Clovis asked, walking next to Lelouch.
"We are supposed to be a five member team, I believe."
"Hmph." Clovis sighed, looking up at the ceiling. "I suppose it would not do to wish for people who are..."
"Less traumatizing? That goes both ways, Clovis."
"I suppose it does. Neither of us seem to be particularly traumatizing to - Cornelia or Nana, though."
"I supposed that is true." Lelouch sighed. "I don't think tempting fate is a particularly good idea, though..."
"Oh, don't I know that." Clovis sighed yet again. "Trying not to tempt fate doesn't really seem to help when fate seems to want to tempt me, though...
Lelouch stared at his Not-Really-Half-Brother, and nodded. He did understand the feeling, except that it was more like fate seemed to want to use him as a chew-toy, in his case.
And then, Clovis froze. Lelouch stared at his back, and then craned his neck, trying to see what he was seeing.
There was a man lying in the depression on the floor of the Teleport Room, dressed in some kind of work clothes, and groaning. He was probably somewhere in his fifties, Lelouch felt - A mechanic of some sort, maybe, though he did look rather well to do for an average mechanic.
"Damn...it..."
"Don't try to talk, Mister." Nana said, stepping into the depression.
"We'll get you up and going in no time..."
Clovis was bone white. Lelouch looked back at the man, and then back at Clovis. Yes, the man did seem oddly familiar, but...
"C - Clovi?"
The man said weakly and wonderingly, coughing softly.
"I thought - Why are you here?"
And that was when the realization hit Lelouch like a ton of bricks.
And who was it who said that the older you are, the more of your personality shows on your face?
Clovis shuddered all over and ran past him toward the kitchen space. Lelouch didn't blame him.
And then the man's eyes passed over Lelouch himself, with not a trace of recognization in them.
Lelouch broke, and ran.
The next thing Lelouch remembered was seeing Clovis dry-heaving over the kitchen sink - He couldn't remember for the life of him just how he had gotten there.
" - Are you all right?"
"...No."
Lelouch sat on the floor, miserably. "Well, alright, neither am I. - Why did it have to be him, anyway?"
"How would I know!" Clovis almost screamed, and then went back to heaving over the sink.
"He didn't recognize me, you know." Lelouch muttered.
Clovis didn't answer him, but did seem to be listening.
"But he did know you. Except that he didn't, since - well, different worlds, right? So he couldn't have. Known you, I mean."
"Just some - Other me. Figures."
Clovis rasped.
"Clovi? Not even my Lady Mother called me anything like that..."
"But still. He knew you. Figures." Lelouch muttered, darkly.
"I'm - We were Marianne the Flash's children, so he paid attention to us. All you had to do was exist."
Lelouch paused, and then froze.
What?
No, really - What the hell had he just said?
Clovis - This strange Clovis who wasn't really his half-brother - was staring at him, eyes narrowed.
"But of course he paid attention to me, your Mother was nothing but a commoner who'd overstepped her station, War Hero or no War Hero - "
And then, it was Clovis's turn to freeze, clapping an hand to his mouth.
"Uh. Um."
"What is it?" Lelouch muttered, listlessly.
"I - I just realized right now, that - "
"What?" Lelouch groaned. He had a bad feeling about this, he did...
"Um - You really thought that I was - beneath you, didn't you."
Um, what?
"I don't have any idea what you mean, Clovis - Are you talking about your Lelouch, or my Clovis?"
"I - " Clovis groaned, and sat down on the floor next to Lelouch.
"I never really understood that - My Lelouch, as you said - Actually thought that he was better then I was. Than - All of us were."
"Well..." Lelouch hiccupped. "If you're talking about my Clovis, I can tell you that I did, and still do, think that he was probably worth something like my sister's maid Sayoko's little pinkie, on the whole, and I'm trying to be charitable, here. I'm pretty sure that there were several people who did genuinely miss him, though - Including a certain Charles di Britannia."
And a certain Euphemia li Britannia, but let's not go there.
"And I still shouldn't have just killed him, anyway. Such a damn waste."
Clovis stared at him, thoughtfully.
"I killed my Lelouch - Or I hope I did, anyway. - And I can't think for the life of me why I shouldn't have. At all."
"...That's all right, then."
Lelouch sighed, suddenly tired beyond belief.
"He wasn't me. And you're not - the Clovis I grew up with, for a time at least..."
We were Marianne the Flash's children, so he paid attention to us.
Charles di Britannia had loved a very limited number of people in his life - His Twin, Marianne, and - ?
Oh, and maybe his Lady Mother too, but she was long dead and gone. Bismark? Ha ha, possibly - He did seem to like the doggish types...
All you had to do was exist.
Clovis Clovis Clovis Clovis. His Clovis, Clovis the idiot who had caused a massacre because he'd messed up and was trying to cover it up in the worst way possible.
Clovis, who had been so afraid of being disowned...
The damn fool. If he'd been in Clovis's shoes, he would have dumped everything on the wayside and gone straight to the Old Man, the minute C.C. had gone MIA. Bypass Schneizel, bypass everybody else, just go straight to the top.
It's not like he didn't know that the Old Man had a soft spot for him, correct?
But maybe... Lelouch sighed, then. Maybe Clovis hadn't known that.
Or maybe he'd just figured out that that miniscule soft spot in a heart that was monstrously hard in general wasn't going to be enough to get him out of that mess...
"The name's Charles, Charles Winchester, and I'll be a mechanic by trade - among other things. So I'm the last to arrive, eh?"
Lelouch nodded wanly, trying to work the feeling back into his hand after Charles had shook it. Really, some people...
But what could you expect from any - analogue - of Charles di Brittania, really.
Clovis looked at him, and then sighed, rubbing his own hand in covert sympathy.
"Hello, Winchester-san! Do you want to eat something? We're having nikujaga, today..."
Nana said brightly, while Cornelia smiled at him, grinning.
"That's meat and potatoes, by the way. Soy-sauce flavored, but it's pretty good."
Well, at least Nana and Cornelia didn't seem to be getting the 'almost break your hand' treatment.
Lelouch watched Charles Winchester following Clovis out of the corner of his eye, and sighed. He didn't envy his Not-Really-Half-Brother one bit, at that moment.
"Hmph. Say, Mr Winchester - Does this, ah, young man remind you of somebody, perhaps? I was wondering..."
And leave it up to Cornelia Gaston to come straight to the point. Lelouch sighed, watching Clovis twitch uncomfortably.
"Weell... He does look a lot like one of my own boys, if you must know..."
"Ahhh." Cornelia murmured. "This 'different worlds' business is very confusing, sometimes... Could your son's name be 'Clovis', too, perhaps?"
Charles Winchester's eyebrows rose. "Too? Oh really, now...Yes, that's his name, actually."
Well, not that that was actually unexpected, but... Lelouch poked Clovis to get him moving in the general direction of the dining room, hoping his Not-Brother's game face would make a recovery in the meanwhile.
Clovis's game face did seem to come back online by the time they actually started eating again, much to Lelouch's relief. It was bad enough that they actually had seen beneath each other's masks the way they had ended up doing - Well, at least it had been a mutual thing, not a one-sided one. The blackmail material was held by both sides, so...
Hmm. Lelouch considered this, and then made a gesture with his chopsticks that he'd seen several other Imperial children use when he was young, wondering if this Clovis would get it. Of course, that particular gesture was really supposed to be made with a fork, so...
I wouldn't embarrass you if you don't embarrass me.
Clovis looked up, raised his eyebrow, and signaled back with his fork and knife.
Offer accepted. - Thank you.
Cornelia was watching that, as well. Lelouch wondered what she made of it.
And that was when a clear bell-like sound vibrated through the entire room.
"First briefing in 15 minutes. First briefing in 15 minutes. All Team-A Members, please gather at Room D-17..."
(Posted Sat, 20 Mar 2010 06:23)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.