7This is co-written, so credit goes to 9Jou10, the brilliant angst mastermind behind this AU's Suzaku, and PrinceMewstar (Mewsy), in charge of all things Lelouch! Ratings may change depending on how the story flows.
Phase 1
On the tenth of August 2017 a.t.b., Lelouch vi Britannia, the eleventh prince of the largest empire in the world, was incredibly bored.
He laid sideways across the arms of a large chair, sighing at the uninteresting, uneventfully clear blue sky. Ugh. Lelouch stretched out even further, his gaze dropping from the palace garden windows. He stared at the remains of the chess game he'd played by himself for the twelfth time that day. Plotting against Schneizel lost its novelty after a while.
"I'm royalty. Why in the whole forsaken world am I just lying around?" Lelouch hissed, glancing around the empty room, the white suit he'd tossed on the floor beside him. Let the others bug him about wrinkled clothes. It was something to do, at least.
After his mother's early death to an unexpected sickness, Lelouch found his life repeatedly turning to boredom. With the recent international turmoil, Lelouch's father was always busy. He left Lelouch to laze about or take etiquette lessons or prepare speeches or do just about anything except something exciting.
"I. Am. A. Prince." Lelouch sat up, sighing again. "Why am I so bored?"
A knock on the doorframe broke the silence. "Lelouch?" It was the voice of a girl — a princess, to be exact. It was Nunnally vi Britannia, eighty-seventh in line for the throne and Lelouch's younger sister.
"Yes?" He turned around in his seat.
Nunnally was wearing her favorite violet dress with white lace and gold trim, a gift from their half-sister, Euphemia. Nunnally's eyes, the same vivid violet as Lelouch's, were shining with affection and excitement.
Nunnally tucked a stray hair behind her ear. She strode over to the forgotten white suit on the ground, picking it up with a concerned frown. "Brother, you shouldn't be so careless with your things! Look, now it's dusty." She pawed and patted at the spot she claimed to see, but there really wasn't much of it. The floor was clean, after all. "What are you going to wear if this gets dirty?"
A soft smile appeared on Lelouch's chiseled face. He brushed aside his dark bangs, sitting straighter. Of all people, I'm glad it's you.
"Ah. You're right. I should take better care of my things." Lelouch accepted the suit when she handed it back to him, slipping it on with grace. "You look stunning as always, Nunnally."
A smile more radiant than the sun lit up her face. "Thank you, Lelouch!"
She twirled, the skirt of her dress rippling with her movements. Lelouch knew she didn't need a special reason to wear the dress — she'd worn it for fun enough times. But when she stilled, her hands clasped in front of her, he could tell she was pushing for luck.
What does she want? "Is there a special occasion?"
She hesitated, eyes trailing shyly to the ceiling, fingers twisting in her skirt. "Today Euphy invited me to go with her to visit Clovis," Nunnally said, voice tentative, "in Area 11 … tomorrow. He's been there for a long time, and Euphy and I thought he'd want to see some familiar faces for a change. We wanted to know …"
Lelouch scowled. She knew that letting her go to a former war zone without him was out of the que—
Nunnally's gaze snapped back to him. "Do you want to come with us? Maybe?"
Lelouch's objection quieted. Well … Lelouch still didn't like the idea, but it was a chance to get out there and, well, he would be with them so it would be fine …
Not to mention he'd never been to Area 11 on any of his diplomatic visits. Lelouch was tired of being the deadweight prince with no real experience. He couldn't miss the opportunity.
"Sure. I'll come with you."
She gasped dramatically. "Yay!" Nunnally threw her arms around him, jumping up and down in excitement. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
Lelouch laughed. Nunnally drew back after a tight squeeze, still giggling.
"I'm going to go tell Euphy now! See you at dinner!" She waved goodbye and skipped out of the room, shutting the door behind her.
"Area 11, huh," Lelouch said thoughtfully, turning to look outside, gaze drifting to the horizon. Goodbye, boredom.
Having sisters had to be one of his greatest gifts.
After dinner and without protest, their remaining half-brothers wished them safe travels. The emperor wasn't there to say goodbye, but things seemed to be going smoothly for the three of them. Euphemia had somehow found permission to visit Clovis on her own, as she confided later that Cornelia didn't know they were traveling to Area 11.
There was another catch. Lelouch would have to ride in a public aircraft, not a private jet. His sisters wanted to get the full experience of life in Area 11, complete with whining children and the judgments of the rabble. He'd had half a mind to complain, using the danger of travel as an excuse to save his pride.
But Lelouch hated staying complacent. If it took a minor sacrifice of comfort, bowing his head to the whims of his sisters … then he would do what he had to do.
He packed his things and double-checked that Nunnally hadn't forgotten anything. The next day, they took off.
Aside from the noise, the ride was similar to the other flights he'd been on. Lelouch usually would have minded the chatter, but his mind was jumbled with possibilities, with questions, with plans to secure himself in his father's eyes. I heard there's a lot of underground crime in the Shinjuku Ghetto. Actually, there's crime everywhere. Seven years under our control — well, Clovis doesn't have the guts to investigate them that thoroughly, so I could …
The ding of the plane's speakers interrupted his thoughts.
"We will now be touching down at the Tokyo Settlement landing station. Passengers, stay seated until further notice. Flight attendants and cabin crew, please prepare for gate departure. Thank you for riding with us."
Lelouch glanced over at Euphy finishing her ice cream, then at the guards posted in the seats behind a dozing Nunnally. The clouds covering the windows were beginning to thin, the roar of the engines masking the sounds of the approaching city. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't excited.
o-o-o-o
In Nunnally's opinion, it was too loud to sleep. Still, the eleven-hour flight to get to Area 11 (she wondered if it had been named just for that pun) was far too long and exhausting for her to stay awake the whole way. Her thighs ached from the lack of circulation. The discomfort kept her from truly falling asleep, but her eyelids were heavy, her head drooping.
Only the unsteadiness around her and the lurching in her stomach woke her up enough to realize she hadn't put her seatbelt back on. Nunnally was tempted to leave it unbuckled and see if she could float in the air before they touched down.
Alas, 'twas not meant to be. Lelouch delivered a pointed glare in her direction, and she promptly flushed, sheepish. Fully awake and rather red, Nunnally hastily fastened her seatbelt.
Down, down, down the plane went, slow but dizzying. Windows opened as passengers attempted to decipher the pilot's instructions over the roaring din, and the city lights sparkled and glittered vividly below as if they were stars in the late afternoon.
"Lelouch, Euphy, look!" Nunnally exclaimed, peering through the glass herself. "It's so pretty!"
"Wow, it is!" Euphy said. She and Lelouch both watched their descent with smiles on their faces.
Soon enough, they reached the airport. The plane bounced as it landed, the floor rumbling beneath Nunnally's feet. She held tightly to the armrests until the rumbling subsided, the noise finally quieting.
Nunnally adjusted her jaw and pinched her nose, lightly blowing to pop her ears. She didn't quite catch the pilot's instructions, but it couldn't be that hard to figure out — besides, she trusted Lelouch to have listened. Her big brother was cool and reliable like that.
She patiently awaited further instruction, gazing adoringly at Lelouch.
"Alright!" Lelouch smiled at her. "Let's get going."
The flight attendants shuffled past, checking the aisles. Euphy and Lelouch stood, stretching their stiffness away. Lelouch shook his head, lightly patting down his hair where it had gotten extra fluffy. His hair really was a mess.
"The car is waiting at the station, right?" he asked.
"It should be," Euphemia said, checking her phone. "It's a black Oldsmobile."
Nunnally giggled. "That kind of car never goes out of style, does it? Even though it's supposed to be old."
Their carry-on luggage more or less consisted of the girls' purses, so they didn't need to worry about retrieving their bags from the overhead compartments.
Further down the plane, in economy seating, an argument could be heard breaking out over two identical bags. Nunnally tried to take a peek at them, but Euphemia stopped her and shook her head.
"I'll take care of it," Euphemia promised, winking.
Euphy laid a hand on Lelouch's shoulder to tell him the same, but as she did, the argument ended. A small girl pulled out a well-loved stuffed toy from one of the bags. The adults looked sheepishly at one another and took up their respective bags, and that was the end of it.
The flight attendants called for departure to begin, and they, seated in first class, were among the first to disembark. Down the twisting hall and into the airport they went. Monitors soundlessly flashed the news, captions announcing this and that. Nunnally tried to catch a glimpse of the nearest one, but Euphemia suddenly stepped into her line of sight.
Cheeks puffed in displeasure, Nunnally tried to look around her, but the breaking news had already flashed to some other story, a heartwarming feature about a beached whale returning to the ocean. Her eyes watered in happiness for the whale, but her growing frustration ruined it. She wanted to know what the other story had been — it looked important.
Lelouch, however, did seem to have seen the news, as his expression became contemplating. His happy smirk went away, a small crease folding his brow. He always looked like this when the wars were mentioned, anything politically dramatic, anything their brothers accomplished without him.
Someone who didn't know him like she did couldn't have picked up on it. But Nunnally knew better. His mannerisms alone were enough to tell her that whatever was on the news was nothing good.
They bustled along the spacious hall, the clack of their shoes echoing on the tile floor. What seemed like hundreds of people were gathered a ways off, talking up a storm and following as close to the royal guards as they dared.
Cameras flashed in the crowd. Lelouch pushed down a scowl and offered a beaming smile at a group waving at him. He wasn't much for paparazzi unless he had something to gain from a nice picture, but a prince couldn't be too careful about his reputation.
Nunnally frowned. Instinctively, she drew closer to Lelouch and clung to his sleeve, trying to comfort him without drawing too much attention. She realized her mistake immediately.
She knew Lelouch didn't mind gestures of affection from her, but she was a princess and a vi Britannia. There was a time and place for being a little sister, and here, out in the open with paparazzi everywhere, was not it. Remembering that, Nunnally forced herself to let go of his sleeve.
As expected, the shark frenzy followed them. All Nunnally could do was smile beatifically, staying close to her brother, but not so close that anyone could make a distasteful feature story out of it.
It was only after the black Oldsmobile could be seen through the windows that the crowd began to thin. Euphemia consulted her phone to make sure it was theirs, somewhat unnecessarily, as their chauffeur was already waiting for them by the door when they got out.
Nunnally sped up, nearly breaking into a run.
"I call shotgun!" she declared, even though she figured Lelouch or Euphemia would scold her and tell her to sit in the back where it was just a smidge safer. Sure enough, Euphemia opened her door mere moments after Nunnally'd slammed it shut, looking amused and expectant.
Pouting, the younger princess surrendered her spot and moved to the back seat with Lelouch. She turned her puppy-dog gaze on him. "You're not going to leave me and tell Euphy to switch with you, are you? I want to sit next to you!"
"What? Of course not," he answered as if it were the furthest thing from his mind. Lelouch buckled up, resting one warm hand over hers after she'd done the same. "Although if you truly wished to sit with me, why'd you call shotgun?" He grinned slyly.
"To see if I could get away with it," Nunnally replied. "Obviously, I couldn't, but now I get to sit with you!"
The car started, engine rumbling to life, and Nunnally suddenly sported a sly grin of her own. She clamped her other hand down on Lelouch's, holding him in place despite him not having anywhere to run.
Her eyes glittered with mischief. "You get to tell me all about that breaking news report now. The one that was on at the airport right before the beached whale."
"You see, they're having a wonderful sale on sesame steamed buns at Tok —"
"Stop," Nunnally interrupted, looking him dead in the eye. "I know you, Lelouch. You made The Face back at the airport, the one that means you just saw something about the Empire or the things it's involved in that you didn't like. I'm not a little kid anymore, you know — I'm fourteen and eighty-seventh in line for the throne. I am royalty just as much as you are. These are my people too. I need to know."
His innocent mask slipped away, the raw Lelouch who she saw when he was alone … or rather after she'd caught him brooding when he thought he was. It was not the face of a prince, but a boy. "Nunnally …"
Her brother couldn't bear to hold her gaze. He turned to watch the passing city instead, squeezing her hand more harshly than he had to.
Lelouch lowered his voice. "There was a riot this morning. A group of students … apparently, they were Elevens who'd got fed up with the system. They burned down the house of a Britannian ambassador while his wife and kids were there."
Nunnally's eyes widened, and her grip subconsciously tightened over Lelouch's hand in turn. His touch was comforting, grounding, as she closed her eyes and grieved.
She knew loss, of course. How could she not, when her mother had passed away with her hand around Nunnally's, tears in her eyes? When even Lelouch, normally unflappable, had begged Nunnally to stop screaming, snot running down his chin?
Yes, Nunnally knew loss, and she knew it acutely. Even this was loss — the ambassador and his family were strangers to her, but they were her people. They were Britannians who had sworn to serve the royal family and their country. It hurt, if not a little more numbly than the death of her mother.
She raised her brother's hand, clasping it in both of hers. She kissed it softly to search for comfort as she mourned, two thin rivulets streaming down her face. "Wh-why …?" she choked out, voice shaking as her tears continued to fall. "Wh-why would the Elevens do such a thing? Wh-what have we done that was so horrible?"
Lelouch's other hand found its way to her hair, stroking her long, light brown locks. He didn't say anything to her. Euphy glanced backwards in her seat briefly, looking worried.
It was just as her sentiments started to prickle at Lelouch's own eyes that a distant, loud boom erupted somewhere ahead. He jerked his head frantically to the car window. The pedestrians were suddenly a lot louder than usual.
"What just happened?" Lelouch demanded, dragging his hand away from Nunnally's hair, though the one around her hand stayed there. He squinted, trying to see beyond the buildings.
There was smoke in the sky.