Code Geass 1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: We don't own Code Geass or any of its psychotic characters, much as we would like to.

Summary: In which an amnesiac Lelouch embarks on a journey to relearn all of Season 1 and find his OTL through a quirky hallucinogenic trip to Wonderland, Code Geass style.

**Lelouch****'s Adventures**** in Wonderland**

**Chapter 1**

As the wind rushed through his hair, Lelouch laughed at the cries of "Lelouch, come back!" as he sped away from the school (and Ms. Viletta) on a motocycle with Rolo. Really, did she expect him to come back just because he was ordered to? Besides, it was just PE classes. Who needed those? Ok, granted, he was a bit weak at physical activities, but that's why he avoided PE.

...Wait that was faulty reasoning there...

Hm...

Lelouch's brilliant brain continued to rationalize his ditching of class as Rolo chided him. Absentmindedly, Lelouch offered his little brother half his bread, but as the motorcycle swerved dangerously when Rolo tried to take the bread, Lelouch decided to not feed his brother while driving again if he intended to live until graduation. Staring listlessly at some advertisements, Lelouch sardonically pondered the futility of Elevens' struggle against Britannians, even as Rolo pestered him with questions of his future. He scoffed at the powerlessness of those Elevens and especially Zero, the fool who led them on with an impossible dream. The two brothers arrived at Babel Tower, Rolo refusing to leave Lelouch's side. Rolo continued pestering him with questions, but Lelouch casually waved them off as they entered a gambling ground that two young students obviously should not be in. On the elevator up, Lelouch tapped his fingers restlessly against the railing as he ponders how desperately bored he must be to find entertainment at a gambling ring instead of buying some more video games or movies to entertain himself like a normal teenager would.

The elevator doors opened, revealing many affluent Brittanians playing slots, blackjack, roulette, poker, and the like. From an announcement over the PA, Lelouch's attention was drawn to the rink where two Elevens were fighting for the entertainment of the Brittanians. Lelouch waved off Rolo's pleas to leave, stating that this was reality, while he strode through a set of double doors, only to get run into by a magenta haired bunny girl. A mini-debate on the Britannians vs Elevens issue with the bunny girl later, a swarthy blonde haired, black skinned and brown bearded man grabbed her by the "ears" to drag her back to his personal Playboy mansion. Funny how the ears didn't just fall off when he pulled. Perhaps they were superglued on. Lelouch's eyes flashed; he had found an opponent. Coolly opening his suitcase, he challenged the identity challenged noble to a chess match. "Let's determine who's on the 'fit' side with this for now."

The blonde haired, brown bearded man could only wear an expression of utter disbelief and humiliation as Lelouch slowly but surely trapped him into checkmate. What was up with high schoolers these days? Lelouch smirked. "It appears your side wasn't fit enough to survive." He regretted the insult immediately when the weird blonde man ordered his big burly and very much armed guards to arrest him. Today was just not his day.

Suddenly, the building shook, and the bunny girl pulled off her ears and round house kicked the blonde black man, knocking him out. Ok...so that was unexpected...

On the plus side, the guards had released him in favor of the bunny girl, who promptly took them out as well, leaving Lelouch free. Bodyguards are just there for decoration anyways. Just as Lelouch was planning to run out of the building in response to the screams of "Terrorists!", the bunny girl grabbed his hand and led him in the opposite direction. But that meant that he was going the opposite direction as the crowd, and toward the terrorists, which, his brilliant brain reasoned, was a very bad idea. But the bunny girl's grip was too strong, and he was being dragged along unwillingly. Suddenly, Rolo grabbed him and pulled him toward what was hopefully an escape route. At times like these, clingy younger brothers were really useful indeed. However, just when he thought he was safe, Britannian Knightmares attacked, and once again they were under fire. Escaping to what they thought was a safe room, the weak structural foundation chose that one precise moment to give out, casting Lelouch into a dark never-ending abyss.

~(^O^~)|(~^O^)~

When Lelouch finally hit solid ground, miraculously with all his bones and organs intact, he found himself in an endless hallway filled with doors. His mind grappled with the practicality of having such a place in a commercial skyscraper, but reasoned he should be able to find a way out. Looking up, he saw only darkness, and his phone displayed "NO SIGNAL". He noted one extra-small door but paid it no heed as he walked on. This place would be a deathtrap should the rest of the building give out as well. As Lelouch inspected the doors, he found that they were all locked. He sigh in frustration, how was he supposed to get anywhere if he didn't have a key, or something to pick it with? Of all days for him to not have a hairpin, it had to be today. Well, he was a guy so he shouldn't have one anyways...Hm...a lot of faulty reasoning going on today...

Suddenly, he noticed that there was a small table with a key, a cake, and a bottle on it in the middle of the corridor.

He walked over to take a closer look and picked up the key before almost tossing it away in disgust. Judging from the miniature size, it was for unlocking the tiniest of the doors and would likely get him nowhere. He stared at the drink, which was suspiciously labeled "Drink Me." Unwilling to put his life at risk drinking dangerous unidentified substances, Lelouch started to turn away before suddenly being struck by a parching thirst that had him grasping for the bottle and chugging down the contents. In a flash, the world enlargened before him. He mentally sighed. Of course the flash was full of hallucinogens or some such. Though, if that was the case, he shouldn't be capable of rational thinking...oh well. He spotted the cake labeled "Eat Me" on the floor and furrowed his eyebrows. When had that gotten there? He was suddenly very very hungry.

Since he had already ingested an unknown drink, Lelouch figured that it wouldn't hurt too much if he sated his hunger with the cake. Suddenly, the world started shrinking until his head hit the ceiling. Lelouch blinked. Now he understood why those children's stories told him to never eat strange foods; they were filled with drugs.

Abruptly, a poor bird thwacked into his eye, unable to swerve out of the way of a spontaneously growing human. Lelouch felt his eyes tearing up as he was forced to admit that he must have somehow grown larger, seeing as a bird crashed into him. However, he had a bigger problem on his hands, as the corridor started flooding with his tears. Out of the corner of his eye, Lelouch spotted a figure fast approaching. Lo and behold, the bunny girl from before was sprinting towards him, glancing at a watch she had pulled out of nowhere, muttering "I'm late! I must get to the rendevous point or the whole plan will fail."

Surprised by her sudden reappearance but quickly regaining his composure, Lelouch ordered her in his most regal voice to stop and help his escape. She paid no heed to his words and raced on, dropping only a single headband floating in the ever growing puddle of tear water. Lelouch delicately picked it up with his now blown up pinky to return it to her, being the gentleman that he is, only to find that she had already disappeared. Frighteningly enough, the large pool that had formed from his tears was getting closer and closer. He began panicking as he remembered his complete lack of physical prowess and swimming skills. What was a boy genius to do?

Reflexively, Lelouch dropped the headband, and to his relief, the pool stopped advancing. However, as he looked around, Lelouch discovered he was now short to the point where he couldn't reach the key on the table. Only this time, there were no convenient cakes for him to eat. Suddenly, he heard splashing a little way off, and reasoning that perhaps the other person could be of some assistance, Lelouch proceeded to laboriously doggy-paddle his way through the pool of tears. Maybe he shouldn't have skipped all those PE classes and learned how to swim.

As he approached the splashing, Lelouch found that it was a young, green haired girl with glasses struggling to find dry land. Not recognizing her, Lelouch called out, "Excuse me, miss, but do you happen to know the way out of this place?" The girl looked quickly at him, but said nothing. Lelouch tried again, but still got nothing. Perhaps she was deaf. Deciding to test it out, Lelouch decided to say something that he knew would produce a reaction from Elevens and Britannians alike: "The Murder Princess was really brutal wasn't she?"

With that comment the girl's head turned with an audible snap. Her green hair bobbed in the waves and her glasses remained miraculously clear as her expression twisted psychotically. "How dare you? Do you not understand how much she sacrificed? She was a benevolent, peaceful princess. Death to Zero...death to Zero...must create weapon...E=mc^2..." Lelouch immediately regretted talking to the girl. He attempted to gingerly doggy-paddle away, and luckily the psychotic girl didn't seem a much better swimmer than he was. Unfortunately, the crazy woman had latched onto his arm, shrilly sprouting complex physics equations that Lelouch idly realized could lead to a complex bomb of some sort. But he couldn't contemplate this further as he was starting to drown. Clearly, his doggy-paddle was not enough to sustain him and the added weight of the crazy girl. Luckily for him, he spotted shore and headed for it with the last bits of strength his body could muster. Hacking out salty tear water onto the sand, he wrenched the crazy girl off of his arm and stumbled to the side. Looking around, he spotted several other unfortunate people who had also just climbed out of the water.

To his left, a woman with shoulder length magenta hair gracefully straightened. She was wearing an army uniform and from the insignias, she must be someone important in the Britannian army. Beside her, a neatly groomed, black haired man who wore glasses asked quietly, "Are you hurt, your highness?"

Lelouch took in the situation instantly before blending in with the other survivors. The regal woman snapped a whip that had suddenly appeared in her hands. "Get in line, soldiers!"

Lelouch found himself reflexively standing at attention at the sound of her martial voice. She inspected them carefully with dissatisfaction and ordered, "Everyone, march!"

Everyone followed orders and started marching forward. When they reached the end of the very small piece of land, several people started breaking stride, wondering if they should stop. "Keep marching!" barked the woman, and startled, everyone snapped back in line and started marching around the island in circles. After a few laps, Lelouch started to get bored and studied the men and women in line. The leader was a Britannian soldier, but not of high rank. Some of the others were looking familiar. There were a few Black Knights in line as well: a bespectacled man with a scar down the right side of his face, and a brown haired man who seemed to be trying to look back at him with...were those sparkles in his eyes? One figure particularly struck out. From what Lelouch could surmise...he was an Eleven attempting messy Elvis Presley hair. Lelouch scoffed inside. Elvis was a legendary Britannian icon, who did that Eleven think he was fooling? However, this Eleven held his gaze squarely. _A good man_, Lelouch thought to himself, _and good lower level commander material. Ah, stop_, he chided himself, _no use thinking of these people as pawns on my chessboard when I'm just a normal powerless Britannian student_.

Behind him, the crazy girl and some more Britannian soldiers marched, quietly and obediently. Lelouch could only sigh and wonder if his hallucination was commenting on his future where he and the rest of the world would be at the Britannian nobility's beck and call, marching and getting nowhere. Irritated, Lelouch started muttering under his breath about how the nobility really weren't better than others. After all, just look at what the Murder Princess did. "Don't call her that!" the green haired girl behind Lelouch screamed.

What an annoying girl, he thought to himself. He somehow instinctively knew her name was Nina. And in fact, the Britannian woman leading them could be none other than the long lost Second Princess Cornelia. Lelouch stopped, puzzled. Why did he know that? Then he stopped and reasoned, Nina was wearing the Ashford uniform, so he must've seen her around campus before. And who didn't know of Cornelia? He nodded to himself. He must be dreaming, and his subconscious simply conjured up some random figures from his memory to haunt him. All this, of course, took place in his mind in a flash. He ignored the Nina girl, but was surprised that he had drawn a response from everyone else as well. Suddently, the brown haired Black Knight jumped out and started yelling, "Of course she's the 'Murder Princess'. How many innocent Japanese people did she kill? We all trusted her! Zero trusted her! And then right after he agrees, she comes out telling everyone to kill the Japanese!"

"SILENCE!" came the voice of Cornelia. "You will not speak of my sister in that manner!"

"Oh yeah! Or else what?" the Black Knight taunted back. Soon, the little island erupted into an argument with everyone shouting at once and quickly degenerated into a fight with fists flying, Nina screaming, and angry words being hurled from all sides. When Cornelia and her knight, Gilbert, pulled out swords and the Black Knights pulled out guns, Lelouch decided that water or not, now was a good time to leave.

End Chapter 1

Author's Note: Lulu is on his quest to regain his identity as Zero. And Y+H are on their quest to regain some sanity from summer break boredom. Hopefully this spells the end of a very long writers block and a tiring year at school. And hurray Code Geass R2 Marathons! Now that I think about it, that one blonde haired black skinned brown bearded guy was really weird... _-Y_

Finally writing again for fun has been a nice break from the essays and lab reports and the other writing we've had to do for school. We actually came up with this plot over winter break, when there were lots of ads for Alice in Wonderland...I think. Unfortunately, school started, and neither Y nor I had much free time to do any writing...hopefully, we'll actually finish this piece rather quickly. Ohh...and if any of you have suggestions for casting people, feel free to let us know. :D _-H_


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: We don't own Code Geass, or else we would be quite rich and off making our next hit anime instead of writing fics.

**Cakes, Mushrooms and Lolis**

Lelouch high-tailed it down the beach and away from the melee that was taking place behind him. He seemed to be upsetting quite a few people today... If this was a hallucination that reflected his subconscious, then he must view himself as a very irritating person. Deciding to forgo the psychoanalysis in favor of concentrating on his escape, Lelouch was shocked to see the bunny girl from earlier sprinting towards him at a pace that was certainly breaking all world records. As she neared, he could hear her muttering to herself, "Oh no, where could I have dropped it? I borrowed it from Ms. Viletta! If she finds out that I lost it here, she'll know who I am and have me executed for sure!"

Lelouch's brilliant mind helpfully supplied that the girl was looking for her headband, and decided to look around for it as well. Since he had offended many people, he figured that he might as well get on the good side of at least one inhabitant in his hallucination.

"Excuse me miss, would you like me to help you search?" Lelouch beamed politely.

The bunny girl barely gave him a glance and nodded curtly before walking down a road that suddenly appeared. Lelouch doggedly followed, having nothing else better to do. The road led to a small cottage of the fairytale bunny girl came to a stop and turned around to glare at Lelouch. "Go search in there!"

Lelouch bristled at being ordered to do something, but caught himself. "Don't offend another person...don't be offensive," he told himself, before nodding and walking into the cottage.

Inside, he found a headband, the same size and color as the one he remembered her wearing, and was about to bring it out to the demanding young lady, but he noticed a bottle of clear liquid in the room. Feeling rather thirsty from the swim in the pool of tears, and seeing as the cap was still unbroken, Lelouch deemed it safe to drink and drank half the bottle in one gulp.

Instantly, he felt his bones elongate. Lelouch wondered why he was having multiple growth spurts and what this hallucination was telling him about his subconscious size complex. Larger and larger he grew, until he couldn't be contained by the cottage and his limbs were sticking out of the thin walls. He bent his neck to avoid breaking through the roof. Thankfully, he stopped growing before the whole cottage fell apart. That would slightly lessen the property damages he would have to pay... Which reminded him that he probably has gotten onto the bunny girl's bad side as well. Lelouch sighed. _Oh well_, he thought. _I'll just be more careful next time. _

From outside, he hears the bunny girl yell, "Hurry up and come out with the headband! I'm late already!" When there was no response, as Lelouch couldn't obey, he heard her yell, "Sir Jeremy! Go inside to get the headband! ...Ms. Viletta's headband!"

After a few minutes, Lelouch heard a thump on the roof, and realized that Sir Jeremy is going to come down from the chimney. Lelouch panicked as much as he was capable of panicking. The cottage was cramped enough as it was, without the addition of another person. From the sounds of it, this Sir Jeremy was no anorexic girl either. From the noise outside, Lelouch deduced that quite a crowd had gathered. Gritting his teeth in embarrassment, he was in no good temper to deal with the ash covered man that had crawled into a tiny space in front of the fireplace.

This "Sir Jeremy" coughed politely before screaming "It wasn't me! I don't know what 'orange' is!" Lelouch wondered if everyone was insane in this world.

Lelouch took a deep breath before inquiring, "Pardon me, but do you know how I can get smaller again? I'd rather not be stuck in a cottage forever."

Sir Jeremy paid him no heed. "It was all a conspiracy against me! I had no relations to Zero at all! He framed me! I lost everything!"

Lelouch gave up on trying to talk to this madman and turned his attention to the people outside. Unsurprisingly, the cottage suddenly sprouting limbs has attracted quit a crowd. Unfortunately, they didn't simply look curious, they were also whispering to each other and casting dark looks at it. Lelouch tried to contain his fear. Angry mobs are rather unpredictable and he just hoped they didn't have the strength to tear him limb from limb. Wait, he was big enough to step on them. Perhaps tearing him limb from limb wasn't an option after all. Feeling slightly reassured, all of Lelouch's fears gushed back in an instant as the crowd came closer holding what looked like rocks. Lelouch tried desperately to retract his arms, but the walls of the cottage shook dangerously. The front of the crowd started throwing the "rocks" and Lelouch cringed, bracing himself for the impact. Instead, he felt a very soft splat on his leg. Bringing his eyes to a window, he saw the remains of a small cake smushed onto his uniform pant leg.

Lelouch's relief at not getting hurt was quickly replaced by disgust as he realized that this pair of pants would be in dire need of a washing after this encounter. Feeling something sticky and wet on his hand, Lelouch realized that the crowd has starting throwing rocks/cakes at his arms as well. Catching one, Lelouch decided he might as well eat it and not let food go to waste, carefully bringing his mouth to the (broken) window. The cake tasted like pure sugar, much like the confections girls at school were fond of giving him. Luckily, as Lelouch had hoped, the cake turned him smaller with each bite he took. Soon he was back to (relatively) normal size. Sir Jeremy did not even turn to look at his magical transformation, so Lelouch took this time to make his get away.

Deciding to avoid the angry mob now that he was a size where he could be ripped to itty bitty pieces by the mob, Lelouch headed out the back door. He sprinted for the forest, hoping that with a head start, he could outrun them. For some reason, Lelouch felt that he was getting slower and slower. The trees seemed much darker and taller than when he had started. His legs just weren't covering much distance, and suddenly, Lelouch realized the grass was getting closer and closer. Crap! That meant the cake's effect was simply delayed. He was still shrinking! Lelouch stopped and waited in horrified silence for the shrinking to stop. If he shrank down to nothing... but thankfully, stop it did, with the blades of grass just above his head. Deducing that injecting food or liquid from this strange world would change his size, Lelouch wandered around the forest, looking for something edible. There were blades of grass, some stones and dirt readily available, but they were all rather unappetizing. Finally spotting a blue mushroom, Lelouch headed over to see if it was edible and not poisonous as blue mushrooms have a tendency of being.

A strange cloud of smoke was rising from the mushroom, but Lelouch paid it no heed, as he was getting used to the strange sights of this world. There was a shadow on the mushroom, and as he came closer he realized it was an blonde haired Indian woman sitting on the mushroom smoking what Lelouch assumed to be hookah. Spotting Lelouch, the woman blew smoke rings toward him. Lelouch wondered if he was going to get lung cancer from all this secondhand smoke. The woman gave him a brief glance and said, "Who are you?"

Lelouch proudly answered, "I am Lelouch."

"And what is a Lelouch?" The woman lazily drawled.

"Lelouch is Lelouch," replied Lelouch, slightly exasperated. "I am a Britannian student currently living in Area 11."

"That defines you?" The woman looked bored.

"No. That is a part of my identity," Lelouch replied slowly before trailing off, "I am..." Lelouch furrowed his brows. There was more to this. He was more than a mere student. It was tugging at the edge of his memory yet barely out of reach. What is he really?

While he struggled to answer, the woman gave him an almost contemptuous look. "Remember who you are soon."

Angered by the woman's condescending tone and command, Lelouch asked angrily, "Well who are you? All you've been asking is who I am, but who are you? Why should I tell you? What if you're one of those people who steal other people's identities?"

The strange blonde hair brown skinned woman did not look impressed. "Keep your temper."

In a flash, Lelouch regained his usual composure. "Is that all?"

The woman stared off into space again. "I suppose you want to be normal size again?"

Lelouch looked at her skeptically. Could he really trust what this person says?

The woman's voice cut into his musings, "The right-side will make you bigger, and the left will make you smaller," as she gestured to the mushroom on which she was currently sitting.

Presently, she left, smoking as she went. Lelouch sat there in thought. He had no idea if the mushroom was safe to eat, and doubted the reliability of the woman's words. On the other hand, a gut feeling told him that the woman was on his side. For now. Deciding to risk it anyways, he took a bit of mushroom from the right side, then decided to take some from the left side, just in case. Taking a small nibble from the right side of the mushroom and found that he grew a few feet. After a few more nibbles from both sides, Lelouch restored himself to his normal height of five feet and ten inches.

Walking along now at his normal height, Lelouch soon came to the end of the path and arrived at a stately mansion that could only belong to a Britannian noble. Stopping in the shadow of a tree like a stalker, he watched a messenger pass along a fancy invitation. After the messenger left, Lelouch stealthily crept closer to the house and checked the door. It was unlocked. Grateful that he had one less obstacle, he let himself in and decided to search for clues to escape from this hallucination when he heard loud noises coming from the kitchen.

Cautiously entering the kitchen, Lelouch started sneezing continuously and realized that the billowing black clouds from the kitchen was actually a cloud of pepper. A man with long black hair was busy stirring a cauldron on the far side of the kitchen, wearing Chinese clothing and...was that a sword hanging from his belt? Somehow, this wasn't even surprising anymore. Looking at the cauldron, Lelouch realized it was Hot and Sour soup. The last time he had any was at the local Panda Express. He wrinkled his nose. This cook seemed intent on emphasizing the "hot" as he was continued pouring in the pepper. A woman entered carrying a baby. Lelouch started in surprise. It was Ms. Viletta dressed in the uniform of an officer in the Britannian army! The baby had white hair, a strange color for any child. Ms. Viletta yelled, "What are you making, Li Xingke? All that pepper can't be good for little Tianzi here!"

A sudden bout of sneezing cut Ms. Viletta's rant short. In fact, the baby, Tianzi, had started sneezing and howling loudly, making Lelouch wince and hope his eardrums wouldn't be permanently damaged. Covering his nose and mouth, Lelouch turned to leave, noticing a strange green haired girl sitting in the corner. She was grinning from ear to ear and seemed to be immune to the large amount of pepper in the air.

The nagging sensation that he was forgetting something very important returned again full force. The girl was staring at him intently. When she noticed him returning her look, her grin got wider. "I am C.C.," She purred, "The Cheshire Cat."

Lelouch felt pressure building up behind his temple. Who was this girl? She nodded at him then without a sound vanished from the room. Lelouch blinked, the strange nostalgic feeling receding. Hallucination within hallucination? Ms. Viletta suddenly noticed him and snapped, "Don't just stand there, hold Tianzi for a moment."

Deciding that fresh air was very high on his priorities list right now, Lelouch took the baby out of the kitchen. While he contemplated how he could look for clues while caring for a baby, the baby was getting steadily heavier. Soon Lelouch's frail arms could not support the baby's weight and he hastily put the baby down on a his surprise, the baby had grown into a young girl with long black hair and green eyes. Strange, perhaps he was still seeing things after C.C, the Chesire-Cat. As Lelouch gaped in shock, mostly at the hair color change, the girl bowed politely. Then she promptly glomped him. "I switched places with Tianzi, but aren't I lucky? You saved me from the pepper! Thank you! You're my husband from now on!"

Lelouch crumpled like newspaper under her weight and fell to the ground. Thankfully, the girl immediately got up. "I have to go now. I'll see you later okay?" And vanished.

_What was with all these people vanishing?_ Lelouch decided to high tail it out of here before Ms Viletta found out the baby was gone.

End Chapter 2

Authors' Notes: I get to go first again! Err, I see myself steadily running out of steam, but hurray for randomly chucking Li Xingke and Chinese food in there! I've been eating too much Chinese food lately, but I actually haven't had Hot and Sour soup in awhile. I think I have inspiration for tonight's dinner... Anyhow, here's to (hopefully) finishing this fic before summer hell (classes all day) hits. Cheers! *chugs orange juice* -_Y_

OMG, i want orange juice~~~*steals Y's oj* hehehehe. This chappie felt kinda slow...Lelouch is just slowly meeting people and finally feels like something's missing. Yay! :D next chappie'll be more interesting...I hope as Lulu's OTL finally appears. :D _-H_


	3. Chapter 3

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_


End file.

Code Geass, Humor