A/N: I wrote this first chapter many, MANY years ago. Probably around 2015 or 2016. However, I never posted this first chapter partially because the second chapter was never written, but also because there was always another project kinda in the way. Thing is, while this first chapter is essentially a pilot chapter to see if you guys would be interested in this type of story, looking over it and editing it again was just fun, and I figure if I had fun editing this thing for the thousandth time, then it's about time you guys got a chance to see the first chapter of a story I never got around to writing. Perhaps, depending on a combination of any feedback you guys might give and what I feel like doing personally, I might muster up the motivation to actually write more chapters for this. We'll see.

Warnings: Okay, basically an AU story with a few things from the original Code Geass plotline. For one, Britannia has still pretty much taken over the world, but instead of it being the ruthless center for war we all know and love, I have changed it into a peaceful society. In other words, its territories including Japan are not stripped of their pride or culture, instead they are pretty much left alone aside from some trade issues, but nothing major that causes for war. Also, Suzaku will still be an active member of the knights of the round, but since these knights aren't needed all that much, he'll have other jobs. And in this story, C.C. is not immortal. One last thing, since this story is based off of a movie, there will be similarities between the two, but this is also Code Geass which means I'd like to keep the characters you know and love in check even though they are reprising roles from the movie My Best Friend's Wedding.

Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass or the movie My Best Friend's Wedding. (Please note that this is not a crossover.) Thank you and enjoy the first chapter.

Code Geass in...My Best Friend's Wedding

Chapter 1

Desperate to Talk

March 17th, 2028
Tokyo Settlement, Japan

11:59 a.m.

Within the confines of a restaurant kitchen, the many chefs rushed about, yelling, screaming, cooking, and making a fuss as the anxiety of the situation at hand mounted to a level of new heights.

The head chef paced the kitchen, screaming, "Very important table people! I wanted that pizza done ten minutes ago! Get moving!"

"Right away sir! We're on it!"

The man shook his head in frustration while pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "This does not bode well. That woman out there is not only particular but impatient, especially when it comes to pizza. To make matters worse, she's a food critic and if we make one false move, this little pizzeria will be put out of business indefinitely." With a loud groan he closed his light-blue eyes. "If there was more business in the knightmare engineering department I wouldn't have to deal with making mediocre food masterpieces..."

"Lloyd," Cecile Croomy, a blue-haired woman of about thirty-five years of age blurted, storming up behind him in a mad rush. "The oven has caught on fire, sir."

"Again?" Lloyd screeched, turning to face his direct subordinate. "That's the fourth time this week! What did you do this time? Were you experimenting again?"

Cecile chuckled, tilting her head to the side. "Of course not, sir. I only practice recipes on the weekends." She paused, reaching into the pocket of her trainee coat. After retracting a sandwich wrapped in wax paper she asked, "Would you like to try my newest creation? I marinated the tilapia in a mixture of Tabasco sauce and wasabi paste and cooked it in soy sauce. Then, I added cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickled plums..."

"Cecile, if you want to poison me it'll have to wait until later," Lloyd interrupted, placing both hands on her shoulders before gently guiding her back toward the kitchen. "I told you many times before that I only need you to oversee the workers and handle any fires, which you are currently not doing."

"Oh, I guess I did neglect the whole fire thing."

Groaning loudly Lloyd pushed her toward the ovens a little more forcefully. "Ugh! Please let a war break out somewhere so I can go back to creating my beloved knightmare masterpieces. Lancelot has been out of business for ages and it needs a tune up!"

"Suzaku seems to be doing well though," Cecile pointed out. "He's out there with the critic right now..."

"All the more reason why you should handle that fire!" Lloyd interrupted, enacting one final shove to get the blue-haired woman to solve the escalating problem.

Outside the kitchen where the many customers were eating, twenty-seven year-old Chelsea Clemmons, who went by the permanent alias of C.C., was drumming her fingers atop the round table she was sitting at while sipping at an orange-cream soda. Across from her sat long-time friend and part time editor of her columns, Suzaku Kururugi. He was a happy-go-lucky type of man with bright emerald-green eyes and slightly tousled chestnut-brown hair. With his winning smile and somewhat goofy charm, he was a hit with single ladies everywhere, but unfortunately for them he was secretly dating Euphemia Li Britannia, third princess of the Britannian empire.

How this setup came to be is a sort of mystery, but if C.C. cared enough to guess she'd say it was through his position as knight of the round. Few know how the young Japanese man stumbled onto this honor, but some of it may have had to do with the fact that his two best friends were in very close quarters with the royal family. The first of the two best friends, Gino Weinberg, was a knight of the round, and having spent a brief time at Ashford Academy with Suzaku, mentioned his name to the point of annoyance to the Emperor.

The second friend, which C.C. considered to be her best friend as well, was none other than Lelouch Vi Britannia, 17th heir to the throne of the empire.

Of course at this particular moment, Lelouch and all the complicated emotions that came with thoughts of him, were the last thing on her mind.

"Suzaku, they're taking longer than usual," C.C. groaned, her amber eyes locking on his. "I better get a discount."

The Japanese man chuckled. "Don't worry C.C., I'm sure Lloyd will have the pizza ready any moment now."

"He better," C.C. replied, rolling her eyes. "I have to write a review for the restaurant this time around. If the pizza is less than perfection I will have no choice but to knock him down a star."

Back in the kitchen, things were heating up...both literally and figuratively.

"TAMAKI! Don't let that rat get out of this kitchen! It'll ruin the business!"

Shinichiro Tamaki dove to the floor, trying his best to catch the rat that had somehow gotten into the building. Upon missing the creature he shouted out, "It's coming your way Ohgi!"

"Okay!" Ohgi called, locking his gaze on the loathsome creature as it approached. "I'll get him!"

Meanwhile Cecile was on the other side of the kitchen, fighting to save the pizza prepared for C.C. from the burning oven. She managed to save most of it, but sections of the delicacy were charred beyond repair.

"Oh no! It's ruined..."

"CECILE!"

The woman in question flinched, her gaze darting to one of the unaffected ovens. A stroke of genius hit her as she hurriedly placed the ruined pizza into the oven. Lloyd appeared around the corner seconds later.

"Well, did you save it?"

Cecile nodded. "Yes sir. All is well sir."

Lloyd exhaled a sigh. "Good because if you had said anything different I would have had to fire you. This pizza has to be perfect."

The blue-haired woman nodded again, fighting to hide the nervous blush beginning to lighten her cheeks. "Don't worry, Lloyd. I have everything under control in here..."

"Aaaaaah!" The loud screech cut off Cecile's sentence. Lloyd turned away in response to the scream, taking off in a mad dash to the other big problem in the kitchen with loud grumbles falling from his lips. Cecile almost laughed at this. She'd seen Lloyd frustrated before, but right now he seemed downright flustered.

"I better hurry and make another pizza," she thought, rushing toward the cooking station. "Now, where did I put that wasabi paste..."

Twelve minutes later, the moment of truth came for the employees of the little pizzeria.

Cecile passed by Lloyd, Tamaki, and Ohgi without any trouble since they were still dealing with a rat infestation. Smiling brightly she exited the kitchen, marching steadily into the eating area. C.C. and Suzaku were seated at the center table with the electric light of the crystal chandelier shinning down on them.

Taking in a deep breath, Cecile came to the table, placing the pizza between them. "Sorry for the wait." She sent a quick wink to Suzaku before adding, "But I promise the wait was worth the ride your taste-buds are about to take."

C.C.'s frown lifted a little. "Is that so?"

"Oh, yes," Cecile assured, cutting the pizza with a metal pizza cutter. "This is our newest creation. The deluxe supreme special recipe pizza with extra cheese and pepperoni, bits of tilapia, an assortment of peppers, a little wasabi paste, and ginger.

Suzaku's eyes widened as his gaze snapped to the woman who had been one of his former bosses. "Wasabi paste! That's one of Cecile's trademarks! Crap! C.C. hates Wasabi!"

C.C. looked apprehensive. "I didn't order the deluxe supreme special recipe with extra cheese and pepperoni, bits of tilapia, or with an assortment of peppers. I especially did not order the wasabi paste and ginger."

"My apologies Miss C.C., but we ran out of the other ingredients and this was all we had to work with," Cecile stated, a slight nervous edge to her voice. "Will you do me the honor of being the first to try it?"

Suzaku shook his head frantically. "No C.C., don't do it! No, no, no! Cease and desist! Don't eat the..."

C.C. completely ignored her companion, smirking up at Cecile. "Very well. It is pizza after all. I doubt there's a pizza out there I won't enjoy." With that said, C.C. slowly lifted a slice from off the platter.

Suzaku slapped his hand over his forehead. "I'm sorry, Lloyd. I tried to save your restaurant, I really did."

Lloyd, Tamaki, and Ohgi, having finally noticed that Cecile was out of the kitchen with a platter of food the critic was about to eat, simultaneously burst out the kitchen screaming.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

But it was too late. C.C. had already taken a giant bite out of the pizza.

All eyes were on the green-haired woman as she chewed thoughtfully. Suzaku, Lloyd, Tamaki, and Ohgi waited for her face to contort into a scowl of distaste or for her to start running around in circles, begging for water, but she did neither of those things. In fact, much to the surprise of everyone, C.C. smiled outright at Cecile.

"I'm going to write it as inventive and..." she paused for dramatic effect as Cecile leaned forward, hanging on every word.

"Delicious."

Suzaku's jaw practically landed on the table in astonishment, the sound of Lloyd passing out in the kitchen barely registering in his mind. He watched C.C. closely as she continued to gush, looking for any signs of dishonesty, but there were none. She had genuinely enjoyed it.

Cecile left the table soon after, smiling at her triumph the whole way back to the kitchen.

"Try a slice, Suzaku," C.C. ordered, grabbing another slice from the platter. "If you don't you won't get any."

"I get the feeling I prefer it that way," he thought, hesitantly grabbing a slice. "Is it really that good?"

C.C.'s pleased moan answered his question, but Suzaku wasn't quite convinced. Still, against better judgement he placed his trust in the food critic...

And regretted it the second he did.

"Bleh! Gah!" With loud coughs, Suzaku reached across the table for his glass of iced tea. Bringing it to his lips he guzzled the liquid down, not caring if he ended up with hiccups later. After he was done with the tea, he grabbed C.C.'s soda and began guzzling it down too.

"I probably should have warned you that it's a little spicy," C.C. stated, glaring as the orange liquid slithered down his throat. "That soda probably won't help any."

Slamming the glass back on the table he breathed, "Sorry, I just...I need water."

Shaking her head, C.C. gestured for a passing waiter to come by their table. The man did so without hesitation.

"Jeremiah Gotwald at your service, milady."

"Yes, would you mind bringing my friend here a glass of water," she asked pleasantly before lifting her empty glass. "And another orange cream soda for me?"

"Why certainly, Miss Clemmons," Jeremiah replied, smiling broadly. "I will return shortly."

Once he was gone, C.C. trained her gaze on Suzaku again. "Now, back to the business at hand." Folding her hands underneath her chin she allowed a small grin to lift the corners of her mouth. "You said you needed to ask me something pertaining to Euphemia. What is it?"

Suzaku was still choking a bit. "I'll ask you after I get my water." After a couple more coughs he added, "Did that guy from H.I. T.V. ever call?"

"I don't know," C.C. answered, reaching for her purse next to her plate of pizza. "Let me check my messages."

Jeremiah came back just as the food critic retrieved her cell-phone. "Here are your drinks. Enjoy."

Suzaku extended a quick thank you as he left. After that he began guzzling down the water to rid himself of the flames overtaking his throat.

"Now Suzaku," C.C. began, cutting into said man's guzzling fest, "Tell me, is this a real interview or is it just some guy Euphemia is forcing you to set me up with?"

"Euphie doesn't try to set you up on dates anymore," Suzaku stated, shrugging his shoulders. "She says you don't have any idea what to do with the guys."

A scoff met those words. "Please, it's not that I don't know what to do, it's that I'd rather not waste time. The men she tried to set me up with were all idiots."

Suzaku groaned, clearly agitated.

"Present company excluded," C.C. amended, rolling her eyes at the distant memory. It was back when Euphemia had attended Ashford with her, Suzaku, and Lelouch. On more than one occasion the girl tried setting C.C. up on dates with both guys before realizing that she had a crush on Suzaku.

"In any case," the green-haired girl continued, typing in a pass-code on her phone. "I'm happily single." Pressing the phone to her ear she began listening to her messages. The first, much to her surprise, was from none other than Lelouch Vi Britannia.

"Hey, it's Lelouch. It's been months hasn't it?" His slight chuckles of laughter echo in her ears as she listens intently, a small smile working its way onto her features. "Listen, I can't wait to talk to you. I'm in the Homeland staying at the Pendragon Ritz a few miles off from the palace. You remember that place don't you? Anyway, call me. Four in the morning, whatever, we have to talk. Bye."

Suzaku noted the change in C.C.'s expression as she placed the phone back into her purse. "Who called? Man of the moment?"

C.C. shook her head, her smile softening. "No, just the opposite. It was the prince, Lelouch Vi Britannia. He sounded desperate to talk to me."

"Lelouch, desperate?" Suzaku questioned, a teasing look in his eyes. "That doesn't sound like him, though I haven't seen the guy in almost a year."

"Well, you see him more often than I do," C.C. replied, "I haven't seen him in two years."

"But you talk to him on the phone a lot, right?" He took another sip of his water. "By the way, you never told me what happened between you two in college. The way you guys were acting then, I was certain you were going to marry each other."

The green-haired woman laughed at that. "You know me, Suzaku. After a few months of dating I became restless. So, I worked up the nerve to break his heart and..." she trailed off as a faraway look took precedence in her amber eyes.

Suzaku's eyebrows knitted together. "And what?"

"Well," she began, "He gave me this look. Then he said, 'The thing that makes me want to cry is that I'm losing the best friend I've ever had.' And at that moment I knew I felt the same way." Taking a deep breath she continued, saying, "So I cried for maybe the third time in my entire life, kissed him, and we've been the best of friends ever since."

Suzaku smiled knowingly. "You've seen each other through everything, haven't you?"

C.C. nodded. "Yes, everything. Losing jobs, losing parents, losing lovers..."

"Lelouch lost a job?" Suzaku cut in, perplexed. "Since when does he even have to work?

"Charles Zi Britannia isn't the type of man to let his children ride on his coattails," C.C. pointed out. "In other words, he won't allow his children to use their royal heritage as an excuse to be mediocre. That's why Lelouch, Nunnally, and Euphemia were able to enroll in Ashford the same time we were. In a sense, Gino was in the same boat which helped you become the knight you are now."

Suzaku shrugged. "I like to think that hard work and determination got me where I am today..."

"But connections and natural talent never hurt," C.C. interrupted, winking at him. "After all, there's no one else in the world who can pilot the Lancelot. You're the only person with the skill-set necessary to tap into all of its abilities." She paused, thinking on her memories. "But when it comes to Lelouch, well...we have a long, complicated history. For a little while we traveled all over together. Some of the best times of my life were spent with him. Even if it's over the phone, I always have a wonderful time with him."

"Go on, this is so moving," the brunette stated, somewhat sarcastically. "Are you kindred spirits?"

C.C. thought about it for a moment. "You could say that. We're both critical, analytical, grounded in fact, though he has a tendency to lean towards fiction and romance when it suits him. At times he's impatient, particular, and painstakingly brilliant as well as arrogant. Of course in relation to Nunnally, Euphemia, you, me, and anyone else he really cares for, he's very kind and compassionate. He makes stupid decisions from time to time when he's trying to protect all of us from something, but in the end it's impossible to stay angry at him."

"I don't know," the Japanese knight argued, "I was furious at Lelouch for a long time."

"What for?"

"Well, a few months before he met you, Lelouch really liked this girl named Shirley," Suzaku explained, watching as C.C. took a long sip of her orange soda. "I wasn't interested in Shirley nor was she interested in me, but one day after biology she told me she had a crush on Lelouch. I was excited for him, so I rushed for the door to go tell him, but Shirley didn't want me to say anything so she tackled me."

"Then what happened?" C.C. asked.

"Lelouch found us in a somewhat compromising position on the floor," he admitted, blushing at the memory. I tried explaining, but Lelouch wouldn't have any of it, and the next afternoon...I was sent to prison for a couple days."

C.C. blinked in confusion. "Wait. How did you end up in jail?"

"Royal connections," Suzaku clarified. "The guy is 17th in line for the throne, happens to be a babe magnet, and can compel just about anyone to do what he wants. It's an amazing gift, one that did not work to my advantage. Of course, once Shirley finally worked up the nerve to explain what happened, I was set free." Involuntarily the young man shivered. "I didn't escape without some trauma though. Apparently, I can't handle being confined. My psychiatrist said it was from preexisting trauma."

"From what?"

"Not a clue."

C.C.'s expression deadpanned. "Well, Lelouch can be a little psycho too..."

"Yet another thing the two of you have in common," Suzaku pointed out, laughing to ease the tension of his horrific memories of sitting alone in a straight-jacket. "Anyway, you were saying?"

"I was just going to say I remember this one night in Paris six years ago," C.C. began, "Talk about psycho, he takes out a razor from his traveling kit, cuts his finger, takes my hand and does the same thing to me, and then says, "Swear when we're twenty-eight if we've never married, we marry each other."

"Seriously?"

C.C. nodded. "Yep, though we never brought it up again and funnily enough I...," she trailed off for a moment, the happy expression on her face falling into a forlorn frown, "I have no idea what made me think of that night."

"You're about to be twenty-eight in three weeks, right?"

And there it was, the magic number. C.C. blinked, her heart thumping wildly on instinct as the sudden realization of Suzaku's words and Lelouch's phone call hit her.

"Could it be possible?" she wondered, still taking it in. "Is he going to ask to marry me when I call him?"

Suzaku grinned, that teasing look in his eye again when he asks, "How old is he?"

C.C. starts giggling despite herself, thinking the whole idea to be ludicrous. Of course, a deeper part of her remembered he had turned twenty-eight a couple months prior. The puzzle pieces were coming together seamlessly, but the lime-haired, closeted romantic didn't want to jump to conclusions.

Still, Suzaku seemed so sure.

"Do you really think so?" she asked.

Her companion nodded. "Desperate to talk?"

C.C. had to look away as she started to seriously contemplate the possibility. Her inner romantic was squealing in joy, but overall the woman was a realist. Lelouch wasn't the typical romantic by any stretch of the word, so a proposal over the phone based on a promise made six years earlier had a slim to none chance of happening. Even with this knowledge firmly locked in her mind though, C.C. felt excitement as well as apprehension for what all this could mean. If Suzaku was right and Lelouch wanted to propose, what would that mean for her? Would she say yes? Did she have any other choice but to say yes? She wasn't sure. All of it was just too sudden...and nothing had even happened yet, but the magic number of twenty-eight kept repeating in her mind like a shabby, broken record.

One way or another, this was quite the predicament.

Suzaku lifted his glass of water toward the green-haired woman. "Cheers."

C.C. returned the gesture, whispering "cheers" before taking a hefty sip of her soda. She had a bad feeling Lelouch's phone call was going to cause her a whole mess of trouble.

A/N: And that's chapter one. I really hope you guys enjoyed reading this pilot chapter. Please let me know if you guys enjoyed this or if you'd be interested in seeing more. Thank you for reading and I hope all of you are having a fantastic day! God bless you all!