This chapter's warning: sorry, this chapter contains neither angst nor citrus, just some kisses. The village where Jeremiah's dwells (as a farmer) remains unidentified in the canon series, so I just call it 'Avebury' in this fanfic.

CHAPTER III

The Field of Dreams: Anya Alstreim x Jeremiah Gottwald

The sun shone blazingly on the clear summer sky. For the oranges in the field, this was an ideal weather. For himself, nonetheless, this was a bit too warm. Wiping the sweat drops on his eyebrows, Jeremiah took a god look at the sky without glaring at the sun. He missed one girl whom he knew he must not have — the girl who was currently three hundred miles away from him, smiling at her mobile phone.

'I'm thinking of resigning from the military and volunteered to be a Red Cross member. Kallen finally accepts my love; she'll be happier if I supply the medicines for victims of war rather than making war casualties.' was what appeared on the screen. Her best friend, Gino Weinberg, had just sent her an e-mail complete with all the relevant emoticons.

Anya typed back, 'Congratulation! I'm so happy for you. Now it's my turn to "persuade" Orenji-kun. May I borrow an item from Weinberg's private collection?'

She was barely seventeen; he was nearly thirty. They both were aware of this. In fact, this was the reason they didn't hook up to each other until now.

After Zero Requiem, Nunnally became the Empress of Holy Britannia with Schneizel as her prime minister. Royal pardon was granted to all surviving Knights of Round, all the remaining Black Knights, and all the scientists involved. Even so, undesiring to serve anyone other than Marianne and Lelouch, Jeremiah resigned. He was now an ordinary farmer.

With Marianne' existence completely disappearing from her mind, Anya no longer intend to keep her Knight of Six title. After all, Knightmare piloting had always been the love of Marianne's life, not Anya's. What was, then, the thing that captivated Anya Alstreim — the queen of apathy?

Sports? No.

Singing? Dancing? Still no.

What about a certain man who was clad with Geass Canceller and Cybernetic Eye ‒ the one who restored her memories and tended her battle wounds? Well, the answer to that question would be … yes!

The problem was, he only saw her as a child — an immature teenage girl, at best. How could she expect him to answer her feeling this way?

###

That night, the stars twinkled brightly to keep the serene moon's company. The owls hooted from their tree branches. The bats hunted for any small animals they could find. Nothing out of the ordinary happened to the village of Avebury, except for…

'It's a Sutherland!'

'What's a knightmare frame doing in our village?'

'Besides, shouldn't that model be out of production at present?'

'Maybe its pilot is an enemy who stole a Britannian knightmare frame!'

Being a small village with no military force, Avebury was immediately panic-stricken by the mere presence of the single knightmare. Every villagers, old and young, was debating whether to run for their dear lives or stay together and fight back with farming equipments. After long argument, they seemed to resolve on the latter option; there were many of them but one opponent only, after all.

At any rate, they created enough ruckuses to wake Jeremiah up. Craning his neck over the window, he perceived nearly the entire villagers chasing a single Sutherland over the fields with flashlights and hoes and other farming tools in their hands.

Is the Sutherland's weaponry broken? It should have been possible for the knightmare pilot to subjugate such a small village, if he or she wanted to.

Jeremiah came out from his cottage and joined the crowd. He carried no weapon, for he did this out of pure curiosity. As soon as the Sutherland spotted his presence, however, he was snatched away in a flight.

'What's your purpose?' he asked when they were hundreds of feet above the ground. The villagers' houses looked like miniatures from here. He was not stupid enough to yell, 'Let go of me!'

'You,' answered the pilot.

'I beg your pardon?'

Instead of answering, the pilot landed on a cluster of stones nearby. None of these stones was high enough to conceal the knightmare, even though it was parked in kneeling position, but that was the best findable hideout at the moment.

Having put Jeremiah safely on the ground, the pilot ejected herself from the knightmare frame.

Jeremiah's stomach gave him a jolt. Stepping out from the Sutherland was Anya Alstreim. She seemed more beautiful than the last time he saw her — the time he rejected her advance and left the royal court to live as a farmer. Suppressing his own emotion, Jeremiah addressed her, 'Why did you do this? Didn't I leave you alone to be happy in this peaceful world?'

'A world without war can be called "peaceful", but a world without you can't be called "happy".'

Jeremiah stared at her, astounded. For a moment, his resolution wavered. Was this young girl that serious about him? Nevertheless, the time freezing was over for both of them only seconds later; reasons returned to his senses.

'Happiness and I are two immiscible entities. I belong to war. You belong to happiness.'

'Oh, really? What do you know about my war and my happiness?' barked Anya.

This was the first time he ever saw her so agitated; she had always been calm and apathetic. He could almost not believe that he was indeed talking to Anya Alstreim rather than an overly emotional damsel.

'What do you know about what I feel…,' she continued, '… when you left me, you left a war within me as well. My heart was warring whether I should pursue you or let you go… should I care about your happiness or mine… From the moment I've met you, my heart can never be peaceful as the way it was. Now that I know it isn't impossible for you to love me, I want to accomplish the happiness for the both of us.'

Anya was at the verge of tears and as much as Jeremiah wanted to embrace her, he knew he mustn't. Clenching his fists, he uttered, 'That's what's called "puppy love"; you'll forget me as time goes by.'

'What if I choose not to forget you?'

But before he had any opportunity to retort, they heard the clamorous villagers on their way to capture them.

'This way!' he gestured her to follow him.

She got on the Sutherland again and flew low next to him, so that she did not leave any knightmare trail on the ground.

He led her to a barn and told her to get off from the Sutherland there. Next, he buried the knightmare frame underneath the hay. The tumultuous villagers were getting closer. There was no way out for them; they had no choice but to hide themselves behind the newly created stack

'Honestly, what have you done to anger them?' Jeremiah muttered.

'I suppose I did trample upon some of their plantations while trying to find my way to your cottage.'

'Why couldn't you come without a knightmare?'

'Because you'd just drive me away again the moment you saw me. Without a knightmare, I am just a child to you. But if I were inside one, you would at least regard me as some worthy opponent.'

At this point, the riot of villagers arrived at the barn. 'That knightmare is not here either; let's try somewhere else!'

After making sure every single one of them had gone, Anya remarked, 'I've never expected to be helped by a thief like you.'

'A thief? Excuse me, young lady, I've never stolen anything!'

She responded in her usual nonchalant tone, 'Oh yes, you have. You've verily stolen my heart.'

Jeremiah became speechless at Anya's sudden declaration, yet again. However, the young girl did not waste the chance to attack the flabbergasted man with a kiss. She caught him by both forearms, put them above his head, rolled him on the hay, and perched her body on top of his.

Jeremiah's eyes widened with even more shock. Her kiss was as unsophisticated as a first kiss could be … and yet, everything became so silent and still. The earth stopped rotating … no, it stopped from existing! To where had the ground and the ceiling disappeared? He could no longer find them. He could only find a girl named Anya Alstreim, nothing else. And in that moment she became his everything.

At last, Anya broke the kiss in need for air. She never kissed anyone before and did not know that there was no need to hold her breath throughout the entire kiss. However, she was not the only one who had not breathed just now. While panting, he started to realise how foolish he was to get his breath choke in his own throat by a mere teenager's kiss! And yet, he could not deny how much he craved for more moments for their lips to meet again.

No! This cannot be! I am old enough to be her uncle! Jeremiah slapped himself mentally.

He then tried to speak with censorious tone, though this ward hardly achievable, since his mind was preoccupied by the friction between her thighs and his own, with only their clothes acted as barriers. 'I can't believe you stole a kiss from me!'

But she answered with a scheming gleam, 'Would you like me to return what I stole?'

'That won't be necessary, Miss Alstreim. I‒'

'Even though I want to?' And without further ado, Anya gathered her arms around Jeremiah's neck and pressed her lips against his. Again. And, this time, there was no need for her to restrain his hands; they were no longer resisting her, but already pressed upon her back, enveloping her in an ardent embrace instead.

'Well, I suppose, if you insist.' Farewell moral. Goodbye ethics. So long decorum.

Actually, Jeremiah's pride demanded him to give the ex-Knight of Six some kissing lesson. 'To let her taste an adult's kiss' was what he wished; unfortunately, his own kissing experiences were not that numerous. In fact, the last time he dated someone was during his academy days.

His first girlfriend, Amanda Vanderspeigle, was a living angel. Beautiful, benign, excellent in needlework, and mild mannered, she was the flower of attention among the students. Yet, she only gave her heart to one Jeremiah Gottwald. She could not, though, gave him her soul, as she withered before reaching her full bloom due to typhoid fever.

When Jeremiah finally was able to move on twenty months later, his next girlfriend, Nicoletta Barboni, was a year older than him. Still, this did not bother the two of them. After all, she was gorgeous, blue-blooded, smart and punctual. She would have been a perfect candidate for his future wife if only she had not been faithless enough to sleep with several other guys behind his back.

Martine Devereaux, his third girlfriend, was stunningly pretty — the prettiest girl he'd ever met in life thus far. She possessed no special traits when it came to skills, but this was not what troubled him. They would have got along well if she had not demanded all his time to be exclusively hers.

After they parted ways, Jeremiah decided to waste no time in courtship. Instead, he thought, that his smooth career path would enable him to get the wife of his dream. Thus, he devoted his time for study and never glimpsed for any partner. He could easily order a female subordinate to be his bride when needed and he had set his eyes upon Viletta Nu for that purpose. At least, this what he used to have in mind. Nonetheless, all his plans shattered in the hand of a single man — the man of miracles known as "Zero".

Nonetheless, those were things for his past. At present, there was this petite lady with certain martial charm that had snatched away his heart — even though she told him it was he who had captured hers instead. Well, this could only mean that they shared mutual affection and he was not going to let the precious feeling slip away from their lives. They used to be knightmare pilots, fighters, yet there was far more to this world than war.

Dawn started to creep over the horizon and painted the sky with its rosy colour. The two of them walked back to his cottage, Anya ambled in front. On the way, Jeremiah noticed some wild daisies along the road.

Daisy. Bellis perennis. Fields of war. How befitting for an ex-Knight of Six!

He bent to pick one of them, and then entwined its stalk into a circle — a ring with a single daisy flower as its ornament.

'Hold on,' He strode towards her and placed the ring of daisy onto her ring finger, 'In a few more years, if your feeling for me is still unchanged, will you walk the aisle with me?'

'Silly; there's no way my feeling for you remain unchanged after a few more years.' She paused to examine his nervous face, then continued after a smile, 'It's getting stronger day by day.' With these words spoken, she landed another kiss on Jeremiah's lips.

Hand-in-hand, the couple continued walking home. In his mind, Jeremiah pictured their older selves coming out from the cottage, watching their kids playing among the blanket of orange and green — their field of dreams.

THE END