It's been forever since I last updated and I apologize for that. o Ao I'm surprised that this even happened.
Really spontaneous. Who knows when chapter three will be out~
Thursday Morning
8:31 a.m.
The clouded sky allowed for a very miniscule amount of light to filter through the window but it was enough to rouse Shirley from her slumber. She steadily drifted to consciousness her now awakened senses changing the course of her dream. One in particular that really affected it was her sense of smell. Shirley began to smell things familiar to her – things that made her heart skip a beat. She inhaled deeply as her dream abruptly ended when she opened her eyes. The first thing to greet her emerald gaze was the window that let in weak amounts of sunlight. She couldn't tell what was outside because of the curtains that draped over the window, obscuring the objects below. Curious, Shirley pushed herself up, causing the sheets to fall in a pile in her lap, then peeled one of the curtains to the side. She gasped in surprise as she gazed at Ashford Academy's lawn. She was home? No, that wasn't right. The view wasn't the same as the one from her room.
The sound of someone moving behind her caused Shirley to freeze for fear of being noticed. In her chest, her heart pounded like it had never pounded before as she waited to hear anything else. After staying perfectly still for a few minutes, she decided it was safe enough to at least turn her head to peek at what the cause of the noise was. The thing – no, person – she saw was the absolute last thing Shirley Fenette expected.
Lelouch Lamperouge, her crush, sat slouched in a chair adjacent to the bed. He was only a few feet away, sitting in what seemed to be the most uncomfortable position possible but still looking at peace.
'I'm not dead.' Shirley tore her gaze from him as the realization suddenly smacked her in the face. But that was impossible! She had been shot; there was no question about that. She remembered lying on the cold, tile floor as her blood pooled around her body. She also remembered Lelouch rushing to her side and begging her to live, even crying as she slipped further and further away.
"Sh-Shirley!" Shirley jumped and turned her head suddenly to face the speaker. It was Lelouch. He had only just woken up but was already rising from the chair to be at her side. He leaned in, close to her. "Are you alright?" The concern that clouded his purple eyes made them look darker than normal as he studied her face for any signs of pain. Unable to move – due to the shock of being so close to him – she nodded stiffly.
"A-ah, uhm, how did I get here?" Shirley asked her voice uneven as she turned her head away from him. She felt as if she was speaking to him for the first time again. The orange haired teen grimaced at the butterflies in her stomach that made her feel nauseous.
"Shirley . . . you don't remember?" Lelouch furrowed his eyebrows a little, causing the butterflies to act up even more.
Slowly and with great hesitance, Shirley shook her head, "I don't." Her green optics hovered on him for only a moment until she had to look away again. "I thought I died when I was shot but I woke up here and . . ." Shirley trailed off when she noticed Lelouch deep in thought. He moved backwards and sat in the chair again. "Lulu?"
Lelouch seemed despondent until he shut his eyes and sighed. "You should go get cleaned up." He suggested, changing the subject. "The bathroom is down the hall, the second door on the right."
"Are you saying that I stink?" Shirley exclaimed, suddenly becoming self conscious of her look and smell while also being offended. "Well, excuse me for almost dying!" She exclaimed, getting up and stomping off into the bathroom. Shirley didn't give Lelouch any time to save himself when she slammed the bathroom door shut. "Honestly!" She prepared to go on a rant but stopped suddenly when she saw herself in the mirror. She was in an outfit that she had never seen before. It made Shirley wonder who in the hell had put it on her.
Shirley left the bathroom and stormed right back into Lelouch's room with a deep blush glaringly obvious on her cheeks. "Do you have some sort of sick fantasy?" She clenched her fists, taking a shaking breath, "A-and what were you doing undressing me while I was asleep, Lelouch?" She narrowed her eyes in an attempt to look intimidating.
"W-what?" Startled, Lelouch stuttered as he looked up at her. "No!" He defended. "You showed up here in that. I only took you to my bed so you could rest after you collapsed." The anger she felt was wiped right from her face and replaced with surprise. "You don't remember how you got into that?" Lelouch questioned, looking like he was in deep thought again.
"No." Still not convinced that he had nothing to do with it, Shirley crossed her arms. "What do you mean I showed up here?" She interrogated as worry began to overcome her.
Lelouch nodded. "Shirley, it's been a week since you were shot." He paused, seeming to look regretful but at the same time happy. "Everyone thinks you're dead. There was even a funeral."
Shirley looked down at her feet, taking a nervous breath. 'A whole week?' She repeated, trying to make herself believe it. She pictured her mother and friends all dressed in black surrounding the hole where her casket had been put. Shirley shook her head, trying to chase away the horrid thought that brought tears to her eyes. She stilled, though, when Lelouch gently hugged her.
"There's something I need to show you." Lelouch murmured, resting his chin on her head for a moment longer before pulling away and leading her back into the bathroom. Once there, Lelouch turned her so that they were facing the mirror. Then he carefully pulled down the collar of Shirley's shirt down so that she could see the mark that followed her collarbone. Her eyes widened in response and filled with fear.
"This . . is the same mark as when you made me forget . . ." She trailed off as Lelouch nodded solemnly, hating the pain that the memory brought back.
"Take a shower in here." Lelouch said after a few moments of awkward silence. "Maybe that mark will come off when you wash." He smiled meekly at her and shut the door, leaving Shirley to herself.
Shirley completed her shower in thirty minutes. She'd scrubbed hard at the mark, attempting to wash it off, but all she succeeded in doing was irritate the skin to the point that it almost matched the bright red color of the mark.
"It's called a Code." Lelouch said from the other side of the door, scaring Shirley.
"How long have you been standing there?" She exclaimed, embarrassed.
"People with Codes give other people the power of Geass. I'm one of the people with the power of Geass." Lelouch said, not answering her question. He didn't say anything else as Shirley wrapped a towel around her body and cracked the door open.
"Um . . I need –" Shirley began to say clothes but Lelouch was ahead of her. He handed her a folded pile. She shut the door and put the outfit on, observing that it was the school uniform. She straightened it out, took one last look at herself in the mirror to make sure that the mark wasn't visible, then opened the door. She grabbed the strange outfit she'd been wearing earlier then exited.
"I can't make you forget this time." Lelouch said as Shirley entered his room.
"I don't want to forget, Lulu." Shirley chided softly. "I want to be able to remember you and everyone else, no matter how painful." That only seemed to make him worry more. He looked so pained and that made Shirley frown. "I'll be fine, Lulu." She attempted to reassure him again but it still didn't help.
Thursday Night
11:46 p.m.
"What will you do, Lelouch?" C.C. pestered, smiling as she sat in the chair Lelouch had been sleeping in the previous night. She shifted herself so that she had one foot in the chair and could rest her cheek on her knee.
Lelouch looked over his shoulder at Shirley, who slept in Lelouch's bed again, then at C.C. He narrowed his eyes as if telling her without words to be quieter so that they wouldn't wake Shirley. It was bad enough that C.C. had come back – though he supposed it would have inevitably happened anyway – but now she seemed to want to play games with Shirley. "Nothing." He said with an enunciated pause to emphasize what he meant, "Shirley will stay here where it's safe until I figure something out." Lelouch sounded curt. It wasn't entirely C.C.'s fault, he was frustrated by the sudden change in events. They threw his plans off quite a bit.
"How will you make sure she's safe if you leave her here?" C.C.'s smile grew slightly, "You'll be gone too much to know and I'm not babysitting." Lelouch didn't answer the green haired girl. Instead he seemed to distract himself by watching Shirley sleep. "Now you have two witches –" C.C. began but stopped suddenly when Lelouch spun around, his facial expression full of rage.
"Shirley is not a witch." Lelouch snapped, his fists clenched.
C.C. seemed unaffected by his comment and instead watched Shirley sleep. She found it peculiar that she could slumber right through all the conversation next to her. The witches orange eyes shifted to Lelouch as he sat on the bed next to Shirley, brushing a fefw strands of hair out of her face. "I'll decide what to do tomorrow." He mumbled.
Friday Morning
9:07 a.m.
Shirley awoke the next morning feeling reluctant to leave the bed after sleeping better than she had in a while. She opened her eyes slightly and found herself staring at Lelouch's lips. A blush formed on her cheeks when she noticed that he had one arm wrapped around her. He'd fallen asleep in the same bed as her. Shirley carefully scooted closer to him but stopped when Lelouch stirred. The orange haired girl took a deep breath and stayed still, hoping he would go back to sleep.
"Shirley?" He called her name softly, brushing his lips against her forehead.
"M-mm?" She was too nervous to speak.
"How are you feeling today? Lelouch pushed himself up so that he was looking down at her.
"Alright." Shirley said, finding her voice and sitting up too.
Lelouch was silent for a minute before he shifted towards her, kissing her forehead lightly. "I love you too." His sudden statement left her speechless for a second.
"W-what?" Shirley stammered.
"I'm answering you. You said you loved me when you . . when you were . . ." Lelouch lowered his gaze, unable to utter the word 'dying'. She began to wonder how much her near-death had affected him.
"O-oh." Shirley smiled, feeling happy but also to nervous to say anything else.
"I have to go see the Black Knights today and . . I'll be taking you with my but you have to call me Zero." Lelouch looked at her seriously. "They can't know that I'm a Britannian student." Shirley nodded silently in complete understanding. "Good, we'll be leaving soon."
Friday Morning
11:28 a.m.
Shirley stood close to Lelouch, unsure of what to expect. The roomy elevator was taking its time getting to the bottom floor (or maybe it was a basement). The orange haired girl glanced to the side as it finally came to a gentle stop. The motion made her fall into Lelouch on accident and he helped her regain her balance. When the door opened, the now masked man walked out in front of her as she followed at his heels nervously. They entered a cold room filled with various people and to her surprise, she recognized one of the members: Kallen. Her green eyes widened in shock.
"S-Shirley?" Kallen tripped over her words as her mouth popped open with the same shock as Shirley. Her expression, however, switched quickly to agitation as she got up and stomped over to Zero, taking him by the arm. Kallen dragged him off to where they couldn't be heard speaking by anyone. Meanwhile, Shirley turned her gaze to the other members. The majority of them were male save for one woman who laid seductively along one end of a couch, causing some of the men to have to cram together at the opposite end. She took a drag of a strange cigarette that Shirley didn't recognize and exhaled.
"So," She began, looking at Shirley all over in a way that made her feel like a test subject, "what about you is so important that Zero had brought you here, hm? Britannian?" Shirley was unsure of how to answer. She knew that her outfit probably saved her from being questioned about being a student at Ashford (she was wearing the outfit that Lelouch had found her in again). Luckily, Lelouch and Kallen returned. Shirley looked at Kallen only to see her glaring icily at Lelouch. What had he said?
"This is Shirley and she will be a great asset to our goal." With that she watched as all the Black Knights gazed at him intently but Shirley felt a strange feeling in her gut. Something was terribly wrong.
