Normal POV

Yumi's throbbing broken heart wanting to talk to Ulrich and find out why he had to do what he did, she wanted to go outside, and walk around. Finally, after fighting with herself for a little over ten minutes, she got up, changed into a better outfit and wandered around the campus.

I miss him so much. I love him so much. She stopped to sit on a green bench. She looked up to the stars, "I love him so much..."

"Yumi?"

She looked up to the voice that stated her name, "Jer? What are you doing here?"

He took a seat next to her, "I'm letting a file download. I can't see Aelita like that. I want to wake her up, but it's like I can't take her out of her nightmare."

"You'll find a way out of this, Jer. You always do..." She admired each one of her friends for different things. Odd for his humor, Aelita for her polite attitude, Jeremie for his knowledge, and Ulrich for his strength. But with her strength gone since Ulrich was now out of her life, she felt she had no purpose.

"You think so?" Both, Yumi and Jeremie, were looking up at the velvet sky with beautiful white shinning stars painting the scene.

"I know so, you always helped us through Lyoko and now’s your time to show Aelita how much you really care..."

"Thanks Yumi." He finally looked at her, her eyes sparkled from the stars, but her tears trails stained her face, "What's wrong?"

"Just a...major case of Broken Heart." She answered, "Ulrich and I always went to the park at night to look at the stars. Just the two of us." She felt Jeremie move closer and embraced her into a friendly hug.

She broke then and wrapped her arms around his neck, and cried on his shoulder.
He hugged her tighter- Seeing the most together and mature one in the group break-down like this broke his young heart, "Yumi do you want to go back to my dorm to talk for a little while?"

She smiled at her friend- She loved him so much.

. . .

"Jeremie, I wanted to thank you for-"

"No need to thank me, Yumi. What are friends for?"

Yumi smiled and sat on the bed, next to Aelita. She felt so bad for her once-pink headed friend, once so full of life. It made her throbbing heart hurt even more. Why is it life is worse without Lyoko?

“Um, so…how far are you on getting Aelita back?” She wanted to create conversation, silence was just tearing her heart apart, and another second she’d literally jump out the three story window.

“Not any farther than I was yesterday.” She could hear the sorrow stinging his voice, “You still haven’t told me what happened.”

“You ever have that feeling…” Yumi slowed down, staring off into space, “That life and love don’t mix? That you love someone with all your heart and they don’t seem to understand…” She stopped her voice cracking. Any other noise made from her lips and she’d break down to tears again.

Jeremie wrapped his arms around her neck for another tight hug, “Don’t cry, Yumi. Of course I know how that feels. I had this crush on you…for awhile, but I didn’t want to take you away from Ulrich. I knew you liked him more, and I knew it was because Aelita wasn’t here anymore. I told her everyday in every letter how much I loved her, and she said she loved me too, and she comes back with…Jason.” He rubbed her upper back and lower neck gently, “Please don’t cry. It’s going to be okay…”

Yumi hugged Jeremie back- She loved how he was always there for her. He would stop whatever he was doing just to talk to her. But wait, what did he say? I had a crush on you?

“…You had a crush on me?” She repeated, and saw his face blush a small bit as he nodded.

“It’s hard to explain. I liked you, but I felt hopeless. I felt it was because Aelita wasn’t with me, and that Ulrich would be pissed off if I ever said anything.”

“…Because…I used to have a crush on you too.” She looked away, not wanting to see his facial expression, “And I think we both would have been better off that way…”

He sighed, letting an arm sat around her shoulders, “I guess we’ll never know, but I can’t tell you just how happy I am that you’re my friend, Yumi. You’re a big impact on my life, that’s why I hate seeing you like this.”

Her tear-stained face smiled and eased. Has she mentioned how much she loved Jeremie for that?

“You’re my best friend. So is Ulrich and Odd, but you seem to understand me better.” He explained, “It’s the least I can do is to care for you as you do for me.”

“I’m just glad I can talk to someone. I’m neutral with Odd, but I can’t ever seem to talk to him alone due to the fact that he shares the same dorm as Ulrich. As to what I said before, you always find a solution to the hardest problems. Pretty much the reason I come to you first.” She admitted.

Honestly, this whole thing would be awkward if it wasn’t so heart-to-heart. They both understood each other very well, these years kept them close together for a reason.

. . .

“Ulrich, man, calm down.” Odd sat next to his best friend and roommate on his bed. Stern was never the one to cry, but there he was bawling in the middle of the night. Odd’s seen him cry once but that was at his mother’s funeral, and it was a teardrop. This was heart-to-tear crying. It was bad, Odd hated seeing this just as much as Jeremie did.

But there’s nothing they could do.

“Odd, you don’t understand. The one girl I ever loved doesn’t want to be with me.” He mumbled through his sobs, his poor injured heart broken to pieces, “I love her so much.”

“It’s okay; I promise you things will get better.”

Ulrich kept on talking to himself, “Things will get better… Things will get better.” What was with this? Aelita gets back, she dies, and they have to bring their worst enemy back to save her. Yumi caught him doing something he knew he shouldn’t have, he breaks her heart and she breaks his.

He could barely breathe; his cries were softening, although his hearts was no where near through. That feeling of knowing she’ll never be there for him again is like taking his most prize possession and throwing it against the hardest wall.

Odd pat his friend’s back, seeing Ulrich like this wanted him to cry as well. This isn’t the time. This just isn’t the time. Nothing else could be said, both hearts broken. Neither wanted to talk to each other, but they wanted their relationship fixed.

Dammit, why didn’t anybody tell them love is hard?

. . .

Once Jeremie was sure enough that Yumi was okay, he sat down and typed up a storm again, although there was tears in his eyes, he would brush past his throbbing emotions and work till his eyes bleed, if that’s what it means to bring back Aelita.

“So, how is everything going?” Yumi asked him, “I mean family wise and stuff.”

“My dad got a promotion in his engineer job, my mom is seven months pregnant with another man’s son, but won’t tell my dad that and my older brother’s getting married.” Jeremie answered, still trying not to start bawling in front of her.

“Oh, well. Hooray about your dad and brother, but what’s this about your mom?” Yumi took a seat on his desk like she used to before they moved to high school and she had to stand up and be alert.

“I love her to death, I do.” He answered, taking off his glasses again to wipe his eyes, and pushed them back on, “But sometimes she can be a total whore.”

“I’m sorry. You know about my parents, so don’t get me started.” Yumi rolled her watery eyes.

Jeremie stopped typing and put his left hand on hers, “Don’t worry. Our parents are freaking messed up, but we have each other. Best friends till the end, right?”

She smiled, “Right. Oh, but may I ask about your brother’s wedding?”

Jeremie sighed a happy sigh and nodded, “What do you want to know?”

“When is it? What’s the colors? What’s her name? How long have they been dating? Where is it? Those things.”

He grinned, “Uh. Well, it’s in December. It’s blue and white. Her name is Kelly Larson. Uh, dating for like...three, four years. It’s here in Paris France.”

“Ohh, how wonderful.” Yumi swooned, “I always pictured my wedding somewhere in Japan. I prefer Tokyo, but whatever floats his boat. What about you?”

“I’m fine with France, but I’d love to visit America.” Jeremie sat back, waiting for another file to load, “But whatever floats her bout, I suppose.”

. . .

“Kim?”

“Yes Jason?”

“Is your real name Kimberly?”

“…Yeah.” Kim sat up, Yumi was nice enough to let her and Jason stay with her for the rest of the week,  “You call me Kimberly, I kill you, got that?”

“Okay.” He answered, he laid on his back looking up at the white ceiling, “What happened to Aelita?”

“I think they took her to the hospital.” Kim was as worried as he. Although both didn’t know her perfectly, they learned to love her.

“If that stupid Jeremie did anything that caused this, he’s so dead.” Jason popped his knuckles and his face with in total disgust.

“Look, Jason. I know you don’t want Aelita and Jeremie together, but you do have to realize that Aelita loves him. No matter what she says, she loves him.”

“I guess, the only way to win her back, is to…”

“No, Wait! Jason! You can’t! No!” Kim started, but Jason got up and closed the door behind him.

“Kill Belpois.”

XxX

“Oh my god, Yumi.”

“Jeremie…”

“Did we?”

“…Oh my…”

“YES! Yumi! You are the best!” Jeremie and Yumi were prancing up and down, side to side, and all around thanks to Yumi’s smart thinking- they could bring Aelita back the next morning- that is, if her brain was still working through the night.

“Yay! I’ll have my friend back!” They listed on and on about Aelita and what they would do once they had her back.

“Oh, Thank you, Yumi!” Jeremie hugged her tightly, “I love you.”

Yumi hugged just as tight, “I love you too.”

It took a second to realize what they said and they both added at the same time, “You know, as like…a brother/sister thing. Yeah…”

Knock! “Jer? What’s going on?”

“Fuck, it’s Ulrich.” Yumi whined, “And to think I was actually having an okay time.”

“Let me talk to him, he doesn’t know you’re here.” Jeremie reminded and walked to the door, opening it, and stepped back a bit- Ulrich was standing in nothing but boxers in front of his friend and girl-uh…ex-girlfriend, “So…Er. Hi, Ulrich.”

“Hey, Jer. What’s with all the ruckus?” He questioned, “Do you realize it’s almost five in the morning? Honestly, what could you be doing so…oh, well. Never mind, but- We’re trying to sleep!”

This little skirmish turned into an argument a few seconds later, until Yumi stepped in, “Stern. Leave him alone! He’s trying to bring his love back from the dead! Something you wouldn’t understand!”

He shut up- like that, and said one thing, “Yumi…”

“Yeah, it’s me. I’m here. In the flesh, talking to you. Telling you to back off of Jeremie! He’s been working his tail off for two days now! Why don’t you just go back to sleep?!”

“Yumi, I need to talk to you. I have to tell you something. It’s really important.”

“…Urg. What, Ulrich. Just what?”

“I love you with all my heart, and I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I know it was wrong and I know it was cheating and I know you would find out, but I’m sorry, and I love you. Please, oh god, please, forgive me.”

Jeremie slid past the ‘couple’ to get in Odd’s dorm, “Odd. What’s going on in here?”

“Ulrich’s been crying for a few nights now, bout time he apologized. What’s with the party next door? Finally got a new girl? Sounds like you two had funnn. We heard the bed running against the wall. Give up on Aelita, did you?”

“What? It was Yumi…”

“You slept with Yumi?!”

“WHAT?! NO! Yumi was in my dorm, I was about to give up on Aelita, but she gave me an idea.”

“Oh, well. Okay.”

Meanwhile, on the other side of the wall,

“How dare you cheat on me, break my heart, and still tell me you love me?! How could anyone do such a thing?” Yumi replied, Ulrich’s left cheek still red from that hard slap she had given him.

“Please, please. Yumi. I can’t live without you. I can’t focus, I can’t sleep, I can’t eat. I can’t. I need you.” He begged more and more, and took her hands in his, “I’m so so sorry! Please! PLEASE.”

“No. I won’t ever forgive you. I can’t believe you did this to me in the first place.”

“Don’t you remember the fun times we used to have?” He reminded her, “The good times out at the picnic or in Lyoko, in your college dorm or just out with out friends? Remember? Remember…this…” He gave her an apologetic kiss on her lips, she was shocked- After all this…after all the fighting, kicking, refusing, slapping, bad-mouthing she did to him- He still wants her back, he broke away and made her look in his tear-full eyes, “I love you.”

Silence. Pure, eerie, silence.

She looked deep in his eyes, past the tears, into the desperate and love-infected boy she knew as Ulrich Stern. She missed him, she loved him, she needed him. She knew it was true.

She pulled apart from him and pointed to the door, “Leave.”

XxX

“So she’ll be back by tomorrow morning?”

“Perhaps. Hopefully, as I’d say. There’s really no actual percentage. She may not came back at all, or need a more strong offence.” Jeremie replied, moving his glasses up and wiping his teary eyes, “What a night this has been. Everyone’s crying.”

“I know, but at least Yumi and Ulrich are talking to each other.”

“She said she wants me dead.”

“What? Ulrich? What did you say?” Both Odd and Jeremie turned to look at the more hurt than anything boy in the doorway.

“…Yumi.” He took a breath, “She said…she wants me dead. And if it were me instead of Aelita, she’d make sure…” Another breath, “That Jeremie couldn’t bring me back. She…” Another small breath, “hates me.”