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Ulrich was really tired. Between Xana attacks and school and whatever fuckshit of the week was going on, he was severely lacking on his much-deserved rest. And yet, here he was. Awake.
Because William fucking Dunbar was in his room. And it was Odd’s fault!
It started a bit ago. Well, a long while ago they had started to talk, but the big shift has come from the party the other day. Ulrich hadn't been there, studying for that stupid science final– but the first time, before the return to the past, when Odd had been helping set up that dance party in the gym; William must have wormed his way into a friendship. In fact, he was pretty certain that prettyboy had done something to end up in Odd— and Aelita’s — good graces so fast, but there was nothing he could come up with that stuck. Maybe it was brainwashing. That was the only good reason why he's been sticking like absolute glue to Yumi and was now growing like moss on Ulrich's friend group even after all the resets. Clearly.
The only upside was watching Odd get his ass kicked in whatever nerd shit they were playing.
“Odd,” William laughed, shaking his head as he ticked off more of Odd's life points— terminology that had Ulrich's heart lurching earlier. “You have to put a monster in defense or I'll keep attacking you directly. Trap cards can't do everything.”
His hair sways with the motion he talks in. He needed a fucking haircut. Ulrich watches the way he keeps pushing it back from his eyes and forehead with the tips of his fingers. William had weird hands. He looked like he played some kind of instrument. They were like more masculine and boney versions of Yumi's, long dainty fingers and painted-black chipping nails. The only difference was William wore a shit ton of rings.
He takes the time to study the two while they interact. Odd groans again, swiping his own palms over his gelled hair, almost in subconscious reaction to William doing it. He's careful about it, though, the texture of hardened and clumped hair impacting as his palm pushes against it but not moving any strands or clumps, careful with his own jewelry not catching. “Yeah, yeah, I got it Will .”
“Don't call me that.” The older huffs, then draws a card. Ulrich watches the way his gray eyes move along it, searching for something, then the way his lips tug into an insufferable smirk. It's the same smile he gives when he figures out he's beat you in something. It makes Ulrich's shoulders feel tight.
He really didn't like this guy. Which is unfair. He couldn't find it in himself to care, though. In the back of his mind, he still sees him with Yumi, leant against that tree, getting on like a house on fire. There's a horrible sensation that burns with the memory. He's so fucking jealous it stings.
“Alright, I'll sacrifice this card in my hand to the graveyard.” William says, that little smirk growing into a smile. “So I can summon this guy! In the attack position,” and, in english:”The Tricky.”
“That is the worst name I have ever heard.” Odd laughs and leans forward, with William instantly tilting the card towards him so he could see it better. They're both smiling, though. Ulrich swallows a tiny weird lump in his throat, petting over Kiwi as the dog tucks itself into his arm. “This is, like, completely unfair. You have a lot of monsters attacking.”
Odd was doing that thing again. Rocking, hands in his lap, leaning forward and back as he talks and thinks. His nails pick into his socks, widening the holes, his hand of cards face down on the floor while William plays his turn.
“Well, yeah, I wanna win. And, like, with newbies I like to try and brute force it.” William hums, tapping his finger against the card. It makes a nice noise- his nail against the paperboard. “I think, like, what's the point in dragging it all out if I can just fight and win as fast as possible? Especially against someone who's only just started playing. Like if I can kick your ass I might as well.”
“You'd die on the battlefield.” Odd responds with a secretive grin. He looks up, making eye contact with Ulrich, who snorts. The motion makes Kiwi look up, bumping his cold wet nose into Ulrich's hand.
“Might as well die swinging!” William says right back. He gave a good-natured laugh while Ulrich rolled his eyes. Odd picked his cards back up, humming as he drew. He sits up a little more to see the new additions to the hand, almost unable to fight the shit-eating grin he knew he’d have as soon as he laid his eyes on it.
“Well, pick up your sword, beeecaauuse ,” He draws out the word with an absolute beaming grin, slapping a duo of cards face down. “I'm going to wipe the field with you.”
“No way,” William snorts, watching the move closely. Then, with a reckless shrug, he hums. “I attack directly with my Magician.”
“You've activated my trap card! Say goodbye to your monsters!”
Ulrich can't help but laugh at the absolute bafflement on William's face. Completely and utterly dumbfounded as Odd proceeds to sweep the floor with him in his own game.
Okay. Maybe it wasn't all bad.
William's presence is weird and slightly insufferable, especially since the incident at the pool recently, but Ulrich makes himself the bigger person. He doesn't storm out. He just pets Kiwi and lets the stupid mutt's tiny furs stick into his boxers and waits for his roommate to wrap up the game so he can finally go to sleep. And, even if he takes a little bit of joy in watching William scramble to save the game, he’d never tell he was sort of having a good time.
The world consists of a screen doused in shades of blue and green. The hum of a computer fan is the central background noise to the various clicks and the machine's dings of approval at every input. Lines of commands fill the side of the screen. In a world of his own creation, he floats. The endless sea of bright colors against their dark, burning background burns their way into his eyes until it’s all he can see. It’s everything. He is lost in it.
And the peace is shattered, tension winding tighter in a single moment as noise interrupts his concentration and his shoulders ball with enough tension to make him sore. The cold of the room becomes apparent, making him shiver as he swivels in his chair towards a loud, peace-shattering noise. Someone’s at the door.
The knock scared him. His heart was in his throat when he managed to croak out a ‘come in’, saving and closing programs before whoever it was could see.
Jeremy had been six feet under in work on the anti-virus. He's not quite sure what hour he was on without break, but he's certain it's been far past the average when his eyes burn and water in reaction to his door swinging open and light flooding into the dim room. It sends a slight ache to his temple, suddenly aware of everything that hurts.
Aelita stands sweetly in the doorway. She looks like an angel, her hair messily framing her face and her eyes soft as she looks at him with a fondness he could only describe as warmth. It must have been later than he had thought— she was in her sleep clothes. The massive shirt drapes down past her thighs, cute-patterned cats on the baggy pants, and little stars on her socks. Adorable, really. There's a long moment where Jeremy was so enamored he forgot to continue the interaction.
“Hey Aelita,” He hums softly, nodding and turning in his chair. He shifts his leg out from under himself and winces as his knee pops. “Do you need something?”
“Actually–” She starts, only to be cut off by a figure popping out behind her. The new presence startled Jeremy once more, pooling tension back into his body as he instinctively moved more in front of his screen. It's a habit, despite being off already. He couldn’t help it, staring at the newcomer with slowly growing confusion.
Dunbar. Of course.
William lingers behind Aelita with an easy smile and his hair tossed like crazy, looking at Jeremy with an absolute ease. Like he belonged there, at Aelita's side. He didn’t, by the way.
Jeremy knew they hung out; logically, anyways. William was the one who spurred her into her new hobby of music before they had returned to the past. Aelita had mentioned going to him to spark a friendship and get samples in this new future, now— getting music from him to sample, testing out the equipment he had the permission to handle. Jeremy had thought all they did was talk about that shared passion, but with the festering friendship with Odd and the progressing attempts to romance Yumi, he wouldn't be surprised if the punk was sticking around.
William was in his sleepwear too. He mirrored Aelita a lot, in fact, with heavy pants and an oversized hoodie. Both of them dressed for sleep like they were freezing, the only real difference being the color scheme. Aelita's pinks and whites contrasted rather harshly against William's black and red Subdigitals hoodie. “-Yup!”
Jeremy blinks.
“We were playing some games,” William chirps, starting to explain. He leans on Aelita, using her as an armrest. She squawks softly in offense, freckled cheeks flushing red as she shoved him off– it only made William laugh, which made Jeremy frown slightly. “-and she mentioned you've been holed up in here. So we wanted to see if you wanted to play some, too. Didn't wanna leave you out. Especially if it was gonna make the princess here worry so much.”
Jeremy's eye twitches. That nickname was a common one amongst the group of friends, but hearing it out of an outsider's mouth was weird. Shifting up his glasses, he rubbed his eyes, looking towards the clock afterwards.
“I mean it wouldn't be ideal , it's pretty late, and I still have some work to do…” He starts, looking back at them and immediately startling.
To his surprise, both of them looked disappointed. Aelita had ducked her head, lips pulled into a line as if she was stopping herself from talking– and William's shoulders had sagged, looking away with less of the energy he had had before. Both of them looked so sincerely let down. Aelita made his heart squeeze but- he had never seen William give anything more than a grin or some cocky irritation towards Ulrich. This was weird and unsettling and– he kind of felt bad.
What the hell? Guilt bubbles in his stomach. Aelita's resemblance to a kicked puppy was uncanny. “Well, I mean, I guess I could play, uh, something– but not for long. What exactly did you have in mind?”
They both light up.
His breath lodges softly in his throat at that. He totally just got tricked. Goddammit. Emotional manipulation was an underhanded tactic.
William closes the door as Aelita excitedly shuffles closer, showcasing a small deck of cards he had only ever seen in specific stores before. A trading card game, with various arrays of creatures and monsters and technology, life points and stars to display levels. They weren’t too hard to decipher upon first glance.
Aelita gently transfers the cards to his hands. “William was teaching me other games at first, the other day, but I saw these– him and Odd both play this one. So we went out and made new decks for me, and I thought of you- so we put this together!” Her speech comes out a bit stilted, excited, ever so slightly stumbling through her words. That was familiar, though she hated when she didn't sound quite as articulated as she usually did. A trait they shared.
He sifts the cards apart, then looks up and over Aelita’s shoulder to raise an eyebrow at William. The normally rather cool guy gave a somewhat embarrassed smile and shrugs. “She seemed excited about playing with you, and I had some spare money from my parents this month.”
He comes closer, spinning Jeremy's chair around. Now both of them hovered over his shoulders, making him shiver at the attention. Aelita reached down, gently pushing Jeremy's hand into displaying the cards on the desk. William leans heavily against the back of his chair, arm splayed over it— Jeremy tried to ignore the older teen's fingers brushing on his shoulder. “These are cyber cards. We gave you a technology theme. Not just because of the fact that you're a computer geek—” “—watch it.” “—but because it matches hers. She's got a cyber-angel deck now.”
Aelita gives Jeremy an absolutely blinding smile, then gives William a grateful one. Some of the tension and animosity building in Jeremy's chest starts to softly melt away, though there's a weird tickle of irony at those words. It wasn’t coincidental, not if Aelita picked them, but it’s something William would never really understand the meaning behind. Funny.
“Honestly, she says you'd like more traps and spells but these kinds of decks have insanely strong monsters so you'll have to try out both styles and see what suits you.”
Ah, they've trapped him. They bought him something to include him and require him to use it to see how he likes it. He huffs at their scheme, looking between the two. They look sweet but– surely there was an intention here. What was their game plan?
“You're going to duel me in a card game?” This is what they interrupted his work for? He feels a spark of irritation collide in his head. Jeremy tipped his head back to look up at William, who looked down and shot him a wide grin. “Nah, I've played enough tonight. I'm just here to help with rules and to keep an eye out for Jim. You are dueling Aelita. ”
Aelita laughs softly, apparently delighted by this. “I'm very good, you're in for a rough fight.”
That felt more appealing. And they look happy. And, admittedly, his wrists ached.
He feels weirdly warm as things get moved around to make rooms for the card game, awkwardly sitting across from Aelita while William pretty much makes himself at home and starts talking. The premise is easy to pick up, the rules a bit harder, but most of everything had instructions blatantly written on the cards and everything else could be explained with William's advice.
And so the game begins.
Jeremy finds himself getting heavy handed with traps and spells, delight sparking as he perfectly aligns an impenetrable defense against Aelita's onslaught of angels and machines. William coaches them, but soon enough they've taken off without his guidance, picking up the game with an ease that only comes with being both a genius and a kid.
So William watches. He lays on his stomach on Jeremy's bed and leans over to watch them– which, odd enough, Jeremy found he didn't mind too much since he was pretty much out of the way. He hums and cheers and boos and laughs along with them, their own personal audience, hyping them up as they occasionally slip into more mathematical debates over the cards and their strengths and power, life-point drainage, and onwards.
At some point, Jeremy draws a card that sends bursts of energy into his head. Life points. Ways to boost life points. It would be a godsend on Lyoko if he could figure out how to boost his friend's defenses the way he could the monster cards on his bedroom floor. This was good for brainstorming. This was worth it, then, at the very very least.
But then, of course, Aelita gives the most devious smile either boy had ever seen— and promptly plays the one card that destroys any chance Jeremy had at winning. With the play of Heavy Storm, Jeremy loses his entire strategy in an instant. The only scramble of a defense he had left was drawing Dark Hole. Aelita’s field is wiped clean. Then, sitting at equally low life points, they have to start all over.
And it's fun, dammit. There’s something that gets him laughing as he analyzes Aelita’s guarded smiles, waiting for her move, both trying to outsmart each other on this imaginary battlefield. Neither of them played as many video games as someone like Odd or Ulrich, but Jeremy especially- and with the near constant working for Aelita and against Xana, he had kind of forgotten it was fun just to do something like this. He considers taking his chessboard out sometime when he’s not working on the anti-virus. Maybe someone would like to play.
Aelita ends up winning. Jeremy curses under his breath but takes the loss, tossing a dirty look to William as he teases and laughs, ruffling both of the player’s hair in a movement that ends up with him falling off the bed anyways and getting laughed at in return.
Sure. Maybe the time wasted was worth it.
Yumi liked consistency. She liked patterns and loose rules, knowing she could rely on people reacting and acting in certain ways. Really, it was the routine that had her back. She couldn’t stand uncertainty, couldn’t stand waiting for something to happen, the indecisiveness of everyone around her driving her up the walls.
William typically fell into the first category. He was reliable a majority of the time. He was overwhelmingly normal , if not a bit clingy. He never wavered from his affection, even if he toned it up and down depending on the scenario, but he was still just her friend. They talked about TV and class and how fucking irritating it was to be doing chemistry work in groups that never wanted to participate. It was casual– and, more than anything, it was easy.
There wasn’t anything lyoko-related she had to lower her voice to talk about. There weren't any dips in the conversation as they trail off into bad memories, no moments of serious debate about how they had a job to do outside of being teenagers . William was a breath of normalcy she needed, someone her age who actually liked hanging out with her.
Not a lot of William comes out as a shocking discovery, especially as she learns more about him. She knew he was kind of a geek beneath all the black and red pretty much at the second conversation. Everything about him always screamed so much about how he was some punk, some rebel who had gotten himself expelled, this guitar-playing cool guy with a relentless charm; but she knew him. It didn’t even really take long to crack beneath the surface of his facade– he was a genuine hopeless romantic. He believed in all that garbage about destiny. His phone looked like a cassette tape, his room covered in posters for movies and bands and games. He was a dork, just like everyone else she seemed to click with.
The thing was, though, that he kept surprising her anyway. While he was kind and charming, he was kind of protective and honestly, kind of a massive hothead. She was honestly kind of jarred when his playfulness shifted to occasional passing jealousy– or when he snapped at someone for talking down at him or for a misplaced joke on Yumi’s behalf. He never seemed like the angry type until he’s shouting.
This time, he surprises her in a different way. He mentions off-handedly one week that he hung out with Jeremy Belpois for a bit a while back, but, for some reason that didn’t really register that they actually hung out . In fact, he doesn’t mention it again, so she never considers it as anything more than a chat. It’s through Jeremy she really realizes that it was actually a whole game– and that he had been popping by more and more. Something shifts into place then, her eyes drifting to Odd as well.
Suddenly, it had her questioning just how close William was getting.
“He’s a real distraction sometimes.” Jeremy starts one afternoon, waiting for Ulrich and Odd to get their food from the line. He motions with his fork towards the window, pointing to William, who was standing off with a new random group today. It makes Aelita smile, something Yumi catches with a weird sense of unease. “He’s also a pretty sore loser in chess. He wants a rematch practically once a week or so.”
She opens her mouth to ask why Jeremy doesn’t just shut him down, only to reel herself in as Aelita laughs softly. “I think it’s just an excuse to hang out with someone. As long as he doesn’t start bugging you every night it won’t really affect our goals. Plus, with the new data, we’re already pretty much set.” The pink haired girl follows the fork’s point, catching William’s eye. He lifts his head from his conversation to wave, then immediately sees Yumi and beams, waving to her as well.
She musters a smile and waves back, then watches as he turns back to the randoms and they take off towards another building. Something in her gut curls as Jeremy shrugs and turns back to his food, the conversation promptly shifting to the discussion of their plans for Lyoko going forward as Odd and Ulrich join the table. They’re talking about some video game, cutting it off as they join in questioning their beloved Einstein's work– but her mind was still reeling.
William was hanging out with her friends. She hadn’t cared when it was Aelita, or Odd on occasion, but now there was a weird, keen awareness that William actively hung out with a majority of her friends. That felt- weird. Not in a jealous way, but her skin crawled at the idea. Shouldn’t they be keeping people at a distance? The more of them William was talking to, the more likely he was to notice their sneaking out, more likely to learn what they all tried so hard to hide. It didn’t feel safe.
Aelita and Jeremy look so… relaxed though. They talk, confidence sparking between them while Ulrich pitched in to get them to dumb it down. Everything seems so very normal. It made her feel weird. Sick.
William wasn’t safe. He’d want to be in on this. She knew it, absolutely knew it. There was no doubt in her mind that letting him get this close just wasn’t safe. Not for him, not for them– she didn’t doubt he could keep a secret, but she doubted he’d keep his nose out of it.
This was bad.
An elbow nudges into her ribs. “What’s got you looking so down, huh?” Odd chirps in, grinning widely as she looks over and gives him an irritated scowl. He doesn’t waver, even as his attention attracts the gaze of the rest of the table.
Anger bubbles up. She smacked his arm away, huffing. “Nothing.”
“Yumi?” Aelita’s concern comes to contrast Odd’s teasing, the pink haired girl’s eyebrows tucking in in worry. Her voice is far too soft for the bubbling, grating worries and anger building in Yumi’s chest, trapped like gas. “ Is something wrong? You can tell us.”
The irritation rises stronger, acid bubbling up from stomach to throat and burning on the way. She just sighs, standing up and taking her tray with her. “I’m fine guys. I’m just gonna go to class early. I’m a little behind on some stuff.” She lies, and promptly ditches them before she could catch Ulrich’s eye. She could feel his gaze on her back, following her all the way out the door. It’s burning. Her skin crawls as she dumps her tray and flees with her tail between her legs, face set in a scowl.
She couldn’t figure it out. She didn’t have a problem with William– she liked William. Quite a lot, actually. He was her friend, a good friend, someone her age she could vent her family problems to, who came over to do projects with her, someone her mom liked. She liked his attention, too, even when he sometimes fumbled in odd, uncomfortable ways, even if it was confusing with Ulrich and everything. Maybe he could’ve been more if not for… if not–
–No, it didn’t matter. But the idea of him getting too involved, too close, that made her itch. That was something that would make William surprise her again. She couldn't imagine how he'd react to it all.
She hates surprises. She hated this break in routine. And she hated—
“Yumi?” And of course, speaking of the devil, he appears. Like an apparatus of her bad thoughts, she finds herself standing in front of the outside tables where he's fucking with a casette of some sort. He’s applying tape over the fronts, some names in English on them she didn’t recognize.
He blinks up at her, curious and confused. He had some of the deepest blue eyes she had ever seen on someone, lower eyelashes darker, making his face ever so slightly more intense in every expression he makes. He looks like he’s wearing makeup, sometimes. “You okay?”
Right. She takes a shaking breath and exhales hard. “Yeah, I'm fine. Uh, just a bit stressed out.” She looks over her shoulder, then forces herself to look back at him and relax a little. “Where'd your friends go?”
“Class,” William hums, fiddling with his little musical boxes for a second before tucking them away in his bag. “I was just gonna lounge out here and write or something until it was time for me to go. What about you, don't you normally eat with Stern and all of them?”
She tenses right back up and looks at him. She didn't know why she expected jealousy– no, she knew– but he was smiling. Casual and calm and not what she expected . She felt off. Nothing bad had even happened but everything felt tilted, wrong, like the world had shifted too far to the left. “I wasn't very hungry.”
“Stress'll do that to you.” He turns a leg over and crosses it in front of himself on the bench to face her more, then pats the space beside him. “Here, cmon, sit down. Take your mind off it all.”
And, against all better judgment, she does. She does. And William smiles in that sweet way he does– this little smirk he does to keep his lips over his teeth to hide the little protrude his canines had– and she can’t help but smile back. He’s friendly. This was casual. This was so, very normal. It’s her that’s wrong.
She swallows her emotion and sits. Copying him. She tucks one leg on the bench and lets the other hang, facing him. “Jeremy says you and him have been getting along. What’s up with that?” She asks. And she’s trying so hard to be casual, but it comes out instigative, like an interrogation.
William wasn’t perfect with tone or social cues. He blinks for a second and then laughs it off, and she feels a bit of tension from her misplaced anger seep away.
“Belpois? Oh, yeah, I figured since I’m friends with Aelita it wouldn’t be bad to hang out with her boyfriend too.” Yumi opens her mouth to correct him on their relationship status- then smirks. Losing battle there. She lets him keep talking. “He’s really picking up on the game me and ‘Lita play. Odd is pretty good at it too, actually. But usually we just play chess. He agrees faster to that, I think he likes kicking my ass.”
“He mentioned that too.” She rubbed at her neck, her hair tickling at her knuckles. “I guess you guys are all having fun, huh?”
William’s eyebrows skyrocket into his hairline. She doesn’t like the look he gives her– nor whatever conclusion he’s coming to. Immediately, an empathetic expression hits, and then she really doesn’t like this. “You wanna learn how to play?”
She blinks. “Huh?”
“The game we all play. It’s a trading card game.” He explains with a grin. “You and me could go pick up some cards and build you a deck so you can play with everyone too, you know. Or we could build something with what I’ve got packed away. It could be fun.” And he offers it like some grant effort, like a kindness, like he’s trying to cheer her up. Yumi spends a long moment trying to pick out whatever his brain had picked up. Some kind of missed signal was happening here. “I bet you could kick ass playing.”
“Sure,” she says slowly, and she doesn’t really know exactly what she’s agreeing to. His face curls into a grin that screams self-satisfaction, too wide, and for a moment she was absolutely furious at whatever he thought he was fixing. It dissipates as soon as she realizes what he was thinking. There’s a warmth that crawls into her chest, something aching with guilt and offense. He thought she was jealous.
“It’s a date then.” He says cheekily, shifting and flashing her a wink that made her face flush. She immediately lightly shoved him on the shoulder, turning outwards so she didn’t have to face him anymore. His laugh is cheery and bright besides her. “Okay, fine, not a date.”
He’s not safe. But he’s still one of her best friends.
William had a lot of shit in his room. It was almost kind of jarring walking in, really, though it’s not particularly messy. It’s just so… cluttered.
Honestly, in Odd’s opinion, it was kind of perfect. There was an organized chaos happening here that Ulrich would have never allowed in their own room. William’s got a small rug that had been shoved sideways away from the bed, a bedside stool tilted and too close to the door, hell— there’s a full fucking paint can in the corner by a standing easel. Honestly, it was pretty in-character. Creative types like the two of them needed a special kind of mess to keep it all going.
Odd’s favorite aspect by far, though, was William’s guitar.
It’s a beauty, and a miracle that William let’s him fucking touch it at all, considering how horrified and angry he seems when Odd first picks it up, but he swears he’ll be careful. Fucking swears it, and mentally plans the route to take them to the past if he does, yknow, end up breaking that little promise. For now, he just lounges back, fingers on the strings as he plays what he’s sure is a pretty cute, original tune.
William huffs in amusement from his spinning chair, shuffling cards between his hands. Playing cards, that is, his little desk drawer filled to the brim with a whole variety of games and dice and such– for now, he reorganizes hearts and spades together, shuffling, putting them in a little box to shove in one of the many piles on his desk. He bounces his leg, keeps trying to prop his feet up against the wall or on whatever's under his desk– things Odd did as well. It kind of makes him grin when he notices.
“You think your friends like me?”
The question comes out of nowhere. For a second, Odd just blinks, then raises an eyebrow. He’s laughing before he can stop himself, fingers dragging over the wrong strings, punctuating both his laughter and the absurd question with a musical tune.
“What kind of question is–” Odd gets cut off by his own laughter, with William frowning and sinking into his chair a bit. He stops bouncing his leg, crossing his ankles over each other– and then immediately uncrossing them. “Dude, of course they do." He pauses. "Okay, maybe not Ulrich, but what does Ulrich like, you know? He’ll be fine.”
William just sighs at him. He always seems exasperated at some level when dealing with Odd. To be fair, he and literally everyone else Odd had ever known and met, but William usually hides it a bit better. For a moody teenage self-proclaimed disaster, at least.
“It’s just that,” William paws at a rubber ball sitting on his desk and spins out, switching tasks. The ball jumps from hand to hand over and over again before the guy figures out what he wants to say. “I always think they’re hiding something from me.”
Odd shuts up faster than he ever has before. He hears his jaw click.
He gives a nervous little tittering laugh. “No, I don’t think so.” He says, hand snapping out instantly as the ball is thrown to him. He tosses it back and tries to cool the way sweat pools to the back of his neck. “They’re just private people.” Which wasn't entirely untrue. All of his friends tended to be people who kept everything close to their chest. Everything, issue, non-issue, interests, all of them were so private. He guesses, to some extent, that's why they needed him, of course.
William sighs, nods, and Odd hopes that’s the end of
that
, or they’d have a serious problem. Well, no. Yumi and Ulrich might have a serious problem for their failure of a budding relationship. Odd was pretty sure he’d have a great time. He always kind of stuck out like that.
“Wanna duel?” He offers. William grins, sharp and easy, tossing the ball hard enough that it stings against Odd’s palm when he flawlessly catches it.
There's a million reasons he liked hanging out with William. Having people around who weren't fucking Ulrich was important. Being around other creative minds, too, which William, wonderfully, fits right into. Being with someone who actually seemed to have fun talking to him felt good, though, the most. Which was a bit too self-depricating for his internal dialog, if he's honest, but he buries that thought real quick. No harm no foul. It's not like he'd say it out loud.
“You’re on.”
She didn’t have time. She didn’t have help. She didn’t have anything, her hands shaking as the doors closed and her sight on William wavers and disappears into nothing. She’s all too aware of the danger she’s leading him into. She’s all too aware of the ticking time bomb she just set off, hands ghosting over the wires and tugging too prematurely, but she was desperate.
But she didn’t have time; so she didn't have a choice. He’s here. He’s helped before. He’ll have to help again. At least, that’s her thought process; up until she turns her eyes upon his form.
Aelita makes a friend; and loses him.
The betrayal stings. What hurts more is the loss. She loses everything. The world, the hope to see her father, the desperate curl of her fingers around everything she had ever known; The slash from William’s sword tears her in two and she wakes up gasping, in tears, for more reasons than just the agonizing pain that tore her body in two. The ebbing tide of Lyoko crawls, void beckoning, and everything is destroyed. Her hand extends for it, fingertips brushing all she’s ever known, and it’s gone.
Jeremy restores hope in the wreckage. A coded message grants all it can; but there was much to do. And still, so much is lost.
She thinks of William when home comes into view.
When she goes to her room, that night, she tucks a set of cards beneath her mattress and hopes she can just forget they ever existed. Like time had reset, like time had gotten a rewind. Back to the past; but no memory can be erased.
She tends to phantom pains and goes to sleep. And maybe, when a new villain rises in the renewal of her old home, she will stand. She will forget the hidden parts of everything that made this fight as tragic as it was.
Memory cannot be erased, it can be poisoned.