#2 Things That Are Dumb
Once devirtualized from Lyoko, there was nothing that a warrior could do in the lab. They couldn't go back, they couldn't get a word in edgewise between Jeremie and Laura, or worse, Jeremie, Laura, and Aelita. No kind of processing, or coding that they'd be capable of anyways.
Ulrich could virtualize everyone in a pinch. If there was a problem with one of the three geniuses getting to the factory or something he could get least get Odd, Yumi and William onto Lyoko. (And Aelita showed him how to set the timer to get himself there, just incase.) But once they were there he was useless. He couldn't even get the halo-map up.
There was nothing he could do when the immediate threat wasn't on Earth, and he had been devirtualized from Lyoko.
It was dumb. Like really dumb. And that was the kind of state that usually brought on the brooding in the warrior. And Odd was his best friend but usually even he bailed when Ulrich got all sigh-y, and restless after a particular incident that didn't go as planned.
So one day when Yumi was walking into the dorm and Odd was pushing his way out he yelled, "Your boyfriend, your problem!" after her. Yumi traded her backpack onto the other shoulder, leaning against the doorframe to stare after the blonde in confusion before slowly letting herself into the dorm.
"Why is Odd being dramatic?" she asked, but when she turned around and saw Ulrich she realized, "Oh, because you're being dramatic." She shut the door behind her. Ulrich was face down on his bed, right hand dangling off the edge. His shoes were where he'd left them, kicked off next to his desk. He didn't move. "Ulrich, get up."
"No," he muttered into the pillow. Yumi nudged his foot, setting her bag down on his desk.
"Yes," she insisted.
"No."
"Let's go outside."
"Outside is dumb." Sighing, Yumi pushed his legs aside far enough to make room for her to sit.
"Are we really doing this again? Please stop pouting." She tried a few deep breaths to keep her voice calm. What she really wanted was to stand up and dump the boy onto the floor. (And follow Odd to wherever he was going-Probably to see Jeremie.)
"Pouting is dumb."
"Ulrich Stern," Yumi complained, crawling up the bed, pushing at his shoulder. Ulrich tilted his head towards her. "You cannot pout because you were devirtualized."
"I'm not," Ulrich argued, but it came out as a whine.
"You saved Aelita. That's the job. She needed to run the new programs at the platform. We couldn't."
Ulrich looked unsure, but rolled onto his shoulder, holding his arms out for the girl. "I'm sorry."
Yumi put herself against his chest, kissing his cheek. He looked more content, letting his eyes fall shut. It wasn't long until Yumi realized he was going to sleep.
"You're not taking me on a date, are you?"
"Dates are dumb."