a/n: full prompt

Kallen becomes very close to Nunnally after she graduates Ashford, especially because they are two of the few who know the truth about Lelouch. Kallen starts to work with Nunnally's security (Sayoko-trained Ninja!Kallen, maybe? XD;;) and Zerozaku is feeling a bit...possessive. Nunnally is, after all, his charge given to him by Lelouch. Cue jostling over who is taking care of Nunnally. Kallen probably has some points in her favor by being female (girls can go to the baths together, for example) but Suzaku also has some by virtue of knowing longer. Hopefully by the end all three have gotten to be good friends, and Zerozaku trusts Kallen to look after Nunnally when he can't be there, though teasing will probably still ensue.

–

"You've had exemplary grades," the careers advisor tells her. "With your...history of extracurricular activities, you could go anywhere."

Kallen tunes him out,and thinks about Nunnally's upcoming visit. Except, it's Empress Nunnally now, and it's not a visit, it's a diplomatic trip to show Britannian goodwill, commemorating Japan's successful petition for independence. Kallen wonders if Nunnally will have time for her old school friends.

She does, and brings with her an awkward and stilted Kururugi. Well, Zero, Kallen supposes, but he'll never be Zero to her. Which is awkward, because he's not exactly Suzaku either, at least not the Suzaku she knew in school or on the battlefield. She settles on calling him Kururugi in her mind, because calling him Zero just feels wrong, and Suzaku she had killed on Damocles.

Nunnally brings Gino along as well. Rather, Gino brings himself, but Kallen had received an email from him the other week (in the most bizarre blend of casual and formal: Hey Kouzuki...I think I'm settling in Pendragon for a while...kindest regards...), and Kallen carefully pieces the pieces together.

Then Gino pulls her aside and offers her a role in Nunnally's security detail, and finishes the puzzle for her.

"No," she tells him flatly.

Gino's face falls. "Please?"

Kallen tries not to roll her eyes because she knows he's younger than her, but he's still so damned earnest. "No."

–

Nunnally's disappointed. Kallen reads it between the lines of carefully put together emails. Nunnally is unfailingly polite but even with her sweetness and charm, Nunnally had never had Lelouch's gift for words. Her sadness creeps out of oddly chosen words, and fragmented sentences.

Kallen ignores it. She has tests, and mock exams, and actual exams, and a mother, and a life. And she's selfish, but she worked so hard to create the peaceful Japan that she wanted, and she wants to enjoy it.

–

That desire is short lived.

Kallen itches. It's like there's an empty space at the back of her mind waiting to be filled. Exams are only so distracting once they're over, and now that school's out she doesn't have student council duties to occupy her time. Years of being a freedom fighter by night means that her resume is a little more extreme than most, and she suspects that most entry-level employers would balk at having the ex-ace of the Black Knights as an employee. Even her mother isn't around long enough to occupy her time; as the aftereffects of refrain wear off, she delights in her new-found autonomy and starts spending less and less time at home. Kallen suspects – but doesn't want to know – that her mother has found someone new, and is creating a new life for herself.

Gino vaguely helps. He regales her with tales of Kururugi – well, Zero, Gino's never seemed to have quite made the connection, and Kallen's not sure if it's because he can't or won't – trying to fit his new persona into this new world over email. Kururugi and Nunnally have grown close. Gino thinks it's cute. His stories almost always inevitably involve some maid or diplomat freaking out when they realise how Zero and the Empress are staying in such close quarters (the same wing. When Kallen asks if its okay that she knows, Gino sends her some garbled, gushing message about how sweet it is that she cares).

He sends her another email asking her to join. She hesitates, but tells him no.

She forgets to close the window, and her mother sees the email. Her mother hugs her close and tells her she should be with her friends.

–

Nunnally is delighted to see her. Kururugi responds with a tightness, evident even through the mask, that suggests that he wasn't expecting her.

Gino only smiles when she asks, and drags her off to show her where her new quarters will be.

–

"I can take her," Kururugi tells her. He's standing behind – hovering, more like – Nunnally's wheelchair. His fingers tighten on the handles.

"What, you think I can't push a wheelchair?" Kallen snaps. "Gimme a break."

Schneizel's assistant is the only other person in the room. "Ten minutes, your Majesty, my Lords," he reminds them placidly and slips out, no doubt to find his geassed master. Talking to Schneizel gives her the creeps.

Nunnally twists and reaches behind her to rest a hand on Kururugi's arm. "It's fine, Lord Zero," she says. "Kallen can take me. And Lord Weinberg will also be guarding me on route, as well as the palace security. You should go ahead."

Kururugi yields. He bows. "Yes, your Majesty."

–

"I call him Lord Zero because that's what he is," Nunnally confides, smiling. It's at odds with her eyes.

"Don't you mean who he is?" They're in the imperial quarters, Kallen helping Nunnally into a nightgown. Nunnally quails at unfamiliar hands touching her skin, and Kallen had nearly died when she found out Kururugi had been assisting her 'till now. She'd bullied her way into rooms adjacent to Nunnally's so she could be on hand.

Nunnally considers. "No," she says, and is quiet for the rest of the evening.

–

There's a fragile structure to the Britannian government that makes Kallen glad she never has to deal with this political bullshit. Ostensibly, Nunnally is the lynchpin. All major decisions go through her, and if it weren't for her acting as figurehead, they would have lost the support of the people long ago.

(Because the people had feared Lelouch, and they hadn't exactly liked Charles before him, but Charles at least was respected, and it was hard for people to reconcile years of imperialistic Darwin rhetoric with Nunnally's kind-hearted reforms. But she's predictable, and people crave stability.)

Beneath that, there's a very real sense that everything would turn to dust if it weren't for Schneizel. The ex-nobles and businessmen that make up the primary political ranks support Nunnally in public, but turn to him as one of the remaining links to Charle's court, a system they knew and understood. Schneizel's one of the few available to Nunnally to understand how governments work, and able to create the policies needed to realise Nunnally's visions of a kinder society.

How much of that is Schneizel and how much of it is geass, Kallen doesn't know. Around Nunnally he is cordial, and seems doting in his own way, and always perfectly blue eyed. Kallen's not sure Nunnally is even aware Schneizel is still geassed. Kallen had suspected – she'd occasionally seen him in the corridors, eyes edged in red, Kururugi close behind – but she's not entirely sure she would have been certain of it herself had his assistant not told her as much himself.

"I'm afraid finding Lord Zero by myself is a little beyond me," he says, introducing himself with a cute little line about being an assistant both at work and personally that she'd already heard through Milly. He stands at her door and smiles apologetically. It looks as plastic as the man he serves. "If you could tell him that he is needed to lift his Emperor's geass, I would be most appreciative."

Kallen tightens her dressing gown around herself, and considers just telling him to get the palace staff to help. She doesn't because she knows Kururugi, always careful to be in reach of Nunnally, wouldn't have left the imperial wing. There's only one entrance into the wing, and Gino keeps it heavily guarded at all times. Past the entrance there's a maze of corridors and miscellaneous dead end spaces before the inner rooms are even breached. Thoroughly vetted palace staff are allowed in sparingly, and even then they need to be monitored so they don't get lost.

Kallen finds Kururugi standing in front of small pomegranate tree in one of the small gardens hidden within the imperial wing. She had found out through Gino that Nunnally had had a tree planted for her brother, in lieu of a visible tribute for the Demon Emperor. When she had asked why pomegranate, Gino had said something to the effect that Schneizel found it funny.

She recognises the odd stiffness of Kururugi's shoulders as the peculiar way he had held himself during his stint as a Knight of the Round. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that he's having some kind of existentialist crisis about duty or something. She rolls her eyes.

"Your pet PM needs to be un-geassed," she tells him.

Kururugi doesn't turn around. "Lady Kouzuki," he says blandly.

She rolls her eyes again, because she's not a Lady, but Kururugi keeps calling her one as though the forced formality can push her away from the Palace. There's too much bad blood between them still, unexplained actions, and Kururugi's spent the last week painfully withdrawing into himself. Kallen's getting sick of the worried glances Nunnally keeps throwing in his direction. She leaves, but not before she throws a petty, "he was my friend too."

–

Gino, Kallen finds out, has little to no interaction with Kururugi. "My priority is Empress Nunnally's safety," he says in one of the few moments they're in the same place at the same time and have the opportunity to talk. They've found themselves in different social circles: Gino has a more general role in palace security, and Kallen has found herself being slowly pushed towards a more personal guard-slash-companion role to Nunnally. "If Lord Zero wants to help out, then cool. If not, I don't care, just so long as he stays out of the way."

Neither does he let himself be pulled into speculation about Zero's identity. "It's not my place to know," he says simply. Kallen thinks he knows Zero is Kururugi, but she doesn't push it.

Which means it falls onto Kallen to smack some sense into Kururugi when Schneizel has her summoned to his office and explains to her the political situation. The Middle East is growing edgy, and someone in the Chinese federation is fueling rumours that Zero is plotting something. Everyone is thankful to Zero for single handedly ridding the world of the Demon Emperor and being the catalyst for the breakup of the Britannian empire, but no-one has forgotten what happened in Japan that first year he surfaced. This new Zero – he might be the spiritual successor, but the differences are too stark: the stance, the figure, the rhetoric – has barely left Nunnally's side since her ascension to the throne, and Schneizel's ability to wheedle him into diplomatic trips is hampered by the fact that he spends much of the day swimming in geass.

Kallen corners him during evening court while Schneizel pushes Nunnally around the ballroom. Kallen's not sure why Kururugi bothers to turn up, it's not like he talks to anyone. She thinks the court would prefer it if he stayed away as well, silent and ill-boding as he is. "Schneizel thinks you need to go visit the Middle East."

Kururugi doesn't reply immediately, but he's practically leaning towards Nunnally. "I can't."

"She's not going to disappear if you leave her alone for a second," Kallen says. She glares at a waiter who had strayed too close until he hastens away.

"It's not that," Kururugi protests weakly, but doesn't elaborate further. Kallen is already tired of this conversation, as well as the niggling feeling that Kururugi doesn't trust her with Nunnally's safety.

"Well whatever it is, deal," Kallen says sharply.

–

Within the depths of the imperial wing there's a communal living area, a kitchenette attached by means of a hidden sliding door.

Kallen's not entirely certain why it exists, what with most of the quarters being self contained apartments, but it does. She knows for a fact that with the exception of court dinners and lunchtime functions, Nunnally and Kallen share meals, alternating between apartments. As far as she's aware, the lounge is there for show. So to say that she's surprised to see someone sitting at the sofa in the pitch black of midnight, after she's walked in with a mind to replace the mug she just smashed in her quarters, is a bit of an understatement.

Kallen startles, because it's the first time she's seen him without the mask since – since before Lelouch died. "Wha – what the hell?."

Kururugi makes an abortive move towards the coffee table – in the darkness, she can just make out the outline of Zero's helmet, gleaming. Only Kururugi's upper torso is visible above the back of the sofa, but the exaggerated shoulders of Zero's outfit are instantly recognisable.

Kururugi stares at her, eyes wide and underscored with shadows. "She has nightmares," Kururugi says shortly in a low voice, and looks away.

Kallen looks down to see that Kururugi is indeed not simply sitting alone in the dark like a ghostly spectre. Nunnally is lying with her head resting on Kururugi's knees, hair and nightgown flowing over the edge of the sofa. Kururugi is holding one of Nunnally's hands in his, the other resting on Nunnally's head.

So, what, you comfort her wearing the outfit you murdered her brother in, Kallen thinks, but Kururugi's eyes are so dull, and she knows it to be cruel. Hell, Kururugi probably doesn't even have any other sets of clothes, the staff would get too suspicious. "No, she doesn't. I would have known."

"She doesn't like worrying people." Kururugi teases a knot out of Nunnally's hair as he speaks.

"My room is right next to her's."

"The rooms are soundproofed."

"Oh. Right." There are two arm chairs in the lounge, but they're positioned so that Kallen would either have to squint really far into the dark to make out Nunnally if she sat in one, and the other would angle Nunnally behind Kururugi's body. She settles for sitting on the coffee table, giving the Zero mask a wide berth as she does so. Kururugi twitches, but doesn't protest. "Why would she go to you?"

Kururugi's still not meeting her eyes. "I was Nunnally's friend when we were younger."

Kallen's sympathy dies in a flash of annoyance. "Oi. I was her friend too."

Kururugi clears his throat. "She stayed for a summer at my family's shrine when we were children," he says. The words come out slow, and muddied with time.

Kallen frowns. "Did Lelouch..." she lets the sentence die. Saying Lelouch's name, when the media for the most part largely ignores it for the epithet Demon King, feels weird. Saying it past midnight, with Kururugi sitting in his Zero costume, just makes it feel even weirder.

Kururugi's hand stills. "Yes."

Kallen wants to call bullshit, but that explains...a lot, actually, she thinks in the resulting silence. Not everything, but a lot. Certainly explains the weird camaraderie they had at Ashford. The whole taking the throne thing. Would also explain why he's so attached to Nunnally, more than a period of being her primary guard during her time as Vicereine would explain. And vice versa.

Nunnally stirs, and Kururugi moves to hush her, his hands immediately reaching for hers. Nunnally makes a soft sound and rolls so that her nose is pressed against Kururugi's stomach, her shoulders relaxing back into sleep.

Kallen watches as he gently moves her arms into a more natural position. "I don't know what you and Lelouch had worked out between the two of you," Kallen begins. Now she's the one avoiding eye contact. "I know you two had some kinda weird...creepy contract-plan-thing going on. I don't know what it was," eurgh, she's repeating herself, "but...I don't think he planned on you being her babysitter for eternity."

"That's sweet," Kururugi says unexpectedly.

Kallen snaps her head up and opens her mouth, with half a mind to start yelling.

"No, I mean," Kururugi reads the atmosphere well enough to look a little flustered around the edges. "Thank you. But she's my responsibility."

Kallen doesn't yell. But she does turn her nose up pointedly as she walks out.

She forgets to snag a mug from the kitchenette.

–

There's an attempt on Nunnally's life.

Kururugi's fast, but Kallen's closer. She closes the gap between the assailant and knocks him down, kicking the knife out of his hand. They'll find out later that it was a disgruntled ex-noble that had used his former rank to get into such close quarters, and the knife more ornamental than deadly, but at the time Nunnally is shrinking deep into her wheelchair, shaking, and Kallen is breathing hard with adrenaline.

"Thank you," Kururugi tells her afterwards, awkwardly.

He agrees to leave for the E.U. when Maldini approaches him the next day.