I admire everyone's optimism, but I feel the need to say that Jeremie won't be coming back, not in this fic anyway. Don't throw rotten vegetables now, I'm not a Jeremie hater, but he is somewhat of a problem if this is going to be an O/A fic. I didn't want to kill him, but it occurred to me when I first got the idea for this that if I was going to really try to keep everyone in character, then the only feasible way to do an O/A fic was for Jeremie to be gone.

Edit: I can't remember if I ever spell checked this, and I am sick and not very much in the mood to deal with that right now, so you're getting it as is.

Princess by Ransomed Heart

Chapter Two: Confrontation

I kicked irritably at grass and leaves as I stormed through the park. Dumb Yumi, I fumed to myself. What did she know anyway?

She knows that you like Aelita, a small voice in my mind answered wryly. I scoffed to myself, but the small voice was very much correct. Yumi was easily the most emotionally intuitive member of our little posse, and I think she figured out really quick where my affections had turned. And that's probably why she was so angry with me whenever Jeremie came up. Sometimes I get the idea that she thinks I dropped him on purpose.

The sound of quiet sniffling interrupted my train of thought. I glanced around, it sounded like Aelita crying.

"Odd?" The name was accented with a sniff, and I looked up to see the pink-clad girl blinking away tears as she stared down at me uncertainly. She was several branches up the tree, with her back leaning against the trunk.

"Hey," I said, taking a moment to climb expertly up the tree and to locate a branch that ran parallel to her's. Perching myself in a similar position, I turned my head to look at Aelita. "You okay?"

She looked away and didn't answer. Suddenly she broke into another round of sobs, holding her head in her hands. I reached over and put a hand on her shoulder. I wasn't really good at the comforting thing.

"I...I miss Jeremie.." The words were broken. Kind of like my heart. I squished the moment of inner jealousy and gave myself a swift mental kick. Of course she missed Jeremie. He was her first love, how could she not? It was absurd to think that even after a year she could have fully gotten over that feeling.

"Jeremie wouldn't want you to cry over him," I said, though the words came out deadpan. "He loved it when you smiled." Part of me wanted to cheer her up. And part of me was kicking myself again. Tell her that you love to see her smile, my mind coached, but I withheld the words. This was the worst moment imaginable to start spouting things like that, even I had enough tact to realize that.

She wiped at the tears, blinking at me as she tried to clear her eyes. "Really?"

I nodded, trying to work up a smile for her, but hindered by the topic. It was bad enough that one of my closest friends had died this day one years ago, but now here I was, having romantic thoughts about the girl he had been madly in love with. Ugh, I was scum.

"T-thanks, Odd," she said softy, the sobs abating a bit and fading into quiet sniffles and occasional hiccups. It occurred to me with a start that I still had a hand on her shoulder. I removed it quickly, turning my head away so she wouldn't see my sudden blush.

"You ready to head back," I asked after giving her a few more minutes to collect herself. "Yumi probably went home already, and Ulrich probably went back to the dorms."

"Can we stay here a bit," she replied. "I'm not ready to go back yet."

Anything for her. "Sure, let's just sit here a while." She smiled gratefully, then rested her head back against the tree with her dark eyes closed. I stared at her for a long moment, lost in thought before catching myself and leaning back to mimic her position. I really had to learn how to control my own mind, I decided as I shut my own eyes as well.

When I blinked my eyes open again, two questions flitted across my brain. First of all, why was I in a tree? Second of all, what time was it? As my mind caught up, I remembered everything. I glanced to my right, and saw that Aelita hadn't moved, and her breathing had evened out, so she was still sleeping. I paused to admire the way the moonlight made her skin look. Wait, moonlight?

"Crap." I shot up, reaching over to shake Aelita gently. "Aelita, wake up," I hissed.

She blinked slowly, eyes finally focusing on me. "Odd?" Confusion laced her face.

"We fell asleep," I told her in a hushed voice. I had no clue how late it was, but we were most definitely out past student curfew. Since no one was out looking for us, Ulrich must have covered for us.

I jumped down, and held out my arms to her. "Jump," I said. "I'll catch you."

She did so, and there was a breathless moment where I was holding her under her arms and her hands were on my shoulders as she landed, face mere inches from mine. I let go quickly.

"Come on, we have to get back," I said. Clutching her hand gently to guide her, I led the way as we raced through the park towards the dorms.

Minutes later I opened the door to the dormitory building with a relieved sigh. So far we hadn't been caught. "Hurry and get up to your room," I said quietly.

"Right," she agreed. She started to walk away, then paused and turned back. Throwing her arms around me, she wrapped me in a tight hug. "Thanks."

"No problem," I told her, too shocked to return the hug. She pulled back and gave a small wave of goodbye before bounding off to her room upstairs on her tiptoes.

I watched until she rounded a corner, then started to my room, trying not to stomp down too hard and create more noise than necessary.

I crept down the long hall and pulled out the key to our dorm room, surprised when I found it already open. Didn't Ulrich usually lock it? I turned the knob and entered uncertainly.

The room was dark except for the moonlight shining in through the window. I breathed a sigh of relief and began kicking my shoes off.

"Where have you been?"

I swear, I jumped a foot into the air, wheeling around to see Ulrich leaning back on the wall that his bed was adjacent to. The darkness had concealed him, but now that my eyes were adjusting I could make out his form on the bed. His voice was edgy, laced with annoyance; no doubt he was angry at waiting up for me. The tone of his voice and the darkness of the room gave the moment a tense feeling, one that I didn't entirely appreciate after my initial relief at having made it back to the room without getting caught. Suddenly Jim didn't seem so bad compared to Ulrich.

"I went and found Aelita, like you wanted me to," I said, my voice taking a defensive edge. Geez, what was wrong with me lately, it seemed like all I did was start fights.

"That was around four. It's one in the morning. What were you doing all this time?" His tone became less accusatory, probably because he noticed my immediate defensiveness. It switched over to curiosity.

I sighed. "I found her in the park, crying in a tree. I climbed up, we talked for a while, but then we both feel asleep."

Ulrich broke in. "You slept in a tree?" His tone went from curious to amused, and I could almost see him smiling in the gloom as I pulled off my pants to get ready for bed.

That elicited a laugh from me. "Yeah. I guess we'll both be feeling that in the morning. But anyway, I woke up first and realized it had to be past curfew, so we snuck back."

"That's it?"

I pulled my shirt up over my head, tossing it into the hamper in annoyance. "Yup, that's all that happened." My back was to him now as I pulled my nightshirt over my head, but I could feel his eyes burning into my back.

"Okay then," he said as a way to dismiss the subject. I would have pursued it further, but I didn't particularly like what his last question had implied, so it was better to drop it. Besides, if I didn't let him get some sleep soon, Ulrich would be pretty cranky in the morning.

I scooted Kiwi over a bit and climbed under my comforter. "'Night, Ulrich."

"Goodnight, Odd."