I.
"It's been a while."
The young woman flashes that infamous, fox-like smile of hers, looking no less lovelier than she looked forty-four years ago, as she drips rain and breathes misty clouds on his doorstep.
"Sorry for dropping in like this so unexpectedly," she apologizes (rather too sarcastically), devilishly pouting her small pink lips, "but I maxed out all the credit cards Nunally gave me. You'll let me stay for a while, won't you, Suzaku?"
The gray-haired man before her, leaning on the doorframe for support, sighs and gives her a hollow grin. C.C. then beams like a small, crazy child, enchanting Suzaku as a genuine smile slowly warms his face.
"We are eternal accomplices, are we not?" (She tilts her head to the side, smirking like the pompous, obnoxious witch she is, and he temporarily forgets why he ever wanted to kill her.)
Looking closely, Suzaku notices that her wet, disheveled clumps of hair that cling to her face are now cut short above her shoulders and are dyed charcoal black, and that her golden eyes are hidden away with cheap green contact lenses. He frowns, as if he were a grumpy father figure glaring at his daughter's ridiculous choice in fashion…all to her amusement.
"What happened to your old hair?" he complains, lifting up one delicate black strand and shaking it disapprovingly. She laughs and gives her hair a good flip, splattering the old man with more unwanted rain.
"It's a wig," C.C. says nonchalantly, "to prevent any trouble with the Palace Guards. It's been a while–"
"Almost forty years," he quickly corrects her,
"…Yes. In any case, I couldn't take the risk of anyone recognizing me…" Her sly eyes suddenly waver (because of the rain, because of the rain). He looks at her in the wrong moment, pierces through her elaborate pretenses and stares at her tear-stained eyes –her agony and torment still glowing like hot ember, heart wounds that will never fully heal.
For a brief second, Suzaku wonders what would happen if he were to hold her, to comfort her…
Then C.C. coughs, pulling him back to reality.
"So…aren't you going to let me in, boy?"
Without bothering to wait for his consent, the witch haughtily welcomes herself into his private retirement home, the Zero Requiem, with poor Suzaku wheezing and struggling to pick up her massive pile of luggage.
--
Author's Notes: Well....damn. How long was I gone? A year, maybe? Sorry about that. I promise that I'll try to upload chapters more quickly this time...maybe even get back to working on my other (very very neglected) Code Geass fanfiction.