Set: post series

He finds them in the rec room. He'd just wanted to see if anyone there wanted to play some foosball or something. The room is empty, he finds out, sans a pair sitting in front of the tv with controllers in hand. The game on screen is paused and not one he recognizes. He hears the conversation between them drop as the door opens, heads jumping back to look at him. He swallows and feels his face scrunch up for a split second.

Aelita is hanging out with William.

Again.

"Oh." William lets out. A moment of silence passes between the three, long and extremely uncomfortable. His initial idea seemed a lot less appealing now.

Ulrich took a step back. "I'll just go-"

"No, don't. I was..." William glanced back at the controller in his hands and sighed. He stood up and placed it on the tv stand, then shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. "I was just about to head out anyways."

"William..." Aelita started, breathy as she sighed.

He raised a hand and silenced her. "Don't." He said. They shared a look with one another, one that he wasn't privy to the meaning to. William gave a ghost of a smile and nodded at her. "See you around." He moved towards the door, stopping for a moment in front of Ulrich. "Ulrich." He said curtly.

"William." Ulrich said back. They stared at one another for a moment until Ulrich stepped out of the way of the door frame to let him out. The older boy stalked out without another word. Ulrich watched until he disappeared around a corner.

Another sigh brought his attention back into the room. "Ulrich..."

"What? It's not like I made him leave." He frowned. It wasn't his fault William decided to book it upon seeing him, not that he was complaining that he'd done so.

"He knows how you feel about him; how all of you feel about him," Aelita responded, turning back around on the couch. "None of you hide it well."

He scoffed. "Yeah, well maybe that's because we aren't trying to." He folded his arms across his chest and glanced back out the door. "He knows what he did."

"Yes, he's very well aware of that face, Ulrich. You don't need to remind him every second of every interaction with him," she replied evenly. She hit a button on the controller that sent the game back to the main menu. It's cheerful techno electronic music, he noted, felt extremely unfitting. She seemed to agree, as she stood up from the couch and hit the power button on it, sending the room back into that ever-so-uncomfortable silence.

...He wished she'd kept the music on.

He moved towards one of the chair in the room and sat in it, it's back in front of him as he rested his arms on it and leaned forward. "I didn't say anything about that," he protested.

"That's not what your face said." She turned to him, one knee tucked under her. He rolled his eyes. She was looking too much into things; why was it that girls always did that? Yumi did that too and it drove him nuts.

"I just don't get why you're not in the same boat with the rest of us about him." He said.

The moments after William was finally freed and that they'd made sure XANA hadn't left any nasty tricks inside him (or taken something away again like he'd done before with Aelita), one thing was made painfully clear to him: he was not welcome in their group. It wasn't actually stated, but the looks they'd given him, the way they'd all treated him afterwards, including not inviting him to shut down the computer. How could they not after all he'd done to them?

Evidently, Aelita had disagreed. And he still didn't get it.

Ulrich's eyes narrowed at the memories. "He tried to kill us all the time. You especially," he reminded her.

She shrugged. "By that logic, you tried to kill us too."

He sputtered. "Hey, I wasn't in my body-"

"And so did Jeremy, too. And yet I don't see Odd shunning him for it." She continued as if he hadn't spoken.

"Well-"

"Oh, and let's not forget that I got caught and possessed by the Scyphozoa countless times. And that I then tried to kill you during every time that happened, and got pretty far in the last attempt with you in particular," she leaned back with a frown. "So that excuse doesn't quite cut it,"

"Those were different!" He argued. "Those weren't as easily preventable as his was! He was being cocky and stupid! You said you warned him not to go off on his own and he didn't listen!"

"As if none of us were the same way when we all started. I can think of several incidents where yours and Odd's egos ended up making things much harder than they had to be in the beginning, and sometimes towards the end too." He voice didn't raise in volume, yet there was an undeniable power to it that still made him feel like she was yelling at him. "Our difference was we had time to figure things out. We threw him into the deep end without being able to teach him how to properly swim first, Ulrich. He had no chance."

His brows furrowed. What she was saying made sense and yet...

"He still should've listened to you and Jeremy. Or run away from the Scyphozoa at least."

She gave a nod in aquiencense. "I'm not disagreeing with you on that. But think back to your first time on Lyoko; can you really say that you really acted much differently?" She never saw Ulrich on his first visit to Lyoko, but she'd heard the story before. "And take my word for it when I say trying to run from that... thing, was much harder than it looked."

Ulrich could say nothing in response. He dropped his gaze to the floor.

Aelita hands fell into her lap. "I'm not trying to say that William didn't make a mistake; he did, and it was a big one, and it's one he will never forget about for the rest of his life. But I think he's paid enough for it as it is without you and the other needlessly twisting the knife." He watched as she then stood up from the couch and walked towards the door.

His throat felt dry. "How do you know?" He asked, swallowing in a vain attempt to make it feel normal again.

He hand fell just short of the know. "How do I know what?"

"That he'll never forget it. Or that he's 'paid' for any of it?" Ulrich elaborated. A heavy silence hung between them for what he knew was only seconds, yet felt like and eternity. Why did he have a feeling he wasn't going to like this answer?

She looked back at him, a familiar, haunted look in her eyes that made his heart sink. "Because I still can't forget what happened after every time the Scyphozoa caught me, and it was only for an hour at a time at most.," she pushed open the door. "And I can't imagine how much worse the feeling is after six months under XANA's control."

Ulrich couldn't even think up of a response before she pushed herself out of the room, leaving him alone in the rec room as the door swung shut with a loud bang behind her. He sat there for several minutes, feeling slightly numb.

No... wait... that was guilt he was feeling. About William of all people. He let out a groan and lowered his head onto his arms, still resting on the chair.

Why was it that things could ever be as simple they initially seemed in his life?

Ulrich and Aelita are still the BrOTP of this series, but William and Aelita post series is one I don't see get much attention. It's not a stretch to think she'd reach out to him once all is said in done in the series, especially given she was the only one sympathetic to his situation from what we saw.

And of course, not everyone in the group is probably a fan of that.

Also I don't care if it's canon or not, William and Aelita remember being possessed on Lyoko in some capacity and you can pry that headcanon from my cold dead hands.

(If this was messier than previous chapters I wrote this in like, 3 hours at night so... sorry? But at least it's new content!)