20. Saturday nights were Game Nights and more fun than he ever expected.
Jeremie is bent over the graduated cylinder, carefully measuring out the correct ingredients when suddenly a hand is being waved in front of his face. He blinks and lifts his gaze to see Odd's bright smile in front of him. "Watch it," he says. "Or I'll spill."
"Lighten up, Einstein." Odd twirls one of the empty pipettes around until Ulrich puts a hand on it, stopping him. "This week has been trash. Ulrich and I are going to head into town after class on a supply run and then have a game marathon tomorrow night. You in?"
Jeremie frowns as he sets aside the graduated cylinder. "I have a robotics meeting tonight," he replies.
"Just tell us which snacks you want," Ulrich says. "We'll pick them up for tomorrow night."
Jeremie frowns, shrugging. "None, really." He glances around at their classmates, but they're all involved in the experiment and Hertz is across the room with Sissi. "Anyway, I don't know if I'll make it tomorrow. I should really be working on the program…"
"One night off won't kill you, Einstein."
"The sooner I get this done, the sooner we return to normal."
Ulrich shrugs. "It's up to you. But, you don't want to burn yourself out."
Mrs. Hertz appears at their table before Jeremie can reply. She raises an eyebrow at the three of them. "How's it going, gentlemen?"
"Great!" Odd chirps, grinning. "Now that you're here everything is perfect!"
Hertz lets out a long suffering sigh while Ulrich has to half-turn to hide his smile. "Honestly, Mr. Della Robbia," she says. But Jeremie's surprised to see amusement in her eyes. "At least you haven't blown anything up this time."
/
Jeremie doesn't consciously decide not to go to Odd and Ulrich's dorm for their game marathon. He honestly just forgets. He spends Saturday night working on the materialization code and chatting with Aelita, answering her questions about school and Earth. He reassures himself that this was better anyway. Odd and Ulrich are okay, but they're too different. He can't imagine what they'd spend the evening discussing. It's better that he spend his time on something that matters.
/
"Lameeee," Odd announces.
"Odd," Ulrich admonishes.
"Who are you calling lame?" Yumi questions, looking up at the two boys.
"Einstein there. He totally bailed on game night," Odd replies.
"Game night?"
"Saturday night," Ulrich explains. "You said you had a family thing that night. We invited Jer, but he never showed."
Yumi nods. "My mother's birthday." She turns to Jeremie, elbows him lightly in the ribs so that he looks up from his laptop. "Why didn't you go?"
Jeremie shrugs, feeling the urge to squirm under the three sets of eyes watching him. "I told you, I had to work on the programming."
Odd just shakes his head, looking disappointed.
. . … . .
It takes another month, but Jeremie does eventually make it to Saturday Game Night. Mostly because Odd shows up at his door at half past seven and drags him to the other room. Kiwi raises his head and stares at them when they enter the room.
"Is this really necessary?" Jeremie questions. He stumbles as Odd shoves him through the door.
"Yes. If we left you to your own devices you'd become an Einstein-shaped husk, just glued to your computer screen. As your friend I can't let you do that." Odd flops onto his bed, displacing Kiwi. "Don't hover, Einstein, jeeze." He waves a hand. "Take a seat."
Jeremie glances around the room. He's been in the other boys' dorm room a few times, but only in passing. Ulrich's bed is neatly made and Jeremie doesn't feel comfortable sitting on it. He remembers the arguments Ulrich and Odd had over Odd messing up Ulrich's belongings. He doesn't feel like fighting tonight.
Instead, he takes a seat on a bean bag chair at the foot of Ulrich's bed, sinking into it. Kiwi wanders over, flopping down next to him and staring imploringly until Jeremie begins to pet him. He looks around again.
"Where is Ulrich?"
"Shower," Odd replies. "He had practice. He'll be back soon and then I'll kick both your asses at Zombees."
Jeremie blinks at both Odd's tone and the name of the game. He isn't sure how he got roped into this.
/
He intends to stay for thirty minutes, maybe an hour, just enough time to say he came and participated and then retreat to work on his programming. But suddenly it's been three hours and Jeremie is still sitting in the bean bag chair trying desperately to avoid the swarm of zombie bees bent on taking over the world.
"Let's hope XANA never sees this game," Ulrich comments after their group gets caught. Again.
"Dude, how cool would that be though?" Odd asks. He sits up and reaches for more snacks. "Like, could you imagine real life zombies?"
Jeremie frowns. "That would be biologically impossible though. The rate of decay would make it impossible for them to move."
"Einstein, we fight a computer virus on the hunt for world domination and you're telling me zombies are out of the question?"
"That's artificial intelligence though, not reanimation."
"Regardless," Ulrich states, "I don't want to fight off a swarm of infected bees anytime soon. We doing another round?"
Odd shrugs, pops a handful of crisps into his mouth. "I'm down," he mumbles around the mouthful. "Einstein?"
Jeremie hesitates. He can feel the pull of the materialization program, but he hates leaving things unfinished. If they can just get past this round… "One more," he agrees, nodding.
It ends up taking six more and Jeremie doesn't return to his room until after one. He has to sneak past Jim to avoid curfew patrol, but he's still smiling triumphantly when he makes it back to his room.
. . … . .
Odd bounces on his bed, a stream of curses running loose as his character attempts to fight the boss level. "Shit, shit, shit," he chants, dodging attack after attack.
Ulrich sighs next to Jeremie, leaning back against the foot of his bed. "He's been like this for three days," the other boy explains.
Jeremie watches Odd curiously. "Doesn't he realize that Mothgar freezes to do the attack? All he'd have to do is get behind him and attack then." Ulrich smirks, taking a drink of water. Jeremie stares at him. "You haven't told him, have you?"
"He'll figure it out, eventually."
Jeremie laughs, which is unfortunate, since it's at the same time that Mothgar kills Odd. The other blonde scowls and tosses the controller at Jeremie. "Laugh it up, Einstein. Let's see you do better."
Ulrich's face is carefully neutral as Jeremie picks up the controller and pushes up his glasses. Odd stares at the screen, arms crossed over his chest. Jeremie can feel a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth as he restarts the boss fight. Twenty minutes later the screen declares VICTORY!
Odd stares at him for a moment, mouth hanging open, before he lets his head fall back and he laughs long and loud. He slides off the bed and punches Jeremie in the arm. "Holding back on us all this time, eh, Einstein? Way to go!"
/
He doesn't make it every weekend, but slowly, over time, he does start making it more often than not. They rotate through a selection of games, until a holiday happens and Odd or Ulrich return back from home with a new game or two. Jeremie finds that he's better with the games requiring strategy and not the ones that require quick reflexes.
It reminds him of past years spent playing videogames at Patrick's house while his father worked and his mother tutored or rested. His aunt Sophie would be in the kitchen making some type of baked good for them and Patrick would howl and victory dance around the room every time he won.
Aunt Sophie's baked goods are swapped out for Odd's snack stashes, though Odd does a fairly good impression of Patrick's victory dance for someone who had never seen it. Ulrich's quieter, but he gives Jeremie a run for his money when it comes to one-on-one games where they have to assess each other's weaknesses.
He expects the game nights to fall by the wayside once Aelita is materialized, once Ulrich and Yumi start dating, once they shut down Lyoko. But they don't.
/
"You're playing terrible tonight," Ulrich comments. "Did you and Aelita fight?"
"No," Jeremie replies, looking surprised. "Did she say something?"
"Way to go," Odd mutters.
"No," Ulrich replies, ignoring Odd. "But the last time you were this bad was when she stopped talking to you for a week."
Jeremie shrugs, stares down at the controller in his hands. "No," he says. "I'm just thinking about the robotics competition. Herve's being an idiot about it, like usual."
"So, what's the issue?" Odd questions.
Jeremie heaves a sigh before he begins to explain. The issue is that the competition this year is giving them a stricter set of materials to work with and a narrow window to get it done. Herve wants to do something elementary in order to meet the time limit, but Jeremie wants to push it. He wants to try and use all the materials they've been given.
Ulrich shrugs when Jeremie has finished explaining. "Why not decide what you want the robot to do, and then figure out what you need for it?"
Odd grins brightly. "Homework robot," he suggests. "Or maybe a personal cook robot? Snack-carrying robot? Personal transport robot, so you don't have to use that ridiculous scooter anymore?"
Jeremie frowns at him, but Odd just grins in return.
Ulrich leans back against the wall, game forgotten momentarily. "Personal assistant?" he suggests. "Smarter computer? Robot that tells Aelita he likes her?"
Jeremie splutters and hits Ulrich.
They spend the rest of the night throwing ideas back-and-forth. An hour into it Odd grabs a sketchpad from his desk and a pencil from the container on his bedside table. Jeremie watches while Odd sketches cartoons of some of their more ridiculous ideas.
They don't get much done, and the game falls into sleep mode when it's abandoned, but Jeremie leaves at two am feeling more relaxed than he has all week and his stomach aches from laughing so hard. Odd rips out the pages of sketches, handing it over to Jeremie with a wink and extravagant smile.
"In case you need some ideas that are more fun than saving the world again."
. . … . .
Jeremie hesitates outside of Ulrich and Odd's door. He double checks the time on his watch before raising a hand and knocking loudly. Odd opens the door, brow furrowed in confusion when he sees it's Jeremie.
"Einstein? Since when do you knock like Jim?"
Jeremie feels his cheeks warm and he shrugs. "Just, uh, wanted to make sure you heard."
Odd's expression lifts and he gives Jeremie a wide grin. "Ah, right," he replies. "Well…" He steps back, opening the door widely and half bowing as he ushers Jeremie into the dorm room. Ulrich looks up from where he's playing tug of war with Kiwi. "Looky who showed up," Odd announces.
Jeremie glances between Odd's smug expression and Ulrich's tense shoulders as he sidesteps into the room cautiously. "It is game night, right?"
"Yeah, of course," Odd replies as he shuts the door.
Jeremie nods, holds up the cardboard box he'd carried over. "Good. I brought pastries from Nicolette's."
Odd whoops excitedly and Jeremie watches as Ulrich's shoulders relax. "Great, thanks, Jer."
/
"Dammit, Odd! I swear if you knock me out one more time no sex for a week."
Jeremie freezes, hands on his controller and looks over to see Ulrich turning red and Odd staring at him open-mouthed. After a moment Odd begins to laugh. He laughs until he's bent double and his character drives off the race track and crashes.
Ulrich meets Jeremie's look and Jeremie just raises an eyebrow at him.
"That seems unfair," Jeremie says mildly. "There's no one in this room I want to bribe with sex." He turns his attention back to the screen, trying to make up lost time while Odd is still distracted, and Ulrich chuckles. "Odd, if you knock Ulrich off the rainbow bridge," he adds, lips twitching, "I'll bring you pastries from Nicolette's for a month."
Odd pushes himself up so he's sitting again, wiping the tears from his face. "Deal," he agrees. He squawks as Ulrich shoves him off the bed.
. . … . .
"It's weird, huh?" Yumi asks.
"No," Jeremie replies. He sits on his new bed and stares out the window. It's gotten dark with only small pools of lamplight illuminating the walkways. "It's quiet."
"It is." He looks back at the computer screen to see Yumi braiding her hair. "It took me a while to get used to not having Hiroki banging around in his room, or chattering away when all I wanted was peace." She pauses, shrugs. "It took a while to remember that I needed to make new routines."
Jeremie shrugs and fiddles with his sleeves. "How did you do it?"
"I called Aelita on Saturdays, at first. And then once classes started I made new friends and sometimes we had plans and sometimes we didn't."
"I'm not that, uh, great, with making friends easily."
Yumi laughs, warm and bright. "Really?" she asks. "Hadn't noticed." Jeremie narrows his eyes at her and she simply smiles back at him. "You will. University is different than Kadic, especially once you get to the classes you want to be in. Or the clubs you want to be in." Her expression turns serious. "You'll be fine, Jeremie."
/
"Yo, Einstein, how's it going?" Odd yells as soon as Jeremie clicks connect.
Jeremie winces at the volume. "Hey, Odd," he replies.
"Dude, you think just because we're in different countries you get to skip out on game night?"
"What?"
Odd grins at him through the screen. "I'm emailing you a link now. We're going digital."
Jeremie blinks at the screen as his email account chimes. Odd's still grinning at him. He looks older though, Jeremie thinks, with his hair cut short. He's added the purple back in though, and Jeremie finds that he'd missed it. He opens the email from Odd and clicks on the link.
"Where is Ulrich?"
"Supply run," Odd replies brightly.
"In other words," he hears Ulrich's voice off-screen, "Odd was too lazy to go downstairs to get a snack." Ulrich appears in the camera and he tosses a danish at Odd. "Hey, Jer. You get the link?"
"Just opened it."
"Great," Odd enthuses. Jeremie isn't sure if he's referring to the pastry or the fact that Jeremie's opened the link. "Game night 2.0 is a-go!"
Jeremie can't help but smile back at Odd's enthusiasm. He settles in at his desk, pulling over his own dinner. He has a feeling they'll be here for a while.