Special Thanks: EchizenRyomaLover, Lovegranted, Lelouch Vi Masters, luckless-is-me, Lazy Gaga, weepy, Fueled by Pho, fantacination, ChidorixCixBritannia, Guest, missjasmin, iceley11


Time

Part XXVIII

8/7/2012 11:59 PM


The few groceries in hand, Lelouch continued straight back to the bedroom. Once inside, he quietly set the groceries on the floor, removing his wet shoes and slowly setting his coat on the dresser before he crawled over the covers. Buried under the mounds of blankets, with a sweat shirt and fleece pants as well was Suzaku. Lelouch could just barely make out the top of Suzaku's head, those wild curled in a bed head frenzy that Suzaku hadn't bothered to change for the past week. As Lelouch crawled closer, careful not to disturb, he could see a peak of Suzaku's shoulder. The old navy blue sweat shirt that had always been a little small, now was bagging around Suzaku's neck and shoulders.

Lelouch glanced up at the clock just a few feet away before he leaned in, placing a gentle hand on Suzaku's shoulder he let Suzaku stir awake. Those wide, tired eyes blinked twice before Lelouch moved his hand again brushing back a lock of tangled curls as he leaned in farther, pressing his lips to Suzaku's cheek.

A smile quirked Lelouch noticed as he pulled back, happy that the one visible green eye was now looking up at him. Through everything that was going wrong—those eyes were still just as fresh, still just as green as the ten year old boy that had punched Lelouch in the gut the first time they'd met. A bit deeper with the progression of time and dulled with pain at other times, but every now and then Lelouch caught a glimpse of the boy he'd grown up with.

"Hey," Suzaku's voice was quiet, either from the grogginess or something else, Lelouch didn't know.

Lelouch smiled down at his partner, giving his own smile. "Hey,"

"You're back, I thought you'd be gone longer." Suzaku said in his still quiet tone.

That hair was really out of control. It had been a while since Lelouch had bothered to give Suzaku a haircut and then he'd gotten sick and all of a sudden, it didn't matter. Lelouch leaned forward to press another kiss, this time to Suzaku's temple.

"I just went to the grocery store." Lelouch murmured against Suzaku's skin.

"Mhhhmmmmm," Suzaku had already closed his eyes again.

Lelouch stayed there, laying next to his partner and idly combing his fingers through Suzaku's hair. It was a tangled mess. Too long, too curly, too messy, it had been so since had Suzaku been lying in bed for a good part of the day. But as Lelouch looked down at Suzaku's' tired expression, fighting to keep his eyes open, Lelouch had been gone at the very least three to four hours and he was certain that Suzaku had slept the entire time. Suzaku had probably opened his eyes and kissed Lelouch good bye, before closing them again, it must have only felt like seconds that he opened them again to find Lelouch back.

It was when Suzaku's mouth fell just slightly open that Lelouch realized that he was asleep.

Lelouch chuckled to himself, "that was fast," he commentated before pressing just one last kiss to Suzaku's cheek. He brushed one last lock of curls behind Suzaku's ear before climbing off the bed.

He put the groceries away first. Luckily Lelouch had convinced Suzaku to pull the meager retirement the company had provided before too many questions were asked. And Lelouch had received a couple of—sizeable donations, not legally, but they had enough to get through and for Lelouch to –start over again once it was all over. Without Suzaku's constant jiminy cricket of a conscious keeping Lelouch in line it had been rather easy to fall back on what Lelouch knew how to do well, well enough he could still count cards faster and with more accuracy than was natural, he knew how to read faces and he knew how to lose just enough to keep anyone from being alerted to him—and the return was a nice little nest egg.

He dropped the rolled up wad of a nest egg into the Mason jar on the window sill near the kitchen sink and returned to putting away the rest of the groceries. It was the padding of feet that alerted him first and he tilted his head back to see around the fridge door to find—ah yes.

"You're filthy." Lelouch sneered in disgust.

Charley just gave a low whine, thumping her dirty tail against the kitchen floor. She was covered head to paw in mud. Winter was still fully in swing and her favorite pass time was playing in the old garden, getting as dirty as possibly before returning into the house.

Lelouch let the door to the fridge swing shut before leaning against it. He crossed his arms over his chest as he watched the mutt. "What do you want?" he asked with a sigh.

She gave a shake, and Lelouch lifted his arm in defense before he was serenaded with the starting on a low howl, which progressively got louder.

"Okay! Okay!" Lelouch stammered as he stepped forward. "Shhh! shhh, be quiet you'll wake him up!" Lelouch hissed.

As always the tone in his voice shut the mutt up and she quieted, still looking up at Lelouch though with big dark eyes. She started in on another whine only seconds later. This time as Lelouch stepped forward Charley was one step ahead pivoting befor trotting off again down the hall.

"NO!" Lelouch yelled before clamping a hand over his mouth and staggering after her.

Of course, she was where she always ran too. Her muddy trail down the hall and to the bedroom door led straight to her new mess. Her claws scratched against the door and she whined loud but still in that low deep tone. She got down as she started to try and dig through the carpet, anyway to get on the other side of the door.

Lelouch slowed a bit as she noticed him. She looked back at him before her whining became a little more—pleading. And as uncomfortable as Lelouch was about touching the mud caked animal he sank to the floor next to her, patting her back.

"He's sick." Lelouch explained. "You can't go in there like this." Lelouch looked over all the mud and wet soppiness that was Charley. "He can't play with you like that anymore." He patted at her head. "It's changed. You have to be gentle with him, he's breakable now."

She started to howl again and Lelouch fumbled as he tried calming her, petting her head and back.

"I'm sorry," he said frantic. "It's just he's so sick—I don't think that you're a good idea for him. You might hurt him, just on accident." Lelouch felt like he was trying to explain the Pythagoras theorem to a very anxious and distressed child.

Charley howled again, starting to dig at the bottom of the door again. It had been days since Lelouch had let Charley in to see Suzaku. The last time she had bounded onto the bed to attack Suzaku with more affection than ever. And Lelouch was just—he doubted Suzaku could handle that anymore. He'd barely handled it the last time.

But at the same time—Lelouch watched as Charley started to try and jam her nose under the door. He let her body drop getting as low to the ground as possibly before jamming her nose forward again, as if hoping he could just squeeze through narrow crack between the door and carpet.

Forcing her to say goodbye before Suzaku was even gone would be worse in the long run. She always looked for Suzaku first when she came into the house. She followed him around outside, she was—Lelouch could feel as emotion was rising again in him. She was family. And Lelouch knew there was no way he could have bore the loss he was trying to force on her premature.

"Oh alright!" Lelouch grumbled. "But come on!" Lelouch said as he took ahold of her collar and started to tow her unwillingly towards the other end of the house. "You are not going to get mud all over those bed covers! Under no circumstances are you filthing up our bedroom."

He wasn't sure how he did it but he was lucky enough to tow her all the way across the house to the bathroom. After some coaxing and finally a fumbling attempt to get her in the tub, Lelouch simply grabbed the shower head, very happy they'd invested in a removable one with a long cord and sprayed.


The bathroom was a disaster. Having a very unwilling bath time and then blow dry for that mangy dog before Lelouch had managed to sneak out and clean up her other muddy messes he finally trudged back to the bedroom, after cleaning the carpet mud trails and the door very thoroughly.

He crawled back onto the bed, placing his hand back on Suzaku's shoulder.

"Hey baby," Lelouch whispered at Suzaku's side.

Cracking an eye open Suzaku smiles again as he woke. "Hey, is it dinner?"

Well, yes. It was around that time but Lelouch hadn't even started on that yet. "Not exactly." Lelouch smiled—until her heard it.

She was howling again. This time loud and annoying and crystal clear all the way from the opposite end of the house. Lelouch could just see her now, clean as a whistle but probably bored out of her mind so she was referring to the only thing she had left in that tiny little bathroom, volume.

Suzaku brow furrowed."What is that?" It managed to stir him enough that he rolled onto his back, listening as he pushed himself to sit up against the pillows.

That was good, at least he'd be prepared when Lelouch let the monster go.

"That is—" the finish to that sentence was along the lines of, spawn of hell, but instead Lelouch switched directions. "You know what, just sit here, don't go back to sleep and I will be right back." He took the time to press another hasty kiss, this time to Suzaku's lips before Lelouch briskly walked back across the house—all to the chorus of Charley's loud and annoying howls for release.

The second the bathroom door opened she was out in a flash, her paws still a little wet as she skidded across the kitchen tiles before regaining balance and was off to the bedroom again. In a panic Lelouch had charged right after her, and much to his chagrin was significantly slower.

But coming into the bedroom—Suzaku was smiling, wide and toothy, and full, as Charley sat next to him on the bed, getting in as many licks to Suzaku's face as possible. The experience in Lelouch's opinion looked disgusting—but Suzaku was smiling, his hands running through Charley's fur.

Lelouch pushed off the door frame and left them alone, going to actually make dinner.


When he returned with three bowls of vegetable soup on a tray it was to find Charley curled up as close to Suzaku as possible, her big doe eyes looking to Lelouch as he entered.

"Here you go," Lelouch said as he set the first bowl from the tray on the hardwood chest at the foot of the bed.

Charley raised her head first before carefully shuffling forward to the bowl of soup. Lelouch wasn't sure she liked it at first—at least until she started devouring it like it was mania straight from heaven.

He took the other two bowls and woke Suzaku up before handing him a bowl and crawling up next to him, snuggling in close as he ate his own food. It was cozy and warm, Lelouch thought he might even be the first one to fall asleep in a long time with how nice it all felt.

"I thought you don't like feeding the dog table scraps." Suzaku asked after the bowls had been gathered and set in a neat stack on the night stand.

"It wasn't scraps I made her a bowl." Lelouch explained.

Giving a tired chuckle. "Right, so if you feed her table scraps it's a meal. If I feed her food it'd table scraps and therefor unhealthy for her. I see how it is."

Lelouch gave a content sigh, snuggling closer to Suzaku, and feeling Charley curled up between their legs at the foot of the bed. "I'm not making it a habit." Lelouch yawned. "I just forgot dog food at the store."


I usually don't commentate on much anymore, but why is it I've gotten so many reviews and PM's of people thinking that the last chapter was the end? I'm just curious since I never marked the chapter complete and Suzaku never actually died in the last chapter. Anyway, I'm happy everyone is saying through to the end of the ride.

~Reviews are Awesome!~