With something sounding more like a strangled whimper, C.C. dove forward and crashed into Lelouch with a harsh lip-lock that left them both dazed. They barely separated an inch as they traded several more kisses before calming down, if only slightly, enough to talk.

"You're...you're skin and bones..." Lelouch said; it was more of a question than a statement.

"You've been dead some time." She replied as the oddity of the statement hit him somewhere in his subconscious.

"You've waited all this time?" Lelouch asked, incredulous at the mere thought.

"When you died," C.C. started, "I lost all feeling." Her voice became quieter as she went on.

"Hunger...thirst...pain...none of it registered. Just this animalistic urge to see your eyes open and to know you hadn't broken your promise to me..."

"So...you've been starving...waiting for me..."

"I died twice from thirst, once from starvation." C.C. furnished dryly as she pulled Lelouch closer to her and nuzzled his neck. "Though the first death probably—certainly—reduced my life expectancy by a good amount before the second death and so on."

"If that was supposed to be helpful..." Lelouch started to say but was cut off by a kiss.

"It wasn't." She teased as she looked at him seriously with cracked lips and bleary eyes. "It's good to see you again Lelouch..."

"I'm glad you're glad to see me...but I have something to share with you now." With that, he reached over and touched her hand. Immediately, his memories from his most recent time in C's world began to flash before her eyes. Although he didn't intend to, his memories from his death also appeared before her, causing her to grab his hand in a death vice as she dealt with that particular hell of hers.

Once it was all said and done, C.C. let his hand go and reclined into him as he weary body finally gave out on her. "I see," was all she said before dozing off.

Lelouch smirked weakly down at her before deciding it was high time the two of them left the Kururugi tomb.

Lelouch's left eye was covered in the sigil of the Geass before his form shifted into that of a lightly muscled young man with brown hair and brown eyes. Glancing down at his physique, he smirked and glanced up toward the heavens.

"If I was still emperor, I would bring back that holy day of the week deal for you."

Lelouch lay in bed, his right eye glowing as he followed the lives of his former friends as they went about their days. He had learned—through trial and error—how to start and stop his Geass in away that basically turned his sight picture into a film. In effect, he could watch anyone he wanted to as if he were actually there in real time.

He had jumped from individual to individual and caught up on what he had missed while C.C. slept and regained her strength.

Milly had remained with her job as an imperial news anchor, though she and Rivalz had some sort of relationship they were working out now.

Nina had been pardoned by the U.F.N. and was now working with a likewise pardoned Lloyd and Rakshata in some sort of oddly run laboratory that involved more fighting than actual work.

Ohgi had settled down and married Villetta and the two now managed both the nation of Japan and a family.

Shinichiro had retired from the Black Knights and ran a bistro with Villetta as well.

And, of course, Orange. That had actually brought about a smile to the former emperor's features as he watched his esteemed former subordinate pick oranges with Anya on an orange farm before turning in to family meal cooked by none other than Sayoko herself.

There were only three people he had yet to look in on and he had refrained with good reason. It was almost frightening how long he could be under the spell of the Eagle and had limited himself to a certain amount of time a day that he could use it. He feared if he sought out and watched on the three people he had left out thus far, he might very well remain in that world of watching if he wasn't careful enough.

He felt C.C.'s hand on his and he blinked, canceling the Geass.

"You okay?" She questioned as their fingers interlaced.

I'm here.

"Yeah, just ready for a nap." He replied with a yawn as he curled into her mostly recovered body—to which she gave a semi-offended cry of outrage.

I know

Stirring slightly, C.C. roused herself from her slumber and found herself staring at a jet black cat with fuchsia-violet eyes curled up on her chest.

"Pervert," she muttered before flinging the feline across the room as she moved to roll over. There was a satisfying thud and painful meow as Lelouch reformed into his normal form, albeit with a bruise now covering the entire left side of his face.

"Did you have to do that?" Lelouch—clad in just sleeping shorts—muttered as he climbed back into the bed.

"No." She said simply as she rolled back over and let herself be pulled towards him, "but it was fun none the less."

"Witch." He stated without any loving emotion in his tone whatsoever. He adjusted himself to a more comfortable position for the both of them as she nestled into his arms.

"Warlock," she replied with a small smile. "Let's get food."

"Okay, where?" He asked, already knowing the answer, but he felt like humoring her.

"The pizza place down the road. You're buying."

"W-what?" Lelouch replied.

"I starved and thirsted for almost three months while you got to lay and take a nap. The least you can do is go get me food." C.C. replied simply as she reached across him and dropped the nearest pizza vendor's business card on his head.

"You're kidding..." Lelouch grumbled as he eyed the card and glared at her again. They didn't deliver.

"Nope." She smirked and playfully rolled away from him. "If you hurry up and take me, maybe I'll share."

"Fat chance of that, despite how much you eat..." The former emperor of the world complained with a ghost of a smile as he got up and began to get dressed.

"I'll just go out myself then, Lelouch," she said simply as she stretched and grabbed his wallet from the nightstand by his side of the bed.

"Wait up," he called after her as he finished throwing a shirt on and followed after her. Behind his back, he held a bottle of water he had grabbed from a pile by the door and, after unscrewing the cap, dumped the lot of it on her head.

"I am going to kill you." C.C. stated calmly as she opened one eye to look at him before closing it as more water dripped from her bangs onto her face.

"Just making sure you stay hydrated as well," Lelouch taunted before transforming into his brown haired alter-ego and strolling out of the apartment with a dark-haired witch hot on his heels.

They had been living in a town just outside of New Pendragon for a little over three days before Lelouch saw her.

They had been out once again to get pizza from the nearby restaurant—both dine-in and take-out—while bantering between themselves about C.C.'s questionable love of pizza. And a long argument over why they were healing up in a town that didn't believe in delivery drivers. And—for once—Lelouch had lost badly.

Carrying a half-dozen boxes—to which C.C. did nothing to help except lighten his load one slice at a time—of varying pizzas that didn't even consist of one consistent topping all the way around, Lelouch turned the corner to take the street that would deliver him to their apartment.

He came face to face with Her Royal Majesty, Empress Nunnally Vi Britannia, flanked on either side by Zero and Kallen.

His jaw dropped and he dropped the pizzas in his shock. Zero tensed and Kallen eyed them suspiciously as Nunnally eyed the physically fit brown haired man beside the roundish dark-haired girl in confusion as he continued to stand there and gap at her.

"Please stand aside for Her Majesty," Zero said tersely as he gripped his sword. It was by sheer luck that C.C. moved him out of the way before he could clutch at his chest instinctively.

"So sorry, just out for a stroll!" C.C. said with fake perkiness as she and Lelouch watched them pass by.

"What an odd couple," Kallen murmured as she turned back around as they continued on their search to find Jiang and Kaguya, wherever the two had run off to in the vast market—but clearly strange—town.

"The only person I've ever seen eat that much pizza..." Zero started to say, only to be cut off by the captain of the Black Knights.

"She looked nothing like her though...plus she was so full of energy..." Kallen remarked as she glanced back only to find the couple had vanished from sight. Their ruined pizzas were now being ravaged by a pack of alley dogs.

"There had to have been more than one like her in the world anyways, I suppose." Zero agreed.

After the two shifted back into their normal forms upon reentering their apartment, Lelouch turned to his accomplice.

"C.C., we're moving to the next phase."