Suddenly a spasm of sharp pain went through his skull.

He grunted in pain and held his head. He didn't even notice when somebody tapped him on the shoulder.

"…Lelouch? Are you okay..?"

Lelouch heard someone talk to him distantly, as if he were underwater. He wrinkled his brow, why did they sound distant?

Suddenly they spoke again. " Lelouch..?!"

The head ache suddenly stopped again. Lelouch eyes squinted as he began to become frustrated. Not only were these symptoms confusing but annoying as well. He didn't have time to be sick, he had business to do. He then remembered that someone had tried to get his attention.

Lelouch turned around after regaining his composure and saw that Milly was the one who had said his name.

"Hey! Lelouch, Are you OK? I mean you looked really.. Well you scared me when you looked like that."

Lelouch stared at her dispassionately before making a quick reply. " I'm fine, really. It's just a head ache." Milly looked at him with a flash of concern in her eyes before hesitantly nodding. " Yah, well, you seem to be sick a lot. You should go home. Where are you going right now?"

Thinking quickly, the Britannian came up with a plausible lie. "Well", Lelouch coolly replied. " I'm going to try and find a tuxedo shop so Rolo can have a suit for the Christmas dance." The truth was, actually, that he was on his way to the Blacks Knight's next meeting. Rolo didn't even know about the planned Christmas dance.

Milly instantly brightened, and gave Lelouch a coy smile. The boy noticed he was the object of her suspicious grin and instantly felt uneasy. "What?"

Milly giggled. "Oh, nothing. But you know, I was thinking you would look pretty sharp in a tuxedo, Lelouch." Lelouch rolled his eyes. But Milly continued. " I can just imagine it! You'll have all the girls lined up for miles. Poor Shirley, going to the dance with a heart breaker like you."

As soon as he heard the red heads name, he froze. An uncomfortable feeling then edged its way into his heart. " I'm not going with Shirley." He said coldly.

Milly didn't notice the change of tone in his voice and continued to speak. " Lelouch, common. Don't be such a jerk. You guys are perfect for each other." Lelouch couldn't help but feel the irritation in his emotions surge to a hot anger at the words Milly was spewing.

" I mean, I'm not sure why Shirley likes you," Milly said jokingly. " But you might as well take advantage of it. She really admires you, yah know? And not only is she smart, but beautiful! You really have no idea what a lucky guy you are-"

Milly suddenly stopped with her rant as she noticed Lelouch's hand slam into the side of the train.

All of a sudden, the passengers in the train stopped talking and turned to look at the origin of the bang. They saw nothing of interest, though, and turned back around, continuing with their conversation; the chatter in the subway returning as though it had never left.

Milly, though, felt a shiver of fear make it's way up her spine. She had never seen Lelouch look so.. threatening. She felt her hair almost stand on end when she looked into his eyes. She could swore she saw a glimmer of pent up fury simmering in the depths of the deep purple orbs.

Lelouch glared with a burning anger into the blonde girl's eyes. He didn't know why, but he had quickly found himself uncontrollably ticked off. He didn't need Milly trying to set him up with Shirley, who probably hated him now. He needed to set some boundaries with Milly, and he figured he might as well do it now.

" Don't" he said with an icy tone. " Talk to me about this anymore. I don't like Shirley, I'm not going to this dance, and I could care less what you think of me. So don't even bother trying to guilt me into this."

Instantly, Milly's fear changed to rage. " I'm not TRYING to GUILT you into ANYTHING!"She said, raising her voice, capturing the attention of the passengers.

They stared in vivid shock as she went closer and closer to the teenage boy.

" It's your own flipping fault if you feel guilty! USUALLY, when you feel GUILTY, Lelouch, You've done something WRONG. And lately, you've had the word GUILTY plastered to your forehead! I don't know who you think you are, but you sure have gotten some nerve lately!" Milly let out a wail of frustration and was about to continue, when Lelouch, who had been stunned before, regained his thoughts and became outraged.

"WHAT?!" Lelouch interrupted her with his own outburst, " You Don't Even KNOW me, Milly. Don't try to dissect me now, cause I couldn't care LESS about what YOU or ANYONE thinks of me!" Lelouch, took a breath, and recollected his calm before leveling his gaze to the shocked Milly. Smirking, he whispered something to her face. "You're all just obstacles in my way."

Milly stared lividly at the boy who had just insulted her, and all of her friends. She stared for a long time before taking in his comment. Lowering her head, she felt angry and foolish. She now saw the true form of a Britannian prince. Tears start to form in the corner of her eye. She wiped them away before looking back at him.

" I guess, that the Lelouch I thought I knew was actually a lie."

Lelouch pretended to feel proud and unfazed as he looked at Milly. He had noticed the tears in her eyes when he delivered the blow, and felt as though he had insulted himself. He instantly felt shame sprinkle itself all over his heart, but ignored it with an indifferent attitude. While he should've apologized, he felt as though it would be best to lose Milly as a friend as well. That way, things could proceed easier. Unfortunately, his emotions kept telling him something different. Even though his brain knew this was a good idea, his heart told a different story.

Milly looked at his smug face before shaking her head in obvious disappointment.

"You know what's funny?" Milly said sadly, " You used to tell me that you despised your father. That he was self-centered, full of hate and never listened to word people under him said. Well, Lelouch, you're reminding me of him more then ever right now".

Lelouch felt his blood freeze. Milly was the only one that knew he was actually a son of the Emperor. The Emperor that left him and Nunally to live alone. The Emperor that ruled without a single thought or emotion for his people. The Emperor that erased his memories. Yes, the very same one that Lelouch hated, he was now being compared to. The mind- numbing thought made his brain hurt.

Suddenly the train halted. It was Milly's stop.

She looked at him dead-on before exhaling and leaving the subway.

Lelouch scoffed as Milly walked away, trying to convince himself he wouldn't miss her. Just to finish the whole friend problem he decided to say one last thing.

" Oh, and would you mention to the rest of the Student Council that I think they're just as worthless as you are?" Lelouch haughtily called out to Milly as she walked off the train. She didn't even bother looking at him, she just continued to walk.

She definitely heard me, I know it. Lelouch thought to himself, as his emotions ran crazy with regret and despair at the thought of losing all his friends. It's better this way. He kept telling himself, Someone like me doesn't need…no.. doesn't deserve friends.

Lelouch ripped himself from his thoughts as the train stopped at the platform. He stepped off with the other passengers and began to walk towards the warehouse area where the Black Knights met weekly.

While walking through a portion of the city, he suddenly felt hot. Lelouch put his hand to his forehead, and noticed that he was warm with a fever. But, deciding that it was not something to really fret about, he continued to walk.

Lelouch made his way out of the warehouse where he had changed his clothes and continued to the meeting place of his association: The Black Knights.

Ougi and Kallen waved to him as he approached the conference room. Lelouch, or Zero, gave a nod of acknowledgement to them and proceeded to walk onto a platform to greet and discuss the procedures of the current plan with his followers.

" Hello, members of the Black Knights." Zero shouted, " All is going as planned with our next operation. We will be using 34 knightmares for this mission, given to us by the Japanese Federation. Our advance will take place-" Suddenly Zero's voice faded as he began to feel dizzy again. Looking around he saw 2 very concerned looking Kallens.

Wait. That wasn't right.

Since when were there two Kallens? Looking again, he found that he was seeing two of everything. The fever returned with full force, bringing a head ache along with it. The sweltering heat, combined with his stuffy apparel, made Lelouch begin to feel faint. With much effort, he brought his head up to look at his followers. They seemed to be altogether concerned and confused.

What's with the boss?

Is he Ok?

What's he hunched over so funny for?

Were the common thoughts circulating through the cohorts' minds.

Kallen watched with an awestruck feeling as Zero held his head in pain. He was leaning over, as though he might fall down any second. Before anything else could happen, Kallen felt a sense of urgency flood through her body. She had to get Zero out of here, he looked like he was about faint, and if he did it wouldn't be good. Most likely, everyone would try to get a look at his face..

Kallen rushed to the side of her leader and put his arm over her shoulder, supporting him and leading him out of the conference room, into his office.

Meanwhile, Ougi did his best to calm the Black Knights. " Don't worry guys! He probably just got tired. He is human, right? We've all been missing sleep lately." Everyone mumbled in agreement, before asking if they could leave to get some sleep themselves.

Ougi chuckled, "No, I don't think boss would be too happy if you all just decided to skip out on the meeting."

The crowd grumbled. And a random man spoke up. " But if what you said is true, then he's probably asleep right now! Why should we stay here if we aren't doing anything?"

Ougi sweat dropped. They had a point.

Ougi then came up with a solution. "Well.. I can run the meeting!" He said, confidently. The room was quiet for a moment before everyone busted into an uncontrollable laughter.

" That's hilarious!" Someone cried out.

" I know!" Said another, "Ougi couldn't run a mile, much less a Black Knights meeting!"

Ougi angrily mumbled to himself as everyone left for home. " From what I've heard," Ougi grumpily said to himself, " Zero's not such a track star either!"

Kallen carefully set Zero down on a couch before letting him go. He took off his mask and became Lelouch once again.

" What's with that, Lelouch? Are you Okay?" Kallen asked worriedly. Lelouch shook his head.

" I don't know why, but I haven't been feeling my best lately. I wonder.."

" It's probably lack of sleep" Kallen said assuredly, " Or just stress."

Lelouch nodded slowly, but he was very doubtful that the recent symptoms he had been experiencing seemed much more painful then something involving stress or sleep. Lelouch broke from his worries and looked up to Kallen, who was currently staring at him.

"You know," She began, " I would've never imagined you were the person behind Zero's mask."

"Because I'm Britannian?" Lelouch questioned bitterly.

"No.." Kallen said slowly, as if thinking about it. " Because who knew that a reserved, handsome student of Ashford Academy would end up being the savior of the Japanese."

Lelouch chuckled darkly, " Don't call me a savior just yet, Kallen."

Kallen tensed as she recognized a deep emotion stirring in Lelouch's eyes. She quickly reverted back to her less personal role.

" Um, right. So, sir. What can I do for you?" She ignored the impulse to salute.

"Well, for one, you can leave so I can change." Kallen slightly blushed, and this did not go unnoticed by Lelouch. " Or if you want to stay, I guess that's fine-"

"NO!" Kallen said loudly, then lowered her voice, blushing. " I think I'll go send the Black Knights home. We can always have a meeting tomorrow." She then walked out of the office, leaving Lelouch alone.

She walked into a depressed Ougi before making her way to the conference room.

" Hey Ougi! Why aren't you in there with the rest of the Black Knights?" Ougi slowly turned around to Kallen and started to bawl. " They laughed at meeeee and left!" He cried, " They don't think I'm a good leader!!!!!" Kallen sighed and gave her currently over-dramatic friend a hug. But not before muttering to herself, " When did my job become about comforting men?"

After Kallen closed the door behind her, Lelouch winced at the growing head ache that seemed to have made a permanent stay in his skull. He stood up slowly and changed into his school uniform.

After that, he made his way home, not hesitating to collapse on his bed. He feel asleep quickly and dreamed of spending a day with the student council members.