Pre-Comment: I was told that my flirting (yes, that was me flirting) was worse than the death throes of a dying crow, and that they would rather get assaulted by wild bears than suffer it again. Naturally, I'm so flattered that I've upgraded from "would rather gouge my ears out with something sharp" that the next line is just for you:
You are attractive like... like... um... attractive things. Really attractive things. I mean things that are so attractive they are like magnets. OkayI'llstopnow.
Enjoy Chapter Nineteen!
Chapter Nineteen: The Rival Flag
There was only so much someone could put up with before something broke the dam, Lelouch realized during his time alone with his thoughts.
The restaurant fiasco was a mess. It was every natural disaster all at once. And while he was beyond incredibly thankful for CC's timely intervention, he was afraid that it wouldn't be enough. The cold, chilling, no-questions-brooked stare Clovis levelled at him was a thing to be obeyed, in a tone Lelouch had heard only a handful of times in his life. Even the usual last resort that usually worked on all his older siblings didn't work this time. It didn't matter what the truth of the situation was, Clovis had put his foot down and Lelouch would've left with him and gone home tonight if CC hadn't interrupted. Lelouch knew it; Clovis knew it.
The one who didn't know it was the one prepared to throw oil on the fire until everything was cinders. Suzaku would've beaten Clovis to death—especially after making that fatal connection. Lelouch could sense the storm brewing on both ends and he would've been powerless to stop it.
Feeling suddenly exhausted, he plopped down on the ground and pulled his knees up, running a hand through his hair with a sigh.
This was something he had no confidence to fix.
His mother finding out about this embarrassing job and believing whatever she wanted was one thing, but to have the rest of his family find out was something completely different. He had kept his family life separate from this life for good reason, and now it was all melding together and he didn't know how to stop it.
If he were a less greedy man, this would've been where the towel was thrown in, but he had worked for far too long, far too hard, and suffered incredibly way too much to let it all slip through his fingers.
But the thought of what Clovis might do about this (i.e. tell Schneizel) made all his effort and sacrifice losses worth cutting.
What a mess.
What to do?
With a sigh, he fell onto his back in the sand, staring up at the starry sky, envying them for their simple life and front-row seat to all the catastrophes of humanity. He closed his eyes and let the cool wind and gentle sound of the ocean tide carry him for a moment, and revelled in the nothingness it brought.
The peace lasted for nearly a full minute before he felt water being flicked onto his face.
Lelouch sighed.
Of course.
"CC," he called out.
There was giggling and then he heard her plop down into the sand next to him, flicking more water in his face before rubbing her hand dry on his shirt. Frowning, Lelouch sat up and fixed her with a glare, wiping the errant drops off his face, trying to convey all his frustration into that one look with laser-like intensity.
When all she did was waggle her eyebrows at him suggestively to complement that ever-present grin, he sighed.
None of what happened tonight was her fault. If anything, she had done her job and acted as damage control as usual, and he owed her for that.
"This is a mess," he said, opening up into conversation. "Suzaku thinks Clovis abused me growing up—which he didn't," he added quickly, seeing the question on CC's lips. "Clovis seems to really dislike Suzaku for some reason, and then there's…" Lelouch trailed off, sliding a look over at CC, who was gazing off at the rippling moonlight on the waves. He ran a hand through his hair, knowing and recognizing what he was feeling, but feeling it all the same.
Clovis was so enamoured of her.
Like a mind reader, CC leaned her chin on his shoulder and slowly draped all of her weight on him to the point that if he moved she would fall over. "I didn't know he was your brother. I just wanted to have fun. I'll let him down easy."
Lelouch turned to smile at her. Well, at least that was one thing off his mind. A surge of warm affection for his partner in crime spread throughout his chest—
"But I do have to confess something that I maybe should've before."
—and stopped just short of his heart.
He narrowed his eyes at her. "What did you do?" he questioned sternly.
CC backed away from him and pursed her lips, looking the guiltiest he could ever recall seeing her. "Well, um." A sure sign of words being edited. "Once upon a time, Suzaku didn't think you were gay, and then because of Mao he really did. So then he thought he would show you a good time and dump you—"
"So he was planning to break it off!"
"—because he felt bad, but then he began getting second thoughts. And then he had a change of heart and thought he'd try to make things work, and he asked me for help, so I did."
Lelouch's eyebrows drew together in confusion. "And how are you privy to all of this?"
CC laughed nervously. "Ha! Ha! Funny story that. Well, Clovis ran into him and Suzaku ended up spilling his life story to him. Clovis told me. I promised not to tell you, but… well…"
And suddenly everything made sense.
The awful parody of his life for the past couple months, and—more recently—last seventy-two hours all clicked into place and made a horrible, horrible sort of sense. Lelouch covered his face with a hand and hunched over.
Hell had been endured for nothing.
Nothing.
He could hear CC's anxiety over the situation in the way she played with the sand on the beach. "So, uh… what are we going to do?"
Good question.
What was there to do?
Suzaku had been faking it all along. Which meant that they were both straight. And now he was making a conscious effort not to be. For him.
The irony.
At least Mao had been useful in some way.
But, seriously, the irony.
"I don't know," he said hollowly, turning to look at her. "I just don't know. Clovis will tell Schneizel, and if Schneizel doesn't apply his own creative problem-solving techniques to this—which would be bad enough—then he'll tell our Father and…"
Lelouch hadn't realized his hands were shaking until CC's hand fell over them and squeezed. "I'll handle Clovis. Then it'll be like none of this ever happened. And then… you can deal with Suzaku?"
When he looked over at CC she looked so incredibly hopeful that all he could do was nod and smile. Taking her hand in his he squeezed it back. "Okay," he agreed. "We'll get through this."
CC leaned on him and sighed contentedly. "We always do."
ooo
By the time Shirley arrived back in Japan, she had gone through all seven post-breakup stages in rapid succession and not exactly in order. Which naturally meant that she had told everyone about it. Everyone. If nothing else, everybody who knew her would associate Mao with a very unflattering, heinous description and several, colourfully-creative words. And while it hadn't been her intent, she later realized that everyone would probably pity Lelouch—but at the same time be happy for him because he was now with someone infinitely better.
By the time she actually stepped foot off the plane her concerns had shifted dramatically from her recently-failed, short-lived relationship to the inevitable repercussions of spontaneity that relationship had sparked. She clutched at the handle of her carry-on and walked awkwardly to the gate where she saw her father and mother waiting with several bodyguards standing by.
Shirley swallowed hard, resolved herself to take the punishment like the grown-up she was, and stopped in front of her father. Despite all her bravado, she could feel her legs shaking underneath the utterly unimpressed look Joseph Fenette was giving her. And though she desperately wanted to throw a Hail Mary her mother's way, she knew in her heart that she deserved whatever punishment her father decided to dole out for her moment of rebellion and irresponsibility.
Joseph clenched a fist and brought it up. Shirley squeezed her eyes shut and trembled in fear and anticipation. The barest knock of knuckles tapped her on her head. After nothing else happened, Shirley chanced a peek, opening one eye before the other. Her father was giving her a helpless smile and so was her mother.
"Welcome home, Shirley. Have you learned?"
Feeling her eyes well up with tears, Shirley nodded furiously before launching herself at her father and openly crying. Joseph wrapped his only child in his arms and hugged her tight.
"Tell us next time, okay?" her mother called softly from beside her, smoothing a hand over her daughter's head.
Shirley just nodded and sniffled with her face buried in her father's suit shirt. And when she was able to collect herself again, her luggage had been picked up, and they talked about the happenings of the company while she had been away as if nothing ever happened.
So incredibly thankful and impressed with the amount of grace and forgiveness her parents had shown her, Shirley vowed to never rebel ever again.
What she didn't know was that Joseph and Victoria Fenette had had their only daughter under heavy surveillance with various GPS devices, devoted bodyguards, and personnel since she was old enough to walk and knew about everything she did before she ever did it.
ooo
For the record, Nina never regretted taking up Suzaku's offer to work for him as his personal assistant right out of high school. It wasn't for lack of opportunities that she took the offer either. No, it had been because of the opposite. Nina had ruthlessly applied and been accepted to every major college or university she deigned to fill the application out for. Have a certified genius attend their institution? Yes, please. Some had even taken the initiative to try and snipe her for this or that program, bribing her with a full scholarship. Her opportunities after high school had been endless, and because of that she didn't really know what she wanted.
Her mother had been encouraging and supportive, but entirely unhelpful in the decision-making process, and her father believed it was something she needed to figure out for herself, so his advice was not forthcoming. In the end it had been her silver spoon classmate, Suzaku Kururugi—the envy and ire of other socialite children at Ashford—who came to her rescue. After graduation he was officially taking charge of his father's company from his uncle and was in need of an assistant. There were no strings attached, she would receive full benefits from day one and a generous salary. And if she wanted to later pursue something else, he would give her a generous subsidy for whatever it was she pursued.
It was only four months into her new position that Nina realized Suzaku was merely capitalizing on her skills, talent, and intelligence like the good businessman he was, but she never felt like he had taken advantage of her in any way, so it didn't bother her.
Years later, with several pay raises, she was still his assistant.
But sometimes she wondered what her life would've been like if she hadn't taken the secretarial route and taken up fully her interest in science and technology. Maybe she would've ended up in the R&D division working with Lloyd and Rakshata. Maybe she would've really enjoyed it.
"PUDDING!" was roared across all the labs like a lion's roar with all the fury of a raging volcano.
Several lab assistants jerked at the sound and one even dropped a beaker in surprise.
The busty, blonde woman marched angrily towards her colleague's work station. Minor lab flunkies quickly escaped her line of sight lest they get caught in the crossfire, while others ducked their heads to avoid unintentionally drawing her ire, and others attempted to leave the area entirely. Lloyd was currently observing his latest creation breaking down Sakuradite into useable energy with mild irritation, with Nina taking notes nearby. Slowly, he turned away and looked up at his colleague who was currently towering over him with seething anger.
A Cheshire grin replaced his previous look of boredom and mild annoyance at his project. "Yeeesss?"
A vein popped on Rakshata's forehead, completing the perfect picture of hostile animosity.
Let the bickering commence.
"Next time I catch you—"
"—you hadn't—"
"—petty, childish—"
"—narrow-minded—"
"—if you were half as—"
"—INFERIOR designs and—"
"—NOT A FLUX CAPACITATOR!"
Okay, so maybe she wouldn't really enjoy working in R&D here.
Nina sighed, having witnessed this squabbling at least three times a day in the past few days. Deadlines were coming to a close on the specs of the new Sakuradite energy converter, which meant that Nina had been spending nearly all her time in the R&D department—instead of her boss (she wasn't bitter, really), who was currently on vacation to save his not-even marriage. Prototypes had been made and the two opposing departments, which made up R&D as a whole, had been forced to come together in order to save resources and make things work.
Nina had looked over the blueprints the scientists had been fighting over and refining for months and cherry-picked the best aspects of both—inevitably forcing them to work together to make it happen.
…
Worst decision ever.
The arguing grew in intensity and Nina was all too aware of the remaining lab techs and assistants inconspicuously vacating the premises. Nina tried to mediate the arguing, but both parties staunchly ignored her.
"I refuse to work with a Neanderthal like you!"
"Well I refuse to work with a walking cancer stick!"
There was a moment of intense glaring on both ends. And then they both turned their eyes on Nina and said, in frightening harmony—
"I quit!"
—before about-facing and walking away, muttering to themselves angrily.
Nina jolted and felt speechless as both scientists promptly turned on their heel and walked away without another word. And then the importance of this moment hit her like a freight train. In the span of a few days she had single-handedly pissed off the best R&D team(s) in the world to the point of quitting.
When a hand fell upon her shoulder, she turned to look at Cecile who was smiling pleasantly at her as if the world's largest fire had not just occurred.
"Don't worry. They quit because of each other at least seven times a month. But…" She glanced at a nearby calendar. "You may want to let the boss know this time."
ooo
Lelouch Lamperouge: Lady-killer, lover, and liar—with a PhD in Dodging the Topic.
It was blatantly obvious to anyone who cared to watch for more than three seconds that Lelouch was avoiding any conversation regarding last night's catastrophe. He didn't even bother hiding his efforts. Suzaku had chased the topic like a shark when there was blood in the water and it was taxing every Change of Topic skill Lelouch had to do just that.
Family was a topic about himself he never went into on the job. It simply was not a thing of discussion. CC didn't even know a whole lot. The story was that his parents were always dead in some way or another, and he was an only child with no living relatives. It often worked in his favour and earned at least a few pity points with the girls, but Suzaku had already met his mother—had already met Clovis.
Meeting Marianne was one thing, because his mother was the most courteous, kind-hearted, well-liked, honest, non-judgmental, and loving person he knew. There was no one else on the planet like her. Truly.
Clovis was an entirely different problem.
While Lelouch loved and respected all of his siblings (who were all older than him by a sizeable margin save for two), Clovis was the one he respected the authority of the least. Well, at least until the dirty snitch threatened to take the issue to their dear eldest siblings—whichwasasituationtobeavoidedatallcosts.
Unfortunately, for every point Lelouch had stacked into Dodge the Topic, it seemed that Suzaku had one in Pursue the Issue to match. Finally, by lunch, Suzaku routed his every escape.
"Lelouch, I want to talk about last night."
Lelouch stiffened and squared his shoulders. CC had coached him through several excuses, but it merely delayed the inevitable because Suzaku refused to let the matter lie. If worst came to worst there was always the contingency explanation she had given him—which was just as appealing as bailing on this job. Even now, he glanced over at her, sitting incognito across the room, flirting with the waiter. She caught his gaze, gave him a wink, and continued her chat.
Glancing up at Suzaku's take-no-prisoners look, Lelouch took a deep breath and sighed. "Okay."
Eyebrows rose in surprise. It looked like Suzaku had expected to push the envelope, not gain such a sudden and decisive victory. He sighed and his gaze softened considerably. "I don't mean to make you uncomfortable. I just… don't want this to be the elephant around us. And I—"
Suzaku's phone rang.
Furrowing his brow in annoyance, he pulled it out and answered it tersely. Lelouch watched as Suzaku's expression went from irritation, to surprise, to exasperation. He sighed and promised to handle the matter before ending the call.
"I realize this is sudden, but the company needs me. Do you want to come with me or stay here?"
Lelouch glanced over at CC again, whose air traffic signals were indecipherable as usual, before turning to Suzaku. "There's not much here for me if you're not here. I'll come."
ooo
Early the next day, after a luxuriant breakfast, they left for the airport.
With CC.
Suzaku could barely contain his joy.
He silently seethed as he watched her shamelessly cling to Lelouch's arm and generally lounge all over him. The possessive part of his male brain wanted to yank her away from his fiancé, but the rational part of his male brain told him that it didn't matter all that much.
When Lelouch told him that CC was coming with them, he didn't think much of it. Maybe it would even make it easier if a close friend was there and allow him to open up about his family. He had the feeling that this wasn't the only thing that Lelouch had kept secrets about. They could even tag team and worm the truth out of him.
He couldn't have been more wrong.
"Pizza. With lots of cheese," CC informed her lap cushion.
Lelouch gave the girl a wry smile, staring down at her. "From Pizza Hut no doubt."
Mild offence coloured CC's face and her brows furrowed. "Of course!"
The captain of his private jet announced that they would arrive at the airport in no more than twenty minutes. Suzaku didn't think there were enough intricacies to pizza to create a topic of conversation to fill up an entire flight, but this was another matter he could never have been more wrong about as well. Now it wasn't hard to imagine several collections of books for the subject.
Figuring that the conversation of Lelouch's brother would have to wait for another day, Suzaku practically strolled through the airport and customs with his fiancé and the Most Irritating Woman in the World to the waiting limousine. Their bags had already been picked up and were just getting placed in the back when they got there.
The pizza conversation continued on until the limousine stopped in front of their house.
Where a For Sale sign was staked in the front lawn, sporting the important 'Sold' sticker accessory on its swinging sign.
After the two had a brief, private, and heated discussion about the sign, it didn't take even one neuron of thought for Suzaku to offer up a solution.
"Come live with me, instead."
ooo
When they arrived at the estate, Sayoko was already waiting on the step to greet their return. She bowed low and directed the driver to leave all the bags in the foyer where she would deal with them later. Lelouch and CC already had their respective rooms ready and Suzaku had planned to leave immediately for the office when he saw a curious, cotton-candy-pink sight head down the stairs.
A little girl in a pink dress stood and stared at him with the most bored, uninterested, unimpressed look he had ever seen. He quirked an eyebrow at Sayoko curiously and she explained immediately.
"This is Master Weinberg's cousin, Anya Alstreim. Your assistant informed me that she would be arriving today and will be staying with us for a short time."
Huh.
He did agree to something like this in the past, hadn't he?
"Suzaku, are you heading to work right away?" Lelouch asked from beside him. Suzaku turned to his fiancé and watched as Lelouch took notice of the girl and how his whole face lit up with a smile. "Oh, hello there. Who's this?" he asked, turning to Suzaku.
"Gino's cousin, apparently. Anya, this is Lelouch, he's my—"
"Wife," came the monotone interruption.
Suzaku sent a look of apology to Lelouch—who twitched with irritation.
Anya stepped forward past him and small arms slipped around Lelouch's waist, hugging him tightly. She then turned her ruby gaze onto Suzaku, eyebrows coming together fractionally in what he could only describe as a blatant challenge.
"I'm making him my wife."
Comment:
It's been a while, I know. I'm sorry.
Some of you might be wondering, "Why Anya?" And others, who know me better, are thinking, "Anya. Not surprised." My response is why not Anya?
Questions? Comments? Death threats? Marriage proposals? I will answer them all in a timely manner!* In other news, I've revived my Live Journal and repurposed it for all my extra writing that I don't want to put up here. I encourage you to go stalk me there if you are so inclined!**
Please R&R.
- Minute Maid
Beverage of Queens
*"Timely manner" is not reference to any fixed unit of time and may or may not actually be very timely, especially if actual questions, death threats, or marriage proposals are sent.
**Stalking not actually encouraged.
