Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass

For: KingDayVII who wanted 'ticklish secret'

Thank you Warb-dono, Rumig-kun and Nilie-chan for beta-reading. I honestly cannot live without you guys and don't know how you put up with me!

Warning: I am going to push the limits of sweet and cuteness with this chapter. I apologize if it becomes OOC or simply unrealistic.


Chapter 28 – Slice of Cookies


"I'm home, Nunnally," Lelouch announced to the air as he came through the door.

"Welcome home, Onii-sama!" Nunnally's voice called from the kitchen.

He arched an eyebrow, fingers reaching up to loosen the collar of his school uniform, "You're in the kitchen? What are you doing in the..." he paused when he reached the kitchen's doorway and witnessed the scene before him.

"Welcome home, Lelouch." C.C. greeted without turning from whatever she was making on the countertop. He blinked and noted her attire, or to be precise, her lack of it. The silly witch was running about the house in nothing more than one of his school shirts again.

"Is Sayoko-san not here?" He asked and averted his face like a sensible gentleman would when C.C. left the countertops and tried to reach for something on the top shelf. The action caused the shirt she had on to climb up her legs and exposed almost the entirety of her upper thighs and parts of her underwear.

"No, Sayoko-san said she would be busy tonight." Nunnally answered from her spot by the table where C.C. had asked her to choose a cookie cutter from their large collection. Lelouch nodded and smoothly slid out of his school jacket then left the doorway and crossed over to C.C.. Standing behind her, he quickly brought the jacket's sleeves about the witch's tiny waist. For a brief second, his arms were wrapped about her as he readjusted and tied the sleeves together at the front.

"We're ordering pizza tonight, Onii-sama!"

"Aa," He responded then pulled his hands away from the witch's waist immediately after finishing his task - a bit more satisfied now that she looked more modest.

"We're making cookies!"

He reached up to pluck the packet of flour from the top shelf that C.C. was eyeing after her failed attempt to retrieve it and handed it to her wordlessly. She took the box and her task whilst he moved to Nunnally's side.

"Onii-sama, I felt every single one but I could not find the bunny." Nunnally stated with a cute frown upon her brows. He took the cookie cutters from her hand and placed them back in the box. "That was because C.C. gave you the wrong box."

He pulled out a new box and guided his sister's hands to touch its rim.

"Thank you, Onii-sama!" she chimed and started picking the cutters up one by one, carefully touching the outlines to search for her precious bunny.

Lelouch took this opportunity to approach C.C. at the kitchen counter. She raised a delicate green eyebrow, fingers and hands smeared with cookie dough and flour as he put on an apron and took the dough from her hands. He started to roll it out flat.

"Why are you here?" he asked quietly, without looking up from his work.

She licked her fingers, tongue dancing across her nails and fingertips. She answered simply, "I'm making cookies."

"That's it?"

"Sayoko cornered me in the garden this morning when I was getting breakfast pizza. She didn't ask any questions about my being there – you hired a good maid, I applaud you. She was busy tonight and asked me to take care of Nunnally until you came home." C.C. shrugged, "Nunnally wanted cookies."

"Could you not wear something more…" Lelouch paused as he tried to search for the right word to use in front of his sister.

"More?" C.C. inquired.

"More... decent?" He managed to finish.

"Hmm?" C.C. leant her head back and spoke aloud, "Nunnally, would you think that a school shirt was an indecent choice of clothing?"

Confused, the blind princess paused in her cutter hunt, "No, Onii-sama wears them all the time."

C.C. threw a victorious glance at him and he rolled his eyes before turning sweetly to his sister, "Did you find the bunny?"

"Yes, Onii-sama!"

A massive cookie cutting spree later, Nunnally sat and hummed to herself as she waited for the cookies to bake. She held C.C.'s hands in her own and slowly traced the lines of her palm. She liked C.C.'s hands, they were soft but not overly dainty, larger than her own but smaller than her brother's. They were very pleasant to hold and C.C.'s grip was never reserved and overly tender and careful like Lelouch's. She never held Nunnally's hands like she would break at the merest touch.

No, C.C.'s hands were soft and they're always and forever grasping her own hands in a grip that's neither too gentle nor too rough but somewhere in between. They touched Nunnally's hands without fear of breaking her. Perhaps what Nunnally liked most about C.C.'s hands was that they treated Nunnally like a normal being. Like she wasn't made of glass, like she wasn't a tiny flower that could be crushed at the lightest of touches, like she wasn't blind, like she wasn't weak and vulnerable, like... she was normal.

Sometimes Nunnally wondered how many people like herself C.C. must have met in order to become such a natural among those with suchsimilar disabilities. She asked her the question once and she only answered that the number was vaguely in the hundreds or maybe thousands or even millions. Nunnally's mind couldn't wrap around the idea that a girl could meet that many people in such short life span as C.C.'s so far. Was it a lie then?

But she concluded that she loved C.C. and it doesn't matter if she lied to her or not.

Nunnally was happy and she told her brother so.

"Why?" asked Lelouch.

Nunnally gently pawed the tabletop until she reached her brother's fingers and she clasped them lightly in one hand and C.C.'s in the other. "Because it feels like a family in here."

Lelouch laughed weakly, "Nunnally, I told you before. C.C. is not-"

"C.C.-san is not your girlfriend. I know," Nunnally smiled, chin tilted wistfully up as she stared with unseeing eyes up the light on the ceiling, "but it's still a nice feeling."

"Hm?" C.C. suddenly questioned, "Well, if we're a family, does it mean I'm the mother?"

"Certainly not!" Lelouch protested, "If you were the mother then we would have nothing but pizzas in the morning, afternoon and night!"

"I think C.C.-san would make a very good mother."

"No, she could be the aunt."

"The aunt?"

"Yes, sometimes here, sometimes not but eternally annoying and we have no direct control over her since she's not immediate family."

C.C. chuckled, "I think I'll make a good sister actually."

"I would love to have you as a sister!" Nunnally dazzled brightly whilst in her mind she added an 'in-law' to the end of the sentence.

"I shall be the older sister then."

Older? C.C.? The eldest? Lelouch would be bullied to death!

"No!" he said firmly, "you're not the older sister."

"Shall I be the little sister then? Aa, but if I am, Lelouch would develop a sister complex..." she looked at him with a completely serious and straight face, "not that you don't have one already."

"I do not!" He tried to find something to change the topic and luck was on his side – the cookies were ready.

Nunnally giggled as Lelouch left the table and C.C. merely fiddled with a tube of pink icing, one of her hands still in Nunnally's.

"C.C.-san?"

"Hm?"

"Onii-sama is ticklish."

C.C. paused in her fiddling, suddenly amused and interested. "He is?"

"Yes, very."

"Nunnally, I am not ticklish." Lelouch snapped as he reached into the oven and extracted a tray of freshly baked cookies.

C.C. ignored Lelouch's outburst and regarded Nunnally with a curious stare, "Why are you telling me this?"

Nunnally's smile was as gentle as the morning sunrays peeking from the hills, "because Onii-sama needs to laugh more in your presence. He always seems so cold whenever you come to visit."

"Laugh eh?"

Pride told Lelouch to stand his ground and take it like a man but survival instincts told him to abandon the cookies and perform a runner.

"Nunnally," Lelouch managed to utter as if that could save him but his precious sister was delightfully playing innocent.

"Yes, Onii-sama?" her angelic voice asked, laced with sweetness and filled with pure innocence.

C.C.'s eyes slanted to resemble those of a sly feline's.

"Oh never mind," he finally muttered and threw the tray to the table before trying to sprint out of the room.

Nunnally giggled as C.C. pounced like a hellion and pinned the boy to the floor, completely oblivious of her state of undress.

"C.C.! Stop this nonsense!" he gasped and suddenly fingers were crawling on his ribs, stomach and waist. "C.C.! I am not ticklish! Do not test my patience!"

Nunnally was still giggling but he resolutely kept his laughter pressed down and glared at the witch with hatred.

C.C. paused and tapped her chin with an index finger, "He's not ticklish anymore, Nunnally."

Still sitting on the ex-prince, she reached up and awkwardly pulled the smiling Nunnally from her wheelchair. The princess fell clumsily to the floor but her grin was permanent tonight.

"I think it's time for you to help me," C.C. suggested.

"Of course, C.C.-san."

"Nunnally!"

"I'm sorry, Onii-sama, but I'll let you have my cookies later if you like."

Since when did his precious sister become so evil?

Then they attacked him, fingers and hands wriggling all over his ribs, stomach, waist, neck and armpits.

"C.C.! Stop! Nunnalllllly!" he howled in indignation, his own hands working to protect himself while at the same time trying to remain in control as to not harm his younger sister in any way. Nunnally giggled and C.C. smirked broadly, letting loose an odd chuckle here and there.

He was in no mood for their torture, but then again he was never in the mood for such childish and pride staining games. He fought his best against them but much as he fought it, he lost track of time and place. He heard Nunnally's laughter and suddenly, like floodgates opening, he started to join in.

Nunnally's voice squeaked a higher octave when his first chuckles erupted from his throat and she soon melded her own melodious giggles with his.

Many minutes later, Lelouch heaved gasps of air, exhausted and strangely elated. Nunnally lay on the floor beside him, cheeks pink with giddiness and smile as broad as a bridge. C.C. was sprawled on the other side of his body like she owned the floor.

"That was fun," Nunnally chirped and Lelouch nodded dumbly whilst his sister cuddled against him, "I wish we could be a family like this forever."

"Mm."

C.C. never said anything but when the pizza delivery finally came, she pushed herself off the floor and went for the door, leaving brother and sister lying on the kitchen tiles... just simply lying there.

Two seconds later, Lelouch remembered C.C. wasn't wearing anything but a shirt. "C.C.! You are not answering the door in that!" he shouted and chased after her.

Nunnally curled on the floor, her hands searching the warm spots her brother and C.C. had left on the floor. She rolled, hair wrapping about her face until finally, she was between the two warm spots.

She imagined them on either side of her.

Like a family.


END OF CHAPTER 28


Lulu-sama: Thank you! Black Knights are so cute to write!

Larc: Thank you! I hope this one didn't disappoint

Koa-chan: I tink a Zero who's wrapped about C.C.'s little finger is endearing sweet. Thanks for the review!

The Doctor: Orange-kun? He'll be in the sequel!

KiKi Hayashi

PS - Sorry for the cavity-inducing sugary content in this chapter

Depressing news (or er... Cheerful note? Depending on how you look at it I guess...): Ending next chapter.