Cinderaku Chapter 11: and then there were babies 'END', a code geass fanfic

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Extra #1: Little Red Riding Hood

It was certainly the strangest thing to experience role-reversal.

The move to the summer house was well under way and what remained of the Britannian Royal Family in Japan spent their few remaining days in the Britannian Royal Castle with idyllic felicity. Wandering the corridors, Lelouch happened upon something certainly strange. A tall, slender figure swathed in a rich red, velvet cape attempting to climb one of the private solar windows, scrambling with feminine fingers clutching hard at the edgings.

"Going somewhere, sister dearest?" Lelouch asked, catching the embroidered hem of the cape.

A pair of lavender eyes peeked at him sullenly through the hood as she turned her head over her shoulder.

"Out," came a short, offhanded murmur.

"…Oh?" He waited with an even grin as she found more solid footing on the ledge to stare at him warily, and then he pressed with no ill will towards her, "Recovered so soon from heartbreak?" She shrugged at the observation.

"I've realized that I am young and I do not know what love is or the full extent of living." Euphemia said, an uncharacteristically devious sparkle in her stare, "I intent on finding it out myself." With this, he let go of the cloak, grinning much to her surprise.

"Don't leave off the path. Get back to Grandma's house before nightfall."

She rolled her eyes semi-sarcastically. "Hilarious, Lelouch. Do you have any more quips? Maybe about the big bad wolves lurking in the courtyard?"

"I'm serious. Get back by sunset—" As he finished his sentence, Euphemia took a flying leap from the second story, rustling her pink skirts in the updraft. Panicked, Lelouch almost sent himself headfirst to follow her and breathed a small sigh of relief as an extremely astonished and confused Suzaku cradled the beaming girl who had fallen from thin air. She bounded from his strong, tan arms and disappeared into the hedges of the morning sunshine-kissed West gardens.

From the above solar window, Lelouch waved a little at the green-eyed boy who frowned up at him but waved back, gesturing to enter the castle. Lelouch nodded, going for the door and hesitated when he found his way blocked by Lady Shirley, a doubtful look to her freckled features.

"May I have a moment of your time, your Highness?"

When he agreed, she joined him in the room after a moment. Her delicate, freckled hands folded themselves behind her thin, ribbon-corseted back. Lelouch said as an awkward silence fell upon them, "You can call me Lelouch… I believe I've already insisted on this and there is no need for…"

"—What are your feelings for me?" Shirley glanced at him sharply. A bright blush overtook him.

"Wh—?"

Ignoring its presence, she tilted her head with contemplation, her orange spirals cascading. "I suppose the more appropriate question to pose to you then is what your feelings are towards Suzaku…?"

"Wh—what—he—I—we're—but—how did you—?"

Her olive green eyes lit up mildly as she scowled, rapping the top of his head with her folded, feathered fan. "You are terrible… Haven't you confessed to that boy yet…? Do us both a favor and let him know of your intentions. It is not a pleasurable to be left wondering if someone thinks of you…"

Guilt stole over him like a wave.

"…I'm sorry."

It subsided as her little arms sprang around him.

Lelouch blinked into the sudden, warm hug until she pulled away from it, cheerfully.

"You needn't feel so. I have already forgiven you." Her cheerful demeanor stretched out as her smile did, almost… wolfishly… and it sent a chill down his spine. "It would be in your best interests to sway him now. If you do not soon, someone else may find his benevolent and fair nature to be quite… alluring…"

As if on cue, Suzaku appeared from the corridor, stepping in and smiling in his canonly infectious way— "There you are, Lelou—…!"— and was gently pushed sideways by the Britannian prince who thrust Suzaku's hand behind his slim back and laced their fingers together possessively. For the second time that day, the confused Japanese boy stared at his obviously distracted companions who in turn stared pointedly at each other with enigmatic (at least to him) expressions.

Never wavering on her practiced graces as a noble-girl, Shirley curtsied to both boys and headed out.

Once she was halfway down the corridor, she clapped her hands together in congratulations to herself.

Now it was all up to Lelouch…

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Extra #2: Little Bo Peep and her Sheep

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Suzaku did not think he could have been more nervous than he was presently.

The eri and tomoeri of his kimono were of course less restricting than neck collars in his Britannian clothes, but yet, the flaccid nature of his heritage's clothes were… foreign. He felt like a self-conscious and remorseful child caught playing with something he shouldn't have and waiting for judgment from his guardians.

The many unblinking and harsh eyes pinned on him in the room were not helping the matter.

"It has been quite some time since the Six Houses have seen your face, Suzaku Kuruugi." He kept to his bowed position on the decorative floor. "Why have you called upon us?" When Suzaku spoke up at first, Taizo commanded him irritably that he lift his head from the floor.

From one of the six chairs seated in front of him, his cousin smiled sweetly and encouragingly in his direction. He felt his nerves steady for a moment. "I have important matters to discuss with the leaders of our nation," Suzaku felt his voice strengthen. "Under voluntary confessions of the Britannian nobleman Charles Waldestein, my uncle, he revealed to both myself and Lelouch vi Britannia the location of the minable sakurite—"

Taizo's wrinkled visage deepened with a wide smile. "We are already aware of this." Suzaku's green eyes widened with shock. "We planned on holding this over the heads of the ambassadors of the Britannian kingdom, namely Lelouch vi Britannia's parents."

"…but why? Shouldn't there be peaceful negotiations? To aid the citizens living on the mining land?"

Identical smiles to Taizo's spouted on the tan faces of other members of the Six Houses save Kaguya.

"You are young and naïve, Suzaku Kuruugi. They stole our lands and gave us nothing but a number."

Suzaku's lips parted.

He replied dazedly to their eyes and cruel, knowing smiles, "My uncle killed my parents and caused this war… why do you pretend that you cannot see this?"

"Your uncle was a Britannian."

An awful, severing silence fell over the room. This was how deep the racism between the two nations had seeped. Suzaku glanced then helplessly at Kaguya who remained unmoved in her seat, her little, pale hands folded lady-like in her lap, but her emerald eyes sent him a worried message.

While everyone else was distracted, what sounded distinctly like a poof! popped from behind one of the sliding doors to the room followed by a thin brume of green and diamond glass sparkles curling up from the bottom opening of the door. "Excuse me!" yelled someone from behind the door.

Unceremoniously, the sliding door was thrust open by a tall, blond man in what looked like a knee-length and very fluffy white-and-pink apron-dress and a matching bonnet tied under his chin. The ridiculously long, white knee-high laced boots and stockings and giant white cane had been a bit much.

But no one was complaining seeing as they were mainly confused by his sudden appearance.

"Who the devil are you?" demanded Taizo, standing up enraged.

"Excuse me… have you seen my sheep anywhere?" The crowd sweatdropped as Gino smiled pleasantly at them, and he turned to Suzaku with an over-exaggerated wink. He turned away and clapped his lacy-gloved hands as his crystal blue eyes stopped over on Taizo. "Ah. There she is."

Anya, adorably fleecy one-piece costume and all, stopped from stooping over an raiding a nearby desk.

She trotted over to the beaming man who took the rolled up document from her right hand.

"You naughty girl, you," Gino chided her softly, patting the top of her pink head. "What did you find?" The blond man unrolled the slip of paper, examining its contents. His yellow wings fluttered as Gino hissed air through his teeth in a mock-wince. "Oooh… this looks like nasty business, mister…"

To Suzaku's astonishment, an outraged blush started to cover Taizo's face.

"What authority do you have in these sorts of affairs…?"

"I'm looking out for my charge." The smile on Gino's face darkened over. "No more and no less. There seems to be an issue here of biased opinion. What my charge is offering is a chance to put the ugly past beyond you and to give a good name to your organization. Now… are you willing to listen…?"

A grunt. The Japanese man sat down reluctantly. A flurry of murmurs.

Gino did a small pirouette around the room, making sure to stare into every pair of eyes. "Gentlemen, all in favor of hearing this young lad out?" Taking the silence as agreement, the blond man gave a long, lazy grin to Suzaku who grinned back thankfully. "I think they are all ears now…"

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Extra #3: Snow White

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The cracking in the iced-over creek alerted him in the woods to the small girlish form teetering precariously. Agonizing seconds past by of her dropping heavily through the snow and ice coating the creek and straight into the freezing black waters with a breathless scream.

"CARDINE!" His heart thudded with adrenaline on reaching her across the bank. He missed her flailing, clawing hand poking from the choppy water by inches and abandoned his overcoat to jump into the waters. Lelouch blindly groped in the numbing darkness and his fingertips brushed an oversized, gold bangle before seizing her wrist attached to it. Breaking the surface of the creek, Lelouch hauled her body onto snowy ground, shivering violently and gulping in precious air his lungs howled for.

Motionless, she laid out with his hands flat to her sides, eyes closed and lips spread. The only color to her entire body was those faintly pink lips. She was white. White as the snow. Lelouch shook her, watching with sickened horror as her dripping head flopped uselessly backwards and forwards.

"Cardine… Cardine! Wake up! You have to…wake up!"

(it can't again it can't be)

"You…can't…" He trailed off, feeling his words slip from him. Setting her little head back down on his dry overcoat, Lelouch tilted her chin up and spread her lips apart wider, placing his mouth to hers to puff small breathes until he could feel his hands on her ribs begin to rise.

Several more times and Cardine came back into consciousness, shivering and gulping as he had.

"…you stupid little brat… what were you thinking…?" He muttered, holding her tightly to his soaked chest, her girlish arms tightening around him as her breathing steadied, "I could have lost you too…" She started wailing, sobbing into the wet fabric of his shirt, the muffled sounds growing in strength as her energy returned to her. And he could only hold her to him, without the warmth of a human body, and biting back the hot strain of tears gathering at the corners of his eyes.

Her own dark navy eyes glittered sleepily in her bedroom later that evening, pinning him to his hunched spot in the wood chair beside her. "…sorry." She murmured this, her long hair dried and spread like a pool of bright red upon her pillow and he squeezed her hand between his.

"I miss Nunnally," her voice was tiny and he was sure she is trying not to cry. "I was mean to her all the time… but I didn't want her to die, Lelouch…"

"I know." His knuckles turned white. "Let's visit her grave sometime before the mining team destroys the castle grounds. Would you like to do that with me?"

"…okay."

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Extra #4: Rumpelstiltskin

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"—and I'd like to be called Kaguya-sama for the duration of it." He heard a low sigh escape Lelouch.

"If that is what you really want…"

"I want you to practice saying it with me," she insisted with a self-satisfied leer, raising her hands to emphasize each syllable to her name. "KA-GEE-YA…? What comes after that then?"

"…Kaguya-sama."

"It is not so difficult, now is it?" She overlooked the deadpan to Lelouch's tone and glanced at Suzaku hanging in the doorway. "Keep practicing." The black-haired girl grinned silently at her befuddled cousin before passing him with a swirl of dark cloak and braids.

"What was that, Lelouch?" he asked curiously, flopping down on a creaky wooden stool. Creaky was okay. It sounded homey. Finally moving out into the outskirts of Japan and living alone with Lelouch in their very own abandoned, country cottage had its merits on their… relationship. (Whatever it was, Suzaku was not completely sure as of yet. But they preferred often to wake up in the mornings with intertwined hands.)

Lelouch squeezed the bridge of his nose, waving a hand at him.

"Don't worry about it. I've… asked a rather large favor of her and I am starting to reconsider my decision..."

"Favor?"

"I… didn't intent for you to find out this way…"

Suzaku wasn't sure he liked that sentence. "Lelouch?"

When he rose to his feet, the other man backed away and into the nearby kitchen table, blushing a little.

"Suzaku… you and I are both men…"

"That would be about right," Suzaku spoke as if he were informing the other that the sky was blue. Or that Euphemia's hair was curly. Or that apples from the tree out back fell up and not down.

"And we've been together for almost two years now…"

"Indeed we have."

"That's…" Lelouch's breath caught. "It is difficult for two men to…" The blush reddened further. Suzaku felt a smile creep on his lips. "D-Did you ever consider having a family with me, Suzaku?" He tensed when Suzaku did not agree but merely gaped at him.

"When we both decide we are ready for… a family… I have asked Kaguya if she would be a surrogate mother to us. She agreed with some," Lelouch muttered cranky, violet eyes narrowing as he rubbed the back of his neck, "conditions to follow but I believe she will uphold her end of the bargain…" Lelouch blinked and his face flamed up hotter than before as his companion seized him up by the shirt collar and pulled him close to his chest.

With a finger under Lelouch's chin, Suzaku tilted his face up and traced a small, moist kiss to the corner of his closed mouth.

"You…"

Suzaku's soft mouth touched the opposite corner, mouthing the words into his cool skin.

"are…"

Lelouch gulped back an wordless moan, his hands crawling up Suzaku's shoulders and gripping tightly as those zealous lips overtook his.

"amazing…"

"I would love to have children with you, Lelouch."

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END.

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