Kallen Kozuki awoke to a loud crash, and bit back a swear of panic when she reached out for her loaded sidearm and found absolutely nothing.

Then she realized that she was in her fancy bed, in her decadent father's manor, and that rather than a Britannian hit squad breaking into a safehouse, the breaking wood and shattered glass most likely had something to do with that klutz of a maid.

Grumbling to herself, Kallen slipped on enough clothes to meet a minimal standard of decency before stepping out into the hallway to survey the damage. That selfish woman just had to make a ruckus outside my room, probably because she knows I'm the only one who'd lose any sleep over firing her…

As expected, a cowering shell of a woman was on her knees amidst a broken stepladder and a fallen chandelier, struggling with her fine motor control to try and pick up any of the debris.

Kallen could faintly remember seeing the night before that one of its bulbs had gone out, and was already trying to turn away when the woman noticed her. "Milady, I swear I'll take care of this at once! And I'll have the stepladder replaced as well–"

"Whatever," Kallen growled out with as much civility as she could muster. "As soon as I get a shower I'm going to school."

And then the maid put on that fucking plastic smile she wore whenever she thought it convenient to act as if she still gave a damn. "You've been going to school more frequently of late, have you made any friends–?"

"That's no concern of yours!"

Even if Kallen couldn't rely on a gun for protection in this gilded hellhole of a prison, she wouldn't hesitate to slam any door in her reach as its own deterrence.

Why… why do you have to put me through this?! You whore yourself out at night to keep paying for the shit you constantly wreck in this house, and for what?! So you can stay close to the shadow of a scumbag who spat on both you and Naoto for some uptight Britannian skank?!

If Naoto hadn't been taken away by those damn Britannians, Kallen knew he'd be as ashamed of that weak, broken, prideless woman as she was.

Just thinking about him led memories of her brother to assail Kallen's mind as she slid to the floor, tears streaming down her face.

Naoto, who wanted better for her than to constantly risk her life fighting for their people and to reap the benefits of a Britannian education.

Naoto, who'd put up with her wilful insistence on taking part in the resistance, but had insisted she stay in this godforsaken house to keep an eye on a spineless coward of a woman that shamed them both with each passing day.

"Everything would be so much easier if you'd just disappear…!"

Naoto, who had screamed at Ohgi to knock her out and run for their lives even as that monstrous freak of a Britannian soldier had dragged him off like something out of a nightmare…

…a soldier whose voice, Kallen suddenly realized, was beginning to sound a little familiar.

Death Wish… come hell or high water, if it was really you back then, then I'm avenging the only family that loved me if it's the last thing I ever do.

"...then I can only imagine the spite you must feel when you look in a mirror."

A soft laugh carried across the Ashford clubhouse's rooftop as a green-haired woman lounged on a bench, toying with a pair of binoculars. "Of course your boy would sting me enough for me to feel it," she quipped to the empty air.

Trailing a hand up along the dark pants and brown jacket she'd borrowed from her contractor, C.C. turned on her side and gazed through her binoculars at a particular spot at the nearby University.

"He seems to surround himself with women who are more intelligent than he is," she quietly murmured as she watched a Japanese brunette wearing a school uniform be hurried out through a sliding garage door. Ignoring the cheerful pretty redhead walking next to him, C.C. focused closer on the target. "Though to look at him, I'm not sure it's that much of a bar to clear…"

"He spoke as if it was showing him the future, and it turned him against me."

"It's been a long time since I've seen one pop up without a contract. Hm? Yes, definitely longer than our involvement… What am I going to do?"

C.C. smiled into the back of her sleeve. "Well, after the other night I suppose it's only fair to show some cooperation while the mood suits me… and in the worst case scenario, I might as well set up a Plan B."

It was child's play to descend to ground level without being noticed, and just in time to catch the redheaded girl trot back towards the University after dropping off her boyfriend. All that remained was to wait patiently until the other woman had departed and the object of her attention was alone enough to not cause a stir.

"You look like you're working hard."

Suzaku almost tripped over himself on hearing her, but admirably kept his footing. Unfortunately, he didn't make any kind of response… judging by the look on his face, more likely the boy had a dozen things on the tip of his tongue and resigned himself to silence after taking too long to pick one.

I expect subtlety will be lost on this one.

"I heard you've been having problems," she casually drawled. "If you're a good boy, I might be able to assist with that."

"How, by foisting your immortality off on me?"

Well, that was a surprise. Not merely the content of his response, but even how he'd chosen to deliver it. "...oh? You don't sound as afraid of that as you should be."

The boy gave her a bitter, cynical grin. "Maybe I could use a cage to stop me from taking the coward's way out."

"Ah, I see…"

As Suzaku remained too inconsiderate to turn and face her, C.C. deigned to stroll in front of him before twirling around to confront him. Noticing the way his eyes widened with recognition on actually seeing her before following his gaze, C.C. brought her elbows together and offered the boy her most charming smile. "Spoken like a true coward."

It was almost like reading a novel, how quickly the boy's expression went from naked attraction spawned by her actions to suspicion and then shame and frustration with the awareness that her attention was only skin deep. "Tch... If you're just gonna fuck around with me, then I'm out of here."

C.C. dipped her gaze down along Suzaku's body for a moment, before her grin widened. "With what you're packing, that might be fun even if you're clueless~"

The immortal could all but taste the sheer mortified embarrassment radiating off of her helpless prey, and smirked at Suzaku's back as he stepped around her to proverbially take his ball and go home with it.

"It's no good for you to be so honest," she called out. "Wouldn't it make you a liability for that dear Princess of yours?"

And not unlike a spike strip puncturing tires in a high-speed pursuit, that brought the boy's escape to a screeching halt.

Dear me, and Lelouch had trouble with this boy? He's little more than a sycophant and zealot that hasn't been fully groomed yet.

C.C. blinked, and all too easily imagined strings emanating from her fingertips and lazily looping around Suzaku's limbs. How easily she could have this poor boy dancing to her whim with but a minimal effort…

"So what are you going to do about Mao?"

…or perhaps not.

C.C. focused her attention on Suzaku again and found that the awkward, anxious boy she'd just been tormenting had disappeared. In his place stood a firmer, more hostile young man actively judging her.

The witch huffed and crossed her arms, waiting for the inevitable self-righteous stream of condemnation she could see coming from a mile away…

…and waited.

And waited, until after a long moment she realized that his stern glare had softened into something dangerously close to compassion. C.C. narrowed her eyes. "Isn't this the part where you tear into me for what I did to that orphan brat like you're some kind of preacher?"

"I could, but it'd be hollow. Even as fucked up as it was, I… we can empathize well enough with why you did it, at least in principle."

C.C. blinked. "We?"

Suzaku slung his bag over his shoulder with a sigh as he started walking towards the school. "Look, I can't spend all morning shooting the breeze – but it's obvious that you know where to find me later. …oh, and one last thing while I'm still here."

Suzaku turned back to glance over his shoulder at her, and for the first time in decades C.C. experienced what it was to feel utterly numb.

"I'm not against taking your Code off your hands if it means you're not setting Lelouch up to rely on that Geass you gave him – but at the same time, I'm also not going to give you a finite lifespan if you're going to just turn around and toss it in a dumpster. I know that it's utter hypocrisy and that I'm the last guy on Earth who'd have the right to say anything remotely like this, but. Whenever you think you might be ready to actually try living again, come find me and we can talk about it."

"Well, that was certainly… nothing like what I'd been ready to deal with today."

There's a chance that we'll run into Lelouch while we're here, Suzaku states seriously. We'd better keep ourselves prepared for the possibility.

Even if we cross paths, it's not like we can do anything about it. We raise any red flags, then it could spell trouble for Nunnally… and for that matter, why the hell did we put me back in the driver's seat?! You don't seriously expect me to do the better job of keeping our shit together, do you?!

It's less that, and more that you'll have a better chance of playing any kind of attitude or tension off as something unrelated. After all, you said that you've acted on stage at university, right?

Calling it a university is entirely too much credit, but fine, I see your point. Guess I'd better start rehearsing…

Of course, it's one thing to say that I'll rehearse for a performance that will ultimately end up being almost if not entirely improv.

It's another thing entirely to try and do that completely in our head with no chance to get any lines at all tied into muscle memory, while also trying to keep aware of our surroundings and find our way to the Student Council office without assistance or a map given that classes are still running.

"I still can't believe Euphie damn near ordered us to get classes scheduled when we've already got so much other shit on our plate at her behest…"

The Princess obviously has her reasons; we shouldn't question her.

Counterargument: we should absolutely call bullshit when the next suitably private opportunity comes, partly because she as good as said she likes when we do that and partly because I don't care to get yanked around for no clear reason by anybody.

Suzaku's Japanese conformity instinct has him kind of knee-jerk against the idea, but thankfully he doesn't actually raise an objection…

Our phone goes ding with a text alert, and on instinct I pull it out of our pocket. There aren't enough people who have our number for it to probably be unimportant…

[We've picked up a tomcat for the mouse problem,] a message reads. [Hopefully he'll sniff them out pretty soon.]

Hell yeah, that first contact worked out!

It's promising, but still a little too early to celebrate just yet.

Right, if I get too excited about it something screwy'll happen –

"Ah!"

"Shit!"

No sooner do I think of it than we practically t-bone someone that just rounded a corner in front of us.

The unmistakable sound of fluttering papers and falling books fills the hallway, and if not for the slim calves of a female student extending from behind the corner and informing me that there's a lady present, I'd have let fly a whole stream of further swears. …and holy shit, that's one hell of a stack of paperwork.

Better clean up this damn mess I made, the last thing Suzaku needs around here is a worse rep than what comes natural to us. "I'm so, so sorry about that. I was distracted and not really paying the kind of attention I should've."

"Um, it's okay," the girl replies, almost dizzily. Her voice is one I recognize from the anime as being familiar, but I'm agitated enough with the accident that I can't exactly put a name and face to it offhand. "I could barely even see where I was going, and I should have had one of my friends helping me from the start."

"On the subject of being okay or not," I mutter while crouching down to help pick shit up and make a neat stack out of it, "are you? …are you okay, I mean? I didn't hurt you or anything, did I?"

A brief flash of pink near the floor gets my attention before I drag my eyes the hell up to where they belong, and…

Dark green hair. A braided ponytail. Glasses damn near knocked off of her face and dangling off of one ear.

"No, not at all! I'm perfectly fi–"

As Nina Einstein puts her glasses back into place and takes her first proper look at us, the word promptly dies in her throat.

The first thought to cross Nina's mind was an old memory she'd been running from since just after the invasion; of her family crossing paths with a drunk and stranded Japanese embassy worker on the way home from a stage play as a child.

Of a rough hand gripped around her mouth and the cold steel of a muzzle pushed against her temple; of furious demands roared above her head for passage home.

Father's face, twisted in rage like a monster in the light of the muzzle flash, a limp body tumbling to the ground on top of me as that horrid sticky sensation spread everywhere.

Nina's parents had eventually decided to send her to the newly-established Area Eleven with expectations that her "fear of Elevens" – and, indeed, of violence – would be overcome by proximity exposure.

She hadn't spoken with them since.

Her second clear thought, trying desperately not to fixate on the phantom seeping of blood over her glasses and that horrid gurgling sound, was to wonder why this Eleven boy looked so familiar. She never went out into the ghettos or was introduced to any Honorary Britannians, so there was no logical reason to recognize this boy in front of her. And yet she did.

Mother screaming over the gunshot–

No, no, she had to stay in the present! To keep running, to keep that horrible night from catching her in its grasp all over again…! She wasn't a small child, she was a high school student!

She was… she was on her way back from the computer room with a bunch of copies she'd made of a flier for one of Milly's upcoming festivals, with related books and manuals she'd checked out from the library that seemed like they could be useful, when this Eleven came around the corner and hit her –

He didn't hit me, she corrected herself, he bumped into me and already apologized.

More than just an apology, indeed, the Eleven was visibly trying to make himself as small as possible while picking up her fallen things, shame and guilt plain on his face as though he were keenly aware of how uncomfortable he was making Nina, and every bit uncomfortable with himself because of it.

All while she sat on the floor practically gawking at him, trying not to fall into the mental quicksand of a traumatic flashback.

"Um… you smell nice!"

Why did that have to be the first non-horrible thing I could say that came to mind?!

That the boy was doing an actual double take at Nina certainly didn't help anything…

"Uh, thanks… you also smell nice," he awkwardly replied. "You look pretty nice, too."

He doesn't have to try and make me feel better like that, I guess he's pretty nice after all – wait, is he just trying to make me feel better, or is he actually taking an interest in me?! I've never had a boy act like this to me, what do I do?!

Nina abruptly realized that she'd been deep enough in thought to leave the unexpected compliment hanging, as evidenced by the Honorary turning away from her like a dejected puppy as he went back to gathering her scattered materials together. "My name's Suzaku," he introduced himself. "I was looking for the Student Council office, and… well, I'm really sorry I inconvenienced you like this…"

Nina blinked, and with a faint smile she suddenly realized where she'd seen the guy before. "Excuse me, but – aren't you that guy from the train video that was circulating the net the other day? You let that nobleman's heir hit you, and then your girlfriend got upset with you about it?"

Suzaku paused for a moment to process the question as he finished stacking Nina's materials, before awkwardly scratching the back of his head. "That's really getting around, huh…"

"My friend Rivalz showed it to us," Nina explained, before getting to her feet and smoothing her skirt. "Um, you said you were looking for the student council office, weren't you? As a member of the student council myself, I can show you the way if you'd like."

"Well…" Suzaku spent a few seconds looking anywhere but at Nina, until finally with a sigh he stood up straight with her spilt materials. "If it really isn't a problem for you, then I'd appreciate the help. And I want to apologize again for running into you like that; the least I can do is carry your stuff…"

"Oh, no, that's okay! You don't have to–"

Nina paused for a breath as another flash of guilt and anxiety crossed the boy's face, and the question struck her if they might not be so different…

"–but I appreciate your help," she relented. "We're working out of the clubhouse today; if you'll follow me, I'll show you the way."

Agreement made, the following few minutes passed in silence as Nina's mind raced.

He's an Eleven, but he basically admitted to having a Britannian girlfriend who seemed to worry about him a lot, and Milly said before that the new student transferring in was military, which explains why she said he might need help catching up on old material… I guess that means the girl in the video is probably Milly's friend, and he's been pretty nice so far, so hopefully everything should be okay? …wait, he said his name's Suzaku?

"Um, excuse me… are you the same Suzaku that was on the news with Princess Euphemia after that stuff in Shibuya? Suzaku Kururugi?"

"...I am," he said with an awkward, halting nod. "But I'd rather not make any more of a thing out of it than is going to happen anyway. Dealing with people gets… to be kind of exhausting sometimes, you know?"

If Nina understood anything at all about other people, that would definitely be at the top of the list. "The whole school will probably know about it faster than you can say evolution," she admitted, "but if you want I can show you some quiet places around campus later."

What if he takes that the wrong way and thinks it's a date?! …well, no, he's got a cute girlfriend, so that's probably not something I should have to worry about…

"I think I'd really like that, if you don't mind."

Neither party could really find much further to say after that, and the remainder of their walk lapsed into a relatively comfortable silence as she led him out of the main building and over to the adjacent clubhouse…

Well, that sure wasn't the disaster we were afraid of…

Of course it wasn't, Suzaku chimes from inside our head.

Hey now, she looked completely freaked the fuck out when she first laid eyes on us. I had every reason to expect the worst!

And we worked our way through it without any problems.

"Oh, there she is!" a cheerful girl called out. "Nina, we were just talking about whether to send a search party after you, did anything happen?"

That sounds like Shirley, as best I can tell…

"Well, um–"

As Nina steps on inside to hold the door open for us, a certain infamous blonde bombshell positively springs into view with a look of surprise that almost immediately turns into a penetrating leer. "Oh ho ho! I have to admit, Nina, I never expected to see you bringing a boy home like this – and quite a catch, too, by the looks of it!"

I'm starting to feel like I need an adult–

Millicent Ashford smirks like she read our mind, almost as if to say: "I'm an adult~"

After an awkward half-second, Suzaku shook his head as his mind-cohabitant departed for their shared subconscious. You're going to have to get used to her eventually, he mused, but I can take point for today.

The way I see it I'm doing good right now just to keep my head on half-straight with the women that I know actually like us. I'm not high enough level to deal with the likes of her right after C.C.!

With an excellent job of not rolling his eyes in front of Milly and her friends, Suzaku metaphorically yanked on the back of One's collar.

Then you can stick around and get some experience, even if it's just through osmosis from the back seat.

Fortunately, Suzaku's military training had allowed him to better compartmentalize and carry the second conversation in the background while keeping the bulk of his focus on the situation in front of him. "Look, it's not like that," he calmly began to explain…

"Madame President, it's not like that!"

Although Nina's simultaneous and near-panicked outburst certainly helped solidify any impression that it was like that, as Milly's grin could attest to.

"I'm Shirley Fennette," the girl in question proclaimed as she stepped up to take part of the paperwork from him. "It's a pleasure to meet you! I'm guessing you're the new transfer coming in, right?"

"I'm Milly Ashford," the blonde almost purred as she put two fingers on Suzaku's chest, before walking them up to his chin. "But you can call me Queen."

Suzaku couldn't help but swallow in response to that, before setting his jaw and looking Milly in the eye. "It's nice to meet you, Miss Ashford."

The room's atmosphere chilled for a moment at the distant manner of address, before Milly positively beamed at Suzaku. "My oh my, you just might earn my seal of approval yet! Our Vice President and treasurer are on other errands at the moment…"

Suzaku blinked at the blonde's shift in behavior, before ever so slightly relaxing. I wonder if Elle's confidence issues came about from comparing herself to her… Either way, partner, I think we can tag you back in since she seems like she's done–

The blonde promptly cut off his train of thought with a saucy wink. "...so at least for now, it's just the three of us girls here. A real lucky devil, aren't you?"

Nope, I spoke too soon!

I KNEW IT!

Be helpful or be quiet!

"Madam President," an exasperated Shirley cried. "Will you take it easy on the poor guy?"

Milly primly turned up her nose at the question as she sat up on a table entirely too casually not to know what effect it would have on her uniform's miniskirt. "I'm trying to be as easy as I can while still maintaining some class, Shirley; I can't imagine what more you expect of me."

Rolling her eyes, Shirley turned to face Suzaku with a hand over her heart. "Look, I'm sorry about her, she's… pretty much always like this and most of us are used to it."

"It's just her way of being friendly," Nina added as she set about organizing the material that they'd brought to the office.

We know that she's friends with Elle, Suzaku thought. Between that, and what you know from those other worlds, Milly must have her own reasons for screwing around with us… but knowing that you keep fixating on and overthinking self-destructive bullshit and going into a spiral over it, the last thing we need is for her to add more fuel to the fire.

"I'm sorry if it makes me a stick in the mud," he said with a sigh, "but I really haven't got all day to hang around, and I know you've all got your own business to take care of too. I feel bad enough about being a disruption as it already is…"

"Oh no, you've got nothing to worry about! Taking care of special cases like you is our job, we're happy to do it!"

Her eye on Shirley, frantically trying to wave off the issue as emphasis to her assurances, for once Milly deigned to let the chance for innuendo pass by. "Indeed, all play and no work does not a happy ending make… Very well! As the Student Council President, I'll just run you through some quick quizzes to get a general idea of how much catching up you need to do, and depending on how things go I can assign remedial tutoring on an as-needed basis from one week to the next. Nina, Shirley! I'm leaving the concert poster selection up to you two unless the boys come back before we're done."

Suzaku almost asked if he could work with Shirley or Nina instead, before deciding instead that he'd do better to just get it over with. If the matter could be resolved without involving the other two, then so much the better. "I appreciate it, Miss Ashford."

Seconds later, Milly had all but dragged the off-duty soldier upstairs to an internal balcony overlooking the floor. "Now then–

"Before we get started, I'd like to ask that you please stop acting like you're more interested in me than you actually are."

Milly twirled around to face him mid-step, half-hiding a grin behind one hand. "Oh, are you shy? I'd consider it a pleasure to help you out with that–"

"There's a part of me that has issues with hyper-fixating on negative thoughts and following them into a self-destructive spiral," Suzaku explained with deliberate patience, almost forcing himself to sit in the chair provided. "I'm sure that you probably have good intentions relating to your friend… but if I can be perfectly blunt, you're on the verge of opening a rabbit hole I don't need to get lost in."

Silence reigned but for the busy work conducted by Shirley and Nina on the floor below as a stricken Milly took a few seconds to process that. "...dear me," she whispered. "Have I done more harm than good?"

And now I feel like I'm the bad guy…

"Look, I–"

"Don't you dare try to apologize for standing up for yourself. Not to me, and not to anyone else either."

Suzaku's mouth clicked shut at the hissed reprimand as he watched Milly sink into the chair next to him with her skirt bunched up in her fists.

"...how much did she tell you? About our history together, I mean."

"...Elle told me she was insecure about her body. Not that she should be; she's damn cute…"

Milly chuckled a bit, slowly relaxing her hands. "There was a certain point in middle school when a string of boys all tried to act close to her as a way of getting in my good graces, and… even though I gave each and every one of them hell over it when I'd find out, for a year or two Ellie got pretty sore with me over it. I was a real early bloomer, you know?"

Recognizing the question as rhetorical, Suzaku leaned back in his seat without comment to let the blonde continue.

"...when Princess Euphemia made that spectacular debut a few days ago, did you know I happened to see it live?"

Suzaku certainly didn't know, and was surprised to even hear the subject come up. From the way Milly elegantly concealed a laugh behind her hand, it must have shown on his face.

"Elle even called me about it in the immediate aftermath to let me know you wouldn't be coming to school that day; that's when I saw the way Her Highness looked at you… when I saw the adoration you gave her in return… and when my childhood friend told me a bitter, resigned lie when she said it wasn't a problem to scrap her plans with you that night."

The words stabbed into Suzaku like a cold dagger, as a black cloud of seething hatred instantly blossomed over his heart.

We really are trash…

Gaze unfocused, the soldier absently raised a hand to his face, staring as though it were a thousand miles away. "...scum of the worst kind," he murmured in agreement.

"No! None of that!"

Startled by the unexpected warmth of human touch, Suzaku blinked and saw that Milly had taken his hand in hers and fixed him with a stern glare. Meeting his doubt with a kindness matched only by firmness. "Instead of another excuse to blame yourself," she advised, "you should take it as proof of how much she cares about you. About how much you mean to her."

"But–"

Milly wasn't having it. "Buts belong in seats, Mister, and not in your mouth. …well, unless you're into that, anyway."

The unexpected quip promptly broke through the cloud of hate in his heart like a bolt of sun, and Milly immediately took the opportunity his chuckle represented. "I wanted to prove for my own peace of mind that you weren't just trying to use my friend as a stepping stone to someone else, and… I almost definitely could have done that better, in a way that wouldn't have risked getting between the two of you and without worsening… whatever obvious issues you're dealing with. I made a mistake, and I am going to make it right. Part of that is going to involve not letting you go crazy punishing yourself and throwing away what could be a great thing, when all you might need to do for now is try putting in a little more effort."

"...I never intended to make you out as a villain," Suzaku slowly replied. "Nor to accuse you of malicious intentions."

Milly's smile could have competed with the sun for sheer radiance. "I know you didn't, and I never consciously intended to accuse you of the same either. But for what it's worth, soldier boy? I do approve of what I'm seeing so far. Now, that's enough of the heavy stuff – let's start with some good old calculus!"

…I want to die.

You'll survive through this hell with me and like it, dammit!

And so the next hour passed in a blur as Milly drilled her guest on one academic subject after another, clearing through them with an almost ruthless efficiency. At some point, the addition of a male voice on the floor below prompted Milly to lean over the balcony and pass down a new round of instructions, whereupon an almost dead-eyed Suzaku promptly slumped onto the table they'd been working at.

The math was bad enough to start with, but 80% of my history being worthless in this universe was a real punch in the gut.

You absolutely saved our bacon on the arts, sciences, and math, though… even if that first round really bloodied us up.

It doesn't help that she started with the most advanced crap she could throw at us in every category and then started bailing water in proportion to how badly we were drowning…

Well, I made a big deal earlier about implying a time limit, so Milly blitzing through from the top down to find our comfort zone is entirely my fault. All the same, I'm grateful I had you backing me up…

The wave of embarrassment Suzaku felt reverberating across their mind confirmed that One still hadn't gotten much more comfortable at accepting praise or gratitude… but that was okay, the Japanese youth decided.

Step by step, day by day, they were progressing beyond their current state and into something he hoped was a better version of themselves.

He certainly couldn't remember anyone ever saying that evolution was a quick affair.

"Okay," Milly sighed as she plopped back into her chair, "just two more questions and we can finish up! …hey now, look alive! We've got some snacks and drinks just downstairs that you're welcome to as soon as you're done, alright sweetie?"

"Yes… Madam President…"

"Good boy, I'll save you a cookie!"

If Suzaku happened to twitch at the first two words out of her mouth, Milly chose to ignore it. "First… on what dates were the terrorist group Peace Mark first known to the public and then acknowledged as a world power, respectively?"

In Oz they didn't really even exist until after the end of R1, so fuck if I know…

Suzaku, however, was far from ignorant on the subject. "...their public debut was only four years ago, around the anniversary of Queen Consort Marriane vi Britannia's assassination. Outposts near the Cape of Good Hope at the southernmost tip of Africa were obliterated in a series of guerilla attacks; because of both their timing, and seeming to bypass all onsite security in a similar way, some voices in the Empire have tried to claim retroactively that Her Majesty's tragic end was one of Peace Mark's early operations despite that no one claiming to be associated with them has ever attempted to claim responsibility for it."

Milly hummed, taking pity on the poor boy and noting down his answer for him. "I almost would have expected an answer like that from Lelouch… to be blunt, some teachers would ding you for not having dates and for framing the Empire's official position as a conspiracy theory, but you honestly sound like you have a better understanding of the actual subject matter than half of them do; no surprises there. Alrighty, last question, and it's a real softball to let you cool down with! In what year were the Tibetan Accords signed in relation to what matter, and by which nations?"

Showing more signs of life at the familiar subject matter, Suzaku returned to a more proper sitting position with a confident nod. "The Tibetan Accords were signed by the Chinese Federation, Euro Universe, Middle Eastern Federation, the Kingdom of Zilkhstan, and Holy Britannia. The Accords were drawn up in response to a battle between the MEF and the Chinese in early 2011, also involving Zilkhstani mercenaries and EU special forces, that spiraled out of control and destroyed a major chemical production plant."

Milly nodded in approval, only to pause and watch as Suzaku kept going. "What followed was an unprecedented ecological disaster that contaminated local environments for miles in every direction, toxifying wetlands and rendering stretches on either side of the border completely uninhabitable as civilian casualties soared as contaminants continued to spread through the water cycle… without a further interest in the fertile lands they'd been trying to conquer, the MEF pulled back and agreed to a ceasefire with the weakened Chinese Federation."

Milly opened her mouth to explain that he was giving her much deeper context than she was really looking for, only to huff in amusement as Suzaku took a deep breath and promptly kept going.

"After witnessing the monumental loss of life and ruination of territory," he continued, "the nations involved in the battle agreed to a formal treaty forbidding the research, development, production, or deployment of any chemical or biological weapon of mass destruction. Though His Majesty the Emperor declined to join the summit where the Accords were written and signed, the Prime Minister and Knight of One both traveled to Tibet the following year and signed onto the Accords in his place to stop the rest of the world from uniting against Britannia."

As Suzaku finally concluded his verbal essay with the heaviest sigh Milly had ever seen, she couldn't help but laugh. "Suzaku, do you need a glass of water?"

The Japanese blinked at the question, before realizing just how much he'd kept talking.

That's new…

Sorry, that might've been my fault…

…oh well, there are worse traits I could take from you. It's no big deal. "Eheh… If you don't mind?"

"Not at all! Part of what I've had the others working on was set up for a small party we're throwing to induct a new member into the Student Council. I understand if you don't have much time to hang out, but you're more than welcome to join in for as long as you're able."

I really have other things I need to do, though… "Oh no, I couldn't impose any further than I already have–"

"It's Academy policy that all students need to have some kind of school-sponsored extracurricular activity," Milly explained, eyes closed.

Slowly, dramatically opening one eye as if to illustrate how easily she could see through him, the blonde noted his silence and took that as a sign to continue. "In light of your military service, you're probably going to only have limited scheduling as far as classes go, and frankly that's not enough for us to meet your needs in terms of social development. Unless a better fit comes along, we're probably going to give you a Student Council seat too – even if it means I have to make one up for you. …c'mon," she asked with a pout, "can't you spend a few minutes getting to know everyone better before you leave?"

I had only an instant's warning before Suzaku threw me back into the driver's seat… and with the borderline hand cramp from writing so much prior to those last two questions, I guess I can't really blame him too much for bailing.

As kind and gorgeous as Milly may be, though… the bottom line remains that Ashford Academy is enemy territory for as long as Lelouch has any influence or investment in it, and if push came to shove there's no question in my mind of whose side she'd take.

Dammit, the last thing I care to do right now is navigate small talk… "Yeah, sure, I guess I can hang around for a bit."

The part of my mind where all the music memories are stored randomly cues up Roundabout, like my coming down the stairs to get some juice and a cookie is gonna prompt a Jojo cliffhanger meme or some shit.

"Hey everyone," the last voice I wanted to hear today calls out, "I brought Miss Stadtfeld!"

Lelouch enters from outside, holding the door open for a certain chesty redhead that stares at me in naked shock for about half a second, before coming within an inch of breaking her cover with a hateful glare aimed right at me–

[-to be continued...]