Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass.

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Let's be together…

No, it's too soon for that. Not yet, not right now… You have to keep your promise…

My… promise?

You promised to have a good life, but you've never fought for it.

Ahh, I'm sorry. But it's over, we can-

No, it's not… I love you, but I don't want you here now… Onii-sama.

Lelouch's eyes fluttered open and the first thing he saw was an unfamiliar white ceiling, and the first thought that crossed his mind was 'I'm still alive…?'

"Lelouch? Oh gosh, Lelouch, you're awake!"

Glancing sideways he saw someone rush over in the dimmed room, and couldn't quite make out who it was until said person leaned over him with long strand of orange hair falling softly onto his face.

"Sh… Shirley…" he whispered weakly and grunted. It hurt so much for such a small feat.

"Shh," she quickly reached out a finger to place onto his lips. "The doctor said you shouldn't do any physical activity at all for another three days," she spoke quietly.

Lelouch stared into her worried green eyes and couldn't help smiling. She really took it literally. Typical Shirley. His best girlfriend and how glad he was to see her again. Actually, he would happy to see just any living person because it's a solid proof that he wasn't dead.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, then added. "Wait, don't say anything, just nod your head for yes and shake it for no."

He smiled again and nodded.

"I'm so happy," she said, sitting down on the bed next to him and took his hand in hers, squeezing it slightly. "I'm very happy that you're alive and fine. Thank God for that. You really got me worried sick there, Lulu."

He frowned, indicating he had no idea what she's talking about, and her eyes widened.

"You don't remember?" she inquired, perplexed. "You were beaten terribly at that valley and had Suzaku not come in time to save you, who knows…" she trailed off. The thought of what would happen if Suzaku was just one second late was just too horrible for her to consider.

Then it hit like a cold wave of water splashed over him. Lelouch stirred slightly on the bed, his hand shook a bit as memories crawled back. The painful sensation of the event this afternoon was still too valid in both his mind and body. He then shook his head; Shirley raised an eyebrow.

"What is it?" she asked, squeezed his hand tighter and he flinched. She yelped.

"Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to."

A snicker came from the dark shadows of the empty wing, and Lelouch couldn't help twisting his head sideway to glance in that direction. His eyebrows rose.

"Hm, I think I should let you rest more," said Shirley awkwardly as she stood up. Smiling at him, she tucked him in gently as though he were a mere kid. "I'll be back tomorrow with Suzaku and Kallen. So, rest well, okay?"

She then walked toward the chair she had sat on and grabbed her purse. Before she could walk out of his vision, Lelouch called out in a hoarse voice. "Wait, do you think you can bring my laptop with you tomorrow?"

Shirley regarded him curiously for a moment and looked as though she wanted to ask questions, but nodded wordlessly at the end. "Sure thing," she beamed at him again before going out.

Lelouch let out a small suppressed sigh afterwards. "Okay, C.C. you can come out now," he croaked like a frog.

The ghostly image of a young girl with shiny green hair appeared right in front of him out of nowhere; he had thought she was hiding in the shadows in the corner. "I could come out anytime," she replied, "but I just wanted to give you couple some alone time."

"Couple?" If he hadn't been in such a bad state, he'd have snickered right then. "We're not a couple. We're just friends."

"Oh? It certainly doesn't look that way to her- what's her name again? Shirley?"

"That's not important- well, yes, her name is Shirley – but we need to talk," he said in all sudden seriousness.

C.C. floated toward the side of his bed and made-believe she sat down next to him. "About what?" she drawled while one hand played with her long hair.

"About what happened today. About your saving me. How was that even possible? I thought you said no one could see you but me."

She thought about it for a moment before answering slowly. "Well," she began. "The last statement is still very valid." She paused then started again, "Do you remember we were drowning in each other's minds for a moment?"

He nodded. "Of course. But how?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. I guess our bond is just too strong that it happened."

An exasperated sigh escaped his lips as he narrowed his eyes at her. "You always say that," he pressed. "About how our bond was unbreakable, yet you never gave me an exact answer as to why that occurred."

Her golden eyes studied him carefully. "Can you explain why you fall in love with someone?" she suddenly inquired.

Lelouch looked taken aback. "Well, that's…"

"Some things are mysteries in this world that can't be resolved," she spoke in a faraway tone, her eyes on him but they're looking through him to some infinite space beyond.

He sighed. This conversation had gone back to square one again. "Fine," he muttered. "But please tell me why you chose me."

"What?"

"I want to know why you picked me out of all the people."

She stared at him. This time, truly at him. "I didn't choose you," she answered. "You chose yourself."

"Okaay, be more specific. How the hell did I choose myself to be stuck with you? Moreover, if that's true, why would I want to do that?"

She threw him a dagger look. "You're too blunt sometimes, Lelouch," she said coldly, then leaned forward. Anger flashed in her eyes. "Like I said, I didn't choose you. I wouldn't be here with you if…"

"Wait, what did you say?"

"I said I wouldn't be here if…"

"Speak louder. Why are you whispering?"

"I'm not! I'm yelling at the top of my lungs now."

"Well, I can't hear you!" he snapped. What was she trying to pull? He couldn't hear the part after the 'if' at all as if it were muted.

Suddenly, she looked sober, all anger vanished from her pretty and pale face, and she spoke in a very low and almost inaudible voice. "You couldn't hear it, could you? I knew it. Now you know why I didn't tell you the reason the first time we met? It's not because I didn't want to; it's because I couldn't."

Lelouch's eyes widened to the point he thought they might bulge out as realization slowly sank in.

"I still don't understand why you would go to that part of the town, Lelouch!" exclaimed Suzaku for the tenth time when he, Kallen and Shirley paid their injured friend a visit in the next morning.

Lelouch took a small sip of the hot tea that Shirley had prepared and put in the Aluminum water bottle for him. He then took a few more minutes tasting the hnoey-flavored tea while trying to think of any convincing excuses beside the fact that he was easily fooled by a kid. When he came up with nothing and was aware of his friends' curious and impatient stares, Lelouch sighed, putting down the cup, and sat back in his bed.

"I was conned by a kid," he grumbled

"You were tricked?" Suzaku queried with a raised eyebrow.

Heaving another heavy sigh – apparently, he didn't want to bring up the horrible memories anymore but his friends would never let him off the hook unless he spilled out the truth – he nodded. "Yes, want to hear the whole tale?"

The three exchanged looks, then nodded half excitedly and half hesitantly. Lelouch couldn't help rolling his eyes playfully as he propped himself up on the bed using his elbows, and started relaying the whole event again.

When he'd finished, Shirley looked as though she's about to burst out crying. As a matter of fact, she whimpered slightly. "Poor, poor Lulu…"

Kallen looked baffled, and Suzaku was staring at him with wide emerald eyes.

"That's… that's just… Wow," he whispered.

Lelouch raised an eyebrow. "What's so 'wow' about it?"

"That you managed to make them go away at the end. How did you do that?"

Lelouch looked taken aback immediately. Oh god, seriously? What could he say that would have made sense? Oh wait a second, for the past few days, nothing makes sense at all, so why should he be nervous now?

He stirred slightly on the bed with a contemplated look on his face. "Well," he drawled. "I guess after I passed out, someone must have come to my rescue."

Suzaku looked like he just remembered something. "Come to think of it, when you called me, it was a woman's voice that spoke on the other end instead."

Lelouch sat upright on the bed suddenly, an action he soon regretted because pain shot through his ribs right at that moment. He winced but managed to ask, "A woman's voice?"

The brown-haired teen nodded. "Yeah, her voice was pretty distant and soft that I could barely hear anything, but then she mentioned you and that I was needed right away; I just knew you're in deep trouble."

Lelouch sat back and tilted his head against the puffy pillow. His violet orbs then traveled slightly to the right side at the slim figure sitting on the opened window's sill. Her back was to him and her lime hair was flowing in the wind. He closed his eyes for a second.

"Oh, and by the way," Suzaku added, "she sounded pretty frantic so that added to the tension."

Lelouch could feel the corner of his lips twitching as he whispered, "Ahh, I see."

"Do you know her, Lulu?" Shirley asked.

"No, probably just some bystander who saw what happened."

Kallen chimed in. "Then she definitely called the right person." She then nodded toward Suzaku.

"We just had a chat before I left for home so that's the first number on the calls list," Lelouch reasoned. Everything sounded so perfect so far.

"Too bad that she didn't stay with you until I got there because first of all, those people could have come back. Second, she should make sure you're okay – I mean, who would make a call and then leave an injured person by himself?" Suzaku said.

Lelouch opened his bright violet eyes at last and glanced toward the window, taking in the sight of C.C.'s transparent back. When he spoke, his voice was gentle. "No, Suzaku, I'm sure she stayed with me the whole time. She just wasn't there when you finally arrived."

That evening, when the visiting hour was over and the group left with many 'get well soon!s', Lelouch suddenly realized how exhausting he was just chilling out with his friends. It felt like his body was pushed to the limits with each passing hour, so it was shameful to admit that he was pretty glad when the nurse came in to announce it's time to leave.

Lelouch's gaze followed the nurse as she went to the other side of the room to close the window. He almost snickered when C.C. sat glued to her seat with a mild irritated frown on her face as the clueless nurse walked through her toward the window to close and bolt it safely.

When she's done, she smiled brightly at Lelouch, who returned the smile politely, then went out and closed the door soundlessly behind her.

"This sucks," C.C. complained, "I want the door opened. Lelouch, do it."

He raised an eyebrow. "Do I look like I'm in a position to do it?"

"Well, help me materialize again and I'll do it myself," she smirked, leaning forward with palms of hands placed on either side of her body and legs dangling freely over the edge. It was such a nice pose of her, Lelouch realized, unaware of his own blush. Her transparent body was in the twilight's way, so the glowing light was invited to shoot through it and reflected off the white floor, shining slightly at the spot where her long legs were.

Lelouch had to clear his throat and mentally kicked himself. Lately, he had been subconsciously paying attention to C.C.'s body more often than he'd like.

That didn't go unnoticed by her of course, but she let it slide since he had just come out of a near-death experience. C.C. flicked her long lime hair over her shoulder as she regarded him with a playful smile dancing on her rosy lips. "So, Lelouch, why did you ask for a computer?"

The raven-haired teen quickly regained himself and put on a composed and collected face as usual. Instead of answering C.C. immediately, he reached over and pulled out a black laptop from the bag that Shirley had brought for him. When he positioned said laptop on his lap, he glanced up at her and said, "To do some research on you."

The frown returned to her face once more. "Research?" she asked, then added nonchalantly. "Don't waste your time, you won't find anything."

He thought he had just winked at her when he replied, "You never know until you try."

C.C. just shrugged her shoulders. "Whatever suits you. Don't say I didn't warn you, though."

Thirty minutes later…

"Arg! Stupid laptop! Stupid Internet!"

C.C. bolted up from her little nap on the chair to the right of the bed, eyes glazed a little bit. "What happened?"

Instead of an answer, she was met with an accusing finger pointed at her face; her eyes widened slightly in surprise.

"You," said Lelouch through gritted teeth, finger still in place. "What's your real name?"

Realizing what's happening, C.C. felt her shoulders relax and she sat back, drawing her legs closer to herself and wrapping her arms around them. A look of annoying flashed across her face. "You're overdramatic, Lelouch," she murmured.

"What's your real name?" he pressed. "Because obviously 'C.C.' doesn't exist."

"I told you you'd only waste your time."

"C.C.," he said lowly, and she sighed. "It's useless. Go to sleep, Lelouch."

"I'm not giving up," said Lelouch with a firm determination. "I want to know how and why this happened, and whether I'm the only one this happened to."

She waved at him absentmindedly. "Good night." And just like that, she went back to her dream realm while he's stuck here doing research on something that may just be his mere imagination.

Heaving a small sigh of his own, Lelouch reached over to turn the light to a dimmer level, then went back to work.

"Okay, let's see," he murmured. "Dream and reality… ghost following you…" Is she even a ghost?

Nothing relevant came up.

He tried all the articles that had something, even the smallest piece, to do with his case. Nothing. Their discussions weren't a bit helful, though on one hand were certainly interesting and insightful yet on the other were a pile of useless documents. Sure they talked about ghosts and dreams and whatnot and what they all meant, but nothing really came close to what he's experiencing right now.

Lelouch felt bored and impatient after an hour passed. The frustration and irritation in him kept building up until he was sure they're going to explode when he randomly clicked on yet another aimless article. However, what he skimmed made the wheels in his head turning.

Summary: Spirits of the dead may still be lingering on the face of the earth when they have unfinished business with either loved or hated ones. Usually, if a person has an untimely death, be it accident or murder, they cannot move on.

Lelouch slowly turned his head to look at the girl sleeping soundly in the chair. It was a possibility that she died in an accident, but the look in her eyes when they first met was more sorrowful than that, and the 'Save me' should also be taken into account. Maybe she needed him to do something for her so that she could move on, but why him? Firstly, he didn't know her. Secondly, he's damned sure he wasn't at any location in which an accident may have happened for the past few months…

Something was tugging at the back of his memory, like he had to remember it, but he simply couldn't. He just couldn't put his finger on it. So now, the possibility of her being in an accident was very slim that he had to cross it out. So did that mean...

Was this girl murdered?

A/N: I think I'll make this story my top priority right now since I have so many ideas floating around my head regarding this. So I'll try to squeeze this baby into my tight schedule and make sure the updates won't take forever.

Thank you for your patience and reading! Reviews are of course appreciated!