160To: Kallen
From: Suzaku
Subject: I'm throwing you a party,
oh wait, only gay guys do that.
So a few tips on entering Britannia.
A helpful manual by Kururugi Suzaku.
(Hah, I am so smart. Shut up Kallen.)
1. Most guys are gay.
TRUST me on this.
Frills, Kallen. Frills.
Don't laugh. Please, Kallen.
2. Stay away from the cats.
Don't look like that, I'm telling the truth.
3. Chopsticks do not work.
You will be laughed at.
4...They don't have kendo here.
You're going to have to find some other
way to beat people up. And don't
snort at the screen, Kallen, you know
you have a bad temper.
5. Don't get lost in the airport!
I know you're strong but,
..you have some boobs.
6. I'm here for you.
..As long as you don't get arrested
for killing someone.
-Suzaku
(I'm really serious about the frills.)
To: Suzaku
From: Kallen
Subject: ..Shut up I take anger classes.
Okay, first off, cats adore me, you stupid jock.
So I so don't appreciate that comment or um, I don't know,
THE BOOB COMMENT?!
Sure, we grew up together but you inserting BOOB into a note to a friend who so happens
to be a girl does not go well with ANYONE.
And..I manage my temper...moderately.
It's so stupid that mom suddenly decides for me to go meet
the stupid guy in the photograph, you know, who me and Naoto tend to NOT
look at since for one, he's dressed in really fancy clothes that make him look queer
and TWO he's the stupid bastard that left mom for some Britannian slut.
Oh, and you should be so proud to hear that I refused their offer to move in.
Yep, I'm renting an apartment. So there. I refuse to conform. Unlike Mr. Honorary Britannian.
Yes, you.
Oh and chopsticks? Is Kallen going to have to smack a bitch because said bitch doesn't like chopsticks?!
...Suzaku, help me...I don't think I'm going to make it...I know English, but..ugh, I might call the teacher 'san' or something.
AND I WILL NOT GET LOST IN THE AIRPORT. Well, not really lost.
And no Kendo? I thought Britannia was the world's super-power. They should have everything.
Even if they are pansies.
Hmm. Track sounds good. I hope you're ready for me to pummel you.
I'm scared but, this is what mom wants. She wants the whole, meet the other side of your family
even if said family lives on another side of the globe. And oh, they're Britannian. It's okay if you're the weird
Japanese girl who joins said Japanese best friend in an all Britannian school.
No problem.
Your best friend sounds smart by the way.
-Kallen
PS. Frills? Seriously?
The Exchange Student
by defining aerith
x
once upon a time there was a half-japanese red-head..
"So does this mean when I come back from college that I get your room and my room?"
"Naoto, shut up."
"Kallen, don't give me that face. "
"..I'm not giving you a face."
"Aw, Kallen look at me, it's priceless."
Kozuki Kallen looked into a pair of blue eyes very similar to her own. Sometimes she thought she saw more of the Asian slant in her brother's eyes than in hers. She looked at his face, set in a deep frown, his lip jutting out with exaggerated irritation and she rolled her eyes and poked his face.
"..Oh cut it out, nii-san. I'm not in the mood.." She huffed in reply, putting the final clasp over her suit-case and shoving it off her bed, dragging it down the wooden floor and grabbing her small backpack and throwing it over one shoulder.
"...It's not forever, Kallen." Her brother replied, looping his long hair, a shade of red darker than her own, into a messy-bun, watching her stoic face remain unchanged.
"...I could tie them in pig-tails if you want, Kallen." He offered, smiling at her widely. She only groaned in response, heading down the stairs with her suit-case making a thump-thump at every platform.
"Okaa-san, Kallen is being an emo-kid." Naoto sang as he danced down the stairs, ignoring the hissing reply of "sissy" coming from his seventeen year old sister.
"..Kallen, you'll be fine. It's only for a year. I'm sure your otou-san would like to get to know you better, ne?" Kallen's mother handed her a bowl of white rice, her left hand holding a pair of chopsticks. Kallen surveyed the food and looked into her mother's eyes with a weak sembelance of a smile.
"...well, at least I can see Suzaku again." Naoto whistled from his cushion. "Damn, he was a hell of a kendo-student. I always wondered how the hell you managed to beat him every time."
Said brother cried out in pain as a pair of flying chopsticks hit him on the right side of his face. "It's because I'm strong, you moron!" Kallen hissed, seating down and looking at her family with a brief moment of nostalgia.
Naoto looked at her with a bruised right cheek, massaging it and whispering, "monster-sister" under his breath. Her mother smiled encouragingly at her, but the haunted effect of the name otou-san was still in her eyes.
Kallen sighed and lifted her chopsticks.
"Itadakimasu."
"..You have your bras in the left section of your suit-case, right? Last time you went out of town you left them and it was a mess.."
"Okaa-sann!" Kallen shrieked, her mother chuckling as she checked her suitcase. "Maa, maa, Kallen, I'm just teasing you. I know you've grown to be very mature. But being as lovely as you are, I know those boys at that school will be eyeing you." Kallen chuckled mirthlessly. " Do you remember Suzaku at all, okaa-san? He chased off every boy that came near me."
Her mother smiled wryly at her. "You miss Suzaku-kun very much, don't you?"
Kallen smiled lopsidedly. "I guess you could say that. I certainly haven't seen him in a while." She finished zipping her suitcase once her mother approved it to be sufficient. This caused her mother's smile to grow into a more soft one.
"Think of that as collateral for being in Britannia." Kallen looked at her with a wry grin.
"Heh, we'll see if Suzaku is still straight after being there for so long."
"Kallen!"
x
"...Well, this is it."
Her brother stood beside her mother, looking tall and large when compared to her mother's willowy frame, tiny-hand dwarfed in her brother's larger one. Her mother looked tearful, and the image made Kallen's throat close up.
"...Kallen, keep pepper-spray always. I can't save your ass everyday." Naoto admonished, still managing to keep an easy grin on his face. Kallen sneered at him. "My ass saves itself, thank you very much." Her mother rolled her eyes at her children's foul language; stepping forward to cup her daughter's face in her hands and looking into her eyes.
"..Be kind, Kallen. If anything, you'll be representing us as well. I know you'll make new friends, and take care of Suzaku. I'm sure it's harder for him than he lets on." Kallen smiled at her. "..I'll try, okaa-san."
"...That's our Kallen," Naoto piped in warmly, his eyes crinkling as he engulfed his little sister in a huge hug. Kallen blinked away the tears blinding her vision and nodded weakly. "H-hai..nii-san.." She whispered against his shoulder, squeezing back everything she couldn't say.
She wanted to capture them as a picture frame in her mind. She stared up at the white flag in the airport, with it's single red dot and she wanted to capture the little family standing beneath it wishing her goodbye.
"...Sayonara, for now, ne?" Kallen whispered, smiling as widely as she could though her chest hurt. Her family smiled in response. She turned to go, but she heard her brother call out, "Oi, Kallen!"
She turned to see him smile. "A word of advice.." Her mother opened her mouth the same time he did...
" Don't beat anyone up!"
..
..
"YOU GUYS!"
..
..
It seemed natural that Kozuki Kallen boarded the plane with a snarl on her face.
..She got lost.
She had told Suzaku she wouldn't get lost and here she was. She wandered from stand to stand, gawking at the strange letters and blinking away frustrated tears. She could read some of it but she knew she'd still be up late at night looking over some of the odd words.
She had to ask about five people in what she assumed broken English where exactly Lilac Apartments were and after three tries someone finally drew her a map, afterwards staring in bewilderment at the red-haired girl bowing fervently three times before shuffling away on with her heavy luggage.
x
After three hours of searching the bizarre Empire, Kallen stumbled upon where she'd be staying. She knew she'd angered her father already by refusing to stay in the house. She stated that she'd like to 'do things on her own' since in Japan, it was a lot more solitary and harder, in her opinion. Glancing nervously at the rather fancy looking apartment, Kallen met with the land-lady, who was also confused at her bowing.
"..Well, aren't you polite? Where you from?" The land-lady asked kindly. Kallen blushed, her face red. "Kyoto, " She said softly, the woman's face looking surprised. "Ah, you're Japanese." Kallen nodded in response. "Yes I am. "
"..Here to see the Empire?" The woman questioned, and the red-head blushed deeper. "No, just uh, visiting family..t-thank you for your help!" She stammered, before heading down the hall, her only signs of where she was headed was that it was room 112.
Of course, she got more lost; taking her about thirty minutes to search the lower floor and the upper floor, her eyes stunned by the space of the rooms. "..It's definitely not like this at home.." Whispered Kallen to herself; her blue eyes popping out of her head at the vast number of rooms. 500. Seriously? She groaned in despair.
"Oh, you ran off, but I was about to show you where your room was." The land-lady looked frazzled, her hair sticking in multiple directions, looking like she had been trying to show her from the get-go where she was headed but Kallen being Kallen, had bolted and ran off trying to do it herself. Kallen felt humiliation creep up on her in waves.
"...Gomen.." Kallen stammered, only to get an odd look from the land-lady.
"...Is that a Japanese word, Miss Ko-..Ko.."
"Kozuki." Kallen finished with frayed patience.
The land-lady smiled as if she had taken a course in Japanese.
"..This...was...the longest...day..of..my...life.." Kallen's head hit the futon she had packed in her suit-case, too lazy to get out the rest of her things; settling for getting just a small tank-top and shorts.
"...It's only going to get worse, isn't it?" She whimpered into her small pillow, twisting in her blankets as she set her alarm; bewildered at the change in time-zones.
"Right now..it's probably morning by now..okaa-san is making breakfast...my favorite breakfast..." A long series of groans escaped the red-head as she felt sleep weigh on her eyelids.
"...Might as well get it over with tomorrow...whoopee."
Kallen was out the minute she said whoopee.
x
x
RING. RIIIING. RIIIIIIING.
"Urusai..."
RING...RING...RINGGGG
"URUSAI YOU STUPID CLOCK!"
The poor clock was thrown across the wall, ringing still with no apparent damage. Kallen shot up out of her futon her red hair no longer flat and spiking out in various directions. She scrambled on her sock-covered feet to her suit-case, wearing what Suzaku suggested.
He said the Student Council President wanted to see how highschool students wore their uniforms in Japan. Already Kallen had an idea that the President was probably no, very curious. Which would probably involving Kallen talking. Alot.
She straightened her hair in tall mirror near the bathroom, straightening her pleated blue skirt and tying the red ribbon on her white button-down. She fixed the knee-high black socks and pulled her shoulder length hair into a messy ponytail.
No matter what way she looked at herself, she knew she would get stares.
Putting a finger in her mouth and chewing on the nail; Kallen anxiously ran over Suzaku's list in her head. So no chopsticks, men were gay, frills, (oh my god, they did have frills..), no kendo, (how would she survive this prissy place?!), and from the sound of the land-lady, they were culturally stupid.
She then remembered a conversation she and Suzaku had on the phone..
"I made a friend here, Kallen. He's really smart, but if you beat him up, he'll probably break about five things. I want you to get to know him and his sister. They're pretty nice, and I know they won't judge you. As for Student Council...beware of the President. She's nice, but...Kallen then heard him shudder on the phone ...she's the craziest person I've ever met. Be careful."
"Brother and sister, huh? What a cruel way to make me homesick, " Kallen muttered to herself, grabbing her schoolbag and heading down the stairs.
Suzaku-baka, is here with you, so no worries,
Her thoughts told her; and they comforted her. Slightly. Just a little bit.
She saw a Taxi stop at a street across from the Apartment, dropping someone she didn't recognize out and in a burst of speed she ran over, calling, "TAXI!" Relieved to find that some cultures shared the same things, the yellow cab stopped in front of her, a man with no frills smiling at her crookedly.
"Where you headed, red?" The man questioned, and Kallen had expected a fancy voice inquiring, "Were art thou headed and the like, " Since English speaking countries leaned towards Shakespeare...r-right?
"Ashford Academy," Kallen replied shakily, and handed him a currency she had yet to master.
"You're not from around here, are you?"
Kallen's huge blue eyes turned from the MASSIVE school and back to the smiling Cab-person. She found out his name was George and that he liked girls with red hair. Oh, and he was checking out her chest half of the time. She decided to let that slide since he had driven her here.
"...Not really. I'm Japanese." Kallen said honestly, poking her head out of the window and gawking at the school covered in forest-green flags and several hundreds of people rushing to and fro to areas around the GARDENS.
Her highschool didn't have a freaking garden. It was downtown! And Were those girls wearing ties?
The man made a pitying clucking sound. "..Poor girl, hang in there."
With that he drove away, leaving Kallen's freshly straightened hair spiking up at the bangs and her ponytail looking tattered and scruffy. She checked her watch and groaned.
She was ten minutes late.
She walked hesitantly through the golden gates, eyes taking in the fountains, the freshly cut bushes, the lovely looking people...It seemed like a metropolis of sorts. It's strange beauty frightened her and made her wish she was with her brother, who would have flipped off anyone who gave her weird looks.
She walked with her head down, red bangs falling over her eyes as she walked towards the huge doors, knowing thousands of eyes were on her..
THUD.
"...She's here! KALLEN!"
Kallen blinked up at the sky, her books sprawled around her face and her head ringing. She remembered hitting a very solid chest and falling on her back. She was curious why the voice sounded familar, but her head was really really hurting.
"...W-whoa, sorry Kallen. I got so excited I just kind of rushed you."
She was lifted into the air, two strong arms wrapping around her petite body and holding her in the air. She looked into a pair of warm green eyes and a smile too friendly to forget.
"Su-Suzaku.." She whispered, her eyes pricking with tears. The brunette beamed at her, laughing a thick, throaty chuckle she had missed for so long.
"..Well, I'm glad you remembered me." Kallen laughed weakly, unaware that people were watching them. The strange red-head and the only Japanese student locked in a tight embrace and laughing in a strange language they had never heard.
"..Hard to forget the moron who insisted that I could take on a full-grown army." He squeezed her tighter, setting her one her toes on the ground and stepping back to look at her.
"...You look shorter, Kallen, " Suzaku taunted, earning a friendly punch from the red-head. She grinned feistily. "And you look as awkward as ever. Are you still straight Suzaku, or did they brainwash you?"
He rolled his eyes."Last time I checked I was straight. I don't know Kallen, I'm more worried about you. You've always been more masculine than feminine.."
"Shut up, now, "Kallen snarled, stepping on his foot. Suzaku just laughed, picking up her things and grinning at her brightly. "You haven't changed, Kallen, " He said softly, ruffling her messy red-locks.
She smiled at him crookedly. "Well, we'll see how I am once these pansies get done with me." He chuckled in response, before hooking his arm in hers and leading her to the door.
..
..
"Suzaku.."
"Yeah, Kallen?"
"..They really do have frills."
x
The place was spacious and huge and it pretty much scared the hell out of her. The eyes in every direction, pointing at her clothes and her association to their popular Japanese classmate who so warmly had her locked in his arm. Kallen's eyes stayed firmly ahead, her blue eyes set with a determination that she was known for.
"..Kallen, I'll have you sit with me in most of my classes, alright? I hope you don't mind." Suzaku said out of the corner of his mouth, looking at her with worried green eyes. It had taken him a while to get used to this, Kallen thought. Japanese people were somewhat frowned upon in a Empire such as Britannia.
She knew it had been hard on him.
She patted his hand. "Ah, chill, Suzaku. I'm sure I'll be fine."
"I guess.." Suzaku said under his breath. She stepped on his foot in reply.
"Hey, faith in your friend would be really great, jerk."
"..I'm just kidding.."
With one last smile, the brunette stopped in front of a room. Room 201.
"It's pretty much homeroom. But it teaches English. Great way to start your amazing time in Britannia!" Suzaku's voice was exaggerated enthusiasm, pumping a fist and winking at her. Kallen could only groan in anxiety.
"..Here we go, " He whispered to her. "Are you ready?"
She smiled weakly in response.
"As ready as I'll ever be."
And with that, Suzaku opened the door.
Okay, well, I did this mostly since Lady Flick pretty much forced me. (JK.)
The pairing will probably be Lelouch x Kallen. Don't worry, C.C. will make an appearance.
I hope you like how I'll write her. :)
Yes, this is all in a peaceful society, so no war, no Black Knights, no Area-Eleven.
You probably noticed Kallen's brother is alive, and that's how he'll stay.
As for the background of Suzaku and Kallen, you'll just have to see.
I'll continue this if one, I get enough comments that tell me so, and two,
if I get suggestions on where the hell do go next. XD
Japanese Vocabulary.
Nii-san-Brother
Hai- Usually means 'okay' or yes.
Okaa-san- Mother.
Otou-san-Father
Itadakimasu-Let's eat!
San- Term of respect usually, "MR", "MS"
Kun- A term of a colleague or a friend.
Sayonara-Goodbye.
Gomen-Informal way of saying sorry.
Urusai-Shut up.
Ne-Right?
Maa, maa-Calm down.
Preview:
"So like, you're Asian?"
Suzaku muttered 'excuse me'
and ran down the hallway laughing hysterically.
x
"Lelou-OOSH? Oooch..."
"...I get this every time.."
...reviews really help me keep the story going.
Should I continue? Let me know...:D