Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass.
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"What are you doing?" Lelouch hissed as lowly as he could through tightly gritted teeth.
"Taking a walk, what else?"
"Besides that, who gave you the permission to get out?"
"Oh my, since when had you become a boss of me?"
"Since I accidentally pulled you into this world," he replied with bitterness heavily filled his voice as his pace increased.
"But it's boring at the apartment," C.C. retorted, "all I do is crashing on the couch and staring at the TV. And did I forget to leave out the part that I can't even flip the channels?"
"So you decided to follow me instead?"
"Pretty much," she smirked exuberantly.
I'm doomed…
As if reading his mind, she shrugged casually, "Don't break a sweat boya. You're the only one who can see me."
"That only makes it worse!"
Many inquisitive stares on the busy street befell him. Lelouch zipped his mouth immediately and picked up his pace. A faint pink color quickly dusted his cheeks.
"They must think you're crazy," C.C. remarked nonchalantly after a few seconds.
"I am crazy," he mumbled, "maybe I should make an appointment with the psychological doctor later."
"I agreed."
A very frustrated sigh escaped his lips.
They walked for about ten minutes in utter silence. None bothered saying anything to each other.
"You should have stayed home," Lelouch said at last, breaking the comfortable quietness.
"I already told you the reasons why," she heaved an impatient sigh.
"But I can't have you tailing me like this 24/7."
C.C. turned herself so that she was floating in a lying position with hands behind her head and eyes glued to the cloudless, bright skies. "Then don't look at it that way," she responded.
"What way am I supposed to look at then?" he inquired grudgingly.
"Just think of it like I'm taking a stroll, no harm done."
Lelouch stopped abruptly in his tracks, his eyebrows furrowed together incredulously as he looked at the floating figure next to him. "So you're going home after we arrive at my school?"
"Who said that?" she let out a teasing chuckle.
"And I should have known better," he replied drily, resisting the urge to face-palm himself.
"Morning Lelouch!" exclaimed Shirley with too much enthusiasm for his current mood.
"Morning Shirley," he managed.
"How was it?" Suzaku asked as he sauntered closer toward the gang.
"How was what?"
"Your dreams. Did you see anything stranger?"
Suddenly, Lelouch found the white snow beneath his feet so irresistibly fascinating. "Ah, well…"
"Well, you see, it's…" Obviously, he was stalling himself, unable to come up with a convincing excuse. How could he pull this off without looking like a complete psycho himself? Sure, he should just come out and say, "Oh, you won't believe this, but last night the girl in my dream actually came out and talked to me! Kind of resembling 'The Ring' movie, don't you think? Definitely his friends wouldn't send him off back to the psychological hospital right after that.
A snicker was heard from his right, pulling Lelouch out of his reverie. "Go on, Lelouch. It's completely normal for you to talk about me." Sarcasm was easily detected in her tone.
"It's…" Anxious stares befell him. "Nothing," he concluded quietly.
"Wow, took you long enough to say that," commented Suzaku as he quirked up a curious eyebrow.
"Sorry, I just couldn't remember what happened; it's probably not significant." A perfect lie.
"Your paleness completely contradicted you," said Kallen as she leaned in closer, and Lelouch couldn't help letting out a yelp. Since when did she appear here?
"It's really nothing." He protested. "And personal space please?"
Shirley brought up her hand and placed it against his cheek. Warm skin vs. cold skin. "Oh! You're freezing Lulu!"
"No, I'm fine, really. I-"
"Here, put it on." She then quickly unwound her scarlet scarf and wrapped it around his neck, ignoring his rising complaints.
Lelouch's usual savior in these abashing situations, Suzaku, now just stood there with his arms crossing his chest, not bothering to interfere this time. Enjoyment clearly evident on his face, and he wasn't the only one. 'A fragment of his dreams' was also floating nearby, a sly smirk tugged at the corners of her lips. "Look who's got special treatments from two girls so early in the morning," she cooed in a faux loving tone.
"C.C." He growled lowly and menacingly.
"What?" asked Shirley.
"Nothing."
C.C. was sitting in one of the empty seats scattered across the whole classroom with one hand uninterestedly twirled a lock of long green hair while the other propped up her chin. Her golden orbs indolently roved about the college's front courtyard from the window, in which nothing excited actually occurred.
There and here, a couple of students left the school and went to the yard. From there, they would meet their friends and proceeded to leave for lunch together. Their laughter and the sound of conversations were heard and echoed faintly throughout the not-so-crowded classroom.
C.C. couldn't help but giving her body a good, long and satisfied stretch; no one would see her doing it anyway so there's really no reason to feel embarrassed or exposed – well, except for a certain raven-haired teen. That guy, however, seemed to be too engrossed in his studies that she highly doubt he would even notice her if she made many grunting or moaning sounds.
Finally, unable to suppress her boredom any longer, she wafted towards him.
She was right; he was too engaged in his own things.
Leaning over his shoulder, C.C. peeked at his notebook.
"What are you doing?" he hissed.
"Observing," was her simple reply as she started reading his notes.
"Go away. You're making me feel weird."
"Nothing perverted, I hope." A bold smirk crossed her face, and he almost gagged.
"That's unnecessary," he mumbled, "what I meant was the prickling feeling on the back of my neck!"
"Now that's unnecessary," her turn to retort tauntingly, "you're not supposed to feel me since I'm a ghost."
"Believe it or not, I can."
"Hm, our bonds run deeper than I thought."
"What is it?" Lelouch asked as if he didn't quite catch it, but she knew he did perfectly.
"Nothing."
Suddenly, an unfamiliar voice sounded from his right. "Who are you talking to?"
Lelouch quickly averted his eyes towards the source and found a pair of perplexed deep gray orbs staring straight at him.
Stammering, Lelouch tried to come up with as many excuses as humanly possible in his head in an effort to drive the girl away from the particular train of thoughts that was apparently circulating in her head at the moment, which was 'oh my gosh, I can't believe the guy who always gets A's in all the classes is actually insane!'
"You must be hearing things." Lame, he knew, but that was all he could have thought of.
Lelouch then flashed a pretentiously warm smile at her.
The girl knitted her brows in suspicion but decided not to push the subject further. Giving her shoulders a small shrug, she resumed her taking notes task.
A sigh of relief escaped his lips. That was close, he mused.
"I can tell that she internally thinks you're crazy," the green-haired 'fragment of his dreams' remarked as she hopped on the desk next to his with her long, exposed and transparent legs dangling over its edge.
A faint pink color swiftly brushed his cheeks at the alluring sight. Lelouch had to cough.
"Ara, someone is unsettled," a knowing smirk then split C.C.'s face.
"Witch."
"Excuse me?" That unfamiliar voice was heard yet again. Harsher this time, and he just knew he was caught dead like a deer in the headlights.
"Aah… Which page are we on?"
The girl couldn't help but raised one dubious eyebrow. Seeing this raven-haired teen make a mistake in grammar was just like watching Suzaku lose in an amateur, meaningless fight.
"Hm, you're on the right page," she commented as one finger pointed toward his textbook, "oh and by the way, it's what, not which, Lelouch." She said ever so derisively. It's quite rare to catch this particular raven-haired teen making a mistake in studies, so obviously she's enjoying this.
Lelouch could literally feel his face getting warmer as if he'd been bathing in a hot spring for such a long time. He then quickly took an unwavering interest in the pen he was holding tightly as he murmured, "thanks."
A snicker was then heard next to him. "Very smooth, warlock."
He glowered hard at her. Instead of trying to make a fool out of himself three times in a row, he resorted to the last solution. Resentfully pulled the notebook closer, Lelouch quickly scribbled on it, caring less about how squishy his handwriting was starting to look like. At last, he pushed it slightly to one side so the green-haired girl could read.
May I ask where that 'warlock' came from?
C.C. smirked while leaning in a bit closer, this time using her elbow to prop her half-lying body up against the desk, and as much as Lelouch wanted to flinch, he had to refrain himself from doing so since he noticed a certain girl was paying more than necessary attention to him.
"Well, since you called me a witch and you're the only company I have, it's fairly reasonable that you earned a nickname 'warlock' as well." She replied casually.
What if I refused?
"It's useless. There's no way you can stop me from calling you that, is there?"
You really are a witch.
"So we're stuck with that name now? Rather than a ghost or 'fragment of your dreams'?"
He pondered this for a few seconds. Witch suits you more, he quickly wrote down.
"Very well," a chuckle escaped her lips. "Warlock."
Lelouch tore the paper off grudgingly and crumpled it into a tight ball, his glaring eyes never left her tranquil golden orbs.
"Ah!" exclaimed Suzaku as he stretched out his long limbs. "I'm so happy the mock exam of literature is finally over!"
"I hope I did well on it. There are some questions that I simply guessed," Shirley confessed while poking at her home-made food.
Kallen spoke after swallowing down a mouthful of sushi. "Relax, it's just a mock exam. It's not like they're actually counting the marks."
"I know, but still…" Shirley mused, then picking up her spoon and digging into the rice. As her spoon was halfway to her mouth, she saw that Lelouch hadn't been bothered with his own lunch. "What's wrong, Lelouch?" she asked. "You're not eating."
The raven-haired teen shook his head, looked at her and replied tiredly. "I'm not hungry. Today has been, ah, a long and tiresome day."
"But we've only been through two periods." Suzaku chimed in after he'd swallowed a mouthful of spaghetti. "And I thought you loved school," he added incredulously.
Not anymore, I've been troubled by some unseen force lately so I couldn't really focus, that's what Lelouch wanted to spill out but restrained himself from doing so. Instead, he smiled and shook his head once more, leaving the interpretation of his actions to Suzaku to figure out on his own.
Suddenly, he felt strange. As if… as if he wasn't being followed anymore. Stealing a couple of glances this way and then, he caught what he'd been looking for. C.C. wasn't there next to him as usual. She was standing far away, next to the large window that allowed so much light in that the whole cafeteria was lit up brightly as if it were a royal ballroom where many lights were required.
She was just standing there, leaning against the wall next to the grand window, very still as if she wasn't bothered at all by the lights shooting through her transparent form, with arms crossed her chest and eyes staring straight out at the school yard as if she's searching for something and at the same time searching for nothing. The sarcastic expression had gone from her face, and was replaced by a lonely mask. Her eyes, he noticed, were filled with sadness and longing. And she didn't seem so surreal or fake anymore; she seemed just like any normal teenage girl, a living normal teenage girl.
Lelouch couldn't help but stare at her, and all of sudden, he almost- almost- felt bad for treating her rather poorly this morning.
She said something about this isn't the time for me to know about her origin yet, Lelouch mused, tuning out his friends' conversation to focus on his own train of thoughts, what does that mean? Does that mean if I tried to 'believe' in her more, I'll learn about it? Like what happened in my dream last night? If that's the case, then…
Lelouch had a mission to accomplish now.
Thank you for reading, and reviews are very appreciated!