Days passed since the hostage incident at Lake Kawaguchi and things were relatively normal at Ashford Academy.
Okay, that's a lie.
After returning to the academy after the disastrous weekend, Milly, Nina, Shirley and Victoria were practically hounded with students asking them what happened and things of the like. The press were constantly outside of the school in case any of the girls involved made the unfortunate venture outside of the campus. The four were quickly becoming sick of the treatment.
Victoria isn't ashamed to say that she threw her own brother into the fray so she could get out and get to class.
Now a week later and the Student Council was having a welcome party for the stray cat they took in, now dubbed Arthur.
"Why'd it take us so long to have this party again?" Victoria asked as she played with the dark grey cat, tossing about the mouse attached to the string she held and watching as he chased after it. For the party, they were all dressed as cats, either in onesies or more tight fitting clothes (you can thank Milly for that); either way, everyone had cat ears, whiskers, and a tail. Victoria herself was dressed in a Siamese cat onesie that clenched around her elbows and knees with cat paws over her hands and feet, along with a black bell collar around her hood.
"You know why," Shirley whined, dressed as a pink cat in a two piece outfit with fur around the neck and bottom of her crop top. "We couldn't do this sooner because no one would ever leave us alone! It's been driving me crazy!" Off in the corner at the computer as usual was Nina and, though not dressed to the nines like the others, sported a tiger hood on her head and little tiger paws.
"Tell me about it," Milly added, dressed in a one piece black long-sleeve with pink fur linings and black paws similar to Victoria's. "It's only now we can breathe without someone jumping us to know what happened." The three girls were waiting on Suzaku and Rivalz to come back with Victoria's brother, all of them knowing that he wouldn't go along willingly to something like this. He wasn't one for silly things.
"At least you guys had each other," the ebonette complained as she yanked the mouse from Arthur once more. "You guys are all older than me so I'm handling this stuff on my own!"
The sandy blonde looked teasingly to the fifteen year old, "You seem to have handled it fine when you left Lelouch to fend for himself."
Victoria turned her head away, "Big brothers are supposed to protect their younger siblings, he just did what his job requires."
"Uh-huh~"
Shirley made to comment until they heard yelling outside the door, "Oh, that's them!" the ginger said, running to the door so the boys could come in easier.
"What the hell is this?!" Lelouch yelled as Rivalz and Suzaku dragged him over to the chair the girls had ready. Both were dressed in onesies like Victoria but differed quite greatly. Suzaku was dressed in a very loose fully body onesie with a black spot of make-up covering his right eye, matching Arthur's own spot, while Rivalz was in a more tight fitting onesie of yellow and brown with a snout on his face.
Violet eyes looked at the girls in the room, noticing they were in attire similar to the boys restraining him. "Why are you guys dressed like that?" Using their friend's momentary confusion, Suzaku and Rivalz sat him in the chair while Milly and Shirley got to work tying him down. Lelouch saw what they were intending and restarted his struggling, though to no avail they were able to tie him down.
Victoria bounded over with Arthur cradled in her arms, purring away, "We're having a welcome party for Arthur!" she exclaimed, shoving the feline in her brother's face.
Yellow orbs stared into violet until, "Meow~" the spotted cat voiced before being cuddled against Victoria again.
"Lucky cat," Rivalz muttered lowly as Milly laughed.
Now back to their original mission of getting Lelouch in costume like everyone else. Shirley applied make-up while Rivalz held the restrained male's head still. Suzaku had the task of putting a cat headband on Lelouch's head while Milly basically supervised.
All the while Victoria was off to the side playing with Arthur once more.
"C'mon, Suzaku, hold him down!" Milly ordered the obedient Japanese teen.
"Dammit, Suzaku!" Lelouch cursed, resisting as strongly as ever. "Cut it out!" He glared up at his childhood friend in annoyance, "Stop it, I'm not kidding!"
"Sorry, Lelouch, but it's the President's orders!"
"Yeah, like you're not enjoying this at all?!"
"Just accept your fate, bro," Victoria commented, bobbing the mouse toy in front of the feline's face as he pawed at it.
Lelouch growled at his sister in response, "Will you hold still?!" Shirley asked in frustration.
Hearing the door to the club room slide open, Victoria and Milly turned and saw Kallen enter. "Good meow-ning~" Milly greeted, raising her pawed hand.
Lifting Arthur and holding his paw to mimic the motion, "Good meow-ning," Victoria echoed as the cat in her hands let out his own meow.
"Good... Morning, I guess," Kallen greeted, confusion in her pretty blue eyes. Those at the chair turned their attention to the redhead. "Huh, what is all this?"
Rivalz tilted his hood clad head, "What do you mean? Didn't we tell you?"
Setting the cat back on the floor and letting him lay against her leg with a yawn, Victoria explained, "This is a party we're throwing to welcome Arthur!"
"Sounds like fun..."
Milly gave a low giggle, "Well classes are postponed, so we might as well have some fun, right?"
"I set some stuff aside for you!" Shirley informed Kallen, pausing in her make-up application to point to a corner where more costumes sit. "Over here, to make up for all my getting upset before. Take your pick!"
"I suggest the white fut lined piece," Victoria commented from the side, "I think white would look nice on you!"
"What?" Kallen spoke, looking to the others. "For me?"
"She doesn't need a costume," Lelouch smirked, lifting his head to look at the sickly girl.
"Wha?"
"You're already wearing a mask, right?"
Kallen gave him a look, "You really are a riot, you know that? You ought'ta be on television."
"Don't be an ass, Lulu," Victoria scolded as she threw one of Arthur's toy balls at her brother's head.
"Hey!"
"What do you think, Miss TV star?" Rivalz asked, acting as if he were holding a microphone to Shirley in regards to Kallen's TV comment.
"Oh, I thought she meant Lelouch," Suzaku commented, not getting the joke.
The ginger sighed as she stopped applying make-up altogether, "Would you stop joking about that? The whole thing's a huge pain in the butt!"
Victoria flopped onto her back with a groan, "Can we please stop talking about this?"
Suzaku looked to the younger girl in sympathy, "That bad, huh?" All the response he got was another groan.
"We've been hounded with questions day and night!" Shirley vented. "Even in the bath!"
"We haven't been able to leave school grounds in a week," the blonde in the room whined.
"Not that I don't feel for you," Rivalz started, "but I don't see why we can't leave either."
"That's the price of friendship!" Milly hummed. "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, 'It matters not that we were born apart. Upon this day, we die as one.'"
The bluenette raised a brow, "Is that your idea of a love quote?"
"If I go down, then we all do," Milly said cutely, raising her paw once more.
"Truly tragic," the Siamese of the group commented from her spot on the floor.
"That's a little dark," Rivalz voiced, furrowing his brows before turning to the only other standing male. "What do you think, Suzaku? Huh?"
"I'm glad," the teen spoke, eyes shining. The random comment caused Victoria to sit up and look at her old friend. Tears formed in Suzaku's emerald eyes, "That we can be together again..." he continued, bending his head down to wipe the moisture from his eyes. "Ya know, like this?"
Lelouch's confused expression softened into a smile as Victoria got up and threw an arm around Suzaku's shoulders while patting his head with the other hand, "There, there, Suza," the fifteen year old cooed.
Suddenly Rivalz slapped his hands down on Lelouch's shoulders and leaped over him in front of the pair, "C'mon," the grey-eyed teen said, grabbing the wrist of Suzaku's unoccupied side while throwing his arm around the brunette's shoulder much more aggressively than Victoria did, "we're supposed to be unwinding!" Rivalz locked his leg around one of Suzaku's and brought all three of the students down to the ground, Victoria letting out a startled shout along the way while the others laughed at the antics.
"That's what's so refreshing about Suzaku though!" Shirley commented as Rivalz kept wrestling with the Japanese teen.
"Yeah, but sometimes you just want him to get a clue, ya know," Milly added as Victoria locked an arm under the blue-haired teen's chin.
"Oh, sorry about that," Suzaku managed out despite Rivalz pushing the boys cheeks together, only mildly ignoring the fifteen year old who had him in a choke-hold.
It wasn't a dangerous one, so no worries, right?
"Oh you love it, wittle putty tat," Rivalz cooed. They all laughed and Victoria decided the teen had had enough and let him go as he whined to her about how rough she was.
A Few Days Later
With the school day ended and classes over with, Victoria bounded to the room the Student Council normally met in. She was meeting with Suzaku so they could head back to base; the ebonette hadn't been able to check in Lloyd or Cécile since the incident at the hotel what with all the press surround the school. Thankfully, they'd had enough and just decided to find a story elsewhere instead of stalking four high school females.
As she was arriving to the door to the clubroom, Suzaku stepped out telling someone he had to get back to base. Turning forward, he saw his other childhood friend heading towards him, "Hey, Suzaku, you ready to head out?" she inquired, jutting a thumb over her shoulder.
"Yeah," he replied with a soft smile, though still a bit tense from the conversation he had with Lelouch, "let's go."
As the two walked, Victoria notice the stiffness that the brunette walked with. She turned her gaze to look at him, "You all right? You seem a bit tense."
"Huh?" he voiced, coming out of his thoughts, before shrugging, "I'm okay, don't worry."
Victoria narrowed her eyes before letting the subject go. She didn't think it had anything to do with any bullying since he wasn't as nervous or fidgety wheb she found out that one time, so she didn't think it was a terribly big issue.
"Thank goodness you're all right!" Cécile cried in relief, hands clasped together, as she saw the ebonette walk into the base with the Knightmare pilot at her side. The female scientist gave a slight scolding look to the younger girl, "Why haven't you come sooner? I've been worried and would have been worse off if it weren't for Suzaku telling me you were okay."
Victoria held her hands up in defense to the mother hen, "I'm sorry, but the school and press kept hounding us at all hours of the day!" The pale teen pointed to the boy beside her, "Ask Suzaku, we couldn't leave campus for at least a week!"
"Oh dear," the three heard the familiar drawl of a certain scientist, "the poor little dove was kept in a cage for longer than she'd like it seems." Lloyd flashed an amused but soft smile, "Though it's nice to have my student back after so long."
Cécile sighed in exasperation of the media, "I guess it couldn't be helped then, I agree that it's nice to have you back."
"Especially since you've been slacking," the bespectacled scientist added cheerily.
"I have not been slacking!"
"I don't know, Vikki, it has been awhile since you've been here for training..."
"Who's side are you on, Suzaku?!"
Days later and Victoria was sitting in Nunnally's room, dressed and ready for the day, while Sayoko brought over her younger sister's outfit for her to change into. "Sayoko, we won't need any breakfast for my brother this morning," the blonde Lamperouge said as she sat up in bed.
"He's going out?" the Japanese woman inquired.
"He's got a three day trip planned," Victoria answered, sitting cross-legged on the mattress, "he heads out today."
"Oh, I see," Sayoko replied with a soft smile. "My, your brother's been going out quite a bit recently," the brown-eyed maid commented. "Think it's a girlfriend?"
Nunnally sighed as Sayoko left, "Maybe it is..."
Amethyst eyes looked to her younger sister before getting off the bed to kneel in front of Nunnally and held her hand, "Hey, Nuna, it's been awhile since you and me spent any time together; how about after you get dressed and we eat breakfast, you and me go sit outside and enjoy the day?"
The blind fourteen year old smiled brightly, "I'd be happy to!" Nunnally squeezed Victoria's hand, "You've been so busy with your work, I hardly ever get to see you."
The elder sister's expression melted into a remorseful smile, "And I'm sorry about that, I can't really excuse myself for that but I'll gladly make it up to you however you want."
The blonde giggled happily, "It's a deal!"
True to her word, Victoria, Nunnally and Sayoko all took a venture outside to a clear field where they could sit and relax.
Of course they didn't forget to bring a basket of origami paper so they could fold some cranes, Nunnally is deteremined to reach her thousand mark so she could make a wish. "So what number would this put you at, Nuna?" Victoria asked just as she finished folding a crane, gently placing it in the basket with the others they had made.
"I think we're almost at a hundred," the fourteen year old replied. "Right, Sayoko?"
"I do believe so," said woman added.
"So, Victoria," Nunnally spoke, grabbing her sister's attention, "if brother has a girlfriend, do you have a boyfriend?"
The ebonette chuckled whilst shaking her head, "No, nothing like that, sister dearest!" Now laughing outright, she continued, "I don't think any guy could handle my kinda attitude, to be honest."
"There's no need to think like that," Sayoko told the younger girl. "I believe any man would be happy to have someone as kind as yourself."
Victoria waved a hand to the Japanese woman as she lightly blushed, "Oh, stop it, Sayoko, you're embarrassing me!"
"Besides, I can think of two boys that really like you!" Nunnally said with a smile.
"Oh~" Victoria leaned towards her sister with a lifted brow, "Do tell, Nunnally, dear."
Said blonde giggled as she placed her finished crane in the basket, "I couldn't do that, it's not my place to tell!"
The older sibling sighed as she leaned back on her hands, "Man, when did you become such a tease?" They continued folding cranes in silence, happy to just enjoy the sun and slight breeze.
The peace was broken when Victoria's cell phone began to play the ringtone she set for calls. Pulling it out, she saw the name Cécile on the screen. Sighing heavily, Victoria knew that she was being called in for her work. Looking up at Nunnally and their maid as she answered the phone, Sayoko gave the teen a sympathetic smile, also knowing that Victoria couldn't stay.
"You need me to come to Narita?" the ebonette voiced, noticing the slight disappointment on Nunnally's visage. "Do you really need me?" Victoria asked, mildly desperate; she would hate to leave Nunnally after finally be able to make some time for her little sister she adored. She paused, listening as Cécile explained that they wanted her there in case the Lancelot needed any repairs, so she could finally attempt fixing the Knightmare itself. Frowning, Victoria took a breath before saying, "I'm sorry, Cécile, but I-"
However, a pale hand covering hers caused Victoria to pause.
Looking up, she saw Nunnally look to her with a reassuring smile, "It's okay, Victoria."
Amethyst eyes softened in confusion, she took the phone away from her ear so she could speak, "But today was the day you and I spend time together, I don't wanna ditch you for work like I always do, Nunnally..."
"I'll be okay," the youngest of the three reassured once more, "Your job helps keep people safe, and I'm really happy we were able to spend even this much time together!" Patting her older sister's hand, Nunnally finished with, "You just owe me more later!" a giggle following after.
Victoria smiled softly, "You got it." Bringing the phone back she answered, "Okay, Cécile, I can come. You'll come pick me up? Great, thank you and bye." Once the call was ended, Victoria stood and hugged Nunnally tightly, "I'm really sorry I'm being a bad big sister and ditching you, Nuna..."
"It's fine," Nunnally replied though hugged her sister regardless.
After pulling back from the hug, Victoria lifted up the basket of cranes and paper, "Let's head on back then." As they walked back, Victoria counted how many cranes they had, "We got a really good amount of cranes done today, so that's good, at least."
The wheelchair bound girl smiled happily, "I'm so glad to hear that."
Their day together may not have lasted long, but they enjoyed it none the less.
A/N: so this will prolly be my last update for a lil bit, sorry it's only two chapters that are actually new. I spent too much of my time editing chapters rather than actually writing orz
However, I'll try not to take as long with updates this time around. I won't make any guarantees ofc since I have other things that need my attention but I'll definitely try not to take two years to update again XD