"These clothes are weird but comfortable," Lelouch stepped out of the bathroom, still studying how the yellow shirt and striped pajamas fit his body. It was not skin-tight like his pants that he rarely took off to wash. When you were on a journey, you had lesser hours for grooming.
The blond boy eyed the stranger, raising a brow higher if possible. This so-called Lelouch Lamperouge was making himself look stupid with all that inspections he was doing to his clothes. Nevertheless, he looked normal now that he was wearing appropriate—ugh—bedtime clothes. Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, V.V. said, "Actually you're weird, not the clothes. What costume party are you attending to stay in-character until this very moment? You must have hit your head really hard."
"I don't understand what you're trying to say, but thank you for helping me change into this clothes. Now, shall we meet the King?" Lelouch turned around and smiled at the annoyed V.V.
"You're insane," the blond mumbled and walked out of C.C.'s room.
"Anyway, what do you call this...animal drawn here?" Lelouch pointed a finger on the Cheese-kun print in the shirt. It was one of C.C.'s collected Cheese-kun merchandise that even V.V. was not allowed to touch.
The blond boy paused and looked at the tall young man behind him, studying his entire physique and searching what C.C. saw in this guy to let him wear that shirt. V.V. thought this black haired pretty boy was nuts.
"It's not an animal. It is Cheese-kun, in case you haven't heard of Pizza Hut," replied V.V.
"Not an animal? I see..." Lelouch lifted his gaze from the shirt to look at V.V.'s eyes and asked, head tilting a little, "What is a Cheese-kun?"
V.V. let out a groan and trudged on the hallway. "Cheese-kun is just Cheese-kun. Don't bother asking again, gosh." Talking felt like speaking to an infant who was brought out of his room to see the world for the first time.
The two walked down the stairs. Lelouch was wearing C.C.'s bunny slippers, and V.V. had his matching pair. Thr blond immediately told the guy that the slippers he was wearing was his sister's, but the guy just replied that it was given to him in her kindness.
Lelouch looked at the tapestries covering the walls. These corridors were smaller than the ones he had seen in the castle back in Firmus, but these walls were a lot nicer. His Majesty had numerous paintings hanging on his hallways but those were never aesthetic. Most of them were painted in honor of the King and nothing else. The ones he were seeing right now whet his appetite for arts.
"You have nice wall displays, pageboy."
V.V. ignored Lelouch, seeing no reason why keep up the conversation, let alone initiate. He had never spoken to him first after he helped the tall idiot to dress. But after several seconds of silence, he realized that Lelouch just called him pageboy.
"I am not a pageboy," V.V. snarled. "I am the son of the owner of this house."
"A prince?" Lelouch stopped in his tracks and bowed. "Your Highness, forgive my rudeness earlier, sir. I am ready to accept whatever is the consequences of my unforgivable—"
"V.V.! Lelouch! Come down! The dinner's ready! Dad wants to see both of you!"
V.V. shrugged when C.C.'s voice rang in the hallway. She must have convinced their father that Lelouch was Suzaku's cousin. She was his sister after all. Albeit known to be someone terribly taciturn, her eloquence was something worth to be proud of. Similarly that was what you ought to expect from people with few words, once they talked it should be sensible.
The blond glanced back at Lelouch—who was still bowing—and waved him off.
"I'm no prince. This isn't a castle, either. It's just a normal house."
"Normal!" Lelouch interjected, saucer-eyed. "I have never seen a normal house like this. Unless you are a noble? Perhaps you are."
The blond ignored his blabbering and gestured him to follow him. It was pointless to argue with someone pretending to have travelled through time, faking innocence about things that have existed for century long. After walking down a flight of stairs, they came face to face with C.C. and the head of the house. V.V. watched his father as he looked at Lelouch, and Lelouch nodded his head in acknowledgment.
"Good evening, sir." Lelouch inclined his head. He could feel the older man's strong stare piercing through his entire being. V.V. said he wasn't the King, but what was that horn blown earlier?
"Is it true that you are Suzaku's cousin?" V.V.'s father asked.
Lelouch kept smiling, eyes focused on the green haired lady standing behind the man. Whatever the gesture she was making meant, it might be asking him to say yes. Thus, he answered positively. "I am."
"Silly boy," sighed the older man. "Going out for a trip and forgetting a family here. I'm glad to know that V.V. found you waiting in front their house. Now V.V. what do you want as a reward?"
Before Lelouch could correct the old man that he wasn't found in someone else's house, the blond boy talked first.
"Why do I have a reward?" V.V. stepped forward.
"You made a good deed. You must be rewarded," his father leaned down and patted the blond's head.
V.V. remained quiet, fingers tapping on his chin in deep thought. He didn't do anything at all, perhaps this was all C.C.'s doing, so he might as well go along.
"I want to sleep in C.C.'s room tonight. Lelouch and I will camp in her room," — because I don't want them to be alone — V.V. gave his father a perky smile. C.C. would surely make a way to stay in the same room with Lelouch, whether or not their Dad would let him use the guest's room. The girl mentioned something about an explanation or whatnot to clarify things, so when that happened, V.V. didn't want them to be alone together. He wasn't very open to the idea of sharing his sister with some stranger.
"Very well," said his father. "Then let us all have our dinner so we can retire early tonight."
And the four walked to the dining room. Lelouch and C.C. stood next to each other as V.V. walked ahead of them. The girl made sure that her dad wouldn't notice them interacting suspiciously, she leaned closer and whispered, "Do not talk anything about Kings and princes. Dad knew none of it. We're commoners."
Though he wanted to protest, he just nodded.
"And never specify anything about Firmus. It's nowhere near this place. Dad wouldn't understand you. By the way, Cheese-kun shirt looks good on you."
Silently he agreed. Lelouch would deal with these small requests by now, as his own way of showing gratitude for their hospitality. He just shrugged at thr compliment. He didn't know what to feel about it exactly. And so, they proceeded with the dinner.
It went exactly the way C.C. wanted it, her dad asking a few questions about the place where Lelouch came from. The dark boy described Firmus—the way it was in the book—making V.V. cringe at how medieval this place seemed to him. C.C., on the other hand, was delighted to hear it all since she had read what the kingdom was like. But her smiles during the dinner was more likely for the very reason that Lelouch was really speaking and eating with them.
Her mind was plagued with the thoughts about the book, fantasies about the fictional land where he came from, when C.C. was called out by her younger brother. She must have spaced out longer than usual—she just realized, seeing how half of her food was untouched. Briskly she finished it off and took the dishes with her, as the three boys went to the living room to continue their talk.
C.C. wanted to scold V.V. for leaving the dishes all to herself, but choose not to speak about it anyway. They would be spending the night altogether, so she would have a plenty of time to lecture her inconsiderate brother. He was always helping her, so ditching her like this was a surprise.
By the time she finished cleaning up, her dad already dismissed the two boys. She didn't miss how her father gave Lelouch's shoulder a friendly pat as they laughed together, whilst V.V. was just staring at them with his sour face.
"Good night, boys. Don't stay up late, the three of you," C.C.'s dad looked at her way, sending her a knowing look. "I know you have some sort of story telling whatever. Just get enough sleep, or your mom will kill me if C.C. get to have eyebags."
Lelouch just laughed and V.V. shrugged it off.
C.C. made sure that she latched her door. She couldn't let her father walking in on them while she was sharing her hypotheses about Lelouch's sudden presence here. She needed to tell V.V. too that he was just a fictional character.
Her brother and their guest set a huge thick blanket on the carpeted floor, V.V. bossing him around as the dark boy fetched every thing the brat asked for—pillows, pillows and more pillows.
C.C. was about to flip her bed upside down in frustration. After locking the door, she moved to her bed to get the book Milly had given her, only to find the space next to her head pillow empty. She was sure that it was the last place where she left it, and she had no other place to put it. All books she was currently reading was always kept within her reach so she could read it whenever she felt like reading. There was no way she would put it elsewhere.
V.V. and Lelouch noticed her agitation as she rummaged her drawers. Her bed was now a heap of mess—or simply her sheets were tossed on the corner, pillows discarded on the floor—and her drawers left open.
Lelouch—unable to contain his curiosity and bewilderment after witnessing a woman's rage—asked, "What's the matter, miss?" He realized that he didn't know her name yet—he didn't know anyone's name inside this house, unless C.C. was seriously her name, and her brother, V.V.
C.C. looked up to them—breathless as though she rose from being drowned, "The book is missing. The book where you are from?"
"The book where I am from?" he repeated, half-laughing. "What do you mean?"
It seemed funny and absurd, she knew — V.V. could stop staring at her like she grew a second head. Nobody would believe her after all. "The book! Firmus, that's where you are from. You are a fictional character, Lelouch. I have to find it!"
"I have it, stop screeching." V.V. pulled a book out underneath his shirt. His sister quickly shot him a glare, a look asking for an instant apology. "Sorry, C.C. I just want to read it because you look so happy while reading it."
"Next time ask permission," C.C. took it from his hand. "You're stealing someone's property, V.V. Now, like what I said...Lelouch came from this book. I think it has something to do with the spell you refused to read. The one from the sorceress."
"I remember declining her invitation to find the truth," murmured Lelouch. "But it is not possible that there is a world besides ours? That's the real world. Are you trying to say this is another world?"
"This is the true world," she said. "You're born from a world imagined by the author Zero. You're fictional!"
"If I am not real why can I touch you, talk to you and all sorts? Why can I feel my physical body and every thing that surrounds me if I am a mere illusion?" his keen purple eyes studied her, demanding for an answer.
C.C. knew she couldn't provide an answer. She wasn't sure how things worked this way, too. Who knew if she was someone else's character too and some author was messing up their lives? But again, that couldn't be true.
"Why did you refuse to read the spell aloud?" C.C. asked in return. V.V. sat on the sheets Lelouch set on the floor and watched the two grownups. Why was this scene so listless?
"She has magic, miss. I don't know what harm it may do to me. Witches and wizards can't be trusted as they do not trust mere mortals," Lelouch paced in front of her, arms crossed on his chest. "There is a reason why they're not kept in the palace, you know. Even if their loyalty is promised to their ruler, they do not obey whatever they are asked to do, particularly doing things that they don't find...convenient."
"Ah, remember what the magician told you? The spell will bring you to the real world..." C.C. flipped the pages of the book, stopping at the part where Lelouch and the sorceress were talking. " 'It will bring you to the real world, young man. To a world where the prince really belongs, and then you shall know the truth.' See? It's written in here!"
Lelouch was silent for a moment. If she was correct...if the sorceress didn't lie, then why was he lifted from the book when C.C. read it? He was supposed to read it so he would see this real world where the prince belonged. If he had read the spell, what would happen?
"It doesn't make sense. I have to read the spell to achieve whatever she promised—and yet, I didn't read it. But how was I brought here? It must have something to do with the spell." He locked gazes with the green haired lady. They both heard each other's sides, but... He, a character from the book? Absurd.
"I pity you, medieval jocks. The answer is really simple," V.V. crossed his legs and smirked at the two. "Meet the author and ask him what is the spell about. I assume that both of you can't understand what it means, no? In that case, ask the idiot who put that spell in the book. It must be a real one."
C.C. and Lelouch looked at each other and nodded at the blond brat. He might be right. Now, how to find the author? Zero wasn't a real name, obviously. Pulling out her phone, C.C. called very significant person.
"Hey, Milly? — Yes. Can we meet tomorrow? — 7AM, Ashford Town Center? — I have a date. V.V.'s coming, too. Okay. — Thanks!" she turned back and smiled at the guys. "All right, sleep tight! We have a mystery to solve tomorrow."
Sorry for the lousy writing!
This chapter (and the previous chapters) are not proofread, so I apologize for the errors here and there. I hope you enjoy this update (though nothing major happened) so yeah. Happy Holidays!
Review if that's your thing.
-ivan.