She was beginning to hate chess.

"You're cheating", Kallen accused, narrowing her eyes at the move he made with his pawn. Lelouch raised an eyebrow, his lips curling into a shadow of a smirk.

"Actually Kallen, contrary to what you believe, I don't need to cheat to beat you."

She inhaled suddenly and concentrated on gripping the poor cermamic Queen piece in her fist to release her anger before she stabbed Lelouch with it.

'Count… Just count down. Don't let this idiot get to you.'

'Ten… Nine… Eight…'

He was so infuriating; it was disgusting.

'Seven… Six… Five…'

"Are you upset because you're losing?" he asked her in a tone that was obviously faking sincerity. Kallen gripped the piece in her hand harder while glaring daggers at his insufferable face.

'Four… Three… Two…'

She gave him a sickly sweet smile.

'One.'

Kallen opened her mouth to say something that would hopefully crush his ego to pieces, (not that it would; Lelouch's ego was bigger than Britannia's empire), when her eyes caught a flash of green.

Without a word, C.C. mosey her way to the desk where she left her phone (and Lelouch's credit card), not paying any care to Kallen's eyes watching her.

"Who are you?" she asked curiously, but found herself getting annoyed with the girl pointedly ignored her. Kallen's eye twitched again while her mouth grimaced, so she settled for looking at Lelouch for answers.

"This is… C.C.", he said, waving his hand in C.C.'s direction, but continued to look at the game. "It's your turn Kallen."

… Oh she saw what he was trying to do, that sneaky bastard. She was NOT going to get distracted by his stupid game (the chess game, not to be confused with his other stupid game. Lelouch seemed to have many of them.) so that she couldn't ask questions.

"Are you a student here?" Kallen asked to C.C. (or asked in her general direction anyway), glancing back at C.C. who was fiddling with a cell phone.

"Maybe", C.C. said nonchalantly. Kallen frowned.

"She's not", Lelouch said with an air of finality, not letting C.C.'s distracting tone and words get to Kallen just yet.

"Then why is she here?" Kallen asked him in a smaller whisper, before her eyes widened with shock at a disgusting and terrifying (terrifying?) possibility.

"Oh my God; she's not a prostitute is she?" Kallen hissed while leaning over the table, her palms slamming the wood.

Lelouch rolled his eyes. "No", he said with a finality that left no room for arguments.

"Then who is she?"

"C.C." he said with an infuriating smirk. Kallen was two seconds away from hitting him.

"And she lives in your room… wearing that?" Kallen asked incredulously, talking about the … lack of clothing that C.C. was wearing.

"Jealous?" C.C. called out in a light voice, while pressing the speed dial number for Pizza Hut. Where was her pizza?

Kallen's face turned red with outrage at C.C.'s lie, "No!" she spit out, narrowing her eyes in Lelouch's direction.

Lelouch's face turned into one of sorrow. (Kallen rolled her eyes; maybe he should go into the acting business.) "You really are a heartbreaker Kallen", he said softly, pretending he was hurt, "…I must say, I'm proud."

She clenched her teeth. They were ganging up on her!

"You're both insufferable. Or maybe intolerable people just flock to you because you're such an asshole."

"What does that say about you Kallen?" he teased, his mouth quirking up in a smirk.

"I was here by force!"

"Of course."

"Don't be sarcastic with me!"

Lelouch raised a hand to his chest with a face of mild shock, "How could you ever say that Kallen. I'm hurt, really."

C.C. passed by them, her amusement satiated even though she was frowning because of the late delivery man. She gave Lelouch a cool look, "Go get my pizza."

He frowned at her, "Why?"

"Because they're late", she said in a tone that screamed "duh".

Lelouch scoffed, "And I'm your delivery boy? No thanks. You can wait a few more minutes for them to come. I'm sure they'll be here."

C.C.'s lips curled downwards in a small frown, but the clockwork of her mind quickly formed an idea of revenge for Lelouch, who was having fun keeping Kallen in the dark about the game of Geass as long as possible.

Well.

"So I heard you broke two hearts", C.C. said, looking at Kallen. Kallen's eyes widened, while Lelouch rolled his eyes at her childish behavior.

"You're in on this?" Kallen exclaimed, "Can you tell me what the point of this stupid game is, because Lelouch refuses to tell me anything useful—"

Lelouch scoffed, "You're asking her? Good luck with that."

Kallen frowned when C.C. actually left the room without answering her question. Lelouch really did surround himself with insufferable people. Maybe that's how he learned to be a total bastard.

"Fine, then I'll ask you." Kallen said, redirecting her attention to Lelouch. "And if you don't tell me anything useful, then I will just leave now."

Lelouch inwardly frowned; he didn't know if he could risk Kallen leaving just yet. He had a feeling the black car was still roaming outside, if it didn't already hit someone else already.

"C.C.'s the… game host." Kallen raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"The host? The person who started this?"

Lelouch shrugged, "Probably not, but she did pass this game … onto me, if you could say that. She's been playing it for a longer time than I have, that's for sure."

Kallen frowned in confusion; the girl didn't look older than 16. "How old is she anyway? If she's been playing this for so long."

Lelouch's eyes coolly looked down at her, "1,893 years old."

Kallen felt her face scrunch up into a glare, "You're not funny." Lelouch shrugged. Oh well. She couldn't say he didn't try.

He slowly sighed, and blinked a few times before leaning back in his chair, a contemplative look on his face. His eyes were cast downward but he suddenly looked up at her, surprising her.

"Is there something on my face?" she asked wryly, letting her hand fiddle with one of the chess pieces that was still on the board in front of them.

He said nothing for a few minutes, until he sighed again, "You know, I'm curious as to how you got to break two hearts already."

Kallen's lips quirked up in a smirk. "And here I thought you claimed to know everything about me", she teased, her eyes lighting up.

Lelouch leaned onto the table, letting his elbow rest on the edge, "Well I just want to make sure you're not… cheating."

Actually, he really was curious. Kallen used to hide her secrets of flirtation with him, and how she was relentless in her pursuit, only because she wanted to beat him so badly, to show him who was boss.

At least, until she found out the truth. Then she just stopped playing the game, and the goal of the game was almost accomplished.

"I'm cheating? If anyone should be accused of that, it's you." Ironically, he was cheating; he knew more about her than she did. He knew the goal of the game.

She was so close to loving him then. How long would it take her this time?

"Show me", he said, the curiosity burning deep within him. He waited hundreds of years for this answer. He leaned closer towards her.

"Show you what?" she asked, her voice growing softer. Her eyes had taken on a … calmer sheen. Lelouch inwardly smirked; he still knew how she ticked.

"How you do it…" he said, referencing to their point of discussion. He extended a hand out towards her, almost as if he was asking her to dance.

Kallen looked back and forth from his face to his hand, his invitation. After a few seconds of thinking, she took his hand gingerly and let him stand, bring her along with him.

He slowly stepped close to her, cornering her into the edge of the table. Kallen looked up at him.

"Only if you promise to show me your tricks too." So she could find them and break them. At least, that was the game plan.

Being cornered by Lelouch was not supposed to feel this… exhilarating. She squashed the feeling down as fast as she could.

His voice lowered, taking on a huskier tone, "Of course. That's only fair." Kallen bit her inner cheek, annoyed that her stomach felt so jumpy and her mind felt so scattered.

"So what do you do?" he asked her lightly. Were his eyes really that shade of purple?

She'd never seen anything like it.

"I flirt", she said with a small smile. The same sickly, sweet smile she used on those stupid Britannian boys. Somehow, it didn't feel right to use it on Lelouch.

What was she turning into?

He let out a low chuckle that rumbled in his chest, and Kallen was close enough to feel it. He shortened the distance between them and Kallen realized that his hand hadn't left hers. It felt a lot warmer than before.

"Obviously", he mumbled with a small smile. Kallen's heart skipped a beat.

… What was going on? She wasn't used to this side of Lelouch; he was supposed to be a pompous bastard, not … this. Thischarming ladies-man.

'But he was one.'

Right? That's what he was showing her: the charming, flirtatious side of him that got girls to beg at his feet. The same side of him that made those girls reduce to nothing but bags of tears. This was just a show; an act. He was just playing it out for her. That's all he was doing.

Then why did it feel so real?

"Then… I do this", she said, forcing herself to wrap her arms around his neck and interlacing her fingers together.

Maybe she was imagining it, but something in Lelouch's eyes grew darker.

She was imagining it. She had to be.

"So you wrap your arms around them... and then let them touch you like this?" he whispered, even though their words felt louder than a tornado's winds. He slowly brought his hands to her waist and encircled them with his arms. Kallen felt herself gasp, but mustered a smile (albeit an almost shaky one) to show off some confidence, even though she felt her confidence dwindling down into nothing. Looking up at his eyes, Kallen thought something changed in them.

"Jealous?" she said flirtatiously, meaning it as a joke, but when Lelouch's eyes grew darker at that, she wondered if he really considered it a joke.

Okay, enough was enough. This was getting too far out of control. Kallen placed her palms on top of his hands on her waist, intending to stop this… charade now because that's all it was. A charade, in which the only thing she got out of it was her new … prespective on Lelouch and she didn't know if she wanted to know anymore.

But she wouldn't settle for that. She had to get something out of it. She refused to feel like a failure in front of him.

Pressing her hands lightly against his, she looked up at him with fake shyness, (fake, that's all it was, fake, because she was not shy around Lelouch), and whispered the question that she was dying to know the answer to.

"What's the point of this game?" she asked, her voice feeling light as if it could disappear into the air and be forgotten. Pulling his hands away from her waist, he let them tighten into fists to grab the edge of the table behind her, resulting in a closer proximity. Her small breaths were pulsing against his chest, but neither of them broke eye contact.

She never got her answer.

A door slam made them both jump, and Kallen swirled to find C.C. slamming the door on the pizza delivery man while she took out a slice from her beloved food and started to bit it, not giving a glance their way.

Lelouch's eyes hardened, losing the emotion he let himself show to Kallen, and Kallen felt her heart drop.

So that is what it felt like to be tossed aside by Lelouch.

It didn't hurt. It didn't.

Her own eyes hardened as she strengthened her resolve, missing the way Lelouch looked at her.

It didn't hurt.

She pulled herself out of his embrace as fast as she could, grabbing her bag and basically running out the door.

It didn't hurt. It didn't hurt.

It was just a show. A charade. One of Lelouch's many masks, as far as she could tell.

Another door slam greeted Lelouch's ears as he stared at the spot Kallen was seconds ago.

Aiming for at least 10 reviews... Please?

Love,
Ivy