I just find it interesting how so far no one has said Ulrich and Aelita can't be together. All I get is awws. Someone even mentioned the way I organized events and characterized them, it's believable. I'm still Ulrich/Yumi, but if you are someone who has read my other stuff, you know I like the weird couples for the sake of a challenge.
Odd was the first person to arrive at the breakfast table after Aelita and Ulrich, who were sitting next to each other, talking about how they were going to break the news to Jeremie and Yumi. Odd placed his tray down and looked at the two, who continued talking as if he wasn't there.
"Break what news to them?" Odd asked as he grabbed his fork and stabbed the sausage on his plate.
"Officially as of last night, we're dating," Aelita said and grabbed Ulrich's hand on top of the table so Odd could see.
"Working on an elaborate aprils fools joke are we?" Odd asked and Ulrich shook his head and leaned down to kiss Aelita's hand, "Of course you're not," Odd said sarcastically.
Aelita and Ulrich leaned over and kissed each other for a few seconds then looked back and Odd for his reaction. Odd slowly chewed and shrugged.
"Actually, I saw this coming," Odd said with half a mouth full and started on his next link.
"How?" Aelita.
"I read his texts when he's sleeping," Odd said with a grin and Ulrich looked at him.
"You read my personal texts?" Ulrich asked and Odd nodded.
"You two have been flirting for months, neither of you really talk to Yumi or Jeremie anymore, but you have nearly five hundred texts a piece to each other." Odd said and Ulrich groaned.
"How did you figure out the code to my phone?" Ulrich asked.
"One, two, three, four was my first guess," Odd said and Ulrich looked at Aelita who smiled.
"That's the best you could come up with?" Aelita said with a giggle.
"Last time I tried being clever with it, I forgot the password," Ulrich said and Odd smiled.
"Three, seven, eight, zero, if my memory serves me right," Odd said and Aelita looked at Ulrich.
"Was that your last password?" Aelita asked.
"I remember it now," Ulrich said and Aelita laughed and looked at Odd.
"Have you always been good at figuring out passwords?" Aelita asked, and Odd nodded, "What's my cells password?"
"It's a guess, but first think of something significant to you. I'd say that's the day you were materialized. And that was November....fourth I want to say, so one, one, zero, four," Odd said and Aelita took out her cell phone and started typing.
"What are you doing?" Ulrich asked.
"Changing my password," Aelita said and looked up at Odd, then held the phone under the table so he couldn't see.
"Alright, try it now," Aelita said and handed Odd her phone. Odd held it for a moment, took a bit of his food and held the fork in his mouth with his teeth and typed in something and handed it back to her.
"Unbelievable," Ulrich said and Aelita started to change it again.
"Two, three, five, eight," Odd said with a smile, "Little mathematical, so naturally it's Jeremie's password."
"You read his too?" Ulrich asked and Odd nodded.
"Talks to his dad a lot, luckily for you Aelita, he was asking advise for how to manage a friendship with an ex girlfriend. Good timing you two," Odd said and Aelita was relieved to her that.
"What's mathematical about his password?" Ulrich asked.
"Fibonacci sequence," Aeltia answered, "I figured Odd didn't do the homework three weeks ago."
"I figured she'd try to outsmart me. If it wasn't that my next guess was two, eight, eight six," Odd said and Aelita let her hands drop on the table and looked straight at Odd.
"I haven't even finished typing it," Aelita said and Odd smiled.
"What does that one mean?" Ulrich asked.
"Release date of Pretty in Pink," Odd said and Aelita groaned and tried to think of something else.
"You only knew that because you were reading my texts a few days ago," Ulrich said and Odd nodded and continued eating.
"Alright try it now," Aelita said and Odd placed his fork down and tried for a few minutes but couldn't get it to unlock. He placed her phone down and grabbed his fork again and shook his head.
"Well played," Odd said and Aelita smiled and pocketed her phone.
"Try mine," Ulrich said and Odd smiled.
"One, two, three, four, you pretended to change it," Odd said and Ulrich groaned and placed his phone on the table.
"What's Sissi's?" Ulrich asked and Odd chuckled and looked up.
"Your birthday," Odd answered and Ulrich laughed.
"Yumi's?" Aelita asked.
"Same as Sissi's," Odd said and Aelita didn't laugh, "Maintaining a friendship with her is a going to be interesting. I'll be in the shark cage when you two start chumming the water."
Aelita and Danielle were in their room at the end of the day, ready to go the sleep and neither really could. Danielle rolled over and looked at Aelita's side and Aelita reflected the action.
"You tell Yumi yet?" Danielle asked and Aelita shook her head.
"I never got the chance and Ulrich would have told me if he saw her," Aelita said and Danielle rolled back and looked at the ceiling.
"You thought the first fight was bad," Danielle started and Aelita nodded.
"I tell her I took 'her man'," Aelita said, using air quotes, "Then she'll do what she always does when someone tries to snatch him."
"Get him to like her again and leave him disappointed for another four months," Danielle said and Aelita groaned.
"This is not going to go over well," Aelita said.
"Do you trust that Ulrich will choose you over her?" Danielle asked and rolled over again, and Aelita nodded.
"I do, because this one breaks the pattern a little bit," Aelita said.
"How so?"
"Well, in the past the girl who gets him for a day, it's much more spontaneous and not a slow build. Not the mention at least two of them didn't even remember it," Aelita said and Danielle giggled and rolled to her back again.
"You feel a little guilty?" Danielle asked.
"Of course I do, I'm dating the guy my best friend likes," Aelita answered and Danielle rolled over again.
"Here's the thing, Yumi has been the one giving you advise while never following her own. So if anything, you starting to date Ulrich, she can't really blame you for that because she put the, go and get him tactic in your head," Danielle said and Aelita rolled over and looked at the ceiling.
"Wow, I never thought about it that way," Aelita said with a smile, "Poetically ironic."
"Maybe she'll be more understanding than we think she'll be," Danielle said and rolled over and faced the wall.
"I hope so, but I doubt it," Aelita said and rolled over as well, "night Danny."
"Goodnight," Danny replied and both took nearly an hour to sleep, but neither talked because both believe the other was sound asleep.
The next day for the new couple was answering the same question over and over again.
"Yes we're dating," Aelita would said.
"Yes we are, person fifty to ask me that," Ulrich responded as more and more people tried to figure out how the development to their relationship had slipped passed everyone. At this rate, Yumi would find out before they ever got the chance to tell her.
"Why do so many people care?" Ulrich asked and Aelita shrugged while leaning against him.
"You are wanted by like half of the girls in the school," Aelita said and Ulrich tried to deny that but at this point it was obvious with some of them glaring at Aelita.
"Are the glares bothering you?" Ulrich asked and Aelita shook her head.
"I've made the entire school jealous, if you're as hot as the rest of the school thinks you are, good thing I ran back into the hall," Aelita said and Ulrich nodded and looked around as some of the students began to leave the school.
Ulrich and Aelita were sitting under a tree in the quad, watching everyone leaving, and everyone else who was staring. They still hadn't seen Yumi all day, so once again never got the chance to tell her in person. They both figured, by know she'd had to have heard it from someone. Probably Sissi who wouldn't miss the opportunity to divulge information about Ulrich.
"I can't believe we haven't seen her at all for two days," Aelita said and Ulrich shrugged and tried to catch her in the crowd leaving.
"At least this relationship went two days before someone tries to stop it," Ulrich said and Aelita nodded to agree.
"Peace and quiet is okay, they could stop staring though," Aelita said and Ulrich chuckled, the vibrations from his stomach rocking her head making her giggle.
"Hey, I've been hearing some pretty crazy rumors," Yumi said from their left away from the thinning crowd leaving through the gates.
'Here we go,' Aeltia said to herself.
"Like what?" Ulrich asked.
"Well, I heard from, pretty much everyone that you two are supposedly dating," Yumi answered and with a slight humor in her voice like it was joke. How do you pop this bubble?
"To clarify, we are," Aelita said bluntly, and almost cringed because she knew it sounded worse than she intended.
"What?" Yumi asked while looking down at them.
"It may be a rumor Yumi, but we've been dating since two days ago," Ulrich said and Yumi stood there looking at them, trying to figure out what to say for how the take it.
"Kiss her," Yumi said.
"Huh?" Aeltia asked.
"Prove it, kiss her, do it," Yumi said quickly while trying to hold back tears.
"Yumi," Ulrich said sympathetically and Yumi looked straight down.
"So, that's why you said sorry," Yumi said and Aelita nodded.
"I'm sorry Yumi," Aelita said softly and Yumi started to walk away then stopped a few feet away and turned around.
"Well, I did say go and get him, whoever you want the him to be," Yumi said as a tear rolled down her right cheek and rolled off onto her shoe.
"You want to stay and talk?" Aelita asked and Yumi shook her head and turned around again, then turned back but continued to walk backwards.
"No, I'm good, I got homework, and I have to watch my brother," Yumi said as more tears fell. The three didn't notice but they were drawing a crowd, "But I'll see you two tomorrow, and the day after that."
"Yumi stay and talk, please," Aelita said and Yumi shook her head and look at the two and felt betrayed, but she wasn't sure who had done it.
"I never moved in, you did," Yumi said and began to walk towards the gate and looked back one more time before rounding the corner and disappearing.
"Why did that feel worse than a fist fight?" Ulrich asked and Aelita sighed and leaned into his stomach more.
"I don't know why, but I know what you mean," Aelita answered.
"They didn't tell me, they didn't tell you, or any of us," Yumi said two days later while she was pacing in Jeremie's room as he sat on his computer chair and spun around.
"If they want to date each other, who's to say they can't," Jeremie said and Yumi looked down at him and sat on his bed.
"One of the reasons you were trying to free Aelita was to be with her, and now she's completely neglected that," Yumi said and Jeremie shrugged.
"To be honest, I kind of neglected it, not her," Jeremie said and stopped spinning, "Everything with us, sounded great on paper, but the actual relationship part, not so much."
"You two were perfect for each other," Yumi said and Jeremie shook his head.
"No we aren't," Jeremie said bluntly.
"It was so cute watching you two awkwardly do this or that," Yumi said and Jeremie sighed.
"It was fun, and a decent start, but Aelita is a lot different from me than you would think," Jeremie said and looked up at her.
"I guess, but I find myself in a weird position, asking whether or not I should fight for him or cheer them on," Yumi said and Jeremie wasn't sure what she meant.
"Explain that better," Jeremie requested.
"Ulrich's and my history needs no review, but when asking about boys, I told her to just go and get him. So in some weird way, I encouraged this," Yumi said and Jeremie understood now.
"Just do me a favor Yumi," Jeremie said and Yumi asked what the favor was, "Don't interfere."
"It's not like he started dating someone suddenly with no warning signs, there were tons of signs but when you say Ulrich and Aelita, it just doesn't attract suspicion," Yumi said and Jeremie nodded.
"Agreed on that, but now that we see the final result, do the clues add up?" Jeremie asked and Yumi nodded.
"They do," Yumi said, "Which means, it took Aelita months to even follow my advice. Maybe she just wanted to make sure it wasn't a passing feeling. She wanted to go in and get him, when she was very sure it was Ulrich she liked."
"Ulrich's side of the riddle?" Jeremie asked.
"It wasn't like he said yes just to say yes, Ulrich isn't that kind of person, at least I hope not. From what Odd told me, it was actually Ulrich who started the conversation about their situation and where to go with it without any motivation. Ulrich couldn't even do that with me," Yumi said and fell back.
"So they legitimately like each other, it was building for months," Jeremie said.
"Then they both snapped," Yumi said softly and sat up slowly and looked at her feet.
"Leave them be, cheer them on, this is a big deal for both of them," Jeremie said and spun around in his chair again and stopped.
"This may sound strange, but I'm not mad, at either of them. I just realized I'm jealous," Yumi said, "and not even about the relationship."
"Then about what?" Jeremie asked.
"I'm jealous that Aeltia was able to follow the advice that I never followed myself. The thing that hurts the most, is that it actually worked, and all of the years I spent waiting for him to follow the advice I never told him, was a waste. Aelita did, and she got him. Just go and get him, and she did. It took awhile, and she probably fought herself the entire way because she didn't want to risk our friendship."
"At least you realize Aelita actually likes him, and wants him, and she took as long as she did to realize it, only because of you," Jeremie said and Yumi nodded.
"It wasn't anything personal between us," Yumi said, "She just wanted him too."
"So, is that you promising to leave them be?" Jeremie asked.
"No," Yumi answered and Jeremie looked at her.
"I beg you're pardon."
"I'm not taking a sideline here, but I'm not against them. They're my friends, so I'll cheer them on," Yumi said with a slight grin and walked out of Jeremie's room and he chuckled.
"They grow up so fast," Jeremie said to himself playfully and booted is computer.
