AN: Here you go! I'm still in a little bit of sleep-daze from the stuff they used to knock me out to do my wisdom teeth this morning, so you aren't getting much of an author note. Sorry! I've already started the next chapter, promise!
ATTENTION! Jin belongs to G-Force 4, check out his stories! They will help you understand things a bit better.
Yumi excused herself as the all-too familiar sound of her cell phone ringing broke into the group's conversation.
"Hello?"
"Hello, sweetie," Yumi's mother said, her voice light and cheerful.
"Oh, hi Mom."
"Honey, I was wondering if you could stop and pick up some bread on your way home."
"Sure, when do you want me home?" Yumi asked.
"I was hoping you'd be home in an hour or so... We'd like to spend a little more time with you before you go to camp. You can bring a friend home with you if you'd like," her mother said, sneakily holding the bait out to her daughter, then added, "I'm making Sweet and Sour Chicken."
"Is it ok if I bring Ulrich?" Yumi asked.
"Of course, dear," her mother replied, glad her plan had worked, "See you in an hour, ok?"
"Ok, bye Mom." Yumi put her cell phone back in her pocket and rejoined the conversation.
"Are you sure Jim won't catch us?" Ulrich asked.
"Of course not, we'll be helping you organize the P.E. equipment by the time Sissi notices anything," Odd replied mischievously.
"Why do you pull these pranks on Sissi?" Aelita asked from the computer screen.
"She's annoying, desperate, and tries to cause trouble for us," Ulrich replied a little heatedly.
"What are you guys doing this time?" Yumi asked, for she had missed out on this part of their conversation.
"Oh, nothing really," Odd said nonchalantly, "Just a little poison icy and blue-tinted calamine lotion, but only if she misbehaves."
"You guys have really outdone yourselves this time," Yumi said, laughing, "Try not to overdo it, though. We don't really want to hurt her, just annoy her." Yumi didn't like the annoying brat, but she didn't approve of unusually cruel treatment, even of Sissi.
"Don't worry, we'll only put a little on her sheets, then we'll change them after it takes effect," Ulrich replied.
"What did your mom want?" Jeremy asked, changing the subject.
"She wants me home in an hour, but she said I could bring a friend," Yumi answered, shrugging, "Who wants to come?"
"I plan to work on Aelita's materialization program tonight," Jeremy replied, "Plus I'm going to work on setting up a program that sends X.A.N.A. attack alerts to each of your phones."
"Sorry Yumi, but tonight's hamburger night at the cafeteria," Odd, the bottomless pit, said, rubbing a hand over his stomach, "Besides, last time I cam your mom got a little mad. I probably should have eaten a little less." This elicited a chuckle from the group, except Aelita, who was, for the most part, unaware of Odd's eating habits.
"That leaves me," Ulrich said quietly, pushing himself away from the wall he had been leaning on.
"She's making Sweet and Sour Chicken," Yumi said, knowing, like her mom, that it was Ulrich's favorite.
"What are we waiting for, then?" Ulrich asked, smiling slightly. She doesn't need to try to tempt me with food, Ulrich thought, I would have come anyway.
Together, the pair walked out of Jeremy's room and left the school. Hands in his pockets, Ulrich tried to think of something to say to break the silence. Out of the corner of his eye, he studied Yumi's face. After a little while longer, the silence began to feel companionable and Ulrich stopped trying to thing of a way to start a conversation. After the picked up the bread and they were about halfway to Yumi's house, the bells on the far side of the park began to ring solemnly, the tones marking off the time as 4 p.m.
As the last bell died off, Yumi stole a glance at Ulrich. She was enjoying the feeling of companionship, but she was starting to feel restless. Yesterday Nurse Dorothy declared her healed, and she hadn't had a chance to stretch her legs yet. Well, there's no better time than the present, Yumi thought wryly. Grabbing Ulrich's right arm at the elbow, she started to jog, pulling him with her. His hand slid out of his pocket and her hand slipped down until it gripped his.
Yumi laughed at the startled look on his face and continued to pull him until he was running on his own.
"I'll race you," Yumi shouted, her hand slipping from his. In response to her challenge, Ulrich ran after her, and the two were evenly matched. When Yumi's house was in sight, she put on an extra burst of speed, pulling ahead, holding the sack of bread carefully away from her body so she wouldn't damage it. Though he tried, Ulrich was unable to catch up to her. As Yumi slapped her hand on the siding of the house, Ulrich slowed to a walk, both of the teens breathing heavily. Yumi leaned her side against the side of her house, her back burning form the strain running had put on it. I probably should have taken it slower, Yumi thought, pushing away from the house and wincing.
The window near Yumi opened and her mother stuck her head out.
"Come on inside," Mrs. Ishiyama said cheerfully.
Still slightly out of breath, Yumi nodded, and Ulrich followed her into the house.
"Supper was wonderful, Mrs. Ishiyama," Ulrich said politely as he set down his chopsticks and put his napkin on his recently emptied plate.
"Thank you, Ulrich," she replied, glad that her guest had enjoyed himself, "You and Yumi run along now and study." Yumi nodded and smiled at her parents as she stood and beckoned Ulrich to follow.
"So, what do you want to do?" Yumi asked, sitting down indian-style on her bed.
Ulrich shrugged. "It doesn't matter to me."
After a moment's pause, Yumi pulled a small folder of papers from under her pillow.
"I couldn't sleep last night so I thought up these," Yumi said, handing the folder to Ulrich. He sat down on the bed beside her, and his eyes poured over the figures and positions depicted on the front sheet.
"This is more of a defense strategy, isn't it?" Ulrich said absentmindedly. He didn't notice her nod, but he did see her finger as it traced the movements of the symbols she had drawn on the paper.
"The arrow is Odd, you're the X, Aelita's the star, and I'm the O," Yumi said, "The idea is we stay close around Aelita in a wedge shape with you in the front because you're better at deflecting lasers where Odd just steps in front of them. What do you think?"
"Not a bad idea," Ulrich replied thoughtfully, then flipped to the next sheet. Over the next half hour, they went over strategies and planned new ones.
"Ready to try some of these out?" Ulrich asked, standing and stretching his stiff muscles.
"Sure," Yumi replied, standing as well. The two made their way outside and into the backyard. Once there, Yumi dug through the tool shed and found a long piece of slender pipe, five gallon buckets, a ten gallon bucket, and a half-circle of a light wood. Yumi set up the five gallon buckets on either side of the stump in the middle of the yard. She guessed a distance of about three feet, flipped the buckets upside-down, and dug the rim slightly into the ground. Next, Yumi carried the ten gallon bucket behind the stump and positioned it the same way she had the others.
"Ok, each one of these is a monster," Yumi said, indicating the buckets and stump, "Which strategy should we start with?"
"Well, we can't try any of the ones that include Odd and Aelita," Ulrich said, flipping through the sheets, "Let's try this attack one." Ulrich had flipped the pages to the one which held the strategy the pair had used in Yumi's nightmare about Lyoko. Yumi nodded, a bit unsettled that he had chosen that one first.
"Which part do you want to be?" Yumi asked.
"I'll take the defense in the front," Ulrich said. "And, I have a suggestion for this strategy. Instead of one person remaining in the front defending, we should alternate when the person defending loses too many life points."
"Good idea," Yumi said enthusiastically. Now that the parts had been decided, Yumi handed the pipe to Ulrich and switched the half-circle of wood to her right hand and held it as she would her fan. "Ready?"
Ulrich nodded and moved in front of her. As the two walked forward (there wasn't enough room to run), Ulrich fended off imaginary lasers. Pretending to be hit by a volley of the beams, he stepped backward and Yumi moved around him and took the defensive role. When they reached the "monsters," Ulrich moved around Yumi and mock-stabbed the first bucket with his pipe. Then, he spun to the left, dodged an imaginary laser, and jumped onto the stump. After tapping his "sword" straight down into the wooden monster, he jumped off it and onto the five gallon bucket on the far left side. It wobbled slightly , and Ulrich widened his stance and bent his knees slightly to decrease the shock and regain his balance. Once the bucket had stopped tottering Ulrich tapped the center of the "monster" and leapt to the ten gallon bucket behind the stump. Again, he "destroyed" the offending object and leapt backward.
It would have been a flawless getaway if it hadn't been for the stump. As his feet were about to touch ground, his heels hit the stump, the pipe flew from his hands, and his arms pin wheeled in the air, seeking balance. Seeing his plight, Yumi rushed forward, but was not in time to break his fall. Ulrich landed on his back with his heels barely resting on the stump. A "whoosh" was heard as all the air in his lungs was expelled from him forcefully.
When his eyes reopened, Ulrich saw Yumi standing over him. From his viewpoint, her face was upside down and her features were lined with worry.
"Are you ok?" Yumi asked, looking down at Ulrich, unsure of how to help him.
"I'm fine... I just thought I'd take a nap," Ulrich said trying for humor. Now that she was sure he was ok, Yumi's expression lightened and she chuckled quietly as she remembered the expression on his face as he fell. Startled, yet cute. Of course at the time she had been concerned, but now the experience was just plain funny. Moving to Ulrich's side, Yumi reached down a hand to help him up.
"Anything hurt?" Yumi asked.
"Just my butt and my pride," Ulrich replied with a grin as he accepted Yumi's hand. Once he was righted, he brushed off the back of his clothes and surveyed the damage he had done. All three of the buckets now laid on their side, and his make-shift sword had imbedded itself vertically in the ground just in front of the stump.
"Other than you falling, I think that strategy went rather well," Yumi said, smiling also, "Do you want to try another."
"Another fall or another strategy?" Ulrich quipped.
"Another strategy," Yumi chuckled.
"It's starting to get dark," Ulrich said, looking at the rainbow of colors across the dusk sky.
"Do you want to go back to school?" Yumi asked, disappointed that time had gone so fast.
"If it's ok with you and your parents, I'd rather stay a little longer."
"I'm sure it'll be fine with them," Yumi said, "Do you want to go inside?"
"I'd rather stay out here... Jim doesn't let us out of our dorms other than to go to classes and eat. He says Odd and I are troublemakers." This was met with a grin from Yumi before Ulrich continued, "Besides, I like being outside." Yumi nodded in reply and sat down on the grass. Ulrich sat beside her, and for the next hour or so, the two talked about various things, the main topic being camp.
"I've never been away from my parents for more than two days," Yumi confessed, "And those two were while I was visiting my brother in America."
"You have a brother?"
"Yeah... he's my twin. His name's Jin and he's living in America as a foreign exchange student."
"Wow... how come you never told us?"
"You never asked."
While Ulrich digested this new information, the first stars appeared in the sky, winking at them as if they were reminding each human of the secrets they had shared with the celestial bodies. A comfortable silence enveloped them, and before long the two had switched from sitting to laying down instead. The feeling of relaxation this brought was too much for Yumi and she slowly drifted to sleep. As the night progressed, it became slightly cooler, as was typical in March. Ulrich was aware of a body pressing lightly against his side, and he looked over to see Yumi curled up against his side, sleeping peacefully. Carefully, as not to disturb her, Ulrich sat up and smiled, watching the sleeping girl for a few moments before he gently picked her up and carried her inside. Ulrich set her on her bed and pulled the blankets over her peaceful form, and his gaze lingered on her tranquil face and his feature softened. Glancing at the door quickly to be sure no one would see him, he bent down and kissed Yumi on the forehead.
"Goodnight," he whispered before walking to her door and flipping off the light.
AN: Some light fluff for you all to enjoy. Merry Christmas!