Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass.
Summary: Lelouch Lamperouge finds himself in debt towards a woman who uses him for her own personal pleasure.
Vanilla Kiss
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Chapter One
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Bruised Kiss
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Monday, the start of the tiring work week.
After a busy weekend with his younger sister, Lelouch Lamperouge, a simple teller working in Japan's finest bank, was heading back to his regular routine. He didn't mind routine. Routine gave him money. Money for his apartment, money for food, money for his ill younger sister.
At age of ten, Lelouch's parents died in a car accident that was caused by a damned drunk driver. It also rendered his younger sister, Nunnally Lamperouge, paralysed. Hope was not lost since he had his maternal grandmother to live with. Despite being retired, she had enough money saved up to raise the siblings until her death just two years ago. Their grandmother's death couldn't have came at a more difficult time. Prior to their grandmother's death by stroke, Nunnally was fell ill. So ill, she spent every waking moment at the hospital.
It was the only option they had, expensive or not, to keep Nunnally alive. Lelouch vowed to protect his sister, to do everything for her. He made a promise with his parents, grandmother, Nunally and himself that he will not let another soul from his family depart the world.
But the bills of the hospital were beginning to take a toll on Lelouch. His grandmother's hard earned savings was nothing but a few coins in a piggy bank, not literally speaking. The savings were dying out. And his salary from his job could only manage to provide him a shelter and food, not enough to pay hospital bills.
He worked at Rising Sun Bank, the national bank of Japan. It was famous. People considered Lelouch lucky to work within such a renowned firm but Lelouch didn't consider himself lucky at all. The bank paid well but not enough to keep his sickly sister alive.
Heaving a sigh deep from his chest, Lelouch pushed the revolving door open.
"Good morning Mr. Lamperouge."
Turning his head and bowing politely, Lelouch greeted the middle age security guard who worked the morning shift.
"Morning, Jin."
He walked towards the elevator. Their staff lounge was located a floor below the main part of the bank; below the tellers and the cash machines. Pressing the button with an arrow pointing downwards, Lelouch waited for the next elevator to ding open. He was too absorbed in thought, mostly stressing over how long his grandmother's savings will last, Lelouch failed to pick up the arrival of the heir of the bank.
"Good morning, Miss Yukito," the staff on the main floor greeted the beautiful young heiress as soon as she revolving doors freed her.
She paid them no mind. It was not everyday she visited her family's business. And when she did visit, she did not come for mindless chit chat with the staff that was below her in every possible way.
In contrast to Lelouch, who was heading a floor down, she was going up towards the highest floor. The highest floor was the office of her father, Kaname Yukito. When she did visit her father's business, it was mostly to visit her father about essentials. One time she came to ask her father to pay for her plane ticket to Greece, despite having a platinum credit card.
She pressed the button with the arrow pointing towards the heavens. This finally caught Lelouch's eyes.
He turned his head, his violet eyes glancing down towards the daughter of his boss, C.C. Yukito. Quickly, he bowed down to show respect. Lelouch didn't want to lose his job for ignoring his boss's daughter though the chances of that ever happening were slim to none.
"Good morning, Miss Yukito."
Again, since he was lowly staff, C.C. paid him no mind.
Lelouch excepted her to react like that. Of all the times he or anyone else greeted her, they had not once heard a reply back. C.C. never spoke to any of her father's minions. She didn't come to socialize; she only came to the bank for her own personal gain.
The two elevator doors dinged open, one going up and one going down. C.C. was closer to her elevator, so she strolled in first, dropping her cellphone in the process. Right before it dropped onto the tiled floor, it was hanging out of the front pocket of her bag. It looked like she carelessly slipped her phone in, not caring if anything were to happen to it.
"Miss Yukito, wait." Lelouch reached out and slide his arm into the elevator C.C. was in to prevent the doors from sliding shut. In the other hand he managed to pick up her metallic pearl yellow cellphone of a high named brand. "You dropped your cellphone. Here you go." He held out the cellphone, his head bowed towards her. That's how respectful he was.
Slowly, C.C. took the cellphone from him. Their fingertips brushed together for a nanosecond before C.C. retrieved her hand.
"Thank you."
Raising his head, the two finally made eye contact with one another.
Lelouch has seen C.C. many times before; her long green hair and amber eyes. He's seen her the few times she visits her father during his shifts. Like any other man and woman that has seen her, he is clearly aware that she is beautiful, like a porcelain doll hand crafted by angels. Only a fool would give little appreciation to C.C.'s remarkable beauty.
By all means, Lelouch was no fool.
"Have a good day, Miss Yukito."
Instead of Lelouch being mesmerized by the beauty before his very own eyes, it seemed to be the other way around. C.C. was left speechless by the kindness of of a man who she labelled as a lowly staff member.
They held eye contact with one another, Lelouch smiling as he did before the doors shut, cutting them off.
"Woah." Suzaku Kurasagi, Lelouch's co-worker and best friend, approached him from behind, swinging an arm over his shoulder. "Woah, Miss Yukito finally acknowledged one of us." He slugged Lelouch jokingly. "You're one lucky bastard."
Lelouch brushed him off and headed towards his still waiting elevator. Suzaku quickly entered as well since he worked the same shift that Monday morning.
"Don't you have a wife, Suzaku?"
For almost a year now, Suzaku was married to his childhood sweetheart, Euphemia Prince, a half Japanese and American college student. In fact, she was four months pregnant with their first child. They had yet to find out whether they were having a son or daughter. Both didn't mind which gender. Just as long as their baby was healthy they would be over the moon.
"Yes and I love her dearly but as a fan of beauty, I have to admire the beautiful things in life." Sometimes Suzaku was full of nonsense that only Lelouch had the patience for. "And Miss Yukito is certainly beautiful."
A groan came into the elevator. It belonged to reddish pinked haired woman who they knew to be Kallen Stratfeld. While everyone knew C.C. was beautiful, not everyone placed her on a high pedestal. Most of the women certainly didn't. Men considered them fools since they did not appreciate C.C.'s beauty. To defend their opinions, the women say that would appreciate her eye catching beauty if she wasn't a witch.
"Every time that damn girl comes here all I hear about is 'Miss Yukito' this and 'Miss Yukito' that." Kallen mimicked the voices of the employees who kissed the ground C.C. walked on. She wasn't a fan of the heiress. Not one bit.
Suzaku snorted.
"You're just jealous that a few days of the month men aren't drooling over your abundance of a chest," he shot back mockingly. "Am I right, Lelouch?"
Lelouch almost choked on air when Suzaku brought him into the conversation he preferred to be left out of.
"I really have no idea what you are talking about."
Kallen shot Suzaku a glare, hot air shooting out of her nostrils. Men always had a habit of riling her up. She was so annoyed with them and their sexist outlooks. Not once did she ever flaunt her chest. She was a teller. Flaunting of anything private was frowned upon. Perverted men always noticed her chest at first. Not her fault at all.
"You're such a typical male, Suzaku," she hissed out, coming off as a very pissed off woman. "I don't understand how Lelouch can be friends with the likes of you. Clearly, he has poor judgement in friends."
It was a rude remark, bringing Lelouch further into the conversation he didn't want to take part it.
"Geez, some people are grumpy in the morning."
The elevator doors opened to the staff lounge. The three occupants stepped off, Lelouch faster than the other two who were still mindlessly bickering about nonsense. He set his belongings on a table that was being used by the ever so friendly Shirely Fenette.
"Morning, Lulu!" Shirley's voice was like extra sugar on an already sugary fountain of sugar. It was too sweet for Lelouch's taste but he understood if some men find that part of Shirley attractive.
"How are you, Shirley?"
"Good, I'm good," she replied, voice becoming impossibly sweeter than her tone a few seconds ago. "How about you?"
He shrugged.
"My morning was fine until I got trapped into an elevator with Suzaku and Kallen." Lelouch gestured behind him as Suzaku and Kallen remained bickering by their lockers. It was unfortunate for everyone that Kallen and Suzaku had neighbouring lockers. They always argued.
Shirley shook her head despite having a small smile on her face. His noticed that Shirley never went a day without a smile.
"What are they arguing about this time?"
"It all started when Suzaku and I were talking about Miss Yukito."
Unlike Kallen, who disliked C.C., Shirley had no ill or negative feelings towards the heiress.
"That explains it all."
"Of course it explains it all," Suzaku declared as he manoeuvred towards the table Lelouch and Shirley were at. "Kallen is jealous over Miss Yukito, again. She always get angry whenever Miss Yukito is here or when her name is mentioned." He glanced towards Kallen immaturely. "Jealousy is not a fine trait, Kallen. You'll turn green with envy."
"You're pathetic," Kallen scowled, ending the pointless argument then and there.
Moving on from Kallen, Suzaku focused his attention back on towards Lelouch.
"Anyway, how did you feel when Miss Yukito spoke to you?" He sounded like an over hyper teenager in middle school. It was immature and lame - lamely cute.
Shirley almost spat out her Chai latte.
"She spoke to you?" Her eyes were wide with curiosity as she gawked at Lelouch.
Kallen rolled her eyes.
"She said 'Thank you'. That's all she said and you guys are going bonkers. Typical male pigs."
"Hey, don't lump me with him," Lelouch argued, defending himself. He has done nothing to deserve being placed into the typical male category. "Sure, Miss Yukito is cute, I guess, but I'm not going to going fan boy crazy just because she utters two words to me for returning her dropped cellphone."
"I am not being a fan boy," Suzaku huffed lamely, feeling like he was going to be ganged on by his co-workers.
"You're such a gentleman, Lelouch," Shirley said, her voice going a notch sweeter. She was almost gushing.
"For picking up a phone?" Kallen cried out.
"Yeah, I know it seems like a simple act of kindness but if any other boy picked up Miss Yukito's cellphone, they would have definitely tried to get into her pants afterwards," she pointed out confidently.
There were moments, like this one, when Shirley almost shocked people into oblivion. They didn't even think she knew what phrase of getting into someone's pants. She didn't seem like the type to know. An innocent aura was what Shirley gave off; innocent and naive.
Kallen raised an eyebrow towards Lelouch. It was highly arched, as if she was already scrutinizing him.
"Do you plan on getting into her pants, Lelouch?"
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It wasn't rare when a low ranked teller was asked to run an errand for the managers. Most of the errands usually consisted of fetching a group in a meeting or presentation lunch. As a teller, a low one at that, it was Lelouch's turn to fetch a few managers lunch. They were in a meeting, discussing how to teach people who to finance better. After retrieving their orders, the highest ranked manager just told Lelouch to tell the restaurant to put it on the tab of Tomoe Honda, a higher ranked boss.
Following the orders, Lelouch made his way towards the eatery just at the corner of the street.
The eatery wasn't far at all, a ten minute walk if the weather was permitting and the traffic of the people on the side walk was low. Since it was Monday and the meeting ran late, most people already had their lunch. The streets weren't crowded at all. Besides a few stray people, Lelouch was the only one on the sidewalk.
He turned the corner since the entrance was on the other side.
"Hey, babe, are you alone?"
Lelouch saw C.C. standing between two young adults who were trying to get into her pants. As usual, since they were scum to her, C.C. ignored them. Ignoring people was her speciality after all.
"Can you hear me?" The taller one continued to pester C.C. but she didn't seem to be all that bothered.
"Dude, I think she's ignoring us."
He saw C.C. roll her eyes for a nanosecond before the boys grew louder.
"Listen, you little whore, you can't just ignore me."
What the guy did next boiled Lelouch's blood to a heat similar to lava. He stuck his hand up C.C.'s short almost non-existence skirt. She shrieked in surprise and tensed up immediately.
"Don't touch her!" Mustering up his courage, which he had a lot from his father, Lelouch shoved the smaller guy into the large one which caused the two to trip over their own feet into the curb.
C.C. turned around to see that Lelouch was standing in front of her, his stance protective.
"You can't just go around touching girls like that!"
The larger one, about the same height as Lelouch but better built, smirked as he cracked his knuckles threateningly. He drew closer towards the two, the smaller one copying his every movement.
"Mind your own business, jackass. Who the hell do you think you are sticking your nose into somebody else's business?"
The man didn't scare Lelouch. Either he was that brave or that foolish.
"Who do you think you are sticking your hand up a lady's skirt?" He asked in the same ferocity.
The large one laughed heavily as he glanced quickly at C.C.
"You're mistaken, Dude. That's no lady; that's a whore."
It wasn't that Lelouch had a hero complex. That wasn't the reason why he was standing up for C.C. but he had integrity issues. His parents had thought him to respect others; no matter the nationality, the sex and the religion. His father taught him that if you love your mother and any other female family members, like a sister, you will respect all women. Seeing the two bastards harass C.C. showed Lelouch that the two did not respect women, especially their own mothers and sisters, if they had any. And that annoyed him. That prompted Lelouch to stand up for C.C.
And he was going to keep defending her.
"Take that back," his tone was threatening. "Take that back."
"Oh, and what are you going to do to me if I don't?"
Lelouch growled, ready to reply but C.C. tugged on his elbow.
"Do you have a death wish? Just leave it alone. I can handle myself."
He found that hard to believe. If she could handle it on her own, she would have spoken up minutes ago. Instead, she left the stand off drawl out even further than it should have lasted.
"Take back what you said about her." Lelouch wasn't going to be backing off any time. It as apparent in his dark violet eyes and overly courageous stance. He was foolish enough to think he would be able to survive a fist fight with two insanely built young men around his age.
"You pathetic piece of shit."
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His body was achingly sore. Even his peaceful dreamless slumber felt the pain of his burning body. His face nagged the most at his nervous system. Every other pain failed in comparison when it came to of Lelouch's possible swollen face.
He groaned as his body and brain began to regain consciousness. Slumber was bidding him farewell as his body slowly but surely began to wake up in one piece. Waking up only caused his aches to double. Lelouch also felt something cold and raw resting on his cheek bone, just shy of his left eye. Cautiously touching it, he felt the thing to be dewy and moist. It was an ice pack.
"Ara, you're finally awake." Lelouch told himself he had heard that voice somewhere else before. He was resolute he heard that voice earlier during the day.
Lelouch push himself up to sit, one hand holding the ice pack still onto his tender cheek. It hurt as he pushed he ice pack a little too harshly into his cheek bone. He knew it was bruised. And if there was no purple mark yet, one would surely appear the next day.
C.C. knelt down in front of him, studying his face, mostly his swollen left cheek.
"Does it still hurt?"
"Yeah," he rasped out, his throat suddenly feeling dry as he regarded the cup of spring water in C.C.'s clutch.
She offered it to him and he took it graciously.
After a sip, he managed to ask, "What happened?"
"You pissed off the morons and they knocked you out with one punch." Lelouch blinked at her as the news settled in. It didn't take him that long to believe that he was knocked out by the jerks earlier. "I sprayed them with pepper spray, called my driver and had him bring us to my condo unit. You've been out for six hours. I was going to call the hospital-"
As C.C. continued to speak, Lelouch glanced at the wall clock on the northern wall. It was noon when he ran into the men and C.C. At that moment it was dinner time. He missed the remaining hours of work.
"What about my job?" He questioned, unknowingly cutting C.C. off.
"I called them as soon as it happened. I informed Tomoe Honda that you were in an accident, nothing serious, but probably wouldn't return for the remainder of your shift," C.C. explained to him, her tone unfaltering and confident.
Lelouch heaved a sigh of relief. At least he wouldn't have to face the wrath of his boss due to missing the four hours left of his shift.
"Thank you." He was beyond grateful for C.C.'s kind act. It actually surprised him that she was being so friendly and hospitable towards him. All the rumours that he heard about her made her out to be a horny bitch.
Rumours were only rumours anyway.
"I should really get going now." Lelouch got up to leave, still holding onto the soggy ice pack.
C.C. nodded, following his actions.
"Before I forget, St. Luke's International Hospital called around five o'clock." Turning around, Lelouch looked down at C.C., waiting for her to proceed with her statement. "Your younger sister, Nunnally, was wondering why you haven't arrived for your daily visit." She handed him his cellphone, a sleek black yet older version of the more modern cellphones. "I told her you were busy but will try to make the visiting hours if you can."
Since it was only dinner time, Lelouch had about three hours left to spend time with Nunnally. Hopefully, C.C.'s condominium wasn't located too far from the hospital. He didn't want to be stuck in public transit for more than an hour trying to get to Nunnally.
"I really don't know how I can show you my thanks, Miss Yukito."
C.C. shrugged at him as she led him towards her main door.
"It's not a big deal." She opened the door for him and he stepped out. "There's a train stop about a block away. Getting to St. Luke's should only take you about fifteen minutes." C.C. had an inkling Lelouch was opening his mouth to ask for directions.
Bowing, Lelouch was showing his utmost gratitude.
"Thank you."
Casting him a small wave, C.C. shut the door. Leaning against it, a small smile played on the corners of her lips.
"No, thank you, Lelouch Lamperouge..."
A/N: New story!
Since I'm almost done my other story, Green Silk and Golden Orbs [shameless plug is shameless], I decided to post up the very first chapter of Vanilla Kiss to prepare you readers. I'm not entirely sure when I'll update this but it should be when I update the former mentioned fiction [which I still have a writer's block for :/].
To clarify a couple of things Lelouch and C.C. [as well as the other characters around Lelouch's age in the series] are all 21 years old. Explains why Euphemia is a college student [she's only twenty] and Nunnally is a sickly fourteen year old. All characters mentioned [eg., Kaname Yukito and Tomoe Hondo] are all side characters with mediocre to important appearances every now and then.
They may all seem OOC at the moment but let me try to defend the way I wrote them. In the original series, when Lelouch had no double life, he was a friendly, intelligent student and loving older brother. He was a born leader with charisma and courage. I made him like that here but more realistic [?]. After all, he is only an average twenty one year old bank employee here. As for C.C., for the sake of my story, she has to be like how I portrayed her here. But her wittiness will be a prominent trait of her's. Suzaku and Kallen are definitely OOC but I just wanted to add a pinch of spice to their professional relationship. Shirley is here as well; she'll be kind of important in the later on chapters.
Speaking of future chapters, I can somewhat guarantee this story be will longer than GSGC. Let's just see what happens from here.
Oh and some of you may wonder why Lelouch is utterly grateful towards C.C. for macing the boys and why didn't she bother calling the police. I can answer the first part. Lelouch knew he would lose against the two men. He knew he would get seriously hurt if they were fought. When you look at it, it should be C.C. showing her thanks since Lelouch did save her from two morons trying to get into her pants. C.C.'s not the type to show gratitude and this Lelouch, kind older brother Lelouch with an ill younger sisters, could careless that C.C. didn't bother to thank him. He just wants to get to Nunnally as soon as allowed.
Long author's note [sigh]...
Reviews are love but so are alerts and favourites. Try to at least do one [joking].
A reminder, this is loosely based on the manga Velvet Kiss by Harumi Chihiro. That manga is sexual... But this story will not be sexual since I cannot write *those types of scenes at all. This is rated T for there will suggestive moments.