"You're supposed to be in bed." Ulrich protested weakly.
"I need the exercise anyway, but I'll sit if you talk." She bargained, folding her legs and taking a seat beside him at the base of a tree.
"You want to know about our friendship?" He clarified.
"The others said it was a little more than just a friendship..." His face turned into a look of confusion and a pink blush appeared. "But, I'll settle for stories about our friendship."
"Well." He began slowly, nervously combing his fingers through his hair. "It was easy at first. Both of us shared some skill in Penak Silat and we were quite the professionals if I do say so myself. We'd become such good friends in a short amount of time, it was great. But then...Things started to get a little more complicated. A new kid, William Dunbar, started to take interest in you and I let it get to me. I shouldn't have, though...You had already established that we were just good friends. Ever since you agreed to going out with him, our friendship became rough."
He looked at her, watching her eyes and spoke surely. "But I was determined to make sure our friendship stayed strong. I wanted to be happy for you, because I knew that's what a real friend would do."
Yumi smiled.
"I tried to spend as much time as I could with you, but going to Lyoko interfered a lot, so we'd mostly spend time together here." He motioned to the park and greenery that surrounded them. "This was a popular meeting spot, since it's near the sewer to the factory and the scenery is quite beautiful."
"Is that why you were here tonight? Remembering the good times?"
He smirked sadly. "I suppose so. I just started waling and I kinda ended up here."
Yumi's heart twisted. "I wish I could remember." She murmured softly.
"Me too."
"Thank you for telling me."
"Anything you need, Yumi. Anything you can think of and it's yours."
It became part of Yumi's routine to meet Ulrich at the park to talk about the past and watch the sun go down. He would tell her about their friendship and she would listen intently, struggling to remember. Her feelings for him were starting to emerge, but she didn't feel she could trust them just yet.
"Tell me about our fight." She finally asked, leaning against one of the benches besides him, needing to know what had happened that was so terrible.
"Are you sure?" Ulrich evaded. "I don't want you relapsing or something."
"Don't worry, I can take it. I reacted that way when I first saw you because I was confused, tired and all I had were these emotions I had no idea what to do with. Come on, tell me. Please."
As he spoke, bits and pieces of memories started stitching themselves together, like a puzzle assembling itself.
"We'd been having these little fights all week You'd been having a lot of long nights and I missed you...I just lashed out."
He could see it all playback in his mind, like a horror movie he was being forced to watch another time. As much as he wished he could go back, there was no way to change it.
Yumi had come home to see Ulrich waiting by her front gate, sitting on the stairs slumped against the wall. He looked up as he saw her approach and slowly rose to his feet.
"Were you waiting for me?" Yumi asked, puzzled.
"Yeah. We were supposed to meet at the park...But that was four hours ago, so I guess you stood me up."
"You didn't wait for me this entire time did you?" She examined him and his silence seemed to answer her question.
"I was worried something happened to you. You've never been late to anything before."
She closed her eyes. "I'm tired and it's cold. Can't you save me the scolding till tomorrow?"
He raised an eyebrow, genuinely surprised by her sharp remark. He was concerned for her and this was the thanks he got? He watched in silence as she removed clips from her hair.
"Well?" She finally said in a tired voice. "Didn't you have something to say."
"Don't use that tone of voice with me."
"What tone of voice? Ulrich, I'm exhausted, can't whatever you have to talk about wait until I've actually had some sleep?"
"No, it can't. Every time I try to talk to you, you seem to not have time or you just bail on me."
"If this about the prom again, I swear I'm gonna-"
"You and William aren't technically dating. And if you really don't want to go with me, just say it straight out. I get it."
"You know I don't like those things, no matter who I go with!"
"Well, I want to change that. Just let me try, please."
"Ulrich, I don't want to deal with all of this right now, it's really late and-"
"I know where you were today. You were out with him-"
"He has a name."
"You were out with William. You could've just told me that you couldn't make it to our meeting, you know. How can you enjoy-?"
"How can I enjoy what? Having fun? Being able to relax with a friend after a long day of risking my life and saving the world even though in the end no one will even remember? Feeling beautiful for once instead as just this warrior that only exists to fight Xana?"
Ulrich swallowed. "Yumi...You know I always think you're beautiful."
"You're my best friend, you're obligated to. I'd beat you up all the time if you didn't." She shrugged, wanting the conversation to be over and turned away from him.
"Hey." He walked over and gently grabbed her arm. She met his eyes again. "You are though."
She sighed and rests her head on her shoulder. "I'm just so tired, Ulrich."
He held her in his arms, wanting the moment in last forever. "I just miss the girl I fell in love- I mean, the girl who became my best friend within a matter of days. You feel so far away from me now."
She tensed. "Wait...Are you trying to end things?" She pushed him away, her eyes wide. "Are you trying to end our friendship?"
"What? No!" He looked at her, horrified. "Of course not, why would you ask that?"
"All we do is fight lately."
"That's what we do best. And we're both under a lot of pressure. Once we shut Xana down, things will be better."
"Maybe...Maybe it's not such a bad idea though." She started to say, pulling away and refusing to look him in the eye.
"No."
"You said it yourself! We're drifting apart. Xana isn't going to give up any time soon. Maybe we should just cool things until this whole war is over. Our complicated feelings for each other seem to make our friendship rough."
He took her hands into his own, squeezing them tightly. "Yumi, don't you dare split us apart, not now...Not after everything we've been through together."
"It might be for the best." She whispered sadly.
Ulrich couldn't believe what he was hearing. After everything he'd sacrificed for their fragile friendship, after meeting her had turned his life upside down, after the many times he had faced danger to keep her safe...This is what she wanted? His temper flared and he shouted before he could even comprehend what was about to escape his lips. "The best thing would have been never meeting you in the first place!"
She stared at him with hurt eyes, shock flashing briefly in them before being replaced with her own anger. "Then maybe you should've picked a better person to fight with you on Lyoko and I never would've had to come and save your behinds!"
He glared at her. She knew the only reason he chose her was because she had been so stubborn, wanting to find out more about Lyoko. "Maybe you should learn how to mind your own business and you wouldn't get yourself into so much trouble!"
"Maybe if you weren't such a narrow minded jerk and decided to actually care about what other people feel, there wouldn't be trouble to get into!"
"That doesn't even make any sense! Do you think I tell Xana to attack us and put the world in danger?"
"I'm calling you a jerk, is that simple enough for you?!"
"Simple enough for me? This coming from the girl who has been ambushed and fallen into Xana's traps how many times? Besides, I've saved you so many times and I don't even get a thank you! You don't know what to do with a problem you can't punch in the face!"
That was a low blow after she'd been attacked just a few days ago, resulting in her family being terrified as they watched Yumi fight off a wave of Xana controlled people. He knew she was still sensitive about it.
She saw red. "At least I face my problems head on instead of moping about them for ages before actually doing something! Remember how long you were brooding over that letter Sissi sent you pretending to be me? I had already told you that our friendship would survive, but all you wanted to do was to be alone and cry about it! Oh, and that one time you were tired of our routine as Lyoko Warriors and all you did was complain and sulk about it!"
"I just needed time to think things over! You can't expect me to have answers to everything!"
"I think you'd be better without me, but maybe everyone and myself would have been better without you!"
He reeled back and stared at her in disbelief for a long, hard moment. "You have changed, Yumi. I don't want to be friends with someone so inconsiderate." He snarled coldly.
She looked down at her clenched fists, biting back angry tears. "You've changed too."
"Maybe you're right."
The fight left her in a flash at the thought of him actually leaving her. But her pride wouldn't let her say anything other than, "Maybe I am."
"Goodbye, Yumi." He turned and left her. Immediately, she ran up to her room, slamming the door shut. She collapsed on her bed, horrified at what she'd said and done, but too ashamed and proud to apologize.
"The next morning was awful." Ulrich said, picking up the story again and pulling Yumi out of her still reforming memories. "I regretted everything I said, but I was still hurt and you wouldn't even look at me, let alone say a word to me. You didn't talk to me until Xana had launched an attack. Even then it was just 'Jeremie needs us at the factory, now'. I just looked at you and said 'Of course, I'm not going to let you and Odd have all the glory'. You softened up after that, but...We didn't have time for anything else. The next thing I knew, we were at the construction site under attack and you were hurt. And...Well, you know what happened after that."
"Ulrich..." She spoke softly, taking his hand in hers. He tensed at the contact, hope making his heart beat a mile a minute. Had the story helped her remember him? "Thank you for telling me."
"I told you I would do anything for you, even if that meant reliving one of the worst moments in my life" He smiled sadly at her. He pulled his hand back and got to his feet. "I'm supposed to meet Odd in a little bit. I'll see you later." He gave her a small wave.
Yumi suspected her was lying, but let him go anyway. She needed time to herself to think.
The first think Yumi did when she saw him the next evening was apologize. "I don't remember much, but I remember enough. I shouldn't have said any of those things to you. I was tired and stressed...But that's no excuse. I'll never treat you like that again."
Ulrich chuckled, a bit surprised. "It's fine. It doesn't really matter now, does it?"
"Of course it does!" She insisted. "I...Ulrich, that was terrible of me."
"We were both terrible. Let's just leave it at that, okay?"
"You must really like me, to stay by my side night after night after our friendship had almost fallen apart. And then after I threaten to beat you up...That must've been hard."
"Yumi." He placed his hands on her shoulders and looks deep into her eyes, and she swears she can see straight to his heart. "Whether or not you remember me now or ever again, and whether or not you'll ever like me the way I like you...You will always be part of me. One stupid fight isn't going to change that."
"Still..." She bit her lip, uncomfortable with how personal things were getting. "I-I just want you to know I was sorry."
"Then apology accepted. So...What do you want to hear about today?"
"Tell me a story about the fun we had, just the two of us."
He raised an eyebrow at her.
"What? With as much passion as we apparently had right there, you have got to have some good stories."
He laughed. "I'll tell you about the time we got our revenge on Odd for pulling a stupid prank on us."
"What were we getting him back for?"
A heated blush burned his cheeks, remembering the time he held her when she got sick. "Um...I'd rather on talk about it."
The days passed quickly and quietly, much to Yumi's relief. She began training her body for Lyoko again, the familiar movements soothed her. Even if her brain continued to fail her, her body didn't.
Her parents reluctantly let her go back to school, though she was forbidden to join her friends on any of their missions until she had completely recovered. She still had a few bruises and deep cuts that would not heal if she was running off into danger every afternoon.
She was a little restless, but much to her surprise, hearing Ulrich tell her about the two of them every night provided enough adventure and excitement to keep her active spirit at bay. She was starting to understand why she had fallen for him in the first place.
Yumi woke up in the middle of the night, her heart racing and her body covered in a thin layer of sweat. She swallowed down breaths, her eyes flashing around the dark room, but she could not get herself to settle.
She remembered.
Everything.
She ripped her blanket from her body and raced to the campus, finding her way to Ulrich's room. She tried to be as quiet as she could manage in this state but not really succeeding or caring for that matter. Throwing open the door without bothering to knock, she launched herself at him and wrapped her arms around him, crushing her cheek to his chest.
Jarred back to the world of the waking, Ulrich's first instinct was to attack the person that had latched itself to him, but stopped just in time.
"Yumi?" He whispered tiredly with a hit of confusion.
"Ulrich, I remember. I'm so sorry. I remember you." She mumbled, holding him so tightly he though she might just break his ribs.
But, that was the most welcome pain. He buried his face in her hair and kissed the top of her head, reaching his arms around to hold her. He finally got his Yumi back. He was content to simply hold her as her revelation set in, but he needed to see the truth in her eyes. He needed to see they girl he fell in love with behind those eyes. Gently tilting her face up to his, he found what he was looking for.
"Do you really remember me?"
She nodded, smiling shyly, her eyes searching his. "I woke up and suddenly it all came crashing down. I remember the time we were attacked by that giant teddy bear and we were so close, and the time I got so mad at you for forgetting my birthday. And that time we almost kissed on Lyoko-"
That was enough for Ulrich and he pressed his lips to hers, cutting her off and putting every ounce of passion and gratitude into that kiss that he could. Yumi eagerly met him, never so happy in her life.
Ulrich pulled away and examined her carefully. "You're wearing my old jacket. To sleep in."
Yumi blushed, pulling the hem down, embarrassed. "I didn't know it was yours when I put it on. It just...Comforted me somehow."
"I kept forgetting to get it back from you."
"I hid it." She whispered, a spark in her eyes that he had dearly missed. "So that I'd still have something of you, even when we were frustrated with our friend- relationship."
Comprehension dawned on him. "You don't know how long I've been waiting for this day." He smiled, wrapping his arms around her again.
They both laid on their sides, inches from each other, breath mingling, letting the weight of the return of Yumi's memory settle over them.
"I know."
"I missed you so much." Ulrich replied, brushing her hair out of her face ant pulled her closer. "Don't you ever do that to me again."
"I didn't exactly plan on doing it the first time."
Ulrich was about to argue, but bit his tongue. He would let her have the last word this time. That was how much he loved her. Besides, he had learned his lesson about fighting when they were both tired.
He reached around to the back of her neck to bring her forward for another kiss that they both felt down to their soul.
He was done hiding his feeling for her. "I love you."
She smiled at him and placed a sweet kiss on his lips. "I love you too."
"You don't know how happy I am to hear you say that."
"I think I can guess." She motioned to the closeness of their bodies, laughing at the faint blush in his cheeks.
"You'll pay for that." He growled teasingly, tickling her sides.
She yelped. "Shh! Someone's gonna catch us!"
"Do you think I care?"
And then, just like that, they were Ulrich and Yumi again.
