The owner kicks them out of coffee shop with a glare, sending them off with a shake of her fist even as Yumi pauses to thank her and apologize. Ulrich is still seething, the result of being cooped up in a booth while William made passes at Yumi for the past hour. He can't get rid of him — even now William brushes up behind him on their way out, his chest pressed close to Ulrich's back. Ulrich tenses, and in a few moments William slips away, sidling past him to reach Yumi on the other side.
Unwilling to return to school and out of places to go so late at night, the three of them end up at the swings in the park. It's a ghost town at this time of night, and William and Ulrich quickly wind up in a swinging competition, trying to see who can go the highest, while Yumi sits and waits in exasperation. The vertigo kicks in when Ulrich's just about the win, and as soon as his feet hit the ground he stumbles out of the swing and falls to his knees.
By the time Yumi's up and yelling, "—Ulrich!" his face is burning in embarrassment, hands clutching his knees in frustration as the ground still spins.
"Hey, sorry man." Ulrich looks up. William scratches the back of his head and continues, "I forgot about the, you know, vertigo thing. Wasn't a fair competition, huh?"
The last wave of nausea passes and Ulrich gets to his feet, shrugging off Yumi's hand against his back. He doesn't want to respond to William, who's still looking at him with an unreadable expression on his face, or look at Yumi — he just desperately wants to be alone. He takes off without a backwards glance, his head buzzing with static, and doesn't stop walking until he's under the largest tree in the park.
He's staring up at the dark mass of leaves above him when Yumi sits down next to him and says, sarcasm laced in her tone, "real nice goodbye you gave us, there."
"Sorry," he mutters. "But I don't really want to be around people right now."
William sits down at his other side, close enough that his jacket brushes up against Ulrich's sleeve. "We weren't going to leave you out here alone at this time of night," Yumi continues. She puts an arm around him and squeezes his shoulder in sympathy. Ulrich leans in toward her automatically, the warmth of her closeness and the faint scent of her shampoo outweighing the second rush of embarrassment. She smiles at him, and then William's chest is pressed against Ulrich's back as he leans in, interrupting the moment. "It's getting chilly out here."
Ulrich tenses in annoyance. Yumi's breath of laughter tickles his ear, and she lightly mocks William with, "I thought you said you were the kind of guy who didn't notice the cold?"
William shrugs. "We could share body heat," he suggests. His comment must be directed at Yumi, but he's still pressed up against Ulrich, his body as close and distracting as hers. Ulrich glares at the tree across the way. The surge of jealousy he feels is tinged with something else he can't place.
Yumi just laughs. "Dream on, pretty boy."
William shrugs again. "I'm just saying, I wouldn't want the blame on my shoulders if a friend of mine froze out here…"
Ulrich stands up. "The two of you can do whatever you want," he says, suddenly feeling overwhelmingly frustrated and confused. "I'm leaving."
He doesn't get far before they catch up with him again, and this time it's William who slings an arm around his shoulders, completely ignoring Ulrich's personal space. Ulrich barely gets control on the impulse to sock him, his hands clenched in fists against his sides. "Chill, Ulrich," William says, and Yumi shakes her head at the stupid pun.
William pulls him in the direction of a street lamp and Yumi matches him step for step on Ulrich's other side. She pulls out her phone to check the time and the back light illuminates her hands in an eerie glow, making the tinge of purple around her fingertips stand out. Ulrich touches a hand to the back of hers, and frowns at the icy feel of her skin. "You're cold too, Yumi."
She wraps her hand around his and squeezes.
"See," William says, triumphantly, tugging them both closer. "Body heat." The faint rush of blood humming through Ulrich's body takes him by surprise and he frowns, gripping Yumi's hand harder. William is teasing. he's just trying to get a rise out of Ulrich, and Yumi — Yumi's got that set look on her face that always makes Ulrich nervous, because he's never sure what she's going to do next. But her fingers laced with his own hold him steady, like an anchor, and he relaxes his hand and trusts her.
Yumi glances at him, and then looks over his head at William and simply says, "All right, William, you have a point. It is warmer with the three of us."
The leaves rustle around them as they walk on. Ulrich tunes out everything else around him, focusing in on the the callused skin of Yumi's palm, and the rustle of William's jacket as he readjusts his arm. He feels quiet between them, the earlier boil of frustration and embarrassment calming down into a slow simmer laced with something else he can't — doesn't — want to name. He tries to redirect his focus to a subject he's more than familiar with, but ranting in his head about William's less than ideal qualities isn't as satisfying as it usually is.
Because, Ulrich realizes with a fresh rush of embarrassment, he's starting to admit he can see what Yumi saw in him. What she still sees in him, Ulrich thinks with a frown, but he's the one holding her hand. And William is the one with an arm around him. The comparison throws him as off-balance as the earlier vertigo attack, another wave of nausea coming on hot and sudden as he stops in his tracks.
"Hey, are you all right—" William starts, and Ulrich finally shrugs out his grip, letting go of Yumi's hand at the same time. "I'm fine," he says. "I don't need your concern."
"Okay, jeez." William replies, annoyance rising in his tone. "Sorry I asked, Stern."
Yumi opens her mouth, her forehead creased in frustration at both of them, but Ulrich interrupts her. "I'm going back. See you later."
This time, they don't follow him, and they're nothing more than two dark shapes against the low glow of street lights by the time he stops looking back.
He collapses onto his bed the moment he gets inside his dorm room, after struggling with his door key for a minute too long. The familiar sound of Odd's obnoxious snoring and the weight of the pillow he tugs over his head to drown him out makes everything feel right again. Normal. Far away from the night he just had.
He's almost asleep when his phone vibrates in his pocket. There's two missed alerts. A missed call from Yumi, and a text from William: w/e man. hang out tomorrow night?
Ulrich stares hard at his screen and, thinking he'll probably regret this, texts back: ok.
He spends the next fifteen minutes sitting in the dark, waiting for a reply.