Hey all, it's been a while. A lot of you on here might not even know me, it's been so long.

Anyways, I don't know if this means I'll start updating my stories again. Who knows.

After all, this story isn't even mine. It was written entirely by my best friend Jenny. Enjoy. =]

He stared up at the sky after soccer practice, taking in the evening sunlight as his heart rate returned to normal. Ulrich closed his eyes and heard the last noises of the team leaving the field as he wiped his slightly damp bangs from his brow. He often liked to be alone, or at least, he often found himself alone to soak in his thoughts. He put his hands behind his head felt himself relaxing more, sinking into the cool grass and enjoying the, not silent, but quiet dusk. Inhaling to let out a sigh he suddenly felt the cold smack of something small, metal, and moving very fast hit him in the side of the face. Ulrich winced and put his hand against his cheek and felt the small divots that the unknown object had left.

"What the-"

"Hey Ulrich heads up!"

"Little too late, Odd," He spat while rubbing the welt out of his face. Ulrich searched the grass around him, padding through it with his fingers till he found the object that had hit him. It was a necklace, the pendant of one, at least. It was clover shaped with lacing of metal throughout the 'petals' and green stones as well as a bigger central diamond. It was a little banged up, but it was pretty nonetheless, even if the rhinestones were chipped, it almost added to it. "Who's is it?" he asked turning it over in his hand.

Odd sad down next to Ulrich and shrugged. "It was lying on the ground."

"And, why did you give it to me?"

"Maybe you could give it to someone? How 'bout a girlfriend Huh?" He nudged me with his elbow and cocked his eyebrow. "Yumi? It his her birthday on Friday," Odd suggested putting his arm around me mockingly and pulling his friend closer. "Or Sissy?"

Ulrich shrugged Odd's laughing form off and stood up. "Oh god. That is the last thing I would do," he said in regards to the Sissy idea. While Odd was busy admiring his own wit Ulrich discretely tucked the pendant into my pocked "Plus…Yumi probably wouldn't even wear it…" he commented under his breath.

"What makes you think that? Yumi would wear a plastic bag as a dress if you gave it to her." Ulrich shot Odd a skeptical look in response. "She would," he repeated standing up and putting his arm around him again as if about to give him some deep advice. "And plastic bags are see-through," Odd added sniggering.

"Do you ever stop thinking with the wrong head?" Ulrich pushed Odd off him again and turned away to conceal his blushing; he could think of many more things he'd rather see Yumi in…or not in. Shaking off the thoughts of Yumi Ulrich sighed. Of course it was not a secret that he liked Yumi, he had since they were in 7th grade, and now he was 18 and this crush still hadn't faded. They had been in and out of this ongoing…whatever you would call this situation, for the past few years, but it never led anywhere. He wished he it had, but so far, no such luck. Ulrich fiddled with the necklace inside his pocket and sighed. "Besides it doesn't even have a chain to go on it."

"Well, I would give it to her," retorted Odd. "But I already got her something?"

"Oh yeah? And what's that?"

"A picture-" Odd paused to strike a daring pose, putting on the biggest smile he could- "Of me!"

The brown haired boy rolled his eyes though he wore a smile. "Always the charmer, Odd." The sun had started dipping and Ulrich felt a cold breeze cross him. "Come on, We better get back for dinner."

"Mmm! Finally, I'm starving!" Odd exclaimed with his usually excitement when food came up. Ulrich laughed quietly bent down quickly to scoop up his water bottle.

"As always."

Aelita walked Yumi down the hallway to the common room shared by the suite mates in the school. "Are you excited for the party?" she asked, pulling her bubblegum hair behind her ear. "I am, I can't wait for you to see my present! You wanna know? I'll tell you. You just have to tell me if you want to know!"

Yumi giggled and smoothed out her shirt as she walked. "No, I don't want to know. And yes, I'm excited."

Aelita pouted a little before moving on. "I wonder what Ulrich will get you. I bet it will be sweet," she commented, causing Yumi to blush slightly.

"Uh...Yeah, I wonder." Clearing her throat, Yumi pushed walked into the common room to see the rest of the gang, the boys, lounging on the couch each holding a present, at least, everyone but Ulrich, who's eyes were downcast as usual. Yumi looked down to conceal her disappointment. I don't know why I thought he would get me something… She shook off her saddened thoughts and smiled at the gang. "Hi guys!" Ulrich glanced up for a second to make eye contact and the two shared a small smile.

"Happy birthday Yumi!" Odd shouted leaning over the back of the couch to see her. Aelita smiled sweetly and hugged Yumi before taking her usual seat close to Jeremie. Yumi sat down next to Odd, trying to avoid looking at Ulrich as she took in the table with a small cake on it and small plates of various other snacks. "Thanks guys. You really didn't have to get me anything." Not that all of you did.

In his usual fashion, Odd took the voice of most of the people around him. "Aw, well we couldn't not get you something!" Odd lunged his present into the hands of Yumi who quickly unwrapped the object, throwing the tissue paper onto the coffee table.

"It's a picture!" Yumi looked closer at the picture inside the frame to see Odd, smiling up at her. "…Of you…Just like last year." The raven-haired girl chuckled and hugged the framed photograph to her chest. "I love it, Thanks odd." Yumi hugged Odd who grinned proudly at his gift and took his place back on the couch.

"And I wrapped it myself too!"

Yumi glanced down to Ulrich expectantly, who cleared his throat and looked desperately at Jeremie and Aelita to help him out. Aelita stood up and ran around the back of the couch to pick up a moderate sized box wrapped in, of course, pink paper. "Open mine, open mine," she said jumping on the couch next to Yumi, pushing Ulrich over a little. Yumi smiled and open the box to pull out a pair of oriental fans, almost exact replicas of those that she had in Lyoko.

"Wow, thank you Aelita, They're so beautiful." After the two girls embraced, Jeremie took his present and handed it to Yumi as Aelita took her spot back next to him.

"Here's my present Yumi. Happy birthday." Yumi gently took the box from Jeremie and opened it to pull out a set of expensive looking headphones. "It'll help you study, they cancel noise and are high quality. I know you like to listen to music."

"You got her study aid?" Odd chimed in looking at Jeremie. "My present was so much better! Though I'll admit, it doesn't help the ladies focus on homework," he added putting an arm around Yumi until he saw Ulrich glare at him.

Yumi laughed and smiled at Jeremie. "They're awesome, Jer. Hiroki broke my other headphones anyway. Thanks!"

"Well finally that's over! Let's eat the cake!" Odd licked his lips and ran his finger through the frosting on the cake. "Hurry up and make a wish!" Yumi looked down at her cake, the candles were lit and flickering and all she had to do was make a wish and get this over with. She wouldn't have to face Ulrich about it or anything. She glanced over at him before closing her eyes and blowing out the candles on her cake, sending Odd in a hysteric lunge towards the desert.

"Hey Yumi?" Ulrich stood behind the couch with his hands in his pockets and his eyes looking off into a corner of the room. "Can I talk to you for a minute." Yumi just expected him to give her an excuse as to why she didn't get a present from him. It saddened her though she would never admit it out loud. He was her best friend, and Aelita had somewhat convinced her that Ulrich would do something sweet and romantic, something to sweep her off her feet.

"Uh, yeah." She looked back to see the rest of the group eating and talking amongst themselves. "Be right back, guys," she yelled back as she walked out of the room to eventually stop on the front steps of the building.

Once the breeze hit her, Yumi pulled her black sweater down to conceal her from the cold of the nightfall. She folded her arms and watched as Ulrich, of course not making eye contact, walked in small patterns nervously across the stained concrete. Sighing quietly she took a small seat on the edge of the steps, the cool surface not helping her chill go away, but knowing Ulrich for as long as she had, she knew this could take a while. "What did you want to talk about?" she prompted, looking over her shoulder at him. Ulrich was pulled out of his thought process, remembering that oh yeah; Yumi was actually here this time. This wasn't another run through of what he would say in his head.

"Oh, um, well." Ugh, this is going great… "Well, happy birthday." Ulrich took a small pendant out of his pocket, a newly strung chain through the loop at the top, and handed it to Yumi as he sat next to her. Yumi raised her eyebrows in surprise and took the necklace from her friend; it was nice, she thought to herself. She rolled it over in her palm, the tiny rhinestones refracting the dim outside lighting. I mean it wasn't a wedding band, but it was sweet of him to give her a necklace. "Odd gave it to me."

"What?" He actually just gave me something odd gave him? Yumi rolled her eyes and enclosed the necklace in her hand. "Thanks for the thought," she said trying to push the bitterness out of her voice as she stood up to rejoin her friends.

"Wait! No," Ulrich stood and grabbed Yumi's wrist, catching her before she could really leave. "No, there's a story."

More like an excuse, Yumi thought though she did stop, and turn to face him. Ulrich let go of her wrist and looked down at the ground for a second. "Well I was sitting on the field, and odd came up and threw this at my face." Yumi cracked a small smile, as Ulrich continued on. "And I asked him why the hell he was giving it to me, and he said that I should give it to my girlfriend, so…" Ulrich gestured towards her hand, closed into a fist with a silvery strand of metal hanging from her fingers. "I gave it to you."

"O-oh. So…" Yumi bit her lip to contain her smile, "does this mean…." Neither of them wanted to outright say it, but both of them knew what this meant. "I mean, are we…" She blushed and sucked in her lip further in order to seem like she wasn't fazed.

Ulrich looked down at the concrete for a moment. "I mean, if you want…" Oh god…Please?

"Of course, I want to!" Yumi said enthusiastically, leaning forward to hug him, but instead, feeling his lips on hers, nice and warm compared to the air that surrounded her. She smiled into the kiss, not wanting it to end, but pulled away when they heard a loud thump above them. Both of them looked up towards the window of their room where they saw their three friends, shoved against the glass looking at them. Aelita clapped giddily, jumping up and down quickly, Jeremie gave them a thumbs up from over the pink-haired girl's head and of course, Odd's face was pressed up against the pane, making very unattractive kissy faces at Ulrich and Yumi. The two downstairs laughed, slightly embarrassed that their friends had obviously been watching them this whole time. Ulrich took the necklace from Yumi's hand, and stood behind her to fasten it around her neck while she pulled her hair out of the way. "Happy birthday, Yumi."

This story doesn't really belong on here.

After all, its not fiction. If you couldn't figure it out, Jenny is actually my girlfriend.

And this is really a fanfiction-ized version of how I asked her out.

I hope you enjoyed it. =]