damned_institute | Night 47: F21-F30 Hallway

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Night 47: F21-F30 Hallway

It was, thought Agatha, about time this Landel guy started acting like a real evil megalomaniacal mad scientist. All the sugary-sweet fakery had been getting on her nerves, but this persona was something she knew all about. Right down, in fact, to the inclusion of information helpful to his enemies.

She'd been spending most of the time since finishing dinner assembling the pitifully few useful-looking items their room contained. She hadn't originally meant to include the little radio in that, since no matter what settings she tried it had only produced rather forgettable music and she didn't have the time or the tools to reduce it to usable parts.

Now, though, she snatched it up and slid it over to the channel that had been mentioned. It might not be much help, but she didn't see how it could hurt, either. "I think I'm all set," she declared. "Ema?"

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There. That was much better, even if she was still crying. Lelouch allowed himself to relax a little and simply held her, waiting for the tears to stop. Maybe once she had gotten this out of her system-- but then the horrors the institute had in store for all of them might just ruin the progress they'd made tonight. If they ever reactivated that program, for instance... the Head Doctor implied that it wouldn't be happening again, but Lelouch found it difficult to feel entirely reassured by that. He didn't think he'd care if he was the victim of it again, but Nunnally-- it was too terrible to think about.

Containing his worry over her only became more difficult with what she said next. She sounded so sure of it-- he couldn't help but remember that first meeting with Suzaku again, the plans he'd made, and the fear that if he didn't go through with them, their parents' attempt to kill the gods might succeed. Now that he knew that Nunnally would live even if Suzaku fired F.L.E.I.J.A.-- but he had to at least try. Perhaps if he spoke with his knight again...

He considered this for a moment or two longer before realizing that, even with his reluctance to discuss certain matters further and the fact that he really ought to be focusing on fulfilling his promise, there was something more that he had to know that Nunnally had left out. He couldn't stop himself from shifting the tiniest bit in discomfort the moment he remembered, and after a few more seconds' worth of hesitation, he said, "There's... one last thing that I don't understand. You never mentioned..." He trailed off and glanced down at the top of her head, his brows furrowing. "How did your eyesight return?"

Simple logic was reinforced by the lack of any solid response and reminded Nunnally that promises or no promises, reality remained what it was; what she had was hope, nothing more, and she shouldn't rely too much on it. For the time being, though -- well, there was little else to do in this place. What could or would change upon their return to their own world remained to be seen, and in the meantime there was still the matter of returning to be figured out. The very fact that there were so many other people trapped here testified to the difficulty of that, so it was the more pressing concern.

She managed at least an outward semblance of calm soon enough and sat up a little, self-consciously brushing at the damp spot on his shirt before moving to wipe her own eyes. That was something she couldn't keep doing -- Lelouch had to have his own concerns to deal with, and it wasn't fair to force him to shoulder hers as well without reason. Hopefully there'd be no more need to speak of such things again in the future.

...except for one thing she'd neglected to mention. Nunnally glanced up again, her hand drifting to rest back in her lap as her thoughts spun, trying to decide how exactly to explain it when she didn't entirely understand herself. "On...on the Damocles, during the battle. I realized that I had to. That it wasn't real." Did that even make sense? Likely not, and her cheeks flushed a little as she shook her head slightly, in a helpless sort of gesture. "I couldn't look away anymore."

... She'd overcome it on her own? How-- no, that wasn't the question to ask. Examining the intricacies of that man's Geass now was pointless, especially when Lelouch could simply recreate the effects Nunnally had brought about on her own with Jeremiah's Geass Canceler-- assuming his plan to change events succeeded, of course. There was, however, one very large flaw to his plan: Nunnally's memories of their father using Geass on her didn't appear to have returned. Using the Geass Canceler undoubtedly would bring them back, and how was Lelouch to explain that to her? He could do it and would likely need to if he was going to stop Ragnarok at all and live happily with his sister once it was all over with, but... he wanted so much for her to be able to keep the idealized image both of them had held of their mother. The emperor was a different story, but Marianne...

"I see," he said quietly, still sounding slightly bewildered because appearing too understanding would alert her to the fact that he knew more than he was letting on. He didn't think he could make burden her with any more revelation right now, not when she'd only just stopped crying on them. "I'm glad," he added next, summoning up a small, warm smile for her. "I'll find a way to return your sight when we escape as well. If you were able to then..." He trailed off, deciding to leave the rest unsaid. Those circumstances had been... extreme, but at the very least, he could use them to lead her into thinking that he meant something more mundane than what he actually had in mind.

The idea that she would return to how she had once been hadn't even occurred to Nunnally at all, and she inwardly winced at her lapse. Still, though, if she'd been able to overcome it once, it seemed entirely possible that she'd be able to do so again, though hopefully under different circumstances. She would have much preferred to remain in physical darkness than allow many of the events of the past year to occur.

His smile drew an answering one from her, and she reached out to take one of his hands and hold it in both of her own. "I'm sorry, Brother," she said, sounding a little self-conscious. "There are a lot of things to worry about here, in order to find the way back home again. I don't want to burden you even more."

It was too much to ask that he not worry about her; might as well ask the sky to turn yellow, or a river to reverse its course. She understood that, because she felt much the same way about him. But she could still wish that he didn't feel the need to give up quite so much on her behalf. He should be happy too, in the end.

"It's no burden at all," Lelouch insisted automatically, a note of concern entering his voice. Did Nunnally really think it was? There was a lot on his plate, yes, but... he always had and always would make room for her. It was just the way things were, and he didn't see how it could ever become a burden. Nunnally was too precious to him for that.

He lightly placed his other hand on hers and took another moment to marvel at her open eyes and, the more closely he looked, how much she had grown during their time apart. It may have simply been the maturity she'd gained from the experiences she had just told him about, but... "Really, it's fine. Besides, I haven't gotten the chance to properly take care of you for almost a year now. Call it making up for lost time." He intended to do much more than this once the institute let him, too. If only they would let him move in next door-- couldn't they see how important this was?

... What was he thinking? Of course they couldn't.

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Night 47: F21-F30 Hallway

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