Cinderaku Chapter 10: sheesh, someone had a power trip, a code geass fanfic

x.x.x

Chapter Ten:

He awoke from a drowning. What felt like full-fledged asphyxiation by a mere cloth of medicine (it smelled overpoweringly of an astringent medicine, thick in his throat; Lelouch could hear through the dark bliss that the servants were apprehensive and calling for him; someone soothed them with a honeyed voice until he couldn't hear them any longer).

Lelouch wrinkled his nose, willing his senses to overcome another fit of unconsciousness. His head and back seemed to be flat to a stone-paved floor. His opening eyes confirmed his surroundings as they adjusted to the soft, frosted light of the emptied Bower (he remembered it as a withdrawing room in the past for Guinevere).

Several concerns rang as out-of-place in this already questionable scene — his russet, metal-thread garnished waistcoat and long-sleeved undershirt were unbuttoned and thrust open from neck to navel — his hidden, silver-coated boot dagger was twirling in the hands of another — and those hands… no…

"I fear I may have put too much in the mixture," Kanon observed disappointed from his propped up position on the unmoving boy. "I was really hoping for some struggling." As if encouraging the notion, the heir of the Waldestein estate fondled the tip of the dagger on the dip of Lelouch's displayed throat.

"What are you… doing?" the prince mumbled, feeling the dagger shivery and dangerous to his flesh.

"Oh, don't do that, your Grace. It is delectable how your face is right now." Kanon's equally cold, bony fingers traced a lecherous path down the bare triangle of Lelouch's chest. Lelouch's face twisted up and flushed when the same fingers paused over the space between his stomach and his ribs. "I wonder what other arousing noises you will make when I do this…—"

As if by magic, Kanon's cane on his hip-holster rose into the air and hurriedly unscrewed itself, unsheathing a slender, steel sword on its own. Also at the moment, a new arrival made himself known, discarding something to bounce against the wall (flashing— green and gold and copper—), and leveling the point of the steel sword in his right hand to the side of Kanon's neck.

"Remove yourself from him," Suzaku hissed. "Now."

With all the sereneness and dignity towards his noble nature, the now smirking man obeyed, careful not to run into his own blade as Suzaku maneuvered him away from the prone boy on the floor. If Lelouch could have commanded his own muscles, he would seek to ease his enraged savior half kneeling, and using his free hand to aid Lelouch into an upright position, cradling what he could of him.

Lelouch insisted with a cheek buried into Suzaku's shirt, "Not poisoned… I'm fine."

"Why would I poison my pet?" Kanon offered from the corner he was backed into, tossing his turkish-rose hair from his face. He continued to look humored as his relative glared heatedly at him. "I must know however…... How did you—a Japanese commoner—ever manage to slip around security to gain entrance?"

When he moved forward to him, Lelouch summoned the strength to snatch Suzaku's collar, growling, "I will not suffer to see another person I love die. Do you understand me, Suzaku? I will not tolerate it!" There was anger, yes, but there was more complexity divulged in his purple eyes; penetrating fear; a hardened wound cracking open.

"Have you not ordered me to stay alive?" Suzaku replied, grinning thoughtfully until the other released him with slow and irritated reluctance, "After all, I would not dare disobey my Prince's orders."

At first, Lelouch narrowed his eyes coolly at him — with a similarly indignant fashion, he returned to Suzaku's breathing space, bestowing a short-lived, closed kiss to his mouth. The black-haired boy muffled a confounded yelp into Suzaku's demanding mouth that swooped low against his, as tan, zealous fingers crawled into Lelouch's hair, as if the other could not physically get enough of him.

"…I'm coming back for more," Suzaku informed him mildly, pushing Lelouch to the safety of the opposite side of the room before approaching his stepbrother inching his way to the exit. He edged the sword closer to Kanon.

"I think you have some explaining to do about my Father…"

"Must we? It is such a boring subject…"

"Suzaku, don't…" Lelouch warned perceptively behind the trembling boy as Kanon rolled his eyes at him, "You know he's only trying to upset you…"

"I know," Suzaku answered, taking in a deep inhale and straightening his extended arm. "I was framed for my Father's murder. I heard it from Bradley. Who was it, Kanon?" When Kanon's smirk widened deliberately, Suzaku felt his arm begin to shake again. "Who was it, you miserable—?"

—a whoosh of air went past his ear. A strangled voice cried out for him to duck.

It barely registered as his stepfather came at him from what seemed like thin air fast with his own drawn sword. Suzaku managed to parry the lunge at his head, but not for the one towards his leg, and clutched to the injury on his calf; stinging; seeping with liquid heat; as the older man faltered from his defensive position, wheezing into his embellished platinum and velvet sleeve.

"Ignorant boy…" Charles cursed with a choke, dabbing his perspiring brow with a linen handkerchief, "…you were better off as a mindless servant…"

"But I was never mindless! I have felt every single wrong you have dealt on me!" Suzaku seethed (a familiar piercing sensation in the left side of his chest rising steadily). "If I did not murder my Father than who…? You had made me believe as a child that I had murdered him so he could not destroy both nations… and that that terrible deed would bring peace onto the people!"

"War only creates more war, you naive Eleven. Your parents were good-for-nothing meddlers in an affair that was far greater and far more fragile than they could have possibly imagined."

"What…?" Suzaku asked, shaking his head in disbelief. "What affair are you speaking of?"

"Your parents threatened the nobleman's way of life. Our way of life." Dark, stale eyes narrowed. "Unlike what the people of the kingdom have been informed of… there is no large supply of mineral sakurite to mine from the mountains or in the lands that the Eleven's horde over."

A disturbed silence fell.

Lelouch broke it, horrified, "…what do you mean there is none?"

"I mean, boy, the supply of mineral sakurite that we need to survive lies under the heart of this soil Britannia claimed in Area Eleven, in our kingdom, and also under the Britannian Royal Castle. Their discovery of the truth of this location and the pressing need to make this public led to their demise," Charles said this with hints of displeasure and malicious pride intermingled together. "As soon as your simpering, blood traitor of a Mother opened her mouth to me about the accused affair—"

(his breathing constricted hand grappling to his throat double barrel gun pressing)—

(pressing to his chest his tight chest his Mother screaming)—

(screaming a puddle under Father not moving Father red wet iridescent drops on Mother's flowers)—

(flowers her flowers her wildflowers our home and a bejeweled ringed hand on the gun's trigger dark eyes velvet tunic Uncle)—

(Uncle why does it hurt)—

"—I made my decision. The secret would die with them. Our nobility could not be tarnished."

Suzaku dropped his sword with a clang, sinking down and gripping his hair between his fingers. "…you killed them. You did it." He yielded to a helpless moan and squeezed his anguishing, emerald eyes shut. "I remember it. I remember everything. How did I—I—"

Kanon strolled past his crumpling stepbrother with a ridiculous amount of confidence.

"Is widdle baby Cinder-aku going to cry for his dead Mommy and Daddy? You are so weak, fool…"

His mocking was interrupted by the sound of a fist pounding the Bower's wall.

Lelouch curled his upper lip, unrestricted loathing evident in his expression. "Shut up…"

"You would do best to listen to the princeling, my son—if not for you, our intentions would have not have been revealed," Charles chided patiently, turning those dark eyes on spiteful violet. This man was everything Lelouch wished to never become. He could see it as plain as day.

"This will interest you, I am sure. Your esteemed parents believe that the Eleven's once proud empire prowled, seeking blood in the Britannian citizens because of a plot carried out by Britannia to murder Genbu Kuruugi. His untimely death by my hands resulted in our glorious kingdom chaining down of the Elevens to prevent riots and in turn kindled the suspicious natures of them against our bounteous government. "

Lelouch grimaced. "Your status as a noble was not worth creating this war!" he shouted.

"Nobility is the only thing that matters in our decaying society, young man."

Lelouch opened his mouth to retort and stopped when Suzaku yelled suddenly from the other side of the room, "DON'T YOU DARE HURT HIM!" and Kanon rushed towards him, grinning manically. Gunfire. So close Lelouch's ears rang. A woman shouting orders over the ringing.

He watched Kanon's knife slip clattering to the dripping, blood-slew paved stones.

Their saviors, the Royal Knights swarmed the Bower ("Knightmares", his darling Nunnally frowned disapprovingly at his usage of the phrase; "they are only people like us, Lelouch, with flaws—they only act on OUR orders, and if their actions are wrong—then OUR orders are wrong") with their arms presented, hurrying past the nervous servants and a stern-looking Cornelia, and detaining a struggling Charles.

Numb to any action or question from the soldiers, Lelouch then watched the lingering bits of life die from smiling, powder-blue eyes.

x.x.x

By the cracks of fading sunlight from the shackled exterior cellar door, Kaguya crawled to the large crate to where she found her sitting companion.

"How is your shoulder?"

"The bullet grazed it. I managed to bind the gash," Tohdoh said, her little, pale hand wrapping around his much more aged. "It is lucky that the boy is so reckless."

She spoke venomously, "I'm going to kill him when he comes down here for us."

"This is the first time I have ever heard you speak of murder so freely." The tone in the man's voice was that of sour disgruntlement.

As one of the head of the Six Houses, on her coronation of sorts, Kaguya had sworn to never harm another living creature for the frest of her days and to seek pacifism in conflict. If something happened truly rattled her, it had gone too far against her beliefs of justice.

"He's a monster—why should we just take—!—?"

Heavy footfall. Overhead. On the floorboards above their heads. Kaguya bid herself silent, gripping his hand with strain. The shackles on the interior cellar door shifted apart, and the doors flung open to stream in the yellow-pinkish sunlight peeking in from the windows of the manor's kitchen. A tallish figure bathed in that light walked stiffly on one of his legs, walking intentionally for them…

"Suzaku!" She cried out, almost tackling her cousin on the bottom stair.

His tan face did not register her happiness but one of his arms carefully circled her back accompanied with a small squeeze.

"I'm sorry it took so long," he said monotonously to them, "There were a lot of explanations. It's safe to come upstairs now." He let Kaguya go and started shuffling back up the steep cellar staircase. Kaguya followed after, throwing a worried glance over her cloaked shoulder at Tohdoh.

"Where is the boy?" The Japanese man asked.

"Bradley?" Suzaku answered simply with the same monotone, "He's been detained upstairs."

And there he was indeed… the burly Waldestein man thrashed with rope-bound ankles and wrists at the feet of several Knightmares.

One of them saluted a nearby Lelouch crossing his arms, requesting that he ride back to the Britannian Royal Castle for his parent's assistance on some "dire matters requiring his immediate presence". The Britannian prince — of course, within his character — ignored authority. When he spotted Suzaku rising from the depths of the suffocating cellar, came alongside him. When Suzaku stumbled over an overturned, spilling vase on the floor, the other boy motioned that he could secure him to his feet, and restrained himself from indulging that thought when Suzaku caught himself and continued on walking.

As Suzaku passed Bradley, he spit viciously in his direction.

"Gag him," Lelouch ordered the guards, tossing them a knotted scrap of patterned fabric on a table nearby.

"You got off easily," the green-eyed boy blandly informed him, "…Kanon didn't."

Eggplant-colored eyes widened briefly up at him, following him with his concerned companions, at that statement.

x.x.x

"…What happens now?" Kaguya whispered, petting her stallion in the shelter of the outside stables, a couple minutes of letting Suzaku's recite the transpired events.

"There's trouble with the population." Lelouch released a tired groan into his hands, leaning to the knob post at the entrance. "We can't very well just move the entirety of the kingdom into the wild of the mountains and lands beyond it… but we can't stay because the sakurite needs to be mined… "

"Who says you can't move?"

Suzaku said musingly, causing Lelouch to removed his hands and stare outright in disbelief. "No. Really," he proclaimed. "If it has to be temporarily… the mountains are very fertile and the lands produces so much that hunger and famine for any large population is virtually nonexistent. The possibility exists at least until another town can be built."

"But will the people go with that idea, Suzaku? Will the Japanese be willing to help us relocate and aid us in creating shelter?"

"...There is a larger issue between Britannia's heavy influences over Japanese affairs…" Suzaku argued, but as he spoke, a smile blossomed on his face, "if the monarchy itself was symbolically disassembled… and representatives from both sides could try to form a government based on what the voices of the people want…. You could get the people to try at least…"

Glancing at Lelouch's expression, he blushed a little in embarrassment.

"…...is it that terrible of an idea?" He glanced then at the others who gaped with similarly awestruck expressions.

"This is—wonderful!" Lelouch exclaimed, clearly thrilled as he lunged at him, holding his face in place as Lelouch planted a loud kiss to his forehead. "Suzaku, you are—brilliant!" The Japanese boy let out a weak laugh, feeling his heart skip a beat. Or two. His thoughts stirring with agitation.

That fluttery feeling in his stomach returned tenfold.

x.x.x

"I always did like the countryside better…"

Lady Marianne made a pleased noise in the Lord and Ladies' chamber, as some of the more robust servants shuffled around each other and her in a purposeful rhythm, heaving along their personal belongings. "I am elated that we decided to move to that secluded summer-home outside the Kyoto region. I can finally garden the way I want."

"I could not agree more, my love," Jeremiah said good-naturedly to her, and then gawked astonished at her fierce vigor when she plucked a small, brown packaged box of his curios from an unflinching servant who halted and waited for an order from her, "What are you doing? There is no need—"

"—to raise a single finger? I would prefer to use my hands at some point." Her womanly voice took on a sultry tone, "Besides… no one has permission to handle my husband's package except for me." When that lovely dark red flushed over his coffee-colored cheeks, she smirked, shooing the servant, and acknowledged Lelouch coming in from the corridor, "Are you here to assist us, darling?"

"With most of your siblings being absent with the exception of Cardine and Euphemia…" The ex-King smiled gently at the boy, linking an arm with his wife. "We expect you to stay with us as well."

"…What of Cornelia?"

"She is busy with the military dealings. Weeding out the administrators who would put a halt to progression with the..." Jeremiah tested out the new word to his politically correct vocabulary, "Japanese. There is a likely chance she may not live with us and remain in Tokyo for the political dealings." Lelouch started to smirk as his father continued with a mirrored one, "We also suspect that her precious Guilford summons most of her attention these trying days."

Their son nodded, without a hint of sarcasm, sweeping into a low bow to his parents.

"…I will consider your request to live with you, Mother, Father." His large, violet eyes met that of his Mother's. The staring contest held long until Lady Marianne caved, coming forward to crush her son around his neck with a loving hug, and nuzzling his baby-fine hair with obvious affection.

"Mmm—wha—MOOOOM—!" Lelouch let out a squeaky whine, and wrestled her away, retreating. She laid a paled, ringed hand on her bosom, and sighing comforted.

"You… are what I have to compete with for my son's love…" Jeremiah shook his head sadly at her triumphant grin. "What ever has our family amounted to…?"

x.x.x

It was harder to maneuver with his wounded leg on top of his healing left side. Suzaku felt a stab of faint pain when resting his heel flat to the ground and clutched the crown-paneled armrest of the Bower's only piece of furniture (a luxurious gold and blue-fabric bench), leaning heavily on it before dropping his full weight on it.

But… it could have been far worse…

His emerald eyes strayed from the ridged, gold-leaf object in his free hand he had bent down to scoop up— over to the huge, browning splatter drying on the stone-paved floor. He could have ended up… "You kept it after all this time," the intruder on his privacy observed from the chamber door.

A solemn hue of violet eyes locked on the eye mask in Suzaku's curling, calloused hands.

"I threw it away actually…" He snorted at the remembrance of crystal, blond wings. "But… someone extremely annoying reminded me that this was still important to me after all. And it saved you and me in the end." Suzaku felt Lelouch's attentive hand touch his gripping the mask, not looking up.

Lelouch admitted, "Even now… for the life of me, I cannot figure you out, Suzaku Kuruugi…"

"Is it really necessary that you do?"

The dark-haired boy shook his head. "It's fascinating…" He pushed a finger possessively under Suzaku's chin to lift his face, and with deft and nostalgic fingers, smoothed the mask to the space of Suzaku's eyes and eyebrows. "You are nothing like I would expect. Perhaps it was a blessing that we met that day in the market," he spoke.

"…You threw the orange, didn't you?" At this statement from the other, Lelouch smiled arrogantly.

"Someone had to do something about that ugly brute of an ox…"

Suzaku let out an amused chuckle, grinning widely, the action crinkling the tannish, delicate flesh around those striking eyes of his exposed by the eye holes of the mask. Eyes that were much more… gorgeous when laughing.

"There…" Lelouch fought down a dry gulp. (What was the matter with him? He was a prince after all… composure was required…) "There is no longer a requirement in our family to be forcibly betrothed. I am free to seek… my own… fortune…" He trailed off as the other boy moved closer to him, still grinning.

"That is disappointing," Suzaku said, teasingly brooding, "How paramount would it have appeared in the eyes of the nations's people if the male heir of Britannia's royal linage— joined forces, so to speak— with the head of the Kuruugi House?"

"I…" Lelouch's dry throat did not aid him further, his fingers on Suzaku's face twitched. "I suppose it would… in the political sense…"

When the other boy laughed again, Lelouch frowned offended.

"…?"

"Lelouch… I'm going to let you in on a little secret…"

Barely having to inch in, Suzaku's lips brushed his, parting to whisper, "I'm attempting at to court you… and you are making it very difficult for me…"

"I-idiot!" Lelouch lurched away, causing Suzaku scramble to catch his mask from falling into his lap. He stammered, delighting his companion with his angry blushing, "Then find a different manner to do it, you stubborn fool!"

"Yes, my Prince."

x.x.x

(And so…)

Cinder-aku overcame cultural obstacles, faced down his personal demons, and managed to do it all along with snaring the sardonic, reluctant heart of his beloved Prince Charming. Would this happen in real life?... who knows… people are extraordinary.

x.x.x

You may not fit the mold of that slightly-wayward-but-ultimately-becoming female protagonist…

…but that doesn't make your story any less interesting.

x.x.x

LE FIN.

BUT NOT REALLY. THERE IS AN EXTRA CHAPTER NEXT FULL OF EXTRA SCENES! WE RETURN TO THE IMPORTANT CHARACTERS THAT NEED TO BE EXPLORED! SO BE SURE TO STICK AROUND!

Now I want to take this time to say… I've been having the time of my life doing this. :3 Almost a whole year! Can you believe this? I can hardly. Every one of you reading and/or reviewing is so dear to my heart. Please believe this. You've supported me during a very hard time in my life when I lost my precious doggy I had with me since I was a little girl. I was so moved by your words. I really was.

To all my esteemed reviewers: Airiko-the-Angel13, Midnight x Poker, Diamond Mask, ..., Legendary Chimera, Spunkay Skunk, GilbertHeartsHisYoungMasterOz, CrazyPersonWriting, Aerrow, manganime-hime-sama, Notoyax17, ChalkMuffins, starichi, RiseofaRebellion, 2stupid emerald and onyx, NaruSasuFTW, Diana Prince, mochiusagi, Erika, LesathShaula, Black_Bunneh, kyoruhi24, AudiblexGasp, MeLaNcHoLydreams, irmina, Atheist1, Spirit of Fox, burgundy eyes, animewiccan725, Lia-chan, chocolatelover1, Altair718, iceley11, Shield-Wolf2426, lilyrose225, MyColdHeart, Shyn ShikyoKokoro, methegirl, Miko-no-Athlum, Ookami Fuu, iBelieveInAngels, Blackrose2005, Satiah, luckless-is-me, heartattack, Sarchale, erning, ValykirieRevolution, my name is paper YAY, KarimaTinCan, johannaanimelover, Bramblerush, Melodious Lion, .Randomer, Darkloverkitsune, Fleeting x Mortality …YOU ALL ARE THE GREATEST FOR ENCOURAGING THE STORY TO GO ON. I HOPE YOU TOOK SOMETHING INSPIRING AND FUN OUT OF EVERYTHING HERE.

I've gotten sappy again… time to end this…

"Our futures are intertwined with each other, right?" -C.C.

x.x.x