Kallen figured Lelouch's meetings would probably run for most of the day. After some breakfast, she began to wander aimlessly. Her first stop was the hanger deck. Rakshata and her team were working on the Lancelot. Kallen had damaged it pretty badly, so they were stripping it for parts at the moment. She decided not to bother them. No doubt Rakshata was happy to get her hands on one of Lloyd's creations.
Deciding to leave Rakshata be, Kallen continued to wander. She froze in her tracks when she heard Tamaki's unmistakably boisterous voice. "Hey, Kallen," he said, "where are you going?"
"Just wandering," she replied. She hoped he hadn't found out about her and Lelouch. She'd never hear the end of it.
Tamaki patted her on the back a little too enthusiastically. "The Knight of Seven, the Knight of Three, and even the Knight of One; way to show Britannia who's boss."
"Uh, thanks," she offered, not terribly fond of extended conversation with Tamaki.
He leaned in closer to whisper. "Did you hear about Zero?"
She didn't like where this was going. "Hear what?"
"He wasn't in his room this morning," Tamaki explained, "C.C. had to go looking for him."
"So what?" Kallen said, trying to keep her voice level. "Maybe he was just working somewhere else."
Tamaki shook his head. "We called him on the main intercom first. He would have come if he had heard it." Tamaki lowered his voice even further. "The way I hear it, he was in someone else's quarters." He punctuated that thought with a few pokes from his elbow.
"That's ridiculous," she managed to reply; "he was probably just caught up in his work."
"I think he's been fooling around-," Tamaki began, only to be cut off by a sudden whack to the head from a familiar yellow plush toy.
"It's not nice to spread rumors," said C.C. calmly, her Cheese-kun doll in one hand and several Pizza Hut box under her arm.
"Why you…," he tried to say, only to get another whack from the Cheese-kun doll. C.C. then shoved him into a nearby room before he could recover and locked the door. Tamaki pounded on the door angrily, shouting a string of somewhat muffled insults.
"That's not his room," Kallen pointed out. "He won't be able to open the door."
"There's a phone in there," C.C. replied, "and someone's bound to hear him with all that yelling."
Kallen sighed and looked at the pizza boxes. "Do you really need that much pizza?"
"Of course," C.C. stated. "Hungry?"
"Sure," Kallen replied, taking the offer and following C.C. back to Lelouch's quarters. In the span of one night she had managed to make it a complete mess. "You do this on purpose just to annoy Lelouch, don't you?"
"It's his room," C.C. noted, "I'm not cleaning it." Kallen took a slice and began eating, only to nearly choke when C.C. asked her a question. "Ready to talk about last night yet?"
"No," Kallen vehemently insisted, "stop asking."
"Boring girl," C.C. pouted. "I'll get Lelouch to tell me later, then."
"Hmph, whatever," Kallen said dismissively before finishing her slice of pizza. "What do you think is going to happen now, with Japan under our control?"
"Who knows," C.C. replied. "As long as Lelouch lives, it doesn't really matter."
"Japan being free means nothing to you?" Kallen asked.
"Empires rise and fall," C.C. explained, "there are no exceptions. I've been alive long enough to see it happen. It simply doesn't concern me."
"I don't know if I should take that as a good thing or a bad thing," Kallen mused.
"Either works," C.C. offered. "At least you can be happy that Japan is free."
"Yeah," Kallen agreed, "there's that." She grabbed another slice of pizza. C.C had already finished off an entire box. "Where do you keep it all?"
"Unlike you, I can eat as much as I want," C.C. teased. Kallen just gave her a glare and continued eating.
"Thanks for the meal," Kallen said once she had finished. She stood up to leave.
"You owe me for the part you ate," C.C. said behind her. Kallen ignored the comment and waved as she walked out.
Kallen spent the next few hours doing busy work. She ran diagnostic tests on the Guren, hounded constantly by Rakshata for details on every change. She was not happy about Lloyd and Cecile messing with her baby. Once those were finally done, she headed back for her room. With nothing better to do, she started reading some of her books, eventually falling asleep on the couch.
A voice woke her from her slumber. Kallen eyes opened to find Lelouch staring at her. She jumped back in surprise. "Why doesn't anyone knock?"
"I did," Lelouch said defensively, "but you didn't answer. I figured you wouldn't mind."
Kallen smiled. "Well, it isn't an unwanted visit, I suppose. How'd the meeting go?"
"The usual," Lelouch replied vaguely. "There's nothing significant to say about it. That's not why I came."
"I see," Kallen said, sensing where this was going. "It's about last night then."
"Yes," Lelouch replied hesitantly. "I…" Kallen moved to silence him.
"You don't regret it, do you?" she asked.
"Of course not," he insisted, "I just didn't mean for it to go quite that fast, is all."
Kallen forced him to sit down. "It's not exactly how I imagined my first time, either, but that doesn't matter. We both had a good time, as I recall."
Lelouch laughed. "We sure did. However, there's still the matter of our relationship being inappropriate. We're soldiers, after all. The leader isn't supposed to fraternize with his subordinates."
Kallen frowned and gave him a stern look. "You're not talking your way out of this that easily. I'm already the captain of your personal bodyguards. You can't exactly promote me any higher than that. Also, people already know we're close. I imagine some already think more than that."
"There's just no arguing with you about this, is there?" he asked.
"No," she stated matter-of-factly, "you're stuck with me now." Kallen decided to switch the topic to something else. "What do you plan to do now that we control Japan?"
Lelouch seemed to be glad to take the chance to change the subject. "That depends on Britannia. They're not likely to attack unless Schenizel makes a move."
"There's also FLEIJA to worry about," she noted.
"Ah, yes," he said, "the bomb has been sent off for study. Even if it can't be duplicated, hopefully some sort of countermeasure can be developed."
"And if not?" she inquired.
"Then our battles are going to become much more difficult," he mused. Kallen frowned at that comment. "We'll find a way, though," he said to reassure her. "Whatever it takes, we'll make this world better."
Kallen leaned over and gave Lelouch a kiss on the cheek. "Though I'd like to go further, you should probably get some sleep. You're probably going to be attending a lot of meetings in the next few days."
Lelouch seemed disappointed, but agreed. "You're right, goodnight Kallen."
A month passed and things went smoothly for the most part. Once power had been formally handed over in Japan, Nunnally stayed on as an ambassador. Schenizel eventually reported the Emperor as missing and took power in his absence. Suzaku went back to the mainland soon after. Kallen wasn't quite sure why, though she suspected he simply couldn't stand working with Zero. No doubt he'd rush back onto the field with the upgraded Lancelot once he got his hands on it.
Kallen had an unfortunate encounter with Rolo during that time. He had finally made an attempt on Nunnally's life, which happened to coincide with one of Kallen's visits. Lelouch had seen it coming, though, and Jeremiah derailed his attempt. To her surprise, Lelouch did not kill Rolo. Instead, he used his Geass to render Rolo incapable of killing anyone or using his Geass. Rolo was left at Ashford after that.
The FLEIJA bomb had also been used, this time in Russia during an attack on the Chinese Federation. Thankfully, the targeted area was sparsely populated to begin with, so the casualties were minimal. Fighting had mostly ceased after that. Countermeasures to the weapon were slow in coming, since its esoteric design made adapting conventional countermeasures nearly impossible.
Kallen was in the middle of a chess game with Lelouch. He insisted on trying to teach her some strategy, though he wasn't having much luck in that regard. "You'd think after a few weeks you'd be able to last a little longer against me," he said, putting her in checkmate once again.
Kallen tipped over her king with her index finger. "I'm better at games where I can hit things."
"Maybe later," Lelouch replied jokingly. As he set up the pieces, the phone rang. He picked it up and after a short string of acknowledgements put it back down. "Seems there's something on TV we should see."
Lelouch turned on the TV and flipped to one of the Britannian news channels. To both his and Kallen's surprise, it was reporting Suzaku's ascension to Knight of One. The program eventually repeated the previous details. Schenizel had taken the throne, finally declaring the Emperor legally dead after a month's absence.
"Why now?" Kallen asked. Lelouch had also waited a month, but his takeover of the empire required a bit more effort. Schenizel actually had a legitimate claim to the throne.
"If he's waited this long," Lelouch began, "there must be some aspect of his plan that only recently came into place. We've gotten intelligence reports about the Toromo Institution of Cambodia. They're building something there, something big. I imagine it's probably done, or close to it."
"Then we should probably get back to Japan," Kallen suggested. "If Suzaku managed to convince Schenizel to make him Knight of One, Japan is where he's likely to go first."
"Hmm," Lelouch said thoughtfully, "perhaps these strategy lessons haven't been a complete waste."
"Just don't expect me to fill in for you," she joked.
"I'll be sure to remember that," he replied, picking up the phone and dialing. "Xingke, this is Zero. We need to head back to Japan."
