Midnight Observation

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She was no Snow White, nor Sleeping Beauty. She wasn't a princess from fairy-tales but the evil witch with abnormal powers, always plotting the world's destruction. She would walk her path and die alone.

Ironically, prince was a title which he has abandoned long ago.

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He liked watching her sleep.

He didn't know when it had started, but more frequently, he found himself staying up late with the usual excuse of planning strategies for the Order. Sometimes it was true, sometimes not.

He didn't know why he did it, but since she hasn't suspected anything or simply didn't care, he found himself resuming to watch her every night. This will be the last time, he always said.

The rushed sound of crumbling mattress was now some kind of alarm to him. He would catch his breath as his roommate crawled her way on his bed. With his back facing her, he counted to ten in his head. If there's any habit of her that was convenient for him, it was that she fell asleep fast and hard.

That, and that only.

After the count of ten, he turned around. The pen and the mass amounts of paperwork were promptly forgotten on his desk. Silently sitting on his chair, in the dim light of the table lamp began his daily observation of the gray witch.

He was always proud of himself for being a good observer. It was thank to that trait that he has escaped many death threats, won the battles, even saw through people's motives and manipulated them for his own advantage. However, it was also because of that he couldn't help but noticed the way she looked every night, sleeping obliviously in his shirt and on his bed.

She looked just like a child.

Her petite body was buried under his own sheets, long hair spreading all over the bed like a green river. Its brightness softened under the dim light and converted to a darker, gentler shade. The part of her that fascinated him most was her face, and night time was the only chance for him to observe that fully. It was the same as always, yet oddly different from the heartless nymph he was familiar with. As she slept soundly, striking gold eyes were hidden behind soft eyelids; red pouty lips parted slightly; pale skin glowing serenely in the darkness. Her cold, guarded mask melted away in the dim light; emotions were bared for the world to see.

'Witch', he scowled, 'isn't supposed to look that innocent and vulnerable.'

That's cheating.

That was cheating the way he couldn't stop himself from chuckling, though quietly not to wake her up, at the soft murmurs of 'pizza' or 'cheese-kun' coming from her mouth, or frowning at her restless moans and the visible shakes of her body, which were clearly the consequences of a daily nightmare.

It happened every night.

Tears were leaked from the corners of tightly closed eyes and mingled with cold sweats, rolling down impossibly pale cheeks. Lips were bitten together till drawing red blood; ragged breaths and strangled sobs echoed into the night. Now, he could see why she loved Cheese-kun so much. In her frightened unconsciousness, the girl clutched to the plush toy tightly till her knuckles went white, her face buried deep into the yellow softness. It was as if she was desperately seeking for any comfort from her unanimated object and failing beautifully.

She looked like a broken china doll lying there, and that was where he couldn't stand watching anymore.

This will be the last time, he sighed in defeat.

Carefully not to make any noise, he rose from his seat and walked toward the bed. Ignoring his already prepared futon on the ground, he slowly lowered himself on the edge of his bed and slipped under the blanket. As cuddling with Cheese-kun was her sleeping habit, there was no more than one third of his single bed left vacant and he had no choice but to lay facing her. Their faces were inches apart; their bodies were separated by the yellow toy she had in her hold. Though her choice of clothes, namely his shirt, was revealing, he almost didn't have any desire or indecent thought. Just looking at her made him feel very, very sad.

Being close to her as he was, he could feel the intense loneliness radiating from her form and that was the only resemblance with her daytime version. At that moment, he couldn't see her as anything but a child losing its way to home, a pitiful prisoner being trapped in this world. Though he could never figure out which side was her true self, there was one thing he knew and it was that he wasn't used to see her being that weak. If it could help her cling on the usual mask of a cruel witch, he wouldn't mind giving her, even just a little bit, the warmth of a human being.

Tentatively, his hand rose up to touch hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. Her hold on Cheese-kun went loose almost instantly, he noted in satisfaction. However, he didn't trust himself to withdraw his hand just yet. Eyes fixing on her face, he delicately brushed over her damaged lips, tucked a stray hair behind her ear and used his thumb to touch the fresh trail of tears on her cheek. With a bit of hesitance, he then whispered her true name, the one only he knew, in a warm, soothing tone that was solely reserved for his sister before. She certainly couldn't say it was as bad as the first time, he thought, for he has been practicing saying it every night under the same circumstances, and that name never failed to bring the desired effect on her. His hand then resumed to wrap over her small one, allowing the warmth to slowly transpire from the tip of his fingers to her pale, icy skin. He silently watched as her frowns ceased, her body stopped shaking, and her breathing finally evened out.

She has returned to her dreamless sleep.

Smirking at his success, he sighed tiredly and decided that a few hours of rest wouldn't hurt. There was nothing to worry, he absentmindedly thought, since she had a tendency of sleeping till noon. He would be long gone by the time she woke up. She would never know with her he has shared more than his bed; not that he wanted her to. He didn't want her to think that he ever had any care for her, for that would make their contract even more complicate than it already was. Whether it was wrong or not, his nightly activities were clearly and dangerously crossing their boundaries. Neither of them could afford that to happen. However, he also couldn't seem to stop watching her.

Perhaps it was her ever-changing personalities that have drew his attention, and then never let it go. For once, he couldn't figure a person out and that intrigued him even more. Most of the time she was being her uncaring, sarcastic self, but occasionally did she display some kind of childish act and when he expected it the least, she would turn out to be a fragile little girl who cried over a single name calling. In his eyes, she was just like a white snowflake: beautiful and gentle when it fell, cold and hard when it froze into ice, and transparently pure when it melted into water.

He didn't hate snow.

This observation really needed to be stopped, but now it was the farthest thing on his mind. Exhausted from both his daily lives at Ashford Academy and the Order, all he could do is taking precious times to rest. Yawning softly, he pulled the blanket a little higher and, uncharacteristically, snuggled closer to Cheese-kun with his hand still holding hers all the way. Now it was quite warm, too. He decided that his bed could be a lot warmer with two people in it, not to mention more comfortable, though he didn't know why he thought so despite how narrow the bed currently was. However, there was one thing he was sure of: he liked it better than the futon lying discarded on the ground.

A whole lot better.

A small, content smile formed on his lips, matching the expression on her face as his eyes gradually shut, allowing the sleep to take over. 'Sleep well, C.C.'

Until tomorrow night.

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A/N: Thank you for reading till the end. This is my first attempt to do LelouchxCC romance and to tell the truth, it is hell X--X It's really hard to write about them being lovey-dovey while keeping them IC all the time. They're so uncooperative. Now I know why everyone prefer to do crack :p

Anyway, i won't give up and I'm still learning to write better so if you have any opinion, criticism, suggestion, idea, etc... Please don't hesitate to click the REVIEW button below XD I'll really appreciate it.

Until my next fic,

Mikage24.