#7: "I could do that."
There are words that have terrified Yumi and Aelita when spoken by their boys since they met. When Jeremie said "fine" they knew nothing was fine- actually they were all probably very close to death. Whatever he'd constructed for them would almost definitely explode and/or crash. If they asked how he slept and he said "fine" it had probably been three days since he remembered he was a human being who needed to sleep sometimes. "Fine" was a dangerous word.
"Fine" was a word that concerned the girls, but it was in the same strand as "probably". Like, this will "probably" work. You will "probably" reach the tower in time. The rescan "probably" won't hurt. It will "probably" be done tonight. With Jeremie, for all his genius, it was the small words that were the most terrifying.
With Odd it was the almost the opposite. And it wasn't just Yumi and Aelita who would notice when he said something horrifying- even the boys found some of his phrasing flinch-inducing. The worst might have been, ironically enough, any variation of "great idea". Because when he declared it was a "great idea" it was usually a terrible idea.
Turning the main level of the factory into a skate park.
Zombie movie marathons.
April Fool's pranks.
"Updating" Ulrich's style.
Poetry.
Anything he decided to do in regards to winning over Sam's favor.
Similarly, as a mother might worry with regards to the phrase "watch this", Yumi would cover her face, and Aelita would watch in curious horror as Odd tried something borderline suicidal. Like a handstand on the overboard. Or a skateboard. Or eating three tacos at one time.
It wasn't so much words that worried the girls about Ulrich. It was usually silence. (Or absence.) And though Ulrich would never call it "sulking" everyone else would. He would be easy to find if he wanted to be found (and coddled, let's be honest) and usually Yumi would drag him out into the daylight, or if he was actually upset, crawl into bed next to him and listen to him quietly explain what was wrong. Aelita would bring dinner to his room (even though the boys taunted him miserably) or search for him if he was missing for too long and wasn't in the usual places. (Library, under a tree, in his dorm, hiding in Jim's office.)
(It was also a sign of impending sulkiness if he started to apologize for everything. Aelita and Yumi would trade looks of dread and secretly discuss which shift they would take trying to find him if he went missing again.)
But the thing that all of the boys said at one time or another that wrought fear into the hearts of the female warriors was "I could do that". Nothing stopped them in their tracks faster.
Instances that would provoke this phrase included:
Watching action movies. (With guns and building scaling.)
Men with power tools.
Any TV show with the word "Ultimate" in the title.
Anything involving workout equipment.
Dangerous missions to Lyoko
Shark wrestling (on at least two occasions).
The Olympics.
It didn't matter how they tried to deter this from happening, it was inevitable. And usually the all provoking "no you can't" only made it worse.
So the girls would ready the first aid kit, and generally that said it all.