Idea suggested by: theLoverofAllThings

Set in season 4

"Aelita?"

"Yes, Ulrich?"

"How long have we been here?"

"Approximately 45 minutes."

Ulrich let out a groan and fell back against his back onto the ice. Digital ice, that was, as he was currently stuck on Lyoko's Ice Sector on watch duty with Aelita. It had been requested by Jeremy, who'd said the superscan needed maintenance. Aelita could listen for pulsations the old fashioned way of course, but both of them said they'd feel much better about it if someone was with her should XANA rear his ugly mug—or Williams, which he wasn't really sure which was uglier at this point. And given the track record, it was likely to happen.

Ulrich had foolishly volunteered for the job, and he was beginning to regret every second of it.

"'The superscan only needs some tuning' he said. 'It shouldn't take that long at all' he said," Ulrich let out a quiet grumble, covering his face with his hands. "This is the last time I let you two convince me on these things." He knew it probably wouldn't be, but it made him feel better telling himself that.

Aelita, sitting in the lotus position beside him, cracked an eye open to look at him. Shaking her head with a laugh, she looked up towards the sky. "Jeremy, how's the maintenance going? I think Ulrich's about ready to die of boredom,"

"He's gonna have to endure it for a little bit longer," Jeremy at least had the decency to sound apologetic as he crackled from above. "I've gotta make sure that this runs as well as it can. We wouldn't want to get caught off guard simply because the superscan was a bit too slow,"

"And how long is that gonna take you?" Ulrich asked, already dreading the response.

"Uh... about another half hour at least. Sorry, Ulrich!" Jeremy went quiet at that, and Ulrich let out another groan.

"God, I never thought being on Lyoko could be so boring!" He whined, sitting up again.

"Would you rather XANA try to throw me into the Digital Sea again?" Aelita asked dryly.

"Yes—I mean no, of course I don't want that!" He quickly added at her frown. It was a pain to have to stop from happening, and the last thing he wanted was for his friends to be in danger. "I just wish we had something to do other than just sit around."

"Better than having to run for our lives."

"I know, I know, I just-"

"No, you're restless, I get it." She let out a sigh and adjusted into a more comfortable sitting position. "I forget that spending long amounts of time on Lyoko like this without any action isn't something you're used to."

He blinked at her. Oh, that was right. It felt so long ago now, but this used to be Aelita's daily life. Stuck on Lyoko all by herself for hours on end with only XANAs monsters to keep her busy when Jeremy was too busy to talk. He'd never really thought about it before, he'd almost entirely forgotten about it actually, but it must've been incredibly lonely for her.

"How'd you live like this everyday?" He couldn't help but ask, a look of awe on his face. Surely she had to have gotten sick of it.

She chuckled at his expression. "It's not as if I had much choice," she reminded him. She then put a hand to her chin in thought. "It wasn't as bad as it seems now. As far as I knew then, I was just a high functioning AI. I didn't know what I was missing out on; monitoring Lyoko was all I knew, and I was fine with it, especially knowing what Jeremy was working so hard on. Not to mentioned I could research about Earth in my free time, and lord knows I never ran out of search material when it came to that topic."

She shrugged. "And it's not as if it was all so lonely. I got to talk to Jeremy every day when we worked on my materialization, and you all popped in when you could to talk. Overall, it wasn't bad for what it was. I would never got back to it for a multitude of reasons, but it wasn't unbearable."

"Huh..." she always seemed to surprise him with her perspective on everything on everything that'd happened in her life. He'd have to ask her how she could stay so positive all the time one of these days. He was about 90% sure he'd be way more bitter than she was, had their roles been reversed.

"But enough about that!" she suddenly said, standing up and dusting the invisible dust off herself. She smiled down at him as she stretched her arms above her. "C'mon, you said you were bored, and now I've though of something to do!"

"Wait, what?" he asked, already standing up. His legs felt a little fuzzy, was it even possible for your limbs to fall asleep while on Lyoko? Maybe it was all mental. "What are we gonna do? Fight each other?" It was a joke question, but he'd honestly be up for it at this point.

"No, though I would like to see how you fight with one of your sabers on of these days, if you don't mind. Might come in handy, you never know," she requested. He nodded. "What I had in mind was more of a race: you and me, no vehicles, to the nearest Way Tower."

A beat of silence passed between them. And then Ulrich burst out into a loud laughter that almost made him him double over.

Aelita wasn't impressed. "What's so funny about that?" she asked, arm folded across her chest indignantly.

"I just... you-" he took a breath to collect himself, having to put a hand in front of his mouth to stop him from smiling. "It's just... Aelita, I've seen you run before. No offense, but you're not exactly an Olympian sprinter. And I just- Another chuckle escaped his mouth. "A race between me and you, without the vehicles? No way,"

"What, afraid you'll lose?" she asked, a smug smirk having come over her expression. Well, he couldn't turn down an invitation like that, now could he?

"Of course not," he returned her look with a confident grin of his own. He moved to stand near her for their makeshift starting line. "But why the sudden interest?"

"Well, you're bored and we may as well check all the sectors anyway, just in case." She explained simply with a wink. "So, are you ready?"

He took a starting position. "You betcha." He grinned, he'd give her a race alright. A one sided one perhaps.

Her smirk didn't fade as she didn't move, standing as normal beside him. "Alright then. On your mark, get ready... GO!"

"Super Spr- huh?!" There was a flash of pink beside him, blinding him for a moment. When he looked to his right, Aelita was no longer standing there. Rather, she was flying there, pink angel wings spread out behind her.

SHe flew ahead. "What? I never said it was a foot race, did I?" She laughed as she looked ahead. "Keep up if you can, Ulrich!" she called back.

He was stunned for a moment. "Oh that is so not- argh! Super Sprint!" He took off in a streak of yellow to catch up with her.

She was SO on after a stunt like that!

A bit shorter and messier than I intended, but I wanted to get something out. Been a little burned out on CL, Danganronpa has completely consumed my life honestly, but I don't wanna leave this completely dormant. Hopefully the Code Lyoko spark hits me again soon so I can focus more on this fic and other possible oneshots.