Disclaimer: We do not own Code Geass
Inspired by Sweetatoo's lovely fic, 'No Boundaries'. First time we collabed together so any form of feedback will be most welcomed.
Chapter One
"I think we're lost, Suzaku," a ten-year-old Lelouch stated, glancing over his shoulder at the forest they just left. "We've climbed this grass verge about four times already."
Suzaku laughed, scoffing the idea. He have been playing in the forest around the shrine since he could walk, he knew it as if it was his own back garden – which it probably was since his house was the shrine anyway.
"Well, if we climbed this verge that many times already then you should be able to make it up all by yourself," the brown-haired kid chuckled, climbing up the verge like it was nothing.
Lelouch, however, scowled and hesitated for a total of three minutes before he sighed and started to climb. He was grubby enough from the last few times he fell whilst climbing this, so it didn't really matter anymore if he got even grubbier. He just wanted to get home, Nunnally must be worried sick and dying out here in the wild with nobody knowing you're there was not a very pleasing idea to Lelouch. He knew coming to the Kururugi shrine for a sleepover was a bad idea! Why can't mom just hire them a maid to babysit them for two weeks?
As like the last time he climbed the verge, his foot slipped, he skinned his knee but was otherwise unharmed because his friend's hand shot out and caught his own before Lelouch could roll back down the brink.
"Why didn't you do that the last time I fell?" Lelouch grumbled as he reached the top with Suzaku's help.
Suzaku didn't hear him (or at least chose to pretend he didn't), instead he fixed a smile on his face, smacked Lelouch on the shoulder (almost sending him toppling back down the verge) and resumed their gruelling march to find their way home. He halted and took a moment to breathe in the fresh air of the forest and take in the view of the city visible from where they were, up high in the hills.
"We'll get home," the boy chimed confidently and Lelouch behind him grumbled, scratching at his arms because the dirty sleeves were beginning to irritate him.
"If I get mauled by a bear, I'm going to haunt you for the rest of your life."
Suzaku laughed again and said that he'd take care of whatever wild bear they encountered with the new moves Toudou-sensei taught him. Lelouch simply couldn't be bothered correcting him that whatever moves Toudou taught him would be utterly useless against a creature three times his height.
The sun was starting to sink behind the mountains and they were still marching through the forest in circles (they climbed the grass verge six times now and Lelouch refused to climb it the seventh time).
Finally, Suzaku stopped in the middle of a forest trail and Lelouch almost walked into him.
"Suzaku," Lelouch growled. He was hungry, he was tired, his clothes were ruined, there was dirt trapped in the weave of his socks, he was decorated with bruises and he had skinned both his knees. For a ten year old, that was enough. "Why did you st…"
His words died away as there, standing on the forest trail in front of them, was a young woman with lime green hair and a black and red kimono.
She tilted her head just a faint degree to the left as she studied them curiously. "Are you lost?" she asked, holding several pizza boxes in her hands. At that moment in time, she could not be an odder sight – a young woman in a kimono, in the middle of a forest and holding boxes of pizza.
Since Suzaku seemed to have lost his voice, Lelouch piped up, "Yes, we a-"
Suddenly, Suzaku caught hold of his friend's head and shoved him down so that he was bowing deeply. "Suzaku, what are you-"
The brown haired kid ignored his hissing and bowed deeply himself as well.
"Hmm," the woman trilled, amused.
"I'm sorry for the bother, C.C.-sama, but we're lost. Can you help us out of here?"
"Sama?" Lelouch echoed and tried to wrestle Suzaku's hand out of his hair so he could stand straight again. He sneaked a glance at his friend and noticed how utterly serious the boy's face was. He stopped his squirming, bit his lower lip and bore with it. If Suzaku respected this person, enough to address her so highly, then she must be somebody worthy of it.
The woman didn't answer. They heard footsteps and not daring to look up, felt her brush by.
What kind of human will just walk away as calmly as that when they're faced with two boys so evidently lost in the middle of a forest?
Suzaku quickly swivelled around, still bowing. "C.C.-sama, we're lost."
"I can see that," the woman answered, not slowing down her pace as she continued down the forest trail.
Suzaku grabbed Lelouch's arm and dragged him like a ragdoll behind him as he ran to catch up with the woman. "Can you show us the way back?"
The woman stopped and thought for a while, during which the two boys gulped hungrily as the smell of pizza reached their nostrils.
"And why would I do that?" the woman asked, turning just enough to regard them with two golden eyes.
Lelouch would have snapped back with a very logical explanation but Suzaku was faster. "Um… because we're lost?"
The woman laughed then ran an eye over each of them again before saying, "Yes, very well. I will help you but in exchange, one of you must be my prisoner."
Lelouch really wanted to know how on earth Suzaku knew such a strange and bordering creepy woman.
C.C. led them through the forest, following the forest paths seemingly without any effort. She flitted between the trees confidently with her pizza boxes held high to avoid the bushes, not even pausing to consider which path to take when the trail split.
They followed her until they reached what seem like an abandoned church right in the middle of forest. Lelouch gaped, what was a church doing on the lands belonging to the shrine? Suzaku, however, just looked everywhere with bright eyes that showed he recognised the place and was happy to see it.
"Thank you, C.C.-sama," the boy said as he bowed again, causing the woman's lips to twitch into an amused grin again. "I know my way from here, we'll be going now."
"Ara, we? Oh no, you will be leaving by yourself, Suzaku," the woman chuckled, approaching the chapel and unlocking the door. "We made a deal, boys - a contract. One of you must be my prisoner in exchange for my help in getting you out of the forest."
"You were serious about that?" Lelouch sputtered, finding the woman both bizarre, curious and irritating all at the same time.
"I'm always serious."
Lelouch glanced over to Suzaku, pleading him with his purple eyes to help him. He really didn't want to be a prisoner to some stranger in the middle of the woods. Nunnally would be worried sick! This woman may force his parents to pay her a suitcase of money in exchange for his freedom and by then he would be tortured and covered in bruises! This would be exactly like those shows on T.V.!
Sadly, Suzaku was oblivious to the overdramatic imaginations of ten-year-old Lelouch. He just blinked at him then nodded. "I'll come back and get you as soon as I can."
The woman nudged the church door open, glancing back to the two boys. "Don't bother coming back unless you have your father with you, Suzaku. I have all intentions of keeping your friend here until I get what I want from him."
"Since it is Suzaku's father that you want then isn't it more sensible to hold Suzaku prisoner instead?" Lelouch chipped in, hoping to weasel out of this whole prisoner business. Who was going to put Nunnally to bed if he was stuck here?
Suzaku, happily oblivious Suzaku, was not helping. He tilted his head to one side and very unhelpfully pointed out, "But I know how to get my way back from here and you don't."
Lelouch swore he would never share his toys with the Kururugi boy ever again. Hurriedly, he pulled the boy closer and whispered quickly. "You can't just leave me here! She's a stranger!"
"C.C.-sama is very respectable and you can trust her," Suzaku explained sounding very much like he was quoting words that were driven into him. "She is the Spirit of the Forest. She wouldn't hurt you as long as you respect the forest."
Even at only ten years of age, Lelouch found that explanation flimsy at best. Are spirits and fairies not only things that happen in books? Surely, Suzaku must have moved onto books of their age group or above now… oh wait, he forgot, Lelouch was in the advance-reading group. Yet still, spirits exist in this world? And his best friend only just told him NOW? He knew he should have put his baby teeth under his pillow after all!
Suzaku bowed again to the spirit. "I'll bring my father as soon as I get back home."
Then with one glance at Lelouch and a quickly hissed sentence of 'I'll save you, don't worry', he ran between two trees and down a rather worn forest track that was barely visible from the last light of the sunset.
"Come on in," the spirit said, opening the door and leaving it wide open for him to enter.
He hesitated, wanting to sprint down that forest track and chase after Suzaku. How did this happen? It was a normal day where they were just playing in the forest as always. How did they got lost and how did getting lost end up with him being a prisoner to some spirit of the forest?
"If you want to be eaten by the bears, you're free to stay outside."
Lelouch scowled but glanced around him just in case. Were there really bears here? He sucked in a breath and stepped into the church, pressing the door shut behind him so that the chill of the night stayed out.
He was expecting the inside of the church to resemble…well, a church, but the spirit's home had the walls and stained glass windows of a church but none of its typical furnishings. The altar, the only church-like furniture that was left, was pushed to one side and now displayed a telephone and stacks of phone books. There were blankets and cushions everywhere as if that alone was keeping the place warm.
The spirit was lounging in front of a rather worn out TV, the boxes of pizza lay open on a coffee table in front of her and large yellow plushie held in her arms.
"Is that a Cheese-kun?" he asked, inching a little closer now that he saw there was no torture devices or cages in the room. Now that he noticed, there were lots of Cheese-kun merchandise every in the room – posters, figurines, toys etc.
"Of course," she droned, eyes flicking to regard him again for one second then back to the TV.
He took a seat at the far edge of the sofa she was sprawled upon. It was so awkward, he kept expecting her to suddenly pounce on him and drag him to some unseen dungeon. She moved to get another slice of pizza and he jumped almost a mile out of his skin. She merely chuckled and resumed eating as if nothing happened.
Tense and nervous, he inched even further away from her.
"I'm not going to eat you."
He bit his cheek and lied, "I know you wouldn't."
She picked up another slice of pizza and nudged the box until it faced him. "Eat," she ordered then turned back to the TV.
Suspiciously, he took a bit of the pizza, nibbling it warily as if there was poison laced into it. Before he knew it, he was taking another slice and another. By the time, he was aware he was taking food from the spirit of the forest, the boxes were empty and she was smirking. He stuck out his lower lip and stubbornly glared at her.
Laughing, she unpeeled herself from the sofa, stretched and said, "I will go to bed now, the bathroom is over there and you can sleep on the sofa here."
"Suzaku is going to come rescue me!"
She smiled so mysteriously at him then chuckled as she walked to a bed heaped with pillows and blankets. "Rescue you? You need to be in danger to be rescued, boy. If anything, Suzaku is the one that needs rescuing since he's most likely going to be skinned by his parents for getting lost in the first place and losing you in the process. You, my boy, are in no danger whatsoever."
She pulled at the sash of her kimono slowly, glancing over her shoulder just long enough for him to get the hint to turn around whilst she undressed.
He averted his face and stared down at his skinned knees, biting his lower lip to keep from crying. He wanted to home. A pair of bare legs stepped into view and the spirit knelt in front of him, her hands holding a cotton pad each. He didn't even hear her approach him, so quietly she walked.
Without warning, she pressed the two cotton pads onto each of his bruised knees and he hissed and cried out as the disinfectant stung at his wounds.
That night was by far the longest night Lelouch had ever experienced in his life and even being clean, cuts and knees bandaged and buried under a mountain of blankets until he was snug and comfortable, he didn't fall asleep.
"She's going to eat me. I can't believe Suzaku just left me with a complete stranger," Lelouch muttered into the air of the church as he curled himself into a tight ball.
END OF CHAPTER ONE
A/N: We're sure some of you are curious as to what the title might mean. Well, Arcanum is Latin for Enigma.
Thank you for reading and have a nice day!