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Time

Epilogue I

4/14/2012 4:08 PM

Lelouch reached up and closed the hatchback on the little rental car. His stuff in the back, he wasn't sure how he was going to get it all to his new apartment in London, but there had to be some way. The rest of his stuff was—staying.

"Are you sure all this stuff is for us?" The woman asked from the porch as she came out of the house. She had a bright smile on her face as she came down the worn wooden steps. "It's really nice of you to pretty much let us have the house almost completely furnished."

A polite smile was hard coming to his lips, but Lelouch gave himself credit because it came after a hard moment of forcing. "I won't need any of those things."

"It really is such a nice house." The man coming around the house said.

Charlie, tongue out and her head held high trotted around him, and through the gate to Lelouch. She plopped down on her butt next to Lelouch's shoes, leaning against his legs and looking up for attention.

He reached down and scratched down her neck, starting right between her ears and going down. "Thank you," Lelouch said and he watched the dog lean into the affection. It was easier now that she wasn't whining. The first few days after—after he was gone had been the worst. She would run back to the bedroom almost on instinct it seems and then—of course, she wouldn't find him. Lelouch couldn't blame her, he wished that he could forget long enough to come through the bedroom door and expect anything but an empty bed.

It had been the whining though. The low long whining that would cloy at Lelouch's throat, tighten his chest to the point of pain. Her crying just made it harder to not start crying himself. It wasn't exactly easy to hold himself together but it was easier when he didn'' have someone else next to him missing –him—just as much as Lelouch was.

Going down to one knee, Lelouch took the leash out of his coat pocket and hooked the latch onto Charley's collar.

"She's a good dog," the man said as he came to his wife, hooking an arm around her shoulder.

Lelouch looked away as the painful thought of the way that he used to possessively curl an arm around Lelouch's shoulder or at his waist. Fights had broken out because of it, especially when it would happen in front of others and even worse in some sort of public place. Now, Lelouch would have begged for all that embarrassing couple stuff he'd tried to hide before.

Instead he started to run his hand through Charley's fur again. "Yeah, she'd a really good dog."

"How old is she?" The man asked.

Lelouch stood, having to think for a moment to come up with the answer. "Almost ten."

"Wow, she's doing pretty well for that old of a dog."

Lelouch said as he pulled on another conservative, polite smile. "I hope she stays this young for quite a while longer." If she didn't it would all be gone then, everything that was ever his would be gone and Lelouch would for once in his life be truly alone.

"Well, I have to be going," Lelouch said as he turned to the car, opening the back door. Reluctant, it took a bit of coaxing to get Charley into the kennel in back seat. Granted there wasn't much room for her to sit, but it was better than nothing.

"Thank you so much," the woman said as Lelouch started around the car. "This house is so beautiful, we love it, and I promise we'll take care of it."

Lelouch stopped as he opened the door, "Thank you," He said in a quiet tone. "My husband put a lot of work into this house."

The woman whispered to her own husband, "He has a husband?"

"You're married?" The man asked out loud.

"I was," Lelouch smiled a bit sad. "He died about two weeks ago." The same time the house had gone up on the market.

Not willing to divulge any more information Lelouch stepped into the car, and started the engine. The coupled waved at him from the front gate. Lelouch gave a single wave of his own hand before pulling out onto the highway.

Once he had pulled on to the interstate, Lelouch took out his cell phone. Upon dialing the airport information number, Lelouch moved the phone to his ear. A recording chimed in and Lelouch listened to his options before speaking,

"Speak to a representative, please."

"Hello, my name is Marie. How may I help you?" a woman's sweet voice came through.

"This is Lelouch Lamprouge and I need to check on a shipment that will be traveling with me this afternoon." He said into the phone as he pulled out a pair of sunglasses, holding the phone with his shoulder he slid the glasses on.

"Alright, do you mean your flight to Tokyo, Japan at five thirty, this afternoon?" The woman asked, Lelouch could faintly hear the click of the keyboard in the background.

"Yes."

"Alright, well it looks like the shipment has just arrived this morning. Give me just a moment and I can call down to the shipment center to have someone go and check on the condition if you would like."

"Please," Lelouch said as he heard Charley rustling around in her kennel in the back.

"One moment please,"

It was a moment again before the woman came on again. "Alright, I have gotten a hold of someone and they are on their way right now to check on you shipment." The woman paused for a moment. "There is no damage reported-on the—oh, I mean on the casket. It looks like some of the crate shipping has been scuffed, but the transfer to the flight will be coming in just about three hours. They do believe that it will get all the way to Tokyo without damage to the casket.

Lelouch thought about it for another moment before answering. "Is there any way to have the crate shipping replaced before transfer?"

"Let me see," there was a pause on the line. "If I ask it to be done now it can be replaced for an additional fee—"

"Then have it replaced." Lelouch didn't mean to interrupt, but he still had a few more hours of driving and he didn't want to get to the airport and find out there was damage.

"Alright, sir, I will have them get started right away."

"Thank you," Lelouch said.

"And sir," the woman almost sound a bit nervous. "I'm—I'm sorry for your loss. I'll make sure your shipment is well taken care of"

Lelouch had to shove the emotions rising again away as he answered in a quiet tone, "Thank you," He closed the phone and looked straight ahead before anything else could beat away at his heart even further.

He didn't speak Japanese. He'd had lived with someone who had on many times used that fact against him. Muttering off something that Lelouch caught, but he had no idea what was said. When he was small he'd tried to learn, but instead it had been Suzaku that had learned Britannian.

Now was when it was starting to come back to haunt him. He'd somehow managed his way to the burial sight at the old Kururugi Shrine. The place had become a relic of the past and Lelouch was grateful that they had believed his feigned documentation of it being the last descendant of the Kururugi family that he was buried on the grounds. It was true, but Lelouch was mostly glad that Suzaku had bothered to keep the title and ownership of the shrine he had inherited from his father.

It wasn't until he'd gotten back to the airport that Lelouch was running into real problems.

"This flight isn't for three hours!" Lelouch said again.

"Yes," the smiley woman in front of him said, giving a slight bow as she did.

"No," Lelouch said. "You see I had a flight that was boarding in an hour, not three."

The woman looked confused before that big smile was right back on her face. "Would you like to upgrade your flight to first class?" She looked hopeful, a very thick accent to accompany.

"No," said Lelouch, his face sinking into his hands. His palms slapped on to the counter top, over his ticket and he took hold of it "Never mind, I'll just wait around since I've already gone through customs and everything."

He pushed the cart over to the nearest row of waiting chairs before he sat down. He leaned down and unlatched Charley's kennel. She came out immediately, licking Lelouch's hands and tail wagging before she sat down next to Lelouch's feet as he fitted the collar and leash back onto her neck.

"Nice mutt,"

Lelouch looked up to see a youth, probably in his late teens sitting across from him.

He looked back down at his dog, "She's a husky mix." Not a mutt.

"Whatever." The youth said, before leaning forward. "I heard you over there; you got kicked to the next flight to London just like I did." The teen had a kind of snide smirk on his face.

Looking up Lelouch caught an image of a boy he knew very well, a boy who had worn that same kind of smirk for most of his life, at least until his friends started to die… "Right," Lelouch said.

He reached into his coat pocket, bringing out that silver pocket watch. When he clicked the top the time was display on a vintage and pristine white analogue clock face. Then he clicked the top again and the analogue clock rolled back behind so that Lelouch could see the only time that really mattered to him. 17 years 346 days and 6 hours displayed on the screen. A race for how long Suzaku had given him to come back to him.

Lelouch glanced back up at the arrogant boy sitting across from him. The sigil branded across Lelouch's forehead and hidden under his bangs burned at even the idea. There was no rule saying he couldn't see Suzaku before his time was up. Flicking the clock closed Lelouch shoved it back into his pocket.

Leaning forward he gave his own characteristic smirk. "How would you like the power to change lives?" he asked.

The teen sat up a little straight, thinking about it, before answering. "Go on."

Lelouch held out his hand, "May I interest you in a contract?"

The boy looked skeptical. "For what in exchange?"

"Power," Lelouch gave a shrug. "At the end you grant me one wish."

"One wish and in exchange you'll give me power…?" The boy said a bit skeptic. "What kind of power?"

Without blinking, Lelouch went on. "I don't know, it all depends on you."

The boy still looked skeptic but he was eyeing that hand that Lelouch still held out to him. Lelouch just looked back with that smile, locking his eyes onto the boy.

"Al—alright," That boy said and took hold of Lelouch's hand.

This is the first part of the epilogue, There is a second part but after that it's the end. It's kind of a relief actually since I've got several other projects up and running and as soon as this is over I can focus on that stuff more.

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