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Eye of the Beholder	By : ArchangelM127 Category: +. to F > Code Geass Views: 2907 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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- 3
- 4
Eye of the Beholder

A Code Geass fan fiction story

Written by Archangel

Edited by klv

Chapter 4 – Best of a Bad Situation

{Author’s Note: This chapter is dedicated to my father, both for passing his literary talent on to me and for helping me to develop it throughout my school years. The music suggestion is Just the Way You Are by Bruno Mars.

This chapter takes place a day or two after Square One Chapter 1. About a week has elapsed since the events of Eye of the Beholder Chapter 3.

Enjoy, and please provide feedback! RATE and/or REVIEW, please!}

*****

The appearance of Mrs. Huxtable at the classroom door was sufficient to bring the interminable lecture on the War of the Roses to a halt. The Headmaster’s secretary never came to the classroom buildings except to deliver bad news, and a mingled murmur of conversation rose as the students speculated about what might have happened, and to whom.

Once she was sure the lesson had paused, Mrs. Huxtable surveyed the class. “Miss Presbyter?”

Kaitlyn rose from her desk, her face rigidly composed. “Present.” At Mrs. Huxtable’s beckoning, Kait moved stiffly to the door. The secretary spoke softly into Kait’s ear for a moment, laying a comforting hand on her shoulder.

When Kait turned to face her friends her expression was still under control, but Will’s sharp gaze spotted the minute trembling of her lower lip. Her fey blue eyes were glassy, brimming with unshed tears.

“What’s going on?” Nunnally whispered as Nick got to his feet, going to his girlfriend.

“Bad news for Kait,” Will whispered back. “Really bad news,” he added, seeing Kait bury her face fiercely in Nick’s shoulder, still managing not to cry in front of everyone. Stiff upper lip, Will thought with faint admiration.

Nunnally’s beautiful face filled with concern. “Oh dear! Whatever’s the matter, do you think?”

“Don’t know yet.” Will watched through the doorway as both Nick and Mrs. Huxtable led Kait gently away down the corridor. “Nick will tell us later… if it isn’t too personal,” he murmured to Nunnally as the teacher attempted to regain control of the class.

“Do you think there’s anything we can do to help?”

You are the sweetest person on God’s earth, Nunnally, Nick thought with a wan smile. “Not right now,” he replied, his own voice betraying his deep distress—the situation must have been dire indeed to reduce Kait to such a condition.

*****

[Late that night…]

Will was lying on his stomach sketching an angel-like figure preaching to a crowd of strange creatures when Nick finally returned to their dorm room.

“How’s Kait?” Will asked softly, laying his pencil aside.

“Not well.” Nick sat down heavily at his desk, planting his elbows on the polished wood and resting his face on his open palms. “Nor am I,” he added reflectively after a minute.

Will was tempted to lay a hand on his friend’s shoulder, but among adolescent boys such things simply aren’t done. Unable to think of any words of comfort, Will kept his silence, waiting for Nick to explain in his own good time.

“Kait’s maternal grandfather passed away this morning,” Nick told Will after a while. He sat up straight, turning to face his best friend. “They were very, very close. He’s been quite sick for a while now, but we thought his condition was improving.” Nick sighed heavily, opening his collar and pulling off his necktie.

“I’m sorry.” Will meant it. The effect of this man’s death on Kait was terrible enough, but to see it also affect Nick so strongly evoked an even deeper sympathy in Will.

Nick nodded. “Thanks. I knew Grandfather Henry very well myself,” he explained, his grief evident in the hollow tone of his voice. “A kinder, nobler man I don’t expect to ever meet in this life. My father has to travel so much on business, and Grandpa Henry… he helped raise me in many ways. Taught me what it means to be a man, to be truly noble, all that sort of thing…”

Will listened in silence as Nick continued to speak, recalling many stories of this man he had admired so much. He had mentioned Kait’s grandfather once or twice in passing, but Will had had no idea that Nick was so close to him.

“Kait and I are flying back to the Homeland tomorrow morning,” Nick concluded presently. “We shan’t be back before the end of term. I’m going to have to cram for exams all over again,” he noted with a faint chuckle. “Oh well.”

“And you’ll have to put off popping the question,” Will added sympathetically.

“Huh?”

“Well, will you return in time for that concert you were going to take her to?”

“Oh, hell.” Nick turned back to his desk and flipped open his planner book. “Blood and ashes!” he snarled, stabbing the date of the concert with his finger. “No way we’ll be back that soon. Well, there’s £50 down the drain. Damn!” Nick dropped his forehead to the desk with an audible thump.

Will felt horrible for bringing the matter up, but he couldn’t think what to say. So he said nothing, remaining quietly supportive for his best friend.

“Wait a minute…” Nick said presently. He raised his head and turned to look at Will again. “They needn’t go to waste after all. You take them!”

Will blinked in confusion. “Take what now?”

“The tickets! Take Nana to the concert, she’ll love it!” Nick opened the center drawer of his desk and withdrew a small envelope, handing it to Will.

“But… I can’t buy these off you,” Will objected, flipping open the envelope and examining the two brightly colored tickets. “I don’t have that much money.”

Nick snorted. “I’m not going to charge you, Will. I’d rather you two have a fun evening at my expense than see the money go to waste.”

“What’s this band like? ‘Owl City’—I’ve never heard of them.”

“They’re this weird experimental group that’s taken off like a rocket the past year or so. Very light, happy music. Right up Nana’s street,” Nick concluded with a shadow of his usual broad smile. “Seriously, Will, take the bloody tickets and ask Nana out. No arguments.”

With an air of finality, Nick shrugged out of his blazer and kicked off his shoes. Will continued to study the pair of tickets as Nick, still fully dressed, crawled into his bed and instantly dropped off to sleep.

*****

[The next day…]

Will conveyed the broad strokes of what had happened to Nunnally the next morning, but it wasn’t until after their tutoring session that he found the courage to broach the subject of the concert.

“Nana… erm, do you have any plans for next Friday?” Will asked after they had cleared away their schoolbooks and Sayoko had served them tea. Though his heart was beating painfully fast, Will managed to keep his voice steady.

“Hmm.” Nunnally tapped her index finger against her lip a few times as she thought about it. “Aside from my last examination, no. Why do you ask?”

“I… ah… well, I have a pair of tickets for a concert that evening. And… I was wondering if you’d like to come with me.”

Nunnally’s face lit up like the sun. “I’d love to!” she replied enthusiastically, beaming from ear to ear. “Which band is giving the concert?”

“Owl City,” Will managed through his bedazzlement.

“Really?” Nunnally’s mouth dropped open very cutely. “I didn’t even know they were giving a concert here in Japan! However did you get tickets?”

Will blushed with embarrassment. “I sort of inherited them from Nick,” he explained. “He was intending to take Kait, but…”

“Oh, I see.” The reminder of Kait’s loss sobered Nunnally, but only for a moment. “Oh my, this is so exciting!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands gleefully.

“Then I’m even more glad to take you,” Will replied sincerely. “We ought to check with your brother before making definite plans, though, right?”

“Yes, you’re right! Sayoko,” Nunnally called, “would you please tell my brother that I’d like a word?”

“Yes, Mistress Nunnally,” Sayoko replied as she breezed through the parlor on her way to Lelouch’s room.

The prospect of explaining the situation to Lelouch should have terrified Will, but at the moment he was too busy studying Nunnally. He’d never seen her so animated, so obviously happy. Usually Nana gave Will the impression that she was some sort of goddess—beyond gorgeous, but with a quiet, unchanging air about her. Now she was inescapably alive, bouncing a little in her seat and twisting from side to side with excitement. It was beautiful to watch.

Every minute detail of Nunnally’s appearance at that moment etched itself into Will’s mind. He felt a familiar itching sensation in his fingertips and knew from experience that it wouldn’t go away until he put paint to canvas. Will needed to give life to the vision swirling through his brain. He had begun a mental catalogue of the colors he would have to mix when Lelouch came into the parlor, still wearing his black-and-gold Ashford uniform. Will forced his attention back to the present.

“Lelouch!” Nunnally burst out, “Will has tickets for an Owl City concert next Friday! Oh please say I can go with him!”

The force and substance of Nana’s declaration took Lelouch aback. He blinked a few times, turning his gaze first to Will, then to the eagerness and delight on his little sister’s face. Will managed not to wilt under Lelouch’s scrutiny, thanks in large part to the distraction of his itching fingers. “I see,” Lelouch replied after a long moment. “What time?”

“Uh, it’s supposed to begin at six and end at nine. So we’ll need to leave at four-thirty or five, and we should be back by nine-thirty or ten,” Will explained.

“Hmm.” Lelouch’s gaze shifted into the middle distance. “The problem is that Milly—the Student Council President,” he elaborated for Will’s benefit, “is taking a bunch of us from the high school group out dancing that night to celebrate the end of term. Therefore, finding someone to chaperone you two will be difficult.”

“Ah… err… about that…” Will flushed. “I only erm, only have two tickets. So…”

Lelouch’s violet eyes re-focused on Will, boring into him like a laser. “What.” Lelouch’s accusatory expression implied that Will had contrived the situation deliberately.

The implication offended Will’s Britannian sense of honor (different in focus from a nobleman’s, certainly, but no less acute for his common background), and the sudden flash of indignation stiffened his spine. “I didn’t make the original plans,” he informed Lelouch stiffly. “My roommate passed the tickets to me when he and his girlfriend had to return to the Homeland yesterday due to a death in her family.”

“I trust Will,” Nunnally spoke up in her usual carefree tone, apparently oblivious to the tension between her brother and her prospective boyfriend. “We don’t need a chaperone, Lelouch,” she opined, feeling along the table and taking Will’s hand.

A wry smile twisted up the corners of Lelouch’s mouth at Nunnally’s open display of affection for Will. “Alright then, you can go.”

Nunnally squealed with delight and squeezed Will’s hand tightly, beaming from ear to ear. “Oh thank you, Lelouch! This is going to be so much fun!”

“I hope so,” Lelouch replied with evident sincerity. “Do you mind if I borrow Will for a few minutes, though?” he continued in the same warm tone he always used when talking to his sister. “We need to discuss the details of the arrangements.”

“Okie-dokie!” Nunnally released Will’s hand with obvious reluctance, but nothing could have dampened her spirits at that moment. She still seemed completely unaware of the battle of wills occurring between the two boys, and neither was inclined to inform her.

Will rose from the table, buttoning his uniform blazer and unconsciously straightening his necktie as he followed Lelouch out the apartment’s front door. To Will’s mild surprise, Lelouch led him up the building’s staircase to the roof. Lelouch walked slowly to the railing and leaned on it, staring out over the beauty of the Ashford Academy campus. Will had little choice but to follow, adopting a similar pose next to the older boy. The tension in the air was thick enough to cut with a knife, but Will focused on his vivid vision of Nunnally’s beautiful smile and waited for Lelouch to speak first. I need to bring an easel and a sketchpad up here sometime, he mused.

“Let me make myself perfectly clear,” Lelouch began presently, his voice quiet and level. “I’m only permitting this because your behavior has been nothing less than exemplary up to this point.” He paused, waiting for Will to respond.

“Thank you. And, uh, for what it’s worth, I have five little sisters myself,” Will added with a tentative smile. “I understand how you feel.”

“None of yours are old enough to date yet,” Lelouch shot back, the tiniest of smiles tugging at a corner of his mouth.

“Still, I know what you’re going to say: if I do anything untoward you’ll kill me.” It never occurred to Will to wonder how Lelouch knew his sisters’ ages.

“Oh, I’ll do worse than kill you.”

The matter-of-fact way Lelouch made this statement lowered Will’s body temperature a few degrees and drained the blood from his face. He mentally revised the assessment of Lelouch he had formed on their first meeting—Lelouch Lamperouge was most definitely scary. Looking into those violet eyes, Will had no doubt that Lelouch meant what he said, very seriously and literally.

Evidently satisfied with Will’s reaction, Lelouch turned and left the roof.

*****

After recovering from his fright, Will returned to the Lamperouge apartment. However, heeding both the setting sun and the persistent itching sensation in his fingers, he only stayed a few more minutes.

Once he’d made his goodbyes to the ecstatic Nunnally, Will left the Student Council Building and made directly for Hogarth Hall. Home to Ashford’s art and theatre departments, Hogarth was the only place on campus where Will didn’t feel at least a little out of place. Over the past two years Will had become the darling of the art faculty, to the point that the departmental director, Mrs. Longstreet, had entrusted Will with a key and a set of alarm codes for Hogarth Hall so he could come and paint whenever the mood struck him.

Will opened the building and secured the doors behind himself in record time, dashing upstairs to the painting studio. He tossed his bookbag aside and stripped off his blazer and dress shirt before grabbing a blank canvas and setting it on a large easel. While he used the Academy’s paper and paint all the time, quality canvas was expensive and Will had never taken one from the school stores without first asking permission. Tonight, however, his mind was focused solely on painting this side of Nunnally he’d just seen for the first time. He grabbed brushes, paints, water, and all the other supplies he needed. The itching in his fingers had grown to burning, like they’d been slathered with poison ivy.

Without so much as sketching an outline on the canvas Will began to paint, each stroke of his brush certain and precise. He worked without pause into the small hours of the morning, pausing only to change his brush-water.

*****

“Oh, for goodness’ sake. Why do I have to babysit?” C.C. grumbled. The green-haired girl unbuttoned the borrowed white dress shirt she was wearing and stripped it off, leaving herself in nothing but the close-fitting white leotard she wore as an undergarment.

With a supreme effort of willpower, Lelouch kept his gaze fixed on C.C.’s face as she gave her hips a few gratuitous wiggles before slipping beneath the covers of his bed. “Because I and everyone else I could ask will be out with Milly that night,” he growled in reply, “and it’s not the sort of task I can assign to the Black Knights.” The little witch sometimes resorted to this sort of base sexual display when she was trying to get her way with him, and Lelouch refused to be manipulated. In any case, despite C.C.’s stunning figure there was something about her that always turned Lelouch off on the rare occasions when his mind did drift into the gutter.

“Will’s as harmless as a newborn bunny,” C.C. shot back sleepily. “The only way he’ll be getting into Nunnally’s panties is if she seduces him.”

Lelouch scowled at hearing his baby sister spoken of in such a crass manner. “I know that,” he told C.C. flatly. “I’m not worried about William’s behavior. I am worried about the two of them getting jumped on the underground or some such nonsense.” He sighed heavily, sitting in his desk chair and looking intently into his “roommate’s” golden eyes. “You have no idea how excited Nunnally is to be going to this concert,” he explained. “I want to be absolutely certain that nothing ruins the evening for her. Besides, what’s your problem? It’s not like you were planning to come to the club with us, right?”

C.C. pulled the covers up over her head. “I was planning to go out and get laid,” she snarked from beneath her impromptu shield.

“All I’m asking is that you shadow two oblivious teenagers to a concert, goof off for three hours or so, then shadow them back. I’ll even give you some cash to enjoy yourself with while you wait. I believe there’s a new gourmet pizza restaurant downtown, at the corner of Hampshire and Chesterton.” Pizza was one of the few chinks in C.C.’s psychological armor, and Lelouch had no qualms about using it.

A long-suffering sigh. C.C. pulled the covers back down to her neck, fixing Lelouch with her disconcerting gaze. “Fine, but you owe me for this.”

“Put it on my tab. Now goodnight. And thank you.”

*****

And when you smile

The whole world stops and stares for awhile

‘Cause girl you’re amazing

Just the way you are

*****

[More Author’s Note: This chapter was quite a lot of fun to write, and I hope it was equally fun to read!

Let’s see, names. Mrs. Huxtable and Mrs. Longstreet aren’t named after anyone in particular; they’re just classic English surnames. Hogarth Hall is named for 18th-century English artist William Hogarth.

Many people have expressed disappointment with how little we’ve seen Lelouch in ‘big-brother mode’ so far. I hope the end of the third scene makes up for it a bit! I had way too much fun writing it. Poor Will.

Even more fun to write was the fourth scene. I’d always intended to give Nana and Will time by themselves, but as I was working on the third scene it occurred to me that Lelouch would never really agree to let them go unchaperoned. Under the circumstances, getting C.C. to keep a covert eye on them was the logical choice. As an added bonus, it let me write some good interplay between Lelouch and C.C., which is always a hoot. Also, props to Mikey for a small but completely awesome suggestion that made the scene even funnier.

Their little exchange also gave me the chance to put to rest any ideas people might have about a C.C./Lelouch pairing in the Angelverse. I planned on covering this in Square One, but it works just as well here. I do plan on writing a one-off story for C.C. much later in the overall story, though. (Betcha can’t guess who I’ll pair her with!) I’m also considering a semi-comedic one-off based on a comment someone made forever ago—pairing Kaguya and Tianzi. A little loli rarely goes amiss, especially with such sweethearts. ^^ No promises on that one, though; I need to see if I can plausibly create the proper situation and I haven’t planned in detail that far yet.

What exactly does Will paint, you ask? I’m sure you can guess the general subject, but the precise nature of the piece is a secret. For now. It’s not an important plot point, just something I thought was both romantic and cool. We’ll get there in due course.

Readers: Mikey

See you next chapter! Same Angel time, same Angel channel!}
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Eye of the Beholder