Code Geass: The Road to Babel Tower (1/1)
Title: The Road to Babel Tower (1/1)
Fandom: Code Geass
Author: blahchiharu
Pairing: Lulu/Rolo (?)
Rating: G
wordcount: ~2500
Summary: Lelouch is nothing but an assignment, yet he is everything else to Rolo as well. Pre R2. Rolo centric.
A plane brings the prince to Ashford grounds. The pilot of Lancelot is there as well; Rolo has seen him once behind the screen of his monitor, bound in chains. Kururugi’s mouth tightens as members of the monitoring team carry the sleeping figure into the dorm.
“What is this, a personal escort?” Villetta asks, arms folded as she stares at the Japanese boy.
Rolo raises an eyebrow, still busy toying with the hem of his unfamiliar uniform. He doesn’t expect a reply from the newly assigned Knight of Rounds.
“Watch after him,” Kururugi says and boards the plane without looking back.
Lelouch wakes up on the fourth day. He spends the first few nights calling after forgotten names in his sleep, feverishly shifting in his bed. Rolo sets a glass of water on the bedside table and watches as the 11th prince of Britannia suffer through familiar nightmares. He wonders if this is really Zero, because a boy who unknowingly cries in his sleep for his sister, his mother, and the friend that betrayed him seems too vulnerable.
“My head hurts,” Lelouch says when he finally sits up in bed, wiping his drenched hairline with his sleeves. “How long have I been asleep?”
“Long enough.” The younger boy replies, handing Lelouch a change of clothes. “Do you feel well enough to go to class today?”
“I think so,” The prince begins to unbutton his shirt. He pauses upon noticing Rolo’s gaze. “Sorry to worry you. I didn’t think I’d fall ill so early this year.”
“It’s okay, Nii-san.” The assassin replies. The word is strange on his lips, just like the feeling of proximity he felt when Milly and Shirley first pulled him into a hug on day one, and like the peacefulness he felt while watching the students pace around the campus. This, he thinks, is your new life.
The first week passes slowly. Lelouch disappears early one morning, and Rolo spends an hour circling the campus grounds, contemplating on whether he should report this blunder to the monitoring team before finding the older boy on the rooftop, reading a book.
“Nii-san,” he begins for good measures. “Why aren’t you in class?”
“Why aren’t you?” Lelouch asks instead. He seems to know more about the younger boy than Rolo knows about himself. “Education is good for you.”
“What about you?” Rolo challenges.
Lelouch barely looks up from his new novel of the day. “There’s nothing I can’t learn from books.” He snaps the text shut. “You, however, don’t read. But since you’re here already, let’s do something else.”
“The teachers will catch us,” Rolo argues, although not entirely sure why.
“That’s a risk we’ll have to taken, then.” Lelouch leans over the edge of the roof bound by a low metal fence “There’s an escape ladder right there,” he then proceeds to swing one leg over the fence, stopping only when Rolo takes a hasty step forward.
“It’s too dangerous.” The brunette frowns.
Lelouch stares at him for a moment before returning to the safe side of the fence. “You’re always one to worry.”
“Am I?” Rolo tilts his head halfway, half amused and half confused. He doesn’t know why Lelouch seems to have a false grasp on his personality. “Let’s just find something safe to do, Nii-san.”
“You’re weird today,” the dark haired boy comments before pulling Rolo towards the rooftop exit. “Let’s go.”
The summer comes and passes aimlessly. Rolo is awakened by the soft sound of barefoot padding on the marble floor every morning as Lelouch awakes almost mechanically, pouring himself a cup of coffee before turning on the news.
Rolo often watches as the older boy’s expressions harden for reasons not entirely unknown. Lelouch is but another assignment, one that exists unknowing of his true importance. For this reason Rolo can’t keep his eyes off the boy, stopping only when Lelouch notices, smiles at him, and ruffles his hair.
“Isn’t it nice to be peaceful?” Milly asks one day while serving them tea in the campus garden. “Sometimes it’s refreshing to be away from the commotion.”
“That’s funny,” Lelouch chuckles and exchanges a look with Rolo (who blinks back cluelessly-at the time, Rolo thinks that it might have been a blessing to not know of madam president’s true nature-).
“Our life passes so quickly before our eyes!” Milly claps her hands together, obviously in another one of her nostalgic moods. “You’re young, Rolo. Live life to the fullest before you turn into an old geezer like Lelouch.”
Rolo doesn’t know what she means by “living life to the fullest.” Living, to him, has consisted of mission after mission, bloodshed after another, and faked trust in relationships. It reminds him too much of his mother; the woman he wishes to remember but can’t, perhaps the only person he has ever put genuine faith in. Perhaps that was one thing he had in common with Lelouch.
Sleep rarely comes to him; it reminds Rolo too much of the peace that he doesn’t believe in, so he spends his nights awake, roaming around the campus grounds. Occasionally, he checks in with the monitoring team member on duty and stare listlessly at the screens capturing a sleeping Lelouch.
Watching the prince is a parallax for Rolo. He’s distant yet too close for Rolo to understand. Lelouch remembers names, theories, and faces only in his slumber. It takes a while for the assassin to understand the look on Kururugi’s face that day; hurt filled with determination. Kururugi’s expressions are but a shadow of Lelouch’s. Or perhaps Lelouch was a shadow of the Japanese boy.
Unsaid words are not foreign to Rolo; he understands Lelouch’s ideals, the way he silently condemns the system of society. Rolo thinks, if anyone was willing to push the boy, Lelouch would no doubt resume his role once again. He is no different from the same terrorists fleshed out on those pieces of paper Rolo received that day, yet Lelouch is everything else as well.
A dove infestation takes a hold of the campus in September, just when the students are returning for a new school year. They’re atop the balconies, watching the campus with their beady eyes. They’re congregating on the rooftop, flocking away from Lelouch in herds every time he skips class. Rolo almost expects them to be recording devices; the monitoring committee is not above implanting them in birds at this point.
Lelouch has shown no signs of recollection in the past few months. It’s fortunate but boring, especially since the higher ups are never interested in dull reports. CC sightings are rare, and the officials are starting to get impatient from scrutinizing Lelouch’s daily schedule for a hint of something more.
“Stop being lame and listen to my proposal,” Millay demands one day in late October before snatching Lelouch’s book away. She sighs and turns to Rolo, “your brother used to be fun.”
The blonde’s idea of fun turns out to be vampire outfit and a bunny suit, complete with a special Halloween skit written by madam president herself, recorded by Rival to be broadcasted over the entire school.
Rolo spends so much time laughing that he almost breaks the monitoring device on his uniform from hurling over.
“Surprise,” Lelouch grins a day later, handing him a small box. “You didn’t think I’d forget, did you?”
Rolo pauses and stares, looking up a few times in case Lelouch’s expression gives anything away. He opens the box to find a locket. Dangling it around a few times, the assassin finally smiles a little.
“Happy birthday,” Lelouch says, leaning on one elbow as he smirks somewhat. “For some reason, I was sure you’d like it.”
It’s the first present anyone has given him without expecting something in return, so Rolo smiles, hugs the locket, and thinks nothing of the fact that golden clovers were Nunnali Lamperouge’s favorite.
Rolo finds it, much to his irritation, that his teachers refuse to turn a blind eye to his failing grades. He has little interest in learning about Romans and numbers and horses, but Villetta insists that he keep up his grade as part of the role.
“You can always ask me for help,” Lelouch says after dinner one night, leaning over Rolo’s seat and scanning through his textbook. “What did the professor ask you to review?”
The brunette looks down at his book. The binding is still perfect, reflecting the number of times Rolo has opened it. He flips to the index in hopes that the list of chapters will refresh his memory; he has no clue what lesson his class is even on. He doesn’t, however, mind when the older boy leans over him and breath on his ear in an attempt to teach him something that the class won’t test on for another month.
In late December, Milly declares a school wide cleaning day for the student body. “I happened to have inspected some of the boys’ dorms,” the blonde explains, ignoring the sudden choking sounds Rival makes at the other end of the room. “The amount of filth disappointed me, so I’m issuing an officially winter cleaning day!”
“Aren’t these things usually held in the spring?” Lelouch cuts in, busy toying around with his chess pieces. “I fail to see the point in such an a decree; you have no real method of checking it.”
“Easy for you to say, Vice President.” Milly loops one arm around Lelouch. “But the last time I checked, someone here is living on academy grounds with our cleaning aid at their service.”
Rolo watches as the other boy twitches slightly.
“Well, if the President sees it fit,” Lelouch trails off.
For this reason, Rolo finds himself moving out all the furniture in their joint dorm room. Rival spends twenty minutes running around campus after teasing the younger boy about his cell phone charm; Rolo barely manages to resist the urge; thing were so much easier when he was allowed to use his geass and knife the boy.
“The president’s whims are starting to get bothersome,” Rolo tells Lelouch when they’re dusting off the bed sheets.
“It’s the sacrifies we make to be in contact with others,” the older boy replies smoothly, leaning in to fold the edges of the sheets.
“Dealing with others is tiresome,” Rolo decides, pausing only when Lelouch gives him a look. “I mean-” He quickly corrects himself. “I’m antisocial at times.”
“It’s okay if you feel that way,” Lelouch replies in one of his rare voices. “That’s what I’m here for. We’re brothers, after all.”
Rolo opens his mouth only to close it upon realization that he has no way of responding to that comment. “Wha?” He blinks back when the older boy suddenly flips the pink bed sheet over his head. “Nii-san!” He laughs, and spends the next few minutes playing under a layer of pink.
Christmas comes unexpectedly. Rolo wakes up one day to find the school corridors decorated with fake snow powder and stockings. The significance of the holiday escapes him until he walks into the student council to find Lelouch with a Santa hat.
“It could be worse,” the dark haired boy tells him, nodding towards Shirley and Milly, both dressed in full, female Santa suits.
“Don’t think you’re getting away that easily!” Rival shouts, completely clad in a white robe of some sort with plastic wings mounted on his back. “Wait until you see what they have in stored for you!”
“Oh, Sh-” Lelouch nearly knocks his chess board down when Milly comes into the room, holding two full-sized reindeer suits. “Woman, you better not!”
It takes the combined efforts of Shirley, Milly, Rival, and some embarrassing blackmail pictures to stuff the ex-commander of the Black Knights into the reindeer get up. “Shush, you drama queen,” Milly grins when more photos -“black mail material,” Lelouch corrects her- are taken. “See, that wasn’t so bad!”
“It can’t get any worse from here, right?” Rolo suggests when they’re back at the dorms, Lelouch lying face-down on his bed while muttering death threats under his breath.
“The campus will be empty come tomorrow,” Lelouch says when he finally sits up. “Everyone will go home for Christmas, even Milly. What do you want to do this year?”
“You can decide this time, Nii-san.” Rolo smiles and hopes that he doesn’t sound too excited.
The beginning of the year finds them watching a broadcast to a Britannia celebration.
“Look!” Rival points to the parade on television. “That’s the seal for the Knights of the Round! They’re the highest knights in the empire. Aw, man. What I wouldn’t give to be one of them.”
“No way!” Shirley shrieks. “Suzaku-kun is there too!”
“Suzaku?” Lelouch pauses for a few seconds as Rolo watches him, horrified.
“Who is that, Nii-san?” The younger boy asks, just in case.
“Someone from my past,” Lelouch says, eyes still set on the television. “Someone I’ve almost forgotten.” His tone is soft, and for moment, Rolo thinks that maybe Lelouch knows. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“What does it mean to lose a friend?” Rolo asks, gaze traveling from the ground to Lelouch. He can’t comprehend the feeling or mimic the look on Kururugi’s face, but Lelouch’s current expression is as close as Rolo can possibly expect from the boy.
“It’s like a heartbreak,” Lelouch says, his eyes meeting Rolo’s.
“Have you ever experienced one?” Shirley asks quietly from the sidelines.
“No,” Rolo says. “But I expect I will soon.”
“There’s something you should know,” Villetta tells him one day, when spring has finally dawned on Rolo. “The armed forces have been planning something. You’re ordered to take him to the Babel tower tomorrow. It’s just the beginning of their attempt to secure CC.”
“What’s at the Babel Tower?” Rolo asks when he finally finds his voice.
“Hopefully, an ambush when the terrorists show up.” One of the other security members tells him.
“Ni-Lelouch has gone outside of campus grounds before.” Rolo points out, “What makes you think they’ll show up this time?”
“It’s not in your place to question these orders,” another member snaps.
Rolo glares, stopping only when Villetta makes a motion warning him not to expose his geass. “Just do it, Rolo.” The woman sighs. “They must have some clue of what they’re doing. Your performance has been exemplary up to now. This shouldn’t be a problem.
“No,” he says. “It shouldn’t.”
“If anything goes wrong,” Villetta adds as he is heading out the door. “Your immediate order is to use the geass and kill him.”
“Kill him?” Rolo turns around.
“It’s simple enough.” The woman continues, handing him a gun. “Do you have a problem with that?”
“No.” He replies slowly as he returns to the elevator. “Orders are orders.”
“I got word of a new opponent,” Lelouch tells him next morning, fingering the lid of his chess case as he jumps into Rival’s motorcycle. “Villetta-sensei’s make up test will just have to wait.” He pauses, glancing up. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Rolo offers the boy a strained smile as he starts the engine. “Where to?”
“Babel Tower.” Lelouch smiles while fiddling with a packet of snacks. “You know where that is, don’t you?”
“All too well,” Rolo says.
Goodbye, he thinks, the brother I never had.
[end]
AN: written for dollhouse__x, who thinks Rolo is "a scared kitten ;A;". IDK, I thought he was kind of badass in the beginning of R2, especially when he jumped out of that knightmare in the end of episode 2. HAWT.
It's not exactly what I had in mind, and I don't think it really gets my original point through, but I like it well enough because Rolo didn't sound too sentimental.
Love it? Hate it? Please leave some feedback, even if it may be a little late. You can also join the community, since I'll be locking up NC17 fics.
Fandom: Code Geass
Author: blahchiharu
Pairing: Lulu/Rolo (?)
Rating: G
wordcount: ~2500
Summary: Lelouch is nothing but an assignment, yet he is everything else to Rolo as well. Pre R2. Rolo centric.
A plane brings the prince to Ashford grounds. The pilot of Lancelot is there as well; Rolo has seen him once behind the screen of his monitor, bound in chains. Kururugi’s mouth tightens as members of the monitoring team carry the sleeping figure into the dorm.
“What is this, a personal escort?” Villetta asks, arms folded as she stares at the Japanese boy.
Rolo raises an eyebrow, still busy toying with the hem of his unfamiliar uniform. He doesn’t expect a reply from the newly assigned Knight of Rounds.
“Watch after him,” Kururugi says and boards the plane without looking back.
Lelouch wakes up on the fourth day. He spends the first few nights calling after forgotten names in his sleep, feverishly shifting in his bed. Rolo sets a glass of water on the bedside table and watches as the 11th prince of Britannia suffer through familiar nightmares. He wonders if this is really Zero, because a boy who unknowingly cries in his sleep for his sister, his mother, and the friend that betrayed him seems too vulnerable.
“My head hurts,” Lelouch says when he finally sits up in bed, wiping his drenched hairline with his sleeves. “How long have I been asleep?”
“Long enough.” The younger boy replies, handing Lelouch a change of clothes. “Do you feel well enough to go to class today?”
“I think so,” The prince begins to unbutton his shirt. He pauses upon noticing Rolo’s gaze. “Sorry to worry you. I didn’t think I’d fall ill so early this year.”
“It’s okay, Nii-san.” The assassin replies. The word is strange on his lips, just like the feeling of proximity he felt when Milly and Shirley first pulled him into a hug on day one, and like the peacefulness he felt while watching the students pace around the campus. This, he thinks, is your new life.
The first week passes slowly. Lelouch disappears early one morning, and Rolo spends an hour circling the campus grounds, contemplating on whether he should report this blunder to the monitoring team before finding the older boy on the rooftop, reading a book.
“Nii-san,” he begins for good measures. “Why aren’t you in class?”
“Why aren’t you?” Lelouch asks instead. He seems to know more about the younger boy than Rolo knows about himself. “Education is good for you.”
“What about you?” Rolo challenges.
Lelouch barely looks up from his new novel of the day. “There’s nothing I can’t learn from books.” He snaps the text shut. “You, however, don’t read. But since you’re here already, let’s do something else.”
“The teachers will catch us,” Rolo argues, although not entirely sure why.
“That’s a risk we’ll have to taken, then.” Lelouch leans over the edge of the roof bound by a low metal fence “There’s an escape ladder right there,” he then proceeds to swing one leg over the fence, stopping only when Rolo takes a hasty step forward.
“It’s too dangerous.” The brunette frowns.
Lelouch stares at him for a moment before returning to the safe side of the fence. “You’re always one to worry.”
“Am I?” Rolo tilts his head halfway, half amused and half confused. He doesn’t know why Lelouch seems to have a false grasp on his personality. “Let’s just find something safe to do, Nii-san.”
“You’re weird today,” the dark haired boy comments before pulling Rolo towards the rooftop exit. “Let’s go.”
The summer comes and passes aimlessly. Rolo is awakened by the soft sound of barefoot padding on the marble floor every morning as Lelouch awakes almost mechanically, pouring himself a cup of coffee before turning on the news.
Rolo often watches as the older boy’s expressions harden for reasons not entirely unknown. Lelouch is but another assignment, one that exists unknowing of his true importance. For this reason Rolo can’t keep his eyes off the boy, stopping only when Lelouch notices, smiles at him, and ruffles his hair.
“Isn’t it nice to be peaceful?” Milly asks one day while serving them tea in the campus garden. “Sometimes it’s refreshing to be away from the commotion.”
“That’s funny,” Lelouch chuckles and exchanges a look with Rolo (who blinks back cluelessly-at the time, Rolo thinks that it might have been a blessing to not know of madam president’s true nature-).
“Our life passes so quickly before our eyes!” Milly claps her hands together, obviously in another one of her nostalgic moods. “You’re young, Rolo. Live life to the fullest before you turn into an old geezer like Lelouch.”
Rolo doesn’t know what she means by “living life to the fullest.” Living, to him, has consisted of mission after mission, bloodshed after another, and faked trust in relationships. It reminds him too much of his mother; the woman he wishes to remember but can’t, perhaps the only person he has ever put genuine faith in. Perhaps that was one thing he had in common with Lelouch.
Sleep rarely comes to him; it reminds Rolo too much of the peace that he doesn’t believe in, so he spends his nights awake, roaming around the campus grounds. Occasionally, he checks in with the monitoring team member on duty and stare listlessly at the screens capturing a sleeping Lelouch.
Watching the prince is a parallax for Rolo. He’s distant yet too close for Rolo to understand. Lelouch remembers names, theories, and faces only in his slumber. It takes a while for the assassin to understand the look on Kururugi’s face that day; hurt filled with determination. Kururugi’s expressions are but a shadow of Lelouch’s. Or perhaps Lelouch was a shadow of the Japanese boy.
Unsaid words are not foreign to Rolo; he understands Lelouch’s ideals, the way he silently condemns the system of society. Rolo thinks, if anyone was willing to push the boy, Lelouch would no doubt resume his role once again. He is no different from the same terrorists fleshed out on those pieces of paper Rolo received that day, yet Lelouch is everything else as well.
A dove infestation takes a hold of the campus in September, just when the students are returning for a new school year. They’re atop the balconies, watching the campus with their beady eyes. They’re congregating on the rooftop, flocking away from Lelouch in herds every time he skips class. Rolo almost expects them to be recording devices; the monitoring committee is not above implanting them in birds at this point.
Lelouch has shown no signs of recollection in the past few months. It’s fortunate but boring, especially since the higher ups are never interested in dull reports. CC sightings are rare, and the officials are starting to get impatient from scrutinizing Lelouch’s daily schedule for a hint of something more.
“Stop being lame and listen to my proposal,” Millay demands one day in late October before snatching Lelouch’s book away. She sighs and turns to Rolo, “your brother used to be fun.”
The blonde’s idea of fun turns out to be vampire outfit and a bunny suit, complete with a special Halloween skit written by madam president herself, recorded by Rival to be broadcasted over the entire school.
Rolo spends so much time laughing that he almost breaks the monitoring device on his uniform from hurling over.
“Surprise,” Lelouch grins a day later, handing him a small box. “You didn’t think I’d forget, did you?”
Rolo pauses and stares, looking up a few times in case Lelouch’s expression gives anything away. He opens the box to find a locket. Dangling it around a few times, the assassin finally smiles a little.
“Happy birthday,” Lelouch says, leaning on one elbow as he smirks somewhat. “For some reason, I was sure you’d like it.”
It’s the first present anyone has given him without expecting something in return, so Rolo smiles, hugs the locket, and thinks nothing of the fact that golden clovers were Nunnali Lamperouge’s favorite.
Rolo finds it, much to his irritation, that his teachers refuse to turn a blind eye to his failing grades. He has little interest in learning about Romans and numbers and horses, but Villetta insists that he keep up his grade as part of the role.
“You can always ask me for help,” Lelouch says after dinner one night, leaning over Rolo’s seat and scanning through his textbook. “What did the professor ask you to review?”
The brunette looks down at his book. The binding is still perfect, reflecting the number of times Rolo has opened it. He flips to the index in hopes that the list of chapters will refresh his memory; he has no clue what lesson his class is even on. He doesn’t, however, mind when the older boy leans over him and breath on his ear in an attempt to teach him something that the class won’t test on for another month.
In late December, Milly declares a school wide cleaning day for the student body. “I happened to have inspected some of the boys’ dorms,” the blonde explains, ignoring the sudden choking sounds Rival makes at the other end of the room. “The amount of filth disappointed me, so I’m issuing an officially winter cleaning day!”
“Aren’t these things usually held in the spring?” Lelouch cuts in, busy toying around with his chess pieces. “I fail to see the point in such an a decree; you have no real method of checking it.”
“Easy for you to say, Vice President.” Milly loops one arm around Lelouch. “But the last time I checked, someone here is living on academy grounds with our cleaning aid at their service.”
Rolo watches as the other boy twitches slightly.
“Well, if the President sees it fit,” Lelouch trails off.
For this reason, Rolo finds himself moving out all the furniture in their joint dorm room. Rival spends twenty minutes running around campus after teasing the younger boy about his cell phone charm; Rolo barely manages to resist the urge; thing were so much easier when he was allowed to use his geass and knife the boy.
“The president’s whims are starting to get bothersome,” Rolo tells Lelouch when they’re dusting off the bed sheets.
“It’s the sacrifies we make to be in contact with others,” the older boy replies smoothly, leaning in to fold the edges of the sheets.
“Dealing with others is tiresome,” Rolo decides, pausing only when Lelouch gives him a look. “I mean-” He quickly corrects himself. “I’m antisocial at times.”
“It’s okay if you feel that way,” Lelouch replies in one of his rare voices. “That’s what I’m here for. We’re brothers, after all.”
Rolo opens his mouth only to close it upon realization that he has no way of responding to that comment. “Wha?” He blinks back when the older boy suddenly flips the pink bed sheet over his head. “Nii-san!” He laughs, and spends the next few minutes playing under a layer of pink.
Christmas comes unexpectedly. Rolo wakes up one day to find the school corridors decorated with fake snow powder and stockings. The significance of the holiday escapes him until he walks into the student council to find Lelouch with a Santa hat.
“It could be worse,” the dark haired boy tells him, nodding towards Shirley and Milly, both dressed in full, female Santa suits.
“Don’t think you’re getting away that easily!” Rival shouts, completely clad in a white robe of some sort with plastic wings mounted on his back. “Wait until you see what they have in stored for you!”
“Oh, Sh-” Lelouch nearly knocks his chess board down when Milly comes into the room, holding two full-sized reindeer suits. “Woman, you better not!”
It takes the combined efforts of Shirley, Milly, Rival, and some embarrassing blackmail pictures to stuff the ex-commander of the Black Knights into the reindeer get up. “Shush, you drama queen,” Milly grins when more photos -“black mail material,” Lelouch corrects her- are taken. “See, that wasn’t so bad!”
“It can’t get any worse from here, right?” Rolo suggests when they’re back at the dorms, Lelouch lying face-down on his bed while muttering death threats under his breath.
“The campus will be empty come tomorrow,” Lelouch says when he finally sits up. “Everyone will go home for Christmas, even Milly. What do you want to do this year?”
“You can decide this time, Nii-san.” Rolo smiles and hopes that he doesn’t sound too excited.
The beginning of the year finds them watching a broadcast to a Britannia celebration.
“Look!” Rival points to the parade on television. “That’s the seal for the Knights of the Round! They’re the highest knights in the empire. Aw, man. What I wouldn’t give to be one of them.”
“No way!” Shirley shrieks. “Suzaku-kun is there too!”
“Suzaku?” Lelouch pauses for a few seconds as Rolo watches him, horrified.
“Who is that, Nii-san?” The younger boy asks, just in case.
“Someone from my past,” Lelouch says, eyes still set on the television. “Someone I’ve almost forgotten.” His tone is soft, and for moment, Rolo thinks that maybe Lelouch knows. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“What does it mean to lose a friend?” Rolo asks, gaze traveling from the ground to Lelouch. He can’t comprehend the feeling or mimic the look on Kururugi’s face, but Lelouch’s current expression is as close as Rolo can possibly expect from the boy.
“It’s like a heartbreak,” Lelouch says, his eyes meeting Rolo’s.
“Have you ever experienced one?” Shirley asks quietly from the sidelines.
“No,” Rolo says. “But I expect I will soon.”
“There’s something you should know,” Villetta tells him one day, when spring has finally dawned on Rolo. “The armed forces have been planning something. You’re ordered to take him to the Babel tower tomorrow. It’s just the beginning of their attempt to secure CC.”
“What’s at the Babel Tower?” Rolo asks when he finally finds his voice.
“Hopefully, an ambush when the terrorists show up.” One of the other security members tells him.
“Ni-Lelouch has gone outside of campus grounds before.” Rolo points out, “What makes you think they’ll show up this time?”
“It’s not in your place to question these orders,” another member snaps.
Rolo glares, stopping only when Villetta makes a motion warning him not to expose his geass. “Just do it, Rolo.” The woman sighs. “They must have some clue of what they’re doing. Your performance has been exemplary up to now. This shouldn’t be a problem.
“No,” he says. “It shouldn’t.”
“If anything goes wrong,” Villetta adds as he is heading out the door. “Your immediate order is to use the geass and kill him.”
“Kill him?” Rolo turns around.
“It’s simple enough.” The woman continues, handing him a gun. “Do you have a problem with that?”
“No.” He replies slowly as he returns to the elevator. “Orders are orders.”
“I got word of a new opponent,” Lelouch tells him next morning, fingering the lid of his chess case as he jumps into Rival’s motorcycle. “Villetta-sensei’s make up test will just have to wait.” He pauses, glancing up. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Rolo offers the boy a strained smile as he starts the engine. “Where to?”
“Babel Tower.” Lelouch smiles while fiddling with a packet of snacks. “You know where that is, don’t you?”
“All too well,” Rolo says.
Goodbye, he thinks, the brother I never had.
[end]
AN: written for dollhouse__x, who thinks Rolo is "a scared kitten ;A;". IDK, I thought he was kind of badass in the beginning of R2, especially when he jumped out of that knightmare in the end of episode 2. HAWT.
It's not exactly what I had in mind, and I don't think it really gets my original point through, but I like it well enough because Rolo didn't sound too sentimental.
Love it? Hate it? Please leave some feedback, even if it may be a little late. You can also join the community, since I'll be locking up NC17 fics.