The morning after the rain, Ashford Academy glowed with the kind of nervous energy only a week before the school festival could produce. The hallways were clogged with students hauling rolls of fabric, stringing wires for lights, and rushing to and from the art rooms with half-painted props.
From the second-floor balcony, Lelouch watched the organized chaos below. He held a clipboard, Milly's doing of course, and gave the occasional approving nod when someone asked for his opinion. Internally, he was calculating timing windows for something very different than the festival.
The festival would be a cover, whether anyone realized it or not.
"Don't just stand there like a mannequin, Lulu!" Milly's voice cut through the din as she strode up beside him, hands on her hips. Her eyes sparkled with barely restrained glee, no doubt already thinking of whatever ridiculous thing she planned to put him in for the "Romantic Spring Fantasia."
"I'm observing the workflow," he replied with his usual calm.
"You're avoiding lifting anything heavy," she countered.
Before he could answer, Shirley came jogging up, balancing a box of paper lanterns in her arms. "Lelouch! You promised to help hang these!"
He sighed but took the box from her, his expression softening. "Lead the way."
They joined Rivalz in the courtyard, who was already halfway up a ladder trying, and failing, to secure a string of lanterns between two poles. Lelouch made quick work of it, his movements precise and methodical, while Rivalz muttered something about "show-offs."
As the afternoon wore on, the student council room transformed into festival headquarters. Nunnally sat at a low table folding cranes for the charity booth, her delicate fingers moving with patient precision. She smiled up at Lelouch when he stopped by to check on her progress.
"You're working harder than anyone," he said warmly.
"It's fun," she replied. "I like that everyone is working together. It feels… safe here."
The word caught him off guard. For a moment, Lelouch almost let his guard slip. Safe. He wished it were true.
Milly's voice called from across the room, dragging him back. "Lulu! I need you for costume fitting number two! Don't try to escape me now. We both know that won't work."
He shot her a look, but she only grinned wider. Rivalz and Shirley snickered from the sidelines obviously having fun at Lelouch's displeasure.
When Milly tugged him behind one of the makeshift curtain partitions, she held up a princely looking jacket with gold trim. "Trust me, this will make you the star of the Fantasia parade! Isn't it really neat? I worked on it hard myself."
"I appreciate it, but I thought the point was to blend in," he muttered to her.
"Not when you're me it's not," she said with a wink.
By the time the fittings were over, the sun had begun to set, painting the campus in orange and gold. Lanterns lit in the courtyard cast a warm glow over the evening bustle. Students were still hammering, painting, laughing.
And Lelouch, standing at the edge of it all, allowed himself a rare moment of stillness. He watched Nunnally speaking with Shirley, saw Rivalz trying to barter extra booth space from another club which he was failing at, heard Milly barking playful orders at anyone who dared wander too close.
It almost felt normal.
Almost, is the key word. We know the truth isn't just what appears on the surface.
In the corner of his mind, the case in his room waited like a loaded gun. And beyond the school walls, Britannia moved its pieces across the board. The festival might be for celebration, but for him, it was another stage in the larger game. A game he was going to win at any cost.
He smiled faintly, letting the mask of the charming student council vice president settle back into place.
No one here needed to know what was coming.