"You turned Zero... Into... A cat..." Suzaku responded, dumbfounded.
Cecile shrugged, curving her head into her slender shoulders, clearly embarrassed. All he could do is stare. His emerald eyes bore into her, wide as saucers. This had to be some weird joke and Lloyd coerced her to participate. Suzaku must have forgotten to blink because his eyes were dry by the time Cecile pushed up from her desk, and walked towards him. She cupped the bottom of his chin, lifting his jaw upward; the sound of his teeth connecting brought the teen out of his stupor.
"You love cats, right?" She smiled and ruffled up his short hair.
"It's a little one sided."
Then again, that was a good analogy to his relationship with Lelouch. Ever since they were kids, Suzaku loved the other boy with all his heart. When they met again in Shinjuku ghetto, he has the silliest grin on his face, seeing that lanky, broody, and asinine form sulk out of the shadows. The first time he piloted the Lancelot it was to save Lelouch. In some strange way everything ended up going back to his first friend, who ended up being...
Zero.
Not even a week ago he betrayed that friendship by dragging Lelouch, no Zero, his arch nemesis, the one who killed Euphie, before the Emperor. Lelouch betrayed him long before Suzaku ever thought of anything selfish. Any punishment paled in comparison to what Zero actually deserved. Suzaku fully expected his former friend to be executed at the feet of the Emperor, dressed in a white prisoner straitjacket.
Somehow turning the terrorist who created such chaos into a cat just didn't fit. The Emperor erased Lelouch's memory, and sent him to Lloyd for this? "It happened when Lloyd was trying to manipulate geass, and make it dormant. We were pulling a lot of all nighters, and yesterday, well technically this morning at 3am, Arthur jumped on my lap and -"
"What happened to Arthur?!"
"Nothing. Nothing. Your cat is fine, Suzaku. We did take some blood and do some gene manipulation on Zero, thinking that geass was attached to certain strands of specific DNA."
"Ok..."
"We must have taken too much. But geass is completely gone so that's good. At least we don't have to worry about that any longer, and she doesn't appear to have any claws."
"Claws..."
"Yes, Suzaku, claws." She sighed, rubbing her eyes; a yawn escaped.
She looked exhausted. Dark bags under her eyes were nearly the same shade as her blue hair. Her hands trembled slightly, and Suzaku looked over at her desk. The metal top housed her computer, and also a plethora of coffee cups. A few brown stains scattered her lab coat.
"Where's Lloyd?" Suzaku asked, looking around the lab.
He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Arthur curled on the the chair in the center of the space. There were wires, monitors, and so much science equipment that Suzaku didn't understand placed near it. This was probably where Lelouch was experimented on. The last time the two met was the battle of Tokyo.
After that Suzaku tried his best to forget Lelouch, and put all his energy into becoming a Knight of the Rounds. The soft lining of his gloves and the weight of the cape still felt odd. Perhaps it was waiting around for orders that was strange. When he was Euphie's Knight, and not the Emperor's, he seemed to always be busy. He wasn't avoiding Lloyd and Cecile then either.
As much as he hated Zero, he still didn't want to face Lelouch. Truth be told, he would prefer to just pretend that person never existed. He meant what he said, " his very existence was a mistake." The world would have been a better place if Lelouch had never been born.
"Lloyd's already asleep, since his experiment was technically a success."
"Turning Zero into a cat was a success..." Suzaku raised an eyebrow.
"Well we were cleared for sleep anyway." She said smiling.
"So why did you request me then?"
"They can't get her to eat in the prison. The guards tried human food and cat food, but Zero will just turn up her nose at everyone and hisses. Since you have a bond with Arthur already, I figured maybe she will eat for you. It's imperative for one to eat after gene manipulation; it take a lot out of the body." She blushed. " No pun intended."
"She?"
He just noticed the pronoun change.
"Well. It might be a better description. The Initial examination didn't show any genitalia, which is odd since both Arthur and Lelouch are boys."
"Actually Arthur is a girl." Suzaku looked at the chair. The cat perked up an ear, like she knew she was the topic of conversation. "Euphie and I just didn't know until we took her to the vet."
"Oh. Well. I guess that makes a little more sense then." She yawned. "Thanks Suzaku. Prince Schneizel already approved our request to keep you until all this gets sorted out."
His first assignment as the Knight of Seven was to catsit. Suzaku glared the entire trek to the prison cells. A few people stepped out of his path, visibly nervous at seeing a high ranking military official in such a foul mood. The prison guards straighten when he finally made his way down to the dungeons, which were hardly like the stereotypical wet stone and iron bars he imagined.
"My lord." The two middle aged men addressed, ending their chuckles over the latest guest. "Shall I show you to the appropriate cell?"
"There's no need. I'm sure I will figure it out myself."
He scowled at the way the men beamed.
Suzaku scanned his badge, opening the steel door. The metal screeched as it slid within the pocket style door frame. The guard shrugged, saying how "hard it is to get maintainance down here." On the other side were rows of large bullet proof glass containers. Most of the persons down here were on death row, left alive only for torture beforehand. Zero was the only exception. He found the appropriate box a third of the way down, and on the left. It was the only one with food outside the door - a bowl of gruel and several cans of cat food. There was even a bowl of milk.
He look through the clear case. A form was curled up on the white cot. Thick grey fur ran down the curve of its spine, thinning out rather quickly. Peach flesh stood out on the thing's slender sides. Long black human hair fanned out over the low bed, nearly touching the tile floor underneath. A cat ear twitched, reminiscent of Arthur's habit not long ago.
Sighing he picked up the tray, and entered the access code. This door didn't screech. "Zero." Suzaku snarled, and place the sustenance near the bed. That ear twitched again, and one paw lifted to swat at it. The lack of claws surprised him, considering in every other way the hand looked like a larger version of Arthur's feet. Fur stopped shortly after his, her, it's wrists, like the time Milly convinced Lelouch to wear a cat costume in the student council.
"They gave me a litter box." The voice sounded like a higher pitch version of Lelouch, with some minor variation.
The speech was slurred slightly, and Suzaku wondered what type of teeth Lelouch had now. It sounded like some maneuvering was needed in order to get the sounds close to correct. He looked over to the corner, where a green standard sized box was turned over, and cat litter scattered all over the ground. Suzaku made no move to clean it up. The real Arthur was his responsibility, not this hybrid. He turned around, ready to simply say "feeding Zero didn't work out." It wasn't as if he cared whether or not the bastard starved to death.
Zero shifted on the bed, and Suzaku couldn't resisted the urge to look. Massive amethyst eyes stared at him with intensity he never experienced before. Arthur would sometimes watch him like that, but the color change made the gaze completely different. They were cat eyes, complete with slits for pupils, except Lelouch's shade remained. Both eyes were purple. Lelouch's usually pronounced cheekbones and chin were softened, whether because of feline DNA or due to Cecile claim of Zero now being a female, he didn't know. The face was indeed more feminine than before.
Over the right eye there was a black patch of fur, and a smaller one between on the forehead. That was the only hair on Zero's face. The rest was normal, well as normal as could be. Suzaku didn't want to admit to any sort of fetish by thinking that face was attractive.
Human arms crossed over human, but slightly more hairy legs. Zero blushed when he looked in that area and Suzaku realized why. The top of cleavage was visible over her forearms that looked to be silky smooth and soft. She. Lelouch was definitely a she by the sheer volume of her chest. He saw Euphie seductively conceal herself before a big reveal enough times to wager Zero's breast were about the same size.
His blush matched, and he pulled his eyes away. A tail darted out from behind Zero's back, and swayed by her side. Her nose scrunched up before she moved on hand faster then Lelouch could ever manage. The grey tail became trapped between her arms, but the black tip still seemed to move like it had a mind of its own.
He couldn't stop himself from laughing. She pouted, and let out a low growl. Suzaku cleared his throat, and bent down to eye level. First he grabbed the bowl of gruel, and held up the steaming spoon to her. It made sense that Zero was incapable of feeding herself without hands. He supposed she could have licked the bowl, but there's no way Lelouch would stoop that low. If the knocked over litter box was any indication, some portion of that horribly stubborn personality remained.
She sniffed it, and scrunched her nose. He didn't think it smelled very appealing either, and placed the slop back down. Her pupils dilated slightly when he lifted up a spoon full of wet cat food. The salmon colored lump stunk worse than the people food. Her naturally red (because he couldn't see lipstick being available in prison) lips thinned to a small hard line. She shook her head. Suzaku offered again, pressing the utensil against her mouth when her stomach growled.
Zero gave an expression he never experienced before. Unsure. Shy. Embarrassed. Lelouch never showed these emotions in public. Her eyes watered and she whined, looking away. "There's no reason to be embarrassed. If this is what you want then just eat it. For all the thing I could judge you for, this is nothing." She tilted her head, and he remembered that her memory of past transgressions were destroyed. "I will bring you Arthur's favorite tomorrow if you eat this. It's chunky with gravy so it will be easily for you pretend."
She opened her mouth, revealing long pointed canines. His suspicions regarding her speech impediment were confirmed. Zero finished all five cans of catfood, and licked her teeth clean at the end. She looked at the milk a few times, shifting her gaze from the wood bowl to him, and back again. Her blush deepened. He waited.
"Su... Su..Za.. Ku..." He name was undoubtedly awkward to say. The Emperor never divulged how much of her memory he wiped clean. Did she remember him? Or did Arthur's acknowledgement and sporadic affection really transfer over? "Please."
"Please what?"
She hissed. "The milk. Please." He waited, discovering a sadistic side of himself. When Suzaku roughly handled Zero the night of the teen's arrest, he didn't enjoy it. Right now he felt a strange tingling sensation seeing unshed tears and a scarlet blush on her face. "Please, feed me the milk... I can't myself."
He wanted to argue that Arthur figured it out right away. Instead he removed his gloves, not wanting to get milk on them. He lifted the bowl, getting some warm liquid on his thumbs. Whoever prepared Zero's meal was also a cat lover. She struggled to drink it like a human. It spilled out from the sides of her lips; pursing them over her teeth didn't seem to work.
"Zero."
She gave him a blank, and yet quizzical expression.
"Lelouch."
Her left ear twitched.
"Arthur?"
Another twitch, same as before.
He didn't know what to call her. "We will figure that out later," he sighed. "You're going to have to lap it up." She shook her head. "Ok then you aren't getting any." He moved the bowl away. Zero's eyes widened and she conceded, darting her pink tongue out. There was a spot on it too, just like Arthur. "Good girl." He praised, adjusting his hold.
With one hand underneath the bowl, he freed up the other one to scratch behind her ear. Zero purred, pushing her skull towards his hand for more. Her feline ears were softer than Arthur's, and her human hair was silky smooth. He absently ran his fingers through it, alternating between that and rubbing the tips of her ears. That was Arthur's special spot, and she seemed to agree. Her purr became louder, rumbling throughout the empty space.
He inhaled, surprised, when her scratchy tongue came in contact with his finger. She licked up the milk to the last drop. The way she looked up at him was far too human for his liking. Her amethyst eyes narrowed slightly and sparkled. She arched her back, doing that annoying cat habit of wanting more scratches, and she yet pulled away. Her chest arched and without conscious protection, her breasts were visible nearly to the nipple.
Suzaku cleared his throat, willing the strange sensation in the pit of his stomach to go away. "I'm not developing a fetish." He said aloud. Zero smiled, or what he imagined to be a smile. Despite having a woman's face, minus the fur by her eye and forehead, of course, she didn't appear to be capable of all the anthropomorphic expressions.
She whined when he removed his hand, and stood to leave. "Tomorrow?" She asked, referring to his previous promise.
"Fine," he sighed. Caring for Zero was his duty until further notice anyhow. "I will be back to feed you tomorrow."
She nodded, and curled up on the bed, closing her eyes. Suzaku's stance relaxed now that the intense stare was gone.
Read and review! This is yet another oneshot that got out of control. Yay kitty fluff!
