Chapter One
Reunion
It was Friday, December 17, 2008 and Lelouch was having a really shitty day.
He was skimming through the mounds of paperwork on his desk without really taking in any of it. The main reasons for his shitty day consisted of having woken up late, not eating a thing all day, a deal not going through, his secretary quitting because he called her a useless whore, and other such business related annoyances.
On any other day Lelouch would have been able to cope with all these pressures with the same cold, analytic indifference he did everything else. Today, however, was the day when emotion colored his world from gray to a depressing black. Today was December 17, the 7 year anniversary of the day his world had been shattered; the same day as when the love of his life had walked out of his world without so much as a single glance back.
Even thinking of that long since passed memory caused his eyes to moisten, his frown to deepen, and his heart to throb painfully.
Lelouch glanced out his office window and sighed. "Suzaku," thought Lelouch for the thousandth time that day, "I would give up everything to get the chance to ask you why you left me alone."
Snapping himself out of his thoughts of the past, Lelouch growled at his inability to lock away unwanted memories. He stood and walked towards the door, deciding that if he couldn't lock away memories, he'd just have to drown them out in the numbness of being drunk.
***P.O.V. Swap***
Suzaku sighed as he drove along. He knew what today was. The same day he had made the biggest mistake of his life. The same day he'd left Lelouch sobbing his name into the sidewalk.
Yes, he knew what today was and it brought it all back: the memories before and after. He hadn't, in his heart, meant what he said to Lelouch that night. He had known, even then, that Lelouch was the only one who could have consoled him. So, why? Why had he pushed him away?
He had intended to mend what he could when he saw Lelouch at school, but Lelouch hadn't been at school. And when Suzaku had abandoned school in order to dash to Lelouch's house, he found it was vacant, not even a scrap of his Lulu-chan remained. Lelouch had disappeared while his back was turned; he would never get the chance to hold his Lulu-chan and tell him how very sorry he was.
Suzaku pulled himself from his morbid cloud of thoughts and memories as he pulled into the parking lot of the bar he worked at.
A bartender. That was the best a half-blood like himself could even dream of becoming. He had the day off however, and had only shown up to drown out the sorrows that this day always dragged up.
He walked into the bar and took up his usual seat. He ordered a drink and sat sipping from it as he eyed the occupants of the room. His eyes rested on a man sitting at the bar.
As if sensing his gaze, the man glanced over his shoulder, looking directly at Suzaku.
Suzaku felt his jaw drop as he watched Lelouch turn back around, down the last dregs of his drink, then stumble toward the door.
Suzaku tossed some money onto the table for his unfinished drink and hurried after Lelouch, having no intention of losing his friend for a second time in this lifetime.
***P.O.V. Swap***
Lelouch had left work to get drunk and forget about Suzaku and as far as he could tell, he was doing a damn good job of it. He couldn't even remember how to spell his own name, let alone think of Suzaku.
Suddenly feeling as if he was being watched, Lelouch glanced over his shoulder to find a man, he thought it was a man at least, looking in his direction. Colors swam before his eyes as he downed the dregs of his drink and stumbled toward the door on unsteady feet.
As he made it outside, the world spun sickeningly and the ground rushed up to meet him. In the few moments before he passed out, Lelouch noticed someone hurrying towards him.
"Suzaku…" he mumbled before the comforting darkness draped itself over his mind.
***P.O.V. Swap***
Suzaku rushed out the door of the bar just as Lelouch collapsed onto the ground. He ran to Lelouch, checking for a pulse.
"Good," thought Suzaku having found it, "he's only passed out." He picked up his friend's surprisingly light form bridle style and loaded him into the passenger's seat of his truck.
He jumped into the driver's seat and started driving for home. As he did so, Lelouch shifted in his unconscious slumber, leaning his head on Suzaku's shoulder and wrapping and arm around his waist.
The brunette smiled, glad to have the light of his world returned to him so unexpectedly.