A/N: So, first time publishing in a long time, first time in this fandom, and first time publishing a completed work (Because it's a one-shot, but still). This is semi-AU, in that it takes place in my head-canon universe and fudges with the timeline of Gino's ascent to Knight of Three (he can't have joined the military and miraculously been such an amazing pilot that the Emperor immediately Knighted him, come on!) I am neither an expert in military facts nor have I watched the series in a while, but I hope you enjoy none-the-less (and check out the second author's note below for some weird factoids...)
Disclaimer: I don't own Code Geass, and I am not a member of Switchoot (I have no musical talent to speak of, so...). Therefore, I do not own "This is Home".
This is Home (But I Can't Go Back to How it Was)
In the back of his mind, Gino acknowledges that he's always known the truth; that Lelouch, that Suzaku, was the side in the right, the side that would result in the safety of the world. But he's spent so long being indoctrinated to fight 'For King and For Country' that he missed the obvious indicators, and by the time he realized this fact he's so far into fighting the war on the side of Prince Schneizel, on the side of the Black Knights (and didn't that throw him for a loop to think every time), that there was no turning back. So when the new Empress (to whom he's sworn fealty, firmly seated in the belief that she'll be the least messed up ruler the royal family's produced in a long time) reveals her revelations about her brother's convoluted plans, to a select audience that includes Princess Cornelia, her ex-Knight (and, Gino suspects, her lover) Guilford, (a clearly uncomfortable to be the only Britannian in the room) Tohdou, and an unmasked Suzaku, all Gino can think is he hopes his cousin won't condemn him for choosing a different side. A cousin, it turns out, is the new Knight of One, promoted by Emperor Lelouch during his brief reign in what most of the court (and the military) is calling the power play of the century; not only was he promoted (though only jumping up one rank from Knight of Two isn't all that far, Gino thinks), but he had five subordinates placed in the empty Rounds spots (really four, though the average citizen doesn't understand that Rounds members can pick their own successors if they live long enough to retire), and all five are guaranteed not to be displaceable for the next six months, due to an unrepealable act meant to "ensure proper command is kept during the turnover of power to a new ruler" prohibiting the removal (but not appointment) of any new Rounds members for 180 days following the ascension of a new monarch.
That Princess Cornelia is worried about his cousin's agenda (being one of the only current ranking generals, and the only four-star, all others having perished in the war or turncoated to Schneizel's side and thus untrustworthy) and the Empress is worried about her new Knight of One's possible prejudice against Honorary Britannians and the former Numbers (understandable considering his cousin's Alexandre Deveraux, the Grand Duke of Somerset and Massachusetts, and therefore one of the most politically powerful people in Britannia even before becoming a Rounds member, but laughable after having met Alex). The Field Marshal's worries are more understandable, based in the fact that Alex has been the Commander of the Third Army (on top of being the Commander, Southern Command), and thus the Viceroy of pretty much all of Africa, since that campaign started, and has proven to be both particularly ruthless to enemy troops and effective at conquering, quelling, and keeping his new Areas rebellion-free and submissive to the Empire's might.
But Gino spent the six months prior to his appointment as the Knight of Three training and learning under Alex, his elder in age by two years but in wisdom and life experience by many more, and Alex is the one who supported his recommendation to Rounds status (even if the original nomination was by a General who owed Gino's father a favor, and without either Gino's knowledge or consent), both of which have earned Gino's loyalty; his respect was earned through seeing Alex's work, and through knowing how different a beast the military in Area Six has become through Alex's orchestrations, quietly shifting and growing while maintaining the main military's ignorance, because Area Six was only ever seen as a place to conquer and maybe find resources, but never as a place of any strategic importance beyond not having an enemy lying under the Homeland, and so its long been forgotten in the mind of the average Britannian citizen. All of this means for Gino that, when the Empress and the Princess begin speculating about their chances of repealing the act, or of filling in the Rounds with their own loyal operatives, Gino keeps his mouth firmly shut, only suggesting when prompted that they take a trip down to meet the man they're vilifying for his actions during Lelouch's rule. It does surprise him that Suzaku's joined in on the game, but it also doesn't, as Alex was the sort of compartmentalizing man that drove his subordinates insane because he just didn't think to cross-share information, or he didn't believe that someone else had to know. Which means he never would have gone out of his way to introduce himself to the Knight of Zero, would probably have actively avoided meeting the man, and Lelouch's penchant for keeping secrets would have fed off that, leaving Suzaku in the dark about the third party within the Zero Requiem, because Gino has no doubt that Alex would've figured it out. But it's left them scrambling to play catch-up with Lelouch's plans, now, and that's left them on the wrong foot and in a dangerously precarious position.
But the two women agree with him, and before he knows it he's arranging for a flight down to Rio de Janeiro for their little crew (minus Tohdou, who has firmly declared it not his business, and Suzaku, who has to stay behind to keep an eye of Schneizel, but plus the Empress' personal knight from her Princess days, a young man named Henry Mercer, who looks familiar but who Gino can't place).
He doesn't know what he was expecting when they landed, but this was not it. It's not Alex who greets them, but his grandmother, the newly elected Governor-General of Brazil (which leads to the Empress's suspicions escalating, not knowing the history of the former Princess Isabelle si Britannia, now Isabella Deveraux, or how the citizens of South Britannia, and Brazil in particular, have sworn undying loyalty to her), who is accompanied by the new Knight of Four. Gino can't help snickering at the sight of Luc Mercier dressed in the formal outfit of a Rounds member, and catches Luc rolling his eyes at him. It's a brief moment of levity between his former CO/training instructor/'whatever else Alex asked him to teach Gino' and him, but it goes a long way to assuring Gino that he's forgiven.
The trip to Saint Christopher's Palace is spent riding in the backseat of an armor-plated SUV riding Tail-end Charlie to the Empress' motorcade, but Gino doesn't notice because he spends the whole time gossiping like a young school-girl with Luc (who attempts to act with maturity, but the Earl of Montreal has about as much maturity as a five-year old when not being official); the first time he squeals upon learning that Alex has a girlfriend (they'd been taking bets in the barracks about his orientation when Gino left), the driver of their SUV nearly slams on the breaks while drawing his sidearm (which reveals more about his previous posting, and training, than Gino would've learned otherwise). Luc says something to the driver in a low voice and not in the local language (which Gino was forced to pick up quickly two years ago), which leaves Gino confused. The wide-eyed look he gives Luc simply gets him an 'I'll tell you later' and shrug, so he doesn't push, but the subsequent squeals from the backseat don't make the driver twitch a muscle-except for the first time Luc squeals, when the wide-eyed driver actually turns around to stare at them, and gets screamed at by Luc to 'watch the damn road, Jack, this isn't the Sahara!' This is turn causes the guy riding shotgun, who hasn't made a sound or moved a muscle the entire time Gino's been in the car, to double over laughing, which in turn makes Luc and Jack crack up. It's a little depressing to Gino, as its obviously an inside joke, and this is obviously a combat team, is obviously Luc's combat team, and Gino used to be the guy riding shotgun while Luc's younger brother, young enough he really shouldn't have been driving except that nobody trusted Gino to drive and Luc, who always rode with Alex, wanted to keep an eye on him; so his little brother was the driver and Gino was the guy riding shotgun and pretending not to listen to the gossip Luc was nattering on to Alex about, and which Alex always pretended not to listen to on principle. This line of thought makes Gino smile, though, because he's finally realized where he's seen the Empress's personal knight, and that realization leads to the revelation that Alex was naughty and played both sides in the conflict between the two princes.
They eventually reach the palace, and are greeted with little fanfare. For all that she's a Britannian princess by birth, and a grand duchess by marriage, Isabella Deveraux believes that the money should be spent on the people and not on extravagance for extravagance's sake. And so there's no band to play the Empress's March, or whatever the new Empress is using to formally enter rooms, and she's simply led into a grand dining room for a sit-down lunch. Luc, meanwhile, grabs Gino when he tries to exit the car, and he finally realizes the seating arrangements were made with his kidnapping in mind (a ploy Luc has always been hilariously fond of, even when he only had to ask the person in question to come along).
They leave the palace and start heading south, back towards the airfield, and Gino knows they're headed to the Island of Cobras, and the headquarters for SOUTHCOM. It's where he knows he'll see his cousin again, for the first time since he became a knight, and he doesn't know how to feel. His relationship with Alex has always been odd, and sometimes hard to define, but somewhere along the way he'd become the little brother Alex had never had, and with it came the protective instincts that originally had Gino snickering and declaring him a hopeless siscon (because his ability to strategize and love of chess aren't the only ways Alex reminds Gino of the late Emperor; his overprotectiveness towards his sister Thalia is both amusing and frightening in turns). He'd never met Alex, hadn't even known he'd existed, until one day he was called into his CO's office, not long after being assigned a platoon, and told to pack his bags, because some bigshot wanted him in South Britannia and he wanted him there yesterday. Gino was warned not to piss General Deveraux off, to say 'yes sir' and 'no sir' like a good little 2nd Lieutenant. He thinks his father has pulled strings to protect his heir, that, unable to stop Gino rom running away into the arms of the Royal Army, he's tried to make sure Gino only does cushy jobs, and that eventually he'll get tired of being an errand boy for a stodgy old general and come home. But he's pleasantly surprised when he lands in Rio the first time, told he's to report straight to General Deveraux's office, and does so to realize General Deveraux is seventeen to his fifteen, is a general by virtue of being the Knight of Two, and that his father would have fought tooth and nail to keep Gino from this assignment. Because Alex's grandmother was Gino's mother's sister (and the aunt of Charles vi Britannia, though the age gap was small), and she was also the black sheep of the family, having gotten married (to the other General Deveraux, this one spelled Alexander, and the one Alexandre was often confused with), moved to Area Six with her husband's appointment as the first Viceroy, and never returned to the Homeland.
It isn't long before Gino realizes that Alex is grooming him for a spot in the Rounds, that his being placed under Luc's command is entirely because Luc has more mobility to expose Gino to situations than Alex has, and that Luc would surely qualify for Knight of Rounds if Alex ever bothered to nominate him. But he won't because that would mean losing a trusted subordinate and Luc would probably have to be recalled to the Capital (because Alex's remaining in Rio is entirely through his family's history here, and his skills as a strategist), and Luc wouldn't go despite orders because that would require abandoning a search both he and Alex have been on for the past five years, which neither want to give up but Alex doesn't have the time for on his own. And so Gino is the appointed successor, the proof that Alex knows how to train people for greatness, and he willingly becomes a pawn in Alex's long play. But being treated as Alex's little brother has both its perks and frustrations, so after Gino gains Knighthood he finds himself kept out of the war just as Alex is taking all his forces into Africa, cleaning up after the First Army sweeps through like a sandstorm and fixing all the messes they've left behind. Gino wants to be over there, wants to do something, but he can't because Alex can succeed where Gino's own father can't, has the political capital and the military shoulder boards in his pocket to ensure Gino is kept away from combat whenever possible, that whenever he's brought to the warfront its for single action missions and then he's flying back across the Atlantic, like a prized show dog only allowed outside when someone needs reminding that his owner has the best looking dog on the block. It was almost a relief when Suzaku asked for backup in Area 11, when Gino found himself finally playing an important role in the war between the Black Knights (excuse him, the UFN) and Britannia, or when Prince Schneizel and Bismarck Waldstein both asked him to participate in the Rounds Rebellion and the war between the two princes. But here and now, he regrets how eager he was to enter war, how blind he was to what was going on, and despite Luc's reassuring attitude he's worried what Alex's reaction will be (Luc was usually a good barometer for Alex' reactions, though sometimes his inherent flakiness reared its ugly head and put Luc in left field staring at pigeons instead of at home plate waiting to catch the ball).
Jack parks the SUV in a spot ("You actually did a nice job parking for once," Shotgun guy snarks, and Gino's struck by just how European his accent is), and they walk across the bridge to the Island (no vehicles having been allowed to cross, no exceptions, since a disgruntled former soldier had tried to drive through the wall of the main command building). They walk past that building and over to a squat, unassuming building with no exterior identification, and inside through a bullpen to a large office, outside of which sits a dark skinned, dark haired girl, who is clearly playing Tetris if the running commentary of the blond girl leaning over her is any indication. That one waves without looking up, but the dark haired girl (and Gino blinks when he realizes it's the new Knight of Five and she's playing secretary) looks up long enough to say, "You can go in, he's only busy avoiding his paperwork," before going right back to her game. He thinks her attitude reminds him a bit of Anya, then shakes his head because Anya is different now and no one will really tell him why except to say it's Geass-related, as if that'll hand-wave away his questions, and Gino can't help but hurt because he misses his buddy, misses the stoic girl with pink hair who sometimes lacked common sense, and who got shoved onto the battlefield only when necessary, just like him because she was young and a girl and the higher-ups were misogynists who didn't believe women could do the same work on the front line. Gino's seen Kallen fight and Princess Cornelia lead from the front and so he knows better, but never-the-less he was happy because she was someone he didn't really outrank and she was close to his age, so they could actually be friends without too many issues.
The man sitting at the desk inside really is avoiding paperwork; he's separating his rice and beans into separate piles, and Gino's only ever seen Alex do that when he's avoiding something (the man's only tell; he'll never outwardly indicate he's lying or avoiding something, but you only have to watch him play with his food before eating it to realize something's up). He's reminded again that the Empress was suspicious about the man's attitudes towards non-Britannians, and has to force down a laugh once more. Even if Alex didn't have the stereotypical pardo complexion of a local Brazilian and he didn't have a full-sized Brazilian flag hanging in his office next to the Britannian one, one only had to look around at the men and women occupying the cubicles outside to realize that Alex couldn't care less what a person's ethnic background was, as long as they were loyal to Britannia and could do the work he asked of them. Gino's proud to call him his cousin, is proud to see him as a big brother, and instantly he knows Alex was promoted so that the Empress would have an unquestionably high-ranking, powerful person as an ally. Because Gino knows that Alex's goals and the Empress's, while they may not perfectly align, are going to be similar enough that she'll have his support.
The man in question, seeing Gino enter, stands up and moves forward, and Gino is shocked when ew-physical-contact-Cooties! Alex actually hugs him, because Gino was always the one to initiate contact (originally because he was so grateful to Alex, then because he felt comfortable having fun annoying him, and finally because it became a force of habit, which carried over into all of Gino's interactions with people and drove a lot of people, Suzaku in particular, insane. It was usually hilarious to watch people struggle not to yell at him, because they realized he outranked them and so it was a Bad Idea. He blames Luc for teaching him to find enjoyment in annoying people, and thus breaking just about every rule his mother ever taught him about etiquette). It's this hug that seals it for him, that wipes away any doubts he had about his actions resulting in ruined relationships, and he knows Alex knows it. So he just grabs him tight, refusing to let go, and basking in the fact that whether or not his actions were justifiable, whether or not he was wrong to follow Prince Schneizel's command during the conflict, he still has this place, and these people, to come back to. He's still got a place he can willingly call home.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed, and let me know if you wanna hear more about the crazy people Alex has under his command (the guy collects crazies like a cat lady collects...well, cats).
I've never been to Rio de Janeiro, though I'd love to visit sometime. Everything here is based on what I could find on the magical portal that is the Internet, so please correct me if I've gotten something wrong.
And now for background factoids:
I've always loved Gino. And the series shows that under his happy-go-lucky exterior, there's actually a pretty smart, pretty shrewd young man. So I wanted to expound on that a bit (don't know how well I did).
I've always been told I write angst well. I've always felt like I'm the crappiest writer in the world when it comes to dialogue. Hence, the fic is pretty stream-of-consciousness (and yes, I'm aware of all the run-on sentences. Gino likes to ramble without breaks, and I really couldn't figure out how to break it all up without losing the flow.)
I swear Luc was a serious person, pretty similar to Alex, when I started writing this. Then I realized Luc would be much less restricted by schedules and appointments and have more time to train Gino, so I put them together. Gino is therefore the entire reason why Luc became a bit of a flake. And why he likes to gossip, though I can place equal blame on Luc's younger sister and Thalia for that. Both girls are horrible.
The two members of Luc's personal Rounds squad riding with them are Jack Kingsley (the driver) and Etienne Bisset (Shotgun guy). Jack's ex-British SAS, but South African by birth (and Luc was speaking in Afrikaans to him). His driving is only safe if the vehicle he's operating is a tank, and he once crashed a Humvee into a rhino. The rhino lived, the Humvee didn't. (And that is inspired by the Tree of Ténéré). Etienne's ex-French 1er RPIMa, and a qualified sniper, though everyone he works with forgets that because his little brother works with them too and is hands down the best shot in their overall unit. Etienne also likes to make fun of Luc's French, because Luc's a native of Montreal and thus speaks Canadian French instead; the two still unite to insult everyone else in French because few can understand them. Why two European Special Forces officers are working with the Britannians...that's a story for another time. Maybe.