The Orphan and Prince Charming
Summary: Suzaku, a 6 year old orphan boy, living a harsh life in the streets formed a friendship with a mysterious handsome stranger. Unbeknownst to him, he just met his Prince Charming! (Alternate universe, fairytale)
Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass and its characters J
Chapter 1
Suzaku is an orphan boy who has lived all 6 years of his life in the cold street of Pedragon City. His parents died when he was still at a very young age that he had no recollection of them or even how they look like. He lived together with other families living in the streets. The kind lady who took care of him when he was still a baby had already died due to an incurable disease during the last winter. Ever since then, Suzaku lived to fend off for himself. He would wake up early to go to the market place, where he would do various errands for market vendors in exchange for a few coins. Many of them would say that Suzaku was a hardworking cheerful boy however deep down, Suzaku has always been a lonely little boy who longed for a family to love him.
Suzaku stood a short stature of 4 and a half feet. He had a mop of disheveled chocolate brown hair that framed his round face. He had expressive big emerald eyes that penetrate the soul. He had a very thin frame which bordered to looking frail making him an easy target of bullies for most of the times.
One day he was walking along the familiar streets of Pendragon City, carrying on his back a sack filled of tomatoes. The heavy weight made him bend his upper body forward at the level of his waste. It was such a challenging chore for a thin boy like him especially on a mid-day where the sun was at its peak. All of a sudden three big boys who are older than him, probably between 8 to 10 years old blocked his way.
"Hey hey hey boys! look what we got here," The one on the middle, who appeared to be their leader and the biggest of them all, snorted.
Suzaku tried to lift his chin up to see the newcomers, when he saw the all too familiar faces of his tormentors, Suzaku tried his best to keep his face neutral. He doesn't want to look fearful in front of them, he responded with a soft,
"Please excuse me… I need to pass."
Suzaku tried to make a round about the three boys, but he was stopped when a heavy hand was placed on his shoulders.
"Where do you think you're going? We're not done with you yet." The boy on his right with ear piercing grinned, mischief was evident on his eyes.
"What do you want?" Suzaku asked, in the friendliest way he could muster.
"You already know what we want. So let's make this quick and easy for you!" The leader chuckled, while inserting his dirty fat hands inside Suzaku's pocket, taking some of the earnings he had made this morning. He looked at the silver coins at his palms and proudly exclaimed, "Good boy!"
Suzaku frowned, these bullies always steal his meager earnings that sometimes nothing got left for him. Suzaku tried to talk reason to them. They can't go around stealing his earnings all the time. He decided to put an end to this and try to change their ways for good. So Suzaku decided to speak up, "That isn't right! I worked hard for those money why won't you just work for your own?"
"Work for our own?" The three of them looked dumbly at each other and they all bursted out laughing at the same time. "Why would we even do THAT when we have you to work for us?"
XXX
Prince Lelouch was idly walking down the streets of Pendragon on his way to the marketplace. He was whistling a cheerful tune while enjoying the sights before him. The people were all busy running up and down doing their respective day-to-day businesses.
Lelouch vi Britannia, the fourth prince of the Britannian Empire, was walking out in the open unescorted, unguarded, wearing commoner clothes; he could just laugh at the thoughts of the King, Queen and his brothers' reactions once they find out this little unauthorized escapades of his.
Who could blame him? Being a prince could bore him to death. He's always waited hand and foot by servants, that making him lift a finger to do the any chore would be a mortal sin. Pathetic if you ask him. He wanted, no scratch that, he's dying to live a normal life. But he already knew that's beyond possible and he's already resigned to the fact that ever since the day he was born, his life has already been laid out/planned to be everything but normal. So here he was grabbing every opportunity he can to get away from the suffocating pretentious confines of the Pendragon Royal Court.
'Welcome to the real world,' Prince Lelouch would so often thought to himself. Funny how no one could recognize him when he's wearing his 'commoner' clothes which was composed of dark blue pants, gray long sleeves and old brown shoes? His shoulder-length black hair also complemented his 'commoner' act. Out of all his brothers he's the only one with the black hair, surprisingly he gets complimented a lot because of this. Some would say that his black hair give him a darker or to be more precise devilishly handsome look. Add to that the amethyst eyes he inherited from his father which made all the girls if not even the boys melt into a poodle at his feet.
Prince Lelouch was busily indulging at the picturesque surroundings, when he was stopped at the middle of his tracks when he saw a small boy lying prone in the middle of the street, surrounded with crushed tomatoes all around him. Without wasting any more time, he rushed to his side and saw a cute little boy crying.
"Hey kid, what happened to you?" Lelouch asked concernedly, the little boy lifted his head up to look at him.
"J-just –hic- some kids –hic- stole my earnings," the small boy said in between sobs.
"Come on, let me give you a hand," Kneeling in front of the boy, he carefully guided him up to stand. The boy winced in pain, clutching his stomach indicating a painful spot. Lelouch supported the boy with his both hands securedly on his shoulders. "What's your name?"
"My name? uh-um it's Suzaku." Looking at the young man in front of him, Suzaku blushed when unexpectedly this handsome stranger showed interest to him and his name. He'd suddenly forgotten the little predicament he was in.
"Okay, Suzaku. Don't cry, okay? I'm here to help you." Lelouch smiled reassuringly at the boy which made Suzaku to feel surprisingly better. "But first, you have to tell me what exactly happened?"
Suzaku told the prince what happened, how the bullies cornered him, how they took his money and not even contented with just his money, even physically assaulted him and even destroyed the sack of tomatoes he was made to deliver to the marketplace.
At the end of the story, lelouch felt bad seeing a young boy like him doing manual labor at a very young age. He should be in the school learning, surrounded by a loving family and not being abused like this. He suddenly felt a pang of guilt where here he was always complaining about his pampered lifestyle while somewhere outside this perfect little bubble he lived in, there's a boy who probably hasn't even experienced any comfort all his life. He silently thanked this little encounter he had with Suzaku. It was because of him that made him see beyond his role as a prince, beyond the glamour of his life that he'd come to hate BUT see his role as future leader of the Empire, where he had the power to change things for the better.
Lelouch and Suzaku walked together towards the vendor whom suzaku was supposed to bring the sack of tomatoes. At first, Suzaku was afraid that the vendor would scold him but he watched as this handsome stranger stepped up for him and tried to talk to the vendor, he saw him slipped a few bills to the vendor's hands. Suzaku felt guilty that he had to get this nice young man into so much trouble.
"Thank you so much! I'd do everything to repay you! I promise!" The boy bowed deeply at the handsome stranger in front of him.
"You don't have to. Trust me, I happy to do this." The prince flashed one of his smiles, that left no further room for arguments.
"But why?"
"Because good boys like you deserve a guardian angel, and I happened to be one."
"A guardian angel?" Suzaku loved the idea of having a guardian angel. "May I know the name of my guardian angel, sir?"
"Oh my name…" Prince Lelouch paused for a while to think of whether he should tell his real name or not.
"Please just your name…"
He finally gave in, it's just a name after all "Just call me Lelouch"
"Lelouch… that's a very beautiful name. Thank you so much, Mr. Lelouch."