Disclaimer: The idea that I own Code Lyoko is utterly ridiculous. However, Alex is mine, so yeah…no stealing the cuteness.
A/N: This chapter is special! You know why? Because I'm writing it in a third-person omniscient point of view! If you don't know what that means, then I shall bestow upon you the knowledge of a thousand English teachers! Muahaha! Ahem…It is when the author is the all-knowing tyrannical overlord of their story and can write about anyone's thoughts. Usually, I write in third-person limited, which is why my story is so Alex-centric, but I thought I should try to mix it up today. Therefore, this chapter may end up more Ulrich-centric but it will still have Alex's thoughts in it.
Save Me, Please
Ulrich knew something was wrong with Alex when they left the restaurant. At first, he thought his boyfriend's somber mood was because he was forcibly awoken and dragged to IHOP this morning. However, he was mistaken. When Alex refused to walk with their group and sauntered alone behind the Lyoko Warriors, Ulrich began to notice. Alex kept checking the time on Ulrich's phone and was completely against taking off his hood in public. Something was clearly bothering him and Ulrich could tell just by looking at his face that getting him to share wouldn't be easy.
"Alex," Ulrich slowed his pace and walked in step with his boyfriend, allowing the others to chat ahead of them. "Is anything bothering you? Does it have to do with what happened to you last night? You know you can tell me, right? That is, if you want to."
Alex was surprised by Ulrich's concern; not because he actually cared but because he could read him like an open book. Was he really that obvious? "Well, yeah I guess it does have something to do with that." He mumbled and kept his head down. "But you don't have to worry, everything is fine." He lied.
"Are you sure?" Ulrich grabbed Alex's arm and stopped him from walking ahead, separating them from the group entirely. "It's just that you seem kind of worried today and you keep checking the time. Do you have somewhere to be? Did going out like this ruin any plans?"
"No, Ulrich, I said everything is fine. Now come on, we're gonna be left behind by the others." Alex couldn't even take another step before being, once again, stopped by his boyfriend.
"Listen, if this has anything to do with what I did last night, sorry. I was being pushy and inconsiderate of your feelings and you were being so…so…you know, hot. And…uh…I was just kinda…turned on by that kiss so I just sorta…you know, lost it." Ulrich blushed as he stammered through the awkward sentence.
Alex blushed so hard that even his ears turned bright red and quickly put a hand over Ulrich's mouth so he didn't have to listen to the rest. He stepped closer to his boyfriend then slowly lifted his head, revealing his embarrassing blush to his brunette counterpart. "Don't worry about last night. Last night didn't bother me, Odd interrupting bothered me, so don't worry about it."
Ulrich couldn't help but blush harder at what Alex said because it meant that he really did want more from their relationship. However, that still didn't solve the mysterious reasoning behind Alex's behavior today. "So if it wasn't that, then what's wrong?" He asked as he pulled Alex's hand off of his mouth.
Alex sighed, thinking that it was no use to try and evade Ulrich's questions. "If I tell you, you cannot freak out, okay?"
Ulrich nodded, "Promise."
"Okay, but not here, we'll talk in the dorms."
"So you're telling me that you're some kind of gang property finder," Ulrich began repeating what was explained to him. They were in his dorm room now. Alex was sitting on the bed, leaning against the wall and Ulrich had head on his boyfriend's lap.
"Gang territory," Alex interjected. "And yes, yes I am."
"And this Ace guy got mad at you because you couldn't show him the factory and this guy Kyle told him you lost the place."
"Yeah, and then…you know, I got shot at and he held me over the ledge of the roof, but that's not the point!" Alex rushed through the sentence.
"Wait, he did what?!" Ulrich exclaimed as he sat up, leaned against the wall, and stared at Alex, who looked shocked from Ulrich's sudden outburst.
"Nothing, forget it." Alex avoided the question with ease. "Anyways, I have to present him with a new territory by noon today or he'll probably have me killed or worse."
"Or worse? What could be worse than that? And isn't it almost noon now?" Ulrich began panicking. He didn't want to lose Alex, he loves him. Of course, he wasn't ready to say it aloud but it still counted. Alex was his everything right now and he couldn't lose him.
"Lots of things and yes, I've got about two more hours on the land of the living." Alex shrugged. He wasn't as scared as he was on the roof because death was easy. Living was proving to be the toughest task known to man. "It's kind of impossible to find new places in such a short notice."
"Stop talking about your death, okay?" Because it isn't going to happen, I'm not going to let it happen." Ulrich reached his arm around Alex's shoulders and pulled him closer. "Let me help you, what kind of places do you usually find?"
"Abandoned warehouses, factories, and other places where there aren't a lot of people walking around, you know, with privacy or whatever." Alex leaned his head on Ulrich's shoulder. "But I've already looked everywhere. There aren't any good places."
"What about a place where people are always walking around?" Ulrich started smiling. His mind blessed him with an amazing idea.
"What part of privacy don't you get?" Alex rolled his eyes.
"Why don't you just trust me on this one?" Ulrich stood up and held out his hand towards his boyfriend.
"Fine, I'll trust you but this better not be some stupid idea." Alex took Ulrich's hand.
"You should trust that it won't be a stupid idea, Lexy."
"Don't call me that," Alex blushed.
Ulrich laughed, "No way!"
"So why are we in the woods outside of the city?" Alex asked as he maneuvered through the trees behind Ulrich. They had walked a few miles and now were in the middle of the forest on the outskirts of town. Maybe there was some sort of abandoned house out here, but would it meet all the criteria for a gang hideout?
"Don't exaggerate, these are a park woods. I've got this under control." Ulrich said as he stopped and began lifting the cover off of a manhole.
"A sewer?" Alex asked in disbelief and rolled his eyes. "I'm dead, I'm so dead. Bullet to the head, hurdling off the roof, or whatever it is; it's coming my way."
"It's not just a regular sewer, it's an incomplete sewer." Ulrich began climbing down into the dark hole. "You see, Odd and I found this a while back when we were exploring the sewers. Since we use them to get to the factory from school, we figured why not use them to go from anywhere to the factory? This way, if we were ever far away from the factory then it would be easier to get there."
"So you mapped out all the sewers in town?" Alex also climbed down into the darkness.
"Well, kind of, just the ones we needed. Odd dragged me all the way out here and he found it first." Ulrich turned on an old generator that sat beside the latter, which lit the dry sewer area with artificial light. The sewer was a gigantic four way pipe that was never finished. Therefore, it was just a dry room that was abandoned by its builders. The generator they used for light was still plugged into the lighting set up for the build. It was almost too perfect. "So what do you think? Is this good?"
Alex walked around the giant room and took pictures with Ulrich's phone, sending them to Kyle for approval and quickly getting an acceptance text in return. "Well, it's private, clean, lighted, big, and definitely gang member friendly. Kyle approved so…" He smiled and hugged Ulrich. "It's great, thanks Ulrich, you're the best."
"And you better not forget it." Ulrich pulled Alex closer for a kiss, only to be quickly avoided.
Alex's face was red as he placed his hands on Ulrich's chest to push him away, "Um…I better get back to Ace to report before noon, but thanks for this. I'll see you back at the dorm, okay?"
"Uh…okay, see you then." Ulrich was baffled as he watched Alex climb out of the sewer. Did Alex just reject his kiss? He has pushed Ulrich away before but never like that. Usually, he would say to simply say stop outright if he really didn't want to; however, this time, he avoided it. It was as if he didn't like the fact that Ulrich wanted to kiss him. This knowledge hurt. What if Alex didn't like him anymore? What if he wasn't going to come back to the dorm tonight? What if he never saw Alex again? Ulrich's walk back to Kadic was horrible and plagued with by such undesired thoughts.
Alex ran as fast as humanly possible, maybe faster than he did on that first night he committed murder. He kept glancing at Ulrich's phone. The digital numbers read 11:55am and he could not afford to be late. As he dashed around street corner and dodged pedestrians, he couldn't help but ask himself if he was really going to make it. If he didn't, would Ace kill him? Was he going to be able to see Ulrich again?
11:56 and Alex was turning down the alley that led to their hideout.
11:57 and Alex was approaching the old abandoned building.
11:58 and Alex was opening the door, glancing at the roof, and hoping he wouldn't be tossed from it today.
11:59 and Alex was pushing Kyle out of his way, screaming profanity at his attempted apologies for telling Ace he lost a territory before.
12:00 and Alex was panting inside of Ace's office from running as fast as he did, glad that he made it just in time.
"Alex," Ace smirked from his comfy seat behind his desk. "I was beginning to think you weren't going to show up."
"Well," Alex let out a huff of air. "You know, punctuality is important when your life's on the line." He joked, feeling elated that he made it.
Ace's laughter filled the room, "Punctuality, yeah but if you don't deliver, it's pointless. So do you have a place for me or do you want to become reunited with the rooftop's ledge?"
"Yes, I have a place. It's in the park woods outside of the city area. It is actually a sewer pipe that was never connected to the rest of the sewer system so it's kind of like a giant room that the city just stopped building. It's perfect because it's underground and no one goes down there. The workers even left their lighting system hooked up." Alex explained.
Ace nodded his head, "Sounds good, did you pass all this onto Kyle?"
"Yes boss."
"Good work, now get out of here."
"Wow, you actually said good work." Alex joked, voice heavy with sarcasm.
"Get the fuck out of my office Alexander."
Alex smirked, "Yes boss."
Ulrich paced endlessly in his dorm room, his mind in spirals. It is so late at night, where was Alex right now? What if the incomplete sewer wasn't enough? What if Ulrich failed? What if Alex was dead somewhere? Why didn't Alex kiss him earlier? Why was Ulrich pushed away? Why?
"Well, to answer your questions, Alex is fine and you're overreacting." Odd spoke as he ran his fingers through Jeremie's hair. The blonde Einstein was sound asleep on his lap. He was overworked due to worrying about virtualizing William from Lyoko and saving him from Xana's clutches.
"I said that out loud?" Ulrich asked, stopping his paces for a moment before returning to the rhythmic strides between the door and the desk.
"Yeah, you're worrying too much. Alex can handle himself, he's not dead somewhere. Why don't you just call him? He has your phone, right?"
"It's not that easy," Ulrich explained. "When I tried to kiss him earlier, he pushed me away. What if he doesn't want me to call him and I just make it worse? But then again, what if he needs my help? No, then he would call me himself. But what if he doesn't want-"
"Would you stop with the what if's already?!" Odd interjected. "Please, you sound like I did when I first started dating Jeremie."
"What do you mean?"
"Jeremie's the first guy I liked, you know that. I always asked myself, what if he doesn't like me? Or what if I'm not smart enough? What if my hair is too weird? What if I eat too much? What if my feet stink? And dare I say it, what if I'm too scrawny?"
Ulrich laughed, "I thought you were svelte and your feet do stink!"
"Yeah, I know but I was way more worried about it when I started dating Jeremie."
"So what did you do?"
"Oh," Odd smirked deviously. "Are you asking for my advice?"
Ulrich rolled his eyes and halted his pacing once more, "Odd, seriously."
"Okay, okay, I talked to him." Odd stressed the word as if it was a foreign language to Ulrich. "Trust me, it works. Just tell Alex how you feel and you'll be fine. And about all that he's dead stuff, don't think about it. I'm sure he's fine right now, would it make you feel better if Jeremie traced your cell phone signal?"
"No, Alex would be pissed if I did that."
"Yeah, I would." Alex walked in the door and made his presence known.
"A-Alex!" Ulrich was surprised to say the least. "So I assume everything went fine?"
"No, they are coming to get me. I ran away as fast as I could but I don't know if they followed. I need to get out of here."
"What?!" Ulrich's expression was priceless.
Alex began laughing, "Just joking, it was fine. Thanks again."
Odd lifted a sleeping Jeremie onto his back, "Well, I guess it's time for me to go. G'night, and remember Ulrich, talking." He stressed the word once more before carrying Jeremie to his room.
"What was that about?" Alex asked as he kicked off his sneakers and pulled off his hoodie, revealing his tank top beneath.
"Odd was being stupid again," Ulrich was relieved that Alex hadn't heard the entire conversation between the two roommates.
Alex smirked and flopped onto Ulrich's bed, "Again?"
"Yeah," The brunette crawled to sit beside his boyfriend. "So, umm, we have to talk apparently."
"About?"
"About what happened in the sewer."
"Nothing happened," Alex felt a blush creeping up his face; he knew exactly what Ulrich was talking about.
"That's my point, nothing happened. Why'd you pushed me away?"
"No, I didn't!"
"Yes, you did!"
"I'm not stupid Alex; I know you avoided my kiss. All I'm asking is why?"
"I didn't want to kiss you then, so calm down. It's nothing to get mad about!"
"Then prove it! Kiss me now," Ulrich was dead serious.
"No! Why should I have to prove myself to you?!"
"If it was really nothing to get mad about, then it should be fine now, right? So prove that you're telling me the truth!"
"Fine!" Alex angrily exclaimed before harshly pushing his lips against Ulrich's, kissing him passionately, and lingering for a moment before pulling away. "Happy?" He asked spitefully as he hid his eyes behind his bangs, which couldn't quite cover the blush that tinted his cheeks.
"Yes, very." Ulrich answered with a smirk on his face. "But not entirely satisfied." He pushed Alex down on the bed and went in for another kiss, pleased when it wasn't rejected like before. He felt Alex moan against his lips as their tongues not only danced together but fought for dominance whilst doing so. Ulrich hands roamed underneath Alex's tank top and soon, it was removed and thrown across the room. He ran his hands up his boyfriend's torso and lightly pinched his nipple, gaining a surprised gasp.
Ulrich pulled away from the kiss and trailed small kisses down Alex's neck. He gently bit and kissed the tender skin beneath his collarbone and properly left a dark red mark in his wake. Alex couldn't control the trembling or soft moans that the pleasure caused his body to produce. Ulrich, on the other hand, loved the sounds Alex made. It was proof that the brunette was doing everything right.
Ulrich went back up for another kiss and let his hand slide down to his boyfriend's love handles, allowing his pinkies to slide into the waistband of Alex's jeans. Alex liked the feeling of Ulrich's mouth against his and he definitely enjoyed Ulrich's touches. It felt amazing, he couldn't deny it because his body was reacting so well to it. However, even that knowledge couldn't stop the uneasy feeling in his stomach when Ulrich unfastened his belt. "Ulrich, wait!" Alex quickly sat up and pushed the horny brunette away.
"What's wrong?" Ulrich whispered into his boyfriend's ear and then placed a kiss on his shoulder.
Alex blushed from his ears, to his face, and even lightly on his chest, "I, uh, I…" He didn't know what to say, it was his turn for his mind to be in spirals. Nervousness erupted inside of him and his heartbeat quickened. That small uneasy feeling in his stomach moved to every part of his body. Why was he like this? He didn't know. He was fine yesterday, what made today so different? Was it because Ulrich was touching him and not the other way around?
Ulrich waited patiently for Alex's response but as he did, he got a good look at his topless, flustered boyfriend. It was the sexiest thing he had ever laid eyes on. "Go ahead, you can tell me." Ulrich spoke softly as he ran a gentle hand through Alex's hair, pushing some behind his ear.
Alex tried to think of something to say and silently wished that Odd would burst through the door saying he forgot something or maybe Xana would launch an attack. Anything to get him out of this situation but he had no such luck. Instead, he had to settle for a cowardly route because telling Ulrich that he wasn't ready for anything but kissing and small touches sounded lame and so out of his character.
"I forgot something really important back at my gang's place, so I have to go get it. Be back later, bye." Alex said quickly as he grabbed his tank top from atop the desk and his jacket, dressed, and left the room. Well, it was more like escaping before the perplexed Ulrich had time to retaliate and respond to such ridiculous reasoning. Tonight he would crash at another friend's place, but whom would that be? Friends weren't exactly his area of expertise but he would figure something out.
"Hey, you!" A man voice sounded behind him, it was Jim. "What are you doing here?"
Alex quickly pulled on his hood, ran downstairs, and out the building. He exited the Kadic campus with that nervous feeling still swimming in his stomach.
A/N: O-M-freakin'-G. I did it, the chapter is complete! Rejoice! Also, how do you think I did with the whole third-person omniscient thing? I think I did pretty well, but what do I know? Arigatou for reading! Review! Review! Review!