Reds as deep as crimson, oranges that burned like the sun, yellows and gold of such rich vibrancy. This was the colour scheme of the Phenex manor. A décor that looked not unlike the occupants lounged inside a glorious but hellish blaze. A visage that accurately represented the house's approach to fire. So comfortable with it as to see it as the height of comfort and relaxation.

"I'm sorry, Father," Riser said morosely, sitting in an armchair a size too large for him as his father shrugged off his outerwear. Lord Phenex had just moments ago returned from a day's visit to their allies, planning their next moves in the political arena after the sudden change at Rias Gremory's debut. "I tried to do what you said but..."

Lord Phenex sighed. "It isn't your fault, Riser. There's no need to be hard on yourself." In truth, the advice he had given his son was merely the best he could come up with given their limited knowledge of the Bael heir's capabilities. That doing some early damage would give his son the best chance. Riser could recover, Lelouch could not. An early injury would have seen the dark-haired boy tiring quicker, giving Riser even more of an advantage as the fight wore on. "It seems all of Herodotus Bael's boasts were in fact not mere boasts. Your friend is a surprisingly dedicated young man."

"He's not my friend," Riser denied quickly, sulkily.

This time his father did see the need to chide his son. "Do not throw away a relationship for a single disagreement, do you understand Riser?" Lord Phenex reproached. "Feel resentment if you must. Let it fuel your growth. But even a casual friendship is an opportunity in the right circumstance. You never know when the rival you turned away could be the one to pull you out of a difficult situation."

"Yeah, Riser! He's gonna be my husband after all!" the youngest of the family added cheerily, kicking her feet against the sofa. Her childish excitement lasted only as long as it took for her to see her father's expression. Her face fell. "Papa?"

"I'm sorry, little bird," the house head said. "With Lelouch so publicly acting against us even if he claims it wasn't the intent, the image of it if we were to betroth you to him–" His reasons proved meaningless to the young girl as she threw herself out of her seat and bolted out of the room, sniffling.

Leaving Riser feeling even more a heel. And this time the father had no words to make him feel better.

"Hey, I caught this, can I keep it?" another voice entering the room spoke. A blonde man of similar apparent age to Lord Phenex.

Under his arm he carried a frustrated Ravel Phenex, kicking and slapping at him. "Brother, let me go!"

"Brother!" Riser shouted excitedly, running over to his eldest sibling, getting his hair ruffled for his trouble.

"Ruval!" Lord Phenex spoke, surprised at his son's appearance. "We weren't expecting you. I would have had the servants prepare something."

"Oh, no need to go out of your way on my account," Ruval waved him off, "I just thought I'd drop by. Heard this one got into his first fight." Once again reaching out to ruffle his little brother's hair.

Riser slapped the hand away. "I lost. And I screwed everything up for me and Ravel."

Ruval rolled his eyes, continuing to ignore the complaints of the little sister under his arm. "Come on Riser. You're still here to be sad about losing. Long as that's true it's something you can come back from. As for Ravel," he sent his father a... mildly reproachful look, "You shouldn't put so much stock in all this betrothal stuff."

"It's a reasonable tactic for securing family alliances–" his father spoke, feeling the need to defend his decisions.

"Yes," Ruval agreed, "So long as everything goes precisely correct, that the spouses-to-be actually like and respect each other. Otherwise you end up binding the two houses with spite and poison. That girl was ten, Father. Betrothals don't have to happen this quickly. They especially don't need to happen the instant it's legal. They hadn't even been allowed to meet yet."

Kneeling, Ruval set Ravel back on her feet, holding her shoulders to stop her from just running away again. With one hand, he raised her chin to look at him. He smiled softly as he saw the dried tear tracks on his sister's face. "Ravel, did you want to marry Lelouch?"

She looked away and he released her chin to let her. "He... He seemed nice in his letters."

"I'm sure he is," Ruval laughed, "And soon you'll be able to meet him in person, along with all the other kids your age. If you want to marry him, you'll just have to manage it the old fashioned way." He booped her nose, she cringed away with a smile. "By showing him just how amazing you are and what a wonderful girl he could miss out on." Patting her on the head, he let her go, the littlest Phenex scurrying off to her room.

"You know," Lord Phenex spoke, "When you actually feel like settling down and having children it seems you'll be quite good at it."

"Ah," Ruval grunted as he stood to his full height again, "I'm not so sure how good of a father I'll be but I've got plenty of practice being an older brother. Besides, I meant it all. There's no point arranging a marriage if both sides end up hating each other. They're going to be together for centuries at least, let them figure it out themselves."

"Well some children take their sweet time 'figuring it out'," the father chided passive-aggressively.

"And it's been a fun ride," Ruval agreed without shame. "Oh, speaking of being an older brother," he slapped a hand down on Riser's shoulder, "Someone managed to get me a recording of the fight. How about it, little brother? Feel like making something out of all that frustration you're feeling?"

-(-)-

"Gyahhhhh!" Serafall groaned loudly, arching her back to let her spine crack, easing the discomfort of being leaned over a desk for hours. "Finally done," she sighed as she slumped down in her seat.

Ajuka chuckled, "If the world could only see you now. Serafall Leviathan acting so uncute."

"Let's be fair, it's been a long day for all of us," Sirzechs said diplomatically.

Falbium had already left the table to lie down and fall asleep in the corner. He didn't want to leave the room completely. That would be rude.

"For once I feel like Fal-bum has the right idea," the Leviathan groused. "Who's idea was it that we should be in charge after the war? I want to file a complaint."

Rather than answer that Serafall would need to file a complaint to herself... Or more accurately Sirzechs as he was in charge of domestic affairs, Ajuka chose to change the subject. "So Sirzechs, how are your family doing after their recent... disagreement?"

"Father is sleeping on the couch."

"Well I suppose that's to be expected–"

"The guest house couch."

"You must be so troubled," Ajuka spoke drily.

"It is a burden I bear with solemn determination," the crimson-haired Satan spoke, struggling to keep the smile off his face. "Rias is so happy though! I haven't seen her so excited about something as simple as our family power."

"You mean the Bael power," Serafall corrected, resting her head in her arms.

"... Ah, yes, of course. Anyway, she was so excited she put a huge gash in her ceiling with it. She wants to learn 'Lulu's super moves'," he finished with air quotes.

"Hmmmm?" Ajuka hummed, leaning back in his chair, eyes toward the ceiling as he became lost in thought. "She might struggle," he said finally.

"Oh?" Sirzechs uttered, a note of challenge in it until he noticed the change in his old friend. "I see, you studied them. Of course you did."

"Well 'studied' might be overstating it. Though for his age they are remarkably complex," the green-haired Beelzebub agreed. "And I've seen you and your power at work to understand precisely what it takes to do what he did." With a wave of his hand he created a mandala, a replication of the one Lelouch Bael had used to fire his first shot.

"Oh no, he's in lecture mode," Serafall complained. "We just finished work! I don't want to go to school today!"

"See here?" Ajuka asked, indicating an intricate pattern just within the edge of the circle, "This is a complex matrix used for the sake of containing demonic power. These parts? Shape and dimensions. The rest of it? Purely to make the containment stronger."

"So most of the spell is purely for the sake of keeping it locked down?" Sirzechs asked.

Ajuka nodded. "You don't have to do that kind of thing. The Gremory side of your heritage gives you better control and power than most. Rias will have that luxury too so she can learn to replicate this spell as an extremely potent beam of focused destruction. But that's all she'll be able to manage."

"I don't see why," Sirzechs shrugged. "If she can learn enough control to focus it into a beam, what's the difference?"

"I wonder whether young Lelouch chose calculated magic over use of raw demonic power. It would be remarkably prescient for creating this technique if he did..."

"Ajuka!"

The science-minded devil startled at his friend's raised voice, then he remembered he said the man's precious baby sister couldn't do something and understood completely. "Sirzechs, imagine a straight line between here and Lucifaad."

"Uhh..." the crimson Satan uttered, looking confused.

"You probably imagined a map, didn't you? An abstract. Imagining a perfectly straight line from ground level the several hundred miles between this city and that one, all the obstacles in between. It would be too much to ask. Our minds are insufficient to create an accurate image of it in our mind's eye." Another projection appeared, this time a map like the one he described. "This works as an abstract, but likewise there is a lot it doesn't include. There is no way for a mind to accurately imagine such a thing."

"Oh, I see where you're going with this," Sirzechs nodded along.

Ajuka pointed a finger at his old friend for catching on, before creating two mandala side by side for demonstration. "If I had to guess, if you wanted to do something similar to the spell Lelouch cast, you would do something like this." He waved at the left circle, much simpler, basically an invocation of the power of destruction and that was it. "Just a basic guide for the power and you would handle the rest with your own control. But because of that, it has the same limitations as all devil magic. Imagination. The beam will go for as far as you can imagine it going. Thus it will dissipate at the range you fail to imagine it continuing. Say... The other side of a wall that you can't see. It will just fade into nothing or disperse into a directionless wave of destruction before fading into nothing. It has a finite range based on what you can perceive or imagine."

"I see," Sirzechs nodded along, looking at the other mandala. "Because this one isn't shaped by pure control but also the calculations inscribed into the spell, it will keep going until it reaches the limits of the restraining mechanism."

"And if he wanted to extend the range, reconfiguring the mandala to prioritise range over power is all it would take."

"Nerrrrrrrds..." Serafall moaned.

"I imagine the spells protecting the Gremory home took a bit of a pounding during that fight," Ajuka smirked. "I have to say, the spellwork is impressive. Well and good people are impressed by Lelouch's strength. I wonder how many noticed what kind of impressive intellect it would take to create a mandala of this complexity, and deploy it in the middle of a fight."

"Rrrrrgh! Fine!" Serafall shouted, slamming her hands on the table as she jumped up from her seat. "Lelouch is super cool and smart and strong and he looked really cool doing his super move to save a distressed damsel but he's STILL NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR MY SO-TAN!"

Ajuka blinked. "No one... Said he was?"

Falbium yawned long and hard still laying in the corner, smacking his lips drowsily. "I don't know why you're so against it, Sera," he spoke up, "You know the kids joke about how they're basically the same person? They've started to call Sona 'girl Lulu'."

The other two men ignored the building rage of Serafall to give their fourth, most disinterested peer a strange look. "You noticed that?" Sirzechs asked incredulously. "You?"

Falbium half-shrugged. "I do pay attention, you know."

"GAH!" Serafall screamed, Falbium and a quarter of the room around him freezing solid.

Falbium flexed, broke the ice, yawned and rolled over. "Mmmn, chilly."

Sirzechs burst out laughing at Serafall puffing out her cheeks in irritation.

-(-)-

Sara wondered over her duties for the day. She had gotten Misla her breakfast, gone into town to refill Rudolf's store of sour apples (why the man liked them she would never know. The rest of the castle was sick of them). She had a little free time before lunch.

Maybe... Maybe it would be okay to look in on Lelouch? Just for a bit, just to make sure he was okay. She had heard he was going to spend the day working with his bishop. The snow princess had proven to be a lovely new addition to the household over the past few years. She had certainly done quite a bit to help Lelouch's younger brother to loosen the elder up.

Looking in on the library she saw her friend's son sitting at a table as his bishop delivered a lecture on... Some kind of magic Sara didn't understand. He was fine. She could go now.

She didn't.

As she continued to watch the two, she felt herself reminiscing over her first real interaction with the Bael prince. When he was ever so much smaller. Perhaps, before his fifth birthday, she thought? She wasn't sure of the exact date. It had been an ordinary day like any other. Not one she felt needed to be marked on the calendar. On that day, little Lelouch had walked up to her on his little legs and... Asked her to protect him.

It was.. .Adorable. Utterly adorable. But also somehow heartbreaking. He was just this tiny thing, so vulnerable, and he wanted her to keep him safe. And from that day, she had made it her duty to do exactly that. It was never official, it was just something she felt she had to do. Ever since that day, he had never shown that kind of vulnerability to her, or to anyone else to her knowledge. That didn't matter. That little boy, her friend's son, he had asked her to keep him safe. So she would for as long as he needed it.

"Hmmmmm?"

The sudden sound startled Sara terribly. With scrambling movements she slammed the door to the library shut, the occupants blinking confused at the door but shrugging it off. Sara whirled around– "Oh," she breathed a sigh of relief. "Misla, you scared me."

Her King's smirk and raised eyebrows spelled trouble. "You know Sara, if I didn't know you better I'd be worried about how much time you spend looking at my son."

The frazzled Rook waved her hands defensively as if to ward off the not-quite accusation. "No, no! It's not like that at all!"

"I know. I just said that."

"R-Right! Haha... Ha..." The blonde laughed awkwardly as she tried to bring her heart rate back down to normal.

"Still," the lady of the house moved past her servant to look into the room herself, bearing an indulgent, motherly smile for a second before closing the door again, "You have clung to him for so long. You have to admit it's strange."

"I..." Sara struggled, trying to find the right words, finding none but, "I just want to protect him. That's all."

"I know you do, and don't think I don't appreciate it," Misla smiled. "He's one of my precious boys. I just hope you know how much it means to me for him to have someone so dedicated to watching out for him. I admit, I might dote on Sairaorg more. It always felt like Lelouch didn't really need me, especially with his father focusing only on him." Guiding her servant away from the library door she asked a question that had been on her mind for a few years. One she hadn't wanted to ask knowing what it would mean, but feeling the need in this moment. "You know... Lelouch does have a spare Rook piece. If you wanted to..."

Had Misla the capacity, she would have seen a flicker of red in her servant's eye.

"Do you... Would you... Mind?" Sara asked hesitantly.

Misla laughed, hugging her old friend. "Dear, how long have we known each other? If you want to move on I won't stop you. And if moving on keeps my baby safe I'm certainly not going to complain! We'll ask him later, alright?"

-(-)-

"Master Lelouch? Are you awake?"

Lelouch's head curled around to look behind him at Ana, his Bishop. The girl who currently had her arms wrapped around his midsection as they lay in his bed. "Is there something wrong?"

The pale girl, despite having called out to him and possibly awoken him, wasn't sure how to continue. How to bring up what she wanted to talk about. It was embarrassing for her, and probably would be for him if she had learned anything at all about her master. But... "I have officially been your servant for three years."

"I know, and I'm glad you're with me," he agreed. "Wait, has it been three years exactly?" He wasn't sure if she cared about such an anniversary but, "If so then I'm sorry for not not realising. I'll have to see about getting the chefs to prepare a celebration of some kind, perhaps some dishes from your homeland–"

"No no, it's nothing like that!" she assured him, "And you don't need to prepare anything for days like that. I'm just–... I'm happy being your servant."

And how strange it was to admit that. But the things they'd done together, the time they had spent together. It had been the happiest she had been in so many years.

"Oh," he murmured, confused at what this was about if not that.

"Master Lelouch, why have you not... Umm... Propositioned me?"

The Bael heir's eyes widened. "Uhh..."

"Sexually, that is."

"No, no, I understood that."

"Good, I didn't want there to be further confusion."

"There wasn't."

"Good. That's... That's good."

Thanks to their close contact, both could feel the heat from the other's vibrant blush.

"I, erhem!" Lelouch cleared his throat as his voice cracked, "I thought... You would be opposed to that kind of thing. From your experiences with Zekram."

"That was, I was," she struggled for the words, "It was different. He would have treated me like a toy. I know you don't think of me like that."

"Of course not, but–"

"And this is something you need," she continued over whatever he might have said. "With the way your mood is, you're getting frustrated, lashing out against people when you know better." That much, she knew Lelouch couldn't deny. The day before had been his birthday and his friends and acquaintances had been invited, not like the big event of a debut, just a pleasant celebration between friends. And then Lelouch had decked Zephyrdor for a comment that might have been a slight against Sairaorg if one really wanted to take it that way.

"It isn't that big a problem–"

"And–" She cut him off again... But stopped. "And... I like you," she forced out. "I w-want to do this for you, so–"

"Ana..." Lelouch cut her off this time, but he couldn't find a good way to give his answer. So in absence of the right words, he shook his head.

"No?" she asked, hurt by the rejection. "Oh, I... I see. No, I understand. I've known for a long time in fact, I just didn't want to have to take this step. But if this is what it takes." She swallowed. "Lelouch, I want you to use your power on me. The one you used on Miss Sara."

That made him sit up. Not just sit up, but bring the lights up so he could see her properly. "What?"

She sat up with him, sitting cross legged on the bed in front of him. "I know what the real reason is that you don't want to do this. It's because you don't trust me. Because I was Zekram's servant. Because of Viy. Either. Both. You think I'm trying to manipulate you and you're scared it might be working."

"And of course, Viy would see that," Lelouch murmured.

The former duchess nodded. "I want you to be able to trust me and if this is what it takes... I accept that. I'm your servant anyway so..."

"It's not the same," Lelouch assured her, "It's..."

It was the only thing that would let him truly trust her. She was right. With her having worked for Zekram and seen in to the darkest corners of his own heart, there was no way he could accept anything she said or did at face value. While he liked her a great deal, she was fun, upbeat, so curious about the world... Every time he found something he liked about her it was in the back of his head, was it just for his sake, to get on his good side? And adding an even more intimate aspect of their relationship, he couldn't even imagine. After Nunnally, after Shirley, after Euphemia, even Suzaku, one of his greatest weaknesses was his love for the people he cared about. Adding intimacy between him and Ana would put her right at or near the top of that list of people. There was no escaping that. He was young, inexperienced and he felt, as all devils did. The more affection he held for her, the more dangerous she was.

Even her asking him to do this, to use his Geass, he could easily dismiss it as a ploy to gain his trust knowing he wouldn't use it. The only way, the only way to be sure...

"Are you sure?" he asked finally, seriously. "As far as I know there's no going back, no reversing it."

"I'm sure," she nodded, smiling slightly. "I want this. I want you to know you can believe in me."

Lelouch swallowed, a stylised crane appearing in his left eye. He took a deep breath, "Any time I say to you 'I want you to be honest with me', answer my next question with complete honesty."

An instant later, a ring of red shined around her iris before fading into nothing. "Is it over?" she asked. "Did it work?"

"Now is the time to find out," Lelouch answered. "I want you to be honest with me." The red ring returned. "... Have you been manipulating me?"

"Yes," she answered promptly, the ring fading again before her eyes widened. "Wait, that's not–!"

"I'm not an idiot, Ana," Lelouch assured her, though he did regret asking such a closed question. "I want you to be honest with me. For what purpose have you been manipulating me?"

"I want you to like me," she answered and once again the control of geass slipped away, this time leaving Ana feeling much more secure about her answer, smiling.

"I want you to be honest with me," Lelouch stated again, "Why do you want me to like you?"

"Because I like you." Once again, the answer was flatly spoken. "Lelouch," Ana pleaded, feeling that should be enough.

"Just one more, I promise," Lelouch insisted. He had to be sure. "I want you to be honest with me. What are all of the reasons you want me to like you in descending order of priority?"

"Because I like you. Because you keep me safe. Because you provide for my basic needs."

Lelouch's jaw hung slack. That... That was it? That was all of her reasons? Just the basic requirements of being her King and... Because she liked him? He couldn't even pretend she was faking. There was nothing that could inform her of the signals that it was in effect. So far as he knew, no one else could even see them but a geass user or a code bearer.

"Lelouch..."

The guilt crashed into him. He threw himself at her, holding her tightly. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" It was overwhelming! He had doubted her all this time! Even here and now and she had been nothing but honest with him from the very start!

"It's okay," she soothed him, stroking his hair as he rode out the powerful emotions. "I'm glad. I wanted you to know and... And now you know," she said, smile in her voice. They stayed like that for a few minutes before she spoke up again. "Shall we go back to bed, Master?"

He nodded into her chest, letting her pull him back into bed and wrap her arms around his middle again.

The light winked out. Lelouch felt Ana's hand slip lower down his abdomen. His breath hitched. "Shh, shh, shh!" she whispered in his ear, "Just relax... I'm going to take care of you, my master."

-(-)-

Misla wore a satisfied smile as she sashayed into her husband's office late into the evening. "Lelouch seems to have calmed down a great deal over the past few days," she told her husband looking entirely too smug.

"I hadn't noticed," Herodotus answered absently, not looking up from his work. "Though I'm glad to hear it. His temper was becoming something of a problem of late. Would it have anything to do with the new Rook you traded to him?"

His wife nodded along, playing with the rope of her dressing gown, "I believe it might have something to do with how he and Ana have been sneaking off alone several times a day."

The Bael head's pen stopped scratching at paperwork. A beat later, his head came up to regard his wife. "They're...?"

She nodded. "I caught them under the first floor stairs with his lad in her hand–"

Herodotus cringed. "Alright, that's rather more detail than I needed," he warned her, shaking his head. "Still, that's rather good news. I swear, for how intelligent that boy is about some things he's an utter fool in others."

"Well, he's young. He's learning," the lady of the house shrugged in just such a way that her gown would slip open just a little. "So I was wondering how much work you had left to do tonight?"

"Ahh..." came the slow non-answer as he stared at the sliver of exposed skin hinting at what lay underneath the robe, "Just a little?"

"Just a little?" she echoed coyly as the gown opened just a touch more. "Can just a little wait until the morning?"

"Uhh..." he uttered transfixed, but blinked as he actually thought about the question. "Sadly no," he answered with deep, deep regret.

"Oh. Well, that's a shame," she said sadly, honestly, "If you get it done quickly I might wait up for you...?"

He swallowed, his head bobbing slowly, "I would very much appreciate that."

"Mm-hmmm," she hummed as she walked out the door. "Work hard, husband," she offered before closing it behind her.

Regretfully, despite his quadrupled efforts to get the urgent matters dealt with quickly, it was more than half an hour before he managed to retire to the bedroom. By that time his wife had already succumbed to slumber. He would need to find some way to make it up to her in the morning.

-(-)-

Lelouch was at a loss. She just looked... So peaceful.

Doctors and healers had been and gone. Any and every specialist had walked through the halls of Bael Castle that day. Every single one of them said the exact same thing.

Herodotus tried to appear stoic as he always had, to not show weakness. Sairaorg wouldn't stop crying.

On that day, Lady Misla Bael had fallen asleep and simply... Failed to wake up. The sleeping sickness. A disease not well understood but uniform in its effect. One day the victim would fall into a sleep they were unable to wake from. Asleep they could remain for years on end, until one day they either recovered or simply... passed away.

For all intents and purposes, Misla Bael was gone.