C.C. opens up her eyes slowly, and quickly closes them again as the blending sunlight falls directly upon her face. She rolls over to her side and her arms find the waist of the person lying next to her.
Lelouch gives a soft grunt as C.C. buries her face against his chest. It is then, when C.C. finally opens up her eyes and stares blank-mindedly at the dim blue color of Lelouch's pajama.
It has been quite some time after peace returns to the world. Nunnally and Suzaku couldn't be doing their tasks any better. Lelouch has made a right decision to let Nunnally rule over Britannia. She is by far the most gentle-hearted and sympathetic Empress who ever rules Britannia. And she is not alone. She has Suzaku by her side. She also has Cornelia. And most important of all, she has a brother who will always watch over her, just not from up above the sky as they all assume. No, because Lelouch is still alive. His heart is beating like a normal human, and C.C. can feel the heartbeats.
No one actually expected Lelouch to stay alive. No one who saw how the sword drilled into his chest would expect him to be as healthy as he is now. Not even C.C.. She didn't have the courage to see Lelouch's death. She hid herself in a church, praying for the first time since long, praying that her beloved "partner" will escape his own suicide. C.C. never agreed with the Zero Requiem. It's not that she needed to keep Lelouch alive to pass the code to him, after all she already decided that she wouldn't let Lelouch continue bearing the burden she was and is still bearing. She just didn't want to lose Lelouch, for whatever reason it could be. And since she failed to change Lelouch's mind, she could only hope for a miracle.
The miracle happened in its weirdest way. Indeed, Lelouch died. He died in front of a lot of people, in front of Nunnally, the only person who wept for his death while the others glorified Zero for releasing them from Lelouch's tyranny. While people were busy freeing the hostages and praising Zero, Jeremiah took the chance to try to grab Lelouch's corpse away. But Nunnally held unto Lelouch and refused to let him go. She pleaded to stay with her brother. She didn't want to lose Lelouch anymore. Even Jeremiah was at his wits' end at that time, not knowing how he could escape with his deceased Lord with the girl hanging on his body. Then Suzaku, still wearing the Zero mask, whisked Nunnally away, and Jeremiah used the moment to run away. Far from the crying Nunnally, far from the crowd who had no idea what actually happened. Up to Kallen, who cried silently watching Jeremiah's small troop running away.
Jeremiah himself had no idea why he took Lelouch's body with him. Was it loyalty? Or pity? Because he knew for sure, the crowd wouldn't be so nice to bury him with the highest respect he deserved. He doubted that Suzaku's grave would not be torn into pieces, now that Lelouch had died. But of course, that didn't quite matter, because the person was still alive. Alive to finish Zero Requiem.
The first person Jeremiah sought for help was C.C.. He found her weeping alone in the church. As she saw him with Lelouch in his arms, she knew it had been fulfilled. For the first time since ages, C.C. let her emotions run wild. She rushed toward Lelouch, hugged the bloody body and sobbed uncontrollably on the floor. She knew since long this would happen. She knew it, along with Suzaku and Lelouch. But she never agreed to it, she never did. And she didn't have the power to stop Lelouch. She was his shield, she could protect him against everything but himself. Jeremiah Gottwald turned away from this scene. He could barely hold his tears back. He clenched his fists, mad at himself, mad at the world, that he could only see the girls cry, but he couldn't express his loss the same way.
Then Lelouch coughed up some blood and opened his eyes. Both C.C. and Jeremiah nearly died of heart attack.
"C.C. …." Lelouch whispered, barely audible. "C.C. … I am back…"
And so the time passed. It took quite a while for Lelouch to recover. Suzaku had indeed missed the vital points, but Lelouch was wounded pretty badly. And he was and still is a mere human. But slowly Lelouch recovered under C.C.'s and Jeremiah's care. Anya whom Jeremiah brought with him for no reason also helped as much as she could, although she was fairly puzzled how come she was playing family with her former enemies. After Jeremiah released his troops from Geass – they returned to serve Britannia under Nunnally— they settled down in the countryside, far from all the politics and crowds. And so a new chapter began.
C.C. blinks and comes back to the present time. She still has her arms wrapped around Lelouch. The latter one doesn't respond at all. A slight disappointment builds up in C.C. and she resists the urge to push Lelouch off the bed.
As she walks down the stairs 15 minutes later, Jeremiah and Anya are already downstairs, enjoying the breakfast with the television on. C.C. stared at the burnt toasts Anya is eating. She is glad to notice that Anya has improved a lot in her cooking skill.
"Good morning," Jeremiah greets her, smiling.
"Morning," answers C.C. without looking at him. She stares at the newspaper headline. There is a picture of Nunnally on the front, shaking hands with Ohgi. A smile hushed over C.C.'s face. Lelouch will be happy to see Nunnally living happily in this newly recreated world.
"Anya and I will start with the oranges today. I am sure we get great harvest this season."
"It's nice," replies C.C., eyeing a toast.
"Are you still going to do 'it'"? asks Jeremiah, looking deep into C.C.'s eyes, as if hoping he can understand her better that way.
"Mmhmm… there is no reason not to do it." answers C.C. nonchalantly.
".. I see…" nods Jeremiah. Anya stares at C.C., half chewing her toast.
"Did you…" Jeremiah can't finish his sentence.
"I will tell him in time. He will be fine."
"I see."
The first thing Lelouch sees when he wakes up is C.C.'s face, staring at him as if he is a very interesting experimental object.
"Na, Lelouch…" she begins. "I want to go around this place. Accompany me."
It is no request. It is an order.
Lelouch used to think of C.C. as an extremely selfish and annoying woman. Sadly, he still does. But in most cases he gave in to her. As he does now.
So ten minutes later Lelouch finds himself walking beside C.C., bringing burnt toasts he knows he will never eat. For quite a while, none of them says anything. Then C.C. starts to speak.
"Na, Lelouch…. I am going to leave."
Lelouch stops walking and stares at C.C.'s delicate back, wide-eyed.
"Where are you going to go?" he asks right away.
"Mm, I don't know yet. I will leave early tomorrow morning. So… if you don't get to wake up tomorrow morning, today is our good-bye."
With the last word, she turns to Lelouch, smiling. "Take care of yourself? Don't do dangerous things."
"I am not your son," says Lelouch, rather irritated.
C.C. smiles.
"Indeed, you aren't."
She puts her arms gently around his neck and kisses him….
C.C. puts on her new shoes and likes the feeling around her feet.
Jeremiah and Anya are standing in front of the door to bid her farewell.
"It has been a long run, and a wonderful one it was. I hope we will meet again, C.C.-san." says Jeremiah, shaking C.C.'s hand.
"Yah," smiles C.C..
"Lelouch-sama is…"
"I said good bye yesterday. Let him be."
Jeremiah smiled uneasily.
"Sayonara," says Anya. Although she has gotten her childhood memories back, she doesn't seem to change her attitude. C.C. always thought that she would suffer some trauma, or change rapidly, but she never did. Anya is Anya. It is comforting for C.C. to know that not all casted Geass cause disasters.
"So, you are taking the cart over there, and here is a map to go around,"
"Thank you. Take care of yourself."
"You too, please."
"Good bye.."
"Good bye."
C.C. drags Cheese-kun, a travelling bag and a hat with her. It will be a very hot day. As she approaches the cart to ride on it, someone is already there.
"You forget this."
A hand is waving a credit card.
"How nice of you, giving me your credit card," says C.C., reaching after it.
Lelouch pulls his hand back. "Who said I am giving it to you? If you want this credit card, you will take me with you."
C.C. nearly bursts out with laughter. Lelouch looks like he didn't sleep all night. This explains why he wasn't on bed yesterday night. C.C. thought he slept in the spare room. And Lelouch is always bad tempered when he lacks sleep.
"You are buying your ticket outside with a credit card?" says C.C., mockingly.
Lelouch puts on his camouflaging hat.
"Shut up, witch. Where are we going?"
C.C. can't help but feeling happy. She throws her stuffs onto the hay stacks on top of the cart, and climbs up herself. As she is up there, she draws something on the map and drops it on Lelouch's lap.
"I marked the destination. Work hard."
"Wha…. It is far!"
C.C. suppresses her laughter by hugging Cheese-kun. It will be a very hot day, indeed. But not for her only.
Author's note : BEFORE anyone flames me!
Yea I know some people assume Lelouch already dies and blahzomgfangirlscream NOOOOO. So I want to make a fanfic with him actually alive, I hope it is still allowed, lol. I don't really care if he is alive or not in the true story. He will forever be alive in my mind. Aside of all that, hope you enjoy my story, see you! (It is titled after the last song played in last episode. Why? Because I love the song.)