Being, well, me, I can't really look at anything without thinking, "Well, what if that had happened? Well, how would he react to that, what would her views on that be?" Hence my various one-shots. Code Geass is one of the series that makes me think without stopping, so it only made sense that I had a story I could put all of my thoughts into. Hence, Moments (a rather unimaginitive title. For those of you with creative genes-- aka, all of you-- I'm looking for a better title. If you have any suggestions, please help me out). I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

NOTICE: Moments may (or may not) contain spoilers up to r2 episode 10, as that's as far as I've gotten. Please refrain from putting any major spoilers in your reviews or anywhere. Thank you.

Title: Cranes
Fiction Rating: K
Genre: General/Reflections
Characters: Various (Lelouch, Kallen, C.C., Nunally, Suzaku, and Rolo)
Pairings: N/A

Summary: Maybe it's not the actual creation of the elegant, beautiful paper crane that makes it so significant, but the thoughts that tend to occur while folding. Everyone knows someone who coud use a wish. Lelouch seems to be a pretty common subject.

Lelouch flipped a page in his book, causing a cloud of dust to erupt from its underused pages. He scratched his nose and his eyes quickly fell back onto the pages.

"Ah! Someone's thinking about you!" Rivalz exclaimed loudly.

Lelouch gave him a look.

"What? You scratched your nose. It means—"

"I know what it means," Lelouch said calmly, looking back at his book. "But it's really just another absurd superstition."

"Whatever you say, Lelouch." Rivalz sighed knowingly. Sometimes it seemed like Lelouch could use some serious lightening up.

Kallen put down the clumsily made, askew and deformed bird and sank into her couch. She wasn't sure why she'd done that. It was one thousand cranes, not one, for a wish, right? Well, she was 99 percent sure that her wish was completely unnecessary, so she only needed the thousandth of a wish that the single crane would provide.

Honestly. He didn't need her bogus wishes.

Yet she couldn't stop herself five minutes ago from folding out the little bird, eyes glittering with a childish sense of excitement, an image of a beautiful, flawless finished project in her mind. Unfortunately, she hadn't paid any attention when Milly had shown the Student Council how to make them, so it truly was a wonder she could even make this… this paper disaster.

Unnecessary paper disaster, at that.

Lelouch had everything under control.

She sank back into her the couch with a sigh, keeping her eyes fixed on the dead-looking bird on the table before her, and let her eyelids flutter closed. She had awful sleeping habits, staying awake all night. She was tired.

After only seconds of this, she sat upright again and grabbed the crane. Her fingers moved nimbly, fixing a crease here, flattening the paper there… the finished product, while not as beautiful as she would've liked, was certainly less ugly than the first.

She suddenly felt embarrassed, like she'd been caught with her hand in a cookie jar, even though no one was around.

But it was true that…

Well, Zero… he needed all of the help he could get.

She looked at the bird. It looked back. Promptly, she crushed it in her palm.

Zero? Need help? That was just stupid.

C.C. removed her long hair from the pigtails and shook it loose. What a pain, having to go out like that, hiding. It certainly did make it difficult for her to acquire a good pizza.

If only things were simple. But of course that wasn't the case. If people could accept that as easily as she could, a life would be a considerably less difficult thing to lead.

C.C. sat in the nearest chair. She hated days like these, when Lelouch had to go to school to keep up airs. It certainly was a bore. Conquering the world had to be temporarily postponed.

C.C. smiled a little at her own inward remark. Her Zero… how ambitious he was. He was, if nothing else, amusing.

Maybe she'd go pick up a pizza anyway, say hello to Lelouch at school, laugh silently at his horrified and indignant expression, and then leave. That sounded entertaining.

She glanced down at the desk, where a blank piece of scrap paper laid, and folded a single crease down the middle, busying herself as she worked on her decision.

Hm.

She folded down the corners.

Unable to stop herself, she continued folding the way Lelouch's sister had shown her, pressing her delicate fingers hard against the weak paper, thinking of Nunally. What a silly girl, thinking she could change the world just by making a bunch of useless birds. In no time, her paper transformed into a life-like crane.

C.C. placed it on Zero's desk and set off to find some other source of entertainment.

Lelouch would know who the crane was from. After all, it was white as snow.

Nunally's garden was beautiful. She could felt it; feel the soft rose petals against her small fingers, smell the freesia and other perfumes wafting through the air… though it was long ago, she had seen gardens before. She remembered her mother's perfectly: there were lemon trees as far as the eye could see, along with other flowers in every shade of the rainbow and then some. Her mother liked the lemon trees especially because the flowers the produced were beautiful, and they gave off a sweet, delicious perfume. And if you ever grew tired of the flowers, well, it bore you fruit as well.

Two hundred and seventeen…

She'd forgotten the appearance of many things, and she'd forget more things as the years passed. She'd soon forget the shade of blue the sky was, the color of the setting sun… she'd even forget the sight of the lemon trees. But she'd never forget the sight of her mother.

Two hundred and eighteen…

Or Lelouch.

Two hundred and nineteen…

Her pile of cranes was swiftly escalating. Eventually, she would reach one thousand, but she didn't mind the wait for that day to come. It was very calming, folding the cranes, forming the dreams and wishes ever so slowly.

Two hundred and twenty…

Her fingers slid across another sheet, folding the wings. She wasn't sure of what she'd wish for when she finally finished.

Two hundred and twenty-one…

It was between Lelouch's eternal safety…

Two hundred and twenty-two…

Or the complete and total defeat of the terrorist Zero.

She wondered if she could have both.

Suzaku Kuryugi had three cranes lined up: A pink one, a purple one, and a black one: Euphie, Lelouch, and Zero.

Euphie's was for her soul, but was completely unnecessary. Without a doubt, Euphie was in eternal paradise, wherever that was.

He wasn't sure why he'd made on for Lelouch, however. Maybe it represented memories, before Zero, before Japanese was "Area Eleven." But as of now, Lelouch was not Zero… Suzaku hoped he wasn't at least. But did that really absolve his sins? Hardly.

As for Zero's crane, the one that was, naturally, black, well…

Suzaku crumpled it into his fist and then shredded it into a million pieces, sighing happily when he'd finished. The sight of the black scraps everywhere gave him a childish sense of satisfaction. He was being immature, but he didn't care.

Well.

That was nearly as satisfying as if he could crumple and tear the real Zero.

Rolo had two cranes. Both were minuscule, having been made out of half an index card. As Rolo waited for Lelouch to come out, he sat on the steps of Ashford, thinking. One was for him, one for Lelouch. Blue and green.

Could a crane save him from eternal damnation?

Not likely.

Maybe if he put an effort into it and tried for a thousand, but he just… wasn't devoted enough. Plus, one thousand or one million cranes, nothing would be enough to erase his sins… the bloodshed…

Rolo put the two small birds beside him, not wanting to think about it, and twisted the locket attached to his phone nervously.

A shrill bell rang and students came pouring out of the halls. Rolo moved out of their way, scooting over so they didn't step on him.

A foot came from behind and stepped on one of the cranes. The student who'd crushed it looked down, but didn't bother to apologize.

Rolo lifted the bird silently. It was a sky blue shade-- his. The green, Lelouch's, still stood unharmed. He crumpled the remains of the blue crane.

So paper folding wouldn't save him. He felt foolish for even considering it.

But at this point, he was willing to try anything.

Lelouch scratched his nose again.

"Do you have a cold?" Rivalz asked innocently. Lelouch rolled his eyes.

"Don't know why, Lelouch," Rivalz continued, turning back to his homework. "But there are a lot of people thinking about you today."

For those of you who actually remember this from when you were little kids, yes, I did screw up the superstition. It's actually supposed to be, when your nose itches, someone is talking about you. However, I'm not afraid to screw things up if it's to the benifit of my story.

I'll try to update this weekly but I'm not making any promises. Also, hate to be a review whore, but it's just a fact that I tend to update more often when I get more reviews. It's just because reviews inspire me to write. Thanks for reading, and please let me know what you thought: what could be improved, what should stay the same.