Disclaimer: Code Geass would be mine only in my wildest dreams

Alright, I know many of you have been waiting for this update, so I apologize. I have been having a hard time finding inspiration, and I have not seen as many LuluC upsates as before.

Sincerely,

Christoph Zar,

A side of the mind of TtT

Anyway:

Chapter Five:

The Imperial Party:

Two, The Party Proper

The initial crowd's, or rather, the student's reaction, were short lived. And despite the fact that I found their outburst quite humorous, I couldn't help but tear my attention from their grasp as the valet spoke again:

"That is all."

He turned to leave the, excruciatingly large, but glamorous, ballroom when he was interrupted by an, oh so rude, voice that came from the crowd.

"What about Lelouch!" Rivalz called out. "He is the host of this party right? Shouldn't he-" his statement was brought to an abrupt stop by Shirley who, surprisingly, managed to come up with the audacity to wrap her hands around Rivalz's mouth, pull him down, and whisper to his ear:

"Rivalz!" Shirley's voice, I admittedly say, sounded like that of a little girl. You know: the, usual: Pouting face and the 'Puppy-dog Eyes.' "You do know that some of Lelouch's siblings are here, right? What do you intend to do if you embarrass Lelouch in front of the royal court, or worse: embarrass Ashford, Milly's name?"

Rivalz stopped struggling with the girl when he heard the word 'Milly.' Who would have thought that the Ms. Fenette had such leverage over the American?

Quire humorous, indeed, I say.

"As I was saying:" The valet said, apparently recovering from the rude outburst made by the Student council representative. "That is all for the majority's introductions. Our host will be joining us later in the evening." He approached a servant who entered from an adjoining door that led to the main hallway, and took a letter from him. The valet moved to return to the podium, but was approached by Gilbert Guilford, one of Cornelia's personal knights, known as the 'Vanguard Lancer' by his peers in the military. Guilford handed him a second letter, and made his way out. Looking at the, newly given, letter, the valet, once again, became the center of attention.

"I have here two letters: One given by a guest who could not be with us tonight, and one from our benevolent host." The valet announced.

I could feel the curiosity emanating from the crowd bellow, like a foul smell that rose from something unpleasant.

…

That was a bad analogy, wasn't it?

Anyway:

"The first letter is from princess Euphemia li Britannia, who could not be with us tonight." He said as he began reading the letter:

" 'Dearest Brother, I would like to apologize for my inability to come to the party you have organized, especially since it is so rare for the 'Black Prince' to organize such social gatherings himself.

" 'there have been certain complications back here in Pendragon, and Father and Empress Marianne have requested for my input on a current matter at hand. Do not worry about me, as, if the matter was too much of a responsibility, You or Brother Schneizel would have already been called home, and besides, Neither she, nor Father, wanted to bother you, especially after you went through the trouble of planning everything.' " the valet read out,

~TtT~

As the valet continues to read, let us turn our attention to one of the couples present:

"Wow," Milly commented. "I didn't know that Lelouch was sometimes called to supply political input for Emperor Charles."

Clovis turned to his date. "There mare many things about Little Lulu that are not open to the public. The boy just has far too many secrets." He was going to continue talking, but he heard Milly giggle to herself; thus, distracting the said prince. "What?"

Milly took several seconds to compose herself. After finally getting over her light giggling fit, which wasn't really that boisterous, she spoke: "You said 'Little Lulu', Clovis."

"Is that all, Milly?" Clovis smiled. "It was Lelouch's old nickname, remember?"

"Of course I remember," Milly answered, almost immediately. "It used to mach him so well; I mean he was such a happy person-go-lucky person when I still lived in Pendragon."

Clovis nodded. "Although, I don't think the name 'Little Lulu' suites him anymore, his personality has changed far too drastically for that."

"Indeed." Milly nodded, her perky personality all but gone. She was just so regal, to such a point, where she did not seem like Milly Ashford, the slave-driving president, at all. "He isn't our Little Lulu anymore," she turned to Clovis, her eyes shining with nostalgia. "He's already become 'Lelouch vi Britannia, the Black Prince.'"

Clovis just stared. He stared until he found the strength to break the girl from her nostalgia, but, even then, all he could say was:

"Milly…"

~TtT~

Returning to the valet who continued to read the letter:

" 'I do so regret not being able to come, but I certainly hope that the party goes smoothly. Her highness told me that you were throwing the party in honor of Catherine, who was scheduled to arrive this week. Really, I do wish that you would throw a party for me once, but, then again, Catherine always was you favorite.' "

I could clearly see, in my perch from above, Cornelia li Britannia performing the regal version of a face palm; which, actually, didn't appear too much like one, either.

" 'Again, I would like to apologize for my absence, and hope to make it up to you at the nearest opportunity.

" 'Your dear sister,

" 'Euphemia li Britannia.

" 'Post-Script: Big sister Cornelia said she would be there, and Father, along with Lady Marianne, sends you his regards as well' "

~TtT~

"Whew," Cornelia let out a held breath.

"What's wrong Cornelia?" Schneizel asked, obviously concerned for his companion's well-being.

"I thought for a second there Euphemia had written down 'Big-sis Corny'." She told her elder brother while remaining latched to his arm. "She really has that tendency to let her 'careless' personality of hers get the better of her."

From my place, I looked down at the letter. I could clearly make out the words: 'Bid-sis Corny' written on the post-script.

~TtT~

"Ah, Gino," Kallen tugged her date's arm, in a most forcefully manner. In fact, she almost pulled the giant of a man down to the floor with the amount of force she applied in her pull. "Do you know this Catherine person?"

"Hmm," Gino scratched the back of his head in thought. "Honestly, I really can't recall anyone in the royal family with the name 'Catherine.' Ok, I maybe know a few, but none of them interact with his majesty enough to gain his favor. You already know that-"

"Did you just call Lelouch 'his majesty'?" Kallen, said, slightly surprised. Gino was always carefree, and tended to joke around a lot, regardless of who was there. "You never call Lelouch anything but 'Lelouch'."

Gino looked at her, and just gave her a sly smirk before saying: "I may be carefree everywhere else, Kallen, but, here and now, I am a Knight of the Round, and I have to keep appearances, you know."

Kallen, unlike earlier, when she nearly pulled the man to the floor, decided to pull him all the way down to her level, bringing his face dangerously close to hers. The action was so swift and unexpected that it caused the Knight of Three to blush profusely.

"Who are you and, what have you done to Gino Weinberg?" She told him playfully, with a likewise playful smirk dancing across her lips."

"Oh? may I ask you the same question Miss Stadtfeld?" Gino's expression changed to one similar to that of his date. "Who are you, and what have you done to my date?"

"Oh?" Kallen said, maintaining her playful tone as she spoke. "She just needed to keep her appearance as well, since she is the scion of a Britannian family of high nobility, is all."

Gino decided to take the teasing to a new level, and started to tickle Kallen, and Kallen, not one to let herself loose, in anything, tickled the knight in return.

It seems they forgot to keep themselves in check, so much for hypocrisy. Ah, well.

Kallen giggled slightly as they continued their antics. They continued to play around, disregarding the image their status was supposed to maintain until they heard the valet speak again:

~TtT~

"The second letter is from our host, Prince Lelouch vi Britannia." The valet said, his voice echoing through the large room.

At least he had the sense to use a microphone in all this.

" 'A good evening to you, friends, guests, siblings.' " The letter began.

" 'I thank you all for coming tonight, but I regretfully say that I will not be able to be among you at the start of this gathering.

" 'But due to certain circumstances, ones that needed my personal attention, I had to take majority of the day to tend to such things, and, thus, I had been too busy to prepare myself for this party.

" 'But, regardless of everything else, I promise to all of you, my guests, that I will be present before the clock strikes the hour of ten.

" 'I bid thee a good evening,

" 'Lelouch vi Britannia, The Black Prince.' "

~TtT~

I looked around the hall, trying to gauge the crowd's reaction to the news. But as I was looking to the balconies in the second floor, I could see someone leave his place, and exit through the door when the letter was concluded…

… Odd

~TtT~

"President!" Shirley Fenette called. She need not worry about being rude, especially since her call was more of a, only slightly, louder version of her normal speaking volume, and since majority of the people around them were talking amongst themselves, nobody noticed her call anyway.

Well, at least other than me, that is.

"Shirley!" Milly returned, practically pouncing on her council secretary. "How are you?!" She hugged her friend to her chest, smothering the latter.

"She's fine, president." Milly looked in the direction Shirley came from, and found Rivalz following the latter. "But could you please let go. She's not able to breath!" Rivalz said, with his usual flare.

Milly looked down and found Shirley flailing her arms, trying to get out of the face lock against the noble's chest chest.

What a strange way to take a life. I didn't know breasts could do that.

Did I just write that?

"AH! Sorry Shirley." Milly said, quickly letting go of her friend's face.

Shirley took some time to catch her breath, Rivalz lightly patting her on the back. "President," she pouted. "Why did you do that!? I could have fainted from lack of air!" the speaker's face was slightly flushed due to the lack of oxygen.

Or maybe, it was something else?

"Never mind that," Milly waved off. "Let's look for Lelouch." It appeared that the perky personality has made its grand return. "Aren't you interested in finding his room?"

Shirley turned cherry red. "I… well…" Rivalz wrapped an arm around her shoulder to show some support.

"Yeah!" he said while raising his free hand in the air as a fist. Shirley looked to her date, and grew a confident smile.

She raised her hand in a similar manner and cheered: "Yeah!"

"And besides," A voice interjected. The three students looked around them and around Gino and Kallen, side by side, walking toward them, "I wouldn't mind finding out who this Catherine person that the letter mentioned is." Kallen finished when the said pair was among the group.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"But where do we start?" Shirley pointed out after several minutes of thinking in the noisy crowd.

Milly tapped her chin, her mind contemplating deep thoughts.

"Milly," Clovis interjected, popping his head into the scene. "Did it ever occur to you to just ask Nunnally? She does live here as well, you know."

The student council leaders kept silent, letting the words sink into their system before…

"Thank you Clovis!" Milly screamed, latching onto the prince's neck, and placing kisses all over his face.

Talk about over-reacting.

"Calm down, Milly." Clovis chided, he never was the type of person to get mad easily. "I merely stated the obvious, now why don't you look for Nunnally and sir Kururugi; they should be here somewhere…" Clovis took the opportunity to look around the ballroom, as did the others. After several minutes of craning their necks, they managed to find the elusive couple; although, I don't think they were really trying evading anyone at all.

"There they are!" Rivalz exclaimed. "They're hanging out with Anya and Sir Jeremiah!" The group made their way to the two couples as Gino approached Clovis, and made to bow.

"Gino," Clovis said politely. "There is no need to bow to me. You are with your date, no?" he put a hand on Gino's shoulder. "Enjoy the night with her, you deserve it." Gino nodded, and followed the rest of the student council, who were now halfway to the destination.

~TtT~

"Milly-san," Nunnally vi Britannia called when she saw the members of the student council approach her. She had just concluded her conversation with Jeremiah and Anya regarding their wedding plans. After which, the couple left as they received a call from some inconspicuous individual.

It appeared to me, that they were not yet ready to confront the students regarding their engagement.

"How are you enjoying the party so far?" Nunnally finished as she let go of Suzaku's arm, and enclosed her hands around Milly's.

"It's all right Nunnally." Milly replied as the other members joined in. "Although, I would like to know where Anya escaped to." Milly looked around, trying to spot traces of the couple in the crowd, no doubt.

Nunnally just giggled dumbly. "It seems that they don't want to do any explaining as of the moment." She looked to the others who were, either, listening attentively, eyeing a certain person, or looking around the room. "But I am curious: Why are you all congregating here, and not enjoying yourselves?" Nunnally, apparently, did her best to make it sound as polite as possible, since such a question would, undeniably, come out rude.

No, I will not comment, saying the words: 'How Rude.'

"About that…" Shirley said, seemingly blushing at the thought of seeing Lelouch's room.

"We wanted to know if you could tell us where Lelouch's room is. We would like to eavesdrop- I mean: see how it looks." Rivalz interjected when he felt that Shirley would be incapable of finishing the statement.

Now that was rude.

~TtT~

Half an hour following the rude statement, we find the governing members of Ashford Academy's Student Council moving around the third floor, and peeking through certain doors.

Nunnally, apparently, was in the mood for some slight mischief. One would never really expect her to be capable of such, especially since she had such a gentle disposition.

But despite this, all she told her friends when they inquired on the location of his room was the statement:

"I'm not going to tell you, you will have to find it yourselves." The members groaned as they remembered what she said next:

"I will, however, give you all a little clue: Brother's room is on the third and fourth floors."

Yes, that's right; she said third and fourth floors.

As they went on their way, Nunnally called to them one last time:

"Oh, and if I find out that you asked anyone where Oni-sama's room is, I will have you kicked out of the house, and banned from entry to any Imperial residence for a year." Nunnally vi Britannia performed a dazzling smile afterwards, causing some of the nobles to melt into puddles of mush at the sight.

Returning to our friends in the student council:

Milly, Shirley, Rivalz, Kallen, Gino, they seemed to have been the only ones interested as the others declined, making use of the following alibis:

"I would rather not get into any trouble with Lelouch right now. My dad will kill me, literally." Suzaku claimed.

"I'm scared; I don't know much about this place." Nina told them timidly. I could have sworn to have heard Lloyd laugh his head off when the group was out of earshot.

Anyway:

"How does Nunnally expect us to find her brother's room when this place is so friggin' huge!?" Rivalz exclaimed, blatantly disregarding his manners as they walked through another empty hallway. The mansion just had far more bedrooms then it would ever use.

I would have to agree with Rivalz on his statement. The building itself was, at least, eight to nine times the size of the Ashford Academy Student Council clubhouse. It could rival the Imperial Palace in Pendragon in terms of size.

Simply put: The place was big.

"Now, now Rivalz," Milly told, keeping up her happy personality despite the frustration. "Don't be like that. We could always utilize other means." She ended as they entered a, relatively dark, room.

It wasn't clear, but Milly could be seen fiddling with something in the dark.

The Evil woman was plotting something, I just know it.

"But how, president? Nunnally said we couldn't ask anyone for directions." Shirley pointed out.

Milly turned around, a microphone in her hand.

Rivalz said: "huh?"

Shirley tilted her head to the side.

Kallen raised her eyebrows.

Gino paled,

He paled to death.

"Nunnally told us not to ask for directions," Milly caressed the microphone in her hands. "She never said anything about abusing of power as president of the student council." Milly said in a cute voice, loosing her most angelic smile of the evening.

Ohohohoho, looks like the night is only going to gett more interesting.

Ah, finally, it's done.

OK so I would like to ask for your opinion:

How's my writing style in this chapter?

How's the plot?

What do you think Milly is going to do?

Anyway, I hope you liked it

Sincerely,

Toph the Trickster,

The Author