Author Note: I've not been posting much. I've been busy at work on other Big Writing Projects. So for now, here's a little one? Fluff, fluff, fluffy fluff - perhaps in honor of Valentine's Day and all the snow I've been getting.

"Stop," Suzaku whispered, while their feet crunched along on the snow-covered pathway. The evergreens blocked all the wind, their needles causing the forest to seem hushed.

Lelouch's steps ground to a halt. He shoved his fists into his pockets. "What is it? Now it's beginning to snow. I want to get back, to make Nunnally cocoa." He tucked his chin into his scarf and stamped his feet to warm his toes.

Suzaku walked up beside him, trying not to smile when Lelouch shivered. "Look at the kind of snow that this is." Hadn't Lelouch seen it yet, or did he plan to walk through it without even looking?

"Kind of snow?" Lelouch echoed. He turned his face up to the sky… then crinkled it when a few flakes fell down close. "I think you mean the kind that no one wants to get delayed because of."

Suzaku, for a moment, only stared. He almost felt a prick of annoyance. This was the only time they had together, and Lelouch couldn't stop to smell the roses. Lelouch didn't realize this snow was beautiful? He didn't think it was special?

Suzaku looked at Lelouch's flushing cheeks, however, and understood that this might be an opportunity to teach his friend to appreciate the small things. After all, what better way to make Lelouch less bitter about being sent on an errand during their school trip?

Suzaku stuck out his gloved hand, palm up, standing very still… and grinning.

Lelouch said, "And what do you find so amusing?"

"Here," Suzaku whispered. He extended his glove, so Lelouch had a clear view of it.

Lelouch blinked. He gazed down at Suzaku's glove. He blinked again and looked up at the sky, then back down at the glove once more.

Suzaku had to fight to keep himself from laughter. Lelouch's eyes were wide and white around the edges. He moved, so he could shake the glove off, but Lelouch seized his wrist. "Ah, wait-!" And as Lelouch's face became even more stricken, Suzaku did laugh, softly in the quiet.

"They're perfect!" Lelouch was quite clearly astonished.

"It's very rare for flakes to fall like this, with the delicate, lacy shape you see in drawings."

"They can't be real." The grip on Suzaku's wrist tightened, loosened, and tightened again. "They look like stars!" So did Lelouch's eyes, so sparkling.

"I always thought of cake sprinkles or sugar." Suzaku watched Lelouch's eyelashes flutter, as Lelouch at last released his glove.

Lelouch stepped off the path at once. He crunched toward the nearest rock that had a clean surface for inspection. Suzaku watched him lean over, close, and then exclaim in vivid wonder.

"You need to come look at these!" Lelouch waved Suzaku over. By the time Suzaku had meandered near, his friend was breathless. "Look!" He pointed.

"Yes, I already see them."

"You're not looking at this one, though! This one is… it's a perfect tea-time doily!"

Suzaku snorted and burst into laughter.

Lelouch flushed – but this time not from cold. "Suzaku, it's not funny. What are these? Give me your phone before they melt. Yours has a better camera, and I want to take pictures of this."

"For Nunnally? And Sayoko? As for what they are, they're snowflakes."

"Now you're being rude." Lelouch favored the rock surface again, putting his face as close to the collecting snow as he dared. Was he afraid his breath would melt them? "I'm aware of what they're called, but I've never paid this much attention to snowflakes before in my life. They don't always look like this by the time they fall to earth, or surely I'd have noticed…." He muttered.

Suzaku wanted to ask, Would you? but instead he tried explaining. "They almost never hold their crystal shape like this, so perfectly. And even sometimes, when they do, they melt the second they touch down." He watched Lelouch explore a nearby tree branch.

"They're not melting at all! They're staying. They're bigger than I thought, when they're like this." Lelouch's hair stuck up when he rubbed it. He clearly still tried to manage his own awe.

"Here's my phone. Go ahead. We'll show Nunnally."

The phone camera snapped, in a series of pictures. Afterward, Lelouch came back to him. "Suzaku."

"Hmn?"

Suzaku watched Lelouch's lips part, then close again, hesitating. He saw they weren't chapped despite the weather, the way his own probably were. The snowflakes were dropping down on his eyelashes. Had Lelouch always looked this pretty, this much part of the delicate, pale, lovely winter atmosphere?

Lelouch said, "I would have walked right through this."

"I know. That's why I stopped you."

"Don't let me walk past such a beautiful moment with you, ever again." Lelouch's violet eyes looked straight at his.

Suzaku's heart rate picked up. The snow fell around them lightly. Lelouch stayed there for a moment, then sighed and said they should be headed back.

Suzaku snagged Lelouch's arm, and pulled him back in too close once more.

"Suzaku?"

"Sorry," Suzaku said, his voice falling a little hoarse. "Just one more beautiful moment, if you don't mind?"

"What do you—?"

Suzaku leaned in and caught Lelouch's lips with his. Lelouch, stiff at first, loosened slowly, in time. Their breath made steam, and all around them sounded padded and quiet. Lelouch's kissed back until he sniffed with cold, and their lips peeled apart.

When Suzaku drew away, a snowflake decorated Lelouch's nose. "I suppose we ought to go, before one of us catches cold?"

"Not yet. Did you see that one fall? It's on that branch. Come look at it."