Disclaimer: I don't own Code Geass and I don't make money from making this fanfiction.
Warning: Excessive use of brackets.
Lelouch vi Britannia knows what it feels like to fall in love. It feels exactly like what it says, falling, like floating but something pulls you deeper, so deep that you cannot stop it. The scary thing is that you don't know where it ends; where you will land. Or whether someone will catch you or not—or accept you, bloody and battered.
Suzaku Kirihara was—is his best friend.
"A penny for your thoughts?"
Lelouch does not bat an eye when Suzaku starts staring back. In fact, he kind of likes the feeling.
"You won't understand anyways."
He does not look away (Lelouch is the type who knows which one is the winning battle) but Suzaku does (but he's the type who never backs down from a fight). 'You have such intense eyes,' his best friend—something hurts and Lelouch is getting used to the feeling; he has to—said once. And it had always been directed to me, he did not say.
"That's harsh," Suzaku pouts. He might cry too, because he can control his tear glands, Lelouch thinks. One of these days, he will learn that trick (but what if there is no trick at all?).
"Hmm."
Suzaku never tells him to stop the staring. Others tell him to stop having best friend complex—aside of his sister complex. Lelouch wants to say that's better than having a martyr complex. He is busy teaching Suzaku not to have that trait.
"Hmm." Suzaku mocks him. It isn't annoying.
Lelouch leans. Suzaku stays. This is not a battle, but Suzaku feels he should not back down.
"Do you know what love is?" Lelouch asks.
He asks, and thinks of pretty things, like sunflowers, Nunnally, and Suzaku. He wonders what Suzaku is thinking about. He ponders about a power that will make everything obeys his command, and his first one will be—
Suzaku laughs. The room gets warm, and the sound puts Lelouch's thoughts to disarray.
"Eeh, did Shirley finally confess to you?"
"Huh. I bet Milly told you that she likes me."
Suzaku grins. It's infectious. "Yes she did, and you didn't answer my question," he teases, the tone went up and down.
"Airhead."
"Aah, I won't be getting answers from you will I?"
Lelouch leans in. It's okay, because Suzaku has no sense of personal space, either.
"Why do you want to know?"
The younger boy looks at him strangely. "Why, Lulu, because I'm your best friend of course!"
Lelouch wishes Suzaku will back down. It could be five steps to checkmate if he's patient or twenty-four if he's willing to suffer. It could be just one, and it could turn into two if Suzaku chooses to retreat. (There is no defense in Suzaku's chess. Lelouch learns that it's the wild card. It's what makes him dangerous and endearing. Offense is always a good defense.)
"That's not good enough."
He often dreams of a strange symbol that grants everything. It's not a beautiful one, that dream. If he does get that power, he will definitely ask for a different thing. Somehow, he knows if his other self on the nightmare could turn back time, he would do the same.
"Yes it is."
Lelouch sighed. "No it is not, and we're not playing this game."
Because we have to finish this one first.
"Gaah. I want to know… just because?"
"Try harder."
"You don't even know the answer, do you?" Suzaku accuses. "You often trick me like this, making new answers along the way!"
"Of course I do know. Please continue." Lelouch is undeterred. On mind games, he is as stubborn as Suzaku on his saving people thing.
"Because Shirley is such a sweet person and I hope she will rub off on you?"
Lelouch spins number on his head. Maybe he can be playful and makes this seven more steps.
"Wrong."
"Lelouch…" Suzaku says, dragging the last vowel with him. When he tilts his head, it makes a perfect angle. Suzaku is always good at math and machines.
This changes things. What a fool, (Who's the fool?) making an offense that attracts demise to his own king.
(When Lelouch wins, he will be the king, and the knight will no longer be a knight.)
Fine then. Four steps to checkmate. Lelouch is feeling kind enough. Suzaku is slow, too slow, and Lelouch has played a thousand steps for him.
(It's not the same as playing with his food, he insists. Either way, he intends to savor what he denies himself for far too long when he obtains it.)
When Suzaku bites his lower lip—a sign that he's thinking hard—his king is as good as dead.
Lelouch kisses him.
(The queen goes down first. The bishop tries a move, but Lelouch has seen that.)
He puts his palm on the dip of Suzaku's back because he cannot resist it, and another on the nape that has been his focus on the classes he finds boring.
(The king is stripped down. He's defenseless.)
It is Lelouch's longest game yet. When Suzaku kisses him back with equal passion, he pictures another board, clean, ready to be played.
This one should be the most enjoyable.
A.N.: It's finished, but I intend to make this a series of drabble that continues, if that makes sense. It's gonna be on the same AU, but it's drabbles. Reviews, criticism, and corrections are appreciated.
© fitha