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Safe Word

Jeremie smiled at how easily the pieces of the program had fallen into place—a simple, non-essential program that had even taken the edge off his stress. Now to get back to the big stuff, a stern, mental voice reminded him.

"Jeremie?"

"Come on in, 'Lita," Jeremie replied, turning around in his seat and pulling an extra chair out for the pink-haired girl. "I just finished writing up a quick procedure for direct virtualization into the mountain sector. Every minute during an attack counts, it should help us stay efficient."

"That's wonderful, Jeremie." Aelita's voice was warm as she sat down next to him and briefly scanned his work.

"I just need to tie up a few more loose ends on it, then I can get back to finding the replikas-"

It was a soft, insistent kiss. Aelita's hand cupped around his jaw, pulling him in her direction. Jeremie didn't react at first, but then followed the not-quite-familiar movements of her lips—she was the bolder one in whatever relationship they had, and even then Aelita didn't often make a move. The way her fingers worked their way to his hair proved that when she did, however, she was determined to make an impression.

Aelita pulled away slightly, keeping their faces close together and nuzzling his forehead with hers. "You deserve a little break, Jeremie." Jeremie didn't have time to respond before her arms were around him again. It was easy to lose himself in her scent and touch, and the entire world started slipping away...almost.

Shit! a panicked voice abruptly screamed in his head. Not again! Jeremie froze, hesitant to end the kiss but all the same slowly pushing the girl back. Aelita sighed and hugged him tightly, satisfied when he didn't fight her off, and whispered in his ear, so quietly he barely heard it, "Big fat cheese-head."

Jeremie relaxed and grinned apologetically. Xana had been reaching new lows since his escape last summer, and had made it clear on several occasions that he was not above sending a polymorphic clone of Aelita to "distract" Jeremie in order to kidnap the real pinkette as bait for her father. It was an effective way to keep the genius out of the picture, especially the few times Xana managed to hack into the SuperScan and take away all warning. A code of sorts was necessary, and although Jeremie and Aelita hadn't verbally agreed what it would be used for, it was mutually understood that he would need to know the difference between Xana's traps and Aelita's advances.

It was, in a way, their reverse safe word, Aelita's method of telling Jeremie not to worry about continuing, and something Xana could never guess; it wasn't an important date or number, it wasn't found in any of Waldo Schaeffer's diaries, it was utterly random, and partly inspired by a passing trend of Kadic Academy: calling friend and foe alike "cheese-head", a fad that lasted for about two months. The phrase had a more practical than romantic side to it, however.

Aelita held Jeremie to her once more, impatient for the day when their only problem would be their shared timidness, and not the possibility of Jeremie being seduced then fried by one of Xana's decoys. It would be nice for him to know she had other reasons for kissing him besides wanting to kill him—it would be even nicer if she could tell him so herself. Spontaneous bursts of affection on her part would have to make do until the day they shut down the supercomputer and brought back her father and William; and the feel of Jeremie's hands at her waist and his mouth against hers made it a little more bearable for Aelita.

Jeremie smiled shyly when they broke apart for air, not sure how to make conversation with a girl he'd adored for two years and who was now in his embrace, without any real admission of feelings passing between the two. "I-I should probably save this work," he stammered out past his blush.

Aelita smirked and nodded before snuggling into his side, watching him rapidly type in commands. Jeremie searched his scattered brain for the first name that came to mind—whatever accusations of brilliance he might have had, Jeremie had never been very organized with his directory, always able to remember any file's contents no matter the label. Something Xana, and anyone else, would never guess, he thought suddenly. Aelita shifted restlessly next to him, and Jeremie bit back a chuckle as he saved and shut down the computer.

A short, random, insomnia-inspired fic, with my take on Jeremie and Aelita's "private joke".