By popular request.

Interlude: The Sightless Seer

If there was anything that truly irritated Nunnally Lamperouge/vi Britannia, aside from not being able to see or walk, it was having to listen to the idiot girls who had fallen in lust with her dear brother.

"He's so cool and distant!" one girl gabbled.

'That's because he wants nothing to do with you!'

"He's so smart! I bet he knows so much!" another added.

'Of course he's smart! He's my brother!'

"I wonder what he looks like naked." Another wondered.

'You'll never know, you perverted wench!'

Nunnally kept retorting to the girls around her in her mind as a member of the faculty rolled her wheelchair from class back to the Student Council Clubhouse. She kept her thoughts locked up in her mind so as not to worry her brother.

Her brother…

Lelouch had been even more mysterious than normal recently. Ever since the death of their brother Clovis in Shinjuku, he had been taking more business trips and taking Sayoko with him, which meant he didn't trust those he was meeting with.

'He's making plans to have us both disappear.' She deduced. It was a reasonable conclusion to make. Zero had killed Clovis and had defeated Cornelia. As he had just appeared out of nowhere, there was no telling what he knew.

'Or perhaps he's helping Zero…?' the exiled princess mused. That also wasn't unlikely. Lelouch hid a lot from her, but his distaste for -hatred of, even- Britannia was never hidden. Lelouch truly despised his former country, especially the Nobility and Royalty that had exiled them.

And probably killed their mother.

She shared his distaste for the country they had once been a part of, but she hated violence other that used in self-defence. It was probably a reaction to being gunned down in the middle of the Aries Palace and having the dying body of her mother flop down on top of her at the age of eight. Nunnally wasn't sure how she felt about the idea that Lelouch was actually aiding an armed rebellion against their father.

On one hand, a sense of dread filled her. When Lelouch had been involved in that car accident a few years previously, she had almost had a heart attack. More to the point, she had fallen into a bout of hysteria that had forced the doctors to sedate her. If her brother got involved in a rebellion, the chances that he could be killed were very high. She couldn't survive without him. Lelouch was her entire world, the one person who had never left her side in her entire life.

She loved him. Not just as a sister, but as a woman.

It was rather obvious that it was an unrequited love, however. She was Lelouch's baby sister and that's all she was to him. Nunnally was certain that her big sister Euphemia would be on her brother's radar if she had become anything like how gorgeous big sister Cornelia had been seven years ago.

Given Milly's lewd comments, Shirley, Kallen and Celesta were as well, and Milly was just as lovely, according to Sayoko. Whereas Nunnally knew that she was merely adorable and cute. Not womanly at all.

Returning to the point, on the OTHER hand, a part of her was full of vindictive glee at the thought of her brother teaching those snobby nobles who had hurt her family and Milly's family so badly a lesson or three. The arrogant presumption that they were superior just because of what nationality they had been born had never seemed to make sense to Nunnally, so she scorned it and those who believed it and took some degree of satisfaction to hear how the so-called superior race were getting beaten like unwanted stepchildren by the so-called inferior monkeys.

"Director!" the woman pushing her gasped.

"Hello, Ms. Stepford." Reuben Ashford's deep voice said as he approached Nunnally, "I'll take Nunnally from here on out. I think Mr Meacham wanted your help in the Chemistry Labs."

It was a polite order, but an order nonetheless, so Ms. Stepford obeyed it.

"It's been a while since we last spoke, little princess." Reuben said as he came around and started pushing her towards the building again, "How have you been?"

"I have been getting those irritating fevers every so often." Nunnally admitted, "But they're not anything bad, uncle."

She had always referred to Reuben as her uncle, ever since she had still been an Imperial Princess. It had made them man laugh heartily when she had first used it and she had called him it ever since.

"You shouldn't be getting any fevers." Reuben countered, "It must have to do with the wounds you received during…THAT incident."

The princess winced. He referred to the assassination of her mother. True enough, Nunnally had been wounded by the shots fired and she had been hospitalised for it, but the treatment had been cut off when she had been exiled. Her wounds had already started to heal by themselves during the journey, so there had been only a few things that the Japanese doctors could do to help heal her and, whether through incompetent malpractice or genuine mishap, she had suffered from a fever for a week straight after the surgery.

Infrequently afterwards, Nunnally had suffered from sudden bouts of fever of varying severity that had her ever-doting brother worried. To be fair, they worried Nunnally as well, but none of them had been severe and she had medicine to deal with them, so the blind paraplegic didn't see the need for people to worry about her overmuch.

"Perhaps." She conceded softly, "But no doctor, not even the best you have on your payroll, has been able to determine what the problem is."

"One of them has put forward the suggestion that the severe shock to your system that you received during the incident has permanently lowered the efficiency of your immune system." The Ashford Patriarch said slowly, "It would explain the frequent fevers somewhat."

"But not why I haven't been catching colds left, right and centre." Nunnally pointed out the obvious flaw in the theory.

"You're just as intelligent as your brother." Reuben chuckled, "Yes that was his and my own opinion as well. Had your immune system been permanently damaged, your health situation would be far more worrisome than the occasional fever. No, it is something else, I suspect."

There was a companionable silence between them as they trundled along, entering the Clubhouse and then the Lamperouge siblings' special wing.

"Do you know where brother is today?" she asked Reuben as he pushed her up to the table.

"I believe he's laying the groundwork for the aggressive takeover of another company." The old man replied with a smile in his voice.

"Oh dear. I hope he doesn't go too far." Nunnally said in concern. Sometimes Lelouch forgot that people weren't as smart as he was and completely dominated them in the negotiations rather than leave them some semblance of pride.

It certainly made playing Monopoly with him interesting.

"I have it on good authority that he's going to be as gentle as silk with them so long as they dance to his tune." Reuben said wryly, "If they don't, then the steel hidden beneath the silk will be revealed."

"Oh my." Was all Nunnally could say to that. Honestly. Having such an intelligent and crafty brother was something of a trial, especially since every Queen Bee and Alpha Bitch in the Academy was out to snag him just for his looks.

One thing that not even her brother knew was that Nunnally had developed some sort of touch-reactive truth telling ability. Simply by touching someone's hand with her own, she could tell if someone was lying to her or not, which is how she always knew about girls who tried to get close to her in order to get on her brother's good side. Even her brother wasn't immune to it, which was how she knew these 'business meetings' he was going to were anything but.

"Now then, what do you feel like having for dinner?" Reuben asked enthusiastically, "Lelouch left several options 'ere, so ze ball ees in your court, mademoiselle."

This startled a giggle out of Nunnally. He had taken on a very bad French accent at that last part.

"Something…with chicken?" She asked shyly.

"Very good." The Ashford Patriarch said cheerfully, "Does Coq au vin sound alright to you?"

"Yes." The exiled princess smiled, "Not too much wine though."

"Just a small dab of Burgundy." Reuben assured her, "Now…let's get cooking!"

This was something that had greatly irritated Melisande, his daughter-in-law. Reuben had cooking as a hobby, something that he had taught Lelouch as well. Melisande had frequently complained, in that irritating loud and whiny voice of hers, that cooking was for plebeians and that it was beneath the dignity of Nobility to lower themselves to putting hand to cooking implement.

'It's a good thing big brother ignored her, because Shirley, Nina and Rivalz couldn't cook their way out of a soup kitchen.' Nunnally thought, remembering the last time those three had tried to cook. Shirley had lost control of an electric eggbeater (splattering batter all over the place) and dropped some plates, Rivalz had added way too much alcohol to one dish and had gotten everyone drunk and Nina had been confused by simple cooking terms such as 'a sufficient amount' in regards to ingredients.

Lelouch had, rather firmly, banished them from his kitchen other than as porters.

Fortunately, Milly, Suzaku and Kallen had at least some level of cooking skill, enough that they could help out Lelouch without breaking things, according to her brother. Celesta hadn't offered to enter the kitchen and no one had asked her to help.

As Reuben started cooking, Nunnally thought about her brother again before dismissing her thoughts. If there was one thing she knew about Lelouch, it was that he was incapable of keeping something from her for an extended period of time unless it was life and death. Even then, she was usually able to parse a few hints by what he didn't say.

She would know what he was up to eventually, and until then, she could amuse herself by wondering which of the Student Council girls would be her sisters in law. Britannian law allowed male Nobility, or even well-off merchants, to have multiple wives. It was rarely used, but a few men did take advantage of it.

'Nina's out, as she is a full-on lesbian, but Shirley, Milly, Kallen and Celesta are all friendly with big brother.' She considered with a giggle, 'It's a shame big sister Euphie isn't allowed to know Lelouch is still up for grabs; she'd be here in a flash! Kaguya-chan would be too. She even snuck into the bath with him once, the little minx. I wonder how she's doing?'

In a palanquin inside a large room in the secret base within the Fuji Mines, Kaguya Sumeragi felt an uncomfortable urge to sneeze before managing to suppress it. It was a good thing she did, as Zero-sama was on his way up the car elevator.