I do not own Code Geass

Ch. 6 Boot Camp pt. 2

"Dear Nunnally,

I'm sorry for not writing you sooner, I hadn't been allowed to until now. It has to do with breaking us of our civilian habits, so we aren't allowed much contact from outside the training camp at first. I hope you and the others are well.

Things are not easy here. Going through processing upon arrival and initial strength test is in its self is exhausting, but I made it through. Our Company Commander had even decided to make an example of me to the other recruits the moment he saw me. I suppose I can't blame him for it, who better than a prince to make the point of 'no special treatment for anybody' with?

However, even though basic training is in no way for the weak willed it isn't all bad. The other recruits in my company are friendly, and we all stick together. I can tell that after finding out who I was many of them had questions about me, but they never ask them. They seem to somehow understand that I'm not something to be spoken about. Anyway, You'll never guess who my bunkmate is. It's Suzaku of all people! At least I know I'm not going to have to go through this alone now. I figured knowing I had a good friend here with me would bring you some comfort as well.

Other than that there isn't much more to tell. I don't want you to worry, I'm taking it all in stride…

Love, Lelouch

Ps. I hope you're able to keep Rivalz in line without me around. Oh, and tell Milly to get her mind out of the gutter for me. You know how she needs a daily reminder."

Sayoko finished reading the letter to Nunnally. It had been a matter of nearly a month before Lelouch's first letter came for her in the mail. But when it did the young girl immediately asked Sayoko to read it to her. She still missed her brother more than anything, but was very happy to know that he had Suzaku with him.

For the student council the chair siting vacant in their meetings was becoming harder and harder to ignore. They still had yet to announce Lelouch's departure from the school. Milly had kept putting it off because she just couldn't bring herself to do it, if they were having such a hard time with it how would the rest of school react? The staff of course had long a go been informed that he was no longer enrolled as a student at the school, but the rest of the student body was just now beginning to notice his absence. It was nothing out of the ordinary for Lelouch to skip classes but a few weeks of perpetual absences was causing suspicion, and starting to fuel the rumor mill back up. So, it was decided by the student council that today would be the day the rest of the school would be informed.

Milly sighed as she turned on the PA system. "Hello Ashford Academy!" She greeted cheerfully as usual "This is your student council president Milly Ashford speaking. I'm sure most of you have noticed that our ever so lovable vice president, Lelouch Lamperouge, has not been in school for the past few weeks. Well it is my unfortunate duty to inform you, the students, that Lelouch has left school to join the military. He has already left for basic training weeks ago. He will not be returning to school as he has decided to start active duty soon after. But don't worry he has promised to come and visit as much as possible. And we at the student council wish him all the luck in his military career!" She shut the PA system off that was one of the hardest this she ever had to do…and she had to act cheerful on top of it.

She only perked up giggling when heard a couple of girls in a distant classroom scream "NO IT CAN'T BE TRUE!" She shook her head and laughed somberly, 'Lelouch, do you have any idea the effect you have over people's hearts?' she silently thought.

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Britannian Training Camp

As both Lelouch and Suzaku found, the beginning phase of their training consisted of a strict routine, five am: wake-up call, shower, shave, brush teeth, comb hair, put on uniform, make bed, await inspection from drill instructor. Five-thirty am: chow time. Six am, attend a daily class over protocol, first aid, rank structure and insignia, the Eleven General Orders, the Five Paragraph order, and how to prepare equipment. Eight am: close order drills, starting with a mile run to synchronize their movement as a company. Ten am: physical training for combat. Twelve pm: chow time. Twelve-thirty pm: rifle training. Three pm: field or water training exercises. Five pm: chow time. Five-thirty pm: more classes. Seven pm: down time. Eight pm: inspection and lights out.

Today was no different.

"Damn Britannia, how do you always manage to get ready faster than the rest of us?" Bonnefoy, who occupied the bunk next to Lelouch's asked as the teenager laced up his boots.

"Well he's got an advantage on the rest of us. He doesn't need to shave!" Another recruit by the name of Jones called out from the opposite side of the bunkhouse. The comment was followed a ruckus laughter.

Lelouch shrugged the teasing off knowing it wasn't meant as something cruel. He had come to find that there was an astonishing amount of tongue-in-cheek engrained in the culture of this place. The other guys got it just as bad as they dished it out. They even had given each other undignified nicknames. Lelouch had received the unfortunate moniker of 'Princess' while Suzaku was dubbed 'Double-One'….The guys in their unit were admittedly not a very creative bunch.

By noon he was aching again as usual. "Damn Suzaku, you didn't have to slam me onto the ground so hard. You nearly knocked the wind out of me." Lelouch casually complained as he rubbed his left shoulder, attempting to soothe the tight soreness. "Why do I keep pairing off with you anyway?"

"Sorry, but you've got to learn hand-to-hand combat somehow." Suzaku chuckled as they made their way to the mess hall with the others for lunch. "I have to admit, these drills can get a bit much even for me. I can't imagine how brutal it must be for you."

"I'm going to ignore that last comment." Lelouch said with narrowed eyes. "All I know is that I especially hate going through our morning drills. That is by far the worst part of the day."

"Really? I'm not a fan of the obstacle course." Suzaku said.

Lelouch paused for a moment in thought. "…I take back what I said about the drills. That obstacle course inarguably by far the worst part."

"It doesn't help that the drill instructors always make us do all those pushups afterward." Suzaku sighed.

Lelouch grimaced at the memory. "Is basic almost over yet?" he groaned.

"We haven't even finished phase one yet Lelouch." Suzaku reminded.

"…Shut up Suzaku." Lelouch grumbled.

"What sort of concoction do you think they're going to have the nerve to call food today?" Suzaku asked diverting their attention to food rather than the physical torture they where enduring.

"The board outside the mess hall said chicken sandwich today. So my guess is some kind of grey spreadable chicken paste on white-bread." Lelouch answered.

Suzaku looked green at that thought of having to eat something like that, hoping desperately that Lelouch's prediction didn't come to pass, but unfortunately for the both of them Lelouch was completely right. They sat there in the mess hall staring at their rations then at each other, each boy silently daring to other to take the first bite, until Suzaku broke the silence "Together?"

Lelouch nodded and together they held their breath and wolfed down their lunch as fast as possible in order to avoid tasting it. Normally Lelouch wouldn't be caught dead stuffing his face like this, he had an image to maintain after all, but he was starving from the harsh workouts he was being subjected to, and this was the only way to get the rations provided to him down. Lelouch suppressed a gag after finishing the last few bites "Why don't the feed us real food?" he complained. Suzaku didn't immediately respond, as he was too busy chugging his glass of water, trying to get the taste out of his mouth. "I think it's supposed to get us used to the rations we'll have to live off of in the field."

"I don't know if I'll be able to keep that down."

"Well you better keep it down." Suzaku warned, "Our unit has the Knightmare simulators for field training today. You know how disorienting those things can be at first."

Lelouch groaned. "That is perfect, just perfect."

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Ashford Academy

Chaos had broken lose all around campus, most of the female population and maybe even a small percentage of the male population had not taken the news of Lelouch leaving school very well at all. Distraught girls were running out of classrooms yelling and breaking down in tears. The boys were cowering under desks and behind locked doors, taking cover from the odd classmate whose frustration may take a violent form. Even Shirley had shut herself up in her dorm for the rest of the day even though she had already known for quite a while. Rivalz was busy cowering in the boy's locker room with the rest of the boys from his gym class armed only with a push-broom from the janitorial closet to protect the lot of them should the situation spiral completely out of control. Ok, so maybe some of that was a bit of an exaggeration but people were upset, and classes had to be canceled for the rest of the day due to the disruption it caused.

"I bet your brother never realized that he was this popular." Milly giggled to Nunnally. She was currently in the east wing of the clubhouse keeping the young girl company, and helping Sayoko ward off any unwanted visitors demanding answers.

"Um…excuse me?" a voice asked Milly turned around and saw a girl with shoulder length red hair in the doorway. "Can someone tell me what's going on?"

"I am sorry!" Milly said sternly. "But everything I know about Lelouch leaving has already been announced." she lied.

"Lelouch?" the girl said confused. "I don't know about anybody named Lelouch. My name is Kallen Stadtfeld I'm new at school. The principal said I could find you here. I wanted to talk to you about joining the student council. I get sick a lot and well…most of the other clubs are too strenuous for me. So, he suggested that I join this one." she explained.

"OH!" Milly exclaimed, "I apologize about earlier then, uh…Kallen was it?" the red haired girl nodded. "Well, you're in luck," The blonde continued, "Because our vice president just left school for the military, so the position is open!"

"Oh, thank you." Kallen said. "Is that why everybody is acting so crazy?" she asked curiously.

"Brother was very popular." Nunnally explained.

"I see…" Kallen said still thoroughly confused by the behavior of her new classmates. Was this guy really all that, or were Britannians just that crazy?

"I'd like introduce you to the rest of the student council but they're hiding from the rest of the school right now…" Milly snickered. "But I can introduce you to our junior student council member, Nunnally. Kallen Stadtfeld this is Nunnally Lamperouge. She's also Lelouch's younger sister."

"How do you do?" Nunnally asked politely while holding out her hand for Kallen to shake.

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Britannian Training Camp

The recruits all lined up in the room filled with a small handful of simulators that resembled the cockpit of a Knightmare frame. They both looked very intimidating and Lelouch listened intently to the introduction regarding the simulated mission they had to complete, and the directions of the exercise. They had learned the controls in a class a week or two before hand. Once the lecture time was over the drill instructor started barking orders again.

"VI BRITANNIA! I WANT YOU AND YOUR DANCE PARTNER KURURUGI OVER THERE TO BE THE FIRST TWO TO COMPLETE THE SIMULATED MISSION FOR TODAY! AND PROVE THAT YOU CAN HOLD YOUR OWN BY NOT VOMITING IN THE SIMULATORS LIKE THE LAST COMPANY'S RECRUITS DID!"

"YES DRILL SARGENT!" The boys said in unison before climbing into the seats of the imitation cockpits while the others chuckled at the drill instructor's dig at the rival unit's expense.

!

AN: Before anyone gets bent out of shape (again) over Lelouch "whining" too much, A) in canon he was arguably one of the least athletic characters. Do you really expect him to not complain about having to go thorough something as physically demanding as this? B) Don't confuse him whining with him simply palling around with Suzaku. If you're having a hard time of things, you're going to complain to your buddy about it to get it off your chest and make yourself feel better. Don't sit there and act like none of you confide in those close to you when you've had a hard day.

Bonnefoy, and Jones…Hahaha! Hetalia Characters. ;D

Again, I want to give a special thanks to LoPe21 for helping me out with their information.