Hello! Thank you for checking out my little story...that isn't going to be so little.

I'm not used to writing multichapter fanfictions, so please forgive me....

The idea for this story originated when KarimaTinCan, a friend and I were sitting in Olga's and Karima told me about the new Code Geass manga that was going to be set in the 19th century. Our minds immediately drifted to the frills of Victorian, turn-of-the-century England, filled with dramatic costumes and master-servant relationships.....

...Then we found out it was going to be set in 19th century Japan. Nothing against it or anything, but...we were a little disappointed.

So I said, "Well, maybe I should just do it right myself."

Well, here it is, after October...the first chapter of the not-so-little lovechild of myself, KarimaTinCan, and another friend. Thank you for all of your help, guys. -w-

I would be very happy if you enjoyed it! Thank you for reading!

"Checkmate."

The eyes of the nobleman swept over the segregated sectors of the chessboard, littered with participants of a clear majority. A once-towering king of white cowered in an isolated corner. Three pieces of opposing color surrounded it. At the far edge of the board a set of fingernails rapped the marble surface.

"You…!"

"I'm growing impatient, sir. I have other commitments to attend to." The boy, appearing to be only in his teens, rolled a black king over his fingers and tossed his hair back. "Tip over your king honorably. I expect much more prompt payment in the future."

The opposite nobleman's face contorted into a grimace. A single bead of sweat rolled down his nose. He stood abruptly, overturning the small table above his knees and sending the game pieces rolling across the floor. "You're a cheat!" he shouted. "You switched the pieces! I...I won't be humiliated by a school-age child!" He made a sudden and swift motion to seize the boy's wrist in vexation, but was met with nearly reflexive dizzying sensations and ethereal colors clouding his vision. He grasped his sternum firmly and grasped the armchair for support. A third shadow had fallen across the chessboard and spoke in a hushed voice to the teen.

"Lelouch. Payment or not, I think we should go." The boy appeared around the same age as the black-haired one, topped with moppy brown hair. His shoulders were slightly wider than average, although his entire body appeared twice as well-built as it was in comparison with the other's thin frame. He stood an inch or two shorter than the other, but his stern expression and clenched fists made him an imposing figure. A loose, ash-grey cape unfurled around his ankles.

The black-haired boy sighed. "I suppose so," he replied. "Let's go, Suzaku."

"Wait!"

The younger pair turned, the black-haired one's face plastered with annoyance. A pair of men had since appeared at the nobleman's side, dressed in attire befitting those in servitude to a man of his caliber, not unlike the clothing Suzaku wore under his cape. Their glances rapidly twittered between the condition of their lord and the pair of boys while taking whispered orders from the former. Their eyes finally settled on the pair and became astringent. The two took to their feet.

Lelouch shook his head. "Now, can't we all be adults here? Is there really a need for such violence over a game of chess?"

Suzaku and grasped Lelouch's wrist just as the men took to a run. Looks of alarm from other participants inside the chess parlor multiplied as the strange foursome raced outside the building and into the streets, their feet padding the cobblestone walkway staccato. The street of the shopping district was unnaturally unpopulated for a Sunday to the point where citizens leisurely strolled down the center of the main road without fear of injury by passing carts or carriages. Suzaku's panicky breath leant the symphony of everyday cacophony a sense of urgency oblivious to the passerby around them, except for those who rubbed shoulders with the pair and shouted in annoyance. The translucent steam produced by his exhales agilely separated and formed a mask around his face, propelled to the rear by the sheer briskness of their sprint. It was in times such as these, which seemed to have grown uncomfortably commonplace in recent times, that Lelouch felt gratitude to Suzaku's evident athleticism; the space between the two parties quickly grew to a complacent span. The brunette felt the tendons of Lelouch's wrist pulsating against his palm in exasperation. The background chorus grew to a low rumble as the pair sharply turned down alleyway after alleyway, growing victim to imposing brick walls and the distinctive scents of poverty. The cobblestone became rougher and tripping more volatile. The shouting from the chasers had grown to a minimum, lost behind the labyrinthine walls of the inner city. Suzaku, the apparent leader, slowed with heavy steps to a hesitant stop. He shifted his weight between the balls of his feet arbitrarily, perking his ears for some sort of indication that the pursuers were continuing their assault. None came.

A thinner body collided with Suzaku's in response to his sudden halt. "This is…getting to be a bit much," he said hurriedly between sparse breaths. He placed his hands on his knees for relief. The two were polar opposite in the area of athletics.

"If you find it so bothersome, then maybe you should stop gambling with formidable men," Suzaku replied.

Lelouch's chuckled snidely. "Where would the fun be in that? It's not the money that matters to me, after all."

"I'm saying that I might not always be able to outrun anyone who's set against you," Suzaku replied. He reached out and straightened a set of cockeyed tassels on the front of Lelouch's jacket.

The black-haired one smiled thinly. "You wouldn't let anyone lay a finger on me, Suzaku. I put my life in your hands."

"There's a thick line between being a servant and being a knight, my lord. As a knight, my first priority would be hunting down those men…as your servant, my first priority is making you presentable and happy," he stated, concluding with his meticulous tying. "You shouldn't confuse my duties like that."

"You shouldn't be so picky about things like that, Suzaku. We've been together long enough to stop caring. And don't call yourself my servant."

"I won't be able to if you get caught someday. That'll be the end of me." Suzaku sighed. "I'm pushing your father's generosity as it is by doing helping you do things like this. It feels awful."

"My father isn't important," Lelouch scoffed.

"But I owe him my life."

"And now I own it." He turned away from the brunette, giving him a purple-tinted sideways glance. "And I'll do with you as I please." Lelouch sighed. "Don't worry; I'll take full responsibility if we ever get caught."

Suzaku sighed. "For someone who insists that I not refer to myself as his servant, you sure do enjoy emphasizing your authority over me at times like this." Lelouch snickered in amusement.

"I thought you enjoyed being bossed around," he mused.

"It's not that I enjoy it," Suzaku replied in an absentminded tone. "It just leaves less room for error that way."

"Are you that afraid of the will of your own actions, Suzaku?"

He chuckled. "Something like that. Or maybe I'm just a masochist. Of course, anyone would have to be to deal with you every day."

"Hm. I suppose that makes me a sadist, then." Lelouch's amethyst eyes scrolled the ashen horizon like the pages of a flip book, scrutinizing the ornate silhouettes of affluent buildings for irrational threats. At the mouth of the tunnel formed by the buildings lining the alleyway he could see a patch of greenery lined by a wrought-iron fence. A park – it stood in stark contrast to the inner city surrounding them now. The edges of his sight were much less pleasant: cinereal, primitive dirt walkways dotted with overflowing sewers, edged with decrepit mounds of clothing (he presumed there were humans in there somewhere) lining the walkway like pitiful wallpaper. Far away he heard the familiar clops of a horse's hooves. It was a familiar scene, no doubt; Suzaku and he frequently took refuge in these areas of the city when the two of them (or more so Lelouch) got into trouble. It was a place that not even the peons of a nobleman under orders would go into; such was one of the many downfalls of the pride of their affluence, and one that Lelouch made frequent and convenient exploitation of.

No; those men didn't even deserve to live, catering to their master's whims without a second thought. Errors begat more errors, each more erroneous than the last. They were more victims of the whimsical social hierarchy bent on its own destruction from within. Their lord…he was a person of power and towering respect, yet he threw tantrums like a child, spent his time chasing boys who defeated him in games rather than helping the bodies slumping against the brick walls before him. Yes; the sordidness of the alleyway made it a fitting place for Suzaku and Lelouch to escape to.

Does our experience with shameful things make us unclean?

Or is the ignorance of shameful things by someone in power a sin in and of itself?

No; there are two types of sin.

The sinful ignorance caused by a void of empathy.

And the sin of those in power doing nothing to stop it.

"Grab her!"

Lelouch's inner monologue was broken by a torrent of men's voices rounding the corner of the alleyway. There were four broad-shouldered men, each wearing a black, double-breasted military uniform with their hands on their guns. Running in front of them was a girlish figure in her teens, her brow obscured by the brim of a tan beret. Green locks unfurled themselves from inside the hat with each motion her body made. She was panting heavily.

"I said, grab her!" one of the men shouted toward Suzaku and Lelouch once again.

"Forget it!" yelled the one to his left. He grasped the holster of his handgun and a duet of pangs reverberated between the walls of the alley. A crimson splatter painted Suzaku's chest as the bodies of both the girl and his master fell to the ground.

~*~

"Would you like to make a contract?"

The world was blank and white, characterized by fleeting images outlined in charcoal.

"Your master is dying."

A woman's voice echoed inside the white world. Her face formed an overlapping mosaic on the curved walls, unblinking. He, too, was flickering in and out of existence, his charcoal outline being erased and redrawn.

"Of course, it wouldn't be a contract between you and me."

She ended with a chuckle. Her feminine figure appeared before him unclothed. An outline of hair tumbled down her back and over her shoulders.

What kind of contract? He found his lips unable to move, but his thoughts echoed out of his mind like an open birdcage.

"As I said, not between you and me. A contract between you and your master, to save his life."

What can I do?

She ran her slender fingers through her hair.

"If you so wish it, I will give your master the grace of immortality. He will live for all eternity. In turn, you shall receive from him the Power of the Kings, the sovereign will of God over all others. That will be your reward and your punishment, for taking his fate in your hands. You will live for him the life which he was meant to. The life that will be taken as another is given."

He shook his head. I…I don't have the right to decide something like that.

"Don't you?"

"I put my life in your hands, Suzaku."

A statement like that from Lelouch was far from an expression of trust and vulnerability.

It was an order to take his life in his hands.

"…Then I'll do it."

~*~

He awoke with Lelouch's bloodied, dark tufts of hair drooping over the crux of his elbow. The boy's body lay lifeless, along with the girl's in front of him. The four men stood not far from him, each quivering in fear.

Kill them.

Lelouch's voice mirrored that of the girl's from within the white world, coming from all directions.

Yes, your majesty.

"W-we didn't mean to shoot the boy!"

"He just happened to—"

Suzaku slid his hand below Lelouch's knees and rose to his feet.

"You will live for him the life which he was meant to."

"On behalf of Lelouch vi Britannia…"

"…die."