C.C. tossed Zero's mask straight up in the air with little effort as if it was a simple tennis ball before catching it and tossing it again. Golden eyes were trained on the mask, watching it rise and fall without moving her head, and definitely not looking at the new Zero as she talked to him.

"Did you ever tell Lelouch you loved him?" She asked out of nowhere in her semi-interested tone.

The olive green eyes looked away from her. He kind of hated being with her all the time now, all she did was remind him of Lelouch. And when it wasn't C.C. it was Nunnally. It was too much sometimes. All he wanted to do was forget his past and continue living this life of not living.

It was only when Suzaku didn't answer her did she stop tossing the mask. She tilted her head in his direction, her lime colored hair cascading over her shoulder.

"Well?"

"Maybe once or twice," he said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Was it when you were still children?" She assumed. Suzaku had known for awhile that C.C. took up stalking Lelouch shortly after he arrived in Japan.

"No, I didn't understand my feelings back then," he said. I he had maybe then he would have said something. Looking back it was easy to tell, even at a young age he had fallen in love with the Britannian prince. There was no denying the lightness he felt in his heart whenever their bodies accidently brushed against each other when they were playing, and the blush that would crawl across his face when Lelouch would ask him why he was grinning like an idiot. Or the pride he felt when he would protect his only friend from the other kids in town.

Lelouch was the first to give him a reason to live and protect those close to him.

"Then it was at Ashford, correct?"

"No."

Not when they had met on the roof. And it wasn't after dinner, or the time they caught Arthur together. There were never any 'I love you's after sex. And it wasn't even muttered the last time they spoke together as friends before the Special Zone was put into effect. Even if Suzaku desperately wanted to say it at that point.

"Then when was it?"

Suzaku's eyes narrowed on the witch. He did not appreciate her dragging all these carefully buried memories to the surface.

"Why do you care?"

She shrugged, looking away from him, her eyes fixing on Suzaku's cell phone on the table. Maybe I should order a pizza, she thought.

"I don't really, just trying to start a conversation."

"Well, what about you? Did you ever tell him?" Suzaku challenged the question back to her. Maybe he could get her to talk and he could forget before he completely remembered.

"I never loved him," she said with no emotion behind her words, "what we had was completely contractual, I like it that way, never any more or any less than what is expected."

Suzaku laughed bitterly, "you're lying."

She looked back at the brunette, her eye brows raising curiously, "oh, am I?"

A sad smile slid across his face, his voice soft, "he loved you."

Other than a tiny gasp that died in her throat she stayed silent. She looked down at Zero's mask she still held in her hands, brushing her fingers over the purple face as if she was petting it. "Always the liar, aren't you, Lelouch?" she whispered to herself and no one.

"Tell me, Suzaku, when did you tell Lelouch?"

Suzaku stared down at his clenched fists. Hands that have murdered tens of thousands. His father. Lelouch.

A sinner's hands.

"During his assassination," his voice was quiet and slow as he spoke, barely betraying the tears that instantly collected in his eyes, "I didn't want him to die not knowing- he probably didn't even hear but!" he lost it, tears coursing down his cheeks unchecked.

C.C. stood up, smiling knowingly the corners of her lips turned up, "don't worry, Suzaku," she said handing him the mask. He looked up at her, olive eyes searching her face.

"He knows."