Author's Note: Happy Friday, ya'll! Time for some Yumi and Hiroki interactions.
14. Hiroki blamed her for breaking up with Ulrich and she didn't have the heart to tell him his hero ended it with her.
"Ulrich's pretty cool, for being one of your friends," Hiroki informs her.
She narrows her eyes at him as they walk home from Kadic. "Oh really?" she asks. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Just that you usually hang out with dorky people," he replies easily. He kicks at a rock, dribbling it between his feet. "But Ulrich's cool. He plays sports and video games."
"Whatever, you spent like ten minutes with him." She hitches her bag higher on her shoulder and rolls her eyes as he trips on the rock. "Stop that, you're going to fall and I'm going to get in trouble."
"Ulrich says it's important to practice."
"Since when do you even care about sports? You're glued to the television screen and that game box." They turn into their front walk, making their way to the door.
"Yeah, well, I can like two things at once, you know? I'm not lame like some people."
She rolls her eyes again, unlocking the front door. "Whatever, brat."
/
"You've brainwashed my little brother," Yumi states irritably. Ulrich looks up at her, surprised, as she sits down next to him in the cafeteria. "All night it's been Ulrich-this and Ulrich-that. No offense, but I'm getting sick of hearing your name."
Ulrich laughs, shaking his head. "He's an okay kid," he replies.
"Ugh, he's a monster. And he has a serious case of hero worship." She digs into the vegetables on her plate; nodding as Odd and Jeremie take their seats at the table.
"Who has hero worship?" Odd questions. He reaches over and snags Ulrich's strawberry parfait without more than a token protest from Ulrich.
"My brother, for Ulrich," she replies, stabbing one of the cooked carrots. "I was just telling him that all night I heard about how great Ulrich was. No offense."
"None taken," Ulrich replies easily.
"It must run in the family," Odd says around a mouthful of parfait.
Yumi narrows her eyes at the blonde. "I don't know what you mean."
Odd shrugs, swallowing. "Just, you know. You think Ulrich's cool too, right?" he asks. "So does the kid. Hence, it must run in the family."
"I don't. It's not. It's just." Yumi fumbles, not sure how to respond to Odd's statement. She avoids Ulrich's curious gaze and lands on Jeremie instead. "Tell him, Jeremie."
Jeremie shrugs, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "There are worse people for your brother to admire, Yumi," he says. "What if it was Sissi? Or Odd?"
Yumi shudders. "Don't even joke about that," she groans.
"Hey!" Odd protests. "What's wrong with me?"
"Trust me, you're better as a one-off," Yumi replies. "I don't need my little brother emulating you."
Odd crosses his arms, glaring at the table. "I still don't see what's wrong with that."
"Well, you do have a tendency to pull pranks," Jeremie replies, "and not all of them are fun to participate in. Plus, the whole shoe-thing."
"What shoe-thing?" Yumi asks.
"Trust me, don't ask," Ulrich replies. He nudges Odd and smiles at him. "Hey, one Odd is a good thing, means you're an individual. I'm sure the kid would admire you if he saw your game scores."
"Hmph," Odd replies, but he goes back to eating.
. . … . .
She thinks it'll fizzle out. Ulrich will do something stupid that Hiroki doesn't care for, or Hiroki will find someone else to follow around like a puppy. But it doesn't. If anything it gets worse as Hiroki gets older. He wants to start playing football because Ulrich plays football. He pops up when they're studying or quietly discussing Lyoko. He wants Ulrich to come by and play more video games with him.
"I don't get why you hang out with Yumi," she hears him say one afternoon. Ulrich had come over to work on an assignment, claiming Odd was busy editing a music video and blasting the song as he worked, and Hiroki had hovered in the background the entire hour he'd been at the house. It figures that Hiroki would make himself a nuisance as soon as Yumi had gone to the kitchen to get drinks. "She's lame."
"You really think that?" Ulrich's voice responds. Yumi pauses in the kitchen, listening to them talk in the living room.
"Well, yeah, duh. Have you met her? She used to be cool, but now she always yells and complains."
Ulrich is quiet and she is on her way back into the other room when his voice stops her. "I think you're judging her too harshly. Yumi's got a lot on her plate."
"Oh yeah? Like what? All she does is go to school, hang out with you guys, and complain about what I should be doing."
"Yeah," Ulrich replies. "I guess it would seem that way, huh?" He pauses. "Your sister's pretty great, but she takes on a lot of responsibility at…school."
She returns to the living room before Hiroki can press. She smiles brightly as she sets the drinks on the coffee table and curls up in the armchair with her literature book. Hiroki is quiet, but she senses him giving her quick, unsubtle looks for the rest of the afternoon.
/
"You should date Ulrich," Hiroki announces one night. She's babysitting while her parents go to her father's work function and they're seated on the sofa, watching a horror movie she probably shouldn't be letting him watch.
"What?" she asks, sure that she heard him wrong.
He rolls his eyes and kicks her under the blankets. "It would be really cool," he states. "You'd actually get cool points. Ulrich seems into you and you like him."
"I don't like Ulrich as anything other than a friend," she replies, feeling her face heat.
"Then why are you blushing? You turn red anytime someone mentions his name."
"I do not!" she protests. Hiroki gives her a level look and she turns back to the movie in time to see one of the teenagers get an axe to the stomach. "I don't," she repeats.
"Uh huh. Well, I think he likes you. I don't know why. Oh, cool, look at all that blood! How do you think they make it look so real?" he asks excitedly. "Anyway, he likes you for some reason and he's cool. He's teaching me some moves in football, you know?"
"I know, you've told me four times," she replies drily.
Hiroki ignores her tone. "It'd be good," he states.
"Right," she replies, rolling her eyes. "Even if I was interested, trust me, I wouldn't be following the advice of a nine-year-old."
"Fine," he snaps. "Be stupid, I'm just trying to make you less lame."
. . … . .
She does end up dating Ulrich, which makes Hiroki insufferable for weeks once he finds out, courtesy of the Kadic Chronicle.
"I told you," Hiroki singsongs, waving the paper in her face. She snatches it away from him and glares. "You should be thanking me."
"Thanking you? For what?" she demands.
"I totally talked you up and told him how much you liked him." She stares at her little brother, eyes wide. Hiroki grins at her. "What, it wasn't like you were doing anything about it!"
"I am giving you a five second head start," she tells him.
"Don't be stupid, I helped you," he retorts.
"One…two…"
Hiroki seems to realize she's being serious. He turns, taking off down the sidewalk toward the house. Yumi waits the allotted time before giving chase. They crash through the front door, a tangle of limbs and raised voices. Hiroki howls as she tackles him to the ground.
"What is going on?" their mother demands, appearing in the kitchen doorway. "Yumi, get off of your brother."
"Yumi's being an idiot!" Hiroki exclaims. He dodges the slap she aims for him and hides behind their mother. "Tell her to stop it."
"He-he…" she is so angry she can't form words. "He told Ulrich I liked him!" she exclaims.
"Well, you do," Hiroki snaps. "You're the one dating him!"
"You're dating someone?" their mother asks. Yumi flushes, mutters under her breath about getting Hiroki later, and stomps upstairs. "Who is she dating?"
"Ulrich Stern!" Hiroki replies enthusiastically. "Isn't that cool?" She slams her bedroom door on their conversation.
/
Yumi takes to spending more time at Kadic after she starts dating Ulrich. It's better than having her little brother staring at them or hanging off of Ulrich's every word. It was weird. Anytime she mentioned it to Ulrich though, he only laughed and wrapped an arm around her, pressed a kiss to her temple, and told her she was overreacting.
"Yeah, yeah," she grumbles. "You just like being in the spotlight."
He shrugs. "It's nice to be looked up to," he replies.
They can't always be at Kadic, clearly. When they hang out at her house, Ulrich is on his best behavior and she does like the way he charms her mother, the respectful way he addresses her father. She even likes the way he actually listens to Hiroki's ramblings.
It's kind of perfect.
. . … . .
"I can't believe you ruined it," Hiroki complains. Yumi ignores him, pours cereal into her bowl and searches the fridge for milk. "He was actually cool."
"Shut-up, Hiroki," she snaps. "We're still friends."
"Yeah, yeah, sure," Hiroki mutters. He shovels cereal in his mouth and ignores the frown their mother sends his way. "That's what they always say on TV. You're so selfish, Yumi."
"I'm selfish?" she demands, turning to face him. She grasps the milk carton in her hand. "Really?"
"Well, yeah, duh," he replies.
"Hiroki," their mother warns.
"You're the idiot who broke up with the coolest guy in school. Now he won't play video games with me anymore."
"That's enough," their mother announces, arms crossed. "Hiroki, Yumi did-"
"No, he's right," Yumi replies quickly. She sits down at the table, studying her brother's crestfallen face. "It's my fault Ulrich and I broke up."
"Yumi…"
"It's fine," she replies, forces a cheerful expression onto her face. She nudges Hiroki's chair with her foot. "If Ulrich's as cool as you think, I'm sure he'll still hang out with you. We are still friends."
"Yeah, whatever. I hope it was worth it," Hiroki grumbles.
/
"Do me a favor," Yumi states, sitting down across from Ulrich. He looks up at her in surprise and she looks down at the stack of books she's set on the table. "Don't ditch Hiroki, okay? The kid really does look up to you."
"I wasn't planning to," he replies, confused. "I thought we were still going to be friends?"
She meets his eyes, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Can we?" she asks.
He closes the textbook in front of him, frowning. "I hope so. We were always friends, weren't we?"
"Yeah, we were," she agrees.
He reaches for her hand, hesitates and lets his hand settle on his book. "I don't want it to be weird," he admits.
She gives him a small smile, squeezes his hand gently. "We were never going to work, Ulrich. It's okay. Just…if Hiroki asks, I broke it off with you, okay?"
"But-"
"It's okay," she says, opening her books. She feels him watching her before he returns his attention to the book in front of him.
/
Two weeks later, Ulrich misses a game-winning goal and the stands erupt in boos. Yumi sits between Hiroki and Will, watching Ulrich trudge off the field. She wants to go to him, talk to him. She knows he'll be beating himself up over it. She doesn't have that right anymore though, does she?
Will shakes his head. "Well, that's unfortunate," he says. He rests his hand on top of hers where it sits on the bleacher between them. She feels him squeeze it gently, offer her a small smile.
Hiroki gives her a disgusted look. "You better not have broken him."
She watches Odd and Aelita jog over toward the gym doors, Jeremie following more slowly. She considers getting up and joining them.
"How about we go into town for milkshakes?" Will asks.
"Sure, sounds fun, right Hiroki?" she asks brightly. Hiroki sulks the entire walk into town.
/
Hiroki gives her a betrayed look when the article comes out about her and Will dating. "I get it now," he says, shoving past her in the courtyard.
He doesn't, but she doesn't bother correcting him.
. . … . .
"I don't get it," Hiroki states. She looks at him curiously as they walk home from school. "You broke up with Ulrich but you still hang out with him. Isn't that mean?"
"I told you we were friends," she tells him.
"Yeah, but aside from you guys no longer trying to suck each other's faces off, nothing's changed. He still comes over and plays video games and you still go to his football games. I don't get it."
"That's what being friends means, Hiroki." She frowns at the back of his head. "And we didn't try to suck each other's faces off."
Hiroki turns to give her a look. "Uh huh, right," he replies. "I'm not stupid, Yumi."
She flushes and walks faster so he has to jog to catch-up. "Whatever," she mutters.
/
"You should get back together with Ulrich."
"Hiroki, what?"
She looks up from where she's reading a class novel. Hiroki pauses in his video game and shrugs. "You should. He's better than Will."
"Will is fine," she replies. "He's nice to you."
"Yeah, he's nice because he wants to get in your pants."
Yumi flushes and throws a pillow at her brother. "You are eleven. You should not be saying things like that!"
He shrugs and kicks the pillow to the floor. "Am I wrong?" he challenges. He continues before she can speak. "Ulrich was nice to me because he wanted to be, not because he thought he had to be."
"I'm sure once you and Will spend more time together you'll like him just as much."
"And then you'll break up with him, just like you always do," he replies. "No thanks. At least Ulrich still lets me play video games with him and Odd."
She rolls her eyes and tries to get back into her novel. "You don't know what you're talking about."
"He still hangs out with you. And he asks me how you and Will are doing. I think he still likes you."
She shakes her head. "Ulrich and I are just friends," she states, voice firm. "Will and I are dating. You'll understand when you're older."
He groans and unpauses his game. "That's the stupidest reason ever."
. . … . .
Hiroki hovers just inside her bedroom doorway, dubiously eyeing the stack of boxes that are almost as tall as him. "What's up, runt?" she asks.
"Really, runt still?" he whines. And okay, yeah, he has hit a growth spurt, but he's still a few inches shorter than her. She can't let him forget that.
She pauses in filling the last box, hands wrapped around the memory book Aelita had given her. "What's up?" she asks, more gentle.
Hiroki shrugs, sidles over and flops onto the bed next to her. "What's that?"
"Aelita made it. It's a scrapbook."
Hiroki reaches for it. For a moment she wants to pull it away, yell at him and kick him out of her room. But it's her last night home. It's their last night like this. She watches as he flips through the pictures, snorting at some of the more ridiculous photos and making stupid comments about the others. He stops at one, in it Yumi has her arms wrapped around him while they sit in the stands watching one of Ulrich's football games. Hiroki had talked her into dressing up in the Kadic colors especially for it.
"That was a fun one," she says, tousles his hair because she can.
"Yeah, Dad almost fainted when he saw you not in black."
She elbows him and he goes back to flipping and mocking and she ignores him, focuses on packing up the rest of her stuff. He falls silent again and she looks over curiously. "What did you find?"
He's stopped on a photo featuring Ulrich, Odd, and Aelita after the massive snowball fight this past winter. Odd's in the middle of the other two, smile ludicrously bright as he has an arm wrapped around the other two. Aelita is mid-laugh, head thrown back and knit hat falling off. Ulrich is staring at Odd, expression fondly exasperated, with a smile curling his usually solemn face.
"Johnny thinks they're together," Hiroki says, voice soft.
She looks at him, surprised. "Of course they are," she states.
"No, I mean, together-together."
"I know," she replies. "They've been together for a while. It's part of the reason we never worked out."
Hiroki looks up at her sharply and she knows he's realized. "Why didn't you ever say anything? I always thought it was your fault!"
"Because you looked up to him, and I didn't want that to change." She takes the book from him and smiles down at the photos briefly.
"But. But you're my sister."
"Trust me, I'm aware," she laughs. She sets the book in the box and punches him lightly in the shoulder. "I'll always be your sister, even if you were upset with me. I couldn't let you ruin something you were happy about out of anger."
"But-" he protests.
"Stop, you know I'm right. Ulrich and I were still friends, are still friends. You being angry with him wouldn't have done anything but hurt you."
"I called you names though."
"You always call me names, runt, I've learned to ignore them." He glares at her and she smiles, slings an arm around his shoulders. Her not-so-little brother who is the same height she is when they're both sitting. She still can't believe he's the same age Ulrich and Odd were when they all met. "This doesn't change anything. Hiroki, it doesn't change anything, okay?"
"Yeah, yeah," he grumbles, shrugging out of her reach. He looks around her room curiously. "Think Mom and Dad'll let me have your room once you're gone tomorrow."
She rolls her eyes. "I'll miss you too, brat."