Bonus chapter time! Hope you enjoy the lack of plot substance. I realized not long ago that I completely skipped over Lelouch's birthday in my initial writing of this fanfiction, so I've written a Bonus chapter for that very purpose! Thanks for reading and reviewing as always, and I hope you enjoy this installment!
Bonus Chapter- The Secret Birthday Present
"Guess what?" Suzaku came skipping into Lelouch's room as he sang in greeting late on a Saturday morning. Lelouch groaned in response from beneath the swaddling blankets thrown about and disheveled by strange sleeping patterns. Suzaku knew that whenever Lelouch slept in late, he thrashed about in his sleep past eight o' clock in the morning. Suzaku tended to wake himself before such times on weekends.
"It's nearly eleven o' clock! You have to wake up anyway." Suzaku announced brightly as he pulled the many layers of sheets away from the body beneath them. He was met instantly with a sleepy glare through amethyst eyes.
"It's the weekend. I can wake up whenever I want." Lelouch countered in a whining tone as he yanked the covers back over his face and turned on his side to face away from Suzaku. He heard a muffled sigh from the outside world that undeniably came from his lover's lips.
"Do you know what day it is?" Lelouch listened as Suzaku took a new approach. "Today is December first." Suzaku answered himself.
"What of it?" Lelouch mumbled as he peeked from beneath the comforter, pulling his barrier down to just over his nose.
"The last I remembered, your birthday was in five days." Suzaku now focused into Lelouch's exposed eyes.
"What of it?" Lelouch repeated, encouraging his Japanese boy to respond by his monotone question.
"It's almost your birthday, that's what's of it. So today I'm taking you out somewhere."
"Out?" Lelouch sat up in his bed with his eyebrow raised. "For what?" Suzaku laughed and cupped Lelouch's cheek with one hand, leaning in close to his face to watch him blush.
"For your birthday! And you say I'm the idiot." Suzaku sighed in fake exasperation. Lelouch almost growled and shook his head violently, somewhat making Suzaku remove his hand from his face.
"No, I meant what kind of somewhere is somewhere?" Lelouch asked softly. Suzaku's hand slid its way back into place at the nape of his neck, where it played with a strand of his unkempt hair.
"Somewhere." Suzaku sung quietly. Lelouch laughed and smiled into a deep kiss that did not last long enough. When they broke away, Lelouch frowned a bit.
"Can't we stay in?" He almost pleaded with his eyes alone. Suzaku shook his head.
"You're going to be stuck in this house for a long while in a very short amount of time. Don't you want to get out a few more times before you're stuck in here?" Suzaku tried to negotiate.
"I don't like to go out anyway." Lelouch tried to keep a straight face for his argument, but couldn't manage it every time Suzaku decided to do something to throw him off. He hadn't the willpower to stop the giggles from bubbling up his throat as Suzaku's lips brushed over his neck. "That tickles, stop it." He slurred, not sounding quite as commanding as he had intended.
"Didn't you ever learn not to tell your enemies where your ticklish spots are?" Lelouch was caught off guard when he remembered having fights with Nunnally, and thus was sent spiraling into the unbearable fits he had to reduce himself to, to avoid laughing too hard. He bit his lip as Suzaku crept up his jaw line. He squeezed his eyes shut and released a high pitched whine when he reached his ear. "Stop it!" He tried to command as he swatted at Suzaku in an attempt to expel him. Suzaku obeyed and laughed at the victory he had achieved through Lelouch's uncomfortable expression.
"Onii-sama?" Nunnally whispered as she knocked on her brother's door. She almost gasped when she heard a suppressed squeal through the thick door. "What on Earth?" She whispered to herself, but when she reached for the button to open the door, she heard the muffled tone of her brother nearly yell.
She opened the door immediately. "Onii-sama?" She asked a bit urgently. She was surprised to receive two answers.
"Nunnally?" Both Suzaku and Lelouch responded. She heard a ruffle of bed sheets before another response.
"Ah, Nunnally, sorry I slept in so late." She heard her brother speak to her, but she felt his tone was a bit flustered.
"What sorts of things are you doing to my Onii-sama in here?" Nunnally scolded Suzaku. She heard a weak cough showing his discomfort. "I guess you two could get away with a lot of things with only me in the house." Nunnally continued. She giggled and found delight in the awkward noises Lelouch produced upon the accusation.
"No, Nunnally, I promise!" Lelouch sputtered, not quite forming the coherent sentence he envisioned in his mind.
"I'll leave you alone then!" She chirped before waving good bye and closing the door.
Lelouch groaned and fell back against his bed as soon as he heard the door slide shut. He tried to block the noise that he determined was Sayoko singing as she flitted about the house. "Why do I have to live with morning people?" He complained as he tried to rub the sleep from his eyes.
"It's hardly considered morning anymore. You're just stubborn." Suzaku noted with a finger poised upward in thought.
"Leave me alone." Lelouch countered weakly.
"Stubborn!" Suzaku sang back. Lelouch forfeited as he sighed and allowed a neutral expression to calm into his features.
A comfortable silence took hold of the room for a few moments. "So where are we going?" Lelouch asked of Suzaku once more.
"I don't want to spoil the surprise, really. You'll have to find out yourself." Suzaku taunted his lover, who glared at him in malice. What he'd said was true. He had a special location in mind.
"Lead me away, then." Lelouch held out his arms and closed his eyes, hoping for help up.
"Don't you have to get ready first?" Suzaku tilted his head to the side.
"That wasn't completely literal, Suzaku."
"Oh, right, sorry."
Lelouch sighed and pulled himself back to an upright position to lean on Suzaku's shoulder. "Give me a half hour." He breathed.
"For what?" Suzaku was confused.
"To get ready!" Lelouch glared at Suzaku, who laughed sheepishly and asked for forgiveness with his smile. As always, Lelouch could not refuse that face an apology, which he mumbled almost incoherently.
"I'll leave you alone now. Otherwise it will take you twice as long to get ready." Suzaku earned himself another glare from the other. "I am distracting." He admitted with a shrug. Lelouch shoved him over like a punching bag- Suzaku's body managed to snap back into its previous posture somehow.
Upon returning close to Lelouch, Suzaku snuck in a quick peck to his cheek before jumping from his seat and waving him off as he went out of Lelouch's room and into the kitchen to chat with Nunnally. Even such an inno cent gesture as that was enough to give Lelouch a significant blush upon his cheeks.
He sat in a daze for a bit before snapping himself out of it. Lelouch kept himself occupied with guessing where Suzaku was going to take him as he showered and dressed for such outing. Apparently, it was something good, as Suzaku seemed a bit proud of himself every time the topic was brought up.
"Come on, we'll be late!" Suzaku ushered everyone out of the house. This gave Lelouch another clue as to where they were going. Apparently there was some sort of time limit. The data was duly noted in Lelouch's head as he was rushed out the door and into a car to go who knows where.
"Suzaku, I hardly think it's necessary for me to cover my eyes." Lelouch complained, feeling like an idiot as he held his hands up to cover his vision.
"It adds to the suspense!" Nunnally said to Lelouch with a giggle, convincing him instantly to keep up the game and put his hands back firmly over his face. Suzaku nodded, even though no one in the car could see the action except maybe Sayoko.
"We're here!" Suzaku said excitedly, ushering Lelouch out of the car. "Oh, and you can stop covering your eyes now." Lelouch did as such and found himself in front of a familiar building.
"Why are we at a museum? That doesn't sound like the sort of place you would want to go to." Lelouch asked of Suzaku, who smiled in a way that let him know he wasn't going to spill the answer, so he sighed and followed him inside. "Where are Nunnally and Sayoko going?"
"They went to the park just down the road. Wouldn't it be sort of cruel to bring Nunnally to a museum? She'd get so bored." Lelouch shrugged.
"We've been here before. I just tell her what interesting things are behind the glass." Lelouch smiled at the memory of describing in excited detail what had been held behind barriers and glass to Nunnally, who would smile at the imagery.
"Sometimes I'm jealous that you have a sister. She's quite lucky to have you, Lulu." Suzaku laughed at Lelouch's expression after having been called by his nickname. Before, when he'd first tried using it around him, Suzaku would be verbally attacked. He supposed Lelouch had grown more accustomed to it, as he had with Shirley, and didn't feel the need to yell when he said it anymore. Unfortunately, the expression melted as Lelouch found an inner peace at the museum's quiet atmosphere and unconsciously wrapped his hand around Suzaku's. Both smiled.
They spent only a few moments at each interesting thing. Lelouch, being curious, always wanted to stay longer than Suzaku did, and tended to be dragged away most of the time. Lelouch supposed it had something to do with this trip's main destination.
Both boys were walking hand in hand without a main focus on any artifact when Lelouch caught a sign from the corner of his eye. "A new exhibit for Knightmare Frames?" He noted the arrow pointing down the hall and followed it with his eyes to another sign, instructing them to turn left. "Does this have to do with what you've been waiting for all day?" He asked, but Suzaku did not answer his question. Only smiled, which was odd.
"Shall we go in?" Suzaku asked, an arm extended to lead the way down the hall. Lelouch did not answer verbally and instead started walking to the exhibit's room. Suzaku chuckled under his breath and followed.
"But the sign says it isn't open yet." Lelouch pointed at the sign saying that the exhibit was scheduled for opening a few days after his birthday. Suzaku said nothing, but smiled as he pulled Lelouch through the doorway.
The room was more like a warehouse than anything. Once Lelouch walked through the doorway, he looked up and around him to find that the ceiling must have been four stories up. Some of it was still in construction, but it seemed as if walkways were to encircle the exhibit from the other floor levels of the museum.
From the ceiling hung some of the first Knightmare Frame units. They hardly fit into the same category as the ones commonly pictured, as they appeared to just be fighter planes. Suzaku noted that looking up into the ceiling at just the right angle almost made it look as if they were going to land right on his head, which convinced him not to look too long.
Once they rounded the end of the hallways leading into the exhibit, they both began to recognize some of the Frames they'd seen before. Panels with information on the Knightmare Frame's history were nailed into the wall behind each roped off Knightmare's exhibit.
Suzaku pointed at one of the earlier s nearby. "I had to use one of those for work once. They're very outdated, so there isn't much air circulation and it gets hot in there fast." He laughed airily, but he was the only one finding humor in the subject.
"They're so dangerous." Lelouch mumbled, displeased. Suzaku squeezed his hand a little, but didn't say anything back. The two moved along the wall for a little while before Lelouch was interested in a strangely-placed thick column in the middle of the room. He wasn't sure whether it was for decoration or not, but confirmed that it was another part of the exhibit at the sight of an open door on the opposite side. "Can we go in there?" He pointed, and Suzaku nodded. A plaque above the doorway read 'The Early History of Knightmare Frame Manufacturing'. Lelouch paid no mind to it as he passed through the threshold.
Inside the secret room there lay hundreds of instruments and inscriptions, but what caught his attention was the huge Knightmare Frame in the middle of the room, glistening from the lights concentrated on it alone. He knew this one.
Lelouch hadn't realized he'd been walking forward until he almost hit the pedestal dedicated for the Frame. His suspicions were confirmed. "Suzaku, why is the Ganymede here?" He asked quietly, not quite sure what he was thinking.
"The Ashfords donated all of their past equipment to the museum not too long ago. They figured they didn't need it anymore." Lelouch wasn't quite listening to him as he traced the engraved 'M' of his mother's name carved into the plaque as its official pilot.
"And they didn't feel the need to ask me?" He asked of Suzaku, who had no answer. "I suppose it does more good in a museum than it does in Ashford's garage. What are we going to use for Milly's crazy festivals now?"
Suzaku shrugged. "I think they have an MR-1 in storage. Milly just liked having you pilot the Ganymede for the sake of reminiscence, I suppose." Lelouch started to laugh, but it died into a simple smile.
"Or she just likes putting me in interesting situations." Lelouch opted, which Suzaku agreed to. "I remember when Nunnally and I were outside the Aries Palace and we could see just the tip of the Ganymede from over the fence as she was sparring with Jeremiah." He smiled up at the Knightmare Frame.
"And I remember when she took on some of the other consorts when they insulted us in the Knightmare itself. She made a big mess of the grounds and only managed to make more people angry with her, but she didn't mind." Lelouch shook his head. "I would bet she did it on purpose, just to bother them all in the first place." He laughed. "So was this my birthday present?"
"Part of it." Suzaku strode over beside Lelouch. "I wanted to give you this, too." He reached into his pocket and dug around for something seemingly small. Suzaku expressed relief as he found his present. He took Lelouch's hand and delicately dropped a necklace's chain into Lelouch's palm, the Ganymede's key strung to the thin silver matching the key's trimmings.
"How did you get this?" Lelouch asked quietly as he studied the long-lost key now safe in his hand.
"Milly asked me if you'd want it, so it's a gift from her and me." Suzaku smiled, and when Lelouch looked back up, the smile spread to his own lips.
"Thank you, Suzaku." Lelouch wrapped his arms around Suzaku's neck in a secure hug, the key wound through his fingers tightly. Though Suzaku wasn't quite expecting it, he hugged back equally strong.
The two of them made their way out of the museum locked together as if the world was going to try to tear them away. They met up with Nunnally and Sayoko, and just as soon the sun set on December first, awaiting December second.
"Do you want to do anything else on your last big day out?" Suzaku asked Lelouch as the whole gang walked home in the amber sunset's glow.
"Definitely not." Lelouch grumbled. "I want to spend it with you." He nearly whispered, looking away as he felt Suzaku's smile heating up the air in his ten foot radius. Or maybe that was just the blush on his own cheeks as Suzaku laughed and kissed him.
Shorter bonus chapter with no relevance to my story! I just wanted to write something without angst. Well, the backstory here is a bit darker, but I tried to skirt over that.
And just in case it's confusing, I'll note that in this fanfiction's universe, the only difference is that Lelouch is not Zero and has not met C.C./gained a geass/created the Black Knights, though the events related to these topics did exist. Basically someone else is Zero instead of Lelouch. An example is in a later chapter I hint that Euphemia has died, but Lelouch has not killed her since he is not Zero. All of Lelouch's background is still retained. I'm sorry if this comes off as confusing, feel free to ask me if you have more questions via PM! (sorry if I just gave you a spoiler by the way, but I'm pretty sure I warned to that in the first chapter...)
Code Geass and all of its attributes (c) Sunrise/CLAMP/Bandai Entertainment/Goro Taniguchi.
