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Chapter Nine:
"Wait for me here…" was the last thing he said to Suzaku before taking off for the Britannian Royal Castle.
It had taken him nearly a quarter of the burning day to reach his destination.
The guards at the front gates gave each other disbelieving looks (…How… in the good name of their beloved King… did he manage to escape the grounds AGAIN?...!) and considered their resignation as Lelouch descended from his saddle, begrimed and tattered cloak like a ripple of filth behind him.
He patiently handed the reins to onyx-dark horse to a stableman running up to him. Leouch continued to ignore the also baffled interior-gate guards who uncrossed their bayonets to allow him entrance through the mile-high castle doors.
From the South chapel, one of his sisters poked her head out at the sounds of steel-toed boots approaching in the corridor of the great hall.
"You—!" Cardine screeched with enough force to rattle her own gigantic, gold-hoop earrings on her person, "—are in so much trouble when I inform Mother you've been out of the castle!" She rushed after him, dogging, sneering along the way at him."I know you have been out. I can tell. I'm not stupid."
The little red-haired girl let out a high-strung shriek, yanking unkindly on his cloak with her embroidered, sangria silk gloves until it crumbled to the floor.
They continued past the Southern storeroom and casemate.
"Eeeew! This is so disgusting! What have you been rolling around in? Shit?" Cardine said, gleefully repulsed, "Mother and Father will just die—!"
Lelouch spun on the spot, waiting for her to collide into his side.
When she did, he twisted her thin, bangled wrist — not hard enough to hurt her, but with enough momentum to indicate that he meant business — and seethed with livid eyes, "Do you ever… SHUT UP… you stupid brat? Why can't you be half the good person Nunnally was?"
With a gob smacked expression, she stumbled when he returned her wrist to her roughly and continued huffing down the tapestry corridor, grappling with outraged tears in her lavender eyes.
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Lelouch was received immediately to the throne room, sending dirty looks to the throne guards until they settled to retiring outside with grumpy, beaten expressions.
His Mother — adorned in Persian blue andrienne dress — sat primly in her plush throne overlooking him.
She tapped her long, apple red-painted fingernails against the side of the handrest.
As he bowed his head to her, she asked with what could have been a rehearsed tone, "I am pleased to see your cordial greeting, my son. Did you hear the news from your oldest sister Guinevere?"
"I'm afraid I haven't."
"Her betrothal has been successful overseas," King Jeremiah resumed the news, smiling gently. "For this, I feel our family and our nation are quite blessed."
Lelouch did not raise his head.
"And who was the poor fool to agree to it?" Though he could not see it, his Mother's black, slender eyebrow hovered upwards at his blunt, mocking statement.
She said, halting her tapping fingers, and leaned forward in her seat to examine him, "Such a phrase to use for a new family member… your tongue gets worse and worse every day. If you had been present at her departure, you would have known it was Li Xingke, the symbolic head of the Chinese Federation. We have a guarantee of friendship with our old traders, thanks to this arrangement."
"There's no guarantee that he won't die soon after being inflicted with madness, with her useless prattling about Christianity being the superior religion to all..." He muttered aloud, rolling his violet-colored eyes, disgusted at the reminiscence of his oafish-and-raving-in-nature sibling.
As opposed to her husband being who was outwardly disapproving of their son's verbal behavior, Marianne bared her teeth at Lelouch in a snarl of a smile.
"And what sort of scandal will you be spreading about your darling Euphemia after she is wed?"
Lelouch's voice rose, head leveling up to stare furiously, "It certainly is a disappointment that I am not a daughter and therefore a proper bargaining chip…!"
"It is."
At those two words, two very calmly spoken words flooding cold through his bloodstream, the Britannian prince broke out into in a dash for his only exit, crashing into a moving guard who glared at him before realizing his facial slip up and corrected it.
As her husband followed him, Marianne bit her upper lip crestfallen, casting her eyes to the throne floor.
"Leave me be!" Lelouch cried out, stung, as his esteemed Father caught his flailing arm outside. "The both of you tyrants! I can't stand it!"
"YOU DARE SPEAK TO YOUR KING IN THAT MANNER!" Jeremiah proclaimed boomingly, his orange eyes sharp on the quieting boy. He took a long breath in, trying to soften his features, "…You are more riled than usual. If there is something wrong, I would trust that you would tell me, Lelouch. You must understand… your Mother and I are striving to secure a peaceful future for you and your sisters."
"Peaceful?" His son shook his head at him, mistrustful and shocked at his ignorance. "You strip the resources and homes of the Japanese people and call that peace?"
"We are working on treaties with these people…"
"Treaties do not mean anything! What about the sacred land? The shrines? The culture these people built? How do you compensate for that, Father?"
King Jeremiah blinked, amazed by the righteous vigor he was witnessing from him.
"…what has gotten into you all of a sudden?"
Lelouch jerked free from his Father's loosened grip.
This was pointless. How could the crowned head of this country possible understand?
He had to find a way to aid Suzaku.
Through the buttery, Lelouch decided to change his route to the Place of Arms, where he knew Cornelia and possibly her troops would be. Maybe they could hold off Bradley Waldestein long enough to retrieve Suzaku's friends… yes… at least that much he could do now...
His hurried, desperate thoughts were disconnected by the violent budge of his body being forcibly slammed into the stone-keep wall of the corridor, exploding into a splitting white agony forming at the base of his forehead where it impacted the wall first. A squint of a human-shaped, turkish-rose colored blob was all he allowed his eyes before shutting them, his hands frantically clawing into the funny-smelling handkerchief pressed to suffocate his nostrils and open, gasping mouth.
And then, those hands fell still at his sides.
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"Please wait for me here…" The boy with beautiful, violet eyes said to him, shrugging on his disguising cloak. Boldly, he encased Suzaku's hand with his own and squeezed reassuringly, "I will seek help for us…"
But for how long…
...Lelouch…?
From the parlor window of the guest bedchamber in Lady Shirley's villa, Suzaku curled one leg to the sill he found himself in. His bandages held up nicely with maneuvering underneath his semi-open collar shirt. He wasn't terribly worried about his injuries now that the rapidly heating pain had lessened in his side.
At least there was not going to be an infection.
"What the…?" He murmured, as a small finger made its presence known on the first floor window, rapping pointedly. Attached to the finger jumped up a view of a familiar, small girl with cotton-candy pigtails. Suzaku backed away, alarmed, as she rapped again and gestured for him to follow her out with a bored expression.
Several questions clouded him. But mainly this… why was she, head to foot, in a duckling costume?
Nevertheless, he located the latch to the parlor window, and followed her into the remote edge of the patch of woods on the Fenette grounds. Anya stopped by some brush and motioned clicking her heels three times, and then stared pointedly at him.
After a moment, he did so slowly and reluctantly, knowing where all of this was (unfortunately) leading up to.
And there it was, the green sparkles and turbofetti shaped like obscenely yellow sunflowers.
"Oooh, for the love of L. Frank Baum—!"
A floating Gino cursed, dropping a rolled up hedgehog from his left hand and a particularly dizzy-looking pink flamingo on the carpet of grass."I was THIS CLOSE to winning the match!" He scolded Anya who tilted her head sideways, his blond wings fluttering agitatedly in midair, "Do you mind, you silly girl? I mean really…!"
"…were you using that flamingo as a croquet mallet?" she asked blankly.
"As a matter of fact, I wa—" The blond man hesitated, lowering his lifted index finger, and gawking at the ugly gray feathers of her costume.
"…"
"..."
"..."
"…do I even want to know?" She shook her head at his question. "Right then," Gino said promptly, turning towards Suzaku and giving him a chipper smile. "Oh... Hello again." The fairy man slipped his hand into his flamboyant bodice with ridged sleeves and presented Suzaku the eye mask he had thrown into the lake. "You lost this."
The boy did not reach for it.
"So," the other man cleared his throat uneasily. "How was that fancy ball of yours? Was it fabuu~ulous—I assume it was based on the dress code. Did you manage to woo the prince of your dreams like I said you would?"
"What do you want?" Suzaku asked dully, as Gino's happy expression faltered.
"To help you. That's all I want. That's all I can do as your fairy godmother," The blond man encouraged mildly. "I heard from a certain green acquaintance of mine that your prince has himself in some trouble when he left. I've enchanted this mask to be like the slippers. You can only use it one time to remain invisible to everyone, so make it count."
Cautiously, Suzaku took it from him as he added, earnest, "You are the story's protagonist. These are your dreams at stake. I cannot sit idly by and watch you fall into ruin."
The boy admitted, touching his thumb gingerly to the raised, gilded edges of the object, "I don't know what I am doing anymore…."
"Hormones, aren't they a funny thing?" Gino chuckled over to their female companion. As if on cue, Anya produced a horrible, choked wail that the others could have only assumed as laughter. A little unnerved by the noise, the fairy man returned to his charge.
"If you really want your wishes for a new and glorious nation of peace to come true, protect that princeling boy of yours at all costs," he said strictly.
"That's not why I am protecting Lelouch."
Gino batted his crystal blue eyes with attentive confusion.
"I love him," Suzaku said simply, drawing the mask around his face.
He then pulled it back up, grinning suddenly, "…by the way, Gino, you didn't happen to bring the Lancelot along… did you?"
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TBC…
SUSPENSE. SUSPENSE. -wiggles fingers- Okay. It's not that intimidating. Or effective. Heh. Code Geass belongs to the creators like Sunrise and… hell it would be great to own the characters. And making them do unmentionable things. With chocolate… -sneaky eyes- To each other. Shaddup. And my LOVELYDAZZLINGSPECTACULAR readers are always encouraging. We've been going on for a while with this story, haven't we? O.O …Since 2009? Shiiiiiit. You guys deserve a real award to nail to your living room wall for putting up with me for so long. XDD I swear there is only about two chapters left to this story. Yeah. I'd say two. I'll be sad to see it done but... it needs that ending soon. But really, I can babble on and on about you all. I'll keep this short: LOOOOOOOOOOOVE!