Pre-Comment: Yeah, I'm only a little shocked myself. Never underestimate the power of Minute Maid Pure Squeeze. Especially when it comes to me freely. Especially that.
Enjoy Chapter Twelve.
Chapter Twelve: Foretold by Stars
Outside, birds were chirping happily underneath a blue, blue sky.
In the kitchen, Lelouch was humming a tune, wearing a frilly pink apron with printed pink hearts on it cooking breakfast. The smell of bacon, eggs, French toast, and miso soup (some habits were hard-broken) flooded the kitchen. It was a big day and the kids would need an extra special breakfast today.
Life was wonderful.
He was happily married to a wonderful spouse.
His house substantially covered a little under half an acre.
His kids were bright, cheerful, and successful.
His luxury car shone so much that he could see his reflection in it.
Yes. Life was wonderful.
The pitter-patter of small feet alerted him to his children waking up to the smell of breakfast. As they ran into the kitchen, Lelouch turned to emb—
Holy Mother.
"Mommy!"
A miniature Suzaku looked up at him with bright, green eyes, smiling with both arms wrapped around his legs like restraints.
Lelouch was petrified with horror.
"Mom—" Who was what now? "—have you seen my favourite shirt around?" was called out from around the corner of the entryway to the kitchen as a teenaged Suzaku came into view.
His eyes widened.
It was understandable that his body began to tremor slightly.
"I… uh…"
Another two of them came running at him and latched on to each arm, causing Lelouch an understated amount of concern. "Good morning, Mommy!"
Oh God.
Quickly, Lelouch glanced at his left ha—
Yes.
Ring finger.
Ice.
Sweet merciful heaven.
"Darling," was called cheerily from around the corner, out of sight.
Quick, where was the kitchen knife so he could still his beating heart?
"Have you seen—"
Hell had apparently frozen over.
Or at least was laughing at him.
"—my tie?"
He walked right up to him, buttoning up a blue shirt.
Lelouch took a good look around him.
Surrounded.
Flanked on every escape.
No-man's land with no hope.
Down the river without a pa—
Suzaku planted his hands on either side of Lelouch on the counter. "And how is my beautiful wife this morning?" he murmured softly, leaning in to—
OH G—
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Outside, birds were chirping happily underneath a blue, blue sky.
Inside a bedroom on the Kururugi estate, specifically on the floor of this room next to the door, Lelouch was suffering from a mild panic attack, mild arrhythmia, and at least eight kinds of shock and or horror.
And, when he couldn't scream anymore, he just lay there, panting, drenched in sweat, and paralyzed with fear. Taking stock of his surroundings, he was able to calm down slightly.
And then something rattled to his right.
He turned to—
Handcuffs.
Oh.
Right.
From the other side of the door—
"Sayoko! Lelouch's finally awake!"
"You understand?"
He nodded stiffly, "Yes."
Her eyebrows knit together dangerously and she folded her arms.
He winced.
Because, deep down, he knew that, under those porcelain white gloves, she was hiding an iron grip capable of breaking a man in two—in more ways than one (and probably in more pieces than two).
"You're sure?"
"Positive."
Walking around him to inspect him from the side, Marianne bent down just slightly so their faces were level and brought a gaze that could cut glass and melt steel inches away from his face.
For lack of a better way to put it, if he hadn't just recently visited the restroom, Mao would've promptly wet himself like a little girl.
"Positive, huh?"
"Y-Yes."
She snorted.
He yelped slightly and shook harder.
After an eternity of simply staring him down, Marianne straightened up, sighed, and smiled cheerfully, slapping him on the back heartily and laughing. Laughing. Just laughing. The laugh that made you wonder if she was genuinely just happy or amused at imagining all the colourful patterns your insides would make on a canvas as kindle.
It was not a happy laugh.
At all.
"Good! Excellent even! So you won't fail me, will you, Mao dear? Because my darling boy is caught in the clutches of that demon and clearly won't listen to reason. He's been bewitched!" she declared dramatically, as the back of her hand flew up to her forehead. Her eyes then narrowed dangerously—and angrily—as she started to wrench her hands together as if strangling someone."That cursed, wretched, evil little slattern of a—"
Marianne continued to rage, and all Mao could think was—
Think happy thoughts.
Think happy thoughts.
—and hope that his happy thoughts of kittens and bunnies would make up for her desire to slaughter such kittens and bunnies if they happened to get in her way of doing things to Suzaku that were too gory to be viewed in a horror movie rated R.
She ended her rant with a forlorn and miserable sigh. "But you're sure you can do it right?"
"Yes!"
"Good. That's good. Because if it wasn't good I get to test out Jezebel on you."
Mao shivered.
And, after another agonizingly long five seconds of intense piss-your-pants sort of scrutiny—
"Now go!" she barked.
Mao squeaked and ran out of the apartment to the nearest stairwell for dear life, too terrified to even be able to stand taking the elevator. After all, he had thought of escape many, many times and a lot of his fantasies ended up with him under various debris in an elevator shaft after the cables were sawed apart by a cackling demon.
The after-image of his last sight on earth being Marianne cackling her head off at the top and the sound of it echoing down the elevator shaft wasn't very motivating.
On his way out, he passed by Jeremiah, who had stopped mid-stride to look back over his shoulder at the white blur that had just passed him by.
Without a second thought, he walked into the apartment to hear Marianne humming a happy tune.
"Miss Marianne, was that your guest—" Guest being a loose term. "—earlier? He seemed to be in quite the rush to leave."
"Huh? What? Oh, yes. He's in a very big hurry. Terribly so."
Jeremiah raised an eyebrow.
"Miss… I also… don't mean to pry, but what are you doing?"
"Sewing, silly," she responded in an unusually chipper tone.
He cleared his throat. "Well, yes… but… what are you sewing?"
Whirling around on her stool at her workbench, Marianne held up her newest creation.
A black straight-jacket with a bow-tie.
"Isn't it obvious? Don't you think my darling Lelouch's groom would look just so dashing in it?"
After many years of working with the woman, Jeremiah knew there were just some things that ought not to be ever asked.
This was one of them.
Clearing his throat distractedly to change the subject, he pulled out the letter from his coat-jacket. "You have a letter from Sir."
Suffice to say, Lelouch and Suzaku had not seen each other since the handcuffs came off. (Which actually only came off because Lelouch couldn't be bothered with simple things like staying awake due to the night prior (which, conveniently enough, had gotten misconstrued to their instructor), thus burdening Suzaku with the task of carrying him to the next session—a point of information privy forever and only to Suzaku and CC. At least for now.)
The rest of that day's session was spent primarily between the instructor and Suzaku—who had cancelled the remainder of their sessions in favour of earning less looks of not-so-carefully hidden contempt from Lelouch once he woke up screaming for the second time that day.
Roughly a week had passed before Suzaku finally got through to Lelouch. (And this was only primarily because he had maxed out the capacity CC and Lelouch's answering machine could handle.) Well, sort-of Lelouch.
In the end, he had really only ended up talking to CC.
"He doesn't want to talk to you right now."
"What? Why not?"
An indignant huff. "How should I know? If I could read minds I'd be king of the world already. Or just the king of Pizza Hut."
Suzaku rubbed his temple. He didn't particularly want to go into how—
"You mean queen."
—too late.
"Pardon?"
"You meant 'queen of the world.' "
"No." Pause. "I didn't."
Suzaku blinked.
"Anyway, he doesn't want to talk to you right now."
Sigh.
"Well, I can arrange to have tomorrow off, will he let me take him out? Dinner? A movie, maybe? Tell you the truth I feel a little bad about that whole… ah… confectionary business."
"Confectionary business?"
"You know… the one with flour."
"Flour? Goodness! I do not know what you are talking a-bout,"she intoned like a machine, with every insinuation that she did.
Suzaku sucked in air.
It's a trap!
It's a trap!
"You know what I'm talking about. The oven thing. With the cream. And the pie."
Indignant huff. "I don't appreciate being called a liar, good sir."
Suzaku growled in frustration and ran a hand through his hair, tugging on it slightly.
(And if Lelouch were privy to the entire conversation at work instead of half, while he sat on the couch, pretending to read a book, he, most-assuredly, would've laughed in absolute glee.)
(CC was a special sort of person after all.)
"The baking incident," Suzaku grit out, cupping his hand around the receiver.
At least this was one incident you didn't need to ask about.
"Ohhhhh~ THAT incident!" She giggled. "Well, gosh. Why didn't you say so? Yeah, you should feel bad. Poor Lelouch cried for DAYS about it. Couldn't get over the fact that the love of his life would do something like that to—"
There was a small shriek and a muffling sound with a thump, as if the phone had been dropped. This was shortly followed by a background yell of "Well, it's true!" followed by a softer "Kind of."
When the phone was picked up once again, he could hear her stifling her giggles. "So you want a date so you two can bake and make up?"
(Another pillow was thrown her way for that one followed by a "CC!")
Suzaku sighed audibly.
"Ok~ I can arrange that."
"CC! I said no!"
Suzaku blinked.
"Lelouch?"
"Oh, don't worry about him; he's just still SORE about the whole thing. You can stop by to pick him up around noon."
"CC! Stop it! I didn't ag— Here, give me that ph—"
"Uh… thanks."
"Right then. Bye~"
"CC! Give me tha—"
CLICK.
Suzaku stood there on the other end.
Blinking.
Um.
Well.
Okay.
Let's just go with that.
"I'm not going," he spat out petulantly as soon as she hung up the phone.
CC sighed. "So childish. Your husband wants to make it up to you!" she mock scolded, "It's your duty as the wife to let him."
Lelouch turned livid. "I'm not—! He isn't—! We aren't—! AGH!" he cried in frustration. "I'M NOT GOING!"
Blatant designation as the 'wife' being completely overlooked.
For the entirety of that one week, Lelouch had, honestly, half-attempted to return Suzaku's numerous to the power of 'x' calls (a large amount of money rode on this relationship after all), but, well, various things kept him from doing so.
"Aw~ Did he make the cream too bland for your fine taste? Did it not work well with the kind of sugar he used?"
Things like that.
"CC," he warned dangerously.
"It'll be fine. You're worrying too much. Just act shy and flustered and upset—like you usually do—and it'll all be fine."
Cherries had nothing on the colour of Lelouch's face.
"I don't—You're the one who told me to!"
She grinned, flopping down on the couch and snuggling with her new plush toy she forced him to buy for her: Cheese-kun. (Lelouch's pizza nightmares had taken a turn for the worse since he had the pleasure of waking up with that thing staring at him some mornings.)
"And it's working, isn't it?"
"But that's—!" Lelouch started angrily before sighing and calming himself down. "That's beside the point. I don't want to go and you can't make me."
Never mind the fact that Lelouch actually did want to go in order to effectively 'kiss and make up' (sans kissing) without interference from CC.
A lot of money rode on this.
After all.
And money was something Lelouch liked only a fraction more than things like dignity, free will, and pride.
By just a fraction.
Half a fraction, really.
CC sighed, sitting up before heading towards the door and rifling through a few shopping bags. From one of them she pulled out a shirt that looked exactly like—
"Hey! That looks like the shirt I lost a while ago!"
Because it met an untimely end as a temporary fire hazard.
She walked over and flipped it around, laying it over him as if to see if it would look good. "Yeah, well. I saw it in the store and thought I could pick it up for you. It was your favourite, right?"
Lelouch looked down at the dress shirt and smiled nostalgically.
CC was the one who bought him that shirt originally.
"Yeah."
"So, will you wear it tomorrow? Please?" she asked as her lips slowly turned down to—
Kicked Puppy Look. All rights reserved.
Lelouch grimaced.
Caught you.
Turning away, he sighed, taking the shirt from her grudgingly. "Fine."
"I swear I don't taste good!" he screamed, running for dear life from the cheesy monstrosity thundering along behind him.
While Lelouch Lamperouge had many aspirations in life (most—but not all—of them involving a large sum of some sort of currency) being eaten by a large cheese-pizza-monster was not one of them.
"FEED ME!" boomed behind him and Lelouch urged his legs to run faster.
"I'll give you indigestion!"
"FEED ME!"
"I'm nothing but skin and bones!"
"FRESH MEAT!"
Lelouch screamed, sitting up, stiff as a board, covered in a thin sheen of sweat and terror. Catching his breath, he held a hand over his pounding heart while his mind was still telling his body that he needed to run as hard and as fast as his stamina and legs could take him before reason and awareness of his surroundings kicked in.
Well damn.
It happened again.
Glancing over at a clock he sighed. Nine AM. Suzaku would come by to pick him up for a didn't-want-to-go-to-even-though-he-sort-of-did date in roughly two hours.
Groaning, Lelouch lay back down and closed his eyes with a sigh. There were still two more hours and he was determined to sleep for every single minute of them. Once he settled back in, the warm body beside him slipped an arm over his torso comfortingly and cuddled closer. Humming in content, Lelouch snuggled ba—
Wait a minute.
While it wasn't uncommon to find another body sharing his bed (and inevitably cuddled warmly against him) from time to time, lately it had been a less frequent occurrence with the arrival of Cheese-kun. It had been a questionable trade-off for Lelouch after he realized where the source of his reinforced nightmares came from.
As such, every nerve in Lelouch's body froze just as his eyes shot open to see—
Lelouch screamed, jumping back far enough to fall out of bed, dragging sheets and blanket back with him.
Still in his bed, Mao yawned and sat up slowly. The blankets fell back to show that he wasn't wearing a shirt. Looking at Lelouch, he tilted his head in confusion as he rubbed his eyes sleepily.
"Is something wrong?"
Lelouch sputtered. "What do you mean 'is something wrong?' Of course something's wrong! YOU'RE something wrong! What are you doing here! In my bed! With no shirt on!"
Mao hummed before lying back down on his stomach and settling himself in once more under the covers. "I'm not just wearing no shirt if that's what you're getting at."
In this moment, Lelouch knew no greater fear.
"You—What—How—Why—"
"That should be obvious. We fell asleep in your bed after sharing a night of hot, pa—"
"NO WE DIDN'T!" Lelouch shrieked; his face turned a beautiful magenta shade.
The door suddenly opened as CC stared at the both of them, standing in the doorway with nothing but her underwear and that large shirt that didn't properly fit either of them. While her mouth had been open to say something, nothing actually came out as she just stood there, agape.
"I was going to ask what the problem was… But, anyway, keep it down if you're going to get all kissy-kissy. Some people in this house are trying to sleep."
Mao saluted her. "Aye, aye, captain! Although I don't know if Lulu can keep his voice down," he suggested with a sly, sideways glance at Lelouch.
Lelouch was mortified.
Much too mortified to say anything in his defence and instead let the crimson hue of his face provide an answer.
In a whirl of green and the slam of a door CC had gone.
Mao yawned again. "She's right, Lulu. Come back to bed and snuggle with me again. I'll let you r—AGH!" he yelped as a pillow met his face.
After gathering himself up, Lelouch swiftly fled for the bathroom to take a quick shower—
"Aww, Lulu! You don't want to take one together?"
—very alone, changed, and hurried downstairs to start himself breakfast by way of caffeine and left-over Pizza Hut.
Today, he decided to start his day early.
For once in his life.
After retrieving the paper—which had an English version—Lelouch sat down with it and flipped through various articles, drinking his coffee, until he got to the horoscope page. Normally, Lelouch didn't care about horoscopes and knew a good deal of it was rubbish, but sometimes he liked to humour himself. There was a time where Nunally had a big addiction to the fortune-telling craze after all.
Sagittarius:
Bad things will happen to you today, it's best to stay inside.
After taking another long drink of coffee—i.e. the remainder of the cup—Lelouch continued to stare at his horoscope.
Somehow, he felt that this was only the beginning.
"You know, I think you'd look very pretty in a skirt."
Irritation creased his brow.
Let it slide.
Let it slide.
"Oh, and I know this great place that can do amazing hair extensions. I prefer long hair. It's easier to grab at in—"
"Mao!"
Shrugging, Mao turned away from him and returned his attention back to the melting ice-cream cone.
Since CC was out on another date (they were running low on funds) he was stuck babysitting Mao on his. And while CC was more than happy to have just left Mao at home, Lelouch didn't want to imagine what the boy could or would do when left to his own devices.
And so here he was, waiting for Suzaku, with Mao, at a nearby café.
This way, if Mao were to assault him, at least there would be witnesses to testify the event.
Hopefully Suzaku wouldn't mind.
"So what's so great about Suzaku that you won't look at me? I can make you happy," he said. And if it weren't for the look on his face and the way he said it, Lelouch wouldn't have believed he meant it.
Lelouch frowned.
Well.
If he had to be brutally honest, the only thing that could be considered great about his soon-to-be, fake-real-in-the-legal-sense husband was the seemingly endless amounts of cash flow at his fingertips.
But that was between him, CC, and The Truth.
And so, Lelouch resorted to the two great lessons of his life once again.
(And this, of course, was only because Lelouch was still set in the firm belief that Mao was gay.)
(Which he wasn't.)
"He's… he's nice to me. And he loves me."
Mao gave him an unimpressed look, emphatically stating, "I love you. And I can make you happy. Especially in be—"
"MAO!"
Grin.
"No, tell me what's really so great about him? What does he have that's so special that I don't and possibly—although I doubt it—ever will?"
Money.
And lots of it.
"I… I don't know! There's just… something about him that…"
Mao leaned in closer, attention rapt.
Lelouch desperately scanned his mental database of chick flicks, bringing up any and every possible scene where the main female love interest was asked this question. Once he had remembered (and fabricated) enough information, he clasped his hands together tightly and looked at them (hopefully) wistfully.
"Well… he's understanding… he's sweet. He makes me laugh and… he's got amazing eyes. When I'm with him… it's like… everything else falls apart and it's just us."
The last part wasn't entirely fabricated—simply because when Lelouch was with Suzaku he had to keep his attention up or things like violation here and sexual harassment there may occur—not that paying attention any more or less prevented that from happening anyway.
When Lelouch chanced a look back to see how effective his acting was, he saw Mao stuff the rest of his ice-cream cone down, with a muffled, "You're lying."
Lelouch's ego and those straight A's in drama and acting he received took a lethal blow.
"Give me a chance, Lulu; I'll show you what love is really like. You know, I would've stolen you right off the market if I had ever known."
"Uh… known what?"
Mao grinned, wagging his eyes. "That you swung my way. So, how about it? Will you take me?"
"We can't—I'm engaged!"
Somewhere, in the back of his mind, to another man was added on the back of that and another part of him decided that Fiji was better than staying on a sinking ship.
Another grin. "Engaged isn't married. Besides, it's already been over an hour. He can't love you all that much if he's standing you up like this."
Frowning, Lelouch checked a nearby clock—which was actually an odd decoration for a café, but had been put up only six months ago and decorated with flowers around the frame to match the face of the clock. The café was on a busy street and decidedly wanted to send messages to its customers who tended to order a single coffee and occupy a table for hours.
But it was true.
Suzaku should've been here about an hour and twenty minutes ago.
Lelouch sighed.
"And here I thought he had the day off."
"Or maybe he's with a woman."
"Or maybe something came up."
"That he didn't tell you about? Isn't telling you about? Won't tell you about? Like a woman!" he concluded cheerfully.
He groaned. "He's a busy man. I'm surprised he can even find time for me—see? Suzaku loves me. If he didn't I'd see him maybe once or twice a month instead of three or four times a week."
And the truth of those statistics Lelouch never wanted to be familiar with ever again once this was all over.
"Lulu…" Mao pleaded, reaching across the table to grasp his hands, giving him th—oh God, who taught him that look? "Please? One chance. It's all I ask."
Lelouch fidgeted, wanting to pull away and disinfect his hand by way of scalding water. "I… don't…"
"Fine. If you won't take me, I'll have to steal you away from him."
Lelouch deadpanned. "What?"
"I'll make you mine, in the end, just you see."
(And, everything else be damned, Mao would do it too if only for the relief of never having to meet whoever the heck was Jezebel.)
(Mental Shiver Goes Here.)
"I'll make you fall in love with me so much that you'll never look at Kururugi ever, ever again!"
Lelouch frowned. "You can't just—"
"Excuse me, are you Lelouch Lamperouge?"
Turning around in his seat, Lelouch blinked. There was an oddly familiar pretty girl standing behind him. She was smiling, friendly, and Lelouch's instincts started to kick in—scanning the expansive register of girls who would most definitely be angry with him.
(Although angry and angry enough to kill without warning by way of knife in the head were relative terms.)
No match.
Safe.
"Yes. Why?"
"I'd like to ask you a few questions if that's alright."
Lelouch blinked. She probably recognized him from some other media coverage—all of Japan probably knew what he looked like by now—
Oooh.
Note to self: Add plastic surgery to the list of things To Do once he divorced Suzaku.
"Sure, ask away."
It would probably be questions about his favourites and information like that. Lelouch wasn't too concerned. He had answers to each and every one ready and prepared.
And then he saw—
Camera.
And the camera guy to go with it hiding pretty masterfully behind the woman. Printed in block, white letters was the name of a very popular gossip news station.
Well, it was to be expected.
And Lelouch was fully prepared for something like this. CC had coached him through every conceivable question they might ask him on live television. He even had CC coach him for questions of sex if it ever came up—that they were waiting until they were officially married. There was nothing that could possibly happen for the duration of this impromptu interview that could throw him off-guard.
"Excellent. Now first, I'd like to ask you about—"
"Excuse me, Miss," Mao interrupted, waving at her for attention.
Except this.
"Oh, yes? Are you a friend of Mr Lamperouge's?"
Mao grinned.
Uh oh.
"Oh, Lulu and I are more than just friends."
"…and if you look over here, you'll see that this design clearly outmatches this other inferior quality one. Why, if you just look at it you can see all the flaws in its design! Look! Right here!" he exclaimed, pointing it out by tapping the pattern with his finger. "This piece should be bigger. Everything will fall apart. This is a very crucial point in the design."
"Pudding, if you were good at what you do you'd easily see I've made adjustments to make up the flaw in your design."
"What!" he shrieked indignantly. "How could you—!"
"That area's importance has been reduced. The strain is being taken care of by the surrounding pieces."
"Oh really? And what about this part of your design? Is that—" He tapped another spot on the blueprint page once more. "—supposed to improve on my already perfect work? You have to put strain on this area otherwise this part will fall apart!"
Rakshata frowned before her lips turned upwards in a smug smile. "Yes."
Lloyd seethed at her. "You evil, evil—"
"Lloyd! Please! Both of you settle down! Frankly I think both designs are just as good as the other. Output will increase by twenty percent in both cases—and that's all I wanted to hear."
Professor Lloyd's mouth fell open in shock.
Rakshata sucked in smoke from her pipe and blew it out sideways at Lloyd—who frowned.
Once a month, Suzaku was required (and by required he meant dragged kicking and screaming against his will) to pay a visit to his research and development teams on the lower floors. And, of course, these visits were usually scheduled at the end of the month—which it just so happened to be. And normally it was no problem to attend them—even if he technically had the day off to get away from the company.
However, today was just not a very good day to have this meeting.
While an ordinary Sakuradite company normally only had one team, Suzaku had the questionable privilege of having two. This division of his research capabilities, miraculously, didn't hinder the advancement of the company whatsoever. And this was most likely due to the rivalry between both teams to outdo the other. But while the Sakura Group flourished from this internal competition between the two brightest minds known to Sakuradite power technology, Suzaku's time suffered.
And suffered greatly.
He glanced at his watch.
Lelouch would be, for lack of words he'd rather not have fuelling his imagination right now, very, very unhappy.
"Alright, I've made my—"
"SUZAKU! SUZAKU! SUZAKU!"
Suzaku winced.
He knew that voice.
"Kaguya, I'm bus—"
Turning, he was assaulted by Kaguya—who had latched onto his arm and started tugging him back in the direction she came from.
"You have to come see this!"
"What? Why? What's so—?"
"Important news, Suzaku! Just come!"
"But I can't just—"
Hold on.
Finish a meeting that will indefinitely give him a headache by the end of it or entertain Kaguya for an indefinite period of time and slip away quietly to a hopefully not-so-angry Lelouch?
Well gosh.
"—wait, no, yes, yes I can."
The two scientists behind him voiced their disapproval simultaneously.
"You can't just—"
"I've waited for—"
"Tell Nina to reschedule the meeting for sometime tomorrow if I'm free. You can have me as long as you want then."
Rakshata sighed and Lloyd pouted.
And then he lost sight of them, following blindly after his cousin back to the top floor of the building where his office was.
Kaguya was being mysteriously quiet—with that determined sort-of look on her—oh, he wasn't going to like this, was he?
After sitting him down on the couch in his room, she turned on the television and changed it to the news channel.
Kaguya spun around and folded her arms, staring him down. "There, look."
Some reporter was interviewing some man about—
"So tell us more about your relationship to Mr Kururugi's fiancé." The screen panned over to Lelouch, who was sitting, hunched over with his hands covering his face at his mention.
He looked upset.
To understate it.
Suzaku's eyes widened.
"My relationship with my Lulu goes very far back. Personally I'm hurt that he would leave me so suddenly like he did! We were so in love after all! After all those nights we spent together…! Promises of eternal love and devotion…!" The man choked back a sob wiping away a tear.
"How touching! And what will you do now? Mr Lamperouge is already engaged and it's too late—"
"It's NEVER too late! I'll steal him back with my love for him! I won't let that evil man have MY Lulu without a fight! Our love is DESTINY! Destiny, I tell you!"
The reporter turned back to the camera and grinned like a hyena in heat. "There you have it. A love-triangle blooming right before our very eyes! Who will ultimately win Mr Lamperouge's love and affection? The esteemed Suzaku Kururugi, CEO of the Sakura Group, or Mao, the spurned lover who won't give in without a fight? Back to you, Lenard."
Kaguya turned the television off and folded her arms expectantly at her only cousin.
After a pause of silence, "Well!"
Blinking, Suzaku unglued his eyes from the unbelievable sight he was just witness to and shook his head—effectively coming back to reality.
"Well? Well what?"
Huffing in irritation, she marched over and shook him by the shoulders. "Well what are you going to do about it?"
For a moment, Suzaku said nothing, letting Kaguya take control and shake him while uttering everything under the sun about fighting to keep Lelouch's love; that his marriage was on the line; that he would never get a catch as good as Lelouch ever again; that the entire world would laugh at him, etcetera.
Honestly, Suzaku couldn't get past the thought rolling through his head that—
"He's… actually gay?"
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So anyway, since today, being June 6, is my birthday, I'd like some presents. In the form of poetry. Free verse, haiku-whatever you like. My only condition is that it MUST contain the phrase "Minute Maid Orange Juice." That would make me incredibly happy. If you don't feel very poetic, or know that you aren't very poetic, a suggestion for a drink mix including orange juice would also make me very happy. I will make a list of them and go through them all to my heart's content. I will also accept birthday wishes in the form of something else, but these are just two options for you.
For those of you who are aware of "Liar Liar's" pending to-be-or-not-to-be completed status, I am still thinking about it, but leaning only slightly more towards to be. Time erodes everything away-including fermented feelings of irritation, frustration, and the desire to stab certain people with a/n [INSERT LETHAL OBJECT HERE].
On a last note: If you could have anything in the world you want for your birthday, what would it be? "The World" not included. Me? I'd want the Coca Cola company.
Or Anya.
Or Yin.
Please R&R.
- Minute Maid
Beverage of Queens.