"Lelouch, can we please talk about this?" Cornelia trailed her brother, red in the face but with clenched fists, simultaneously ashamed and aggravated. She knew that this must be far more embarrassing for Lelouch than for her, but still... That kiss was not her fault! She hadn't done anything wrong! And, in her opinion, neither had the Empress!
"I don't see what there is to talk about, Cornelia. I caught you red-handed with your tongue halfway down my mother's throat!" The boy hadn't even looked her in the eye since his warning this morning- every time he looked at her, all he could see was that scene on the balcony.
"LELOUCH! That is gross! It was just a little kiss on the lips, I've seen your mother kiss you longer than that!" Cornelia protested, but knew it was futile. Even though the boy was young, he knew what that kiss had been, and a friendly little kiss on the lips between family it had not.
"Cornelia, that is nowhere near the same thing and you know it." The boy finally stopped in his tracks, crossing his arms and glaring back at his elder half-sister. "I don't faint when my mother kisses me. I don't squish my body against hers like that when I dance with her, I don't... oh, god, that is so disgusting, Cornelia, how could you do this to me...?" The boy once again went red in the face and glowered at the ground.
"If you must know, Lelouch, she kissed me. I didn't even ask her to. She just-"
"THAT MAKES IT EVEN WORSE!" Lelouch howled, stamping his foot. "How long has this been going on?!"
"... Um... well, that depends on what you mean by this, really..." Cornelia paused, biting her lip.
"How long have you been in love with my mother?" Lelouch sneered back, the words exiting his mouth with a tinge of acid.
"... probably... ever since I first saw her..." Cornelia would utter meekly, clasping her fingers together and glancing downward. "Lelouch, you can't blame me for how I feel! I can't help it!"
"It doesn't matter whether it's your fault or not, Cornelia, that's disgusting! You're a girl! Girls don't... kiss other girls like that! Heck, I don't even think girls ought to kiss boys like that!" Lelouch stammered, blushing profusely as the scene once again entered his head.
"I know... I know, believe me I know. If I could change the way I feel about her I would." Cornelia lied to Lelouch, for the very first time in her life.
"How did this happen? How long have you two been doing that behind Father's back...?" Not that Lelouch cared how the old man felt. If anything, he'd love to see the look on his face when he found out that he was being cuckolded by his own daughter...
"Oh..." Cornelia paused, shaking her head profusely. "Oh, no, Lelouch, there's no relationship between us. I swear I'm telling the truth. Marianne doesn't feel the same way about me at all." Cornelia stepped forward a bit and moved to seize her brother's hand, only to have it batted away.
"You just told me she was the one who kissed you! At least get your story straight!" Lelouch growled.
"She kissed me because..." The princess trailed off, reconsidering her own thoughts. "well... honestly... I don't know why, but if I had to guess, I think it was because she felt sorry for me. She told me just before that how she felt. That I... wasn't her type of woman yet." Cornelia would brush her thumbs together idly, the blush beginning to fade a bit from her face.
"Yet? What's that supposed to mean?" Lelouch's expression widened into a look of horror and suspicion.
Wait... My mother has a "type" of woman?! Oh, god, I so did not need to know that...
"Come on, Lelouch, how am I supposed to know that either?" Cornelia protested, looking pleadingly down into her younger half-brother's eyes. "I'm just telling you what happened as honestly as I can. There is nothing going on between your mother and I. I feel... strongly about her, but she told me specifically last night that it wasn't going to happen. And I'm relieved for it... I wouldn't want to carry on something like that. Something I had to hide. I'm no good at lying to anyone, Lelouch, you know that." Cornelia bit her lip and pressed the tips of her fingers together. "All I can say is that I'm very sorry you happened to see that and that hurting you is the absolute last thing I would ever want to do. And I can promise you that it will never happen again."
Lelouch still had a sour expression on his face, but eventually rolled his eyes. As much as he hated to admit it, he knew Cornelia was telling the truth, that she was sorry, and that she would indeed do her best to keep her promise. "Cross your heart and hope to die?"
"Swallow needles if I lie. I swear it, Lelouch. If I have to push her away myself, I'll-"
"OKAY, Cornelia, I GET IT." Lelouch held both his palms up and flinched, shutting both eyes. "Please stop putting more images into my head. Let's just go on with our lives and NEVER SPEAK OF THIS AGAIN."
"Agreed." Cornelia nodded hastily and bit her lip. "So, then... Friends?" She extended a shaky hand.
"Uh... I think I'm gonna need a few days at least. And a few favors."
"... Sure. Whatever you need."
...
"Well, this wasn't exactly what I had in mind when you said you needed a favor, but sure, why not? Still, it seems a bit strange to me. You've got a chauffeur to take you anywhere you want waiting at the palace gates, day or night." Cornelia's car keys jingled, dangling from her left hand as they moved through the garage of Aries Villa. The Empress was not a fan of automobiles, so of the five vehicles in the garage, they all shared a similar plainness of appearance and utilitarian purpose, though there were several different types- three sedans, a large, bulky SUV, and a luxury pickup truck, all black, except for one sedan, which was a royal blue.
This one, Cornelia's automobile, was no exception to that- it was a plain car with very little adornment aside from the Ashford Motors hood ornament, a rearing silver stallion. Cornelia pressed a button on her keychain, the door locks popping up and the car's headlights flashing.
"Well, what if I need to get somewhere secretly someday?" Lelouch would inquire, and Cornelia would slide into the driver's seat while her half-brother slid into the passenger's.
"... That's one reason, I suppose, though I should hope you never do need to do that. Still, if that's your aim, a taxi would actually be a better idea considering your license plate number could always be traced..." Cornelia turned the key, starting the electric motor of the vehicle, which spun up quickly, and the whisper-quiet car would slide out of the automatic garage doors and out the villa's gates.
"Well, what if I'm not driving my car?" Lelouch inquired, a little smirk appearing on his face.
"Well, how would you go about-" Cornelia paused, her expression switching to shock. "Lelouch, are you suggesting stealing someone's-"
"Not stealing, Cornelia, but maybe borrowing for a while. I don't know. Who would say no to an Imperial Prince?"
"Nobody, but then again, who would say no to His Majesty's secret service later when they were asking if anyone had seen that same Imperial Prince around?" Cornelia smirked. "Besides, you're far too young to be thinking about how to deceive His Majesty, anyway."
"Does that imply that there is an appropriate age for that...?" Lelouch continued, before peering around at their surroundings. Pendragon was smack-dab in the middle of the Sonoran desert- the city had formerly been named Yuma in the Imperial State of Arizona- and upon exiting the city limits, the contrast between the capability of the Britannian elite to transform nature to suit their liking and the harsh environment that Pendragon had sprung up in became clear.
Within the city limits, great pipelines from the west supplied Pendragon with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of fresh water, and the city was a verdant paradise of lush grass and tall, exotic trees that thrived in the city's tropical heat. As soon as one began to enter the outskirts of the city, however, that grass began to fade and become patchy, and the trees disappeared altogether, until finally, before one realized it, one was in the midst of a landscape that seemed so desolate it was a wonder humans ever wished to live in the place to begin with. Sand, interspersed with a few rocks, crags, and mesas here and there, sprawled out all the way to the looming, bare mountains in the distance, and cacti, tumbleweeds, and gnarled, desiccated, thorny bushes and shrubs were the only life visible in the harsh desert.
"That's not what I meant. You're too paranoid, Lelouch." Cornelia replied, flicking her gaze out over the desert as well. Even as she chided her brother for his paranoia, she couldn't help but get the feeling that, all alone out here and far from the protection of the capital, with only the pistol in Cornelia's glovebox for protection, they would be easy prey to ambushers...
"Well, I still think it's a good skill to have. I want to know what it's like. To drive myself around instead of sitting in the back. It looks..." Lelouch paused, shifting his gaze from the desert to the roof... "fun."
"... Well, I'll be honest, it is, for about the first dozen times you do it. Then it just becomes a chore." Cornelia flicked on her turn signal as the car shifted into the deceleration lane of the highway off-ramp, and they came to a halt behind a station wagon at a red light.
"Where are we going again...?" Lelouch inquired, stretching up to look around at the place, with Cornelia rolling her eyes as he did.
"You're going to have the paparazzi swarming us any second if you stick your face against the window like that, Lelouch. I'm not supposed to be doing this- your mother would kill me if she found out..." Cornelia grumbled, but was quickly interrupted.
"Oh, she'd kill you, huh? I thought you two were on very good terms." Lelouch snarked back.
Cornelia winced. "Weren't you the one who told me never to speak of that again?" She paused, then took on a wicked grin. "Or do you want me to go into a detailed description of the way she-"
"NO!" Lelouch stammered, holding his hands out in front of his face toward his sister as if shielding an incoming blow. "No, no, I'm sorry, Cornelia, don't. Please. I won't do it again."
"That's what I thought. We're going to a town about thirty miles south of here, St. Louis. There's a mall there that closed about three years ago, I believe the parking lot ought to still be empty- it's been about a year since I drove through there but the last time I did the place hadn't been demolished yet. Good place to practice for most of the afternoon, and then I'm sure your mother will be wanting us home for supper."
"You really think we have to go to all this effort just to teach me...?"
"Yes, of course we do, Lelouch. Unless you want to try taking this baby off-road." Cornelia patted the dashboard. "If we don't hit a cactus, then it'll be about ten seconds until the wheels sink into the sand and get stuck. And in case you haven't noticed, this is my car. I'm rather fond of it. So I don't want you to crash into anything."
"Like you couldn't just buy another one...?" Lelouch groaned, rolling his eyes.
"Not like this one. This one's special." Cornelia added, then blushed a bit as she kept her eyes on the road.
Lelouch noticed it, thought about asking her about it, then thought better of it- he'd only seen Cornelia's face turn red when she was talking or thinking about his mother, and he did not want to hear any more of that today...
They spent the next twenty minutes in relative silence- after a few minutes, Cornelia turned on the radio, and Lelouch continued to nervously twiddle one of his cuff links, but eventually the parking lot and decrepit old mall came into view- the sign on the front was missing most of the letters, and the parking lot had several prominent cracks in the asphalt, through which a few sparse tufts of grass curled up. Cornelia circled the lot for a few minutes, before finding a suitable starting point as far away from any light posts as possible, and brought the car to a halt, shifting into park and withdrawing the car keys, handing them over to Lelouch as they both opened their doors and walked around the front of the car to switch seats. She could have left the keys in, of course, but Lelouch was somewhat glad she hadn't, as he slid the key into the ignition and his heart stirred as he turned it and saw the vehicle's interior lights and displays all spring to life at his touch.
The internal combustion engine for automobiles had fallen far out of favor in the late 20th century A.T.B. with the advent of energy filler systems, and so nearly every automobile in Britannia was wholly electric, with a near-inexhaustible power supply of liquid Sakuradite, which denied Lelouch the satisfaction of an engine coughing and roaring to life, but this was all the same to the boy who had never known such a thing and felt the machine quietly buzzing to life instead was fine by him.
Marvelous, actually.
"Relax, Lelouch. Don't get excited. Excitement means carelessness. I'm sure you've seen how things work. The small pedal at your right is the accelerator. The large one at the center is the brake. DON'T do that." Cornelia added, reaching down to take a firm hold of Lelouch's left leg, prompting a surprised squirm from the boy, and yank it away from the brake pedal.
"ONLY use your right foot to push the pedals. Never both."
"What...? Why!?" Lelouch protested, glancing down at the pedals that seemed designed to be operated by both feet. He'd never looked closely enough to see that this was not the case...
"Because otherwise, when you panic and jam on the brake, at the same time, you'll also have the instinct to jam your other foot down, onto the accelerator. It's just a very bad habit to get into. Only use your right foot." Cornelia explained, leaning over a bit so that they were shoulder-to-shoulder as she watched him. "All right. Place your hands on the wheel- like this-" Cornelia grasped both his hands, and set them firmly on the steering wheel, at the standard ten-and-two-o'clock positions, "and check your mirrors. See anything in your way?"
Lelouch, instead, turned to stare at Cornelia. "We're in an empty lot." Duh, was the unspoken addition.
"... I know that, Lelouch." Cornelia replied, just as deadpan. "Driving well is all about developing habits. You need to develop the habit of checking your mirrors every time you want to take the car out of park. Otherwise... well, uh..." Cornelia bit her lip and glanced to the side. "Well, this thing needed a fresh coat of paint about five months ago for just that reason. Pulling out of parallel parking is especially tricky... but that's a lesson for next time. For now, check your mirrors, turn and look over your shoulder, and make sure you're clear. Then hit the brake, grasp the shifter and press the button, and slowly push it up from P to D, keeping the brake firmly pressed down. You need to have the vehicle completely stopped and the brake pressed every time you want to shift." Cornelia waited for Lelouch to finish looking around, before nodding. "Ready? Go."
A short moment later, the car was in drive, and rolling forward ever-so-slightly.
"You'll have to press harder, Lelouch."
"I can't reach...!" Lelouch whined in protest, straining to push his foot down as far as he could without losing sight of the parking lot.
"... I figured as much. You're still too small for this. Put it back in park." Cornelia replied, and waited for him to do so, reluctantly, before opening her door. She'd walk around to the driver's side and open up Lelouch's door, with the boy frowning and glancing up at her.
"Damn... I guess this means we're done, huh...?"
"Well, there is another way, but you might not like it." Cornelia added, tilting her head and smiling.
...
"... Well, this is... uh... awkward..." Lelouch muttered. His hands were on the wheel once again, and his right foot was on the brake, but between it and the brake was Cornelia's foot, and he sat upon her lap.
"You're not the one being sat on, Lelouch." Cornelia replied, curling her hands around her brother's stomach. "But you wanted to learn how to drive, and I'm not going to let you drive unless you can see. So just push on my foot when you would otherwise push the pedal, and let me know when you want to switch pedals. ... Needless to say, if I think you're going too fast or we're about to hit something, I'm going to stop you whether you say so or not. I think this way is a little safer, to be honest. So until you grow about six inches, this is how we're doing it."
"... Okay... Here goes, I guess..." He and Cornelia pressed down on the brake, and switched into drive, and slowly released their grip on the brake as the car began to slowly roll forward.
"Stay at this speed for a while. Learn how the car responds to the wheel." Cornelia advised him, her chin resting on his shoulder. Lelouch would slowly twist the wheel to the left and right, and his feeling of awkwardness would slowly fade as it was replaced by the thrill of actually being in control of the vehicle.
"Wow... I'm driving!" Lelouch chirped enthusiastically.
"Not yet, you're not. You're just steering." Cornelia corrected him. "Make a right turn. Head toward the mall."
"Okay..." Lelouch followed suit, and soon, at a crawl, the car had made three successive turns and circled the lightpost- then done so turning left. Eventually he'd turn the vehicle to get at the back end of that parking lane, facing the mall again, and bringing it to a stop when Cornelia asked.
"Ready? Now be VERY delicate with this. Just push the accelerator with your big toe- not the rest of your foot." Cornelia did her best to translate his pressure into hers as he pressed down on the pedal in question, and his awkward, jerking push would sent the car jolting forward and their bodies lurching simultaneously.
"That wasn't very delicate." Cornelia chided.
"That wasn't me, that was you!" Lelouch argued, and glared at his sister in their slight reflection on the windshield.
"I was doing exactly what you were, Lelouch. But if you want to argue, we can head home right now."
"Okay, okay... I'll be more gentle." Slowly, he applied pressure to Cornelia's foot, and in turn, she would slowly accelerate the car until they were rolling along at a decent speed.
"Much better. Make sure to slow down before you make a turn... turn here."
...
It would be a thrilling three hours of lessons, and by the end of it Lelouch had not only learned to drive, steer, and make K-turns, Cornelia had also given him an improvised road test, pretending the parking lot was a town and that several junctions were actually intersections, complete with stop signs, traffic lights, and other drivers, as well as chiding Lelouch for rolling through a "stop sign" instead of coming to a complete halt.
Tomorrow, they'd learn to parallel park. Lelouch couldn't wait.
And he felt curiously less awkward about having to sit in Cornelia's lap again.