Kiara rolled her eyes. "Well if you must know..." she drawled. "His name's Hikaru. He was a perfect gentleman and somehow he slipped me his number before he left." She rolled her eyes in mock annoyance. She had to admit he certainly wasn't the worst looking guy there tonight and he hadn't tried to act like one of the pervs from earlier, the ones that had been staring at Shirley and the other girls in the swim club. That was definitely a point in his favour.

"So... what are you going to do now?" Raina frowned. "Are you going to go back to the Black Knight's base?"

Kiara let out a long breath. Truthfully she had no idea. "I'd like to stay..." she replied carefully. "But with Suzaku around...how long would it be before I was found out? There's only so many times I can dodge him before he sees me..."
She thought for a moment but nothing came to mind. She would have asked Lelouch to geass him but she knew that he'd already given Suzaku the comand to 'live' so taht was out. "How much longer do you think Lelouch plans to keep his cover? I mean you two can't stay at Ashford forever."

"Lelouch and I have to stay here until Nunally is safe," said Raina. She'd already had this discussion with Lelouch. "The Emperor has Nunally, and Lulu is worried he'll do something to ehr if Suzaku tells him that he's got his memories back. Could you not hide here like C.C. did last year? With Viletta on our side now, it's only Suzaku you have to avoid..."

Kiara thought for a moment before nodding her head slowly. Now that Lelouch pretty much had the run of the school except around Suzaku it might just be possible.
"I think I can manage it...." she said finally. "Plus if I'm hoding I don't have the wear the uniform." She still thought teh skirts were a little too short and not wearing oe while on campus was definitely a good thing in her opinion.

---------- Post added 07-22-2012 at 07:08 PM ----------

"And speaking of...we should probably go up to the roof and check on him. He gets broody if he's alone too long."

Raina laughed. "You've got that right!"
They passed Suzaku on their way up. It seemed that he was the one brooding now. He seemed to be zoned out, his mind working, his expression unreadable.
Raina clicked her fingers in front of his face to get his attention. "Hey, this party was for you, Zaku-chan! You could at least try to look happy!"
She pulled up the corners of his mouth to make him smile.

Kiara turned her face away quickly, trying not to be notice.d Raina was doing quite a good job of destracting him though. He made an atempt to make his face smile on his own but it fell rather flat. She frowned slightly. Had he come down from the roof? Had he been talking to Lelouch? That would't be good.
"I'm fine," he said, pushing Raina away gently. "I'm just...I thought I recognised someone but I didn't...taht's all." He was a terrible liar.

Normally Raina would have pressed him for details, but it was risky what with Kiara standing right next to her. He seemed eager enough to leave, so she'd let him - less chance of him recognising Kiara. Then they'd all be in trouble.
"Wonder what was up with him?" Raina wondered out loud once he was gone. "You don't think he realised that Lulu's memories are back?!"

"I don't think so," Kiara replied thoughtfully. "But I think now we definitely need to go check on Lelouch. Something doesn't feel right." She began to walk up to the roof, her pace quickening in an effort to both put distance between herself and Suzaku and to get to Lelouch to askwhat exactly happened. He was staring off into space when she reached the stairs having run ahead of Raina. He didn't seem to notice her. Rolo was standing nearby but she didn't bother to look at him, going straight to Lelouch.
"What's wrong?" she asked, her tone carefully neutral.

Lelouch didn't say anything. Raina stepped in front of him and put her face right up close to his. She knew that look.
"Is it about Nunally?"
When he heard his sister's name he looked up. "Yes..."
"What's wrong? You can tell us, Lulu!"
"She's... the new Governor."

"Well..." the language that proceeded to come from Kiara's mouth would have made a sailor blush. "It's definitely a ploy. You'll go after her if you've recovered your memories so you'll be exposed and if you don't..."
"Then Nunally remains in their power, a pawn to be used and then thrown away...again..." Lelouch clenched his fists tightly, eyes blazing. "I won't allow it."
Kiara glanced to Rolo who was listening in on their conversation. She couldn't read his expression, completely blank with no hint of emotion but she knew he had to be affected. Lelouch was talking about his real younger sibling and even though he was a fake he clearly felt...something...otherwise he wouldn't have saved Lelouch the other day.

Raina slipped an arm around Kiara's shoulders. "Let's leave him be." She looked pointedly at Rolo to show she was talking to him too. "The guy needs to brood, let's let him brood. We can talk later. Right now what I want is some sleep, and I need to get this wretched glitter out of my hair."
She kicked off her heels as she spoke, because they'd been hurting her feet for a while.

"Don't do anything too stupid," Kiara called ove her shoulder at Lelouch before going downstairs with Raina and Rolo following behind them. At least he took Raina's hint taht Lelouch wanted to be alone. She felt a bit sorry for the kid but he wasn't her problem. He was Lelouch's so Lelouch would have to deal with him.
"So where exactly will I stay?" she asked Raina, turning back to the purple haired girl. "I mean you said you have a room mate already."

"Hmm... I was gonna try and get our Lulu to help with that, with his geass." Raina sighed. "But I guess he's not really in the mood to be helpful." She brightened suddenly. "I know! You can stay with Rolo! At least until we can sort something else out."
Rolo blushed. "What? But I -"
"You don't want Ki-chan to stay with you?" Her hands were on her hips now, and she was practically nose to nose with the poor boy. "What's wrong with her? Ki-chan is a lovely person and it is an honour to have her stay with you! isn't it?"

"Y-yes..." he stammered, his face going a little redder. "Will Lelouch approve?"
Kiara was feeling decidedly sorry for the kid by this point.
"Don't worry about Lelouch," she said confidently. "We'll deal with him. Besides it means he'll have an extra pair of eyes and ears around here so it's less pressure on you."
"I supose..." he still didn't look convinced but at least they seemed to have got through to him.
"Good," Kiara nodded. "Oh and just a warning. If you start calling me "big sister" like you call Lelouch "big brother" I give no garentees abotu your health." SHe smirked.

*I had an idea... you know how when Lelouch goes to China Sayoko pretends to be him by putting on a mask thingy. Maybe Kiara could get one so she can still go to school? Only not look like Lulu, look like some other girl who Lulu can sue geass on to make her go home?*

Raina sighed. "I wish you could replace my roommate. She's so dull. All she does is..." She paused. "Actually I don't even know what she does with her time. Oh well."
She hugged Kiara. "See you tomorrow, Ki-chan. Keep the dress, it looks much better on you."

((Cool! I think we can manage that. -smirks evily- Oh...the havoc we shall cause...Is it the next episode where Lelouch tries to get Nunally back? I need to rewatch some more of R2 to get things straight from here on in.))

Kiara rolled her eyes at teh comment about the dress but she nodded her head in agreement, giving Raina a quick hug back before stepping away and gesturing for Rolo to lead the way. "I'll see you tomorrow," she replied. "We'll come up with something."

*Yup. The Black Knights attack the ship that's taking Nunally to Japan, but then Guilford, Suzaku, Anya and Gino intervene. The ship goes down but Suzaku saves Nunally*

"Night, Ki-chan! You take care of her, Rolo. Don't go perving on her while she's staying with you, she's already got a guy!" She knew that he's do nothing of the sort, but it was always amusing to see him go bright red.
Back in her room, her roommate was getting ready for bed. "Raina, you're back! I saw you dancing with -"
Raina blocked the rest of what her annoying roommate said out. She could have sworn she heard the word "Knight" in there, as well as "three", but she was tired and could not be bothered putting up with the girl's yapping.
Climbing into bed, she set her alarm and sighed, thinking of all the happy memories of waking up in this room with Kiara in the other bed, both of them ready to smash that same alarm to bits. Smiling, she fell asleep.

((Well if we're in the attack it's a perfect chance for Raina to find out that Gino's a knight. This should be interesting. Any clue how my OC LI is going to get more involved? Now taht I've created him I don't know what exactly he should do))

It didn't take them long and soon Kiara was in the area taht Lelouch had once shared with Nunally. Now Rolo was there instead of the wheelchair bound girl but appart from that nothing else seemed to have changed. Sayoko wasn't there but that was a given. She sighed before glancing at Rolo. "Thanks for letting me stay," she said.
"I-it's not a problem," he said. His face was still slightly red from Raina's earlier comment but Kiara ignored that. She was definitely ready to go to sleep. Today had been one of those weird days and she was looking forward to having a nice long rest.
"See you and Lelouch in the morning," she said over her shoulder before heading to bed.

*well he's your character. Where does he stand politically, for a start?*

The next day, Raina could tell that Lelouch had a plan. It was a day off at school, so luckily she didn't have to explain her absence to the others beyond "I'm going out." Milly, Rivalz and Shirley assumed that she was going gambling with Lelouch.
Over at Lelouch and Rolo's place - and where Kiara was staying - Lelouch explained what they were going to do. "We'll save Nunally while she's on her way here from the mainland. Then once she's out of danger we don't have to worry about keeping up the pretense of going to school."

((He fights for Britannia for the moment but he doesn't have any real loyalty to them like Suzaku does. He doesn't want to join the Black Knights publically though so he hasn't made a move either for or against. That's how I'm seeing it right now so maybe they run into him in the field at some point...Are we wanting to diverge from the original plot at any point or just stick to it and only change stuff at the end?))

"It would certainly make things easier," Kiara agreed. Once Nunally was out of danger Lelouch would be free to be Zero full time and so they could spend more time working on taking down Britannia instead of keeping their cover in tact. "Will you be using the Shinkiro with C.C.?"
"The Guren will be our main weapon," Lelouch replied. "Kallen can deal with Suzaku if he should show up."
"And if Kallen's outnumbered?" Kiara asked. "We need more knightmares."

*if he's part of Schneizel's force then maybe we could meet him again at Tianzi's wedding? I was thinking that Raina and Kiara would stop Lelouch from destroying the Geass Order. After all, that's where Raina came from, she still has friends there. Other than that I don't see any major changes on the horizon*

"Toudou and the Holy Blades, as well as Kallen, can be transported to the ship by our own flightships. They can drop the Knightmares in position and then fly to safety, while I go get Nunally."
"Gonna reveal your identity to her?" asked Raina. "I wonder how she'd react to her beloved Onii-sama being Zero?" She grinned. "Might be complicated."
"What's important is that we get her to safety," Lelouch said. "Come on, we'll leave now and join with the other Black Knights."

((Well I was hoping to use Tanzi's wedding anyway. What I was thinking was that if Raina doesn't want to be outed as a Black Knight she could stay and Gino invites her as his date or something and Kiara comes with Zero as a guard but then Hikaru invites her to dance (possibly creating a scandal) or Raina could be in black knight uniform and still dance with Gino, whichever. Hmm..we could definitely use the geass order. But would that affect anything later on or will they just remain in hiding? Do we want to rescue Nunally or fail like in the anime?))


Kiara nodded her head in agreement and stood up. She was in the yuki cross outfit again but the colours were similar to teh Black Knight uniform so she probably wouldn't be noticed. She'd also taken off the brown wig so she looked like herself again.
"Let's go then," she said, smirking at Lelouch. "We'll get your sister back and then we can kick some Britannian ass."
Soon they were with the rest of the Black Knights and they were preparing to deploy the knightmares.

*I was planning on Gino not finding out Raina's a Black Knight until after Milly's graduation, so maybe she sits Tianzi's wedding out? Or if she does go she could stay hidden. As for Nunally, I think we should fail. I have no idea how things would turn out if we succeeded*

When she saw Raina, Lakshata gave a shout and came over. "You're finally here!" the Indian woman said, taking a puff from her pipe. "About time. I've just finished working on yours and Kiara's Knightmare. This mission should be a good opportunity for you to test it."
Raina, who was halfway through zipping up her purple flight suit, blinked. "A Knightmare... for me and Ki-chan?"

((Okay sounds good. Time for the (doomed) Rescue Nunally mission then!))

"Well I couldn't stop after I upgraded the Shinkiro," the Indian woman explained. She was in her element now and Kiara knew it. She glanced at Raina, slightly wary about what the woman could have come up with. The older woman made a sign taht they should follow and they were taken to a hanger. Kiara stared up at teh large frame, in awe at the black and white thing. It had purple and red accents here and there and it looked truly formidable.
"What's it called?" she asked, her eyes scanning the components of the knightmare frame. It looked amazing.

((hat SHOULD we call it? Did we decide?))