Disclaimer: Code Geass is owned by Sunrise, CLAMP, and some other companies and people; I can never keep track of all of them. Point is, I'm not involved at all. Used without permission, and not for profit, etc., etc. Also, Jun Fukuyama's voice is sexy.
...what?
Yukata
by misaoshiru
It had been less than a year since the Stadtfelds had moved back to Japan. Kallen, who had not been there since she was two, hated it immensely; all of her friends were back in Britannia, back home, and Japan was so foreign and confusing and weird to her. Without Naoto, she would probably have never even left the house, and as it was...
"Please come with us, Kallen?" Naoto pleaded as his younger sister sat defiantly, Indian style, on the porch, arms crossed over her chest. Her sundress was muddied and torn, but as much as she disdained the dress and manner of upper class Britannia, at least it was familiar, unlike that thing her brother wanted her to wear. "What's the point of living in Japan if you don't go to at least one festival?"
"I don't wanna. And I'm not wearing it."
"It's just a yukata. Everyone will be wearing them."
"But it's weird!"
"It'll be a chance to spend time with me and Mom."
"And what about Dad? Why isn't he ever around?"
"Kallen..." Naoto patted Kallen's head, ruffling his sister's hair as she leaned in, unconsciously, to his touch. "He has business in the homeland again, but he says he'll be back soon."
"Why couldn't he have taken us back with him? Why doesn't he care about us?"
"He cares about us! I'm sure he does. And he has his reasons he can't take us with him, too, though I dunno what. But for now, Japan's not that bad, right? Come on, I'll show you. Come to the festival with Mom and me. You'll have fun, I promise."
Kallen sniffed a little, then, reluctantly, said, "'kay." And she went, and she did have fun.
Scarcely a week after the festival, Britannia attacked Japan and annexed it as Area Eleven.
Years later, Kouzuki Kallen went into her walk-in closet and, pushing aside her Black Knight uniform from where it hung for a moment, touched the silken sleeve of a child-sized yukata. One day, Japan would be free again, and there would be festivals once more. One day, she'd wear a yukata again.
Too bad Naoto wouldn't be around to smile and tell her she looked good in it.
Author's Note
Yeah, yeah. I really should be working on NaNoWriMo. Or "Fragmentary Image." Or at least the multichapter post-series LelouchxKallen multichapter fic that I've started and may actually post eventually. But this idea came to mind, and I couldn't get the stupid thing to go away without writing it.
So, meh. Hardly my best piece of writing, but it'll serve for now.