CG, "Carnival"
The whole world celebrated, but she was in mourning. There were some things about Kallen that Gino didn't fully understand, and maybe never would.
Contains spoilers from the last episode!!!! Written with 30_romances prompt "17. Carnival" in mind.
.carnival.
At some point while people mobbed the platform, chanting "Zero! Zero! Zero!" with deafening enthusiasm, a scant few separated from the group to free the prisoners who had so narrowly avoided the same fate that the fallen emperor had just met. It was probably Princess Cornelia's men, but Gino honestly couldn't tell -- couldn't think. He was completely stunned, almost paralyzed.
Dead... and so easily.
It seemed impossible. Lelouch had been an unstoppable force. Even when they had captured and brainwashed him, they had still needed to watch him closely, and he had still managed to slip their leash and fool them; even when they'd destroyed all his support and turned his own men against him he'd somehow escaped and usurped the throne of Britannia; even when they'd killed his unexpected, unpredictable champion and decimated his army, he had come out on top.
Gino had been so sure that only a miracle would save them. And maybe one had; one stranger (familiar, the impossible way that he moved, but everyone Gino could think of was already here or dead) who had come from nowhere in Lelouch's own guise to strike him down.
And he was still, motionless, and unbreathing. Dead, just like that.
Gino couldn't even think how to feel. He rubbed his throat, getting the circulation going, and then managed to think, coherently, Kallen-- What about Kallen?
She had been on his left. He turned around sharply, searching for her bright flare of color. There she was, in front of Tianzi who sobbed into Xingke's shoulder: standing at the edge of the dais, gazing out at the royal platform. She was crying, he realized, even though her features were composed. She didn't seem to have noticed.
Gino made himself move, first one step and then the next, until it began to feel natural for his legs to walk without his conscious thought. "Kallen..."
It took a moment before she seemed to hear him, and looked up. Her eyes were so blue, and so faded with tears, dimming the electric color he'd gotten used to in the scant time since he'd been with the Black Knights. "Gino?" Her expression was still somewhere far away.
Numb. She was numb. Gino spent a moment breathing and then stepped up again to wrap his arms around her, tightly drawing her in against his tall frame. There were none of the inane thoughts even he was expecting, about how she felt sweet against him (though she did) or how she was just the right size to fit her head against his shoulder (though she was). He just wanted, in a mindless way, to offer her comfort.
"Gino--"
"I know," he said tightly, "I know."
I know you're relieved, and I know you hate being relieved. I know he was important to you once.
Kallen didn't respond for a long moment -- she said nothing, didn't even move. She was stiff and unresponsive, but his warmth seemed to spread into her shocked system and she began to unwind, hands finding his sides, the white coat that he'd been bound in. Her grip was punishing, maybe desperate, as if she were losing the will to stand without support.
"He was... He was a hero after all," she whispered, and then she started to cry again in earnest, turning to press her face into his chest.
A hero? he thought, blank, lifting his gaze to look past her. The street looked like a celebration now: people cheering, hugging each other and laughing, a riot that Jeremiah and the others had long fled; the man in Zero's costume was beside Princess Nunnally now, gently lifting her up in his arms, ignoring the adulation on all sides of him, people straining just to touch his cloak or his pants.
They were rejoicing, ecstatic. The whole world must be rejoicing.
A hero? Misguided, maybe. Even well-meaning, maybe. But to call the Black Demon King a hero... Was there anyone else in the world who would agree with that title?
Maybe he didn't know, after all.
Contains spoilers from the last episode!!!! Written with 30_romances prompt "17. Carnival" in mind.
.carnival.
At some point while people mobbed the platform, chanting "Zero! Zero! Zero!" with deafening enthusiasm, a scant few separated from the group to free the prisoners who had so narrowly avoided the same fate that the fallen emperor had just met. It was probably Princess Cornelia's men, but Gino honestly couldn't tell -- couldn't think. He was completely stunned, almost paralyzed.
Dead... and so easily.
It seemed impossible. Lelouch had been an unstoppable force. Even when they had captured and brainwashed him, they had still needed to watch him closely, and he had still managed to slip their leash and fool them; even when they'd destroyed all his support and turned his own men against him he'd somehow escaped and usurped the throne of Britannia; even when they'd killed his unexpected, unpredictable champion and decimated his army, he had come out on top.
Gino had been so sure that only a miracle would save them. And maybe one had; one stranger (familiar, the impossible way that he moved, but everyone Gino could think of was already here or dead) who had come from nowhere in Lelouch's own guise to strike him down.
And he was still, motionless, and unbreathing. Dead, just like that.
Gino couldn't even think how to feel. He rubbed his throat, getting the circulation going, and then managed to think, coherently, Kallen-- What about Kallen?
She had been on his left. He turned around sharply, searching for her bright flare of color. There she was, in front of Tianzi who sobbed into Xingke's shoulder: standing at the edge of the dais, gazing out at the royal platform. She was crying, he realized, even though her features were composed. She didn't seem to have noticed.
Gino made himself move, first one step and then the next, until it began to feel natural for his legs to walk without his conscious thought. "Kallen..."
It took a moment before she seemed to hear him, and looked up. Her eyes were so blue, and so faded with tears, dimming the electric color he'd gotten used to in the scant time since he'd been with the Black Knights. "Gino?" Her expression was still somewhere far away.
Numb. She was numb. Gino spent a moment breathing and then stepped up again to wrap his arms around her, tightly drawing her in against his tall frame. There were none of the inane thoughts even he was expecting, about how she felt sweet against him (though she did) or how she was just the right size to fit her head against his shoulder (though she was). He just wanted, in a mindless way, to offer her comfort.
"Gino--"
"I know," he said tightly, "I know."
I know you're relieved, and I know you hate being relieved. I know he was important to you once.
Kallen didn't respond for a long moment -- she said nothing, didn't even move. She was stiff and unresponsive, but his warmth seemed to spread into her shocked system and she began to unwind, hands finding his sides, the white coat that he'd been bound in. Her grip was punishing, maybe desperate, as if she were losing the will to stand without support.
"He was... He was a hero after all," she whispered, and then she started to cry again in earnest, turning to press her face into his chest.
A hero? he thought, blank, lifting his gaze to look past her. The street looked like a celebration now: people cheering, hugging each other and laughing, a riot that Jeremiah and the others had long fled; the man in Zero's costume was beside Princess Nunnally now, gently lifting her up in his arms, ignoring the adulation on all sides of him, people straining just to touch his cloak or his pants.
They were rejoicing, ecstatic. The whole world must be rejoicing.
A hero? Misguided, maybe. Even well-meaning, maybe. But to call the Black Demon King a hero... Was there anyone else in the world who would agree with that title?
Maybe he didn't know, after all.