DISLAIMER: Nilie & Kiki do not own Code Geass because some way cool Sunrise dudes already do and doubts are high that they'll trade it for pizza.

Nilie: ...O.O I would trade it for pizza.

Kiki: -Sweatdrops and sighs dramatically- Yes, well. Neither do we own Pizza Hut, unfortunately, or Biglobe, not even iTunes belong to us.

Nilie: -weeps- ToT

A Waltz for C.C

She had first heard the song playing in the background of a TV commercial. The strings, the flutes, the entire song, each beat each pause. She remembered it all.

But she could not, for the life of her, remember where she'd first heard the song, before. It must have been a very long time ago; probably even before pizzas were invented, given how vague her memories of it seemed. Nonetheless, its melody was very evocative to C.C.

Flashes of memories flew through her mind in a haze - images of hills and wide open grassland. Some details like the bee buzzing over the flowers at her feet were clear, while others that would have categorized the landscape as unique remained blurry. Was this place in France? Holland? Switzerland? Ireland? It did not seem to matter; surely this was somewhere in Europe and in a time when she still expressed many of her emotions.

Before she could stop herself, she was on Lelouch's computer, frantically trying to find the song. In her search, she'd ended up being distracted by a few Pizza Hut menus online and found herself staring at the new cheesy crust promotion several times on said restaurant's homepage window, often completely forgetting, if it weren't for a separate tab, the initial reason why she was surfing.

Locating an address to download the song had been tedious, since she'd started browsing ignoring even the name of the song. Luckily though, she'd stumbled upon another version of the same advertisement on Biglobe. A few people had already commented demanding the name of the song and one commenter had replied, earning many approvals for that helpful piece of information, including one from C.C as from that point on, downloading it from iTunes had been simple for her, Lelouch's credit card being always within reach and at her disposition, of course.

It had taken her a while, but she'd finally found it, and that was what really mattered for now.

It was the sounds of multiple thuds coming from his room, accompanied by the faint sound of music that made him raise a fine eyebrow.

Once again, it was late at night, and he was weary as hell after another exhaustingly long meeting with the Black Knights – one that the distractive green-haired pizza lover had forgotten to attend.

Another thud came from his room and Lelouch silently thanked Heaven that he never switched his room flooring to wood for, surely, the entire house would have been awakened from the amount of noise coming outside his bedroom door.

"Miaaaoo." Arthur mewed at his feet and Lelouch noticed the cat and stared at him. What the--.. ? When had he….? Why was Arthur in his house?

"Miaaaaaaoo," the cat mewed again and started rubbing at his legs. At that, Lelouch sighed and quickly decided that it did not matter, that it was only a cat, that it could not do much harm with his mask being safely zipped up and secured in the bag this time, and that, surely, there was no immediate danger of the feline stealing it again.

His bedroom door slid open and he switched on the lights, "What are you doing?" he asked the first thing he saw.

But C.C. ignored him and continued to… spin about the room sporting nothing but his school shirt that was much too large for her.

Her arms swung wildly with Cheese-kun in her hands.

DOOF!

There went his dictionary off the shelf.

It took the prince a few more seconds to realize that this haphazard display was, in fact, C.C's odd interpretation of dancing.

"You are a strange girl." He commented, closing the door behind him -and nearly snapping the tip of Arthur's tail off as he did so.

C.C. ignored him: an immediate revenge for calling her strange. Cheese-kun was swung round to smack a photo frame of the shelf - a photo frame that Nunnally had offered him.

"No!" the boy cried and leapt forward like a football goalkeeper to save the object.

Arthur looked impressed by both humans' performances. Lelouch caught the frame before it hit the floor and carefully placed it back on the shelf.

"C.C., stop this nonsense!"

She ignored him. Typical. She'd never really listened to him before so what reason had he to think she would start now, when there was music playing?

The strings came on in the song and the girl smoothly moved her hands in a position that made it look like she holding a violin. Eyes closed and deeply immersed in the sound of the music, she never saw Lelouch's uplifted eyebrow, quizzical glance or smothered choke of laughter.

The bedroom's owner noticed the computer and blinked as the song ended before the play count went up to the hundreds as it started playing again.

The girl had it on repeat?

DOOF!

"C.C., watch where you swing that oversized doll of yours!" he hissed as he dove to the ground to catch a book he treasured.

The witch seemed to enjoy spiting him though, and proceeded to smack her Cheese-kun into many more of his possessions.

DOOF. A photo frame

DOOF. The clay pot his fangirls had made him.

DOOF. His desk lamp.

DOOF. A mini Cheese-kun figurine…. Oh wait, he did not care about that one.

C.C. stopped her twirling long enough to glare at him with golden eyes. "Why didn't you catch it?"

Lelouch glared back at her and carefully put his armful of items in the corner of the bedroom where they would be safe… correction, safer - because nothing could ever be completely safe around the gray witch-.

The climax of the song came again and C.C. had to ignore the beautiful Lelouch and continue her dance.

Apparently, it seemed this part of the dance required her to spin around at high speeds on the spot.

Amused, Lelouch sat himself by his computer and watched as she spun, and spun, and kept on spinning.

After a few moments and clearly no lessening or slowing of the spinning, Lelouch gave up, sighed, and opened a few documents on his computer hoping to get some work done before he went to bed. Let the witch spin herself silly if she wanted to.

Unfortunately however, all the spinning did not seem to be affecting the witch at all as she immediately leapt into the next part of the dance without so much as wobbling or giving any sign of any sort that she was loosing her balance. If not even motion sickness could daze that woman then, what in the world possibly could?

He had to admit though, she was almost graceful. If he dared call it that.

Lelouch had barely finished that thought with his document files still loading, when the song ended and C.C. stopped her dance and turned to him with a mischievous smile. Instinctively, Lelouch shifted in his seat and tried throwing on his aura of coldness, possibly daring to hope it would drive away the pizza-lover.

The witch did not so much as flinch though, and suddenly a hand was presented to his face. "May I have this dance?" she asked in her monotonous voice, a real wonder that it sounded at all inviting.

Lelouch glared at the hand. "Isn't that the boy's - Whoa!"

He was yanked off the chair and into her arms before he could finish his question. C.C shoved one of Cheese-kun's short stumpy arms into one of his hands and caught hold of his other one so that they formed some twisted sort of three-person ring.

The music started again and C.C led both her playthings.

"Oi!" he cried as he was pulled forward and spun around with. Her actions were wild and ill planned. He couldn't predict them at all and constantly tripped over feet.

There were times when Cheese-kun would decide to jump mid-spin and fully tackle Lelouch in the face and times where Lelouch tried to break from the ring to save yet another of his things that C.C. knocked over.

The climax of the song came again and they spun so much that Lelouch felt the inklings of motion sickness stirring in his stomach. He snapped his hands away and broke the ring just before C.C. decided to spin faster, before collapsing in a chair to fight off the dizziness.

C.C was spinning, Cheese-kun was still holding onto Lelouch (or was it the other way around?) both seemingly trying to catch their breaths while waiting for the world to cease spinning along with the witch.

Arthur the cat himself looked a little dazed, been the only other living audience in the room of the chaotic display. In fact, somehow, it wasn't long before the poor creature was pulled by the witch into a series of crazy whirlpool dancing.

As Lelouch, still a little stunned in his chair, watched the poor thing mewing for his life in the spinning vortex that was C.C's dance, he briefly considered saving him from the torturous situation but then immediately thought better of it. Eventual listeners would surely and easily attribute Arthur's mews of horror to another cat mating season.

But maybe if he managed to replace Arthur with C.C's plush toy he could… Was Cheese-kun sweat-dropping?

Oh well…

Taking pity on the cat, (and the plush toy) Lelouch bravely took opportunity of C.C slowing down in her steps to snatch Arthur from her and quickly sat back into his chair under which Cheese-kun was cowering.

Arthur looked up in newfound adoration at his saviour; claws still digging into Lelouch's shoulder flesh as the prince gently peeled his paws off his shirt. He then put the cat back on the floor and collapsed again in the chair.

His break did not last very long though, as soon, the witch smirked again and pulled him back to finish the rest of the song.

Not nearly half as brave or as audacious as his human rescuer, Arthur took this opportunity to pull himself and Cheese-kun under the bed, where they could watch from a safer distance.

When the song finally ended, relief was evident on Lelouch's face.

"Good. Brava. Really. Now can I go to bed, please?" he asked, moving to drop their entwined hands.

"No." she answered simply, dully, and to his horror, the song started again.

It was just before the strings entered that Lelouch decided that enough was enough.

He forcefully pried the Cheese-kun she'd just pulled from under the bed from her hands and threw it aside, only missing hitting Arthur (who'd just jumped on the bed) by a hair's width.

C.C. blinked, firstly at Cheese-kun, then at Lelouch as one of his hands grabbed hold of her waist.

"You can't dance to save your life." He hissed as he positioned her correctly, "This is how it is done."

The strings started and they moved.

Arthur discreetly bit Cheese-kun by the hat and dragged him along back to the mild-safety of the bed's shadows.

As Lelouch lead, there was no sign of C.C's earlier wild and childish acts. No spinning like a top. No imitating violins. No Cheese-kun.

Conversely, there was plenty of C.C. stepping on his toes.

Lelouch bore it though and kindly whispered to her that it was okay, even though she wasn't apologising or glancing up at him worriedly.

He was a man – so he could ignore that bit of pain. He was a gentleman – so he would show nothing but patience, courtesy and graciousness. He was a prince – so he danced like one.

He led her carefully and gently about the room.

There was no moonlight spilling on them for the curtains were closed. There was no grand ballroom beneath their feet. There was no giant orchestra or old-fashioned music box. There was no spotlight following them as they moved.

Instead there was just a normal dull bedroom light, a plain carpet stifling their steps and the cheap electronic speakers Lelouch had gotten when C.C. had broken the nicer ones he'd used to have for his laptop.

To say their dance was beautiful would have been a huge overstatement. C.C had two, if not three left feet.

His movements were not fluid due to lack of practice and forgotten techniques. Their dips were far from graceful because she did not seem to trust him entirely not to drop her. His moves to spin her from him and back resulted in her nearly crashing into the wall the first time because she hadn't been expecting the action.

But they danced and that was all that really mattered for now.

The song ended and started again. To her surprise, he continued holding her and with a roll of his eyes told her that she was far from perfect and needed more practice. Then they moved in time with the song again.

She stepped on his shoes for something like the seventeenth time (he strangely had decided not to count them) and he patted her shoulder, assuring her, once again, in a soothing voice that it was okay with a warm smile.

They weren't staring into each other's eyes with love or passion. Her eyes did not shine like a million stars in the night sky and his did not glitter with tenderness nor did they look like newly polished gems.

In fact, C.C's eyes were at her feet, not because of any shyness, but more because she was trying to work out the complicated footwork.

Lelouch eyes were skimming about the room, taking note of all his obstacles and trying to guide his partner away from items that she could knock over – or that could trip both of them over, of course - with eventual glances in between himself and her to see if she was managing to keep up with his feet.

"I remember dancing like this." She suddenly said at some point, and Lelouch stopped looking about the room to peer at the top of her head curiously.

Her eyes were still following their feet though. She hadn't whisper her words or softened her voice, she was just stating a fact.

"It was long time ago," she continued, "before I'd met Mao. A very long time ago, I think; with a man who eventually gave up because I kept stepping on his feet."

STOMP!

Lelouch winced and again repeated what he had said over a dozen times already. "It's okay." He'd been slightly distracted himself anyways; C.C's nostalgic air had drawn his curiosity.

He spun her out and twirled her back in – this time with her back to his chest and her arms crossed about her waist as she tried to keep the correct hands in his.

"It wasn't to this song, though it was similar. I think it was something classier." She continued, raising her eyes to the roof in thought and leaning her head in Lelouch's chest as she did so.

STOMP!

"It's alright." He continued to say gently and carefully turned her back around again to face him.

They swayed in time with the song, now much more graceful then when they'd started, and he moved to dip her again when—

The song abruptly stopped, so they stood still.

Wait. The song had ended? Odd.

He examined their position, C.C had trusted him fully with this dip, but they weren't moving anymore and were finally looking into each other's eyes…

Silence.

Not a single word from either of them. Lelouch wasn't even sure if there had been music at all anymore. He must have been very tired, also because his eyelids were dropping and his head too and maybe C.C was…

There were sounds of the computer keyboard being pressed and a sudden stingy feeling over Lelouch's back as Arthur leapt from the laptop desk to dig his claws into the prince's back, jealously demanding the attention he deserved.

Lelouch yelped, dropping C.C in the process and slowly, carefully reached behind him to peel the cat off his behind. When the cat suddenly bit him, he shook his arm quickly in order to get him off and ended up landing on top of C.C who was still slumped where he'd dropped her on the floor.

Arthur ran back to his hiding place under the bed with his new buddy Cheese-kun and Lelouch held himself up with his arm over C.C to turn a violet glare back at the yellow eyes flaring under his bed.

"Lelouch." He sighed and looked back down at the witch beneath him.

To his surprise, a small, peaceful smile was gracing her lips as she softly said,

"Thank you."

He smiled back at her,

"You're welcome."

Their dance wasn't about romance, but there was something romantic about it:

"Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance." -- Dave Barry

"Dance is a delicate balance between perfection and beauty." --Unknown

"You are the music while the music lasts." -- T.S. Eliot

END

Nilie: Waah! I think we seriously bordered on mushy here, didn't we Kiki?

Kiki: I guess it's another thing that comes from listening to 'A Waltz for Ariah' from Venus&Brave soundtrack.

Nilie: Indeed. And also because we all know that Arthur is a jealous three-timer and that Cheese-kun is evil AND alive.

Kiki: Reviews and feedback are, as usual, much appreciated. Hope you enjoyed. Thank you for reading.

Nilie & KiKi