week one ♡ friday♡ lelouch lamperouge

[jokered]

[it's pretty hard to be okay after that.

even after a few hours, he's decidedly not. okay. the initial sick feeling fades, and what's left is... anger.

bitterness.

some at himself. a lot at himself, really. but there's a deep-seated contempt that already exists within him, and knowing that someone here, at the urging of hal and pal, killed someone precious to him? it just feeds a fury that already lingered beneath the surface.

he's going through the motions of emotions, oscillating between actual sadness and pain and despair and a muted fury that could probably change the world. whenever lelouch decides to show up? it'll be the latter. he's sitting on the beach, eyes fixed on the endless ocean—and boy. akira definitely looks not okay in a way that maybe could somehow be expected when your friend is dismembered and her head put on a stake—but certainly abnormal for someone who has been playing "innocent high school student who have never experienced Real Shit in his life ever."

funny, that.]

Comments

[chessking]

[ when Lelouch approaches, he doesn't say anything. rather, what he does is to sit down next to Akira, on the beach, following Akira's gaze to look out at the endless ocean.

for a moment, neither of them speak. all that they can hear is the sound of the waves crashing on the shore, the waves lapping almost at their feet.

Lelouch breaks the silence first. ]

... I'm sorry.

[ at the very least, that sounds sincere enough. because he knows what it's like to bury a friend, especially one that's that close (he's good at eavesdropping, has seen how Haru has stuck to Akira closely during this past week). not to mention that she vaguely reminds Lelouch of Euphemia, even in passing.

there's a sidelong glance from Lelouch at Akira, and the concern in there is genuine enough, for someone who's also playing innocent high school student despite being outed as royalty. ]

She must have been close to you.

[ he still hasn't forgotten that they'd found Haru's scalp in Akira's hut.

probably someone was sadistic enough to want Akira to find it. ]

[jokered]

[it's hard to tell whether it's better or worse that he didn't find it and opted to look elsewhere—but obviously, his own hut wasn't something he considered when he ran out the door.

he knew.

haru had given him too many clues that something was "wrong" with her existence there, the ways she different from all the others, and while that couldn't be confirmation alone that she would be the target—akira is no fool. not in that sense, at least. he knew what it meant, and that was why he went looking without hesitation for her.

not that he'd found much.

still, akira's gaze narrows on the horizon before he closes his eyes.]

Yeah. We were pretty close.

[it's clear enough that he's not trying to be rude or short with lelouch, either. he's just...

struggling, really. this is out of his league in so many ways and he hasn't really figured out how to handle it all.

and you know. trying to keep his composure as well—he has to do at least that much, considering how badly he lost it when they revealed haru's head like that.]

[chessking]

[ he nods. his suspicions are confirmed, at least, that they were close enough to have been friends from before all this.

he hesitates. he doesn't want to promise anything, not when investigation earlier pretty much turned up nothing concrete except a suspiciously clean knife and Haru's body.

and he understands how Akira is feeling, recognises the exact same way he was reacting when he'd lost Nunnally, presumed to have died in the explosion from a FLEIJA warhead.

to be honest, he's curious. curious as to whether Akira will bend--

or whether he will break. it's why Lelouch finally turns to look at him, almost critically, although Akira probably doesn't see it, with the way his eyes are closed. ]

I didn't get a chance to know Haru before this, but. [ a pause. ] She doesn't deserve what happened to her.

[ sorry, Akira. he's trying, but he's not the best at comfort, though the hand that he'll place on Akira's arm before quickly withdrawing should at least pass for a reasonably comforting gesture. ]

Losing someone that close to you is hard.

[ he sounds like he's speaking from experience, at least. ]

[jokered]

[isn't the question that many people want to know? will he bend or will he break—even akira can't really be too sure of the answer right now.

but when akira opens his eyes, there's resolve in them; a gaze that's a bit hardened, a quiet fire that burns even though the rest of his body language seems as languid as ever.]

It just means we have to find the person who did this to her. [he says it, quiet, but firm.]

So they can atone for their crimes.

[not die, though he knows that's a foregone conclusion. but it doesn't mean he doesn't want the person to have to face what they've done and the hurt they caused. to him in part, but to haru—her face...

it looked like she died truly suffering, and that's too cruel. nobody deserves a painful death like that, he thinks.]