code_geass | Lelouch's and Shirley's Fate: Take One

This is Part One of a two-part project I put together. I OWN NOTHING!!!

Characters/Pairings: Lelouch/Shirley
Genre: Drama, romance, hurt/comfort
Rated: PG
Warnings: None really. It's just pretty weepy.

Shirley was dying. She could feel intense pain in her chest and belly, and increasing weakness as her lifeblood drained out of her. Lelouch was screaming, begging her not to die, to stay with him; but she could feel his voice slipping, slipping away. She wanted to grab onto him, to hold him; but she couldn’t. She was simply too tired. She was just about to fall asleep and when she woke up, well... she would be far away from him. She barely had time to think these thoughts before a crushing blackness became all.

The next thing she knew, she was walking toward a warm, white light, wearing a white dress so soft and comfortable that she actually rubbed her face with her sleeve a few times, just to feel it. Suddenly it opened in front of her, to reveal a beautiful meadow, green and full of flowers, with trees and the most stunning landscape she had ever seen going off into the distance. The sky was a perfect shade of blue, without a single cloud, and the sun shone brightly. Shirley saw people everywhere, laughing, talking, and hugging one another. Children were playing, and couples were holding hands.

“Oh, what a beautiful place!” said Shirley to no one, in particular. She began walking through the soft meadow, looking around. The first person who met her eyes smiled at her so sweetly she shuddered with pleasure.

Suddenly: “Shirley?” Shirley heard a voice that she knew all too well. “Is that you?”

“Oh, Dad!” she replied, turning around and running to her father as tears welled up in her eyes. They hugged each other for a long time. “I’m so glad to see you! I missed you!”

“I’ve been watching you,” he said, “I couldn’t believe it. Seeing my little girl, a young woman, give her life for the man she loved. I didn’t know whether to be proud or upset!”

“Dad, I... I had to. He was all alone except for me,” said Shirley, tears rolling down her face.

“It’s alright,” said her father, “You don’t need to cry. You’re where you belong, now, and you’ll love it here. You can make lots of new friends....”

“Yeah, sure,” said Shirley, wiping her eyes. “I guess... it’s my home now, so....”

And as Shirley got used to paradise, she spent time watching over her still-living friends, and especially Lelouch. He worried her, though; he was starting to commit many murders, and Shirley shuddered to think that she could have led him to it, however indirectly.

To distract herself, she began spending more time focusing on heaven itself. She made lots of new friends easily: with some of the sweetest, most gentle people she had ever met. She spoke to and cuddled the children, and soon they learned her name and would invite her to play. Many, many people told her how beautiful she was; especially men.

She never quite forgot Lelouch, though; and she watched as he died, stabbed by his old friend Suzaku. She tried to remember if she knew what the circumstances were; perhaps he had planned it. That was very like him.

It was officially true. The demon king was gone from her, his angel, forever. He murdered so many people; surpassed all others Shirley could possibly imagine in acts of violence and cruelty. He was doomed. Her darling was going to hell, and she would never see him again. Tears welled up in Shirley’s eyes until she could no longer see the grass she was lying in, and she cried her heart out.

******************

And Lelouch felt Suzaku stab him, felt pain shooting through his body; and he fell, right into Nunnally’s arms. His body grew heavy, and he could hear her screaming to him. He thought of Shirley, and how dying had felt for her.

When he regained his senses, he was walking down some steps in near-total darkness, until he approached a desolate wasteland of black sand and ash. People were standing, sitting, or lying down; but nobody was speaking to anybody else, nor were they any closer to one another than a few feet. Lelouch’s rich clothes were gone, replaced by a pair of filthy rags; one for his top half, and one for his lower half.

The sand was hard, and Lelouch’s feet did not sink in. As he shuffled further and further into hell, he spied his Charles, sitting by himself. “F-father?” he said. His father turned to face him.

“I see you’ve come to join me,” Charles said, “Welcome to your new home!” he added sarcastically. He then gave Lelouch a withering look and turned sharply away.

The next person he found whom he recognized was Clovis, but Lelouch guessed the response he would get from him, and so he ignored him, instead approaching a random stranger. “Excuse me, I just got here; what do I do?” he asked.

“What does it look like we’re doing, dumbass?!” The stranger snapped, glaring at Lelouch. “Go mind your own beeswax!”

Lelouch had no choice but to find his own empty patch of ground, and curl up on his side, staring at the dark sky. Now, for all his trouble, he was in this waste, where he would stay for eternity, regretting everything he did. “S-shirley,” he said out of nowhere. That sweet young woman, his angel, so happy in heaven, so.... Did she miss him? Oh, God, he hoped not. She was in a better place, better off without him.

He would start forgetting her, whether she liked it or not; he wished he could tell her: just forget him; he wasn’t worth it, and never was. If she wanted romance... she could seek it out with the young men sharing paradise with her. Surely she could find a man, just as sweet and gentle as she was, who shared her love and acceptance of everyone. He would make her far happier; deserve her far more than Lelouch ever could.

And he felt tears coming to his eyes for the first time in so long, as he thought back to his life falling apart, and where he had gone wrong.

Click here for Part two