Hello, this is Simply Hopeless a.k.a. Assassin's Kiss. I thank you for reading this story and hope you do a little more by rating and reviewing the story. I wanted to create a chapter really quick for the new year and this had been dancing in my head for a bit. Don't worry I'll be updating the other Code Geass stories this Friday, Saturday and/or Sunday. Not all may be updated but hopefully most. Please don't tell me which stories you wanted updated in this story. It will be ignored. Just let me know through telling me what you like about this story, if you want this particular story updated or not. Thank you and I hope to continue being your authoress in the New Year. Go 2014! XP

As always this is a LuluSuza.

Safe & Sound

"Aniki, isn't he cute?"

A sandy-haired young woman couldn't help but squeal a little as she looked at the squirming bundle on her lap. She cooed and made little baby talk as her pinkie hesitantly stroke the fluffy ear of the designer pet sitting between her legs on a bath towel. The pup looked like a cross between a poodle and a daschund especially with its' fur now dried from its' recent bath. She squealed again in glee when she felt a small, eager tongue, lap at her fingers, before she buried her face in his now clean, toffee-colored fur.

Slim fingers hesitated, hovering over his little sister, tempted to yank her back in case the pup she was fawning over, tried to attack her. Any stray was to be eyed with caution even if it was him who found the little dear, muddy and yapping so pitifully by his shed. It was only a moment's weakness that stopped him from shooing the lost pup back into the wooded area of his backyard where he surely had come from.

He wouldn't have even been standing outside his backyard in the pouring rain, holding a cherry red umbrella in one hand while trying to use the flashlight in his other hand to figure out where the sound was coming from if it wasn't for his little sister, Nunnally. It was her second day back from her first semester in college and he had been reluctant to leave her. In fact he had been reluctant for her to live on campus. But she was strong-willed and had made strong threats to never speak to him again, just as she had done when he had mused aloud ideas of setting his laptop aside to soak in some sibling time.

Lelouch, for that was the writer's name, did his best work while listening to his iPod on blast to drown out any other noise. So if it wasn't for his sister pointing out that there was something in his backyard, the poor thing probably would have frozen to death by the morning. Of course, he insisted he be the one to check out the disturbance. He loved coddling his sister and felt as the older sibling he should risk the cold and insisted she returned to making the dinner she had fought him to make nearly an hour ago.

Those watery emerald green eyes look up at him, through the wet mop of muddy curls and with a defeated side the kind-hearted twenty-something-year old caved and picked up the whelp. As soon as he brought the small thing to his chest, to warm it before tracking the short distance to his back door and the eager silhouette of his sister, he knew that this was no ordinary puppy.

He had seen advertisements on a daily of designer pets. He had abstained from getting something as frivolous as a designer pet because he didn't think it right to merge the DNA of an animal and a human. It was playing at God and even if they were born this way, it still didn't make it right to make pets of humans. It didn't matter one iota to Lelouch if the technology had been used for nearly two decades. It was still unethical and although he felt a speech coming on as he looked at his sister cooing over the puppy, he held his tongue. It wasn't this pup's fault that he was created to amuse the elitist and their tastes for the exotic animal-type human.

"He's something." Lelouch confessed reluctantly after a few minutes reflection on how he came upon his latest guest. He prodded the wiggling thing with the tip of his drawing pen and watched with barely contained amusement as the yipping pup barked its' challenge and tried to attack the pen.

"You don't just mean that Aniki. He's adorable. Look at him again and admit it," Nunnally demanded with a slight pout. She leaned her head against her brother's shoulder as they sat comfortably on the couch, her stew simmering in the background. She knew her brother was a bit of a recluse and had become even more so when his high school sweetheart Shirley had passed away in a car crash along with her father. But that had been nearly three years ago and yet still the few visitors he received were his bubbly yet scheming editor, Milly, his mooching next door neighbor C.C. and poorly made attempts by his high school best friend Rivalz to drop by so he can force Lelouch to live it up.

Nunnally was partially surprised her Aniki even knew enough about the real world, as cooped as he was, to be able to write such heart-gripping novels about a aristocrat turned terrorist that fights for justice. Already his anti-hero character Zero had garnered talks of a movie deal and a miniseries. And yet here was her handsome brother, adjusting his reading glasses before frowning down in irritation when the designer pup tried to bite at the loose string from the sleeve of his favorite sweater. He needed more excitement in his life and when Nunnally went back to college, her reasons for staying on campus a veiled attempt to give her Aniki a chance to stop focusing on her and focus more on his self, there wouldn't be many there to stir up his life. Well until this little guy.

"What do you expect me to do with it?" Lelouch grumbled, raising his elegant eyebrow in mild irritation. He knew the direction his little his sister was nosing him towards but he'd be damned if a slip of a pup took the place of Nunnally or even God-forbid Shirley.

"Hear me out, okay? As you know Schneizel and Cornelia already have one and I know this place must get lonely without your editor and next door neighbor making sure you're still breathing. Besides these designer pets grow up pretty quickly and before you know it he'll take on his human form and me so much of a handful for you that you'll… you'll..." she trailed off, biting her bottom lip. She missed Shirley too but that didn't mean both of them didn't deserve to move on. And sure it was pretty unorthodox to think a pet could take the place of a girlfriend but many had come to find life companions in their pets.

"You do realize you're asking a lot out of a small puppy, right? Besides what if he has an owner already?" He questioned even as his amethyst eyes softened on his sister's bowed head. He lightly stroked the crown of her head before rescuing the wiggling pup from getting soaked against Nunnally's tear stained face. He wished he could do more for her, but he wasn't quite ready to move on with his life yet.

"Raise it. Love it. Take care of it like you took care of me. Do this for as long as he doesn't have an owner. You need this. I need this," she murmured, her voice trembling. She didn't want to return one day and find that he took his life the same way their mother did once she believed no one really needed them anymore. She did, but she needed a life outside of her brother as well.

Lelouch opened his mouth to say something snarky about not needing anyone. But his thoughts must have realized the dark path his sister's mind must have taken and he let out another heartfelt sigh of defeat that night. He took off his reading glasses and scrutinized the wiggling puppy with the unruly curls. It was more than kind of cute as his sister suggested and if it didn't work out, at least he could tell his sister he tried.

"What if I call him Suzaku?" he suggested. His sudden smile widening when his sister's head jerked up in pleased surprised.

"So… so you're really going to keep him?" she asked, trembling on the spot in excitement. She didn't want him to just do it for her but for himself too.

"As long as you clean up his business while you're still here then I'll keep him. Besides, how much trouble could one puppy cause?" He said turning his smile down on the puppy snoring softly on his chest.

Little did he know how much he regret caving in so easily.