Pre-notes: Just a little something to celebrate the completion of the originally planned set of tangents =)

Disclaimer: Code Geass belongs to Sunrise.

"Your majesty."

Lelouch vi Britannia, the first emperor under the constitutional monarchy of the United States of Britannia, came awake at the attendant's light shaking of his shoulder. At his whispered word of thanks, the attendant bowed and left the imperial family's cabin as quietly as she had entered. After momentarily rubbing the sleep off his eyes, he turned his gaze to the sleeping figures of his wife of ten years and their eight-year-old son.

They were in the imperial private jet on their way to Japan, as was their summer ritual. For a week, they would be staying with the current Prime Minister's family in their summer home. As in every trip, he had instructed the cabin attendant to wake him ninety minutes before they land in Tokyo. He himself would then wake the rest of his family minutes later.

Thirty minutes later, to be exact. He never seemed to get enough of watching Kallen and Roland (whom they named after a knight of legend) as they slept, going so far as to 'cheat' by having the attendant trained by Sayoko so she will only be waking him and not the other two. A prince waking his princess with a kiss never lost its novelty, did it? Roland caught him talking to the attendant this time, though, and had extracted from him the promise to let the boy be the one to wake his mother. Lelouch agreed, of course, but their 'men's agreement' would not be coming into effect for another twenty minutes yet.

He smiled. His son was definitely opening himself up more, albeit slowly. The visits to Japan were actually bi-annual until the children's adventure (or misadventure) the previous year. In previous visits, the three barely exchanged words beyond what they were told to say. When the last one ended, Ohgi's daughter (the then five-year-old Chigusa) was already calling Roland her 'Rolo-niichan', and Naoto (Ohgi's eldest) was hanging off his shoulder as a long-time freind would. Soon enough, both fathers were pestered with questions about the date of their next visit. The children also began exchanging letters (as the difference in time zones would disturb their sleeping habits should they use the video comm), and Ohgi was happy it motivated Chigusa to learn to spell properly.

His smile faded into a thoughtful look. Three children: a brother, his sister, and their friend. He couldn't help thinking that history was somehow working to repeat itself. He couldn't help thinking that the sins of the fathers would one day be the cause of the children's suffering; that something was about to happen that would thrust these very children right into the middle of it.

If such a thing does happen, he thought to himself, they will not be on their own. Not this time.

His thoughts went back to the two years he had spent fighting against his most trusted friend. Had the Second Pacific War not separated them, he believed this new world would have been achieved without as much bloodshed. What he said back then was true and would always be true: as long as they worked together, there was nothing that they could not achieve. The bond that the children formed among themselves already showed similar strengths, and he would sooner die than let the children experience the pain of having to go against each other. If, however, that worst-case scenario were to happen,

C.C., I'm counting on you.

When his thirty minutes were finally up, Lelouch gently nudged his son awake. The boy squirmed a little in his seat between his parents', and managed to hold back a loud yawn when he opened his eyes to see Lelouch's signal for silence. After exchanging a conspiratorial grin and a few more signals, father and son positioned themselves on either side of Kallen - Roland standing on his own seat to her left so he could reach her face better, while Lelouch knelt at her right.

At Lelouch's nod, Roland kissed his mother's left cheek. She stirred, but only opened her left eye, looked at her son, and, seemingly, went back to sleep. Roland looked to his father, confused. Lelouch only shrugged, and then planted a kiss on Kallen's right cheek. This time, she opened her right eye, then promptly went back to sleep.

'Together,' Lelouch mouthed, and then counted to three. Needless to say, they achieved their desired result. After Kallen kissed her two 'princes' in thanks (But I'm the only prince here, Mother!), the three of them moved to look out one of the windows. Within an hour before landing in Tokyo, the memorial tower built at the center of the crater formed by FLEIJA was visible. That, along with what remains of Mt. Fuji behind it (visible when the humidity is low), formed a spectacular sight - though both were reminders of the lives lost in a war that happened nearly twelve years ago.

Lelouch and Kallen watched their son marvel at the sight. For now, they would let him see it as a sign that he would be meeting his friends soon. In due time they would tell him the whole story behind those two monuments, and of how the lives of friends, family, and foe were lost to make the world he grew up in possible.

Moments later their plane's captain informed them they would be landing soon. They returned to their seats, fastened their seat belts (I can do it, Father, see?), and looked forward to making another summer of memories.

~ August 10, 2030atb ~

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End-notes: Thanks go to misaoshiru and VNEpic (*poke*) for beta-reading the first half. If the latter half's a mess (it's not, is it? ;_;), that's all me.

Yes, a sequel is in the planning stages, but still needs lots and lots of research. Multi-chapter fics do not live on fluff alone, after all. ;)

Thanks to everybody for reading! ^_^