contemplating about dragging him to a game again...

[ex_disillusions901]

While I'm relieved that the burden placed upon your shoulders has lessened considerably, lady mundane, it would be most prudent to mull this over a bit more. It didn't fare so well for us the last time, and I'd hate to see a repeated incident of—

[ Ahem. No, Schneizel. We're not discussing that. Keep your pretty mouth shut, please. ]

—well, never mind. If you're truly so determined, I won't stand in your way.

Just don't let any potential consequences crush you, as they did before.

Comments

[ex_disillusions901]

You should know by now it's not a matter of wanting, Lelouch.

[ex_disillusions901]

Maybe you're just paranoid.

[ As if that's even a maybe. ]

[ex_disillusions901]

[ And it's for that very reason that Lelouch gets a quiet, earnest laugh from Schneizel. ]

Fair enough, brother.

[ex_disillusions901]

[ Quite to the contrary, Schneizel's fondness lingers about his features. He sees no reason to maintain any sort of facade when it doesn't serve a purpose any longer. ]

I'm sure you can guess. Their minds are arguably even more conniving than our own when put together.

[ex_disillusions901]

[ Scheneizel considers his brother carefully a moment before, as is his forte, launching into a cryptic—and entirely unrelated—subject. ]

...was it truly the empire you hated, Lelouch?

Or was it me, all along?

[ex_disillusions901]

Do not tell me if you hated the symbol, the sword. Tell me if you hated the person.

[ His eyes flicker briefly, with something that is as close to grief as Schneizel will ever come, or at least as close to grief as Lelouch has likely ever seen from the man. ]

That you hated me. Your brother.

[ex_disillusions901]

[ Schneizel seems neither surprised nor hurt by the answer; something else is bothering him far more, weighing on his shoulders, ordinarily so strong and confident, now sagging. Eyes cast aside. You may recognize the expression as one of despair, of regret for what was once treasured, and now unsalvageable. ]

I met another Lelouch, recently. A Lelouch wiped clean of his memories, his hatred. He was terrified of me, and what I had to say. He refused to believe it, the path you chose for yourself. Where it would lead.

I thought I had thrown away any semblance of ideals long ago, but... I begged him. I told him that, were he to remember, he should run. Resist. Whatever it took, so long as he did not travel that same path again. I think, in that moment, I would've done anything to save him. Perhaps, against my own nature, even laid down my life, if it meant even a chance of preventing that future I couldn't bear to witness. A future free of Zero, and the Demon Emperor that followed.

[ Schneizel glances up again, features cold. ]

That sort of foolish idealism—was it what drove you to throw yourself upon the sword, Lelouch?

Am I a fool to assume I ever could have swayed you at all?

[ex_disillusions901]

[ Schneizel laughs quietly, more to himself than anyone else. ]

Father told me that dreams are the ships that fools sail, and ideals the waves that sink them. Could such a world last, the one you speak of? Even now, every part of me doubts it.

But even now, every part of me wishes that it was a world we at least could've lived in together.

[ex_disillusions901]

I wonder why you would have me at all, then, here.

[ex_disillusions901]

Lelouch, resigning himself to an inevitable conclusion? Now we're both acting out of turn.

[ Yet he does seem cheered by it, strangely. Or at least lifted out of that melancholic trance somewhat. Good going, bro. ]

[ex_disillusions901]

I am glad that you allow me at your side.

[ Schneizel skims a hand along his cheek, faintly. It's not quite the same sort of longing he's accustomed to; it's for something different, something he can never have again. ]

That is all.

[ex_disillusions901]

The world in which I won. The place in which you lost.

[ Hopefully he won't need to elaborate there, considering what's... transpiring, at the moment. ]

[ex_disillusions901]

If you wish me to leave the villa, I will do so.

[ex_disillusions901]

[ Schneizel looks sincere in his offer, Lelouch. He's not budging. You'll have to try harder than that to dissuade him. ]

[ex_disillusions901]

Can you truly say that my place is there, Lelouch? In that fragment of the past? The life is gone from it.

[ex_disillusions901]

[ And Schneizel is taken aback by it, that abrupt lash of fury, starting a little in surprise. ]

Lelouch...

[ For Schneizel to be shocked into complete inarticulation is a rare feat, indeed, but Lelouch managed it somehow. Perhaps it's just another reminder of why he'd lost, in the end. ]

[ex_disillusions901]

[ It's not that Schneizel doesn't piece it together immediately, what's veiled underneath Lelouch's words. It's more that he has difficulty believing it. But he's a different man than the one Lelouch calls reflection. He won't refuse it, reject the reality of the situation. That really would go against everything he stood for.

Even so, a smile blossoms across Schneizel's lips, a fleeting spark no doubt doomed to be shoved back underneath a mask of indifference soon enough. But for now, it is there, alive on a dead man's face. Joy, amusement, nostalgia, serenity, peace, happiness, acceptance, resignation—any or all could be reasons for that once-in-a-blue-moon appearance, or likelier still none of the above. Ultimately, it is up to Lelouch what he sees in that smile, if anything.

But whatever it was or wasn't, in that brief moment, it undeniably existed. And Lelouch alone was the cause of it. ]

[ex_disillusions901]

[ The swiftness with which the smile disappears is admirable, and Schneizel straightens himself, features drawn into their familiar blankness as if that moment had never happened at all. ]

I'll gladly accept whatever punishment His Majesty deems most appropriate.

[ex_disillusions901]

I doubt anything I could conjure up would be rightly considered a punishment.

[ Because he'd probably just wind up enjoying it. Oops. ]

[ex_disillusions901]

You've always been an exception to the rule, Lelouch. Take it as a compliment.

[ Or take it as him being comfortable enough to slip back into that smooth, suggestive persona that you adore ever so much. ]

[ex_disillusions901]

[ Really? Really? You really have to wonder why? Lelouch, please. ]

Let's not go too far.

[ex_disillusions901]

[ Sassing you, now that he's been given free reign to do so again. ]

I meant more in a general sense, brother.

[ex_disillusions901]

[ opens mouth



































closes mouth

nope, too easy. ]

[ex_disillusions901]

[ You bigger shit. Pushing down on your head. ]

Don't.

[ex_disillusions901]

[ As if that's ever worked in your lifetime. ]

Have you forgotten that he's you? He'll give me a concussion with my own suitcase on the way out.