Her beautiful, long, lime-green hair had been tied into a bun and stuffed into a sun hat that she wore to hide her faot only from the sun, but from others’ eyes.
She wore a white, long-sleeved, cy shirt with a browher corset that hugged her slim waist and cupped her sizable breasts perfectly, and a long checkered skirt. She had also worn a pair of beautiful, white heels and a golden neckce with a diamond-shaped emerald jewel that she normally wouldn’t wear. But today was an exception.
This would be the first time C.C would be wearing the gifts Alexander gave her a few days ago.
She hesitated wearing such beautiful afelt gifts from Alexander for the loime, undeserving as she was. But his words finally pushed her into making the decision to wear them.
I hope you like them, ahem from time to time.
The gifts she received… They were all things that Alexander had chosen carefully after thinking about her.
Gifts given to her purely out of his generosity, without any ulterior motives or being pelled by anything.
Gifts given to her in hopes for her happiness.
To have received such a thing… There was no way C.C could not wear them.
So, after a few days of deliberation, she decided to wear them and breathe in some fresh air.
And for the first time in a long time, she felt like the world had gotten brighter in her eyes.
She looked up into the sky, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath as she felt the breeze blow past her.
“What a clear day…”
She began walking around the academy, making sure to take a quiet path and being careful of walking into anyone else during her outing. She was lucky that the one who saw her was Alexander, but she knew such luck won’t e to her twice. So, she became extra cautious.
After a while, however, the fortable silend peace she hadn’t been able to experience for so long made her daydream about her past.
She had been running away for so long. Running away from flicts in this war-torn world. From people in fear of the betrayal and pain they would iably cause her. And from life that seemed to love her suffering.
But now… such things seemed so far away. Although she was still uo escape flict, she found herself feeling at peace at st.
The world, that seemed so bleak before, had now bee brighter.
And before she k, she found herself standing behind a tree in the courtyard, staring up towards a window from below.
She couldn’t see anyone oher side due to the light refleg off it, but she knew which css it was, as she had caught herself staring at the same window retly before realizing it.
Alexander’s css.
C.C dazedly stared at it as a warmth filled her chest. She then looked down and held up the diamon-shaped emerald jewel from her neckce to look at it. The beautiful jewel shimmering so brilliantly uhe light of the sun, and she looked back up at the window.
She couldn’t see his figure, but in her mind, she could imagine his handsome visage sitting in css, listening to the lesson seriously just like when he listeo her story.
And the thought alone was enough t a smile to her fabsp;
Unfortunately, the pead warmth she had long sought suddenly vanished as a pair of arms slithered around her from the babsp;
“Ah… My C.C…! I’ve finally found you!”
“!!!”
A chill went down her spine as the familiar void heavy breathing resounded right beside her ear.
She instinctively turned around and pushed the man away in fear as cold sweat began dripping down her babsp;
And in that moment, her eyes went wide in shock as a wave of memories rushed into her.
“M-Mao…?!”
Her breathings turned ragged as she looked at the tall, silver-haired, nky figure of Mao, a light blue short jacket with symmetrical gold and blue designs and a ese linen shirt with maroon sleeves.
He wore a bd purple headphones, from which C.C could hear her own voice from it when he was hugging her from behind, a pair of golden earrings, and purple suhat covered his eyes, which were both enpassed with geass.
There was a wide grin of pure happiness on his face. But it quickly turned into a frown the moment C.C pushed him away.
He tilted his head to the side, seemingly uo uand her as.
“C.C…? Why did you push me away…? It’s me… Mao. Your Mao…”
“S-Stay away!”
Mao froze mid step when he was about to approach her as his mind struggled to prehend what was happening.
Why did C.C pushed him away…? The C.C he knew was loving, gentle, and g. She would’ve never pushed him away.
And instead of shock, caution, and fear, she would be looking at him with eyes filled with love and affe.
So why…? Why did she ge…? She even told him to stay away…?
“Oh… I see… It’s because of them, isn’t it…? They ged you…!”
A look of realization appeared on his tenance. Mao looked up towards the window to the css where he knew Leloud Alexander were in. And his expression quickly turned from that of fusion and sadness, into a pure, deep seethed anger.
“What…?”
C.C followed the dire of his gaze, and her eyes immediately widened in shock upon realizing what he meant.
“Leloud… Alexahey’re the ones who ged you…!”
“No, Mao-”
“Don’t lie to me!!!”
Mao raised his voice. His shout freezing C. her pce.
“...I’ve been watg you from afar, my dear C.d I’ve seen it all with my own eyes… you’ve ged. You’ve ged after you meet them. Especially Alexander…!”
Mao let out a soft, pained ughter that began to turn into a chuckle that sent chills down her spine.
“How strahough… I couldn’t read their minds… Not only Lelouch… But that Alexander as well… But no matter… I’m sure I if I get close to them. I won’t let a iween you and me.”
“Mao! Stop that! What are you say-”
“Don’t worry, C.C… When I’m doh them, we’ll be together forever, just like before… We travel the world together… And spend the rest of our lives together…!”
C.id sentence when she saw a wide grin form on his tenance as he began to ugh. A grin so different from the i, pure smile she had seen from him in her memories.
“Please wait for me, my C.C… I promise you, it won’t be long…”
Mao stood before her for a moment, burning her beautiful figure into his mind, a, leaving C.C aloanding frozen in shod disbelief…
--------------------------------X--------------------------------
In the midst of theorizing and ing up with ways to improve upon the neon he and Tatsuya were designing for his Excalibur, Yuuji ulled out of his thoughts when he felt a killing i directed at him.
He gnced out towards the window ever so slightly as to not alert his cssmates and the teacher. But his eyes widened in shock the moment he saw C.C as well as Mao in the courtyard, fag off each other.
That bastard…! I didn’t expect them to meet right now!!!
Since C.C hadn’t been going out often, they didn’t have any of Satoru’s phantom to guard and shadow C.C. Although he could summon all 40 of his guild members, Satoru had only ever summoned “Ainz”, “Perorono”, and “Nishikienari” to guard their home, the Bight’s base, and the secret headquarters where the Amaterasu was located in, just in case people actally came across it.
Normally, they would have “Ainz”, who was currently guarding their mansion, follow C.C. But since Yuuji and Lelouch were both in the academy, they didn’t find it necessary, especially since Yuuji pnned on ing over to visit C.C. He even brought his ptop so he could trade while he was rexing there with her.
But unfortunately, they made a big mistake.
“Ms. Xavier! Please five me. I am feeling a bit uhe weather. I shall make my way to the nurse’s office!”
“Ah- Alexander, wai-!”
Yuuji didn’t wait for his teacher’s permission and dashed out of the css, quickly making his way towards the courtyard where he saw C.d Mao.
He would’ve loved to fly there, but even if he could be invisible, he might still hit students or people walking the hallway if he were to go so fast. In the end, he could only run as quickly as he could while still keeping his speed humanly possible.
And inside his css, silence fell as everyoared at the still opened door in shobsp;
This was the first time they’ve ever seen Alexander act so… panicked.
Although no one believed the excuse he gave, anything that could cause him such panic must’ve been areme emergenbsp;
“A-Ahem! Alright, let’s return to our lesson now, css!”
Rivalz, Shirley, and the rest of the css quickly snapped out of their shod daze and tried to focus ba their lessons. But Leloud Kare staring at the door in silenbsp;
Lelouch was worried, knowing that something substantial must’ve happeo cause Yuuji to a such a manner. While Karen also couldn’t help but felt worry brew in her heart.
What happeo him…?
Meanwhile, Yuuji quickly made his way towards the courtyard. But when he arrived there, he didn’t see Mao nor C.ywhere.
Dammit… I o find C.C!
He could care less about Maht now. His priority was to find C.C. Who knows what would be her state of mind right now after meeting Mao so suddenly.
He closed his eyes and used his <
He quickly found Mao, who was on his way out of the academy’s premises, and ignored him.
And a few moments ter, he found C.C withiudent Gover’s building, where Leloud his little sister stayed. She was on her to her room.
Yuuji quickly turned invisible and made his way towards C.C’s location. He sneaked into Lelouch’s home, head towards her room, and stood in front of it.
He undid his invisibility and knocked on the door.
“C.C… It’s me… you open the door…?”
Only silence was heard for minutes. But after the fifth, the door clicked opened and the light from within the room seeped through the thin opening into the dark, dimly lit hallway.
The seams grer and rger ever so slowly, and after a while, Yuuji could finally see a bit of C.bsp;
Her face ale, but a different kind of pale than her usual beautiful, snowy plexion. She looked… as if she had seen a ghost.
His heart ached when he saw her in such a state. Aried his best to pull the words out of his tightehroat.
“C.C… I saw you in the courtyard… With a silver-haired man.”
“...It’s nothing.”
Her entire body flinched as her eyes widened in shock. And after saying that with a clear trembling in her voice, she quickly tried to sm the door shut.
But Yuuji caught it and held it open.
“You are so bad at lying, C.C… It’s definitely something… You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.”
“...”
She averted her face away, away from his gentle eyes and warm assuranbsp;
“Please… C.C. Tell me what happened… I will do my best to help. Even if I ’t, I at least listen to you… So please.”
Her body shook, trembling as if she was basked in snow. And ever so slowly, she looked up at him. Her eyes, gzed over with tears, looked at him as if she was a child who had done something unfivable.
“C.C…”
She looked at him, his tenand face filled with nothing but worry and care for her.
She looked down once more, and this time, towards the beautiful, emerald jewel hanging down her neck. The gift she had received from him.
She nodded, and opehe door for him, letting him inside her room and her heart.
C.C sat down on her bed, hugging her favorite mascot plushie as Yuuji sat on a chair he had brought towards her. And she began telling him about her retionship with Mao.
“Mao… was six when I gave him geass…”
The geass to read people’s minds. It was aremely ve geass to use. As an orphan fending for himself in the rge, cruel world, the young Mao used his geass to avoid dangerous people before they could even reach him.
He mao survive a out of trouble tless times thanks to it.
But of course, children would be children, and not knowing the sequence of overusing his power, he used it to take a peek into someohoughts in moments of curiosity.
Eventually, his geass matured and became permaly active, causing stant influx of people’s thoughts around him to enter his mind, causing him to be uo stay in society and driving him insane.
He quickly became an outcast, with the only peace he would ever get be with C. a pce where no other huma.
As a result of his ck of human tact, he grew to bee aremely childish person, a faly to be amplified by his insanity. And with C.C being the only ohat could give him silend panion at the same time, he became attached to her. Extremely so.
Like a child, he would pursue her relentlessly, disregarding her feelings and refusing to accept her ck of love for him.
And when C.C abandoned him… his world broke.
“I left him… because he failed to fulfill his part of the… tract.”
“tract…?”
odded softly, her eyes looking down onto the ground as she held her plush tighter.
“My wish… He couldn’t grant my wish… So I left him. A boy who couldn’t fend for himself… and now insane because of the pave him. I abandoned him…”
Yuuji let out a soft breath and held his hands together.
“What do you wish to do with him…?”
He said with the softest, ge voice he could muster.
“...I don’t know. I… I don’t know.”
C.C shook her head.
“I made him like that… I was the one who gave him that geass… And I was the one who abandoned him… I made him like that…”
“No. You didn’t, C.C.”
Her eyes widehe moment Yuuji said those words with a firm voibsp;
“You may be the one who gave him geass… But what he did with it was his own choice. He was the one who used it. He was the one who let it e him…”
She looked up at him, and he could see now how much guilt, regret, and pain there were in her beautiful golden eyes.
“But… But I was still the one who-”
“Did Lelouch lose his mind?”
C.C became silenced by his words.
“You gave him geass as well. But he didn’t let it e him. He’s using the gift you gave him to ge the world for the better.”
She shook her head slowly.
“...But he just got it. The power will also e him sooner or ter.”
“Even then… It wouldn’t be your fault.”
“…”
“Yes… You did selfishly grant them the power of Geass in order to fulfill your wish. But the bme doesn’t lie entirely on you. You grahem their wish… What they did with it and the sequehey had to face… isn’t yours to bme.”
She looked down once more, biting her lips as she tightened her hug on her plushie.
“But he’ll hurt you… He’ll try and hurt you and Lelouch!”
“The him try.”
Her eyes widened. And when she looked up to him, she saw a gentle, assuring smile that washed away all her worries.
“I will face him head on if that’s what he wants. I will never let him harm you, Lelouch, or anybody else.”
“...”
She felt her heart tightened and began to thump louder and louder in her chest.
Why…? Why did she feel relieved…? Why did she felt as if a weight had been lifted from her chest?
Those words were said by a young man she had only met a few days ago. So why…? Why did she felt like she could believe his words…?
Silence fell betweewo, before C.C looked up towards Yuuji once again.
“...Take me with you. This is… he is my problem… I will take care of him…”
Yuuji nodded with a gentle smile.
“Alright. Leloud I will be there with you. So don’t worry. You do whatever you wish.”
She nodded and hugged her plush tighter, falling bato her brooding silence more.
Seeing her like this, Yuuji smiled helplessly and brought out his phone.
“How about we order some pizza?”
She nodded.
“Pepperoni and cheese, right?”
She nodded once again.
“Alright. Twe pepperoni and cheese it is.”
Yuuji made the order and had it delivered here. And while they’re waiting, he began trying his best to verse with the lime green-haired woman.
She was silent and barely respo first. But thankfully, his daily life story with “Ainz”, “Silver”, and Lelouch was able to pique her i.
Slowly, she began to ask questions and tributed a few words. And their versation tinued even after their pizza arrived.
They ate together, and after their first meal together, Yuuji stayed with her, hanging out in her room.
While she would y down on her bed, he would be on his ptop, earning tens of thousands of dolrs with each stock traded.
For the rest of the day, they would spend it in each other’s preseh C.C occasionally stealing g him, watg him silently.
And unbeknownst to her, a smile would grace her tenance whenever she would look at him from her bed.
VergsX