"If you don't want to answer my questions, you don't have to, just as I don't."
Questions For Questions
"I don't know why you wanted to do this," Lelouch vi Britannia complained, trying to shift the weight of the many pizza boxes in his arms. The stack of seven large, awkward boxes was difficult to carry, especially with the containers of French Fries on top. Did Pizza Hut have to put cheese in every single curst? It made them much harder to carry. (Though it was more likely his incredible talent for avoiding gym class that was making pack mule duty unpleasant.)
Moreover, why did they need so many? It wasn't like she could eat with the group, and without her, there weren't very many of them. Never mind the fact the majority of the committee were girls - none of whom had immortal bodies that wouldn't get fat from binging on pizza.
"Well, no mater how enigmatic you are, those classmates will get suspicious about your constant absences," C.C. replied, munching on one of the cheese breadsticks the fast food company had just started selling.
"Don't you have more important things to worry about?" he retorted stubbornly. "And I gamble, I'm always missing classes anyway."
"No, but you do. Thus you should be glad I'm helping with the simpler, trivial matters like this. Isn't it so nice of you to treat your classmates to a pizza party?"
"How much did all this cost? I know they upped the prices from that menu they sent in the mail. They'll raise the interest rate on my card if you go over the credit limit. And which of my cards are you using?" he interrogated, figuring that out of all the questions he had asked her, she should at least be able to answer such simple ones.
She glanced over at him and stared blankly. "Limit? And what difference does it make?"
"Because your pizza bill is getting worrisome. You've been ordering at least thirty dollars' worth a day, and I'm not even going to try to calculate that in yen. The currency exchange is horrible and it's difficult enough for a legal minor to get a credit card. Which one are you using? What color is it?" he added, imagining she wouldn't have paid attention to the name or logo.
"Don't be so worried about money. For what I've given you, some of this 'pizza' of yours is but a small compensation for now. And it's the blue one."
Well, at least that's the one with the highest credit limit…a few thousand dollars…well, not in yen.
"Don't bring my Geass into this. How much did this cost?" he repeated, an edge of irritation in his voice.
She had to be the most frustrating woman he'd ever had to deal with. He couldn't avoid working with her, due to their 'unique partnership' (as she said it), seeing as she lived in his room. That fact made it an awkward situation - furthermore, whenever her uniform needed to be washed, she'd dig through his clothes to find something she fit halfway well in. She'd make a hellacious mess in order to find something and never cleaned up after herself.
However, that wasn't the problem. It was that she often left his room and the building he and his sister resided. If any of his classmates saw a young, unfamiliar woman, roughly his age, leaving his room dressed in his clothes…well, he'd done his best to avoid that situation. Her unusual uniform, though it stood out horribly, was better.
It lead to awkward questions. If the information reached his sister, and after C.C. let her thing they were engaged…well, he tried not to think of his escape plan for that unpleasant situation.
The entire class was already suspicious about 'what he was up doing every night' since he spent a good portion of the school day asleep in class. They even made jokes that he was an expert of dozing off and not getting caught.
The Black Knights simply figured she was his mistress, and there was no reason to inform them otherwise. They didn't know his exact age, that he was a student, or anything of the like; but for his classmates, it was an unacceptable conclusion to let them draw up.
"Why are you so frugal? I thought you were a prince," she chided, a bit joking.
His expression sank into a familiar scowl. "'Lelouch vi Britannia' has been dead for years, and 'Zero' has no extra funds for frivolous spending."
"Whatever. You're still here and have plenty of money to pay for my pizza. All that gambling has earning you quite a lot."
"Just answer the damn question," he retorted in exasperation. "You're going to have to start using another card if this keeps up."
She turned around to stare at him, raising an eyebrow curiously as she whipped the crumbs off her lips on the sleeve of her - no, statistically his - jacket. "What do you mean? They stopped taking the blue one days ago. I already started giving them the number on the red one."
"You maxed my Visa?" he rephrased, a slight tone of horror in his voice. "What country have you been funding?!"
"Hm. I was going to make it a surprise for you when the bill came in."
"Have you been ordering online, too?"
Before she could respond and say cinnamon sticks with warm liquid fudge for dunking to start, a loud scream echoed down the hall. The sound reverberated ominously though no other sounds loud enough to carry ensued. They exchanged looks, though C.C. seemed only faintly fazed. "Sounds like one of your girlfriends."
"They're friends who are girls," he corrected, momentarily distracted by the way she said it.
"Whatever. It sounded like the girl who pretends to be sick but piloted the red Nightmare. Aren't we near the baths?"
His expression became serious. "Could soldiers have gotten into the school grounds? They couldn't have been tipped off about my identity."
"Perhaps," she replied enigmatically.
The hint of desperation usually hidden behind anger or boredom was reflected in his eyes as he hurriedly turned to face her, dumping the heavy stack of pizzas into her arms. "Hey!" she objected, stumbling at the weight and the hastiness of the transition.
By the time she regained her footing and looked up to see where he was off to, he was already halfway down the hall and disappearing around the corner. She heaved a sigh, inwardly thinking it might have been a better course of action to say it was probably unimportant rather than toy with him. She shook her head and put the heavy stack down and followed him at a much less urgent pace.
He stopped outside a tall doorway, thoroughly breathless. He wasn't much of an athlete - never had been - and leaned against the wall to catch his breath as he calculated his options. The walls were heavily soundproofed, making it all the more surprising someone had screamed loud enough to be heard so far away. Regrettably, it also prevented him from hearing what was going on inside the room now.
But…the sound of bullets would most likely echo as well, so it shouldn't be an attack.
Unless it's a hostage situation.
There's no reason for them to target the school, I've kept my identity too well hidden for this.
If there was an attack, he could easily save the girls by using his Geass. He'd only have to make eye contact with the enemies and issue the command; making his enemies commit suicide was an easy task. But he was still in his school uniform and lacked his Zero mask; merely saving a few classmates wasn't worth revealing his identity, no matter who they were.
In the few seconds his mind was reeling, making plans, discarding the useless ones, and settling on which ones would be most logical, C.C. appeared at the end of the hallway with her arms crossed.
"Goodness, you're so jumpy. I was being sarcastic! What soldier would attack the school?" she questioned, though she should have known he had no faith in anything pertaining to the government.
"Neither the Britannians or the terrorists can be trusted," he retorted, about to continue. He was interrupted when another, much less urgent, shriek echoed down the hall. If anything, there might have been an edge of entertainment in the voice.
Lelouch's rigid demeanor relaxed slightly at the sound.
"You see?" she said, leaning her weight on her right foot and putting her hand on her hip. "It isn't an ambush."
Never one to admit to being wrong easily, Lelouch retorted quickly, "Still, they should be checked on."
"But isn't this the women's bath?" she questioned, motioning at the door with a smirk. "You, a teenage male with a small entourage of women, plan on waltzing right in there to check on a few naked girls without any explanation?"
"W-well, hearing a scream is a valid excuse…," he trailed off, frowning slightly. "And don't exaggerate that incident with the cat and my mask. You're making me sound like a pimp."
"They'll think you're a hopeless pervert. Just let me check if you're still worried," she said calmly, striding over to the door calmly. "And half the female student body at this school was after that cat when they heard the prize was a kiss from anyone on your silly little group," she drawled.
"No way," he retorted, seizing her wrist before she could reach out to grasp the handle. "They have no idea who you are, and you're supposed to be hiding. Not to mention you're wearing one of my uniforms. It looks ridiculous. Couldn't you have gotten a girl's uniform?"
"Oh, but you're so thin, your clothes fit my figure so well. Even your Zero attire fits me just fine."
"Aren't you taking this too fa-" Lelouch demanded, seeking the end the bickering, but was abruptly interrupted when the laughing voices from within the room came closer to the door and into earshot.
C.C. tilted her head curiously, but at the same moment, Lelouch seized her wrist, clapped a hand over her mouth, and pulled her down the hallway before she had time to react. She struggled slightly, attempting to say something along the lines of she'd be glad to hide without being dragged along.
He pulled her around the corner at the end of the hall and peered over only once as he automatic doors slid open and three young girls (one of whom was still only in a towel) came stumbling out into the hall. Kallen, followed by Shirley and the Student Council President, hurried away saying something about the ridiculousness of cosplay. He shook his head slightly in disgust, clearly not amused.
"See?" she remarked, crossing her arms. "You're getting too paranoid, you got worked up over nothing at all. You should really consider using a double to pose as you more often. It's easy to make voice recordings and have me pose as Zero, but it would be easier and better for our cause to have someone pose as your student self more."
"I don't have the resources to find a look-alike yet," he said quietly. "And keep your voice down, they'll hear you."
"Hmph. Just walk around one of the settlements for a few hours and you'd find someone we could dress up as you…," she trailed off, as though she was really considering the idea. "Actually, we might want to start looking for a tall girl. It'd be hard to find a man with a face that feminine on short notice."
Earning nothing but a more than an aggravated glare she smirked and rose to her feet before he could respond. "Well, they'll be in the meeting room soon. You're carrying the pizzas the rest of the way. And don't complain, they'll stick you in remedial physical education if you get any less athletic."
Final Hikari: Good day, my readers! This is my first (attempt? XD) at Code Geass fan fiction, not to mention the first time I wrote anything for an anime. And before anyone asks, I really do love Lelouch, but in this oneshot set around the picture drama on disc 2 of the first season, it was too fun to resist having C.C. pick on him. XD
C.C.: Well, no one realized I was a woman the two times I pretended to be him for the Black Knights.
Lelouch: -.- Enough out of you.
C.C.: It's true that if you ever needed a body double that didn't have to wear a mask, you'd just have to find a tall girl with black hair and lavender eyes. Dress her up right and no one would know the difference…
Lelouch: -slight grimace- Couldn't you just say 'purple?'
Final Hikari: Hey, it's better than lilac. XD The exact shade is a bit of a stretch but that would have been even more feminine.
C.C.: Oh, yes, lilac, of course. -sounding slightly amused-
Final Hikari: Violet! Mauve! -closes and covers her eyes before trouble ensues- Thanks for reading and please review!