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Yumi and Ulrich lay panting on the mat after their sparring match. Coach Morales had driven them hard through their drills before pushing them to their limit during their sparring match. He had dismissed them from practice hardly a minute before after he had caught the time on his watch. He had murmured something about being late to meet up with an old classmate, but that he’d ‘rather not talk about it’, before darting out the side exit of the gym.
Ulrich propped himself up on his elbow, looking down at Yumi. “Can we talk about what happened in Code Lyoko? Or rather…what almost happened? Are you ready to talk about it yet?”
A blush bloomed against Yumi’s cheeks, “I…guess we probably should…eventually. Is now really the best time?”
The blush was mirrored on Ulrich’s cheeks, “I don’t know, but will there ever be a good time? I just can’t keep walking around wondering…do you regret it?”
Yumi wouldn’t meet Ulrich’s eyes and her blush got darker. Ulrich felt his stomach drop. It was just as he feared she regretted nearly kissing him, and now he’d gone and made it worse by bringing it up. He was so stupid.
“Forget it,” he blurted out. “You don’t have to answer that. I didn’t mean to make it weird. I just don’t want to lose my best sparring partner.”
Yumi frowned at him, “What do you mean?”
Ulrich pushed himself to his feet. “We should get going to meet up with everyone. We’ll need to get into Code Lyoko soon.”
He attempted to escape from his ill attempt at confrontation, what had he thought would happen? She’d offer to pick up where they had left off before being teleported out of Lyoko? As if that would happen…
Yumi’s hand managed to grab Ulrich’s hand before he had even managed to take a single step. She had always had lightning-quick reflexes, it was what made her a good sparring partner and an even better Lyoko warrior.
“I don’t regret nearly kissing you,” Yumi said gently as she stood up, not letting go of his hand. “I regret…not actually kissing you.”
They stood staring at one another, shocked into silence by Yumi’s confession. Yumi was the first to break eye contact and looked down at where their hands were still linked. Ulrich lightly swung their joined hands, “Oh…”
“Yeah, oh…” Yumi said, chancing a glance back up at Ulrich, tucking a lock of her dark hair behind her ear. “I wasn’t sure I wanted my first kiss with you to be in Code Lyoko, but I didn’t know how to tell you.”
“Oh…” Ulrich said, feeling dumb that he didn’t have any other words.
“And we’re always with other people, and I didn’t know if you regretted it,” Yumi said. “So I didn’t want to say anything.”
“I didn’t regret it,” Ulrich said, shuffling his feet forward, splitting his distance to Yumi.
It was Yumi’s turn to look surprised, but unlike Ulrich she didn’t say anything. Her eyebrows had shot up and her mouth had formed the softest ‘o’ shape. Then her features shifted to one of resolution, “Let’s not have any more regrets.”
And she was leaning toward Ulrich as her eyelids fluttered shut, and he without even thinking about it did the same. Their lips touched the smallest amount as if testing to see if the ground was firm beneath their feet. Then finding it was solid, they relaxed into each other.
The kiss was one of those kisses that feels like it stretches on for longer than a moment. But any passer-by would have had to act fast to catch them in the act. Yumi’s and Ulrich’s lips broke apart and the sparring partners both smiled soft shy smiles down at their joined hands.
“We should get going,” Ulrich said clearing his throat, “ Jeremy will be wanting to get into Code Lyoko.”
“Yeah we don’t want to keep them waiting,” Yumi agreed.
Ulrich transferred Yumi’s right hand into his left one, holding it with just enough pressure that Yumi could have pulled it free easily. But she didn’t. She gave his hand a soft squeeze as they walked out of the gym together.
But neither was in any hurry to catch up with their friends.