Chapter 1
Yumi

Ugh. Gym class again. There goes Sissi trying to look all cute while impressing Ulrich with her so-called roundhouse kicks. As usual, Hiroki is off pining for Milly and Odd left for the "bathroom" at least fifteen minutes ago… All in all, a normal day of gym class in the middle of October. Wonderful.

"Ulrich, dear!" I roll my eyes. There Sissi goes again. "Can you show me how to do that circle kick again? I just can't seem to get the hang of it!"

"Roundhouse, not circle kick, Sissi," Ulrich replies blandly. "Why don't you just ask Herb?"

"I'll be glad to show you, Sissi!" Herb pipes up quickly. "Just position your shoulder like this…" Ulrich chuckles softly as Sissi huffs in frustration. I love the way his eyes always slide shut when he smiles. I start to laugh along with him when his eyes open, holding onto mine.

"Come on, Yumi," he says, tossing his head to the left. "Wanna fight?"

I smirk. "Oh, you're so on." We take our stances on the mat with Jim acting as referee.

As Lyoko Warriors constantly tasked with keeping each other safe, we know each other's fighting styles very well. I know that Ulrich tends to stay in one spot, making big, slashing movements, and Ulrich knows that I prefer slight movements and quick retreats, then starting the process over. We kick our shoes off, picking up tracks of dust on our socks. Mine white ankle socks, his an unusual mix of green and purple. I raise an eyebrow.

"Don't look at me like that! Odd's special friend ruined the rest of my clean socks!" We both laughed. Kiwi must have been taking another nap in Ulrich's sock drawer.

"Alright, enough chitter chatter," Jim grouses. "Let's see a good fight! Should be a good one with my two best fighters. Maybe we should start a boxing team…" he adds as an afterthought.

As usual, Ulrich is the first to take off, and I quickly dodge. We get caught up in the moment, neither of us really gaining on the other, until I strike him hard in the sternum.

"Ahhh! Geez, Yumi, you're gonna break a rib!" Ulrich gasps as he leans a hand on his knee.

"Oh my god, are you okay?" Just as I move in to… yes, okay, I definitely wanted to touch his chest… a mischievous glint cross his eyes and wrapped his arms around me, his front pressed to my back, his hands holding my wrists together.

"Almost too easy," Ulrich teases me.

"Oh, come on, Jim, is that even legal?" Sissi complains in the distant background.

"Say uncle yet?"

"Oh, no way!" I exclaim. I turn my palms together and force them apart as I jerk my hips back, effectively pushing him Ulrich away from me. I catch him by surprise with a knee in the stomach, and then knock him on the floor.

"You're coming down with me!" Ulrich yelps as he drags me down by the wrist. I land on top of him and move to straddle him, forcing his hands above his head.

"Say uncle yet?" I tease back. Ulrich just laughs at me.

"Aaaaaand kiss!" A shrill voice cuts through the air. I abruptly realize how close we are; if I leaned in just a little, we actually could kiss. Of course, I turn into a blushing, stuttering mess. I scramble to get off of him, possibly kneeing him in a particularly sensitive area on the way up. My suspicions are confirmed by a stifled groan. How embarrassing!

"Shut up, Hiroki! Ulrich and I are just good friends, got that?" I rebuke heatedly.

"Yeah, great friends," Ulrich mutters. Geez, what's his problem? His little brother didn't just embarrass him in front of the entire gym class! God, why does this little nuisance of a brother have to ruin everything?

"Alright, alright, enough squabbling. Class dismissed," Jim calls out. I take off without a second look. I don't realize until I am halfway back to the lunchroom and it starts drizzling that I left my jacket and regular school clothes in the gym. Great!

"Woah, Yumi, wait up!" I keep a groan to myself. At any other time, I would smile at the sound of Ulrich's voice, but Hiroki's teasing and Ulrich's confirmation that we're just good friends still sting a little. "Come on, Yumi, you've got to be freezing."

Well, he isn't wrong about that. My t-shirt and leggings don't do much to protect me from the cold, but I still don't trust myself not to say anything to worsen my embarrassment.

"Here, take my hoodie." He slips off his jacket to pull off his sweatshirt and hand it to me, leaving him with a thick raincoat.

"No way! You're going to freeze to death if you give that to me." I try to push it away from me.

"But Ms. Ishiyama," he laughs with a gruff accent. "You forget that I have German blood running through my veins. We are bred for the cold!"

"Oh, stop," I nudge his shoulder. "Just because your grandfather's German doesn't make you German too!"

"I'm German enough to be named Ulrich Stern. I think we can let this one slide. Besides, a young Japanese butterfly like yourself would wilt in this coming winter storm!" he jokes back.

"Madame Butterfly commits suicide after pining after an American soldier, you know." I roll my eyes.

"Oh." Ulrich seems dumbfounded for a second. When it's clear that he won't take the stupid sweatshirt back, I grudgingly pull it on. It smells like him.

"You know… about what Hiroki said earlier," Ulrich starts, awkwardly touching his neck. Oh, no. Time for damage control.

"Don't worry about it," I interrupt him. "He says stupid stuff like that all the time. Still friends though, right?" I wait nervously for his answer. If Ulrich stopped talking to me because of my stupid brother's comment, I don't know what I would do.

"Yeah," he finally says. For some reason, he refuses to meet my eyes. "Still friends."

"I should go back to get my stuff. Thanks for the sweater," I say weakly.

"Yeah," he repeats absentmindedly. "No problem."

I leave him at the door of the lunchroom, raindrops collecting on his ever-messy brown hair. He doesn't go in. Instead, he pulls at his hair and stomps off, nearly barreling into a group of seventh graders. I thought I had fixed everything, but why does everything feel so wrong?

Hello and welcome to my first Code Lyoko story. I just rewatched the series (but not Code Lyoko Evolution) and had some inspiration. This fic will be centered around Ulrich and Yumi, with minimal XANA things going on. Also, Yumi, Ulrich, Jeremie, Aelita, Odd, and all of the older characters are all in 10th grade. Cool. Let me know what you think!