"Hey! Ulrich!" I yelled, breathing heavily. Ulrich and Emily both turned around smiling. Great, here I am, sweating like a pig, while Emily is over next to Ulrich, looking better than ever. What is this? Its like a monster has formed inside me, consuming all of me. Why am I so jealous of Emily? I don't want to be. I really don't want to be. Why is it so hard to just be confident in myself. Emily and I are special in different ways. The problem is, I can't embrace those parts of me like she can.

"Hey, Yumi. What's up?" Ulrich asked cheerfully, Emily smiling by his side. 'What's up'..? While he is off in 'La La Land', X.A.N.A could be attacking. How stupid can he get?

I scoffed at him. "'What's up?'. Jeremie has been trying to reach you and all you can say is, 'What's up?'. Really, Ulrich? I thought you had more common sense than that! You know what's been happening lately and you should always be on alert!" I began pacing, mumbling to myself. This whole jealousy thing is starting to get out of hand. "Come on, Ulrich. We have to go."

Ulrich looked from me to Emily. "Can't you guys handle it yourselves? Whatever it is, it can't be that bad." Is he being serious? He has a duty as a Lyoko Warrior! I growled slightly at him. "What's wrong with you, Yumi?"

Can he really be that hard-headed? "Two months." He looked at me with confusion. "Two months and not a single word. I thought our friendship was better than that but I guess not. That isn't exactly something you would keep to yourself." I barked. I'm fed up with all of this.

"What are you even talkimg about? You know, Yumi, your attitude lately has been getting on my nerves." He grabbed onto Emily's hand, balling his other fist. "Why do you even care what I do? Huh? Tell me why!" He yelled. I stood there with my arms crossed, looking at him angrily, refusing to talk. "Fine. I'll be there whenever." Ulrich pulled Emily away with him, walking towards the school building. I stood there feeling defeat well up inside me. It took a generous amount of will power no to let a few tears fall. But this isn't what is important right now. Defeating X.A.N.A. is what is top priority.

"Would both of you stop bickering! All three of you are going in there and protecting Aelita." Jeremie yelled. My and Ulrich's arguing silenced, both of us turned away from the other. Odd lead us down to the scanner room. I stepped into my scanner and watched the door slide shut. A wave of relief washed over me. Going to Lyoko always calms my nerves somewhat. I could hear Jeremie's voice echo through the room. "Transfer Odd.. Transfer Ulrich.. Transfer Yumi.. Scanner.. Virtualization." A rush of air blew upwards as a bright light pierced the scanner. I felt my body deteriorate and within seconds, come back together. I felt weightless as I dropped to the ground. Once all of us had touched ground, Aelita came to greet us. "Listen up guys. There was an error in the virtualization process. Aelita, get to a deactivated tower and try to find the bug in the system. Be careful all of you." Jeremie warned.

I wonder what could have happened. We all ran to the nearest deactivated tower which was thankfully not too far away. Just before Aelita walked into the tower, she turned to us. "You two aren't going to kill each other if I leave you here alone, right?" She giggled. Ulrich and I scoffed while Odd chuckled. Ulrich shot him an icy glare, only adding to Odd's humor.

We waited for a few minutes until I sat down on a uprooted tree branch, followed by the two idiots. Odd sat on the ground, writing in the dirt. More minutes passed and my impatience grew. Out of no where, a roach appeared. "You're closest." Ulrich said full of boredom. Odd sighed but got up regardless. He held out his fist towards the monster when Jeremie's voice rang in the sky.

"Odd! Be careful! It can kill you!" Odd shot his laser arrow but was struck by the roach's laser. "Ohh no! Odd lost 50 life points already!" Jeremie yelled frantically.

"Jeremie, calm down. Odd is still here." Ulrich said confused.

Jeremie growled angrily. "You all don't understand! X.A.N.A. bugged the devirtualization program." The three of us looked at each other, not wanting it to be true. "If any of you get devirtualized, you'll be erased forever." I felt a pit forming in my stomach. This isn't good..

"Jeremie, Aelita took this risk for a long time and she is fine. We will just have to be extra observant and cautious." Ulrich said confidently. Odd nodded in agreement. Typical of both of them to act all 'macho' when I know they are both scared. I am too. If any of us got devirtualized... how can someone cope with that? What would we do? No, I can't think like that. We are going to take down X.A.N.A.'s monsters and deactivate that tower.

Aelita ran out of the tower, standing next to Odd. "You all ready?" She smiled. I nodded, as did Odd. Ulrich looked at the ground. So much for confidence.

"Come on, Princess. It's time for 'Yoo-Hoo, it's us' again." Odd laughed. Ulrich sprinted in front of us. "Any idea what that is about?" Odd looked at me. I growled in return, sprinting towards the activated tower. Odd does have a good point. I wonder what is up with Ulrich. After Jeremie told us the bad news, he immediately changed moods. Is he angry? Nervous? Scared? I just wish he wasn't so hard-headed. Things would be easier.

"Two Mega-Tanks and a Crab? If we try to get past all of this, we are done for." I crouched back down behind the rock. This is too much for us to handle. Especially with the risk of being erased forever.

Ulrich peaked up the top, analyzing the situation. "We just have to hold on until Aelita enters the tower and deactivates it." He took a deep breath. "Yumi, you take the Crab. Odd and I will take out the Mega- Tanks. Aelita, run. Now!" Aelita took off towards the tower, followed by Odd. I stood up, but Ulrich grabbed my hand, pulling me back down gently. "Yumi.. be careful." He whispered.

I smiled lightly and nodded my head. "You too, Ulrich." He nodded his head. I gave him one last look before I hopped over the rock and ran towards the Crab. Odd was in the process of taking out the Mega-Tank while Aelita was hiding behind a rock. I ran under the Crab, slicing it with my fan. But it wasn't a deep enough cut. It tried to step on me, digging holes into the ground with each stomp. My heart rate sped up.I glanced at Odd who used three laser arrows, destroying one of the Mega-Tanks. Mistake. The Crab threw me up in the air with one of its legs. I saw Ulrich take out the other. Aelita ran out from behind the rock, towards the tower.

I grabbed both of my fans from my back, and landed on top of the crabs head. I slashed both fans through the black mark. The crab exploded, sending me flying backwards. I heard Ulrich cry my name. I let out a scream, feeling weightless as I fell over the edge of the cliff. Suddenly, someone grabbed my hand. "I got you."

"Ulrich!" I breathed. He pulled me back over the edge. I stumbled slightly, leaning into him closely. He stared intently at me. I gazed back at his chocolate brown eyes. "Ulrich.." He leaned his face in, his eyes closing slowly. I did the same. Before I knew it, our lips touched lightly.

"Return to the past, now." There was a flash of piercing light.

I walked over to our usual bench, waiting for my friends to show up. I spotted Ulrich talking to Emily. I smiled slightly, thinking back to Lyoko. Out of no where, Sissy slithered next to me. "Two months and still going strong." She hissed.

"Two months, really? That long?" I grinned back at her as Ulrich approached us.

"What are you girls talking about?" He asked, looking at Sissy with a smirk.

I put my hand on my hip. "Ohh well I was just waiting for you. But don't worry, Sissy was here to keep me company." I blushed slightly looking at him.

Sissy looked at the both of us confused. "You freaks." She walked away angrily. Ulrich and I broke into laughter, gazing in each others eyes.

"Umm, Yumi.. about what happened on Lyoko.." He stuttered, blushing.

I chuckled softly." About that.. well I'd appreciate it if we didn't tell that to Odd or the others. Not just yet." I blushed heavily.

Ulrich smiled back at me. "Yeah same with me." Odd and the others walked over to us.

"Well, well, well, Ulrich. Lyoko wasn't too boring yesterday." Odd grinned.

"You're right, Odd." He smiled at me. "And I learned an important lesson that I'll never forget."

Okay, so hopefully everyone enjoyed 'Routine'. I enjoyed writing it and thanks for stickin' with it. -A