Aelita spent the rest of the afternoon inside her room, petting Maya and reading her history notes because of the upcoming exam. The note that Jeremie gave her laid beside her, together with the picture the mentioned boy brought to her earlier.
She then gave up on studying, seeing that it was almost 8p.m., meaning the dinner will be over soon. Closing the book, putting the cat aside and standing up, she gave one last look at the picture of her and her dad, before running out of her room, heading to the cafeteria.
It wasn't suprising to her that no one was outside, since the famous movie was being aired in the town, and the people that didn't go are probably already in their rooms. Walking inside the building, she spotted that no one except their school chef was there.
She took her tray, and moved to the window where Rosa sat.
"Ah, Aelita, what would you like? Chicken or spaghetti?" Rosa asked.
"Spaghetti, please." She said, as Rosa gave her a plate with spaghetti. But before Aelita could walk away, Rosa poured some ketchup on top of it, something she had never done.
"Since you always are so nice to everyone." Rosa said, and smiled at Aelita. Aelita nodded, and walked away, towards a table.
She dipped her fork into the meal, trying to get the ketchup everywhere but failing.
Why is this hard? Aelita thought. Soon, she heard footsteps coming closer and closer to her. She thought it was just another student forgetting about the time, so she didn't pay attention. But she paid attention when the footsteps stopped next to her.
"Can I...sit down?" She lifted her head up, seeing Jeremie, withi his tray in his hands, and looking at Aelita.
"Of course." Aelita said, looking back into her plate, trying to mix the ketchup and the spaghetti, without scooping the spaghetti out of the plate.
Jeremie starred at her, and wanted to help her, but it felt wrong out of a sudden. He didn't even know if apologizing through a note would be the right thing to do.
"Aelita..." Jeremie started, gaining the girl's attention.
"Hm?" "I can...help you, if you want." Jeremie shyly said, only to see Aelita sigh in relief and pushed the tray to Jeremie. Jeremie grabbed the fork, and carefully stirred the meal, making the ketchup dissolve into the spaghetti.
"Aw, thanks. It's really hard." Aelita said, as Jeremie pushed it back to her. "I need to learn how to do it myself."
I would be glad to do it for you anytime. "No problem." Jeremie said.
There was then a silence between them as they ate their meals, while also looking at the watch every now and then so they wouldn't get locked inside. But they knew Rosa was nice and would let them finish their food in peace. And Jim was out in the cinema with the students, so there wasn't a strict curfew.
"I was thinking." Aelita began, gaining Jeremie's attention immediately. "Why would you want to stay with me here?"
"When?" "Surely your family is more important to you than someone you met a few months ago." Aelita said. "So why do you want to spend Christmas here with me?"
"I-" He didn't really have an explanation, and he didn't even get to call his father or mother about it.
"Don't stay here because of me, I'll survive the week or two." Aelita said softly and smiled. "And if something happens on Lyoko, I have Yumi here."
"I just...wanted to stay...so you wouldn't be alone." "I was alone for many years, I can survive a week or two." Aelita chuckled. "But really, don't stay because of me."
Then something hit Jeremie; a really easy solution to the dillema. And he couldn't wait to propose it to his parents the next morning just before school.
"Do you want to finish the food after me?"
Jeremie looked at Aelita, who pushed her own tray toward Jeremie. He noticed that not even half of the plate was eaten, but probably Aelita wasn't hungry.
He nodded, taking the plate and dumping the contetns into his plate.
"The papers you gave me some hours ago." Aelita began again. "Would you mind if we went through with them tonight? I know you already know what's in them, but it would be better probably to go through them together."
"You...really aren't angry at me?" Jeremie quietly asked, as Aelita shook her head.
"No, silly! Why would I?" She giggled. "It's still something that would once happen. And it will surely happen again, no matter what."
Jeremie resisted to say anything, and just continued to eat the food whilst trying to resist the blush he felt coming. Aelita was so chill about what happened, which was confusing to Jeremie, since he knew from Odd that girls tend to be angry at the guy who either was stalking them, or the worse; undressed them.
As he continued eating, he suddenly felt a pair of feet on his knees. He looked down, seeing two pink knee-high socks which were fluffy. He knew to who they belonged, which finally made him blush.
"A-Ael-Aelita." Jeremie stuttered, as Aelita wiggled her toes when she saw Jeremie starring at them.
"You are cute when you blush." Oh, she loved teasing the boy.
"I-I'm n-not." Jeremie defended himself. But then, he thought of doing something in repay.
How ticklish can this girl be? Jeremie thought, and slowly moved his down under the table, and tickled one of her feet.
Aelita began giggling, wiggling her toes trying to say to Jeremie to stop. She began laughing even more as Jeremie continued.
"S-Stop!" Aelita said between laughs, kicking her legs, but not putting them down from Jeremie's knees. She liked this position, and she hoped Jeremie did too.
/
"Enter my castle." Aelita said, unlocking her door and inviting Jeremie in at the same time. Jeremie chuckled and stepped inside the room, immediately seeing Maya sleeping on the bed. Everytime he saw the kitten, he became jealous of the amount of sleep she got in a day.
"Before we start going through the papers." Aelita said, closing the door. "I need to remind you; I'll probably cry too much."
Jeremie nodded, knowing almost everything that was in the papers. And he always loved the vulnerable Aelita just as much as Aelita herself.
They both sat down on Aelita's bed, pointing the nightlamp to shine on their legs where the papers sat. Aelita took a deep breath, and moved aside the first paper, since she already read it.
"This is a set of photos from something named "The Carthage", but that's the only thing there is about it." Jeremie explained, pointing at a person in the picture. "This is your father."
"He was a member of a group?" "Well, this is the only picture he is in. The picture from the year after doesn't include him." Jeremie said, pointing at another photo. It was right; everyone from the photo before was there, except her father.
"You think..." "Yes, that was the year the men in the black suits you saw were." Jeremie said.
"Woah." Aelita said, looking through another set of photos. Then, she came across a long text. She pulled it out of the pile and into her hands.
"This is...all scribbles." Aelita said, looking at it. She saw Jeremie's hair going up and down, meaning he was nodding.
"I don't know, but it looks important, so I included it in here so you would see I didn-" "Thank you, Jeremie." Aelita stopped his rambling, trying to read the text in the meantime.
"Wait." Aelita said, looking closer. "This looks like it's just missing the lines on the letters."
She lifted it up, and pointed it at the lamp, which now shined on the back of the paper. Suddenly, the hidden lines appeared, making the text fully readable.
A letter of request to protect Aelita Schaeffer-Hopper.
"This is a letter to some company. And it's about protecting me." Aelita said, letting out a chuckle. "Which kinda failed I think."
"Or it didn't." Jeremie said, putting his hands on Aelita's, quietly requesting the paper. She gave it to him, and he began quickly reading it.
"What do you mean?" Aelita asked, looking at the paper too, trying to understand what Jeremie meant.
"That this is a legal request but not for any company, but rather to a person." Jeremie said, and pointed at a random line in the text.
So with this letter, I, Anthea Hopper, mother of Aelita Schaeffer-Hopper, request protection by the reciepient, Waldo Franz Schaeffer. In other words; I want you, Franz, to save our daughter from the -r-h-ge p-oj-ct.
"Aelita..." Jeremie asked, as he noticed a tear falling out of Aelita's eye.
"S-She...She asked my father to protect me." Aelita said, almost crying. "From..."
"Carthage. Carthage project." Jeremie said. "Piece it together and it says that."
"Still...who are they?"
They both spent more and more time studying the papers, connecting one thing to the other. The papers were scattered all across the room.
Aelita was half-asleep, the only thing keeping her awake was the constant light shining towards her and the endless amount of papers. She rubbed her eyes every now and then, hoping it will prevent her from falling asleep.
"Aelita, if you want, we can continue tommorow." Jeremie suggested, seeing how sleepdeprived she was from all of the reading.
"Mhm." She mumbled, and looked around herself. "Where?"
Jeremie did the same, and nodded; the papers were everywhere, she would have to sleep on them.
"I...you can sleep in...my room..." Jeremie nervously said. "And I can...sleep here."
"Nonsense." Aelita said, yawning afterwards. "Either we'll cuddle like we did before, or neither of us is going sleeping."
Jeremie blushed as Aelita proposed this ultimatum. He wanted to go to bed, and he wanted to be with Aelita, to cuddle with her as she proposed, but he wasn't sure it was right since they argued just a couple of hours ago.
"The first one, right?" Aelita said after a few seconds, since she saw that Jeremie was thinking about it.
"Yeah?" Jeremie said. Aelita nodded, threw the remaining papers from her lap onto her table, and stood up. She grabbed her pajamas and also Mr. Pück, and began making her way to the door, Jeremie following her.
Since it was so late, they weren't worried that they will get caught, but they were quiet so they won't wake up anyone in the rooms they passed. Aelita's hand crawled into Jeremie's just for her to know that the boy was close to her.
Jeremie let Aelita lead him up to his own room, just being focused on the warmth of her hand. Soon, Aelita was opening Jeremie's door with the spare key he gave her right when she got enrolled into the school.
"Wow, you made your bed." Aelita said, as Jeremie blushed.
"I had too much free time." Jeremie mumbled. "So I tidied up my table and made my bed."
"Well, too bad, it's gonna get unmade." Aelita chuckled, and leaped onto the warm bed. Jeremie giggled, closing the door and locking it, so no one would step inside in the morning.
"Care to join me or?" Aelita said, seeing Jeremie standing beside the bed, his mind probably somwehre else. She noticed that her pajamas were located in Jeremie's hand for some reason, probably him being a gentleman and helping her.
"I'm just gonna take this..." Aelita said, taking the clothing from Jeremie's hand and stood up. She quickly began undressing, noticing that Jeremie was still missing his mind. She quickly changed into her even more comfortable pajamas than her normal clothes, and leaped back onto the bed, now grabbing Jeremie's hand, making him land down together with her.
"Huh?" "You are sometimes taking too long, Jer." Aelita said, as they were finally both on his bed, and Jeremie was back in his senses.
"Do I?" "Yes. I am in need of cuddles, and you are just standing beside the bed." Aelita said, taking the blanket from underneath them. "I even changed while you were zoned out."
Jeremie just sighed, as Aelita put the blanket on top of her, and then on top of Jeremie. She quickly moved closer to Jeremie, to share warmth between them.
"Aelita." Jeremie began, putting his arms around the girl. "Would you...like to spend the Christmas with me?"
"Like...with you and your family?" "Yes." Jeremie confirmed.
"I don't want to be a burden to them." Aelita said, feeling Jeremie's arms stiffened.
"You wouldn't be, they always asked me to bring a friend home." Jeremie said. "But till Lyoko happened, I didn't have one friend, but on the other hand I had a few bullies."
"Aww, poor you." Aelita cooed, lifiting her head up, so she would see Jeremie's face. "Okay, if you say it's really okay with them."
"Actually, I'm gonna just give them an annoucment that you are going with me." Jeremie said. "But I'm 99 percent sure that they will agree with it."
"And where's that 1 percent?" Aelita responded with a chuckle.
"They may say that I rather stay here with you." Jeremie replied. "So either way we will be spending time together on Christmas."
Aelita nodded, and snuggled into Jeremie's sweater, inhaling his scent.
"You are really cuddly." Aelita said, her voice muffled by Jeremie's sweater.
"Am I?" "Yes. And I like it." Aelita said, relieved that he didn't hear the last part. Suddenly, she felt a pair of lips on top of her head, and a pair of hands on her back and waist.
"Good night, Aelita." Jeremie said.