Ryuudou Temple.
T'was a morning of calm.
The birds were singing, flowers were blooming. On days like this, blondie Sabers should be burning in hell.
Such was the urge that burned since the evening before. Not even a night of passionate love making pushed that thought out of the Demon King's head as she opened her eyes. Well, she'd admit to have forgotten about it in the throes of multiple climaxes, but that was neither here nor there.
Point is, freshly awake, she had the urge to fry a bitch.
But that could wait. Her red orbs scanned the empty side of the bed next to her, only to find its owner sat working at the nearby desk. Rolling her eyes at the busybody that was her husband, Nobu was quick to slip out of the handcuffs used in last night's fun with a simple tug of her wrist.
"Sleep well, darling?" he asked, not taking his attention away from some report or another.
"Oh, I might not have." She replied coyly. Wrapping her arms around his neck and making sure the broken handcuffs tickled his chin, she warmed up his back by pressing up against him with her bare bosoms. "You went a little hard on the power play, Lulu, my love. I'm surprised you have the energy to be staring at your computer after riding me until the early hours."
"No rest for the wicked, I'm afraid." She chuckled with him and kissed his neck before breaking away from the embrace to get dressed. "Going to do morning practice today?"
"After a smoke, love." She picked up a cigarette and lit it with a snap of her finger before she even wore her top. "Ahh, sleeping in a place blessed with such bountiful leylines is the shit! For how much you paid upfront, this place is a steal."
"Calling it that sounds cheap. Wouldn't you prefer it a 'conquest', Nobu." Lelouch scoffed, knowing full well she was joking about his… forceful acquisition of the temple.
"It only counts after you deface what it stands for, honey." She marched back to his side and slobbered his mouth with a deep-tongued kiss. He welcomed it, but only because not entertaining her needs would end with him being unable to work until she was sated. With a smack of her lips and a thin string of saliva keeping them connected, she gave his cute morning face a finishing peck on the cheek. "Maybe give it a couple more days… say, after we break in the kitchen, the dojo, the tool shed, and finally the prayer room. Then, I'll call it a successful conquest."
"Truly, my wife is depraved." He chuckled at that, already grateful his amplified physicality allowed him to keep up with her many fetishes.
"We made our vows. And neither death nor god can keep us apart."
He nibbled her cheek back before slapping her ass as she stood back up. Opening the curtains, she was greeted by the light of the morning sun having risen halfway to midday already as it showered what was formerly Ryuudou Temple's front lawn in a warm light.
Calling it a temple now felt scandalous. Gone was the pure and meditative atmosphere of a place of worship. It had been so easily torn down and replaced by a conservative castle-like structure in the style of her era's many fortresses but built with superior modern architecture. No longer was it a place for Shinto-Buddhist shrines and prayers as the parody of a Sengoku period stronghold stood tall, complete with a fresh coat of red and black paint stylized in the shape of ominous black clouds looming above a landscape draped in the fiery orange of dawn.
Now resembling a Warring States reenactor's wet dream, the closed-off villa had become a home of sorts where they'd turned part of the mountain into their base of operations. The location itself was quite valuable. Forgetting the direct access to the leylines, the mountain had offered quite the vantage point over the city as well as a roomy space to hide their toys in. Excavating below ground didn't take much time or effort given the amount of money, technology, and manpower they had at their fingertips, but quite a bit of work had to be put into keeping it secret.
Truly, had Nobu not insisted on storing some of the Knightmares and vehicles they owned so close to the city, Lelouch wouldn't have bothered centralizing it into the fortress. He'd honestly preferred to have his toys and pawns scattered anywhere and everywhere. But guerilla tactics were outweighed by his wife's desire to model their 'love nest' as she calls it, into something grand under the guise of a 'simple home'.
Yes, he was aware it was already a hyperbole to call anything they own 'simple'. Being CEO of Sumeragi Industries granted them so many perks, they might as well be de facto rulers of the city.
To that end, he returned his attention to the computer he was busy fiddling with. That is until Nobu got bored, finished her cigarette and decided to smush either side of his head with her rack.
"Watcha doin, darling?"
"Being productive." He was rewarded with a soft pillow of melons attempting to squash his head. "I'm serious, Nobu."
"And I'm seriously considering pinning you down on the desk and having my way with you," she whispered into his ear before play-biting his earlobe. "If you keep ogling that blonde bitch so much, you'll make me jealous, love."
He returned fire with a pinch to her sides just near her underboob. The tickling motion freed his head and allowed him to look up into her face.
"Even after a decade having me all to yourself, my wife is quite the clingy woman. Am I not allowed to look at other women's files even if I'm trying to come up with countermeasures against them?"
"Of course, you may. But even you should understand how seeing her again after all these years has me hot and bothered. And not in the enjoyable way, Lulu." He didn't miss the angry glint in her eyes as she smirked sadistically. "Fate must be doing us a favor if she's yet again been called into the war at the last second. It seems like a cosmic joke, for her anyway."
"And yet my dear seems quite eager to tear the butt of said cosmic joke a new asshole." Lelouch finalized his reading of the report and closed the computer. "You've been very giddy, so much so that I can feel the mana radiating off of you, my sweet."
And it was truly an empowering thing. Having taken in their fill as soon as they settled here, both of them had been charged to full power drawing from the leyline's natural pool with ease. So much so that if they weren't dampening the output with meditative control and some protective barriers set up by their magi-tech branch, they would've been a beacon of mana to any observing Servants.
Nobu herself was aware, so she took in a deep breath before restraining her expanding aura down to a trickle. Ten years of practice and hiding under the noses of the Mage's Association afforded even the most vile and savage warmonger a degree of control found mostly in monks and hermits. Lelouch could just tell from her smile that she was raring to go and was just staving off her eagerness by sticking close to him and asking for attention.
He awarded her with all the hugs, nuzzling, and kisses she wanted. His fight-lusting wife was quite needy after all.
"Ahhh~~~! I can't wait much longer, Lulu~~~!" she whispered as he swept her off her feet and carried her out of the room and down to the kitchen. "I really want to punch a hole in that dumb bitch's face and tell her 'I told you so' to her face…"
"And you will, Nobu." He pecked her on the forehead before setting her down on a chair by the kitchen countertop. Starting up breakfast, he added as he cooked. "Her presence won't disturb our plans in the long run. On the contrary, knowing a familiar face has joined the battle will help us with the other problematic ones."
"That bitch got a glow up, though. That photo of hers you were ogling, she got into her cute goth phase, didn't she?"
While Lelouch wouldn't be the first to suggest it was just a phase, it certainly piqued his interest that Artoria had swapped color palettes into something more insidious. Gone was the noble blue-blooded knight of chivalry, in her place was a more ferocious-looking black knight. The transformation was so drastic, even her holy sword Excalibur gave off a more menacing air. With the power of his Servant instincts and referencing his memories of the former King Arthur, even he could tell something had changed.
"If she has gone through a phase, it's either her experience in the past war has changed something within her heart. Or, this could be her far crueler variant. In either case, Saber is likely still the King of Knights we are familiar with. Her legend can only deviate so much before it jumps into the realm of fantasy."
"Is that ten years' worth of research talking or is my hubby just confident his 'ancestor' is that easy to read? Or maybe you've been enjoying Alaya whispering sweet nothings into your ear." She wiggled her eyebrows and bared her sultry smile. "So? Is my darling studious, arrogant, or is he cheating on me?"
"Say 'ah'?"
"Ah—Mmmph?!" The eternally young man responded to his wife's jabs by taking a fork and shoving a freshly cooked sausage into her mouth. Hot as it was, no heat could harm Oda Nobunaga, hence why it was then an idea came to mind. Her eyes narrowed and twinkled as she stuck out her tongue and began playing with her food. "Mmm… Mhmm…. Slurp…"
The result was Lelouch knitting his brow as the woman made to sensually and teasingly eat it, savoring the meaty breakfast far more lustfully than necessary before him. That is until his surprise tickle under her armpit had her chomping and getting food's juices all over her lip, to which he playfully cleaned her up not with a kiss he usually gave but instead with a wad of tissue paper across her face. Add in a pinch of the nose and lady of many desires was left to sulk as he didn't give in to her suggestive advances.
"While researching records of the past wars and the little treasure we're keeping watch on down in the basement did give me insight as to how the Grail worked, the Throne is still a myriad of mystery. And given Alaya's silence in a while, it seems we have more things to be concerned of than a misconception on Artoria's current state of mind."
"Tch. You're no fun in work mode." Nobu unhappily cleaned her face up before resuming breakfast. She didn't tell him to stop nor did she not listen in as he continued with a chuckle.
"Can you blame me, Nobu? It's been ten years. Ten years, and finally… the time has come again."
There was a glint in Lelouch's eyes. One that Nobunaga in all her time married to him wouldn't miss for a second. She stuffed her face and cleaned her plate before sitting down on her husband's lap just before he started eating his own eggs and bacon. Pinching his cheek, she crooned his face into her generous bosom.
"D'aww, is my darling Demon suppressing his excitement too? Come on, you can tell me, baby. Tell me how much you too missed the challenge of facing a real threat on the battlefield."
To his credit, Lelouch didn't turn into an excitable child. No, his was a more subdued excitement. Even after masterminding the conquest and unification of multiple smaller nations into a Federation under his thumb, it was very much child's play to a former world conqueror.
Especially one who had delved into the mystiques of magecraft and Geass.
That being said, Lelouch was forthcoming with his desires, if a little more reserved compared to her.
"I will concede that having a real competition has got me fired up. Moreso now that one of our foes is someone we have a personal vendetta with." He pinched her cheek and gave it a soft squeeze. "Your excitement seems to have rubbed off on me. Something we can thank Saber for, no doubt."
"Don't worry. I'll be thanking her soon enough. A shank up her heart, or maybe her ass, either works for me."
And she'd revel in it. It wouldn't matter if the blonde got an emo powerup from her loss in the past, Nobu planned to relish an absolute victory against her in a true duel. No Grail bullshit, no interlopers, just mano a mano, her tiny hands clawing at Nobu's as it holds her katana hilt-deep in the pretentious bitch's chest.
She was just so excited picturing it now...
"Dear, save your bloodlust for a better time. I can't eat properly when you're drooling on my lap."
"Oh, but I thought you liked it when I drool all over your—?"
BEEP BEEP