Author's Note: This is much later than I intended. I wanted it out on Mother's Day, but obviously I didn't make it. Oh well. Enjoy!

Warning: Shameless Clamp references.

Disclaimer: Don't own Code Geass.

"This" means that the characters are speaking Japanese.

May

Martial arts had taught Suzaku many things over the years. He had learned patience, endurance, agility, and most of all, observation. No one could read an opponent's body like Suzaku could. Every movement, every twitch, every flex of muscle told him what his adversary would do next, allowing him to formulate the correct response.

All his training had not, however, taught him tact.

Suzaku had always been an honest child, and at his age, "honest" usually translated to brutally blunt. No matter how well he could interpret the body, social situations were lost on him. He didn't understand reading the atmosphere, and sensitivity was a foreign concept.

So when he entered Lelouch and Nunnally's little storehouse, he should have noticed the quiet, somber stillness in the air. He should have offered words of comfort, or even left so as not to disturb their melancholy, but he didn't.

"Hey, what are you two doing inside? It's so beautiful out! We should go swimming!" he declared brightly.

Needless to say, when his suggestion prompted Nunnally to burst into tears, he certainly did not understand what to do.

"Oh, Nunnally, don't cry! I'm sorry!" Suzaku exclaimed, the little girl's tears causing him to panic a bit as he went through a mental list of things he could have possibly done to upset her.

Lelouch glared in his direction as he scrambled to comfort the little girl, "It doesn't concern you, Suzaku. Go away."

"B-but why?" Suzaku asked, surprised by Lelouch's cold tone. Was Lelouch mad at him? What had he done wrong?

"You wouldn't understand!" Lelouch snapped. "Go away!"

Suzaku shook his head, "No, I'm not leaving until you tell me what's wrong."

Lelouch scowled. He looked like he was about to sharply retort, but Nunnally interrupted.

"Lelouch, don't be mean to Suzaku. He doesn't know," she said quietly, voice somewhat strained from suppressed hiccups and sobs.

"I don't know what? Please tell me!" Suzaku begged.

Lelouch sighed. "Do you know what today is, Suzaku?"

Suzaku blinked, "…Sunday?" he answered, even though he knew that wasn't what Lelouch was getting at.

"It's Mother's Day," Lelouch replied, exasperated.

"…Oh," Suzaku said. And then something finally clicked. "Oh! I'm sorry!"

Lelouch shook his head, "No, I'm sorry I snapped at you. It's just…it's hard, and I was taking it out on you."

Suzaku nodded, "Yeah, I know, but…" He couldn't help but hear Lelouch's words in his head. "You wouldn't understand!"

"You don't think I'd understand?" Suzaku asked quietly.

"Suzaku, I didn't mean that. Like I said, I was just upse-"

"You meant it," Suzaku insisted. "But you don't know, Lelouch. You have no idea." And then Suzaku laughed, short and bitter. "Of course you don't. I never told you."

"Suzaku?" Lelouch asked, confused.

"Come with me," Suzaku said suddenly. "I have something to show you."

Suzaku lead Lelouch and Nunnally out of the storehouse, across the grounds, and through the doors of the main house.

"Suzaku," Lelouch whispered nervously, "Nunnally and I shouldn't be here." He could count the number of times he'd entered the main house on one hand, and each occurrence had been strictly out of necessity.

"It's okay," Suzaku assured him. "As long as nobody sees us, we'll be just fine."

That did not make Lelouch feel better. Suzaku was carrying Nunnally on his back so that they wouldn't have to deal with her wheelchair, but Lelouch was extremely conscious of every flickering shadow and faint footstep. If they were caught, they'd all be in trouble.

Suzaku, on the other hand, wasn't worried. The servants were all busy with their own duties, and the compound was big enough to avoid them. He made sure to check if the coast was clear before going down a hallway, but other than that, he made no effort to be stealthy.

But when he heard the approaching footsteps, his demeanor changed completely. His eyes widened, and he shoved Nunnally into Lelouch's arms so fast, the boy was nearly knocked over.

"Hide!" Suzaku hissed. "Fast!"

Lelouch found himself pushed into a closet, nestled between an old coat and an umbrella.

At first, Lelouch figured that Suzaku was talking to a maid or one of the many other servants in the Kururugi's employment. But then he caught the muffled sound of what he thought was the Japanese word for father.

Lelouch peeked out a crack in the door, careful not to jostle Nunnally in his arms.

Yes, there was the tall, imposing figure of Prime Minister Kururugi. Lelouch had only met the man a handful of times, but he reminded him of his own father. It was not a flattering comparison.

"Suzaku, what are you doing here?" Genbu asked.

Suzaku bowed his head respectfully, "I was on the way to my room, Father. I wanted to go through a few thrusting drills with my bokuto."

The man raised an eyebrow, "Why? Tohdoh isn't here to teach you."

"Yes, but sensei says that his absence is no excuse for complacency," Suzaku replied.

Genbu nodded, seemingly in approval, "I expect good results from my son, in school as well as kendo. I better not find out that your grades are slipping."

"Of course not, Father," Suzaku replied quickly. If anything, with Lelouch helping him with his homework every afternoon, they had to be rising.

Genbu narrowed his eyes, "The servants tell me that you've been dallying with the Britannians. Is this true?"

Suzaku froze, mind reeling. What should he do? He couldn't lie. Father would see right through him!

"Yes," Suzaku confirmed reluctantly.

"Those children are temporary fixtures in this household. They are not guests, they are hostages. You would do well to remember that."

Suzaku bowed again, "Yes, Father."

Genbu, apparently satisfied with this answer, pushed by his son without another word.

Lelouch was making steady progress in Japanese, but the conversation went by too fast for him to grasp what was said. However, he did understand Suzaku's body language.

It was like he had become a different person. Gone was the spirited, cocky boy with the loud voice and quick temper. He had been replaced with a stiff, polite child, who kept his head towards the floor and only spoke when spoken to.

This isn't my Suzaku, Lelouch thought. This is the Suzaku that his father wants him to be.

"The coast is clear, guys!" Suzaku called, throwing the doors to the closet open.

Lelouch frowned, "Did you really have to throw us in a closet?" he asked irritably.

Suzaku laughed sheepishly, "I'm sorry, it's the first place I saw."

Lelouch rolled his eyes, but secretly he was glad that Suzaku was back to normal. He didn't know what he would do without his harebrained, loud, obnoxious friend.

Lelouch gratefully unloaded Nunnally back into Suzaku's arms, and they were off again.

Finally, Suzaku stopped in front of a door. With great ceremony, he opened it to reveal a large room.

The place was a mess, with clothes strewn across the floor (including underwear), old candy wrappers and books turned upside down and open on their spines, and a worn, obviously well loved wooden sword twined in the sheets of the bed.

"It looks like a wild boar went on a stampede in here," Lelouch remarked.

Suzaku shrugged, "I've never had a problem with it. I always know where everything is."

He crouched on the floor, carefully putting Nunnally on the bed beside him and gesturing for Lelouch to join him.

Lelouch watched as the Japanese boy cleared away what looked like his karate gi, and pried up the dusty floorboard underneath it.

Nestled in the small hollow was a small bundle wrapped in tissue paper. Suzaku pulled it out carefully, unwrapping the tissue to reveal a wooden picture frame.

"Here," Suzaku said, handing his small treasure to Lelouch.

Within the confines of the frame was an old, faded picture of a young woman. She was wearing a deep red kimono embroidered with golden birds, and if Lelouch looked closely, he thought he could just barely make out the shape of running shoes hidden underneath her long skirt. Certainly an odd combination. Her long, curly brown hair fell loose around her shoulders, framing tan skin and bright green eyes. Very familiar eyes.

Lelouch turned to Suzaku. "Is this…?"

Suzaku nodded, "Yeah, that's my mother."

Lelouch ghosted his fingers over the woman's smiling face. "She's beautiful," he said quietly. "She looks just like you."

Come to think of it, Suzaku didn't look anything like his father. Genbu's eyes were a flat gray brown, nothing like Suzaku's bright emerald. His hair was straight, Suzaku's was curly, he was large, Suzaku was small. Sure, Genbu was a lot older than his son, but there should have been at least a slight resemblance. Lelouch looked more like his mother as well, but even he had his father's eyes.

In fact, Lelouch would have said Suzaku looked more like Tohdoh than he did Genbu. Very odd.

Suzaku smiled, "Yeah, a lot of people say that."

"Where is she?" Nunnally asked. "You said she was gone, but surely she must have come back by now."

"Nunnally…when I said she was gone, I wasn't telling the truth," Suzaku admitted reluctantly. "Well, maybe that's not right. It wasn't that I was lying or anything. She is gone, and I don't know where she is, but she didn't just go off somewhere. She died when I was three."

"Oh, no!" Nunnally cried. "I'm sorry!"

Suzaku smiled tightly, "It's okay. I was really young when it happened, and I don't remember her very well."

Lelouch's eyes widened. "Nothing?"

"Nope. Father never talks about her. Tohdoh used to tell me stories, but I think it hurt him to talk about it, so eventually I stopped asking. He did give me this picture though!" Suzaku added brightly.

Lelouch tried to imagine what it would be like to not remember his own mother. To not know what her laugh sounded like, to never be able to recall the warmth of her embrace, or the soft lilt of her voice when she spoke. To only have an old photograph taken long before he was born for reference. He couldn't.

Lelouch had been so stupid. He had been so caught up in his own pain; he had acted like he was the only one in the world that was suffering. Like his grief was so unique no one else could possibly understand what he was feeling. He wasn't like Nunnally, he had understood perfectly well what Suzaku meant when he said his mother was "gone," but he hadn't once considered his feelings.

"I'm sorry," Lelouch whispered.

"Don't be," Suzaku replied. "I already said I don't really remember her."

"That doesn't make it any better," Lelouch answered. "What do you know about her? What was she like?"

Nunnally nodded, "Yes, I'd like to hear about your mother!"

Suzaku glanced down at the picture frame a bit wistfully, "Her name was Sumeragi Nadeshiko. Tohdoh always said her name didn't fit her at all. It means pink carnation, but she was nothing like a flower. She was wild, always wrestling around with the boys and getting into fights." Suzaku gestured towards the picture. "Tohdoh said that this was one of the few times that she wore a skirt, and even then it was under extreme protest."

Lelouch looked back at the barely visible running shoes and smiled.

"Who's that man with her? Surely that's not your father?" he asked, indicating the man standing next to her. Unlike Nadeshiko, his hair was pitch black, but he shared her deep green eyes.

Suzaku laughed, "Oh, no! She's only seventeen here, long before she met my father. That's her brother, Subaru! They were really close, and he still visits a lot." Suzaku made a face. "Although he always brings Kaguya with him."

"Kaguya?" Nunnally asked.

"His daughter, my cousin," Suzaku explained with a frown. Obviously wanting to change the subject, Suzaku added, "You know, my mother was the one who named me."

"Oh, really? Japanese names have special meanings right? I've always meant to ask, what does yours mean?" Lelouch inquired.

"Suzaku is a crimson bird of legend," the boy explained. "It's the Japanese name for one of the four creatures in the Chinese constellations."

Lelouch whistled, "That's impressive."

Nunnally nodded, "She must have loved you a lot to give you such a strong name."

Suzaku smiled, "Yeah, maybe. Anyway, the reason I brought you here is because…well, I know our situations aren't exactly the same, but I do understand what you two are going through at least a little. So the next time you're in pain, please don't push me away. I'm not good with emotions. I don't know the right thing to say at the right time, but I still want to help you if I can, even though I'll probably be bad at it."

Nunnally shook her head, "You don't need to be good with words. You're helping in your own, Suzaku way, and that's good all by itself."

The rest of Mother's Day was spent in Suzaku's room. Lelouch and Nunnally told funny stories of Marianne, and Suzaku shared what little he remembered and the tidbits he had learned from Tohdoh, his uncle, and the occasional maid. Hours went by, and eventually Suzaku convinced the siblings to stay the night (after assuring Lelouch that the door would be locked, and that there would be plenty of time to sneak them out tomorrow morning).

The three piled together in Suzaku's big bed. Nunnally fell asleep immediately, but Lelouch and Suzaku stayed awake a little longer, in silent, comfortable awareness of each other.

"Hey, Lelouch?" Suzaku whispered.

"Mm?"

"If our mother's knew each other, do you think they would have been friends?"

Lelouch sat up slightly, meeting Suzaku's eyes in the dark, "Yeah, I think they would."

Author's Note: On Suzaku's mother, I based her character design on Sakura Kinomoto from Cardcaptor Sakura. I always thought that if Syaoran and Sakura had a baby (Tsubasa aside) it would look exactly like Suzaku. I didn't go as far as naming her Sakura, but I did name her after Sakura's mother. And as for Subaru, Clamp fans will know who I'm talking about, and if you don't, look up Tokyo Babylon.

On replying to reviews: Would it be okay with everyone if I just PM you for now on? I'm worried that people aren't always seeing their replies, and it's easier for me to just answer them as they come. Sometimes by the time the next chapter comes out, I've forgotten what I wanted to say. I will reply to April's reviews on my Livejournal, but after that, I think I'm just going to PM. Sorry to all you anons out there!

Reviews please? They make me feel loved.