"And they are gone," Ulrich said, as the taxi driver had just driven off with Jeremie and Aelita. The four walked back into the factory, but soon they all stopped as they saw that Lexy was looking at the river.
"It's so...beautiful." She said, admiring the flow of the clean water.
"Do you want to walk around the town a bit?"
Yumi and Ulrich looked at Odd, not believing what he had just said.
"Yes, I would love to," Lexy replied. Odd nodded, walked past the two, and joined Lexy, leaving towards the town afterward.
Yumi looked at Ulrich, who seemed to watch them walking in awe.
"Um, Ulrich..." She began, gaining his attention. By his face, he clearly knew what she was going to talk about.
"Don't worry. If you want we could hang out at least." Ulrich suggested.
"But you aren't mad, right?" "Of course not," Ulrich said. "Slightly irritated, since I was really hoping I could kiss you, but we can al-"
Yumi stopped his rambling by planting a quick peck on his lips. He was stunned as Yumi just smirked at him.
"Walk me home?" Yumi asked, extending her hand to Ulrich.
"I'll be honored," Ulrich said, intervened his fingers with hers, and began walking towards Yumi's house.
/-/-/-/
"Yes Dad, we are fine," Jeremie said, brushing his fingers along Aelita's hand, as they were finally traveling by taxi to the cottage from the train station.
"Okay, we are waiting for you two with a warm dinner." His dad replied on the phone. "Byee!"
Jeremie hung up and put his phone down.
"Your dad is really nice," Aelita said. "I don't know why, but I thought we would sleep on a bench tonight."
"They would never. Well, maybe they would let me sleep outside, but not you." Jeremie said.
"Because I'm so charming?" She winked at him, making him slightly blush.
"Maybe." "Am I not?" Aelita questioned.
"You are." "So?" Aelita said, grabbing his hand.
"You are the most amazing person, Aelita, and you know it," Jeremie said. "But now...my head is full of questions at your father."
"Such as?" "Why did he virtualize someone else even before himself, and who in the end is Lexy?" Jeremie said.
"Maybe he wasn't alone in the whole project," Aelita said. "Maybe my mum...worked on it as well."
"Huh?" "What if..." Aelita looked at him. "What if Lexy is my sister?"
"And nothing would be written, documented, or anything about her?" "Yes, you are right. I haven't seen a single photo of her at my old house." Aelita said and yawned.
"You can sleep if you want, we still have some time till we get there," Jeremie suggested, as Aelita nodded, and laid her head down into Jeremie's lap.
"Wake me up when we arrive," Aelita said, closing her eyes. Jeremie smiled, knowing he would carry her to the bed.
Soon they arrived, with Jeremie's dad already waiting for them outside to pay for the taxi. As the car stopped, Jeremie opened the door and put his bag outside so it wouldn't stay inside.
He then lifted the girl in his lap up very carefully, while also unbuckling the seatbelt, and embraced her tightly, but not too much so she wouldn't wake up. Slowly moving out of the taxi, he successfully got out with Aelita in his embrace and walked away from the taxi inside, so the cold wouldn't wake the girl up.
Jeremie's mother was standing in the hallway, already in her pajamas, since it was late. Her standing there startled Jeremie since he wasn't expecting her to be even awake.
"Night you two." She simply said and smiled, allowing Jeremie to walk up the stairs.
He entered the room and carefully laid Aelita down on the bed. He let out a sigh as he watched the girl not move, meaning she was still sleeping. He walked out of the room, while also grabbing his pyjamas, and closed the door, heading downstairs, where his dad was standing.
"I'm really thankful for this, Dad," Jeremie said.
"No worries. Now, go to bed too, night." His father said, and shooed him back upstairs as he threw the backpack at him. Jeremie obeyed, walking back to his room. Quickly changing into pajamas, he stepped inside the room, slowly opening the door.
Aelita was still asleep, which was good. He put the stuff in his hands down on the floor and carefully crawled onto the bed. His back was facing the wall, and in front of him lay the angel.
Putting his arm around Aelita, made the girl turn around, facing Jeremie. He freaked out, thinking she woke up, but she only nuzzled into his chest and continued sleeping.
Jeremie smiled, grabbing the blanket with his free hand and throwing it on top of them. Closing his eyes, he buried his face into Aelita's hair, and slowly fell asleep.
/
The boy slowly opened his eyes, trying to adjust to the light, when he immediately saw a pair of eyes looking at him.
"Good morning," Aelita said, her voice still raspy.
"Morning," Jeremie replied and smiled, seeing Aelita. It was everything that he needed for this day; see Aelita.
"I told you to wake me up." "Nonsense, you slept and I didn't want to wake you up," Jeremie said. "Besides, it was really late."
"Okay," Aelita said and laid her head back down on Jeremie's chest. "What's the plan for today?"
"I think no one is home right now, so we can either stay here or go down, make ourselves some breakfast, and decorate the tree." Jeremie offered. "Or...we can stay here and do nothing else. Someone will hopefully decorate it."
"I like both options." Aelita chuckled, lifting her head up again. "But I want another mug of that delicious chocolate."
"Alright," Jeremie said, making Aelita smirk, and lift herself up, her hair immediately covering her face.
"Although I need a shower." Aelita chuckled. "Mind giving me a towel?"
"Sure," Jeremie said, as Aelita got down from him, allowing him to sit up. They stood up from the bed and walked out of Jeremie's room into the cold hallway.
Jeremie grabbed a clean towel from a nearby rack and handed it to Aelita with a smile and noted that he would bring her warmer clothes. She thanked him and headed to the bathroom to take a quick shower.
Whilst in there, she thought of Lexy. It was strange...yet completely...understandable. Her father didn't want anything to happen to him, or to Aelita herself, because it could all go downhill. So then...
who was Lexy?
Her sister? Doubt that. Her friend? She was homeschooled as she learned from the pictures by her father. Someone from her family?
Yeah, could be that.
"Aelita?" She heard from outside the door.
"Yeah?" "Can I...come in?" Jeremie asked, as Aelita just chuckled, hearing him being nervous about seeing her naked...again.
"Yeah," Aelita said, stopping the shower. The door opened, and out came Jeremie's head. Aelita laughed, as Jeremie immediately hung his head down.
"Come on! We are together! We can see each other naked." Aelita said between laughs. "I would've even offered to shower with me."
"N-No, t-thanks." Jeremie stuttered, placing the clean new clothes for Aelita on the shelf, and ran out, closing the door.
Despite being young, and being together for just a few days, she didn't want to hide herself from her own boyfriend. Yes, there are some limits that Aelita had, but...this? It's a common thing for partners to see themselves. And she doesn't want to lie; she would welcome some intimacy with Jeremie.
Walking out of the shower, she looked at herself in the mirror. Jeremie was just probably scared of being intimate with her. She didn't look half-bad, and Jeremie saw her in worse states.
She had a plan...a second gift for Jeremie.
Putting on the clothes, she noticed they were ironed, and she remembered that she just had them washed, not ironed.
Oh, Jeremie. Aelita smiled, turning off the light and walking out of the bathroom, not even bothering to brush her hair since she would be either around her own boyfriend, who wouldn't mind, or his family, who wouldn't probably mind either.
Coming down the stairs, she could already smell a pancake being made. Walking into the kitchen, she saw Jeremie, and his mum at the counter, where Jeremie was making a hot chocolate, and his mum was making pancakes.
"Good morning Aelita." She said, receiving a wave from Aelita. "How many pancakes would you like?"
"Ehh, two?" Aelita said, which seemed to surprise Linda.
"Nonsense. I'll put them on a plate and you can take as much as you want." Linda said. "And I can put some jam or Nutella on them if you want."
Such a sweet person, just like Jeremie. "Thanks," Aelita replied, taking a seat at the large table.
"The rest is out in the city cemetery, a tradition we have where we all go there and light candles on our family's tombstones," Linda said, flipping a pancake. "They should be back in a couple of hours."
"And till then we can decorate the tree, or not," Jeremie said, walking to her and placing a mug in front of her. She looked at it and it could be seen Jeremie put a lot of effort into it; there was a heart drawn with the whipped cream. It wasn't a perfect heart, but it didn't matter to Aelita.
"Thanks," Aelita said, leaning over the table and putting a quick kiss on Jeremie's lips.
"Okay, pancakes are ready!" Linda said, placing a plate with a ton of pancakes on the table between Jeremie and Aelita. Aelita took one and ate it without anything.
"Mmm, these are good!" She said, taking another one.
"I'm glad you like them." The older woman said. "And then you two decide what would you like for lunch."
"I would have what you are making, I'm not picky," Aelita said.
"But firstly, you are our guest, and secondly, everyone will eat what I make, so you two can decide what it will be." Linda said.
"Oh...um." Aelita began and looked at Jeremie in hopes he would say something.
"French fries with chicken?" Jeremie said as Aelita nodded.
"Okay, yeah, that sounds great!" Linda said. "But I'll need to go to the store to buy some stuff. Promise me you won't burn down the house?"
"We'll try not to," Jeremie said, making Aelita chuckle.
/-/-/-/
"Okay, so we just put these up, not caring about how it looks like?" Aelita asked, looking into the box with the decorations that were meant to go on the tree.
"Yeah?" "No, we need to make it look pretty," Aelita said. "We need the golden ones on the top, the silver ones in the middle and the bronze ones in the bottom."
"Alright." "And then the lights will go around the tree, and the star will go on top." The girl finished, clearly noticing that Jeremie wouldn't care what the tree should look like.
"Got it," Jeremie said, taking out the balls and small stars.
Since the house was really empty, they were listening to some Christmas songs while organizing the decorations, and every now and then patting the cat that was next to them sleeping.
"Jeremie?" Aelita asked as the boy lifted his head up from the box to face Aelita.
"Yes?" "I was thinking." Aelita began. "Are you scared of being intimate with me?"
Jeremie's eyes went wide open, and his cheeks turned red.
"W-What?" "Like this morning," Aelita said. "You seemed scared of being in the bathroom while I was there."
"Y-Yeah." "Why?" Aelita asked.
"B-Because...I..." Jeremie stuttered, blushing out of nervousness.
Aelita saw that he wasn't being himself...but she obviously loved his nervousness.
"Am I not pretty?" Aelita said, moving closer to Jeremie.
"Y-You a-are." "So then?" Aelita said, leaning closer to Jeremie and placing a firm kiss on his lips.
As she pulled away, she sheepishly smiled and pulled down a part of her large sweater to show a part of her chest to Jeremie.
"A-Aelita." Jeremie stuttered.
"What? You don't want to see them?" Aelita chuckled, moving her hand on Jeremie's body.
"P-Please." "I think you want it, but are scared to ask me." Aelita said, moving her hand on top of Jeremie's crotch. "Well, am I not right?"
Jeremie looked to the side, scared to face the girl.
"Jeremie..." Aelita said, and moved away, seeing Jeremie shed a tear. "I'm...sorry."
She cursed herself for pushing more and more when it was obvious that Jeremie didn't want to.
"I-It's...alright," Jeremie said.
Jeremie's voice was shaky as he wiped away the tears that had escaped. He wasn't used to situations like this, and Aelita's sudden forwardness had taken him by surprise.
Aelita leaned in and gently kissed Jeremie on the cheek. "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable," she whispered softly.
Jeremie managed a weak smile, his emotions still slightly overwhelmed. "It's okay, Aelita. I just... I need some time."
"Yeah, I understand," Aelita said. "Let's finish this tree."
/-/-/-/
"Sooo?" Odd asked as Ulrich came back into their shared room.
"What?" "You and Yumi," Odd said, looking at him as if he was joking.
"Oh...yeah," Ulrich said. "It went...better than I thought it would go."
"Judging by the smile that Yumi had when she came here to take Lexy I think she was more than happy." Odd smirked. "You railed her, didn't you?"
"Odd!" "What? You had a sleepover at Yumi's house, which you said yourself would never do!" Odd defended himself. "So what I was supposed to think?"
"Okay, fair point," Ulrich said, accepting his defeat. "But you and Lexy could have done the same!"
"No, no, no." Odd shook his head. "I'm a gentleman. I would wait at least a day."
"Sure you are," Ulrich said. "But now for real; what did you two do?"
"Invited her for an ice cream in a café, then brought her here, we talked and talked, and then we both fell asleep." Odd said. "Nothing happened, I swear!"
"I believe you because I know that you aren't an asshole," Ulrich said.
"And you?" Odd asked.
"Well...we established kinda a boyfriend-girlfriend thing between us." Ulrich said. "Well...she did, not me."
"Aww, congratulations!" Odd said, clapping his hands.
"Thanks," Ulrich said, appreciating Odd's gesture. "And what you and Lexy? Do you want to try to move forward with her?"
"Well, it's...complicated." Odd said. "I really like Sam, but...god, Lexy is just so beautiful."
"You said that when you first time saw Aelita." Ulrich chuckled. "You have something for girls that come out of a supercomputer."
"Well, people call me the "Strange Odd" sooo...maybe." Odd said. "Anyway, enough talking about girls. You know what's in the town today?"
"No?" "The Coca-Cola Christmas truck!" Odd said, almost blowing out the walls.
"And?" "They are giving away free packs of cola, so we should go." Odd said. "Because if it's free, then it should be mine."
"That...doesn't even rhyme but...okay." Ulrich shook his head.