Special Thanks: luckless-is-me, Lovegranted, Lazy Gaga

Time

Part XXII

3/21/2012 11:12 AM

The moment was fleeting but painful. Suzaku felt as his knees gave at the sharp pain. The kitchen counter was his only support before he gave way and tumbled to the floor, hand clutched at his chest. He'd never felt anything so horrendous and so—different. The coffee mug in his hand made a deafening crack as Suzaku knocked it to the floor desperately reaching for the counter to try and stand. A second wave hit and there was no hope of that as the pain embedded itself in his

Lelouch was in from the living room in half a second. He had been alerted from the pained cry and was now directly at Suzaku's side.

"What's wrong?" He demanded instantly. Going to his knees, Lelouch quickly tried to support Suzaku up against himself. If nothing else the comfort of just having his hands on him for Lelouch was enough. He was no real help when it came to physical things, but he could at least comfort his partner, and besides that it hid the fear…

Suzaku eyes screwed shut for that split moment before looking up at Lelouch.

Lelouch gasped. The bright rim of Geass screaming up at him, Lelouch found himself unable to move. His breath caught in his throat and his mind raced as he tried to figure a way out from this situation. He could change it somehow, alter the circumstances, turn things around and make them favor him.

But in the end—there was no way to stop someone else's pain.

"Suzaku!" He screamed, lunging to wrap the other as deep into his arms as he could.

Suzaku gave a groan, letting Lelouch hold him as much as he liked. Suzaku's hand fisted in the T-shirt he was wearing as the pain intensified. It was pointedly sharper for just as moment, and in consequence Suzaku let out a hissed cry.

Lelouch, the tears streaming at this point, held his lifelong partner tighter, clutching Suzaku to his chest as much as he could. What could they do? Calling a doctor wouldn't help. They would take blood samples and ask approximate age. They would want medical history and would ask questions Lelouch couldn't answer.

Suzaku now writhing gave a groan, turning his face into Lelouch shoulder.

"Live," Lelouch whispered, closing his own eyes as the tears started to fall. "Please, I command you to live!"

Suzaku groaned one last time, the pain finally subsiding. With it he let his body settle against Lelouch smaller frame. His energy completely drained, so with limbs like jelly he leaned fully onto Lelouch, Letting his head rest at the others shoulder. Suzaku looked up, his hand—through a great amount of effort—coming up, cupping the side of Lelouch's face to brush away a tear with his thumb. Lelouch reacted immediately, his own hand coming up to hold Suzaku's in place, his nails digging just slightly into Suzaku's skin.

"Please," Lelouch whispered through gritted sob clenched teeth. "You can't leave me."

Lelouch couldn't get Suzaku to the bedroom without Suzaku standing. If things had been the other way around Lelouch would have been carried there no doubt. But they weren't like that. Instead the weaker of the two was left to deal with the repercussions. He held Suzaku to his chest for close to an hour letting his life partner to just rest there. When enough time had passed, Lelouch stirred Suzaku from his semi-sleep and together they stumbled their way to the bedroom.

Suzaku had fallen into a much deeper sleep within minutes of reaching the bed. Lelouch removed Suzaku's shirt and jeans, tucking the covers around him. The blinds were flipped closed and a small tender kiss was given to Suzaku's dry lips before Lelouch left the bedroom.

He first made calls to Suzaku's work, telling them that Suzaku wouldn't be there for a few days then to his own employment.

Lelouch ran his long, thin fingers through the loose waving curls of Suzaku's hair. The room was kept dark and quiet. There was no way that Lelouch was going to let Suzaku out of that bed for at least a couple of days. Not that he had to worry for the last several hours, but his mind was regardless made up about the matter.

Suzaku slept like he possibly could have died. Just to make sure Lelouch would still every few minutes. He remained as quiet as he could until he would hear the steady rhythm of Suzaku's breath. Satisfied, Lelouch would return to his reading, or attempting his own nap, or just sitting there—like he was now. His mind ran faster than he could stop. All the possibilities of where they went from this slimmed more and more the farther Lelouch thought things through. Off to the side of the bed was his laptop. He'd spent hours sifting through the muck of the internet in hope that there would be something –he only found myth, half stories about encounters with others like C.c. Of course, there was nothing to grab onto, nothing to even give Lelouch a course of action to take next.

"Lelouch?" Suzaku's breath sounded distant and hard-pressed, rasping through the word.

"Shhh," Lelouch leaned down to kiss the crown of Suzaku's head. "What do you need?"

Suzaku waited a moment, his eyes were only half open and his body slack against Lelouch. "…Are you okay?"

His eyebrows shot up as Lelouch leaned to the side, this time to see Suzaku's face. "What…?" If Lelouch was correct Suzaku had been the one that had been threatened with—well, they didn't even know yet but it was something horrible.

Of course, Suzaku was smiling as he looked up at Lelouch. "You freaked more than I did." Suzaku gave a rough chuckle.

"Suzaku, you were in pain, your Geass—I thought you were going to…" Lelouch cut himself off. "We need to focus on you. I don't know what we can do about this yet. But it's glaringly obvious that neither of us know enough medical procedure to help. We'll have to find a doctor, one who can remain discreet—"

Suzaku had laid his hand on Lelouch's pale face. He moved his hand to shush the scheming coming through Lelouch's mouth. "No. We're not going to call anyone."

"Suzaku!" Lelouch growled. "We can't just leave this; we can't just let you waste away like this!"

He was still smiling, but this time he gave a smooth sigh. "I'm okay with this." Suzaku looked his lover in the eye as he said it. Suzaku wanted Lelouch to know he meant ever last syllable of what he said. "I'm okay that this is happening."

"How can you—" the expression on Lelouch face changed quickly from shocked to furious. "So you're just going to give up! You're just fine with dying! How can you eve-? Suzaku, how dare you! You promised me you would stay with me, you swore to me—"

As before, Suzaku wasn't arguing, only silencing his partner as he pressed a kiss to the side of Lelouch's face. He then pressed another kiss and another, trailing his way down Lelouch's jaw to his neck. When he was finished, Suzaku used his fingers to slide inky hair away from Lelouch's face as he spoke. "I love you and you know I love you. But this can't last forever."

Lelouch knew exactly what he was talking about. They'd long reached the maximum years they could stay in one place. "We can move, we can start over again. I'll find you another stupid house to rebuild. Just let me try and get us past this."

"No." Suzaku still sounded so calm about this. He even gave another, stronger, chuckle. "No, we'll stay here. I want to live here for the rest of my life." He pressed another kiss to the high cheek bone at the side of Lelouch's face.

It was all rushing too fast for Lelouch. "No," he whined. "You can't—why aren't you fighting this?" His rage was accompanied by tears this time.

"There's nothing to fight." Suzaku sighed. "I've lived twice as long as any other human and I've spent every second of that life with you. I'm satisfied with what I've been given, Lelouch." Suzaku wound an arm around Lelouch's shoulder, around his front, so that Suzaku could pull Lelouch closer and still lean against his shoulder.

"But… " Lelouch didn't look up, he could feel the tears as they drizzled down his white skin, dripping from his jaw line or even off the tip of his nose as his head bowed. "But if you're gone—what do I do?" Lelouch's hands went up. He curled his fingers around Suzaku's arms, holding onto him to keep himself from falling apart.

There wasn't an answer for a few moments. Suzaku supported himself this time as he pulled away to lock eyes with Lelouch. "I—I love you. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry this has to … I don't know, Lelouch. I'm so sorry. I love you."

The repetitive babble of words that came from Suzaku's mouth was like living water to Lelouch. He clung to ever thing that Suzaku said. It was the only thing he could do. "I don't want to be alone." Lelouch confessed. "If you're gone—please, I can't do this alone."

Suzaku was crying too. He lips trembled as he opened them to speak again. "I know, but you'll—"

Lelouch didn't let him finish. There was no answer that Suzaku could give. They both knew there was nothing that could fix this. So Lelouch lunged forward, crawling again into Suzaku's lap and into his arms. It was where Lelouch would always go when things were too hard, or too much to handle all at once.

And Suzaku accepted him, falling back into the covers and holding his lover as closer as skin would allow. They both were crying, but tears mixed as limbs tangled. If nothing else, they took comfort in the fact that for now they still had each other to share the tears with.

So—yeah now is where things start to go downhill fast. Oh and I'll probably double post again next week so look for an update on Tuesday and then again on Friday. It may be this story and it may be a different story—it's all up in the air until the day of. Hope you liked the read though! :D

Also, just for my kicks and giggles, it appears that Panda Bears are winning on my poll with 44% of the vote. So if you're for team Panda Bear, congrats—you're winning! RAWR!

~Review's are Awesome!~

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