Title: Memories of Zero

Author: Teno Hikari

Fandom: Code Geass

Legal Disclaimer: Life isn't fair and I don't own Code Geass

Summary: What if Lelouch saw his subordinates as precious people rather than faceless pieces on his chess board? A collection of memories centered on the family ties between Lelouch and the Order of the Black Knights.

Warning: Unbetad and written in 30 minutes (while waiting for my Domino's Pizza). AU-ish crack ahoy

Characters: Tamaki, Lelouch, C.C.

Memory 025: Best Buds

Ever since Shinichiro Tamaki learned that his leader, the infamous Zero, was an outcast Britannian prince with family issues; he took it upon himself to be the kid's best bud. After all, Lelouch was far too busy leading the Black Knights to victory all around the Globe, than having an ordinary life with friends who would accept him as the wicked awesome rebel leader in the history of mankind.

So, when C.C. refused to be the copilot of the Gawain just because Lelouch refused to let her eat pizza in the cockpit anymore; Tamaki quickly nominated himself to take her place. At first, his leader appeared to be skeptical, even seemed a little nervous. Tamaki knew he wasn't an Ace like Kallen; but he could still pilot, probably even better than the lazy witch who made little to no contributions to their cause. Zero didn't need that much convincing when he was forced to personally scrape dried cheese off the controls so that he could fire the Hadron canons.

Tamaki had bragged to the others (and of course to a nonchalant C.C.), and was so psyched up that he had forgotten to review the instruction manual. So when the actual battle came, he figured he would just have to improvise. The Gawain couldn't be that complicated compared to a Burai, right?

"Tamaki, No!" he had heard Zero shout from the seat above him, "don't touch that button, that's…"

Not the button to fire the Hadron, Tamaki realized a little too late, as he felt a cold draft chill the back of his neck.

"Zero?" he called out worriedly and gulped when he received no verbal response, just the sound of seagulls, "buddy?"

"Tamaki!" he heard Kallen's hysterical voice shout at him over the channel, "Why did Zero eject?"

"Tamaki!" Ohgi also joined in. "We saw something roll down the front of the Gawain! That wasn't Zero, was it? Where is he?"

"Um…" Tamaki began to rub the back of his head while lowering the Gawain down to where their leader was floating face down, "he's in the water."

"What water?"

"ThePacific Ocean...?"

Zero was indeed the 'Man of Miracles', for he had not broken or fractured a single bone upon hitting the front of the Gawain before tumbling down the front of the Knightmare's torso and into the frigid (and probably shark infested) sea water below. Tamaki made a mental note to suggest Zero modify his costume. The black cape that was always buttoned up so tightly around Zero's torso, just didn't make swimming easy [1].

Tamaki had followed a drenched Zero down the corridors of their submarine while continuing an endless mantra of apologies. By the time they reached his quarters, Lelouch had slipped off his mask, coughed up the remaining sea water from his lungs, then fainted with a fever that burned Tamaki's hand. C.C. took one look at them while addingTabascosauce to her slice of pizza and tsked.

"I knew something like this was going to happen. Now would you move him? He's getting my Cheese-kun all wet."

Tch. Witch.

Maybe it was the fever talking, but Lelouch forgave him when he came to, and afterwards promoted the man for getting C.C. out of his room so he could sleep in peace. Zero even requested Tamaki to stand behind him during an important teleconference between the Prime Minister of Britannia, Chairwoman of the UFN, and the Chinese Federation Empress' representative. Zero also had to attend, even if his fever was in the triple digits.

Always pleased to be called upon by his best bud, Tamaki didn't think much of the task until the meeting began. All he had to do was stand behind Zero… and hold him upright by the fabric of his cape, while listening to a boring conversation of politics for over two hours now. It was when the people on the monitors began to discuss another political marriage between the Chinese Federation and the Holy Empire of Britannia, did Tamaki really loose his interest and started to let his eyes wander around the room. Zero had been quiet for a long time. Tamaki couldn't blame him; the poor guy must have been bored out of his mind to.

Wait… was that a five-hundred yen coin on the ground?

"Zero," Second Prince Schneizel called out looking straight at them with his all knowing and fake as hell nice-guy smile, "You've been uncharacteristically quiet for the duration of this subject. Won't you share your opinions with us?"

"I am also eager to hear what you have to say about this matter, Zero," Xingke added.

"Master Zero! What do you think?" Kaguya's sugary sweet voice made Tamaki visibly cringe as he reached down to pick up that five-hundred yen… ah damn, it was a hundred!

THUNK!

Tamaki blinked as he looked up from over the table edge to see three pairs of eyes staring back, jaws seemingly unhinged, and all three faces looking rather dumbfounded. He would have laughed if he wasn't too busy wondering where that strange noise had come from. It sounded like Zero's masked head crashing against the hard surface of the table face first. Which was just impossible because Tamaki was holding his leader upright… actually he was holding a hundred yen coin.

"Master Zero! Are you all right?"

"Uughhh…I don't wanna go to school today," Lelouch slurred, sounding rather delirious, "Tamaki… don't press that … ejection button…"

Three pairs of eyes blinked before they looked away from the fallen Zero to target him.

"Uh," Tamaki laughed nervously before grabbing onto the back of his leader's chair and proceeded to pull it and its occupant away from the table and towards the door without ending the transmission first, "he's going to have to call you all back!"

For the next several days while Zero was recovering Tamaki couldn't look anyone in the eye. Even though no one outright blamed him for their leader being in poor health to plan a way to stop the second marriage attempt between the First Prince of Britannia and the young Chinese Empress, he started to feel like a thorn in Zero's side rather than a fierce supporter. Maybe they weren't buds after all, maybe he should just go accept the fact that he's useless and Zero was better off with just a subordinate than a friend…

"Tamaki," Lelouch called out to him from the down the hall. The said pilot turned to look at his unmasked leader who although was looking paler than normal, seemed a lot better than he had the past few days.

"What's up, boss?" he asked without his usual enthusiasm which made the teenager blink at him curiously.

"I wanted to let you know that C.C. is taking over as my copilot again. She realized that if I died, she wouldn't be able to use my credit card anymore," Lelouch spoke while glaring in the direction of his room, "also, I just wanted to thank you."

The Black Knight's shoulders sagged as he cast his eyes downward. "Thank me, for being a total failure? I got you sick and now the leader of one of our allies is gonna get hitched to one of our enemies."

Zero shrugged his shoulders. "I was the one who wasn't wearing a seat belt when I was ejected from the cockpit. I also was the one who passed out at the meeting when I should have just stayed in bed. So it isn't entirely your fault, there's no need to blame yourself for my mistakes."

"Then… what did you want to thank me for?"

"For this," Lelouch answered as he held up a coin between his thumb and index fingers.

"That hundred yen coin?"

"The coin has sentimental value to me," he explained, "you see when I was exiled to Japan, all my sister and I had were the clothes on our backs. I was a child, and there were things that I wanted, but was too proud to ask strangers for. A close friend gave us a portion of his allowance, and I always kept this coin to remind me that friendship is far more valuable that any currency."

Lelouch then smiled at him, "and indeed it is. Anyone would have kept this, but you gave it back to me. So I'll always honor our friendship, Shinichiro Tamaki."

Tamaki only blinked, staring off in the direction when the prince had slipped on his mask and headed for the bridge to join the others. Suddenly, he was overcome with emotion that made his eyes start to sting and burn.

He would not cry. His shoulders began to shake. He definitely would not cry!

C.C. paused from clipping pizza coupons as she heard a loud wail echo through the hallway and shrugged.

"No capes!" – Edna, from Disney Pixar's The Incredibles