!-~Payback~-!

-Uchizaki-

"Good night Lelouch!" Suzaku's silky voice laced with an unidentifiable emotion sounded from down the hall right before the aforementioned black-haired teen closed his door with a quiet 'click.' A smile of relief brightened up his features as he was finally within the privacy of his own room. He let out a small sigh as he glanced at the mahogany clock, eyes slightly widening at the unexpected lateness of the night. He hadn't thought it would be almost eleven o'clock already. No wonder Nunally seemed so tired... he mused to himself, collapsing and sinking into his warm queen-sized bed.

Four Hours Ago

Lelouch hummed lightly to himself as he flipped the contents of his vegetable stir-fry over to prevent them from sticking to the bottom of the pan. As the greens sizzled and popped with the hot oil, new battle plans developed in the raven-haired teen's mind as he tossed and turned various strategies, eliminating the ones that had higher risks. So absorbed in his musings he didn't hear either the front door opening or the approaching footsteps, but he sure felt a pair of firm hands descend on his shoulders, startling him out of thinking about the Black Rebellion. He turned his head quickly to the side and found himself greeted by a pair of familiar emerald green orbs swimming with playfulness. Said hands on his shoulder prevented his body from turning around.

"Suzaku!" Lelouch exclaimed, lavender eyes wide with surprise. The other's offending limbs turned him around to face the pilot of the Lancelot and then slipped down his back smoothly, pulling the pale student flush against a hard, well-toned body.

He let out an embarrassing yelp and pounded awkwardly at the other's back.

"W-What do you t-think you're doing?" No, he did not just stutter, nor did his face just heat up; he was just surprised by the brown haired male's seemingly random actions. Yeah, that's it.

"I can't come and visit my best friend? Don't be so cold Lulu," Suzaku mumbled in fake hurt, nuzzling the paler male's neck affectionately, ignoring the feeble pummels on his back. He smirked as he felt the other shiver ever so slightly as the Britannian prince tried hard to not react.

"If you don't get off of me this instant Suzaku Kururugi you'll never get to eat anything I cook again!" Lelouch ordered through gritted teeth sounding as commanding as he could in his position. Dammit his cheeks were not cooling down! Why! Although, it did kind of feel nice to feel the Japanese pressed against him- wait what? No, that dirty scoundrel needed to get off, now.

"Aw you're no fun," said scoundrel pouted, reluctantly letting go of his cuddle toy and stepping back. Not nearly far enough as Lelouch wanted but eh, whatever.

The raven-haired cook turned around quickly to hide his blush and attempted to focus his attention back to the vegetables that were now threatening to burn and to his boiling water that wanted to escape the pot by boiling over. He ignored the stare that was trying to bore a hole through his head.

"If you didn't do that, I might've offered to feed you," Lelouch said lightly as he walked over to the cabinet and grabbed a package of noodles and some tomatoes. As he spoke, the soft squeaking of wheels signaled the entrance of his beloved little sister and Sayako, the siblings' maid.

"Sister, welc-"

"Hey Nunally! How are ya?" Suzaku cut in, making his way over to the blind, crippled, but the sweetest girl in the world, kneeling before her and taking her hand into his grasp. Lelouch's eyebrow twitched when he realized that he just got jealous of his sister's hand and quickly redirected his attention back to the food, cutting the tomatoes with a renewed vigor. Chop chop chop chop chop.

"Good afternoon Suzaku! It's so nice of you to visit! I'm doing well, how about you?" Nunally politely responded with a soft smile, moving her other hand on top of her friend's tanner hands. It was always so pleasant when the other visited, and it usually, she observed, made her brother happy deep inside. If her dearest kin was happy, then she was happy.

"Would you like for me to tell you a story?"

"Would you really? I would like that!"

"Of course, anything to make you happy Nunally!"

Three Hours Ago

"Dinner's ready! Sayako would you mind helping me set the table?" Lelouch declared as he tasted the tomato sauce he concocted for the spaghetti. Perfect texture, he noted to himself and smiled. The smell of rich tomato sauce and stir fry wafted though out the room.

"Yes of course," the maid replied and quickly busied herself with setting up the dinner.

Lelouch sat down on a hard wooden stool and observed Suzaku making her sister laugh contently. He smiled gently at the scene before him: Nunally had been moved off her wheelchair by most likely Suzaku and was now sitting on the Knight of Seven's lap, holding a book with Braille and words with Suzaku. If the Japanese boy can make his sister happy, he can definitely be tolerated, Lelouch mused.

As much as he hated to disrupt, dinner was ready.

"Hey guys, let's eat! I made spaghetti and vegetable stir-fry tonight," the pale student called from to the kitchen.

"Coming Lulu!" Suzaku responded cheerfully while helping Nunally back on her wheelchair. To say he was excited would be an understatement; he knew the student council vice-president's cooking was downright heavenly. Smelling delicious food for the past hour had made him downright ravenous.

"Dig in!" Lelouch said, a smile on his face as he delicately gathered the noodles onto his fork while his brown-haired companion dug in, quite literally.

Two Hours Ago

Lelouch was putting away the dishes when he heard a loud sigh of content from the living room. He smiled to himself as he deposited the dirty plates into the dishwasher. He's been smiling a lot since a certain someone came over hasn't he… Ah well, it was of no consequence, he mused.

"Hey Lelouch." Well speak of the devil, the raven-haired cook thought. "I was wondering if you could maybe uh, tutor me in Calculus tonight; if I don't get higher than a B on my final tomorrow I might fail the class…"

Lelouch sighed. To tell the truth he expected this… he had been tutoring the enemy a lot recently…

"Sure, get your stuff ready on the table and I'll be right there." How did that come out of his mouth when he was thinking 'No I don't have time to tutor you I have more important matters to tend to!' However, seeing the other's bright grin dispelled whatever excuses he was originally going to come up with to decline. Sigh.

One Hour Ago

"Here, in order to take the derivative of this function…" the fair-skinned student taught, patiently working out examples with the other. Eventually he realized that the Lancelot pilot's attention wasn't really on the graphs and polynomials, but rather on him. His face started to heat up but he used his will power to suppress it and continued to tutor his companion.

"You're really handsome Lelouch."

Crap, there went all his will power as a full blown blush blossomed across his face. He glanced to the side at Suzaku and found the other head nested comfortably in his arms staring up at him, completely serious.

"Thank… you." He was so proud of the fact that he didn't stutter. Seeing the other's trademark heart-warming smile, he smiled and added "You are too," without thinking.

He yelped in surprise when Suzaku engulfed him in a tight bear hug. He tried using his trapped arms to push the other away but to no avail, the brown-haired male's physical prowess being on a different level from his own. He opened his mouth to berate his touchy friend but then paused, realizing that the other's being unusually silent.

"Su..zaku? Wha-AH! HAHAHA- N-no HAHA S-Stop- HAH" Suzaku did NOT just start tickling his sensitive sides. I knew he was up to no good, Lelouch thought darkly between bouts of laughter, when I get free…

Suddenly the walls tilted and he hit the ground with a heavy weight on top of him with a loud bang, falling over the chairs they were sitting on.

"Ow…" Lelouch groaned as he felt the weight get off of him partially. His back killed as he opened his eyes to see Suzaku hovering on top of him and arms planted on either side of his head. The pain was temporarily forgotten as he blushed even darker noting the compromising position they were in and the intense stare he was getting from those emerald orbs. Was Suzaku blushing? He swore he saw a light pink tint dust the others cheeks, but it could've been a trick of the light.

"L-Lelouch, I-"

"Big Brother! And Suzaku! Are you guys okay?" Lelouch's eyes widened and he used this distraction to slip out from under Suzaku. He stood up and winced slightly. His back was definitely going to bruise tomorrow… Brushing himself off, he didn't meet the brown-haired devicer's eyes as he said shakily, "I… think that's enough for tonight," the amethyst eyed teen looked out the corner of his eyes as Suzaku also stood up, his bangs draping over his upper face. "You can use the guest room tonight if you would like," Lelouch continued, glancing out the window, "It's getting dark and all." With that he turned around, waved a backhanded goodbye, and headed to his bedroom.

Present

"What a day…" Lelouch muttered out loud to himself as he lay on his bed, sleepless eyes wide open and arms nested under his head. He stayed like that a while, letting his heartbeat settle down to a regular pace. Nothing could be heard but the faint ticking of the clock, each tick symbolizing a second closer to the end. He got up lazily, unbuttoned his Ashford Academy uniform, and hung it up neatly in his maple closet. He changed into his lavender pajamas dotted with miniature tubs of vanilla ice cream. He flicked off the main light in his room and turned on his reading lamp by his bed. He grabbed his reading glasses from the top of the cabinet by his bed and slipped them on. I'll finish reading the Da Vinci Code after brushing up, Lelouch thought, opening the door to the bathroom that was attached to his bedroom.

He walked in and closed the door gently, welcoming the embracing darkness. He headed over to the other end of the bathroom where the light switch was located and reached to turn it on, but instead his hand ran into something hard – something that shouldn't be there. What's this? He thought, I didn't put anything in front of the light switch… Woah it's warm…? What? Then he heard an all too familiar amused chuckle and jumped. He tried to step back but a hand grabbed his wrist and pulled him forward with gentleness but firmness.

Deja vu… Lelouch thought absentmindedly with a blush as he gave up resisting against the other's superior strength. Muscled arms enclosed him in a protective heat against a firm chest. He thanked the darkness for hiding his flushed face.

"Su…Suzaku?" He muttered unsurely against soft, untarnished skin. He smirked a little bit as he felt the other shiver slightly against his breath. He reached up with his hands and hugged the brown-haired teen back hesitantly; he could tell that there was something on the his childhood friend's mind judging from the silence and the tense muscles he felt as he gently kneaded the muscle in between two shoulder blades with his hands.

He masked a silent cry of pain with a sharp intake of air as he felt a hand press down exactly where he bruised from falling earlier and unconsciously clenched Suzaku tighter.

"I thought so… I hurt you didn't I?"

Lelouch blinked, a little surprised by the mournful tone he heard from the usually chipper devicer. So that's what was bothering him? The raven-haired teen thought, bemused.

"I'm okay really; it might bruise when morning comes but it's of no importance," he reassured the other, patting his back awkwardly. When Suzaku didn't respond, he added sincerely, "It's not your fault; I know you didn't mean it."

He smiled when he felt his friend relax and a forehead rest on his shoulder.

"M'kay, if you say so. Forgive me?"

He chuckled, "You're making too much a deal out of this Suzaku; I'm not a fragile vase or something, I won't break from a simple fall." They laughed together lightly and separated, Lelouch instantly missing the warmth, but opted not to say anything about it. Suzaku was just worried about him –that's what friends do, fret about each other, perfectly normal. After all, it was his fault that Lelouch fell.

A pull on his wrist snapped him out of his thoughts and he stumbled after the Lancelot pilot through the door back into his bedroom. He blushed seeing that Suzaku was wearing nothing but sweatpants. He did touch the other's bare torso earlier, but viewing it re-sparked an emotion that Lelouch tried to keep bottled in. It only took the other's bright grin as he turned around to convince that yep, Lelouch Lamperouge was infatuated with his childhood friend who should be his sworn enemy, given the fact that he piloted the Lancelot that disrupted many of his well thought out strategies. But, truth was, he didn't really care at that moment as he tackled his unexpecting prey onto the bed and started ruthlessly tickling his victim, initiating a tickle battle like no other.

Five minutes later, both boys were lying on the bed panting, trying to catch their breaths from laughing too hard. Lelouch turned his head to face his best friend and said playfully while delivering one last poke to the Honorary Britannian,

"Payback!"

He watched as Suzaku's lips curled up in a mischievous smile and next thing he knew, he found his back against the soft covers, his wrists held above his head, stared down by those mirthful emerald orbs, and an all too familiar weight on his body.

Lavender eyes widened to an impossible degree when said emerald eyes descended.

-The End-