Title: Simple Solace
Day/Theme: 16th October 2010; we shall always be alone
Series: Code Geass
Character(s)/Pairing(s): C.C., Lelouch; Lelouch/C.C.
Rating: G
Notes: Set post R2.
C.C. waits for several days to pass after the curtain falls on the Zero Requiem before she decides to finally bring it up. Night has fallen and they have set up camp, but the tranquility that enfolds them is more bane than boon in light of what she has to voice.
"Lelouch," she starts then hesitates, a little unsure of how to proceed. This situation is not something she would have anticipated on any level, yet here they are. Her lone companion continues to stare into the crackling fire and shows no sign he has heard her, but she knows he is listening attentively all the same.
"Do you realize what this means?" she finally brings herself to ask as she takes a seat next to him. "Your friends, your family... you'll leave them all behind." She reaches out and grabs his right hand, gently tugs off the glove he wears to reveal the mark of eternity etched into his palm like a curse. "The sister you love so much will grow old and die while you remain as you are."
The peace you sacrificed so much for will eventually fall to ruin before your timeless eyes. That is one truth she cannot bring herself to speak as she absently traces the all too familiar symbol that brands him like it does her, but it hangs unsaid in the air all the same.
The boy closes his eyes and sighs. "I know that much," he murmurs, a twinge of weariness in his voice that does not go unnoticed. "Perhaps this is my punishment for desiring something a normal person could never accomplish." He opens his eyes and looks skyward. "I'll live with it, if not for the base reason that I have to. Besides," he adds as he shifts his gaze to meet hers, "I have to keep my promise to you, don't I?"
A scoff escapes her lips; who would've thought Lelouch was a romantic at heart, even if he'd never admit to it? "In all likelihood, boy, it'll be all too soon before either one or both of us will get bored with the other," she replies dismissively; she does not let it show that the possibility sickens her, that in the end they might stay together only because no one else can traverse time endlessly and any affection that exists is only pretense. It would be worse than before she found him, she is sure.
Her response earns her a raised eyebrow. "Bored?" he echoes amusedly. "Maybe annoyed every once in a while. But never bored." He clasps her now idle hand and entwines their fingers together, and they both feel their sigils pulse in response to each other. When he speaks once more his tone is serious and his usual confident smirk is in place. "You are my witch and I am your warlock. That is the basis of our contract, and the day it expires is the day I get you to give up pizza." We were made for each other and nothing can change that.
C.C. allows herself a small chuckle - in that small gesture is hope, gratitude, happiness, a hundred other feelings she cannot name - and for the first time in centuries forever does not feel like a burden.