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Part IX

White Apple

9/15/2011 9:03 PM


Two weeks, a night had turned into two fully fledged weeks, and the space of that time Suzaku had managed to sneak in a set of dishes, a dog pillow in the living room, and the most annoying squeaky toy Lelouch had ever heard in his life.

Lelouch huddled in his wicker chair, a warm cup of coffee in his hands. He was hiding from the dog. The dumb thing was too gosh darn smart for its own good, and had figured out that when Suzaku left for work Lelouch was still at home, and that as a human being, a possible playmate. Since neither of them seemed to speak the same language (unlike Suzaku, who seemed to always know how to make the dog happy) Lelouch hadn't found a way to get the message across that he had no desire to play, especially not if it was the rough and tumble wrestling match Lelouch had observed Suzaku and the dog engaging in.

"He's not here." Lelouch said to the mutt as she prodded on to the porch, her tongue hanging in a far too happy manner. "and—" Lelouch stopped himself. Talking to dogs after all wasn't very princely.

That was another thing they had discovered, the mutt Suzaku had picked up was indeed a girl. Suzaku had shrugged at the notion, saying that it wasn't like he'd tipped her over to check her gender exactly. It was Lelouch's discovery, after dinner the dog had been found at his feet tail thumping against the tile as she'd rolled over on her back, paws up and exposed her belly, looking up hopefully. She had promptly been ignored after Lelouch had informed his companion the 'he' was indeed a she and that she was soiling the floor with mud, for which Suzaku would be cleaning. And Suzaku did clean it—after giving the mutt her wanted attention.

The dog didn't respond, but she did turn and start down the stairs.

Giving a snort, Lelouch turned to the side table, picking up the morning paper and flipping it open. "Good riddance to bad rubbish," Lelouch murmured to himself.

The morning news was nothing interesting, as it never was in the paper that Lelouch got. He used to order a nationwide paper, but that was quickly cut off by Suzaku as he tossed it back out the door and told Lelouch the country was not their problem anymore. So it was the local paper now that he received. Lelouch was still a little surprised at how easily he'd complied with that demand of his life partner. There hadn't even been a fight over the matter. Though as Lelouch looked in retrospect he kind of agreed with Suzaku, and it had simply been Suzaku that had pointed it out to him with his actions.

The sound of padded feet back on the porch brought Lelouch's attention back just in time to have a slimy, muddy, and salivated tennis ball, dropped into his lap. The mutt stepped away a moment latter and sat down waiting patient, eyes going between the ball and Lelouch, as if to try and give him a clue as to what to do.

Lelouch looked down at the ball, very hesitant, before using the paper to roll the ball off his lap. The ball thudded on to the porch bouncing and continuing off down the porch steps. Lelouch sighed and almost turned back to his paper before watching the dog. Suzaku wouldn't have…would he?

And surely it seemed he had. The dog, tail in the air, scrambled after the ball, jumping from the porch to land in the grass, catching the ball in its mouth and, tail still wiggling with joy, trotted back up the stairs and up to Lelouch. Before Lelouch had quite figured out what to do about this situation the ball was again placed at his lap, just as saturated with the dogs saliva and now branding a new coat of brown.

"I'm going to slaughter that boy." Lelouch said darkly, his fingers curling in the paper with a loud, crisp crinkle.

The dog perked, ears twitching to attention as it stepped back and waited for the ball to be in action again.

"There is no change in plan this time!" Lelouch said, a bit horrified that he was talking to the mutt, but Suzaku wasn't home yet so there wasn't much of another option. "I've sworn to do it before but never quite gone through with it, but this time—ohh, this time I will kill him." He was still talking to himself, and not to the dog, of course.

Obviously, the dog had no idea what was being said. Instead her tail thumped against the white boards of the porch as she looked up at Lelouch hopeful.

Knowing that if he just slid the ball off his lap again it would just be a repeat of the same thing again, and unlike the dog Lelouch was not enjoying this game very much, Lelouch instead just nudged it off of his lap to sit at the very edge of the chair. Lelouch slid away from it a moment later, crossing his legs and turning back to the paper.

He flipped the paper back up and started to read again, completely ignoring the dog in front of him as he turned the page to the nest section. It was better this way. Once the dog got attached it would just be harder when Suzaku got around to actually seeing Lelouch's demands through and finally taking the dog back to where ever he found her.

"Lelouch?"

Not sure how much time had passed, Lelouch looked up through his reading glasses a bit curious, "Hmmm?" And Lelouch looked up just in time to see his life partner greet the dog, before ever going to Lelouch.

"Hey puppy," Suzaku said, and of course the dog was up and already to him, tail wagging at such a rapid speed Lelouch wasn't even sure if it was still attached, while Suzaku stroked at the dogs head and scratched around her ears.

"Puppy?" Lelouch repeated. Lelouch had thought he was Suzaku's 'puppy.' Okay, so they had never had pet names like that, but the point was that if there were pet names between them, Lelouch was supposed to be the doted on puppy, especially by Suzaku.

Straightening, Suzaku smiled as he spotted the ball off to Lelouch's side, before scooping it up, no care about the filth of the thing and chucked it across the yard. Immediately, the dog set off, circumventing the porch steps again as she jumped from the porch and was out into the grass at a full run after the ball.

"She's really smart," Suzaku said with a wide smile as he sat in the only other wicker chair on the porch. "It's only been like a day since I started to teach her fetch and she's already got it down."

Unpleased at the prospects of this topic of conversation, Lelouch looked over at his companion with a cold stare.

Suzaku just continued to smile back. "I think she's kind of cute too."

If Lelouch hadn't been glaring before he was certainly glaring at this point of the mention at that filthy, flea ridden mutt being, "cute." "She's disgusting." Lelouch voiced bit toneless.

And she was back at this point happily presenting the ball to Suzaku, and with a fling of his arm the ball was soaring out through the yard again.

"So I thought of a name," Suzaku went on completely disregarding the harsh comment.

The paper in Lelouch's hands, this time, dropped to his lap, crumpled a little as Lelouch fisted them to turn to his companion. There was no way they were naming that thing and there was no way they were keeping it. "How do you know it doesn't belong to someone?" Lelouch shot out. If the tactic of distain didn't work than he'd try guilt-tripping Suzaku into giving the dog away.

"I went down to the pound, there was no report filed on her and she had no collar till us." Going on Suzaku brushed over the explanation seamlessly, "So anyway about a name…"

And that bastard was smiling as well. Lelouch narrowed his eyes. 'till us,' that was implying that a. Lelouch had been willing in this, which he hasn't, and b. that they were somehow now a family, which they were but Lelouch wasn't exactly counting the mutt in that sphere.

"Take her back." Lelouch flat toned as he stared over at Suzaku as he chucked the ball back out over the yard and the mutt raced off the porch and after it again.

"Hey! You've moved on from the 'it' stage." Unfortunately, Suzaku looked ecstatic.

Lelouch sighed, lifting one hand up from his lap he rested his elbow on the arm of the chair, turning his head away from Suzaku he pinched at the bridge of his nose. Suzaku wasn't even admitting now that they had had an agreement for the dog to leave. It was as if whatever Lelouch said was being filtered down into whatever Suzaku wanted it to mean, proving that in all this time the curly haired boy had indeed not changed a bit. The dog had weaseled her way into Suzaku's love and now was even getting compliments from him, like cute! There was no getting around it anymore…

"Fine, what did you name the mutt?" Lelouch asked, not lookingu p, not daring to look up at that smug face he knew he'd have to confront at some point.

"You're going to love the name. I picked it with you especially in mind, seeing as you love the dog so much." Oh was that boy smug. It oozed through the syllables in his voice, soaking up sentences and tainting his entire speech pattern.

Opening his eyes, Lelouch refused to look over at his partner. "What did you name her?"

There was a chuckle, a very smug chuckle. before the boy answered, "Charles."

Lelouch did look up at this, and over, his mouth forming a disgusted little o-shape. "You have got to be kidding me!"

He wasn't Lelouch quickly found as Suzaku stood and called from the porch steps. "Charles!" the dog perked, ball in her mouth as she started to run back in the direction of the porch. "I was thinking we should put in a fence, you know we wouldn't want to lose Charles at all."

Shaking his head, Lelouch just turned back to his paper. He thought of pointing out that the mutt was a girl and Charles was not the name for a girl, but it would have just gone through one ear and out the other. He thought of pointing out that they already had a fence around the front yard and that the back would be a bit over kill. It was Suzaku and the boy always seemed to need a project. He thought of pointing out that there was no way in heaven and earth that they were keeping a dog named Charles, but just like the last three arguments they had had over the dog, Suzaku would have just won anyway.

So in the end, Lelouch just sat in his chair and read his paper, trying to ignore the smug smile directed at him from the boy standing on his porch, slimy saliva soaked ball in hand and a fleabag of a mutt at his side.


So I've been a bit behind as of lately… I apologize but in my defense I am working on two very big projects in my life: a twenty page personal essay (the first of two due this semester) and a piece for my undergrad exhibition. So yeah, but here is another weeks worth, and I hope you love it. I know, I know, I've gotten off topic quite a bit with this story a lot lately but it's a fun story to write and its only a thousand words a week. But the point of the story will start to come forward more in the next few chapters, and s a litter apology I made thsi chapter two thousand words instead of one. :)

~Reviews for the starving artist and author?~