Hello! Hope you enjoy another fluffy and angsty J/A fic. ^^ Stay awesome! And thanks for reading. 3

Four sets of eyes scanned a strange world, surrounded by red water and ugly fish.
"Okay, the replica is due north, Aelita, you all should head toward it."
"Thanks Jeremie," replied the owner of one of those sets of eyes, as she sighed. "Ulrich, you and Odd split to fight off the-"
"Wait, you guys are splitting up?" Jeremie, his voice slightly warped by the distance between Lyoko and Earth, sounded surprised.
"Oh...here we go..." Odd muttered from his pod.
"Yes, Jeremie, " Aelita responded, ignoring her so-called cousin, slowly stopping the Skid so the others could get off. "It makes better sense and time-"
"And it's more fun!" Odd interjected again.
"It's not a game, Odd," Jeremie snapped, but Aelita cut him off softly.
"It's alright, Jeremie, we'll be fine, you said yourself that this replica seemed deserted. It's a simple mission."
"'Seemed', Aelita. Who knows if it really is? It's dangerous."
"Einstein..." Ulrich and Odd started at the same time, just as Yumi sighed loudly. Aelita spoke over all of them, her mind already whizzing ahead as she typed in the coordinates to unlock the other pods. "Jeremie, it'll be fine, don't worry. XANA attacked us, now it's our turn to play."
Jeremie huffed loudly. "It's not a game," he muttered sourly. "But go on, play the game. I'll just watch from here and not be able to do anything if you guys get yourself in trouble."
"Oh, thanks for the vote of confidence," Ulrich drawled as he and Odd detached from the main Skid and started moving away.
"Don't worry, Einstein, it's game we can win!" Odd bellowed, then speed off, his pod spewing bubbles in Ulrich's front window. When only silence followed, Aelita bit her lip, and looked up for a moment, an old habit she had gained from always hearing Jeremie's voice coming from the sky.
"Jeremie, don't worry, we'll be okay. I'll-"
"Just go, Aelita," came the sharp reply. Aelita's temper sparked, but she ignored it, setting her face and ignore the soft sound of annoyance and sympathy that echoed over the loud speaker from Yumi.
"Okay. Let's go."

"And then Yumi destroyed the forth robot like WHAM and it looked like it blew up, didn't it Einstein, it was just like out of Sky Breaker on Ulrich's old XBOX-"
"The one you broke last month, you mean," Ulrich and Yumi replied in unison dryly, standing side by side in the elevator as the group of them made their way back up to the top floor. The two of them grinned at each other, blushing slightly. Odd sniggered, not at all effected by the accusation, his multi-colored spiky hair bouncing as he reenacted the battle they had just finished.
"Yeah, and I didn't know you got graphics like that on the computer screen here, Einstein," he added, reaching out to elbow the blond boy next to him. "You should program the score board so it looks like that for the robot battle next week." He elbowed him again, and Jeremie blinked, and looked up.
"Huh?"
"Robots," Odd told him, just as Yumi said:
"And you said we couldn't handle it, Jeremie."
Jeremie shrugged and didn't answer. Yumi, Ulrich and Odd looked at each other, shrugged, then looked at Aelita, who was standing in the far corner, looking at her feet. Her hands were slightly clenched together, her hair covering her face, hiding her expression. After a moment, she must have sensed the awkward silence, and looked up.
"Huh?"
Yumi held back a snigger at the pink haired girl's now confused expression, while the other two boys made no effort to hide their amusement. Aelita stared at them, glancing for a moment at Jeremie. He was avoiding her gaze. Her eyebrows raised slightly. What was wrong with him? He had seemed fine when he brought them back in from Lyoko- well, them as her, Ulrich and Yumi, since Odd had been devirtualized. She cocked her head to one side, watching him. After a moment, as the other three resumed their conversation, she started to reach out to him, to get his attention.
The elevator thudded to a halt, making her jump as the doors slid open.
"Well..." Ulrich stretched and looked slide long at Yumi. "Ready for P.S. practice?" He grinned at her as she raised her eyebrows at him. "Or are you too tired, Ishyama?"
Yumi smirked and battered her eyelashes at him. "Challenge me, Stern, and you'll find out."
"Oooooohhhhh... it's on..." Odd intoned, earning glares from both of them. He laughed, and ran ahead of them. "See you guys later, I gotta a date with Claire at six!" He ran off, whooping.
Yumi, rolling her eyes, looked back at Aelita and Jeremie, who were walking apart, both with their hands in their pockets and their gazes at their feet. Smiling slightly, she paused.
"Well, see you guys tomorrow," she said softly. Aelita looked up and smiled, but Jeremie didn't answer. Yumi looked at Ulrich, who shrugged, glanced at both of them, then sighed and shrugged again. Yumi hesitated, then the two of them headed over the bridge, leaving Jeremie and Aelita behind.
For a moment or two, they walked in silence. Aelita's heart felt a little more heavy and confused with each step. She hesitated, then looked up at him.
"Jeremie, you-"
"Aelita." He abruptly stopped walking. Aelita frowned. His fists were clenched slightly, and his back was turned to her. "You're the one most connected with Lyoko, with this war. You...you of all people know how dangerous it is."
Unsure where he was going with this, Aelita took a step toward him. "Yes, Jeremie, it is dangerous. We all know it."
Jeremie let out a soft, short laugh that had no humor it. "Do you?"
Aelita's eyes narrowed. "Jeremie, if you're referring to why I split up the team earlier, isn't obvious that it was a good strategy?" She took another step toward him, temper starting to bubble a little. "We won, for this round, so-"
"Won. Round. Turn. Play. Game." Jeremie bit off the words sharply. "You're as bad as Odd, thinking that this a game." He spun suddenly, and Aelita stared at him. "It's life and death, Aelita! One wrong, risky idea could turn a 'simple mission' into a kamikaze run!" He threw up his hands, the blue eyes behind his glasses bright with anger and fear. "This isn't a game!"
Temper boiled over before Aelita could stop it, and she glared at him, taking a step forward to get in his face. "Don't you think I know that?" She snapped, furious. "How DARE you assume you think I'm playing with this, like I don't care about what happens to the others." She poked a finger hard into his chest. "If you were in my position, you'd be doing the same thing, Jeremie Belpois, and you know it. You wanna win this war as much as I do!"
Jeremie glared at her. "If I was in your position, Princess," he snapped, using her nickname like an insult, "we'd be done with stupid war by now! How many times have you played your game and put yourself in danger and set everything back?"
Aelita stared at him, gobsmacked. "You think you're better than me, Jeremie?" Her angry cry echoed around the empty canyon between the factory and the shore. "You couldn't win a battle if it was in miniature toys!"
"No, I'd win because at least the toys wouldn't be reckless and stupid enough to risk their lives and everyone else to gain life points! They'd actually listen to me!"
"Stupid?"
For a moment, silence echoed between them. Jeremie's face seemed to clear of anger after a second, and his eyes widened when he realized what he said.
"Aelita-" He reached out, an apology on his lips, already feeling the fool. But she stepped out of his reach, her eyes narrowed and vivid green.
"I'm not your pawn, Jeremie, nor am I your toy. If you want me to be, you're no worse than XANA itself." Before Jeremie could reply, she spun on her heel and walked away.
Jeremie stared at her, then scowled.
"Fine!" He bellowed at her back. "At least XANA's robots listen to what he tells them to do!"
His own voice echoed back at him, sounded frailer and more idiotic with each ripple of sound. As his anger faded slowly, Jeremie looked down and kicked at the ground. Great job, he thought at himself, as guilt quickly began to swell into where fury had been. All you want to do is protect her, yet all you do is insult her and make her mad. Awesome.
In the back of his head, Aelita's words swirled. Couldn't win a battle...if you were in my position...
"I'll show her," he muttered, his head snapping up. "I can make robots with better strategies than she has." Ignoring the guilt that still spread in his heart, he stomped off, the angry words spewed from the girl he loved still spinning his brain.