Cat and Mouse

Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass...

Part 1: The Blood

When Suzaku woke, he could feel the awakened vampire senses kick in, he never asked to be a vampire. Rising from his bed, he slipped on a shirt and slacks, he looked around the empty attic that he had shared with his friend, Lelouch. He knew that if he wasn't careful his half mad friend would have brought home someone.

Lelouch's mind was consumed with wanting blood, the more he got the more insane he became over the centuries. Suzaku had to watch over him, had to keep his promise to Nunnally who had long been dead, at least for the last two hundred years.

"I promise, I will watch over your brother," he remembered telling her the first time Lelouch was trapped in a coffin. He remembered the screams and the taunts, for the first time, Suzaku couldn't remember a time where things didn't become insane.

That time, that one time, he walked into the cell, Lelouch lying on his side, his breathing labored. C.C. warned that it wouldn't get better, it would get steadily worse and though with V.V. and Charles gone keeping Lelouch from going completely insane. Things became much worse now.

The red eyes with the dangerous Geass were controlled, as long as no one could look into his eyes, the idea to blind Lelouch to poke out those eyes came up a few times.

Suzaku didn't predict much of his friend's reaction, only that Lelouch choose to close his eyes, he felt around blindly, using his sense of smell to find out what he wanted. The words mumbled and almost hard to understand, then came close to a normal set of sentences. "That is you, Suzaku, how nice to have company," sitting down on a coffin, the fact that once Lelouch was able to control himself, able to hold back, but the vampires did their damage.

"Why did you let them turn you into a vampire, Lelouch?" Suzaku finally asked, his friend reached for a blanket wrapping himself in it.

"To control the Geass," Lelouch touched his face, opening one crimson eye. He smiled a little, the flash of fangs appeared, as he moved steadily closer. "I can't control it as much as father could, it tears me apart each time I use it. The most I can do is command and people obey, but it hurts me." His breathing still labored just a bit. "You understand, don't you, Suzaku?" Then Lelouch was up close to him, the crimson eyes did not have the Geass in them, they were just red and catlike. "I really don't want to be alone, Suzaku." Then the pain at his throat came, Suzaku remembered falling into darkness.

He heard the sound of someone pulling Lelouch away, a group of the guards suddenly trapping him into a corner of the crypt. "We shouldn't have let him go in without a guard," Jeremiah was yelling as he finished pushing Lelouch into a corner.

For a week, Suzaku went in and out of consciousness, he knew what it meant now, why his friend was so insistent it was him to hold him back. He walked into the palace to ask Nunnally a question. He knew that no one in the royal family would know that this was something to be shared. He talked quietly to her, her hands gripping her skirt as if trying to figure out the best way. "Killing my brother on stage as Zero, Suzaku made him go mad," she sighed. "He doesn't even know who I am anymore." Her voice was sad. "Would you really destroy your own human life to stay with my brother?"

"If it means to keep him sane, yes," Suzaku sat down near her. "Nunnally, I love you and your brother, you are family to me. How long do you plan to keep him locked in that crypt? He will find a way out, C.C. already predicted it." For a moment, she nodded kissed his cheek.

"I can't stop you from trying to stop Lelouch, but once you're a vampire, you must take him far from here," she insisted. "He's so dangerous."

Suzaku felt the bite starting to sting, he walked into the cell, this time, he was certain that Lelouch was going to finish what he started. He saw him sitting with a stack of books near one end of the room. The white outfit of the Emperor Lelouch vi Britannia was in prefect condition, he looked as sane, but for a moment, though the crimson red eyes still stared out from the black hair.

Reading intently, the vampire looked up and smiled. "You came back," the words were soft and happy, then almost in a strange tone, as if not sure why he was so afraid all of the sudden. "Suzaku, why did you come back? I bit you."

"I can't abandon a friend, I want to ask you something. Do you know how to turn another person into a vampire?" Suzaku felt sure that instinctually, his friend knew what to do, it was all instincts that caused this bout of sanity.

"I…" for a second, Lelouch made a face, his lips parted to show the sharp incisors that had seemed to just retract then lengthen. Thinking for a moment, it was as if asking this question caused him pain. "I do and I don't…they never told me."

"Can you make me a vampire? Lelouch, answer me, you have to…if I can keep you sane, you won't die."

The moment his friend looked up, the old Lelouch showed through, his eyes pleading at the idea. "Don't make me do it, Suzaku," he held out his hands and shook his head. "It hurt when they did it, it hurt when they changed me, I would never allow it to happen to you."

Leaving the cell, Suzaku touched he mark on his neck, for some reason, it was burning again. Leaning on the door, he looked in, for a moment, it was as if Lelouch was normal, not going to harm anyone, but the next insanity gripped him and he would stand slowly.

Bringing him blood was nearly impossible, most of the forces kept the secret, after putting him in the cell after the mock assassination. Suzaku could play Zero for all he cared, but it was the fact Lelouch had done what he set out to do. C.C. remained steadfastly nearby waiting for the vampire to stop with the insanity.

"Tell me, C2, you know more than I do about this," Suzaku brought his hands to his face. "Why is Lelouch like this?"

"There lies the problem, both vampire blood and Geass blood flow in him, both fight each other. One moment he's sane and able to tell who one is, while the other time, the vampire makes him very angry." She touched the tip of her nose and then shook her head. "I could take him away, but keeping him from people isn't going to happen."

For many reasons, Lelouch's mind was still able to hold onto this for a brief moments at a time. Watching him, Susaku could see the large among of strain all the staff had to expand, Cornelia and Schniezel were protecting their little brother from discovery. "We just can't keep him in the family crypt forever," Cornelia sat touching the insigna of the royal family that once had been on Lelouch's robes. "Suzaku, what is your plan?"

"You don't want to kill your brother, do you?" Suzaku asked both.

"No, we don't, we both love and hate him, but we never want to see Nunnally suffer. Lelouch's vampirism is something we kept secret, do you know how he came to be like this?" Schniezel asked intently, his eyes down.

"I will find out."

The crypt smelled nothing like one, Lelouch would sit for hours as a set of books would be set for him. His eyes moved over the covers, some were pieces he read in high school, while others, they fogged his memory. He sat staring down and wondered though one thing, how did he come to this? He remembered being Zero, he remembered trying to make Nunnally happy and have a better world for her.

He looked up again, he saw Suzaku, the smell from him was that of his bite was possibly infected. Walking up to his friend, he touched the wound and looked away. "I'm sorry," the words were soft and sad. "Suzaku, I never meant to have this happen."

Suzaku grabbed Lelouch's hand and pushed it away. "How did you become a vampire?"

The crimson eyes widened, Lelouch fell back onto his coffin, sitting staring up at his friend. "My mother made a contract with the vampires when I was a child, I'm her first born and my blood belongs to them." He stared down at the coffin. "C.C. doesn't know, I didn't know until I was taken to them."

"Taken?"

Lelouch stared up at the ceiling. "While sleeping in my room, I had a dream that I was chasing Shirley, I was chasing trying to save her, then when I woke, I saw the red eyes. I couldn't use the Geass on them, they held me down, told me my time as a human was gone."

Suzaku could see the look Lelouch gave him. "When I woke, I am as you see me, this hunger, it is unbearable, I can't even think," touching his face the former emperor showed his crimson eyes. "Seeing you makes me thirst more, and I feel as if I could rip everything apart." Lelouch's movements suddenly had trapped Suzaku against the wall, he could feel the strangest sense. "I would make you as I am…"

Without warning, the feeling of burning was at his throat, Suzaku's hands trembled, he couldn't move, he could only feel his friend's hunger overthrowing his ability to control it. Lelouch, I just want to help you, the thoughts rang into his friend's head.

Lelouch dropped him, without warning, there was tears in his eyes. "And I kill everyone in front of me, I'm truly a beast," he whispered. "Suzaku….what have I…wake up…don't leave me!"

Blood, Suzaku could taste it in his mouth, he was coughing as he looked at Lelouch. For a moment, it was like they were in class. "Lelouch?" Suzaku blinked sitting up at a desk.

"You fell asleep, do you work that hard in engineering?" Lelouch laughed as he got his books. "Don't worry, I got the notes for the class. You're the only reason I like coming again."

No, these are memories, these are the memories Lelouch recalls as a human, these are the times I see him looking happy. For a moment, he was standing talking to Shirley who was excitedly talking about one of her books for class and how she didn't understand it. Shirley? Yes, Lelouch loved her the most, loved her like any other man could.

Memories flashed and Lelouch was holding her, she was bleeding coughing as someone had caused her to shoot herself. "No…don't leave me, Shirley, please don't die," his hands held over hers.

Then Suzaku saw the night Lelouch was turned, he saw the red eyes, the vampires who came to him. "You are Lelouch vi Britannia, son of Marianne, bearer of our contract?" they asked him, one holding him from behind keeping him from using the Geass.

Lelouch was turned against his will, he stared at the mirror, his once beautiful purple eyes showing a deep crimson. His mind gripped with the realization that he was to bear his mother's curse. "Lelouch, what have you become?" he was standing before his father.

"All this I have done for your protection, yet my wayward son doesn't understand," Lelouch's father was holding his son out. "Did they truly come for you?"

"They have father," Lelouch was holding something in his hand. "They said I had means to destroy you father." Did he use those means? Yes.

Suzaku came to, he was lying on the floor, his body felt like it was stretched thin, the beautiful eyes he saw in a corner were Lelouch's. "We have to leave," Suzaku told him.