo. You mean so much to me, this world means a lot to me, but…”
“Your world needs you back,” Eugeo finished his sentence. Kirito nodded solemnly.
Eugeo felt his lungs tighten and his stomach churn in knots. He was selfish. He knew he was. The man beside him had loved ones, a family, people who cared for him. He couldn’t abandon them for a man he’d - in reality - spent next to no time with.
But he still felt sick. He still felt helpless to the thought of losing him. If hardly any time was passing in Kirito’s world, why couldn’t he stay a little longer in the world they shared? Why did these new people have to show up just to steal him away from him?
Why had they been forced to suffer through their existence in a world that denied them the ability to love each other the way they wanted to?
“I’m going, Eugeo,” Kirito’s voice was firmer, “And I want you to come with me.”
Eugeo twirled the stem of a rose between his fingers. He had his family here, Rulid was his home. He couldn’t leave it. He’d spent so long chasing after Alice, he couldn’t leave her now that he’d been reunited with her again. She certainly couldn’t leave with them, not now that she’d finally gotten her sister back.
There was too much that neither of them could abandon for the other. No matter how much either of them wanted to stay by one another’s sides, they had lives and people and homes to stay with.
“I don’t have much time, Eugeo,” Kirito’s voice was choked up, “In the real world right now my body’s attached to a machine in a facility that’s under attack. They have to move me, and they have to do it now. So I need you to come with me and I need you to do it now.”
Eugeo thought again about everything he had here. Tiese and Ronye had each other, Alice had her family, his brothers had their parents. Everyone he had, had someone else. He had Kirito. Kirito was his constant, his everything - and even he had someone else.
Kirito had a lot of people. A sister, two loving parents, a partner. a group of friends, a child. All of those people needed him. Eugeo needed him.
“I need you, Kirito, with me, any world, anywhere, as long as it’s by my side.”
Eugeo’s voice faltered, tears stinging at his eyes. He knew now all he was, was lines of code and digital information. All his thoughts were being decided for him by highly advanced networks and artificial intelligence. Supposedly, that’s all his feelings were, too.
He reached over to Kirito’s hand. That warmth was real, he couldn’t believe any different. The feelings he had for him were real. They’d be real in this world, that world, any other. What he felt was so much more than just code - it was love in its most passionate, pure, unpredictable form.
Anything they did now would be a risk, moving forward was a future of what-ifs and uncertainties. Questions they couldn’t answer surfaced to both of their minds, none of them spoken aloud.
Eugeo could recall how the rest of the day played out even after years. Kirito had taken his hand and led him back to something he called a console. Weird voices echoed around and Eugeo had no idea what was happening save for the fact Kirito was with him.
Kirito had held him tightly as everything around him went white, and when he next opened his eyes he was sitting up in a hospital bed in what he would come to know as the real world.
Kirito - Kazuto - was standing next to him, girls he would eventually be introduced to as Suguha, Asada and Asuna all crowding the other side of the room.
And the most beautiful bouquet Eugeo had ever seen, daisies, lobelias, forget-me-nots, and his beloved roses, a card attached to the vase, welcoming him home, signed in swirling handwriting, from his future sister-in-law, Terraria.