Okay! I'm on a roll! Another chapter in the same month? That's unheard of as of late. Please share this story with others that you know like Code Lyoko, and let me know what you think about my story, or what you'd like to see in the future. Your reviews are what has kept me going before, and I don't want to lose my momentum with this story because I have so many ideas about where it could go.
Ch. 17- "Spectrum"
The conversation about home and the supercomputer started to die down. The twins then cornered Jeremy and started asking him a ton of questions about the supercomputer, and Yumi went up to talk to Aelita. Ulrich stood there for a second next to Odd, and the two of them didn't talk. Instead, Ulrich stood there listening to the conversation between the twins and Jeremy.
"Can it be fixed?" asked Sean.
"Can we go into it, y'know? To Lyoko?" pressed Seth.
"Could this technology be used for other things?"
"Yeah, speaking of the other things the supercomputer can do, what could you do with that much processing power?"
Jeremy looked quickly overwhelmed, but he did his best to field all the blonde twins' questions. Ulrich quickly snuck closer to Odd's side while Yumi wasn't looking so he could whisper.
"Dude, what do you think she meant by that?"
"What?" started Odd, being pulled out of a daze. He was staring off into the darkness, but Ulrich could tell it was probably just because he was bored, "Who?"
"Yumi!" Ulrich hissed, taking a quick look over his shoulder to see if the Asian woman was looking.
"Yumi? I'm not sure. She just thinks that we must make the most of our lives either since we won't be leaving, or at least until Einstein can figure out why we're here, and how to send us back." said the svelte blonde with a shrug.
"But she looked at me when she said it," stressed Ulrich.
"C'mon good buddy," said Odd, putting a firm hand on his shoulder, "Do you honestly think that Yumi was implying something with that? Don't you think that you could perhaps be reading a little too much into this?"
Ulrich sighed, Odd was probably right, "But what if this is my chance, and I blow it!?" he hissed, still trying to avoid drawing Yumi's attention to their conversation.
"Ulrich," leveled Odd, "How long have we been doing this? And now we can even factor in the ten years that have happened between when this started, and now. If that's any indication, you probably won't do anything, and you'll miss out again. Look at William," said Odd, dropping some pretty heavy truth.
"What are you trying to say?" asked Ulrich, he tried to suppress his feelings for his current supervisor, but he could still feel his face flush in anger.
"You never did anything with Yumi, and she's not just going to wait another ten years for you to do so," said Odd, looking over at Yumi.
The brunette could see here standing over there, a jet of sparks shot out of the wall and splashed harmlessly onto the floor, but in that moment, he saw everything that he loved about Yumi. Her angular features had really matured as she got older, and her hair looked stylish. When they were younger, Yumi just kind of kept her hair short, but it was almost like an impenetrable curtain around her face, especially when she used it to block her eyes. But now, her hair was more in kind of an angled bob, and it also had a bit of curl to it. The curl framed her features nicely and brought attention to the curve of her cheeks and the shape of her eyes. He could also see in that moment, the sparks that flew out of the wall created pools of light in her brown eyes that made them look like swirling chocolate. The sparks moved across the rest of her features, and Ulrich could see the corners of her mouth that were curled up in a small smile, and seeing it brought one to Ulrich's face, almost instinctively.
He pictured a life with the Japanese girl and what he would do to keep that smile on her face as often as possible. He thought about the dates he wanted to take her on, the time he just wanted to spend with her in idle wonder. Even something so simple as imagining going grocery shopping felt natural, fun, and exciting to Ulrich. The sparks cascaded around her feet, and the brunette saw the combat boots that she was wearing on her feet. Even though she was wearing stylish clothes she never gave up wearing combat boots, just like when they were younger. He loved that about her personality. Ulrich could tell that she was more of a woman than ever, but certainly still just that same girl that he knew in school, all those years ago.
"This is your chance," said Odd, pulling Ulrich out of his thoughts, "Live or die. What's it going to be, good buddy?"
Ulrich's stomach immediately did a flip, and he broke out into a cold sweat. He knew that he had to do it now, or else he would chicken out. Why did Odd have to put it that way? He was no help anymore. Instead, Ulrich was wishing that he had kept his big mouth shut, and not included Odd at all. He looked over and saw Yumi laughing and joking with Aelita. Ulrich took one tentative step towards the girls, and then all he wanted to do was run the complete opposite direction. Yumi's gaze finally met his, and his stomach completely fell out the bottom of his torso, and he froze.
Did she see him trying to come over there? What did he look like right now? What did his clothes look like? He had been in them all day, and it had been a long day. That made Ulrich think about his breath, would it still be fresh? He hadn't brushed since he ate at the Japanese place, and that felt like an eternity ago. His breath probably stank. He turned quickly, held a hand up to his mouth and exhaled long and hard. He then quickly sniffed to get a feel. It wasn't freshly minty, but it certainly didn't smell good either. There was no way he could do this now…
"I don't know about you guys," said Jeremy, trying to get everyone's attention. He had finally managed to placate the twins and pull himself away from them, "But I'm really tired, I need to get some sleep."
"Agreed," said Aelita, joining the blonde nerd.
Yumi nodded her head and she too joined the pinkette and the nerd. Ulrich's window was quickly disappearing. Jeremy walked over the computer monitor and typed a few things into the program on the screen. A small window representing the cross-section of the factory, specifically the part of the building that the elevator ran through. Currently the screen read out that the elevator was locked into place just right on the other side of the door. Jeremy pushed a few buttons and then everyone heard the elevator unlock and the doors hissed open as power was restored to them. Odd looked at Ulrich with a sense of urgency, but Ulrich couldn't do anything. Not with this many people watching. Everyone got into the elevator, and Jeremy waited by the button.
"Hey, Ulrich, are you coming?" asked Jeremy.
It was then that Ulrich realized that he was completely paralyzed on the spot. All the rest of the Warriors were leaving, but he couldn't stand to be in that close of a space with Yumi. He could even see her there in the back, looking over everyone's shoulders to see what was going on. Odd had positioned everyone perfectly, without almost even trying, so that the only spot left in the freight elevator was a spot in the corner, right next to Yumi.
"I'll, uh…catch the next one," said Ulrich, awkwardly.
"What are you talking about?" asked Aelita, "There's plenty of room! And it's not like we're sending this thing down again to come get you. This thing is ancient, it would take the rest of the night for us to get you back up to the surface."
Great, exactly what he needed to hear, that the elevator ride was going to be long, and there was no escaping it, "I'll uh- take the stairs?"
"Dude, c'mon, get in here," said Sean, motioning for Ulrich to join them.
"Excellent," he thought to himself.
Ulrich begrudgingly walked across the room and entered the small box with the rest of the group. Odd beamed up at him as he passed by. Ulrich had an overwhelming feeling to punch Odd. Not hard, but enough to get the point across that he wasn't appreciating the "help" he was giving. But Ulrich kept his hands to himself. He took up the remaining spot in the corner by Yumi, and Jeremy pushed the button for the elevator to rise.
Aelita wasn't joking. Without someone taking care of this place for the ten years that passed between when they would have been using the factory, and now, a lot had fallen into disrepair. Ulrich was surprised that the elevator even worked at all. The thing moved at a snail's pace, which meant that he was going to be stuck in here for a while. Sean and Seth were in the other corner hurriedly whispering to themselves and plugging numbers into the calculators on their phones. Aelita was casually talking to Jeremy, and Odd was keeping to himself. Which meant that he and Yumi were standing there, awkwardly, not saying anything. Odd finally nonchalantly leaned over and elbowed Ulrich. The brunette shot him a warning look along the lines of "don't go there" and Odd very quickly backed off. The elevator finally reached the surface, and everyone got out.
Ulrich was hoping to be able to talk to Yumi while they were still in the factory, but the group moved faster than he thought they would, and he couldn't get Yumi alone, plus this place still gave him the creeps. He really wanted to get out of here. The Warriors walked up to the ropes, and Sean and Seth held out the ends of them and offered them to the girls.
"Ladies first!" said Seth, being polite.
Yumi looked at Seth with a look of disdain. Aelita scowled and crossed her arms.
"What? I thought ladies complained because men weren't chivalrous…" said Seth, a little lost. Ulrich looked at Yumi and Aelita and he blushed a little after he realized what was going on. Both Aelita and Yumi were wearing skirts.
"Guys…" he said sternly, "Don't you think that the most important thing would be to let them go last this time?"
"Uhm, why? Isn't the expression always 'ladies first'? Not gentlemen first?" asked Seth, still not getting it.
Ulrich facepalmed, and then leaned in to whisper to the twins, "Dude, they're wearing skirts. They don't want us…y'know…looking up?" he said awkwardly, it was kind of weird having to explain this to them.
Both the twins turned a shade of red that he didn't know was possible. They hurriedly covered their eyes, and then realized they were still standing there, so they started to hastily climb the rope. Aelita and Yumi both chuckled and then Odd and Jeremy climbed up after the other boys.
"Thank you, Ulrich," said Yumi, and she laughed again as she heard the twins trying to clamber through the opening to the boarded-up factory.
"Move!" shouted Seth.
"No, you move!" demanded Sean.
"Dude, I gotta get out of here!"
"No, I havfta get out of here!"
Ulrich felt confused, and he couldn't help but say something out loud that made him think about something, "Wait, those guys act like such womanizers on camera, but they get embarrassed and awkward when they think about a girl?" he spoke out loud.
He remembered the news report from the first day he was here, and he remembered that one of the twins had whispered to the news reporter something that sounded sexual. Yumi chuckled, and then Ulrich realized that he and Yumi were the only ones still down on the factory floor. In the time that he was distracted, Aelita had climbed up the rope.
"It's all a big act," said Yumi, "They act like that in front of the cameras because the public eats it up."
"But why?" asked Ulrich, "Why can't they just act like themselves?"
Yumi smiled, but it quickly faded, "If you work in this business long enough, you'll learn that you are always acting, or else you don't last long."
The moment hung in the air after Yumi said that for an unnatural amount of time. Ulrich hated to see her smile fade, and that was exactly what he needed to see finally he blurted out,
"What are you doing tomorrow?!"
"What?"
"I- Uh- Tomorrow, what are you doing?"
"I don't know. That hack, Durand, my former agent, held my schedule in a tight grip. So, I was planning on doing absolutely nothing."
"Great!" Yumi looked a little confused, and possibly angry, Ulrich couldn't quite tell in the low light, "Uh, I mean, why don't you do nothing…with me?"
That was a little bold. Yumi's features fell to sadness again.
"Ulrich…" she started, already looking like she was both equally sad and mad, "I already know what you're going to say," said Yumi, her voice almost inaudible. Ulrich was having a flashback to earlier.
"No, Yumi…stop." Yumi looked taken aback.
"I- Bu- Hu-," stuttered Yumi.
"Yumi, please, the gods haven't cursed us."
"Ulrich…" sighed Yumi.
"Yumi, please, let's just get to the bottom of this," said Ulrich, "You felt like things were taken away from us, that wasn't the gods, that was the supercomputer! We would just return to the past every time this day, so we aren't cursed, Jeremy just has impeccable timing. You wearing your geisha outfit, and me looking like a samurai? Those were our Lyoko outfits! Yumi, we've been doing this for what? Ten years or possibly more at this point? We were never doomed to fail; we just never knew how to make it work!"
"Then how do we make it work?" asked Yumi, her voice cold and stony.
"Well, how does any couple make things work?" asked Ulrich.
"They go on dates!" blurted out Aelita, chiming in from above them. Ulrich and Yumi looked up to see her and Jeremy, as well as Odd and the twins nosily leaning over the edge of the floor above them, listening in on their conversation.
"Um, guys, a little privacy?" asked Ulrich. They all looked a little embarrassed, but obliged. He waited until he could tell that everyone had officially left the factory before continuing.
"Well, just like Aelita said, couples go on dates. They get to know each other. They spend time with each other. They figure out if things are right for them," said Ulrich, trying to be encouraging.
"Things? What do you mean figure out if things are right for them?" Ulrich could tell that she still wasn't convinced.
"Well, we figure out if we're right for each other," said Ulrich.
Yumi sighed, but before she could say something, Ulrich stopped her, "Bup, bup, bup! Let's hear none of that. I don't want you saying that you don't feel like we aren't right for each other. We haven't even gone on a date, so you don't know if we're right for each other or not."
"Why, Ulrich? Why are you doing this?" asked Yumi.
"Because I like you," said Ulrich, bluntly "And I think that deep down, you know that you like me too."
"I, uh- um-," Ulrich could tell that she was flustered now, she was turning red, and looking down at her feet. The brunette put a finger under her chin and then carefully pushed up so that they were looking face-to-face again. Yumi was a deep shade of crimson.
"Look, this can go one of two ways when you think about it, either we can get married…"
"Married?!" shouted Yumi, "Who said anything about marriage!?"
"Whoa, whoa! Calm down, I was trying to say, dating each other is going to either lead to us getting married, or we're going to break up," said Ulrich.
"What are you trying to say, Ulrich? That you want to break up with me before you even go on a first date with me?"
Ulrich sighed, this wasn't going the way he wanted it to, "Oh boy, look. Think about someone else for a second. Think about Aelita and Einstein."
"Einstein?" chuckled Yumi, "I haven't heard him called that in forever!" Finally, things were turning around.
"Think about them, if they were to go on a date, their date could end in multiple ways, they could end up kissing, or just hugging, or the date could go so bad that they never want to see each other again! But in the end, all those endings are pushing them towards one of two spots, almost like a spectrum."
Ulrich held up one fist, "Think of this hand as 'break up'," he held up his other fist, a way apart, "And think of this hand as 'get married'." Yumi seemed to be following.
"If Jeremy and Aelita go on a date and they end up kissing at the end of it, then they move a little bit closer," he moved the "get married" to emphasize his point, "To getting married. Because that is pretty much the goal of all dating."
"But what if they just end up living with each other for the rest of their lives?" asked Yumi, "Cohabitation is a thing"
"Well, that's still the same thing," said Ulrich, "Getting married, living together, same difference. You're pretty much doing the same thing, just calling it something else. You're living under the same roof, and whether you have the piece of paper that makes it official, or you're just acting like it, you're still technically 'married'."
"Okay," said Yumi, "I think I follow you so far."
"But, if for instance the date doesn't go well, then they would move closer to 'breaking up'," this time Ulrich shook the other hand, "And so on, and so on. Each time they interact, do anything, like go on a date, or just hang out, or…"
Yumi interrupted, "Or that first date goes so well, that she invites Jeremy in for a little bit of something a little more…steamy," she said with a devious smile. Ulrich could feel the blood rushing to his face, not because he was thinking about Aelita and Jeremy, but because he couldn't believe how fearless she was being about this.
"Uh, yeah, ahem…something like that."
Yumi busted out laughing, "Oh my gosh, I'm kidding, Ulrich! I just wanted to see the look on your face!"
Ulrich scowled, but kept things light, "So, yeah, if Jeremy and Aelita did that, well then I'm sure that we'd be hearing wedding bells soon enough. All interactions that we have with the people we like are going towards one thing or another, like marriage, or breakup."
"But I like my brother, but only as my brother…" said Yumi, being sly, "Are you saying that if I spend enough time, and have enough positive interactions with him, that I'm going to marry him?"
Ulrich saw where his logic was flawed, "Uh, no. I'm saying that this applies to all sorts of relationships, not just romantic ones. The kind of relationship that you have with your brother is a family kind, and if you have good times with him, then you'll be more likely to have a better relationship with him. And vice versa. No good relationship? And well, I'm guessing that you probably won't want to go home for Christmas."
Yumi laughed again. Ulrich felt confused, "What? Did I mess up again? Do I need to explain it more clearly?"
Yumi's laughs subsided, "No, Ulrich. I got the point; I was just messing with you! But the joke went right over your head, and you explained it anyway."
"Is that a bad thing?" Ulrich felt like this wasn't going well anymore.
"No, I think you're rather cute when you explain things," said Yumi, she had a certain look in her eye. Was that…flirty? Ulrich couldn't tell. Was this going better than he thought?
"So, you've convinced me, Ulrich. What time do you want to do nothing with me? And are we doing it at your place or at mine? Ooo, but I must warn you, unless you want to see me in sweatpants, covered in cheese puff dust, you might want to consider doing it at your place. I'm not planning on getting out of my pajamas at all tomorrow. That is…if I even put on pajamas…" said the Asian girl with a devilish grin.
Ulrich could feel his face flushing again, this time it was because he was thinking of Yumi, "Uh, well…um-," he froze.
Yumi seemed oddly keen on keeping to this threat. If he went to her place tomorrow, he could end up seeing her in comfy clothes, or in nothing but…well. The thought made Ulrich's face flush even harder, and Yumi seemed to be relishing this. He didn't want her thinking that intimacy was all that he wanted. He wanted to date her, and while having that kind of physical relationship was something that Older Ulrich had thought of before, that wasn't the only thing he thought about when he pictured Yumi. His mind flashed back to the thought he had of the two of them going grocery shopping. That was so pure and innocent, and what he wanted more than just "hooking up" with Yumi.
Yumi chucked and snickered behind her hand. The brunette realized that he still hadn't given her an answer, and the silence was starting to get awkward. Ulrich thought about asking her over to his place, just to give her an answer. But then, he realized that he still lived at home with his parents. That wasn't very attractive, or so Ulrich felt.
"Why don't we just both go out?" asked Ulrich, "Besides, I thought that you didn't think it was appropriate to see a man's bedroom at least until the sixth date?"
This time, Yumi was blushing, "Oh, oh my gosh! You didn't think…you don't believe that…I would ever be…that kind of girl? Do you?"
"Yumi, we're just flirting, right?" laughed Ulrich.
"Oh, yes, of course!"
"Just adding up those things that get us closer to, y'know?" He shook the fist that he used earlier to represent 'getting married'.
Yumi stopped for a second, "Is- is that where you see this going? Do you actually think that we'd end up getting married?"
Ulrich paused. Everything in him wanted to scream 'yes!', but at the same time, he didn't want to scare off Yumi, "Well, let's see how this first date goes, and take things one at a time? Y'know, unless you want me to…?" he mimicked pulling out a box and getting down on one knee.
"Oh goodness, no!" exclaimed Yumi, and she quickly helped Ulrich back up to his feet, blushing the whole time, "I mean, not right this second!" she said, completely flustered.
Ulrich pressed on, "What do you mean right this second?! You don't want to be married to me?"
"Ulrich, that's not what I'm trying to say!" she said, trying to backpedal some more, "I mean, not that you're a great guy. Any girl in the world would be lucky to be married to you! And I mean, not that I don't want to get married eventually! My own mother thinks that I'm just going to wither away into being an old maid because I wasn't already married at nineteen, like she was. But of course, that I think that being married would be great it's just…" she sighed.
Ulrich couldn't help but laughing.
"That was too much, wasn't it?" she asked.
"No, of course not!" grinned Ulrich, "What I got out of that was that you want to be married, just not right this second."
"Okay, thank you. I thought I was sounding crazy."
"No, you're good. I followed you the whole way."
"Well then, does that make you a little crazy for being able to keep up with me?"
"No, what's crazy is that we're still in this dilapidated factory, well past dark."
"Yeah, this place gives me the creeps."
"Me too!" said Ulrich, "Ready to get out of here?"
"Wait!" said Yumi, "You still haven't given me an answer."
"Oh, um- Should we say 6:00, and I'll let you know beforehand what we're doing, so you know whether you should be dressed up or not?"
"I'm telling you; I'm not getting out of my sweatpants all day."
Ulrich laughed, he was glad to see Yumi taking this well, "Of course, well maybe we'll go somewhere where sweatpants are acceptable, like maybe a coffee shop or something?"
"What are you talking about, sweatpants are acceptable anywhere! It's the world that doesn't share in my belief!"
They both laughed.
"No," said Yumi, trying to be serious again, "We should dress up…" she said like she was doing it begrudgingly, but Ulrich knew she was joking.
"Okay, 6:00? And do you want to meet me? I think that will keep my car from dying." It was then that Ulrich resolved to get a new car.
"Of course, I've actually been dying to try driving myself."
"Well, just make sure you practice before, don't want you actually dying before our date."
"Aw, you're sweet to care," said Yumi, "Do you have my number?"
"I don't think so, let me add it to my phone. Phones still do that right? I can't really make heads or tails of the one I have," he said, pulling out the little electrical device.
"Yeah, I think so, I'm glad I got my phone from Durand before I fired him, he liked to control everything about my life, and I mean everything. Anyways, my number is…"
Ulrich put his phone up to his face and then went to unlock it. It was then what he realized what his phone password was. It wasn't a random series of numbers or letters. 9-8-6-4 were the numbers for "Y-U-M-I". His phone code was Yumi's name! He hesitated to tell her that, but he figured it would be better to just keep that one to himself for the time being. But then that made him curious, Ulrich looked over and saw that Yumi's code was something like "4587". He looked at his own phone to see what kind of word it could spell. Thank goodness it didn't spell out something like "Will". Ulrich wasn't sure what kind of word that could spell, but maybe it wasn't a word, maybe it was like an acronym or a code where the first letter for each word correlated to a number in her code. But that would mean that the words could be anything! And he didn't know if Yumi would know the answer to it either. He didn't know what his phone code meant until just this second, so there was probably a good likeliness that she wouldn't know unless that was a memory that she was able to hang on to.
"You ready?" asked Yumi.
"Uh, yeah." Ulrich quickly pulled open the contacts list on his phone and made a new one. Yumi supplied her number, and Ulrich repeated it back, just to make sure.
"Yep! You got it! Now don't go giving that out to anyone just now," said Yumi.
"What? You mean like going out and buying a billboard to put it on so everyone can see?" joked Ulrich.
"You wouldn't!" said Yumi, also jokingly.
Ulrich laughed, "Let's get out of here, I'm sure that everyone else will have left by this point."