[azul120]

Good points.

On the topic of Dirge of Daedalus, here's my idea of a moment between Lelouch and Euphemia, along with possibly a few others after a long day:

Spoiler for potentially massive lovey-doviness within:

Setting: Lelouch's quarters

Lelouch had just been joined by Suzaku and Euphemia (and possibly Nunnally and Cornelia, assuming they had returned to the flagship by now). All three were on the floor together, with the former, who was exhausted, resting on Euphie's lap, as she herself rested in Suzaku's adoring embrace.

"Even after so little time, you've made a lot of progress. I'm so proud, " marveled Euphie. "So why the long face?"

"I've been thinking. About too many things," replied Lelouch.

"Like what?", questioned Euphie. "You know you can always talk to your beloved half-sister."

"First, looking at how much you've changed, I can't help but feel terrible for it," answered Lelouch. "You've always been a gentle soul on the inside, but ever since that tragic incident, you've become a lot darker. Instead of 'kill the Japanese', I should have said something like 'admit your secret crush'. Or at the very least, try and think of some way to stop you from killing anymore Japanese without shooting you. I can be so rash sometimes. I'm sorry."

"What you did was rash, but at the same time, I was incredibly naive, and shouldn't have pressed the matter any further," Euphie responded. "The resulting nightmares were horrific and stripped me of my idealism, but to be optimistic about it, I like to think that I needed to grow up, sooner or later, one way or another."

"It's just that your kindness is one in a million, dear half-sister," said Lelouch. "And I would hate for that to be lost as much as I would hate to lose you again."

Lelouch sighed. Euphie looked concerned.

"Listen, the truth of the matter is... I would take a hundred bullets for you, even if I didn't have a Code."

Euphie giggled. "Oh, now no need to say such things."

Suzaku interjected, "I do believe he's serious. Euphie, did you know that he once nearly did that for Kallen? Schneizel had deceived the Black Knights into betraying Lelouch, and Kallen was the only one who was willing to defend him. But since they didn't want to hear it and had their guns ready, with her in the line of fire along with him, Lelouch lied to her in order to push her away so that she would be spared, instead of trying to defend himself in vain."

Euphie sobbed. "Really? I... don't know what to say. I'm so sorry, Lelouch, for shooting you. I need to keep my emotions in check, like Enoch's been telling me. Besides, I should remember that ever since you were exiled from home, you've experienced a lot of pain, anger and hatred, and it's up to us to help you heal those wounds. It's clear they've been the source of your most questionable actions."

"You think so?", said Lelouch.

"I know so," said Euphie. "A lot of your actions had been driven more by emotion than reason. Especially Zero Requiem, which was as much of an excuse for you to die as it was to unite the world. And did you really think 'spilling rivers of blood to make people forget the Massacre Princess ever existed' was the right way to honor memory? I think not!"

Euphie calmed down before resuming. "Listen, because of the way in which you were betrayed by Britannia, not to mention your anger towards its overall corruption and wanton oppression of the weak, you convinced yourself that extremism was the only path to make the world a better place. But you became so used to keeping secrets and hiding yourself beneath a web of lies, you alienated almost everyone around you. Including yourself.

"Look at Suzaku and Nunnally. You three were all once best friends, but at one point or another, that bond was broken between at least one of you. Friends are supposed to have a sense of love and trust between each other. Now I know that Charles and V. V. wanted to have a world without lies, and they were wrong. But is a world with too many lies any better?"

"No, it isnt," responded Lelouch. "I just felt I didn't deserve to exist in this world, much less be seen as a hero."

"And that's part of the problem!" exclaimed Euphie, a sense of concern draping her face. "You had also deluded yourself into thinking you don't deserve any happiness. The Zero Requiem may have ended with a lot of people being happily united, but it left behind a few holes. Even if not for Schneizel, you still left behind the few people who still loved you. Ever since your mother was killed, your father told you were weak and unable to stand on your own and exiled you and Nunnally from Britannia, leaving you to take care of her, and no one to lead you a guiding hand, you've felt the need to shoulder the weight of the world on your own, with no one to correct many of your mistakes. And yet you never stopped to think that other people might be willing to shoulder that weight along with you. Like me."

Tears started welling from Euphie's puppy dog face. The feeling was contagious, and both Lelouch and Suzaku were also verklempt before long.

Euphie continued. "And it's not just us needing you to be happy. We want you to be happy, too, because that would make us even happier. Your emotions are ours too," said Euphie with a serene smile.

"What does that have to do with any of this?" queried Lelouch with a quizzical face.

"You sure can be thick sometimes for a chessmaster," quipped Euphie. "Don't you see? We're trying to remind you of what it is to be loved and trusted, so that you don't feel the need to take drastic measures out of spite."

"But can I do that?" asked Lelouch. "I've never seen myself as a hero. I've always felt that such pretentions would hold me back from doing certain things."

"I think you're mistaken," answered Euphie. "You're just not the knight in shining armor type, and that's okay. You've always held results in priority, and that's actually a good thing. You just went about it the wrong way during your revolution against and reformation of Britannia, relying on the most extreme methods too often. And when just about everyone turned on you, you turned on yourself, thinking you had lost your right to exist in this world.

"But you're wrong," Euphie continued, with conviction. "You can change, and yet remain true to yourself. Remember when you launched that coup d'etat against the Chinese Federation when the Eunuchs were about to have the Empress married off in exchange for Britannian nobility at the expense of their people? What you did there gave hope to so many people across Asia, and also reunited Xing-ke with the Empress he swore to protect, even if it meant separating them for just a bit longer. Made me emotional when I heard about it. And that's what you are at your best, Lelouch, as Zero, a maverick fighting for on behalf of the common man."

"Maverick hero, huh?", responded Lelouch. "I think I could be that."

"I know you can, Lulu," said Euphie, with a reassuring tone, massaging Lelouch. "The world will be even better off, and so will you, and of course the rest of us who care for you."

"Yes," said Lelouch. "I actually was on that path, but lost my way after Shirley died and out of grief and guilt, since it was Geass that did it, I massacred everyone in the Geass Cult, which laid even more seeds of the Black Knights distrust in me."

"What happened to Shirley?", asked Suzaku. "You never honestly answered that question."

"It was Rolo," said Lelouch. "He immediately fessed up to it. He lied that it was because Shirley knew I was Zero, but I knew all along that he had unstable, homicidal tendencies, since he was raised to be an assassin. What I didn't know, and only learned when I arrived in C's World after I died, was that Rolo wanted to be my only sibling, and my desire to reunite with Nunnally razzed all of that. When Shirley, who had just regained her memories after being hit by Jeremiah's Geass canceller, happened to mention to Rolo that she wanted to see me reunited with Nunnally, Rolo snapped and mortally wounded her."

"So that was it!" exclaimed Suzaku. "And to think I accused you out of suspicion, and almost injected Kallen with Refrain. I am so ashamed of what I had become during that part of my life."

"It's alright," comforted Euphy, as she looked back and gently stroked Suzaku's cheek with her hand. "Now this is what happens when we let our emotions get the best of ourselves. We only end up hurting ourselves as well as other people." She turned to Lelouch. "So did you love Shirley?"

"Yes, yes I did," said Lelouch. "I didn't know it until not long before that when we were matched together at Milly Ashford's graduation school event, Cupid's Day. I realized that being with her actually made me happy. She didn't like how I didn't pay much mind to school, but I guess there was something she saw in me that kept her fixed on me."

"She said she once noticed you helping a person out on the street on your own accord," added Suzaku. "A few hours before she was killed, she asked me if anything had come between us, and when I told her that I couldn't forgive you, though I didn't mention this was regarding Euphie's apparent murder, she told me that she had already forgiven you, evidently for your responsibility in her father's death in Narita a year earlier."

"I got to her as she lay alone, dying, from Rolo's attack," responded Lelouch. "In her final moments, she told me she understood that I had been fighting against something in the world, and that she still loved me, even though I was responsible for altering her memories, which I did to make her forget what Mao did to her, and her father's death, and that she was destined to fall in love with me all over again every time."

"That is so heartbreaking," commiserated Euphie. "Your remaining vestige of happiness at the time, lost to sibling jealousy. You must have deeply hated Rolo for this?"

"Initially, yes," responded Lelouch. "At first I had simply resented Rolo for being a phony replacement for Nunnally, but now it was personal. Not only that, I not only felt responsible for failing to keep him in check, but also for eliminating all traces of Geass, which is why I demolished the Geass Directorate. However, when the Black Knights turned on me, it was Rolo who saved me... at the cost of his own life. His Geass, the ability to stop time, came with the price of stopping his heart every time he used it. He overused his Geass in order to flee the collective Britannian and Black Knight forces who were in hot pursuit of us. I may have used him, and tried to kill him, but he saw me as a brother, and gave his life to prove it. I owe him for that, especially it gave me the remaining drive I needed to face up to both my father and Schneizel."

"I see," said Euphie. "Even though I know only so much, I can already tell you went through a lot in your remaining year since I disappeared. No wonder why you lost your will to live. You're just like Suzaku," said Euphie, in an ironic echo of a comparison Nunnally drew of Suzaku to Lelouch when she called the former a liar, snarkily adding "masochist."

Suzaku gave off an amused smirk.

"I guess this is where you tell me to stop being like that, as you would Suzaku," responded Lelouch.

"Correct," responded Euphie. "When this is all over, I can picture all of us in the garden on top of the Villa, lying under the stars, like when we were young. This will be our future, and you WILL be part of it."

"Yes, that sounds nice," says Lelouch. "I pictured something a lot like that during my rebellion against Britannia. Once I was done creating a new, more peaceful world, my friends from Ashford and I would reunite to watch fireworks."

"That sounds wonderful," rhapsodized Euphie, excitedly. "We could do that too! It makes me happy to hear that you hadn't lost that spark, and I'm trying to make that light shine again, darling."

Lelouch blushed. "Awww, thanks Euphie."

"Now don't be so modest! This is the Lelouch I loved to be around when we were little. And it's the Lelouch I'd love to see return, so I can spend time with him and be happy, along with my beloved sisters," said Euphie.

"I'm just a little sad that I couldn't share this happiness with Shirley," lamented Lelouch. "With her, it all would have been picture perfect." Lelouch immediately thought of a picture Clovis painted while in C's World of Lelouch, along with the rest of the Ashford gang, and even Kaguya and Euphemia, the latter embracing Suzaku from behind, in Ashford uniform. "Sometimes I worry that she's lonely up there in C's World without me, and on top of that, in all likelihood I won't be reuniting with her anytime soon," Lelouch finished.

"But she loved you, right?", said Euphie. "I'm sure she could easily wait a good hundred years to spend an eternity with you. And in the meantime, she'll be smiling down on you and the rest of your Ashford friends in the meantime. So try not to feel too bad for her."

"You're right," responded Lelouch. "I really do need to stop dwelling in the past, even if it does seem a little selfish in this case. On that note, I'm incredibly thankful that you've come back to us. You have no idea how much I've missed you."

"I know," Euphy softly smiled, a tear emerging from her eye. "I feel the same way about you. You've always been my favorite half-brother."

Lelouch blushed. "I wonder what I did to deserve such a wonderful, incredibly lovely half-sister."

"You are so silly sometimes," giggled Euphy, pinching Lelouch's cheek. "You may not think much of yourself that way, but you have a big, big heart. You may put up a rough exterior and do a lot of questionable things, but you are a beautiful person underneath. That's what Kallen and Shirley saw, and it's what I see too."

Lelouch looked slightly confused. Euphie retorted with a mock stern expression. "What's the matter now?"

"I don't know," said Lelouch. "I guess I'm afraid of the next moment you'll get angry at me right now."

"You're being paranoid, Lulu," said Euphie. "Haven't you learned that you don't have to keep up your defenses all of the time? Like right now? That's the whole point of being able to believe in someone else. Like your dear half-sister. I know I've picked up some temperamental issues in the past seven years, and can now break a few heads, but I promise I won't ever do anything to hurt you as long as you do the same for me, which I know you have. Because I love you. And I want you to be able to take that with you when it comes to the other people you hold close to you. Besides, I'd still much rather be a lover than a fighter."

"Thank you Euphie," said Lelouch. "You've been most reassuring. I really do wish we wouldn't have anymore fights or misunderstandings between us. I've continually been under pressure to do what's important at the risk of appearing to be insensitive. I wanted nothing better than to rescue Nunnally myself, but Ougi and Enoch told me otherwise, and they were right, because too often my fixation on Nunnally got in the way of saving the world. It's damned if I do, and damned if I don't."

"It's okay," Euphie gently and softly reassured, softly brushing Lelouch's frontmost strands of hair. "You've carried a great deal of responsibility, and were forced to grow up too fast in your life. You've recognized your own flaws and mistakes, and handled things better than most other people could. When this conflict is all over, I promise it will be all smiles between us, sweetheart."

Lelouch sighed. "I look forward to that day. Though there's still this other feeling I can't shake."

"What other feeling?" asked Euphie.

"I'm even more of an odd case than ever," said Lelouch. "I've been dead for 6 years then revived, and on top of that, I have a Code, giving me indefinite youth and immortality."

"So?" said Euphie.

"So? I'm both a Rip van Winkle AND a Peter Pan case," answered Lelouch. "I've been out of the loop to the point where I was outsmarted by Nunnally, Kaguya, and Jiang Lihua. It's not that I'm jealous of them, but rather that I suddenly feel a little useless right now. I've also been outgrown by almost all three of them, as well as you. And because of my Code, I will cease to age while everyone around me will grow older and ultimately shuffle off this mortal coil. Except for people like C. C., Enoch, and I. Even if I were to have my name redeemed in the public, I don't think I could reappear ever again without people becoming suspicious of my lack of age."

"I can see how that last part would make you feel lonely," mused Euphie. "But other than that, yet again you're being too hard on yourself. You just need a little time to get back up to speed. You're still one of the greatest strategic minds on the planet, and perhaps our only hope against Schneizel. And no matter how old you are or look, we'll love you all the same, and will be there for you whenever you need us."

"Thank you Euphie," said Lelouch. "It does my heart a lot of good for you to be here for me. I never imagined that you would be so very insightful, and I mean that as a huge compliment."

"That means a lot coming from you, Lulu," said Euphie, smiling. "Hey, remember when Nunnally and I fought for your hand in marriage? I hope you're not jealous of Suzaku."

"Jealous? Naw," said Lelouch. "I couldn't think of a better man for Euphie, or anyone else I'd be prouder to call 'brother-in-law'."

"So we would have your blessing then? Yay!", screamed Euphie excitedly, after Lelouch nodded. "But, can I ever show my face again in public?"

"I think the Special Administrative Zone massacre could be chalked up to an impostor, with the real you mysteriously in captivity and subsequently in self-exile for the past 7 years," said Lelouch. "People may be suspicious, especially with the present turmoil, but I think it would do a lot of good for you to return to the forefront of Britannian politics, and represent their most humanitarian efforts. With your knowledge and insight, you could do a lot of good in this world."

"You're right!" responded Euphie. "Together with Nunnally, we can all help create that gentle world we always dreamed of. What do you think Suzaku?"

"Sounds great," he responded, still behind Euphie who was in his arms. "Hey, look, Lelouch is asleep!"

"He's had a long day," said Euphie, doting on her now sleeping half-sibling. "Our 'Demon Emperor', sleeping like an angel. He looks so peaceful."

"He sure does," Suzaku added. "What's say you and I doze off for a bit as well? I could go for a few z's right now."

"Oh, absolutely" said Euphie, with a yawn.

She, along with Suzaku, soon followed Lelouch into slumber, but not before shedding a tear of gratitude over her once near-impossible reunion with her loved ones, who, including her, were either dead to the world, or actually dead for several years, in Lelouch's case. All three were spread out on the floor, close to one another. Half-siblings. Best friends. Lovers. These were the among the bonds that were shared amongst the three, depending on the matchups. Time and circumstance had strained them, but here all three were reunited against all likelihood to the contrary, sleeping together in perfect peaceful bliss, a beautiful image of the kind and gentle world they had all longed for, that was becoming closer than ever in spite of the trials and tribulations they had faced.

I really went at it, lol. More of a mid-episode picture drama type deal. See if you can spot the shoutouts. And the lack of Nunnally and Cornelia would subject to change depending on their circumstances. And I wasn't too sure of what to do with Suzaku for the most part. Or heck, movement blocking for the most part for the characters.