"Hey you guys! I was beginning to wonder if you were coming," Jeremie said with a laugh as Ulrich and Odd came to the table, both holding a tray of food.

"And miss out on breakfast? No way, man!" Odd said, sat down, and started chowing down on his pancakes. Ulrich shook his head as he sat down as well, but he wasn't in the mood to eat. He just raked the pancakes with his fork lightly as he thought about the nightmare he had last night. He was so absorbed in his thoughts he didn't hear Jeremie ask if he was ok.

Jeremie looked worriedly at Aelita, who was sitting right beside him, who also noticed Ulrich's mood. She nodded at Jeremie, reached across the table and lightly touched Ulrich's hand. She felt Ulrich jump a little then look up at her.

"You ok, Ulrich?" she asked him, a look of concern in her eyes. Ulrich hesitated in answering as he looked between Aelita and Jeremie, noticing they were both concern. He then took a deep breath.

"I just had a bad dream last night," he managed to say. Aelita nodded, and Jeremie sighed in relief.

"You want to talk about it?" Aelita asked. She still looked worried. Ulrich could tell very easily. He looked over at Odd, who was paying no mind to the conversation going on as he was still eating. Ulrich then looked back at Aelita.

"I'll talk to you about it later," he promised. Aelita nodded again and went back to eating her breakfast. Ulrich stared back down at his breakfast, which looked a bit scarred from the fork.

"Hey Ulrich! You going to eat that?" Odd asked. Ulrich shook his head and pushed his tray over to Odd. Odd grinned at Ulrich, and then started eating the food on the tray.

Classes went like normal; Odd falling asleep, Jeremie giving the right answers to the teachers' questions along with Aelita, and Ulrich off in daydream land as usual. At lunch time, though, Ulrich disappeared. His friends were worried as to where he went, and what was wrong. That was until Aelita felt her phone vibrate. She grabbed it out of her pocket and looked at the screen.

"No worries, guys. It seems Ulrich has texted me," she said.

"Well, hurry and tell us what it says!" Odd said. He was the most worried in the group, seeing as this was his best buddy that disappeared.

"Well, just a second, Odd," Aelita said as she read the message silently to herself. A slight frown formed on her face once she was done.

"He wants me to meet him. I'm sorry, guys, but I can't tell you where. He wants me to keep that private. He needs to talk to me, now, about this morning. So, I'll have to go. I'll see you all later," Aelita said, and quickly put her phone away.

"Well, at least tell him we are all worried about him, please?" Yumi pleaded.

"I will," Aelita said, grabbed her books, and headed out of the dining hall.

Ulrich paced helplessly, impatient, and nervous for Aelita to get to the Hermitage. He hoped that the others would not follow her, or that she would tell them where she was going. Sure, the Hermitage seemed like an obvious place to meet, besides the factory that is, but he could think of no where else to talk to Aelita privately.

Suddenly he heard some knocking on the door behind him. He stopped his pacing.

"Ulrich?" came the voice he had hoped for.

"I'm here, Aelita," he said and walked over to the door, opening it so Aelita could walk in.

"Well, I have to admit, you chose a nice place to meet. And my old room, none-the-less,"Aelita said, trying to lighten up the mood.

"It was about the only place where I thought we could have some privacy. You didn't..." Ulrich couldn't finish.

"No, Ulrich, I didn't tell them where I was going. They are worried about you, though." Aelita reassured him. Ulrich sighed in relief.

"I'm worried about myself as well. It's all thanks to the nightmare I had, too," he said, sounding very upset.

"Let me guess...your nightmare was involved somehow with the last Xana attack in which Odd had fallen into the Digital Sea?" Aelita asked. Ulrich was shocked at how accurate she was on her first guess, but only reacted by nodding.

"Except, this time, Jeremie didn't find the materialization code, so Odd was lost forever," he paused, part of him not wanting to go on. Aelita seemed to understand.

"Let's sit down, then you can explain more if you wish," she suggested and led Ulrich over to the bed. Ulrich complied and sat down. Aelita then did the same. It was a long while before any of them spoke.

"Aelita...in my dream, it felt as though...I was losing more than just my best friend."  

"I hate to sound like a therapist over here, but what were you exactly feeling when you found out Odd wasn't coming back?" Aelita asked.

"I...I felt very empty inside, and very lost. It's almost like as soon as I found out Odd was gone for good, darkness seemed to cloud over me, and I could no longer see where I was, or where I was heading. I didn't like that feeling. I didn't like it at all..." Ulrich confessed, trying to hold back tears that were threatening to fall. Aelita did not say a word, knowing there was more to come.

"I felt very relieved to wake up to the Odd's annoying wake-up call. It's as though all those horrible feelings vanished as soon as I saw those mischievous looking eyes of his. Could it be that...?" He stopped right there, not wanting to say exactly what he thought he was feeling. Aelita took this moment to speak.

"Yes, it could very well be that. I can't tell you if it is true or not, though. You will have to find that out for yourself, Ulrich. I'm not trying to be cruel, but you know as well as I do that I can't control anyone's love life except for my own," she stood up and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I wish you the best of luck, though, in trying to find your true feelings. If you ever need someone to speak to, you can always call me up. I'll be here for you Ulrich, to help you when you need it."

Ulrich nodded and stood up as well. He then embraced Aelita into a hug.

"Thanks Aelita. Just talking to you has helped clear things up a lot. It also tells me I've got a lot to think about as well. Thanks for listening me out. I hope I make the right decision on what my thoughts are trying to tell me. I probably will call you up again soon though," he assumed. Aelita hugged him back and then looked down at her cell phone.

"The bell is about to ring. We best be heading back so we won't be late for our next class." She informed him.

"Yes, let's," Ulrich agreed, and they both started their way back to Kadic.

The rest of the day Ulrich thought about the conversation that he and Aelita had, and finally came up with a decision.

"I'm going to talk to Odd, tell him how I really feel about him, and just hope he doesn't thing I'm crazy," he told Aelita as they walked to the cafeteria together. Aelita placed an arm around his shoulder.

"I doubt he'll think you're crazy. He'd probably be surprised about how you feel for him though. Don't worry too much. He's your best pal. What's the worse that could happen?" Aelita said, not knowing that her question put a knot of fear in Ulrich's stomach.

"Y-yeah, what's the worse that could happen?" he asked himself. As they entered the cafeteria, Ulrich spotted Odd and took a deep breath.

"You can do it, Ulrich. Remember, he's your best friend." Aelita prompted him and gave him a pat on the back. Ulrich nodded and walked over to Odd.

"Hi buddy, how's it going?" Odd asked as Ulrich showed up right beside him. Ulrich placed a hand on Odd's shoulder and looked Odd straight in the eye.

"I'd like to talk to you, in private, if you don't mind," he said.

"Sure." Odd said and got up.

"Let's go to the Hermitage." Ulrich suggested. Odd nodded and they headed off in that direction. It was a long, silent hike to the empty house as neither of the boys felt the urge to speak.

The long walk soon became short as Ulrich realized that they were now at the Hermitage. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves once again, Ulrich walked to the front door and held it open for Odd, then walked inside himself. He then spotted a couch in the used-to-be living room. Ulrich motioned in that direction to show Odd that that's where they could sit and talk. Odd nodded and walked over to the couch and sat down. Ulrich followed immediately afterwards.

Silence continued a bit longer as the boys sat there, each not looking at the other. It was Odd that broke the quiet atmosphere.

"So...what's up, buddy?"