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Chapter Two:
"You truly are a stubborn one, aren't you?"
Again with that damned arrogant, airing of a voice. Suzaku, of course, refused help to his feet from his so-called "rescuer" from another sibling beat down in the center of the marketplace that afternoon. (...Or had it been the street urchin? Eh. Details.) He examined a muddy stain on the back of his patched trousers.
What a stressful day it was steadily becoming.
This — Rolo Lamperouge — asked him, his cockiness fading off to a more serious bearing, "Does this often happen to you?"
Suzaku thought he was inquiring about Bradley.
"More often than I should like to recall…" The brunet mumbled, patting down the rest of his clothes. "But yet again, I am so used to it… I don't think much of what someone else would assume…"
"If I may be so boldest as to say to you... Suzaku, was it?... your physical features do not match of that brute of an ox."
Suzaku had to smile nervily at that insult. "Not by blood, but by marriage," he explained. "He is somewhat of a stepbrother and cousin to me."
"... I see. The act itself was unprovoked?"
"My presence is much like a stain to my… family." He swept his green eyes momentarily over his pants, burying his hands impulsively into the woolen, hideous material that he knew too well everyday.
The other boy made a disgusted noise through his nostrils. "Foul nobles…"
"Not an admirer, I take it."
'Rolo' made a sound like he was going to speak up and instead made a strangled, startled noise. Suzaku stared dumbfounded as the other boy did a weird dancing twirl before realizing that he was whipping his cloak out of the claws of a thin-looking alley cat pawing at him.
"It's just a cat, Rolo." Suzaku laughed, crouching to closely observe the sleek, brown fur of the purring creature that was now rubbing at 'Rolo's' ankles affectionately. "He seems quite taken with you, in fact."
The cloaked boy grunted and sounded uneasy, gently prodded the persistent beast away with the tip of his studded, leather boot, "I don't really like animals. With the exception of riding stallions."
When Suzaku stretched out a hand to pet its scarred ears, the cat hissed angrily, scampering off with its stubby tail erect and fluffed. "Wait, kitty! Here, kitty!" Suzaku called after it, standing up and knocking an elbow into the other boy. As to be expected, it had enough momentum to knock the other boy into a passing market woman in the square, snagging the hood of his cloak on a hook of her canary's cage. The blue-haired woman gasped awed and froze in place as the now exposed boy hastily tried to unhook his filthy cloak.
Suzaku turned to the east end of the market as there came distant calling. The Royal Knights stomped towards them, waving bayonets. And then… from nowhere… a spindly, soft hand snared his, dragging him from their approaching figures and quickening the pace as both boys ran for it.
His companion managed to dodge and weave them by indifferent passerbys with an easy rhythm — a familiar rhythm — holding tight to Suzaku even as they stumbled over loose livestock on the cobblestone street. For a split second, one of the Knights caught up, screaming out in victory as he clasped the back of 'Rolo's' cloak — and Suzaku fought instinctively to free them both, roundhouse kicking the man's helmet and visor clean off his stocky head.
Somewhere past a double divide of the streets, Suzaku found himself pushed into the parting of a semi-dark alley, sweating and lightly panting. Suddenly, thrust up against a cool brick wall as the cloaked boy pressed them flat — sounding more winded; his faint, warm breath ghosting Suzaku's cheek as they waited silent.
"Which direction did the Prince head for?" Clanging of metal armor from the mouth of the alley.
Suzaku watched, adrenaline blaring, as the boy with beautiful, violet eyes leaning with a skinny arm over him, held a long, delicate finger over his closed mouth, signaling him to keep quiet. Fortunately for them, Suzaku could barely make his dried tongue unglue from the roof of his mouth.
A part of it may or may not have had to do with the caustic look in those spellbinding eyes.
"How the hell should I know? Just keep looking, soldier!"
How in the damned and hateful cosmos did someone who was supposed to be male look so... gorgeous? Suzaku had half a delirious desire to grope along in the dark just to check if his theory was right. But any noises resulting from that desire might give them away...
"Aye, captain."
Whoever 'Rolo' was… he was the prettiest boy who had ever forced himself on Suzaku in a run-down alley…
As the sounds of the Royal Knights ("Knightmares" — the villagers living in the kingdom and surrounding whispered to each other based upon their legendary brutality as those men swarmed) mingled together into the distance — the other boy glanced at him, a reassured smile complimenting his pretty boy features.
"That was very close. Impressive kick, by the way."
"Do you do this often to most people you first meet?" Suzaku returned the smile… very slowly. He was somewhat cautious now by the turn of events. (Prince? Was that what those men were talking about?) "And why were they chasing us? Were they after you? I'm not impressed by lies, by the way."
The black-haired boy sneered, blushing guiltily, and moved off the other boy who rubbed at his stiff shoulders from the earlier unkind impact. "I suppose it was to be revealed at some point or another." He cleared his throat, raising his head and straight nose high. "Yes. I have lied to you intentionally and I implore your forgiveness. Lamperouge was my mother's maiden name. My real name is Lelouch vi Britannia of the Royal House of the Britannians, the only son of Jeremiah and Marianne Britannia."
"Why did you lie to me in the first place?"
"So that the stale fairytale plot would become more exciting. How dull would it have been if you'd have known from the beginning that I was Prince Charming?"
Suzaku paused, cocking his eyebrows up.
"…what in the gods are you talking about?"
Lelouch waved his hand exaggeratedly at him, nose still upturned. "Nevermind. Well, now that we've gotten that out of the way, I think I know a place where we can talk without worry about anymore distractions." He led the way out. Suzaku was still somewhat confused by the broken fourth wall but followed nonetheless.
"If you are a prince, then why are you wandering a commoner's marketplace by yourself? This can't be normal to someone who lives in a majestic castle."
"Majestic…" Lelouch snorted like the word was hilarious. "More like dreary. Would you like to be trapped forever behind stone walls? I find it no more different than being a prisoner in a cell."
"Have you ever been to prison?"
"Are you out of your mind? I'm a prince."
Suzaku pointed out, "Well, how can you say that if you have never been to prison?"
Lelouch stopped just outside the front door of his destination, giving him a strange look.
"Stubborn as well as supremely critical…" he murmured. "You are far more fascinating than I first assumed."
The first thing to hit Suzaku as he entered the building after his companion was the full range of colors in his vision. Mannequins stared faceless as well as eyeless at him from the insides of shop windows and from many shelves surrounding bare desks. Atop of the mannequins' heads were… many, many masks.
They were an array of shapes and sizes whether half or full — accented with plumes of dyed feathers, glitter smeared lips, paper maché curls like jester hats tied to bells, fringe, carved wood, and leather horns. Stucco, metal teeth, tri-cornered hats, black and silver and rainbow bases, pearls and yellow rhinestones. The Britannian prince seemed amused by the overwhelmed expression on Suzaku and pointed with a long, leathered finger to a row of beak-nosed and hook-nosed masks, "You will find these Italian masks at most high class attendings these days. I am familiar with this shop. They sell exquisite products from around the world."
The brunet peered over to a dark blue half-mask extravagantly arranged with matching feathers and a giant white feather sewn into the headband of the mask.
"It is amazing…"
"I have asked my family to hold a masquerade ball for my eighteenth birthday at the castle for such extravagant occasions. And… I should like you to attend it."
Suzaku saw he was in no manner joking in the way those beautiful, violet eyes focused so keenly on him. His tongue was beginning to dry again in his mouth accompanied this time by a sudden, amiable flutter in his stomach. "I…I'm Japanese," he explained, stammering a little in his nervousness.
"Does it matter if your face is covered? You are of age, aren't you?"
"Eighteen and several months."
"Then what is the problem?" Lelouch asked, eyes narrowing at the other boy's obvious difficulty with the subject. "It is not like you are an ignorant slave…"
"To my own household I am. I would have been shipped out to the army years ago if they didn't need a house servant."
"And your parents allow this sort of vulgarity?"
"My real parents have been long since dead," the Japanese boy admitted openly, shrugging as Lelouch stared aghast back at him and shut his mouth. "I call my uncle "my stepfather" since he is my only guardian… he was my mother's brother and of full Britannian blood while she was not. She married Genbu Kuruugi, my father, who owned land and money and was respected by the Japanese people."
Suzaku's eyes hazed over as he added with an odd and strained tone, "He was… hurt when the war between the Japanese and Britannians started and soon after, my mother died of a broken heart. By then, our name was disgraced and everything was taken away… so now my stepfather lives off his credit for being in the noble Britannian bloodline of this nation."
"I would not be surprised if your Father's death was not accidental," Lelouch said grimly. Suzaku bowed his head forward, his brown hair shielding part of his empty face, "Suzaku…?" From one side, the shop keeper of the building approached them with a bright smile.
"How many I be of assistance to you fine gentlemen today?"
"Ah, tes." Lelouch turned away. "My friend and I are trying to find him an item for the masquerade my family is hosting. I wonder if you have any Columbina Cordone masks for him to appraise…?"
"I believe I do." The older man with wavy, dirty-blonde hair winked, showing them to an eye-level shelf of smaller eye-masks. "Do these items please his Majesty?"
"Thank you very much, Diethard," Lelouch said offhandedly, taking in Suzaku's sudden questioning glance. "Diethard does not call the Knightmares on me since I help, to the best of my abilities, to collect and buy masks for his business." He picked up one nearest to his right — emerald green trimmed with copper brocade and a gold leaf finish. "Here, I'll help you pick out something. Do you know why masks are so important during our formal celebrations? It illustrates the noble's virtuous nature and their idealized beauty, masking away their gluttonous and jealous natures."
With both hands, Lelouch held it steady to Suzaku's reddening face, confident in his decision, and offered him a charming smile.
"Mm, I thought so with this one. The color goes well with the shade of your skin. And with your eyes."
At the flattering remark, that pleasant flutter returned this time in the space below where Suzaku's lungs were.
One of Lelouch's fingers unintentionally brushed his face. He took a sharp breath in.
"They are very… nice eyes…" Lelouch acknowledged, swallowing noticeably, and quietly ran a gloved thumb over Suzaku's fleshy cheekbone. Suzaku laughed at him but with no nastiness, trying desperately to hide the fact that the closer and closer they stood together — his cheek would grow warmer and warmer.
"Are you attempting to court me, your Highness...?"
This time, Lelouch's face burned. He threw himself back, sounding both shocked and guilty of what he was accused, "I-Idiot, watch how you speak to others!"
Suzaku had to laugh again at the irony.
Prince Charming, indeed…
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They had no idea who tipped off the Knightmares… maybe it had been the shop keeper despite how well Lelouch trusted him… but as they left…
(Suzaku ended up paying for his own mask, even though Lelouch insisted more than once to help — not because he had assumed Suzaku would have little gold — but because Lelouch essentially pressured him to promise to attend this ball, thrusting a gold and silver-filigreed envelope at him...)
…somehow they knew that both boys were inside and sprang out from the crowded marketplace like a single, merciless unit. Lelouch watched it happen all in slow motion as one or two stronger men grabbed him around the waist, pulling him further out from Suzaku's outreaching fingertips. "Let me go! Damn you! SUZAKU!"
"LELOUC—!" Another Knightmare slammed the back of Suzaku's head against the nearest brick wall, stunning him, and his entire body crumpled against that wall unmoving as the rest of the men hurried after the group who had hustled a horror-struck Lelouch into a nearby carriage.
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"Your Mother is furious," was the first thing the male Britannian heir heard as he entered the Britannian Royal Castle, the Knightmares dispersing as their King approached him. "She wants to see you at the throne room to talk about your punishment..." Jeremiah frowned sympathetically down at his severe-looking and tight-lipped son, making a great sigh. "...Must you?"
"Must I what?" Lelouch snapped, facing away from his father as they made their way down the polished marble corridor. The young prince purposely made a point to glare at a passing Euphemia who was being escorted back to her chambers by her handmaidens and who glared back at him feebly with trembling lips.
"Must you make that face as if you were a small child being treated unfairly?"
Lelouch muttered, "I might as well be that child."
Inside the throne room, Queen Marianne sat cross-legged in her luxurious throne, tapping her lavender-colored fingernails over the plush hand rest.
"It is most certainly reassuring to see that the Royal Knights know how to take orders," she huffed, sending an ugly look at the guards at the front gates who cast their eyes down ashamed. "Lelouch, my darling, I love you with all my heart. But I cannot further abstain from punishing you when you deliberately disregard the rules your Father and I have set for your siblings and yourself—"
"They are utterly ridiculous..."
"What was that, Lelouch?" When he made no indication of continuing, Marianne growled heatedly, "Since we have not sent out the invitations yet, I might as well cancel the masquerade for your birthday. Maybe that would teach you a lesson."
His violet eyes bulged as Lelouch shouted up at her, "You mustn't, Mother!"
In his panic, he remembered the agonized expression on Suzaku's tan face as his body slide lifelessly against the bricks.
'It mustn't… I must… Suzaku, please be…'
"I needed… fresh air... for important decision plaguing my thoughts for some time." Lelouch's mouth started running without him to think his words over. "And in exchange for the party, if it will please my King and Lady Mother, I will formally announce my engagement to the Lady Fenette that evening at the masquerade."
As Jeremiah stared openly, Marianne clapped a sly hand over her mouth, a grin stretching over her rouged lips.
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TBC…
HOLY CROSSDRESSING COSPLAYER, BATMAN! TWENTY-ONE REVIEWS ALREADY! O.O …yeesh. Yes please and forever. I nom reviews. Nomnom.
I'm so pleased that everyone is enjoying everything so far! If I could do a jig for you right now I would but...it's probably not a good idea since the basement is so messy. And for that crazy amount of reviews I am still reeling around the room about. You are too good to me. :D I'm interested to know if anyone thinks I might put Suzaku in a dress for the ball. Or maybe even Lelouch for his punishment from his parents. Ahahaha. Am I that evil? We shall seeeee… LOVE YOU ALL! HOPE YOU KEEP READING! SUSPENSE! SUSPENSE!