10. The first time Odd flirted with Aelita he almost punched him (sometimes he wished he had).
"Yeah, yeah," Odd is saying, a hint of breathlessness in his voice, when the call connects, "we're already on our way. Tell Princess her knight in shining armor will be there soon!"
The call disconnects and Jeremie blinks at his phone for a moment. He doesn't think too much about the nickname though. Odd nicknames everyone. He's the one who coined the, in his words "affectionate," nickname of Einstein that the others have now begun using occasionally. He calls Ulrich Nature Boy and Yumi, well…he calls Yumi whatever gets on her nerves at the moment. The nickname doesn't bother him, not really.
The casual, familiar way he says it? That kind of does.
. . … . .
Odd is a notorious flirt. The whole school is aware of the fact that Odd will flirt with anyone. Jeremie's pretty sure he's heard that Odd tried flirting with Hertz to get out of a detention once. Jeremie had been out sick that day, but from the rumors circulating the school and Ulrich's own contribution, he'd learned their chemistry teacher had given Odd a wry look and then added a second detention to his first. Ah, well, can't blame a guy for trying, eh? Odd had questioned brightly. They'd done a Return later that afternoon and the whole incident had been forgotten.
. . … . .
"Don't you get tired of getting shot down all the time?" Jeremie questions. He watches as Ulla storms away, blonde hair swinging angrily. He hadn't realized hair could swing with emotion.
Odd falls into the empty space next to him on the bench and shrugs. "If you don't try then you'll never succeed, yeah?"
"What are you trying?" Yumi questions. She perches on the bench arm next to Jeremie and looks at what he's working at on the computer.
"Eh, just trying to get Ulla to see my charm."
"Keep dreaming," Ulrich replies.
"I'll have you know I'm plenty charming!"
Ulrich snorts and drops his bag at his feet. "Of course you are. What're you working on, Jer?"
"Another plan to rescue our fair Princess, what else?" Jeremie frowns over at him and Odd grins, nudging him in the side. "Gotta keep trying, right Einstein?"
Jeremie is still frowning. "Right," he agrees hesitantly.
. . … . .
"Answer me this," Yumi says while Ulrich's changing out the DVD in the player, "do you actually like any of the girls you flirt with?"
Odd tilts his head back, tosses a piece of candy into the air and catches it with his mouth effortlessly. "Of course I like them."
Jeremie glances over at him curiously. "All of them?" he asks, voice incredulous. "But you flirt with everyone."
"Not everyone," Odd counters. He shrugs and reaches for another piece of candy. "I do have standards."
Ulrich snorts and starts the next movie. "Is that what you tell yourself when you get shot down?"
"Bite me, Nature Boy," Odd replies. There's no malice to his tone, but Jeremie catches an edge to the smile he shoots Ulrich. Ulrich hurls a pillow at Odd's head and flops down next to Jeremie as the movie begins.
"Keep dreaming." Ulrich ducks the pillow Odd throws back and it hits Jeremie in the head instead. He glares over at the other blonde before tucking it behind his head.
"Boys," Yumi groans.
. . … . .
Jeremie doesn't understand it.
The entire time Aelita had been stuck on Lyoko he'd been able to speak with her just fine. Now he finds himself tongue tied over the simplest sentences, feels his cheeks warm whenever his hand brushes Aelita's or she looks at him and smiles. Yumi gives him knowing looks when the others are distracted and he hates that most of all. He isn't self-centered enough to think he'll always be the smartest one in the room, but he hates feeling like he's missing something obvious.
Aelita glances up at him, eyes bright, as they work on coding the supercomputer. He feels like he should say something, ask how she's finding Earth or Kadic or something, but the words stick in his throat. The factory door opens and he sees Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi entering on the security camera.
"Must be time for dinner," Aelita says, watching the monitor. They're celebrating Aelita's one-month anniversary of materialization. He can't believe she's been here this long already. It feels like seconds, it feels like years.
"Yeah," he agrees. "Uh, anywhere in particular you want to go?" he asks.
Her smile is wry. "Somewhere new," she replies. He smiles back. Everywhere is new to her.
Odd bounces in then, grinning and chattering. He slings an arm around Aelita's shoulders. "Hey, Einstein," he greets, "Princess."
"Odd," Jeremie replies. Aelita grins back at the other blonde, leaning into the side-hug.
"Now, we all know Einstein's chained to the supercomputer, but what's a girl like you doing in a factory like this?" Odd quips.
Aelita laughs and shoves Odd lightly. "Very funny," she replies.
"Odd!" Yumi calls. "Stop harassing Aelita and lets go get food."
"Definitely," Odd agrees. He grins slow and bright at Aelita and Jeremie suddenly feels his face warm. It isn't the pleasant, slightly fuzzy warmth he's come to associate with Aelita's smiles and absentminded touches. It's brighter, more simmering like one of his mother's pots before it boils over on the stove. "You ready to get out of here, Princess?"
"In a moment," Aelita agrees. She slips out of Odd's grasp and types a command into the supercomputer. "Ready, Jeremie?" she asks.
"Yeah," he agrees. His voice is stiffer than he'd intended it to be. The others don't notice as he and Aelita grab their coats and fall into step with the rest of the gang.
"You okay, Jer?" Ulrich asks.
"Huh? Yeah, fine. Just thinking," Jeremie replies. He lets his hands relax, slipping them into his pockets. He isn't sure when they'd balled into fists.
Ulrich stays in step with him while Aelita, Yumi, and Odd pull ahead, laughing as they head into town. Odd reaches over, tousling Aelita's hair and she squeals and swats at him so that he ducks behind Yumi. Yumi elbows him so that he staggers a step or two before carrying on as always.
"Odd flirts with everyone," Ulrich says finally. "He's not interested in Aelita like that."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Jeremie sniffs. His face is still warm and he blames it on the coat and the warmer-than-average temperature.
. . … . .
"It's okay to like her," Yumi says. "And it's okay to be jealous."
"I'm not jealous," Jeremie replies automatically. They've had this conversation, or variants of it, for the past week. He's getting tired of the circular conversations.
"Maybe you should talk to them about it?" Yumi suggests. She's laying on his bed while he works on his history paper.
"About what?" Jeremie asks. He keeps his voice neutral, stares at the screen. He can sense Yumi staring at him. It's probably his imagination.
"About you being bothered. Odd can cool it. I don't think he even realizes. He flirts with everyone. Shannon said she heard he was even flirting with Geoffrey Olivier the other day." Jeremie half-turns to look at her, eyebrows raised. "Probably to annoy Sissi," Yumi admits. "She has his eye on him and Odd likes making her miserable."
"Right," Jeremie replies. "I'm not jealous. Aelita is her own person."
"Jeremie, he's your friend. And he's a boy, so he's blind."
"Rude."
"You know what I mean. You like her, just tell her."
Jeremie frowns, fiddles with the drawstring to his hoodie. "Everything is still so new to her," he says finally. "She deserves the chance to experience everything she wants to. I don't want her to feel like she has to…"
"I don't think she'd feel that way, Jer," Yumi says softly. She pushes off the bed and approaches, squeezes his shoulder gently. "Odd's oblivious. You know, I caught him flirting with Ulrich a couple times just to get a rise out of me." She shrugs. "Just talk to him about it."
"Uh huh," Jeremie replies. He returns his attention to the laptop and Yumi flicks him in the side of the head. "Ow!" he yelps.
"I mean it," she warns. "Stop sulking and talk to him before you do something stupid."
"I am not sulking!"
. . … . .
He doesn't talk to Odd. Because it's true, Odd does flirt with everything. And Aelita is her own person. And, he tells himself firmly, he is not jealous.
Odd flirts with Aelita occasionally, though no more than with anyone else. He imagines that pretending to be cousins probably has something to do with it. The occasional flirt gives way to playful teasing and Jeremie feels himself relax, feels his stomach unclench.
Until the kiss.
He hears about it after, as it spreads around the school. Odd laughs it off, tells anyone who asks that it's just Herve and Nicholas spreading rumors. Jeremie sees the truth in their eyes and he feels sick. Aelita looks genuinely confused each time someone at school brings it up and Jeremie wonders when she became such a good actress.
He doesn't expect Odd to show up at his door the night after the kiss.
"Can I come in, Einstein?" Odd asks. He looks unsure, it's the first time Jeremie can remember him not looking self-assured. It throws him enough to allow the other boy entrance.
"What do you want?" he asks. He closes the door and turns to face Odd.
"I'm sorry," Odd says. Jeremie blinks at him owlishly behind his glasses. "I know you heard about what happened and…look, it wasn't…" Odd takes a breath and runs a hand through his hair. "We needed to lose Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, okay?"
"Odd," Jeremie says. He feels exhausted. He sinks onto his bed and rubs at his temples. "It doesn't matter. Why are you telling me this?"
"That's bullshit," Odd replies. He sits in Jeremie's desk chair and spins lazily in circles. Jeremie averts his gaze so he doesn't get dizzy watching him. "You like Aelita."
"I do," Jeremie agrees. Odd looks over at him, surprise written over his face and Jeremie shrugs. "I like her a lot," he states. "But Aelita is her own person."
"You know there's nothing…?" Odd asks. "I like Aelita, as a person and all, but she's my cousin."
"We both know that isn't true."
"It is," Odd states firmly. "She's like family and we only did what we did to keep the Secret, okay?" He stares hard at Jeremie and Jeremie's surprised to notice how similar Odd and Aelita's eyes are to each other. Odd's expression softens. "She really likes you, Einstein."
"Odd…"
"I mean it." He lets the chair sway side-to-side. "She talks about you all the time." They fall silent and Jeremie contemplates the solar system diagram hanging on his wall. "I know everyone thinks I flirt too much, or I'm too cavalier with the people I'm interested in." Jeremie can't help raising his eyebrows and Odd frowns. "I pay attention in literature," he protests. "Look, all I'm saying is I do have standards and one of them is to not go after the people my friends are interested in."
Jeremie scuffs his socked foot along the carpet of his floor. "Yeah, okay," he says finally. "Thanks, really."
Odd beams at him, bounces out of the chair and onto the bed next to Jeremie. He elbows him good-naturedly. "Hey, no problem. Can't have our Einstein sulking, can we?"
"I wasn't sulking."
"You totally were. It's okay. I know I'm pretty awesome. I'd be jealous of me too," Odd says, voice bright.
Jeremie groans and hits him with his pillow. He can't help but return Odd's smile though.