The Sun, a code geass fanfic

Title: The Sun

Synopsis: Gino would come to her cell and just talk. It was never an 'important' discussion that was life changing, but Kallen didn't realize just how much she liked the talks, or Gino himself, until she almost lost him. Kallen/Gino

Rating: K+

A/N: Ah! My first Code Geass fic! Yay! How long I have waited to be able to write something for this fandom that doesn't suck! Oh, and this has to do with a story in one of the short novels that has to do with Gino having fallen in love with an Eleven maid in his household. I haven't read the novels (because they aren't released where I live) but I read about it online, so I'm sorry if I mess up some of the information. :] So read, relax and please review.

Disclaimer: I don't own Code Geass, because if I did Gino would have been in the show a lot more.

Most of the time, they didn't really talk about anything. Just stupid crap. Stuff that Kallen was sure she'd forget in twenty minutes when someone else came to taunt her or do other shit like that. Just stupid crap. Her favorite color, the horse that he had when he was a kid, the time when her brother and his friends left her in the forest to fend for herself, how to make his favorite food.

All of it was pretty trivial.

Kallen never talked about this sort of stuff with Lelouch. With him it was all about the world that they would create, and how they were important. With Lelouch things mattered. They would change the world. With Gino it was the amount of cheese to put on a dish from the E.U. Not that it was bad. At least it was nice to have someone to talk to, but the conversations weren't exactly earth shattering.

"You really like cooking, don't you?" Kallen asked with a bored attitude one day when Gino came to visit and he had yet again asked her about some Eleven recipe that he liked. He seemed to come more and more frequently. It was almost every day now, though Kallen couldn't quite be sure. She had no watch and no way to see what the day was. The only way she could attempt to separate one day of boredom to the next was watch if the people who came to see her were in different outfits. Other than that she had no indicator unless someone told her. Sometimes someone would humor her and give her the date, but most of the time people stayed clear. No one wanted to get involved with the half-Eleven terrorist. The exception being Gino, for some reason.

Gino laughed and put his hand behind his head. Kallen liked that. It seemed to be something he did pretty often. It was nice to see someone who did stuff like that; it made them seem more human. She had always gotten that with Ohgi, or Tamaki, the people who she had known as a kid and were friends with her brother, but around the newer Black Knights. Around them things were so… awkward. They never let their true selves come through. They just acted as if they were Zero's pawns. Not human, just soldiers. It scared Kallen. People should be humans, not skeletons.

"I guess I like it all right, more I just like eating it. I can't cook at all." He looked down for a minute. "There was an Elev… a Japanese girl who lived at my house when I was younger. She was a wonderful cook." He said as he averted his eyes away from Kallen and onto one of the walls of the room. His usual smile was still on his face, but it was different. More contemplative. Sadder.

Usually Kallen would have said something about Gino nearly saying Eleven, but there was something about his smile that stopped her. That smile was so different, somehow. "You liked her cooking?" Kallen asked slightly stupidly, but she didn't know what else she could have said in the situation. They were, in fact, talking about food.

It seemed to take Gino a moment to register the fact that Kallen had asked him a question. He seemed to be in his own world, lost in the past. Kallen could relate to that, but she wasn't sure how one Japanese girl could make a Knight of Rounds so meditative.

"Uh… Yeah. She was a brilliant cook." He said with a laugh. The hand instinctively reached back behind his head, but Kallen could tell that his joy was forced. Gino was like the sun; he was bright and sunny, but when there was a metaphorical cloud over him, it was obvious.

Kallen realized that Gino was one of the people who the world hated to see upset. He was just so damn happy that when he was sad, everyone around him could feel it. As much as she hated to admit, Kallen disliked seeing this boy sad. It was unnatural.

"Hey Gino, is there something-" She began but was halted by the sudden movement of the chair Gino was sitting on. Before she could take a breath he was walking towards the exit.

"I'll see you Kallen, I need to go." And with that, he was gone.

Kallen didn't realize how much she enjoyed Gino's visits until they were seeming to disappear. For the next week, or at least what seemed like a week, Gino didn't come or came, but was surrounded by a posse of people and barely spoke. And because of this Kallen felt lonely. Gino had brightened her days and without seeing him she thought that she may go insane. She hated it.

Kallen knew that she was being selfish and childish, but she thought Gino should just get over whatever was bothering him and come back to her.

Though she would never admit it to the blonde-haired jackass, she missed him. A lot. More than she thought she would.

Today Nunally's stories of Lelouch as a child didn't amuse her as they usually did. Once a week the viceroy would come see Kallen. To talk and smile and to reassure her that though she was an Eleven terrorist, there were still people who cared about her. It was kind, so like Nunally. Kallen really could see why Lelouch would have done anything for the sweet girl, but that day Kallen didn't have the patience for that.

"And this one time, at Suzaku's ho-" Nunally began, but Kallen couldn't stand it anymore. She interrupted the viceroy. She could have been killed for it, but she didn't care. The curiosity was killing her already.

"How has Gino been?" Kallen asked, her face ashen and worried. Nunally sighed, worrying Kallen even more. It took something truly awful for the kindest girl in the world to sigh like that.

"I wish I could tell you good news Kallen, but Gino doesn't seem to be doing so well this past week." She paused in hesitation, not sure how much she should tell Kallen. But then again, she knew that Gino was rather fond of her, so she was sure that he wouldn't mind if she divulged a few of the details that she knew. "I don't know what's wrong specifically, but he's just seemed down. No one really knows what to do; it's so out of character for him. Everyone's worried."

"I'm sorry for that then." Kallen and Nunally's attention both flew to the entrance to the room, where Gino had apparently entered, unnoticed. He was smiling, but yet again it was forced. His eyes told Kallen a different story. "I don't mean for people to worry about me."

Kallen had to admit that Nunally was able to regain composure rather quickly. Perhaps she wasn't quite as worthless a politician as Kallen had thought. "It's fine Gino, just try to cheer up, for the sake of all of us. We all care about you."

Gino slowly walked into the room. Hesitantly putting one foot in front of the other, as if it was difficult for him. A laugh nearly escaped Kallen's lips. For a person who went into battle in a giant fighting robot daily, talking to a girl shouldn't be that hard. "I'll try my best viceroy, but I was just wondering if I could speak to Miss Kouzuki for a moment alone." He said, his eyes seeming to avoid Kallen's at all costs.

Kallen tried to ignore her heart beating a bit faster and how her breath was a little shorter. She definitely could ignore the fact that Gino looked so handsome and so much kinder than Lelouch. And she didn't even feel the want to reach out and touch Gino and to comfort him right now.

No, Kallen could feel none of that. Or at least she tried not to.

"It's no problem Gino. I'll get out of you guys' hair. I'll see you soon Kallen." She said with a smile.

"Thank you for your time Nunally. It was a pleasure, like always." She replied as cheerfully as she could, though the sudden dryness that entered her throat was making it difficult for her to speak.

Nunally smiled once more and directed her wheelchair out of the room, leaving Kallen and Gino alone. It wasn't until that moment until Kallen realized how much she had really missed him. Of course she had an inkling, and had felt lonely, but she now felt so much relief that she could start crying. Just seeing him alone again was nice. There was a sense of satisfaction that she felt just from that.

By the time Nunally was gone Gino was only halfway down the long walkway that separated the exit of the room to Kallen's clear cell. He was walking slowly, deliberately. It drove Kallen mad.

"I should apologize to you," Gino said when he was finally near the cell after what seemed like an eternity to Kallen. "I haven't had the clearest schedule this week." He said with an impish grin. Kallen couldn't help but to notice the dark circles that had appeared under his eyes.

Kallen tried to seem like she didn't care. "It's not a big deal. It's not like you're obligated to entertain the terrorist."

The indifference that she tried to feign didn't seem to be coming out quite clearly enough. "You're not a very good actress Kouzuki." He said as he took a seat on the wooden chair that sat next to Kallen's cell for visitors to sit in. It seemed so empty without Gino in it. It needed him in it to seem like it belonged there.

"Whatever." Kallen said looking away. Trying to constrain the joy that she felt that this boy was sitting next to her again was difficult. If only she could just make him smile again. She took a peek at him; he was looking at her with his summer sky eyes. She looked away quickly, not quite able to ignore the butterflies that were flying around in her stomach at the moment. "What's been up with you anyway? You've even got the viceroy worried about you."

Kallen seemed to have hit the nail right on the head.

With a sigh Gino turned to look at the relatively bleak surroundings in Kallen's prison. "You know, I'm not doing all of this because I hate the Japanese." Kallen stayed silent, hoping that it would make him continue to speak. His stare found its way to Kallen yet again. She held his gaze strongly with her own. She would be there for him. She wasn't going to let him continue to hurt like that. "That girl who worked for my family, she was a year younger than I am."

"Was?" Kallen asked, not especially wanting to hear the answer to that question.

Some of the color drained from Gino's face. "I don't quite know what happened to her. You see, when I told my parents about wanting to marry her they 'took care of her' for seducing me." He spat. "She might be dead, she might be hurt, homeless. I don't know. I never will. There's no way for me to find her, even though it was all my fault. She was sweet, kind. She didn't want me to say anything, she said she would have been fine just following me, but I didn't want that. I wanted her to be with me as my equal, but now I've ruined her entire life for a bit of teenage romance." Gino put his hand on the glass of Kallen's cell defeated.

"I ran away. I ran off and joined the army." He said looking at Kallen with eyes that asked her to forgive him, to tell him that his sins were okay and that what he did wasn't as awful as it was. "I couldn't stay there. My parents nearly disowned me, that thought only lasted until they found out that I was progressing so quickly through the ranks in the army. Then I was appointed Knight of Three and it was like all of my mistakes meant nothing to them anymore. They laughed and smiled even though I never wanted to see them again. But I still have to deal with those people, to pretend like it's okay that they destroyed her life."

Kallen didn't realize that she wasn't breathing anymore.

"I never got to apologize to her. I thought that that was enough punishment. To live with the guilt. And then I saw you, and I thought 'oh, shit'. You're nothing like her Kallen. At all. You're loud and angry and aren't going to stop until the world is yours. And I think to my self that it's going to happen again. I'm going to get this girl killed and I'm going to feel like that again, and I didn't want that to happen." He stopped to take a breath. "That's why I wanted you to take the name Stated, and to stop being a terrorist and join the Knights of Round. Because if you did I could give myself a way out. I wouldn't have to fall in love with the wrong person again and we could survive all of this."

He buried his face in his hands. Kallen felt petrified. She couldn't move or speak. It was too much to take in, too much to handle. And the thought that Gino could be so happy with all of this behind him… She wasn't sure how he could have survived with that sort of guilt.

"I've never told anyone this. Not Suzaku or even Anya, my two closest friends. I'd probably lose my position if word got out and I'd be forced to return to my parents' home. I'm giving that to you Kallen, you can do what you want with this. It doesn't matter anymore. Because no matter what, we're going to be on opposite sides and we'll probably both end up dead by the end of this. I just want you to know that… You mean a lot. And that I thought you were her punishment, but I'm not so sure anymore."

He lifted his face up. Kallen could see the fear in her eyes reflected in his. She had no idea what to do or what to say. All she could think of was how love was weird, and how in love with this boy she was, but how much she couldn't afford to be.

"Kallen, I think that you were just what I needed. I think it was her telling me that what I did wasn't right, but she forgives me. Here's something that you should know Kallen, I'm pretty sure that I'm in love with you, and I know that we'll never be together, but I thought you should know." He stood up and sighed. "And that's what was bothering me. Thanks for listening." Then he began to walk away.

"Wait!" Kallen said, not wanting to see his retreating back and wanting to tell him, somehow, that she felt the same way. He stopped, but he didn't turn around. "That recipe we were talking about the other day… You weren't right. You have to use four eggs or else it won't come out right." And then Gino turned his head around, smiled, and they both knew it was okay.

The sun was back, and he was shining like always.

"No, you're wrong. They crossed the mountains first, and then they made it to the temple. It makes no sense if they got to the temple first, if they did that then why would they have bothered crossing the mountains?" Kallen said snidely to Gino. They were comparing the tales that they had read as children, laughing at the lapses in the memory of the other person.

It was nice to just talk about inconsequential things with all that was going on around them. Kallen was beginning to believe that there was nothing wrong with taking a step back to relax and just enjoy the time with the people she cared about while she had the chance. Not every conversation had to be life-or-death.

Gino laughed and the same old hand went behind his same old head. "I guess you're right Kouzuki, as always." She was just happy that he was happy.

"You know it." Kallen said as she leaned back in the chair she had in her cell. A pause formed between the two people, and after a moment Kallen opened her mouth to fill it. "Gino, I've been thinking and-"

"Sir Weinberg! Sir Weinberg! You're needed, it looks like the Black Knights are at…" The messenger paused seeing Kallen staring at her. She grimaced. "Sir, you need to leave this Eleven scum. There's a meeting for all Knights."

Gino opened his mouth as if to protest the treatment of Kallen, but she didn't want to get him into any trouble. "Just go." She said attempting to smile. He smiled back at her as an apology for the woman. Then he began walking away.

"We'll finish this conversation later." He called back at Kallen, turning his face towards her as he said it. Then he left.

Somehow, Kallen was relieved. That interruption had saved her. She had been on the brink of telling Gino that maybe being Britannian wouldn't be quite as bad as she thought it would have been. But after seeing that woman she knew that she would never fit in there and she would never be happy being anything but Japanese. She would just have to let Gino go someday, but she hoped that day would be a ways off. She wanted to just enjoy this time.

Kallen never got to say goodbye, the next day she was rescued and was once again on the battlefield against him. "I'm sorry." She whispered as she began to fight once again.

Fin