Idea suggested by: Evil Hero Malicious Edge
Set early in season 2.
PE was one of the few classes Ulrich felt he thrived in. Instead of being cooped up in a dreary classroom and being forced to try and memorize useless facts about science or history, he could stretch his legs, quite literally. Where he fell in academics, he rose in athletics.
He felt no small amout of satisfaction at being able to dominate his peers in the various activities Jim presented them.
At least, he did for most. As for the less athletically inclined...
"Belpois! Get that confangled machine out of my sight before I take from you! If I don't see you doing something physical in the next three seconds... well, I don't know what I'll do but you won't like it!"
...Ulrich was more than content to let them keep to themselves, for their own safety more than anything.
It was a bit of a 'free day' in phys ed today. Any athletic activity that they could do on the field was available. The whole class was scattered across to do whatever they felt would be fun.
As for Ulrich, his attention was immediately caught by the soccer balls scattered by one of the goals. He almost immediately went for one of them and began to bounce it and show off. He got it up to his shoulders before he felt someone's eyes on them. He let the ball fall back down before he turned to meet whoever it was.
He was surprised to find Aelita was the one staring at him. Or rather, she was staring at the ball.
Ulrich bent down to pick said ball up. "Oh. What's up?" He asked.
She shuffled on her feet awkwardly. "I'm... I guess I'm just not entirely certain of what to do?" She'd only been here for a few weeks, and while she was starting to become acquainted with people outside their group, she was still finding it hard to fit in. "I can go find Odd instead if you-"
"No, you're fine. I'm just surprised not to see you with Jeremy. You've been kinda sticking to him like glue," he smirked at her confused expression. "It's another figure of speech, Aelita."
"Oh," she breathed out. She was silently thankful she didn't have to wonder how glue came into her friendship with Jeremy. "Well, there's a lot I still need to learn about Earth, and Jeremy's a great teacher for a lot, but uh... I'm not sure he's the person I should be asking about these kinds of things." To demonstrate her point, she motioned to her left towards the track. Ulrich had to try not to laugh at the skght.
Jeremy was begrudgingly trudging across the track at an almost snail level pace, and the expression he had was absolutely priceless.
"Fair enough," Ulrich admitted, struggling to keep any laughter from getting out. He shook his head with a chuckle and looked down, his attention returning to the ball he was holding. "You know how to play?" He asked, motionjng to the ball with his eyes.
She gave him a look that screamed 'Really?'
"Right, dumb question..." he mumbled. She was definitely beginning to pick up on the finer points of sass, whether she realized it or not, and Ulrich wasn't sure if he found it hilarious or terrifying. He shook his head. "Rephrase: do you want to know how to play?"
"Er, play what exactly?" She asked.
Ulrich blinked at her for a moment, having to remind himself who he was talking to. "Ok, well... god, how do you even explain that? How much do you even know about sports?"
"Only a little bit. There was so much to research to do about Earth life while I was still on Lyoko that I didn't give it as much time as I would've liked," she admitted, frowning slightly.
He ran a hand through his hair, nodding. "Ok, ok... so uh, god I guess you're gonna need the basics first. Ok, let's start with this." He set the ball on the ground. "This is a soccer ball, which we use to play soccer. The goal of the game-" he stopped for a split second to cringe at his accidental pun, "-is to get the ball into that goal over there," he explained, pointing to the goal not too far from them.
"That doesn't sound too bad," Aelita said, nodding as she absorbed the information.
Ulrich smirked at her naivete. "Right, it sounds easy, but there's a catch: you can't use your hands to do it. You have to use your feet to guide the ball to your opponents side, and then kick it it."
"You can't use your hands at all?"
"Not unless you're the one protecting the goal anyway. Or if you need to throw the ball back in I guess, but that's different," he chuckled at her stunned face. "I had the same reaction when I started playing too. It's not as bad as it sounds. Here, you wanna try kicking it in the goal?" He walked a bit closer to the goal and set the ball down in front of it.
"Er... sure, I guess," Aelita answered hesitantly. Seeming very unsure, Aelita went behind the ball, staring down the goal with a confused look.
"Yeah, just try to kick it in," Ulrich encouraged from beside her. She gave a forceful nod, then reeled her leg back before kicking the ball as hard as she could...
...Which sent the ball flying towards one of the posts holding the goal. She let out a squeak as the ball bounced off of it and soared over her head, landing a few feet behind them. It bounced a few more times, then rolled back before coming to a complete stop. Aelita, lowering her hands that she's used to guard her face, gave a sheepish expression.
"That was pretty terrible, wasn't it?"
He laughed. "That was better than some first attempts I've seen. I remember one kid I once saw try and kick the ball and it ended up hitting the coach in the-" He glanced at Jeremy nearby and thought better of sharing that particular detail. "Uh... well, it hurt him a lot anyway," He trailed off and laughed awkwardly, trying to ignore the confused expression she was now giving him. "A-anyways, it wasn't bad for your first try, really,"
"You don't have to try and make me feel better about it, Ulrich,"
"No, really. Everyone starts somewhere, and there are worse places to start off than where you are," Ulrich encouraged with a gentle smile. He'd seen worse in his time. At least her issues seemed easily fixable. She smiles back at him, then went over and grabbed the ball, her silent way of saying she was willing to try again. "Alright, first of all, you gotta be careful of your foot when you're kicking it..."
And that was how Ulrich spent his free time in phys ed that day. He didn't spend it how he'd initially planned, running around with his classmates playing an intense match of soccer, but rather, doing the thing he hated most: teaching and educating. He'd laugh at it later, but he didn't regret it.
By the time class was ending, Aelita has successfully managed to get three goals in a row (And one time of accidentally hitting Jeremy in the fact with the ball, but that was good enough to count as something extra special in Ulrich's eyes!)
Poor Jeremy, can't catch any breaks around here, now can he?
Sorry this took awhile, but I did say I'd only be occasionally updating it. I've been distracted by the Danganronpa series anyways so...(I desperately wanna write something for it but I keep back pedaling on all my idea, someone send help)
Leave any idea for this in a review, I'd love to keep this going!