Title: See you later
Summary: He realized there was no graceful way to say good bye.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.
He realized there was no graceful way to say good bye.
There was no procession; no flowers that rained from roof tops, no hymns the only tears were his and Nunnally's.
He looked on the other's peaceful expression.
No.
Even with that, he couldn't stop crying.
Damn you, Lelouch. You flew away like an unscathed swan.
Damn that conceding grace that made his tears seem petty and pathetic.
It was time to say good bye and in his mind the solemn march of memories came. They'd been tumbled and confused earlier as he watched the other bleed in his frantic sister's arms. Pieta. The virgin crying for her sacrificed son. All he could do then was cry but Lelouch had the strength to talk and calmly whisper what would have been horrible regrets for another person.
Accept the Geass of the people, their wishes and dreams.
There was no mark on the epitaph. Blank as if the one who lay there were insignificant.
His grave was marked though it wasn't really him underneath but it had his name, another proof he existed. His eyes unfocused again; he hated this. Nunnally had stopped crying whenever she came to leave flowers. She'd stopped crying but not loving and she never forgot the brother who'd died for the world she wished for. Suzaku recognized Lelouch's strength in her refusal to live in the shadow of her brother's death and push forward for the world he'd left behind for her. He envied that strength. He envied it even within Lelouch, who had never needed a geass to live on, he just did. Using whatever brokenness he had to tear at the enemy in any way he knew how to.
Imagine the irony of it, Suzaku. I've risked so much just to survive- to find a reason to live and when I did I had to die for it. You, on the other hand wanted penance by death but found it by bearing the cross of living.
He'd imagined Lelouch telling him that with a smile. He was terrible that way, talking as if nothing mattered.
He wanted to tell Lelouch everything. A jumble of great many things from the beginning until the end, mundane or important, coherent or not, he knew the other would just laugh then tease but always warmly. There was nothing between them now, whatever barrier was there death destroyed, death made insignificant.
"I'm sorry I never visit." He decided to start with that. "The mess you left is quite a handful." He decided to reason to the air.
A handful? Nunnally has the time to visit…
"Being Zero and trying to catch up with the pace you set isn't that easy you know!" Suzaku chuckled "after all, you were the mastermind."
I left you the job because I knew that you'd be able to do it,
"Everybody's fine by the way. Kallen and the others have gone back to school…."
….
"And- and…I "
How about you? How are you, my precious knight?
"I'm living on for the both of us…" tears were streaming down his face.
He had never visited these past five years because he could never face the idea of the other not being able to answer. That those brilliant amethyst eyes have closed forever. That he was really alone and the only person who knew everything of the burden they both had to bear was gone. For him it had always been what they could accomplish together. Even when they were on opposite ends of the field the other called to him. Though they were so different, Lelouch could only have been an extension of him and he of Lelouch.
Even after years there could be no graceful good bye for Kururgi Suzaku.
When he could say nothing more his retreating figure left a white rose and a black paper crane.
I can't believe you couldn't say good bye!
The streets were filled with mourners and flowers fell like rain on the procession. The float was filled with white flowers to the point of spilling. Roses. A sea of white with a single black coffin at the center; it was Zero's final appearance. The hero who toppled the Demon Emperor and saved the world, the creator of this peaceful world, had finally finished his mission and was now being laid to rest.
The raven boy laughed as he swung his legs. "Really… you sissy…"
An aged queen followed the procession with her long hair pulled back and placed in a bun. She was able to wear black this time and properly walk the other to his ornate grave. She cried, after thirty years her eyes were wet again for the same reasons but in a different circumstance. To her, Suzaku and Zero were both part of her brother. Suzaku, she knew, her brother loved and Zero, he believed. He died for them as much as he died for this world and for her. She was glad she could now put the two to rest beside Lelouch. Suzaku had been waiting so long. So long in her brother's shadow- in Zero's shadow but that ends now. Today he is Kururugi Suzaku to be lain beside his precious king.
The coffin contained an urn and Zero's mask. The coffin with the nask would be buried in the monument while the ashes were to be secretly transported, with the help of their trusted friends, to Lelouch's final resting place on the hill behind the former Kururugi Shrine.
The young man stared at the little boy with a warm teary smile. The wind blew the blades of grass and the hush was broken
"I am not a sissy!"
The boy slowly lowered himself from the branch.
"Why wouldn't you say good bye, Suzaku?" a young man with black hair and piercing violet eyes faced him.
Nunnally was happy that all of them could be there to see Suzaku off. She was certain her brother was also waiting. Milly, Kallen and Rivalz were there but none of them cried. They were done mourning their loss and were just happy that the two were finally together.
"Brother suzaku" she had gotten used to calling him that "you couldn't say good bye…..now you don't need to."
"I wanted to say something else."
All of them placed sunflowers, picked from the fields that started to grow again, on the fresh grave.
"Why? What else is there to say?" Their eyes remained locked on one another. As the soft breeze danced through the sun flowers and somewhere far off the temple bell rang.
"Good bye, Brother Suzaku…."
"I knew you'd be waiting…"
Amethyst eyes grew wide and tears finally came down. There was a rush and in a moment they were in each other's arms in a soft embrace.
"I didn't want to say good bye…just….
Nunnally turned, a strong wind blew a circular path on the fields below the hill. Somewhere in a place no one knew existed a temple bell rang…
"see you later…"
A.N.: This story was inspired by the book Bridge to Terabithia. I'm not fond of tragedy but I find it entertaining to write. Please review, all comments are welcome.