az: continuing these since it kept bugging my mind... the anime and if I din do anything... the wait for the last two eps gonna kill my sanity... and you know... my bunnies even go as far towards and AU possible development on the story. Aaaaargh...

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Disclaimer: Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch is copyrighted by Sunrise as well as character designs by CLAMP. I”m only borrowing the fandom for the sake of the fic and the love of it.

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Buried Soul

Chapter 2: Neglected

by honou-no-izumi alias Izzu alias Izumi Ishtar

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“Mother... mother! Where are you going?”

Lady Marianne just smiled at him as she walked away. Lelouch frowned as he chased after her. But no matter how hard he ran, the distance between him and his mother continue to grow farther and farther...

“Mother wait!”

xxx

“Mother!”, Lelouch shouted as he rose from the bed. His breath came in short gasps as he took a long breath to calm himself down. He glanced around as he found himself inside his own bedroom. Lelouch sighed.

“Lulu! Are you all right?”

Lelouch gave a startled cry before noticing his half-sister sitting nearby. He shook his head.

“Euphie... what are you doing here?”

“I’m worried about you—”

Lelouch blinked before noticing another presence approaching them. Looking at Cornelia’s solemn face, the young prince gave a sigh of defeat.

“It... wasn’t a dream, wasn’t it? Mother is dead.”

Little Euphemia frowned a little at seeing Lelouch's gloomy face. She shrugged to herself as she climbed onto the bed and wrapped her arm around the young prince. Lelouch turned around towards her as he gave her a puzzled look.

“Euphie... what are you doing?”

Euphie pulled away as she cocked her head at him. “You looked so sad. So I gave you a hug to make you feel better! Did Lulu feel better?” chirped the pink-haired princess as Cornelia patted Euphie's head adoringly. The elder of the two princesses smiled weakly to him.

“How are you feeling now, Lelouch? I know it’s hard but if I could, in place of Lady Marianne—”

Lelouch shook his head.

“Elder sister... it’s okay. You don’t have to worry about me.”

Cornelia gasped at the cold tone of his voice. Lelouch glanced back at her. “What about Nunnally? Is she alright? Earlier I saw her legs had been bleeding—”, Lelouch paused as Cornelia placed a hand on his shoulders. Lelouch grimaced.

“There’s some... complications but Nunnally is alive. She’s currently at the hospital at the moment. You want to visit her?” asked Cornelia as Lelouch nodded his head.

xxx

There were a lot of strange machines around her. And most of her legs had been bandaged. There were also a lot of wires placed on her body.

Lelouch bit his lips as he watched Nunnally helplessly lying on the bed, eyes covered with bandages. He was not allowed to enter the Intensive Care Unit where they were placing her in so he could only watch from outside of the glass windows. He could not sit beside her now, offering comfort or do anything for his only sister. He could do nothing!

Just like he could do nothing to save his mother and watched her body lying on the floor, lifeless. He could not even stop the assassin from shooting at Nunnally's legs, much less do anything worthy.

Why should he be the only one left unhurt?

Lelouch jumped as a hand grabbed his shoulders. He looked up as Schneizel greeted him. He glanced behind him to see Cornelia, Clovis, Euphie—and no one else. Lelouch sighed as glanced back towards Nunnally’s ward. He bit his lips again as he tried to ignore the sudden hurt he felt growing in his heart.

Schneizel glanced down towards him.

“Anything wrong, Lulu?”

Lelouch blinked towards him as a stray tear leaked out from eyes. The boy started covering his face with his arm as Euphie peered beside him.

“Are you okay, Lulu—?”

More tears started to flow as Lelouch started to cry openly. Clovis frowned at this as he nudged the boy roughly.

“Stop crying!”

Lelouch glared at his older brother as he wiped his face again. “Shut up, it’s not like I wanted to cry so much! Idiot Clovis!”

“Don’t call me an idiot! Just because you always beat me in chess—and anyway it’s not like crying could—”, Clovis paused as Lelouch continued glaring at him. Schneizel and Cornelia started to try breaking the tension between the two as both refused to back off. The tension broke anyhow as Lelouch started to hiccup a lot. Lelouch glanced sideways as he tried to hide his embarrassment.

Cornelia sighed. But at least Lelouch had stopped crying. She leaned over him.

“What’s wrong?”

Lelouch glanced towards his other brothers and Euphie before creeping nearer towards Cornelia. Cornelia blinked as Lelouch whispered near her ears.

“He’s not here—”

Cornelia blinked as she straightened herself. She sighed as she realized what her little brother had meant and hit herself mentally. There was nothing that she could do after all. Cornelia shrugged helplessly as she patted the little boy’s head. She turned to look at Euphie as the little girl watched Nunnally from afar in concern through the glass windows. Cornelia smiled fondly as Euphie walked towards Lelouch to comfort him.

At least in kindness, they could offer to this child in these moments of despair.

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az: posting this and probably gonna work out the third chapter unless the fourth real chapter of Shadow sun didn”t come out first.