Based on a very brief daydream I had once. It made me smile, so I wrote it.
It's kind of rough because I didn't cycle through it a million times like with everything else I write. I wrote it quite late, too. Hope that doesn't make it unreadable.
They're riding upwards in the elevator and Odd's trying to tell him about that awesome airshot he landed on that Kankrelat in the most extravagant way possible and how he should've seen it, man, it was so awesome it was obscene, and Ulrich nods along quietly to appease him, lacking the energy for any clever quips. It's what he tends to do, him and him both. Part of a routine that ended a good day, which was never bad. In truth, Ulrich never really cares, but it's fine.
The elevator door opens, and Odd grumpily insists Ulrich doesn't quite get it, but Odd does eventually get the hint - either that or he's just bored of his current audience - and decides to switches targets to Jeremie by the computer and he saunters over. Ulrich just laughs and calls him something dumb. He waves it off, as always.
Yumi's not quite there yet; she wasn't devirtualised until a little after they were, and the elevator was only going down now. He waits, as he always does. He'll be the first to greet her.
One of the many signs of how far gone he is is that Ulrich can sense her presence before he even notices her absence in his present company, and at the time he couldn't. When she does come back up, he can hear her easily. He has those boots' footfalls on short trigger recognition. He is that bad.
Yumi just hums non-committedly in greeting when he turns his head to look at her and, unexpectedly, wraps her arms around him from the back and rests her head on top of his, quite content. Ulrich doesn't do anything to stop it, and blinks and wonders what is happening, and when the others are going to notice and comment. Or jeer. The thought keeps him in some healthy suspense.
Her head slides further down to his shoulder. Ulrich tries not to choke. He tries pretty hard that time.
"Umm," he manages, trying not to swallow, either, "You okay?"
She nods into his neck and he suppresses a shudder when her nose rubs against him because he doesn't want to scare her off and scaring Yumi off is the last thing he would ever want to do right now and that was sort of an admission that he liked this, wasn't it?
It feels like a gradual change from Yumi using him as a support beam to using him as an extra leg when he feels her shift more and more of her weight onto his not-so-straight stance. They don't fall, but slowly descend. He easily could have stopped it, but the girl's lethargy is infectious, and a small part of him is curious as to where it could lead, and there's probably a huge part that just doesn't want to part from this wonderful person because there's no reason why he would want to.
They're both at on the factory floor now, with Ulrich sat enclosed between her knees and Yumi wrapped around him like a pleasantly happy blanket. A pleasantly happy sleepy blanket that also smells really, really nice and she nuzzles a little deeper and Ulrich is now absolutely positive that she's too tired to really know what she's doing anymore.
He's pretty okay with it anyway, because it's been a productive day and no one got hurt and it's ended with Yumi all around him, and never has he felt this self-conscious about their size difference until now.
It isn't bad, though.
In fact, it's nice, he admits to himself as he smiles. It is nice, and they're laughing at us now, but when compared to this, it's nothing.