AN: I know every update I seem to have an excuse for the delay, this time it was because I went back to college around Aug 18th so I was quite busy with that.

long chapter though! So that's a plus ;)

I do not own Code Geass

Ch. 38 Girls knight in

Marika and Lilyna's POV

"Do you guys have a lot of festivals here?" Marika asked.

"Oh yes! It's too bad Lelouch had to drop out of school because he used to love the festivals." Milly said with an upward inflection Lelouch rolled his eyes but Milly ignored him. "Especially whenever he got a chance to dress up." she teased.

"You made me wear those stupid costumes!" Lelouch shouted. Marika and Lilyna were a little astounded by the whole conversation; they never imagined the prince being so candid.

Milly laughed "Alright, alright that's enough fun for now we have a student council meeting to start. Suzaku could you be a dear and help Nunnally?" she asked grabbing the other two bewildered girls by their wrists and dragging them along. "I love having fresh blood in on meetings!" She said cheerfully. "Come on it's this way." She said as she led them out into the hall and then through the ballroom, Major Kururugi wheeling the little princess close behind them.

"Don't you think we should wait for his highness to catch up?" Lilyna asked noticing the prince wasn't following.

Milly shrugged it off "Lelouch will be fine he knows the way."

"So his highness was on the student council when he was still a student here?" Marika asked.

"Yep, he was my vice-president. I liked having him on the council because I got to boss him around." Milly said.

"It's hard to imagine anybody bossing the Commander around." Marika commented.

"Oh, you'd be surprised." Milly laughed. "If it weren't for him getting orders from Pendragon he'd still be a student."

Lilyna was confused by the statement. "What do you mean?"

"You mean you don't know?" Major Kururugi…or rather…Suzaku asked.

"Know what?" Lilyna asked.

A more solemn laugh came from Milly this time "under normal circumstances the military would be the last place Lelouch would go. When he was a student you couldn't even get him to go to gym class. But in this case he had little choice in the matter."

"You mean his highness didn't volunteer to enlist?" Marika asked.

"After Clovis found us brother was told that it had been decided that it was time that he make himself useful." Nunnally explained quietly as they reached their destination of the student council meeting room.

They immediately got a large dose of Rivalz when they entered the room "There you guys are! I was wondering if the meeting got canceled or something…Hello there." He said upon seeing the two unfamiliar girls the subject of his desires had been dragging behind her. "Um…more new students?" he guessed.

"Nope, they're the new members of Lelouch's royal guard." Milly answered. "Rivalz this is Lilyna and Marika. Our friend in the corner typing her little heart out is Nina." Nina only managed to tear her eyes away for the computer screen long enough to say hello.

"Nice to meet you." the both said still being gripped by Milly.

"Likewise" Rivalz responded. "Um…does this mean Lelouch is visiting again?" he asked hopefully.

"His highness was still in the dining room last we checked." Lilyna said finally managing to tug her wrist way from Milly's grip and setting eyes upon Arthur who was snoozing on the top landing of the cat gym in the corner of the room. "I take it that's the guest of honor for your cat festival."

"Awwww look at him curled up into a furry little ball." Marika cooed as Shirley entered the room in a huff with who they recognized to be Princess Euphemia trailing behind her.

"Shirley what is it? Did I say something wrong?" the pink haired princess asked and the other girl turned on her.

"Look...just forget about it alright?" the other girl snapped.

Lilyna was about to reprimand the girl for speaking to the princess like that but Marika stopped her when she saw her open her mouth. "Remember what his highness said? She doesn't want people to know she a princess yet." she whispered in her friends ear and the other girl backed down.

"Ladies!" Milly cut in. "We have some guests."

"Hello." Euphie said in her usual cheerful manner despite getting her head bitten off by Shirley…yet again. "You must be here with Lelouch right?"

Lilyna nodded. "Yes we are. I'm Lilyna and this is Marika."

"This is Euphie and Shirley." Milly introduced "that's almost all of us; we're just waiting on Kallen and Lelouch now."

"Kallen was with us when we came in, she must still be talking to Lelouch." Euphie said.

"We can go get them for you." Marika offered.

Milly beamed. "That would be great, thanks."

They moved back through the ballroom and found the hallway that lead to the dining room they had been dragged out of by the blonde student. They were about to go in but hesitated when they heard Lelouch's voice…

"Listen I'm calling because I'd like to issue a statement that I am in fact engaged to Miss Kallen Stadtfeld."

Lilyna looked to Marika and mouthed silently what looked to be the phrase "what the hell?"

"…The reason I denounced it earlier is because I didn't want my beloved to suffer the excessive attention and the media focus, given her medical condition and general shyness…" Their new boss continued to say. They looked at each other before they took a quick peek inside the door to see what exactly was going on in there. What they saw was the prince on the phone with somebody and there was a red haired girl who could only be Kallen in the room with him they got away from the door way before they were seen but continued eavesdropping from the hallway "…I had hoped that she would at least have a normal adolescence…Well, the constant engagement rumors about me have only brought my intended more pain despite her courageous efforts to hide it. And I wish to put the rumors to rest if only for her sake if nothing else…well of course this isn't a hoax…Yes this is indeed Prince Lelouch…well if I weren't I and my family's fate would be as bad as anyone who openly spurns the attentions of the Royal family…What's that?...Yes of course… The press would like a statement from you as well darling." He was obviously talking to the red headed girl.

"We should probably go back to the student council meeting." Lilyna said feeling a little uncomfortable. And as soon as that was decided they rushed back to the opposite wing of the building.

"Where are Lelouch and Kallen?" Suzaku asked upon their return.

"They…um…they're on their way." Marika said.

A thought had suddenly come to Milly "Hey you know what would be fun?" Milly asked. "We're having a sleep over for us girls in the clubhouse tonight. You two should come." She asked pointing to Marika and Lilyna.

"That does sound like fun…" Marika said.

"Sleep over?" Lelouch interjected as he entered the room followed by that Kallen girl who for some reason was glaring daggers at him. "Aren't you girls going to Kawaguchi in a couple of days?"

Milly pouted "Yes the sleep over is to make up for postponing the trip Lulu."

"Please your highness?" Lilyna begged. "You did say you wanted us to become more familiar with Princess Nunnally."

"Yeah Lelouch Nunnally is invited. It will be a good opportunity for her to socialize and have fun in a very secure environment." Milly reasoned.

"Please brother?" Nunnally pleaded wanting a chance to get to know the people who protected her big brother better.

Lelouch just couldn't say no to Nunnally so he caved in "Alright fine, I'll let the two of you off early tonight but I expect you to report to duty on time in the morning alright?"

"Yes sir!" they said enthusiastically while giving mock salutes.

"What about you Kallen are you coming?" Nunnally asked.

Kallen was snapped out of giving Lelouch the evil eye by Nunnally's voice "…What?...oh no. I…um have a doctor's appointment later." She lied feigning a short coughing fit before going right back to glaring at Lelouch.

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Later

"I can't believe Ohgi talked me into this." Kallen grumbled to herself carrying her stuff for the sleep over as she walked back to school. It was just now starting to get dark and it looked like it was going to be a rainy night tonight if the occasional rain drop falling on her was any indication. 'I'd better hurry or I'll get rained on' she thought picking up her pace but the rain seemed determined to catch her before she got to Ashford because it was starting to come down a little harder now 'maybe I should have called a taxi or something, or at least brought an umbrella.' She broke into a run when she heard the sound of thunder. By the time she got to the clubhouse at Ashford it was coming down hard and she was soaked head to toe.

"Kallen!" Milly greeted trying to make an effort not to look too terribly delighted when she saw her in the door way of the clubhouse. "I thought you weren't coming! Didn't you say you had to see your specialist or something?"

"Yeah, well my doctor said it would be good for me to get out and socialize as long as I took it easy." Kallen lied handing the other girl her now wet sleeping bag and moist pillow.

"Look at you your soaked. You must be freezing." Milly said, Kallen opened her mouth to respond but all that came out was a sneeze. "Maybe you should go warm up with a hot shower or something; you're sickly as it is. I'll have Sayoko put your pillow and sleeping bag through the dryer."

Kallen sneezed again "that's probably not a bad idea." She said still shivering as Milly went to find Sayoko and she went to find the bathroom.

Meanwhile Lelouch was escorting his newest guard members back to Ashford.

"Your highness you didn't really have to come with us." Lilyna said as the car they were in drove forward through the rainy streets of the Tokyo settlement. It was easy to say that the both of them were looking forward to the slumber party. They had decided between the two of them before they had left the complex to use this opportunity to find out a little more about their prince and his relationships with these other girls, most predominantly Kallen's relationship with him considering what they had overheard earlier that day.

Lelouch smiled unknowingly making the girl melt. "I know but Milly has a tendency to go overboard with these types of things, I need to make sure that anything she has planned won't be too hard on Nunnally."

"Oh, I see. You're the over protective big bother type. Aren't you?" Marika said thinking of her own brother.

Lelouch laughed "Perhaps I am. But considering everything she and I have been through in all these years I feel that I'm really quite justified in that respect." He said before he looked out the car window as the car came to a stop. "We're here…"

The water spraying from the shower head felt warm against Kallen's cool skin. "Stupid Ohgi talking me into going. Wouldn't have gotten caught in the rain if it weren't for him." she muttered as steam filled the bathroom and then a thought suddenly came to her. She had left her bag downstairs, it had her change of clothes in it…Oh well, it was just the girls here tonight, and it wouldn't be a big deal if she went back down there in a towel right? She decided to go for it and once she felt like she had warmed up enough she turned the water off and wrapped herself tightly in a towel. Bare feet padded down the down the stairs and then down the hall way to the sitting room where her bag was. "Ah, found it!" She said to herself bending over to pick the bag up off the floor as she did so the towel came undone.

"Milly? Is that you?"She heard Lelouch's voice say and she bolted upright to witness him walking into the room, her towel falling to the floor. There was a split second of a pause before it registered in both of their minds that she was naked and that he was in fact seeing her naked. Once it sunk in they both turned a ridiculous shade of red. "Oh my god." Lelouch said as he promptly covered his eyes and turned around as any gentlemen who just accidentally walked in on a lady would do. She on the other hand opted to grab the towel from the floor to cover herself with as quick as possible.

"What what are you doing here?! I thought there were no boys allowed you pervert!" she snapped irately.

"I was dropping my subordinates off, and I needed to talk to Milly about something." He explained hastily "Wait…why are you naked?!"

"I…I got caught in the rain and I needed a change of clothes ok?" she answered still completely mortified. "Now if you don't mind I'd like to get dressed. So could you give me some privacy please?"

"Gladly…and don't worry I won't tell anybody." He said awkwardly as he began to walk off. Embarrassing incident aside he still needed to find Milly and make sure Nunnally would be okay sleeping on the floor with the rest of the girls tonight. He found her in the dining room speaking with his new Guardswomen.

"…and apparently Arthur had gotten up on the roof of the clubhouse, so when he jumped down he landed right on top of lord Jeremiah." Milly giggled.

"The Colonel caught the cat?...And they had no idea what was going on?" Lilyna laughed.

Milly laughed even harder "Not a clue! And then Sayoko…"

"Milly!" Lelouch interrupted finally making himself known "May I have a word?"

"Sure thing." She said before turning back to Marika and Lilyna "Why don't you two get settled in with the other girls while I get rid of your boss?" the two other girls giggled and left the room.

"I need to know that whatever you have planned for tonight won't be too strenuous for Nunnally."

"Don't be silly. We're just going to do some fun girl stuff is all, nothing strenuous about it Mr. Paranoid."

"Alright, alight, just making sure. I'm going to say good night to Nunnally and then I'll leave okay?"

"Fine by me your highness" she teased "I'll let them know there's a rooster in the hen house." She said as she went to go alert the other possibly pajama clad girls that he was coming.

He blushed remembering his previous encounter with Kallen "I'm pretty sure a knock on the door would suffice as a warning."

Milly pouted "Yeah but what's the fun in that?"

After Lelouch bid Nunnally good night he left the girls to their own devices and went back to the government complex. Marika and Lilyna could not help but notice that their prince acted more than a little awkward around Kallen.

"Kallen I'm so glad you decided to come after all, you didn't sign up to go to lake either and I almost feel like I haven't really gotten that chance to get to know you very well yet." Euphie said in her overly friendly manner as she helped Nunnally get more comfortable sitting on a sleeping bag on the floor.

"So Marika, Lilyna." Shirley started "Your part of Lelouch's royal guard?"

"Yes it's a real honor to be selected for such a position." Lilyna answered. "We are both a little curious to know what his highness is really like though." She said prodding.

"Yeah so tell us…What was he like as a student?" Lilyna cut in.

"Well, I think we are all in agreement that Lelouch was a terrible student." Milly said.

"He was always cutting classes to go gamble on chess games." Shirley complained.

Euphie giggled "just like when we were little he'd skip his lessons to play chess with Schneizel. Lady Marianne would get so mad when he did that."

"Why am I not surprised?" Shirley said sarcastically "for someone so smart Lelouch never applied himself, it's such a waste."

"Really?" Lilyna asked quite entertained by the fact of the prince facing the wrath of his mother like any normal child who had done wrong. "What was he like growing up?"

"Well when he wasn't playing Chess with Schneizel or Clovis we usually got him to come and play with us in the gardens." Euphie said.

"Remember when we would just lay in the grass at night and look at the stars together?" Nunnally asked.

Euphie nodded "Yes I do remember, I was so happy when I was finally able to see the two of you again, that was the first thing we did when we got to the government complex is lie in the grass of the roof garden and reminisce. It was almost as if nothing has changed at all." she smiled sadly "I'm happy that he hasn't changed much at all really." Shirley's face was unreadable when she said this.

"I'm a little horrified that he was always the way he is." Kallen muttered to herself luckily no one overheard her.

"And how did you girls first meet him?" Marika asked.

"Well my grandfather was benefactor and friend of Queen Marianne, so when Lelouch and Nunnally went into hiding we took them in and forged some transcripts so they could attend school." Milly said. "Shortly after they arrived my parents explained the situation to me and I quickly befriended both him and sweet little Nunnally here." She finished and Nunnally giggled at the praise.

"Interesting…What about you?" Lilyna asked pointing to Nina who was shyly tracing the pattern on her pillow case.

"Um, I met him freshmen year. I didn't see much of him outside of the student council I'm afraid. I was pretty shocked to find out the he and Nunnally were royalty."

"You were shocked? I was the one introducing him to his own brother like an idiot." Shirley complained clearly embarrassed. The other girls laughed at this.

"Oh Shirley, there was no way you could have known." Nunnally soothed "We kept it from everyone because brother thought we would have been in serious danger otherwise."

"Shirley still has to tell us how she became acquainted with Lelouch." Milly reminded trying to steer the conversation away from that particular subject.

Shirley blushed "Um, well at first I didn't like him at all I thought he was just arrogant and lazy but I joined the student council and I got to know him better and I…um…"

"You become good friends right?" Euphie jumped in giving Shirley a wink preserving the secret between them.

Shirley once again misunderstood the other girl's intentions and narrowed her eyes "Yeah, we become friends." She said in a flat tone.

"What about you Kallen?" Marika asked. Both she and her colleague were egger to hear what she had to say.

"There isn't much to tell I'm afraid. I didn't meet him until came back from basic training. It was right before they announced he was alive. I was offered his place on the student council because he had already left school by the time I started going here." She wasn't about to admit to the twist of fate that had him working as an unlikely ally for liberating Japan. Needless to say Marika and Lilyna were sorely disappointed, and they weren't buying it either.

"Are you sure that's all there is to it?" Lilyna asked skeptically.

Kallen arched a fire-red eyebrow "Yes, why?" she asked cautiously. Were they on to her? Did Lelouch let something slip by accident?

"Because we over heard you and his highness talking to that news station on the phone earlier. We know he's planning to make you one of his consorts." Marika said.

"But…but…the both of you said it was all a dumb rumor. Lulu even denounced it on national television!" Shirley cried.

Kallen threw her hands up in defense "No, no, no! You got it all wrong. He was playing a prank on me."

Euphie looked deep in thought "A prank? Lelouch was never one for practical jokes."

"Yes a prank!" Kallen insisted "He never even called a news station. It was lord Jeremiah on the other end!" She tried to explain. All the older girls came to the same conclusion that Kallen was either lying or Lelouch had some sort of special interest in her that would warrant him doing such a thing.

"Maybe taking care of Nunnally for so long gave him a sickly girl fetish?" Milly whispered to Shirley who was of course was on the brink of a nose bleed.

"Are you sure he's not going to make you one of his consorts?" Lilyna pushed still skeptical.

"Yes I'm sure!" Kallen snapped "And what do you mean one of his consorts?!"

"Well he keeps a woman in his apartments, I don't know about their relationship but rumor around base is she's his mistress." Marika explained.

The others save for Nunnally were completely blindsided by that revelation. "MISTRESS!" For Milly the gossip queen this was the jack-pot.

"Oh you mean Miss CC." Nunnally said innocently before she heard a thud. "What happened?"

"Shirley fainted." Milly explained.

"Don't move her." Marika warned.

"Don't worry I think she's just in shock, I'll go get Sayoko. She's trained as a nurse she'll know what to do."

"Lelouch and I are so not even." Kallen grumbled to herself.

A few miles away in his apartments Lelouch felt a sudden chill.

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Next morning

"Are Nu, Soresi, and Vergamon on their way up here like I asked?" Lelouch asked coming into his office and taking his seat behind his desk.

"They should be here any minute." Jeremiah said stirring his coffee. "What is it that you need to see all of us for anyway?"

"Just some business with Lloyd I want you all present for." Lelouch said nonchalantly as they here a knock on the door. "Enter."

"You wanted to see us your highness?" Marika yawned. Naturally both she and Lilyna had not gotten much sleep last night between the gossiping and other slumber party activities.

"Yes, I take it the two of you had fun last night. How was Nunnally?" He asked.

"She seemed to have a great time my lord, shortly after you left Miss Fennette fainted though." Lilyna said still rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

Lelouch frowned with concern "Shirley fainted? Is she alright?"

Marika nodded "That nurse maid, Sayoko was it? She took care of her. She was fine afterward."

"That's good I guess. Anyway the reason I called you all up here is because we have some business with the engineering corps." Lelouch explained getting up from behind his desk holding what looked to be a small hand held computer of some sort. "Follow me." he said as left the office, they obeyed and Jeremiah eventually broke the silence.

"What business do we have with Asplund exactly?" He asked curiously as the rest of the knights of Arawyn followed behind them.

"I'm going to commission him to build some seventh generation Knightmare frames based off the Gloucesters Schneizel sent us." Lelouch explained in a voice that was little smug fiddling with the hand held computer all the while. This caused curious looks to break out across the trailing Knight's faces.

"Um…?" Jeremiah started. And Lelouch sighed at the unasked question.

"You did read the reports I gave you a few days ago on the scraped project of the Lancelot club right?" he said. The inflection he used implied that it was not a question.

"Of course I did." He answered. As he recalled the unit was made from spare parts from the Lancelot and the Merlin and had a lot of the same features but built around a Sutherlands frame so there were major issues with mobility. The unit was considered sub-standard at best and quickly scraped after the funding had been cut off for it.

The others looked a little bewildered so Lelouch elaborated for their sake. "I want him to build some personalized units for my royal guard based off the basic idea laid down by the Club but with the Gloucesters superior performance." Jeremiah for his part restrained himself to a smug grin equal to the one his prince was sporting.

Villetta, Marika, and Lilyna however had to keep themselves from gawking as the same exact thought came rolling through each one of their minds 'Being on his highness Lelouch's Royal Guard sure did come with some perks.' At about that moment they began to enter the overly large hangar allocated for the Camelot project's use, Lloyd quite conveniently for once was in the middle of the sanctum working on something or other.

"Lloyd!" Lelouch called.

There was the sound of some tools hitting the floor as Lloyd instantly popped up from behind one of his experiments and blinked owlishly at Lelouch for a moment before his typical whimsical mask slipped into place…Perhaps it was still a bit early for him as well. "Ah…your highness I wasn't expecting you…Now what can I do for you?" he said while smiling. Lelouch came over to him and handed him the palm computer showing the schematic on the touch screen.

"You think you can build me about four of these?" Lelouch asked.

"Hmm…" the eccentric man examined the text carefully before beginning to respond in a slightly condescending tone, much to Lelouch's Royal Guards' chagrin, "I have to admit this raises my curiosity a great deal but as you know your highness these sorts of projects do require finance…" before he could finish his sentence Lelouch tapped the screen to bring up his latest bank statement from his private account. Lloyd's mouth fell open and his eyes grew so wide Lelouch thought there was a chance that they could have fallen out "…My…that…that is a lot of zeros." He said dead paned.

"So can you do it?" Lelouch asked.

"I most certainly can." Lloyd squeaked.

Lelouch smiled. "That's what I like to hear. And feel free to go a little wild." Lloyd snapped out of his shock and responded with a grin that practically ran from ear to ear. "If you wish, you may even want to explore that 'flaming slash hearken' idea" Lelouch said suggestively.

"Oh I intend to your Highness!" Lloyd all but cackled. Lelouch didn't miss the gleeful enunciation Lloyd gave his title. "After all your Highness it's all up here!" He gleefully stated while pointing at his temples with his index fingers and simultaneously spinning away from them. He then began to skip towards the offices and other Camelot project engineers before loudly calling out to Cecile Croomy in a high- pitched singsong tone. "Ohhhh Ceeciile! We have work to dooo!"

"That was…interesting."Jeremiah suddenly spoke.

A wry look appeared on Lelouch's face before speaking. "Villetta, make a note to increase Ms. Croomy's pay grade and give her a substantial bonus at the end of the month. Not much of a compensation for Lloyd's behavior but at least it's something."

Villetta couldn't help the small smile that appeared on her face, whether her liege knew it or not he was very good at handling the women in his life, her own extremely content mood at the thought of her own seventh generation Knightmare frame definitely inspired her to be even more loyal to the Black Prince.

"Don't worry your highness; shopping is very therapeutic to a woman." Lilyna very confidently piped up.

"God I hope so." the young prince muttered while silently asking for the indigo haired woman's forgiveness. The grunt of agreement from Jeremiah didn't go unnoticed by the group. With a slight sigh Lelouch began to lead his knights back out of the hangar.

As they were heading back to the government building a thought suddenly occurred to the dark skinned knight. "My lord?" she began.

"Yes Villetta?" Lelouch responded calmly.

"May I ask where you got the funds for this project?"

Lelouch glanced back at the trio of females that were out of the loop as an undeniably attractive smirk graced the Black Prince's face before he responded. "Let's just say that Lelouch Lamperouge had a number of gambling debts owed him by a large number of very proud and pompous nobles who have been eager to repay him since the revelation of his prince hood. A lot of whom doubled or even tripled the amount to be repaid in order to buy his silence in the matter."

Marika couldn't help but ask the thought that was going through the three's minds "How much do you have your highness?"

Lelouch immersed himself in thought for a moment "Hmm…If you included the trust fund and all of the assets along with the liquid material I suppose about 2 percent of the Tokyo settlement's total value." Once again Lelouch and Jeremiah were treated to the flabbergasted looks.

"30 billion?" Marika squeaked wide eyed.

Lelouch thought for a second and then nodded "Yes…that sounds about right."

Villetta suddenly narrowed her eyes "Jeremiah…"

"Yes?"

"How much does he pay you?" She asked.

He paused for a moment "…It's not polite to ask people about money Villetta."

"How much does he pay you?" She repeated with a little more force.

"…"

"Jeremiah?"

"…"

0000000000000000

Pendragon

"Why have you sought an audience with me?" Charles asked the woman kneeling behind him.

"Your majesty, due to my lack of a current assignment I wish to make use of myself and request permission to go to area eleven and serve under Prince Lelouch." she asked humbly.

"You wish to serve under the command of my son?" the Emperor asked curiously.

"Temporarily of course, until your majesty can find a better use for me."

"Very well then. You may go to area eleven but I want you to monitor his behavior."

She was confused by the order. "His behavior? Majesty?"

"Anything that strikes you as odd I want you to report back to Pendragon, do you understand?" He clarified.

"Yes your majesty."

"You may take your leave now." he said without even turning to look at her.

She stood from her kneeling position on the floor "Thank you your majesty."

0000000000000000

Area Eleven

Marika and Lilyna hurried along at a quickened pace following the guard who was showing them to Kewell's cell. "Will you wait up? He's locked in a holding cell he's not going anywhere." Lilyna shouted while trying to keep up.

"My apologies Lieutenant." The guard muttered slowing down as he lead them past the numerous holding cells housing a number a criminals, those who were either suspected or recently convicted of various things or were being held for interrogation purposes. All of whom were merely cooling their heels here before getting shipped off to a real prison. "Soresi visitors!" he announced when they came upon the correct one.

"Kewell you look terrible." Marika sighed sadly when she laid eyes on him. He was pale and had dark circles under his eyes.

"I haven't been sleeping well." He said truthfully.

"I can imagine why it would be hard to get a decent night's sleep here." Lilyna commented sympathetically.

"Well we didn't get all that much sleep last night either." Marika reminded her friend with a smile.

Kewell frowned "What do you mean?"

"I meant to come and tell you yesterday but I didn't have the time. I have some good news. The prince has accepted me and Lilyna and…"

"How is that good news?!" he snapped cutting her off.

Her face fell "It means I have a chance to restore this family's honor Kewell. He offered us positions on his royal guard. And even took us to meet his sister Princess Nunnally."

"And then we spent the night with some of his lady friends." Lilyna added innocently.

Kewell the blood completely drained out of his face. They spent the night with Lelouch's lady friends?...lady friends as in harem? Blood rushed to his head and he passed out before his delusions could take him any further.

"Kewell?...brother are you alright?" Marika asked worried. She got no response from him.

"I think he's just passed out, I'll tell the guard. He can send for a medic." Lilyna said.

'Why do people keep doing that?' Marika thought to herself, thinking back to last night.

0000000000000000

Knight's lounge

"Prince Lelouch gambling illegally…I would have never even imagined." Villetta said shaking her head.

"You know Villetta, you shouldn't judge. You and he are a lot alike in that respect." Jeremiah said.

She narrowed her eyes at her colleague "Just what is that supposed to mean?" She asked.

"You know what I mean. Living in poverty, having to support and take care of your younger brothers. His highness did what he had to do in order to do the same for himself and his sister. I'm sure you can relate."

Villetta lowered her head ever so slightly "I had no idea."

"Oh yeah. And he's a better cook than you too." He said to lighten the mood. She gave him a hard look and playfully made a gesture that seemed to suggest that she was ready to backhand him.

"Listen; there was something else that was bothering me." She said in a more serious tone. "It's about Saitama."

"…What about Saitama?" he asked cautiously.

"It's just that the surviving pilots of the Sutherlands that Zero somehow got a hold of all claim to not be able to remember leaving them. It's just like how Bartley claimed to have no recollection of leaving Prince Clovis alone during Shinjuku. Doesn't that strike you as a bit strange?"

Jeremiah shrugged. "It's a rather peculiar coincidence."

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Next day

"I never left the Tokyo settlement before this is my first time!" Shirley said excitedly while looking out the window of the train car she and the other girls were sitting in.

"I bet you wish Lelouch could have come with us don't you? Too bad he's working." Milly teased. Shirley blushed and shyly claimed up. While Euphie nodded affirmatively much to Shirley's disliking. "Don't be shy; we don't have school the next day like when we had the sleep over so we can stay up all night talking! We can tell each other which boys we like at school." She prodded. It was Euphie's turn to blush there was defiantly a boy at school she had an eye for.

"Do you have someone like that madam president?" Shirley asked.

Milly smiled and shrugged "Hmm…Who can say?" she said as the train speed onward going through a tunnel. The sudden darkness made Nina tense up and she gasped as her fingers tightened into the hem of her shirt. Milly reached out and took her hand.

"Nina, it's alright. Lot's of Britannian tourists at Lake Kawaguchi so security is fine." She reassured. "Don't be afraid it's nothing like the ghettos."

"Yes but…" Nina choked out.

"We'll be with you the whole time; we won't leave your side for a second."

A small smile appeared on the nervous girl's face as the train came out the other side of the tunnel "R…right." Shirley smiled excitedly when she saw that they had traveled outside the settlement.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AN: Dun Dun Dun!…( know I get on with it right? You guys hate me I am aware of this.) :D

I know people are going to ask so I'm just going to tell you right now. The reason Shirley wasn't depressed after she fainted at the slumber party is because she managed to convince herself that the conversation was all a very bad dream.

And yes! The running gag from canon of Kallen being naked is back! muwahahaha!

Major super duper kudos to All that is left unsaid and Velshard (you'll notice I used a good chunk of what you sent me verbatim) for their musings! Ideas are always appreciated so don't be shy in your reviews or PMs. The reason this story is as good as it is, is because of you guys interacting with me.