Title: Operation: Happily Ever After
Author: Lily
Fandom: Code Geass
Characters/Pairings: Ashford student council (minus Nina because she sucks), Lelouch/Kallen, Suzaku/Kallen, Suzaku/Arthur
Summary: Just another crazy school event orchestrated by Milly involving paintball, hungry cats, stairs, tic-tac-toe and Lelouch dressed up as a dragon. Oh and Suzaku and Kallen get married. (...Wait, what?)
The sky was illuminated in various hues as the sun, barely visible, sunk over the horizon.
"Pretty sunset," Suzaku observed, looking far off into the distance at the spectacular sight.
"Shut up." Kallen advised.
Suzaku of course, couldn't help but detect a note of bitterness in her tone.
"What's wrong?" he asked, shifting to look at the young red head standing stiffly by his side. Kallen's left eyebrow began to twitch.
"Wrong? Wrong?" She hissed, and glared at him pointedly. "Take a good look at our surroundings and then ask me that again!"
Suzaku heeded her advice and looked down at his white tux and at the beaded multi layered wedding gown Kallen was wearing. He looked at the brightly lit stage they were standing on and the dozens of students in the audience. Then he looked at Milly standing before them dressed like a priest with a bunch of cue cards clutched in her hands.
"...ah."
Four hours ago...
It was two 'o clock in the afternoon inside the Lancelot's hanger when Suzaku realized that he'd forgotten it was his day to feed Arthur.
Racing back to school with an urgency akin to a parent who had left their toddler at the airport, Suzaku arrived at the academy, sweating and out of breath. His danger senses were prickling however, along with the hairs on the back of his neck once he saw Milly standing on a soap box with a mega-phone in hand.
"GUTS!" She was yelling at what looked like a queue of apprehensive looking guys in front of the student council clubhouse. "GUTS!"
"Uh, Kaichou?" Suzaku interjected, "What's going on?"
"Hm?" Lowering her mega-phone, and diverting her attention to Suzaku, a wide grin immediately spread on Milly's features. "Suzaku! I thought you were busy with military work today?"
"Ah, yes I was. But then I remembered that I haven't fed Arthur lunch yet..."
"Oh really?" Milly tilted her head and tapped a finger against her chin. "Well I'm sure he'll be fine. Lelouch and Kallen are there with him and there are snacks in the cupboards."
"Human snacks maybe," Suzaku couldn't help feeling that she should be displaying more concern over the matter, "but the cat food is in the kitchen pantry. I'll just go in quick and —"
An arm shot out and caught him in the chest. "Sorry Suzaku, but you can't go in," Milly informed him matter-of-factly, "a very important event is taking place in there at the moment."
Suzaku blinked in confusion. "An event? What kind of event?"
At this, Milly clasped her hands together and grew starry-eyed. "A gallant fight! Spectacular feats of daring and rescue!"
"What?"
She spun dramatically on the spot. "A race to test one's courage and devotion as they battle through obstacles of strength and wit for a young maiden's hand in marriage!"
"What?"
Milly seized Suzaku's shoulders and shook. "Love, Suzaku! Love!"
He could only shake his head in bewilderment. "Sorry, I still don't follow."
Milly sighed a weary sigh. "Kallen is locked up in the council room right now and whoever can get to her first will be wedded to her in holy matrimony at a special assembly in front of all the school."
There was a pause while he tried to take in what Milly had just described.
"...Why Kallen?" Suzaku found himself asking.
Milly shrugged her shoulders. "She lost in rock-paper-scissors. Besides, she's very popular as you can see." The blonde gestured to the line-up of defeated males looking forlornly up at the clubhouse.
Suzaku shook his head again. It was amazing how Milly came up with these things.
"All right then, I'll just call Lelouch and tell him to feed Arthur—"
Milly shook her head. "I told you, Arthur is with Lelouch and Kallen and they're locked in until someone wins the key from Shirley."
Suzaku was steadily growing irritated. "Then I'll call Shirley to unlock the door so she can—"
Milly shook her head more furiously and folded her arms stubbornly. "The door is not to be open by anyone but the winner! Do you know how long it took for me to get Kallen in there in the first place?"
Lapsing into silence, Suzaku was just about ready to pull his hair out in frustration. Here he was standing outside while Arthur was cooped up and starving and probably feeling neglected and unloved which Suzaku couldn't blame him. How could he forget to feed the cat? It just seemed so obvious. Like not sticking your hand in the blender.
At that moment, Suzaku's entire demeanor changed. His depressed slump at imagining Arthur's poor hungry state was replaced by a fired up posture, raring for action. He was Kururugi Suzaku; a soldier— nay, a Knight — ready for battle.
"I will go inside myself and rescue Arth— I mean, Kallen." Suzaku announced, squaring his shoulders bravely.
Milly's eyes widened in interest. "Ehhhh? Suzaku, could it be that you...?"
But Suzaku was already dashing away towards his destination with the speed and grace of a gazelle.
Meanwhile, Kallen and Lelouch were playing tic-tac-toe together.
Kallen had long since come to accept her pitiful situation after spending about half an hour working out her escape options which were sadly very, very limited. Other than the doorway, there was the balcony but she was too high up to make a jump of it. Resigned to her fate as a mere prize, Kallen resolved to bear through this ordeal with grace and dignity.
"I win," Lelouch said for the millionth time as he drew a line through a diagonal row of Os. He had removed the head to his costume earlier in order to keep from dying of a heat stroke but he still looked ridiculous in the bottom half of the huge green dragon costume Milly had forced him to put on.
Still. Kallen scowled. "I should've been the dragon." she muttered out loud. Lelouch was prettier, let him be the damsel-in-distress. Goodness knows he couldn't even walk up the stairs without breaking a sweat.
"You know why." Lelouch stated calmly. "Your rock was on the receiving end of my well-timed paper."
Kallen crossed her arms and looked away. "Frankly, I never understood how paper can beat rock. A rock can quite easily cover it too and then what?" she argued passionately, "Crumpled paper, that's what! The whole thing is backwards."
"Paper beats rock. Those are the rules." Lelouch simply replied.
"Screw the rules! Where's the logic? The fairness in that?"
"You're just being a sore loser. "
In the corner of the room, Arthur began hissing loudly.
"What's up with that cat?" Lelouch questioned, looking around to see if Suzaku had mysteriously popped up somewhere.
"I think he's hungry." Kallen said, putting aside her feelings of resentment. Getting up from her cross-legged position on the floor, she approached the cat sympathetically. "I think it was Suzaku's turn to feed him, but he wasn't here today, was he?" Looking through the cupboards inside the council room, all Kallen could come up with was a box of Lindor chocolates.
"Don't feed him that. Chocolate is poisonous for cats." Lelouch said, waddling up to stand beside her.
"I wasn't going to." Kallen said crossly, putting the box back in the drawer and poking Lelouch's cushioned tummy. "But what are we going to do? He needs to be fed something."
"Nya nya nyaaa" Arthur mewed hungrily.
Lelouch gave a disinterested glance at the cat. "There's nothing we can do until someone unlocks this door. He'll just have to wait."
In a split second's time Arthur had launched itself at Lelouch's face. First there was no cat, then boom. It felt like someone had snipped a few panels from a manga sequence. Hissing and spitting and clawing, Arthur was clearly livid with hunger and rage at being so casually dismissed.
A high pitch scream tore from Lelouch's throat as he tipped backwards and writhed on the floor in agony.
"Arthur, no!" Kallen's shouts mingled in with Lelouch's anguished wails as she pried the cat off Lelouch's face. With another hiss, Arthur twisted away from Kallen's grip and leaped to the floor where he began to prowl up and down the room agitated; his hair standing on end.
Kallen winced at the myriad of scratches now adorning Lelouch's face.
"That cat!" Lelouch exclaimed, looking more than a little deranged as he pointed a shaking finger at the cat in question. "That cat is—"
Kallen quickly covered his mouth with her hands. "Shhhh! He'll hear you!" Indeed, Arthur looked ready to pounce on Lelouch again.
Paling considerably, Lelouch shut his mouth and let her clean his wounds with minimal "ow ow owing".
"Arthur's not usually like this." Kallen felt the need to defend, "he's just hungry is all." She coaxed a hand towards Arthur in an effort to prove that he was still the adorable cat the student council knew and loved but quickly withdrew when Arthur made a swipe with his sharp claws.
"This is all Suzaku's fault." Lelouch said darkly and struggled to sit up. After a minute of watching him huff and puff and flail his limbs around, Kallen eventually took pity and helped Lelouch to his feet.
"This costume is hard to move in." Lelouch said defensively before cramming the dragon head back on as a protective measure from any further scratching.
"Uh huh."
Suzaku was currently slinking his way down a hallway with his back to the wall like a spy in a B-movie.
That is, until he took a couple of steps forward and promptly found himself swaying upside down from a rope wrapped around his right ankle. Apparently, he'd triggered some sort of booby trap. Milly hadn't been kidding when she said there'd be obstacles.
But he had to keep going. Had to. Arthur was counting on him.
Lelouch and Kallen were both huddled in a corner as Arthur watched them from across the room unblinkingly, his tail swinging back and forth impatiently.
"Kallen?"
"Yes Lelouch?"
"Are we going to die?"
"...D-Don't be so melodramatic..."
Lelouch began to laugh. And, because laughing hurt his face, he also started to cry.
Kallen gave him an odd look.
...tbc...