[ All lives inevitably end, and yet: you're still alive. That might've been enough to save him. But Lelouch can't glean intent from what goes unspoken; in playing to Jeremiah's expectations he also becomes mired in his own. ]

I'm not questioning your loyalty.

[ If circumstances were different, if he wasn't so irredeemable, he would heed his imploring for more understanding. His villainy hasn't changed; he hasn't assumed any particular goodness by chasing after other geass users, only grown more arrogant in the ways Lelouch always has been, intrinsic to his nature.

What's changed is the matter of his mortality; neither of them have spoken of it, and yet it lingers on, insidious and preying every forthcoming day.

So at least now, while the sky waxed from blue to gold, and the day lapsed into night, does his speak up. His expression is inscrutable, but the fervor of the words he picks out electric, like static in the air, predisposed to shock. If not Jeremiah, then himself. ]

I thought you might like to seek out happiness one day. It isn't something you'll be able to find, should you remain with me.