YES I know I haven't updated Code Geass: Resurrection yet, but I've been dying to write a Kalulu drabbles and-slash-or one-shots lately. I promise, Resurrection's next chapter is in progress, but I simply had to type this out xD So here it is, a bit of absolutely light, fluffy Kallen-centric fiction. Some of these shots will be AU, some will be closer to canon, it'll be rather vague, though.

Thirteen Kisses

- -

Favoritism.

- -

It was quick and unexpected and Kallen didn't even have time to blink before he had already pulled away. She looked at him, startled, both anger and bliss fighting to take dominance in her mind, but it was a raging battle and she was rendered absolutely stunned because she couldn't seem to form a single thought. Except that his lips tasted like the candied apple he had previously been eating, and that his mouth was surprisingly soft.

He stared at her through those violet eyes of his, eyes that were indifferent or else empty, at least, they were usually indifferent and empty – but that night, under the sky, the stars, the moon, they were almost smoldering and it frightened her because she rarely ever saw his eyes so intense, and his hand - as he traced his fingers along her jaw - was so careful, as if she was fragile, made of glass. But wasn't that ironic because he was the fragile one.

"Lelouch—"

But his fingers moved over her lips and she fell silent under his touch, under his gaze that was both searching and distant. He gave her a smile, soft and crooked, and perhaps it wasn't even a smile, maybe he just wasn't scowling, but that was enough to make her forget to breathe and she wondered if her face was turning blue but it didn't matter, not when he was not-frowning.

She watched him carefully, unsurely, and lamented the loss of warmth as his hand fell away from her cheek.

Something like a smug grin crossed his lips then, far from sincere – except it was alright because his eyes were still oh-so soft and she had never seen Lelouch look so painfully wonderful.

"That'll be one dollar," he announced.

Kallen blinked. "What?"

"One dollar," he repeated, jerking a thumb upwards as a means of pointing at the sign hanging above them, the sign that clearly said One Dollar, One Kiss. She was about to get angry, about to tell him that she had neither asked for nor wanted a kiss, but he was giving her that smile, crooked and beautiful, and his eyes were like his lips, like his touch – soft and gentle and sincere and careful, as if his gaze could be enough to break her, and perhaps it was because she returned his smile with a shy one of her own as she took out a dollar and lifted a hand to place it into the jar that was already too full.

He caught her wrist then and she looked startled once more and he chuckled and it was such a beautiful sound.

"Actually, the first one's on the house."

And she smiled as she took her dollar back and he smirked as she nodded her understanding, ignoring the complaints from the long line of girls behind her to hurry it up because didn't she know that there were other girls who wanted a kiss? And why was Kallen's kiss free when everyone else had to pay?

Lelouch only looked pointedly at the queue of women and gave a careless shrug.

"Because," he answered simply, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "She is my Q-1."

And he grinned as Kallen laughed and he decided that he loved her laugh and that she should laugh more often – and he should make her laugh more often, and the girls didn't understand his reasoning but Kallen did and that was all that mattered.

The girls were getting restless and annoyed and jealous but Kallen only smirked as she withdrew that dollar again and Lelouch grinned as he let her pay.

And when someone asked why Kallen could go twice in a row, Lelouch arched a brow, elegant and regal, realizing that he would need to make things quite blatantly obvious if he was to share another kiss with his knight, his queen, his friend and protector and confidante.

"Even kings are partial to favoritism."

C: