A quick story between two of the most Fabulous characters in Code Geass.
And Despite myself, its a love story.
hope you enjoy, and I own nothing but everything I own. Comments and reviews in the
doobly-do.
28 and 29
Claudio quickly rushed into the dark hanger with some young man following slowly behind. The hanger was closed down for the night but it wasn't stopping Claudio from enjoying himself.
"Must we do this ever time you get bored?" The irritable young man asked for the third time that evening. Claudio looked at the frowning man and smirked, knowing no matter how the man complained he would just do as Claudio asked anyway.
"If you have to ask then yes, and its not as if I ask you every evening. It's a perfect night and we should enjoy it." Claudio said climbing onto the young mans knightmare.
"Get off! We're not taking mine..." The young man said, still all the more belligerent.
"Please Luciano." Claudio asked looking down at Bradley from the knightmare, who was irritated at Claudio for using his first name. Claudio smiled and gave Bradley a look that reminded him of when they first met. Claudio was a humble, polite man who rarely asked anyone for anything, but on the rare occasion that Claudio did ask something of someone, especially Bradley, it was known to be important. "We'll just go out for an hour." Claudio said still giving Bradley that humble smile.
Bradley frowned and walked towards the knightmare, refusing to fight Claudio on the matter anymore.
"Move then. I pilot my own weapons." Bradley said climbing the knightmare. Claudio smiled again and moved out of the way, moving his arms as to welcome Bradley to the cockpit.
"My lord." Claudio said in a mocking tone. Bradley gave him a swift punch and climbed into the cockpit. Me moved the seat forward but kept the hatch open so Claudio could stand outside. Bradley was didn't like Claudio standing out of the cockpit like that, but Claudio wouldn't have it any other way.
"Hold on." Bradley said starting up the Percival. Claudio stood on the extended cockpit seat and rested his arms over the hatch so he could look out over the knightmare. The Percival suddenly jerked forward and sped up, slowly taking flight. They were quickly free of the hanger and were in the air shortly after. Claudio beamed as the summer wind rushed over his face. The night was dark and the city was lit up with every kind of light Claudio could have imagined.
Bradley moved across the Tokyo settlement slowly making sure not to suddenly throw Claudio from his precarious position. Through the camera system in the cockpit Bradley could see Claudio above him and watched as Claudio smiled in the night air. From the day Bradley met Claudio he knew Claudio had a natural affinity with the sky. Since float systems were becoming more common in the military Claudio was given more chances to be in the clouds, but it was never enough.
So Claudio would ask his lover, the great knight of Ten, to take him up in the sky. Bradley as a knight of the rounds could take his knightmare anywhere he pleased. So every so often he would indulge his lovers request and take him into the night sky where Claudio could revel in the clean air above the city. Bradley flew for a few minutes around the settlement, letting Claudio see the building and streets from ever angle. Claudio had seen the city from the sky numerous times, but never tired of the view. Bradley saw Claudio's smiling face in the cameras again and smirked.
"Enjoying yourself?" Bradley mockingly asked, still keeping his eyes on the sky. Claudio could hear the sarcasm in Bradley's voice but wasn't bothered by it. Not much bothered Claudio and even his lovers bloodthirsty and cruel ways couldn't get under Claudio's skin.
"Very." Claudio closed his eyes and rested his head against the cool metal of the cockpit roof.
He listened as the sound of wind rushed past is head, but the sound he loved most was that of the float system itself. It was a chiming sound that resonated from high pitch to low like a scientific song of progress. He liked the way it glowed pale green and illuminated the knightmare so softly.
"Luciano?" Claudio called from his position on the roof.
"Its lord Bradley to you, and what is it?" Bradley asked pretending to be annoyed. In truth Bradley hated whenever someone used his first name, except when Claudio used it. Claudio said it with a gentleness and reverence that was never associated with the great and terrible Vampire of Britannia.
"Luciano...Do you ever want a simpler life?" Claudio asked raising his head and looking back over the city. "A life perhaps where we don't fight, and were we can simply be."
"Be what?" Bradley asked feigning interest.
"Just be. Be whoever or whatever we really are. Perhaps I'm not mean to be a knight of Britannia. Maybe I'm just a pilot at heart, someone who just wanted to fly airplanes and be in the sky." Claudio said remembering his childhood. Claudio liked his toy planes the best, and loved to imagine he was a pilot flying in the sky. "What would you have been Luciano? If you had the chance to be whatever you wished I mean." Claudio asked already knowing Bradley's answer.
"I am what I want to be of course! A vampire who feasts on the blood of the battlefield! Carnage and murder are the only dreams I have." Bradley said like a snarling beast. Claudio frowned at his lovers response, but was unsurprised by the answer.
"You don't wish for anything else?" Claudio asked hoping for a different answer this time.
"Wishes and hopes are for the weak. I make my wishes come true and I reach my dreams by stacking corpses on top of each other to make a ladder. I don't need dreams...I have reality." Bradley said firmly.
Claudio wondered if Bradley was trying to convince Claudio or himself, but quickly put it out of his mind. Claudio hopped out of the cockpit hatch and climbed on the top of the Percival itself.
"Wait! Claudio get back here!" Bradley yelled from the pilots seat.
"Calm down Luciano. I'll be fine." He said slowly moving towards the helm. Claudio had never appreciated the Percival's bulky armor, but was grateful for the many protrusions that allowed him to get a secure seat. He sat on the Percival's shoulder and held the horn on the Percival's head to keep himself steady.
"Claudio get back in here now!" Bradley called over his speaker. Claudio liked to do this every so often to tease Bradley. It proved that Bradley cared about Claudio more than he would ever admit.
"Can you hear me Luciano?" Claudio asked not taking his eyes off the night sky.
"I can hear you." Bradley said with an annoyed tone in his voice.
"I love you." Claudio said somewhat casually. Bradley wasn't surprised by Claudio's words, he had said it to him any times already. Not that Bradley ever said it back. The two of them had been together for over four years and Bradley still never said those words to Claudio. Not that he ever really wanted to.
"I know Claudio." Bradley said looking down. "But I don't love you." Bradley said in a frank yet sad way. "I am a vampire Claudio. A feed on the dead and find the purest ecstasy in the slaughter of people. Someone like me can't be weight down by the love of a man." Bradley said with not joy in his tone.
"Do you think I am a fool for loving you Luciano?" Claudio asked smiling again, the two of them had already had this conversation many times.
"If you loved me or not I'd still think you were a fool." Bradley said regretting it as he said it. He didn't like being cruel to Claudio, not unless he had to. However Claudio didn't mind. He had built thick skin to Bradley's words years ago, so nothing Bradley said or did really bothered Claudio anymore. The two of them flew in silence for a few more minutes before Claudio finally spoke.
"I think it's time he headed back." Claudio said finished with his sightseeing. Bradley understood and turned the Percival around to head back to the government bureau. However as they were flying back Bradley's eye caught something. He took the controls and flew down towards the ground, much to the confusion of Claudio. Bradley made sure to land carefully in a large untamed garden. Even in the dark the garden looked beautiful. They were deep in the Shinjuku ghetto which had long been abandoned. Claudio hopped off the knightmare and looked over the garden.
"Luciano. What are we doing here?" Claudio asked looking around the garden. Bradley climbed from his knightmare and slowly made his way to Claudio.
"I have a new answer for you." Bradley said like Claudio already knew what he was talking about, which he did.
"I'm eager to hear it." Claudio said taking Bradley's hand. Bradley looked as the gloved hands holding each other and smiled at the pair.
"I am a killer, a damn good one and proud of it. I will live in the bloody battlefield and probably die there." Bradley said taking Claudio's other hand and facing him.
"But...but perhaps if I am so unlucky to survive my wars and battles, and when I finally grow old and tired, and the battlefield loosed it bloody luster. Perhaps I will retire. As a knight of the Rounds I have over ten-thousand acres of land across the Nasher coast. So perhaps when I finally tire of battle I will go there with you, and spend the rest of our miserable days together." Bradley smiled for a second, that crooked smile that was never one of pure joy. "Well, maybe it wont be so miserable...spending the rest of my life with you." He said with his usual amount of sarcasm.
Claudio laughed and smiled at Bradley's half hearted attempt to console him.
"Be careful Luciano, that almost sounds like a proposal of marriage." Claudio said smiling, but he was only trying to tease Bradley a bit.
In honesty Claudio had always thought about what it would mean to be with Bradley for the rest of his life. Claudio never really wanted to be married and he never expected Bradley to offer.
"So what if it is?" Bradley said almost defiantly.
Claudio was taken aback, but kept a calm face. However Claudio began to slowly loose his composure as Bradley slid down and rested on one knee. He looked up at Claudio with a bead of sweat coming down from his head.
"I can never be the man you need." Bradley said, swallowing hard. "But I hope that this promise will do something for your heart, and I hope it will prove something to you...about how I truly feel." Bradley reached into his chest pocket and pulled out a small box.
Claudio had stopped smiling long ago and could fee his heart beating out of his chest. Bradley was shaking as he brought the small box up towards Claudio. Bradley had killed dozens of men, destroyed whole cities and burned countries to the ground, but never in his entire life had he felt so incredibly small and weak. He swallowed again, trying to hold back his nervousness, and opened the box, showing a simple gold band with a small diamond placed simply in the middle.
It wasn't fancy and it was hardly extravagant, but to Claudio it was perfect. He never liked rings or jewelry, but that plain gold band sparkled like the Tokyo settlement in Claudio's eyes.
"Claudio S. Darlton...will you do me the honor...of becoming..." Bradley tried to choke out the words but found them lodged in his throat. He had practiced in the mirror dozens of times, but it was nothing like the real thing. Claudio had never seen Bradley so nervous or unsure, and if he hadn't been so in shock, Claudio would have found Bradley very cute.
"Will you do me the honor of becoming my husband?" He asked taking holding the ring to Claudio.
Claudio just looked down as Bradley and then to the ring. He took the box and inspected the ring for a moment. Claudio didn't mean to make Bradley sweat but Bradley was on the verge of heart attack waiting for Claudio's answer. Claudio didn't know what brought on the proposal, not that he really cared, but he looked down at Bradley and smiled that warm smile he was known for.
"Yes." Claudio answered simply.
Bradley seemed surprised but quickly took the ring from Claudio and tenderly slipped the ring on Claudio's finger. It was a prefect fit.
Claudio helped Bradley to his feet and smiled at his new fiance. He quickly kissed Bradley, knowing he didn't like extravagant displays of affection and took his hand as they went back to the knightmare. Bradley went into the cockpit and started his knightmare, extending its hand for Claudio to sit in. As Claudio took his seat and Bradley launched that both took a moment of thought.
Bradley was a killer and Claudio was a knight, and sometimes they were the other. But Claudio knew something important, he knew he loved Bradley and he knew Bradley loved him. Bradley knew this too but would never admit it, but that was fine with Claudio. He loved Bradley for everything he was, stubborn, vicious, prideful, kind, considerate, and very protective. And Bradley loved Claudio for everything he was, smart, sweet, humble, polite, strong, and a fierce warrior.
So as he thought about his feelings for Claudio, Bradley slowly flew higher and higher in the air, hoping to make Claudio all the more happy. Claudio smiled at his fiance's attempt, but as he looked down as his new ring, he knew no matter high he flew or how long he stayed in the sky, it would always be second to the feeling he would get whenever he was near Bradley.
Because Claudio loved being near Bradley, and Bradley loved Claudio.