I'll Stand by You

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"Don't be ashamed to cry.
Let me see you through
'cause I've seen the dark side too…"

- "I'll Stand by You" - The Pretenders

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It was bright.

Is this Heaven? she wondered. Her arm ached as she tried to shield her eyes, assuring her it was not. She was alive. Wracked with pain, but alive. How? Why?

Schneizel…He planned to become emperor. To rule the world through fear and terrorism. He shot her, gun barrels concealed in the wall panels. Shot her dead, hadn't he? Why would he spare her?

Because he had no desire to? Of course not. He'd changed, that much was certain, but he'd never been a killer, at least, not of those he cared about. And he did, she believed, care about her, somewhere, deep behind the twisted logic and fractured idea of peace.

The sheets hugged her tightly, swishing when she moved like small gusts of wind. She turned her head to the side, neck stiff and body unresponsive. It would take a while, she knew, to return to normal, but she would. Eyes sore, she gazed hazily around, making out a silhouette beside her, seated, hunched slightly as if heavy.

Viletta? No, the figure was too wide, shoulders broad, tapered waist. The body of a man. She couldn't really see.

Sensing her gaze, he reached out, almost hesitantly, awkwardly, his movements slow and broken like he was groping. What ever was the matter?

She knew she must be dreaming when at last her vision cleared, only to blur again with moisture. Either that, or she really had died. There was no other explanation.

"Guilford…" Biting her lip, she took the hand he held to her. The warm hand that had so seldom touched her. The hand that trembled with life. Life. He was alive.

Angry, guilty, saddened by her state, his face twisted into an expression of despair, eyes squeezed shut behind tinted glasses. He held her tightly, almost painfully so. She brought his hand to her face, brushed her lips against his thumb and fingers, felt the pulse beneath firm skin.

"Princess…" His voice cracked, sorrowful and embarrassed. Ashamed by his own actions, his own foolishness, willingly walking into Zero's hands like that, betraying his princess, his country. Now, he could not see. A fitting end, really. Blind to the truth. Blind to reality.

Her voice was soft, strained by pain but joy as well, as though too much breath would topple this dream world and she would wake to find that he was truly gone, that her brother had not rescued the man she cared for so deeply. He could not see her face, her beauty, or the tears sliding down her face.

"You would still call me that?"

Of course, he wanted to say. She was his sovereign, his goddess. Brief separation, even something as wicked as betrayal, cowardice in selfishness would not change that.

At last, a brief smile tugged on the corners of his mouth. He rarely smiled before, like she, expressing amusement through malicious grins or snickers. It looked awkward on him, too small for his face, yet somehow it was perfect.

"I promised you, Princess, I would never leave you."

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Disclaimer: Cornelia, Guilford and all other Code Geass characters belong to Sunrise.

Notes: I suppose it would have been smart to update with a chapter after editing the summary, huh?