In their first three years of knowing each other they were always separated by something.
In the first year, Aelita didn't even know how Jeremie really looks like. He didn't have any virtual form so what she saw were data.
Data that told her that Jeremie Belpois was a human aged 12, and very intelligent.
What she saw in the limbo for the second they saw and held each others hand was a kid.
A boy.
When she added the voice she heard every day, and the image of this boy, something wasn't right. But she told herself it was just because this was surreal, a space between Lyoko and Earth something that shouldn't exist, somewhere nobody should ever be. And yet there he was, lost, at first seemingly unconscious, non-virtualized human, almost dead?
So she called out to him, and he responded.
Of course he would.
When she first materialized, the feeling was gone. It was not surreal anymore, and somehow seeing Jeremie along with the other Lyoko Warriors, there on earth seemed like a thing she anticipated, like this is what she was waiting for.
Or maybe it was because they will shut down the super calculator soon, and she will live in this world with Jeremie and her friends and their lives will not be in danger anymore.
What was new and welcome was the absence of space between her and Jeremie. She could tell that this is only the beginning, that there will be more occasions for when there will be no space, virtual
or physical between them.
And she has so much to tell him then, but she is willing to save it just for those future times.
"I love you"
"Thank you"
"You changed my life for the better."
What Aelita doesn't expect is, when years later they move into their first shared apartment, and their past as virtual superheroes is long forgotten, almost a dream, like a massive hallucination dreamed by all of them.
She is about to change the covers of the sheets, when Jeremie hugs her from behind and stays there. She doesn't dare to look at him, doesn't need to because she knows it's one of those moods.
The "I didn't do my best and thus i basically ruined your life. Now you have to hide your real name, you lost 9 years of your life and you will never find your mother, also your father is dead and it's all because of me."
Jeremie never says this, but she knows that he is still blaming himself for that. Even though none of those is his fault.
So she smiles, because now she learned how to do that without all the bitterness and all the lost chances. It's been ten years and some day you have to let go of the mistakes you made when you were 12, mistakes that are not your fault but the world's around you.
Aelita wants to say what she always thinks at these times but suddenly Jeremie is the one who talks first.
He still doesn't face her, his face is buried in her shoulder that he leans his head on.
There is no space between them right now.
"You know… you are the reason my life is better, Aelita."
Hearing that, she chuckles and it makes her whole upper body shake with the vibration of her laugh.
Jeremie looks at her, and smiles too.
"Yeah I know that. After all, you gave me the life I have now."