A/N: Hey guys, Christmas special coming up. Sorry I took so long to update, but this chapter's pretty long, so hope it makes up for it. Hope you like it. As usual, it's crack and romance. This one isn't a music one though.
Sorry I didn't update for a while, it's cause I'm one of those sporadic writers who write on impulse I guess. :/ Anyway, sorry bout that, hope this long-shot makes up for it.
Yeah, and I don't own, blah blah blah, you get the point.
-
Christmas.
Lelouch looked up from his laptop in his room at the snow gently covering everything in a white blanket. For Lelouch, Christmas was a time of mixed and tangled feelings. On one hand, who could not enjoy celebrating with friends, decorating for the holiday spirit, or the fuzzy feeling of giving out presents?
On the other hand, who would enjoy sprinting for their life to avoid getting utterly destroyed by a crowd of girls, breaking their back under presents, or replying to hundreds upon hundreds of cards? After every Christmas, Lelouch would be black and blue for a week.
Now that he thought of it, that Santa must've been one heck of a strong guy to deliver all those presents with only a couple reindeer. Lelouch had to hire a truck half of the time for his presents. Much easier than lugging them all the way to his house.
Lelouch wanted a quiet Christmas for once. A Christmas where he could just spend time with his family and friends. A Christmas where girls wouldn't chase him relentlessly. After all, he couldn't understand why the hell they kept chasing him.
But right now, it was quite calm. To look at the beautiful slowly covering everything white was one of the most peaceful things to do. It gave a sleepy feeling to the world. Everything was just so natural and serene.
And then it was broken.
"Lelouch, I'm buying some more pizza."
Lelouch looked over at the green-haired witch. That was the tenth time today. Even for C.C., 10 times? That was really pushing it. Whatever, who was he to care? For all he knew, C.C. could have a little pizza eating Cheese-kun in her stomach eating all that pizza for her… Or maybe she had a black hole in there… Or maybe she had five stomachs…
Okay, getting off track. Lelouch shook his head to clear the incoming thoughts.
But hey, when you're stuck with an annoying immortal witch with the power to control people, anything's possible!
"Yeah, sure, go ahead." Lelouch went back to his work. Let's see… Black Knights captured some warehouse… Few casualties... Some crappy knightmares… Base fine... Base decorated with pink hearts… Some cruddy tanks that he wouldn't need… Wait, what?
Lelouch quickly looked up at the fourth update concerning the black knights. The most feared vehicle by all of Britannia was covered with cute pink hearts?
*Bing*
Email message from . Er… Toudou.
Zero, successful warehouse capture today, good amount of knightmares for the picking. Everything's fine, but… you might want to check this out.
Lelouch's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates. Yes, even larger than the normal tennis ball size eyes that everyone usually had.
On the bed, C.C. looked over at Lelouch and saw his astonished expression. She grinned. He probably just discovered her little surprise.
C.C. looked out the window, putting her best innocent face on in case Lelouch suspected her. She noticed it was snowing, so it must almost be Christmas again. The girl never remembered any of her Christmases; they just seemed to disappear into time. She sighed. Well, all the more reason to have some fun with Lelouch.
The raven-haired boy's focus was centered on his computer. Toudou's picture was… weird to say the least. There was the black knight's base vehicle, previously painted a nice shade of black. Black was respectable. Black was feared. It went with the name for god's sake!
Now it was painted a nice shade of bright pink. Pink was not respectable. Pink was not feared. If Lelouch went against Britannia, he would surely win, but not from his plans. All the Britannian soldiers would simply put down their guns and laugh at their supposedly fearful and powerful opponent. And as if to add to the insult against his dignity, there were bright red hearts painted all over the vehicle, so it looked more like some vehicle suitable for cupid to deliver valentines rather than the black knights to fight Britannia.
Yes, well, you see Zero, C.C. wanted us to celebrate the holiday spirit. Although I don't know why pink and red were chosen. Ohgi and Kallen tried to stop her, but after all, she is your right hand man, er, women. Do you like it? I think it looks nice! Er… I mean it's a gratifying change to our usual black.
Waiting for your command to paint the vehicle a different color.
End Message.
Out of all the things that witch had done to annoy him, this one was by far one of the worst. It was an insult to his dignity. It was pink! Nobody paints a war vehicle pink!
Lelouch turned toward the witch, who quickly turned away noticing his glance. She innocently munched her last slice of pizza, savoring the pepperoni and the tomato sauce. Her appearance made her look like a peaceful little girl who would never do anything bad or troublesome.
Yeah, sure. Lelouch knew C.C.'s tricks better than anyone.
He opened his mouth to speak. The warlock needed to reprimand the witch for her prank.
*Bing*
Another message, this one from . Huh? Lelouch scratched his head and thought for a moment. Oh, wait, that was Tamaki.
Yo, Zero buddy, ik ur cool and all and your good at lk, battling those stupid brits and shit lk that, but, ur choice of color for our awesome, kickass vehicle… is… um… bad.
Ur prosti- um, I mean companion sed u wanted it painted pink btw. Buddy, u just lost a lot of my respect rite there. I mean, pink? U better let us change it back soon.
End Message.
Lelouch sighed. It was just like Tamaki to trust anything a beautiful lady said to him. Even if it was that Zero wanted his war machine painted pink.
He stopped in his thoughts. Did he just call C.C. beautiful? And a lady? Lelouch laughed to himself. Only in his dreams.
But Lelouch needed to resolve this problem, and fast. Zero could not go to war with a pink war machine.
"C.C., did you paint our vehicle a different color?"
C.C. looked at the teenager. "I don't recall ever lifting a paint brush."
"Oh, so how do you explain this?" Lelouch turned the computer screen toward the witch.
"That? Your knights painted it that color." C.C. looked away to hide her smile from Lelouch, fearing it might gave her prank away.
"You told them to didn't you?" Lelouch narrowed his eyebrows.
Ah, ah, looks like the prank wasn't good enough to hide from Lelouch. C.C. just shrugged.
Lelouch was not amused by her strange humor. She just loved torturing him as much as she loved pizza. "Why C.C.?"
"Because, Lelouch, it's almost Christmas," she said nonchalantly. "And I felt like a change in color would be nice."
C.C. brought her hand back up to her mouth to munch on the pizza some more. Oh wait. There was no more pizza. Damn. She frowned, that pizza guy better get here soon.
"I'm not amused C.C. I can't go to war with this thing. I'm going to change it back to black. " Lelouch turned back to his computer to start sending more emails.
"Why do I keep a witch who loves to torture me?" he asked no one in particular.
C.C. pouted. "You're no fun. Where's your sense of humor?"
Lelouch just sighed, ignored her question, and went to to read up some new strategies he could employ against Britannia.
-
"Alright everybody! It's almost Christmas, so we, the amazing Student Council, are going to decorate and arrange the activities!" Milly looked around at the gathered Student Council. Suzaku and Shirley eager as always. Lelouch trying to keep himself from sleeping. Kallen quiet like usual. Rivalz looking at her rather creepily.
Yeah, same old, same old.
The blonde continued energetically, "This year, we're gonna have a special event! A ball for the first time ever! Isn't that great?"
Her voice suddenly gained a more serious and darker edge to it. Milly narrowed her eyes and said, "And all of you have to go."
Somebody coughed and muttered Lelouch under their breath.
Milly regained her happy composure and winked at Shirley, as if to say now's the time. Shirley in response blushed a nice shade of pink. "Now, make sure you dress festively! Red, white, and green's what we're aiming for!"
"Madam Chairman, do we have to go?" Lelouch asked. Typical him.
"Yes vice-pres, this is an order. You're going to the dance if I have to get Suzaku to drag you there!" Milly looked at Suzaku as if it was an actual possibility.
Suzaku laughed. He wouldn't actually have to drag Lelouch's sorry ass to the dance that would be too harsh, but oh so funny. He could imagine Lelouch's humiliation as he fruitlessly tried to escape while Suzaku grabbed his collar with his pinky. Yep, Lelouch was that weak.
Wait… would he?
He looked at Milly; saw the girl's determination and deviousness in her eyes and shivered. Maybe he would.
There was something in those eyes that was so very scary that it could even scare a Japanese soldier who looked like he was actually British and piloted a gigantic two ton hulk of metal.
Not Suzaku of course! He wasn't scared at all!
"Now, make sure that thisweek, you all go buy some nice clothes alright? Especially you Lelouch."
Lelouch sighed. It looked like he would have to go through with this after all.
"Also, everybody's gonna have to contribute to decorating! Suzaku and Rivalz, you got the tree and decorate the hall. Shirley, Kallen, and Nina, you girls get us some nice snacks and lights to string up. Lelouch, you're in charge of the decorations for the tree, alright everybody?"
"But-" the rest of the student council said in unison.
"No buts! Oh and Lelouch, bring along a girl when you're shopping will you? I want to have a nice tree this year, not like the one from last year." Milly gave him a wink. Lelouch remembered last year. He shivered. Milly didn't like his "bad taste" in decorating apparently. He wouldn't have minded or even cared, except he didn't know Milly had such a good throwing arm.
Milly slammed her hands down on the table. "Student Council dismissed!"
-
Lelouch cleared his throat.
No response from the green haired witch.
Cough cough.
…
…
Nothing.
A fly buzzed around his head. Bzz… Bz… It probably thought that his eyes were really juicy grapes.
He coughed a bit louder.
…
…
No dice.
The fly landed on his lip. Mm… it thought. There was this nice pizza smell there. It liked pizza! Wait, why was there pizza on Lelouch's lip?
Wack! Poor fly. It did not live long enough to find out. May it rest in peace. It's long life of two days ended with that smack. It had so many things it could've done. Flies have dreams too!
Lelouch ignored the hopeless fly.
More coughs.
Nope.
Louder coughs. It was really starting to become a hack now.
…
…
"Lelouch, are you sick or are you just going to keep coughing?"
Finally.
"No, I… uh…" Lelouch didn't know how to begin.
"Well?"
"How should I put this…?" he said to himself.
"…Yes?" C.C. was getting impatient. Was he going to keep standing there or was he going to let her hug Cheese-kun and eat her pizza in peace? The boy was good for two things in C.C.'s opinion. Teasing and… buying pizza.
"I need to go buy some Christmas decorations." Strange, to C.C., Lelouch looked nervous. She brushed that thought away quickly. Lelouch and nervousness? Yeah right. Never gonna happen.
"Would you like to come along?"
Woah. Did she just hear what she thought she heard? Apparently she did.
C.C. grinned. She needed to put some salt on the wound. "Are you asking me out on a date?"
Lelouch visibly stiffened. C.C. kept her desire to laugh inside. He was so cute sometimes with his red face and trying desperately to keep his pride. My god, was teasing Lelouch fun.
"Yes, I am. But it's only cause Milly asked me to. So let's hurry up and go." Lelouch sighed. He had maintained his dignity somewhat… Alright, that was a lie. If he had a nickel for every time he lost his dignity to C.C., Lelouch would be as rich as his dad.
"No."
"What?"
"I said no. I'm not coming. Too lazy and busy."
C.C. really didn't have any plans; she just wanted to tease Lelouch a bit more. She spread out on the bed with her limbs just flung everywhere as if to reclaim it for herself. Besides, she had pizza to eat, TV to watch, and cheese-kun to hug. What else could a immortal witch ask for?
Lelouch however, was not feeling C.C.'s sense of enjoyment. If he went out by himself, he would surely get caught by Milly. "Why not C.C.?"
"Don't feel like it. I would much rather be eating pizza."
Lelouch saw an opportunity. "Five boxes of pizza if you go."
C.C. thought for a moment, weighing the options. On one hand, she could stay and eat lots of pizza and watch her TV. On the other hand, she could tease Lelouch and get some pizza at least.
"All right Lelouch. When are we leaving?"
Lelouch smiled in triumph. He turned around to find some clothes. "Get you're clothes on, we're leaving right now."
C.C. gave him a questioning look. "Can't I go as I am?"
"C.C., I don't think people would appreciate it if you went in just my shirt." Lelouch looked in his closet until he found some clothes C.C. had stole- ahem, borrowed. He threw them to her. "Don't you have any humiliation?"
-
Lelouch looked at his list.
Lelouch's Shopping List For Stupid Christmas Stuff That Milly Made Me Buy
Ornaments – Green, Blue, Red, ect.
Something to put on top of a tree
Festive Lights to String the Tree
Something Nice to Wear to the Dance Note to self: Buy something unless I want to get my ass kicked by Suzaku
Pizza (To entertain C.C. of course)
Lelouch unzipped his coat and stepped into the warm air of the mall. First stop, Christmas store. He grabbed C.C.'s wrist and went to look at the map guide.
Hmph. C.C. was not impressed by Lelouch's sense of "going on a date". He just dragged her along wherever. She would be sure to get him back sometime.
You are here, the map pointed with a big arrow. As if it really needed to say that five steps from the entrance.
"Let's see…" Lelouch looked for the clump of stores he needed to go to. Shopping for him, as it was for most guys, was not fun. Period. And with C.C.'s sense of humor, he would be surprised if they could even get out without getting chased by guards. Then again, maybe she would stay quite this time around.
"Ah, here we g-"
"I want to go here." C.C. cut him off and pointed a shop. Lelouch looked over and saw that she was pointing at Macy's. He sighed. What was she going to buy? Clothes? The teen thought C.C. wasn't that kind of fashion obsessed girl. He only asked her to come with him because he thought she might want pizza and, well, it was a logical answer to Milly's problem. She actually wanted to buy something?
"C.C., we have other places to go."
C.C. pouted.
"Lelouch, on a date you go where the girl wants to go," she said, teasing him with the word "date".
Lelouch needed to buy some ornaments; that was most important. Nevertheless he also needed a good suit and some nice khakis, so why not? "Alright, alright, let's go."
After all, it was only shopping for clothes, what could go wrong?
Oh how wrong he was.
-
"Hey, Lelouch, what do you think?" C.C. called from the changing room. Lelouch looked up from his suit hunting. He needed something more proper for the dance or Milly was probably going to give him one of her grandpa's suits. A shiver ran down Lelouch's spine. That suit was probably from the medieval ages.
"I can't even see you!" he answered.
"Get over here then."
Lelouch walked over to the changing room, only to feel a hand pull him into one of the stalls, presumably the one C.C. was in. It took him a moment to realize that he felt something warm and soft against his arm.
Oh no. Not this again.
What C.C. was wearing could hardly be described as a dignified outfit. Maybe for the beach, but clearly not for casual wear. The dress was one of those red ones that covered only the vitals. Some could argue that a dress for a belly dancer shouldn't be sold at Macy's, but nevertheless, here it was.
And his arm was smack dab in the middle of her breasts with only a very thing layer of cloth preventing him from feeling the skin.
Leave it to C.C. to pick out the most revealing piece in the whole shop.
Lelouch quickly turned his head away to prevent her from seeing his face, which was the same color as C.C.'s outfit. He tried to ignore how close they were, or how cramped the space was, or even how C.C.'s rather large… er… chest was pushing against his arm.
"So, what do you think? You like it?" C.C. grinned. She should do go shopping with Lelouch more often. It was so much fun.
"C.C., put on some more respectable clothes! Please!" Lelouch squirmed to try and get out. But to no avail. C.C.'s arm was like a trap, refusing to let go, and he was the mouse that was caught.
"I'll take that as a yes. Oh, but what about this one? I think it looks even better. Give me a second to change."
Lelouch kept squirming. Maybe if he could just unclamp a couple of her fingers… Then he realized what her words were implying. "C.C.! You can't change while I'm in here!"
C.C. was just about to pull off her dress to change into a new, more respectable one. She chuckled. Oh how fun it was to torture Lelouch. But she kept up her facade of innocence. "Well why not? It's not like you haven't seen me naked before. Can you help me untie this knot?"
Lelouch just stared at her with astonishment.
"Because! It's…" Lelouch thought of an appropriate word to say. "It's not natural! People just don't do this; don't you realize that? I don't want you to change in front of me!"
C.C. pouted. "And here I was, thinking you enjoyed all of this."
She paused for a moment. "Maybe Kallen was right, maybe you do only like guys. Suzaku's cute and all, but you know, I thought you were normal."
"WHAT!?" Lelouch screamed at the top of his lungs. What the hell did she just say? Him? And Suzaku?
Only in the dreams of his fangirls!
C.C. swore she could see steam coming out of his ears. Maybe she could use him as a human heater or something…
C.c. pushed the thought aside. She was his accomplice, so she should at least try to be more supportive. If he got any angrier, his head would probably blow straight off his neck. And that she did not want.
"Something wrong ma'm? Do the clothes not fit? I can get you another pair if you want." An employee. Luckily, that employee had mistaken Lelouch's voice for a shrill shriek of a girl's.
Lelouch could not be caught in the girl's changing room with her. He would get sent to jail for sexual harassment! Him! Zero! Broken down from the antics of his own right hand woman! And she was the one that started it in the first place.
C.C. smiled. As much as she enjoyed torturing Lelouch, fun time was over. Time to get out of this predicament.
"No, nothing's wrong. These clothes are fine, but thank you though," she said in her goody-two-shoes voice.
Lelouch was surprised. Since when could she be so nice?
And more importantly, why couldn't she always be this way?
The employee was confused. "You sure ma'm?"
"Yes, thank you very much."
The employee shrugged her shoulders and walked away. There were some strange people in this world for sure. Yelling like a guy, then telling her that she was fine. But who was she to judge?
Lelouch breathed a sigh of relief. Safe at last…
"So, Lelouch, back to before, what about this one? You sure you don't want me to change into it now?"
Or maybe not.
C.C. held up a nicer, more elegant red dress that actually covered most of the body. Considering C.C., that itself was an accomplishment.
Lelouch looked at the dress. Then he looked at C.C. To his amusement, he realized that the witch might actually look good in the dress. But he was not going to pump her self-esteem level even higher for her.
"Yeah, that one looks fine. But change into it after I leave okay?" Lelouch reached for the door. He needed to get out of here before she pulled him back.
"Fine?" C.C. pouted again. "You never tell a girl it looks fine Lelouch. Especially on a date. You're so thick-headed sometimes."
Lelouch gave up. It seemed that she would always remember this day that he asked her out on a "date". Only to get out of this place would he say such a thing. With a red face he proclaimed, "Alright, it looks great on you okay? Beautiful really. Now, let's get out of here."
C.C. smiled in triumph. "Wait, let me change into it first. See how it looks myself."
"No, let's go C.C."
"C'mon, please Lelouch?"
Lelouch just sighed (he seemed to be doing that a lot today) and peeked out the door to see if the coast was clear. Good.
He grabbed C.C.'s arm, ignored her squeal, and pulled her and all the clothes out of the changing room and toward the cash registers.
-
C.C. twirled an ornament ball on her finger like a basketball player. "What about these Lelouch?"
"Yeah, those are nice, put them in the cart."
Together, the two looked like a regular couple doing some holiday shopping. Regardless, they weren't holding hands, and while the green haired one seemed to be enjoying herself, the other… not so much.
C.C. looked around in the newly opened Christmas store. Trees, stockings, gingerbread houses, ornaments. Everything you could think of. It was so… she thought for a moment. Christmesy. Yes, that was the word. Very original too she might add.
That was when she saw the god of ornaments. The king of kings. Her eyes shown, and she dashed off. Where she had been a moment before, there was nothing left but a puff of smoke.
Lelouch was looking around, checking things off his shopping list, when he noticed C.C. was no longer beside him.
The person in question was in fact, a couple meters in front of him, and also above him. Apparently, she was trying to climb up the mountain that the item she wanted formed… to grab the top one of course.
"Lelouch!" C.C. squealed with glee from above. That was unlike her. When did she ever squeal in delight? "We're buying this, we're buying this!"
Lelouch looked at what exactly she wanted to buy.
And he face planted from shock.
The item was a Christmas ornament. But not just any Christmas ornament. It was a Cheese-kun ornament! And Cheese-kun apparently sprouted some angelic wings, because it was meant for the top of a Christmas tree. A yellow blob of an angel; that's what is was.
Lelouch stood up and regained his composure. "C.C., we're not buying a Cheese-kun to put on top of our tree."
C.C. took no heed to his word. Instead, she kept climbing up the Cheese-kun mountain (knocking lots of them onto the ground in her joruney) to get to the top.
"Miss, what are you doing?" Oh great. Just what he needed. Employees.
C.C. seemed not to hear the employee.
"Miss with the green hair, get down from there!" A fat man, presumably the manager, had joined the gathering ring of people. They all looked up at the witch.
C.C. didn't hear anything. She didn't notice anybody. She didn't notice the manager screaming at Lelouch to get his deranged girlfriend down frCom the mountain. All she could see was the shining light on top of the mountain. The heese-kun! So very close. There! She was on top! In her imagination, she took out a flag and planted it onto the snow-capped mountain with a big smile on her face. This was now, Mt. Cheese-Kun! She pumped her arms in delight and reached to grab the Cheese-kun ornament on top.
Only to be snapped back to reality by a hand around her wrist.
"We're going. Now," a voice hissed in her ear. And that person proceeded to start pulling her down from the mountain.
No! The Cheese-kun! She hadn't grabbed it yet! All that hard work for nothing. She looked at her captor with pleading eyes.
"Lelouch! I want that Cheese-kun ornament!"
Lelouch stopped abruptly at the foot of the mountain. C.C. looked to see why he had stopped.
She saw a very fat man. She saw a very fat angry man. She saw a vey fat angry man in a Santa suit.
C.C. laughed. The sight was ridiculous. The suit was two sized too small, as such, it was drawn tight over his fat body. His belly, wrists, and ankles were showing. And his hair! It looked as if a monkey had combed it for him.
The manager however, was not amused. The redness in his face was comparable to that of his suit.
"Out. Now." His voice was quiet, but it was quivering from anger. C.C. just kept laughing. Too good! That man was a natural clown!
In response to the manager, C.C. pulled out a poster, seemingly from nowhere. It simply read, blame my editors for giving me a Cheese-kun addiction.
Lelouch pulled her wrist to go. As he did so, he felt something drop out of the cart, but took no notice.
When they were out of the store, C.C. smiled.
"What?" Lelouch asked.
C.C. held up a Cheese-kun ornament. Apparently, she had taken it without anybody noticing when the two left the store. "Best of all, it's free."
"We're leaving C.C." He started walking away.
"Wait! Lelouch, you promised me pizza!"
Lelouch stopped in his tracks and walked backward as if it was a video rewinding. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her toward the pizza hut.
"Let's make this quick C.C."
-
Zero strode up to the podium. Two more days to Christmas. He closed his eyes to prepare himself for his speech he prepared for the black knights.
"Today we shall fight for the liberation of Japan. We shall strike when Britannia is weakest!"
A cricket chirped. Something was wrong. Was it his speech? Did he forget his mask? Was there an attack? Where was the cheering?
Lelouch opened his eyes… and face planted.
There was no one there. In the entire fricken hanger. Even though he, the commander, told them to all be here.
Lelouch could see a certain green haired girl behind this scheme. He could see her laughing at his ignorance and her prank.
And, as if it was rehearsed, the girl he was planning to feed to the sharks walked up to him.
She watched him for a moment, and then spoke. "Hey Lelouch. All the black knights send their deepest regrets."
"They say they're all sick," C.C. added with a touch of sarcasm on the last word.
Yeah, right. Like he was going to believe that. He knew as well as she did that C.C. told all the black knights to leave.
"C.C., why'd you force them all to leave?"
"Lelouch, it's almost Christmas. No one's going to want to attack Britannia on a holiday."
Her logic angered him. Lelouch knew they didn't want to fight but this was the best day! How could she not understand that? The entire Britannia army was off celebrating. "C.C., Britannia's weakest on this day. We need to attack them today!"
"What's done is done Lelouch. Why don't you go home and celebrate Christmas instead of being the oh-so-mighty Zero and fighting gallantly to liberate Japan?"
Lelouch sighed and ignored her comment. "How?"
C.C. shrugged. "You can get pretty far with just some glue, tape, and a willing idiot as an example you know. As for Kallen, the moment I mentioned Zero, she followed my orders completely."
-
"Lelouch, where's the star for the tree top?" asked Milly. The Student Council was decorating the hall. The tree was wrapped in lights and ornaments draped from its branches. From the ceiling hung angels and snowflakes. Stockings were also dangling at random intervals.
"I'll find it!" Lelouch searched through his bags. He knew he bought a star during the trip. Where was it? Then he remembered. The star dropped out of the car in the shop and he forgot to pick it up. He slapped his forehead for his stupidity.
What was he going to do? Christmas day was in just a couple of hours, and the ball was coming up too. None of them had time to buy another star.
Then he saw the Cheese-kun angel. Well, desperate times call for desperate measures.
"Here you go Milly." Lelouch handed her the Cheese-kun.
"Lelouch, you want us..."
"Yes?"
"To use this yellow blob to decorate our tree?"
"Yeah." Lelouch sighed. It was the only thing he could do. Milly would probably take it pretty badly. He readied himself for the ornaments that would be sure to strike his body.
"I think it's a great idea!"
Eh? Milly liked it?
"Lelouch, who went with you? I want to meet that girl!"
"My friend C.- uh… Cecaniah."
"Well, tell her I appreciate it. She has great taste. Now, Suzaku! Help Lelouch get this on top of the tree."
When all was said and done, the hall looked quite nice. As C.C. would put it, the hall looked quite Christmesy.
Well, except for the Cheese-kun angel grinning on top of the tree. Lelouch swore he could hear C.C. laughing at him from his room.
-
Nunally went around the house looking for her bow. Where could it be? The dance was going to start soon.
She put her index finger to just under her bottom lip and thought. Not in the kitchen. Not in her room. Maybe her brother took it? Nunally went toward her beloved brother's room.
She heard the TV on. And with it came a strange, quiet munching sound as if someone was eating in the room. Strange, Lelouch already left for the decorations for the dance.
Nunally opened the door and went inside. "Excuse me, but what are you doing in Onii-sama's room?"
C.C. looked at the girl and stopped munching her pizza. "Sorry Nunally, Lelouch invited me to stay over for the night."
Nunally recognized C.C.'s voice. All thoughts of her lost bow vanished as she discovered that her friend was here. "Lelouch? But C.C.-san, aren't you supposed to be at the dance?"
A dance? C.C. pouted. Lelouch never let her do anything fun. "Dance? I'm afraid I don't know of this dance Nunally. Lelouch didn't bother to tell me."
C.C.-san didn't know of the dance? Nunally had to get her to go! She and big brother felt so right together. She had always wished for C.C. to be her sister. This was her chance. "Oh C.C.-san, you have to go! I can get you in, and didn't you and Onii-sama go shopping for clothes earlier? So everything's prepared!"
C.C. cast her eyes down. "Lelouch said the dress looked only okay on me…" After all, she had to squeeze him to get a compliment out.
C.C. was surprised. Since when did she care so much about Lelouch's compliments? Since when did they affect her so much? Well, then again, she was his accomplice, his friend, and being with Nunally, she felt she could speak her heart out more openly. The girl reminded her of Marianne.
Nunally knew her brother's capabilities with women. Despite his good looks, he was probably the densest person in Japan. "Nonsense C.C. Onii-sama probably thinks it looks great on you, he was just too embarrassed to tell you. Now, get out the dress and tell me how it looks."
After several minutes C.C. put on her dress and gave Nunally an accurate description. In Nunally's mind, she imagined C.C. with her green hair and her porcelain face. She imagined her hair tied in a ponytail with a hair band of purple flowers. Two strips of hair hung down on either side of her face. There was a white lily flower outlined with pink on the hair tie. A golden necklace in the shape of a geass hung around on her neck. The red dress she wore was simple but elegant. It slightly expanded at her hips to give additional emphasis. The dress broke and v-ed at her stomach; the v tied together simply with strings. The dress only went up to halfway between her stomach and her shoulders.
While Nunally was imagining things, a dreamy expression came over her face. "Oh C.C.-san, I wish I could see you! You must be so beautiful!"
C.C. blushed slightly. Luckily, Nunally couldn't see her. "Thanks Nunally. But I don't think it looks that good… I mean-"
Nunally cut her off. "Stop lying C.C. It looks great! I wish I could look as beautiful as you do! Now hurry, we need to get to the dance or we'll be late."
-
Lelouch wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. He was done with the final preparations. Just in time for the dance too. Who knew a podium could be so heavy?
The hall, which had been empty a few hours before, was filled with people. There were tables of food and drinks, and the lights had been slightly dimmed. Without light, the place was slightly dark, as outside the falling snow blocked out any sun that was left. And even the sun was nearing the end of its journey.
To his amusement, and to please Milly, Lelouch was wearing a suit. But it wasn't very formal. Nevertheless, it was white, and abided mostly to Christmas colors.
His outfit consisted of a purple button down shirt with a purple tie. And his suit was more of an overcoat really, white, but rimmed blue at the edges. The suit went dwon to his knees, and the collar covered his neck. The suit's basic format was kinda like that of the Night of Rounds'. A simple black belt held his white khakis in place.
Who said Lelouch had bad taste? All the girls were swooning from just looking at him. He paid them no heed and instead, looked up at the podium where Milly was going to start the whole thing.
"Alright everybody, welcome to the first annual Christmas ball! I hope you all have a great time and enjoy yourselves!" Milly smiled at the gathered crowd. "And with that, let's begin. Hit it!"
A blast of music erupted from the speakers. The sound deafened Lelouch. The dance floor in the middle cleared, except for a few people who already had their partners. The ball of course, was not one where you came with a partner, but rather, go in, chat, play, do whatever, and then find a partner. School dances were usually hosted this way at Ashford.
Lelouch stumbled over to the refreshments and took a long swig of water to clear his head from the pouding music.
"You okay there Lelouch?" Suzaku screamed at him over the music.
"I'm fine! Shouldn't you be dancing?"
"That's what I was going to say! There's probably a bunch of girls who want to ask you for a dance right now! Why don't you go ahead? But I'm not going to dance, Euphie's not here."
"Dancing's a drag Suzaku! I'm not good at it anyway!"
Lelouch leaned on the table and looked around. There was Kallen surrounded by a bunch of guys trying to get her to dance with them. She looked desperately in his direction as if he could drive them away. Lelouch just grinned sheepishly and waved. How could he drive all those guys away? His physical strength was next to none.
Rivalz was looking at Milly creepily.
And then there was Nunally, his beloved sister, just coming in through the door. And beside her was C.C., beautiful as always.
There were also a bunc-
Wait! C.C.? Lelouch rubbed his eyes to see if he was seeing clearly. They were fine.
Meanwhile, at that moment, Shirley and Milly were in a heated debate.
Milly waved her arms as if to emphasize the point she was making. "You should ask him!"
"No! I should let him… ask me…"
"Shirley, you have to make the first move. Otherwise he might not think you're the 'one'"
"But president!"
"Go!" And with a push, Shirley found herself walking toward Lelouch, who at that moment was trying to figure out why the hell C.C. was here.
Shirley stopped short when she saw Lelouch staring at something or someone. She followed his line of sight and saw the green-haired girl. Her cheeks turned a light shade of pink. A friend of his? Or another competitor?
The orangette was just about to decide on the first choice when Lelouch started briskly walking toward the green-haired girl. Shirley got annoyed. Lelouch seemed to be naturally drawn to the girl. Maybe it was his girlfriend? Leave it to Shirley to fantasize about these things concerning Lelouch.
Lelouch meanwhile, did not notice Shirley spying on him. He walked right up to C.C.
"Ah, Lelou-" C.C. started to say.
He covered her mouth with one hand, effectively cutting her off, and grabbed her wrist with the other.
"Onii-sama, what are you doing?"
Lelouch was just about to drag C.C. off when he noticed that his sister was also there. He quickly made up an excuse. "Ah, sorry Nunally, I need to talk with C.C. for a while."
"Okay Onii-sama, see you later!" Nunally replied.
Maybe he was going to confess? At that thought, Nunally smiled with glee. Having C.C. as a sister would be so amazing!
Lelouch on the other hand, had no intention of doing any such thing as he dragged the green haired girl off. When the two rounded a corner, C.C. broke off from Lelouch.
"What do you think you're doing Lelouch?"
Lelouch was exasperated. It was his fault now? "Hey, that's my line!"
C.C. frowned. Leave it to Lelouch to ruin her fun. "I was trying to have some fun at the ball, and you have to drag me off?"
"C.C., if you haven't noticed, Suzaku and Kallen are there. If they see you, I'm going to be compromised. How did you even find about this dance?"
C.C.'s anger receded a bit. The boy had a point. Maybe she did act a bit irrationally. Of course, she wouldn't tell him that. It would just boost his enormous ego. "Nunally convinced me to go. How do you like my dress?"
C.C. did a little twirl to show Lelouch the whole thing. Lelouch was stunned. This was the dress she had bought at Macy's, but he paid no heed to it. Truly, she was really beautiful, but he wasn't going to tell her that of course. It would just boost her enormous ego.
"It looks… er… great. Very nice."
"Ah? Is that so? And yet before you said it was just fine?" C.C. teased.
"I was mistaken. It looks um…"
"Go on."
"It looks lovely on you okay?"
C.C. smiled. Before she could stop herself, she said, "You look great too Lelouch."
Now it was his turn to be surprised. He grinned. "Oh, so the witch is capable of complements."
"Ah, but the warlock likes it, doesn't he?"
In the background, a quieter melody came on. Lelouch noticed the change in volume. It went from blaring loud rock music to gentle classical music.
"Well, C.C., it's Christmas Eve, care to dance?"
C.C. smiled. "Strange, I thought you were a gentleman Lelouch. Gentlemen ask their ladies nicely."
Lelouch grunted in response. "May I have this song with you, oh fair lady?"
"I would be delighted Lelouch," she said with a touch of sarcasm.
C.C. entwined her hand with Lelouch's and put her hand on his neck. Lelouch put his hand on her waist. Classic dance position.
Still, they were in the middle of a hallway, illuminated by the moonlight shining through the windows. They weren't on the dance floor like the many other couples.
"Don't you know how to dance C.C.?"
"Should've asked beforehand Lelouch."
Her hand was a vice grip on his neck, and she seemed determined to step on his feet.
And C.C.'s face was so very close to his, as if teasing him to kiss her. Lelouch didn't know if she was dancing poorly on purpose of if she was really a bad dancer. Probably the former.
Lelouch tried to ignore her torment, and instead, tried to bump her against the furniture to take revenge.
Still, as the night drew on, the two more or less stopped torturing each other and simply danced, enjoying the other's presence. In a time of war, you never know when you would have another quiet moment like this.
C.C. put her head on his chest listening the steady beat of his heart.
Lelouch looked up, enjoying the moment. What he saw made his face go red. It was a clump of mistletoe.
Ah, what was this? His pulse was quickening. C.C. smirked; she could guess what was coming.
"Hey, C.C., look up."
C.C. raised her head and looked up at the mistletoe. She grinned at the boy. "Is Lelouch so embarrassed that he can't even kiss me himself?"
Lelouch in response simply blushed.
C.C. saw that he wasn't going anywhere, being the man that he was, and leaned in. She met her lips with his. Lelouch could feel her soft lips, untouched by time, and her warm breath. He wanted to stay like this forever.
To his annoyance however, the kiss only lasted for a couple seconds before C.C. broke away.
"Oh, did I steal your first kiss? I'm so sorry," C.C. asked mockingly after pulling away. Her face was also red, but luckily for her, Lelouch didn't notice in the dim moonlight.
Lelouch grinned. "Witch."
"Is that any way to call your first kiss?"
The clock struck twelve. From all across town the joyous shouts of Christmas could be heard.
C.C. chuckled. What an exciting sequence of events this week had been. "Hey, Lelouch, Merry Christmas."
Lelouch looked back at the beautiful green haired witch. "Merry Christmas, C.C."
Usually C.C. didn't remember the Christmases that she had gone through. There were too many; most of them faded into the passage of time. This particular one however, she would remember till the end of her days.
-
Done! Yeah! My god, this took forever. Wasn't exactly satisfied with the entire thing, but oh well. Proofread leisurely, so there might be a couple mistakes here and there.
Hope you liked it and didn't find it too boring. Sorry the dancing scene was so poorly described, I'm bad at that stuff. Just imagine it in your head, or try to at least. And yes, there was a good deal of jumping from comedy to romance in this, but I felt like it should be one chapter instead of two. Yes it went slightly out of character toward the end. C.C. and Lelouch's outfits were taken from a couple of pictures. I can give you the links if you want… if I can find them that is.
On a separate note, happy birthday to my bro, who's birthday is on Christmas. Gr… I'm jealous.
Found it kinda weird that my one-shot had twice as many hits as this one. Guess people don't like music fics as much =/ Oh well.
Anyway, R&R! And Merry Christmas to all, and have a happy new year! Best of wishes!