11 「Surprise」

Head down, hunched over the round table belonging to the student council, there he slept like a babe. His hair was a mess, it didn't seem as if he had much sleep prior to school. There were gentle blue bags beneath his eyes.

Milly was standing over the table, on the other side, watching over him. A smirk across her lips as she watched him for a few moments. She was unsure of what she could do with him like this.

That's when she glanced over at Nina who was typing away at her computer and snickered to herself. "Hey Nina..." She took out a black permanent marker from her nearby utensils case. "Want some payback?" Milly's face was contorted by the mischievous smile which overtook her facial expressions.

At this moment, Kallen had walked into the room and sat down at the table, absently taking out a textbook from her bag and beginning to read. She was catching up before class.

Nina almost immediately flinched at the sound of the president's sly tone. It was scary, sinister, almost. Her eyes turned towards that of the sleeping Graham and paused. She took in his sleeping face.

She had to admit, it was adorable. However at the same time, she felt as if she would be waking a dragon should she even prick his face with ink. She shyly shook her head rapidly in denial of the chance.

His reign of terror over her was because of her insecurity when it came to dealing with 'elevens' and the fact that she doesn't censor herself in the means of self-preservation. She had now become less afraid of elevens, but she still feared him. His presence was heavy.

Watching as the president of the student council shrugged, and groaned out of the lack of amusement present, she turned around and attempted to draw on his face. However as soon as she took off the cap of the pen, his eyes popped open.

"Oh! There you are Graham! I was wondering when you'd wake up."

Milly had instinctively moved the pen behind her back, both of her hands behind her back for that matter. "Did you not have much sleep last night?"

She was met with a blank stare with lazily open eyes.

"No." His tone was stern and drawn out, sounded as if he was about go to right back to sleep. Instead he sat up and wiped his eyes of crust and yawned. 'I want hot chocolate...' he thought to himself and let out a quiet sigh of disappointment as it didn't just appear in front of him.

His blasted fantasies in his mind.

"Eh. Anyways, we're having a transfer student today. Apparently it's an ele-Japanese." The President corrected herself with a humorous stutter.

"Yes I know, it's Suzaku, he's a childhood friend of mine and Lelouch."

This news suddenly made the two girls put their attention on him once again. There were surprises everyday. And it seemed Nina was more accepting of Suzaku due to not only his presence, but also the fact that he was a friend of Lelouch.

"Then we should add him to the student council!" She suggested knowing that this transfer student needed to join a club, and this 'club' was the best choice. At least in her opinion.

"Heh... Maybe afterward."

"Afterward?"

Pursing his lips, his head turned as he heard the door on the right side of the room swing open and Nunnally come wheeling in on her own. A chuckle of his own emanating from his throat as Milly and Nina both gasped at the sight of an open eyed middle schooler who was last known to have been blind.

However she looked frantic, fidgety.

"Cat?" Graham sleepily surmised.

Nunnally nodded to the question, which was rhetorical in nature, which caused him to burst out in laughter for abide only a few seconds.

"Cat?" Milly butted in, smiling cheeky as ever.

"Yes, a cat! It stole something from my brother! I never heard him scream like that before and run off." She seemed a bit off, but she did still appear to be the afraid little sister, afraid that her brother's cover would be blown. Afraid that she would be separated from her brother after finally regaining her sight.

"Okay! LEAVE IT TO ME!"

"And don't tell my brother I can see. Graham had me cured... It's a surprise," with her eyes closed once again, she put a finger to her lips. Indicating, she wanted to surprise her brother and everyone else who didn't know yet. Everyone seemed to simultaneously agree with keeping it a secret for the time being.

With that, both Kallen and Graham scurried out of the room before they got further involved. It would look as if they were just going on a simple walk together. Leaving the building they began walking through the garden when the announcement came on.

Milly, the Student Council President, offering a kiss from a council member.

The moment the gardening club appeared, they shrunk off as soon as they noticed a fiery eyed Graham standing beside their ladyship. They didn't even let out a single sound as they all sunk back into the brushes.

Kallen seemed to smile a bit looking over at Graham seeing him literally fight off those who wished to prey on her lips, with his stare. A small blush forming over her face as this occurred.

"It's quite alright, you're not actually a target here. Milly already has a certain individual in mind." He gestured back towards the direction of the council chambers. He knew that Milly had purposely left out the fact that the kiss would be from a specific person. He knew the reason why too. "It's crowd manipulation."

People had different people they admired. So if they didn't know the person whom was actually giving the kiss was Nunnally, many probably wouldn't bother participating except for the promise of increased budget for the club.

When Nunnally meowed over the microphone, the two of them paused for a moment.

Graham thought it was overtly adorable as it echoed throughout campus.

"Ah... I guess you have experience in that field of study?" Kallen asked with a sarcastic tone, rolling her eyes as she picked her pace up as she noticed Graham was moving faster. However when she looked at his face, she noticed the Geass symbol over his eye. What was he doing?

In truth he was manipulating Arthur the Cat's path in order to have it not be seen by certain people. Of course, both Lelouch and Suzaku eventually cornered it as it had rushed into the belltower. From there everything seemed to go as it originally would.

Standing at the bottom of the tower, the student body and Graham watched as Suzaku saved his friend Lelouch from falling to his doom. When they came down moments later, after Suzaku was able to pull Lelouch up to safety, Suzaku was inducted into student council.

Nina seemed to see the new transfer student in a better light now that he saved his childhood friend, despite her prior knowledge of them having a friendly relationship prior.

Kallen would see that not only was Graham correct, but it also seemed that it was Nunnally who would be giving the kisses on the cheeks of the two boys. He knew all along. "Not bad," she stated as she 'clusmily' bumped her shoulder against his arm.

Compared to her, he was about four inches taller, being five foot eleven inches.

Both of their sights however narrowed on Shirley who was standing there in the crowd, dressed in her swimsuit. It seemed not only had she misunderstood the whole competition set out by Milly, but also panicked so bad to the point that she didn't bother to dry and change.

"...I think it's about time to go..."

"Yeah, sounds about right." Kallen agreed as she covered her lower lip with her fingers seeing the display. Shirley didn't look half bad with her orange hair complimenting her white and blue swimming suit. She had curves in all the right places.

...

Later that evening, Lelouch and his sister were sitting in the dining room eating teriyaki steak filet over white rice cooked by Sayako. Graham however was laying on the couch at the edge of the room, sleeping.

Lelouch continued to chew his food as he shoveled quite a bit into his mouth.

Nunnally had her eyes open, eating small bits at a time as she happily watched her brother eat. For the longest time she had only heard his movements. Now she could finally see him enjoying a meal.

They were sharing a moment, but that's when she noticed he stopped eating after she got lost in thought for a moment.

"Nunnally?" Lelouch asked curiously as he leaned forward looking at her eyes which he could tell were partially open. "Are... You watching me?"

Opening her eyes the rest of the way, she blinked a few times and smiled at her brother. Throwing her hands up. "Yes! Last night I got them treated with Graham." She wasn't necessarily lying, but she wasn't telling the truth either. Graham's habit of half truths had rubbed off on her.

Lelouch's eyes widened as he glanced over at the sleeping Graham. "Treated? How?!" He was excited obviously, his sister could see again. He knew she would one day see the light once more. The question was however, how did Graham get her treated?

"His Geass. My blindness was fake... And he told me everything," suddenly Nunnally's voice turned blunt like an axe, it felt as if she was smashing it right into Lelouch's chest. "Why didn't you tell me big brother?"

Lelouch was at a loss for words, he felt betrayed. He wanted to keep all of this a secret from his little sister. He had even made a promise that he would never lie to her, individually just her. "Told... You... Everything?" There was a hint of anger towards Graham in his voice.

In that moment, Nunnally saw that Graham wasn't the only one with a Geass. Her big brother, Lelouch, had one too as it appeared in his eye as well.

Graham sat up after his mind began to fill with Lelouch's voice. He stared into space for a few seconds before glancing over toward Lelouch who was marching on over toward him. "Hey man? Why are you filling my head with... Oh."

"Wait! Big brother!" Nunnally attempted to wheel herself towards them, but she was too slow.

"Why... Would you tell her everything!?" Lelouch snapped as he pinned him to the couch, one arm across his collar bone and a leg suppressing Graham's so he couldn't get up easily. He looked about ready to punch him.

"Big brother! Get off of Zach!"

Lelouch hesitated as he was being told to get off of him. His eyes shook with conflict. He turned his head to give his little sister a glance before slowly releasing Graham and standing up. Dusting off and straightening the front of his shirt. Glaring down at the man who was suppose to be his friend.

"You wanted her to be happy, live in a world of peace. On the path you're going down, she needed to be in the know. She supports you, Lelouch, she supports us."

Lelouch looked over at his sister who nodded to him in stern confidence.

"But there is more to this than you know..." Both Graham and Nunnally began to inform him of what his father had done to Nunnally, how his father had a Geass, and the information pertaining to the person who gave it to him.

Of course, he left out the information about his mother having transplanted her own consciousness into a little girl. He didn't necessarily believe that mattered. Should everything go as planned in the near future, his mother will stay dead.