The Girl with Emerald Hair

By: Ryu-Takehshi

The day his painting went up on the wall, there was quite the uproar. Many people opposed putting his picture up, continuing the legacy of rulers of the Holy Empire of Britannia – however short their reign may be – but I urged it as tradition; saying that perhaps putting it up would be a depiction of something, someone, that should never be repeated. Who knew I could use such lies?

Besides, none of them knew the truth anyway. No one knew the greatness of his mind, his plans, and his heart.

At first, many citizens came to curse at his image and try to deface it. Though his actions were… unorthodox, it was just a shame that no one fully understood, or would ever understand, the great lengths he went to for the world… for me.

I always wished that I could've seen the world through his eyes and know what he was thinking for once. I caught a glimpse of his memories on that day, which was all the explanation I needed to see what he and Suzaku-san planned.

I can assume that, had the citizens trying to vandalize his image known: yes, his plan may not have worked in the exact way he wanted, but he would surely receive the respect and praise he so rightly deserved.

Though soon, everything did, in fact, calm down, and people's visits became less frequent over time until, finally, the people got tired of hate and just stopped coming altogether.

Well, almost…

It was nearly six months after the painting went up when rumours of a visitor frequenting nearly every day started bubbling up.

What was interesting about these rumours, I thought, was that they didn't go hand in hand with defacing royal property or breaking of any laws. Was it possible that one of the citizens truly understood the depth of my older brother's actions?

No, of course not; I told myself as I rolled my wheelchair to the grand hallway. It wasn't possibly, was it?

That is, unless, they knew what I knew… or more than that.

I came down to the hallway around the time the visitor was said to arrive. I wanted to see for myself, see exactly who possibly understood his actions, his reasoning.

But, as I turned the corner with heightening anticipation, I only came across an empty hallway.

Well, not entirely empty. After all, onii-sama was here, smiling smugly down at whoever was painting the picture; and father was here too, as well as all of my ancestors – the long forgotten previous rulers of Britannia.

Suddenly, I heard footsteps coming from far down the hallway, in the direction of the first few paintings that hung.

Scared that someone trying to vandalize onii-sama's painting was nearing, my hands tensed up against the sides of my wheelchair, ready to roll off if needs be.

"Oh," a soft female voice beckoned, as if, calming me down, "…and here I thought that I was the only one who cared enough to visit anymore."

I spun my wheelchair around to face her and gasped sharply.

"Did I frighten you, Your Majesty?" She gave me a small smile.

"I-I…" I tried to formulate some sort of reply or greeting.

Should I ask who she is? Why she's here? Have I met her before? She already seemed to know me so there wasn't much need for introduction, right? But then again, I'm the Empress so she'd obviously know me, right? Shoot! I was staying quiet for too long.

"Britannia…" I heard her mutter quietly to herself.

"Pardon…?" She snapped me out of my thoughts and, when I looked up at her again, she was staring intently at onii-sama's painting.

"Lelouch vi Britannia, the 99th emperor of the Holy Empire," she nodded at me, "…correct?"

"A-ahh, yes…!" I responded quickly.

I saw a sad sort of smile flash on her face as she closed her eyes and sighed quietly. "He's not exactly the most favoured emperor, is he?"

I wore the same sort of spiteful smile as I replied. "No, not really…"

"But he's quite the visionary, even though barely anyone knew what he was thinking."

So she did understand, after all.

"It's not like it was very easy to get into his head." I remarked.

She chuckled softly, "Ahh, I suppose you're right." Her hand went up to point at his picture. "Even here, he could be thinking of millions of different things while this painting was in progress."

"If he was so smart, he should've thought to give himself some time to relax." I sighed, suddenly talking as if he was right beside me again.

"I'm sure; even then, his mind would be filled with all sorts of things." I was silent as she added, "And that you were always one of them."

"I, huh…?"

She smiled at me and, for a moment, it felt like onii-sama was there in place of her.

"I bet he never stops thinking about you, Empress Nunnally." She told me, her eyes never straying from my brother's visage.

"What do you mean by 'never stops'?" Her words confused me.

"Nothing at all…" replied the visitor with a strange monotone voice. "No matter where he is or where you are, he's always thinking of you." She turned and gave me another smile. "And, I'm sure he'd want you to know that."

My eyebrows furrowed. "W-what do you mean by that?"

But, by the time my question made itself clear, the strange visitor was already nearing the exit.

"You are forever in his mind, Empress Nunnally…" were her final words before she disappeared through the exit doors, never to re-enter again.

And, after she had gone, it took me a long while to finally understand what had happened.

I knew this girl.

Her voice rang through my head until it finally clicked.

We've conversed before, though I never actually saw her face in person. But, just now, when I heard her soft voice speaking words I thought I would never hear, but knew I needed to hear; there was absolutely no doubt in my mind who the visitor, with the long, emerald green hair, really was.

"Well…?"

I rolled my eyes at the cloaked man that had approached me. "That's weeks of my life wasted because of this. If you're so smart, why didn't you calculate a less time-consuming plan?"

"Oh, as if mere weeks mean anything to you…!" he remarked.

"Well, I told her just like you said." I scoffed. "I really wonder how Nunnally-chan ended up so sweet with such a warlock of a brother."

"Did you expect her to be more witch-like?" He smiled at me.

"Who knows…?" I smiled at him as we walked away together, "Would you have liked her any better if she was?"

He gave one of his signature I-won't-deal-with-this sighs. "I think I can only deal with one witch in my life."

"You'd better hope so… Your life's been extended for a little longer than you expected."

He nodded. "Hmph, so it has…"

Before it was completely out of sight, he stopped to look back at the building where he had left his little sister behind. I put a hand on his shoulder and he turned to face me.

"She's a big girl. She doesn't need your supervisions any longer."

"Ahh, I know…" he nodded.

I didn't even need to turn around to know that he stopped to look behind again.

"Goodbye Nunnally…"

I pulled a small smile because I knew, not only would she be in his thoughts; but the pacifistic, hopeful and bright young girl who had impacted me so much – would forever be in mine as well.

Lelouch, dead…? Who said so? (^_^) This may or may not turn out to be the prologue of my continuation of R2 – but there will be one, no doubt about it. I don't know why the relationship between Nunnally and C.C. seemed to strike me, but I always thought Nunnally enjoyed C.C.'s company, as if she was Nunnally's surrogate older sister. I also thought that Nunnally was kind of like the first C.C. x Lelouch shipper, since she brought it up the first time she met C.C. And, in one of the picture dramas, Nunnally gives Lelouch 'permission' to date C.C. (and Lulu totally freaks out over it XD). Anyway, I like how this turned out and I guess I should say that it was semi-inspired by a picture I saw of C.C. staring at Lelouch's emperor picture so, yeah. Please review and tell me how I did~! Thank you!