A/N: Hmmm, I didn't think that people would like this fic. X3 makes me happy that you do. Anyways, you knew it would come eventually, so I figured sooner rather than later. The chapter where you learn how they meet. A bit dry though, just giving you a fair warning. Hehe I had this chapter written before the first chapter was even thought of. This was gonna be the first chapter... Glad it wasn't.

Oh! This chapter is a bit confusing because it is technically in Lelouch's POV, although it is in third person. He isn't supposed to know who Suzaku is yet, so that is why his name isn't said until the end. There are a couple spots of Suzaku POV, but those are few and far between. Good luck.


Lelouch leaned against the outside wall of the zoo. He wished there was somewhere to sit, but the smooth bricks to lean against were good enough for him. With his hands in his red jacket pockets and his collar upturned, he glanced towards the darkening clouds above. The day was overcast, but it wasn't supposed to rain. Well, at least that was what the overly made-up meteorologist had said this morning on the news. And they were right, like nine percent of the time. So basically, never. And that was why his black umbrella was hanging from a cord encircling his wrist.

He stared absently out into the parking lot, watching for a crimson red Toyota Sienna LE with an ash grey bumper. It wasn't very hard to spot when it was around considering that he had never seen another van with the same colors. That was a good thing though, especially since that at places like this, everyone was driving a minivan.

Lelouch thought it was cute that Suzaku drove a minivan. Anyone would have to admit that it was a somewhat hilarious sight to see the man driving it. "You should paint some skulls on it or something to make it seem more masculine. You can be the soccer dad," he always teased, never failing to earn a glare from the sexy brunette that was his current boyfriend. He scanned the lot of every color car and other type of vehicle under the sun again. He wasn't searching too hard though because he already knew that Suzaku was going to be late. Like usual. Not that he blamed him, I mean with three kids and all.

What was he thinking? Three children. Wow. He kept questioning his own sanity; dating a man with three children was nuts. Although he would never admit it, Lelouch was a bit nervous to meet them. He had always had a way with people despite the fact that he enjoyed his solitude. Children, however, were a different species entirely. It was hit or miss with them, and he really hoped that he didn't miss. Especially with these kids. That would probably cost Lelouch and Suzaku their relationship. Lelouch knew how much Suzaku's children meant to him and he would take their opinions like the word of God. Or Satan. He hadn't exactly asked Suzaku religion he was.

The only real factor playing against him was the whole "HE" part. There was no way to know how the kids would react to that. Suzaku had already told him that he had not dated much at all, but when he had they had all been female. But then he would quickly assure him that his kids loved the people he brought home.

However, whenever he said that, there was a little glint of doubt behind those emerald eyes, telling Lelouch that Suzaku wasn't exactly being truthful. And that was what scared him.

Lelouch sighed loudly and slowly slid down the smooth stone wall, his movement finally stopping as his bottom hit the cement sidewalk. Wrapping his arms around his knees, he looked around at the people passing him by. The adults were looking at him with eyebrows that were knitted together, their expressions reading, "Why is there some adult man loitering around the zoo?" They would then proceed to pull their children in closer to them, the first answer to that question being PEDOPHILE.

He shook his head marginally and laughed inwardly. Some people. This was why he didn't go out. Well that and he was just plain anti-social.

Glancing around once more for any sign of his emerald-eyed beauty, he began to daydream after a few minutes of not being able to find him. Surprisingly, the first thing he thought about was the very first time he had ever met Suzaku. He smiled to no one in particular as he thought about that day. That had been a bit embarrassing. For Lelouch at least. He craned his neck back, leaning his head against the cool wall and looked at the grey sky above. There was nothing spectacular to look at up there, just angry, dark clouds looking back down at him. It hadn't been a day like today. In fact, it had been beautiful. One of the most beautiful days he had ever seen. He closed his amethyst eyes, shielding them from the ugliness of that morning and thought back to that time, four and a half months ago…


Lelouch was sitting on a wooden bench along a desolate trail, enjoying the silence and the cool breeze blowing through the trees. His legs were curled up under him and his favorite book was resting on his lap, open to a page that had been dog-eared one to many times; the spine was worn, but cared for and even though he had read each word multiple times, they continued to capture his fascination each time he picked the book up.

It was fairly early in the morning, probably about six. Lelouch liked to come out early because that was when it was the quietest and everything seemed pure and clean. The sun was rising above the tall trees around him, light filtering through the thick foliage, enough for him to read and see the things around him. His mind seemed to be at its clearest at this time of day, well at least that is what he thought.

Even though there was a trail running through this park, not many people ran or biked it. Well, at least at this time of day. Lelouch sure didn't, but he didn't participate in any form of physical activity. It was only a short walk to this park bench from the small parking lot where he had left his car.

'The trees are almost ready to turn,' he thought as he looked up at the yellowing leaves with a few red and orange ones sprinkled in. It was a really pretty day, the air was crisp and the grass was sparkling in the sunlight from the fresh dew that blanketed the ground. 'It is going to be a gorgeous fall.'

As he looked back down at his book, about to get lost in the imaginary world that it spun, a voice broke into his thoughts.

"Do you mind if I sit here?"

Lelouch looked up to see a man with dark brown curls atop his head and bright, emerald green eyes sparkling in the sunlight.

"It's a free country. I couldn't really stop you if I wanted to," Lelouch replied, a bit more coldly than he had intended.

The man laughed a little at this, sitting down on the far end of the wooden bench. Lelouch scooted as far to the other end as he possibly could without grabbing the other man's attention. People were the bane of his existence.

As much as he kept trying to get back to his book, he couldn't help but look over at the other man. He seemed somewhat familiar, although Lelouch knew that he had never met this man in his life. He was resting his elbows on his knees and holding his face in his hands. The other man rubbed his eyes groggily, visibly exhausted. There were shadowy circles formed underneath his otherwise alert emerald eyes. He looked like he was staring at nothing in particular, but staring at something in the distance nonetheless.

'It is a bit strange that I would see someone other than a jogger around here, especially this early in the morning,' Lelouch thought, trying to look back at his book so as to not creep out the guy sitting next to him. However, the green-eyed man must have noticed Lelouch looking him over because he looked up at him and tried to start up a friendly conversation.

"Nice day, isn't it?"

Lelouch ignored him, hoping that he would just take a hint and leave him alone.

"So, what book is it that you are reading there," he inquired curiously. Apparently that tactic didn't work.

'Great. This man must be like a small child; once you make eye contact they just won't leave you alone. Guess I brought this upon myself though.' Lelouch really didn't like making small talk, especially with strange men in a pretty much deserted, park; where the possibilities of someone being an axe murderer looking for their next victim was fairly high. Scratch that, extremely high. He shook his head slightly, crazed overactive imagination at work here.

He sighed inwardly and turned over the book to look at the cover, even though he already knew the title and the author. Both were his favorite. The picture on the front never ceased to amaze him. The book was entirely black. The only point at which the color strayed was where the title and author's name were written. That and the single, pristine, sapphire blue drop of water that fell from nowhere and was going straight back. The symbolism was endless and even after reading the story about a million times, he was left with no definite answer. That always confused him, sure that there was something important behind it.

Lelouch studied the cover for a few more moments before remembering that he had been doing something. His cheeks tinted a light pink at how easily he had become distracted. Whoops.

He looked back up at the man and held up the shabby copy of the book so he could see the cover. "Um, it's one of my favorites, SHAKEN." He looked at how worn out the cover was and laughed lightly. "I've read it so many times that I could probably read the whole book out loud from memory," he said a bit embarrassedly.

Strangely enough, talking to this guy came easier to Lelouch than talking to his own mother. Although she always brought up uncomfortable subjects and embarrassing topics, like that time when he was eight. But that is a story for another day.

The man's eyes visibly widened a bit from seeing the cover of the book that Lelouch held up, before his face composed again.

He chuckled slightly as he said, "That is one of my more favorite books as well. I don't think I have read it as many times as you have, by the looks of it, but I have memorized bits and pieces of it from all the times that I read it. In fact, I even got to meet the author, Suzaku Kururugi, not to long ago," he said, smiling a bit slyly, but Lelouch didn't notice this.

"Really?" Lelouch exclaimed, the stranger having caught his full attention now. He turned slightly on the bench, stretching his legs out from under him so that he could see the other man a bit better. "Where? I would love to meet him. He has been my favorite author for a really long time now. The way he writes is, wow. It really captures a person and drags them into another world, you know?" Lelouch felt a little bit stupid at this point, like he was babbling. Which he was.

The other man chuckled softly. Lelouch was acting like a kid in a candy shop now. Someone who had met his favorite author sitting right next to him? That was better than Christmas morning.

"Yeah I know what you mean. He is pretty entertaining himself. A bit of a space cadet though. Sometimes he just goes off into his own little world, kind of hard to keep his attention. Nice guy. Well, at least that was my impression of him," he said, continuing the conversation after he noticed how much the violet-eyed man admired the author.

Lelouch had already laid his book down beside him on the bench and was listening intently to everything that this guy had to say, hanging off of every word.

"Really? So he is not like one of those people that took all of their fame to their head? Like someone who is completely full of themselves? That's a relief."

The brown-haired man chuckled at this, finding it amusing that this guy had so much interest in the author, Suzaku Kururugi.

"Well, I can't say that he doesn't have at least a bit of an ego, but I guess if you wrote some fairly famous novels you would too, right?"

"Well, I guess that is true. I know that my ego is already pretty big." Cue soft laugh from the slight raven-haired man on the opposite side of the bench. "One day I hope to meet him, maybe get him to sign my book." Lelouch gestured to the beat up book at his side and smiled sheepishly. He really hoped that he wasn't scaring this guy with his stalker-ish tendencies.

The other man wasn't freaked out though. He was entertained by the ebony-haired, man that was sitting beside him. The whole time that Lelouch was talking, he would admire how pretty his violet eyes were and how they sparkled in the rays of sun that got through the leaves on the trees. How his ebony hair looked so soft and was just begging to be touched. Of course he wouldn't though. That would just be awkward.

Inside he was chuckling, a bit surprised that this person liked Suzaku Kururugi. Well, a lot of people did, but that was usually more for his looks instead of his writing. A lot of people liked his writing too, though. Don't get me wrong, he was just an all around liked guy, but there was something about the man in front of him that caught his attention, which didn't happen often. Actually, it never happened.

He tuned back in just as the violet-eyed boy was standing up from the bench and stretching.

"Well, I must be going. It was nice talking to you," Lelouch said with a smile, turning and starting to walk back to where his car was parked.

"Hey, wait! I don't believe I caught your name."

Lelouch spun back around as the other man said this. His previous fear of strange people was starting to reappear, but he decided the hell with it.

"Oh, I'm Lelouch Lamperouge, and you are?" Lelouch held out his hand for the other man to shake. The brown-haired man stood up and took Lelouch's hand.

"I'm Suzaku. Suzaku Kururugi," he said flashing a toothy grin and shaking Lelouch's hand.

Lelouch blanched and then laughed a bit shakily. There was no way that he had just been talking for an hour with his idol, the man that he had wanted to meet for so long. No way in hell.

"Are you serious?"

Suzaku laughed at his reaction. "Quite. At least, last time I checked. If you want you could even see my driver's license."

Apparently he thought that Lelouch didn't believe him so he reached into his back pocket and started to pull out his wallet.

"No, no. It's fine, I believe you," he said waving his pale hand for Suzaku to stop. The color had returned to his face, a blush lightly dusting his cheeks. "Heh, I never thought I would get to meet you, especially like this…" Lelouch muttered, looking at the ground. He was trying to keep his attention on a red leaf that was blowing around close to his shoe.

It was a bit embarrassing to have just babbled on and on for an hour about how much he liked this guy, not even knowing that who he was talking about had been sitting with him the entire time.

"Well if you want we could start over."

Lelouch looked back up at Suzaku and quirked an eyebrow.

"And what, exactly, do you mean by that?" the raven-haired boy asked, a bit puzzled.

Suzaku grinned, 'He is just too adorable.'

"How about you and I go out for coffee," Suzaku offered. "We could go now if you want; unless, of course, you have somewhere you need to be."

Lelouch smiled, trying to be a bit more refined and like his normal self than he had been before.

"I'd love too. And," he glanced at the watch upon his wrist, "now is perfectly fine."

"Sweet." Suzaku beamed. "Oh, wait. Um, I don't really know where any coffee shop places are around here… Haven't been in the city that long yet. You know, the new kid in town… Do you know of any good ones?"

"Eh…" Lelouch had to think about this for a moment, not being much of a socialite so he didn't really get out much. That had never been a problem before though. "Well there is this one place down the road a couple miles… I haven't been there too many times, but when I have gone it has been pretty good. I believe it's called Nana's café."

Suzaku grinned. "Great! Then it's a date."

"Ok- wait what?" said a shocked Lelouch, but Suzaku didn't hear him because he was already walking up the path. Lelouch stood there for a moment, a bit stunned. 'Did he really say what I think he said?'

Suzaku turned around and beckoned for him with his hand.

"Are you coming or am I going to have to go alone?"

Lelouch shook his head to rid himself of the thoughts and went to go catch up with the strange author.


A/N: Ok, so now we know quite a bit about Suzaku, but virtually nothing about our little Lelouch. Questions questions questions. This is only the second chapter though.

Did you get lost at all? Hehe if you did, feel free to message me and I'll help explain it.

Another reason I posted this chapter so early in the fic (besides the fact that I already had it written...) was because I got a few questions about the mother of Suzaku's children. That froze me in my tracks. I can honestly say that I didn't even think about that. That leads me up to my next question.

Who do you think the mother is? There are some obvious ones like Euphemia, but there are other scenarios like maybe the kids got adopted by him, or are a family member's children that he took in when they could no longer care for them. (just throwing in all possibilities...) So besides "They are aliens!" or "M'preg!" what do you think?

Also, I won't write a chapter about their experience at the cafe unless asked to do so. I could write it in a heartbeat, but there is no need to do so unless someone really wants me of it as a filler.

Reviews are much appreciated and show me that there is a reason to continue updating X3

Would you be mad if I went on hiatus? (not that I update regularly anyways...)

~Andraiyel