a/n: I apparently have a thing for Code Geass AU oneshots. This is part of my oneshot anniversary celebration! I've spent four years on fanfiction, whoo!
dedication: To the last few days before freedom.
disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass.
summary: He wakes up to death and lies. – Lelouch/Euphemia.
reality
He opens his eyes and stares at the ceiling. Something is wrong, Lelouch can feel it. He blinks and looks to the side to see a mahogany nightstand. He can see the purple silk sheets out of the corner of his eye.
It is clearly his room, where he went to sleep last night.
Lelouch can still not shake the feeling that something has been altered and moves to get up. Only he can't, there is a weight on his arm, a warmth that moves up and down in sync with Lelouch's breaths.
Lelouch does not notice the other signs – the hair brush on the nightstand, the bottle with two cups, the glittering red clips, the vague and subtle signs that someone is sharing this room with him – he is too startled at the sight of the person who is next to him, curved him against him and sleeping quite peacefully.
Only one person in the world has pink hair like that.
And that person is dead.
Lelouch is almost afraid to touch her, but before he can screw up his courage, the dead girl shifts, yawning and rolling over before looking up into Lelouch's eyes and smiling.
Her smile is just as beautiful as he remembered.
"Good morning, Lulu," she says softly, a gentle hint of teasing in her tone as she stretches, the blankets falling away from her to reveal a lacy set of lingerie that Lelouch does not ever recall seeing her in.
She notices his staring and laughs.
"Like what you see, Lulu?" she says, low and seductive and Lelouch barely manages to regain the composure to ask what the hell happened before there is a hammering at the door.
Lelouch snaps his head up, alarmed, but Euphemia only chuckles before climbing out of bed. "I'm coming, sweetheart," she calls out, grabbing a robe before going to open the door.
A greenish blur rushes in, sweeping past Euphemia to leap onto the bed and start jumping around.
"Daddy!" it squeals in a high-pitched voice and Lelouch has no time to prepare himself before it launches itself on him. He looks past the bright green pajamas to see a head of messy black hair. It looks up and Lelouch sees purple eyes and nearly faints. The child is a carbon copy of Marianne.
"Sweetheart, did you brush your teeth?" Euphemia calls from the doorway and Lelouch knows he should analyze the fragments of information he has into a solid framework, but he's mesmerized by those purple eyes.
The girl bounces in Lelouch's arms and his grip tightens instinctively. "Yes, Mama!" it cries out and Euphy grins. She winks at Lelouch before sweeping into the adjoining bathroom.
"Daddy, when are you going to take me to see the parade?" the girl squirms, wide purple eyes looking at him in adoration.
"What parade?" Lelouch responds automatically. His brain is still not in working order.
"The 'versary parade, Daddy!" the girl says, shocked as only a four-year-old can be. She pretends to faint in melodrama. "Don't tell me you've forgotten!"
"Of course not," Lelouch replies and a smile comes to his face. He doesn't know what alternate reality he's woken up to, but he's determined to make the most of it.
Euphy comes out of the bathroom and calls the girl, "Marigold, sweetheart, did you take a bath yet?" Marigold's scrunched-up expression clearly gives her opinion on baths and Lelouch laughs.
"If you want to go to the anniversary parade, you have to take a bath," Euphy says sternly and Marigold gasps.
"But Daddy promised he'd take me!" she wails and clings to him. Lelouch gently pulls her loose.
"I'll take you, sweetheart," he says, "But you have to listen to your mother first." Marigold looks at him with narrowed eyes, as if deciding whether or not to accept his terms. Then she smiles, radiantly wide, and tears from the room as fast as she came.
He can hear an anguished voice in the hallway. "Princess, no," it cries, "You cannot tear about the palace like a hellion! Princess? Princess!"
Euphemia laughs and Lelouch laughs with her. "She's a rebel, just like her mother," Lelouch nudges and Euphemia shakes her head.
"Oh, don't push this on me, Lulu," she smiles, "Her stubbornness is all from you." She sits back down on the bed. "Ready for the parade?" she asks quietly.
"Of course," Lelouch replies, but it seems like that isn't the answer she was looking for.
"Don't worry," she says, crawling closer, "You aren't your father. The people love you." Her words strike a little too close to home and Lelouch freezes. She kisses him, a quick peck on the lips, and then the world dissolves.
Lelouch wakes up in his cold bed and sits bolt upright, looking at his empty room. It's silent – too silent, when moments ago there had been laughter.
He wonders on the world he'd seen, a world different from his, where he's a beloved Emperor with a loving wife and an energetic child. A world where he has everything he every wants.
But this is not that world.
He gets out of bed with a heavy heart and robotically goes through the morning routine. There's a parade today, but his people hate him and loathe him. Euphemia is dead by his hand and their child, their Marigold, never existed.
There is a parade today and it doesn't matter that this isn't the world he wanted because this is the day he'll die.
fin
a/n: A little look in Lelouch's dreams the night before he died.