Answering to reviews!
Yuzuki Inohara: XD yep! Marianne, I was kinda just like….neh…be a mother. Hjaebhajdbhjbfhje! Charles….you're a dad…GDYEHGBDHYEJj. If I stick to the plot I have now, they'll be in far later chapters and they'll be mean then xD Thank you though!
ao-mido: Thank ya kindly! *tips imaginary hat* X3 and well, you'll like this chapter then :P
Guest: I appreciate your review! And NO….thank you ;D
pft980811: That a promise? ;) I love necklaces!
Lelouchvibritt1: Your wish is my command! *scrolls down* well what do you know?! Another update :P and I love your profile picture o_o
LeAwesomeOne IX: Well my next update for NEKO…I hope will be soon. But I am WARNING you. No, I'm warning EVERYONE who is reading NEKO….Suzaku is screwed. Issac is going to screw him over. That's why you don't drink coffee at coffee shops when the person serving you is named Mao. Anyway…I find it weird how I'm talking about a whole different story on here. Okay….stop. Stahp! ._.
You all also know I don't own CG, etc, etc. BUT! I also do NOT own the awesome song/lyrics sung by Lelouch in this chapter. Later ones may be my own random lyrics, but this one is not because I was too lazy to come up with any at the time and I have an obsession with this song... .
The lyrics are italicized (both the English and the Romaji/original lyrics)
Song: GLIDE
Vocal: Lily
Music: Niki
And sorry for the late update! This is an extremely long chapter since I had trouble finding spots to end it at. That's the one thing I suck at doing….that's probably why I do so many cliffies. XD
Euphemia snuggled comfortably into her seat beside Odysseus and Cornelia. "Sing the one I like!" She said excitedly, turning to Lelouch who started to open his mouth in protest. "Please!"
From his chair next to Nunnally and her piano, Schneizel shook his head. "The lyrics aren't even complete yet. We could do-"
"Noooooo~!" Moaned little Euphy. "I really want to hear Glide!"
"Okay, okay," Lelouch countered, just hoping for the girl to be quiet. The last thing he wanted was a whining Euphy; a normal human being could probably only take so much of it before their heads exploded. Alright, maybe that was just a bit of an exaggeration. Just a bit.
He glanced over to Nunnally and she nodded, starting to play the piano; her eyes mostly on the sheet of music than the keys itself. She knew the piano that well as she had been playing it for years now.
There was a intro to the song, and Lelouch had to wait. While he did, the others waited too, but not as patiently as Lelouch did.
"Counting the number of your shattered memories, as you recall them, what will you be singing? Once again I am drawing a fairy land in which you will slowly become lost…" He caught Schneizel make a turning gesture with his hand and point to his mouth.
Lelouch paused uncertainly. He had only just learned this, and had to think for a bit, but luckily the song was starting to transition into the chorus, giving him a few seconds. He opened his mouth. "Fushigi na mahout kakete!" Odysseus blinked quite rapidly at the sudden change in language, but it still flowed into the song that Nunnally relayed from the piano. Euphemia leaned forward and her mouth gaped a little at her half-brother. "Yogoreta doresu kisete!" The older Cornelia looked impressed. "Amai namida…." Lelouch trailed off, and Nunnally's fingers pulled away from the keys. "Amai namida…"
They all looked at him, frowning.
"Why'd you stop?" Euphemia asked.
"I forgot the rest…"
Nunnally smiled at him reassuringly. "You did great for the first time singing it along with my piano! It's hard to learn a new language and try to sing in it."
Cornelia sat forward. "How'd you learn to sing in Japanese?"
"I wanted to learn too!" Euphy shrieked, childishly pouting despite her older age of 11. "You've been teaching brother Japanese behind my back so you wouldn't have to deal with me, huh Schneizel?" The girl rose from her seat, stomped over and started throwing little baby punches at his shoulder. "Take that! And this!"
Schneizel seemed unbothered by her. "We used the cheat-cheat way out. One can read Japanese without actually knowing the language if it's written in one of the other three forms; which in our case, we used Romaji."
Euphy, who had been repeated punching and shouting, "take this and that," now looked up. "Did I just hear Raman noodles?!"
The doorbell rang.
"I got it, I got it!" Euphemia shouted to nobody in particular, running out of the music room. It was a rule in their home that only the maids or adults could open the door, and so an annoyed Lelouch and his other siblings chased after the pink-haired princess, calling and pleading her not to open the door.
Unfortunately, she was much faster than them and by the time they reached her, she was looking outside to a tall man. As they got closer, it turned out to be a Britannian soldier.
"Where's your mother?" He was asking her.
"She's not…"
"Little miss Euphemia Li Britannia! No! All of you! What are you doing, opening the door like that! You know the rules good and well, don't you?" Someone snapped. A maid was making her way down the hall and now stopped in front of them. She roughly grabbed Euphemia by the soldiers and pulled her out of the way. "I'm so very sorry about the children…now what did you need?"
"Is Empress Marianne present at the moment?"
"No sir, t's only us maids and the children here right now."
The soldier turned to peer over his shoulder before gesturing someone to come forward. "Well, the Empress claimed Suzaku Kururugi as a bodyguard child. We have him with us now…but someone will have to sign for us to hand him over." The man once again looked behind him. "Go on."
Cautiously a Japanese boy inched past the soldier and into the mansion. Lelouch noticed him right away. That was definitely the boy from three years ago and the same one he picked to be his bodyguard; Suzaku Kururugi. His face and the navy blue jumpsuit were a little filthy as if he had been crawling around in the dirt. The brown head of hair he had was somewhat messy, and his emerald eyes; a little dull and lifeless. A frown was formed on his lips and in his hands, he held a bag; maybe full of clothing and other stuff he'd need.
Lelouch thought he looked different; it wasn't that he seemed older though, he just seemed…broken.
The maid glanced down at him before replying to the soldier, "I suppose I'll sign for him," she said coolly. As she followed him out the door, she called over her shoulder, "get him settled and cleaned! I'll be right back!"
Once alone, an awkward pause followed and Nunnally was the one to break it. She reached out towards Suzaku and offered him a welcoming smile. "I could take your bag for you, if that's okay."
He shrunk away from her advance and his jaw clenched. "…."
Lelouch frowned.
"…D-Did I scare you?" Nunnally asked softly.
"Of course you did," Schneizel retorted dismissively. "His kind has every right to be afraid of ours. We took away everything from them. It's a waste of time to try to befriend him." He turned away and started to head back upstairs. "You deal with him, Lelouch. He's your darn bodyguard anyway."
Suzaku didn't do much or say anything. He was spoken to by the children but he never said a word, and Lelouch wondered just what he had gone through. Three years ago, he dared to stand up against an adult twice his size. A gun was pressed against his forehead, yet he didn't cringe and even had the nerve to say something that could've resulted in a bullet to his head. But now, he was shattered. It was as if you dropped a piece of glass and it didn't split, but a crack was left on it. Suzaku was still here, but he was fragmented.
Eventually, Nunnally had managed to take Suzaku's bag from him and she left it in Lelouch's room. After introductions, the children split into groups. Euphemia, Nunnally and Cornelia went into the kitchen to make something to eat for the Japanese boy while Odysseus and Schneizel rummaged through their closets to find clothing that may fit him. Lelouch was left with the toughest job; cleaning him.
The raven-haired boy dragged him all the way to his room and into the adjacent bathroom. He started running a bath and while he waited for it, grabbed a wet washcloth and started to wipe the dirt from the boy's face. Lelouch decided to try to get him to talk too.
"How'd you get all this dirt on your face anyway?"
No answer.
"Suzaku?"
Silence.
"Suzaku, why won't you talk to me? Remember three years ago, when you smiled at me? Why won't you smile like that now?" Nothing. Lelouch sighed. "I mean…wherever you were…it may not have been a good place, but here it'll be different. Everyone welcomed you and we want to be your friends."
No response.
"You know what?" Lelouch murmured. "I want to hear you say my name. Say it. Le-lou-ch. Just like that. Can you do that for me, Suzaku? It may be a weird name, but it's not hard to say at all."
Suzaku's emerald eyes started to widen. "…Lelouch…"
"There we go!"
"No…Lelouch!"
"Alright," the Britannian boy mumbled, continuing to wipe the boy's face. "Once is good enough for me, but I appreciate it anyway."
"No… look, Lelouch!" Suzaku grabbed the prince by the shoulders and spun him around. The bathtub was beginning to overflow. Frantically, Lelouch hurried over and stopped the running water just as it started to leak over the edge and pour onto the floor.
As the evening progressed, things went smoother.
Lelouch was happy to find his siblings interested in the quiet Japanese boy. He wanted his new bodyguard to be as comfortable as possible. After cleaning himself up, he was shown around and properly introduced to Lelouch's brothers and sisters in the kitchen as Cornelia and Euphemia cooked with the help of a few maids. As they waited, Schneizel found himself relaying all his knowledge on the Japanese culture to Suzaku, most of which the boy had already known. Nunnally stood behind him, messing with the curls of his hair by winding and unwinding them around her fingers. She said she appreciated naturally curly hair over forced curly hair and even asked him if she could comb it. Odysseus bombarded him with questions about Japan in which Suzaku only nodded, shook his head, or murmured little words like, "sort of," or "I guess," but was mostly saved by Schneizel who answered in the forms of long paragraphs, being so descriptive that Odysseus and even Lelouch rolled their eyes, hoping he'd shut his mouth soon.
"I present to you, Suzaku Kururugi-senpai," Euphemia announced, whispering under her breath that she hoped she would allow her to call him as such before placing a plate of food covered by a napkin in front of him. "Euphemia and Cornelia Li Britannia's," she took an unneeded and dramatic intake of air. "Homemade Macaroni and Cheese!" She then pulled off the napkin and threw it upwards, and it floated down beside Cornelia who asked, "Was I supposed to catch that?"
Euphy quickly shushed her, smiling at Suzaku as he eyed the yellow food. "Well?"
"…"
She took his hand and placed a fork into it. "There you go!"
His fingers didn't wrap around the utensil enough and it fell to the ground with a metal clunk.
"Have you never seen macaroni and cheese before?" Schneizel questioned.
Both Nunnally and Lelouch, by coincidence, smacked his shoulders hard in unison.
"Ow!"
The brunette pushed his chair back.
"Suzaku, are you okay?" Lelouch asked softly as the boy rose from his seat, eyed the food and little longer and then abruptly ran out of the room. "Suzaku!"
The raven haired boy got up from his chair too and started to follow in pursuit. The other siblings were almost about to follow as well, but Nunnally told them to not to.
"I'm sure Suzaku would be much more open to us on his own time. There's no point in all of us being nosy right now."
Lelouch figured there was only one place Suzaku would have run to, and his theory turned out to be correct. The Japanese boy had locked himself in Lelouch's bathroom.
"Open up the door, Suzaku!"
"No!" Came the response.
"Please, Suzaku. I can help you if you just talk to me."
"Leave me alone!"
This time, Lelouch decided to take a different approach. "Open up the door, right now!" He demanded rather rudely, speaking in a tone that made Suzaku jump a little.
No reply of rejection came after that and Lelouch wondered if it was working.
"Suzaku Kururugi, you better listen to me! You belong to me now and you have to do what I say!" He tried thinking of ways to threaten him. "Or else…or else I'll-"
The door opened, and Lelouch backed up, surprised.
A teary-eyed Suzaku stood before him. He lowered his head and bowed. "Please accept my apology."
"Apology for what?"
"For being rude," he said, "to both you and your siblings." He still hadn't straightened up.
"…Suzaku, what are you crying about?"
"Nothing…" he murmured in a broken voice.
"Stand up."
Suzaku did as he was told. He had been crying.
Lelouch pointed to the bathroom. "Go wipe your face. We'll tell everyone that you had to go potty really badly…and then you'll owe me an explanation, okay?"
The Japanese boy nodded and turned to go to the bathroom.
Nobody questioned Suzaku about his "potty" problem any further. Embarrassed, Suzaku blushed madly as he told the siblings, but Lelouch had to struggle to keep himself from laughing.
Both the boys doubted that any of them bought it, but none of them made an effort to let that be known so they dismissed it and everyone spent the rest of the time, playing truth or dare in the living room. It had been in the middle of Suzaku's turn and he was blindfolded when a maid called, "It's past your curfews! I better hear everyone snoring by 11:00 sharp!"
"Scatter, Team No Maids Allowed!" Euphemia yelled, jumping to her feet suddenly. She grabbed Cornelia and Nunnally's arms, pulling them out of the room. "To the chamber of secrets!"
Only the boys remained as Lelouch untied Suzaku's blindfold.
"Chamber of secrets?" The Japanese boy asked. "Team No Maids Allowed?"
Schneizel shrugged. "It's a mere childish game that Euphy thought up. Apparently the maids are evil and try to send us to our deaths…or technically speaking, to bed, and we; Team No Maids Allowed, are supposed to not let them do so."
"And the chamber of secrets?"
"The basement," Lelouch answered.
Suzaku raised an eyebrow. "Ah."
A tall maid with short, black hair tied into a bun came and stopped at the doorway, staring at them "I suppose none of you are going to your chamber of secrets?"
"I never did in the first place, Ms. Harrison," Odysseus said, getting up and exiting the room. "Good night, everyone."
Schneizel stood up as well and started to leave. "For once, I am a little tired. I think I'll avoid the being yelled at part and just go to sleep." He glanced back at Suzaku. "You'll have to teach me more about the Japanese culture soon." With that, he left, not giving the brunette an opportunity to respond.
Suzaku stared up at the ceiling in the darkness of his new room. He couldn't sleep. How could he? He still wasn't used to his new life in Europe. Why would he be? This was all forced on him and after three years of coping; he still felt as terrified as that historic day when his home was invaded.
The soldiers just barged into his home, dared to put their dirty, gloved hands on his family, held them a gun point, physically abused them when they didn't listen, even used him as a way to make them submissive. How useless he felt then.
They were dragged, pushed, shoved, probed into lines, marched to ships and compacted into tiny areas. He had to watch his family get taken away from him, had to watch as other children around his age, older or younger, suffered the same fate. He had to hear the depressing pleads of, "I miss my mommy!" or "Where's my daddy?" or even "Mr. Soldier, where are you taking my grandparents?"
Then he had to sit, had to wait, with all the time in the world to reflect on that.
Next, he and others were restrained with cuffs and marched in lines in front of other people, being watched like a group of celebrities, but shoved like a herd of sheep.
And for the following three years, he trained. As young as he was, 10 years old, he trained like a military soldier. And if that didn't make things worse, he wasn't even in the youngest group. Kids who were 4 or even 5 years his juniors, faced the same things Suzaku did and were treated like a military personal.
By the age of 16 or 17, one was sent off to join the Britannian military, whether they wanted to or not.
Suzaku wiped his now almost watery eyes with the sleeve of his pajamas.
If he hadn't been picked by Lelouch, he'd train for a few more years before ending up within the Britannian military. He wasn't scared to fight for a country, he just didn't believe in forcing one to do so…especially if it were a country that took the freedom of one's people from them.
Suzaku's train of thought was broken when he heard his door open up slowly, creaking. The boy quickly and quietly turned away, lying on his side and pretending to be asleep. He heard the sound of someone tiptoeing up, and wondered if it were a maid checking up on him.
Expecting her to leave, Suzaku waited, holding his breath.
The noise grew louder. Were they getting closer?
A hand shook him.
The Japanese boy sat up, smacked the hand away and tackled the yelping figure down, pinning both of their arms down. "Who are you and what are you…" he trailed off and squinted in the darkness, giving the little wrists in his hands a squeeze. "Wait a minute…"
"Suzaku, it's me! Lelouch."
I hope no mistakes were present! . but there may be since I skimmed. It's late though and I, unfortunately have to wake up early...thanks, mom.
Anyway, review! :D