As promised, Chapter Three is here for your enjoyment. Please continue to Read and Review! (On a personal note, I'm sick with something awful! I know how you feel, Lelouch!)
Thanks to all who left reviews! I'm glad you guys are enjoying my fanfiction so far! This marks the point in which my chapter lengths even out to a rather steady 3,500-ish word count (and I write smaller, more reasonable author's notes). I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Chapter 3- "Why would this be on my bookshelf?"
Nunnally Lamperouge was bo mbarded with questions from the Student Council after the sudden disappearance of her famous absent-minded older brother. Milly was the first to strike, her questions loud, rude, and extremely tiresome.
"So, Nunnally, is your brother having relationship problems? Is he sneaking out with some gi rl? Does he tell you anything about their troubled relationship?" Milly fired off interrogations one by one into the blind gi rl's face, which she quite literally shied away from. Nunnally had sincerely tried to convince the crazy reporter-girl that her brother was indeed just sick with a very bad illness, but nothing could sway her opinion that Lelouch was having some sort of secret love affair outside of Ashford. Had Nunnally had any shred of an evil heart, she would have raised her voice and lashed out among the crazy gi rls—and Rivalz—to leave her and her sickly older brother alone.
What she actually found extremely peculiar was that Shirley had not bothered her one bit about the whole thing. If she remembered right, Shirley had a big crush on her brother, so wouldn't she naturally be concerned if Milly was spreading rumors of a love interest? All she had done was give her a comforting rub on the shoulder when Milly attacked her verbally from time to time, and told Nunnally that she believed her.
Now that it occurred to her, Suzaku was scheduled to return home in just a couple of weeks, wasn't he? A huge smile adorned her face at the discovery, and she made it a promise to herself that she would tell Lelouch this when she returned home from school that day. Maybe that would make him feel a bit better.
So Nunnally decided to excuse herself early from the Student Council, which she had often come to recently not only in her brother's place but also as the 'unofficial member', as declared by Rivalz. The Council aside from Shirley once again did not believe that she was merely leaving early to care for her sick brother as best she could, but Nunnally brushed them off. Sometimes, it took a lot to restrain herself from getting angry at the lot of them. Thankfully, Shirley had volunteered to wheel her home that day, which meant that she would not have to go through some sort of invigorating evaluation on her peaceful stroll home from school.
"Nunnally? May I come in and visit Lulu for a bit? I want to check up on him again." Nunnally readily agreed and held Shirley's hand the rest of the way. Shirley had also come to comfort her brother earlier in the week; she must have wanted to see if he'd gotten any better, which, unfortunately, he hadn't. The strength it took him to even keep down water sucked all the energy out of Lelouch rather quickly. He was a particularly weak person to begin with, so big health complications such as these took a big toll on him, while they could take up to a month of healing in his case.
When their short relaxing walk had come to an end at the double-doorway to the Lamperouge suite, Shirley had wheeled Nunnally into the foyer and taken care of her, despite Sayoko's insistence. After having gone through the entrance to their home, Sayoko had implicated that Lelouch was still in bed after a particularly spike that afternoon. Both Shirley and Nunnally had unmistakable nervousness in their faces, which made Sayoko laugh a bit, earning the maid a couple of angry and confused looks. She waved the two off and continued cleaning in another room, leaving the two Ashford gi rls to find Lelouch in his bedroom.
The sliding door to Lelouch's room slid open noisily as the two gi rls tried desperately to get in quietly. "Onii-sama?" Nunnally almost whispered, and what the two received was the sound of bed sheets shifting and Lelouch's croaky response.
"Nunnally? What crazy person's come with you this time?" He barely pulled out of his vocal cords, and Shirley suddenly felt a bit uncomfortable with disturbing Lelouch when he was so sickly. His eyes had sunken into his face, and it seemed as if he hadn't eaten a decent meal in weeks, which was mostly true. He certainly visibly looked extremely infected with something sucking the life out of him, because he had definitely not looked like this when Shirley had checked up on him earlier in the week. It was almost as if something was constantly sucking him dry, sucking out every shred of energy he managed to produce.
"It's just Shirley, Onii-sama. She seems to be the only sane one on the whole Council at the moment." And along with Nunnally's giggle and Lelouch's weak chuckle, all Shirley could do was smile.
"Nunnally? Do you think I could speak to your brother for a bit? Alone?" Shirley almost pleaded. Nunnally nodded after a concerned look whipped over her face for just a moment of uncertainty. Shirley helped the younger Lamperouge through the door and to Sayoko, where she was escorted into some other room for a time.
The silence between them was broken by Lelouch's broken voice. "Yes?" He asked, his pained-looking eyes staring up into Shirley's with a look almost pitiful at a glance, but this was Lelouch here; he tried very hard not to look pitiful.
"Have you gotten any better at all, Lelouch?" Shirley barely spoke, a fake smile plastered on her face. Lelouch reached for a bottle of water on his bedside table, and Shirley noticed just how weak he was by how much his arm was shaking, just by fighting gravity. He took a tiny sip from the bottle, something she supposed was the only thing he could afford without puking it back up, and he just looked at her without giving her an answer for the longest time.
"Not quite. I'll live, though." Shirley wished that she could believe him completely. The air began to feel uncomfortable, and Shirley desperately tried to look somewhere other than Lelouch's terrible eyes. Somehow, in doing so, she noticed a bit of paper behind Lelouch's books on a nearby bookshelf. "Lulu? Do you have something hidden behind those books?" She asked naturally, and Lelouch gave her an exaggerated look of confusion.
"No… why? Is there something back there?" He asked inno cently, and though Shirley was a bit suspicious, she decided to leave it alone.
She shook her head vigorously. "It's nothing. I should leave you to your sister now then, okay?" He nodded, before Shirley jumped out of the room, directed Nunnally back to her brother and left the Lamperouge household.
Things were looking bleak for her crush indeed.
Meanwhile, in Lelouch's room, Nunnally and Lelouch were speaking up a storm of stories. More Nunnally's voice than his, but the stories were animated enough to get a laugh or two out of the tired former prince.
"Hey, Lelouch? I just realized something earlier today! Suzaku's supposed to be home soon!" Nunnally said with a big smile, and Lelouch's eyes widened just a bit.
"Really? How many weeks has it been?" He asked.
"Six weeks, he'll be here in two more!" Nunnally could barely hold in the happiness she felt bubbling in her throat and let out a stifled giggle. Lelouch could barely retain the information—it'd been six weeks? Though they seemed to have gone by slowly at the time, it appeared that time was simply on his side that night, and he gave his sister a genuine smile he hadn't released in what felt like ages.
"I'm very glad." He said, and let himself fall back into the endless stack of pillows holding up his head. Nunnally giggled once more.
"Good night, Onii-sama." She said, and called for Sayoko to assist her in reaching the sitting room. Nunnally received a mumble in response, and she took that as a legitimate 'Good night, Nunnally.'
Lelouch hobbled over to his bed from the bathroom. Granted it was a normal bathroom break, not anything like the previous trips he would have gotten normally around this time. The boy paused in front of the bookshelf, thinking about it a bit more. Perhaps the sickness was slowing down? Lelouch smiled briefly before catching the same glint Shirley had prompted him to a few days ago. His eyebrow shot up in exaggeration as he reached through his books to find that it was a receipt for some medical procedure.
'Maybe this is Suzaku's…' Lelouch wondered, not having seen the supposed medicine prescribed ever before in his home. "Sayoko?" Lelouch yelled through the house, and when the maid's swift feet came to a halt in the hallway, she seemed to be biting in laughter, which caused Lelouch's eyebrow to jolt upwards once again. He quickly ignored it and got to his point. "Sayoko, what is this?"
"Master Lelouch, that's a doctor's note on a special medicine." She said with laughter coming through her voice. Lelouch was all the more confused.
"Yes, I already noticed that, do you know what kind of medicine it would be?" Sayoko stifled a laugh once more that came out as some sort of an awkward squeak before she spoke up again, her face flustered.
"It's a procedure for women, Lelouch. To get them pregnant when their own bodies can not conceive." Lelouch was getting a bit angry at this point.
"Why would this be on my bookshelf?" He asked, trying to keep his voice down from the irritation.
"Well, I suppose… it also works on… boys?" Sayoko said, finally allowing her laughter to come in full force as she bustled out of her master's room.
Lelouch, well, stood there for a while. He stared into that piece of paper like it was some sort of evil enigma out to get him. It took him quite a while to really think about what Sayoko had said.
"Wait…. I'm pregnant?" He squeaked out, so incredibly embarrassed and confused and most of all, angry. His frightened expression then turned to one of complete wrath as it dawned on him just who would have done this.
"Suzaku!" Lelouch growled, and locked his door so as to be alone while he had a temper tantrum.
After having initially let out his fuming emotions and helped Sayoko clean up his now destroyed room while muttering apologies, Lelouch actually felt rather… contented. It was a bit relieving to finally know what was wrong and track likely sickness times, granted he was completely confused as to how this medicine could conceivably work and hadn't let the realization sink into his mind. Though he had yet to tell Nunnally the news, she seemed to have been already enlightened on the matter, as whenever Sayoko wheeled her past his room, the both of them now stifled giggles bubbling up in their throats.
Lelouch rolled his eyes—'I suppose it's just a woman thing,' he mused—as he groaned after having been attacked in the ears by the high pitched laughter now seeping into his doorway every time his room was so much as seen.
For some reason, Lelouch was rather adamant to himself about not alarming Suzaku to his awareness. Even though it may have seemed as if he was holding some sort of grudge, it was not anger that prevented him from dialing his lover's number, but a sort of confusion that made his stomach twist up in an emotion completely foreign to him. Perhaps it was embarrassment, pride, or simply the gi rl side of him—that would soon beg for release later on in this synthesized pregnancy—that desperately wanted it to be a disclosure for his lover's homecoming.
Now that it was just about ninety-nine point nine percent certain that the Britannian boy was pregnant, the flustered Lelouch had also adamantly gone against a visit to the doctor. Sayoko insisted sternly, like a mother ("Lelouch, you have to get it checked out. What if something were to be wrong?"), and Nunnally begged weakly, like a best friend ("Oh, please, Onii-sama! Don't you want to know how far along you are?"). Lelouch, faced with the powers of two women seemingly towering over him with their womanly manipulation, had stood his ground. The women surrounding him were both visibly displeased, but Lelouch simply refused to go to a doctor until it was necessary, to at least save himself some dignity.
"We'll have to get you clothes for your later trimesters! Oh, and we'll have to plan a shower, and buy you baby things, and do all of those fun little things future mothers get to do!" Lelouch ha ted disappointing his sister, so he only chuckled and nodded at the activities he most certainly was not excited for.
"You have told Suzaku, haven't you?" Sayoko added, her expression of excitement wavering only slightly when Lelouch hesitated.
"I don't know, I kind of want it to be a homecoming discussion, really." He said quietly, and though it was partially true, he felt his gut twisting yet again, but in a much different way from before. This time it felt sad, uncomfortable, and extremely hungry. "Do you think I could have something to eat, Sayoko-san? I think it's okay to eat now, it isn't the afternoon yet." He asked with a smile.
Sayoko busied herself with pushing Nunnally out of the room and rushing to make Lelouch the biggest and fullest meal they could conjure up with minimal preparation time, due to the fact that they were on a tight, unconfirmed schedule. Lelouch's eyes fluttered around his brightly lit room half-lidded, as he was extremely exhausted already by all of this restless news.
In came the parade, loaded with sandwiches, milk, fruits, and many other assorted things Lelouch barely cared to recognize. His sister rode in with the huge tray resting on her lap, and with the help of Sayoko, she set it down beside him in his bed. Lelouch sat up and grabbed for a sandwich- whatever kind, it did not matter. His stomach was yearning so much for that food it was painful. Even though he truly wanted to rip apart those sandwiches with his teeth and swallow the apples whole, he politely took as much time as he could bear to chew and swallow.
The apparent spawn inside of him however greatly disapproved, because a twinge in his stomach signaled that he simply could not eat all that he wanted to. He alerted Sayoko to the feeling calmly, and she took Nunnally out of his room before checking back on him again. "Do you think you will be able to return to school any time school, Lelouch-sama?" She asked quietly.
"I think the sickness is wearing down finally, so maybe for a bit afterward I will. I'm sorry…" Lelouch said softly, his eyes flicking downwards as he twisted his bed sheets in his hands. "I don't want to be such a burden on the two of you…" He continued, and Sayoko's eyes widened a bit before she threw her head back in laughter.
"I think the gi rl in you is coming out already, Lelouch-sama." She said, covering her mouth as she giggled at his random change of heart. Lelouch was a bit confused, but let it slide as she said her goodbyes and left him to his room, to think, as he usually had in this entire time home from school.
"One and a half more weeks left, Suzaku," Lelouch whispered, "I'll be seeing you soon."
"Onii-sama, do you think any of our friends would have any supplies to offer?"
"Lelouch-sama, you should talk to Suzaku before he comes home."
"When can we know what the gender is, Onii-sama?"
"Do you have any idea how to raise a child, Lelouch-sama?"
"Can we start thinking of names yet?"
"Please?"
"Can we?"
"How?"
"When?"
"Lelouch?" Sayoko's worried glance snapped Lelouch back into reality, and he swiftly wiped the extremely annoyed look off his face. Rubbing at his forehead, he sighed.
"Can you two leave me alone? I have a lot to think about right now." When in his mind he wanted to just go to sleep and escape it all, Lelouch was sick of hearing his sister's pleads and his housekeeper's insistence. His voice came off a bit harsher than he intended, but Sayoko nodded with understanding, and Nunnally was wheeled off Lelouch's premises before he could snap.
"Suzaku, you picked the best and worst time to go away." He groaned and rolled over in his bed. It may have been beneficial to the Japanese to hide away from him as he settled into this whole 'pregnancy thing', but it was extremely rude of him to just leave him to figure it out. Lelouch laughed a bit. "I bet you forgot by now, hmm?" He said to himself, directing it at Suzaku, wherever he may have been.
"Goodnight." He once again, said to no one, but he unfortunately didn't quite get to sleep as easily as he had intended. A terrible aversion to sleep had settled into his mind as he wondered about how this procedure was working inside of him, so he decided to solve the problem by grabbing the doctor's note and turning on his room's computer for a quick search.
When he entered the word he assumed stood for the medicine he'd received into a search engine, his browser came up with an astounding amount of articles and newsreels discussing the process. Lelouch tried to find some sort of official site for his subject and went to the Frequently Asked Questions section of the webpage.
"What has been done to make this possible?" Lelouch muttered the sentence out loud as he read it off the page.
'The medication given to the future baby's host includes a lab-prepared fertilized ovule, which has had its DNA previously altered to include the haploid cell of each parent combined into a normal, functioning zygote. This medicine has been designed to initially aid women without functioning reproductive systems in the ability to become pregnant, but this procedure has also been tested to have successfully worked with homosexual partners.
'The medicine then takes the process a step further and forms its own working womb complete with a placenta, in which the zygote will mature internally as a normally created zygote would. With this process a baby can be conceived without the usually necessary female reproductive organs. The matured baby is removed through a protocol caesarean section.
'Homosexual partners do have to take this process into a more detailed method, as the scientists preparing the partners' zygote will have to smooth out the inaccurate X and Y chromosome factor, but for a larger price this can be done efficiently with a specialized restriction enzyme procedure.
'Some risks to this process have been reported and seen in experiments, but complications have been corrected and there is a small chance of problems occurring. If you are concerned that your procedure has gone wrong, refer to Question Six.'
"What the hell?" Lelouch muttered, his face obscured into a terribly confused, overwhelmed mess. He read through the article at least three times before falling back into his chair, massaging his neck through the growing headache appearing from the confusion.
"Who would have thought Britannia could go so far as to warp nature's reproduction processes? Now we really are acting like Gods." He murmured before falling into his bed with a 'thump'.
"Now, it's goodnight, I guess." He spoke to the ceiling with a sigh brushing past his lips. "You'd better watch yourself, Suzaku." He growled, before drifting off into a peaceful slumber.
I know, that was a rather unoriginal way to explain how my process works, but it does its job, right? Please leave reviews for me, they make me happy! Tell me if you loved it, or ha ted it, or somewhere-in-between-ed it! Plus, if you have questions or concerns about my story, please PM me!
Code Geass and all of its attributes (c) Sunrise/CLAMP/Bandai Entertainment/Goro Taniguchi.
