Kururugi Nana came rushing in though the dining room, toward the space that Lelouch had dubbed as the 'Teleport room'.
"Comin', dearie!" Cornelia Gaston said, cramming one final forkful of spaghetti into her mouth.
Lelouch on the other hand simply covered up his pots and plate and ran toward the door.
And then stopped dead.
Ohhh, shit.
Golden flamboyant hair, dancing in the breeze.
" - What? Oh, never mind - "
Lelouch took an involuntary step back as the man in the depression in the floor tried to stand up, and managed it with only a bit of wobbliness.
"I killed you once, I can kill you again - "
" - Oh, indeed?" Lelouch hissed back at him.
"Yes." Clovis whispered, and then struck like a cobra.
"Hey, no - Stop that!"
Lelouch blinked, wondering just how he'd ended up on the floor, Nana trying to drag him someplace with one hand. With one hand? That girl was stronger then she looked, apparently...
Gaaah, his head hurt.
Alright, so Clovis - for it was Clovis, as far as he could tell - was being held down by Cornelia Gaston, and -
"That is not your half-brother, Clovis. You come from different worlds."
Sentry's mechanical voice was strangely soothing. Lelouch wondered if he - it - was doing - something that was not apparent on the surface.
"Your half-brother Lelouch is dead, Clovis. You have been told this."
"Yes, yes, but I could not be sure - "
Clovis growled. Lelouch blinked at the cold viciousness of his tone.
No, wait - This wasn't his Clovis, anyway. That one was - dead. Because he'd killed him.
Because he'd been high on his Geass powers, and wanted to lash back, and...hadn't been very sure just how his powers worked. Or cared, all that much.
He should have cared, Lelouch had thought later on - Even if Clovis (his Clovis) really had deserved death after all he had done, he still should have cared, at least a little -
Because that Clovis had remembered him and Nunnally, according to all the letters he had ended up reading later on, and - had even cared about them, a little. Maybe. Perhaps.
And anyway, considering just what he had ended up doing after that, all the deaths he had caused directly or indirectly reaching up high toward the skies - He didn't have the right to complain about what anybody else had done, really. Not from an ethical standpoint, anyway.
"Clovis la Britannia?"
Lelouch said, head held high, feeling the high coming upon him, feeling the flow going though him and around him, the flow of fate or destiny or maybe it was just something in his mind, but it didn't matter, not really, since it was a large part of what made him capable of functioning when he shouldn't have been able to otherwise -
"You killed me? Quite a feat, that."
Clovis - the other Clovis, Lelouch dubbed him in his mind - grinned at him, more than a little insanely.
"Oh, Not-Brother mine, you have no idea. - It was a suicide run, if you must know?"
It was? Lelouch boggled, internally.
"Did I - Your Lelouch, that is - deserve it?"
"Hmmm." Clovis seemed to think about that. "Did the Demon Emperor deserve death? I'll say he did - But then, that's just me..."
Whoooops. Lelouch went cold inside - Just how close to his world had this Clovis's world been, anyway?
It was a good thing his mouth was halfway on autopilot now, wasn't it...
"Well, that's good - I wouldn't like hearing of any version of me killed just on a whim, truly. And anyway - in my world, I killed you. So things even out, no?"
Clovis looked at him for a good long while, while Cornelia Gaston, who was still holding on to him, looked fascinicated indeed.
" - Indeed. So - did I deserve it?"
"I believe you did, but - I did regret it somewhat later on, you know? You would have been much more useful as a...pawn. Death is so wasteful, sometimes."
Clovis looked at him for a good long while, and then smiled coldly.
"Indeed. My heart is so warmed to hear that declaration of brotherly devotion."
"You - my Clovis, I mean - had never been one of my favorite half-sibs, but still. I should have given some consideration, nonetheless - At least I had interacted on a regular basis with you, at one time..."
Lelouch sighed inwardly, remembering his Lady Mother. Marianne vi Britannia had not liked most of his half-sibs anyway, but her opinions of Clovis and Odysseus had been negative to say the least. Too mediocre, too ordinary, not worthy of being of higher status then - well, her children, he supposed the point had been.
And her opinions had meant the world to him, once...
"Familial sentiment? From you?" Clovis snorted.
"Yes, from me. I do not particularly enjoy killing my kinfolk, though I have no idea just what - your Lelouch - may have been like on that point."
Well actually - After he'd ended up killing one of the few half-sibs he'd actually cared about, he hadn't been able to directly kill any more of them at all. Or even have them killed indirectly. He just couldn't.
Euphie wouldn't have liked it, after all.
"Hmph." Clovis said, and pulled himself out of Cornelia's arms.
"Very well, since the computer keeps insisting that you aren't - my - Lelouch...Ahhhh?"
Lelouch snickered, as Clovis's eyes went wide as he actually saw just who had been holding him. Shorter than his Cornelia, and quite obviously 'Commoner looking', but she was still obviously a Cornelia of some kind...
"Clovis, meet Cornelia Gaston. Cornelia, meet Clovis la Britannia, if that is actually his name. The young lady here" - And here Lelouch nodded at Nana - "Is Kururugi Nana, Nana being her first name. And I am - "
Lelouch thought about this.
"Lelouch Lamperouge."
" - Ahhh." Clovis murmured, his eyes going wide. Lelouch wondered why.
Clovis Partridge-Smythe (AKA Clovis la Britannia)
Lelouch went back to his Not-Half-Brother's room's door, and stared at the plaque again.
"- What?" The Not-Half-Brother in question looked much better this morning, dressed in a simple but well-tailored slacks and a shirt.
"Partridge-Smythe? You used your Grandmother's maiden name?"
Clovis looked at him, and then up at the ceiling.
"Well, it's not like I would go around using my Lady Mother's maiden name, now would I. I mean, there is such a thing like begging for Lord Father's attention and there is such a things as begging for Lord Father's attention, and -"
Lelouch went white as his not-brother droned on. Was that really what he had been doing when he used the Lamperouge name? Begging for - Charles's attention?
"Ahh - Lelouch? - Did I hit a nerve there, now."
And this Clovis had apparently taken a look at all the other doors, of course he had. Lelouch looked at Clovis, who was strangely enough, not exactly gloating.
"It is rather hard to judge one's - real motivations, is it not?"
"- I supposed it is." Clovis sighed, waving his hands. "So how does one go around getting some breakfast around here?"
"It's more like lunchtime, now..."
Lelouch looked at him, sighed, and led him to the dining room and kitchen.
"I am making Japanese style dishes today."
Lelouch announced, not bothering to say that anybody who objected to this should cook there own brunch.
" - You cook?" Clovis said, wide-eyed.
"Sure he does - He's a good cook, too."
Cornelia said, giving Lelouch a look that promised massive grillings for information later. Lelouch sighed - He was beginning to suspect that trying to divert Cornelia's attention when it came to things like this were pretty much useless.
"Ohh, what is it, what is it!"
Nana said, clapping her hands in excitment.
"Nikujaga and rice, actually. I was wondering if you could perhaps help me make it, Nana-san..."
"Ohhh, really!? I only had that once or twice, we couldn't get enough meat or potatoes or onions and nobody knew how to brew soy-souce properly..."
Lelouch closed his eyes. Nana must have lived someplace that made Japan during the invasion seem like a effing paradise.
"Well, we have more things to cook with now, so..."
So Lelouch and Nana cooked while Cornelia and Clovis set the table, chatting all the while. Lelouch was amused at how much information Cornelia Gaston seemed to be getting out of Clovis while they did this - Oh, my, that woman was good at this...
"We're done. People who don't like chopsticks can use folks and spoons if they like - This is not high cuisine."
Lelouch himself was using chopsticks, and was Nana, though Lelouch added a spoon on her napkin as well. He had the feeling that she probably wasn't used to any kind of table manners at all, much less formal ones.
The meat and potatoes and vegetables had been cooked in a savory soy-sauce brew, and served with a healthy serving of rice with mixed grains and pickles.
"Ohhh, it's even better then Shirou-niichan's..."
"I'm glad you like it, Nana-chan."
Oops. Maybe that 'chan' had been too early? Girls that age could be sensitive about those things, after all...
But then Nana grinned at him, and Lelouch smiled back, relieved. It was all right, it seemed.
Cornelia poked at her stew.
"Huh - Organ meats and potatoes?"
"Not just organ meats, and not just potatoes, either." Lelouch grinned at her.
"I could just give you the non-organ meat parts, if you want?"
"No, no, no prob, I've eaten variety meat in my day - Huh. This really is good."
Cornelia looked at him appraisingly, and then at Clovis, who was staring at his food.
Lelouch looked at him, quietly. Well, it wasn't the kind of food Clovis - well, his Clovis, anyway - would have appreciated at all, he was sure...
But no - Clovis didn't look disgusted at all, Lelouch realized. He looked hungry, if anything, and -
And then, Clovis looked around, straight at Nana, and Lelouch realized something that he really didn't want to.
"Ah, young miss - "
"No."
Clovis blinked at him, and then blinked some more as Lelouch took his half-eaten meal, tray and all, and passed it over to him, taking Clovis's tray in return.
"If you want a poison-tester, get a rat or something. Our Teammates are not available for that duty."
Clovis stared at the food, and then at Nana and Cornelia. Nana simply looked sad, while Cornelia looked faintly disgusted.
"Oh. Ahh, yes, of course - You are quite right."
"And the young lady's name is Kururugi Nana."
"Yes, of course - I am sorry, Nana. Cornelia."
Clovis made a nod of apology in Nana and Cornelia's direction, and quickly and efficiently began to get rid of the obviously half-eaten bits, putting them on one of the spare plates.
"A rat, hmm? - How could I get one?"
".......What about asking Sentry-san?"
Nana suggested, brightly.
"A good suggestion. I shall do so, later on."
Clovis graciously nodded at her, and started to eat. Lelouch was amused in spite of himself - He wasn't quite sure just how Clovis managed to eat nikujaga with a knife and fork and made it look good, but look good it did.
"....Eh? It's not like I have anything against well-made peasant food, you know..."
"No?"
"I've had to eat commonor food often enough, as you know well - No, wait, you don't, do you?"
Clovis smiled at him, wanely.
"No."
"Well, you're a good cook, sure enough - My men would have appreciated something like this on a cold night."
His men? Lelouch raised his eyebrows, but decided not to comment for now.
"Well, mine did, I think."
Sometime along the way, he'd gotten into the habit of cooking stuff and leaving it in tupperware in the Black Knight's base kitchens, whenever he had some spare time, which was not very often. Ahh, what a strange thing nostalgia was...
And that was when the strange buzzing went though the building again.
(Posted Sat, 20 Mar 2010 06:13)
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