I do not own Code Lyoko or any of their characters

Chapter 1

It's been 5 months since the battle with Xana ceased and the Lyoko Warriors finally returned to their normal lives without any threat of a Xana attack. "Alright Yumi, we have known each other a long time and…" No that won't work.. Ulrich Stern was currently in the park walking back and forth, apparently practicing what he's about to say to Yumi. Ulrich is dressed in his army jacket with a dark green shirt under it and blue jeans.

He also won a couple front row tickets for tonights subdigitals concert in a contest a local radio show hosted, now he's trying to find the perfect way to ask Yumi to go with him. Ulrich has had a crush on Yumi since the moment they met while taking pencak silat classes and this feeling only grew stronger since they became friends and teamed up in the fight against Xana, but Ulrich has always been too scared to make the first move.

But this time, Ulrich is confident that he can summon the courage to ask the asian girl out on a date. After a while of practicing what he was going to say to her, he sent a text to Yumi to meet him in the park as soon as possible. Ulrich then took a deep breath and sat down on a empty bench. After about 15 minutes later, Yumi was walking through the park and put a smile on her face when she noticed Ulrich. Ulrich suddenly began to have second thoughts when he make eye contact with Yumi, but the thought of backing out was quickly dismissed and Ulrich approached him.

"Hey Ulrich, what's up?" Yumi asked the brown haired boy with a small smile. Ulrich's face has completely turned bright red as he lead he to a bench without saying word. He found his heart was beating faster then normal and his stomach was full of butterflies. "W-Well, you see…" Ulrich started, but then there was a pause and it looked like he was thinking of what he was about to say next. Yumi looked at him with a 'go on' expression.

Come on Ulrich, it's now or never.. Ulrich thought to himself and took a deep breath. "I have these tickets to the subdigitals concert tonight and I was wondering if you would you like to go with me?" Ulrich finally asked Yumi, holding onto a deep breath as he waited for her response. Yumi's face suddenly turned pale and blushed in response to his question. "Are you asking me out on a date?" Yumi asked Ulrich, her face full of seriousness. Ulrich was a moment away from just implying that it wouldn't be a date but he was already this far, he can't turn around now. Ulrich just nodded simply and wait to see where this led him.

Yumi just let out a sad sigh, this is what she feared. "I'm sorry Ulrich, but I've been keeping a secret from you guys." Yumi started and she bit her lip when she saw the fear in Ulrich's eyes. "I've been dating William for a couple weeks now and it looks like it's getting serious." Yumi shook her head and placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to show him comfort. "I'm really sorry, I hope that this won't ruin our friendship." Yumi told him then she got up and walked away from the sulking teen, going back to her original plan which was to do homework with William in his room.

Ulrich can feel his heart shatter into a million pieces. He was too late, the girl of his dreams was taken but he had no one to blame but himself. He wanted to hate William for this, he really does, but he had plenty of opportunities to make a move on her and backed out at the last minute. He can't blame William for doing what he was too scared to do. Ulrich stood up from his seat and made him way back to his room.

Once there, he noticed that the only living soul in the room was Kiwi, his roommates loveable dog who seemed to be excited to see him. He thought this was weird until he remembered Odd tell him that he was out on yet another date and he'll be out all day. "Figures." Ulrich said out loud and laid down on his bed, he can't stop thinking of Yumi. He stared at the ceiling as he thought about what could've been.

A few hours later, Ulrich exited his dorm room and made his way to the lunch room, hoping that some food would keep his mind off rejection. Ulrich grabbed a bowl of soup and some crackers before looking for a place to sit down. His heart sank when he saw William and Yumi sitting at a table by themselves in a corner, laughing at a joke William made.

Ulrich sighed and found an empty table from him to sit down at. Then he rested his head in his hand and stared at his soup, spinning his spoon around in it as he remembered his rejection. "Hey Ulrich!" He snapped back to reality when he suddenly heard someone call his name. When he looked up, he was surprised to see the smiling face of Aelita. "Hey Aelita…" Ulrich said sadly and he went back to playing with his soup. "Well it looks like someones down in the dumps today, what's wrong?" Aelita asked her friend, a smile still implanted on her face. "I would rather not talk about it." Ulrich said simply, not even looking up to face her. "What are you Jim?" Aelita laughed at her own little joke and Ulrich smiled a little.

"Is this about Yumi and William?" Aelita asked him, a serious tone in her voice is apparent. "You know?!" Ulrich asked as his head shot up to face his pink haired friend. "Well yeah, I'm surprised it took Yumi this long to tell you." Aelita shrugged and had a little of her own soup. "But then again, considering the history between the two of you I can understand why Yumi wouldn't want to hurt your feelings by telling you that you that she was taken." Ulrich sighed and broke a couple crackers on his soup. "Well I wish I knew this before I suffered through the most embarrassing moment of my life." Ulrich said as he ate a spoonful of his soup.

"Aw, I'm sorry…" Aelita let out a sympathetic moan, putting it all together in her head. Ulrich on the other hand was looking for a way to change the subject and he finally noticed that someone was missing. "Hey, where's Jeremy?" Aelita choked on her soup a little when Jeremy was mentioned, which surprised Ulrich. "Um, Are you ok?" Ulrich asked the pink haired girl, placing his spoon down and folded his arms, deciding that he's not hungry. "Oh, uh yeah… everything's cool…" Aelita said putting on a clearly fake smile, she picked up on some slang over these last couple months.

"Did you two get in a fight?" Ulrich asked, his voice slightly above a whisper. Aelita sighed and put her own spoon down as well. "Well, sorta." Aelita admitted to her friend, playing with her fingers a little and Ulrich leaned in close as he awaited details. "It's nothing big, it's just that we're not as close as we were a couple months ago when we were battling Xana." Aelita said, looking at the floor. "We're still good friends, but it seems that except for being smart, we have nothing in common." This caught Ulrich by surprise, is the one relationship that was supposed to last over just like that? Aelita sighed and resumed to eating her soup in silence for a few minutes.

Ulrich placed his hand in his pocket and pulled out the subdigitals tickets and held them just below the table so Aelita wouldn't see what he was holding. He was a second away from just ripping them up and moving on, but then he looked up at Aelita then back at the tickets before making a decision.

"Hey Aelita." Ulrich said suddenly, causing the pink haired girl to lift her head to look at him. "I won these tickets a for the subdigitals concert tonight, you wanna go?" Ulrich asked, holding up the tickets for Aelita to see. "Really? You want to go with me?" Aelita asked him, this question seemed to come out of nowhere from her perspective. Ulrich smiled and nodded in response. "Well…" Aelita started, playing with her fingers as she thought about it. "Sure, it'll be fun!" Aelita said, a smile returning to her face.

"Great, pick you up at 6?" Ulrich asked the pink haired girl with a grin upon his own face. "Sure, see ya then!" Aelita waved goodbye as she picked up her tray and went to throw it away. A minute later, Ulrich blushed hard as he realized this is technically a date that they're going on.