Thanks to everyone who reviewed and added this fic to their favorites and alerts! I'm glad to see there are people interested in this, so I'll keep at it right to the end! I hope you enjoy~!
Disclaimer: Code Geass belongs to Sunrise, not me, ect.
Large purple eyes met amber, blinking. Then Lelouch scowled. "Quit joking around, C.C."
"If I were joking then I'd be smiling," she replied dryly. "I'm serious, Lelouch."
"One that's impossible," he said with a frown. "And two, even if it were true, then why would you only be bringing it up now? How would you even know anyway?" He briefly considered the fact that C.C. often seemed to know more than she let on. But the damn witch never would explain herself...
The corners of C.C.'s lips slanted slightly downward. Obviously, she didn't enjoy being the recipient of a barrage of questions. Lelouch absorbed this information with the smallest of smirks. "I'm bring it up now because I don't want you to find out later and just give up on everything. I need you alive, remember? That'll probably take a lot more effort on my part if you don't even care yourself anymore." She turned her gaze away, instead staring very intently at the logo blazoned across the lid of her pizza box. "And I know because I was...acquainted...with your mother."
----
"Mission accomplished..." Rolo stated cooly, as he took his place standing in front of the throne-like chair, "V.V.-sama."
The small boy seated in front of him looked up with a smirk. "As expected," V.V. replied, granting his soldier a subtle smile. He looked over the teenager standing before him with lidded eyes, twirling a lock of very long, wavy pale blond hair around his finger. "However..." he drawled, a triumphant smirk spreading across his face, "I think you're losing your touch, Rolo."
"Huh?"
"There," V.V. said, pointing with a thin finger to the cuff of Rolo's right sleeve. A small, dark red splotch marred the clean blue fabric. "You're usually much neater than that. Is something wrong?"
"Of course not," Rolo replied immediately. Though the question itself might have suggested concern, he could tell from the mocking tone of the immortal's voice that no such emotion was present. Almost absentmindedly, he rubbed the stain between his thumb and forefinger, as if that would erase it, but to no avail.
"You should know better than that," V.V. went on, slumping back into his throne with a bored expression that was made much more sinister than it should have been by the dim lighting of the underground room he sat in. "To leave evidence like that, it's very unprofessional. Honestly, you may as well just tell the police that you were the murderer..."
"Of course, " Rolo repeated, nodding if only to end the lecturing. More as a nervous reaction than anything else, he shoved his hand deep into the pocket of his jacket to hide the bloodstain. With that movement came the tiny, almost inaudible sound of crinkling plastic.
As small as it was, at the sound V.V. stopped and eyed Rolo's pocket. With a frown, he asked delicately, "What was that?"
The teenager blinked, his mouth forming a small 'o', and he quickly cast his amethyst eyes to the stone flooring. "Nothing," he replied innocently.
V.V.'s frown deepened. "Rolo..." he said, his voice far too stern and threatening for someone who looked no older than ten years old. "What do you have in your pocket? You know lying is a horrible thing to do..."
With a guilty expression, Rolo drew the item from his pocket. "It's just a piece of candy," he said meekly, opening his hand to display a single sweet in a plastic wrapper.
"And where did you get that?"
"O-on the bus I took, on the Britannian mainland," he stammered. "A lady gave it to me."
V.V. gave him a dubious look. Understandable, though. Rolo had been surprised himself at the time of the incident.
It was an unfamiliar situation to him. As he went to get on a bus that would take him to the hotel where his target had been residing, he'd let an old woman get on before him. It hadn't even really been a conscious act, as he'd been looking up and down the street at the moment to check for any sort of threats, a paranoid habit he'd picked up over years of similar missions. He'd just stepped aside without thinking and let her on in front of him, but she had called him polite. She'd smiled and said he was such a polite young man and given him the piece of candy. Rolo didn't understand, but he had kept the sweet regardless.
Funny that the old woman would call him polite, of all things. Only half an hour after that, he'd shot a politician through the heart without batting an eye.
When V.V. had been silent for a few seconds, Rolo started to return the piece of candy to his pocket. But the cold voice of the immortal boy stopped him.
"Throw it out."
"What?" Rolo frowned. "Why?"
"It could be dangerous. That lady could have poisoned it."
"It...it was just an old woman!"
"Oh come on, Rolo," V.V. said with a smirk. "You of all people should know that appearances can be deceiving. Now make sure you throw that out."
"R-right. Of course." Rolo lowered his head and bit his lip, wincing as if he'd just been slapped.
"Alright, then you're dismissed," the blonde boy said loftily, leaning back into his seat.
"Yes sir." Giving a shallow bow, Rolo turned away, letting out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. He moved for the door, his footsteps echoing in the large, mostly empty room.
V.V.'s voice was like ice. "Oh, and Rolo?"
"Yes?"
"Don't forget," he said. "Everyone lies. There's no one out in the world above you can trust. Am I right?"
His hand again hidden in his pocket, Rolo gripped the piece of candy. The edges of its plastic wrapping scratched at his palm.
"...of course, V.V.-sama."
----
"Anything else you feel like telling me, witch?"
Lelouch now stood in front of C.C., his arms crossed and an extremely displeased expression gracing his face. His laptop and work were forgotten on the desk, abandoned in favor of a much more important matter.
C.C., however, apparently hadn't gotten the notice about just how important it was; she continued lounging on his bed, having traded the pizza box for her Cheese-kun plush. She at least had the decency to keep a serious face. "Not particularly," she said airily, hugging the large yellow blob to her chest.
Lelouch narrowed his eyes. "You chose to wait until now to tell me that you were friends with my mother. How could you keep that a secret from me?"
C.C. simply rolled her eyes. "Please. Marianne and I were hardly 'friends'. Suffice to say, I would not have hung around her so long were it not for the circumstances. That woman had a rather...overpowering personality. She was no more my friend than you are." With a sly smile, she added, "Besides, every woman has her secrets. Be glad I decided to tell you this one."
Scowling, the prince ran his hand through his hair before turning deep purple eyes on the green-haired girl. "Explain. Now. What is this nonsense you're speaking about my sister?"
"I just told you," C.C. answered, "She isn't your sister." She grinned ever so slightly at the frown that formed on his face at these words. "And it's not nonsense."
"It is nonsense," Lelouch insisted. "Nunnally is my sister, she always has been. I mean, I was even there when she was born, I think I would know!"
"Oh?" C.C. purred. "Would you now?"
"Yes," he snapped in response. "And I remember being in the room at the hospital. Everyone had been going on about how much she looked like our father when he was young."
With a triumphant smirk, C.C. sat up, leaning towards Lelouch so that he was forced to take a step back. "And therein lies the truth," she said.
"What do you mean?"
"Tell me, Lelouch..." the witch dragged her words, peering up into his face. "What color are Nunnally's eyes?"
"Blue," he replied at once. "Like my mother's."
Her smirk widening ever so slightly, C.C. went on. "And what color are your father's eyes? If you remember that day at the hospital so clearly, then tell me..." She slid off the bed to her feet with that alien grace of hers, rising to her full height, and while she only just came up to Lelouch's chin, the air of confidence she exuded made her seem twice as tall.
"...what color were that newborn's eyes, Lelouch?"
The prince frowned, closing his own eyes as he recalled the scene.
His mother laying on a hospital bed, her face etched with the exhaustion of childbirth, her dark bangs sticking to her forehead with sweat. The room was a bright, sterile white that might have been disconcerting if it were not for the group of people crowding it, filling it was celebratory noise and laughter.
His father had been absent, he remembered, and Schneizel had patiently told him when he'd asked, "Father is the emperor; he's too busy to come right now." Even as a small child, an answer like this had seemed unacceptable to Lelouch, but his mother had been perfectly content with the situation, so he didn't push the issue.
Standing by his mother's bedside, where his father should have been, was a younger Cornelia, always so loyal to the Lady Marianne. Euphemia had been too young, and since she was not actually related to Marianne, she was forced to wait outside for her sister.
Apart from his older half-siblings, the room had been full of ladies of the court, the same phony noblewomen that had always gossiped about Marianne behind her back and resented her for being of common birth now congratulating her and pretending to be friendly.
(Thinking back on that scene, Lelouch vaguely could remember an unfamiliar woman who'd stood in the corner of the room simply looking on. She had been dressed much more plainly than the court ladies, and wore no makeup, but had an exotic beauty and a haughty sort of confidence that made her appear more noble than any of them.)
Being so small at the time, Lelouch had been allowed to sit on the edge of the bed so he could see. A bundle laid in his mother's arms, the newborn having already been cleaned of blood and such and wrapped in a soft blanket.
"Here, Lelouch," Marianne said gently, motioning for her son to come closer. "Say hello to your new little sibling."
He complied, leaning in to look. Peering into the infant's face, he found himself staring into wide, curious eyes, lavender in color.
Lelouch blinked himself back into the present, his mouth hanging open slightly. C.C. still stood in front of him, watching him expectantly.
"Purple..." he murmured in disbelief, wondering to himself how he had never noticed the change. Even more strangely, how had his mother never said a word about such a happening? When he glanced back to C.C., obviously waiting for an answer to her question, he admitted, "They were light purple...but, sometimes a baby's eyes change color as they grow up..." He offered the idea rather weakly.
"You're in denial," the witch pointed out, and shook her head.
"But then where did Nunnally come from?" he argued. "Nunnally was always..." he trailed off, unsure of how he wished to finish that statement.
C.C. turned and flopped back onto the bed, again taking up Cheese-kun and examining its smiling face. "Are you really asking that? I thought you were supposed to be a genius..." She gave that annoying little smirk of hers, going on. "The child was just switched for Nunnally soon after being born, probably less than a day or two later. I don't know where Nunnally came from, though since she does still resemble Charles, possibly she came from another of his many conquests. Marianne most likely was geassed to never notice the change."
"But...why? Who did it?"
"Most likely it was your father, Charles," C.C. answered. "He probably had wanted a mole to keep an eye on Marianne and yourself, and then had just been lucky enough to have Nunnally born so close to when your mother gave birth..."
At the mention of the emperor, Lelouch grimaced with distaste. "Not that I doubt he'd do such a thing, but to be using Nunnally as his spy? She can't even see!"
"She wasn't always blind, you remember. And as much as you baby her, she very capable with all her remaining senses."
Lelouch's frown deepened. "Nunnally has always, always, been sweet and gentle. I can hardly see her working with someone like my father. She even said herself, her greatest wish is for a kind world!"
"People lie, Lelouch. They pretend, and-"
"Nunnally doesn't lie!" he snapped, scowling. "I've had enough of your stories! I know you just love to mess with me, but you've gone too far this time!"
"Lelouch..." the witch tried, only to be cut off as he stormed out, slamming the door behind him. She stared at the smooth wooden surface of the door for a moment before sighing and looking back to Cheese-kun, speaking aloud.
"It seems your son has inherited that stubbornness of yours...oh, calm down, you know I was joking about that, it would be difficult to explain our friendship to him, isn't that right...Marianne?"
----
Nunnally's bedroom was more than just a little illogical. Its walls were decorated with colorful paintings and photographs, the bedspread an expensive, elaborately embroidered thing, and a large, ornate mirror hung over her dresser, all of these being rather unnecessary and silly things to put in a blind girl's room. Just further proof of how Lelouch doted on his little sister.
Said girl sat in her wheelchair at her desk, dressed already in her nightclothes, her long hair still damp from her bath. Her sensitive ears picked up the sounds of the maid, Sayoko, bustling around the kitchen several rooms away as she prepared dinner.
Smiling to herself, Nunnally made another fold in the square piece of paper. She made neat little creases with deft fingers, a crane slowly forming before her. "Forty-two..." she counted to herself, adding it to a large pile next to her desk and picking up another sheet of origami paper. As she made the first fold, swiping her finger along it to create the crease, a loud slam from down the hall startled her and caused her to jump, slicing her finger on that edge of paper.
Giving a small cry of pain, Nunnally quickly put the digit in her mouth. She tasted blood and winced at the metallic taste. A pause, and behind her she heard the door open, the familiar, now hurried footsteps entering.
"Nunnally?" came Lelouch's voice, practically dripping with concern. "Is something wrong?" He knelt beside her wheelchair, and she withdrew her finger, giving her brother a sweet smile.
"Ah, it's fine, Onii-sama," she chirped. "I just gave myself a paper cut, is all..."
The brunette boy gave a relieved sigh and a lighthearted chuckled. "Oh, is that all?" he asked. "We should still clean that up, though." He spoke even as he opened one of her desk drawers and retrieved a first-aid kit from it. Heaven forbid his precious little sister's room be ill-equipped to keep her safe in all scenarios.
Nunnally giggled. "Of course, Onii-sama." she felt him gently take her finger and wipe it clean before beginning to adhere a bandage to the wound. After a moment's silence, she asked him, "Is everything alright?"
"Hmm? Why do you ask?"
"I heard you slamming your door," Nunnally said with a small frown. "Did something happen?"
Hesitating only for a moment, Lelouch forced a cheerful tone for his sister's benefit. "Oh, I was just talking to C.C. before. On the phone," he added quickly, remembering that the green-haired girl was supposed to be "home". If only.
"Did you two have an argument?"
"Not really," the prince replied, as he began to put the first-aid kit away. "She was just teasing me and I overreacted, that's all."
Nunnally persisted. "What did she say? I can't think of what could have made you that angry..."
"It's nothing. C.C. was just talking nonsense."
"Onii-sama..."
The blind girl gave a little pout, and Lelouch mentally cursed his inability to deny her. "It was just silly stuff, really. C.C. just going on with some ridiculous story about you not really being my sister. She likes to make stuff up, is all."
If Nunnally's eyes were open to begin with, Lelouch was sure she would have blinked. Her mouth hung open just a little in surprise. Then suddenly, almost disconcertingly so, she smiled sweetly.
"Ah, I see. C.C.-san just likes to make stuff up," she repeated, giving a little nod as if in agreement.
"A-aa," Lelouch stammered. Why did that smile make him uncomfortable all of a sudden? As long as he could remember, nothing could put him at ease like one of Nunnally's smiles. Working to keep his voice steady, he said, "That's right. It's just one of C.C.'s pranks, just her trying to make me look stupid. But I didn't fall for it."
The short silence that followed was oddly tense, and then Nunnally's syrupy sweet voice, "You and C.C.-san really are similar. You both like to make up stories."
"Eh?" the prince questioned. "What do you mean?"
"Oh, you know!" she answered, and though her tone was cheerful it was laced with an icy chill. "Like those stories you tell me, lying about what you're doing when you're out being Zero!"
Lelouch felt his blood run cold.
"Isn't that right, Onii-sama?"
I think I remember why I gave up on writing fanfiction for two years. My hands hurt after typing so much... T_T Much longer chapter this time, hope you guys are like me and like long chapters, or my fingers have gotten sore for absolutely nothing! XD;
Ah, I love V.V. He's so wonderfully creepy XD And from here on out, Nunnally is going to become rather OOC for the purposes of plot, so please enjoy the evil!Nunally =D
Please review, it always makes me so very happy to see those little review alerts in my inbox~ ^^ And I hope you all look forward to next week's chapter!