Disclaimer: We don't own Code Geass or its characters. We're poor students, you won't get much money even if you sue us...D:
Cheshires, True Loves, and Unbirthdays
Lelouch walked along the forest path, happy that he was finally seeing things from his normal perspective. Out of the corner of his eye, Lelouch spotted C.C., the Cheshire-Cat sitting on the bough of a tree, grinning creepily at him. Where she came from and how she managed to come and go no longer crossed Lelouch's mind. This world obviously did not operate on the same principles that his own did. Sighing in exasperation and noting the absence of life around him, he decided asking her for directions out of here was as good an idea as any. "Where do the paths lead?" Lelouch asked, gesturing to the 2 paths in front of him.
"Wherever you wish for them to go. Or maybe they will take you somewhere you do not wish to go." C.C. answered enigmatically.
Lelouich inwardly groaned. Why do people in this world always speak in riddles? Maybe they enjoy confusing travelers. Wait...if this was a reflection of his subconscious, didn't that mean that his mind is confused and a jumbled mess? But how could that be? He's brilliant! Mollifying himself by reciting "I am brilliant" like a mantra inside his head, he turned to address C.C. again. But before he could demand she explain herself, she added, "In the end, this path will take you where you are destined to go. I suppose you might even meet your destined true love."
Lelouch blinked. He would be able to meet his destined true love? Who in the world would that be? The only person he cares about and loves deeply is his little brother, Rolo. But he wouldn't be his true love. Was his subconscious trying to tell him about his repressed love? Thinking that this might be rather informative, Lelouch proceeded down the path. Looking back up at the branch where C.C. had been a moment before, he was not surprised to find that she had vanished from sight. Turning back to the path, he stalked resolutely towards his supposed destiny. The sooner he found out what was wrong with him, the sooner his subconscious would release him from this hallucination (hopefully).
The trees started thinning out, and more light filtered in as Lelouch walked along the path. Soon, he could hear loud chattering and the clinking of china coming from a clearing up ahead. Finally turning the corner, Lelouch spotted a table set out under a giant tree sprouting purple sparkly flowers. At one end of the table sat 3 people having tea. Or rather, one person trying to force another to drink tea, the latter politely declining and the third playing with a cell phone.
"Drink!" The rabbit-eared blonde cried exuberantly. "We are Britannians, and we must have our afternoon tea!"
The brown haired man wearing a colorful hat smiled politely but rather forcefully, "March Hare Gino, that's a British tradition, not Britannian, and I'm only an honorary Britannian at that."
The pink haired girl continued typing away on her phone.
Lelouch looked dumbfounded. One of these three is supposed to be his one true love? He didn't even know them and there was only one girl in the choices! Does that mean that his one true love was this pink haired girl who was only interested in her cell phone? Lelouch started hyperventilating slightly. His wheezing caught the attention of the three...er, two at the table and...
The blonde, Gino, lit up at the sight of him. "We have a guest!"
The brown haired one also turned to look at him. Lelouch's own amethyst eyes made contact with brilliant emerald eyes and he felt as if his soul had leapt across the space between them. His heartbeat picked up. What was happening? Momentarily, he forgot to breath as he drowned in those eyes. A few seconds later, Lelouch found himself staring at the sky. Hyperventilation and not breathing was not a good combination, mused Lelouch as he laid there, catching his breath.
Pondering exactly what went wrong with his brain circuit wiring that prompted him to react this way, Lelouch was shocked to see the brown haired man appear in his vision and smile. "Hello there, I'm Kururugi Suzaku, Honorary Britannian! But you can call me Suzaku if you'd like."
Without further ado, he picked Lelouch up bridal-style easily and carried him to the table. Lelouch thought his heart would give out from the forwardness of this man.
"We're so hideous we made our guest faint at the sight of our faces," the blonde haired man playfully complained, "and I thought these bunny ears made me look dashing!"
Suzaku ignored the blond man's antics and turned to Lelouch and said, "Don't worry about Gino, he's always like this. Now, would you like some tea?"
"S-Sure." Lelouch stuttered. Then paused. He never stuttered. He was too controlled for such a speech problem. Mentally telling himself to get a grip, he reached over to accept the tea from Suzaku. Their fingers brushed, and Lelouch felt electric sparks from the contact. Static electricity...he told himself. Unfortunately, he couldn't control the jerk in his hand in time and, as a result, he spilled some tea. Lelouch winced at his clumsiness, but his hosts seemed to have taken it as a wince of pain, as Suzaku hurriedly took out a napkin and asked, "I'm sorry, are you ok? Is your hand burnt anywhere?"
Lelouch muttered something incoherent about being fine, just fine, Suzaku carefully wiped up the spilled tea, and then took Lelouch's hand in his own. "Looks like you weren't injured after all. I'm glad." Lelouch could only gape at him and wonder why his stomach was doing a strange tumbling routine. Honestly, he was starting to act like a girl... in love...
Oh no. Lelouch inwardly screamed. Nononononono. This couldn't be true. He wasn't in love with this man. he couldn't be. After all, he wasn't gay. He liked women. Women were nice and friendly, and...well, women. He should be in love with people like...Shirley. Yes Shirley. Not with this man he had no recollection of, but subconsciously loved. Wait. Did he just admit to loving someone? There was something seriously wrong here. While contemplating his sexual orientation, the other three had placed before him tea and cake. Lelouch mindlessly picked at it while Gino dived under the table and re-emerged with a large package. "Happy unbirthday everyone!"
Looking warily at the gift with colorful wrapping paper and fluffy pick ribbons and bows, Lelouch gingerly prodded it. When it didn't cause him to grow bigger or disappear, Lelouch decided it was relatively safe to unwrap. As soon as he touched the end of the ribbon, he jerked his hand back with a sharp hiss of pain. Looking at his finger, a small bead of blood formed from cut he received from the wire in the ribbon. Lelouch wondered at his unexpected bout of bad luck. He didn't get very far with his wondering because a Suzaku-shaped shadow fell over him. With a cry of dismay Suzaku tenderly took Lelouch's hand in his own and brought the cut to his mouth. Lelouch fought down a blush as Suzaku licked off the blood from his finger. He hastily tried to withdraw his hand. "What do you think you're doing?" He asked with all the remaining dignity he could muster.
Suzaku allowed Lelouch's hand to slip from his grasp and smirked at the blushing black haired boy, "We wouldn't want our guest to get cut now do we? Gino," now turning to the blonde, Suzaku admonished, "I told you to not use this ribbon anymore didn't I? Anya got hurt last time already."
Gino merely looked away sheepishly and muttered,"Sorry, I forgot." The brunet turned away and sighed exasperatedly. looking at Lelouch once again, he asked, "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," Lelouch huffed. He was a bit shaken from the earlier encounter with Suzaku, but he had immediately regained enough cool to take control of himself and his surroundings. While these three looked a bit short on braincells, surely they could give him pointers as to how he could were just figments of his imagination after all. Deciding straightforward demands would probably make more of an impact with this bunch, he boldly asked, "How do I escape from here?"
Startled by the question, Gino, Anya and Suzaku's heads snapped up. Gino answered loudly and boisterously, "Why would you want to leave?" Anya mumbled quietly, "It's always tea time here."
Suzaku however, only quietly looked at Lelouch, deep in thought. Lelouch squirmed uncomfortably, it seemed like the brunette's deep soulful emerald eyes could see into the deepest recesses of his soul. Refusing to back down, Lelouch squashed the feeling and looked resolutely back. Suzaku sighed before saying, "There is only one way to get out of Wonderland. But what will you do once you leave? Do you have the resolution to keep going regardless of how hard the path is, or what you learn along the way?"
To Be Continued...
Author's Note:
Uh...I apologize for ending it here, the creative portions of our brains blew up once summer classes started...hence the really late update...D: -H
We did a lot of research to write this one chapter. Me and H's pooled shojo/drama knowledge was barely enough to write the "romance" as seen in this chapter. Must do further analysis of shojo manga for the next chapter...Bye bye brain cells... -Y
