Syaoran had to admit he was feeling rather shocked to see Suzaku in front of class next Monday morning already. Also he could practically feel the shock radiating from Lelouch before the other composed himself. The class seemed to have mixed feelings, Rivalz, Shirley and a few others reacting enthusiastic, but other students giving about the same reaction to Suzaku as they gave Syaoran last week. A significant number of them turned to give him a pointed look at Suzaku's appearance.

Suzaku took the teacher's praise – calling him the Knight of Seven – calmly and moved to his seat without giving Lelouch any more than the most casual look. Syaoran quickly scribbled a note in the corner of his papers to look up this Knight business, and made a show of intently watching the teacher directly after. It may be best to pretend no involvement with Suzaku at all.

The day passed relatively normal, but Syaoran could sense Lelouch's tensed state through the day. The big change was Lelouch not giving him the usual stares at the back of his head anymore. Lelouch seemed to have redirected those stares to Suzaku now, although they were a lot more subtle than they used to be with Syaoran.

During the break Lelouch put up a very good act of casual conversation with his once best friend. Syaoran couldn't help but wonder if Suzaku had been wrong about Lelouch's memory, though. A certain tense in Lelouch's behavior wouldn't disappear no matter what, and with the feelings the other was giving off in class it seemed Lelouch might be well aware of his friend playing a different game. Of course Lelouch's tense could simply be explained by his unrequited crush on the Eleven, but Suzaku had said he had been the one to turn Lelouch in as a terrorist. Syaoran longed to grasp the deeper emotions in this game, and he felt a strong need to do something about these two. Maybe, just maybe, he could get himself a second chance from Lelouch if he managed to shake Suzaku out of his anger. Either way the two were slightly pathetic as they were now, and Syaoran wasn't sure if he'd be able to watch them for too long.

He was quite certain Lelouch was lying half of his personality, memories or not.

...

Syaoran was glad to see his welcome party be transformed into Suzaku's welcome-back party within seconds after the start of the student council meeting. Suzaku was an old and trusted member, while he himself was still doing his best to play wallflower every meeting, so the smooth transaction of party-subject was not surprising – and welcome.

Lelouch managed to keep up his aloof behavior during the meeting.

Suzaku showed polite interest in Syaoran's presence and half made-up background, also nicely keeping up his act of not-knowing.

Syaoran pretended to have never met Suzaku before and kindly commented on how much the others had spoken of him, walking around the whole unknown Knight-subject with a large circle.

He seriously started to wonder whether lying was actually the norm in this world and if the other student council members were also merely pretending.

At the end of the meeting Lelouch came walking up to him. "Do you still want me to help you out this afternoon?"

Syaoran saw Suzaku giving them a nice drawn out stare from the corner of his eyes.

"Yes, if you still have time?" Syaoran pulled out his notebook and waved it in front of Lelouch. "It's not as much as last time, but still your help would be very much appreciated."

"Let's get to it quickly then," Lelouch smiled.

"Are you tutoring Syaoran," Suzaku asked in a surprised tone.

"He has a bit of a backlog on most subjects, but he picks up very fast." Lelouch's gentle smile could almost be mistaken for cold, but was kept in check. "I am merely pointing out the things he should focus on."

"You surely became diligent since I left."

Shirley scoffed from the side, "him tutoring Syaoran is about the only improvement. He still skips half of the classes."

"Well, I can't become an angel from one day to another, can I?" Lelouch smirked at her.

"Baby steps at a time," Syaoran added mischievously, earning a surprised look followed by a mock-indignant one from Lelouch.

"Way to go Shirley, now even Syaoran suddenly knows how to tease."

"That was about time," Rivalz laughed, "it took us a week to defrost him."

"I have a careful personality," Syaoran shrugged. "Lelouch?"

"Yes, let's go." Lelouch shot the others another mock-indignant look before heading out towards his room.

...

They went through the same actions as last time, Syaoran being dropped off in Lelouch's room while the other went to grab something to drink. Feeling that ominous being-watched shudder run down his spine again, Syaoran came to a sudden realization, putting a few strange things together. Rolo had somehow known about Lelouch talking to Syaoran in private in the showers, even though the boy was supposed to be in class at that moment. Suzaku had known about Syaoran asking for Lelouch's power, even though Syaoran had been positive about not a person being close enough to hear them. Put that together with the nagging feeling of being watched and Suzaku stating Lelouch was a terrorist with his memories removed and it should have been painfully obvious from much earlier on.

Syaoran groaned. They were being watched and Lelouch was perfectly aware of it. Not only Suzaku had access to those records, but Rolo was in it as well. The raven head had subtly directed them to a place outside the reach of the cameras that day in the showers, leading the already suspicious Rolo to question him but unknowing of what actually happened. Lelouch was forced to lie through his teeth about his power the time Syaoran had asked about it in the middle of a hall, an unlikely place to not have surveillance cameras.

This was the time for more desperate measures.

"Are you alright?" Syaoran startled and looked up to Lelouch, who was standing in the door with a tray of drinks and snacks, giving him an inquiring look.

"Yes, well... I suddenly realized something I should have noticed much earlier on," he gave the other a wry smile.

"Really? What is it," Lelouch put down the tray an flopped down in his place next to Syaoran.

Syaoran stared at him for a moment, not sure how to answer that.

Lelouch gave him another inquiring look.

"What are you going to do, now Suzaku is back," he changed subject almost-smoothly.

"What do you mean by that?" Syaoran had to hold back a smile at the slight hint of pink on the cheeks of the violet eyed male. He had some trouble thinking of the methods he was about to use, but Lelouch would be able to make it fun, at least.

"Well, you've obviously been missing him," Syaoran drawled, leaning back against the bed," but you're acting awfully aloof. Aren't you going to confront him?"

"Confront him with what," Lelouch gritted his teeth and sounded unexpectedly insecure.

"What do you think," Syaoran took the opportunity to lean forward, bringing his face close enough to Lelouch to prevent the other from escaping his gaze.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Lelouch huffed and turned.

"Don't worry," he grinned mischievously, "it's perfectly normal to hesitate. It took me seven years to confess to the one I love. Twice."

"Who said anything about confessing?" Lelouch sputtered, "there's nothing to confess. Suzaku and I have been friends since we were kids." A pause, and then incredulously, "twice?"

"It was complicated. Much more complicated than the two of you."

"Stop saying nonsense and get to work."

"Why don't you want to tell him? Wouldn't everything be much easier if he at least knew?"

"There's nothing to tell!"

"He seems angry with you."

"I don't know."

"You are too tensed around him."

"I am not!"

"And now you're actually bickering over him," Syaoran laughed out loud, enjoying the behaviour he had never seen before of the other.

"Just shut up!"

"What's your plan, if you don't want to tell him?"

"I can find replacements."

Syaoran lifted an eyebrow, "you demonstrated that, yes. Will that keep on working though?"

Suddenly Lelouch was on top of Syaoran, pushing him down on the carpet by his shoulders. "It'll have to."

Syaoran stared at the other blankly.

"You're not going to run?"

"I did that last time. It didn't feel that accomplishing."

"You love someone."

"Sakura is everything to me, and I will give up anything for her. She is very kind, and I've seen her make sacrifices to help people she didn't know at all. She would not mind if I helped you getting the love you want."

Lelouch snorted, "touching, really, but currently I'm pushing you down on the floor with ill intentions, not the love I want."

Syaoran shrugged, nearly making Lelouch – still leaning on his shoulders – topple over. He had provoked the raven haired boy enough to make him momentarily forget they were being watched. Maybe Lelouch didn't know about Suzaku being able to look into the surveillance videos at all. Either way, Suzaku was going to get a wakeup call if he was watching this.

Syaoran just sincerely hoped it would work.