Lawli: Here's that epilogue I promised... if you haven't already read it on my LJ! ;) Thanks again for all the support you've given this fic! It's been very much appreciated.

Fragment 25
I'll be Waiting
"I'll be waiting for you when you're ready
to love me again."

"How is he?"

Suzaku greets the receptionist with his usual, forced smile as he enters the nondescript brick building. She's a pretty thing, a little younger than him with red hair and kind olive eyes that remind him of Euphemia. She gives him a knowing look as she hands over a clipboard and a visitor's badge.

"Back again, Mr. Kururugi?"

"Every Thursday," Suzaku answers as he signs his name to list of visitors.

She takes the clipboard back. "And Tuesday and Sunday…"

He expects her to laugh, and is actually quite surprised when she only smiles at him fondly. It is absurd, to think he would devote so much time to a lost cause. But what else does he have? Since quitting his job at Britannia Corp two months ago he has had a lot more time on his hands. Asplund Auto is far more laid back, his supervisor sympathetic and always happy to give him time to be with his family. It's not like Suzaku has hobbies or anything. He likes cars, and now he works on them all day long, so when he's off there's nothing else to do besides visit his children or visit Lelouch.

Who is, in his own way, very much a child as well.

"I admire you," the receptionist – Shirley, Suzaku refreshes his memory by glancing at her nametag – says as she leads him down a familiar hallway. "To be so dedicated to the person you love, it's… it's inspiring." Her cheeks tint pink at the romantic sentiment. The naiveté makes Suzaku want to both smile and roll his eyes. "He's very lucky to have you."

Suzaku wants to tell her the truth: no he's not. If it weren't for Suzaku, none of this would have even happened.

"Lulu," Shirley calls, opening one of the doors and peaking her head in. "You have a visitor."

A man sits at the edge of the bed, black-and-red checkered blanket thrown over his slumped shoulders, and stares intently at the chessboard on the table in front of him.

"The same. Managing the withdrawals better, but…"

Lelouch doesn't acknowledge Shirley, but when Suzaku steps into the room his expression brightens and he looks fourteen again – hopeful and happy and... very bad at hiding his emotions.

"S-Suzaku!" He sits up straight, throwing the blanket off and running a hand through his hair in an obvious effort to make himself more presentable. "What are you doing here?"

In that instant Suzaku's whole countenance changes, posture relaxing and smile coming more easily to his face. Shirley excuses herself, telling him to buzz the front desk if there's any problems before closing the door. Suzaku crosses the room.

"Do you know how to place chess?" Lelouch asks.

"Someone taught me once," Suzaku replies, remembering that summer afternoon when Lelouch spent countless hours, steadily growing more and more frustrated, trying to get the basics across to his friend. "But I was never very good at it."

Lelouch sighs. "Me neither." He picks up the Black King, as Suzaku has seen him do numerous time, and twirls it absently between his fingers. "I feel as if I've played before, but… I don't know. Whenever I try to remember the rules I can't think of them."

"But he still doesn't remember."

"Have you tried playing with anyone?"

Lelouch flushes and shakes his head. He never has been good at making friends, and now especially – surrounded by nurses and patients and people who don't really care – it's more difficult than ever. "You're the only one who... who ever really visits."

That's not true. Suzaku knows it isn't, because Euphemia has tried to see him on numerous occasions and every time Lelouch refuses to let her in. The doctors used to ask him why, but they stopped trying once they learned Lelouch couldn't even recall he had a sister.

Schneizel has tried to visit as well, and Clovis too. Lelouch tolerates their company for short periods of time but never has much to say to them. And Nunnally... The rest of the family tries to keep her away. No one knows how it will affect either of them. No one wants to risk it.

"…No."

"Suzaku…" Lelouch's voice is soft, barely above a whisper as he sets the king piece back down. "Is there something wrong with me?"

This is the question that always hurts. The question Suzaku always takes too long to answer, because he never knows what to say. Lelouch takes the silence as an answer in and of itself and Suzaku hates it, hates the way Lelouch grimaces and closes himself off, hates the way he blinks rapidly to keep the tears from springing to his eyes.

"I'm sure it just takes time. Eventually something will trigger, some memory will resurface."

Today, Suzaku does not hesitate.

He reaches out, takes Lelouch's hands in his own and squeezes them. Lelouch's eyes, wide and a little surprised, flit upwards to meet his. As far as he can remember Suzaku has never touched him before, not willingly.

"It doesn't matter. I'll stay with him regardless."

"I don't know," he says honestly, and of course it's not a proper answer, it's not anything that can satisfy Lelouch. Lelouch frowns and looks away but doesn't try to pull back. "But Lelouch... I promise." Maybe he shouldn't, because he's broken so many promises. But he wants to. He wants to make Lelouch happy, because they're all each other have left. "No matter what happens," – no matter if Lelouch never remembers him, or what they had been to each other – "I won't leave you."

"Because you love him?"

Lelouch's expression cracks, the composure he fought so hard to maintain crumbling away and suddenly he's throwing himself into Suzaku's arms, burying his face in Suzaku's chest and crying for so many and no reason at all. And Suzaku feels for the first time in a very long time that he's done something right. That even if there is so much that has gone wrong, so many things that have been destroyed… Not all is lost.

"Because he's Lelouch."