Can Witches Dream?
Anime: Code Geass
By: Ryu-Takehshi
Lelouch was exhausted. Living not one, but three consecutive facades, as interesting as it was, took a lot out of him. To be either Lelouch Lamperouge, Lelouch vi Britannia, or Zero at any given moment really did a number on his energy. Not to mention, his physical stamina wasn't exactly the best out there.
Returning home that evening, after checking on the, already sleeping, Nunally, there was no other comfort in his mind besides falling hard on his soft bed; and no one, not even that green-haired witch, was going to take that away from him.
Not tonight, he shook his head. Tonight he was going to sleep in his bed and his witch of a roommate could do nothing about it.
He stepped into the kitchen and re-heated one of the many leftover pizza boxes that C.C. left in the fridge; saved for the times when Lelouch would hide his credit card from her in the vain attempt to monitor her pizza consumption.
He took a slice for himself, but lifted the rest of the box and brought it to his room, in the hopes of possibly bribing the witch with her, obvious, favourite food.
The metal door leading to his bedroom slid open to a picturesque image of a, though he would not verbally admit, beautiful, green-haired girl curled up under the covers, her 'limited-edition' Cheese-kun, completely forgotten and discarded on the floor.
On any normal occasion, the exiled prince would have sighed tiredly and left to find somewhere else to sleep - not wanting to know the wrath of an awakened witch at her worst. But, tonight he would stand for nothing less than the complete comfort of his own bed, which had been his only solace to get him through the exceptionally hard day, filled with exams, student council meetings and Black Knights operations.
He set the pizza box lightly on his desk before turning his attention to the sleeping girl. Cupping his chin in thought, he knew he needed a quick and carefully executed plan to both move her from the bed and keep her sleeping, still not wanting to awaken the sleeping witch.
He stared for another moment before nodding. To think he carefully planned many operations to take down his father's empire on a regular basis, but the small act of moving C.C. from his bed without waking her was, in his mind, the most challenging kind of plan he could execute.
Finally he decided on his course of action; looks like the only way was bridal-style. As awkward as he felt, he had to move her because his mind was already set that, tonight, his bed was his.
He gulped, the leader of the Black Knights, suddenly breaking in a cold sweat at the thought of even touching the witch in this way. He slowly, and blindly, slid one arm down the small figure, which could only be her waist, and up her back. His other hand went under the bend of her knees as he gently lifted her from the bed and into his arms.
Her green hair flowed out like an endless, shiny green waterfall as her head softly rested on Lelouch's shoulder. He sighed again; for once, happy that Nunally was blind and absolutely could not stumble upon this horribly suggestive scene.
He glanced around, finally setting his gaze on the couch across the room. As tired as he was, his mannerisms wouldn't change and he was not un-gentleman enough as to simply drop the girl on the floor; especially considering all the trouble he had already went through to plan and lift her.
He stumbled a bit on his first step towards the couch. Not because the witch was heavy though, but because she was considerably much lighter than the strategist had anticipated.
He stared down in slight disbelief at her serene sleeping face. Her usual teasing smirk had been replaced with an innocent, slightly troubled expression that played on her soft features.
Lelouch sighed, a more tired and content smile on his face as he studied the witch's expression a little longer. He shook his head. Deep down, somewhere inside her unfeeling mindset, C.C. was still just a girl, an undoubtedly beautiful girl.
He paused for a moment. What the hell was he thinking? He gave out another, louder, sigh as he made his way towards the couch. He was far too tired to deal with questionable feelings that may or may not be a result of his exhaustion.
As he gently placed her on the couch; surprisingly, a genuine, grateful smile found away onto her face. Lelouch was taken aback; he had only seen her smile like that once before, on the day that he learned her real name.
Recalling that day, he whispered said name, causing C.C. to stir in her sleep.
"That… You said it perfectly this time…" she muttered in her sleep, causing Lelouch's eyes to widen.
He smirked, crouching down beside the couch and sweeping the girl's green bangs to reveal the red mark on her forehead.
Finally assuming that the overwhelmingly annoying feelings he had towards the green-haired witch was all due to his exhaustion, he allowed himself a small grace.
He pressed his lips to her cheeks gently for a moment, thinking something along the lines of 'it's not like she'll know and it's only because I'm tired anyway'.
C.C. stirred in her sleep once again, her smile looking ever more grateful as she barely whispered a word that took the Britannian boy by surprise.
"Prince…"
Lelouch smiled playfully, the kind he usually reserved for Nunally and, as was evident now, sleeping witches.
He stood and looked at his witch once more before finally getting his long-awaited rest on the bed he hadn't slept in for the longest time. He was asleep as soon as his head it the pillow.
The next morning, the raven-haired boy awoke to the familiar image of C.C. sitting cross-legged on his desk chair, munching away at the pizza he had left last night.
Lelouch groaned as he got up and stretched. Though he had gotten the rest he wanted, he vaguely recalled dreaming about the green-haired witch, and that rendered him uncomfortable; stupid witch, leaving her scent all over his bed. He had thought that he was acting on tired impulse that night, but that dream started to make him think otherwise.
"Damn witch…" he muttered, holding his head in his hands.
"Good morning to you too…" she said between bites of her pizza.
"Yeah, yeah, good morning…" he waved dismissively. He turned to face her. "Really, Witch, pizza for breakfast…?"
She shrugged, "Yes, Warlock, why not?"
Lelouch shook his head, what else was supposed to be expected from C.C.? "No, no reason…"
"Oh, that reminds me, I have a question for you too, Lelouch."
"And what might that be?"
"Just a thought," she stared out the window absentmindedly. "But, can witches have dreams?"
"Should you have the answer to that question already, Witch?"
Well, he thought to himself, considering the fact that you talk in your sleep, I'm going to go with 'yes'.
"I dunno…" she went on, "I haven't had dreams in a long while."
"What, pray tell, do witches dream of?"
"Did you not hear me, Lelouch?" I said I haven't dreamt in awhile."
"Yes, but the fact that you're asking about it now can only mean that something as changed, for example, you actually had some sort of dream.
C.C. rolled her eyes, taking another bite of pizza. "As annoyingly observant as ever, aren't you, demon prince?"
Lelouch's eyes widened, remembering her words after he had… ahem, 'acted on impulse' last night. He looked over to her, extremely usual, indifferent expression. He ran through it in his head, perhaps she was secretly awake when he had lifted her from the bed and now she was teasing him. He gave her expression another look.
Nah, she would've been smirking or acting overly-dramatic if she was teasing him. Her emotionless eyes could only suggest that she had no recollection of yesterday.
On another slice of pizza, the girl went on. "Maybe I just dreamt that I fell asleep on the bed… When I awoke, I was on the couch, so I must've been dreaming, right?"
Oh, Lelouch thought, that's what she meant.
"That's the only thing witches dream of?" he questioned.
"I assume they have the same kinds of dreams as regular people."
"I have an itching feeling that your dream had something to do with pizza."
A smile played on her lips, "If only that were the case!" She sighed, "I suppose, as a witch, we would dream of things that associate with witches."
"As in tormenting citizens and kingdoms…?"
A thin green eyebrow rose. "Lelouch," she said teasingly, "you make it sound as if you were a witch."
"Of course I'm not. I'm a warlock, remember?"
"Hmm, so you are…"
"And besides, I don't go around poisoning princes and princesses, now do I?"
A childish pout found its way to her lips. "Princes do not get poisoned, silly Lelouch, the get tricked. Get your fairy tales right!"
"Oh, and you apparently know so much about fairy tales?"
She nodded, "But of course! The stories of princes lifting their princesses up into their arms and walking off to their happy endings together…" She sighed, though her monotone voice was unchanging. "But witches don't get a happy ending, do they?"
Lelouch twitched at her incredibly on-the-ball words. There was no way she was awake last night, right?
He shook his head, deciding that it was still impossible. "No happy ending for them," he shrugged, "they just annoy their warlocks to by them more pizza for the rest of their lives."
She smirked, "That's its own happy ending in itself."
Lelouch scoffed, finally sliding himself out of bed. "Well, Sayoko-san is probably out, so you can stand in the hallway while I change."
"Fine…" she nodded, taking the pizza box with her towards the door. "But by the way, thanks for the pizza," she muttered, not turning to face the suspicious warlock. "…but, you could've at least given me Cheese-kun after you carried me to the couch…" she smirked, "Prince…"
The witch cackled as the seething Lelouch chucked Cheese-kun at the closing door, only missing her by an inch.
"Damn Witch…!" she heard him yell from the other side of the door.
Her smirk never left her face as she leaned against the wall. "How silly, my warlock," she muttered to herself, "you really don't understand fairy tales, do you?" A slight hint of red found its way to her face as she sighed. "True love's kiss will always awaken the maiden… even if she is a witch…"