Chapter 49- Cease

C.C

C.C tossed her thick green hair, relishing the opportunity to watch Suzaku squirm. She had never really liked him, even when he was child, and though their paths had been so closely intertwined she still thought of him as nothing more than an obstacle. Having run through her long conversations with Lelouch an unexpected tide of emotion rose in her voice. Lelouch's rather unhealthy degree of obsession with Nunnally seems to have rubbed off on me. Or maybe it just mean I love him so much that I... whatever. Whenever she had trouble figuring out complicated human feelings like this she needed something to do with her hands, and seized a stew pot. "Lelouch left Nunnally the world to preserve, and you selfishly snatch her away to use as a bargaining tool." Suzaku flinched at her reprimanding tone. "He was manipulative, but even he wouldn't sink this low." She grabbed the ripest tomatoes from a basket where they stored their home-grown produce and began to squeeze them into a bowl.

Not seeming to know what to do with himself Suzaku leaned against the polished edge of the table. The high collar of his coat fell back to reveal silvery blotches along his neck, that's right, he saved her from a fire.

He seemed quite put out at her aggression and responded in turn. "Why...my intentions were completely innocent." His voice broke. "She was living in constant fear. Of Schneizel and Cornelia, those scheming... I stupidly proposed that she get away from all of that and hide in the United States, and she latched on to it, threatening to kill herself if I didn't take her away that very night." He looked to the ceiling, as if apologizing to someone up there. "What could I do..."

"What's best for the world." C.C replied flatly. "The last thing that a time bomb like Britannia needs is one weak ruler after another. Oh, and peel this cucumber." She handed him the waxy green vegetable and grabbed Lelouch's flowery apron from its hook. Nobody can sound angry when saying 'cucumber.'

As he numbly realized what he was holding Suzaku gave a pained laughed, sounding rather hysterical. "I steal a Knightmare prototype, show my face to a bunch of villagers who think I'm dead all so I can beg to have my immortality lifted, but instead I end up preparing vegetables." He turned the peeler over in his hands as if he were thinking of slitting his wrists with it*. "Do you know what he's done to me? My body will wither while my brain remains perfect."

The witch didn't look up from her task at hand. "Somebody could keep your brain in a jar."

"Yes, wouldn't that be nice?"

Turning her back to him C.C fetched salt, basil, dill, is that all Lelouch said went in it? He'll be waking up soon, I should get rid of Suzaku to prevent that rather nasty encounter. Maybe I could say a few magic words over Suzaku and send him on his way. She glanced at the stairs that led to where Lelouch was taking a nap with their son. He'd promised to make gazpacho for their evening meal and there was no telling when he would fulfill his promise. As of late Lelouch was trying to discourage her love of pizza and introduce other similar foods that she may take a liking to, but was failing. She would pretend to like the quiche, omelettes and paninis he tirelessly made for her but nothing can ever beat Pizza Hut.

As he had begun to slowly peel the cucumber she glared at Suzaku. "Get your sleeves out of the food."

"Sorry." He mumbled.

For a while they cooked in uncomfortable silence, when a bundle of basil tumbled from his hands. "Sorry!" Suzaku spluttered, for all the world acting as clumsy as Lelouch. C.C felt herself smile as she turned her attention back to peeling carrots, completely taken by surprise when she felt a well-aimed chop on her solar plexus and had the breath knocked out of her with a delicate 'oof.' A callused hand seized her wrists and pulled them together at an awkward angle and the carrots tumbled from her hands, Suzaku slapping an arm around her face as he used his considerably larger weight and height to knock her off balance. This happened all in a few seconds and the witch's forehead burned as an angry current of psychic torture flowed to her hands at a degree that would render a person permanently insane. Getting some control over these powers has been one of the best things to happen to me. She furiously tried to shake him off, but for all of her wisdom and unnatural age she still had the body of a sixteen-year-old girl, one that had recently weakened because of her son. And we all know that Suzaku is capable of impossible physical feats such as quadruple helicopter kicks even when he was nineteen and overpowering a petite girl is much less strenuous.

As she struggled his gaze flitted towards the kitchen knives, and she taunted him to go ahead with a flick of her eyes. She thought of Lelouch upstairs and Jeremiah fishing half a day's ride away, and decided that she didn't care about the consequences of an encounter like that. I could say that Lelouch is a ghost.

With a forceful bite to Suzaku's arm she freed her mouth just long enough to let out a desperate cry of. "Le-!" Until he put his teeth-marked arm back over her face. He untied her pink apron wrenched back her neck, stuffing the fabric into her mouth before she could make a peep. Now that her head was free she lashed backwards and hit his nose, but Suzaku didn't care as he carefully bagged her hands to her chest with the flowing apron.

"I'm sorry." He gingerly pulled her to his chest and spoke wetly through his bloody nose. "But you're right. I can't use Nunnally to bargain with, and you'll be worth something to them." Them, as in the scientists. "The world is out of balance, and you're just the right leverage to put it back in order."


A bit short this week, but I have a new direction figured out! And I'm excited about it, which definitely means it will be awesome. And there's a new Brotherhood chapter for you Dovahkiins out there~

*wouldn't put it past Suzaku, stupid, emo, whiny little...*mutters to self*