NIGHTSHIFT 41: Main hallway 1-East

[broken-exorcist.livejournal.com]

[from here]

Allen hoped to finish the errand as quickly as possible so he could get on with the important things and mentally kicked himself for getting into this mess in the first place.  Of all the wagers he might've made, this was probably the easiest to fulfill, but it was still a pain.  And who knew if Sora would be waiting for him?  He supposed he could head out to the quarry himself, though it'd be difficult to get down on his own.  He owed them at least that much.

For now, though, he concentrated on running down this hall and on toward the next.

[to here]

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[superdynamic.livejournal.com]

Nanny of Honor? Suzaku snorted. "You implicitly appointed me by being negligent. I didn't appoint myself." Speaking of implying things, he realized he was admitting that his new title was, in fact, Nanny of Honor. He was a little distracted, however, by wondering why Lelouch would bother to smile at him so much. Was he happy that Suzaku trusted him again? Shouldn't he still be upset that Suzaku had questioned him in the first place? It couldn't be that bantering like this gave him reason to smile, not when they were no longer friends and (he assumed) Lelouch had no regrets. He must be keeping up the conversation because, like Suzaku, he preferred it to silence. "But I know you can take care of yourself," he said a little more seriously. He knew that more than anyone, that Lelouch couldn't be underestimated.

His thoughts were redirected to the mission at hand, however, when they approached the stairs. They were dark and narrow, and it would be harder to keep an eye on Lelouch or to get in front of him quickly if need be. Not to mention that Lelouch still had a bad leg. "Do you want me to go first?" he asked with a frown, shining his flashlight into the stairwell. He didn't see anything yet, but it was better to stray on the side of caution. The irony of the juxtaposition of that question with his last statement was completely lost on him.

[kingside]

Oh, so now he was negligent? Lelouch might have gotten angry had it been anything other than his poor eating habits that they were discussing, but since it wasn't and Suzaku had made that little slip-- he really did make this too easy sometimes. "Should I not be able to dismiss you, in that case? You're the one clinging to the role, not me." And inventing new duties to go along with it, but the less Lelouch thought about Suzaku's knack for saying or doing the most embarrassing thing possible in regards to and/or directly to him, the better. Last night-- that idiot. At least he was willing to acknowledge that Lelouch wasn't entirely incompetent, but as that apparently wasn't enough to change his behavior, the prince felt entirely justified in continuing his jabs at Suzaku's... unique take on being his knight. "And if you know I can, admit it: you're just making excuses to keep it now."

He couldn't ignore the change in tone the topic of the stairs brought up, though, and with a small frown to match Suzaku's, he looked to the stairwell and tried to ignore the slow return of the trepidation he'd only just managed to shut out. There was only one creature that he'd received intelligence on that had appeared in these areas, but with so many others still unaccounted for-- "That may be for the best," he muttered, glancing away for a moment. For him to be this reliant on someone, even if that someone was Suzaku-- Lelouch still wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea. There was a practical reason for it, yes, but he'd never been fond of being reminded of his shortcomings. The obvious physical one had never truly bothered him, at least not in any way that inspired him to actually do something about it, but while Suzaku had missed the irony of his question, Lelouch hadn't. This fell rather explicitly under the purview of a knight, however, so if Suzaku felt the need to make any smart comments at all, Lelouch would be well within his rights to hit him for it.

[superdynamic.livejournal.com]

Damn, that was a good point. Technically his decisions were no longer his own, and Lelouch was fully entitled to demote Suzaku from Nanny of Honor if he so wished. Not that being in servitude to someone else had ever stopped Suzaku from taking whatever actions he thought appropriate, but this was a little different. He hadn't owed the others anything (except for Euphie), but Lelouch and his cause demanded Suzaku's unswerving loyalty. This was a relatively small issue, of course, yet when push came to shove Lelouch would have the final say. Didn't mean Suzaku wouldn't go down without a fight.

"You'd have to dismiss me in the same way, by not being negligent anymore. And maybe I am," he added, throwing a hint of a smile over his shoulder even as he stepped toward the stairwell. "I told you, I like being a nanny." Giving in to Lelouch's accusations so easily meant ignoring the point, but it didn't matter so long as Lelouch knew Suzaku was going to keep looking after him. And so long as he stopped picking at the reasons Suzaku wanted to do so, because Suzaku didn't feel those had to be analyzed.

Suzaku then turned his full attention to proceeding up the stairs, sweeping the beam of his light across the steps methodically and shifting his grip on the bat. Inane chatter was all well and good, but he had to take this kind of thing seriously. And he was more than happy to, when Lelouch's safety was at stake.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/638686.html?thread=53570526#t53570526)]