action;
[ He had a tease on the tip of his tongue -- multi-level teasing, even -- but that question, the hesitation, all of it... just rounds his shoulders a little. Lelouch is silent for several revealing seconds before he says, ] He lives with Euphemia. I've been staying with them.
[ The stupid, clumsy moment during the heatwave was -- was progress, undeniably. Somehow, progress. But there's still such a... gulf between them. And C.C.'s question, her silly suggestion, is a painful reminder of that gulf. ]
[ Months ago, that's where they are now. Before Baghdad. Before that first awkward night, where they scraped together just enough cash for a single room at an inn. If it hadn't been for C.C.'s impatience with them, that first night would have come to blows.
And yet, it was still just a few days ago that he spent what was supposed to be his last night with C.C. pressed to his chest and... Suzaku at his back. It shouldn't have been comfortable, but it had been. It had been. ]