3. If it wasn't for the obvious reasons not to, he probably would have made a pass at Aelita after they materialized her. Well, a serious pass anyway.

To this day, Odd will claim The Kiss was necessary, that it was the fastest way to throw Herve and Nicholas off (and if it also happened to make them look like liars, who was he to say no to that?). But, sometimes, when Aelita pulls him into a hug, or her whole face lights up at something so mundane, or when she stares at him with those wide eyes, he can't help but wonder. And he really doesn't like that.

. . … . .

Jeremie had talked this girl up a ridiculous amount. Odd isn't even sure that Jeremie realized that he never. shuts. up. about. her. It's kind of cute, kind of pathetic, and Odd's pretty much convinced that the girl can't be as great as Einstein's making her out to be. From what he's gathered she's stuck in a computer game, and yeah, that sounds cool, but how interesting can someone be if they only live in a pixelated world anyway?

He doesn't mind being proven wrong.

/

"Hey Princess, looking good!"

Aelita raises one eyebrow at him, head tilted and eyes amused. He ignores Ulrich's groan and Yumi's stare. "I don't look any different than usual," Aelita counters.

Odd shrugs and waves a paw around, which is still weird by the way. "Then you have nothing to worry about, eh?"

"Focus, Odd," Jeremie calls over the comms.

Aelita just laughs though. "I suppose not," she says. Her eyes flick over him curiously. "After all, there are worse things to look like."

"Hey!" he protests while Aelita and Yumi just laugh. Even Ulrich cracks a smile, the traitor. "Yeah, yeah, c'mon. You heard Einstein, let's get this show on the road!"

/

Odd is brushing Kiwi when Ulrich looks over at him. He has that furrowed-eyebrow-thin-lipped look on his face again. The expression he gets when he's thinking hard or when he really doesn't want to say something but feels like he has to. Odd ignores him, running the brush lightly along Kiwi's spine with one hand and scratching behind his ears with the other. Kiwi's tail thumps rhythmically on the ground.

"Good boy," he coos. "Who's a good little diggity dog?"

"You act like he understands you."

"Of course he does," Odd replies, not bothering to look up. "Kiwi's highly intelligent."

"Then why does he insist on eating my socks?"

Odd shrugs. "It's not for us to question the acts of geniuses." He sets the brush aside and grabs one of Kiwi's tennis balls, rolling it across the floor. Kiwi's on his feet in seconds, chasing after the ball.

"You know," Ulrich says. Odd spares him a quick glance and finds that Ulrich is staring at him still. "Jer likes Aelita."

Odd rolls his eyes and grabs the slobbery ball that Kiwi drops at his feet. He rolls it again, smiling as Kiwi gives chase. "Duh. Einstein never shuts up about her. I'm sure he even talks about her in his sleep."

Ulrich shakes his head. "He really likes her."

Odd raises his eyebrows, tilts his head to the side. He picks up the returned tennis ball, tosses it lightly up and down in the air. "You trying to insinuate something, Ulrich-dear?"

Ulrich's face sets more into a scowl. "Just making sure you realize that. Can never be too sure what information makes it though the bottle of gel you put in your hair each day."

"Yeah, well, just because I have a sense of style doesn't mean I'm blind," he retorts. Odd throws the tennis ball at Ulrich's head. He smirks as Kiwi yips excitedly, launching himself at Ulrich while Ulrich winces and tries to avoid the slobbery ball and excited dog. He settles back on the floor, back braced against his bed, and laughs at the scene across the room. It's a good distraction.

/

Ice skating had been Yumi's idea, and it's a fantastic one. Odd's always enjoyed skating. Well, he's always enjoyed most winter sports. Back home he and his sisters spent hours in the snow growing up, whether it was skiing or snowboarding or skating, or even building snowmen and snowforts. The others aren't too terrible, though Jeremie is wobbly, but they're nowhere near as good as he is at skating. It's only logical then that he's the one to teach Aelita.

Aelita's wearing a brown and silver striped knit hat, pulled low over her eyebrows and her nose is pink from the cold. Her eyes are bright from the lights and excitement. Odd grips her gloved fingers in his and grins back at her. "Alright, Princess?"

"This is so much fun!" she laughs. She lets her free hand gesture widely, encompassing the rink and their friends skating off on the other side. Odd grins back at her. There's something about the way she looks at things, things he's done his whole life, and sees the magic in them that makes it infectious. He wishes he could bottle her enthusiasm up. "I wish we had skates on Lyoko," she adds, voice softer.

Odd grins at her. "Sure, I'd like to see the kankrelats on ice skates, wouldn't you?"

Aelita laughs long and hard at the mental image and Odd can't help but join her laughter. She laughs hard enough to lose her balance and she pulls Odd down with her until they're sitting in a tangled mess on the cold ice, laughing too hard to breathe properly.

"You alright?"

He looks up to see Yumi peering down at them. Jeremie has a perplexed look on his face and Ulrich's raised his eyebrows so much they've disappeared under his green hat. Odd snorts and loses himself to another mental image, this one of the Krabs flailing around on the ice.

"Just…fine," Aelita gasps, grinning. She holds out a hand. "Help me up?"

Ulrich and Yumi brace themselves, pulling Aelita to her feet while Odd manages to get his own skates under him. Jeremie is still watching them. "What was so funny?" Jeremie asks.

Odd shrugs, smile slipping slightly. He isn't sure how Jeremie would react to Aelita and him discussing the Lyoko monsters openly. Jeremie can be funny that way. Aelita seems to sense it because she smiles brightly at Jeremie.

"I'll tell you later." She adjusts her knit hat from where it's slipped on her head. "Anyone up for hot chocolate? The ice is freezing!"

. . … . .

The Kiss is a brilliant idea.

Odd doesn't even really think about it, just grabs Aelita's hand and pulls her around to face him. "Trust me," he says, "this will be brilliant."

Aelita lifts an eyebrow, it's part-curious part-challenge, and Odd can never resist a challenge. He leans in and kisses her as the elevator doors slide open. He keeps his eyes closed, pretends not to notice the two boys creeping outside. He hears muffled noises and cracks an eye open to see Nicholas and Herve beating a hasty retreat.

Aelita must notice the sounds too because she takes a step back, head tilted curiously at him before looking over her shoulder. "That went well," she states.

He can't tell what she's thinking. Her voice is light, cheerful, but almost too much and her face is still wearing that curious expression, as though she can't figure out what she's thinking either. Odd shoves his hands into his pockets and rocks back on his heels. He can hear the heavy factory door bang open and shut as Herve and Nicholas scuttle away.

"Yeah," he agrees. He doesn't think about the way Aelita had pressed into the kiss, the surprised inhale when he'd kissed her. "C'mon, let's tell Einstein the coast is clear."

The Kiss was a terrible idea.

/

"What did you do?" Ulrich asks that night.

Odd feigns confusion as he digs through his dresser for a clean shirt. "Huh?"

"Odd." Odd keeps rummaging. "Odd, look at me." Odd lets out an annoyed breath and turns to stare at his roommate, arms folded across his chest. Ulrich has a too-knowing look on his face. Briefly Odd wonders if Aelita told Yumi and Yumi told Ulrich. But, if Yumi knew, then that would surely mean Jeremie… "Odd, what happened?"

Odd shrugs. "You'll have to be a bit more specific, Nature Boy."

Ulrich's eyes roll and he gets up from his desk chair. His hand is heavy when he places it on Odd's arm. "What happened with Nick and Herve?" he asks. "You said you needed Aelita to get rid of them and you've been jumpy ever since."

Odd shrugs again, both to get Ulrich to release him and to show he's done with the conversation. He turns back to sorting through his clothes. He knows that band tee is in here somewhere…

"Ah," Ulrich states.

Odd glances up, frowning at the note in Ulrich's voice. Ulrich retreats back to the desk chair, sitting on it backwards so that his arms are folded along the chair-back. He's still studying Odd with too-knowing eyes.

"What?"

"I told you to be careful."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm guessing you and Aelita did something to get Herve and Nick to leave." Ulrich's gaze is level and Odd wants to squirm out of it. "Something that wouldn't keep them sticking around, asking questions. Something that had Aelita quiet and watching you the whole walk back to Kadic." He pauses. "Something that has Jer not looking at either of you."

"Look, I did what needed to be done," Odd snaps. He slams the drawer shut harder than he'd meant to. He turns away from Ulrich's prying eyes, pulls open the next drawer and sets to rummaging through that one instead. "It was brilliant, okay? And Aelita knows…it didn't mean anything, yeah? Nothing more than when you've had to kiss Sissi to distract her. That's all this was."

He looks up and Ulrich's expression has shifted from too-knowing to sympathetic and that's worse. That's about 100 times worse. "Yeah," Ulrich says after a moment. His words come slow, like he's thinking over each one before speaking it. "Just…it sucks, liking your friend when they aren't interested in you. Don't get hurt."

Odd rolls his eyes. "I've told you a thousand times, Yumi likes you. You have nothing to worry about, just ask her out already."

"That's not what I was talking about."

"No?" Odd challenges. He grabs the shirt he'd been looking for, pulling it out and closing the drawer. He tugs his current shirt off, exchanging it for the new one. His words come out muffled from the fabric. "You sure about that?" He pops his head out and looks at Ulrich challengingly. Ulrich looks away, face slightly flushed and Odd rolls his eyes again. "I like Aelita," he admits. "She's funny and smart and pretty, but newsflash, I'm not the type of guy who'll steal the person his friend's interested in. Aelita and I are friends and the kiss meant nothing more than a distraction."

Ulrich looks up as Odd crosses the room to flop onto his bed. "Yeah? And does Jer know that? Because I can guarantee Herve and Nicholas are going to talk about this to anyone who will listen."

Odd shrugs. "Einstein should trust me, should trust us." He pulls out his headphones, settling them over his head. "Anyway, who would believe Nicholas and Herve, even if they do talk?"

/

Odd should really expect things to go wrong by now. He can count on one hand the number of times things went right for him. Clearly, the odds are not in his favor. Ulrich gives him pointed looks all morning, to the point where Hertz threatens to move them to separate work stations. Odd ignores them, mostly, focusing on the way Aelita tries to speak quietly with Jeremie at the table in front of them. Jeremie only nods or shakes his head, shrugs once, and mostly sits with his shoulders hunched and his pencil scribbling furiously in his notebook. They aren't even required to take notes during this lecture.

At lunch Yumi joins Ulrich in the pointed stares. Only hers lean more towards the silent threat of potential maiming. He sincerely hopes that Yumi never meets his sisters, he's sure she and Louise and Marie would get along swimmingly. Jeremie and Aelita join them and Odd thinks maybe things will go back to normal, maybe they can just forget what happened.

"Kissing cousins?" Sissi materializes next to the table like one of XANA's shades. Odd doesn't jump, but he does drop his apple in surprise. He glowers at Sissi while Aelita looks confused.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Sissi, like usual. Care to try again?"

"Herve says he and Nicholas caught you and Aelita making out last night."

Odd glowers at that, and his anger and annoyance are real because no. "Well, it must've been in their dreams. Aelita and I have never kissed, have we, cuz?"

Aelita shakes her head, eyes wide and innocent. "No," she agrees.

Sissi studies them all, eyes narrowed. "Something happened," she states. "I don't believe you."

Odd opens his mouth to argue, but Ulrich beats him to it. "Sissi," he says, and there's a note to his voice that makes her look over to him. "Nothing happened." Sissi looks like she wants to protest, or laugh, but she just gives them another hard look before disappearing.

"You've got to teach me how to do that!" Odd exclaims. Ulrich ignores him and Odd feels the silence and unease settle over their table even thicker than before. Aelita keeps shooting him wide-eyed looks that he forces himself to ignore.

/

"Can I come in, Einstein?" Odd asks. He isn't sure whether he expects the ever polite and proper Jeremie to slam the door in his face or allow him entrance. From the surprised look on his face, Jeremie doesn't seem too sure on what he's going to do either. After a few seconds that feel like a small eternity, Jeremie hitches his chin and steps aside so that Odd can enter the dorm room.

"What do you want?" he asks. He closes the door and turns to face Odd. And that's…a really good question, actually. Odd isn't sure what he wants. He wants things to go back to normal. He wants Jeremie to know he never wanted this to happen. He wants a Return trip. He wants Nicholas and Herve to shut their mouths.

"I'm sorry," Odd says. Jeremie blinks at him owlishly behind his glasses. "I know you heard about what happened and…look, it wasn't…" Odd takes a breath and runs a hand through his hair. "We needed to lose Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, okay?"

"Odd," Jeremie says. Odd watches as the other boy sinks onto his bed and rubs at his temples. He hasn't seen Jeremie look this tired since he was working on the materialization program. "It doesn't matter. Why are you telling me this?"

"That's bullshit," Odd replies. He plops down on to Jeremie's desk chair and spins lazily in circles. Jeremie looks away and Odd frowns at him. This is not going as smoothly as he imagined in his head. "You like Aelita."

"I do," Jeremie agrees. Odd looks over at him quickly, too quickly to hide the surprise on his face. He had never really expected Jeremie to come out and admit it. Jeremie shrugs. "I like her a lot," he states. "But Aelita is her own person."

"You know there's nothing…?" Odd asks. He digs his sneaker into the worn carpet and bounces his leg up and down. "I like Aelita, as a person and all, but she's my cousin."

"We both know that isn't true."

"It is," Odd states firmly. And it's true, it is. He may have thought about the could-have-beens once or twice, but Aelita is family now, not a passing fancy. "She's like family and we only did what we did to keep the Secret, okay?" He stares hard at Jeremie and Jeremie returns the stare with one of his own, eyes wide behind his smudged glasses. Odd's expression softens. "She really likes you, Einstein."

"Odd…"

"I mean it." He lets the chair sway side-to-side. "She talks about you all the time." They fall silent and Odd studies the boy across from him. Jeremie is brilliant, Odd doesn't know anyone else who would've been able to get Aelita free, the boy should be oozing confidence. Instead, he looks small, self-conscious, shoulders slumped a bit so that he kind of looks like a near-sighted turtle. Odd doesn't like the look on him.

"I know everyone thinks I flirt too much, or I'm too cavalier with the people I'm interested in." Jeremie raises his eyebrows at the word choice and Odd frowns. "I pay attention in literature," he protests. "Look, all I'm saying is I do have standards and one of them is to not go after the people my friends are interested in."

Jeremie scuffs his socked foot along the carpet of his floor. "Yeah, okay," he says finally. "Thanks, really."

Odd beams at him, bounces out of the chair and onto the bed next to Jeremie. He elbows him good-naturedly. "Hey, no problem. Can't have our Einstein sulking, can we?"

"I wasn't sulking."

"You totally were. It's okay. I know I'm pretty awesome. I'd be jealous of me too," Odd says, voice bright.

Jeremie groans and hits him with his pillow. Odd notes that he doesn't bother hiding his own smile though. That's more like it.

. . … . .

"You're being a creeper."

"I am not," Odd protests, not bothering to look up.

"You are," Ulrich counters.

Odd grunts, shuffling over to make room as Ulrich drops onto the bench next to him. Across the courtyard, Aelita and Jeremie are talking in front of the library doors. Jeremie's face is ridiculously red from when Aelita had taken his hand and Odd can't wait to tease him about it later.

"So, if you aren't creeping, then why are you staring across the courtyard at Aelita and Jer?"

"It's just nice, not seeing them fighting all the time."

Ulrich hums, stretching his legs out in front of him. "I spoke with Yumi last night; she says Jer's coming around to the idea of Aelita leaving."

Odd nods. "Good. It's about time he got that stick out of his ass. This'll be good for Princess." He can feel Ulrich watching him. "What?"

"Sometimes I wonder if you ever got over your crush on Aelita."

Odd feels his neck pop with how fast he whips his head around to look at Ulrich. "I don't have a crush on Aelita." Ulrich's expression is knowing and Odd frowns at him. "Believe what you will, but Princess and I are just cousins." He turns back to look at the love birds across the way as Aelita laughs.

Aelita's face is lit up from the morning sun, but Odd suspects (as sappy as this makes him sound) that it'd probably be glowing even if it was the middle of the night. Aelita just has that effervescent quality to her. Sometimes he wonders if it's a side effect of Lyoko, of being nothing but computer pixels for so long. Maybe some of that blue light got trapped inside during the materialization? Jeremie is staring at her like he can't get enough of her, like he just wants to soak her all in. Odd can understand that.

"And as her cousin, I want what's best for her."

"Of course," Ulrich agrees. He shifts again, sitting up straighter, and his sneaker bumps against Odd's. "Jer's a good guy. When he isn't obsessing over saving the world."

Odd snorts loudly at that, suppressing his own laugh. He can see Ulrich smirking out of the corner of his eye. "Yeah, I know." He nudges Ulrich's foot with his own. "Come on, let's go retrieve the lovebirds for breakfast. I'm starving."

They gather their bags and cross the courtyard. Jeremie doesn't notice them approaching, too busy spouting Einstein-verbiage to Aelita, but Aelita looks over and grins at them. Odd can't help but grin back, her smile infectious.

"Hey Princess, Einstein, ready to join us mere mortals for breakfast?"

Jeremie blinks at him, as if just noticing him and Ulrich and Ulrich rolls his eyes. Aelita's smile widens and her eyes are bright. "As if you'd ever allow yourself to be considered a mere mortal," she counters. She loops her arm with Jeremie's. "Come on, Jeremie, let's feed Odd before he turns into a, what was it, goblin?"

"Gremlin," Ulrich replies. "Though you aren't supposed to feed those."

"Mogwai," Jeremie corrects. "They turn into Gremlins."

"Haha," Odd replies. "You all are hilarious. I'm starving and you're insulting me."

Aelita smiles at him, and she loops her other arm through his. "Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed." She tilts her head toward the cafeteria. "Come on, lets feed him before he turns into a Gremlin."

"I hate you," Odd laughs and Aelita just smiles, dragging him and Jeremie toward the cafeteria while Ulrich trails behind them.

Aelita gives him one of her innocent smiles, green eyes wide and guileless as they cross the courtyard and he just snorts in response. His friends can be real idiots for how smart they are. He remembers Ulrich's raised eyebrows from earlier and inwardly rolls his eyes. He'd be lying if he said he'd never thought about it, but he'd also be lying if he said he was upset at how things turned out.