SURPRISE! You all thought the story was over, didn't you? Well I know you are all very torn from the sudden harshness of the previous chapter, so I'd like to invite you all to read my newest Jerlita oneshot to give yourselves a break from the sadness. I promise this one is happy, even if it doesn't seem like it at points. It's called "The Proposal." Happy reading!

Aelita's room is stale, along with their emotions. There is no warmth, there is no life. Silence fills the holes of their now empty hearts. There is no longer the high-pitched beeping of Aelita's heart monitor echoing throughout the room. There is no cheerful laughter from the curious girl, who still had so much to learn. Jeremie wasn't wrong when he said it felt like Aelita had so much to be taught in such little time… but alas, he had run out of time.

Her sheets had been sprinkled with tiny, wet drops that had fallen from the depths of Jeremie's eyes. They say the eyes are the window to the soul, but Jeremie's eyes had become the window to nothing more than vast blackness. It was over. His hopes, dreams and desires had all risen to an ultimate climax before being ripped right out of his very hands. He had failed, and was forced to watch the only thing in his life that had ever truly meant anything slip away for eternity. It really was over this time. There was no going back, no starting over. So close… yet so far away.

Jeremie's friends had attempted to comfort him, but to no avail. "It's not your fault, Jeremie," Yumi's voice echoes inside his head. "You did your best…"

Jeremie didn't respond. There wasn't a single word in any language on Earth that could put his feelings into words. How does one describe the feeling of losing the most important thing in the world? How does one simply put in the past the girl you fought for every single day, the girl you even managed to free from her virtual prison?

You don't, that's how.

The very night her life slipped away, they all agreed to shut off the supercomputer. Jeremie pleaded against the wishes of his friends, but deep down inside he knew it was the right thing to do. Aelita was no longer around to deactivate the towers. She never would be again. As such, XANA would achieve victory in taking over the world if they didn't act fast. Jeremie walked up to the computer, shivering from the frigid air of the concrete room. He wrapped his skeleton like fingers around the heavy lever of the supercomputer, tightening his grip as fiercely has he'd like to on XANA's neck… if XANA had a neck, that is. Killing XANA for once and for all was Jeremie's method of closure. He looked back at his friends, who all gave a delicate nod, and he forced the switch into the 'off' position. The supercomputer whirred and buzzed as it powered down, sinking into the ground of the factory before being encased by a solid door that would shut it away from humanity… forever.

He kneeled down onto the ground, staring at the Eye of XANA that had been tattooed onto the solid flooring. From behind him he pulled a single tulip out of his pocket, similar to one he had picked for Aelita in their first few days of love. He placed it in the very center as tears welled in his eyes. One crystal drop fell from his face and onto one of the pink tulip's elusive petals, settling peacefully. Jeremie refrained from wiping it away, and quickly joined his friends in leaving the factory, an attempt to run away from the pain.

But the pain was going to follow him for the rest of his life.

Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months. Not once did Jeremie leave Aelita's side. He would curl up by her and talk to her as if she could still hear him, playing with her hair and telling her all about his day. Eventually, he stopped going to class, he stopped speaking to his friends; he wouldn't even answer his parent's calls when they tried to ask why he was failing. It was almost has if he had fallen off of the face of the Earth… along with Aelita. She had tubes trailing down her esophagus to keep her breathing, needles poked into every limb of her body. One wrong move and you would trip over her IV. Although a horrific sight to most, to Jeremie she was still the most beautiful thing on the planet.

"Hi Aelita," Jeremie whispered as he helped himself into her bed, just like he did every other day. He trailed his fingers along the creases of her ear and the defined lines of her jaw, nuzzling his head against her neck. Every time he did this, he expected the heat of her body to comfort him, but as usual was left with a hurtful shock from the stinging cold of her lifeless shell. "Do you remember the day we went to an amusement park together? And I bought you your first cotton candy. The look on your face as you felt it disintegrate inside your mouth was priceless. That was a fun day, huh Aelita?" Jeremie looked up at her, gazing into her deep slumber. The machines around Aelita that kept her legally alive softly hummed into the barrenness of her white chamber. He stared at the tubes that travelled down her arms, watching the liquid medicine trickle into her veins. Jeremie looked away from the machinery, for it brought him too much angst, and planted a subtle kiss upon her left temple while twirling her flippy, pink waves between his minute fingers. Tears welled up in his eyes as they did every single time he came to see her, and he laid on his back, staring at the roughened texture of the white ceiling above him. "I miss you, Aelita," he mumbled under his shaking breath. "I miss you so much. Nobody will ever understand."

A punitive knock on the door jolted him out of his daze, and he sat up in her bed, staring at the entrance as the handle turned and a woman he had not seen in far too long walked inside. How long had it been? Jeremie couldn't even remember. It was almost as if he had forgotten they even existed. She walked up to him very solemnly, yet angry at the same time.

"Hi, Jeremie," Yumi said. She kicked at the ground while she folded her arms, her eyes travelling all around her surroundings in an attempt to avoid direct eye-contact.

"Hi," Jeremie replied. He stared in awe at her and how different she looked since he had last seen her. There was a hint of purple in her outfits now instead of her usual complete black attire, and her eyelids had been painted with a soft, sultry eye shadow that gave a smoky effect. When did Yumi start wearing make-up? It couldn't have been that long. She almost looked even taller, and her shirt exposed more of her neckline and shoulder than her cut-off sweaters ever did. Jeremie cleared his throat and harshly blinked, before gaining enough stature to continue his sentence. "How are you?"

Yumi sighed, as if she was irritated that Jeremie had the nerve to ask how she was doing. "How am I doing?" The Japanese woman coldly replied. "Jeremie, do you even remember when the last time you spoke to me was? Or Ulrich, or Odd?"

"Well, uh," the distraught genius stuttered whilst scratching his head. To be honest, he hadn't the slightest clue. In his mind, the only thing that existed in this world was Aelita. "It couldn't have been that long, right?"

"It's been over six months, Jeremie."

"…Oh." The boy's eyes widened.

"Did you forget we existed or something?" Jeremie didn't respond. He merely stared at his lap, twirling his thumbs around.

"Yumi, why are you here?"

Yumi let her arms unfold and clash against her hips as she expelled a worry filled sigh. "You've got to go on, Jeremie," she pleaded.

"Can't go anywhere without Aelita."

Yumi sighed once again. She pushed her thumb against her temple, and let the rest of her fingers sit on her forehead. "Jeremie… look at yourself. When is the last time you even showered?"

A slightly confused Jeremie obliged her requests, gazing upon his battered body and filthy clothes. Sometimes he would use the shower in Aelita's hospital room, but not often. He looked back up at Yumi with hurt glossed over his eyes. She returned the same expression.

"Jeremie… Aelita wouldn't want this. She wouldn't want you to be shutting yourself away from the world like you are, sulking in a dark corner all day and pretending as if nothing else exists. You don't come to class anymore. You were the valedictorian, and now you're flunking. You never call us, you don't call your own parents and they are worried sick about you. Nobody knows what happened to you, and what's worse Milly and Tamiya have been harassing us every day since Aelita's dea-"

"Don't say it," Jeremie snapped as he glared darkly at Yumi.

"What?"

"That word… don't say it."

"Jeremie… this is exactly what I'm talking about."

Jeremie scowled, his lips pressing into a serious frown as he tightly shut his eyes and swung his head in the opposite direction of the concerned woman in front of him. He tried to pretend as if this wasn't happening, as if the only interaction he had with a friend in several months wasn't just one of forcefulness and offense. How could she just march in here and demand he move on? How dare she.

"Jeremie… we miss you. Do you remember life before this? We were inseparable. We hung out all the time; we would go out for ice cream and have sleep overs at my house… but everything we did was always interrupted by XANA. XANA is gone now, Jeremie… we've got a chance at a brand new life without him. A real life."

Jeremie stubbornly sat on Aelita's bed, refusing to look at Yumi. His eyes became an ocean of despair as the tears snuck out of the tight creases of his shut eyelids. He opened his mouth to talk, yet no words came out. Yumi walked over to him and gently relaxed her hand on top of his tense shoulder.

"I know you miss her, Jeremie…"

Jeremie finally opened his eyes and turned towards Yumi. His wet cheeks glistened underneath the hospital's luminescent lighting. His eyes were coated with dark circles and sunken in, and his complexion had grown paler from locking himself away in Aelita's room. Yumi's eyes welled up as well as she looked over at the sleeping beauty on the bed, reminding herself once again that they had failed. Maybe if she and the others would have just heard Jeremie out, just once, things could have been performed in time. She quickly erased the images from her head; there was no use dwelling.

"Please, Jeremie. Do it for Aelita… you know she wouldn't be able to stomach seeing you like this."

Jeremie looked over at his beloved that once rested peacefully and happily in his arms, but now was confined to a cold and hard mattress. He remembered all the times she would scold him for staying up so late and never getting enough rest, refusing to take even one day off from his work. The memories of her deep concern and caring for him added a bit of spark to Jeremie's damaged heart, and although full of regret, he looked over at Yumi and nodded.

"For Aelita."