Chapter 2: Of Secret Meetings and Speculations
They were all seated in a room far away from the celebration. They didn't have much time; soon someone or the other would notice that these people were missing and a search party would be sent out.
"Where is Lelouch?" Suzaku asked looking around at the occupants. His wife, Kallen Kururugi was tapping her fingers on the table impatiently (And Suzaku swore he could see steam coming out from her ears as she murmured something under her breath) The ever devious duo of Milly and Kaguya didn't look even a bit apprehensive as they chatted together about the latest fashion statements made by some girly magazine. Gino and Anya were huddled together with Gino sporting a large grin on his face (as usual) and Anya busy with her phone/ camcorder.
Suzaku, on the other hand, was a mixture of confusion, flabbergasted and – dare he admit it- relieved. (Of the fact that Lelouch had come to his senses before he actually got married to Tianzi.) But he too questioned what made Lelouch change his mind so suddenly. He knew Lelouch for the past 8 years and he knew that Lelouch never ever budged from his decisions no matter what. So to see him suddenly take a U- turn was something new even for Suzaku.
It may have had something to do with that lime-haired woman but he knew that Lelouch was not romantically involved with her. Lelouch seemed rather frustrated by her and she too didn't seem too keen on helping Lelouch to get out of the engagement. Instead she seemed to be helping the flames burn stronger.
"How much more do we have to wait?" It was Kallen who burst out, tired of waiting. Suzaku thought it would be wise to move away from the fuming red head before she spontaneously combusts. He did love her but there was no denying that she scared him when she was like this.
"Sorry for the delay." Suzaku sighed in relief as Lelouch entered followed by CC who looked amused. Lelouch on the other hand had a blank expression on his face. But Suzaku's attention was quickly drawn away from those two and to the people who entered behind them. He felt his jaw drop open.
There was Li Xingke and his brown haired subordinate along with-
Just what the hell?
"Tianzi!" Kaguya had rushed to hug the small girl who looked a bit scared at the sheer amount of people in the room.
Suzaku blinked rapidly trying to make sense of the situation. The only thing that came in his mind was-
"What?" His wife stole the words from his mind. Kallen frowned and Suzaku scooted away a bit more. "What is the Empress doing here?"
"She is here to help with the plan." Lelouch evenly replied keeping that blank mask on his face. Suzaku tried to catch his eye but it looked like Lelouch was deliberately avoiding eye contact with anyone. Sighing, he gave up and decided to have a talk with Lelouch after this all settled. Lelouch sat at the head of the table and the others took seats around it. Li Xingke was sitting near the Empress.
"So, I am sure everyone here knows why we are all gathered here." Lelouch began as CC lounged beside him a bit away from the table and observed everything with her golden cat-like eyes. She was eating pizza (and Suzaku had to pause and wonder from where had she got pizza from)
"Actually we don't." Gino lifted his hand and looked around the table. "All we know are disjointed accounts of how Prince Lelouch no longer wants to marry the Empress because he is in love-"
"I am not in love with anyone!" Lelouch burst in glaring at Gino. Suzaku sighed. He could clearly see that Lelouch had absolutely no interest in the green haired girl sitting beside him but the other couldn't. (Or even if they did, they ignored it; this was especially true for Milly and Kaguya)
"So he claims." Kallen muttered. She got up and looked out the window presumably for any sign of soldiers searching for them. Suzaku knew it wouldn't be long before someone came looking for them. Especially if Schneizel was there. He was too damn smart and suspicious for his own good.
"It would've been easier if you would've just declined it in the first place." Li Xingke pointed out. Suzaku turned back to the conversation going on just in time to see the twitch on Lelouch's face and the broadening smirk on CC's.
"He couldn't possibly deny it. He had seen her photo and was completely smitten- but I think it was her size that disappointed him." CC explained in a monotonous voice while Lelouch spluttered. Li Xingke actually looked like he believed what CC was telling him. (Suzaku would too, with the straight face she was keeping. But he fortunately knew Lelouch for a very long time and knew that there wasn't anything to what CC had said)
"What? You dare discriminate woman on basis of their size?!" It was Kallen who burst out, whirling to face Lelouch with a heated glare. He could nearly see Lelouch mentally cower at the sight of the fiery demon glaring at him. Suzaku choked on a laugh.
"Kallen. I really don't think that Lelouch meant any disrespect to Lady Tianzi." Suzaku shot Lelouch a look.
"Ah? Y-yes yes of course." Lelouch smiled (though if one looked closely it was the smile of the person who was asked to tap dance on glass shards), "I hadn't meant any offense to Lady Tianzi by my statement. In fact, I haven't said anything close to something degrading like that. CC is just sprouting nonsense." He hissed out the last bit turning to glare heatedly at the lime haired girl who had a magically summoned a pizza out of thin air was now relishing it and thus not paying any attention to Lelouch.
"But why now?" Li Xingke asked. Suzaku faced the General and fought the urge to frown. What was the General of the Chinese Army doing here? Was this one of the allies that Lelouch was talking about? But why would Li Xingke help them break the marriage that could just give the Chinese Federation the boost they needed?
"As you might all know this is Li Xingke, the Commander of the Chinese Army as well as Lady Tianzi's love interest. And therefore our ally." If there was an award for the biggest collective mouth drop in history than it would have surely gone to the occupants in the room who looked like they had just seen Charles zi Britannia perform tango with nothing but a tutu.
Suzaku couldn't help but deepen the frown and wonder. Wasn't it paedophilia? He was sure that Li Xingke was older than Naoto who was 5 years older to Kallen. Lelouch was adamant on not marrying Tianzi though she was only 2 years smaller than him because he considered her too young but he was willingly giving her away to Xingke who was old enough to be her very elder brother. Or maybe even her father.
"And here I thought I had seen everything after the party in Vegas with Emperor Charles hip-"
"Don't you dare complete that sentence." Anya interrupted looking a little green in the face at the mention of that particular memory. Suzaku was sure that he too resembled his friends. That was one memory that was better locked away in the far, dark corner of his mind never to be resurfaced again. He didn't think he could again take the mental trauma. He noticed Lelouch looking at them in slight confusion while the other occupants just raised an eyebrow.
Suzaku just shook his head before asking, "What-"
"Lelouch?" Euphie entered. "What's going on here?" Naoto followed behind Euphie his eyes automatically going wide at the large number of people gathered in the room. Suzaku very nearly groaned at the new additions. It seemed like half the party was going to end up in this room at the rate they were going.
"Is everything alright? Is there some kind of security threat?" Suzaku could see Naoto reeling himself up for a fight.
"Of course not." Lelouch cut in smoothly Suzaku noted that Lelouch didn't look too affected by their presence. It meant that he was the one who had called them here.
"I called you both here is because your help is needed." Lelouch continued (quite dramatically if you asked Suzaku; was it only him or was Lelouch acting more dramatic than usual?).
"Help? With what?" Euphie asked and Naoto didn't let his guard down. Which was very right for him to do so Suzaku had to agree.
"With breaking my engagement."
There was silence for a few moments. Suzaku could nearly hear the gears in their heads turning. Oh, and he could also hear CC chewing on the last piece of her pizza. (If she consumed that much pizza on daily basis why wasn't she becoming any fatter? Suzaku had to wonder and not for the first time)
"Alright." Suzaku jumped in surprise at the calm tone with which Naoto agreed with Lelouch request. Even Lelouch himself seemed surprised with the easiness of convincing Naoto. "The game is up." Even Euphie looked lost.
"I know that this is a hidden camera show and I have already been a victim of one so this won't work on me anymore!" Naoto jumped up on the able and pointed at all the corners of the room one by one. You might've roped me into coming here but you will never ever fool me even if you have them on your side." He then proceeded to point at all of them present.
Alas, he made a mistake at pointing at Kallen. Now Suzaku knew that Kallen was normally very patient (yeah, right)- fine, more patient than now- normally. But this had been a very weird night what with Lelouch acting weirdly, CC turning up and all the mentions of paedophilia. So Kallen reacted as any sensible (blood thirsty) woman would react. She caught Naoto's finger and twisted it around before flinging him over her shoulder and into the wall behind her. Suzaku was sure that if no one knew about their secret meeting they would've found out by now.
"Ow….." The crater in the wall would have to be added to the bills.
"I would normally defend him but even I have to agree that he deserved it. After all, he should know better than anyone else that angering an irritated Kallen is not the best way to die." Euphie whispered to Suzaku as she took a seat beside him.
"Now that is out of the way, will you continue telling us your oh-so-brilliant plan?" Kallen's tone was cheerful and Lelouch looked even more petrified than before. And he had every reason to. If angry Kallen was scary then cheerful Kallen was bone chilling. Suzaku smiled reassuringly as Lelouch trying to nudge the conversation forward. (But he made sure to scotch away from Kallen in case she decided that he brother wasn't enough of a casualty and needed something- or someone- else to remove her anger on)
"Ah- yeah – um, I was saying before we were interrupted. "Lelouch glanced at Naoto before talking, "this engagement needs to be broken."
There was a light chorus of agreement.
"Are you really sure about that? I mean she is still a cute little loli-"
"Don't you dare complete the sentence." Lelouch hissed out.
Meanwhile Li Xingke looked at CC in confusion. "Who are you? I don't remember seeing you around." Lelouch merely gritted his teeth while CC smirked.
"I just came here to see the love of my life." CC stated and everyone's jaw dropped and all their gazes turned to Lelouch automatically assuming he was the one she was talking about. Noticing the looks Lelouch spluttered, "She isn't talking about me she-"
"Lelouch, you can stop pretending now. We all know the truth and we don't have a problem with it." Suzaku said in placating tone though Lelouch looked like he wanted to strangle him. And maybe run him over a few times with his Knightmare frame. Since he lacked the physical strength to do so (and he would have to face Kallen's wrath if he attempted to do so) he settled for glaring at Suzaku.
"I am not-"
"Is my honeybuns feeling a bit shy?" CC cooed in a voice that suggested that she was having a lot of fun with this.
Lelouch felt like crying.
(But he was Lelouch Lamperouge, the Ice Prince, Lelouch vi Britannia, the 11th Prince as well as the Emperor of Britannia, Zero, the man of miracles. He had a reputation to uphold)
Lelouch pulled a face and decided to forget that this ever happened.
"Let us not stray from our current discussion." Lelouch took a deep breath. "We need to wrap this up soon before they find out that we are missing."
"So what do you suggest we do?" Li Xingke asked. Lelouch mentally thanked the man for not diverting his attention from the topic.
"We will stick to the plan you originally concocted." Lelouch declared. At that everyone turned to face him.
"The plan he originally concocted?" Euphie asked.
"How- How did you know about that?" Li Xingke's comrade asked, surprise evident on her face.
"How I know about that doesn't matter. " Lelouch waved a hand and turned to face Kallen and the others. "Since they already have a plan in place we just need to help them with it."
"What is the plan?" Naoto, seemingly returned to the world of living, made his way (limping) to the table where everyone had gathered. He took a seat on other side of Euphie careful to stay away from Kallen.
Lelouch smirked. "They are going to kidnap the Empress from the wedding alter." Crickets could be heard in the background.
"What?" Li Xingke spoke out. "From where did you get that idea?"
All of them were staring at Lelouch in shock and surprise. "Wh- wait. So you are not going to kidnap the Empress from the wedding altar?" Lelouch frowned in confusion. According to his memory, last time Li Xingke wanted to save the Empress from an arranged marriage he had kidnapped her. (Of course, Zero had taken advantage of the fact and kidnapped her himself but that was beside the point)
"You forget Lelouch, this world isn't at war. There are more simple solutions. Zero may have capitalized on Li Xingke's plan in that dimension but you cannot do the same over here." CC whispered in Lelouch's ear as she draped herself over him. Lelouch grimaced at the unwanted contacted but took in what she said.
"Oh." That made sense. Britannia had no pressing need for marrying him to Empress Tianzi here. There, with the Black Knights on the rise and war looming in the horizon they had to bring the Chinese Federation to their sides or eliminate them.
"If you people have fished you lovey-dovey business can we get back to work?" Kallen's irritated voice cut in through Lelouch's musings and Lelouch noticed that CC was still draped all over him. Blinking he pushed CC away and glared at her. She merely took a seat and began to eat her pizza. Lelouch warily glanced the other occupants in the room. There was no changing their mind about him and CC now.
'But when I mentioned the plan Li Xingke seemed surprised. That means there is a plan.' Lelouch thought triumph.
"What is your plan then?" Lelouch asked.
At that, Li Xingke blushed. Lelouch blinked. He had never seen the man smile properly let alone blush.
"Well.." Li Xingke cleared his throat his cheeks still pink.
"We decided to run away and get married!" Tianzi broke in clutching Li Xingke's arm. Lelouch felt his mouth drop open. A runaway marriage. He glanced at the other occupants in the room who had the same reaction as him.
"Wait…. So you are just going to run away and marry and then go off into the sunset?" Kallen asked flabbergasted.
"Someone has been seeing a lot of B class films lately- Ow!" Naoto cried out as Kallen glowered at him with her arms rose threateningly promising a second punch if he didn't shut up. Suzaku shot a sympathetic look at Naoto but didn't intervene. He knew better than getting in Kallen's way when she was angry and he had known her less time than Naoto. (And he was rather impressed with the fact that she had managed to land suck a solid punch despite Suzaku and Euphie being between them.)
Lelouch, as he was expertly doing, ignored them.
"Why can't we just break off the engagement?" Lelouch asked frowning. CC was right. There had to be more simple solutions to this problem. And since there were no wars or anything like that there was no need to take any drastic measures. Lelouch really doubted that the Chinese Federation would attack Britannia if they rejected the proposal.
But at his question most of the rooms exchanged looks. Lelouch noted that Suzaku was looking especially flustered and embarrassed. "Am I missing something?"
"You really don't remember?" Euphie cut in shock seeping into her voice. At Lelouch's blank look Kaguya giggled and Milly smiled wickedly.
"I think the event traumatised Lelouch-sama so much that he blocked it from his mind." Lelouch didn't like the look on Milly's or Kaguya's face.
"What event?" On the other hand he also didn't like the look on CC's face as she leaned forward and kept aside her pizza to ask the question. Her eyes had the look of someone who would use this to their fullest advantage to embarrass the crap out of him later. (He knew that it was unsettling by itself how used to the looks he was; but spending time with Milly, CC and sometimes even Suzaku he knew that it was as bad as it sounded)
"Just forget about it Lelouch- it's just- it's old news." Suzaku cut in embarrassment showing.
Now Lelouch's curiosity was piqued. What event were they talking about? Was it worse than any festivals or events Milly had planned to torture/ embarrass him? He didn't think such a thing could exist. And why was Suzaku so flustered over it? Lelouch wanted to know more about what they were going on about but his curiosity waged a war with his self-preservation instincts that warned him that he wouldn't like the aftermath.
Curiosity won.
"What event are you people talking about? Tell me."
"The kiss." The way it was whispered made Lelouch shiver. He felt like he was a character in a horror film who was going to find out the truth about the ghost. And get killed in the process.
"What?"
"On National and International TV." Milly added as others nodded.
"This much ado about a kiss unless….." the Cheshire cat grin was back on CC's face and Lelouch didn't like it one bit. Her eyes rested on Suzaku. "And who did darling little Lelouch kiss?" Lelouch was a hundred percent sure that even the Cheshire cat didn't grin as wide as CC was grinning right now. She looked the cat who had got the canary. Or the witch who had got her pizza.
"Suzaku of course." At that Lelouch mouth dropped open for the umpteenth time that day.
He heard Suzaku groan and without even looking at Suzaku he could imagine his friend burying his face in his hands in embarrassment. He frankly wanted to dig a hole, crawl in it and die. But he would need help to dig a hole and Suzaku would be the first one he would go to but Suzaku was the reason why he wanted to go into the hole in the first place so it would be beyond awkward for him to go-
"I think he's in shock." Euphie commented lightly as she got up from her place and proceeded to wave her hand in front of Lelouch's eyes. Lelouch on the other hand didn't give any indication or response and continued to stare blankly ahead.
Kallen calmly got up from her seat and approached Lelouch. Everyone knew what was going to happen.
Thwack!
"Wake up you idiot! We have work to do." Kallen stood with her hands on her hips oddly reminding others of a drill sergeant as Lelouch toppled to the floor. CC burst out in laughter.
"So what does that have to do with rejecting a proposal?"
"Well, before the world only thought you were gay. If you reject this proposal it will be confirmed that you are indeed gay and it will reflect badly on the image of the Britannian Empire." Milly explained slowly.
"Though I have to admit. Lelouch-sama looks perfect for the part of the gay uke!" Kaguya squealed. Lelouch's ace turned pale. He also knew he was a bit more on the feminine side especially in the looks basis but never had anyone dared to point it out so blatantly and calling him an uke on top of that!
"Kaguya! Can you please stop?!" Suzaku gritted his teeth as he glared at his cousin.
"But she is completely right you know. Between you both Lelouch would be the uke and Suzaku would be the seme." Milly nodded sagely like she was delivering some divine knowledge. "What do you think Kallen?"
Kallen stumbled back a few step and blushed red. Suzaku knew that out of all the people Kallen was the most sensible- despite having slight anger management issues- and would never participate in such-
"Well, Lelouch can be quite dominating and cunning when he wants to be so it is quite possible he may be the seme and Suzaku the uke." And that's when Suzaku's brain decided to shut down. He could take a huge number of things but this- this- his own wife speculating about him and Lelouch him was a bit too much to bear.
Especially when she was considering him to be the uke.
Gino had nearly wet himself with laughter and Anya was taking a photo of everyone's reaction. Lelouch was still lying on the ground since Kallen hit him and had yet to resurface.
"Well, I am feeling quite heartbroken now." CC didn't look even partly heartbroken. Instead her face was set in the characteristic Cheshire grin as she gazed at Suzaku with interest. "Really Kururugi, if I had known that you and Lelouch were an exclusive item I would have sunk my claws into Kallen."
"Huh what?!" Kallen spluttered. CC just smirked and bit into a new piece of Pizza.
Suzaku silently wondered when she had bought another box all while glaring at her ferociously.
"My, aren't you going to deny what I said?" CC asked the smirk still in place. Milly and Kaguya blinked, exchanged looks and then simultaneously squealed.
Suzaku winced as his head hit the table with a loud bang. "Kururugi, are you gay?" The hand holding his neck with his face pressed down on the unforgiving wooden surface tightened a little.
Now, this was insulting.
Suzaku had not come here to have his own wife doubt him.
"What do you think Kallen?" Suzaku managed to grit out as his face made personal acquaintance with the wooden table. He wondered if he acted like he had fainted- like he was sure Lelouch was doing now to avoid this chaos- if Kallen would leave him alone.
"After everything that has happened I am not sure anymore." Kallen replied.
"Enough!" Kallen's grip loosened and Suzaku quickly took his chance to scoot away from her and towards Euphie who was observing everything with slight amusement and shot him a pitiful look. He made a face and she giggled. He decided that he would stick to Euphie until Kallen's anger simmered down a bit. It was a god thing that he knew Euphie for a long time to be comfortable enough with her without it being too awkward.
Of course there had been a phase when he and Euphie were convinced that they were in love with each other- and maybe they had been but then they met Kallen and Naoto while they had gone Sakura viewing together and Suzaku had fallen hard for Kallen. Euphie had been heartbroken when Suzaku revealed this to her but she accepted it gracefully and after a few weeks got together with Naoto. Suzaku had thought that was a rebound but after a long conversation they both had come to the conclusion that they loved the Kouzuki's too much for it to be anything else.
(Of course there were days when Suzaku wondered how it would have been if he had stayed with Euphie; he was still in love with her but his love for Kallen outshined his love for Euphie so he never regretted his decision to marry Kallen)
"This is getting out of hand." Li Xingke glared at everyone present as Lelouch got up from the floor and straightened himself. He didn't even glance at Suzaku and Suzaku felt himself frown. Lelouch was his best friend and the kiss was just a small misunderstanding and a drunken mistake- nothing more, nothing less. They had decided to about it and the world actually did forget about it when he married Kallen a few months ago. But this would just cause a rift between them and that was one thing Suzaku didn't want.
He had to have a talk with Lelouch after this mess was sorted out.
"I agree." Lelouch voice was monotonous and his face was blank. Suzaku wondered when Lelouch had managed to perfect his poker face. He was even better at it than Schneizel. "Time is running out and we must get back to the part before anyone comes looking for us. But before that we would need a plan."
"But they already have a plan don't they?" Naoto pointed out. "Let's just roll with that."
"That's easier said than done. The plan has too many potholes and chances of being caught are high." Lelouch stated. "That is if did it only by themselves."
"So you are trying to imply that we help them in running away and getting married?" Kallen asked slowly.
Lelouch didn't look the least intimidated as he nodded and continued. "If we help them carry out the plan the chances of success will definitely be much higher."
"Well, of course we should help them if that is what they really want." Euphie stated glancing at the General and Empress who were sitting side by side. Suzaku supressed a shudder at the image. It was still too disturbing for him. But if that was what they wanted then….
"So do you have a plan in mind?" Milly asked, leaning forward a smirk on her lips. Lelouch wore an identical smirk as he nodded.
CC glanced around the table with a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Things are starting to get interesting."
Author Notes: it was originally supposed t be a two-shot but this chapter was getting too long so I split it into half. I am aware of the inconsistencies in writing and how it switches from Lelouch's to Suzaku's and then back to Lelouch's point of view. I apologize for that but it was done deliberately. I hope you enjoyed reading. Please review!
