Hey, update! Exciting.
Hope you enjoy!
Chapter 7- "Shirley, I'm pregnant."
"Suzaku, what is this?" Lelouch asked Suzaku as he awoke from his nap on the couch, where he mysteriously found a huge bag blown up with—from what he gathered, homemade—chocolate chip cookies.
Suzaku leaned his head in with a questioning glance, but upon finding the bag of treats in Lelouch's hand, he waved it off. "Shirley made them for us." Lelouch was not convinced.
"She's a terrible cook. Are you sure these aren't loaded with lethal poisons?" He asked Suzaku mostly seriously, to which he shrugged and strode over to the couch next to him.
"I think Milly helped out." Suzaku added, but Lelouch was if possible even less convinced that they were safe now.
"All the more reason to second-guess their edibility." Lelouch muttered, and Suzaku laughed heartily before taking a cookie out and sampling it before Lelouch could protest.
"They seem fine, Lelouch, they're just cookies." He exaggerated his voice, and stuffed the unfinished cookie into Lelouch's mouth, who, after realizing what sort of mess he would conjure should he spit it out, accepted it.
Lelouch took his time chewing and swallowing. "Not a bad addition to our junk food cabinets, eh?" Suzaku mocked him now twice in a row by emphasizing the plural form of that word. Lelouch sighed and rolled his eyes.
"I've told you a million times, it's not my fault, it's the baby's." Lelouch said before grabbing a second cookie from the bag.
Unfortunately, Lelouch had grown just too much to successfully feign being pregnant with food, which meant no more Ashford Academy. He would regularly lounge about and do nothing productive, which was quite frustrating for the teen. Staying still for days on end was not his idea of fun.
"We need to get bigger clothes; this is going to be skin- tight in a week." Lelouch complained, pulling at the fabric of his tee-shirt. Suzaku pulled out his cell phone.
"Next week, Tuesday?" Suzaku said quickly, barely giving Lelouch any time to register what had just happened as he pulled up the internal calendar in his cell phone and checked his schedule. Lelouch hit him on the shoulder with his cookie-hand, promptly spilling crumbs all over the Japanese boy's lap.
"What's with you and your technology?" Lelouch asked with a glare, to which Suzaku mirrored as he brushed the crumbs of the cookie on the floor.
"What's with you and your many habits and cravings that try their hardest to kill me every day?" Suzaku asked with the glare still evident in his eyes, but Lelouch uncharacteristically backed down.
"I told you, it's the baby, not me." He said quietly, regret slowly filling into his eyes. Suzaku took it as a cue to embrace the tired boy softly.
"I know, I just like teasing you." Suzaku said within a sigh, and Lelouch smiled faintly as he snuggled into the crook of Suzaku's neck, and the two stayed this way for quite some time before they heard the sound of Nunnally wheeling in from school through the doorway.
"Onii-sama, I'm home!" Nunnally yelled into the home.
She received a response as her brother's lower voice and Suzaku's excited tone harmonized with a "Welcome home, Nunnally." She heard a giggle and a yelp come from the room; the two boys obviously playing with each other. Nunnally turned her head to behind her wheelchair where Shirley was standing; she had offered today to wheel her home after school, since Lelouch was not in school (nor in the condition) to push her home like usual.
"Shirley, thank you for taking me home." She said with a smile, but Shirley was curious.
"Hey, Nunnally, why can't I ever come visit your brother? He is here, isn't he?" She wildly whipped her head from side to side, looking around the wide hallways of their suite for the absent raven-haired teenager.
"Ah, yes, but he's still very contagious. I don't want you getting his sickness." Nunnally lied with a frown and obvious discomfort, which could also coincidentally pass as concern for her brother.
"Aww, come on, Nunnally! I can at least look at him!" So she ran into the room, and even though Nunnally was shouting after her, nearly begging her to stop, she continued to the living room where the noises from earlier had come from according to her conclusion.
Lelouch and Suzaku had been listening in, and quickly moved to hide Lelouch's bulging stomach. Silently freaking out, the two tried desperately to find something before the loud footsteps reached them, and eventually had to go with a pillow located on the chair across from them. As if on some sort of team, Suzaku leapt for the chair, grabbed the pillow and hurled it across the room before falling into the chair (from the spin he made throwing the pillow), and Lelouch grabbed the pillow from the air and pressed it against himself as Suzaku jumped back to his side, just as Shirley burst in.
"Lulu! Aren't you sick?" Shirley questioned, eyeing Suzaku as he sat pressed up to Lelouch despite whatever terrible illness Lelouch had contracted. Though, now that she thought of it, Lelouch didn't look too terribly sick.
Suzaku laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. "Ah, I don't get sick easily." He then put his arm tightly around Lelouch's shoulders, pulling him close and planting a kiss on Lelouch's cheek. "And I love you too much to stay away."
"Corny as always," Lelouch muttered audibly, but he could not help but smile despite his lover's idiocy.
What the couple hadn't realized however was that when Suzaku had pulled Lelouch down and shifted his position, his pillow had fallen down from his chest, and Shirley got a full view of his enlarged stomach.
Shirley pointed at Lelouch with confusion and shock on her face. "Whoa, Lulu, that's definitely no food baby!" She said, and Lelouch looked down in horror before smooshing the pillow back up to his chest.
"Shirley, it's not what you think." Suzaku said in a stern uncharacteristic tone that nearly scared Shirley, but Lelouch laughed and said composedly,
"Shirley, I'm pregnant."
Shirley was actually at quite a loss for words. "Like, real pregnant? Like, baby-growing-in-your-body pregnant?!" She asked, her eyes widening in shock as he nodded.
"My God… You're… But you're a guy! How does that work?!" She asked, desperate for an answer.
"It's this new procedure Britannia's come up with that allows gay couples and sterile women to become pregnant." Suzaku explained briefly.
"It's one hundred percent mine and Suzaku's too. It's not a clone or someone else's." Lelouch said with a smile, but Shirley was still a bit too confused to respond properly.
"I've only just found out about the two of you and now… this! Isn't this a bit fast?" Shirley asked, being a bit more serious this time.
"Don't look at me, Suzaku slipped me the process without me knowing." Lelouch mumbled and sent his best glare to his ignorant lover, who laughed nervously once more.
"S-Suzaku! Geez, that's a big deal, Lulu had a right to know!" Shirley said with a slight blush on her cheeks.
"Yeah, Suzaku, that was mean." Lelouch complained, pouting his lips dramatically, which Suzaku captured with his own.
"Yes, it was mean, but I know your secret."
"Oh? Please inquire." Lelouch said, a bit curious as to what his secret in question was.
"If I get you in the right places, you have no choice but to comply." Suzaku said lowly, and he nipped at Lelouch's ear, only slightly, but it was enough to send the Britannian boy up from the couch, his spine tingling as he stifled a whimper.
"Suzaku, that was mean too!" Lelouch complained in a high-pitched voice, and Shirley finally giggled so loudly it turned the two boys' attention to her.
"You really get into your own little world when you're together." She said with a smile, which caused the both of them to blush apologetically. "I should leave you to your afternoon, then." She stood to leave, but Lelouch grabbed her sleeve. When she looked down into her eyes, she saw such sad pleading deep in his irises she wondered when she'd ever before seen such emotion in them.
"Please don't let this get anywhere. We know what happened the last time…" He trailed off, not finishing his sentence and glancing at the floor, as everyone understood what he was referring to. Suzaku rubbed his back reassuringly while Shirley gave him a sympathetic smile. Lelouch ha ted sympathy. "Don't look at me like that!" He complained and shrunk into the couch.
"You won't be able to hide away like that soon, Lulu." Shirley said, pointing at his stomach.
"Shut up." He said with a pouting frown, and Shirley giggled once more before turning around and skipping out of the room.
"Goodbye, you guys! Good luck!" She yelled back to them as she waved them off, as well as greeting and leaving Nunnally, who had been hovering in the doorway of the living room as the scene had composed itself.
Shirley left the house in good spirits, albeit flustered. What news she'd been presented with, what a powerful feeling it left in her to feel as if she was holding the world's secret in her very hands!
"Where are our favorite canoodlers today?" Milly asked enthusiastically, receiving a collaboration of moans.
"Milly, nobody says canoodle anymore." Shirley complained.
"I'm pretty sure that 'canoodlers' isn't even a real term." Rivalz moaned.
"Only those educated well in English even know the word! I'm sure Lulu uses it," Milly said matter-of-factly, before shaking the topic out, literally, "Never mind that, where are they?" She asked again, and a collective of shrugs and half-lidded tired eyes responded.
"I'm going to drag them back by their ears if they're snuggling together peacefully in Lulu's suite as we sit here and work hard for this club we love so very much!" She yelled and pumped a fist in the air, not nearly receiving the same excited aura from her fellow members of the Student Council.
"Don't we have a ton of stuff to do here? We shouldn't worry about them!" Shirley said, trying desperately to defer the topic of Lelouch and Suzaku's absence from Milly's attention. "We should keep working hard here, and make them feel bad for not contributing!" She continued, pumping her own fist in the air.
Milly purred in approval. "I've taught you well, Shirley." She said with a smile, before focusing on yelling out the club's schedule for the day. Shirley sighed in relief internally- she'd finally successfully done something good for once.
Lelouch moaned noisily as he collapsed onto the bed and rolled over on his back, Suzaku gracefully gliding into the spot next to him. "Suzaku, it's been four and a half months."
"What?" Suzaku asked.
"You asked earlier and I never answered. It's been four and a half months." Lelouch merely repeated, and Suzaku had gotten it now.
"Really? When did you retrace the steps?" Suzaku asked, circling a finger on Lelouch's stomach.
"What do you think I do all day here? Count the tiles on the bathroom floor? There are two hundred thirty-two, by the way." Lelouch said with a mocking tone that only managed to make the Japanese boy laugh and scoot up equal to Lelouch's head and kiss him lightly on the cheek.
"So you have found ways to entertain yourself, I hear." Suzaku said, and Lelouch snorted as he recalled the many things he'd decided to do from the pure boredom of lounging about all day in their large home.
"I may as well have memorized our calendar." Lelouch said with a glare directed towards boredom itself.
"And yet you don't do the laundry." Suzaku sighed lightly, and Lelouch sighed himself as he turned on his side as well, so that now both boys were facing each other.
"Laundry is boring." Lelouch stated adamantly, but Suzaku instantly melted his hard exterior with a quick, inno cent kiss.
Lelouch thought that Suzaku had ended the kiss much earlier than necessary.
So Suzaku left Lelouch there, and began to rapidly change out of his clothes as his lover continued to snap out of the haze he'd left him in slowly and got up himself.
They joined each other in changing into pajamas, then jumping into the bed with all of the lights off.
"Lelouch?" Suzaku whispered a few minutes later, snaking an arm around Lelouch's waist. He heard the Britannian boy sigh as he held Suzaku's hands to his stomach lightly.
"Four and a half months." Lelouch whispered back, and Suzaku smiled widely, pulling Lelouch close to him and tucking his head beneath his chin. They quickly fell asleep together, just the same.
This day had been quite the adventure for the pregnant of the three inhabitants of the Lamperouge on-campus suite.
First, he'd been forced to go out with Sayoko to grab some things for their baby, which had proven extremely difficult for no logical reason. So many choices and decisions needed to be made; Sayoko was really trying her hardest to scare Lelouch with the extremities of baby-shopping.
He'd come back with a stroller, a few cutesy blankets Sayoko had convinced him to buy, and finally, he'd gotten a crib.
This crib was not just a crib, either.
Lelouch had spotted it in the window of an old—go figure—antique shop. It had the intricate swirls of a lively Victorian mansion, but the slightest touch of nostalgia seemed to pump from its metal bars.
Its metal was rusted, yet not. It was clean as a whistle, but imaginary rust seemed to find its way staining the rods, because it just seemed to fit. What it reminded Lelouch of most was probably his mother. The way its silver bars curved and curled in decorative Gothic design so very lonely-looking, yet managed to make him smile as he stopped to look through the window at his destined piece of furniture, drew him in.
Sayoko had tried to pull him away from the non-cute accessory to no avail, as he stared her straight in the eye with a straightaway dangerous glare and said, "Sayoko. Please." She nodded slightly and let his sleeve go as he slid into the stuffed antique shop and immediately purchased the item for a price he cleverly bargained to nearly half its original price.
And as simple as that, they left.
But this was not the end of Lelouch's troubles this fine Tuesday, oh no. For while he was lounging about the home in the later half of the afternoon, a visitor knocked on his door, albeit timidly.
Lelouch sighed. Answering the door with a bigger than average stomach was extremely tedious. So he made like he was snuggling in a blanket and effectively hid his stomach as he nearly waddled over to the door and opened it, to find quite the unexpected guest.
Nina Einstein.
"Lelouch…" She said, her gaze directed at the floor, and Lelouch kept his face furrowed and displeased, as if in an effort to scare her away. "Why didn't you report me?" She asked, nervous eyes looking up into his stone-cold violet ones.
"Because you were different." Lelouch said, never once backing down on his stare.
Nina's gaze turned desperate. "But I was the one who wanted them to do it! I should have gotten the worst punishment!" She yelled in his face.
"You're smart, Nina." Lelouch said quite softly with his head slightly tilted to the side. He had a recognizable smile on his face, something that Nina hadn't ever found very common and quite so true on the face of Lelouch Lamperouge.
"You don't deserve this punishment. You can do some good for the world, with that brain of yours." He said in a gentle tone once more.
"I…I don't think I fully understand your logic, but…But I will take this as an opportunity to learn from my mistake." Nina nodded, and Lelouch did the same, before stepping down the stairs of Lelouch's home.
"Nina," Lelouch called to her back and waited for her to turn to him, "No punishment will be your punishment." He said, and she nodded before skidding back to the school.
Lelouch sighed and closed his door with a light thud before sliding back inside and falling into the door. Holding his head, he groaned as the room spun just slightly before it successfully leveled out, seconds later. He waited a few extra moments to get his bearings, and started to walk back to the living room, but once again found the room spinning and twirling around him.
"Shit." He muttered as he groped the wall for support, and Lelouch nearly crawled his way into his bedroom. He raised the back of his hand to his forehead to find a fever burning beneath his skin. "Just what I need." He moaned before falling out of focus.
Suzaku really wanted to skip his way back into the Lamperouge suite from the Student Council room. The day had gone well; he'd gotten acceptable marks on his tests, and had a rather peaceful day at the Student Council meeting after school, a virtue not normally seen. He wanted to spread some of his optimism to Lelouch, if only as he burst through the door and grabbed him by the waist in his joyous outburst. Even just to see his glare, combined with a smile- to know that this annoyance was fake just by that glint of happiness in his Britannian lover's bright eyes.
He noticed Nina leaving from the suite's general direction, which gave him a quick tinge of fear, but he smiled and waved to her, to which she smiled back and nodded. This seemed strange—normally she'd shy away from him, what with her strong xenophobic characteristics, but something seemed a bit more accepting in her glance that lifted his spirits even higher than before.
Now he really did allow a light spring in his steps as he hummed a tune he'd heard Kaguya breathing many years before, his eyes shut serenely despite the biting February wind.
Soon, it would be Valentine's Day—the day for lovers, the day for singles, and the day for a bubbling happiness that always seemed to rumble in Suzaku's chest, and now he had a beautiful boy to spend it with. Sure, in his earlier years, he'd never imagined being gay. It was a sort of natural thing with Lelouch. It slid into place, and felt right. Quite the cozy relationship it was, when the two of them could easily and without restraint spend their days together peacefully.
Suzaku's eyes opened wide when he realized he'd already reached their home and nearly fell over after tripping on the first step to the front door. He calmed his expression, taking a breath to compose himself before opening the door with a smile.
"Lelouch?" He said in a slightly quiet voice, just in case his Lelouch was napping nearby, but his eyes caught from around the corner something that remotely resembled a blanket. "Lelouch?" He repeated curiously. He rounded the corner to find the blanket, along with the day's mail, splayed across the carpet floor.
"Suzaku?" Said man froze in his place as he heard a weak response come from Lelouch's bedroom. Suzaku flew up the stairs and into the bedroom to find Lelouch nearly asleep on his bed.
"You okay?" He asked, albeit breathy from his sprint through the household moments before.
"Not really, no." Lelouch muttered, a scowl on his face as he pulled the covers up over his nose. Suzaku proceeded to check Lelouch's fever for himself.
"Shit, Lulu, you're burning up." Suzaku muttered before running to the bathroom and bringing back the thermometer.
"I'm aware." Lelouch murmured, not removing the scowl still showing in his eyebrows. Getting Lelouch to comply, he put the thermometer in his mouth, only to find it coming out to about 101 degrees Fahrenheit. "Shit…" He repeated, and just when the situation was starting to freak Suzaku out, he heard Sayoko make a timely appearance as she walked into the house and announced her return for the day. Suzaku didn't want to leave Lelouch, but managed to tear his eyes away and stumble down the stairs to Sayoko.
"Sayoko", Suzaku started, but when she tried to greet him back he continued talking through breaths of air, "Lelouch has a fever and I don't know what to do. Do you know anything?" He asked, trying to keep his composure strong and calm.
"Suzaku, first you have to calm down, he'll be fine if we treat this right." She said, and when Suzaku realized she was waiting for him to settle himself down, he closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths before she approved and continued. "Do you have any Tylenol?" She asked, and Suzaku nodded before going back up the stairs and getting the bottle of medicine from the medicine cabinet in their bathroom and taking it to Lelouch's room with a glass of water, where Sayoko was already sitting.
Suzaku was rather calmed at the sight of Lelouch's eyes still open, even if they were barely half-lidded. Sayoko was talking to him quietly, probably investigating the matter more before he came to Lelouch's side and handed him the medicine and water.
Lelouch's eyes seemed to lose some of the fogginess that had set in from the dizziness and nausea as he smiled up at Suzaku from the bed, to which Suzaku smiled back and sat beside him. Lelouch successfully swallowed the pills with a considerable amount of water before leaning back and closing his eyes. Sayoko made herself scarce and shuffled down the stairs to be ready for Nunnally's return from school.
Suzaku lay down beside Lelouch and lightly stroked his hair and pushed it from his face. Lelouch opened his eyes halfway, looking in Suzaku's direction. The sight of his lover made Suzaku want to explode with glee; he looked so beautiful, glancing in his direction with his hair sliding beside his tired eyes and a weak smile adorning his lips. Though he did also look sick, he still managed to look good even when exhausted.
Unfortunately, the expression went away as it faded into curiosity and questioning as Suzaku realized he'd been holding his breath. "So how was your day?" Lelouch asked quietly, which made Suzaku laugh.
"Much better than yours, I can assume." He responded, running his hand through Lelouch's hair once more before gliding his fingers across his cheek. "I missed you, of course." Suzaku said, slightly downcast in a playful manner.
"Oh really now? Shouldn't you be focusing on school rather than noticing my absence all the time?" Lelouch responded with mischief in his whispering tone.
"That's too hard." Suzaku said, and Lelouch laughed quietly before shifting to his side, his eyes closed. Suzaku gave him a worried glance before feeling his forehead once more, which made Lelouch's eyes open once more, this time an annoyed tint in them.
"I'll be fine, Suzaku. Just let me rest for a while." Lelouch muttered sternly, and Suzaku sighed before kissing him on the forehead and sliding off the bed.
"I guess it can't be helped." Suzaku said as he reluctantly walked out of the room. "Goodnight, Lelouch." He said quietly before closing the door behind him.
A lot of fluff here... Leave me reviews! They would be nice! (And no, of course I didn't include that one section just because I wanted to say canoodle, what ever are you talking about?)
Code Geass and all of its attributes (c) Sunrise/CLAMP/Bandai Entertainment/Goro Taniguchi.
