A/N: Okay, usually, I know my updates aren't THIS fast, even when I first started out. Truthfully, I decided to upload this because of another reason. But regardless, I hope you enjoy this!

A tall man, whose face was partially covered by a bright red baseball cap, stepped off of the boat's plank and onto the deck. His age was undeterminable, as he was dressed similarly to a teenager with dark blue jeans, a grey v-neck t-shirt, a black leather jacket and sneakers, but carried the aura of a mature person. He looked around for a moment, the rest of the passengers walking around him who had also ridden the ocean taxi, before he joined the flow.

After going through customs, when he was out of the port, he hailed a taxi. One pulled up, and the driver asked, "Where may I take you sir, in the beautiful land of Japan?"

"It's been over a century since Japan was given partial freedom from Britannia, and yet… You're still excited from Britannia's lenience towards Japan?" the passenger questioned while climbing in.

"I can tell you're Britannian… But yes. After 8 years of struggling, Japan finally returned to her old self… Or as close as it's gotten so far, according to the records. We're still happy and grateful, even after the long time that's passed since the actual even took place."

"Interesting…."

"But where will you go, sir?"

"Please take me to your most popular shrine in Tokyo."

"Popular shrine? Hm…. Yes sir!"

As the car drove through the streets of Japan, Lelouch looked out of the window and thought, 'It's been a while, hasn't it?' Everyone that he had known before the Zero Requiem was either dead, or old, and yet he looked the same as the period when he had masqueraded as Zero. As he watched the view rush by, he thought of the event that had led for him to return to Japan, the land where he had once been exiled to.

"Lelouch."

"What is it, C2?" the Britannian looked up from the carrot he had been chopping and directed his attention to his wife of the past few decades, who had been watching TV. She stood up and walked towards the window in the partition between the kitchen and living room. Setting her elbows on the sill, she asked, "Aren't you bored?"

"Of what?" he questioned while turning back to the carrot. When he heard her reply though, he stopped and put the knife down, "Of being together."

He wasn't completely sure what to say, and searched himself for the correct words to say in response. The emerald-haired woman studied him, until he said, "… Are you trying to tell me that you don't love me anymore?"

"No. I love you."

"Then… Why are you asking me if I'm bored of being together?"

"Well… Don't you want some time for yourself? To do things and see things that you can't do with me?"

"Sure… C2, where are you going with this?"

"I've thought of this for a long time, Lelouch, and… Let's try an experiment."

"For what?" he didn't have a very good feeling about where the conversation was going. His wife sighed and answered, "Our bodies haven't aged from when we were teenagers, but the love we have for each other is now that of a middle-aged married couple. It's lifeless. Don't you remember the first few years after the Zero Requiem?"

"Mmm…. Those were some…. Passionate times."

"Lelouch, that's why, by next month, let's separate."

"Separate?"

"A month should be enough time to quit our jobs and sell our apartment, or at least get rid of it. We go our own ways, and exactly a year from that day we separate, we meet each other again, no matter what."

"I don't know, C2…."

"Just think about it, Lelouch. I really hope you agree to it, because I'm disappearing a month from today, whether you like it or not."

After pondering over it, and discussing her proposal over and over, Lelouch had reluctantly concurred. They wrapped up the life that they were living at that moment, and exactly a month from when they had had the first conversation, they left each other. Before splitting however, C2 had told Lelouch, "I haven't told you the meeting place yet."

"Where is it?"

"The most popular shrine in Tokyo, at noon."

"Why a shrine? We don't worship any god."

"It's a place where people go to pray and ask for their wish to be granted. Somewhere that's unaffected with time in regard to its purpose."

"The most popular shrine in Tokyo at noon… Alright."

"I'll see you in a year then, Lelouch. Remember, no contact with each other allowed. If we ever run into each other on the streets or somewhere, we have to act like we don't know each other."

"Wait."

"What is it?"

Reaching for her hand, he pulled her closer and kissed her. When they broke apart, he told her, "I love you."

"I love you too."

He had always wondered what she was doing, what she was seeing, where she was going…. And also speculated if she missed him as much as he had her.

"Here we are, sir."

"Your pay. Keep the change."

"Thank you very much! Have a nice afternoon!"

"You too."

Stepping out of the vehicle, he realized he was in a parking lot. Going to a map, he saw that he had to walk to the shrine itself, and set off on his journey. There were steps through a bamboo forest, and then a vast stone bridge over a wide, rushing river. Past the bridge, he could see the ornate wooden entrance gates. They were painted in faded shades of red, green, yellow, and blue, and beyond it were similar, smaller versions of it, each housing four statues of Buddhist deities. When he arrived at the shrine, he turned around to look at the four main structures surrounding him; the main place of worship where monks were praying currently, along with two smaller ones; a large temple for resting was also there, with its doors wide open, showing Britannians and Japanese alike relaxing.

Taking his shoes off, he tread onto the polished timber floor of the main temple in his socks. He could see people kneeling on the floor, bowing, praying, chanting, or a combination of the three. Silently, he searched for green hair, thinking that she would be in there. He couldn't find anything, and was disappointed. Checking his watch, he saw that it read 12.32 PM. Was she running late?

"Sir, you're going to have to take your hat off. This is a sanctuary of worship, and hats are prohibited."

Turning around, he saw it was C2. He stared at her in surprise and then immediately swept her up in a hug, burying his head in the crook of her neck, and wrapping his arms tightly around her torso. She embraced him in return, whispering, "I missed you so much."

. . .

"You look skinnier than the last time I saw you." commented Lelouch. They were walking on a path on the shrine grounds, where it was more excluded. The tall trees lining the trail reached up to the sky, forming shade throughout the entire lane, effectively blocking the summer sun from the couple. The immortal couldn't stop staring at C2; she really did look skinnier than the last time he had seen her, but not much else had changed.

"And you look slightly tanner. What did you do during the year?"

"I travelled a bit, and then I got a new job. In the country, this time."

"What's your new job?"

"World history teacher for a high school in a colonized area of the Chinese Federation."

"The Chinese Federation…"

"What about you? What did you do?"

"I also went travelling, and also got a new occupation."

"As what?"

"As a nun in a convent in the forests of somewhere inland in the European Union."

"A nun and a school teacher… We've changed a lot, haven't we?"

"Speaking of change…. During the year, have you ever met other….?"

"How could I, when I missed you everyday and thought of you everyday?"

"I'm glad I wasn't the only one feeling that way then… That would have been embarrassing."

. . .

As they began with the first emperor of Britannia, they slowly strolled down the various paintings of past monarchs of the large empire. When they arrived at the painting of Lelouch, who was sitting in his throne, legs crossed, purple eyes regal and arrogant, they stopped and gazed up at the large painting.

"Do you remember….?"

"Yes."

"I'm surprised you do."

"I know."

"Then again… It created a huge fuss."

"It did."

"How that old man kept insisting that there had to be a royal painting of the new emperor to hang in museums as a standard picture."

"As if he thought I wouldn't last long."

"Which you didn't."

"Only by choice."

"Yes. Only by choice. And how you didn't have the time to sit down for something slow and insignificant as a painting."

"So we just had to take a picture of me, and the artist had to look at that."

"It was the only way it could have happened and you went around conquering the world."

"Yes…."

He laughed suddenly, and she asked what he was laughing at.

"Look, it's the only picture covered in glass."

"It seems like you did everything correctly if people still hate you that much after decades have passed."

"But to put glass around it…."

"Well, they had to preserve the painting. I mean, how much effort and fuss were made over it?"

"That's true…"

They moved on to the next portrait, which was of Nunnally. Lelouch's eyes grew dark as he saw the painting.

C2 said nothing and gave him silence to organize his thoughts.

"When she was crowned, when she was married, when she died, everything I watched over… I think of her everyday."

"I'm sure she did the same for you."

"She did well…. My sister did well. She makes me proud."

"She was probably proud of you as well."

"…. I miss her, C2."

She said nothing and only took his hand and squeezed it once.

Taking a deep breath, he murmured, "Nunnally, it's your big brother. I came to say hello here, since I can't visit your grave as it, and my false one, is only accessible if you're royalty. I love you Nunnally, and you make me proud."

When he was done, they went to the next portrait.

"Her son…."

"Were you angry at him? For breaking your order, for escaping your punishment?"

"No. If anything, I'm glad it was him and not someone else. I trust him most with Nunnally besides myself and Sayoko. And he didn't reveal it to anyone else."

"Technically, he was your brother-in-law, wasn't he?"

"Yes…"

"What a handsome son they had…"

They looked up at the 101st Emperor of Britannia, a man with kind, piercing evergreen eyes and light-brown hair. Lelouch said thoughtfully, "I wonder what he thought of his uncle."

"If Nunnally didn't tell him the truth, then he probably thought his mother was crazy for revering his crazy, bloodthirsty, and evil uncle."

"And if Suzaku had revealed his face to his son, he would have thought his father was also crazy."

"If no one told him the truth about his uncle."

"Poor Suzaku. He couldn't even say who he was to his own son and only watched from afar."

"It was for the better. That way, no one but you, me, Nunnally, and Suzaku knows that the Britannian royal family is no longer purely Britannian."

"What scandal that would be."

"And what scandal it was. Do you remember the magazines and TV, all in a frenzy, saying-"

"who is the father of the Empress's child and is he britannian? Poor Nunnally…"

"It all became organized though after her son proved to them multiple times that it didn't matter who his father was that he was strong enough and good enough to be emperor."

"Yes… James did well."

They stared at the painting, until Lelouch spoke up.

"I was surprised when they named him James."

"Why?" But she already knew.

"When I was a child I hated the name Lelouch. It was hard to pronounce for some people and led to mispronouciations often, as it doesn't sound the way it looks. I wanted to change it to-"

"James."

"Yes. The only two who knew about the childhood wish was-"

"Suzaku and Nunnally."

"Of course, eventually, I accepted my name, but-"

"But they remembered."

"Now only you and I know these two secrets of the Britannian monarchy."

"Yes…."

. . .

Lelouch sat at his desk and began grading the tests. There was a knock, and he looked up from the papers and towards the door. In the doorway stood C2. She asked, "Am I late to class, Mr. LaFontaine?"

They smiled at each other and she walked towards his desk. Putting a plastic bag down, she said, "You're quite popular here."

"Popular?"

"Among the… Female students of this school. I came here, and one asked me why, and I replied that I had come to see you, and I swear, every single girl in the school's entrance stared at me. So the girl led me here, and along the way, word spread, and I think the entire female population of this school followed me and is waiting outside of your class."

"Well, we should leave then, shouldn't we?"

"If we can get through the mob outside."

"Oh, they listen surprisingly well."

"Only to you, I heard."

"Well…. I won't deny that."

He stood up and packed his bag. When he opened the door, sure enough, there seemed to be all of the school's girls, along with some female administrators and teachers, crowded in the hall, trying to peek in through the windows. They all backed away slightly when Lelouch opened the door, and no one said a word or made a sound. Then one brave teenager spoke up and asked, "Mr. LaFontaine?"

"Yes, Yuna?"

"Is she… Who is she?"

"Who?"

She pointed at C2, who was standing behind Lelouch. He turned around and adopted a thoughtful look on his face as everyone held their breath for his answer.

"She's my…. She's my…. What do you call it again? Oh right. She's my wife."

"Wife?!" shrieked several girls. Almost immediately screaming, whispering, crying, talking, and all manners of noise erupted. C2 almost started laughing from their reaction. Lelouch reached behind him, and took her hand.

One voice broke through the noise and said, "But no one has ever seen you wear a wedding ring or even seen any signs of being married."

"Ah. You see, my wife and I lived in different parts of the world temporarily until we had enough money to bring her here. She was in France."

"But there weren't any signs! Not even a wedding ring!"

"Oh, that's right here." He replied while digging in his pocket. He slid it on and also waved C2's hand in the air that he was holding to show the two silver bands.

"But…. But-"

"My wife…. Is a curious person. She wanted me to keep it a secret as a surprise."

"Surprise!" said C2 with a smile.

Everyone just gaped, filled with disbelief. Lelouch brought C2 forward and put both of his hands on her two shoulders while pushing her gently out of the classroom. She held both the plastic bag and Lelouch's briefcase in front of her as the sea of students, teachers, and administrators parted. When they were at the doors, Lelouch changed from his indoor shoes to his normal outdoor ones and said, "I'll see you girls Monday morning. Don't forget to do your homework!" and took C2's hand and led her out of the building. When they passed through the school gates, she finally allowed herself to laugh.

"What was that? Keep our marriage a secret? As a surprise? They'll think you married some strange woman!"

"I have though. A witch, to be more exact." If he had said it to anyone else, it would have seemed like an insult, but to C2, it was a pet name. She swatted him and he said, "Come on. Let's go home. We have some private business I'd like to attend to.

"A world history teacher…. Must be interesting when you arrive at the Black Rebellion part. And Emperor Lelouch's short but terrible reign. Hasn't anyone been suspicious?"

"Well, this one student did say one time how similar I and the terrible Emperor looked alike, but then all of the girls in the class started yelling at her, saying that I looked way better than he did."

"You just have the entire female population wrapped around your finger, don't you?"

"All but one." he replied while putting his arm around her waist, "No matter how much time I spend with her, she refuses to bend down."

"Yes, well, she's not planning to anytime soon, so… I suggest you get used to it."

"I will never ever get used to her… I fall in love with her every single time I see her."

"She's a lucky woman."

"I agree."

They walked down the dirt path, going home together for the first time in what had seemed like an eternity.

A/N: So that was part one… Maybe. If people seem to like it, then I'll put a part two. But if not… Then it'll just stay as is. But yeah. Hoped you liked it!

To Fireminer: I'm really curious… But do you like my stories? I'm getting the feeling that you don't. Like… If I were to come clean, it actually kind of got me… Irritated. Because these fanfictions are like my children, and I get this sense that you don't like them very much, and now I'm getting all defensive and confronting you like this, and those of you who are reading this probably think that I'm rude and crazy, and I'm really sorry, but SERIOUSLY! Do you not like them?