oOo
The easy part about his escape from the monster realm to the human one is just that—the escape. Finding his place in the human realm proves to be much harder.
It wasn't like he didn't have contacts, though, being the eleventh vampire prince. C.C., the witch that his mother had befriended, grudgingly forged him an identity, giving him a birth certificate as a human and enough cash to help him find a place to stay. Mr. Ashford, the half-sorcerer who had fled to make a decent life for his daughter, allowed him a place in the academy he'd inherited from his human father.
The monster realm was a cruel place, after all. Only the strong survived, and when Lelouch first heard some human's versions of Hell, he'd nearly laughed at how similar to his birthplace it had seemed. Still, for the weak, there was really very little choice: he could either stay and attempt to live a normal life in the monster world while constantly being picked on and singled out for weakness, or escape and attempt a different, hidden life in the human realm that was constantly plagued by the possibility of being found out and shunned—or worse, killed—for the simple transgression of being.
There had been little Lelouch could have done. A vampire, though considered the noblest of all monsters, was treated the worst if there was something wrong with it. And Lelouch, with a body that had been so sick from birth that he could barely exercise without fainting, had been treated the worst of all. No one had wanted a sickly prince. Only his mother and dear siblings had been able to look out for him, and Lelouch was quickly tiring of his strong (so, so strong) mother starting to look defeated after every argument with his father, and his twin siblings, Nunnally and Rolo, getting into fights to protect him (and he hated it, for what use was a big brother if he couldn't protect his younger siblings?).
So he'd left. No note, nothing. A kiss on his family's foreheads in the dead of the night and a call to a green-haired witch that had somehow made quite the living for herself as a shop owner in the human realm.
And there he was in the present. Attending school like he'd never thought he'd be able to and making friends.
Well, trying to. It didn't escape his attention that the only person who barely even tolerated him was Milly, the school president, and that most of the other students, though they praised his beauty, found him disgusting, dangerous even. He'd been at school for two years before he decided to give up trying.
Of course, the universe wouldn't leave him alone. Enter one Suzaku Kururugi during his senior year of high school, all blazing eyes and outspoken morals. It was from him that Lelouch learned the reasons for the hatred. Turns out humans don't like something that steals from their blood bank reserves (that could go towards helping more humans, despite the fact that Lelouch really only drank the rejects, the blood that would be more liable to make the receiving human sicker and instead did the same to him) and hate even more a creature that they believe will kill them in their sleep.
So the poor, sickly vampire stopped. Refused to eat, even as C.C., who brought the blood to him every week, began to look at his increasingly translucent skin and weak limbs with sad, suffering eyes, and as Mr. Ashford stopped him in the hall more than once to ask how he was feeling. Grinned and bore it, joined the student council, did everything Milly told him to and tried his best to live up to Suzaku's standards (because if he could please the school's new, perfectly human sports idol, then he could make friends).
And thank goodness for the incredibly slow metabolism of vampires, that even in his weakened state he managed to stop eating entirely for long enough that he began to be graced with a smile from that righteous boy. That other students stopped being afraid and started reaching out towards him, and soon the student council was a lively place.
It was when Suzaku decided to invite him over his house for a sleepover one night that Lelouch realized that he'd actually done it—he'd been accepted, and made a friend.
He should have known then, that it was too good to be true. Because try as he might, there was only so long a supernatural being could go without sustenance and living only on willpower and tainted happiness alone. It had been almost exactly four months since the beginning of his forced fast—an astonishing amount of time, even for the strongest of vampires—when his body finally gave out on him. The day of his birthday in fact, and he'd been feeling more run-down that usual when he'd walked into the student council room to the squawking of noisemakers as his friends—yes, friends —celebrated the day of his birth. There had been a party, the first he'd ever had in celebration of his birth in fact, and he never had known why there had been such gatherings every year in his old home for his healthy siblings until he'd read about it when he'd first transferred to his new home. No one had ever wanted to celebrate the birth of a sickly prince, so no one had explained to concept of a birthday party, nor even considered holding one for him.
That day, he opened a birthday gift for the first time, a cell phone from Suzaku with a card bearing the words so you can keep in touch with all of your friends. He knew then that he would be heartbroken to lose any of this. So, he laughed with the rest of them, forced cake down his throat (human food burned), and bid them all a farewell as they went home, staying behind to wonder at it all as he pored over the last few documents that needed filing for the student council before winter break.
He focused on the words, but they blurred, and he felt his body start to tremble. Somewhere in the back of his head he heard C.C., who'd been keeping tabs on him, telling him 'no, no, don't close your eyes' and felt his skull smacking down onto the desk, eyes twitching violently as he watched the cell phone that dear Suzaku, the catalyst for his change, had given him vibrate and fall off the desk, the screen a bright light in the end of his sudden tunnel vision. And as he realized himself and thought no, no, no that it was too late to even try and find some food source and nonononono his eyes were falling shut and the strength leaving his body and WHY? he was gone.
oOo
If it seems like it was written weirdly, it is. On purpose. It's also painfully short. Not on purpose.
I'm considering writing a second chapter. Thoughts?
Reviews are nice!