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>suzaku_kurur has entered the chat
>suzaku_kurur has been promoted to moderator
Ever since Lelouch had blown up seemingly overnight, his normally relatively easy-to-moderate streams had turned into a nightmare. Sure, it was foolish to have only three total moderators even at 200,000 subscribers, but he had never had a problem before. He had curated the community and his viewers with care over the past four years.
It was peaceful until someone posted a “ZeroRequiem Death Compilation” on YouTube, and the algorithm picked it up. Between his Monday stream and his Thursday stream, he had gained almost 400,000 subscribers, and it had been a wreck. Thankfully, a couple more people had stepped up for the evening to help crowd control, but it wasn’t going to work long term. He wanted people he could trust, and that was something he was notoriously picky about.
Lelouch had approached his boyfriend for help with the next stream on Saturday, which got an enthusiastic ‘yes!’ in response.
“Welcome! Suzaku is going to be joining the moderator team. Be nice.”
suzaku_kurur: hi
suzaku_kurur: thats me
There weren’t too many rules. If someone was spamming, mute them, if someone was being a little too nosy or rude, kick them, and if they were going above that, ban them. The only special rule Lelouch had for Suzaku was to not refer to him by name, but by his alias, Zero. He didn’t like too much attention, and at least going by ‘Zero’ kept his personal and online presence separate. He didn’t like strangers on the Internet knowing more about his life that he didn’t want them privy to.
The chat was, as predicted, focusing on the new moderator’s arrival as Lelouch set up his game. They were fairly predictable as far as a collective went. He would let Suzaku answer the questions directed at him for now.
1: hi!!!
2: owo new mod???
3: hiiiiiiii!!!!!!!
2: how do u know zero
4: i haven’t seen you on the stream before…??
5: hello
suzaku_kurur: i kno them irl
2: :0
1: do u know what they look like
4: is their name actually zero lol
suzaku_kurur: cant say :(
suzaku_kurur: sorry
3: awww :(((
4: figures
2: :(
6: what r u pronouns suzaku
suzaku_kurur: he/him
7: okie thx
8: are zero’s pronouns they/them irl
suzaku_kurur: cant say
Lelouch set up his monitor and plugged in the PlayStation port to his three-monitor set-up, the homepage showing up in an instant with the game already loaded as a ‘most recent purchase’.
9: send feet pics
Suzaku blinked at the comment, which was gone as quickly as it had come. Lelouch briefed him quickly beforehand about weird things that people might say, but they were generally harmless so just mute them if able. That one was on the list, but Suzaku couldn’t find it in the barrage of ceaseless chatter.
“Oh, I’ll turn on slowchat so it’s easier to manage for you while we wait for the other mods.”
He made the time between messages ten seconds, which would hopefully dissuade people from spamming too much. Suzaku wasn’t sure exactly what ‘slowchat’ meant, but the messages weren’t clogging up as much. Perhaps everyone had to wait ten seconds after every message to post again? Did everyone have to share the chat box? He wasn’t sure. That didn’t really make much sense, but he didn’t understand how Twitch worked.
Suzaku had his own personal laptop set up on the other end of the wrap-around desk, the top made of glass while the wooden supports were painted black. The room decor was picked for Lelouch’s very specific tastes— after all, he was the one who used the room most often. Suzaku stayed out of there, especially when Lelouch was streaming. He watched his boyfriend play on Twitch in the background while he did homework usually, but Lelouch liked to be left alone unless it was truly urgent. Now that Suzaku was in charge of being a moderator, he could sit in the same room if he so pleased, but he had to be silent.
They were at about 20,000 current viewers, give or take, which tripled his previous viewer count. Lelouch wasn’t one to obsess over his viewer count though, he was already quite well-off financially speaking, so the money he got from it wasn’t something he paid much mind to. It did make enough to cover their exorbitant Internet bill that Lelouch paid for solely since he felt it was only fair.
Lelouch finally got all settled in and gave a glance to his boyfriend, who was dutifully watching the stream chatter. Nothing was going on at a glance, it was just idle chatter while they waited for the stream to begin.
“Hey, thanks again for agreeing to help with this,” Lelouch put his black headphones down onto his desk, swiveling his comfortable chair to face Suzaku.
“Of course, I’m always glad to help out!” His boyfriend grinned, cute green eyes lit up by the artificial light of the screen.
>guren_kouzuk1 has entered the chat
>guren_kouzuk1 has been promoted to moderator
>zeroknightmare69 has entered the chat
>zeroknightmare69 has been promoted to moderator
>mister_ohgi25 has entered the chat
>mister_ohgi25 has been promoted to moderator
10: its the black knights!
8: hiiiii
4: owowowowowowowo
1: black knights!!
guren_kouzuk1: still havent fixed ur username i see tamaki
zeroknightmare69: SHUT UP KALLEN!! i couldve sworn the s and the k were close togetr
guren_kouzuk1: they are literally opposites. zerosnightmare69 isnt any better tho
“These three are my usual mods,” Lelouch explained, turning Suzaku’s laptop a bit to explain all of the widgets on the screen. “But anyways, this is how you moderate people. I have a few auto-ban filters on, like slurs and the like. I don’t tolerate that. Here’s the chat, and this is the AutoMod queue that will filter some messages and you can accept or deny them. It’s just something to keep the chat clean. The other three have the same screen so you won’t be the only one manually filtering them.”
“Ah, okay,” Suzaku nodded, looking over the screen in front of him. He could already see some of the messages being filtered by the bot, and now some being approved by one of the other mods.
guren_kouzuk1: wait new mod?
guren_kouzuk1: who r u
suzaku_kurur: hi
suzaku_kurur: im suzaku nice 2 meet u
guren_kouzuk1: ive never seen u before
suzaku_kurur: ive been here since zero started
2: suzaku knows zero irl!!!
11: whAT suzu wha do th ey look lik
3: suzu!! can we call u that
suzaku_kurur: sure?
4: yay!!!
11: what does zero look lik
suzaku_kurur: i cant tell u its secret
1: how do u know them
“You don’t have to answer anything you’re uncomfortable with and try not to reveal anything too personal about me. That includes that we live together and we’re dating, I’d really prefer to keep my personal life off the Internet if I can.”
“Mm, can I say we’re friends then?”
“That should be fine.” It wasn’t a far-fetched conclusion, given the circumstances. And it wasn’t wrong, per se, it just wasn’t the full truth.
suzaku_kurur: were friends
1: asdkfalsdjfj
7: zero has irl friends lol
suzaku_kurur: >:( yes
2: oof dont make mod mad
5: lololol
“Let’s begin, shall we?” Lelouch put his headphones and reclined in his chair, the homepage of the PlayStation console still on the screen. He made sure to turn on the recording and double-checked that his monitor was being broadcasted. He clicked on his microphone and began the stream.
“Hello everyone. We have a lot of newcomers today, so welcome to the stream. My name is Zero and today we’ll be starting a highly requested game: Persona 5.”
1: omigosh yes finally!
6: took u long enough omg
2: ur gonna LOVE it zero!
The chat blew up, and even with the slowchat filter on it was difficult to catch most of the messages. Suzaku skimmed through them as they came in, but they were mostly just keysmashes and other overly-excited comments.
1: omg u’ve com so far
9: 20,000 views currently remember when u had like 500 max
6: that was back when they were darkprincegaming tho
3: if u remembr that u qualify for a veteran acct
2: lmfao
8: haha ya this new name is better imo
7: i agree lol zerorequiem is still edgy tho
guren_kouzuk1: both are good
2: simp
zeroknightmare69: simp
guren_kouzuk1: dont start with me tamaki
While the mods and chat were prone to lightly antagonizing each other and Lelouch, he hoped that the newer viewers would stay nicer than trying to match the energy. The mods, specifically Kallen and Tamaki, were the only ones who got into real fights, but they kept it in Japanese and didn’t spam the chat. It was entertaining and since most of the chat couldn’t read it, it wasn’t that distracting.
suzaku_kurur: whats a simp
guren_kouzuk1: what
zeroknightmare69: how do u not know that
suzaku_kurur: idk? is it bad?
2: its when u simp
3: ya suzu
1: look it up
suzaku_kurur: a silly or foolish person?
8: omg no
5: why did zero let u mod
4: look at urban dictionary
Lelouch glanced over to the chat and silently sighed to himself. He really hadn’t considered how little Suzaku knew about Internet slang, perhaps that would be a problem. Well, there was no time like the present to learn. His community was generally pretty normal, but he wasn’t sure what the new viewers would be like.
Suzaku opened a new tab, and typed ‘simp urban dictionary’ into the search bar. Someone who does way too much for a person they like…what constitutes ‘too much’? Am I a simp? Suzaku’s brows furrowed in thought. He kept the tab open but switched back to the Twitch channel.
The intro of the game began, Lelouch was instantly enamored with the red-and-black motif of the credits.
1: zero r u playing this in dub or sub
3: dub i hope
2: sub is better japanese dub ftw
4: no dumbass
“I’ll be playing it in the English dub,” Lelouch stated simply, eyeing the chat as he clicked through the DLC screen and the disclaimers. It was simpler to do it this way, regardless of his personal preference of how to play the game. Most of his audience was English-speaking anyways.
8: aww
2: :/
zeroknightmare69: zero can play whatever version they want!
3: simp
guren_kouzuk1: simp
5: simp
After some narration and another cutscene, it was onto the tutorial. The game jumped right into the story, starting with some sort of scene of a masked man running away from the police. There were some controls and fighting tutorials to run through, but they were self-explanatory. All in all, it looked like a very sound game. At the very least, he was pleased by the aesthetics.
While this was his first time playing this particular installment, he had played the previous one. The actual combat seemed similar enough to Persona 4 to justify the ‘Hard’ difficulty run. That, and his channel was known for playing games on harder difficulties.
The cutscene continued, now prompting Lelouch to enter a name for the character. A first and last name. How irritating— he can’t just use Zero.
2: what r u gonna name urself
9: zero zero
4: thats a stupid name
5: u could go w the canon name kurusu
3: thats so boring
guren_kouzuk1: u can pick whatever u like zero
Lelouch thought for a moment, weighing multiple options in his head. It’s not like the name particularly mattered, but he was picky— it was the name that he would be called for the rest of the game.
suzaku_kurur: zero requim maybe?
guren_kouzuk1: requiem*
guren_kouzuk1: it’s right in front of you
suzaku_kurur: sory
guren_kouzuk1: sorry*
suzaku_kurur: apology accepted
zeroknightmare69: LOL
1: RIP
5: LOLLLLLLOLOL
6: GET REKT
Suzaku had to cover his mouth to hide his giggles, Lelouch taking a deep breath in an effort to not laugh. He had a reputation to maintain! But he knew that he would be seeing screenshots of that all over his Discord server. It was good that Suzaku had shown himself to have a little bite.
“I’ll go with Zero Requiem, thank you for the suggestion.” He had to stare at the name all the time due to his channel, seeing it here would seem almost normal. It would have to be good enough.
The first hour was mostly cutscenes and very little actual gameplay, which wasn’t the most entertaining for a stream. It was important to understand the story later, so he read aloud any of the important information as he started to explore the areas given, but there wasn’t much room for his own commentary.
Lelouch continued playing with little issue until he had to change lines in the subway station, and immediately got lost. It was the first time the game had truly left the player to figure out where to go.
There was an English translation to all of the signs, but they were minuscule compared to the original Japanese text. It was realistic to an actual subway station, but that didn't make it any less irritating. Suzaku stared at the screen as Lelouch ran past the ‘Ginza’ sign multiple times, a knowing smirk on his face. He was simply amused, interested in seeing how long it would take.
mister_ohgi25: zero you have to go up the stairs
mister_ohgi25: no the other one
zeroknightmare69: yeah that one. up there
guren_kouzuk1: u passed it. go back
zeroknightmare69: its right there
mister_ohgi25: turn around
He had looked to the chat for some help, but that turned his simmering annoyance into boiling frustration. The Black Knights were trying to help, yes, but doing so in what seemed the vaguest way possible.
1: lol the signs are also in english just slow down
5: tbf the train station is the worst ever
6: ^^^^
2: yall cant read can u
3: yeah i always got lost here dont feel bad
9: its literally right there lol
Suzaku looked over at Lelouch, who had a deep frown on his face. He was leaning in closer to the screen, trying to make out the smaller English characters on the signs. There were benefits to not having a face cam. Lelouch obviously was getting frustrated, jaw taut as he passed the same set of stairs for the tenth time.
Suzaku decided to have mercy on him and waved a hand in Lelouch’s peripheral to get his attention. The man glanced over, to which Suzaku turned his own laptop so Lelouch could see the monitor. He physically tapped his pointer finger onto the screen to the sign that said Ginza. Lelouch breathed a deep sigh, trying to ignore the fingerprint smudge that was now on the screen, before mouthing ‘thank you’. His boyfriend simply gave a thumbs up and a small smile in his direction.
1: lol that took like 10 MINUTES
4: lmfaooo zero u suck at this
guren_kouzuk1: be nice
zeroknightmare69: simp
guren_kouzuk1: うるさいよ
mister_ohgi25: zero cant read japanese its okay
2: its also in ENGLISH
> 2 has been muted for 5 minutes
9: still shorter than how long zero was lost for
> 9 has been muted for 5 minutes
mister_ohgi25: dont u think ur going a little overboard
guren_kouzuk1: no
Lelouch ignored the scuffle in the chat for now. After successfully transferring to the Ginza line, they continued on to the school. Ryuji joined them and now they were playing through the tutorial dungeon. Lelouch got more into it once the MC had their ‘awakening’ cutscene in which they finally got their persona.
The sharp aesthetics of the game worked well within the dungeon, as the reds and blacks matched the foreboding yet uncanny version of the more dull and dreary reality. Lelouch took the time to quietly admire the new outfit the MC had, he wished that they wore it in more than just the battles. He knew how to sew quite decently, he could make something similar. Maybe for Halloween— he would file this idea away for later. “How are you all feeling about the game so far?”
3: finally some actual gameplay lol
1: i like it!
zeroknightmare69: the game is great zero!
Glad that the chat seemed to be in agreement with Lelouch’s own view of the game, he mentally noted to play it on stream again. He liked to switch up the games each stream, but if anything got real attention he wasn’t against doing a series. He continued through the dungeon, successfully escaping through an air vent without their new ally Morgana. This wasn’t going to be the last time they saw him, but Lelouch hoped that the feline would be more feline shaped rather than the weird bobble-headed monster that was the current model.
After the castle dungeon, the MC got a firm talking-to from one of the teachers about not getting involved with Ryuji— the vulgar secondary character. Well, speak of the Devil and he may appear, the blond boy came on-screen moments later to tell the MC to meet him on the roof, bringing Lelouch back to his high school days with Suzaku.
A tug on the front of the collar was all that was needed to arrange a meeting between the two young lovers. They had many secret signals between them, but this was one of the first-ever curated. It was one of the few places at the school that they could truly be alone without a chance of anyone eavesdropping. This is where they could speak openly to one another.
They’d spend so much time up there, it was a wonder that nobody ever caught them. Even despite Suzaku’s propensity to adhere to school policies, the man would loyally follow him up there whenever Lelouch signaled him to— even if it meant them both missing class. He had so many good memories on the rooftop of their high school, sharing stolen moments with Suzaku that they wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.
He broke out of his brief reverie as the game progressed, moving on to the next day at school. The MC was abruptly asked a question about three parts of the soul, in which Lelouch was now presented with three options to pick from. The first two parts, appetite and spirit, were given to him already— now he just had to correctly guess the third.
Guts, logic, or love. He knew the right answer- logic, as the three parts of the soul question was a reference to a philosophical theory. Guts, bravado, strength, that could all be ruled out. The soul was not strong based on its host’s container. Some of the weakest bodies could hold the strongest souls. So having strength be a part of that, a part of what makes your soul up to be intrinsically tied to who you were born as was unfair at best. Perhaps the argument could be made that it was in reference to ‘appetite’, but in Lelouch’s mind, it was much, much different. Appetite was the carnal desires, the most basal needs of a person. Guts was the vessel the soul was contained in, and not a part of the soul itself.
Logic. That was the part of the soul that was swayed by rational thinking, by facts and arguments. It was the clear answer- Appetite dealt with the carnal desires, Spirit dealt with the emotions, and Logic dealt with the more higher-order thinking such as morality or ethics. You could debate with someone to change their mind, to change how their soul perceives things.
He knew Logic was the correct answer. But still, he lingered over ‘Love’. Spirit, yes, that dealt with emotions but love was more than that. It was a driving force stronger than anything. His gaze flitted over to Suzaku, whose face was illuminated by the bright screen of his laptop, all of his best features starkly highlighted. He could not hide the soft smile at the scene. Love… it might be the right answer to Lelouch, but it wasn’t for this game. He flicked the joystick up and clicked on Logic.
1: anyone else see zero linger on love
4: zero r u taken
guren_kouzuk1: stop
5: but were curious
2: zero have u had a gf
11: lol kallen u jealous
> 11 has been muted for 10 minutes
zeroknightmare69: haha kallen’s jealous
guren_kouzuk1: ふざけんな
zeroknightmare69: しんじまえ
guren_kouzuk1: くたばれ
mister_ohgi25: やめて
Suzaku’s eyes flitted over the aggressive Japanese, green eyes widening just a bit. Lelouch looked over the comments and dismissed them immediately- he had grown accustomed to Kallen and Tamaki swearing up a storm whenever they argued. It happened so frequently that Lelouch could recognize the expletive just by the first character. He almost knew more vulgar insults than he did normal vocabulary and it was entirely their fault. It finally clicked for Suzaku how Lelouch understood him whenever he did swear.
They were about to enter the castle dungeon for the second time, and it was a little over halfway through the stream now. He was hungry, and could only imagine Suzaku was feeling similar. “I think this is a good place to take a break. I’ll be back in thirty,” Lelouch announced before muting his mic and putting the headset down. Suzaku looked over at him from his chair.
“Are you enjoying it?” He asked, watching as Lelouch got up from his chair and stretched.
“I am a lot, actually. The story is interesting and the overall aesthetic is definitely to my taste. I like the soundtrack too and the voice acting is good,” Lelouch went to leave the room and Suzaku quickly followed.
“That’s good!” Suzaku always enjoyed watching his boyfriend stream, he’s been doing it ever since Lelouch’s very first. He was entertaining and engaging with the audience whenever he could be, it was a wonder it took so long for his channel to blow up. At least to Suzaku, but he always thought his boyfriend was the best at everything he did. He’d been watching so long, that he could tell that Lelouch was actually really enjoying himself.
“I definitely liked it better once I got past all the tutorials and to the actual heart of the story,” Lelouch commented passively, opening up the fridge for something to eat. It was filled with leftover pizza, seems C.C. had ordered it without saying anything. Lelouch grabbed two slices- it was better than nothing. “I hate the train station, though.”
“Really? Could’ve fooled me. I would’ve thought it was your favorite part of the game since you hung around it so long,” he grinned playfully, earning a deadly glare from his boyfriend.
“Do you really want to comment on me getting lost in a video game? Would you like me to bring up every example of you getting us lost? The only list longer than that one is how many times you’ve wound up lost by yourself,” Lelouch retorted.
“Name one.”
Lelouch narrowed his eyes. “Soup store.”
“That was one time!”
“Who gets lost buying clothes and winds up looking for them in a soup store?”
Suzaku frowned but said nothing. Lelouch would count this as a victory. Suzaku really should’ve learned a long time ago not to challenge him in a battle of wits, but that man’s stubbornness was only outmatched by Lelouch’s own.
Lelouch turned on the oven and began to pre-heat it. He learned long ago that it was worth it to reheat pizza this way, despite the extra time it took. Microwaved pizza simply wasn’t the same, though he would rather have no pizza at all but their third roommate never seemed to eat anything but.
“I should figure out something quicker to make for stream nights.” It was a pipe dream, as C.C. was bound to just order pizza regardless of their opinion. Curse his habit of eating dinner late.
“Instant ramen is always an option,” Suzaku suggested.
“We’ll have to get something to put in it.” Ramen by itself was… it was better than pizza, but not by much.
“I could cook something if you’d like.” He would’ve liked to cook on Lelouch’s stream nights but his boyfriend hated being bothered, including with text messages.
While he didn't want to ask Suzaku to cook for him that often if he was also going to be involved in stream nights now he didn't want to force both of them to eat leftover pizza. "If you want to. The other mods should be able to pick up the slack while you're preparing dinner."
Suzaku grinned. He knew a ‘yes’ when he heard one, even if Lelouch didn’t always like to be direct about it. “I’ll cook then. It’ll be like a date.”
"A date?"
“Kinda. I mean we’re spending a good amount of time together doing something we both like to do and I get to cook for it too. It sounds like a date to me.”
The oven beeped softly. It was done preheating, and the slices only needed to be in for a few minutes. The pizza had only been in the fridge for a short while at this point. It wouldn’t survive much longer in this apartment. Lelouch placed the two slices onto the baking sheet and put it into the oven. “Then, it’s a date,” He said with a gentle smile on his face, pleased with how the evening was turning out.
“Are you enjoying being a part of the stream?” Lelouch asked, turning his violet eyes on the other boy.
“Yeah! I’m having a lot of fun. Plus, I get to spend more time with you,” He smiled softly, leaning on the kitchen counter.
“Well, I’m glad. I wouldn’t want you to do something you weren’t enjoying.” It was a nice change of pace. Even being in the same room as Suzaku was enjoyable, even if they couldn’t converse with one another.
“I’d tell you if I didn’t like it.”
“I know.” Suzaku was brutally honest at times. Lelouch never had to worry about his boyfriend hiding his true feelings from him— he didn’t think that Suzaku was even capable of telling a lie. It was one of Suzaku’s best traits.
The oven dinged, signaling their dinner was ready. Lelouch grabbed it out with an oven mitt before setting the sheet on top of the stove.
“Suzaku, get some plates,” Lelouch absentmindedly said while putting away the mitts in a small drawer.
Suzaku set them down next to the stove. “Already got them,” he grinned, before continuing, “Your Highness.”
He gave Suzaku a look. It was the playful phrase his boyfriend had come up with to remind him to use his manners. It’s not that he intended to be rude, it just sometimes slipped his mind. “Ah, sorry. Thank you.”
It was nice to have a little break of normalcy, keeping up the facade of a faceless streamer was harder than it looked. He had to keep the viewers entertained while also trying to play the game and keep an eye on the chat to help monitor it. On these breaks, they could just be themselves. It wasn’t long before they had to head back up, in which Suzaku was greeted with a barrage of mentions in the stream chat.
1: where tf did suzu go
5: suzaku???? @suzaku_kurur
1: @suzaku_kurur where r u
6: i guess they took a break too?
4: thats weird ngl
2: suzuuuuuuuuu come back we have questions @suzaku_kurur
suzaku_kurur: im here
1: SUZU
2: HI
10: SUZAKU who are u and how do u know zero
suzaku_kurur: im suzaku
suzaku_kurur: im friends w/ zero irl
9: lame. how long have u known them
suzaku_kurur: since we were ten
1: JFSHJDJA
2: WHAT DIFHSJDD
5: HOW COME UR ONLY JUST JOINING
suzaku_kurur: idk, they asked me to
1: r u guys best friends ???
Suzaku glanced at Lelouch, who was taking a sip of water from his bottle. He was looking at the chat and spilled a bit, a drop moving down his chin. Suzaku leaned over the table and swiped it away with his thumb, earning a look from his ‘best friend’.
suzaku_kurur: i wuld say so
Lelouch continued the stream, playing up until it was time to re-enter the castle dungeon for the third time. The chat seemed to mostly have positive things to say about the night’s stream and begged for another one on this game.
5: pls play mkre it gets better!!!
1: gnight!!!!!!!!!
guren_koizuk1: goodnight zero!
guren_koizuk1: tama i see you typing dont start with me
7: will the next stream also be P5?
10: u should play more on monday
zeroknightmare69: .
zeroknightmare69: goodnight zero!!
11: gnight!! when r u gonna play more???
“I’ll definitely be playing this again sometime, but the next stream will probably be a continuation of one of my other play-throughs. I’ll be sending out a poll on my Twitter tomorrow to decide which game to play for Monday,” Lelouch said before bidding everyone a good night and meticulously shutting down all of his equipment. It was midnight now, a typical time to be ending his Saturday streams. It didn’t make it any less tiring.
“Bed time?” Suzaku asked, shutting his laptop quietly.
“Mhmm,” Lelouch hummed in agreement, a soft yawn escaping him. After getting ready for bed, Lelouch snuggled up in Suzaku’s arms— a nightly routine for the couple.
“Thank you for helping out today…” he murmured into Suzaku’s chest, barely fighting the sleep that threatened to overtake them at any moment.
“It was really fun,” Suzaku replied softly, gently combing through Lelouch’s hair with his fingers.
“... it was more fun with you there,” Lelouch whispered, closing his eyes and allowing sleep to take him.