Hot... Or …Cold

Hot, that was the only way to describe the situation.

God, and he had thought that the jealousy he had been giving off was hot.

Hell, he had thought Yumi was hot.

Well, that hadn't really changed. Except now he was mad, too. An all consuming fiery hot kind of mad. His anger was so hot, it left all those things (well, maybe not Yumi) in the dust.

And he really couldn't afford to be any hotter right now.

Quickly, he shouted out some gibberish to Aelita and Odd on the other side of the door. Something about saving them, going to deactivate the tower. The basic stuff. The stuff he was expected to say. The stuff he had to say…The stuff he had been saying for so long.

God, it was too hot to think.

And he could see it was getting hotter, the little needle on the thermostat going up and up and up. Way hotter. And he had thought it was already unbearable.

He wiped his forehead (it had only been a few seconds and he was already sweating) and sat down on the metal bench (it burned his skin, he wouldn't be too surprised if he ended up with third degree burns), it was too hot for this. Way too hot.

Yumi walked over and sat down on the bench. It seemed it was too hot for her as well. And he was a little pleased to notice her sweating-for reasons he wasn't sure if he wanted to admit.

He glanced up at her (when had he put his head down?), and immediately words came spilling out of his mouth. He blamed it on her sweat. And the heat. And especially those eyes of hers… oh my god, her eyes. He could've written books about them.

"Yumi…" even the word was hard to say. He blamed it on the heat and his parched throat.

She looked down, unable to meet his eyes, "Forget it Ulrich. I should've told you about William sooner."

He felt like he was on fire, there shouldn't be anything to tell. Why did she make it sound like there was?

"Yeah," he said shortly, he was like a fuse when it came to her, "That would've been better," the image of him touching her… it was burned in his mind forevermore… he squeezed his eyes shut and looked away.

He missed the chance to see her smile.

And then, that was that. Words didn't need to be spoken. He knew she was sorry. And she knew he knew.

Somewhere in the stretch of silence that followed, Ulrich took of his shirt. He didn't even really realize that he had done it until he saw the sweaty green thing crumpled on the floor in front of him. He supposed natural instinct had taken over. It was just too hot for anything else.

… Drip… Drip…. Drip…

The soundtrack of the boiler room.

It just wasn't natural for the sweat to drip off your forehead like that.

He heard Yumi gasping, adding to the steady beat of his sweat, saw her tugging at her shirt, looking at him from the corner of her eye. It was really just too much to bear with this heat.

He leaned back and took a few gasps of air himself, prepping himself for talking. The air was sticky with heat. He turned around on the bench, back facing Yumi (she didn't mind).

"Go ahead," he said in a rather sour mood, it wasn't fair he should have to be stuck with Yumi in this situation when she was with that William guy, "I won't look."

She shot him another look from the corner of her eye. But he supposed the heat must have gotten to her too, because without much thought at all she had pulled off her shirt.

He closed his eyes for a minute, listening to the rustle of fabric and imagining an entirely different situation with a similar degree of heat.

He heard her breathing deeply, oh god, it was so tempting.

He heard her moving about. Never quite settling. What, was she afraid of him or something?

A few moments later he felt her lean against him. Back to back. He could feel…

God, was it hot.

He blushed.

This was not the time for this.

She settled in further.

He could feel her back sticky with sweat…

He closed his eyes for a minute.

Just imagine. Just imagine her with you instead of that William guy. Ulrich was a lot of things, but he wasn't one to… play... with someone else's toys (even though Yumi was anything but a toy).

What the hell was with this guy?

Why would Yumi choose this new boy? A boy. Someone who didn't know her at all.

He had been there through it all. Through the fights. Through the triumphs. Through the blushing moments. He had been there, always there.

And yet she went with him.

… but she said nothing was going on…

Did that mean?

Yes. It was too hot for it to mean anything else.

Ulrich spun around suddenly, and Yumi's hands flew up to cover herself properly.

"Ulrich!" she squealed, looking quite shocked and fearful… and there was something else he couldn't quite place in her eyes that split second. It was something more than simple words, something like hope, wishing, and wanting all mixed together.

It didn't really matter though what that emotion was in her eyes, because he had only a split second to decide. And the moment his eyes took her in, he knew he had been decided the very moment they had become trapped in the Sahara hot boiler room.

And he knew he couldn't defy fate a moment longer.

So before she could even finish squealing out his name, he dove on top of her, bringing her down with him.

And he, above her, separated only by a few measly millimeters of hot sticky air, panted- not only from the heat of the boiler room.

"Ulrich?" her voice caught, and it went a little higher than she would've liked.

He looked at her for a moment, with a gaze full of intense concentration. It made her want to squirm. But she didn't. She didn't know why, but she didn't.

He let his mind wonder, and found he could picture William on top of her, just like he was now.

He needed to replace the image.

"Let me know if it gets too hot for you," he muttered, before he quickly closed the final millimeters between them.

He had thought it would've been hot.

And it was.

A searing kind of hot that felt more ice-cold than anything else.

He could've melted.

She was kissing him back, the two of them lying on the bench, full force. It was addicting. It was sweet. It was what he had been dreaming of. It was hot.

And even though they were pressed up against each other as much as humanly possible and putting all their energy into that kiss, it didn't seem to matter.

And when thy collapsed on the floor (from simple heat exhaustion or something more?) Ulrich knew.

One thing was for sure…

It was Hot

---

Or

---

Cold overwhelmed him.

And it wasn't just because it was below zero degrees out there. It was a sense of cold dread, fear, love.

Oh god… please let her be alright.

He found himself praying. Praying to everyone and anyone he knew might help. Praying to Jeremie, praying to God, praying to XANA too, just to hedge his bets.

"Yumi!" he cried out, and he hoped he didn't sound half as desperate as he felt (even though that was a lot more desperate then he would've liked for anyone to be hearing).

He can't even remember that a few hours ago, they were overjoyed with the snow. Throwing snowballs at each other. Playing around.

That's a lie, he can remember.

He just wished he couldn't.

To think he could've stopped this.

He couldn't think about it, not while she was lying there, when he
should've been.

It was too much to handle.

No, he had to be strong. If he cracked, Yumi would never make it through this.

He had to be strong, for Yumi.

For Yumi.

"We'll get you out of there," he said offering false words of confidence. After all, he knew it was pointless. And she did too.

There was no way he and Odd and push that huge tree off of Yumi. But he had to try. For Yumi. Even if there was no hope.

Yumi knew it too. He likes to think that's why she made some insane comment about leaving her there, going to the factory.

What he really likes to think is that she was trying to save him. He kind of likes the thought of her liking him that much.

Like hell he was going to leave her, he loved her much too much to simply throw her away.

He quickly turned to Odd, hashing out some quick instructions. Odd could say whatever he wanted, protest however much he wanted, there was no way in hell Ulrich was leaving Yumi.

Odd knew it, he didn't even bother to argue. Just wished Ulrich luck.

Ulrich smiled, it was hard to do so with her lying there.

He bent down to her, he hated how she looked so helpless…

"Hang in there," please, please, he rubbed her back without even meaning to, "I'm going to look for something to get you out of there," there's got to be a way.

She smiled at him, shot him a thumbs up, trying to convince him she was just fine. But the minute he was out of eyeshot, she collapsed.

She knew there was a supply shed right there.

And she knew, there was no way Ulrich could save her.

He doubted it himself, but he would not let her die. He wouldn't.

He searched that shed for what felt like hours, and by the time he came back with the chain, he was sure she'd die of cold by now.

His heart nearly stopped when her goggles were covered in snow. She didn't have the energy, or the will, to wipe off her goggles? The thought scared him to death.

He immediately threw himself on the ground, rubbing off the snow. Let her be alive…

"Let me sleep," she said in-between breaths, and he could see the effort it was taking her to speak.

Oh god, it couldn't be getting to her that quickly.

He shook her, desperate. So desperate.

"No! You can sleep later!" when you're alive and warm and my Yumi again, "Okay?"

He didn't wait for her response, and she didn't bother to give one.

He moved as quickly as he could, but not quickly enough for the cold.

He was no match for XANA. Not when it mattered, not for her. No match for the cold.

The chain broke, and he found himself crying.

Sobbing.

He knew there was no hope now.

He kicked the ground. He kicked the snow that imprisoned Yumi. The snow that was going to be her death.

He stood their, sobbing for a good few minutes.

A good few minutes of Yumi's life. The last minutes maybe, probably.

And he treacherously found himself thinking he was glad she was unconscious so she didn't have to see his failure. See him break down like this.

He had to try again. Anything to save her.

He picked up what remained of the chain and he tried to pull. He put every ounce of everything he had. He heard that sometimes, your inner strength came when you needed it the most, tenfold anything you could ever imagine.

And he'd be damned if he didn't need it now.

Perhaps he was too strong. Or more likely the cold was too strong, because soon, this chain broke too. Along with all his hopes.

She was as good as dead.

"Yumi," he cried crawling over to her, "Stay with me," don't leave me, I'm not ready for that yet, you can't.

He threw himself on top her, hoping that his body warmth would provide her with enough body warmth to survive. He didn't care if he died, as long as his carcass kept her alive.

"Leave me," she said after a while. And he knew she had to be nearly dead that she wasn't protesting more. And that she had waited this long to protest.

He chuckled, his voice raspy (with tears or cold?) "You won't get rid of me that easily."

She smiled. And god, he could see how much energy that took her to do.

It scared him.

When she didn't move for five minutes straight- it scared him even more.

"Please… Yumi…" he pleaded, he needed to give her a reason to live, "We need you to fight against XANA."

She didn't answer.

"I need you," he could feel the tears. It was so hard to even say this. "God I need you"

And suddenly, as if there was an answer to his omens, the sun came out. Blinding him. Maybe, maybe it was enough.

Instantly, snow melted and he felt like he was snapping out of something he didn't realize he was in.

Oh, god, what about Yumi…

"Yumi! Yumi!" he shook her.

Was she sleeping? He asked himself, hoping, just praying that was all it was.

The treacherous voice in the back of his mind whispered, How can you be so sure?

He bent down to hear her heartbeat, he couldn't.

Oh god.

He leaned down to her face.

Maybe he couldn't hear it through the jacket…

She was breathing… faintly.

He needed to give her warmth, the sun simply wasn't enough.

He kissed her.

"Oh god Yumi, don't leave me," he was crying now, feverishly kissing her again and again.

Her eyelids fluttered.

She kissed him back, and all the warmth in the world came flooding back to him. And he was sure, that though his body may not be enough, though the sun may not be enough, his love always was.