Heat suffocated Ashford Academy. What should've been spring seemed more like summer, and as the afternoon dragged on, C.C. increasingly regretted skipping swim team practice. She had her hair pulled back in the usual pigtails, but even that couldn't stop the few wayward strands from sticking to her neck. She fanned herself lazily and watched Lelouch from the corner of her eye.
Aside from them, the club room was empty. The only sound was that of the fan as it pivoted left to right, but the tepid wind still didn't make up for the heat. C.C. rolled her sleeves past the elbow; her jacket hung off the back of her chair. Lelouch, on the other hand, remained steadfast about adhering to the dress code.
He spun his pencil around his thumb every few minutes as he worked on balancing the council's budget. Milly was really going all out on the spring festival this year. Half an hour in, he could feel his forehead grow slick with sweat. Just as it threatened to roll down his temple, a loud clearing of the throat completely ruined his concentration. Even so, he refused to look up.
When he ignored her, C.C. rolled up her papers and forcefully rapped the table. She continued hitting, harder and louder, until Lelouch's shoulders finally slumped, and his eyes flicked up.
"What," he said testily.
Without a word, she got up from her seat and rounded the end of the table. She leaned one arm against the back of his chair and brought her hand with the phone in front of him. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the glare, but soon, he could make out the video. The sound quality wasn't much better than the sluggish resolution.
'So that was where the noise had been coming from,' Lelouch thought, shooting C.C. an aggravated glare from the corner of his eye.
"The internet here is really poor," she commented airily, tugging absently on her left pigtail as she waited for Lelouch's reaction.
He shifted his gaze reluctantly, humoring her. At the end of the thirty seconds, his expression turned to one of confusion, and he raised an eyebrow. His questioning look didn't seem to faze C.C. at all.
"Well?" she asked, leaning her chin against her forearm. Her bright yellow eyes were right next to his now, and he coughed uncomfortably.
"Well, what?"
"Let's try it."
That made him laugh. He leaned to the side where she wasn't standing and refocused his eyes on the numbers of the page before him. "Why."
"Why not," C.C. returned. "I came to school to have fun, didn't I? And this seems fun."
"Well," she added after a pause, "Then again, I suppose you're the worst person to ask given the pathetic nature of your stamina. Never mind. I'll ask Gino, then. Or maybe—"
She paused, rocking back on her heels. "—Suzaku."
Crack. The tip of Lelouch's pencil broke and left a smear across the paper. He thought he heard a giggle, but when he swiveled around, there was only the neutral expression C.C. always wore.
She knew his ego too well. She couldn't bother him by insulting his strength. Everyone knew what Lelouch lacked in muscles he made up elsewhere, but if there was one thing he hated, it was losing. And if there was anything he hated even more than losing, it was, well—
He stood and folded back the sleeves of his jacket.
"It's simple," he said. A somersault in the air wasn't so much about athleticism as it was about the basic principles of physics and the careful consideration of motion. He figured it out easily. The only thing left, then, was the execution.
C.C. stepped forward til she was hardly a hand's breadth away from his face. "We don't have to kiss if you don't want to. I know how you are with things like that."
Her eyes glinted. He pursed his lips. "Hurry up before I change my mind."
C.C. threw a smirk over her shoulder and leaned down, pushing her hands through her legs. Lelouch grasped them with little trouble. 'It's easy,' Lelouch reminded himself, running two or three calculations through his head before being satisfied. All he had to do was pull with the right amount of force.
He tugged on C.C.'s hands with as much strength as he could manage, but instead of her straightening, Lelouch felt his own world starting to invert.
They crashed to the floor with a loud bang! The nearest chair fell with them and just barely missed Lelouch's head. That wasn't the worst of it, though. The worst part was C.C. landing on his chest. The impact knocked the air out of his lungs and left him wheezing.
"That's alright, boya. I wasn't expecting much to begin with," she clucked, sitting on him and smiling. It was a genuine smile, like the one he'd always promised her. His heart beat quickened, but he simply attributed it to the unorthodox exercising.
"Ugh," he groaned, rubbing the growing bump at the back of his head as he struggled to lift it off the ground. "I don't need your patronizing."
"It's not," she said, leaning so far down that her pigtails fell past her shoulders and buffeted Lelouch in the face. "I'm praising you for your efforts."
He rolled his eyes. "C.C., get off. You're heavy."
"Liar. When I twisted my ankle you carried me to the nurse just fine."
"That was different."
"You don't seem to mind when Kallen straddles you." She tightened her thighs against his ribs and watched him squirm.
Lelouch winced. He flailed his arms unsuccessfully in an attempt to grab anything that could give him some traction. "What are you talking about?"
"You're such a bad liar, Lelouch."
"I beg to differ—"
The sound of the door sliding open made Lelouch freeze. He was never going to hear the end of this, so his head fell back with a soft thump, and he accepted his fate.
"Uh, Kallen, I don't think a rematch is a good ide—oh."
"Eh?!"
⁂ ⁂ ⁂
"Is this the sort of thing you two do when you're alone at school?"
"Not just at school," C.C. whispered behind her magazine, smiling slyly and narrowing her eyes at the red head. "At home too."
"I knew it! Lelouch, you pervert!"
"Kallen, as I was saying, you have it all wrong," Lelouch amended with a sigh, pointedly ignoring C.C. as he picked the smallest box from the ground and began carrying it over to Milly.
"And exactly what am I wrong about?" Kallen picked the biggest and followed suit but not before glowering at C.C. over her shoulder.
C.C. merely wiggled her fingers playfully in a mock wave and took a seat on the ground.
"But, really, what were you two doing?" Suzaku asked with a good-natured laugh as he pulled on the collar of his shirt. It was too hot a day to be setting up for a festival, but he supposed it was the Madame President's orders. Her voice radiated over the stale air, matched only by Rivalz's as he scrambled to pick up the decorations he'd dropped.
Suzaku laughed at the sight, and in the short time he'd taken his eyes off her, C.C. had picked herself off the ground and walked to where he was sitting. She leaned against his shoulder; her breath tickled his ear as she spoke.
"Do you really want to know, Kururugi?"
The way she said it made the heat rise to his ears. He was sure it was turning beet red, but his voice remained steady. (Mostly steady, anyways.)
"S-Sure."
"This."
She thrust the screen of her phone in his face, and at the end of the clip, Suzaku was flat out laughing. Little pin prick tears formed at the side of his eyes.
"Really?" he breathed as his laughing finally began dying down to chuckling. "You were really trying to do that with Lelouch? Why?"
C.C. shrugged. "Just to see if he could. The results were disappointing."
A gleam in the green-haired girl's eyes told Suzaku exactly what she was thinking.
"So, do you want to try, Suzaku?"
Suzaku shook his head with a grin still on his face.
"I'd do it with Euphie, but she sprained her wrist."
"We don't have to kiss, you know. Unless, that is, you don't want to because you can't either."
Suzaku gave C.C. the side eye with an expression that seemed to ask, "Really?"
C.C. shrugged a second time. "I mean, I wouldn't blame you. You have been getting a bit, hm, out of shape."
He wasn't usually one to fall for such obvious bait, but just because he wasn't in the military anymore didn't mean he'd stopped his exercise regime. In fact, Suzaku would wager that he was in the best shape of his life. Even Euphie could've backed him up. When he looked around, though, his girlfriend was nowhere in sight.
"Fine." Suzaku stood and brushed the dirt from his uniform.
C.C. laced her fingers behind her back and offered the boy a pleased grin.
"Not because I fell for your goading but because I can practice and surprise Euphie later."
"Whatever you say."
By the time they'd descended the slope and positioned themselves on the grass, everyone else had gathered around to see what they were doing.
"Eh~ What's this?" Milly asked as she bounced over, Rivalz in tow.
"Oh!" The blue-haired male's fist smacked against the palm of his hand in realization. "I know! It's that meme going around, right? The somersault kiss!"
"Somersault kiss?" Lelouch echoed as he passed the gathering crowd and found none other than C.C. at the center of it. C.C., and to his surprise, Suzaku.
"Isn't Suzaku dating Euphie?" Shirley added as she stopped beside Lelouch and stood on the tips of her toes to get a better view.
"He is."
'That witch,' Lelouch thought.
"You better not drop me, boy."
"No chance," Suzaku laughed. "Ready?"
"Mmm."
Suzaku's strong hands pulled C.C. right side up. Her legs slid across his body perfectly and tightened around his waist, but before they could stop, momentum carried her lips right into his. Suzaku opened his mouth out of surprise.
"Oh!" Euphie gasped, arriving just in time to see her boyfriend's French kiss.
Lelouch didn't even know how to react. He only stared on, mouth very lightly agape. Nina buried her face in her hands. Rivalz's "whoa!" and Milly's low whistle were only matched by the redness of Shirley's face. Kallen and Nunnally were nowhere to be seen, and Lelouch was glad his sister wasn't around to see something like this.
When they finally broke apart several seconds later, Suzaku's face had turned the same shade as Shirley's. It couldn't have gotten any redder even after he saw Euphie on the sidelines and began stuttering.
"E-Euphie! Th-That wasn't! We were just—!"
Euphie clapped her hands slowly, careful with her sprain. "That was amazing, Suzaku!"
"I got it all on video!" Rivalz added, swinging his phone in the air.
"Don't record something like that!" Suzaku blurted.
"Suzaku! I'm shocked! I didn't know you were such a womanizer! And with Euphie watching too!"
Suzaku buried his face in his hands. He wanted to crawl under a rock.
Meanwhile, Lelouch had pulled C.C. away the moment her feet touched the ground. The grip on her arm was unusually firm. Before he could say anything, she beat him to it.
"Are you jealous?" she asked, tilting her head to the side knowingly.
"No, why would I be?" Lelouch returned bluntly, unsure why he was suddenly so irritated though he knew it wasn't jealousy. It couldn't be. He was just upset at C.C.'s lack of... decorum. Yes. That was it. That was why he was upset, probably. "I just remembered something about the pizza club that I—"
"It's alright to feel jealous when you've been cuckolded, Lelouch. It's only natural, after all."
He had half a mind to grit his teeth and ignore her, but she always knew how to get the best of him. "That's not—!"
Lelouch turned his head, fully prepared to glare daggers at the woman, when she suddenly leaned up and stopped the words in his mouth. Her face hovered close to his then, very lightly, lips brushed against his cheek. It lasted maybe a second, maybe a little longer, before she was flat on the ground once more with as self satisfied a smirk as ever.
"You're too sweet, Lelouch."
Lelouch hadn't even comprehended what happened, and she'd already walked past him. When realization finally dawned a few seconds later, color immediately spread across his face.
"C'mon, warlock. The pizza club needs its vice president if changes are to be made."
Lelouch snapped out of his daze. He rubbed his cheek with the sleeve of his uniform, sputtering. "What—Wait—C.C.!"
His heart thrummed. The unfamiliar tightening in his chest made the words catch in his throat when he finally caught up, and then, she smiled a second time. In that instance, his resolve bottomed out; he gave up completely. Even though he was admitting defeat, the edge of his lip still threatened to tug upward. He hid his mouth behind his hand as she looked away.
'I'm glad you're happy.'
author's note: don't ask me what kind of au this is. think of it as an offshoot of the code geass timeline where no one died and everyone is happy orz anyways, if you don't know what the somersault kiss is, i highly suggest looking it up on google because it's fucking adorkable and obviously inspired this fic. um, unholy trinity chapter three is coming along nicely. got a few thousand words, but i'm aiming to make longer chapters, so it won't be up for a while yet. that aside, i've got midterms again, so yah no more updates/fics for a while. thanks all c: