Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of Moonscoop, France 3, and Canal J. The custom-created characters NOT in the actual series and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with Moonscoop, France 3, Canal J, or any of their affiliates. No copyright infringement is intended.

Prompt: Ulrich and Yumi's first date.

Requested by: Mylinda Antoinette

Our Sanctuary

Peace was finally upon us. We could continue on with our lives as we wished. We successfully destroyed XANA a few months ago, eliminating the need to head to the Supercomputer in a hurry, or having people wonder about mysterious occurrences that happened in France.

And with the return of peace, it brought love in my life. Although I almost had to interrogate him to confess his feelings to me, he still loved me for who I am. Tough, independent, strong and determined. Even though it wasn't how I wanted him to tell me his feelings about me, it was a magical moment in my life.

I was disappointed that I couldn't be around for his birthday during the summer holidays, since my family decided to head to Japan for a month. He understood though, as I was going to the country of my birth, seeing my family and childhood friends again. It made me glad I had a boyfriend who respected my ethnicity and the culture I was initially raised in.

But now it's the first day back at school. I'm not a huge fan of Mondays, however it was the first time I saw Ulrich in over a month. At least Kadic Academy gave me someone I could look forward to seeing again.

As I entered the school however, I noticed that a lot of kids were surrounding my boyfriend. I looked over the crowd, thanks to the height I had over the majority of the kids. Then I noticed the sling hanging over his neck, going around his left arm. He had no plaster, indicating he must be in the final stages of recovery.

What really surprised me though was how well he dealt with being surrounded by all these kids. He was calm around them, explaining to the pushy Kadic News Team about his injury. I smiled; amazed at the way he was handling all this attention. Then I slipped out and headed towards the cafeteria, wanting to talk to my friends during this time.

As I spoke to Jeremie, Odd and Aelita about their holidays, my thoughts were distant because I could only think of Ulrich. He was out there, dealing with the press and everybody else in Kadic Academy. I already found out how hard it was to keep a relationship secret.

Yeah, me and Ulrich decided to keep our relationship secret. Considering how popular he was at school, we didn't want publicity of our relationship like so many others. The only people who know of our relationship were my parents, who were happy to allow Ulrich into their lives. Fortunately they promised to keep it a secret to Hiroki who would spill the beans on us, especially because he had a crush on one of the Kadic News reporters.

After all the shenanigans we soon went to our classes. William still made his advances on me, as I'm sure that he was madly in love with me and would do anything to be with me. I brushed him off quite easily, making sure he remembered that I wasn't going to be tempted by his charming ways. I'm sure that Sissi would do the same to Ulrich, but I definitely knew he wasn't going to ditch me for her.

Lunchtime slowly crept up on us. We entered the cafeteria, chatted to each other about classes. Then we decided to go our own separate ways. Odd wanted to pick up the new exchange student hailing from Australia, while Jeremie and Aelita wanted to get a head start on their research project. Sissi wasn't with us because her father wanted to speak to her. So it was just me and Ulrich.

We rushed to a very secluded part of the forest, as it was the only part of the school where we could actually be alone without anybody in sight. Personally, I can see me and Ulrich spending a lot of time here if we wanted to get away from everybody.

We decided to sit under a tree, as the sun was beating down on us. I sat with my back against the bark, as the shade instantly cooled me down. Ulrich was only in a green singlet as he couldn't physically wear his jacket because of his sling. He however was capable of lying down, with his upper body resting on my legs.

Even though he was crushing my legs, I let him rest there. I didn't let him rest there because his arm was broken, but because he was simply, my boyfriend. Although I find it hard to take in as I'm used to just being friends with Ulrich. At least, he'll always have his eyes on me during our time, alone in the forest.

I have to admit, I wouldn't expect to enter a forest to feel isolated from the rest of the world. There was life, in the form of trees, surrounding us, and I thought that could disrupt our alone time. However, the tranquility of the place, even though it's situated in the heart of a suburban town, was peaceful. I opened my eyes to a new world, a world where Ulrich liked to travel to when he wanted to be alone.

"Yumi?" Ulrich called.

I looked down. He seemed very comfortable, with a contented expression on his face. I knew he loved this place a lot, but he was probably loving it more now that I'm here and I'm currently his girlfriend.

"Yeah, what is it?" I asked, staring deeply into his hazel eyes.

"You'd reckon you could call this… our first date?" Ulrich enquired.

I smiled, moving my hand closer to his hair, and answered, "Yeah, apart from not really going out of the school grounds."

Ulrich smirked, responding, "At least I don't have to pay for anything."

"True," I replied, "So when did you break your arm?"

"The day after you went to Japan," Ulrich answered.

"What," I responded while laughing at the same time, "You must be accident prone without me."

"I am. Without you, you can't warn me to be careful, even if it's just running along a footpath while-"

"Wait a second," I interrupted, deducing how my clumsy boyfriend broke his arm, "You broke your arm by tripping on a footpath?"

"Yeah. Funny way to break an arm, isn't it?"

I was surprised how Ulrich answered me back so confidently. Before we were a couple, where I confront him on particular subjects, he would take it as a blow to his pride. But now it doesn't offend him that I ask him about those things, and that he could see the humour in it.

"That's because you don't break your arm when you trip over," I retorted light-heartily, running my fingers through his hair.

Ulrich cracked a smile before responding, "Well, hopefully you won't mind kissing a crippled kid."

"It's you Ulrich. I won't mind kissing you, even with broken bones," I stated, leaning towards Ulrich.

My sweet boyfriend leaned forward as far as he possibly could before our lips met for our first kiss. Life without XANA was wonderful, now that I have a boyfriend in Ulrich Stern, and that my heart only belongs to him.

Not only that, we have our own sanctuary, in the forest of Kadic Academy, to celebrate our relationship. Where we could just go away from the rest of the world and just focus on each other.

Author's Notes: Well, I love this couple to bits, so I was happy to do this request for Mylinda. However, it was hard to come up with a scene for them, but as soon as I thought of the forest it just suddenly came to me.

Oh, if you're wondering, one of my brother's friends actually broke his arm when he tripped and fell on his arms. It wasn't funny at the time but looking back on it it's pretty hilarious.

As for people wondering about my future stories, my next major project at the earliest, is going to be out by the 27th December, which is quite a while due to the fact I'm competing in this year's National Novel Writing Month. So yeah, expect my FictionPress account to finally be active for once.

Otherwise, I'm doing a lot of oneshots to warm me up for NaNoWriMo, so, expect a lot of Code Lyoko oneshots to come through in the next twenty days!