Fear


"What's the guest of honor doing here? Shouldn't she inside, dancing and enjoying the celebration of her victory?"

"What the hell are you doing here?" she growled. Raising his hands defensively, Lelouch set down a flute of champagne on the stone railing in front of her.

"My mother's on the panel of judges. Unfortunately, she couldn't make it this evening, so I came on her behalf."

"Mama's boy," she muttered. Their terse conversation was soon replaced by the quiet strains of orchestral music floating out from the party behind them. C.C. tried her best to ignore the intruder. Honestly, what was wrong with him? Why was he always bothering her and showing up just when she didn't want to see him, the annoying little bitch.

"C.C., why do you hate us?"

"Us?"

"The student body at Ashford. Why do you hate us all? What have we did we initially do for you to hate us so much?"

She glanced behind her and at him, and over his shoulder, she could see the golden light of Tokyo's cream of the crop lavishly enjoyed themselves. Or rather, used the party to climb the social ladder, going so far as spreading ruthless scandals and rumors with plastic smiles, all in the pursuit of a higher social status. Even outside on the balcony, the contemptuous and angry aura radiating from the ballroom was inescapable - she remembered how they hid behind one another and whispered as their glares flitted towards her. She had enraged them all by stealing first place in the prestigious competition right under their noses, her, the poor girl who didn't have a role in the fairy tales of the upper class. Which was nothing new to her. Though there were various groups that made up the student body at Ashford Academy, there was one, and only one, thing that unified the diverse divisions, and that was their hatred for the Grey Witch, as they opted to call her, rather than by her name. Not that their hissed insults really bothered her. She hated them as much as they hated her, so no affection was lost between them. As if she would ever care for their opinions and love - what use did she have for those superficial idiots, those slimy scumbags that knew nothing of loyalty and only thought of what else they could do to elevate their social status? She didn't care for them at all. She had never cared for them. Not even one of the degenerates had enough humanity within them to draw even the slightest prickling of sympathy for their pathetic lives. Especially him, who was the leader of them all, the king, the most popular and wealthiest of the crowd.

But she wouldn't tell him that. She wouldn't tell him anything. There was no way in hell she'd give him what he wanted, which was only fodder for him to make cruel jokes about the black sheep in the school, the one who didn't belong in their world. Defiant to the last moment, C.C. looked hm in the eye before picking up the champagne he had given her and slowly poured it all over his shoes before letting the slender glass tumble to the ground and shatter.

"I don't know what you're trying to accomplish by acting all friendly to me," she said coldly, "but I suggest you stop now, if you know what's good for you."

Glaring, she pushed past him. It was time to leave. The only reason she had even bothered to attend the party was to receive her award and recognition, and now that she had her check and trophy, it was time to go. She had never been welcome here, and there was no longer any reason for her to linger in this place that stunk to the high heavens of corruption. She made for the door and her reprieve, when he suddenly grasped her arm.

"What the hell do you think you're-"

"Tell me one thing," he interrupted in a low voice. "Why are you so hateful of us? What have we done to earn your scorn and ire? You used to be one of us-"

She looked sharply at his words.

"-so why do you spit at us?"

What made him think that she was going to tell him of her family's blood money? What made him think that she was going to tell him of her disgust for the way her family, in particular her father, was willing to slaughter and toy with innocents all in the name of amassing even greater wealth? Scowling, she snarled, "Let go of me. I don't want your filthy hands touching-"

"Not all of us can forfeit our inheritance, C.C. Not all of us are trying to hurt you either. Some of us are just curious. Some of us just want to be nice and be friends with the girl who looks, for all her dirty looks and hostility, lonely."

She stared at him, furious and… Furious and a little bit fearful. Fearful of what else he was going to say, fearful of what he truly wanted from her, why he was always defending her and hanging around her, and fearful that he just might be right. But she didn't tell him that. She didn't reveal how her heart was pounding, how afraid she was of him, and how she thought that he, for all of the irritation he caused her, may be the one and only person who had bothered to care about her after she had disowned her parents and name. She was afraid of how he always pulled himself away from the perpetual crowd of admirers that surrounded him to greet her in the morning before class started, how he always found her during lunch and ate with her, how he always managed to find her even after she tried to hide herself and had managed to worm himself into her heart and mind even after she had closed herself off. She didn't tell him any of that. Instead, she roughly shook him off and hissed, "And not everyone can stand the stench of the lives you've ruined, all so that you can act so high and mighty."

His hand fell to his side as she shoved past him. Lelouch stared at the shards of glass scattered all over the ground as they winked at him. He had thought that she had gotten better, that her wounds had closed, but obviously, he had been seriously wrong with his assumption. He frowned. He had first approached her because he had been curious - he had figured out the system long ago, had figured out how to twist and manipulate the school so that it bowed down to him… That is, he had it figured out until he had met the Grey Witch, the unsolvable enigma. Even after months of dedication, of weathering through her sharp tongue, he was no closer to figuring her out than when he had started. He had even conducted a damn background check and had spent time with her, and still, he was no closer to solving the puzzle. The only fruits of his labor were small and dry - her attitude towards him had grown slightly softer until it suddenly snapped back to how it had been when he had first asked her if she knew were Suzaku was that day their class had taken a field trip to the aquarium.

But he wouldn't give up on her. No, he had invested far too much time and effort to surrender now. Besides - that day at the aquarium, he had seen something strange, something rare that no one else had ever seen. Because throughout the rest of the tour, he had hung back and closely kept an eye on her, slightly annoyed and yet intrigued to find someone in the school who dared to raise their nose at him. He watched as she reluctantly followed the crowd of fellow classmates, walking as far away from them as possible, as if she hated to even breathe the same air as them. Whenever the other students came into her view, her expression had blackened, but whenever she looked at the animals, at the fish and the dolphins and the otters… He knew that he would never forget the smile he saw that day because it was that smile, that desire to see her smile again, that made him refuse to give up on her. He knew it was foolish to spend so much time and energy on one person, but the smile had been one of such rarity, he felt the need to see it again.

Besides. He had given his future father-in-law his word that he would help his fiancé be accepted and included in the society that she had deserted and that had cast her out. And he'd be damned if he was going to break his promise.


Request: AU. C.C. hates all of her classmates because in her perspective, they only use each other to gain social status or personal interests. In return, all of her classmates hates her. But there is one person who wants to know why did she became like that, it is the most popular boy in their campus, Lelouch Lamperouge.


Request Complete