Lelouch scoffs at the boys before him, who're sneering down at him. There are four of them in a semi-circle around him, one holding a sharp stone and the rest thick sticks. They're grinning maliciously, their bodies blocking out the light that came from the opening of the alleyway behind them.
They had no doubt seen him as an easy target and decided to corner him in an alley on his way home. He's three years younger and skinny, no threat in the eyes of the ten year olds.
Unfortunately for them, Lelouch is more than he looks.
Some people might say Lelouch has a dramatic streak. Others would fiercely disagree, because the seven year old doesn't have anything close to a dramatic streak- rather, he has a normal streak among the drama that is his personality. And even the existence of that normal streak is debatable.
Lelouch comes out of a silent, bloodied alley, a small smile of satisfaction on his pale face, before wandering in the direction of a nearby airport. This city doesn't hold what he's looking for, even though he doesn't know exactly what that is himself.
His rebirth had come as a surprise, and Lelouch was glad to find this mother had named him Lelouch too. There would be minimal name confusion, at least, although his appearance is different.
As soon as he was old enough, he'd set out to find the reason for his reincarnation. He searched the corners of the earth for the purpose of the second chance he'd been given. The purple flames were only a measure to help that search.
Does he need to do something? Carry out a task for whoever 'graciously' gave him a new life? As long as he doesn't know, he'll search for an answer of some kind. Why him? Why here?
Before his eleventh birthday, Lelouch is widely known as the most ruthless killer in Europe, even though nobody who's seen his face has survived. Those who get in his way, die.
Even he isn't Invincible, though. At twelve years old, when his reputation and influence is spreading to Asia and America, Lelouch gets heavily drugged in a moment of inattention and stabbed multiple time through the chest. The purple flames surrounding him aren't fast enough to burn his attacker, and as the wild eyes of his murderer bore into him in pain and vengeance, his fogged mind realizes what he's done. Lelouch is the cause of this vengeance. He had killed so many people in this life, people who had family and friends who miss them, just because they were in his way on his path to nowhere. Nunnally would hate him for it. Had hated him for it.
When he opens his eyes yet again the first thing he does is swear he'll never become that ruthless monster again.
Lelouch is an orphan, his single mother dying upon his birth, but once again, despite everything, he's named Lelouch.
He researches into the purple flames that had protected him in his previous life, finding only the barest scraps of information, which frustrates him immensely. Finally, Lelouch tries to summon them again, only to find after a few tries to his surprise not purple, but instead bright green fire dancing in his hand.
Lelouch throws everything into his research and protecting his only living family member, his older brother. Any threats to his brother or him are annihilated in a flash of green, sometimes exhausting Lelouch to the point of passing out but at least keeping his brother safe. He's not losing another sibling.
He takes note of his exhaustion and theorizes that it's because he's letting a burst of raw power loose, nor specifically aimed anywhere, while it could be more effective and less draining if he knows how to focus the fire at one point.
He trains, to become better, to protect his brother because if he couldn't protect his sister let him at least protect something else, let him not lose anyone else, not after all he's lost.
Eventually, at the age of eight years old, a large group targets him and he can't escape. He's helpless, too weak to protect even himself from this many people.
Imprisoned, useless, the leader of the kidnappers tells him they're the Mafia. The Migliore family, to be precise.
They're after his flames.
The Migliore boss tells him there are more of these Flame users, and Flames are a well kept secret in the Mafia world. Someone noticed him waving those green Flames around- apparently they're called Lighting Flames- and they 'collected' him to join their Family.
He accepts and they let him out. Minutes afterwards, his first escape attempt gets him killed.
The next time he wakes he's angry at himself, angry at how helpless he was even with his Flames. He strives to become the best in everything, so he'll never be helpless again.
His brother was taken from him. That's not something he can accept. He neglects everyone around him, focuses only on his self-imposed mission. What could he have done differently, what could have kept him with his brother?
He's not allowed in the gym at five, and it's not like a gym would be good enough anyway, so he trains his agility, speed, instinct and pain resistance by making as many enemies as he can. He spends his days in libraries and his nights on the streets with his wild red flames, barely coming home to- or caring about- his worried family.
As soon as he can, he infiltrates the Mafia and learns more. There are seven types of Flames, called Elements, named after weather conditions. Logically.
The red one he has now is named Storm Flames, the purple one two lives ago is called Cloud Flames, and as he already knows, his previous life he had Lightning flames.
There are also Mist Flames, defined by indigo flames, Sun Flames which are yellow, Rain Flames which are blue, and orange Sky Flames.
Every Flame has an accompanying attribute and usually falls into a certain personality range. For instance, Sky Flames have the attribute Harmony and are natural leaders, which led to the question if a personality was created according to the Flame that person has or if the Flame is a representation of a person's personality.
Apparently every human has Flames, they're a sort of life force, but only a few individuals ever activate them and can use them.
Lelouch has to wonder if he was a Sky in his first life. Probably.
At sixteen years old, still in the Mafia, Lelouch finally realizes he essentially ran away from home two years ago.
Guiltily, he checks back to his old home, only to find it empty. When he asks around, he finds that they moved out a few months after their eldest went missing.
Eldest? I'm a brother?
At sixteen years old, he throws himself into the search for his abandoned family, hating himself for leaving them and hating himself for barely remembering what they were like.
He searches and searches until he finally finds a clue. He follows it to a house on the outskirts of Paris, finding two freshly dead bodies.
At sixteen, his little sister that he barely remembers having greets him standing over his parents' bloodied bodies with a knife in her hand and a smile on her face.
At sixteen, his little sister kills him while he's despondently staring at the endless sea of blood around him.
The next thing he knows, he's alone. His parents dropped him off at an orphanage as a newborn. No family to protect. No family to abandon. He's alone.
He can't stand the orphanage. He hates himself and he hates the world for making him live.
As soon as he can, he walks away from it. He wanders from place to place, searching for... Something. What, he isn't sure, but he's had it before and he's lost it before. It makes him angry. It makes him hateful.
No one has named him so he calls himself Lelouch.
When he wakes his flames this time, it's a dark, dark green. Not the bright Lightning Flames from before, but something completely different.
No matter which country or continent he travels, no one recognizes it.
He calls them Wind Flames.
On his fifth birthday, he drowns, lost in the ocean.
He wakes again to death and he hates it. He wants this cycle of pain and hatred and loss to stop because it's not fair it's not FAIR WHY DOES EVERYONE DIE.
He trades his life for power. It doesn't matter to Lelouch, because his mother named him before she died in the middle of the birth of his stillborn twin. It doesn't matter because if he just gains enough power, he would never have to wake up ever again.
He tricks people into giving him more power. His illusions are untraceable and his flames a strong indigo. He keeps himself alive simply for the sake of never waking up ever again. Not to death. Not to this.
He fails. He's too weak, his illusions break and his walls fall down and every mask he's tried to wear, every identity and personality and wants and likes and dreams he's hid under fall apart to expose the lie he sold as the truth and the truth he sold as lie and the truth that was just a vulnerable ten year old boy underneath.
He breaks, and there's no one to put him together again.
Yet he wakes back up anyway and this time has a normal family with a mom a dad and an uncle too. He goes to school and lives a normal life and doesn't run away. He doesn't run away, but he doesn't stay, not really. He's apathetic, lethargic, depressed. Dead to the world. He knows everything will soon be taken from him again and again and again.
One day, at school, he sees a girl crying over a book. He comes closer. It's a humor genre book. He talks and he listens.
He unintentionally offers support and an anchor, a calming presence with a sound mind. A true rain.
That's how people see him.
He finds these things called friends by saves them from themselves. At a time of peace, of friends brought together by one stable pillar, there's an attack. His family is threatened. Lelouch is thirteen and isn't ready to lose them yet and throws himself in front of a blade to save them. It's the first time he has died smiling.
A moment later, the same smile is hollow and empty.
It's harsh, and cold.
He retreats to a corner of the earth, and has no family to protect or be there for. He learns to shut people out.
He puts a firm barrier between himself and the world, simply surviving on the hope that this nightmare will pass. Or rather, that one day he'd fall asleep and never wake up again.
If Nunnally had seen him like this she would have no doubt argued that life is precious and he's wasting his. However, she wasn't here. She was probably in the place wherever the fuck spirits go to while he was stuck on earth.
He awakens his Flames, again. For no real reason other than curiosity. The flames are a bluish gray, but didn't have the feel of a corrupted flame. He names them Hail Flames.
Lelouch is taken to a therapist multiple times, by bystanders worried for the eight year old seemingly living alone. Lelouch doesn't care.
The therapist welcomes him and sees a lethargic boy who has lost the will to live.
"Lelouch, do you know what a therapist is?"
Lelouch doesn't answer, and the therapist keeps talking.
"I'm a sort of consultant. People come to me with their problems and I help fix them."
Lelouch still doesn't react.
"Would you tell me what you would like to fix, Lelouch? I can't do my job if you don't tell me."
The corners of his mouth twitch in amusement. He wonders how the therapist would respond to an answer like "I never want to wake up again," coming from an eight year old.
Lelouch doesn't respond to the question.
"Let my guess, then. Do you want your voice back?"
Lelouch looks up at that one, surprised. Did someone tell the therapist that he's mute? Well, fair enough. He doesn't think he has spoken before in this lifetime.
"You know, Lelouch, we'll keep sitting here until your father comes to pick you up again. It's up to you whether it's gonna be productive or boring."
Apparently they think the neighbor who dropped him off with the instruction "Fix the kid." was his father.
He nods in acknowledgement to the therapist, and the therapist smiles back.
"Alright, now that you're willing to talk, let's begin with something smaller. Tell me, what is your favorite animal?"
Lelouch reaches towards the notepad on the table, looking expectantly at the therapist, who motions for him to go ahead.
Because he probably can't talk, after the extreme disuse of his voice.
Two minutes later, Lelouch shows the beautifully abstract drawing of a cat that he made, honestly looking more like it should be in a frame in a museum.
It continues like this, the therapist asking questions and Lelouch giving ridiculous or completely un-childlike answers, until the therapist finally announces the session to be over and sent him home, telling him to come back later and bring his father this time.
Lelouch doesn't see the point in telling her that he won't. Come back, that is. There's no reason to.
One the way home he's ambushed, beaten and shot.
And he lost absolutely nothing but his life. He'd been exhausted, lonely and depressed, but he hadn't lost anyone else.
He wakes up in a Japanese hospital and goes through the motions. He retreats, and he this time lives like a normal person to avoid anyone bothering him. He goes to school, fits in and awakens his white Flames.
This was the third Flame that didn't fit any of the Flames Lelouch had been informed about. He names it Snow Flames, and wonders how many flames there really are.
This time, he gets a look into the life of normal children. He sees them laugh, he sees them talk, he sees them cry and he sees them do it all with their friends and feels a sting of empty, bitter loneliness.
He shuts it out. He can't get attached to anyone. He can't lose anyone. He's a fourteen year old boy who simply wants this nightmare to be over because he never asked for this and never wanted it.
A month later, a boy with snow white hair approaches the boy eating lunch on the edge of the rooftop.
"Why are you sitting there?" The former asked, sounding curious. "This area is forbidden for students, you know?"
Lelouch glances at him, and nods idly, looking like he didn't even remotely care about that particular rule.
The white-haired boy sits next to him quietly and simply studies him for the next few minutes. Lelouch looks back at him coldly, and only turned back to his lunch when the boy finally turned away to grab his own lunch.
When he's done eating, Lelouch stands and walks away, pointedly ignoring the warm Sky Flames reaching out for his.
The day after, the boy joins Lelouch again, and begins to talk to him about trial things. The weather, the local news, oh have you heard about the festival in a few weeks, what do you think of the new teacher? Lelouch decidedly ignores him and ignores his reaching, inviting Flames.
Over the next month, Lelouch grows more and more frustrated and confused. The boy doesn't even know he's Flame Active, much less what type his Flames are, Lelouch had made sure no one could tell. Why is he still so insistant on joining him every lunch? What did the nameless boy want from him?
Did he just want to see Lelouch break and finally speak to him? In that case, he'd give up soon. Lelouch would just ignore him until then.
Half a year later the boy still spends every single lunch on the roof. Lelouch had debated simply choosing another spot, but the roof is the only place not swarmed with students during the breaks, and the boy isn't really bothering him.
Lelouch still doesn't know his name, but he doesn't care about something as trival as that. What he wants to know is why the boy hasn't long given up on talking to him.
The next time the boy joins him for lunch, he brings a green eyed boy with him. The latter glances around nervously, completely missing Lelouch, addressing the white-haired boy as Riku and asking him what they're doing up there, don't you know it's off limits?
Riku replies for Kaito to stop being such a worry wart, and sits down next to Lelouch like he did it regularly. Which he did. The latter could feel Kaito's Lightning Flames stilling in shock.
Kaito gapes at finally seeing Lelouch, who looks back coldly, and quickly hurried after Riku to the edge of the roof before whispering unsubtly to Riku what the hell he was doing sitting with the most cold, silent guy in the school whose glare could freeze your heart in an instant and whose name even his sizable fanclub didn't dare ask.
Lelouch snorts in amusement at the sheer ridiculousness of what Kaito says. Riku looks amazed and delighted at Lelouch finally acknowledging their existence, while Kaito looks shocked and terrified of him. Lelouch doesn't look back at them for the rest of the lunch period.
Not one student knows his name? Lelouch thought some would at least ask the teachers what his name is, and those definitely have his name on record. Sure, no teacher calls him by his name, but that's because he's either addressed directly or not mentioned at all. There's simply nothing for the teachers to mention about him. That's what he'd thought, at least.
But honestly, what idiot started the rumor about his glare? Please. He's never glared at anyone in this lifetime before.
Riku keeps coming to this with him, sometimes leaving Kanto to do something else but never skipping a day himself, and soon Lelouch finds himself recognizing Riku's presence from before he even climbs the stairs to the roof.
Over time, one by one, he brings five more Guardians to the edge of the roof. All are wary of him and clearly protective of their Sky, but relax over time when nothing happens. Lelouch notices the change in their Flames; even though they know nothing about him, not even his name, for some reason they instinctively begin to trust him not to harm their Sky.
They never ask him to speak or to respond, to join them or to go away. They accept that he doesn't talk and doesn't do teamwork, and leave it at that.
He finds himself on the roof more often than not, feeling like he's standing on the edge of the world and looking over the endless abyss laid out before him. Powerless to change a thing yet a part of it himself.
The pattern continues until a year later, when Lelouch is nearly sixteen.
One cold, cloudy day in January, lunch hour passes without a sign of the group of people he's come to know.
Lelouch has the bad feeling this isn't because they decided to take a last minute vacation to Hawaii.
Lelouch realizes he's concerned for them. Lelouch realizes that he feels empty without them there. He stops and looks at himself. In the deepest part of his mind he already knows he's failed in his self-exile.
He clenches his fist. Fuck this, he's involved now and if something happens to those he had unpreventably, undeniably begun to consider family, there was going to be hell to pay.
When he's looking for it, he finds his Sky's Flame easily. It's caged, chained by foul bonds, and that makes him angry. The other six elements' Flames flicker around their sky, weakened and desperate.
The fuckers who caused this will not see the light of day ever again.
He doesn't even realize he's moving until he's standing in front of a dingy warehouse on the outskirts of town, debating with himself if hey, maybe a plan would be a good idea- right up until he hears an anguished, exhausted cry come from inside.
The door is off its hinges a moment later, and Lelouch immediately takes in the situation and focuses on the biggest threat in the room, the sadistic Mist torturing his family.
Said Mist had turned around at a sound just in time to see the door landing with a deafening clang on the floor. He stares, in shock, at the teenage boy with pure white flames dancing around his hands and on his forehead, contrasting with his raven black hair but matching his light silver eyes.
And by God, are those cold eyes absolutely fucking terrifying.
For once, the huge man does something smart and scrambles for his phone. He is, after all, not a fighter. The real fighters are off battling the victim's Famiglia now that they're weakened by the heir's dissappearance, and the henchmen that were previously in the room had turned tail and ran.
"We missed one!" He speaks quickly, eyes on the slowly advancing figure, struggling to get his panicked words out under the oppressive aura. "There's another Guardian. I thought you said he only had six!?"
Because there is not a single sliver of doubt that this is a Guardian's fury. This is a Guardian whose family was kidnapped and tortured and who's now here for revenge.
He only hears the beginnings of a confused response when the teenager apparently decides it has been long enough and was suddenly there, crushing his throat and arm against the wall the Mist had inadvertently backed up against, causing him to choke for air and drop the phone because of the sudden lack of blood circulation in his hand.
The Mist looks into the others eyes, and gives up any hope of being rescued. The only thing he could hope for now is a merciful death.
And a merciful death he gets. The pathetic scum simply isn't worth time on.
(Lelouch burrows his hand deep into the man's stomach and proceeds to burn the man up from the inside, grinning sadistically as the Mist's anguished screaming sounds through the warehouse, until his lungs and vocal cords are obliterated and a few more choking noises are heard before the guy's eyes dim and his body goes limp.)
Lelouch steps away from the Mist, the body falling to the floor without Lelouch holding it up, and cold silver eyes bleed back into hazel, Flames simmering out.
He turns around and his hard features soften slightly at the sight of his family. They're beat up and worn, but getting angry over that now won't help.
Some were staring in awe, others horrified, but all were completely baffled. Even Michiko, the Cloud Guardian, has her eyes narrowed in her familiar what-the-fuck look.
Lelouch silently frees them and looks at Riku, who takes a moment to gather his words.
"You.. came for us...?" Is the first thing he manages to get out
Lelouch just looks at the group, waiting for them to act.
"Why?" Riku finally asks. "Why would a civillian risk his life to save us? Wait, are you even a civillian?"
Lelouch shrugs, and gives a bitter smile. "As much of a civillian as a Flame Active can be." Hs voice is hoarse from disuse, but surprisingly alright. Lelouch suspects it's because he actually talks in this lifetime, even if it's only once every few months to talk with his landlord.
All seven Elements are now openly staring at him, caught off guard. Naohiro, the Storm Guardian, finally blurted out, "You can talk?!"
Lelouch glances around in the very stereotypical abandoned warehouse, lingering on his family's injuries.
"This is not the right place for this conversation. Let's get-"
"No." Riku interrupted. "First you owe us an explanation."
He holds Lelouch's gaze for a moment, and the latter reluctantly nods.
"First off, what's your name?" Nakia the Sun Guardian pipes in. Lelouch blinks, before remembering that no matter how much he knew about them, they knew next to nothing about him.
"Lelouch. Rumayaka Lelouch."
Half an hour later, the desperate battle for the Yamade Mansion is swiftly ended by a bloodied stranger with silver eyes that seem to almost be glowing and pure white Flames. The fight falls still as the already weakened sieging force is quickly and efficiently dismantled by the unexpected attack.
The teenager stands still for a moment after the enemy force had been incapitated, staring at the habitants of the mansion, and for a fearful moment the part of the Yamade family left standing thinks that he's going to finish them off too.
Then he turns and the wounded group follows his line of sight, only to see the Yamade heir and his Guardians standing at the edge of the battlefield, in bad shape but alive and not locked in some basement like the family had thought they were.
It goes almost smoothly from then. Before Lelouch knows it he's being bombarded with questions about who he is, about his Flames, about his knowledge of the Mafia. Days pass and Lelouch is present when a sober Riku takes the title of Head of the Yamade, his father having been killed in the battle. He's officially named the Eighth Guardian, Snow.
Weeks pass and Lelouch manages to put the knowledge that he's going to lose everything out of his mind and simply gives up on thinking he'd be able to distance himself again.
Months pass and Lelouch watches as Riku's left hand as hardship after hardship hit the family, his family, and they gets harder to overcome every time. The other Guardians have become family, and by the time Lelouch realizes he'd die for them, he's accepted that nothing lasts forever.
A year has passed and Lelouch is sixteen when he takes a bullet meant for Nakia in the leg, and then another two in the chest before his family's rage obliterates the opposing family. He coughs a bit, red spattering the pavement, feeling the strength seep from his body painfully fast.
Even so, he manages a small, wistful smile as he witnesses the one-sided destruction going on. His heart is breaking all over again, but the fact that it can means it was healed before and Lelouch finally sees that.
His vision is swimming, but still he thinks he catches a glance of a vague figure resembling Nunnally standing before him, giving a small smile of sadness and understanding. Lelouch smiles back at the delusion, and remembers the day Riku asked him about family.
"I had a little sister, once. She was the sweetest, most kind sister you can imagine. If she would be here now, she'd be smiling."
First of all, I am so sorry. Lelouch is incredibly OOC and that's because in the show his whole personality is basically love for Nunnally, hate against Brittania and pure determination and intelligence. Right now there's no determination, no Nunnally and no Brittania.
Fun fact: Riku is a popular Japanese male name. One of the meanings is Wise Sky and another is Nice, Cool Sky.
Kaito is another popular name and means Supportive Person, among other meanings. Also known as side character.
So I was just browsing French fanfiction hoping to find an easy looking one to help me learn French. Then I saw the word Vie.
Woah, I thought, that's an actual French word?
So I looked it up, and turns out I accidentally named my story Life Death.
Wow, that title must look so stupid to French speakers.
So the story here is that I wanted to mix Lelouch Vi Britannia with Skull de Mort, but Vi Mort just doesn't sound good so I added some e's. I knew Mort(e) means Death, but wow I never thought I would accidentally name my story Life Death.
I'm still gonna keep it, though, I kinda like it.