Notes: I hate washing dishes, but apparently it's good for fanfic inspiration, as I came up with another story.

Warning: This is a bit dark, in that something rather serious is handled rather casually.

Summary: Nunnally asks if C.C. loves her. The answer turns out to be yes. But how C.C. arrives at that answer is less like love and more like cold-blooded murder.

Stains

A Code Geass One-Shot by

Nate Grey (xman0123-at-aol-dot-com)

C.C. did not enjoy being questioned. She got enough of that from Lelouch, and she barely answered him as it was.

Nunnally was a different case. It wasn't that she asked too many questions, though. It was that each of her questions required such prolonged thought that they could never be answered right way. Perhaps Nunnally was naturally inquisitive, or perhaps C.C. was just naturally unprepared to answer the questions of a thoughtful young girl.

Whatever the reason, Nunnally always saved her questions for dinnertime, and C.C. always had a sufficient answer by dinnertime the next day. Oddly enough, Nunnally forgot her last question, so C.C. never had to restate it, while Lelouch, if he was present, would have absolutely no idea what they were talking about when C.C. suddenly blurted out an answer. C.C. always said it was because Lelouch was a thoughtless brute, but it was more because he always had so much on his mind that it was easy to forget such small, unimportant things.

One evening, Nunnally presented a question that stumped them both.

"Do you love me, C.C.?"

C.C. stopped chewing the slice of pizza in her mouth as she stared at Nunnally, then started chewing again, but much slower. "I don't know," she replied honestly. "Why do you ask?"

"I just want to know," Nunnally said simply, and then a lengthy silence settled over the table.

Lelouch eyed them both as he continued to cut his steak. He felt he should say something, but wasn't quite sure what that should be.

Finally, C.C. finished her pizza and wiped her hands with a napkin. "Nunnally, give me your hands."

Nunnally obediently stretched out her hands, and C.C. slowly reached across the table to grasp them gently but firmly. Taking a deep breath, C.C. closed her eyes, focusing only on the feel of Nunnally's soft, warm hands in hers.

Ten minutes later, C.C. woke up on the floor with a worried Lelouch gently slapping her cheek.

"What the hell did you do to yourself?" he demanded, a hint of panic slipping into his voice.

C.C. started to tell him, truthfully, that she hadn't really done much of anything. She changed her mind, however, and told him the more detailed truth. "I was allowing the future to show itself to me."

Lelouch stared at her blankly. "Right," he muttered in total disbelief.

She glared at him. "I was trying to find out if I love Nunnally."

"How would that help?"

"I can't tell by reviewing my past. So the answer must lie in the future. I just need time to make sense of what I saw in my head."

He stared at her for a long moment before finally answering. "I'm going to carry you to bed now, since you shouldn't be walking in this condition. And if the future does show itself to you, you might pass out like you did at dinner and hit your head. Again."

"I'm not making this up," C.C. insisted heatedly.

"I'm still going to carry you," Lelouch replied, scooping her up. "And the next time Nunnally asks you that, just save us all a headache and say yes, even if you don't mean it."

"She'd know if I didn't mean it."

Lelouch narrowed his eyes. "Then learn to lie effectively."

C.C. rolled her eyes. "It'd be far easier to just learn to love her."

"Then do that by tomorrow night, when she asks again."

That night, in Lelouch's bed, C.C. did make sense of what she'd seen. Or she organized it to the point where she knew what she had to do, if she truly loved Nunnally.

"I'm going to school with you today," C.C. announced as she walked into Lelouch's bedroom the next morning.

Lelouch turned around, and his jaw dropped.

C.C. was wearing a school uniform. One of his, though.

"Ah, you can't wear that," he said at last.

"Fine. But I have to go with you."

Shaking his head, Lelouch picked up the phone and punched in a number. "Hi, Shirley. Listen, this is going to sound really weird, but could you bring over one of your spare uniforms this morning? I have this friend who needs it. No, I really do have a friend. Yes, I am serious. Well, I could always ask Milly instead. Oh, so you DO have a spare? Thanks, you're the best."

Lelouch had no time to think of an explanation as to who C.C. was, and he didn't need one, as it turned out. The moment C.C. set foot in the classroom, she made a beeline for Nina, introduced herself as a friend of Lelouch's, and asked if Nina could show her around the campus later on. Nina was a bit hesitant, but C.C. was strangely insistent about it, so Nina agreed just to get some breathing room. The moment the class ended, C.C. practically dragged her out of the room. Lelouch thought it was strange, but so were most of the things C.C. did, so he didn't worry, much.

Nina was afraid. She was also tied to a chair and gagged. But mostly she was afraid.

C.C. sat in the other chair, staring at her. She'd been doing that for nearly an hour now.

It was more than a little creepy.

Finally, C.C. reached into her pocket, pulled out a small notepad, and flipped it open. Then she began to read from it.

"Nina Einstein. Inventor of the Field Limitary Effective Implosion Armament, also known as the F.L.E.I.J.A. bomb. This weapon will obliterate many people, including Nunnally vi Britannia. This is unacceptable."

Nina tried to speak, but of course couldn't.

C.C. noticed this and removed the gag.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Nina screamed. "I don't understand!"

"You don't have to," C.C. answered, and suddenly there was a gun in her hand. "You simply have to die."

C.C. was a few minutes late for dinner, but she was also prepared.

"I believe I can safely say that I do love you, Nunnally."

A small smile spread across Nunnally's face. "How did you figure that out?"

"I accept your existence as a necessary part of my reality," C.C. replied, picking up a slice of pizza.

Lelouch cleared his throat. "You've gotten tomato sauce all over the sleeve of Shirley's uniform already?! Now I'll have to wash it!"

C.C. slowly drew the aforementioned sleeve away from her plate. "And?"

"And now she's going to accuse me of doing dirty things to it! That's what she thought I wanted it for in the first place!"

"Then don't take it back. Tell her I lost it."

"Then she'll think I'm keeping it for my own sick pleasures!"

C.C. glared at him. "Then I guess you'll just have to be a pervert this time, won't you?"

"I'll explain things to Shirley," Nunnally offered. "She won't mind as much if I tell her. I'm sure she'll overlook this as a favor to me."

"But she'll tease me for a month about this," Lelouch complained.

"It'll be good practice for when you finally go on a date with some lucky girl."

"Why did you look at C.C. when you said that?!" Lelouch demanded.

Nunnally grinned. "Lelouch, I can't look at anyone. You know that."

"You turned your head! I saw you!"

"I thought C.C. said something."

"She didn't!"

C.C. tuned out the two siblings and moved her stained sleeve under the table. She rubbed at the stain with a napkin, but it wouldn't come out easily. But then, she knew all too well that stains of that kind were a lot tougher to get out than tomato sauce.

The End.

Endnotes:

Sorry, but lately one of my fave authors has been pumping out Naruto one-shots almost daily, and surprise surprise, a few have featured character death. I suppose I was in the mood.

I don't really know if C.C. can see the future. But it IS a known Geass ability, so I figure why not?

I assume I don't have to explain this, but I will for those who are confused, or just want some plot points of Code Geass spoiled for them. But I will add some spoiler space, just to be nice.

spoiler space

more of the same

spoiler space

spoiler space

you get the idea...

Nina will eventually invent a bomb that will apparently kill Nunnally. Mind you, she only does this because Zero kills Euphemia first, but that isn't the point here. The point is the only way to prevent Nunnally from dying (on that day, anyway) is to ensure that Nina never lives long enough to invent the bomb. And just from glancing at the fanfics around here, I'm going to guess that Nina isn't a popular character, anyway. Not crazy about her myself, frankly. Still, I felt bad about just killing her, but this is actually a good thing. Now Nina will never know the pain of Euphie dying. Okay, yes, someone is going to notice Nina's missing eventually. But I don't have to worry about that: the story is done, and C.C.'s had centuries to get good at hiding bodies.