I love her to death

I stare at the screen in front of me. Line after line of code slowly scrolls over it, code making up the still not functional anti-virus program for Aelita.

I run a hand through my tousled blonde hair and lean back. My mind has not been on the program for quite some time tonight. To be honest I know it will never work. I know what Xana has done and it's no mere virus he has as a hold on us. It's something much more sinister and it can only be fixed from the inside of the supercomputer.

That however is not the reason I have been unable to work on the code. I'm a programmer by heart and even if the program can't work, that won't stop me from sinking into my own Zen of ones and zeroes. No, my attention is instead on another program that is running. One that taps in to all those poorly or even completely unprotected cameras that exist all over town.

It's a program of my own design. A genius like me has no problems making such a program, based on my experience of hacking. Does the fact that I can hack surprise you? It's not that strange, it's how I found Lyoko after all.

Flashback.

I had not made any friends upon entering Kadic so I did a little local hacking to get the "feel" of French systems. Lo and behold, there was a complex system running at the abandoned factory that I just had to take a look at in person. I ran into the other three while I was sneaking out thanks to an old map of the area I had managed to hack from the system. I claimed I had been trying to find secret passageways I had heard about. I had no choice but to take them to the factory with me and the rest was history.

End flashback.

I sigh. A genius I am, my IQ tests are constantly proving it and I can get scholarships anytime I want. My friends know I'm smart; they have even given me the nick-name Einstein. It's strange then, that they think they can fool me. Even if I had not discovered it through this program I would have spotted it soon enough. I am used to see patterns, a habit I picked up from my days of hacking.

I stare at the program-window currently showing a small café. Four people are sitting at a table enjoying a double date. Most notable are a pinkette and a blonde with a purple spot in his hair. He says something to the pinkette and she laughs and then kisses him. It should hurt to see but I am beyond that now, numb or maybe just in pain all the time. I still remember the first time I saw them like this.

Flashback.

It was supposed to be a study date. I would go over what she had learned about life on earth and see what I had to explain to her. I looked forward to it after a rather long week of both classes and work on the anti-virus. But the afternoon before our date she told me she had to study for a test in her Spanish-class that was on Monday and as it was not a class I took and I deserved some rest after the tough week, she felt it would be best to call it off.

I agreed as her grade was important, even though I would have felt better, not worse from our date. I didn't suspect anything being wrong then, I just buried my disappointment under some more work. I had the week before finished the camera-hacking program to better be able to spot Xana's attacks so I decided to test it that evening. After about an hour of testing I saw a flash of pink and stopped. The pink was Aelitas hair and she was in a store with Odd. I got an uneasy feeling in my stomach but brushed it off. Not for long though. She laughed at something he said and then kissed him on the cheek. They separated for a moment, and then she put her arms around him and kissed him on the mouth.

I couldn't pull my eyes away. It' must have taken a full minute for them to finish and when they did they didn't step away from each other but instead she snuggled closer to him. I followed them the rest of the evening. When they separated at the dorms and I lost track of them I pushed back form the computer and threw myself on to the bed. I have never cried so hard or so much in my life as I did that day.