Let's see what Ulrich and Yumi were up to, shall we? Some sexual situations in this chapter, nothing graphic I promise. Enjoy!

Yumi hated heels. Besides being uncomfortable, their incessant clicking on the floor of the dorm hallway would make it very difficult to be sneaky if she had to get home in a rush. Knocking on Ulrich's door, she almost ran into Odd, who was apparently rushing to leave.

"Oh, Yumi," he said. He glanced at her outfit and stopped. "Woah."

Yumi blushed. "Shut up. It's not that weird for me to want to dress up occasionally."

Odd crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "Am I to take it that I should plan to be out late?"

"Odd!" Yumi growled in embarrassment. She may have been a head taller than him in her heels, but at the moment she felt like a little kid being admonished.

He laughed. "I'm kidding! But really - text me when it's safe? I've walked in on enough of your cuddle sessions, I don't need to see anything more."

"Thanks," she muttered.

He patted her on the shoulder and began to walk away. "Oh yeah," he called back loudly. "You look pretty!" He entered the stairwell and walked off, leaving Yumi standing in front of Ulrich's room with a burning face and sweaty palms. Odd had left his door open, so Yumi went in to put her purse down, closing the door in case a teacher walked by. She let her bag fall to the ground, surveying the room. Odd had left his bed unmade, as had Ulrich. On a whim, she started to clean up. She made Ulrich's bed, and threw Odd's topmost blanket over the mess below. Moving quickly, she worked to cleanse the majority of the mess, either by kicking it away or moving it onto a table. Didn't make much of a difference, but at least the room was a little calmer.

Hearing footsteps in the hall, Yumi sat on the bed and pulled one leg up seductively. She looked at the door with hooded eyes, mouth slightly open. She threw her arms back, pushing her chest forward, focusing her energy on not breathing too much.

The footsteps passed, and Yumi exhaled loudly. She had been practicing that position in the mirror and thought it would be a good one to get the mood going. Nerves were beginning to set in since she had stopped moving. Aelita was right, she needed to be ready for this. She stood and got into a fighting stance, throwing mock punches in the air to get her nerves out. She did a couple kicks for good measure, taking off the heels to improve her balance. She was so lost in the routine that she didn't hear Ulrich come in.

"Nice moves," he said, startling her. "But my room isn't great for fighting."

Yumi paused mid-kick, frozen. "You're here early."

He laughed sheepishly. "Actually, I'm late. They messed up the order so I had to wait a few minutes. They threw in some extra fortune cookies though!" He sat on his bed and started unloading containers, the smell of Chinese food making Yumi's stomach ache.

"What did you get?" she asked as she sat on the bed, the food containers sitting between them.

He shrugged with a smile. "Just the usual. Oh and I got chopsticks, don't worry." He began passing out containers, and as Yumi began devouring her orange chicken, she couldn't help but feel like she was messing up. This was supposed to be a sexy date, but he seemed oblivious, just chowing down on fried rice.

"So," Ulrich said, swallowing his food to clear his voice. "I have a stupid comedy movie, and a romantic comedy. Do you have a preference? I'm fine with either, or a double feature if we have the time for it." He looked up to see Yumi staring at him with an unreadable expression. "What? Do I have food all over my face?" He laughed, but couldn't help but worry. Yumi had been avoiding him the last couple days, and between the worry that she was upset with him and the stress of school, he just wanted to relax.

All Yumi could think was that she should have stuck with the glittery top. It may have been slutty, but Ulrich obviously did not get subtlety. She leaned over and kissed him, holding his face in her hands. In a breathy voice, she whispered, "Why don't we skip the movie tonight?" Ulrich nodded dumbly, moving the remains of their dinner onto the floor. Yumi pulled him closer, wrapping her arms around his neck and draping a leg over his. "Kiss me," she said sweetly, and he complied, putting his hands on her waist. He always enjoyed kissing Yumi, who wouldn't?

The kiss deepened, which he couldn't complain about. She used a bit of tongue, which was rare for her. He happily reciprocated as she pushed him back onto the bed, moving to lie on top of him. Ulrich lazily wrapped his arms around her back, preparing for a night of snuggling and kissing, a rare delicacy for the pair. But with Odd out for the night, it looked like that was a serious possibility. Yumi's kisses became more aggressive, and she began rocking her hips on his. Ulrich paused, moving his hands back to her waist. Yumi sat up suddenly to straddle him. She raised her arms and slipped the sweater off, leaving her wearing only a skirt and bra. Ulrich's eyes grew very, very wide.

"Yumi, what are you doing," he said, only to be smothered by Yumi kissing him again. At the back of his mind, Ulrich wondered if his girlfriend had been taken over by Xana, who had been known to be very seductive when need be.

There were hands on his crotch. Ulrich turned his head away from Yumi and pushed her away, grabbing her wrists firmly. "What the Hell are you doing?" he demanded, fire and fear mingling in his eyes. He sat up, leaning against the wall. Yumi stared at him, cheeks flushed and hair messy. There was a questioning silence between them as each tried to guess what the other was thinking.

"Don't you want to?" Yumi asked.

Ulrich sputtered, "Want to what?"

"Fine," she said in a huff, wrapping her arms around her chest. "I see how it is. You don't want me."

He blinked, eyes still wide with confusion. "Yumi, what are you talking about?"

"You know what I'm talking about!" sh yelled.

"No, I don't!" he yelled back. "I have no idea what this is about, you're acting crazy!"

She stood, fists balled at her sides. "Oh, so it's crazy for me to want to grow up?!"

"What is this even about?" Ulrich yelled, throwing his hands up in the air.

"You should know!" she cried, turning away. "I guess it was wrong of me to assume that just once we could do something normal in this relationship!"

Flabbergasted, Ulrich turned to face the door, trying to collect his thoughts. Taking a breath, he turned around to face his girlfriend's back. "I'm just confused." He spoke slowly, taking great care with his words. "You took off your shirt, and then you just started grabbing at me...it was uncomfortable. Imagine if I did that, it would be weird, right? It's not that I find you unattractive, this was all just very unexpected and sudden."

Yumi saw herself in Ulrich's position, hands going in unexpected places that may or may not have been welcome. She whirled around, a terrified expression on her face. "Oh Ulrich I'm so sorry," she said. "I should have...but I didn't...you didn't want to have sex with me, I get that."

Ulrich froze. "Sex?!" he cried. "You wanted to have sex?!" They stared at each other in bewilderment. Ulrich took a breath. "How about you put your shirt on." Once again feeling like a little kid, Yumi picked up Aelita's sweater and tugged it over her head. Ulrich gestured for her to sit next to him on the bed.

"I'm really sorry," she said.

Ulrich sighed. "Look, this is all seeming very random to me right now. Could you please just explain what's been going on the last few days?"

Yumi nodded. "Just don't get mad."

"I won't get mad," Ulrich said, sincerely hoping there would be no reason to.

She stared at the floor as she talked, her fingers tangling with Ulrich's. "Okay so I was talking to William a few days ago and he said it was really obvious that we hadn't had sex, and he made me feel like it was really weird that we hadn't taken that step yet since he and Emily have been having sex for months. So I talked to Aelita and she said that it showed through in how we were never totally comfortable touching each other, like there was an invisible barrier or something, and I just hated that. So then I found out that Odd would be out of the room for the night and I thought maybe tonight would be a good time for us to have sex."

Ulrich stayed silent the whole time, mulling it over. "Okay," he said. "I'm going to try really hard to not be cliche and blame all this on William. Or Aelita, for that matter."

Yumi shook her head. "No, don't. They really didn't have much part in this. Aelita actually told me to talk to you before trying anything...guess I should have listened."

"Maybe," Ulrich said wryly.

"I just wanted to get it over with," she said quietly.

Ulrich held her hand firmly. "Yumi, we need to talk about these things. It's never smart to go into a situation blind, you know that, whether it's a violent enemy or something like this."

Yumi nodded. "Okay," she said. "So let's talk."

"First off," Ulrich said, beginning to count on his fingers. "No doing stuff without asking, especially new stuff. Second, privacy is important, especially considering I have a roommate with a video camera. Third, I don't want to do anything you're uncomfortable with, so you need to speak up about stuff. I'm a guy, sex stuff has a very slim chance of causing me pain. It's not the same for you."

She nodded more, cheeks burning. "Those are all good points. So...what now?"

"Now," Ulrich said, moving to slide a DVD into the player, "We do what we always do."

He and Odd had set up this tv to play video games, but ended up using it more for watching movies when neither of them could sleep. Ulrich had put the romantic comedy in, and soon he and Yumi were snuggled together under the covers of his bed eating fortune cookies and laughing at the weird fortunes they contained.

"This one says I will get a new pair of pants," Ulrich said.

"I can top that," Yumi said. "This one says 'help, trapped in cookie factory.' Maybe we should send a search and rescue team."

Ulrich laughed, moving to steal the fortune from her. "It does not say that." She giggled mischievously and threw the fortune across the room to join the trash on the floor. Ulrich gasped and tickled his girlfriend, making her squeal. She turned to face him and captured his hands in her own, leaning in for a kiss. He happily reciprocated and soon they were languidly kissing, the movie all but forgotten.

"Do you want me to do something more?" Ulrich asked, looking to her with serious eyes. She nodded and whispered into his ear, her cheeks blushing at her instructions. The night progressed well, and Yumi made a mental note to wash this sweater before returning it to Aelita. When they said their goodbyes at the end of the night, her lips were swollen from kissing and her body tingled as though his hands were still on her. Settling into her bed that night, Yumi wondered if she was heading down a dangerous path here. She and Ulrich loved each other, that was obvious. But she had crossed the line when she didn't ask his permission.

"I basically molested him," she muttered as she realized with a start how bad things could have gone tonight. The next morning she would call Aelita to report, but for now it was time to sleep. Yumi drifted off thinking about Ulrich's kisses and Chinese food.

Cute? Romantic? Lame? Tell me in the comments!