This fanfiction was slightly based off of the manga of the same name. Proper credit goes to Kannagi Satoru, the writer, Odagiri Hotaru, the illustrator, and Digital Manga Publishing, the English publisher.

"He's so charming and charismatic… first in the class… perfect..."

"I'm so jealous, I wish I was that skinny…"

"I heard he turns down modeling offers all the time…"

"Not only is he handsome but I hear he's a real gentleman…"

"He's so kind, an ideal boyfriend… what a prince charming."

Intelligent. Handsome. Perfection…

Lelouch.

"It's just plain unfair!" This statement, followed by the slamming of another beer can, brought me back down to reality. "I'm just so unlucky!" Just sip your drink, Suzaku. Don't pay attention to the drunk man. "Why does he have to be so utterly perfect? No, that's not the point! Why does he have to exist in some regular old private school like ours, as an upperclassman, to make matters even worse?" My friend, because I couldn't truthfully acknowledge him as anything less, sobbed in his misery.

"Gino, you're a mess." I turned to look at the sobbing slime ball of a male as I pretended to nurse my lemonade disguised as tequila.

"It's not my fault that this happened. You understand me, right, old buddy, old pal," Oh great, he's getting all sentimental on me again. "It's all that stupid Lelouch's fault. If it wasn't for him, I'd be happily dating Shirley Fenette, the love of my life! I'd be the happiest man alive! Then, after a few months, she'd begin to fall in love with me and during our graduation, I'd purpose. We'd be the cutest couple ever, with twin boys and one baby girl! But no, that bastard had to steal my happy ending away from me in one foul swoop! My poor Shirley, wait for me, my darling! I'll save you from his evil clutches!" I tend to find that when Gino is peculiarly drunk, his mouth is like an open portal to his mind and all his weird thoughts that are kept inside by that giant filter between his tiny brain and his humongous mouth come through like a gush of water. Though he never slurs his words, walks a little funny, or gets hung-over - no matter how much he drinks - he's always emotionally unstable and not all there when the alcohol hits home. He blames the genetics, I blame his idiocy.

It's probably better if I give you a good back story first about what really happened. For the last year or so, Gino's had a crush on Shirley, the red-headed captain of the swim team or - as she's more infamously known as - the hottest chick in our year. It took him a while to confess to her, but when he finally got the guts to ask her out, she told him that she was in love with Lelouch and that it would be unfair to Gino if she led him on. If you ask me, that was a pretty decent way to let someone down, but I'm pretty sure Gino only heard the 'I love Lelouch' part so now he's convinced that Lelouch is going to run off into the sunset with Shirley and take away the future that he rightfully deserved.

So, naturally as any heartbroken teen would do, Gino dragged his innocent best friend, that's me, to the closest bar he could find and decided to have as many drinks as he could afford. Considering his family's financial standings, that's a lot of alcohol. Now that you're all caught up, let's get back to my pitifully drunk, I'm-so-considering-revising-my-priorities-and-getting-a-new-one, best friend.

"Damn it, it's all that guy's fault! If only he wasn't so handsome, and charming, and smart, and nice! Ugh, just go and die in a ditch already, Lelouch! Crawl back into the pits of hell where you came from, you womanizer!" I'd like to point out a few things about that statement. First of all, despite what the last few sentences might say, Gino's usually a pleasant guy to be around to the point where he's typically overly friendly to a fault. With a few drinks, however, any nice guy would be cursing out his alleged "enemy" like there was no tomorrow. I've learned at this point to not take him too seriously when he's drunk.

The second thing I have to say is that Lelouch is a nice guy, though I wouldn't say this to Gino's face at the moment for fear of getting socked where it hurts. I've seen the guy in the halls with his friends and classmates and he seems pretty genial; he always has a gentle smile on his face and talks in a courteous manner. I would have expected Lelouch to be a snobby brat with how much attention he gets for his looks and his brains, but he seems really down to earth. As rumors go, I've heard that he's apparently a member of the royal family, though I bet that's just something a student made up when they were bored. He doesn't have any weird friends either, from what I've seen. Though it is a bit peculiar that he hangs out with a group consisted mostly girls but really, it's a little bit unavoidable when your looks are as good as his and you are friends with just about everyone. I bet if it wasn't for this Shirley issue and their age difference, Gino would be great friends with Lelouch.

Thirdly, as rumor had it, Lelouch was the farthest thing from a womanizer that you could get. Though girls throw themselves at him on a daily basis, it's been a known fact that he's very kind to any girls who ask him out, especially since most guys would just sleep with them given the change and leave the next morning before they wake up. He's known to be real gentleman, though I've never heard a case of him accepting any offers. As far as the rumor mill goes, he's never been in a real relationship - at least not one they know about. I doubt that's the truth. With looks like those, no one could stay single.

"I even bought these matching rings for nothing!" Woah brain, bring it back. Pay attention to what the drunk idiot, I mean Gino, is saying.

"Um… what are those for? Even if she said yes, I doubt she'd want to marry you that fast." Those rings looked really expensive as well, though I bet for Gino, they were just pocket money.

"Nah, I wasn't planning to propose to her or anything. Haven't you heard, there's a new fad going around about matching rings. I think it was something made up for Valentine's Day coming up. Putting matching rings on the right ring finger signals a close friend ship, a ring on the right middle finger shows others you're single, and a set of rings on the left ring fingers signifies that you're a couple! It's the ultimate level of declaration to anyone looking that the other person's yours and to back off. I hear it's about as popular in Japan as that crazy Facebook relationship fad is in America, or so my father says. He told me about it a while ago back when his company was researching popular trends." Gino rubs in his superiority sometimes without even noticing what he's doing.

"Wouldn't that be getting a little bit ahead of yourself?"

"You're so clueless." Gino shook his head and took a sip from his champagne calmly as if he hadn't downed eight glasses of the same drink in the last hour. "Poor, clueless Suzaku. Everyone's already on the lookout about who's wearing what on where and with who. Didn't you notice the rumor going around that you never take off that ring?" I looked down at the silver band resting on the middle finger of my right hand.

"There's been some heavy rumors going around that you've still got the hots for your ex-girlfriend!" Gino put his elbow on my shoulder and gave me a sympathetic look. His breath stunk.

"You're kidding me, right? This ring has absolutely nothing to do with my Euphemia.

It's not like our rings match or anything. I like this ring. A lot. I don't care what anyone else has to say about it. I'm going to wear it for me, and I don't see why there has to be some other motive in all this." Money isn't really what makes the ring special to me. In fact, I could get a much better quality ring with my own money anytime I wanted to, but this ring has genuine sentimental value to me.

"Whatever you say man, as long as you're happy. The thing is, usually single guys have more than one copy of the same ring. It seems sort of suspicious, especially since the couple rings are only sold in sets of two. Since you only have one of that ring, naturally it looks like you gave the other one away. Suzaku, let's stop talking about this. It's making me depressed again just thinking about Shirley. Damn you Lelouch Lamperouge!" This statement was followed by the downing of even more alcohol. This was going to be a long night.

BEEP BEEEP BEEEEP BEEEEEP BEEEEEEP BEEEE- Crash.

A low moan sounded from the covers of the bead where one long arm extended from the blanket, coming to a rest above where the alarm clock was supposed to be. The offending object was currently resting at the base of the wall opposite to its original position as punishment for waking its owner up at such an unholy hour. Might as well get a few minutes of shut eye, how much harm could it do?

"Wake up big brother; you're going to be late to school." One glossy green eye opened slowly as if the world would explode if he were to move faster. A second one joined the first to peer at a pair of seemingly identical green eyes. Blinking a few times, the sleepy youth took a moment to realize that the petite girl trying to wake him up was his sister before he registered her words.

"Stupid Gino, I was stuck bringing him home last night after his latest drinking binge and went to sleep really late! I'm sorry you had to wake me up, Kaguya!" The brunette boy managed to say all of this while jumping out of bed, quickly getting dressed, and washing his face.

Suzaku sprinted down the stairs to the kitchen, tossed a couple of sausages and eggs onto a cooking pan, before realizing something. "Wait, didn't your school start already? Are you skipping class again?" Serious green eyes stared back at identically innocent ones but the effect was ruined since the male was too busy stuffing his face with his makeshift breakfast while still attempting to avoid burning himself.

"No, today's a holiday. We have the whole day off for some weird reason and I'm planning to go out with a few of my friends later today. Don't worry about me and have a nice day at school, big brother!" Kaguya waved goodbye to Suzaku as he sprinted out of the house with a sausage still sticking out of his mouth. Silly boys.

Thank god I made it to school on time! Sure, I almost got run over by a few cars and I'm pretty sure I made a dent in one kid's bike handles, but I still managed to make it to school on time and in one piece! Most importantly, I didn't get a detention!

"Detention, Kururugi-san…" Shock crept in as I lost the ability to pull up my jaw. I tried to argue but my mind seemed to be in a daze. "… for tracking mud throughout the whole entire school and disorderly conduct when entering the classroom. I'm sure the principal will be pleased to see this slip once again." That bitch walked away with a smug glint in her eyes. For some reason, my teacher's had it out for me all year, going out of her way to give me detentions almost as if she's trying to ruin my good name. Up until this point the principal has been fairly tolerant of me but this time it actually was my fault instead of her making up lies.

"Suzaku, are you ok?! Do you need to go see the nurse? How about an aspirin! Are you sick?!" I lifted my head to look at my overly worried best friend. This was so not right, anyone else who downed even an eighth of the alcohol Gino drank yesterday should have been sent to the hospital and right to the emergency room. Yet here Gino was, the overly happy and obnoxiously loud cloud of sunshine that he was every morning. I swear, that blonde is defiantly not human.

"Shut up Gino, you and your late night partying is the whole reason why I got close to no sleep last night and feel like shit." I got up and excused myself to the annoyed teacher, "I'm going to wash my face" and get away from Gino, if I can.

Note: When Suzaku talks about Gino drinking, he is clearly exaggerating the amount of alcohol he drank since Suzaku never drank alcohol in his life and still has the misconception that alcohol is much stronger than what is usually is. Don't take him too seriously.