I do not, nor will I ever own Code Lyoko. I'm just a fan like y'all!

A/N: This story takes place after all three What Came Next installments, The News, and A Shoulder to Cry On. There is a lot of character development that takes place in those stories. As such, I would recommend reading those before reading this otherwise a lot of things might not make sense, most notably Sissi's relationship with the rest of the group.

Four years after XANA's deletion

Early September

Reunion

Yumi was driving from the airport with Sissi after having picked Aelita and Jeremy. Odd and Ulrich were going to meet with them downtown. When they went their separate ways for college, the six agreed that so long as they were able, they would get together around this time of year to celebrate the defeat of XANA and remember Franz Hopper's sacrifice. Yumi had just started her third year of college, and the others had just started their second. This was the fourth anniversary of XANA's defeat.

"So, guys, how do you like America?" Asked Sissi. Jeremy and Aelita had both earned full scholarships to MIT, which surprised no one. It was wonderful that they still had each other, but they weren't able to keep in touch with the rest of the group as much as anyone would have liked. The time difference between France and Massachusetts meant that most correspondence was limited to emails and other non-real-time forms of communication.

"It's a cool place, but honestly we normally don't have time to get out and enjoy it. We're just too busy with school. It's almost as bad as when we were fighting XANA, but at least we don't have the pressure of saving the world this time!" Jeremy answered. The blond boy had long since grown into a tall young man, but still looked every bit the skinny nerd. Even so, the way that a certain pretty, petite, pink-haired young woman was snuggled up to him in the back seat made it quite clear that he was her skinny nerd, and neither one would have it any other way. He had one arm behind her and was running his fingers through the hair on the back of her head.

"I'll bet you two are excited to see Odd and Ulrich!" Aelita exclaimed.

"You bet! I've missed him so much!" Responded Sissi. Yumi just smiled. "I'm also looking forward to this restaurant that we're going to. It's supposed to be really good!"

"I've been there once before with my parents, it is good!" Confirmed Jeremy.

The four friends continued making small talk until they reached where they were supposed to meet Odd and Ulrich at before walking downtown. They parked and got out and headed for the appointed meeting area.

"Hey guys!" The four turned and looked down the parking aisle to see a rather tall young man in a green coat with brown hair next to a very short, scrappy looking blond man who still had a penchant for purple, who was waving. Upon seeing each other, Sissi and Odd started running towards each other while everyone else just grinned at their exuberance while continuing to walk. They two met in the middle and it was a small miracle that they didn't knock each other over when they practically collided and wrapped each other in a tight embrace.

"Clearly you two missed each other!" Remarked Ulrich with a chuckle when he and the rest of the group caught up with the hugging couple. Odd had grown a couple inches since high school but was still very short. Sissi, on the other hand, had grown into an exceptionally tall amazon of a woman and towered over the short blond young man. They looked kinda funny next to each other, but they were clearly way too in love with each other to care one bit!

"Mm Hmm," Sissi murmured absently, rocking side to side slightly with her boyfriend.

Ulrich's gaze shifted from the couple over to Yumi and he smiled widely. He walked over to her, kissed her cheek and wrapped his arms around her. "I'm glad to see you, I missed you," He whispered. She returned the embrace while smiling herself. He had grown quite a bit since they had started dating himself and was a couple inches taller than even Sissi. Yumi, on the other hand, ended up at average height for a woman and was several inches shorter than him.

"Well, I hate to cut the touching reunion short, but we should probably head out if we're going to make our reservation!" Jeremy said, and the two couples reluctantly pulled apart. The six walked to the restaurant, and they started going in.

"Hey Yumi, just wait for a second," Ulrich said quietly before walking in.

They waited for the rest of the group to walk in. "What's up, Ulrich?"

"Umm... I'm going to need to talk to you later about something, it's important." He seemed nervous.

"Ok, I need to talk to you about something too." She responded evenly.

Jeremy poked his head out the restaurant door. "Hey guys, come on! We're being seated."

"Alright, we're coming right now anyway." The two of them walked in and followed the hostess with their other four friends to their seats.

"How did it go with the data you guys got from the supercomputer? I never got around to asking, I hope it helped," Sissi asked the pair of geniuses.

"It really helped a lot. Both of our professors were astounded by what we were able to present. We both had to dumb down our actual findings to avoid too much attention," Aelita responded.

"Yeah, I almost forgot about that! I'm glad it went well! I'm really sorry I couldn't make it," Ulrich lamented.

"That's okay good buddy, I'm sure you'll make it if there's a next time!" Odd reassured him. "You two always were almost too smart for your own good! Like that time you almost got sent away to that smart kid school!"

"Wait, Jeremy was almost pulled out of Kadic?" Sissi asked.

"Yeah! The school shrink made him take a placement test, but that was the time XANA possessed a swarm of rats, so he was able to take it a second time after the return trip and fail on purpose!" Ulrich added.

"I was still stuck on Lyoko at the time, and if he had to go, I still would be!" Aelita beamed at Jeremy.

Their food arrived and they all ate enthusiastically while continuing their conversation.

"Aelita, I've been meaning to ask, if you don't mind, what was it like thinking that you were an artificial intelligence?" Sissi asked quietly.

"It's been so long, that I haven't thought about it much!" She thought for a moment. "I would have to say more than anything else would be insatiably curious! My memory was also almost perfect, which was nice, though I'm not sure if it's because my memory had been mostly emptied, or a side effect of being interred in a computer for so long. That's gone away, and I kinda miss that part. It would certainly make some of my classes easier!"

"Yeah, but even without it you're still a genius. You and Jeremy both! I don't understand anything you guys' do, but the tech world had better watch out!" Remarked Ulrich, and the two geniuses blushed slightly at the praise.

"How's nursing going for you, Sissi?" Aelita asked, deflecting the attention off her boyfriend and herself.

"I'm not going to be able to get into actual nursing school until next year, but I had good grades all last year, and this semester is going well too. I don't think I can thank you enough for teaching me how to study while we were still in high school!" Sissi turned towards Ulrich. "And thank you for suggesting it. I think it's going to be a good fit!"

Ulrich grinned. "You always did have a good bedside manner when it counted."

"Now if only I could remember it," She said wryly. Even though she was grateful for everything the rest of the group had done to fill her in on all that was wiped away by the Returns to the Past, it always made her a little sad that she would never have the memories herself.

"So, what about you two? How's business and film school?" Aelita asked Ulrich and Odd.

"Business school is business school. Not very exciting, but I'm learning some useful stuff," Replied Ulrich.

"Film school's great! I've come a long way since Break Break Breakdance!" Odd exclaimed, and Jeremy groaned.

Odd glanced around, noticing that everyone was done eating and stood up and spoke loudly to everyone. "Hello everyone, my name is Odd Della Robbia, and I've got a few things to say..." As he was holding everyone's attention, he spoke of a little bit of money that he inherited, but eventually he stood in front of his girlfriend Sissi and helped her up by the hand. He got down on one knee and asked that life-changing question:

"Will you marry me?"

Throughout the restaurant, you would be able to hear a pin drop as Sissi opened and closed her mouth several times as if trying to speak and failing. She shook her head in frustration as the confident grin that Odd was sporting started to fade. Sissi must have noticed, because her eyes shot open in desperation. She grabbed his arms and yanked him roughly to his feet then kissed him... hard! The restaurant burst into applause and cheering for the newly engaged couple. They broke the kiss and Sissi tried to speak a couple more times, but upon failing, nodded her head vigorously. An enormous grin sprouted on her face and got even bigger as Odd slid the ring on her finger, then they kissed again.

Congratulations were had, desserts were ordered for the couple, the bill was paid, and eventually it was time to go. The six friends made their way out of the restaurant and to wherever they were staying for the night, except for Ulrich and Yumi.

"What did you want to talk about Yumi?"

Yumi sat on a sidewalk bench and gestured for Ulrich to sit down. "I want you to know that I really am very happy to see you..." she began, and her face fell. "But after this weekend, I won't see you again for... I have no idea how long. I just can't keep doing this long-distance thing, and it's not even like we talk much anymore. You're always busy with school, or soccer practice, or work." Ulrich swallowed, completely shocked. "I know it's not your fault, and I hope you won't have any hard feeling towards me, because I certainly don't have any towards you."

Ulrich looked like he was about to cry. "Is there anything I can do?"

Yumi sighed. "Do you think that we'd be able to see each other more than twice this next year?" Ulrich just looked away towards the ground. "Then not really."

His bottom jaw quivered a little, but he managed to blink back his tears. "So that's it then? We're done?"

"The years we had together before you left for school were wonderful, so please don't think that they didn't mean anything, because they did. I just... can't. Again, I'm sorry." Now it was Yumi's turn to blink away the tears.

Ulrich took a deep breath and seemed to calm himself. "Can we still be friends, like we were before? I'd rather have you in my life as that then to be gone entirely."

That caught Yumi off guard, she hadn't expected that. She thought for a minute before nodding. "Yeah, but I'm going to need some separation first."

Ulrich looked a little relieved. "Okay."

"Who knows what will happen, but don't wait for me... because I'm not waiting for you."

"I love you Yumi." Ulrich said softly.

"I know." Was her response. "Goodnight, and goodbye." She got up, put her hand on his shoulder briefly as she walked past him behind the bench, and left for home letting the tears she held back earlier fall as she walked away. It wasn't until she arrived that she remembered that he had wanted to talk to her about something. If they spoke again sometime, she thought that maybe she'd ask about it.

Sometime later, Ulrich got up and slowly meandered his way to his hotel room, where he fell on his bed and didn't sleep that night.

A/N: So, this was an interesting experience! Aside from 'the news,' I've worked entirely from first person perspective, so I'm new at this. I certainly hope I get better because I'm not sure I liked this start.

Any advice would be very welcome!