As soon as the final bell rang, Yumi hurried from the campus towards home. She barely stopped long enough to greet her mother and headed to her room, announcing she was doing homework before anyone asked.

Opening her schoolbag, she pulled out the first textbook she grabbed, turned it to a random page, and sat down at her desk. She didn't actually look at the pages, or even turn on her desk light; instead, she stared off into space the same way she had been doing every afternoon for over a week.

If she wasn't careful, her grades were going to slip. Yumi knew it, but if she didn't take the time out every day to reevaluate her thoughts, there was no point in trying to read the material in her book. She wouldn't remember any of it anyway.

Yumi felt like a liar. She hadn't lied, exactly -- but she hadn't told the truth, and as far as she could tell, no one else had told Ulrich what she'd done to pull William out of XANA's grasp. Not being honest felt just as bad.

It wasn't Ulrich's business. They weren't dating. She'd established it herself, when dealing with the jealousy issues had gotten to be too much. But declaring 'friends only' hadn't dispersed the jealousy, only forced it into silence. Ulrich wouldn't respond well when he found out about the kiss -- but knowing that, she wasn't sure if she should tell him herself or wait for someone else to do it.

The kiss itself was trouble enough; William, in his current condtion, was something else entirely. Trying to talk to William earlier that day had gone horribly wrong, and once again Yumi felt guilty on his behalf. Not only had she accepted him into the group then not saved him from the Scyphozoa; as a direct result, he was now suffering from some sort of post-traumatic stress disorder that made it too difficult to think about what had happened.

William was back, but it would be an entirely different battle to return him to his former self. Worse still, it wasn't a battle Yumi knew how to fight.

Yumi sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. She really hadn't helped matters when she'd talked to him earlier. Luc was right; her communication skills needed work.

---------------

Ulrich had noticed the shift in dynamic over the last week. Luc and Mina would arrive at school together around the same time he, Odd, Jeremie and Aelita were sitting down to breakfast; Luc would escort Mina to the breakfast table and make idle chatter for a few minutes, and then he would vanish. Mina would linger with them for a while, sneaking bits of breakfast from everyone's trays. If she caught sight of William, she would dismiss herself to talk with him; if he was late, she would stay and chat with the rest of them.

That Tuesday morning, Ulrich finally discovered where Luc was disappearing to. Emotions burned in his chest when he saw him standing in the courtyard; the bell had just rung, and Yumi was turned towards the direction of her classroom... but she was lingering, exchanging words with Luc.

Ulrich knew Yumi. If she really didn't want to talk to someone, she'd leave. But there she was, and even though her expression said 'snappy remark', everything else about her said 'conversational overtone'. Luc was holding up his arms in mock defeat, and -- to his dismay -- Ulrich saw a faint smirk on Yumi's face.

He could handle whatever was going on with William. Yumi and William, to the best of his knowledge, had barely talked since his return. Nothing had happened yet, not with William acting so strange. Luc, on the other hand, was something else entirely. Ulrich hadn't accounted for him at all.

What had he said? "She can be mad at me all she wants; I'll charm her into being nice eventually..."

Ulrich tried to remind himself that he and Yumi were just friends, but the reminder was failing. His head knew what the boundary was, but his heart had never made the switch. Now, Luc was winning; with William still recovering and Yumi avoiding everyone else, he'd found his advantage and taken the initiative.

So what are you gonna do about it?

The thought stopped the anger that was building, and it cooled under the realization that there was nothing to be done. Yumi was avoiding him. If she didn't want to talk, then forcing the issue would only make it worse.

In the classroom, within minutes of the class starting, he felt something land on his hand and bounce off. A folded up piece of paper with his name printed on it in Mina's handwriting. It wasn't even fifteen minutes into class, and she was already passing notes

You look like you're ready to kill something. Yourself or someone else, I'm not sure. You OK?

Ulrich stared at the note for a couple minutes, starting to write a response and then changing his mind twice. He didn't want to lie. He didn't want to tell the truth, either.

Finally, he wrote, Not really okay. Not really bad, either. Just frustrated.

She wrote back Why?, following it with If it's a long explanation, I'll take class notes you can copy later.

Ulrich thought for a moment. Thanks for offering. Can we talk lunch instead?

She gave him a quick thumbs-up instead of writing back, and then began paying full attention to the teacher.

By the end of class, Ulrich realized he'd need to borrow Mina's notes anyway. Instead of writing out what was wrong, he spent the whole hour only thinking about it.

---------------

When Mina burst out laughing as he explained his problem, Ulrich did not feel comforted.

"You're not helping," he told her.

"I'm sorry," Mina said, still giggling, "But I promise, that's not at all what's happening."

Ulrich couldn't hide the aggravation in his tone. "Then what's going on? It looks like he's flirting. Successfully. With Yumi."

Mina smiled reassuringly and sighed. "You're really, really paranoid, you know that?"

"Rrgh... Okay, so I'm paranoid. If it's not flirting, what is it?"

"He's just trying to convince Yumi not to hate him. Perhaps you haven't noticed, but Yumi holds grudges really well. She started liking me when she realized I'm only involved because Luc dragged me along." Mina's smile turned rueful. "I told him we shouldn't have gone that night, but do I ever follow my own advice...?"

"So he doesn't have a crush on Yumi?" Ulrich verified.

Mina shook her head. "Not at all. After what happened with William, it'd be stupid to try and flirt with her now."

Only when the words had left her mouth did Mina realize what she'd said. She froze, and glanced at Ulrich to see if he'd missed her slip-up.

He hadn't. He was staring at her intently.

"What happened with William?"

Mina's thoughts flailed for any quick lie to cover her mistake, then realized she couldn't lie to him -- not when he was staring at her like that. She sighed. "Don't freak out, okay?"

"You're not inspiring confidence, Mina."

She winced. "Look, I don't know why she hasn't told you about it, but if it hasn't come up it's probably because she's confused --"

"Mina!"

Ulrich realized how sharp his tone was, and started over. "Mina. Yumi isn't talking to anyone. The only person she's given the time of day for a week, now, is Luc. I don't want to lose one of my best friends. Please, just tell me what happened."

Faced with the desperation in his eyes, Mina set her resolve.

"Okay. But you're not going to like it."

---------------

When Ulrich requested to meet Yumi in the park after class that day, she immediately had a sense of what was about to happen. It figured; any time she took too long to make a decision, someone would invariably make it for her.

He didn't bother with a greeting, instead launching directly into a tirade.

"Why didn't you say something?" he demanded. "It's been weeks since William came back; was I the only one who didn't know?"

"Obviously Odd didn't, or we would've had this conversation already."

The attempted humor fell flat in the face of Ulrich's temper, and probably just made him angrier.

"So everyone else knew you kissed him, and you just didn't bother saying anything because it didn't seem important enough?"

Yumi glared. "I didn't say anything because I knew you'd react like this. You always get so jealous; it's not like you have the right!"

"I do have a right!"

The hurt in his voice stopped Yumi from retorting.

"It was your idea to say we're just friends -- no questions, no options, nothing! How can you tell me I don't have a right when you never even asked how I felt?"

"You said it was fine --!"

"I was in shock!"

"That doesn't make it okay to wait this long to say something!"

The conversation had escalated into a shouting match, and every bird in the park had fallen silent. They both noticed, and stopped yelling long enough to breathe.

"If you had a problem with it," Yumi said, careful to keep her voice low, "You should have said something."

"You'd already made up your mind. Don't try to tell me you hadn't, because if that were true then you wouldn't have just declared us 'friends only' like that."

"You could've tried to change my mind."

"You could've given me the chance."

He had her at that; back then, she'd left no opportunity to debate the matter. Yumi tried to match his gaze, but the intensity he met her with was too much and she looked away.

"I did what I had to," she said, finally. "I couldn't deal with the drama on top of the constant sneaking around and lying to everyone." Yumi forced herself to look up again. "And when I kissed William, it was the only thing I could think of that would make him come back. His emotions overrode XANA's power; Jeremie used the debugging program; everyone made it home. It worked, okay? I wasn't trying to hurt anyone. I was just trying to make things right again."

And it had gone wrong anyway. William was back, but he was a shadow of who he used to be. Worse, saving William was destroying her friendship with Ulrich. Thinking about it hurt.

If Ulrich had any opinions on the matter, he wasn't speaking them. Even knowing how upset he was, Yumi wished he would say something -- some affirmation that he'd heard her, or that this would eventually blow over.

Ulrich looked away. Everything he wanted to say was too loaded. Questions like, "Is there a reason you're avoiding me?", or "So are you dating him now?", or "Are you in love with him?" He was afraid to ask them. At the rate things were going, the answers to those questions would take Yumi from him forever. Things were bad, but as long as they were quiet, she wasn't gone yet.

They stood there, the silence too heavy with their thoughts, both too scared of what would happen if the conversation continued; every new word seemed to push them further apart. In spite of everything that had happened, losing each other was the last thing either of them wanted. Unfortunately, neither knew what they had to do next.

The atmosphere was more than Yumi could take. "I need to go home," she said, her voice low.

Ulrich's eyes snapped up to meet hers, and he took a breath to protest -- to beg, if he needed to, that she not leave. Then their eyes met, and he knew she wasn't abandoning him. For just a moment, he saw that she was scared, too.

He nodded. "I'll talk to you later."

"Yeah. See ya."

They both turned, Ulrich towards the dormitory and Yumi towards home.

Mina was lingering in the courtyard with Luc and Odd. When she saw Ulrich returning, she pardoned herself from the conversation and hurried over.

"Is everything okay? Was she really mad?"

Ulrich shook his head. "I didn't tell her who told."

"What happened?" she pressed.

"I don't want to talk about it," he mumbled, and kept walking. Mina let him go, watching worriedly after him.

When she returned to where Odd and Luc were standing, Odd asked, "What's up with Ulrich?"

Mina sighed. "He didn't want to talk about it."

"Ah," said Odd, knowingly. "Yumi?"

"Uh huh... You remember that Yumi was the one to get William back?"

Odd nodded.

"Yumi kissed him. That's how she snapped him out of it long enough for me to freeze them and for Jeremie to start the debugger."

Odd's eyes widened. "She kissed him?! Oh man, no wonder Ulrich's so ticked..."

Mina explained her slip to Ulrich earlier that day, and that she'd seen Yumi and Ulrich leave the campus that afternoon and deduced for herself what that meant.

Luc patted her head. "Wow. You really stuck your foot in it, this time."

She didn't even try to argue. "I know... Yumi's going to kill me."

"Only if someone tells," he said. His tone was meant to be reassuring, but both of them froze, looked at each other... then turned towards Odd.

Odd went from puzzled to decidedly nervous in a matter of seconds, and started to back away.

"When you look at me like that, I suddenly understand how small prey animals feel..."

"What do you think?" Luc asked Mina. "Bargain, or threats?"

"I think he can be reasoned with. What's the cost of silence?"

Odd considered. "Anything?"

Mina nodded. "Within reason, of course. If we can do it, we'll make it happen."

Neither of them expected Odd's response. "A date with Mina."

"Absolutely not."

Mina thwapped Luc's shoulder. "Lighten up."

"No way! That's asking too much."

"How is that asking too much?"

"Because I disapprove."

Mina rolled her eyes. "Whatever, Dad." She faced Odd again. "What sort of date?"

"Dinner and a movie?" Odd suggested. "Oh, and your brother isn't allowed to kill me."

"Deal," Mina said. Luc made a noise of protest.

"Great!" said Odd, and they shook hands to seal it. "Friday afternoon okay?"

They debated the finer details of the affair, and Mina dismissed herself for home. Luc looked from Mina to Odd, unsure who he wanted to berate first; ultimately, he followed Mina.

"You're insane, using dates as bargaining chips."

"I am not. Besides that, consider what else he could've asked for. We could've ended up doing his homework for three months, or giving up a videogame, or our lunches..."

"Okay, okay, I get the point..." Luc sighed, eyes still troubled. "I don't like the thought of dating someone to keep yourself out of trouble."

"It's one date."

"And what if he talks anyway?"

"If he does, he'll wait until after Friday," Mina said confidently. "Which means Yumi and Ulrich might make up before he slips, and by then Yumi won't have anything to be mad about anymore anyway."

"What if they don't make up?"

Mina considered this. "Well... by breaking the deal, you're allowed to kill him."

After weighing the pros and cons of both situations, Luc grudgingly conceded. "Fine. But be careful."

"Whatever." Mina shrugged. "It's Odd; he flirts with everyone. Me this week, Emily next."

Luc was not comforted.