Disclaimer: I don't own Code Geass! I wish I did though!

.

.

.

When Lelouch finally woke up later in the day he felt much better despite the stuffy nose. So he got out of bed and got dressed before he headed downstairs where he found Leon sitting at the dining room table talking with two men, one dressed in black and the other dressed in a flight suit like Leon's, both with a cup of tea in their hands.

Leon smiled when he saw him.

"Well good afternoon sleepy head. And how are you feeling?"

"Better." Lelouch admitted.

Both men turned to look at him making Lelouch squeak a bit in surprise.

They were practically identical. The platinum blonde hair was heavily streaked with grey in the same exact places with the same exact uneven spikes. Both men had perfectly identical faces with smooth pale features. They even had the same expressions on their faces which quickly turned into a kind smile.

But what had scared Lelouch was their eyes.

The man in the flight suit had a deep icy blue that reflected warmth and kindness.

The man in black had a dark amber that reflected sadness and an undeniable strength at the same time. Eyes that made even C.C.'s seem relatively human.

"Well you're looking much better than you had when we first brought you." said the man in the flight suit with a smile.

"Yeah, I….. I feel better." he said, still very unsure about the two men.

"Lelouch this is my father, Quatre Midnighstar." said Leon gesturing to the man in the flight suit. "And this is Malachai Midnightstarlight." he said obviously referring to the man in black.

"Nice to meet you." Lelouch said softly. He walked over and sat down beside Leon at the table, watching the two men closely.

"Are you sure you're alright Lelouch?" Leon asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a little tired from that fever earlier." he said glancing at the man in black who was making him feel somewhat uneasy.

Quatre looked normal in the flight suit. Average and very comfortable.

Malachai looked somewhat menacing. He was wearing all black. A black silk dress shirt, a black tie and a black silk vest.

What made him uneasy was the patch on the vest.

It was absolutely terrifying. A picture of a decapitated skeleton a scroll in one hand, a book in the other, the skull laughing as it's body kneeled in a knightly fashion behind two scythes, crossed over each other and blood dripping off the blades into a large red puddle at the skeleton's knees. The top had the words 'Atrum Nex Viator,' the bottom, 'Perdice Mortis Nuntius.'

Lelouch jumped a little when he felt Leon's hand on his forehead.

"Your fever's not completely gone. No wonder you're not looking very good. Why don't you come into the kitchen real quick and we'll get you some medicine." said Leon standing up.

Lelouch just stood up and obediently followed Leon into the kitchen.

"What's wrong Lelouch?" Leon asked, searching through a cabinet that was off to the side.

"I still have the fever I guess." he shrugged, feeling better away from the Messenger of Death that sat in the dining room.

"That's not all it is. You were fine when you first walked down the stairs. You can tell me, honest." he said pulling out a medicine bottle before digging in a drawer for something.

"The one guy, Mr. Malachai, I feel kind of uneasy around him." he admitted softly.

"I figured as much." Leon sighed softly. "Open up."

Lelouch opened his mouth and Leon stuck a basic glass thermometer under his tongue before fussing with the bottle.

"He doesn't always look as friendly as dad does, but he's really not all that bad. He was actually married before he and dad ended up together like that."

"The angel of death married?" he mumbled.

"Strange I know."

"And that patch of his is freaky."

"Yes well that was the head of the high council's decision to make him wear it." said Leon taking the thermometer and looking at it. "That can't be right." he mumbled shaking it. "I don't know why I keep this stupid old thing around, I need to get a new one."

Lelouch was about to say something but he was stopped when Leon put the thermometer back in his mouth.

"Don't talk this time. It messes it up." he said sternly. "Anyway, don't let the patch fool you. He may seem a bit scary, but underneath that patch is actually a very kind heart. Remember that."

Lelouch just nodded as Leon measured a precise amount of medicine in a cup.

"There's nothing for you to fear anyway. It's not like he's here to take your soul, he's the one that saved it after all."

Leon took the thermometer again. "That makes much more sense." he said, then he handed Lelouch the medicine cup. "Drink."

Lelouch drank the liquid but the taste was appalling and he almost spit it out.

"Don't spit. I know it tastes terrible, but it works." said Leon taking the cup and rinsing it out as Lelouch swallowed hard to get the medicine down. "It'll get rid of that fever and help your sinuses drain so you can breathe."

"What was my temperature anyway?" Lelouch asked, taking the glass of water that Leon had handed him.

"A little over a hundred and one. You're lucky if that's a minor fever for you. My fever starts when my body reaches the average human body temperature."

"How is that possible?" Lelouch asked curiously.

"I'm sure you've noticed this house is usually freezing?"

"I did notice that."

"Well I can't always control my body temperature. My average temperature is below average at around ninety four degrees, which may not sound like much of a difference, but trust me, it is. My flight suit has special pockets in it for ice packs which is how I survive my flights."

"I guess I should consider myself lucky then." Lelouch admitted. "But the one guy still creeps me out a little."

Leon just smiled and shook his head a little.

"You best get used to it though. He is family. Now let's go have a nice chat with them shall we?"

"Alright."

Leon chuckled and ruffled his hair.

Then they went back into the dining room where both men were talking quietly.

"How bad is his fever?" Quatre asked concerned.

"It's just a small fever. Nothing to worry about." said Leon. "He just caught a bit of a cold after he stayed out in the rain for a while last night."

"Well at least he's recovering well." said Malachai.

Lelouch couldn't help but stare a little.

Malachai's voice sounded near identical to Quatre's.

"Anyway, back to what we were discussing earlier." said Leon.

"I honestly think it'd be best if he stayed with you kiddo." said Quatre. "It's quite obvious he's doing well here."

"Shirley and Euphie said there was an obvious change in his attitude yesterday." said Malachai. "If he's doing alright here, I don't see any reason to move him to the sanctuary."

"True. But Lelouch deserves the chance to decide whether or not he wants to be with Shirley and Euphie, or if he'd rather be here." said Leon.

Lelouch suddenly felt like a child with the adults talking around him, deciding for him as he starred down at the table.

"How would he know what the Sanctuary's like if he's never been there?" said Leon.

"Good point kiddo."

"But I still say he'd be better off here." said Malachai.

"Well he does want to stay here, and I want him to stay as well, but I want him to have a choice." Leon said.

"Well the other thing I'm questioning is care." said Quatre. "Right now he get's what he needs physically because of Ashtor being here, and he get's the one on one attention with you and Kit that would be harder for him to get at the Sanctuary with all of the other kids.

"But he's not doing so well when it comes to socializing him with kids his own age which is what he'll really need come August." Leon debated. "He's like Kit in some ways, he needs the individual attention but he'll eventually need to work on his social abilities, which, no offense, are nearly as bad as mine were when you first took me in."

"But we don't want to overwhelm him like we did with Kit either." said Quatre. "Or Suzaku. Suzaku was so overwhelmed by the family that he couldn't handle it and he had to go up into his room by himself for a while."

Lelouch suddenly felt curious.

Was the Suzaku they were talking about, his Suzaku?

"Euphie and Shirley had to help integrate him into the family, because they were the only two he would let near him." said Malachai. "I somehow get the feeling Lelouch's reaction would be worse."

"I suppose that's true." agreed Leon. "But he still deserves to know you and to know what the Sanctuary's like."

Lelouch couldn't help but feel awkward. He, for some reason, couldn't picture himself calling Quatre father.

But he felt he could easily call Leon dad.

Malachai made him uneasy even though he knew he was friendly enough.

Mr. Ashtor made him feel comfortable and, even though he was dead, he wasn't the Master of death.

Having Kit running around and giggling was one thing.

Having thirty others swarm around him was another, and not something he wanted to encounter at the current time.

"Which would you rather do Lelouch?" Leon asked, breaking Lelouch's train of thought.

"Huh?"

"Would you rather go to the sanctuary and be with your friends, or would you rather stay here?" Quatre asked.

"I don't know." Lelouch shrugged. "I guess I need to think about it. Excuse me." he said, then he stood up and left the dining room, going outside where he sat in the grass on the edge of the yard and watched the tide come in.

His mind was spinning.

He was happy where he was, but he wanted to be with his friends again. It was a tough decision.

After a few minutes Lelouch looked up when he heard a noise behind him, and he saw Leon who sat down beside him.

"What do you think Lelouch?" Leon asked.

"I kind of get the feeling you'd rather have me go with them." Lelouch admitted.

"If that's the feeling you're getting it's quite unintentional." Leon admitted. "I'll be honest, I don't really see you as a little brother. I see you as I see Kit, as a son. But I want you to have a chance to be with your friends and around other kids."

"Who's Suzaku?" Lelouch asked.

"I thought you'd figure that one out." said Leon somewhat surprised. "Your friend, Suzaku Kururugi. He wasn't doing so well back in Britannia so they rescued him as well."

"So that's just one more reason why I should go huh?" Lelouch asked, laying on his back and starring up at the sky.

"In a way yes." agreed Leon with a tiny nod. "But I think Kit and I would both be quite depressed if you left."

"Now that I've finally gotten comfortable, I don't want to uproot myself so soon." Lelouch admitted.

"And I noticed you're still not too comfortable with Mr. Malachai."

"I know I shouldn't be, but I feel nervous when he's around."

"Well for the record. He's not always around. He's usually hiding in dad's head. Dad lives for the two of them because Mr. Malachai has deemed himself socially unacceptable. As they both say, they may have two minds, but they really have only one body and they share one heart. They're both very loving men."

"But it's still strange." he sighed.

"Alright, out with it. I know there's more on your mind that you're not telling me." said Leon. "That look in your eyes is telling me that the gears are turning in your head and there's something far more complicated going on."

"I guess I feel like…….. I'm just an average kid here, and I've come to see you as my father figure as opposed to my older brother. You just seem…… much older than you really are."

Lelouch smiled a little when he saw the slightly perturbed look on Leon's face.

"Are you calling me old?"

"Let me rephrase that. You act older than you really are. If you acted like Roderick, then yes, I'd see you as a brother. But you don't. You're more like Mr. Ashtor."

"Well he is my grandfather."

"Well he say's you act older than him."

"That's not very nice." Leon huffed a bit.

"I can't see calling Mr. Midnightstar father. I could easily see me calling you dad." he admitted.

Leon smiled a little. "So the fact that I'm only three years older than you doesn't bother you?"

"Like I said, you act a lot older than twenty. So that really doesn't bother me at all. Is that bad?"

"Not from where I'm sitting. After last night, I asked dad because he originally wanted to move you to the Sanctuary when you were done recovering. I said I wanted to keep you here and in the end he started to agree. But there were a lot of things we honestly weren't sure about. Before dad got here, I started thinking about it. I don't want to take you from your friends."

"You're not. Shirley and Euphie come over all of the time don't they?"

"True."

"So it's not like I'd never see them." Lelouch shrugged. "I want to stay here. With you, Kit and the Ashtor brothers. I don't want to have a nervous breakdown being surrounded by too many people at once."

Leon laughed.

"Poor Suzaku. Unfortunately our family is the kind that immediately tries to make someone feel very welcome, we just forget that not everyone can handle all of us at once." he admitted.

Lelouch watched as he stood up and brushed the grass off of his pants.

"Well it's quite obvious you made your decision so let's go tell dad and Mr. Malachai so they can be on their way. Kit's getting somewhat impatient."

"What for?" Lelouch asked, standing up as well.

"It's Saturday night. The night when I usually have overnight flights and what not. So Kit goes and stays at his grandpa's house for the night where he can play with the other kids."

"Oh. Alright. I guess that makes sense then." said Lelouch.

Then the two headed back inside, Lelouch feeling better now that he knew his life was becoming stable. Knowing that he was building up his own stability.

.

.

.

Ginger:Another fluffy chapter I know. And for Midorchi-chan's curiosity, I do not have this typed up before hand. I just think up a new chapter or two every night off the top of my head because I can't sleep. (I'm finishing this up and posting it at 4am) I will try and post a new chapter around 1am eastern time every night. And as always thank you to my three faithfull readers! Digidreamer, Midorchi_chan, and one sided pancake! Thanks for keeping me going on this guys! You're the best!