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"You can't be…"
Cautiously, as if approaching a ghost, Lelouch took a step down the walkway towards the cinnamon-skinned man. His entire world was shrinking around him.
Jeremiah chuckled heartily at his astonishment, bending forward into a brief bow. "It's good to see you again, my Prince." As if his honeyed voice had broken the trance, Lelouch felt himself propel forward as he closed the space to desperately embraced the other man (—who reciprocated the indulgent action, who felt his own heart gladden by the dear feel of the younger's affection).
Suzaku stood at the top of the concrete stairs to observe, his eyebrows wrinkling together as he processed what was happening. He cradled Lelouch's fallen phone with a blinking text message: YOU'RE WELCOME.
"Don't you know what happened to the cat who frowned too much?"
From behind him, Cee-Cee twirled her jiggling house keys from around her middle finger. He could see from over her shoulder that the back's screen door was ajar.
"Cats don't frown."
"They also don't read the text messages on other people's phones." She said with a matter-of-fact tone, smiling slowly, "Are you jealous, Suzaku Kuruugi?" At his silence, the green-haired woman made a musing sound with closed lips, touching them with her fingertips. "Nunnally probably needs help packing up the rest of her things for the move to the countryside. Why don't we let those two have some time alone to bond?" As if steer him in the right direction, she tugged at the opaled sleeve button of his shirt lightly.
With a last silent glance back out out the front door, Suzaku followed her upstairs to the second floor.
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"Must we leave so soon?" In her wheelchair, Nunnally complained with her lower lip protruding in a cute pout as Suzaku and Cee-Cee gave her news about the château. "The ride into Tokyo was terribly dull."
"We're going through the countryside this time. We have no choice." Tawny-colored eyes softened on the small, blind girl. "It would be most appreciated if you would bear with the plans already made."
"Does this mean I can't visit Rivalz anymore?"
At her downcast expression, Cee-Cee patted her head like she was a beseeching pet. "It's not a forever circumstance. Lelouch says that for now it's not safe. Besides, Jeremiah is going to be escorting all of us tomorrow morning out there." Nunnally's features momentarily brightened at the familiar name.
"Is Sir Jeremiah really here? Where is he?"
Sir…?
"He's with Lelouch at the moment." Cee-Cee gave Suzaku an unreadable sideways look. "Why don't you go say hello, Nu?" When she left the bedroom, the braided woman shut the door, her back to Suzaku as she spoke up again, "You'll give yourself wrinkles from all of this worrying. What was once in the past between them will stay in the past…"
"What do you mean … he and Lelouch have history?"
Emerald eyes darkened, hurt.
Cee-Cee tossed her pale green French braid over her shoulder, turning back to him with not her queer, toothy smile — but a slight grimace.
"And here I was… under the impression that the insecure one to the relationship was Lulu…" She sighed, a troubled luster in her luminous eyes, "If I cannot assure you at all, the only way for you to understand is to breach the subject yourself. I would advise you to step with discretion though. Lelouch remembers little of his past living at the palace."
Finally sick of the cryptic act, Suzaku came forward to grasp her upper arm. And she let him.
"Who is he—?" His words were snatched from his throat as his surroundings bled away to white…
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The smell of burning flesh clings still to my nostrils. My hands are paler than I remember, and rough with permanent calluses in my palms... before the Change... A sooty, snarled head nestles to my heaving chest, reining me from following the traitors carrying away Marianne's scorched, hairless corpse. I shut my trembling eyes, holding the child's face closer…
The child mumbles in his stupor, slipping his arms around my neck. I soothe him with a low whisper.
From our hiding place, I stare at Jeremiah forcing himself to wade through the faces of panic — the firelight casting off Aries Palace painting shadows on him. His pale blue imperial guard uniform — much like Lelouch's own — makes him glow amongst the sea of dark silhouettes fading.
He forces his way to us and checks to see if anyone had seen him. He kneels down with us in the dirt. I know he is impatient to examine Lelouch for injuries. And we know that there is no time to waste on that.
"I can't find Nunnally." His orange-hued eyes glance up dismayed at the towering, burning structure. "She couldn't be…" It sounds as if he is trying to convince himself of an unthinkable thought.
"I promised to take care of Lelouch." When the boy in my arms whimpers, I stroke his hair, murmuring, "And that is all."
He slams a discolored, gloved fist into the ground, growling, "You would leave her to face this? Are you listening to yourself?"
"If it endangers her son, I cannot make that risk, Jeremiah."
"She's Marianne's child as well!" Something within the palace explodes deafeningly, shattering the window above us.
Lelouch jolts, a panicked animal, as reality comes back to him, and charges from my arms. It didn't take us long to find him. He stands with his childish eyes widen, looking down on the unconscious form of Nunnally, her legs butchered, and her blackened eyelids swelling over. Jeremiah finds two bedsheets hanging from the garden — one to wrap her up and the other to wrap up Lelouch when he faints onto the lawn.
Despite what we are opposing in aiding these children, he smiles kindly at me, with Nunnally's blood staining the sheet and his front. The glaring sweat draping to his soft, fanning hair and his brow is beautiful.
"Take him to the Ashford's. They will guarantee his safety."
"I want you to fully comprehend this situation," I murmur. "If you are caught… you'll lose not only your military rank, but also your life."
"I was a part of Lady Marianne's personal guard… I am as good as dead now…" He leans forward to kiss me. And I let him.
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Suzaku's hand fell away from her bare, cold skin.
The world bled back to the color of the ugly yellow of Nunnally's bedroom walls and the hanging curtains. Of Cee-Cee's pale, unsinged green bangs touching her nose. She smiled to him, as if he had not invaded her memories, as if she did not at the least bit enjoy the karmic outcome as Suzaku took his pounding head into his hands and willed back the sudden urge to throw up on his sneakers.
"Go wish Lelouch a happy birthday." Her velvety voice adds to the unbearable pressure to his cranium, "He only turns twenty-one once."
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Lelouch yawned into one of his hands, propping up one of his study's books in his lap. Between his concentrated reading haze, there were the sounds of his shower running… and a disconcerting image of Suzaku's face before he disappeared into it…
Suzaku's face had been… painfully heavy…
Since that afternoon, Suzaku had been quieter. Paler. And had a habit of drumming his spoon against his fingers at dinner.
Everyone else seemed normal. Sayoko helped Nunnally present souvenirs from the places outside the settlement she journeyed to for his birthday gifts; the little girl kissed his cheek upon doing so. Jeremiah apologized honestly for letting it escape his memory. Cee-Cee insisted that he open her gift somewhere in private (to which he gave the striped bow-box a wary scrutiny). The shower switched off. Suzaku emerged from the steam, fluffy towel wrapped loosely to his waist.
Lelouch's eyes lingered over his book on the taut muscles of his stomach and chest.
"Are you sleeping with me tonight?" he asked, managing to keep his voice at nonchalance (despite the sizable erection he was quickly gaining as Suzaku disposed of the towel, stretching down naked for underwear in a random dresser drawer).
"I don't have to if you feel uncomfortable." Lelouch gave a hollow laugh at that comment. Suzaku bristled somewhat. "What is so funny?" he asked.
"What is your problem today, Suzaku? You've barely said a word to me since morning."
"You seemed pretty okay with it when you had plenty to say to Jeremiah." Lelouch stared dumbfounded as Suzaku said this crossly, already slipped into a pair of gray boxers.
"What have you got against Jeremiah? You don't know him."
"I'm jealous, Lelouch." The green-eyed man admitted, emphasizing his point by opening his hands mockingly, "Do you get it now?"
"…of Jeremiah and I?" Lelouch saw that he was not joking and rubbed a temple in exasperation, shutting his book. "Listen to me, I was very young. I never lied to you about being a virgin. I admired him. Nothing more. Or do you not believe me?"
Suzaku left his immediate answer with a firm kiss to his lover's lips. He noticed that Lelouch leaned back to allow him more room to climb on top, his thin mouth curling up satisfied as their lips opened a little. "I owe you a birthday present," Suzaku confessed flushed against Lelouch's soft mouth, his face warming with a mixture of embarrassment and arousal. His back to the mattress, Lelouch pushed his greedy erection to Suzaku's with a sharp thrust of his hips.
"I know a way you can make it up to me."
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TBC...
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NOT EXACTLY A MONTH LATER. I PHAIL. T_T
But hey, it's spring break and I got a moment to work on this. At 2 in the morning. But it's my ideal writing time. -digs around for her chocolate-covered gummy bears- Even though I'm about to fall asleep on my keyboard. SUGAR TIME. Sorry about the longer than expected wait. PWEASE FORGIVE ME. I LOVES YOU. YOU ARE ALL MERCIFUL BEINGS. ;D By the way... has anyone see the new 'Alice in Wonderland' movie?