[fanfic] Decayed, pt.7 [Code Geass]
Mar. 13th, 2011 12:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rex_sunTitle: Decayed
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Code Geass
Character(s): Lelouch-centric. Euphemia, Kallen. Mild Lelouch+Suzaku.
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 seven, ongoing, incomplete. Unedited.
Lelouch is a little pissed that, when he feels better around noon, he actually has to change into Zero’s outfit in his bathroom instead of his bedroom. It smells of vomit even worse in here, so he rummages in the cabinet under the sink and sprays the air freshener he finds there.
He comes out of the bathroom smelling like cheap lilac to find only Euphemia remains. She cradles her sling close to her body.
“C.C. told Ougi that you and I were in a meeting all morning to discuss the Britannian Royal Family.”
“I see,” Lelouch mutters, thinking this is adequate, and picks up his mask.
“Lelouch. May I see Cornelia now?”
Lelouch looks at her, sadly and seriously. She has the same expression on her own face. He nods, she nods, Lelouch dons his mask, and together they walk to where Cornelia is held.
Needless to say, the reaction of the Second Princess is less than favorable. She yells and screams and shrieks and lunges at Zero more than once, at which point the guards have to catch her and throw her back. Euphemia earnestly sobs into one hand.
One last attempt before Zero forces Euphy to leave: “Sister... do you still love me?”
Cornelia’s face is like a demon’s, twisted in rage and agony. “Of course I do, little Euphy.”
Euphemia hugs her sister and pecks her on the lips. Cornelia returns the embrace fiercely, almost violently, and releases Euphemia in short order. Then the older sibling turns her back on the younger.
“You weren’t expecting something else?” Zero questions, alone with Euphy in the hallway.
“No, I can’t say I was,” Euphy admits with a sigh.
Zero takes Euphy to the medical ward and orders the staff to tolerate her hindering presence but also teach her how to do menial tasks. Euphemia will just have to overcome her privileged upbringing and learn to scrub floors, one-handed at that. And anyway, he thinks Euphy is best suited to a place where people are helped, rather than where people are purposefully killed.
Keeping with the long line of people who constantly wish to meet with Zero, a Britannian man is presented to him at around four o clock. The man is tall, as tall as Ougi or Zero in his heels. He is introduced as Diethard Reid and is held before Zero at gunpoint, but the man does not seem the least bit fazed. He only has eyes for Zero.
"It's an honor that you would meet me like this, Zero."
--
"You are the one that has been bringing the Black Knights information on Britannia's movements?” Zero asks.
“Yes, that was me. I wish to serve you, Zero, and document you-- I‘m a media man, you see. I’ve heard about the wayward princess, and I think I can help the situation.” The man is utterly confident, his voice loud and clear.
Another Britannian is fitted with a Black Knights uniform that day.
Zero becomes aware quite quickly that Euphemia’s turn created a stir not only amongst Britannians, but amongst the Black Knights as well. Diethard Reid’s induction only amplifies the ripples. Before Zero can make an official announcement, however, Kallen seems to beat him to it. Standing outside the mess room, he can hear her shouting to minimal murmurs, practically silence.
“--and have you forgotten that I’m half Britannian? You’ve never questioned my loyalties, have you, just because of my blood? And Zero isn’t Japanese either, we all know that by now!”
“Yeah, but Kallen, it’s different, she’s a princess--” one meek soul tries to interject.
“You don’t even know her!” Kallen says, passion and anger fueling her voice. “Zero hates Britannia enough to fight against it. What automatically makes Euphemia any different?”
It goes on like this for some time, and Lelouch smiles fondly under his mask. Zero eventually does take the reigns and makes a more elegant speech about remembering goals, about accepting all races and ideologies for the sake of justice. But later, he catches Kallen by herself and lays a hand on her arm-- similar to the hand she once laid on his --and thanks her. Honestly.
Lelouch dreams again of Suzaku. Again, the tree. Again, the smile. And the hands and the holding and a kiss. And the kiss lingers, there in the dream, Suzaku is so warm and solid and his heart throbs in time with Lelouch’s. And the kiss lingers, here in the waking world, in Lelouch’s tingling lips and burning esophagus at five o seven. Lelouch drinks a lot of water, takes the pills for nausea, drinks more water. He doesn’t throw up, and feels marginally happier about the day ahead.
Diethard is extremely efficient. He is all about appearances and production, which is really half of Zero’s existence, and so things work out well between the two men. He has cameras and a stage and people running around with tasks to accomplish in next to no time. Euphemia’s hair is being braided and rolled properly, into a more severe style her subjects wouldn’t be used to. Her makeup is more subtly striking rather than soft feminine grace, but still, she is undeniably Princess Euphemia. A timid new recruit has the balls to walk up to Zero with a rag and some spray-bottle cleaner and request to shine Zero’s mask for the camera. Zero is a little offended-- like he would ever let his mask be anything but gleaming --but he is also a little amused at the hopeful look in guy’s eye. It can’t possibly hurt, so Zero bends from 6 foot 2 to the man’s five foot five and lets him wipe the surface.
Diethard asks for test shots, sound checks, all perfectly smooth and in control. Euphemia is practicing the speech she has written herself to her hair stylist, an older Japanese woman who is starting to smile. Her makeup artist asks her how old she is and she answers, “16, why?” but the makeup girl doesn’t answer.
Together, Zero and Euphemia address the world using Diethard’s omega line. Euphemia formally forfeits her claim to the throne. Zero establishes the United States of Japan, beginning with Narita. It is beautiful.
---
Lelouch returns every night to Suzaku. After the first couple of kissing dreams, they don’t go any further and sometimes go back a step. Many times Lelouch lays down by Suzaku’s side in the sunflower patch, and there are no corpses and there are no bugs and there is no dirt, just clean grass. The world in his dreams is so incredibly warm, just the right amount of heat, as if a blanket is draping over them. Lelouch presses his body to the curve of Suzaku’s back. Suzaku places his hands over Lelouch’s. Lelouch rests his cheek on Suzaku’s cheek. That is the most explicit his dreams get; mostly they sit by each other’s side and joke around, play hitting each other and pinching each other’s sides. Sometimes they walk to a nearby pond, remove their shoes, and dip their feet in water, and other times they wrestle, and still other times Suzaku just slings an arm around his shoulders and leans against his side. It’s undignified but comfortable.
Eventually he comes to regard it as coming home from a long day of work, just like he used to come home to Nunally after school. In the morning he takes his pills and he doesn’t throw up, and his body stops feeling so weak the more water he drinks. When he wakes up, though, he wonders why Nunally isn’t also in these dreams.
Lelouch calls Nunally every single day. At first she was still angry, and not very receptive, but they are siblings that love each other and Nunally finds it in her heart to forgive him.
Nunally constantly worries about his actions as Zero; she says that he seems so busy all the time that she fears he might just collapse. Lelouch does his best to sooth away his fear even if he himself can’t shake the very same feeling. Nunally says also that she is treated very well by Kaguya but that she misses school terribly. She often gets calls on her cellphone from members of the student council, and she feels bad for not answering them. Lelouch says that he wished she could break her phone like he did, but she doesn’t have a secondary one like he did, either.
Lelouch tells her about Euphemia and reassures her that Cornelia is still alive and kicking. Euphemia’s knees are often red now, he says, because she has to scrub floors. Nunally is aghast and chastises Lelouch, but he explains quite plainly that she has no skills. After that, Nunally quiets down, because they both know that it’s true.
He doesn’t tell Nunally that she is bullied. As Zero, he does his best to stop it, but he can’t show favoritism. In any case, Euphy is beginning to look a little ragged. She goes to bed when her superiors no longer have work for her, and she wakes at six o clock sharp. Her showers are brief, her shampoo is cheap, and her uniform can’t be washed every single day.
Lelouch positively drowns in guilt. This is all his fault; he, who used Geass on Euphemia to force her into this life. She tries not to complain, which he admires greatly, and so he sends her gifts via Kallen or C.C. A pizza here, instead of usual rations, a flower there, picked from the mountainside. Kallen, who now has adopted the habit of treating Lelouch like she treats Tamaki when they are alone and he has no mask, scoffs at him.
“If I didn’t know she was your sister, I’d swear you were courting her,” Kallen says. Then she pauses, thinks about it, and crinkles her nose. “Well, that’s not saying much. What with the suspicious way I remember you treating Nunally and the general history of royalty throughout the world. Seriously, do you have a siscon or something?”
Lelouch throws his water bottle at her.
---
As Zero is passing by a particular building in the city one day, Euphemia emerges, her forehead sweating and her eyes squinting in the sudden glare of daylight. “Zero, sir, may I have a word with you?”
Zero is with General Katase and Tohdoh, and so responds, “I am busy. If you want something of me, it will have to wait another day.”
She wipes her brow, a flower that he sent her in hand.
He finds her the next day, in her room with Kallen. He is in the process of removing his mask by the time he registers what is happening before him: Kallen, scissors in hand, is in the middle of cutting off Euphemia’s ponytail.
“Euphemia!” he yells, accidentally dropping his mask. It clatters to the floor and his revealed face is horrified, in a restrained way. Kallen freezes, but it is too late; half of the hair is severed, the clean cut edges looking like the fibers of thick rope.
Euphy looks into the mirror to see Lelouch staring at her and offers a nervous smile. She explains while he is still gaping like a fish.
“Kallen told me that in ancient Japan, cutting off long hair symbolized being banished from your home. And in modern Japanese culture, for girls it means ‘starting anew’.”
She says this quietly but without hesitation, and Lelouch’s heart slows down as he observes her calm face.
“What’s the big deal?” Kallen asks, a little unsure. “If she wants to--”
“It’s just--” Lelouch begins, but for once he has trouble completing his thoughts. To help him along, he thinks of all the Britannian women he has known in his life: mother, Guinevere, Cornelia, Nunally, Milly, Shirley, Nina. “That may very well be Japanese culture. But it’s not Britannian culture. Our ladies always wear their hair long, even our warriors.” Indeed, Milly’s hair and Cornelia’s were the shortest he’d ever seen on a Britannian woman. And he is sure there must be other Britannian women with short hair, but it’s so... “I was just startled by the change. I apologize.”
“Sure,” Kallen says, frowning at him but not quite hostile as she usually is. She finishes chopping through Euphy’s hair as Lelouch bends down to pick up the helmet. He sets Zero’s mask on the cluttered table between the two beds. (He is very surprised by how messy the room is. Is it Kallen’s fault, or Euphemia’s, because Euphy doesn’t really know how to clean house? And C.C. is like this as well. Aren’t women supposed to be cleaner than men?)
“Here,” he says. He takes the scissors from Kallen and they do a little squeezing because this room is smaller than Zero’s quarters. Kallen removes his cloak for him as well and sits with it folded in her lap, one hand clutched around the enormously long ponytail. Lelouch fixes the sloppy cut, makes it even all around instead of the weird shape created by pulling the front even
with the back while cutting. Euphemia’s eyes are tightly closed, as if she’s resisting some great suffering.
Kallen considers Euphy’s reflection. “I think she’d look cute with bangs.”
Lelouch hums and agrees, and Euphy says, “Whatever you think is best,” so Lelouch brings forward the front of her hair and cuts it straight across her forehead. The cut done, Lelouch finds a comb and brush and works it over until Euphy’s natural curls come into play and the underside of her new hair flips inward.
Kallen chuckles, hands Euphy the remnants of her hair, and leaves the room.
“Lelouch?” Euphy asks, while Lelouch continues to run his fingers through her hair, his stomach pressed against her back. “Do you know someone named Mao?”
She isn’t looking at him as she asks. He doesn’t know what this is all about, but he says he doesn’t know the name and she drops the subject. Lelouch tucks a fresh flower behind her ear and smiles. For the first time since he entered the room, she smiles too. “So you are my brother. I’ve been looking for you.”
She pauses and hums. "Lelouch... about my brother..."
"Which one?" he asks, while being aware of exactly who she means.
"Schneizel."
Lelouch tilts his head down so that the mirror doesn't reflect the poisonous smile seeping onto his face. "Hmm?"
"He's coming to Area 11. Ever since Cornelia was captured, he's been planning to come here as soon as he's finished with his part of the EU. He'll be the one to take over, now."
"When?"
"Last I heard... it would be eight days from today. That's the earliest he can get away, he says, because the situation over there is unstable. The original landing site was to be the base on Shikinejima, but now..."
Lelouch smoothes her hair back down, bends over, and places a small kiss on the crown of her head. He rests his hands on her shoulders. (Like with Suzaku in his dreams.) "Thank you, Euphy."
Euphy suddenly turns on her stool to look up at Lelouch, eyes shimmering. "Please don't kill him either."
"You keep telling me that, Euphy," he says softly. He feels dangerous as he squeezes her shoulders. "I can't just keep all my political dissidents locked up in separate rooms for the rest of their lives."
She looks into his red eye-- the one he has grown accustomed to hiding with a swinging curtain of thick hair --as if she can see it shining through his darkness and knows exactly what it is and what it's done to her. "Why not?" she asks, and for once her voice is strong.
Lelouch doesn't really know how to answer that.
(Because I want to see the maggots eat them.)
"Euphy, I won't kill Schneizel." Not immediately. "I have questions to ask him. He's the one who dragged away my mother's body."
Euphy is only a little bit appeased. "Do you want to kill father?" she whispers.
The answer to that one is very simple. "Yes."
Lelouch can't seem to stop touching his angelic little sister. He brushes a hand across her cheek and smiles again. "Euphy, I love you. Wholeheartedly."
She squeezes his hand back.
And there's something else within him, something else he wants to say, but for whatever reason he cannot put it into words; the wretched, painful sort of emotion he feels coursing not through his blood but through his bones. So he asks her if there was anything else she wanted to discuss, listens to her say no, and then departs with a swish of the cape he throws back around his shoulders and the slick click of his mask locking into place.
"We have one week, o Knights for justice! So beat on! Now is the time to move forward. Cornelia and Euphemia are both in our hands. Guilford is no match. We advance at once to Tokyo! We will take back the heart of Japan!"
A chanting of Zero! Zero! Zero! there arises and echoes over the mountaintops.
He finds out who Mao is soon enough, as he observes his forces begin to move out in droves: this, the combined force of his Black Knights, Katase's Japanese Liberation Front, the remnants of other resistance groups supported by Kyoto including the Blood of the Samurai faction, and the mass swell of new members that made it to Narita after the capture of Cornelia.
As Zero prepares to climb into his Burai, a sweating nurse runs to his side. She does not pause to catch her breath but says, "Eu-Eu- Euphemia... gone... she disappeared... with a man..."
"What..."
"A Chinese man... She said--" she straightens and takes a few deep gasps of air. "--she said his name was Mao. She said she'd be back, and left with him. But that was yesterday. Euphemia hasn't returned since yesterday!"
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Code Geass
Character(s): Lelouch-centric. Euphemia, Kallen. Mild Lelouch+Suzaku.
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 seven, ongoing, incomplete. Unedited.
Lelouch is a little pissed that, when he feels better around noon, he actually has to change into Zero’s outfit in his bathroom instead of his bedroom. It smells of vomit even worse in here, so he rummages in the cabinet under the sink and sprays the air freshener he finds there.
He comes out of the bathroom smelling like cheap lilac to find only Euphemia remains. She cradles her sling close to her body.
“C.C. told Ougi that you and I were in a meeting all morning to discuss the Britannian Royal Family.”
“I see,” Lelouch mutters, thinking this is adequate, and picks up his mask.
“Lelouch. May I see Cornelia now?”
Lelouch looks at her, sadly and seriously. She has the same expression on her own face. He nods, she nods, Lelouch dons his mask, and together they walk to where Cornelia is held.
Needless to say, the reaction of the Second Princess is less than favorable. She yells and screams and shrieks and lunges at Zero more than once, at which point the guards have to catch her and throw her back. Euphemia earnestly sobs into one hand.
One last attempt before Zero forces Euphy to leave: “Sister... do you still love me?”
Cornelia’s face is like a demon’s, twisted in rage and agony. “Of course I do, little Euphy.”
Euphemia hugs her sister and pecks her on the lips. Cornelia returns the embrace fiercely, almost violently, and releases Euphemia in short order. Then the older sibling turns her back on the younger.
“You weren’t expecting something else?” Zero questions, alone with Euphy in the hallway.
“No, I can’t say I was,” Euphy admits with a sigh.
Zero takes Euphy to the medical ward and orders the staff to tolerate her hindering presence but also teach her how to do menial tasks. Euphemia will just have to overcome her privileged upbringing and learn to scrub floors, one-handed at that. And anyway, he thinks Euphy is best suited to a place where people are helped, rather than where people are purposefully killed.
Keeping with the long line of people who constantly wish to meet with Zero, a Britannian man is presented to him at around four o clock. The man is tall, as tall as Ougi or Zero in his heels. He is introduced as Diethard Reid and is held before Zero at gunpoint, but the man does not seem the least bit fazed. He only has eyes for Zero.
"It's an honor that you would meet me like this, Zero."
--
"You are the one that has been bringing the Black Knights information on Britannia's movements?” Zero asks.
“Yes, that was me. I wish to serve you, Zero, and document you-- I‘m a media man, you see. I’ve heard about the wayward princess, and I think I can help the situation.” The man is utterly confident, his voice loud and clear.
Another Britannian is fitted with a Black Knights uniform that day.
Zero becomes aware quite quickly that Euphemia’s turn created a stir not only amongst Britannians, but amongst the Black Knights as well. Diethard Reid’s induction only amplifies the ripples. Before Zero can make an official announcement, however, Kallen seems to beat him to it. Standing outside the mess room, he can hear her shouting to minimal murmurs, practically silence.
“--and have you forgotten that I’m half Britannian? You’ve never questioned my loyalties, have you, just because of my blood? And Zero isn’t Japanese either, we all know that by now!”
“Yeah, but Kallen, it’s different, she’s a princess--” one meek soul tries to interject.
“You don’t even know her!” Kallen says, passion and anger fueling her voice. “Zero hates Britannia enough to fight against it. What automatically makes Euphemia any different?”
It goes on like this for some time, and Lelouch smiles fondly under his mask. Zero eventually does take the reigns and makes a more elegant speech about remembering goals, about accepting all races and ideologies for the sake of justice. But later, he catches Kallen by herself and lays a hand on her arm-- similar to the hand she once laid on his --and thanks her. Honestly.
Lelouch dreams again of Suzaku. Again, the tree. Again, the smile. And the hands and the holding and a kiss. And the kiss lingers, there in the dream, Suzaku is so warm and solid and his heart throbs in time with Lelouch’s. And the kiss lingers, here in the waking world, in Lelouch’s tingling lips and burning esophagus at five o seven. Lelouch drinks a lot of water, takes the pills for nausea, drinks more water. He doesn’t throw up, and feels marginally happier about the day ahead.
Diethard is extremely efficient. He is all about appearances and production, which is really half of Zero’s existence, and so things work out well between the two men. He has cameras and a stage and people running around with tasks to accomplish in next to no time. Euphemia’s hair is being braided and rolled properly, into a more severe style her subjects wouldn’t be used to. Her makeup is more subtly striking rather than soft feminine grace, but still, she is undeniably Princess Euphemia. A timid new recruit has the balls to walk up to Zero with a rag and some spray-bottle cleaner and request to shine Zero’s mask for the camera. Zero is a little offended-- like he would ever let his mask be anything but gleaming --but he is also a little amused at the hopeful look in guy’s eye. It can’t possibly hurt, so Zero bends from 6 foot 2 to the man’s five foot five and lets him wipe the surface.
Diethard asks for test shots, sound checks, all perfectly smooth and in control. Euphemia is practicing the speech she has written herself to her hair stylist, an older Japanese woman who is starting to smile. Her makeup artist asks her how old she is and she answers, “16, why?” but the makeup girl doesn’t answer.
Together, Zero and Euphemia address the world using Diethard’s omega line. Euphemia formally forfeits her claim to the throne. Zero establishes the United States of Japan, beginning with Narita. It is beautiful.
---
Lelouch returns every night to Suzaku. After the first couple of kissing dreams, they don’t go any further and sometimes go back a step. Many times Lelouch lays down by Suzaku’s side in the sunflower patch, and there are no corpses and there are no bugs and there is no dirt, just clean grass. The world in his dreams is so incredibly warm, just the right amount of heat, as if a blanket is draping over them. Lelouch presses his body to the curve of Suzaku’s back. Suzaku places his hands over Lelouch’s. Lelouch rests his cheek on Suzaku’s cheek. That is the most explicit his dreams get; mostly they sit by each other’s side and joke around, play hitting each other and pinching each other’s sides. Sometimes they walk to a nearby pond, remove their shoes, and dip their feet in water, and other times they wrestle, and still other times Suzaku just slings an arm around his shoulders and leans against his side. It’s undignified but comfortable.
Eventually he comes to regard it as coming home from a long day of work, just like he used to come home to Nunally after school. In the morning he takes his pills and he doesn’t throw up, and his body stops feeling so weak the more water he drinks. When he wakes up, though, he wonders why Nunally isn’t also in these dreams.
Lelouch calls Nunally every single day. At first she was still angry, and not very receptive, but they are siblings that love each other and Nunally finds it in her heart to forgive him.
Nunally constantly worries about his actions as Zero; she says that he seems so busy all the time that she fears he might just collapse. Lelouch does his best to sooth away his fear even if he himself can’t shake the very same feeling. Nunally says also that she is treated very well by Kaguya but that she misses school terribly. She often gets calls on her cellphone from members of the student council, and she feels bad for not answering them. Lelouch says that he wished she could break her phone like he did, but she doesn’t have a secondary one like he did, either.
Lelouch tells her about Euphemia and reassures her that Cornelia is still alive and kicking. Euphemia’s knees are often red now, he says, because she has to scrub floors. Nunally is aghast and chastises Lelouch, but he explains quite plainly that she has no skills. After that, Nunally quiets down, because they both know that it’s true.
He doesn’t tell Nunally that she is bullied. As Zero, he does his best to stop it, but he can’t show favoritism. In any case, Euphy is beginning to look a little ragged. She goes to bed when her superiors no longer have work for her, and she wakes at six o clock sharp. Her showers are brief, her shampoo is cheap, and her uniform can’t be washed every single day.
Lelouch positively drowns in guilt. This is all his fault; he, who used Geass on Euphemia to force her into this life. She tries not to complain, which he admires greatly, and so he sends her gifts via Kallen or C.C. A pizza here, instead of usual rations, a flower there, picked from the mountainside. Kallen, who now has adopted the habit of treating Lelouch like she treats Tamaki when they are alone and he has no mask, scoffs at him.
“If I didn’t know she was your sister, I’d swear you were courting her,” Kallen says. Then she pauses, thinks about it, and crinkles her nose. “Well, that’s not saying much. What with the suspicious way I remember you treating Nunally and the general history of royalty throughout the world. Seriously, do you have a siscon or something?”
Lelouch throws his water bottle at her.
---
As Zero is passing by a particular building in the city one day, Euphemia emerges, her forehead sweating and her eyes squinting in the sudden glare of daylight. “Zero, sir, may I have a word with you?”
Zero is with General Katase and Tohdoh, and so responds, “I am busy. If you want something of me, it will have to wait another day.”
She wipes her brow, a flower that he sent her in hand.
He finds her the next day, in her room with Kallen. He is in the process of removing his mask by the time he registers what is happening before him: Kallen, scissors in hand, is in the middle of cutting off Euphemia’s ponytail.
“Euphemia!” he yells, accidentally dropping his mask. It clatters to the floor and his revealed face is horrified, in a restrained way. Kallen freezes, but it is too late; half of the hair is severed, the clean cut edges looking like the fibers of thick rope.
Euphy looks into the mirror to see Lelouch staring at her and offers a nervous smile. She explains while he is still gaping like a fish.
“Kallen told me that in ancient Japan, cutting off long hair symbolized being banished from your home. And in modern Japanese culture, for girls it means ‘starting anew’.”
She says this quietly but without hesitation, and Lelouch’s heart slows down as he observes her calm face.
“What’s the big deal?” Kallen asks, a little unsure. “If she wants to--”
“It’s just--” Lelouch begins, but for once he has trouble completing his thoughts. To help him along, he thinks of all the Britannian women he has known in his life: mother, Guinevere, Cornelia, Nunally, Milly, Shirley, Nina. “That may very well be Japanese culture. But it’s not Britannian culture. Our ladies always wear their hair long, even our warriors.” Indeed, Milly’s hair and Cornelia’s were the shortest he’d ever seen on a Britannian woman. And he is sure there must be other Britannian women with short hair, but it’s so... “I was just startled by the change. I apologize.”
“Sure,” Kallen says, frowning at him but not quite hostile as she usually is. She finishes chopping through Euphy’s hair as Lelouch bends down to pick up the helmet. He sets Zero’s mask on the cluttered table between the two beds. (He is very surprised by how messy the room is. Is it Kallen’s fault, or Euphemia’s, because Euphy doesn’t really know how to clean house? And C.C. is like this as well. Aren’t women supposed to be cleaner than men?)
“Here,” he says. He takes the scissors from Kallen and they do a little squeezing because this room is smaller than Zero’s quarters. Kallen removes his cloak for him as well and sits with it folded in her lap, one hand clutched around the enormously long ponytail. Lelouch fixes the sloppy cut, makes it even all around instead of the weird shape created by pulling the front even
with the back while cutting. Euphemia’s eyes are tightly closed, as if she’s resisting some great suffering.
Kallen considers Euphy’s reflection. “I think she’d look cute with bangs.”
Lelouch hums and agrees, and Euphy says, “Whatever you think is best,” so Lelouch brings forward the front of her hair and cuts it straight across her forehead. The cut done, Lelouch finds a comb and brush and works it over until Euphy’s natural curls come into play and the underside of her new hair flips inward.
Kallen chuckles, hands Euphy the remnants of her hair, and leaves the room.
“Lelouch?” Euphy asks, while Lelouch continues to run his fingers through her hair, his stomach pressed against her back. “Do you know someone named Mao?”
She isn’t looking at him as she asks. He doesn’t know what this is all about, but he says he doesn’t know the name and she drops the subject. Lelouch tucks a fresh flower behind her ear and smiles. For the first time since he entered the room, she smiles too. “So you are my brother. I’ve been looking for you.”
She pauses and hums. "Lelouch... about my brother..."
"Which one?" he asks, while being aware of exactly who she means.
"Schneizel."
Lelouch tilts his head down so that the mirror doesn't reflect the poisonous smile seeping onto his face. "Hmm?"
"He's coming to Area 11. Ever since Cornelia was captured, he's been planning to come here as soon as he's finished with his part of the EU. He'll be the one to take over, now."
"When?"
"Last I heard... it would be eight days from today. That's the earliest he can get away, he says, because the situation over there is unstable. The original landing site was to be the base on Shikinejima, but now..."
Lelouch smoothes her hair back down, bends over, and places a small kiss on the crown of her head. He rests his hands on her shoulders. (Like with Suzaku in his dreams.) "Thank you, Euphy."
Euphy suddenly turns on her stool to look up at Lelouch, eyes shimmering. "Please don't kill him either."
"You keep telling me that, Euphy," he says softly. He feels dangerous as he squeezes her shoulders. "I can't just keep all my political dissidents locked up in separate rooms for the rest of their lives."
She looks into his red eye-- the one he has grown accustomed to hiding with a swinging curtain of thick hair --as if she can see it shining through his darkness and knows exactly what it is and what it's done to her. "Why not?" she asks, and for once her voice is strong.
Lelouch doesn't really know how to answer that.
(Because I want to see the maggots eat them.)
"Euphy, I won't kill Schneizel." Not immediately. "I have questions to ask him. He's the one who dragged away my mother's body."
Euphy is only a little bit appeased. "Do you want to kill father?" she whispers.
The answer to that one is very simple. "Yes."
Lelouch can't seem to stop touching his angelic little sister. He brushes a hand across her cheek and smiles again. "Euphy, I love you. Wholeheartedly."
She squeezes his hand back.
And there's something else within him, something else he wants to say, but for whatever reason he cannot put it into words; the wretched, painful sort of emotion he feels coursing not through his blood but through his bones. So he asks her if there was anything else she wanted to discuss, listens to her say no, and then departs with a swish of the cape he throws back around his shoulders and the slick click of his mask locking into place.
"We have one week, o Knights for justice! So beat on! Now is the time to move forward. Cornelia and Euphemia are both in our hands. Guilford is no match. We advance at once to Tokyo! We will take back the heart of Japan!"
A chanting of Zero! Zero! Zero! there arises and echoes over the mountaintops.
He finds out who Mao is soon enough, as he observes his forces begin to move out in droves: this, the combined force of his Black Knights, Katase's Japanese Liberation Front, the remnants of other resistance groups supported by Kyoto including the Blood of the Samurai faction, and the mass swell of new members that made it to Narita after the capture of Cornelia.
As Zero prepares to climb into his Burai, a sweating nurse runs to his side. She does not pause to catch her breath but says, "Eu-Eu- Euphemia... gone... she disappeared... with a man..."
"What..."
"A Chinese man... She said--" she straightens and takes a few deep gasps of air. "--she said his name was Mao. She said she'd be back, and left with him. But that was yesterday. Euphemia hasn't returned since yesterday!"
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no subject
Date: 2011-03-29 03:13 pm (UTC)All of your fics are very easy to read and flow very well(from my POV, obviously:P)
I think we're lucky that you've joined the bandwagonXD
My fav thing about this fill would be Lelouch's dreams about Suzaku)
I can see you're struggling a bit with the latest parts - but Charles' and Schneizel's dissappearance is intrigung, and so is what the heck Mao has done to Euphie, so, please go on.
Zero's deranged laugh to the latest news was spot-on.
P.S.
Which Zaku should do a happy dance for you?
Cheerleader with pompoms or KoZ, swaying his hips?
Whichever it is, have one;)
no subject
Date: 2011-03-31 02:42 am (UTC)About Decayed: yup, I'm much more of a relationship and feelings sort of writer (which is exactly inverse to me as a person, how strange), so I struggle with plot and always want to write the emotional scenes. So, hah, the dreams of Suzaku are always my favorite part as well. XD
[/takes a cheerleader!zaku and enjoys his lulziness thoroughly]
<333
Date: 2011-03-31 01:22 pm (UTC)I'm just a self-appointed spokesperson:D
Your emotional scenes are very emotional, so it's all right)
haha, and it's better than my accidental infamy for writing kitten!porn, now twiceXD
not to mention those exercises in CG!demonologyXD