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[fanfic] Decayed, pt.3 [Code Geass]
Title: Decayed
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Code Geass
Character(s): Lelouch-centric. Suzaku, Kaguya, Nunally.
Summary: (Kinkmeme request.) Suzaku dies in Shinjuku, and Lelouch sets off on a different path: one that is destined to decay with time.
Status: Part three, ongoing, incomplete. Unedited.
“You are to stall them as long as possible. Contact me as soon as the situation seems to take a downturn. Use your hostage to your best advantage.”
Ougi salutes, but he looks grim. “Yes, sir, I‘ll hold things down until you return. Count on it.”
Zero nods, “Thank you, Ougi,” and slides into the car beside Kaguya.
Kallen approaches the open door. “Zero, sir, and Lady Kaguya, I and the rest of the Zero squad will escort you both to safety.”
Zero nods here, too, and the door is shut. The car sets off, and Lelouch removes the mask, hidden behind one-way windows. Kaguya folds her hands in her lap. They don’t speak for quite some time, Lelouch still going over the idea that he has actually agreed to marry this girl -- the girl who had once been promised to the dead friend he thought about so often.
“Zero,” Kaguya starts, then pauses and seems to consider. “Or should I call you Lelouch in private? Do you still go by that name?”
“Yes,” he replies. “My name is Lelouch Lamperouge, now. Lelouch vi Brittania was listed as dead during the invasion.”
Kaguya smiles as bright as the sun and moves her mouth as if tasting her next words. “Kaguya Lamperouge. It sounds funny. Lamperouge Kaguya. Kaguya vi Brittania. Vi Brittania Kaguya sounds the most strange!”
“Lelouch Sumeragi. Sumeragi Lelouch,” he jokes.
“Kaguya Zero! Zero Kaguya!” she jokes back. And again, they are laughing together.
“Allow us to take Nunally,” Kaguya says, finally serious, sometime after the car was judged to be in the clear and, for respect for his privacy, the Zero Squad withdrew from Zero‘s side.
Lelouch looks at her, startled and far from expecting that, of all things to be said. He narrows his eyes suspiciously, but Kaguya does not falter.
“The Ashfords... are Brittanians with no honor. As you said, they’ll do anything to grasp at power. If Cornelia escaped and asked them for Nunally, they would hand her over without a second thought and ask to be rewarded.”
Lelouch sighs and looks away. He knows this to be true. Milly would never, but it’s out of her control. Kaguya continues, sensing he is beginning to waver.
“I understand you can’t have her at Narita, with you. The situation there is too dangerous. But you can’t leave her alone, either, when any power could find her and swoop her up when Zero is out at battle. Let me take care of Nunally, my fiancee,” she implores, laying a smooth, manicured hand on the back of his gloved fist. “I’m the headmistress of Kyoto. You know I have the power to keep her safe.”
Lelouch turns to stare out the window. “I will think on it,” he says noncommittally. He pauses, then adds very softly, “Thank you.”
Kaguya will be a great wife. She nods and knows not to tease him. Pulls back, folds her hands, and lets it be, without pushing.
Zero is let out of the car in the ghettos, close to the railway that divides it from the Brittanian settlement. He promises to be in contact with Kaguya and watches her car drive off. Then Zero melts into the shadows, changes in the dark, and steps out as Lelouch, briefcase slung over his shoulder.
He takes the rail as close as he can get to Ashford and walks the rest of the way. It seems that the school is in the middle of class, so it’s no problem for him to slink back home, unnoticed. Even Nunally is in class right now, so all he hears is the vacuum from the living room and the faint chatter of the TV turned up over the sound. Lelouch ducks into his room and deposits his case before greeting Sayoko.
Lelouch is very surprised, but not unpleasantly, when she envelops him into a hug. Then she holds him back and looks him over thoroughly.
“You’re using a different notch on your belt,” she states, to which Lelouch blushes. Is it some secret power that women have, to notice mundane things like that just to embarrass men? But he is not ungrateful. She sits him down at the table and has a very heavy Brittanian meal fixed for him in record time. She must be a genius of perception, because there is nothing on the plate that would possibly set Lelouch’s stomach off.
He props his feet up on the coffee table in the living room and enjoys this strange day off. The windows are open, a wonderful wind whipping through. The house smells so clean. Lemon all around. Flowers scents drifting in. Lelouch feels his mind wiped blank.
In a burst of strength, he lifts Nunally bodily from her chair and swings her around, both of them laughing, but he has to put her down quickly. She grabs his face and kisses him on the lips. It’s hard to kiss her back, because his lips are pulling back into a smile instead of puckering.
He carries her over and sits her on the couch beside him. She leans into him, snuggles, and gets comfortable with his arm around her shoulders. On Lelouch’s request, Sayoko also joins them, and the three of them watch (or at least listen to) a movie that came on TV.
Halfway through the movie, Lelouch has to turn his head away from Sayoko. He rests his chin atop Nunally’s soft hair and wills the water out of his eyes.
Suzaku should be here. And so should his mother. Kaguya, too. Kallen wouldn’t hurt. Milly, if only she wasn’t an Ashford. Nina, Shirley, Rivalz. But mostly, Suzaku. This situation reminds him mostly of being with Suzaku.
A long time ago, Nunally, Suzaku, and Lelouch talked about something. They wondered what happiness would look like if it could be given a physical form. If he isn’t mistaken, Lelouch believes that it was Suzaku who said that the shape of happiness might resemble glass.
His reasoning made sense. He said, “Even if you don’t usually notice it, it’s definitely still there, you merely have to change your point of view slightly. Then that glass will sparkle when it reflects the light.”
Lelouch doubts that anything else could argue its existence more eloquently.
(“Do you wish for anything, big brother?”)
That very night, Lelouch is informed by Rivalz that Shirley’s father died at Narita, and Lelouch missed the funeral. It was difficult to get the body back home with all the Black Knights running about. Shirley is staying home for a while to get over it.
Lelouch sleeps alone in his bed that night, or doesn’t sleep, thinking about Narita. He keeps going over the sudden realization of how many people he’s killed-- by hand, or by word. All of them left behind a family; all had lovers and friends.
All of them, corpses rotting in the sun.
( Yes, that is the reason why people discriminate against one another! / So is that the reason why you killed my brother? / Are you really going through with this? / That’s easy enough to say, isn’t it! / You can’t! You and I may have different brothers, but we’re still blood! / And to have this utopia, you’d...? )
( I wish the world was a gentler place. / I swear-- I swear, Suzaku, so help me. I will one day obliterate Brittania! / You appear to have a reason for living. / I don’t need a reason to do what I want to do, or save who I want to save! / And I’ve come back to change everything. / You know I have the power. )
“Kaguya. It’s me. Zero.”
A pause.
“What we discussed on the way from Narita. I agree to it. Please prepare yourself to receive her.”
“Nunally?” Lelouch calls as he enters her dark room. She is sitting up, not quite ready for sleep, and folding paper cranes. She smiles up at him, a smile he can barely see in the light coming from the hallway.
“What is it, brother? Is something wrong?” Her head tracks him as he comes around to sit on the edge of her bed, beside her.
“Nunally, I have to tell you something. About Suzaku. And... about me.”
The truck pulls up to the side of the designated road in the ghettos and sits there, engine running smoothly. It is two thirty in the morning, on the dot, approximately 30 hours after Lady Sumeragi received a call from Zero. The Lady of Kyoto is yawning, not used to staying up so late. As she sits in the backseat, her socked feet are propped on the back of the seat in front of her, and she plays with her hair which had previously been braided for sleep. Those in the truck wait for nearly twenty minutes before the target shows up.
Or, at least, the first. A young boy, older than Lady Kaguya, black-haired and fully dressed and Brittanian. “Is that him, Lady Kaguya?” asks the suited man next to the driver.
Kaguya leans forward and rubs the sleep out of her eyes. “Yes.” A smile blossoms on her face. “There he is.” She climbs over the passenger, not much regarding his personal space, so that she may roll down the window and lean out. The Brittanian boy approaches the truck and looks up at her.
“Where’s your sister?” Kaguya asks.
“She’s here. I just want to confirm that it’s safe here.”
Kaguya nods and issues some orders. Soon all the doors are open and all the suited men out of the truck. With one eye on the men, the boy fully inspects every inch of the empty delivery truck, including the glove compartment. He seems to find it satisfactory and crawls back out.
“Alright, then. I’ll be right back,” he says. Kaguya nods again, as she is a very patient girl. The men exchange glances, but their loyalty to Kyoto and most of all Kaguya is concrete.
Ten more minutes pass between the time the boy disappears into the night and reappears, except now he is laden with suitcases and backpacks. A Japanese woman, dressed in a black skirt and blue sweater, rolls a wheelchair, in which a Brittanian girl of Kaguya’s age rests. She cradles a book in her arms like it is something very precious.
“We’re ready,” Lelouch tells Kaguya.
Kaguya points curiously to the Japanese woman. Lelouch shrugs and explains, “She’s our housekeeper. I thought she was asleep, but she’s sneakier than I thought. Anyway, she caught us leaving, and she says she’d rather go with us. And... I believe her.”
The suited men assist the three newcomers with loading their bags into the back of the truck. Then Sayoko lifts Nunally from her chair, and the men all work together to load that into the back as well. Lelouch and Sayoko work together to sit Nunally into the truck beside Kaguya. Lelouch squeezes past Nunally and sits on her other side. Sayoko climbs into the back with two of the four men.
“Everyone settled?” the front passenger calls. There is a general consensus. Then the truck takes off into the night.
"Nunally," Kaguya intones softly. "Do you remember me?"
Nunally doesn't move her head from its downcast position. "Yes. Hello."
An awkward silence fills the cabin of the truck. Kaguya raises her eyebrows at Lelouch, but he as well is looking away. Kaguya looks everywhere for answers, even to the maid in the back, but she, too, is looking between the two siblings with a wrinkled brow.
"Well then," Kaguya says lightly, trying to stimulate conversation-- anything to get rid of the oppressive weight in the air. "Did Lelouch tell you about us?"
Nunally hesitates, then finally lifts her head. "There are many things my brother has been telling me lately, Kaguya-chan, and there's only so much time in the day. I'm afraid we haven't gotten to everything, yet."
"I see," Kaguya says quietly and leans back in her seat. Lelouch shifts uncomfortably. "Did you take care of things on your end?"
"You don't even have to ask," Lelouch pipes up at last.
After that, there is not much else to be said. They go on in silence, and eventually ascend into the darkness of Fuji.
"This will be your new home, Nunally. Don't worry, we'll take good care of you. You'll be safe here." Kaguya reaches down and takes the younger girls hand. Nunally squeezes back in gratitude.
The room within Kyoto's Mt. Fuji base is nothing very special. It is very Japanese in its sparseness and somewhat cold, though the floor is smooth concrete, suitable for the wheelchair. The room is a lot less claustrophobic than the old Kururugi shed, but infinitely more foreign. Not their home. Lelouch is tempted to lie again, talk about white walls and bright sunlight, but Lelouch can't possibly bring himself to do it. And besides-- Nunally would see straight through him, and she had only just stopped sobbing over Suzaku.
"Kaguya-chan, may I have some privacy to have a word alone with my brother?" Nunally asks evenly. Kaguya and her guards retreat, as does Sayoko after some hesitation. The heavy metal door echoes ominously behind them. Lelouch takes the pregnant moment in which Nunally does not speak and begins opening and sorting the various suitcases. She seems to be gathering up her strength, and Lelouch winces in anticipation when she opens her mouth, but her voice is a gentle as always, with only the barest hint of firmness to it. It is enough to cow Lelouch, of all people.
"You will not endanger Ashford," she says.
How could she even think-- Why bring this up-- Of course not-- How dare she--
His beautiful, angel sister. She still loves him.
"I promise you, Nunally. Ashford will be safe. I will assure it as Zero."
"And Cornelia," she pushes.
Lelouch's eyes bore into her own closed ones. She finally falters at his silence.
"I just-- I don't want any more of our family to, to die. I... not after--" she stops abruptly.
His stomach starts to churn.
"That, sister, I wont promise."
Lelouch meets also with Kitihara. The old man laughs, loud and ringing.
“Do you embark upon the path of blood?”
“Yes. If that is to be my destiny.”
He turns on his heel and leaves. As he passes Kaguya, who is standing in the hall, however, he stops and looks down at her. The furrow that has been so persistent in his brow since he spoke to Nunally lessens, if only slightly.
“I will... be in contact with you.”
Her face is one that never seems to stop smiling. “I’d like a spring wedding,” she says. Lelouch nods and continues on his way.
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Code Geass
Character(s): Lelouch-centric. Suzaku, Kaguya, Nunally.
Summary: (Kinkmeme request.) Suzaku dies in Shinjuku, and Lelouch sets off on a different path: one that is destined to decay with time.
Status: Part three, ongoing, incomplete. Unedited.
“You are to stall them as long as possible. Contact me as soon as the situation seems to take a downturn. Use your hostage to your best advantage.”
Ougi salutes, but he looks grim. “Yes, sir, I‘ll hold things down until you return. Count on it.”
Zero nods, “Thank you, Ougi,” and slides into the car beside Kaguya.
Kallen approaches the open door. “Zero, sir, and Lady Kaguya, I and the rest of the Zero squad will escort you both to safety.”
Zero nods here, too, and the door is shut. The car sets off, and Lelouch removes the mask, hidden behind one-way windows. Kaguya folds her hands in her lap. They don’t speak for quite some time, Lelouch still going over the idea that he has actually agreed to marry this girl -- the girl who had once been promised to the dead friend he thought about so often.
“Zero,” Kaguya starts, then pauses and seems to consider. “Or should I call you Lelouch in private? Do you still go by that name?”
“Yes,” he replies. “My name is Lelouch Lamperouge, now. Lelouch vi Brittania was listed as dead during the invasion.”
Kaguya smiles as bright as the sun and moves her mouth as if tasting her next words. “Kaguya Lamperouge. It sounds funny. Lamperouge Kaguya. Kaguya vi Brittania. Vi Brittania Kaguya sounds the most strange!”
“Lelouch Sumeragi. Sumeragi Lelouch,” he jokes.
“Kaguya Zero! Zero Kaguya!” she jokes back. And again, they are laughing together.
“Allow us to take Nunally,” Kaguya says, finally serious, sometime after the car was judged to be in the clear and, for respect for his privacy, the Zero Squad withdrew from Zero‘s side.
Lelouch looks at her, startled and far from expecting that, of all things to be said. He narrows his eyes suspiciously, but Kaguya does not falter.
“The Ashfords... are Brittanians with no honor. As you said, they’ll do anything to grasp at power. If Cornelia escaped and asked them for Nunally, they would hand her over without a second thought and ask to be rewarded.”
Lelouch sighs and looks away. He knows this to be true. Milly would never, but it’s out of her control. Kaguya continues, sensing he is beginning to waver.
“I understand you can’t have her at Narita, with you. The situation there is too dangerous. But you can’t leave her alone, either, when any power could find her and swoop her up when Zero is out at battle. Let me take care of Nunally, my fiancee,” she implores, laying a smooth, manicured hand on the back of his gloved fist. “I’m the headmistress of Kyoto. You know I have the power to keep her safe.”
Lelouch turns to stare out the window. “I will think on it,” he says noncommittally. He pauses, then adds very softly, “Thank you.”
Kaguya will be a great wife. She nods and knows not to tease him. Pulls back, folds her hands, and lets it be, without pushing.
Zero is let out of the car in the ghettos, close to the railway that divides it from the Brittanian settlement. He promises to be in contact with Kaguya and watches her car drive off. Then Zero melts into the shadows, changes in the dark, and steps out as Lelouch, briefcase slung over his shoulder.
He takes the rail as close as he can get to Ashford and walks the rest of the way. It seems that the school is in the middle of class, so it’s no problem for him to slink back home, unnoticed. Even Nunally is in class right now, so all he hears is the vacuum from the living room and the faint chatter of the TV turned up over the sound. Lelouch ducks into his room and deposits his case before greeting Sayoko.
Lelouch is very surprised, but not unpleasantly, when she envelops him into a hug. Then she holds him back and looks him over thoroughly.
“You’re using a different notch on your belt,” she states, to which Lelouch blushes. Is it some secret power that women have, to notice mundane things like that just to embarrass men? But he is not ungrateful. She sits him down at the table and has a very heavy Brittanian meal fixed for him in record time. She must be a genius of perception, because there is nothing on the plate that would possibly set Lelouch’s stomach off.
He props his feet up on the coffee table in the living room and enjoys this strange day off. The windows are open, a wonderful wind whipping through. The house smells so clean. Lemon all around. Flowers scents drifting in. Lelouch feels his mind wiped blank.
In a burst of strength, he lifts Nunally bodily from her chair and swings her around, both of them laughing, but he has to put her down quickly. She grabs his face and kisses him on the lips. It’s hard to kiss her back, because his lips are pulling back into a smile instead of puckering.
He carries her over and sits her on the couch beside him. She leans into him, snuggles, and gets comfortable with his arm around her shoulders. On Lelouch’s request, Sayoko also joins them, and the three of them watch (or at least listen to) a movie that came on TV.
Halfway through the movie, Lelouch has to turn his head away from Sayoko. He rests his chin atop Nunally’s soft hair and wills the water out of his eyes.
Suzaku should be here. And so should his mother. Kaguya, too. Kallen wouldn’t hurt. Milly, if only she wasn’t an Ashford. Nina, Shirley, Rivalz. But mostly, Suzaku. This situation reminds him mostly of being with Suzaku.
A long time ago, Nunally, Suzaku, and Lelouch talked about something. They wondered what happiness would look like if it could be given a physical form. If he isn’t mistaken, Lelouch believes that it was Suzaku who said that the shape of happiness might resemble glass.
His reasoning made sense. He said, “Even if you don’t usually notice it, it’s definitely still there, you merely have to change your point of view slightly. Then that glass will sparkle when it reflects the light.”
Lelouch doubts that anything else could argue its existence more eloquently.
(“Do you wish for anything, big brother?”)
That very night, Lelouch is informed by Rivalz that Shirley’s father died at Narita, and Lelouch missed the funeral. It was difficult to get the body back home with all the Black Knights running about. Shirley is staying home for a while to get over it.
Lelouch sleeps alone in his bed that night, or doesn’t sleep, thinking about Narita. He keeps going over the sudden realization of how many people he’s killed-- by hand, or by word. All of them left behind a family; all had lovers and friends.
All of them, corpses rotting in the sun.
( Yes, that is the reason why people discriminate against one another! / So is that the reason why you killed my brother? / Are you really going through with this? / That’s easy enough to say, isn’t it! / You can’t! You and I may have different brothers, but we’re still blood! / And to have this utopia, you’d...? )
( I wish the world was a gentler place. / I swear-- I swear, Suzaku, so help me. I will one day obliterate Brittania! / You appear to have a reason for living. / I don’t need a reason to do what I want to do, or save who I want to save! / And I’ve come back to change everything. / You know I have the power. )
“Kaguya. It’s me. Zero.”
A pause.
“What we discussed on the way from Narita. I agree to it. Please prepare yourself to receive her.”
“Nunally?” Lelouch calls as he enters her dark room. She is sitting up, not quite ready for sleep, and folding paper cranes. She smiles up at him, a smile he can barely see in the light coming from the hallway.
“What is it, brother? Is something wrong?” Her head tracks him as he comes around to sit on the edge of her bed, beside her.
“Nunally, I have to tell you something. About Suzaku. And... about me.”
The truck pulls up to the side of the designated road in the ghettos and sits there, engine running smoothly. It is two thirty in the morning, on the dot, approximately 30 hours after Lady Sumeragi received a call from Zero. The Lady of Kyoto is yawning, not used to staying up so late. As she sits in the backseat, her socked feet are propped on the back of the seat in front of her, and she plays with her hair which had previously been braided for sleep. Those in the truck wait for nearly twenty minutes before the target shows up.
Or, at least, the first. A young boy, older than Lady Kaguya, black-haired and fully dressed and Brittanian. “Is that him, Lady Kaguya?” asks the suited man next to the driver.
Kaguya leans forward and rubs the sleep out of her eyes. “Yes.” A smile blossoms on her face. “There he is.” She climbs over the passenger, not much regarding his personal space, so that she may roll down the window and lean out. The Brittanian boy approaches the truck and looks up at her.
“Where’s your sister?” Kaguya asks.
“She’s here. I just want to confirm that it’s safe here.”
Kaguya nods and issues some orders. Soon all the doors are open and all the suited men out of the truck. With one eye on the men, the boy fully inspects every inch of the empty delivery truck, including the glove compartment. He seems to find it satisfactory and crawls back out.
“Alright, then. I’ll be right back,” he says. Kaguya nods again, as she is a very patient girl. The men exchange glances, but their loyalty to Kyoto and most of all Kaguya is concrete.
Ten more minutes pass between the time the boy disappears into the night and reappears, except now he is laden with suitcases and backpacks. A Japanese woman, dressed in a black skirt and blue sweater, rolls a wheelchair, in which a Brittanian girl of Kaguya’s age rests. She cradles a book in her arms like it is something very precious.
“We’re ready,” Lelouch tells Kaguya.
Kaguya points curiously to the Japanese woman. Lelouch shrugs and explains, “She’s our housekeeper. I thought she was asleep, but she’s sneakier than I thought. Anyway, she caught us leaving, and she says she’d rather go with us. And... I believe her.”
The suited men assist the three newcomers with loading their bags into the back of the truck. Then Sayoko lifts Nunally from her chair, and the men all work together to load that into the back as well. Lelouch and Sayoko work together to sit Nunally into the truck beside Kaguya. Lelouch squeezes past Nunally and sits on her other side. Sayoko climbs into the back with two of the four men.
“Everyone settled?” the front passenger calls. There is a general consensus. Then the truck takes off into the night.
"Nunally," Kaguya intones softly. "Do you remember me?"
Nunally doesn't move her head from its downcast position. "Yes. Hello."
An awkward silence fills the cabin of the truck. Kaguya raises her eyebrows at Lelouch, but he as well is looking away. Kaguya looks everywhere for answers, even to the maid in the back, but she, too, is looking between the two siblings with a wrinkled brow.
"Well then," Kaguya says lightly, trying to stimulate conversation-- anything to get rid of the oppressive weight in the air. "Did Lelouch tell you about us?"
Nunally hesitates, then finally lifts her head. "There are many things my brother has been telling me lately, Kaguya-chan, and there's only so much time in the day. I'm afraid we haven't gotten to everything, yet."
"I see," Kaguya says quietly and leans back in her seat. Lelouch shifts uncomfortably. "Did you take care of things on your end?"
"You don't even have to ask," Lelouch pipes up at last.
After that, there is not much else to be said. They go on in silence, and eventually ascend into the darkness of Fuji.
"This will be your new home, Nunally. Don't worry, we'll take good care of you. You'll be safe here." Kaguya reaches down and takes the younger girls hand. Nunally squeezes back in gratitude.
The room within Kyoto's Mt. Fuji base is nothing very special. It is very Japanese in its sparseness and somewhat cold, though the floor is smooth concrete, suitable for the wheelchair. The room is a lot less claustrophobic than the old Kururugi shed, but infinitely more foreign. Not their home. Lelouch is tempted to lie again, talk about white walls and bright sunlight, but Lelouch can't possibly bring himself to do it. And besides-- Nunally would see straight through him, and she had only just stopped sobbing over Suzaku.
"Kaguya-chan, may I have some privacy to have a word alone with my brother?" Nunally asks evenly. Kaguya and her guards retreat, as does Sayoko after some hesitation. The heavy metal door echoes ominously behind them. Lelouch takes the pregnant moment in which Nunally does not speak and begins opening and sorting the various suitcases. She seems to be gathering up her strength, and Lelouch winces in anticipation when she opens her mouth, but her voice is a gentle as always, with only the barest hint of firmness to it. It is enough to cow Lelouch, of all people.
"You will not endanger Ashford," she says.
How could she even think-- Why bring this up-- Of course not-- How dare she--
His beautiful, angel sister. She still loves him.
"I promise you, Nunally. Ashford will be safe. I will assure it as Zero."
"And Cornelia," she pushes.
Lelouch's eyes bore into her own closed ones. She finally falters at his silence.
"I just-- I don't want any more of our family to, to die. I... not after--" she stops abruptly.
His stomach starts to churn.
"That, sister, I wont promise."
Lelouch meets also with Kitihara. The old man laughs, loud and ringing.
“Do you embark upon the path of blood?”
“Yes. If that is to be my destiny.”
He turns on his heel and leaves. As he passes Kaguya, who is standing in the hall, however, he stops and looks down at her. The furrow that has been so persistent in his brow since he spoke to Nunally lessens, if only slightly.
“I will... be in contact with you.”
Her face is one that never seems to stop smiling. “I’d like a spring wedding,” she says. Lelouch nods and continues on his way.