5disclaimer: I don't own Code Lyoko. If i did do you really think I would have written this?
It had happened, it had finally happened Ulrich had finally become hers, had become Sissi's, and it was all thanks to Yumi that it happened. Yumi, who broke him in such a way, that the mere sight of her was enough to cause him pain. While she, Sissi, gave him a reason to stay and helped him, heal, if only a little. Ulrich was broken, shattered beyond repair, and all because Yumi thought that, his feelings for her were nothing more than a schoolboy crush. They weren't they were more, so much more so that when Yumi said I love you to William, Ulrich shattered. Ulrich couldn't say the words he needed to, he couldn't say I love you to Yumi; William however could and did profess his love to Yumi as often as possible. Unlike William, Ulrich was always interrupted by something or someone, just when he'd be about to confess to Yumi about how he felt, a XANA attack, Sissi, William, general bad timing or nerves always caused Yumi to not hear what Ulrich was trying to say, at least until that day the day Ulrich finally said I love you. The problem was that Sissi was the recipient of Ulrich's confession, and Yumi wouldn't let him explain that he wasn't in love with Sissi. The only reason Sissi got the confession instead of Yumi was because something else came first for her, like always. Either way, things went from bad to worst pretty quickly after that for Ulrich.
Barely two days after Ulrich's confession of love, Yumi kissed William, and not just a peck, no this was a full-blown make-out session with tongue, it was also the day that Yumi agreed to be William's girlfriend. Ulrich saw and heard the whole thing, Yumi's need to have someone be there for her, her desire to not be alone, and William's proposal to be her boyfriend. The love letter William used to confess his feelings was in fact the one Ulrich wrote for Yumi to apologize and finally tell her how he truly felt about her. He thought it had been lost, either to his and Odd's dorm or the trash, he didn't think that it had been taken, or that William had gotten it somehow. It hurt to know that all his hard work was being used against him, and that just a few pretty words and promises were enough to bring Yumi's decision about who to date to a close. Even worse to Ulrich was the fact that Yumi agreed with William about keeping the fact that they were together a secret, it wasn't about trying to not hurt him, oh no this was Yumi's revenge on him for Ulrich saying I really like you to Sissi of all people, even though he only felt that way about Yumi and had been trying for weeks to tell her that, even the day he told Sissi, Ulrich wanted nothing more than for Yumi to know about his true feelings for her.
The others noticed almost immediately that something was wrong between the two, Yumi was pissed and Ulrich had never looked worse than he did then. Odd and Aelita both grew more concerned when they heard Yumi's reasons for dating William; in large part because they knew Ulrich wouldn't date Sissi unless one of two things happened. The first was Sissi changing her ways; the second more important one was that Yumi proved that Ulrich truly meant nothing to her no matter how many times he had saved her life sometimes at great risk to his own.
A mere week later had most of the old gang together, Ulrich being the only no-show. Yumi immediately started bragging about the love letter she had gotten from William, when Aelita asked if the gang could see the love letter that decided things for Yumi, it was with both great reluctance and pride that Yumi showed it off. As soon as the gang saw it, Aelita, Odd and Jeremie recognized Ulrich's missing love letter, and knew that William lied about writing it, because it wasn't William's work they saw but Ulrich's. Jeremie stated that Yumi was lucky to have a guy who cared so much for her that he'd write such a touching letter, proclaiming his undying love for her. Odd came back with the remark "yeah she's lucky alright; She's broken the heart of the one who truly loves her, to date a thief." The sound of Yumi's hand making impact with Odd's face was almost as earth-shattering as who Ulrich started spending time with.
Yumi questioned the other two on how they felt about Odd's comment, Jeremie stated that "Odd is odd, but I agree with him on this", Aelita said that if Yumi was dating the one who actually wrote the letter then she was lucky, otherwise she wanted nothing to do with her anymore. Ulrich who was there and listening cracked a small sad smile at Aelita for her choice of words from where he was sprawled out on the ground. No-one but Aelita who glanced in his direction noticed it, she then asked Yumi to tell who wrote the letter. Yumi replied with "William isn't he dreamy" to which Ulrich with a smaller sadder smile responded "I hope you're happy with Dunbar, I think I'll take Sissi up on her offer".
Not one of the others knew what he was talking about until it was too late; Ulrich and Sissi were already going out together and Ulrich had already shattered. Yumi didn't care, two weeks after her confession to the gang and she started dating William, but before Sissi and Ulrich were dating, Mr. Stern came to Kadic to talk to his son, Ulrich about his grades. What he found was someone recovering from having their world ripped out from underneath them, unfortunately for Ulrich, he didn't notice or pay attention to just how, much damage his words were doing to Ulrich's, his son's, mind.
Ulrich was in no condition to withstand his father's verbal barrage at the time, he was too weak. It became even clearer when he took his father's punch to the gut and bent almost double over Mr. Stern's fist. Ulrich realized at that time that Jeremie, Aelita, Kiwi, and maybe Odd and Sissi cared about him at all; it was disheartening to know that two to four people and a dog were the only ones to care if he lived or died, or about how well he lived and that he really didn't matter to anyone really. If Yumi had still cared about Ulrich enough to stay by him, he might not have broken as far as he had, but she didn't and he did, and all that remained of the Ulrich Stern, Kadic Academy once knew were a bits and pieces of broken glass. He had shattered completely, and no-one could repair the pieces, all that could be done was for the ones that cared to try and keep those few pieces left from being shattered like the rest.
An: This took about an hour to write, and parts of Saturday, Sunday and Monday to type. So I apologize for any errors.
an2: added missing words 5/25/11
an: added commas and deleted the 'the' before lucky 4/21/13