AN: Tis' I! I am back! :D Did you miss me?

So I was listening to Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen in my car and I realized something…it kind of fits with the whole anime doesn't it? I mean if you really listen to the lyrics anyway…Just thought I'd share that little discovery with you all.

I think my brain got lazy while on vacation because this chapter was way, way more difficult to write than it really should have been. So much so that I'm kind of mad at myself for making you wait so long for this one.

I do not own Code Geass

Ch. 37 Even

There was a knock on the door to Lelouch's office.

"Enter." He called out and as the door opened he saw Marika in the doorway.

"You wanted to see me?" she asked nervously.

He got up from behind his desk and came towards her. "Ah…yes Marika, are you ready for your test run?" Lelouch asked with a hunger in his eyes.

She suddenly felt very vulnerable under his dark gaze. "Your…your highness?" Suddenly his lips captured her own when his tongue entered her mouth she pushed him away without thinking.

"What? I thought you wanted to restore your families honor by serving me. If that isn't the case then there's the door, have fun living in disgrace." He said pointing to the door behind her.

"No, I…I want to serve you." she said hesitantly catching a sob in her throat.

He smiled devilishly. "Good." He captured her lips once again and started undoing the buttons on her uniform with his nimble fingers and then…

Kewell bolted upright from the cot in his cell with beads of sweat rolling down his face and screaming.

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Cornelia's Apartments

"Look at it this way Cornelia. You proved your point. Zero is as prideful as you believed he was…although I thought I had already proved that with pretending to arrest Suzaku for Clovis' murder...but anyway you also made a good call in keeping me out of it, otherwise I might be dead. Lord knows I would have been tempted to get out there in the Merlin." Lelouch said over breakfast.

Cornelia grumbled as she picked at her food. "I just don't get how they were able to evacuate almost the whole ghetto on time."

Lelouch sighed. "I told you before Cornelia, Shinjuku was a blood bath. It's not so far fetched that they would have come up with an evacuation plan after what happened there. Considering all the terrorist activity within the area they probably thought that they were next…and they were right."

"I'd rather not talk about this anymore." She said setting down her silverware on the table after her appetite completely suspended itself.

Lelouch shrugged "Only trying to make you feel better about it." he said as he placed his hand upon hers "It's difficult for us as Britannians to admit that we do in fact face defeat every once in a while."

"I have been at this much longer than you have Lelouch. Defeat is something I have faced before, I know how to handle it…And you're not helping." She said as she snatched her hand from underneath his and began to rub her right temple with her fingers in a circular motion. "Can't we switch to a different subject?"

"What would you like to talk about?" He asked as the maids began to clear away some of the dishes.

"Oh…I don't know…How about your guard? Have you added any new members?"

He raised an eyebrow. "One track mind I see…"

"I have only your safety at heart little brother."

"I have a few in mind if you must know; I know by their reputation they're a couple of the more talented pilots on base but I need to see for myself what they're capable of in a test run first though."

"Any of them wouldn't happen to be the two young women that you stole away from my ranks now would they?" Cornelia asked with an accusatory eye.

He paused as he spread some jam on a piece of toast, knowing where she was going with this before finally answering "…maybe."

Cornelia sighed heavily and covered her face with her hand "Look, I know you're a victim of circumstance when it comes to the media but I cannot ignore what I've seen with my own eyes and..."

Lelouch pinched the bridge of his nose before he cut her off. "Cornelia I assure you I am merely making use of the pilots that I have available to me." suddenly he got an idea that would probably get Cornelia off his back "…I think I know something that will make you feel better. How about you have two or three of your Glaston knights take on some of my Arawyn candidates that way I can test their capabilities and you can relax and watch a good Knightmare spar, get your mind off of yesterday."

She looked at him for a moment considering his suggestion. "…Well it will get my mind off of things if anything." She mused.

After breakfast Lelouch went back to his apartments for a brief chat with CC and then headed down to his office running into Suzaku along the way.

"Morning Suzaku." Lelouch greeted as he continued walking.

"Good morning Commander." Suzaku replied mindful of his surroundings as he quickly caught up with his friend. "I heard Zero showed up in Saitama."

Lelouch slowed his pace "He did, right before he buried Cornelia's troops under three-hundred tons of rubble."

"I take it he got away then." Suzaku said solemnly.

Lelouch nodded. "I'm afraid so, if we followed after him we could have just been walking into another trap. Not something Cornelia or I were willing to do considering the heavy losses we just suffered."

"So much senseless killing." Suzaku said shaking his head.

"Those soldiers knew the risks and chose to serve Britannia anyway. They weren't hapless civilians they knew what they were doing." Lelouch said sternly before asking "What are you doing here today anyway? Shouldn't you be at school?"

"I thought I could help with the ongoing search and rescue from yesterday. I just needed your approval." Suzaku said honestly.

"It's being taken care of Suzaku. Go to school."

"But there still could be people trapped under all the rubble." Suzaku argued.

Lelouch sighed "that's why the search and rescue is still on going." He said as they got to the door of his office. "For future reference you shouldn't argue with your superiors." Suzaku looked a little guilty at that and Lelouch smiled "I'm going to let that one slide. I'll tell you what; how about I drop by later and we can both visit with Nunnally or something."

"She'd probably like that." Suzaku relented and then sighed "I'll go if I must your highness."

"Good now you should probably get going, the last thing I need is Euphie on my case about keeping you from school."

"Alright I'll see you later I guess." Suzaku said as he turned to go back to his quarters and change into his Ashford uniform and collect his school things.

Lelouch finally entered his office and of course found Jeremiah waiting for him while drinking the usual cup of morning coffee.

"How is her highness this morning?" Jeremiah asked in a tone that suggested that he was only asking because it was the polite thing to do.

"Cornelia seems to be keeping it together that's not too much of a surprise I suppose considering her reputation. She is one tough woman after all." Lelouch said as he locked the door behind him. "You did very well by the way." He said to Jeremiah.

Jeremiah shrugged "I simply handled her moves as you instructed me to."

"Well it wasn't too hard to predict what she would do after all. After I had been able to see the maps the Yamato Alliance had shown me as Zero I was able to use the knowledge that I gained from them of the local terrain to predict Cornelia's moves practically down to a tee."

"There is nothing like the home field advantage." Jeremiah said.

"No there is not." Lelouch agreed.

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Ashford

"So I was thinking…" Milly started.

"I don't like the sound of that." Rivalz joked.

"Quiet you!" she snapped back "Anyway before I was so rudely interrupted I was thinking of having a sort of slumber party here in the clubhouse, you know to make up for having to postpone the trip to the lake." She suggested.

"That's a great idea!" Shirley said enthusiastically.

"Like nighties and pillow fights? Yeah that is a great idea!" Rivalz agreed with a big grin on account of the less the pure images dancing in his head it was almost enough to give him a nose bleed this early in the morning. Milly bonked him on the head with a rolled up piece of paper to snap him out of it.

Euphie's immaculately pale skin tinted pink and she made an embarrassed squeaking sound in her throat.

"Whoever said you were invited? No boys allowed!" Shirley cried blushing furiously.

"A guy can dream can't he?" Rivalz asked weakly.

"Fantasize is more like it." Kallen accused.

Rivalz groaned "All you girls are against me; I wish Lelouch didn't have to leave school. Where's Suzaku at? I need another guy here to back me up."

"He just called the main office actually, said he was running late. Something about having to speak with his superiors or something." Milly explained.

"Oh good I was starting to worry that maybe Lelouch was working him to hard." Euphie said before the bell rang and they had to all rush off to their first period classes.

0000000000000000

"Um…what is she doing down here?" Cornelia asked pointing at CC when she saw her brother and his knight approach. She was getting hoisted into a Gloucester that Lelouch had provided for her.

"What? You though she was just some concubine? What do you take me for some sex pervert?" Lelouch asked defensively crossing his arms and turning his back to his sister.

"Is that the woman he's been hiding in his apartments?" Villetta whispered to Jeremiah as their prince spoke with the Viceroy.

"…Please don't ask me that." Jeremiah said not really knowing what else to say on the subject. Villetta had a looking of knowing on her face and nodded to herself as if she had just been told so juicy piece of gossip. She usually wasn't one for such things but she was a woman after all.

Once everybody had warmed up the spar commenced. All three of the females put up a very good fight much to the chagrin of the three Darlton brothers who were going up against them. Marika and Lilyna, Lelouch noticed worked very well together as a team. While CC preferred to hang back waiting for an opening the other two would inadvertently create to go straight in for the kill…or rather stun in this case since it was only a friendly spar.

"As you can see, just like everyone else in my employ, she's not just for aesthetic appeal." Lelouch said smugly as she disabled, Claudio's?, or perhaps maybe it was Bart's Gloucester. Lelouch couldn't really tell who was in which Knightmare.

When it was done CC exited her cockpit and leisurely strolled over to Lelouch waggling her hips in a seductive manner. When she reached him she leaned in close to him and in a silky voice whispered "you owe me a pizza."

The others who were present except for Jeremiah who was trying is best to repress a snicker were all gawking at him as CC walked off. His once smug expression he had been wearing not but a moment ago had quickly turned to one of complete irritation because of the little show she had just put on. The whole point of having her come down and fight had been completely tossed out the window.

Despite himself Lelouch ended up being so irked by CC's behavior that he found himself ranting by the time he got back to his office. "That woman can be so infuriating sometimes. She knows that my personal reputation has been taking a beating from the media and she still behaves like that in front of everybody!"

"Your highness if I can give you some feminine insight…" Villetta offered.

"Speak." Lelouch indifferently ordered.

"Perhaps she acted as such because she may be upset with you for some reason."

"Upset with me?" Lelouch asked, really more to himself than to his two official knights of Arawyn who were standing before him.

"Forgive me if this is too personal my lord, but could there have been something you did or maybe didn't do that would have upset her?" she asked abstractly.

Lelouch paused in thought before muttering "…that must be it..." to himself and then started to leave.

"My lord where are you going?" Villetta called as he got half way down the hallway.

"I have a pizza to bake! And have Soresi and Vergamon come to my office later!" Lelouch called back. She looked to Jeremiah in confusion as if to ask what the prince really meant by that.

Jeremiah could only shrug in response "He likes to cook?" he offered. She couldn't help but wonder if the prince had always been this strange.

After a few hours of laboring in the kitchens Lelouch returned to his apartments with a pizza in hand. "One pizza made from scratch by me as we agreed on. You wouldn't believe the strange looks I got from the kitchen staff while I was down there making this." Lelouch said as he presented her with her prize for her cooperation with the Knightmare spar earlier. She dug in with reckless abandon.

"I take it you like it then?" He asked.

She kept her mouth closed for a moment as she savored the flavors of the handmade delight "I have to be honest…This maybe the best thing I ever tasted." She said in-between bites.

"Hey CC?" Lelouch said grabbing a slice for himself.

"Mmuph?" she grunted as she shoved another piece in her mouth.

"I never thanked you for playing Zero for me did I?" he asked.

"…You said you'd get me some new clothes, you never did." She pointed out.

He gaped at her for a moment, he just couldn't believe it. "That's it? That's what you're mad about?!"

"If you don't keep your little promises to me how can I expect you to fulfill your end of the contract?" she asked coldly.

"I've been meaning to ask what exactly are the terms of our contract?" Lelouch asked. She didn't answer be just kept eating the homemade treat in front of her. "Are you going to answer me or not?" He asked.

"You needn't concern yourself with that for now." she finally responded and Lelouch decided to give it up as a bad job. "I appreciate the thanks though; it wasn't fun having to run through the sewers to escape yesterday."

He finished eating the slice he managed to steal away "Listen I need to get back down to my office. Can I trust you to behave?"

"Well, you did make me pizza." She said boredly.

He heaved a sigh of semi-relief "Thank you and I'll remedy the clothing situation as soon as I can alright?"

As expected when Lelouch returned to his office it only took a few minutes when he was informed by his secretarial staff that the girls were here to speak with him and he had them lead them in.

"I'm sure that by now you both are wondering why I had put you through all of that instead of simply looking at your records and assigning you to a team when you transferred command." Both the girls standing in front of his desk nodded. "The truth is that by both of your reputations I had already known you to be exceptional pilots. But in order to make my decision I need to see for myself and your display of skill this morning did not disappoint."

"That means a lot coming from the pilot of the Merlin your highness." Lilyna said and Marika nodded in agreement.

Lelouch continued "What I called you here for is that I want to offer the both of you positions on my Royal guard. Do you except?"

There was a moment of silence before the serious atmosphere of the conversation was shattered when both girls excitedly squealed their thank-yous for the honor he had just bestowed upon them. Needless to say he was a little caught off guard by their reaction.

"Um…I'll take that as a yes then?" He asked and they hugged him simultaneously in response.

As they giddily exited his office Lelouch briefly wondered if all women were this crazy or if it was just girls around his age. Villetta and Cecile were older women and they never acted this way around him and neither did Sayoko for that matter…

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Later at Ashford

"Why did you want us to accompany you your highness?" Marika asked as she and Lilyna followed their prince through the school grounds.

"Jeremiah usually accompanies me but there is an important matter I needed him to take care of, there is also somebody very important to me that I want you both to meet. Since you are now part of my guard I think it important that you become familiar with them." Lelouch explained.

"May I ask who this person is my lord?" Lilyna asked curiously.

"My sister Nunnally." He said simply as they made their way past the guards he had stationed at entrances of the east wing and inside the campus clubhouse. "And just so you know you don't have to so formal around me at least not while we're here anyway. Also my sister Euphemia doesn't want people to know she's a princess just yet. So if you could just treat her like a normal student and keep it on the down low it would be greatly appreciated."

"You can count on us!" Marika said as she and Lilyna gave a thumbs up. When they entered the dining room they finally set eyes on Princess Nunnally. The girl looked much smaller and delicate than they had expected and sitting at the table next to her was an eleven who was folding what looked to be little paper animals with her. It was an odd sight to them to behold.

"Hello Nunnally." Their prince said cheerfully.

"Lelouch, I was starting to think you wouldn't show." Suzaku said.

"It's been a long day is all. I want to introduce you to some of my new guard members." Lelouch said as he waved Marika and Lilyna over. "Nunnally, this is Lt. Marika Soresi and Lt. Lilyna Vergamon."

"Nice to meet you both." the little princes said as she offered her hand for them to shake.

"I'm sure you both have seen Major Kururugi here around the base at some point." Lelouch continued.

"We haven't actually." Lilyna said. "…Wait! You're a major?!"

Suzaku laughed "yeah, you can just call me Suzaku though."

"Suzaku is on special corp. with me. He's the pilot of the Lancelot." Lelouch explained. And the Japanese boy became that much more interesting to them.

"Suzaku, Nunnally where are you?! We need to start making arrangements for the cat festival!" Milly called in a sing-song voice as she entered the room "Oh, hi Lulu I didn't know you were coming today…And who are these two gorgeous ladies?" She asked pointing at Lilyna and Marika. "Friends of yours?" she leered at Lelouch.

"They are the new members of my guard Milly." Lelouch said plainly

She trotted to where they were standing "I'm Milly Ashford student council president."

"Lt. Marika Soresi."

"Lt. Lilyna Vergamon." They both introduced themselves and exchanged handshakes with the blonde student. "What's this about a cat festival?" Lilyna asked.

"It's to welcome the new student council pet Arthur." Nunnally said.

"You're throwing a festival for a cat?" Lelouch asked. Milly nodded looking rather proud of her self and Lelouch shook his head. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Do you guys have a lot of festivals here?" Marika asked.

"Oh yes! It's too bad Lelouch had to drop out of school because he used to love the festivals." Milly said with an upward inflection Lelouch rolled his eyes but Milly ignored him. "Especially whenever he got a chance to dress up." she teased.

"You made me wear those stupid costumes!" Lelouch shouted. Marika and Lilyna were a little astounded by the whole conversation; they never imagined the prince being so candid.

Milly laughed "Alright, alright that's enough fun for now we have a student council meeting to start. Suzaku could you be a dear and help Nunnally?" she asked grabbing the other two bewildered girls by their wrists and dragging them along. "I love having fresh blood in on meetings! She said cheerfully. "Come on it's this way."

Lelouch took a moment for himself as they left the room 'Milly's acting stranger than usual.' He thought to himself. 'I wonder what's going on.'

"What was all the yelling?" He heard Shirley's voice say as she came through the door trialed by Kallen and Euphie who were apparently on their way to the meeting.

"Oh Milly's just being Milly is all." Lelouch said.

"Hello Lulu how's Cornelia doing she's not to terribly mad about Saitama is she?" Euphie asked. "I had Suzaku tell me about it."

"Don't worry about her, she's a ten year veteran. She can handle it." He reassured.

"Still it must have been pretty humiliating for the both of you." Kallen said with a smug undertone.

Lelouch shrugged "It was Cornelia's operation not mine. I didn't really do anything officially. But your right about the humiliating part, it's almost as if Zero knew what she was planning."

Kallen's eyes widened for a brief second 'he didn't!?' she thought. Thankfully the other two girls didn't pick up on the undertones of the conversation.

"Um, speaking of Princess Cornelia." Shirley started in a small voice "If you don't mind my asking. The things they've been saying on the news about the two of you isn't true is it?"

"Of course not." Lelouch said a little disgusted to even have to be reminded of that whole mess. "The media misconstrues things to a gorse level just to get a story. You shouldn't believe their wild speculations."

Shirley felt like breathing a sigh of relief until Euphie started to giggle. "Remember when we were little and Nunnally and I fought over who would get to marry you? Now it's almost like Cornelia is making her claim."

For some reason the memory made Lelouch laugh "yeah I remember that."

Shirley's face fell when she heard that. "The student council meeting is going to start we should get moving or we'll be late." She said as she began to walk off.

"Shirley? Is there something wrong?" Euphie asked with genuine concern and began to follow her out into the hallway. "…Shirley?"

"You're engaged to your own sister now?" Kallen remarked smartly. "I wonder what poor young thing will fall prey to the venomous claws of the Casanova of Britannia next."

"Might I remind you that you, Kallen, were in fact the first to quite literally fall prey to me? You are after all the only woman to know my embrace." She began to sputter angrily at his words "to think that if I had not denounced those rumors of our engagement none of this would have happened." He said wistfully and Kallen's angry sputtering worsened. "Just so you know we're not even."

"What do you mean we're not even? You can just call it even and then change your mind!" she argued.

"Well we were even but that was before Cornelia dragged me the medical bay to get tested after she caught you straddling me in the hallway when you fell on top of me."

Kallen started to laugh "Wait that part was true?"

'Now's your chance.' Lelouch thought "You think that's funny huh?" He asked as he pulled out his cell phone and pressed a number on his speed dial. "Well let's see how funny you think this is then…Hello, Is this HiTV?" the muffled voice on the other end sounded as if it responded affirmatively.

Kallen paled "What are you doing?" she whispered fiercely.

He ignored her "Yes this is Lelouch vi Britannia… Listen I'm calling because I'd like to issue a statement that I am in fact engaged to Miss Kallen Stadtfeld." She tried to grab the phone from him but he turned his back on her keeping the phone out of her reach. "The reason I denounced it earlier is because I didn't want my beloved to suffer the excessive attention and the media focus, given her medical condition and general shyness…" She tried to grab the phone from him again and he evaded her once more before continuing in a mournful tone "…I had hoped that she would at least have a normal adolescence." The muffled voice on the other end seemed to be encouraging him to go on. "Well, the constant engagement rumors about me have only brought my intended more pain despite her courageous efforts to hide it. And I wish to put the rumors to rest if only for her sake if nothing else." by now Kallen was completely horrified by what he was saying and there was some more muffled speaking from the other end "…well of course this isn't a hoax…Yes this is indeed Prince Lelouch…well if I weren't I and my family's fate would be as bad as anyone who openly spurns the attentions of the Royal family…What's that?...Yes of course." He then handed the phone to Kallen and smirked "The press would like a statement from you as well darling."

Kallen numbly took the phone from him and put it to her ear "Yes?"

"Now you're even." A familiar voice said for a second she thought that maybe it was Zero but she cleared her head of that thought immediately Zero wouldn't agree to do something so stupid. She blanched when she looked at the screen if the cell phone because in bold letters the name Jeremiah stared back at her. "My apologies Miss Stadtfeld but I did swear an oath of loyalty to his high…" she didn't let him finish she just snapped the phone closed and violently threw it at Lelouch who narrowly dodged it.

"Oh you are a laugh riot. I should have known it was your knight or something. Why on earth would you have a news station on speed dial?" She said sarcastically as he picked up his phone and pocketed it.

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Ohgi's Apartment, Early Evening

There was a knock on the front door and Ohgi and Tamaki looked at each other. They hadn't been expecting anyone else tonight. None the less Ohgi got up and answered it "Kallen? What are you doing here?" he asked upon opening the door and seeing his deiced friend's little sister enter the crumbling apartment.

"I didn't feel like going home and having to deal with my step-mother after enduring a very eventful student council meeting." She explained.

"Oh, well I do have to admit it's nice to see you so active with school and everything after Naoto's death." Ohgi said.

"I'm not being active! I'm edgy from being harassed by a psycho prince with a god complex! I simply haven't had time to grieve because of that jerk!" Kallen snapped. The two older men looked startled at her reaction and she took a deep breath. "…Sorry about that…So what are you guys up to?" She asked as she made herself comfortable on the couch.

"Tamaki has been trying to convince me to go out to the bars with him tonight, but I keep telling him that the weekend is right around the corner."

"Well what about you Kallen? Any plans tonight?" Tamaki asked.

"Well she's defiantly not going to go to a bar with you if that's what you're asking!" Ohgi jumped in.

Kallen waved them off "There's this sleep over thing at school for some of the girls. I don't think I'm going to go though, it seems kind of stupid." She said.

"Well I think it would be a good idea for you to go. Naoto would want you to socialize like a normal teenager." Ohgi reasoned.

Kallen gave in at the mention of her dearly departed brother."Fine I'll go but only because you say so. I better go home and pack an overnight bag or something. I'll see you guys some other time."

"Every week she's over here complaining about him." Ohgi said as Kallen left.

"Yeah, I have half a mind to do something about it." Tamaki proclaimed trying to sound tough, needless to say it got him a skeptical look for his friend and he shuffled his feet a bit "…If you know that Gottwald guy wasn't always hovering over him that is."

"You think that…no never mind…" Ohgi started but trailed off.

"What?"

"Well, do you think there's a possibility that maybe he's keeping her upset with him intentionally?"

"Why would he do that?" Tamaki asked.

"Don't you remember? She said that right after Naoto died he went over to her house to offer his sympathy and even gave their mother money for a memorial. Do you think there's a possibility that he's just trying to distract her by keeping her mad at him…So she doesn't collapse into grief or something?"

"Or…he's a spoiled Britannian punk that likes harass innocent Japanese girls." Tamaki said.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AN: Long time to wait for a filler chapter I know. Like I said, even I'm mad at myself for making you wait this long. I hope you enjoyed it none the less. And please forgive me for glossing over the spar like that I could not for the life of me figure out any choreography for it.

I think part of the reason this chapter was being so difficult to write was I was trying to fit in all these character interactions and scenes in and it just wouldn't work so I told myself 'you know what save them for future chapters.'

Extra special thanks to All that is left unsaid and Velshard. Those other really awesome ideas you guys sent will most likely kick off the next chapter. (You both know which ones I mean) ;)

Ideas…I am in need of them. I beseech you my muses to assist me.