Out-Thinking a Psychic

Lelouch

I couldn't stop thinking about Mao. He couldn't turn his power off, and he knew my weak points. If he was going to strike for me, he was going to either target Nunnally for being my sister…or Melody. Now that I thought more about it, I cared more for Melody than any other unrelated girl I knew.

And at the moment, I was concerned for how that would work into my contract with C.C. Would she tell me to ultimately cut myself off from Melody?

Well…the next day, I was able to cut off the clubhouse for C.C. When Milly asked me if anyone figured out I was a prince, I told her, "Well, I finally told Melody, because she was so close to right in her guess that it was almost painful to watch her."

"I see."

Melody

I ended up running around in circles in my room from pure stress after school. Lelouch was stuck dealing with a mind-reader named Mao.

…Or was he even having this problem anymore?

That night, my phone rang. It was Lelouch. "I think C.C. is about to do something drastic. I may need your help."

"Um…shoot me for not getting it, but why do you care about C.C.? I thought you didn't like her."

"I don't. But she gave me…she gave me this power I have. In some strange way, I need her. And she's going back to Mao."

"…This is bad, right?"

"Potentially."

"Okay, where am I going?"

"I would say Clovisland, but then you'd be in range of Mao's power."

"I can go there. My thoughts are actually very quiet, I believe, and I've refined the ability to think about absolutely nothing."

"Really? That is helpful. I'll see how I can work this into my plan."

"Mysterious, aren't we? Okay, but I want to hear a bit more about that power of yours." I hung up, worrying all over again about him.

Lelouch

Always entertaining, the way she says things. "Shoot me for not getting it, indeed. Well, now I'll have to tell her about Geass. Not that that's overly a problem, she knows I'm a prince now."

My plan went perfectly. Melody and I were both in police uniform, and I taunted Mao with my thoughts as we left with C.C. The cops took care of eliminating Mao, Melody hiding her eyes.

On the roof of a building, C.C. explained about Mao: how he'd been only six when she made the contract with him, and she became his world.

I gave her a contract of my own, she accepted it, and we shook hands on it.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Melody spinning her hat on one finger, cocking her head at me. Then I added with a smile, "Melody, I believe you deserve an explanation."

Melody

I almost couldn't believe what I was hearing: Lelouch had the power to control people, but it required eye contact and could only be used on a person once!

Almost couldn't. But I'd seen him accomplish too much to disbelieve it. "Wow."

"You're not surprised?"

"Not really; you've used it way too many times to my face for me to be surprised to learn it's a power of yours." Then I smirked at him. "I'd pay big money to know what in the world you were thinking at Mao, though."

He laughed a little. "You would say that."

"Then you're probably not going to be overly surprised by what I say next: I want you to use your Geass on me."

Whatever he was expecting me to say, it hadn't been that. He stared at me. "You're not serious!"

"Hey, there's always going to end up being the off chance that I'll be in your line of vision when you give a Geass-command. I'd rather that didn't happen. If you really can only use your Geass once on a person, then we ought to get my own moment of being mind-slaved over with, so that every other time, I'm immune."

"You're not serious." He sounded resigned by now, though.

"Of course I'm serious." Then I held my arms outstretched as if begging him to shoot me. "Go ahead. Hit me with it."

Lelouch

I couldn't believe it – Melody wanted me to use Geass on her? She did have a point, but…

"You might as well," C.C. suddenly said. "She is asking for it, after all."

I sighed. "You might as well know, Melody," I looked back at her, "you won't remember anything that happens while you're under Geass."

"I gathered that from when you mind-slaved Kallen. Just don't make me forget about you like you did with Shirley, okay?" She sounded almost like she thought I'd insulted her.

"Right. Well…" Now the question is, what do I command? I activated my power and said, "I command you, answer my question."

She lowered her arms and cocked her head. I knew from watching her among the Black Knights that this was her typical "ask away" pose.

A good, neutral question for her to answer…oh, I've been wondering this for some time. "Narita seemed to stress you out a great deal. Why?"

She looked straight at me again and said, "It's because I've gotten to like you a great deal. However, it occurred to me at Narita that there were at least three other girls that had better chances of earning your attention than I did."

That wasn't quite the answer I'd expected. "Which three, and why?"

"Shirley, Kallen, and C.C.; they're all prettier than I am."

"You promised you wouldn't make her forget about you," C.C. added, sounding vaguely amused that Melody counted her as competition.

"I wasn't going to," I answered. I hadn't released Melody from Geass yet. "Instead, Melody, I want you to forget the notion that any other girl has a better chance at me than you do." I can't believe I'm talking about this. I cut off Geass then.

She shook herself like a cat and blinked rapidly. "Um, what just happened?"

"What you asked: I used Geass on you." I turned and started walking away. Then I hesitated. "Oh, and one more thing?" This wouldn't be on Geass, but it wasn't supposed to be; I wanted her to remember what I said next.

"Hm?"

I looked over my shoulder at her and smiled. "Don't let anyone tell you that you aren't beautiful." Then I kept walking.

Melody

…Did he just say what I thought he said? Did he really just all but say I was beautiful?

What had he asked me to spark that comment?

C.C. walked over to me. "I think he likes you."

I glanced at her. "You think so?"

She nodded. "Just so you know, if you ever do remember what he said to you, then something has happened, and you've lost your immunity." Then she followed Lelouch.

I felt like her following Lelouch was supposed to bother me for some reason…but it didn't. It wasn't like she had any better chance of winning Lelouch's heart than I did, even if she couldn't die.