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Title: Two Hearts

Author: DnKS - giRLs

Rating: PG

Pairing: GinoRolo with SuzaLulu in the mix

Disclaimers: Code Geass and all related characters are not ours

Warning: Shameless crack

Note: This is the continuation to Spring in Autumn but can be read as a standalone fic

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Rolo Lamperouge never thought before that his life could be so complicated. A year back, he was merely an emotionless assassin with nothing in his mind else than trying his best to fulfill his mission. While some might point out that such kind of life was pretty much complicated, Rolo himself thought it was nothing of a difficulty to lead a life as an assassin. Yet he met Lelouch Lamperouge, his target whom now he dearly called brother, and began developing affections for him that quite unbefitting for an assassin to have. Now that was surely complicated, but for Rolo, it was not so. Rather, he welcomed the change. He never had a brother, and Lelouch was surely the best brother one might expect to have. So, no, it was not quite what he could describe as a complicated life.

What he could dub as a complicated life was when someone named Gino Weinberg started showing up and courting him in every means possible.

Rolo now had his fair share of running every time that blonde haired idiot showed up on the doorway of his classroom. His room was now so overstuffed with flowers of every kind. He could open his locker every morning and found at least five different love stanzas printed on the gayest stationary available addressed to him. And though Gino Weinberg was no singer, it seemed all residents of Ashford Academy were more than willing to listen to him singing some stupid love song from the tallest tower of the campus with a loudspeaker.

The recipient of those stupid love songs was of course the one and only Rolo Lamperouge. It was embarrassing, really, but Rolo could do nothing about it. For one thing, Gino Weinberg was exceptionally strong. He always thwarted Rolo's every attempt of applying grievous bodily harm to him. Worse still, that blond would only smile and brush those occasions when Rolo tried to stab him with various kitchen utensils as merely some kind of joke.

It was, plainly, irritating Rolo to no end.

Maybe the only good thing this whole courting affair brought for Rolo was that he somehow got closer to his brother. At first he could not understand why, but his brother's even glare and a venomous whisper of 'Suzaku' explained everything.

It was comforting to talk things with someone who was apparently in the same boat with you. So it stood to reason why that night Rolo was yet again talking with Lelouch in his room, eating a big bowl of strawberry ice cream, and cursing the lack of brain and excess of muscle every Britannian soldier possessed.

"They must have been brainwashed," Lelouch stated firmly, his tongue swirled around his spoon to lick the ice cream clean. "Britannians government needs soldiers who are capable of fighting yet lacking common sense to actually go against them. Thus we are now trapped with men who are idiotic…"

"Childish," Rolo piped up. "Impossible, persistent, ridiculously strong…"

"Dense, irrational…"

"Annoying…"

"With an insatiable sex drive," Lelouch finished. Rolo stared at him at that and his brother blinked with a light flush on his cheeks. "What?"

Rolo opted to scoop another spoonful of ice cream and muttered, "I think I don't need to know the detail of your lovey-dovey relationship with Kururugi."

"I'm not lovey-dovey with him!" Lelouch protested.

Rolo only raised one of his eyebrows calmly. He could see Lelouch scowling, but Rolo knew the front his dear brother put up was merely that: a front. He had seen numerous occasions where his brother was completely smitten by the one and only Kururugi Suzaku. Rolo even thought that someone with brain as genius as his brother surely would have succeeded in his grandeur plan of rebellion if fate was not so tricky as to make him fall in love with his supposedly greatest enemy.

And now, said same fate had subjected him into being the love interest of yet another of their mutual greatest enemy. He could very easily imagine that fickle deity called fate laughing their ass off at their predicament.

"I honestly can't comprehend what they are thinking most of the time," Rolo said, passing the bowl of ice cream to Lelouch. "Just like today, that… person suddenly tried to tie a string around my finger with a big grin on his face, as if it was a really fun thing to do."

At that statement, Lelouch's movement stilled for a heartbeat. He blinked. "Your finger?" he said carefully. "Could it be possible that the finger in question is actually your left ring finger?"

"Actually, yes," Rolo answered after giving some thought on the question. He watched how Lelouch's face turned pale at his answer and he frowned.

"What is the problem anyway?" Rolo asked. Sure, he was confused the moment Gino circled a red thread around his left ring ringer but it was not as embarrassing as any other thing the blond ever did to him. After all, Gino said he only did that to get the measurement of his finger…

…no, wait a moment…

To get the measurement of his left ring finger.

Rolo froze at the thought. Oh shit!

"He cannot possibly…" Rolo started but Lelouch's voice beat him to it.

"What? Propose to you in front of the whole school to see, complete with needlessly added drama and cheesy lines you swear could make a whole town suddenly die from diabetes?" Lelouch said. "Guess again…"

Rolo could feel blood draining from his face all of sudden. There was no way, no way, he would let Gino Weinberg humiliate him more than what he had already done. Even though he felt really flattered that Gino loved him so much, that did not mean he welcomed every stupid courting activity the blond ever did. And even though he could say that Gino Weinberg was cool and all, there was no way he would accept his proposal. Though when he imagined him kneeling before him and…

Whoa, stop there!

"How… how can you be so sure that he's going to… uh… do that?" Rolo knew he was stuttering and he did not give a damn. "It's possible that he only has a… finger fetish or something…"

Lelouch gave him a look that highly resembled the look a doctor would give to a certain patient with incurable illness who had no chance of seeing tomorrow's sunrise yet still denied his fate.

"I have lived longer than you and believe me, I know exactly what will happen," Lelouch said sternly. "He will propose in the most embarrassing way possible."

Rolo stared at Lelouch from the corner of his eyes. Had lived longer than him? Know exactly what will happen? Somehow it surely felt like it.

"Did Kururugi do that to you?" he said with a hidden smirk.

The blush that graced Lelouch's cheeks afterward was pretty much the most blatant answer to his question. Seeing that, he could not help letting out a faint snicker that even Lelouch sharp glare could not diminish.

"So…" he observed his dear brother's fingers clandestinely. Finding no ring, he frowned. "You rejected him?"

Lelouch, realizing the silent gaze scrutinizing his fingers, found his gaze reverted to those aristocratic fingers of his. Then he sighed as those fingers reached up to his collar. Carefully, he pulled a thin platinum chain from under his shirt and dangling from the chain, they both could see a beautiful platinum ring, crafted into perfection.

"Does it seem like I have any power to reject him?' Lelouch said harshly though his eyes were soft. Rolo snorted in his heart at that. Zero, the greatest terrorist ever recorded in history, was in fact nothing but a love sick teenager. What an irony.

Then again, he was the best assassin in Britannia, if not in the whole world, and now he was greatly troubled by an idiot who claimed to love him until the end of time. Yet he wouldn't make the same mistake as Lelouch did. No, there was no way he would accept Gino Weinberg if he indeed proposed to him. He could… he could kill him. Yeah… even though it would be a shame if he could never see those twinkling eyes and that cheerful smile and hear that voice voicing out love declarations to him and…

And he started to act like a love sick idiot!

Rolo shook his head to calm his heart beat down. He had a weak heart. That was why it fluttered so much every time he thought about that idiot Gino, he tried to assure himself. And after he regained his composure, he straightened his back.

"But I have enough power to reject… uh… him," Rolo said, trying to sound sure, and failing.

"You sure?" Lelouch asked cynically, lips pulled out into a mischievous smirk.

"Yes," Rolo said, and then he wavered. "Uh, I hope so…"

Lelouch shook his head with an amused snort. Putting the necklace and the ring back under his shirt, he said, "Whatever you say."

The hint of skepticism in Lelouch's voice only made Rolo even more persistent in his determination. He would show his brother that he did have enough power in him to reject that idiotic blonde named Gino Weinberg. He would show his brother and made him proud of him. He would not submit to Gino. Never.

With that thought in mind, Rolo Lamperouge went to school the following day. He made sure not to cross path with Gino (and it was not because he was afraid that he would be unable to say 'no' to him in person) and so far, he managed it quite well. Quite well, indeed, but the somewhat peaceful morning outlived not the lunch break period.

The many people who happened to pass the south hallway during the latter half of the lunch break period that day could amuse themselves by seeing the scene that two students named Rolo Lamperouge and Gino Weinberg made. Rolo was standing against the wall, and judging from his expression, it seemed the poor boy really hoped that the wall could swallow him and help him escape the place. In front of him, Gino Weinberg was kneeling down, presenting a beautiful ring in a red velvet case.

Somewhere amidst the crowd, Lelouch lamperouge was snorting in the arms of one and only Kururugi Suzaku, amusing himself in watching his so-called brother's predicament.

Rolo gulped. He could sense, and see, so many pairs of eyes watching them. For once he was tempted to use his Geass on all those people so that he might escape without caring how much strain such action would do to his body. But he could not, because... well, just because.

And it was absolutely and positively NOT because he was stunned by Gino's overly cheesy proposal.

"Can you not hear my heart singing praise for your beauty alone?" Gino Weinberg said with a dramatic tone that was best to come on stage with some frills and soprano singers to complement him. "It is you, love, who has taken my heart captive. It is you, whom I shall praise forever. And it is you to whom I now present this ring, this soul, this heart, this everything!"

Rolo groaned and wished fervently the blush on his cheeks to disappear. There was an amount of embarrassment he could take for a day and the entire ordeal had passed the threshold for quite a while which made him standing precariously on the border of insanity.

"Speak your answer, tell me," Gino continued as he took a step forward while still kneeling and Rolo in response pressed his back even further to the wall. "Do you love me?"

The answer was surely 'no', Rolo thought. Yet when he was thinking about it, there was another voice in his head, a teasing voice that seemed to question him if he really did not feel any love whatsoever toward Gino Weinberg. And Rolo really wanted to silence that voice but he could not. And the voice only got louder in his head. And he did not love Gino Weinberg, he tried to assure himself. And... and the point was just that. He did not love him!

So why could he not just say that to the kneeling man before him?

"I knew already that I love you the first time I laid my eyes on you," Gino said wistfully and somehow his face almost looked so regal and handsome that way. NOT that it made Rolo loved him, of course. "I know that you are the one for me and I will be damned if I let myself die without trying to win your heart. If only you say how you love me now, I will have no regret in dying."

That got Rolo's attention. He blinked rapidly and said, "Wait... what?"

Gino released an overly dramatic sigh.

"Ah, my love. You know that it is my only desire to spend my entire time with you but fate decrees something different," Gino said and Rolo spotted a hint of tears so fake in those blue eyes of his. "This might be the last chance I can see those beautiful lavender eyes of yours. I am a soldier and I have a duty to our beloved country. I know that, and I have accepted my fate, but I do hope that I can hear your lips saying how you love me before I embrace death for real."

"What the…" Rolo stuttered. "Death? What do you mean? You are not dying!"

Gino smiled at him so beautifully… no, Rolo thought nervously, scratch that, he never thought about that… that did not happen…

"We are living in the time of war, as I believe you have realized it," the blonde began, somewhat his tone was serious. Rolo gulped. "And I have been sent to the front line. I cannot, and do not want to refuse. I know there is a chance that I might not come back to see your face again. I know that but I cannot reject my duty. I love you, so much it pains me to think that I might not be able to see you again. Therefore before I go, I want to give you something so you can remember me by. So, dearest Rolo Lamperouge, would you kindly take this ring as a token of my love for you?"

Maybe it was because of his profession as an assassin that Rolo always felt something tugging at his heart when he heard the word 'dying'. He did not know why but he always thought people looked their best when they were dying, when they knew that their death was near. And he used that as his reason why he blushed that time, why he felt his heart beating wild, why he felt something clench painfully in his chest. And more importantly, it was the reason why he said with his dreamy voice.

"Yes…"

Rolo Lamperouge would like to point out that he was not blushing because he was flattered by Gino's heartfelt proposal. His heart was not beating wild because he was nervous. And something that clenched painfully in his heart that time was absolutely not caused by his fear of the possibility of never seeing Gino again.

And Rolo Lamperouge would also like to point out how he realized what a great mistake he had made the moment he heard that word passing his lips. But the damage had been done. And by the cheering he could hear following his word, he knew he was really done for.

Amidst the cheering, the yelling, the sound of people congratulating him, Rolo could feel Gino slipping the ring into his finger and afterward the blonde dared to kiss him right on his lips, in front of so many people watching. Rolo was too flabbergasted to give any response that was any better that a muffled 'unf'. His eyes blinked rapidly to make sense of the situation and he came to realize that Gino Weinberg had just proposed him and he had said yes.

He groaned and wished that he could disappear from that time and place. But he could not. Gino's arms were draped around his shoulder and that grinning face was so close to his own. People were still cheering for them. He could see Lelouch snorting, still in the arms of Kururugi, who only nuzzled his nose onto his brother's face. And Rolo almost could not stop himself from going 'eew' at seeing that, moreover when he knew that he was in no better position himself, completely in the arms of one very cheerful Gino Weinberg.

Really, Rolo thought grimly, whoever said that it was complicated being an assassin? As far as his experience went, he knew it was far more complicated to be a student at Ashford Academy. An assassin did not have to worry over some idiotic blonde professing his love for him. An assassin did not have to worry over cheesy proposal and public humiliation. An assassin did not have to worry about love in general. Whoever said it was complicated being an assassin?

Rolo Lamperouge sighed faintly, already accepted his fate for he could not see any other way that he might take. Therefore he resigned himself and let Gino cuddle him to his heart content, not caring that they were still in public. His gaze passed briefly over his fingers and somehow, a hint of conceited smirk appeared on his lips.

At least his ring had bigger diamond than Lelouch's.

- end -

(A/N: So… aside from writing sap, we also write shameless crack. Shame on us… yet, the authors of this so-called shameless crack fic are also as shameless so they ask you to please leave your comment on this story. Hope you had a great time reading this fic and thank you for sparing some of your time to give this fic a chance.)