Licentiosus

Snapshot 1: Banquets and Bothers

A/N: Because who does not enjoy a dabble in pure cotton candy fantasy fluff? Obviously R2 is not taken into account for this diddy as well as deviating from everything having to do with being canonic.

"This won't do, now will it?" Euphemia sighed as she leaned back in her chair, her dress riding up uncomfortably around her thighs as she shifted to try and accommodate the annoying fabric that kept being misplaced. When she was standing on her own two feet the dress hugged her wonderfully and gave her a coy yet professional appearance that had even the lower level members of government doing a double take that very warm summer morning as she walked into the administrative block.

She had been tasked with trying to organize some sort of banquet for visiting government officials and they had insisted that they blend together what had been once Japanese hospitality with the Britannian flair for elegant and extravagant parities. Cornelia had been less than impressed with the orders, delegating them off to her younger sister with the insistence that she would have a better hand in that than her and had abandoned Euphemia in her office to tackle the project. Euphemia had more or less sighed as she gave her sister a deploring look but had accepted the files with guest lists, food allergies, and dance partner cards.

It had taken her a few hours to more or less iron out the basic details of the affair and she had made more phone calls to certain planners that she was aware of within Area-11 to try and balance out some of the wants while ensuring that the needs were more or less met. She had worked through the extensive guest list, cross checking who was married to who, who was feuding with who, and who got along with who as she hand wrote out and diagramed the extensive seating arrangements. There were to be more than three hundred guests in attendance to welcome the government officials from the Homeland and she huffed as she recognized a few less than stellar figures that she had, had contact with: including her old physics professor from when she was a student and a particularly nasty government official that had taunted her for her bubblegum pink hair.

She had ignored the tray of food that an intern had deposited onto her desk, the cold sandwiches growing even colder, as she slowly worked through the logistics of trying to find a big enough space that would met the high standards of royal snobbery that she had grown up around. Euphemia found herself torn between the museum or perhaps the ballroom of the royal grounds but she was leaning towards the museum to ensure that she herself would be able to escape away and find solace in what would be a nearly abandoned government palace when she wished to retire for the evening. She had spotted her name on the guest list, one of the first twenty listed, and she knew that it would be a long and arduous night of nodding her head and pretending to be interested in furthering Britannian policy in the troubled Area-11.

Euphemia sighed again as she reached up to brush a bead of sweat from her brow, the heat of Area-11 being something that she was less open-minded to given that the Homeland had a much more comfortable temperature. She had spotted Lloyd Asplund creeping around the outer perimeter with the ever patient Cécile Croomy trailing after him to avoid him stepping on any toes and she wondered how they had been able to adjust to the blistering heat of the Japanese summer. She turned her attention to the air conditioning unit that was blasting out a pathetic stream of air and wondered if there was some cruel act that she had committed as a child that she was being forced to pay now in terms of the discomfort of a malfunctioning dress in the blasted heat of summer.

"Oh my," She sighed to herself again as she bent over the list of seating arrangements and cross-checked it with the list of guests to ensure that everyone had a seat. She had been strategic at building her table: Guilford and Cornelia sitting with her, Suzaku sitting to her immediate left—which she knew would be met with complaints from her sister—and she had filled in the spot with two softer hearted individuals who would not be glaring daggers at her poor knight the entire evening. Despite Suzaku having settled nicely into his role as her protective figure, she knew that the comments and sniggers still caused him some grief that he refused to react to in her presence. When she had questioned him about it once he had waved off her concerns, telling her that he had grown used to them and the spiteful looks thrown his way when her back was turned. It had pained her enough to know that her knight, one that she knew was more than qualified for the position, had become the punching bag of the higher reaches of society.

She had set aside the seating chart, unsure as to why the government designated planners had not been gifted such a herculean task, and she had decided to go through the list of dances and to match dance cards to the female participants. She had made two neat columns, slightly aghast that there were a smattering more of females than males, and she recounted everything thrice to make sure that she had not accidentally left anyone off the list. She ran a hand through her pink mass of hair that seemed to be frizzing under the humidity and she let out a very unlade-like snort as she ran through the names of the dances.

Waltz.

Quadrille.

Viennese Waltz.

Lancer.

Quickstep.

Tango.

"Only six?" She questioned aloud as she then realized that having three hundred people dancing would be utter madness and she was counting on the less socially inclined guests to sit out their dances. She muttered under her breath as she began to pair up the more obvious pairs based off her previous examinations of who got on well with who and who was married to who to avoid setting off any unwanted signals. Euphemia found that she had been able to work out the first four dances completely and was running into snags with the military personnel and her lack of knowledge on their relations as well as the fact that it was going to be a nightmare to try and ensure that everyone was matched with an appropriate partner. She also had to figure in that the Viennese Waltz, being the last dance, was the symbolic one of the bunch and required that everyone be matched with someone suited to them.

"For heaven's sake, I have more important things to be doing," She murmured as she threw her pen down and yanked open her drawer, pulling out the AC remote and cranking it up to full blast. The machine sputtered in annoyance as she begged for it to continue its brave work of keeping her cool while she worked through what was going to be an event swarming with press and vapid individuals who could barely look down past the tip of their nose. She felt the sweat pooling on her forehead as well as her underarms in the dress that would just not cooperate and Euphemia was on the brink of calling it a day and trying to look at it again tomorrow with fresh eyes when a knock on her door sounded and broke her from her internal monologue of not requesting a stronger air conditioning unit.

"Yes?" She called, wincing as irritation crept into her voice momentarily.

"Princess? It's me," A familiar voice said gently and she felt her face smooth over into her gentle smile at the recognition of her Knight. "May I come in?"

"Of course, Suzaku, you don't have to ask," She replied back as she tried to push the material down her legs again so that she was decent for the young Knight who pushed open her office's door. He stepped into the office, wearing what looked to be a summer interpretation of the military uniform that was a short sleeve shirt that looked to be made of comfortable and breathable material and slacks that were airy enough to provide lovely ventilation. Euphemia found herself envious of the soldiers that were prancing around in such garments while she was relegated to wearing the stuffy wear that the Homeland deemed worthy of a princess.

"Is everything alright, Princess? You look… troubled," Suzaku asked as he closed the gap between the door and her desk, standing attentively before her as she gave him a half smile that did not quite light up her eyes. Suzaku had settled into his role as her Knight but she saw beyond the glitz and military honours and saw the young man that he was turning into that she found great strength in to push thorough some of the more difficult aspects of her life. They supported each other in their own ways and she was grateful that he had come as a much needed distraction from such a terribly mundane task that was causing her a world of problems that were minimal compared to his.

"It's fine, really, I'm just trying to work out the logistics for dance cards for a banquet next month," She explained in a hurried tone. "You're invited, too… of course. I hope that you'll attend, Suzaku."

"Of course," He answered steadily with an incline of his head. "However… what's a dance card?" Euphemia blinked at him as she realized that perhaps it was not a universal custom outside of the Empire and she motioned for him to come stand next to her behind her best. She reached into another drawer and withdrew what looked to be an elaborately decorated fan that had a strong crimson red ribbon that formed a wrist-sized loop at the base. She slid the loop onto her dainty wrist and opened the fan, holding it up for Suzaku to inspect.

"Tango, Lewis Maloof," Suzaku read as he studied the neat calligraphy that had been penned onto the wooden separators that divided the fan into various segments. "Salsa, Armando Carrasco. Waltz, Ronald Sudlander—are these all people?"

"Exactly," Euphemia replied. "The dance cards are basically assigned partners that you dance with to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to participate and that no one gets snippy about the quality of their dance partner. It sort of was based off a tradition from Europe but with a spin that we do the assignments to ensure no woman is left sitting. In this case though… there's a lot of women and not enough men. I'm trying to pair up women who I know get along, but…"

"It's not easy," Suzaku finished her statement as he touched the delicate fan with his fingers, rubbing the pads of his thumb and index finger over the wooden frame. "Is there anything that I can do to be of help?" Euphemia gawked at him momentarily, somewhat humbled that a man consumed with affairs of the military was willing to offer her help with such a task outside of his expertise. She saw that his kind face was light and waiting for a response from the pink princess and she gave him a quick nod, pointing at the lists of guests as well as the seating charts and explaining the rhyme and reason behind some of her matching.

"The problem is starting with the Quickstep because that really is a fast dance and I am trying to make pairs that will be comfortable doing a dance that is, frankly, really out of place for this entire affair," She explained deftly as she moved her hands around as Suzaku studied the list with a careful eye, recognizing most of the military personnel that would be in attendance. He was standing behind her as he leaned in, his chest lingering dangerously close to her shoulder as he began to tick off who would work together and who would not.

"These two would be fine, I think," He suggested as he pointed at a Nightmare pilot and a low ranking politician. "I've seen the two of them in them base together having coffee. They see to get along fine." Euphemia felt her cheeks redden as he leaned in even more, seemingly unaware that he was ghosting her bare shoulder with his well muscled chest and she caught a glimpse of the taut muscles in his biceps as he made a few comments on other individuals that did not seem to be problematic.

"O-okay," She said as she wrote them down in her growing lists. "And these two, correct?"

"Yes, Princess," He said in a low voice. "They get along fine—just do not let this person," He pointed at someone named Soledad, "—Dance with him. They had a nasty fight in front of all of us in the envoy and it was a bit tense." Euphemia crossed out said Soledad's name from the list as she matched her with a kindly Duke from the Homeland who was the least offensive person on the list. "These two as well seem to be alright…"

They worked through the extensive list as they managed to pair up most of the partners with the Quickstep,with Suzaku and Euphemia cross-referencing each other and Euphemia had paired herself with her sister for lack of anything other than being a placeholder. Suzaku himself had been paired with an affable woman from the Homeland who Euphemia knew personally and would not take offence at being partnered with the Honorary Britannian. During the entire process, Suzaku's arm and chest kept brushing against Euphemia whose face was growing redder and redder in the process, her embarrassment and the heat turning her a lovely shade of tomato red as she tried to shrink away from her kind Knight's body. She was immensely shy around him when it came to physical intimacies, he himself standing closer to her out of protocol's sake, but she would catch how he looked at her from time to time and it seemed to light a fire beneath her feet as she would look away.

"Are you sure you're alright?" He asked as she found that he was peering into her face with a look of concern plastered on his youthful face. "You're really red, Euphie, it's summer and all… but you should be trying to stay cool." Euphemia felt her heart pitter-patter against her chest and she swallowed as she tried to think of the most tasteful way to tell him that his closeness to her was setting off a stronger reaction than the summer sun but she grimaced as she nodded in agreement, muttered something about iced tea and iced water as she reached for phone to put in the request for beverages to the poor intern who had been suckered into working in this office. Her fingers wrapped around the telephone's neck and she pulled it towards her, spindling fingers dialling to the intern's desk that was shoved away in some isolated corner.

"Hello, I'm sorry to bother you, could you please bring me some water and iced tea, please? Yes, of course, two glasses… well, three! You're more than welcome to have some, too," Euphemia added as Suzaku continued to linger over her shoulder and examine the lists for the last dance, the famed last tango that the Britannians seemed to be so fond of for reasons beyond his understanding. "Yes, yes, to my office, thank you!" She hung up the phone and pushed it back towards its home on the far corner of her desk, giving Suzaku a wide eyed look as though she'd seen a ghost before spilling her eyes back on the list.

"Ah, yes… the tango," She murmured as though reading his thoughts. "This one is tricky: the last dance is the symbolic one and is usually reserved for those who are…" She trailed off as she tried to rephrase the wording to not shock Suzaku four ways into the next week but even she was unable to find a suitable explanation. "…Courting. Unmarried, but courting. Historically." Her shortened speech drew a raised eyebrow from the green eyed Knight but he did not say anything as he continued to hover over her shoulder as he started to look at the pairings that would be easiest. He saw that Lloyd and Millie had been matched already due to their announced engagement, Cornelia and Guildord was another obvious choice, much to Suzaku's surprise at Euphemia's forced pairing, and he spotted a few other openly courting pairs that were already matched with Euphemia's red pen of fate.

They conversed amongst themselves quietly, discarding certain pairings based on common and personal experience with them and they matched with alternatives that seemed to work out quite well for most, Suzaku suggesting certain military personnel that Euphemia matched with Homeland-based guests. They worked well together as they neared the end of the list, their own two names being within the twenty or so that were remaining. Suzaku had already cast his eye on his list of partners and found no issues with Euphemia's conscious pairing with more forward thinking politicians but he had noticed that she had not paired the two of them together for any dance, assuming that it would be for the last one.

Courting, he thought with a lump in his throat. He cast his glance down at the Princess who was drinking greedily from the iced water that her intern had brought for them: large pitchers of iced tea and even a smaller one of lemonade had been brought silently into the office. Euphemia was an anomaly amongst the Royal Family and he knew that she was an authentically kind person who bled empathy and sympathy to those who needed a kind ear. She was emotional and she was reactive and impulsive, things he had highlighted when she had commanded her to love him. He had been unsure as how to interpret that but he had reaccepted his position as her Knight with her vouch of confidence and her promise to lend him her support and strength. She was radiant like a field of Hokkaido lavender in summer and she exuded a different mentality compared to her sisters and brothers. Suzaku knew that he would be pushing the limits to pursue any sort of courtship: he was an Eleven despite his status as an Honorary Britannian and he had no right to request her hand in those sorts of affairs without it hurting Euphemia or having her family's backlash.

"So, I think that these two will go together well enough…" She drawled on as she circled their names and connected them, jotting them down on a separate sheet. "And I think that—"

"—Euphie, are you sure that the last dance should be with me? Your last dance, I mean," He cut her off gently, his bicep pressing into her shoulder. She gave him a startled look as she tilted her head at him, not understanding fully the question he was posing.

"Of course it is, Suzaku, why wouldn't it be?" Her lovely eyes were bright as she gave him a baffled look as she tried to understand his logic behind such a loaded question. "You're my Knight, after all, and besides… I thought…" She trailed off as she herself was unsure as how to she wanted to complete her own sentence with regards to their private radio transmission in which they had come clean about their feelings towards each other. They had not really returned to address it properly and it had been a lingering question mark over their heads. Suzaku was aware that if he tried to explain his point of view that she would try to ease his thoughts and tell him that it would work out somehow while she herself knew that it was another sick impossibility given the rule of her family had been fairly adamant about Elevens in relation to the policies put in place to lock in Britannian superiority.

"I… just don't want people to have the wrong idea," He settled for. "They look at me and see that I'm 'taking advantage' of your status as a Princess."

"Suzaku, we always knew that people would have the wrong idea and I doubt that will ever change, but it's pointless to be concerned about what other people think at this point," She said quietly as she folded her hands together, lacing her fingers into a lattice. "We've done enough damage and with how the press is, well, they've probably already theorized how everything ends." She was still flush red as she took in a deep breath, desperate to reach for her glass of water.

"Euphie… doesn't it bother you?"

"I wouldn't have you have my last dance partner if it did, would I?" She replied quickly as she shrugged downwards as she tried to escape his chest pressed against her shoulder once again. She was silently praying that the Earth would come and swallow her up to avoid having much more contact with her Knight's frame but no such luck would bless her that scorching afternoon.

"No… I suppose not," He agreed as he seemed to drop the topic, reaching for her pen that she had temporarily discarded and circled their two names, joining with with a flourishing line that was neat and precise. "I'm honoured that you would consider me for your last dance, Princess."

"I'd be offended if you weren't," She said with a choked giggle, nearly singing praises as Suzaku retreated from her side and rounded her desk before settling in one of the comfortable chairs she had dragged herself from across the hall to have a space to entertain visitors to her office that were not her poor intern. Suzaku had swiped the decorative fan and he was opening and closing it slowly, staring at the names that were penned eternally into the wood. He wondered if she had enjoyed dancing with these faceless names of men that he did not and he did not dare to ask the Princess as she shuffled all her papers together, flashing him a nervous smile as she rose from her chair.

"It's a bit impractical, but I quite like the idea of having the fans, especially since Japan was known for their handfans," She offered to tide over the conversation. "I think that would be a lovely idea to repeat again—I'm sure many of the women will enjoy the memento." Suzaku opened his mouth to say something when he saw how the dress had bunched up against her thighs and he looked away, his own cheeks pink out of interest for not compromising the Princess' modesty. The pale skin of her slender legs was enchanting in its own way and he fought to ignore any potentially controversial thoughts from his mind.

"Oh, Suzaku, do you think that there… Suzaku?" She was peering at him before she felt a blast of air from the ancient AC rush over her legs and she looked down to find that her dress had rode up again. With a squeal, she flattened it and retreated to behind her desk, letting the structure protect her legs from the eyes of anyone as she herself look mortified that she had scandalized her poor Knight without realizing. "I'm sorry! It's a new dress…" Her explanation, while seemingly pathetic, was oddly endearing and Suzaku slowly slid his gaze over to her as she watched him with a flustered expression.

"Sorry… I should have said something," He offered meekly, embarassed to have seen more than he should have been permitted to see. By all accounts, he was as horrified as she was given that he was still unsure as to how comfortable they could be around each other and to what limits they could test the boundaries of their relationship. It was a unique clump of factors that made it difficult to truly gauge each other and they found it frustrating in the solace of their own silence.

"Oh…" She trailed off as she looked down at her lap, suddenly interested in the intricate stitch-work that had gone into her dress' skirt piece. "It's fine… accidents and wardrobe malfunctions happen. My dress for the banquet will be much longer… that much I can assure you of." She gave him a sheepish grin as she brushed a pink lock from her face, her cheeks returning to a healthy glow as opposed to lobster red.

"Shall we call it an evening, Princess?" Suzaku proposed as he cleared his throat, to which she bobbed her head as she placed the carefully constructed lists into a folder and sealed it shut, depositing it and the dance card fan from her first ever formal dance back into the drawer, closing it to the world.

Ideally, these snapshots of silly and fluff moments take place between their meeting and the massacre at the SAZ. I always thought they had a very interesting dynamic and how they complemented each other nicely. This is sort of a pet project that I'll update whenever I write something under the guise of 'writing exercises.' I don't own Code Geass, etc. Don't forget to review! :)