A/N: Sorry for the long absence, dearies! After the holidays, the exams boomed and now here comes our town fiesta.... so, busybusybusybusy!
Anyways, this has been cooking up in my head for so long, so I decided to finally entertain the notion.
Set in the one-year gap between R1 and R2.
His Own Kind of Normal
His life was normal.
He had a little brother - they both live in the Ashford Academy Clubhouse. They are members of the Student council. He is a top student, although he disliked gym and loved gambling. He knew himself - his personality, his preferences.
His life was...- IS normal.
Yet sometimes, he felt detached.
He enters his room - and there it goes again.
That yellow... thing. It was... staring.
For a creature with anime-style grinning closed eyes, Cheese-kun managed to stare at him.
He had a little brother - they both live in the Ashford Academy Clubhouse. They are Student Council members. He's a top student, though he skips gym and goes gambling instead. He knew himself - his personality, his preferences.
And he knew that he never really collected Pizza Hut coupons as to gain a Cheese-kun Mascot Plushie.
So here it goes again - the yellow plush was staring at him as he entered his room. It was annoying - how he had something in his possession that he didn't even know about. How he had a Cheese-kun plushie resting in his bed.
What in the world is it doing there, anyway?
Who the hell would give him a Cheese-kun plushie? Why is it in his bed of all places?
How did it get there in the first place?
But most importantly - Why couldn't he bring himself to give it away or to throw it?
Yes, you read right.
Lelouch Lamperouge couldn't throw the plushie away.
He had tried. God knows he tried. Heck, he had already stuck the yellow blob in Rollo's room.
And that night - THAT NIGHT - what the fuck.
That first night when his room was finally free of the yellow creature - swear to god - he couldn't sleep.
The morning after... when he noticed that Cheese-kun wasn't resting by his head - damn - he instantly looked for the plush - only to remember that he drove the toy away from his room.
Five minutes after waking up, Cheese-kun was back in his throne. Lelouch's bed.
And then there was a time when he went home to find Cheese-kun nowhere.
Damned hell - he went paranoid. Then he discovered that the maid had sent it off for laundry.
He felt detached sometimes.
Cheese-kun was a stranger. Yet he was Lelouch's roommate for the time being. Even if Lelouch honestly couldn't understand how Cheese-kun managed to conquer his bedroom.
Sometimes, out of boredom, he starts talking.
---
---
---
"Hey, you. Stop staring at me like that."
"..."
"Do I look like a freak to you?"
"..."
"I'm spacing off because I'm bored. End of story."
"..."
"So stop staring, you fat-head."
"..."
"How do you have a head, anyway? You... don't even have a neck."
"..."
"So...- dammit, stop staring."
He continues his homework.
"..."
"Sometimes I wish you could talk. You know, for a change."
"..."
There was a defeaning silence in the room.
"I guess you're hopeless, then."
His hand stops writing.
He stares back at his companion.
"..."
"..."
"Work is force multiplied by distance, right?"
"..."
"Hm."
---
---
---
He just talked randomly at those times. He almost chuckled as he realized he's talking to a stuffed toy, but he shoved it off.
After three months of Cheese-kun's stay, Lelouch accepted his fate.
The toy was probably cursed or something.
Cursed to annoy its owner when it's present, and to make said owner feel guilty whenever said owner tried to get rid of the toy's cursed existence.
Lelouch tried it himself once. He decided that the closed-eye staring annoyed him, so he'll just throw the damn thing away. He'll do it himself, and he did try to do it. The toy was already dangerously dangling from his fingers and into the trash bin.
'Come on, Lelouch - let go. Let go. Drop it.'
...
'Droooooop the damn thing...'
...
'Alright, one finger, two fingers, threeeee-'
...
'Just drop it.'
...
'Drop it, dammit. Lelouch!'
...
He sighed.
"Odd. I can't."
---
---
---
So he made Cheese-kun his best buddy instead.
Maybe the toy will stop annoying him if he subjected to its whims.
So the yellow blob stayed in his bed.
He didn't glare at it anymore.
He didn't scrutinize it anymore.
He just accepted the fact that Cheese-kun will forever be staring...
Although its eyes were noticeably closed.
'I swear it was stari-.. Nevermind.'
And viva - they had a harmonious relationship.
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"At least my roommate's a yellow, inanimate creature - not some annoying person. A woman, for example. Shameless ones, or especially moody ones - or demanding ones."
He paused midway calculating his Physics problem.
"Where did that come from, hm?"
He honestly didn't know.
"Hey, you..."
"..."
"Why do I keep thinking of weirdness whenever I see you?"
"..."
"Well, one time I was thinking of green hair."
"..."
"But who on earth will have green hair, right?"
"..."
---
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---
Somehow, Cheese-kun became his... substitute listener - other than the computer monitor, his notebook, and the wall. Perhaps, the yellow thing became a part of his room, an occupant on his bed and a... makeshift confidante?
When he tells Cheese-kun his musings, he is completely at peace. It's safe. After all, the creature couldn't talk and couldn't spread what Lelouch tells him.
Also, he had long given up on challenging the toy after he lost five times in a row in their staring contest.
"Sometimes I wish you'd flinch."
"..."
He chuckled.
"Who do I think I'm talking to? Heh."
"..."
And he kept up his life like that.
He didn't even notice that it's been a strange year... That it's been almost one year since his yellow roommate occupied his bed.
The detachment stayed, but he'd grown accustomed to one factor of that detachment. The factor that was his yellow roommate.
---
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---
And then...
An accident.
Explosions.
Attacks.
A Knightmare Frame.
A woman.
Green hair.
Golden eyes.
'...Uh, GREEN HAIR? Seriously.'
She spoke.
"I know you. I know the true you."
She reached out her hand.
She got shot.
She fell in his arms.
Blood.
'Damn.'
And then...
She kissed him.
His eyes widened.
Flashbacks...?
---
---
'Ah. Okay. So that's it.'
---
---
Their lips parted.
"C.C...?"
She looked up. "Hm?"
"Good job."
---
---
---
His life had returned to normal.
He is Lelouch vi Brittania, under the guise of Lelouch Lamperouge - who masquerades as the famous Zero, leader of the Order of the Black Knights. His partner is a green-haired witch aliased C.C., and now they'll start the rebellion anew.
From normal, to his own kind of normal.
And he goes home, enters his room-
---
---
---
Now it's not just Cheese-kun staring.
"Did you miss me?"
He gave her a knowing smirk.
"Your little yellow friend there kept me company."
Yellow eyes twinkle in amusement.
Female arms tighten around said yellow friend.
"You've grown close?"
"Well, you could say that."
"So did you miss me?"
She got her response when a cellphone and a credit card was thrown her way.
"You surely did, huh. And you still love me too much - how sweet."
---
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---
He starts off his work, opens the computer, and glances at the beautiful woman lying on his bed, hugging her Cheese-kun plushie, and dialling Pizza Hut.
Now this...
"Hello, Pizza Hut? I'd like to order three boxes of pizza, please-"
"C.C., could you order just one box, just for tonight?! We're going to get discovered!"
But she IGNORED HIM. She kept talking to the pizza hut person.
"Ignore the noise in the background, my girlfriend is suffering from her monthly period mood swings - huh? Yes, I am a girl, so what?"
"C.C.!" In hell - heck, she was talking strange things with the pizza hut clerk.
"Yeah, believe me. GIRLFRIEND. No spaces. Uh...?"
"C.C., ONE BOX! ONLY! Hear me?"
He caught the incoming missile hurling its way towards him.
"Of course I love my girlfriend. We're so in looooove. Really."
He threw the yellow missile back at her.
"...And stop with that nonesense, C.C.!"
She threw the stuffed toy back, this time hitting his face.
"Good to hear that. Eh.. so you're gay? You're a seme? Interesting."
Lelouch slapped his forehead.
"Stop that improper phone-chat using my phone."
"Hm? Yes, Pepperoni, with extra cheese."
Lelouch sighed as he rested the oversized plush in his lap.
This...
This is what he could call normal.
---
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---
He looked down at Cheese-kun, who was staring up at him.
"Are you sure you missed her?"
"..."
He blinked.
"Oh, for goodness' sake. I think you're in love with her."
"..."
"Stop looking at me like that."
---
---
---
"Wow, Lelouch - you and Cheese-kun have an... understanding. I think the feeling is mutual."
"Shut up, witch."
Because this life is his flavor of normal. And somehow, he wouldn't have it any other way.
.FiN.
A/N: I know this is just plain crazy Lelouch, but... that's how we love him, right?