Chapter I: Changes

Whack!

The black-haired boy pried open his eyes sleepily, only to be met with another hit to the side of his head. His violet eyes flickered over to the blonde standing in front of him. In her right hand was a rolled-up magazine while her left hand was placed on her hip. She had a very cross look on her face. Just for a slight moment, he actually felt a slight fear. This girl was capable of things which no normal student was able to accomplish.

"What?" He asked in his usual bored tone.

"Lelouch Lamperouge!" The girl shrieked in an ear piercing voice that could have reached the high heavens. He winced a little. "You are supposed to be balancing the accounts! Not catching some shut eye!"

"Jeez, Milly," a blue-haired boy complained as he covered his ears. "Keep it down a little. At the end of the year, I'm certain one of us is going to be deaf." I agree with you, Rivalz, Lelouch thought silently. It was way too early for any of them to need hearing aids yet.

Milly ignored the comment and continued screaming at Lelouch. "How can you possibly sleep here?"

"Well," Lelouch replied. "All I have to do is fold my arms across the tabletop and put my head —"

Whack!

Third hit to his head today. Lelouch rubbed his head. If this goes on I'm going to get a concussion, he thought to himself. "Don't you dare talk back to your president!" Milly shouted indignantly.

"Like I care," he muttered under his breath before picking up his fallen pen. Today was really not his day so he wasn't in the best of moods. Anyone would be after being plagued by nightmares all night about their past which they specifically didn't want to remember. Why did I even join the student council?

"Aw, Milly!" An auburn-haired girl piped up. "Don't be so hard on Lulu, he must be tired."

Lulu? Lelouch thought in pure disdain. He made a silent pledge to find out who first came up with that ridiculous nickname and skin that person alive.

Fortunately, the blonde turned to the girl who said that, her rage towards Lelouch forgotten. "Really?" Milly asked with a suggestive raised eyebrow. "That's so sweet, Shirley. You care about Lelouch!"

"What are you talking about, Milly?!"

The said boy ignored the ongoing conversation-slash-denying and kept his eyes on the papers before him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Shirley blushing like mad. He shook his head and went back to his work.

"By the way," Milly said, changing the subject as she always did. "I heard from Grandfather that we will have a new student soon." The Ashfords ran this school, Ashford Academy and Milly's grandfather, Ruben K. Ashford, was the headmaster of the school.

"Really?" Shirley said. "That's funny, usually no one transfers halfway during the school year."

The rest of the Student Council instantly burst into excited chatter about who they imagined the new student to look like. So? Lelouch thought, not even vaguely interested. It was just a new student. He simply could not fathom why was that being made such a big deal of.

Milly gave a nonchalant shrug. "Eh. I'm not interested in why. Gramps also said that he or she will be staying in the Student Government Clubhouse. Isn't that wonderful, Lelouch? You will have a new roommate!"

This time, Lelouch shot up from his seat. Now this was to be made a big deal of. "What?" He gave Milly a look of pure disbelief. "Why?"

"Gramps said that the new kid is the only child and has no relatives in Area 11. And the absent parents who are in Britannia were the ones who made the request. Now, the next part is the funniest."

"It is?" Lelouch said in a monotone voice. Great. Now there would be someone else there living with him and Nunnally. He had long enjoyed the privilege of living away from the rest of the students without anyone poking their noses into his business. Goodbye, days of peace and tranquility, he thought wistfully.

"Don't be a spoil sport!" Rivalz said. "Let's hear what Prez has to say."

"That's what you always say," Lelouch muttered to himself. Rivalz had a long unrequited crush on the blonde but was way too chicken to admit it and ask her out. Agreeing with everything Milly said was one of the blue-haired boy's favourite thing to do.

Milly giggled. "Okay, since you all insisted."

Shirley sweat dropped. "We did?"

"Yes! Gramps told me this is what they said." She cleared her throat and spoke with a strong foreign accent. "Mr. Ashford, with all due respect, I will not have my only heir stay in a hostel with these, common, folk. What if they carry some sort of incurable disease along with them? Can you compensate us with another pure and clean child then?"

"I assure you, Milady," Milly continued in a deeper voice to mimic Ruben. "All of our students have a clean bill of health which have been certified —"

"Really, the cheek! Mr. Ashford, please highly refrain yourself from talking back. To think that I have expected better from the headmaster of this school. As I was saying before you so rudely interrupted me, I recall you once saying that only one student is staying at that quaint little clubhouse of yours, right? Pray tell my why. Enlighten me further."

Shirley frowned. "That isn't really funny."

"It isn't," Lelouch agreed. Especially when you know you're about to be dragged into this conversation soon.

Milly gave a smile. "Of course it wasn't! God, that would've bored anyone to tears. The funny part was Gramps's expression. He actually removed the phone from his ear and gave it a disgusted look."

"It's still not really that funny," Lelouch pointed out.

"Haha! Oh, my sides are killing me!" Everyone turned to look at Rivalz who was laughing a little too loudly. They sent him differing versions of questioning looks. "Prez, please continue!"

Milly glanced around nervously. "Uh, I don't think I should..."

"Come on, Milly!"

"Yeah," a soft voice said. It was Nina. "I would like to know what happens next."

"I thought that you were all for taking risks!" Rivalz pressed on further.

"If you really must know," Milly suddenly snapped, causing everyone to look at her. The blonde was usually calm and rarely lost her temper. "She just asked why Lelouch was staying there. That's all! Period!"

The blue-haired boy raised his hands in mock surrender. "Jeez, okay Milly. No need to get so worked up." There was a short pause. "Why won't you tell us?"

Milly gritted her teeth. "Because."

"Because of what?"

"Just because!"

"Did she say something about me that you weren't happy with?"

Milly turned to Lelouch with shock, wondering how did he manage to deduce that fact so quickly. She fiddled with her fingers. "Well, not exactly you."

Lelouch's easy expression morphed instantly. "She was talking about Nunnally?" He asked in a deadly calm voice.

She sent him an apologetic look, a clear sign that he was correct. "I'm sorry, Lelouch."

"No, it's fine," the black-haired boy lied smoothly. Milly was quite considerate when it came to things like that and if she viewed it as offensive, it wasn't very difficult to figure out how Lelouch would react to them. He could tolerate people commenting about him but if it was Nunnally they were talking about, then they were going to have a massive problem with him.

Lelouch had a feeling that he wasn't going to get along well with the new student if he or she was anything like that woman.

He looked down at the paper he had been holding in his hand. It was now crushed into a crumpled paper ball about the size of his fists. With a quiet sigh, Lelouch sat straighter up and tossed the paper ball into the dustbin that was located a few feet away. It was a bullseye.

There was an awkward silence filling the room. The tension was so thick that you could cut it with a butter knife. Soon, someone broke the silence.

"Sorry about pushing you on, Prez."

Milly gave a small smile. "It's no biggie, Rivalz. You didn't know." She turned to the other boy. "If it makes you feel any better, Gramps did fight back. He snapped at her loudly and hung up by slamming the phone. A few minutes later, she called back and apologized."

The blonde was met with no reply. "So, did the headmaster allow it?" Lelouch finally asked.

Milly nodded in relief that he wasn't planning on ignoring her after all. "I know you're not happy about that Lelouch. Gramps did all he could but she contacts him every, single, freaking day." She thought back on how her grandfather was close to strangling the phone when she caught him hanging up on the woman again earlier this morning.

The black-haired boy sighed heavily. "It's okay." It was wrong to blame the headmaster who had done no wrong. If it wasn't for Ruben, he and Nunnally would probably be dead by now.

"Who is the new student anyway?" Rivalz mused. "I wonder if it's a boy or a girl."

Milly had a thoughtful look on her face. "Now that you mention it, Gramps never told me about that. He just kept referring to he or she as 'that woman's heir'."

The boy sweat dropped. "Aren't you supposed to know this stuff since you're the student council president?"

"Grr..." The blonde girl assaulted Rivalz with her still-rolled up magazine. He yelped. "Are you implying that I'm stupid?!"

"No, no! Of course not!"

Lelouch ignored them and focused on the task of rewriting the contents of the previous paper, trying to push the depressing thoughts out of his head. The rhythmical scratching of pen on paper filled the otherwise silent room.

"Anyway," Milly continued like nothing had happened. "I heard that the new kid's a noble."

"Serious?" Shirley said. She frowned. "Well, I guess that explains why that woman is so snotty."

Milly nodded in agreement. "Apparently he or she is from a wealthy family which has close ties with the Imperial family."

The extra added emphasis on the last two words did not fail to make its point. Lelouch perked up at hearing those words. This could mean trouble. After all, Lelouch vi Britannia was presumed dead around seven years ago. Only Milly and the rest of the Ashfords knew that he was in reality the exiled prince. All the more reason to not look forward to the new student.

"Imperial family?" Rivalz said excitedly. "That's so cool! Maybe we can ask whether Prince Clovis actually paints or that he just pretends that he does."

Nina gasped in shock upon hearing the not-so-subtle insult directed at the Viceroy. "You better not let anyone hear you say that!" She squeaked fearfully.

"What? It's still cool!"

"Yeah..." Milly said uncertainly, shooting sideway glances at Lelouch which she thought went by unnoticed. "That's... cool."

Lelouch was still looking at the paper but his mind was currently elsewhere. For Nunnally's sake, he hoped that the new student wouldn't recognize him. If he or she did and told the other monarchs, there was no telling what could possibly happen to them or what they could do to his sister.

If that was the case, then those seven years would have been in vain.

Soji gave a sigh and ran his fingers through his hair. Fernandez was looking expectantly at him. The way that he could feel her eyes boring into him was especially unnerving. Her cup of tea had already been drained. The bodyguard leaned forward and whispered something in her ear. She gave a curt nod and her face turned serious before she turned to Soji.

"Hiranuma-san," she said politely but a hint of irritation was clear in her tone. "I would like to stay longer, but my time is almost up. I have to leave in five minutes. I will ask this once again for the last time, what is your answer?"

Ritsuka gently took Soji's hand in her own, breaking him away from his thoughts. "Soji, think this through. Haru and Yuki can grow up without worrying whether they die the next minute." Her face became sad. "You saw what happened to Mori-san's family. Do you want the same thing to happen to us?"

Soji glanced out of the window of his apartment. Before all this, he would see a thriving capital with tall skyscrapers everywhere. Now, all he could see was rubble and ruins. The last remnants of a civilization. He glanced out of the corner of his eye and his gaze settled on Fernandez.

Soji didn't even know whether she could be trusted. This was illegal and was the worst form of law breaking in the book, other than terrorism. If they were caught (which he had a feeling that they would), they would be executed immediately. For all he knew, this could be a trap and Fernandez would hand them over to the government.

"It's too risky," he protested. He had successfully thought of nearly a million ways how this could go wrong.

"I know it its, but I rather take the risk." Ritsuka looked close to tears. Soji faltered. He was never good with crying women. "Soji, I can't live another day like this! Looking over my shoulder. Wondering if each meal will be my last. I — I can't..."

Soji grasped his wife's hand as he pondered over what action to take. What if they ended up dying? He couldn't see himself taking the risk. He reflected back on the clear streams where he could catch boundless fish. The vast meadows where he used to catch dragonflies All of those which no longer existed.

Soji sighed exasperatedly. I have to do this for Haru and Yuki, he thought. It is a sacrifice I have to make. He turned back to Fernandez with the look of a person who had his mind dead set on something.

"I'll take your offer."