This is a chapter that I'm not going to lie about. I'm eager to write as I've seen only a few stories written by OG scenes of Gino and Anya interacting, but here? Here, they're radically different to canon as she's far more expressive now and has had the chance to be her own person, and it shows if her enthusiastic response to Gino was any indication.

So, with that said, let's get into things, and please remember, if you liked this, favourite, follow and leave a comment; it's always a joy to read them.

Chapter 4: A Day Between Friends.

It was still bright and early as the two left the palace behind, Anya waving them through without a fuss from the guards. However, instead of taking a carriage, they did what they had done the previous day, which was walk as they went down the hill, Anya humming a little song to herself as she skipped along, a site which was strange but in an excellent way to Gino, as he liked seeing her so expressive even though she didn't say a word, which reminded him of their past. "So?"

"So what?" She replied, her long pink hair tied into a high ponytail bouncing with every step she took, same as the loose-sleeved dress she wore, her shoulders bare.

"Aren't you, I don't know, going to tell me what we're gonna do?" Gino asked as she seemed to be walking without a destination.

She caught him off guard once more in response as she leaned closer and grasped his larger hand. "Let me enjoy this; let me enjoy having you here." She replied, with him smiling, being more than willing to go along with that, though it wasn't just the fact she was more expressive that was different.

"You seem happy." He stated that the Anya he knew wasn't what people believed to be depressed, but she was rarely if he had to put a word to it, satisfied. She went through her life like someone flicking through a newspaper, looking for the juicy story. He had known that it had stemmed from her memory problems and how it made it hard for her to get invested in much when she would forget stuff randomly.

Now, he understood the reason and was incredibly grateful that consort Marianne wasn't in her head anymore, most likely in whatever hell there was for people like her. With her gone, Anya seemed to have been able to take back control over her life and was thriving.

An observation that proved accurate when she shot him a beaming smile. "I am happy but should have you here, my first real friend." She snuggled a little closer to his larger frame, though he didn't pick up on that too much as his mind went over that smile of hers and by God, he had always told her and others that if she smiled, it would be pretty. He now knew he was wrong.

Her smile was breathtaking, blowing whatever expectations he had for it so far out of the water it might as well have landed in the middle of a desert in the summer sun.

Not noticing how he was trying to get a word in, Anya looked up at him with a sly little grin. "But for your information, Mr. Weinberg, I did plan out our day to ensure we can see the most and have the most fun because I just know I'll be busy tomorrow." She groaned at the end as work never left her alone for long.

"Jeremiah must be a slave driver," Gino stated, only for Anya to shake her head, the breeze catching her hair momentarily.

"Him, oh no, he's not the leader of the Knights of Arthur. That'll be Marrybell." Gino's brow creased at that as he stroked his beard, trying to recall someone with that name, as she would have used a full name if he wasn't familiar with them, but the only…wait.

"By Marrybel, you wouldn't mean-" There was no way, but Anya nodded.

"Yup, the former princess, Blood Witch Marrybell. You know she has a geass as well. It's kinda spooky." Gino would ask about her geass later. Right now, he was busy trying to put the Marrybell he knew into the frame that Anya was painting, and she did not fit.

"She does? Wait, wait, you mean to tell me, the same Marrybell that hated terrorists with a passion, that strung them up by their entrails works under Britannia's greatest threat since Napoleon." He shivered as she…she was something else in the short time he worked with her. She scared him with how callous and cruel she could be, even to suspected terrorists.

She might not have been as heavy-handed as Cornelia, being a counter-terrorism specialist, but when she did get her hands on suspects, well, they were lucky if they were killed in the initial strike.

Anya let out a sound of agreement. She never worked with her, but she had recalled Gino's opinions of her, which, to put it bluntly, were 'Sadistic, Cruel, Precise, a real slave driver'. "Damocles made for the strangest bed, fellas; I saw that when Jeremiah's family was willing to leave with us," Anya replied, as she had been in the group that wished to see her locked up or kept under strict supervision when they crossed paths.

But Anya could admit that over time, she had shown herself capable of change and willing to work to better herself and do some good to repent for the truckload of wrongs she had to her name. "But to her credit, she's changed…she learned some truths about her life and strives to improve. I even attended her wedding last Spring." She smiled as she recalled that reception, from how the food was to how the bride spoke with her brother, who, as both ruler and a being with a pact with a God, served as the priest who handled the entire affair.

"Who was the lucky lady?" Gino asked, deciding they'd talk about Marybell's graveyard of skeletons later; he wished to enjoy the moment.

"Not man?" Anya asked with a smirk, only for Gino to roll his eyes at that.

"You and I know she always had her eyes as skirts then suits!" Gino had seen that plenty of times while he served with them, which proved that the court rumours that the Mel Britannia line wouldn't last past her if she ever took the throne were true.

Anya giggled at that before she replied. "It was the Zevon girl, I'll show you the pictures later." For a woman who was usually as hard as nails, she was a blushing mess for the entire event.

"I can't wait," Gino replied as they fell into silence for a bit, a comfortable one as they approached the town centre; shops and other businesses were open and busy around them. "So, what's the first thing on the list?"

"First things first. We're going out unicorn riding. There is a patch in the scarlet forest that is just magical. I still ride down it whenever I'm stressed out." Anya replied as she led them towards where the knights kept their sables. Gino smiled, as the idea that he'd one day ride a unicorn was little more than a dream, but he supposed he was in for it.

"You know, I've always wanted to ride a unicorn, but can't only a virgin ride them?" He joked as she waved that off as they crossed the street, people who knew her waving at her as she returned the gestures.

"If it's wild, sure," Gino turned his head to her quickly. He had been joking. He had no idea that was an absolute rule. "But a tamed one can take anyone, or do you think I'm still untouched?" He tripped a little, both in step and words, as he looked to her, trying to get an answer, but no, wait-sure Lelouch had his own unique mount, be he had been able to ride on the one Jeremiah gave him, and he saw the man had kids so...

"What, you aren't?" He didn't know how to feel about this as Anya shrugged her shoulders, not ashamed of it.

"C.C. and Lelouch might be as raunchy as bunnies, but that doesn't mean I've not had a boyfriend or two." Gino blushed a little, both at the thought of the sour puss that was the Lelouch he knew at Ashford being instead…active in the privacy of his bed chambers but more for the idea that Anya being the same as, for the longest time, his last memory of her was her petite 15-year-old self, the thought that of that Anya being intimate rarely crossed his mind over the years, and when it did, it often left him highly uncomfortable.

"Were you…expecting something else?" Anya turned her head to him, those ruby eyes observing him in ways he wasn't used to from her. They were so bright, so inquisitive and animated.

"No, I mean yes, but," He stroked his beard in thought. Still trying to figure out how he was supposed to say it. While he was somewhat uncomfortable with the idea of her being intimate, there was also the fact that she wasn't…well interactive back then. "This is complicated."

Anya shrugged at that. "I don't think so, I wasn't the most social person then, and I barely interacted with others unless it was work-related. Frankly, the idea of that version of my being intimate just comes off as…sad, like I would have been a total fish in bed." Where Gino danced around the bush, she jumped right into it. Even if Gino blanched and missed another step with that last part.

"I did not need to hear that." He muttered as he wouldn't make something of her not being a virgin. Lord knew he wasn't, but the idea of her with someone else heated his blood for some reason.

"But you were thinking it." Anya teased him, the man looking away without answering, an answer in of itself.

He latched onto what she had said earlier, seeking to get the conversation away from this topic. "What are you going to do after unicorn riding?"

Anya giggled, knowing his game but deciding to go along with it. She could tease him later. "Well, by then, it would be time for lunch, so I wanted to take you to a diner in town, which I know you'll love. The foods they make are literally us of our world, but I swear, you'll always want more." It was a well-known spot with guards, built close to their main barracks and the Knight's HQ.

At that, Gino patted his stomach as he had always been a fan of foreign foods, willing to try anything and often liked what he got. "That sounds like something to look forward to. I hope I can try a few things then."

"Then afterwards," she stopped, her cheeks getting red, which was weird to Gino. She could casually talk about her love life, so what could this be the result of. "I want to spar with you." He blinked his eyes.

"Fight?"

"Spar! I don't want to make it too violent, but I'm curious how we'll match up, especially since I'm sure we can find you some equipment for it." Anya was quick to shut down his response. She knew it wasn't the most fun or even practical way, but she missed it. She missed seeing him fight and wanted to see that again. Gino picked on this, though he made a show of thinking it over.

"If you're as good as I thought you were yesterday, then I'm about to get my butt handed to me." He laughed, with Anya taking a breath of relief at that, grabbing into his hand again. Gino wondered when she let go and dragged him forward.

"Save the praise for after that," She replied, though she was pretty sure she would have the advantage. "After, I wanted to take you to a magic show, well not a show per se, but there is a school that teaches people in town that are interested, and they often have open-air classes for the larger stuff, so it's always a treat to watch. I can't tell you how many kids want to sign up for it."

After a rather enjoyable walk through down, seeing people just going about their days without fears of White Cloaks and Damocles, they finally made it to the HG of the Knights of Arthur, one of the more prominent compounds in the town, its walls and buildings made from brick and stone. Walking inside, the place came off more like a castle as she led him to the stables, where he saw unicorns of all sizes and colours being tended to.

She spoke with the stable master, a man of Middle Eastern descent who gave him a funny look, but that was all he did as he led them inside to where there were a few unicorns ready to go, including Anya's Scratching its nose, the animal let out pleased neighs as she took its reigns and gently led it outside, Gino being helped with his. Outside, they went for a different entrance for this purpose.

Getting on, the two trotted out and into the streets, far less busy than the one that came down on, with an entrance leading out of the city only a couple blocks away. "Ready?" Anya asked him as he adjusted himself in the seat again, having not ridden a horse since he was 13. Will you do that, do you?

"As I'll ever be." He replied as she laughed, which was a sound he could admit to himself he was getting addicted to.

"Relax, Patches is one of the calmer girls here." She told him as he gave her a weird, confused look.

"Patches?"

"What? I wasn't the one that named her." She kept smiling as she turned her unicorn around and kicked it, getting it to trot on ahead. "Come on, I know you had equestrian training, Mr. Weinberg." She called over her shoulder as he only shook his head fondly, kicking his unicorn to follow them.

Catching up, the two went through the gate without issue, out into the open as this part of town didn't have farmlands but was closer to the riverside, which gave them a great view of the waters as they went down the road. "And so did you, Ms. Alstreim"

After a few moments, Anya suddenly picked the speed, racing off with a laugh. "Pick up the pace. Let the wind whip your hair about!" Gino was quick to follow her, but her head start meant that she was a little ahead of him, with the forest quickly looming as she suddenly veered off the main road onto a small path, one he nearly missed as he kept up the chase. Entering the forested area, the path was far from straight and level, as they seemed to rise and fall without warning, the saving grace being that it was manageable.

Hearing laughing, he focused on Anya again and saw her; he really saw her at that moment. The wind picked up, sending hundreds if not thousands of crimson leaves floating down, the sounds of the unicorns' breaths and gallops mixing in with the wind through the branches, chirping birds and other wildlife they could be found here. All of that blended into a scene out of a fantasy story as his eyes remained on her.

"Oh my god…" He uttered, utterly trapped by her beauty, spirit, and strength.

"I know, it's a beautiful sight, right?" Anya, not knowing what he was looking at her or whom, asked as her gaze was on the forest, letting the breeze carry that rich earthly scent mixed in with dew and flowers.

Gino dumbly nodded his head. "Magnificent. You're beautiful." He replied without thinking as Anya turned back to him.

"What was that last part?" She asked, which shook him out of that pleasant daydream as he raced to answer her question.

"The forest, it's beautiful." He replied, louder this time, as she turned back to where she was heading.

"Nothing beats coming out here. The place remains red all year round. You know if you can ignore the snowfall in winter." She told him as they continued, but his gaze wouldn't leave her for long for the entire trip.

Like she had promised, it was a relaxing ride through the forest, but they soon had to return for lunch as Anya wanted to take advantage of a good table. When they got to the diner, a rather large place built to handle all kinds of customers, he saw in the ceiling and along the walls that there were sections for what looked to be fairies? While some of the tables and seats had been set aside for creates that were quickly twice his size.

Despite this set-up, Gino saw she wasn't kidding as the place was packed, with the wait staff acting like there was more on the way. Anya snagged a table on the pouch that overlooked the river, letting the water smell carry them over as someone came up and handed them menus. The man seemed to recognise Anya, the two having a spirited back and forth before he waved her off and got back to work.

"You know him well," Gino observed as the handsome man walked off.

"I would hope so. Sammy has been here since the beginning." Anya replied as she messed with the décor on the table, the conversations of other tables politely ignored, making little more than background noise.

"Oh?" Gino sounded as he looked through the menu, finding that most items were foods he had never heard of, with the small descriptions or pictures provided only adding to that as he knew of red and white meat, but yellow and green? What in God's name had been killed to get that?

"Yup, one of the best servers here; just don't say it too much; we don't need his ego getting any bigger!" Anya yelled that part out; Sammy, who was busy with another table, responded by flipping the bird at her over his shoulder, getting laughs from the other patrons. Anya was with them before she looked through the menu. She would have just got her unusual, but she was eating with an old friend and felt that if he was trying something new, so would she.

"So, anything you like?" She asked him as Gino continued to struggle. He recognised some foods but felt that if he picked them, it would defeat the purpose of coming here. It'll be similar to visiting a foreign country and an international chain like Pizza Hut.

Deciding to take a stab in the dark, he randomly picked something. "I'll try the gold ram ribs unless they're made from edible gold or something." He asked. As with everything he had seen since yesterday, he was willing to believe anything.

Anya snorted and shook her head. "They aren't, but I tell you that they're superior to the mutton you're probably used to." She recalled a day in the past when someone stole it and how the farmer, Ralph, had been pissed when he found one of his golden sheep missing. When he saw it was just a prank from bored kids, he still laid into them and made them work for a week under him.

After that, there were half as many farm-related pranks from kids as no one else wanted to be forced to work long hours from dawn to dusk.

"And you?" Gino's question brought her back to the diner, and she blinked a couple times to clear her head before Anya looked through the menu before she settled on something.

"The mammoth's steak, extra pepper." Gino baulked at that. She might have never been the type to eat small portions like other noble women, partly because Knights of Round were expected to always be ready, which meant a full belly, but this was insane.

"Hold up, that thing looks huge in the picture." He said, looking to the picture of the meal in question a couple pages back from where he settled, and low and behold, the steak showed, when compared to the salt and pepper shakes it was pictured next to, was massive, well over 6 times the more enormous steaks he had seen. Something like that must have weighed 3kg worth of pure meat.

Anya giggled at his horrified face, as he must have thought her a glutton as she explained it. "Relax, it's a weird kind of meat, kinda like cotton candy but also not." If he had bothered to read the fine text under the picture, he would have known that a steak that big, if it had been something like beef, would have lasted her 3, maybe 4 days if she spaced it out.

"Oh, so it's not as big as it seems?" Gino asked for clarification, with her explaining that it probably weighted an 8th of what he was assuming, till big but not insanely so.

"Yeah, it expends a lot when it cooks." She added that they gave their orders to Sammy, who wrote it down and went to the kitchen to have them prepare it.

"But, why didn't you just compare it to bread?" Gino asked as she looked towards the riverfront, seeing the many boats that came and went, bringing or taking goods.

"Because I know you have a sweet tooth and would get the candy reference more." She replied, looking at him out of the corner of her eye, to which Gino pouted, which only looked funnier on his face; the beard suited him and made him look different from his father, who had a thick moustache instead. As they waited, they continued to chat about themselves and what they had been up to since they last saw one another.

Gino was surprised to learn they hid out in Wales of all places and recounted all the times they had someone make a comment about them as 'the English', which didn't make sense, but every time they tried to explain that, they were just chuckled at so they learned to deal with it. Then there was the story of finding all those magical items, tools and tomes, with her being more than happy to talk about her battle axe. That same axe was the one she used every time she donned her armour, which meant it was sitting in her room back at the barracks.

In turn, he told her about his perspective from when she left, how things seemed normal till she asked Lelouch to help her smuggle him out of Pendragon, the battle against Damocles. How they thought they had managed to kill Suzaku, but like a cockroach, he was still alive. After that? It was his stories of living on the run, working against the regime in any way he could, taking the small victories when they happened, and stomaching the losses when they happened.

He also admitted that he lost his virginity a while back, when he was around 19, as it was after a big raid. They had managed to get away with food and supplies for them, and he and another member, an older woman, had been a little too eager to celebrate. Anya listened intently, same as he had when she was talking, but she couldn't help herself when he admitted he slept with a woman in her mid-30s; she laughed when he revealed that what he felt was a great time was just 'okay for a first timer' from her.

"Well, what were you expecting? To be some kind of sex God out the gate?" Anya asked him, as she found it funny to hear how many guys acted like just knowing the motions from porn was enough.

"I mean, kinda. What, don't laugh, I wanted to impress her!" Gino countered as she went right back to laughing.

Wiping the tear from her eye, she threw him a bone. "Look at it this way, you didn't disappoint her."

"There is a big gap between being okay and exceptional," Gino muttered, crossing his arms with a pout as she reached over and grabbed his hand, bringing it back to the table.

"Hey, if it makes you feel better, my first time was just as underwhelming. Neither of us knew what the hell we were going as he was a good catholic boy until then, and well, you know what I was like." Anya admitted with a bit of blush, as the encounter had been preceded by a short romance, and God was that night embarrassing, barely knowing what to do and being as confident as a kid before a school play.

What led to you breaking things off? Gino asked her, locking hands with her.

Anya didn't immediately, as she wondered how she could phrase this without saying too much at the moment, but she eventually got something. "A difference in faith, but we ended things on good terms. He married now, if I'm not mistaken, on what I've heard around town." Before they could continue, Sammy approached their table, pushing a cart with their orders and a pitcher of ice tins, glasses, and other utensils.

With professionalism born from years of experience, he quickly offloaded the food and drink onto their table, organising it to be as presentable as possible before he backed off and bowed. "Here is your orders, enjoy!"

"Thanks, Sammy!" Anya replied as the man returned to work, heading to a nearby table to clear it now that the guests had left. "Well, what are you waiting for? Try it." With some prodding from Anya, Gino cut off a piece of the ribs, which spelt good, but he was still on the fence. At least until he put it into his mouth.

"Oh shit," Gino blinked as the flavour hit his tongue. Swallowing that, he took another piece. "Holy shit!" He smiled even as he chewed, eating the food with gusto.

"I told you." She told him as she took a bite of her food, humming in delight as the meat seemed to melt on her tongue like cotton candy, letting her experience the whole thing before she swallowed.

"This is amazing. It's like it was a gift from God." Gino looked close to tears as he ate.

"Don't you go crying on me? Save that for dessert. After all, what's a good meal without ice cream?" When she revealed that, he did cry.

Yes, I know that a lesbian empress could still have kids without needing to take a male spouse, but considering that Nina and others like her need to hide their sexuality, the notion that Britannia would accept anything less than her either marrying that XY chromosome or naming someone else her heir is insane. I still recall one scene where, during what I think was the cat hunt, Milly offered up a kiss from any student council member. A girl told those around her, maybe her friends that she wanted one from Milly. Their reaction to this open lesbian desire is disgust, telling her to get back in the closest.

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