Jeremie sat in the chair facing the supercomputer console. The mission was over and the world had been saved from XANA once again. More importantly, however, Herve and Nikolas were oblivious to the secret the factory held thanks to Odd's plan. While the rest of the Lyoko warriors had already left for the night, Jeremie stayed behind. He had told everyone else that he wanted to wrap up a few things before turning in for the night. In reality, however, he wanted to look at the elevator surveillance tape.

Jeremie set the video player to repeat a bookmarked section over and over again. He sat there with his hand over his mouth, his eyes glazed over on the moving black and white images of Odd and Aelita kissing as the elevator rose to a halt. He sighed as the video repeated itself for the umpteenth time. He knew that the kiss was just part of the plan to keep the secret safe. He also knew that there was nothing serious between Odd and Aelita; they were just good friends. Seeing the image of their lips pressed against each other didn't make it seem any less painful, however. While he cursed Odd under his breath, he was angrier at himself for not preventing this from happening at all. All those opportunities he had to tell her how he felt were wasted and he had no one to blame but himself for it. He took off his glasses and moved his hand over his eyes, wishing he could erase the memory of what he had witnessed.

"Jeremie, what's wrong?" Aelita asked.

The boy genius turned to the elevator door to see the pink haired beauty standing there with a look of concern on her face. He quickly gained his composure as he put his glasses back on his face. "Oh, nothing," he said. "Just rubbing the fatigue away from my eyes that's all."

Aelita shook her head and sighed. "You can't keep tiring yourself out like this," she said as she began walking towards the supercomputer terminal. "Let me help you out."

Jeremie realized what she was doing and started scrambling, trying his best to close the recorded video feed before she noticed anything. Normally he was quick and adept at doing things on a computer. This time, however, his aptitude on the computer had left him as he failed to close out the picture in time.

His true love looked at the video window, a shot of her and Odd kissing was paused on screen. "What's going on?" she asked with a hint of concern in her voice.

"I can explain," he stated. He turned to face her opened his mouth but had failed to produce a sound. He finally had the perfect opportunity to tell Aelita how he really felt about her. The opportunity to tell her how much she meant to him and how he couldn't bear to live another day without her in his life. Instead, Jeremie was unable to say anything at all.

Aelita placed her hands on his shoulders. "Jeremie," she said, "Tell me why you have a picture of me and Odd on the monitor."

"Because..."

She nodded slowly, trying to encourage him to say something.

"I..."

She nodded again, hoping that he could say more.

Jeremie closed his eyes tightly. "Because I have a huge crush on you and I can't stand seeing you with another guy and I've been wanting to tell you this for a long time but I've never had the courage to tell you because I was always afraid that you wouldn't feel the same way about me and that my heart would break if I heard that and I would never be able to live again knowing that I had lost you forever." He barely opened one eyelid to make sure that Aelita was still there.

The look of concern had never left Aelita's face. "So that's why you looked angry when Odd and I came back?" she asked.

The boy genius nodded, one eye still squinting while the other was closed tightly. "I'm sorry. I should have said something earlier but..."

Aelita took away her hands from his shoulders then lunged forward and embraced him tightly, knocking him a few feet back in the process. She placed her head beside him as her arms wrapped him from his arms to his back. "You have no idea how long I've waited for you to say that to me," she said as she closed her eyes, her toe of voice changed to a much happier one.

Jeremie's eyes opened in surprise as he was interrupted by her actions. He had imagined the outcome would be far worse than it was now. "Really?" he asked in surprise.

Schaeffer's daughter did not move. "Ever since I first made contact with you in Lyoko, I knew that somehow you would be the one that would save me from that virtual prison. When you finally did it, I knew that you had cared for me more than anyone else ever would. I'd have to be blind not to see that you were the one my heart would belong to."

Jeremie smiled. He wrapped his arms around Aelita, pulling her closer to him as he closed his eyes. "I'm sorry. If I wasn't so scared, I would have told you this a long time ago."

She chuckled a bit. "That doesn't matter," Aelita said. "All that matters now is that we both know how we feel about each other."

Jeremie pulled back a bit to see Aelita's face, his arms still locked around her. "So is it too early to tell you that I love you?" he asked.

"Maybe," she said, "but it's not to early for this." She leaned forward and closed her eyes as she planted her lips firmly on his. This time, the kiss felt different. When she kissed Odd, she felt nothing since she knew that this was part of the distraction plan. When she kissed Jeremie, however, she felt different. She felt comforted and excited at the same time. She got a warm feeling being in his arms and the sensation of his lips being on hers made her feel that this was the right thing to do.

Jeremie opened his eyes as they both gradually pulled out of the kiss. After all of that time worrying about when and how he would finally tell the girl of his dreams how he felt about her, he was finally able to steal away a kiss. The feeling he had inside was better than he had ever imagined. Being the genius of the class, he always felt that love was one thing that he would never be able to experience. Now that he finally had the chance to experience it, only one thing was running through his mind.

"Can we do that again?"

"And that's how it happened," Aelita declared, ending the story she and Jeremie was telling to their captive audience.

"Awww," Odd replied. "That story was so sweet I think my teeth are about to fall off."

Yumi rolled her eyes before stretching and yawning. "Ignore Odd. That story was touching but I think it's time I get home before my parents freak out."

"You need me to walk you home?" Ulrich asked.

Yumi grinned. "You'd better walk me home," she said as she grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the door.

Odd stood up and headed for the door. "Well, I'm out too," he announced. "I hope I don't see you two tomorrow," he said as he left for his dorm room.

Aelita helped clean up Jeremie's room a bit before taking her leave. "I'll see you tomorrow, love."

"Good night." He leaned forward to kiss his girlfriend when he was stopped by a finger placed vertically on his lips.

"Save that for tomorrow," Aelita said as she grinned at his boyfriend's dumbfounded face before making him close the door.

Chapter 4 is done. As you can see, the flashback wold have made Chapter 3 a longer read but it stands out better as it is now. Chapter 5 is coming. In the meantime, enjoy this one.