A/N: here's the last chapter and I am badly hoping you guys like it. this was an overnight work and I only made a half-decent nippy effort on it. sorry! although it's only half-decent work as I've said, I gave my best considering my mood. and to that person who signed the 68th review, thank you for the compliment! Really~ I rarely get them. thanks to the other reviewers, too. and to the readers who stuck with the story (despite my random uploads and lengthened time periods between them), THANK YOU! once more, here's chapter 21, the ending.

Half a World Apart by angelcloudy

Chapter 21: End.

It was a week ago, when Lelouch arrived back in the homeland. Of course, the reason of his return wasn't exposed to the prying eyes of the public and the emperor didn't fail to provide a reasonable alibi. Too bad for the prince though, what slipped by his father's mind doomed him. Charles had done it on purpose much to Lelouch's horror and he wanted his son to settle with a wife already.

As of the moment, Lelouch was spending an afternoon sipping tea at his fiancée's family manor. Like the other afternoons he was there, he enjoyed the company, honestly. Shirley's initiative at talks kept his mind off the girl he had left on another face of the planet without notice. But today, he promised himself, would be different.

Anyone who knew would dub it unfair and heartless for Lelouch to use his fiancée like that, as a distraction, as a lure for his mind. Lelouch always looked forward to the teas and cookies, fooling himself they were sake and sushi being served before a well arranged set of flowers. He always looked forward to Shirley's penchant for the garden she herself kept and her constant tirade about the various blooms and herbs. He would pretend to listen, although he anticipated them in the first place.

Today he would put an end to that entire pretense. Before he would leave today, he told himself, Tell Shirley now. Seven days was enough of a fib. And he did. He said he would want to break the marriage off and said sorry to the carrot-haired noble lady. He left Shirley's maids and the family butler eyeing him for his lack of an explanation.

After the short walk from the garden to the front gates, he journeyed to the Imperial Palace in his silver Accent. The trip was fairly short, even for a high-speed car like his. Needing not to request an audience, Lelouch marched up to the throne room and met the emperor and talked with him. That was just it in a discussion of ten minutes.

- H.a.W.A.'s END -

In three hours, we find an ex-prince lazily sitting on the bed his current apartment had to offer. He was waiting for the news to break and more into his finger-crossing, it came up on the telly. A male reporter appeared and his picture materialized.

"Good evening, empire. Breaking news from the palace: Lelouch vi Britannia, legal son of Emperor Charles and his Imperial Consort, Lady Marianne, recently gave up his right to the throne, his being eleventh in line to its succession. For personal reasons, Mr. Lamperouge, as what he desires to be addressed as from now on, is leaving behind his position in the royal family as his position as Shirley Finette's fiancé. He will soon be seen by the public as a member of the Royal Army."

The announcement ended by then and Lelouch felt more than inclined not to watch the grungy primetime soaps. He drew a sigh, one of relief and comfort and success. "Well wasn't that easy?" he asked himself. "I never knew the emperor could be so lenient."

With a last look at Kallen's picture on his phone, Lelouch snuggled under warm comforters, a smug smirk playing on his lips. I'm coming back.

- H.a.W.A.'s END -

His work in the Royal Army started the next day – getting to his barracks in a mobile HQ, assembling his uniform, and finally, with some strings being pulled, flying to the Hokkaido Military Base. And he was back indeed. The Command Team welcomed him warmly for his known wits and talents and prowess in strategic and tactical battles. A game of chess with him would prove that and more. But this was not the most pleasing of things, if he'd earn himself a name working here, the day should come he could present a non-prince and non-half brother to Kallen and her mother.

Lelouch's already half year stay never got to reach the public's ears, much for his convenience. The circumstances, save the cold days and nights while commanding a fleet against Russian forces, served his purposes well. Not until the day he was left in command to drive a Japanese-Britannian battalion into victory. That day was a holiday, a Japanese holiday at that. The generals were invited to different occasions and all that was left of the Hokkaido force were the lower-ranked and less than all of the Briannian soldiers, Lelouch included. They all trusted him with their defense, as well as their attacks, and succeeded in fending off communist enemies.

His actions grossed an honor from the Japanese government; thus, a demand for public appearance. It would be impossible for the Kouzukis to not hear of him now. Like how any honored soldier would do, he promptly came to the ceremony and left it with a gold medal on his uniform. The formalities concluded there, and he went off to the Tokyo hotel he had checked into the night before.

He got changed into less work-related and less professional clothes, a word shirt a band member would wear and grungy denim pants to pair. Checking himself in the hallway mirror, he slapped some sense into himself. "Get a hold of yourself, Lamperouge." But the nervousness didn't go away.

The Accent he flew with him was parked at the hotel's rooftop park lot and he had nothing against driving it down four levels of ramps. If not nothing, it gave him more time. Then the moment of truth came his way. He was in front of the gates that stood between him and the house he treated his home for years. A push at the doorbell made his anxiety grow tenfold and him want to turn the hands of time before his finger came in contact with the plastic button.

A maid opened the gates for him but as kindly as she didn't want to, she refused to let him in. She was new, Lelouch had not seen her before and that was why she'd go to lengths to follow her sama's orders. Lelouch pleaded in vain until Kallen's voice emanated from inside the house.

"Mina-san, who is it? You've been down for a while." The voice was followed by its owner herself. Happiness quickly laced the redhead's features while for the maid, horror etched her face. "Lelouch-nii! You're back! How was studying in the homeland? And working in Hokkaido, too? You did great!" Her tone indicated a forgotten memory of the night he was literally shipped to Britannia. That was good, he reasoned, because there was no need to deal with an outburst for his sudden disappearance.

So education was the lie they fed her, he thought grimly. "It was… ok."

Mina had rushed in and called in a butler to usher the two inside. Although hesitantly, the grumpy old man did but left the two to their devices at the living room.

"Just ok? I'm sure you had special courses in Britannia for you to be able to do something so good for Japan. But… I'm sorry about the throne rights," Kallen said, her voice evolving from insanely joyous to bleakly sad.

He hesitated to tell the whole truth, because that would cause Kallen to hate on her mother and on the emperor and that was not good for Lelouch's brewing plan. He ended up saying a piece of the truth, though. "Don't be sorry. It was the right thing to do, after all."

"Why?" She was starting to get frantic. "Something happened?"

"Nothing happened," he calmly answered. "I just discovered something. Let's not talk about it now, okay? I missed you, Kallen." He opened his arms for a hug, but received a searing kiss from her instead. It shocked him well and enough, but his wits and sense caught up immediately, prompting him to kiss back.

"I missed you, too, onii-sama," she whispered into his mouth before another kiss.

Kallen felt the smile tug at the corner of Lelouch's lips. He pulled back, looked into her cerulean eyes, and told her, "After that kiss, you still can will yourself to call me onii-sama?" Before she could answer though, he propped up to reach her mouth, shutting whatever words she had to say back to where they came from.

As she reached breathlessness, she pulled back like the way he did, looked into his eyes the way he did to hers, and told him, "It is fun that way."

"Would it be fun for others to hear you call your fiancé the way you should call a brother?"

"Fiancé?" she echoed. "What are you talking about? How c-can you decide that on your own?" She was blushing and there was of course no way to help that. The red of her cheeks intensified when she heard his following words.

"Because you love me?" he quipped pompously.

The answer for that was certainly yes but it was not as if he didn't know. So she answered differently but confirmed it all the same. "How arrogant," she complained. "Now tell me, what is this fiancé thing you're talking about?"

"To put it bluntly, the two of us are going to be married. Your father says so."

Her jaw fell open at the answer. It was unbelievable, really. "The emperor? H-how could that be? Never in Britannia's history children of the same emperor were married – let alone engaged! Lelouch, you're pulling my leg, aren't you?"

"No, no. I'm serious here. I asked the emperor for your hand in marriage and he gladly gave me the right to marry you." Again, his voice was sewn with stark naked candor. "It kinda went like a political request but a request to make you my wife all the same. Ask him, if you want to."

"I'll ask him later then. This is just too… you know, unbelievable with us being half-siblings and all."

"About that part," Lelouch started but was cut off by the appearance of Kouzuki Kana. "Ohayou, Kouzuki-san. I-I was just leaving," he said, standing up to do what he was saying.

"Huh? Lelouch-nii, we were still discussing things! And, err, Kaa-san… Why are you back from the office? Forgot something, I guess?"

"No. Your father called and informed me of… this," the older woman answered though still reluctant about it. "Lelouch-kun might've told you already. I'm against it, I'm saying even though you don't want to hear it. But Kallen, tell me, is this what you want?" Kallen nodded vigorously, dousing her mother's remaining hopes of a canceled engagement. "Well then, I'll let the two of you off, whatever your plans are. It's what you wish, dear," she said to Kallen. "And what your father wants, too."

Kallen got up to hug her mother and kissed her on the cheek. After pulling away, she bowed deeply, expressing her equally deep gratitude. "Arigatou gozaimasu, kaa-san! Aishiteru."

"Now, Lelouch-kun, can I have a word with you? You know your way to the library." That caused an inner turmoil for Lelouch, triggering the harsh memories of the place to flood back.

"Can I come, too?"

"Sure, Kallen."

The three of them walked off to the library. The place was dim when they entered until the skylight was opened and so were a few of the blinds. Seats – armchairs and a settee – in the middle of the room offered a comfortable conversation. Lelouch and Kana took armchairs opposite each other while the remaining one sat in the farthest crevice of the couch away from them. Kallen pretended not to listen in on their conversation and busied herself in fake-reading City of Glass.

Her mother had started with the customary "How are you?" but the ex-prince disappointed her by wanting a straight to the point discussion. She answered to such demands by the words, "I am gravely sorry for what happened more than half a year ago. That scene in your room, I really found it scandalous and completely inappropriate. I guess I overreacted and my decision was brusque especially I didn't want to hear an inch of an explanation that time. I'm sorry, to both of you."

Those words made Kallen drop her act and face her mother. She saw in her mother a look asking for forgiveness and it was the thing she wanted to give at the moment aside from love for Lelouch. "You're forgiven, kaa-san. If any other parent would walk in on… that would act similarly."

"It's okay to me, too. If you didn't act like that, I wouldn't have learned of the things that were more important. Besides, the times I missed your daughter were made up for by the fact you're letting me marry her."

"Thank you," Kana said quietly. "Let me ask you then, because I have a feeling you know the answers Charles is not giving me. How come he let this happen?

"And these more important things you're talking about, what are these?" Kallen added.

He sighed before beginning a long explanation. The only positive aspect of what he was going to do was his telling it only once to his two-person audience and not separately. "The emperor, he let this happen because he knew who I was. Who I am," he corrected himself. "I'm… I'm actually an adopted child – that's one of the reasons I gave up my title of prince. It was a friend of mine who helped me find out. Jiro-"

"Jiro?" Kallen interrupted, looking up from her place in the couch. "Don't tell me that bastard has something to do with this!"

"As much as I don't want to disappoint you Inoue Jiro has something to do with this. On one of my days in the homeland, he appeared at the palace's doorstep and asked me to go to an orphanage with him. He said it was a charity event for his school and I went because a royal appearance would help draw benefactors.

"But when I arrived at the place, there was no one aside from the nuns who ran it and the few tens of children they took in. At my first step into it though, the elder nuns swarmed over me as if I were a long lost friend. Chagrined, I asked why I was treated as such and got the answers I hoped for. I came from St. Pauline's Children's Home.

"I went back to the palace and confronted mom, err, Lady Marianne, about it. She told me she really got me from there because years into her being Imperial consort, she hadn't given the emperor a child. Although after when she adopted me, she carried Nunally. Lady Marianne said no one doubted my being there, having the raven locks like hers and the royal purple eyes that ran in the royal bloodline. Under favorable conditions I was lucky, she said."

His story ended there and was punctuated by confused faces from the mother and daughter. Kallen had been intently listening, standing behind Kana's chair. "Y-You mean we're not related?"

Lelouch nodded and smiled a reassuring smile. "Yes. Again why the emperor let this happen. He knew all along. Honestly, if this love of ours bloomed in the Imperial Palace we could've gotten off the hook way earlier."

Kallen ran across the space between the two armchairs and hugged Lelouch warmly. "Why didn't this turn up nearer the beginning? I shouldn't have felt that incestuous mistake, that horror of a social taboo…"

"But it's all okay now, Kallen," Kana chimed in. "Charles had said something about an official statement about this entire thing."

"Really, kaa-san? I would thank father a million times for that."

"Yes, do that," her mother answered and stood to leave. "I'll disappear for the moment and you two, look after each other."

Silence loomed over the room after Kana vanished behind the doors.

"So…" Kallen and Lelouch began together. A short round of chuckles followed.

"I'm… very happy," she announced. "Who knew your six months being away could repay with this? A badge of honor and a happily ever after?"

"Who knew, really? We ought to thank Jiro for this, whatever he has done in the past."

"I have to agree. But that's not the point of us being alone here. Tell me, nii-san," she said and earned a glare from Lelouch. "Lelouch, then, were there girls who neared you when you were in the homeland or in Hokkaido? Answer."

"About that… Let me think." He pretended to be deep in thought but a single moment into it, he was paid a fairly hard slap at his arm. "Ow! What was that for? I was just joking! God, Kallen is just my barely one-day fiancée and she's like an Amazon. How would I be when we're married?" he joked.

Kallen tried not to laugh but laughed anyway. "I love you, Lelouch."

"Not exactly the answer to the question," he said. Lelouch gave her a curt kiss before continuing, "Aishiteru, Kallen-chan."

A/N: so how was it? good? bad? lame? abrupt? do tell in your reviews. and to the reviewer especially mentioned in the author's note at the beginning of this chapter, did my writing change? I'm in bad need of comments on my writing style and my plot-developing because I'm starting a new CG [KallenXLelouch] alternative R2 story. In case it ever goes out, I'm inviting everyone to read it, too.