A/N: First CODE GEASS fanfic. Uh, sorry for OOCness, but I really did my best. It was my first time with Oghi and Kallen, and . . . My bro was looking over my shoulder the whole time, so it might have been a bit strained or boring. (Sorry!) But next year, it WILL be different!!! :D And also, as usual, my Christmas stories are not fully edited because I tend to do them at the last minute. I'm sorry again for that. I'll come back and edit later—maybe. Though later to me is like in three years, lol.

Oh, yes, and to all people reading my Naruto fanfictions, I'm trying. I say that a lot, but... really, I'm trying. Just keep waiting, and I'll get to them as soon as possible. My family's going through problems (and seriously, these things usually take years to fix), and we're trying to pull through it. I won't make any promises, but just know that I'm doing my best.

So thanks for reading if you do. Merry Christmas!

Remember Christmas
By SpacePirateGirl

"So preparations for our next battle are complete?"

"Yes, Zero," Oghi replied, "but, uh . . ."

"What is it?" Lelouch was anxious to return home and see how Nunnally was doing. It was Christmas Eve, after all. But things kept coming up, holding him there, and truthfully his patience had already exhausted its last reserves.

"Well, tomorrow . . . Tomorrow is Christmas, Zero. Can't we postpone the battle for a day?"

"That's exactly what Britannia is expecting us to do. We cannot let our guard down. Tomorrow is the ideal day to strike."

"Yes, but—"

"Oghi, are you questioning my judgement?"

"No, sir."

"Very well then. Tomorrow, our battle will commence." After seeing Oghi's nod, Zero walked off and prepared for his trip home.

Yet only in a few moments, Tamaki began following alongside him with his own complaints. "Hey, Zero buddy, are we really doing a battle on Christmas day? Man, that's so cruel, dude!"

For once, Lelouch saw the appearance of C.C. as a stroke of luck. "Sorry, Tamaki, but I have business to attend to. This can wait till later." Then ignoring Tamaki's protests, he strolled right over to his green-haired accomplice. "What are you doing here?" She didn't answer at first. "C.C, I don't have time for your games right—"

"I heard about the battle tomorrow," she said. "I'm curious. You plan on spending Christmas killing people instead of spending it with your little sister?"

He sighed. "You'll be with Nunnally."

She smirked at him. "What, am I your personal babysitter now? Besides, I thought the student council was organizing a party tomorrow. They'll be disappointed if you don't show up."

"Then I suppose they'll just have to be disappointed, now won't they? Just don't do anything stupid tomorrow."

"What do you mean?" she asked, falsely innocent.

"You know what I mean. I swear, sometimes you do things for the sole purpose of irritating me. Just stay with Nunnally and entertain her. Don't do anything else. Got it?"

"I got it," she said, smiling in an odd way.

And he already knew she had something up her sleeve.

Of course, the next day no one arrived—except Kallen, who appeared extremely pissed off, in Lelouch's opinion anyway. "I tried to get them to come, Zero! I did, really, but they wouldn't listen! I . . ." She paused, dejected, and finally met his gaze for the first time since he had come. "I'm sorry, Zero . . ."

He suspected something like this would happen. But, since everyone listened to him for the most part, he wondered why no one had this time. Even a small handful showing up could betray the rest of them into obedience—but, no, only Kallen had shown up. That meant, it must have been organized.

And the only one who could organize something to that extreme and get away with it was . . .

"Zero?" Kallen broke into his thoughts.

"Don't be sorry, Kallen. I thank you for coming."

She paused for a moment, and then finally nodded in response. "Yes, sir."

Lelouch began to take his leave.

"So there won't be a battle today then?"

He stopped. "I suppose not. It won't interfere too heavily with the other plans luckily." He paused. "Kallen?"

"Yes?" she replied immediately.

"Do you know why they didn't come?" He was pretty sure he could guess, but it was better to hear it from someone who knew first.

"Yes," she admitted, a bit irritably. She tried to hide how the truth annoyed her. "It was that girl, the one I found you with at Narita. After you left, she convinced everyone not to come today, and . . . if they did, they'd be in big trouble with her—" Kallen suddenly cut herself off. "Uh, not that I dislike her or anything! It's just—"

"She's annoying," Lelouch finished for her. Just as he thought.

"Yeah! Exactly—I mean, uh . . ."

"I'm leaving now. We'll have the battle tomorrow morning. Make sure everyone knows."

"Right. And, um, Zero?"

"Yes?"

"Merry Christmas, Zero."

It was still early enough that his house remained in its morning quietness. Nunnally still slept soundly in her room, and C.C. still slept in his bed. He rolled his eyes and sat down at his computer. Confronting her asleep was never a good idea.

About an hour passed before she finally began to stir. "C.C," he started.

"Hmm?" She still sounded drowsy.

"The Black Knights. You told them to stay home today, didn't you?"

"Oh, that's why you're still here? I thought you might still gather all of them up and force them to battle. It would have taken hours to convince them my threats were worthless, but you might have been able to finish rounding them all up in time. It's what you usually would have done—"

He cut her off quickly. "That doesn't matter. I told you not to cause any trouble."

"No, you told me to entertain Nunnally, right?" She laughed slightly at him. "Convincing her dear brother to spend Christmas at home falls in that category."

"You know that's not what I meant."

"Then be more specific next time."

A sigh left his lips. "What do you want now?" Pizza, more clothes—something. Just so she would stop irritating the hell out of him. But she didn't answer. He spun around in his chair. "Well?"

"Nothing," she said simply.

Giving up, Lelouch stood up and stalked over to the window to make sure it was locked. Then he traveled toward the door. Nunnally would wake up soon.

"Come on, Lelouch, it's Christmas," C.C. mocked. She still hadn't moved from her position on his bed. "You're supposed to be nice to people, especially ladies."

"That might work if there was actually a lady around to be nice to," he said under his breath, just loud enough for her to hear. Then Lelouch slammed the door shut and locked it, so she couldn't cause any more trouble. Knowing her, she'd probably shatter the window or break down the door.

He hoped she didn't. He wasn't in the mood.

"Onii-sama, I thought you weren't going to be here today," Nunnally commented. She had opened the present he had given her. Then she had given him his, and as he told her every year, he told her it was the best present he had ever received.

"Ah, I cancelled that other business I had so I could be with you." He smiled as he spoke, knowing she would hear the pleasantness in his voice.

She smiled back. "So C.C-san won't be here today?"

"No, not today."

"That's too bad. I wish I could talk to her again. She's really nice. I even got a present for her."

"Did you?" he asked, surprised.

"Of course! Sayoko-san took me shopping yesterday, and I got everyone presents then. You got something for her, too, right?"

He took a breath. "Yeah, I did," he lied.

"Onii-sama, she's still your girlfriend, isn't she?"

"Nah, she's just a friend, Nunnally. That's all she ever was."

Nunnally nodded and smiled again. "Okay. Can we go help the student council decorate for the party then?"

"Anything for you, Nunnally."

The decorations took hours and hours. Milly wanted a Winter Ball for Christmas night, and of course, didn't tell them until the last minute. Exhausted and tired from decorating for the dance, the student council sat around, waiting for nightfall. Everyone exchanged Christmas gifts, and then they just talked, trying to pass the time.

Sometimes Rivalz would start to ask Milly out to the Christmas dance, but always failed in his attempts. He would trail off mid-sentence and then change the subject. Lelouch could understand that, but he didn't understand why Shirley kept doing the same thing to him . . . Did she want to go to the dance with him?

Kallen also seemed to be staring hopefully at him, and he ignored both girls, settling to talk with Nunnally instead.

Soon enough, however, the class President got everyone but him and Shirley out of the room to start making dinner, and Lelouch wondered if she had actually done this on purpose (the minute Milly and the rest were gone, Shirley began talking immediately).

"Um, Lulu, you're not going to the dance, right?"

"No one's asked yet," he evasively answered.

"Well, uh, I could go with you. It would be fun!" She smiled nervously yet hopefully, waiting for his response.

And honestly, he didn't mind going to the dance with Shirley. As far as he could tell, she was just retaining her friendship with him. "Sure, I'll go with you."

"Thanks so much, Lulu!" She paused and looked out the windows. "Wow, it's getting late. I'm gonna go help Milly with the pizza, okay?"

"Pizza?" he said, confused.

"Yeah, we're gonna have dinner before the dance."

"Oh." Pizza—C.C—locked in his room—all day. By the time the facts connected in his head, he had already jumped up, stopping Shirley before she was completely gone. "Wait, Shirley about that dance. I just remembered about something urgent I have to take care of. I can't go to the dance with you."

"Oh, well, I guess if it's important—"

"It is."

"Okay." Her face was gloomy.

"Thanks for the offer." He hoped that was enough. "Oh, and can you make sure Nunnally has a good time?"

"Of course!"

Then he ran off, cursing himself for having such a lack of physical strength. He reached his home and raced up the stairs, only hoping she wasn't too angry with him. The sun was already down, and she had been in there since seven in the morning.

After seeing the perfectly stable door, and knowing she hadn't even left, Lelouch burst into his room, the room he had locked her in all day without remembering. "C.C! I'm so—" He stopped as soon as he saw her. She sat on his bed—in the exact same position he had left her in—looking out the window. Her face wasn't sad exactly . . . Closer to disappointment.

Lelouch understood that words could not fix this. Sighing, he took another breath and sat down beside her. For a while, there was only the sound of his computer softly humming in the background. Nothing to say.

And then— "I'm thirsty, Lelouch. You should keep water in your room."

He cringed at the softness of her voice. She wasn't angry. But why? "C.C, the whole thing just slipped my mind. I apologize."

"Well, next time maybe you won't lock me here in the first place." Her tone had changed to bitterness.

He glared in response. "You had it coming for you anyway! You shouldn't have messed with my plans with the Black Knights, and I know you did it just to irritate me. Besides, you could've gotten out yourself. Broken a window, or the door. It wouldn't have been too hard!"

"I was reminiscing," she stated simply.

"What?" He paused, apologetic again. "Why?"

"I was reminiscing about being Britannia's favorite lab rat. They locked me up a lot, much like what happened today—except this time, there was an added bonus of a bed and a blanket. Sunlight. The actual ability to get out if I wanted to. See, it's comforting to know how people will treat me beforehand. Confining me, imprisoning me; everyone does it eventually. Even Mao when he threatened to take me to Australia. It was only a matter of time before you became the same."

Then he regretted even yelling at her in the first place. No, every single time he had said one rude thing to her, he now wished he could take it back. If only he had known her façade of carelessness was merely on the surface.

She continued, hardly taking a breath. "But you're wrong about one thing. I didn't tell the Black Knights to stay home just to irritate you."

"Then why—"

"I wanted . . ." C.C. paused as if searching for the correct words. "I wanted to remember Christmas for once. Just for one year. Because I haven't before. I can't even remember Christmas last year."

Lelouch took a moment to look at her, to take everything in. Her face showed no shadow of emotion, but the way her voice sounded—she was trying to keep everything under control, slowly losing her grip. "That's all you wanted?" he asked.

"I suppose."

He tried to think of what to say or what to do. Maybe things would have been easier if he had actually bought a gift for her, but . . . No, he had locked her in the room, left her there for the entire day of Christmas, no less, and then didn't even bother buying her anything. He could offer his credit card for pizza, but . . . It wouldn't work; he did that every day. Nothing special. He could give her—no, there was nothing he could do. "C.C," he started, but then realized he didn't know what to even say. The only way was to . . . apologize.

But she beat him to it. "Lelouch, I'm sorry."

What?

"I wanted to get you something, but I didn't know what you liked. Or if you would even care. So I didn't, but now I know I should have."

He chuckled. "Don't say that. I should be the one apologizing. I didn't get you anything either—I didn't even think of it."

"That sounds like you."

"Well, is there anything you want in particular? It might be a little late in giving it to you, but technically the holiday season isn't over until—"

"Hold me." Her voice was just a whisper in the darkness of the room. She leaned in, her eyes anxious.

And in the darkness of the night, he did—without hesitation. He held her. The way she had held him so many times when he was lost. The way she had comforted him. Now he gave it to her fully, his arms wrapped gently around her head, stroking her soft, velvet hair. He couldn't see her face, but he hoped she was happy.

"Merry Christmas," he said. It was all that he could give.

The only hint to how she felt was the slight wetness on his shirt. "I . . . Thank you, Lelouch. I can't remember much, but I know that no Christmas I've had was important to me at all. No one ever listened when I complained about things."

He held her closer. "I listened, right? That makes this Christmas important?" He hoped so. "Don't forget."

And finally she pulled away from him so he could see the slight smile spread across her face, along with tears of content. "Merry Christmas, Lelouch."