That night, Lelouch can't sleep. He doesn't know why. Actually, he sort of know why. But it is impossible. Lelouch throws a glance at the sleeping C.C.. The sleeping girl clutches on him cutely. Lelouch starts to blush and he turns his face away so suddenly that his neck bone cracks. He slams a hand over his mouth to muffle his cry of pain, while his other hand is still around C.C.'s body. Lelouch feels like he is trapped. He wants to escape from this awkward position and insomnia – him lying on bed with a girl in his arms -- but he can't because if he makes any movement, she will wake up and he will have to explain what's wrong. And no, Lelouch isn't giving C.C. the pleasure to mock or laugh at his face.
Lelouch sighes silently. He doesn't know what actually renders him sleepless tonight. Is it C.C.? No it can't be. It is not the first time they sleep together in a bed. It is not the first time they hug each other while sleeping either. Or is it maybe C.C.'s sloppiness in dressing around Lelouch? He glances at her curves under the night gown. NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lelouch slaps himself with his free hand. He quickly regrets it, because his slap is way too hard. Lelouch goes back to the fact that C.C.'s sloppy appearance might excite him to some point, but no, it can't be either. It isn't the first time C.C. run around half naked in his presence. Not only running. Lying, standing, crawling….
Lelouch winces in pain as he slaps himself again on the same cheek. He wishes he had slapped himself on the other cheek, because now the twice-slapped cheek must be swollen.
Lelouch gives out a heavy, and surprisingly still silent sigh. What is it that makes C.C. so special tonight? Because she is sexy? NO! NOT SEXY! BAD WORD! BAD LELOUCH!
For a millisecond Lelouch thinks about hammering on his head, but he hasn't forgotten the pain on his cheek yet. Fine! He says to himself. So C.C. is sexy, so what! I am a guy, and it's normal if I actually think some girls are sexy. There is nothing wrong with it!
Lelouch puts his hand on his face. He can feel his face burning. No, he says to himself again, this is so not normal. How can they even classify this as normal? Damn all those psychological books!
But wait… girls? Yeah every idiot can take a quick look at C.C. and tell that she is a girl. But Lelouch has never seen her as a girl. Not that he cares about girls… he doesn't even care what he has done to girls. He has kissed Shirley and Kallen without actually thinking what the consequences might be. And he has never thought of dating any of them either. Not even C.C., and he kissed C.C. a lot in the past. Or she kissed him, who cares. Did he think of C.C. as a guy? Lelouch pauses his rail of thoughts. Hmmm….. well… it's not like he needed to confirm if C.C. was a girl or not, he had seen enough to tell….
2 seconds later, he wishes his other hand were also trapped somewhere.
So what is it that changes his view of C.C.? There are many times he wondered why C.C. stayed with him. C.C. has surely changed in a way, but Lelouch can't tell. From the very beginning, C.C. has only been supportive toward him. She did it for the contract's sake, a voice in his head speaks. Just so she can die… but then she decided not to die. She refused to give Charles her Geass code, and she stayed with Lelouch when he was on his way to change Britannia. Why did C.C. stay?
"Makes me wonder,"
"How do you survive when you aren't freeloading at someone's place?"
Lelouch raises an eyebrow. Oh yeah, he forgot. C.C. was just freeloading at his place. Yeah that must be it. But then again, C.C. took care of him when he was dying. He already lost everything by that time so nothing should have stopped C.C. from ditching him. And yet, C.C. stayed there. Why?
And more importantly, why is he sticking to C.C. so badly? Lately it seems that C.C. want to escape from him. Maybe C.C. already gets tired of him and doesn't want to be around him anymore? Lelouch stares at the ceiling, feeling blank. His chest hurts for no reason, and he feels even more and more tired with every second he spends thinking that he doesn't mean anything to C.C., not anymore. This would be much better if they know what their relationship is. Wait a minute, relationship? If anything, they are partners. Friends. Partners. Lelouch massages his forehead. Friends don't really do this. Sleeping on same bed hugging each other. This is what lovers usually do. But they are only doing this to cover their identities right… no they don't. They have been sleeping together on same bed as long as Lelouch can remember, back to the few months at Anya and Jeremiah's place. Then again nothing happened, right. C.C. hugs him like she is hugging some teddy bear. Oh God, am I a teddy bear for her?
No, definitely not. C.C. is not a fan of teddy bears. If anything, she is a fan of Cheese-kun. Pizzas. But C.C. doesn't hug Cheese-kun in sleep.
Lelouch opens his eyes slowly and sees that the sky starts to brighten. Nice, a sleepless night. What if it continues? Lelouch feels so weak and tired. He tightens his grip on C.C.'s arm, gently lying on his side to get a better view of C.C.'s sleeping face. Then he decides to support his upper body half on his elbow to take a better look at C.C.'s face.
Her face looks so innocent and gentle. Too bad all of these girly traits disappear once she opens her eyes. Heh. Lelouch smirks.
He stares at her smooth face. He never knew that she has such beautiful, tender eyelashes. And tiny nose… and red, pretty lips… and such bright skin. Smooth skin too….
His eyes grows heavier and heavier… he is so tired, he can't take it anymore. For some reason her face is getting closer and closer… he doesn't know why. He doesn't care either. And now he gets to count her eyelashes. One… two… ah, maybe fifteen…
And then those eyes open widely.
"AAAAAARGHHHHHH!!!!!" Lelouch screams in horror, pulling away from C.C..
"What are you doing?" demands C.C., staring at Lelouch in disbelief. Lelouch takes his trapped hand back into possession, and rolls on his side, with his back facing C.C..
"Nothing. I am tired. Leave me. I need to sleep."
"What have you been doing all night long?" asks C.C., staring at his back. But Lelouch doesn't answer anymore.
"Lelouch. Lelouch!"
When the guy doesn't move anymore, C.C. concludes that he's asleep.
"That's what you get for downing so much coffee yesterday. Weird, you even have some bump on a cheek. " C.C. thinks on her own. She strokes Lelouch's hair for a while, then gets up and tucks him in. "Sweet dreams."