When the doorbell rang, CC didn't think about it. She leapt up, unconcerned about the state of her clothes, and answered it. It was Pizza Hut, of course. Who else would it be?

The delivery boy stared at her—and rightfully so, for she wasn't wearing anything but Lelouch's shirt. "Oh…um, here you are, miss." He handed her the pizza, a slight blush creeping across his cheeks. CC thanked him, paid, and shut the door. As she was wandering back to Lelouch's room to eat, she noticed something on the dining room table. She examined it but couldn't pinpoint what it was exactly.

It was a small tree—apparently bamboo—in a pot, with two sheets of colored paper hanging off of it. The sheets of paper had wishes written on them by Nunally and Sayoko. CC stared at them. A wishing tree? That seemed to be the idea. She decided to ask Lelouch when he arrived home after school.

It was late in the evening when Lelouch returned home. Selfishly, he was a little glad that Nunally was away on a class trip because he didn't have to talk to anyone when he got inside. He could just flop onto his bedroom floor (floor since CC would be occupying his bed) and work on his Black Knight plans before going to sleep.

When he entered his bedroom CC verbally pounced on him. "Lelouch!" She snapped. "Where have you been? You're really late today! I've been waiting for hours!" Lelouch dropped his bag. He didn't want to deal with this. "CC, I'm really not…" "I need to ask you a question," she said, cutting him short.

"What? What is it?" He was exhausted. It had been a really long day at school, and he wanted to work on his next plan of attack for the Black Knights for a while before going to bed. CC stared at him meaningfully. "Follow me," she said. He wordlessly did as he was told.

They stood in front of "The Wishing Tree", as CC had dubbed it. Lelouch sighed, rubbing at his tired eyes. "This? It's for a Japanese festival," he explained. CC blinked at him. "It was Nunally's idea. Sayoko told her about a Japanese holiday called Tanabata and Nunally wanted to celebrate it, so she set this up."

CC's eyes flicked from Lelouch's face to the tree. "You make wishes on a tree?" She asked. Lelouch nodded. He fingered a stalk of bamboo. CC suddenly grabbed his hand. He stared at her, utterly confused. Why was she being so touchy? "Can we make wishes?" She asked suddenly.

He stared at her as though she was an alien (which wasn't entirely impossible, actually). "Eh?" He said. God, he was so tired. He didn't have time for this. But CC wanted to make a wish…? A smirk spread across his face. "The witch wants to make a wish? What sort of wish?" CC blinked at him, expressionless as always. "None of your business," she said coolly. He raised an eyebrow at her. It was none of his business? That irritated him for some reason.

"Ah!"

"What? What is it?"

She held out her right index finger. Upon close inspection, Lelouch saw that she had the tiniest of paper cuts from handling tanzaku. "That's all…?" he asked.

She put the finger in her mouth and nodded sulkily. He rolled his eyes. "So what're you going to wish for?" He asked casually. For some reason, even though he was tired and didn't really care, he wanted to know. What could CC possibly wish for? Perhaps she was going to wish for the "greatest wish" he had promised to grant from their contract. But what was her greatest wish? CC removed the finger from her mouth and cocked her head to one side. Then an evil smile crept across her face. "Oh…that's a secret," she said, the nasty smirk still in place on her lips. Lelouch shivered involuntarily.

When they were setting up the Tanabata decorations, Sayoko and Nunally had decided to use construction paper for their tanzaku. Therefore the Lamperouge household was awash with all colors and shades of construction paper—paper which Lelouch and CC were putting to good use at the moment. Since the paper hadn't been pre-cut, Lelouch and CC were cutting strips and preparing to write their wishes in permanent marker. "What will you wish for?" CC asked Lelouch. He raised an eyebrow at her. "Quit looking at me like that," she snipped. He smirked. "It's a secret," he said simply. CC smirked back at him. Lelouch actually had no idea what to wish for. He couldn't wish for any Black Knight related things, because Sayoko would see his tanzaku and then he would have a lot of explaining to do.

They sat in silence for several moments. CC tapped a capped marker against her lip as she thought about how to phrase her wish. "So what is Tanabata a celebration of?" She asked suddenly. Lelouch paused—he was just about to write down his wish, but her question had surprised him and he had forgotten how he had phrased it. And he had had it worded exactly right, too… "Nunally said that it's a celebration of the day two lovers, separated by their parents, can meet and consummate their love for each other." CC raised her eyebrows at him. "'Consummate their love for each other'"? She repeated. Lelouch blushed. "Well…they aren't actual people. They're two stars that are separated by the Milky Way…in the story, the lovers can only meet on one day every year-July 7th, which is Tanabata day. This," he said, gesturing towards his blank tanzaku, "is one way their meeting celebrated. There are also festivals that celebrate it, though…or so I'm told," he added.

CC stared at her tanzaku. "It sounds very romantic," she commented. "So…what're you going to wish for?" Lelouch asked again. "Something romantic?" He teased. CC's eye flicked from her tanzaku to his face and a small smile flickered on her lips. Lelouch blushed and watched as she looked away again. What does that mean? He thought. Is she going to wish for something romantic? He mentally slapped himself for thinking such a thing. He was so tired he was losing his mind.

CC was scribbling away now. He was completely distracted; he couldn't even remember what it was he had decided to wish for before. "I'm done," she said suddenly. Then she stood up, came over to him and handed him her tanzaku—flipped over so he couldn't see her wish, of course. "Well?" Lelouch asked. "What does it say?" CC looked at him pointedly. "Right," he said. "None of my business."

And then, right there, with no warning at all, she kissed him, full on the mouth. Lelouch was, to say the least, shocked. It wasn't passionate or romantic or heartfelt or any of that—actually, she didn't give it a chance to become any of those things. The kiss lasted about 15 seconds. As she pulled away, the doorbell rang.

"Ah," she said, as though the past 15 seconds hadn't happened. Then she smirked at Lelouch and his cheeks reddened automatically. "I got my wish," she said. Then she went off to answer the door.

Lelouch was dumbstruck. He blinked multiple times, his mouth hanging open. Was that her wish? He thought. To kiss me?

Then he heard "pizza delivery!" from the front door.

Ah.

He flipped over CC's tanzaku and read "I hope that I can continue to eat as much pizza as I want –CC".

Suddenly it all made sense—well, that wasn't true. It didn't explain why she had kissed him. But it did explain the whole "I got my wish" thing. Suddenly, Lelouch knew exactly what his wish was.

I wish I could figure CC out…-Lelouch

You never shall, Lulu. Never ever.