Author's note: This was somewhat inspired by SeptimusMagistos' story: A Late Afternoon Song.

Aelita looked down at the mixing board and mentally choreographed the moves her hands would need to make later on. The layout of the controls did not look like they were going to make this easy. Taking a few long, slow breaths to steady herself she reached out and started the music. The sound changed as her skilled hands worked on the board, swiftly manipulating the knobs and levers that altered and blended the base tracks. Everything sounded fine so far and she stole a quick glance at Odd and William who appeared to be enjoying the music, confirming her opinion. The hard part was coming up and she returned her full attention to the board. Shortly after beginning the complex set of maneuvers required to achieve the effect she wanted she bumped a switch, ruining the track she was working on. She looked up from the board and apologized to her audience.

"It's ok, you were doing good. Try it again, you'll get it," Odd replied with an encouraging smile.

Aelita favored him with a smile of her own and reset the board to start again. Again and again she tried and each time she failed, missing the timing or accidentally hitting another control in the process. Odd walked up onto the stage and began rubbing her shoulders. It was soothing, though not quite as much as Jeremy would have been. Odd looked over her shoulder at the board and silently cursed whoever had designed it. Sure there was a purpose to it but right now, given what Aelita was trying to do, the layout was anything but optimal. "You know Aelita, it took Einstein over a year to figure out how to bring you to earth. It's no big deal if you can't get this quite right with this board. Maybe the next time you perform with the Subdigitals you can try on their hardware."

Aelita pushed away from Odd, "I'm not giving up on this, I want it to be ready for the dance."

She reset the board and continued working, failing time and again. Frustrated and disappointed with herself she gave up, tasting some the despair that plagued Jeremy in his attempts to materialize her, then find an antivirus, then free her father, then destroy XANA. She had hated watching him go through that but she hadn't quite understood just how bad it felt until now. She stormed out of the auditorium she had claimed for the day to practice and found herself headed for Jeremy's dorm. William looked over to Odd, "Think she'll be ok?"

"She'll be fine, she'll calm down and Jeremy will find a way to fix her, he always does."

"So I've noticed. Their pretty good at taking care of each other."

"That they are," Odd replied as he and William left the auditorium.

--

Jeremy turned away from his computer and the assignment he was proofreading for Yumi when he heard someone let themselves into his room. Seeing a depressed looking Aelita he got up and went to her asking "what's the matter princess?" Genuine concern colored his voice as he had never seen her this way after working on her music.

She held her hands up in front of her as if she was disgusted with them, "I can't get this right, my hands, I don't know, I'm just too clumsy to pull off the effect I wanted."

Jeremy took her hands and let his fingers run across them, then he held them up as if to scrutinize them, looking for even the slightest flaw. Finally he kissed each one and looked into her eyes, "Nope, no problem with your hands they're perfect. Maybe I need to take a look at your board."

Aelita cracked the slightest of smiles as Jeremy kissed her hands then broke out into a grin at his words. The moment was just that though and her smile fell, "I'm afraid not. I can't get the timing right or I hit an adjacent control by accident."

"Well, maybe you need a different board, something with a different control layout. I'm sure you can try with the." He was cut off by Aelita.

"No Jeremy, you don't understand. I need to do this for the dance and it's tomorrow, there's no time to find another board." The defeated tone she used was tearing at Jeremy's heart, she could see it in his eyes. That made her feel even worse, the song that she was failing to produce was supposed to be a gift for him and now it was causing him heartache and worry instead of happiness. Dejected, she let herself fall unto his bed.

Jeremy turned back to the computer and saved the suggested revisions for Yumi's report and closed out Word. Turning back to Aelita, he gestured for her to take the extra computer chair and then asked her to explain what she was trying to accomplish. He listened, but didn't completely understand, as Aelita explained the set of moves she was trying to make and how she had screwed it up time and again. Finally Jeremy stopped her, asking for a more technical description of the effect she was trying to produce. This time Jeremy was able to follow and upon finishing her explanation Aelita watched Jeremy go from comforting boyfriend to expert problem solver.

He pulled up Matlab Simulink (a program for modeling everything from fluid dynamics to electrical signals) and began trying to simulate the series of signal transforms that were going on inside the mixing board. Aelita watched, transfixed and slightly confused, as Jeremy worked. Finally he ran the simulation with a simple test tone and Aelita shook her head no. Disappointed but not deterred he asked Aelita what was wrong and together they began tweaking the model until it sounded right. Aelita looked at Jeremy, "so now what?"

"Now we build that. I used only blocks that I can implement in a circuit. So I convert that model into a circuit, test it in my circuit simulator, layout a PCB, test that, and finally go to the electronics lab and build it." Aelita looked back at Jeremy, clearly impressed. "It's nothing, I used to do this sort of thing all the time for my robots."

No Jeremy, Aelita thought, It's definitely not nothing. Out loud she said "You really think you could do it?"

"Of course I can, in fact a little pink haired angel once told me, when I was really down and depressed about one of my many failures, that I can do anything I put my mind to." His voice turning playful he continued "'course, it'll go faster if you help."

Aelita beamed and dug into the program Jeremy was using to design his circuit. After three hours they had a completed, tested (in simulation anyway) circuit, a circuit board layout and a list of parts. Another two hours after that they had a completed and fully tested circuit in a small metal box. In addition Aelita had a couple of new skills and Jeremy had learned a thing or two about the art of music. After eating dinner they secured permission to use the auditorium and set up all of Aelita's hardware, including wiring in the add-on board and securing it to the mixing board's stand.

Jeremy stood back and listened as Aelita began to play. He was instantly entranced by the music. Her song was beautiful and Jeremy deeply regretted it's end even as he shouted his congratulations up to Aelita. She motioned him up to the stage and, after he had enthusiastically hugged her for a few minutes, had him take her position behind the board. Standing behind him she said, "relax Jeremy and let me guide you through a song. Ok?" He nodded yes and held his hands above the board. She gently placed her hands atop his and moved them, letting him get used to being guided along before beginning.

It was an awkward way to mix music but the duo tried it a couple of times. Then Jeremy got really brave and tried to mix a song on his own. It wasn't exactly a success but neither Jeremy nor Aelita really cared at that point. All that mattered was that they were together and having fun. Eventually their time in the auditorium came to an end and they had to pack up and put away all the equipment and head back to the dorms. As they walked back, Aelita looked at the metal box they had made together. "You know Jeremy, you do with hardware and software what I do with sound. The end product is different but the passion and emotion are the same."

"You really think so Aelita?"

"I know it. And you know what else? Together we make some beautiful music."

"I think anyone hearing me mix, or rather attempt to, would beg to differ" Jeremy said in a lighthearted, joking manor.

Aelita laughed then turned just a smidgeon serious, "This, " Aelita said, holding up the circuit they made "is a small part of you, which when added to me, made the very unique song I played for you."

"Unique and very beautiful. It was easily the best song I've ever heard."

"Good, because I made it just for you. I was planning to surprise you with it at the dance tomorrow but I'm glad things went this way. Today was the most fun I've had in some time."

"For me?" Jeremy said, momentarily shocked. "I.. I don't..." Words seemed inadequate so Jeremy stopped abruptly and pulled Aelita close to him and hugged her tight. His lips found hers and he smothered her in a long, hard kiss that left both of them panting when it finally ended. "Thank you for the song. It was truly amazing."