Author's Note: Hey Val! I finally got this published, aren't you proud of me? I mean, it only took me a few months.... :D

I'm so going to receive one epic bitch slap from you later. -_-

Well, everyone, I wrote this for my friend Val-Creative here on our very own fanfiction utopia. She asked me to do some good ol' Code Geass fanfiction awhile back when I was taking requests. Her wish was for me to do some classic SuzakuXLelouch lovin' but then, she wanted to give me something a little bit different. She then asked me to try some SuzakuXCC or SuzakuXShirley fluff, so I made some SuzakuXShirley goodness for you. I just couldn't write about C.C. in love... I can never guess what she's thinking, let alone her love interests... I need some practice with that. 0.o

Just a heads up, the title is in French. "La Puissance de l'envie" basically translates into, "The Power of Envy".

P.S. THIS IS UNBETA'D. If an error is found, grammatical or spelling, please inform me. I'll fix it as soon as possible.

La Puissance de l'envie

Chapter One

The chilly autumn air caressed hazel tresses as it blew gently over the fading emerald lawn of Ashford Academy. Although the dew-touched grass was losing its usual vibrance as the months passed, no one payed heed to its changes as the brilliant oranges and reds of fall covered it in a layer of fallen leaves. They crunched under passing feet, the crisp crackling was the only sound that whispered around the people in the early morning. One of the beings making their way across the sea of color was Suzaku Kururugi, the Honorary Britannian who piloted the infamous Knightmare Frame, Lancelot.

His chocolate bangs ghosted over his eyes as he continued through the vegetation, the wind creeping its way under his shirt. Causing a deep shiver to travel up his spine, the pearls on his chest began hardening at the sudden change in temperature. He knew he should have brought a sweatshirt along, but of course the president made them go out in the morning frost in nothing but their school uniforms. Yet he ventured on, his chapped lips parting to let out a heavy sigh.

The only reason he was at the academy on the weekend was since Lloyd, his quirky superior, had decided to be nice and give him a well deserved break from his military duties. When he heard that, he was ecstatic; he planned to laze around his apartment and get some rest, maybe catch up with his studies as well as go out to eat with his friends. It was going to be the best two days off he was going to have for a while...

...until Milly Ashford caught wind of his empty schedule.

Being the controlling woman she was, she decided it was a mandatory council activity for everyone to get up at five-thirty on a Saturday morning and report to the student council room. Even after countless protests from Rivalz, Milly never told anyone what exactly they would be doing so early.

When every member arrived in the room, coffee cups at hand, Milly happily announced that they would spend their Saturday raking leaves around the school. That's when the yelling started.

"What?! Madam President, are you crazy?"

"Milly, what the hell?"

"Silence!" Milly slammed her palms onto the table, her cerulean eyes becoming sharper as her mouth slumped into a frown. "You all don't see my point, do you?"

"No!" The entire group frowned, a scowl adorning each and every one of their faces. Kallen was mumbling curses under her breath, her thin arms wrapped around her chest in a failed attempt to keep warm. Lelouch looked as bored as ever; his violet eyes dulled as he gazed emptily into space. Shirley and Nina were hugging each other, shivering as they glared at Milly with a great dose of contempt. Rivalz looked extremely uncomfortable as he fidgeted in his seat, biting his lip as his weight kept shifting back and forth over the chair.

As Milly tried to hold up her side of the argument, Suzaku leaned in towards his brunette friend. "Rivalz, are you ok?"

Shifting his gravel-colored irises towards the pilot, he whispered, "Well, this morning, I kind of got up late and only had time to get dressed... I really have to pee now, and I'm dying for a breath mint."

Suzaku raised his eyebrow. "I have some in my pocket... why do you need one anyhow?"

Rivalz hunched in. "I didn't brush my teeth this morning."

"Oh..." Quickly retreating away from the male, Suzaku opened a small tin from his pants pocket and plucked a small sphere from the metallic container. Fingering the white pellet with his index finger and thumb, the Kururugi tossed the mint, it landing perfectly into the cyclist's hand.

He popped it in his mouth. "At least one of my problems are solved."

"No problem, Riva-."

"Suzaku! How rude of you to interrupt a lady in the middle of her sentence!" The blonde crossed her arms, her upper lip pouting like an immature child. Suzaku couldn't help but chuckle at her profile.

"I'm sorry, Madame President. Please continue." He smiled at her, his emerald orbs sparkling with joy. Milly grinned as well; she had to say, this boy's smile was extremely contagious.

"That's more like it. Anyway, as I was saying before, we are not raking leaves just because I like making you all sweat. I am doing this for the sake of the council."

"The council?" Nina questioned, her body still clinging to Shirley's and vice versa.

"Yes Nina, for the council. When other student's see us helping out Ashford Academy, they'll see that the student council is made of strong minded people. This community service will not just bring us good publicity but will also attract new members!" Clapping her hands together, the president excitedly bounced up and down, grinning at her own genius.

Her celebration ended short when Lelouch let out a dry laugh. His purple eyes were shining with amusement, a smirk plastered on his thin, pale lips.

"Excuse me Lulu, but what's so damn funny?" Returning to her previous pouting stance, Lelouch again laughed to himself.

"Milly, is that really what you believe? Us working our butt's off on our free time will attract new people to come and help us? You are correct with the good publicity part, but your next point is lacking. In my opinion, this will not bring any members to us but in reality get them farther away from joining our ranks." With that, Lelouch closed his eyes and reclined back in his chair, the same triumphal smirk graced upon his expression.

"Lulu! You jerk, that is no way to speak to your superior!"

"On the contrary, I was not speaking to you, Milly. I was addressing your incorrect logic, that's al-."

"Shut up, Lulu!" Grabbing a newspaper from the table, she rolled it up and smacked the Brittanian over the head. Lelouch grunted in discomfort, his long fingers massaged his scalp where the paper connected harshly with his skin.

"Now... let's get moving everyone!"

With that said, that brought everyone including Suzaku, pacing over the largest lawn on the campus, their breath coming out as visible puffs. He could see the rakes and paper bags lying on the gate as he and the rest of the group moved closer. Another thirty seconds and Suzaku Kururugi would begin his mission.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a figure rushing to the side of the path where all the trees were evenly planted. Turning his head, Suzaku saw Rivalz hopping to the closest tree. At first, Suzaku couldn't comprehend what Rivalz was doing over there, then his brain remembered a slight piece of information from earlier this morning.

Suzaku just started to walk faster.

From behind him, he heard someone yell. "Rivalz! Where are you going?" That demanding voice obviously belonged to Milly. The wind also carried the sound of footsteps halting, yet one pair continued on without any hesitation.

It was Lelouch.

The raven-haired teen kept on walking, eventually catching up to Suzaku. His purple irises set forward, he joined Suzaku on their journey to hell.

Suzaku spoke up. "Why didn't you stop with everyone else back there?"

"I don't care for a mindless setback. Besides, it's none of my business what Rivalz does to that unfortunate tree." At the end of his sentence, Lelouch cracked a small smile and locked eyes with his childhood friend. Suzaku laughed, "Yeah... I feel kind of bad for that poor tree."

A second later, both males heard the scream of two girls running towards them, Nina and Shirley.

"Eww! Rivalz, you're disgusting!" Shirley screeched as she passed the two and reached the rakes, her body shaking a bit from her sharp intakes of breath and probably a bit from fear as well. As she turned to face the two boys, she yelled again. Beyond the two lay Nina, her eyes shut and body still on the ground. The poor girl fainted.

"Nina! No!" The swim team member hustled to her fallen friend, shaking her shoulders desperately in an attempt to wake the girl. When realization hit her that her methods proved to be futile, she turned to the two onlooking boys.

"Lulu! Suzaku! You got to help Nina; she'll catch a cold lying here unconscious in this freezing weather! C'mon guys, do something!" Her breath was visible; explosions of vapor showing the power in her plea. Shirley's eyes sparkled a pitiful emerald, symbolizing her need for help.

Suzaku sighed, forcing himself to walk towards the out cold Nina splayed on the dew-frosted ground. He knelt down next to her, Shirley anxiously watching. Placing his tanned hand on her right shoulder, he shook her body gently.

"Nina... wake up...."

After a moment of his efforts, the brunette's eyes fluttered open. When she saw the proximity between her and the boy, this ELEVEN boy, she squeaked right before her body went limp. Nina had fainted again.

The Honorary Brittannian's eye twitched. He honestly didn't care too much for this particular girl, but he had to be nice to her. All girls deserved to be treated with the utmost respect from any man, no matter how aggravating the woman was.

Turning his neck, he met his eyes with the redheaded girl's own. "Well, Shirley... that's the best I can do." To seal his apology, he gave a weak smile. Shirley nodded her head, swallowing the lump in her dry throat as her emerald eyes clashed with Suzaku's own. A light flush colored her pale cheeks, the glow warming her frost bitten skin.

Her innocence startled Suzaku to the point where his stomach started to flutter. Heat began to spread throughout his own frozen body, and his heartbeat increased ten-fold. Suzaku gulped, What's going on with me? He never truly saw anything exceptional in Shirley's appearance or personality, so why all of a sudden couldn't he meet her eye to eye? The pilot would have been stuck in the ferocious whirlwind of questions that crowded his mind for hours if a certain Brittanian prince hadn't awoken him with a forceful tug to the front of his charcoal tunic.

"Wha-?" As he collected his bearings, Suzaku noticed three things. One, Nina was missing from her previous position on the cold grass; two, Shirley also had disappeared from the scene; and three, a pair of violet eyes were gazing into his own, the owner's hand still tugging at the plane of cloth that covered his overheated chest.

Lelouch removed his long fingers and gave him one of his usual blank stares. "I've been trying to get you to come to for about three minutes Suzaku. I thought for a second it would become necessary for me to tackle you to the ground." Suzaku laughed, even if Lelouch was brought to that option, he would have never been able to accomplish it. Everyone knew Lelouch had about as much stamina as his little sister, Nunally. Considering that the poor girl was blind and a paraplegic, that was pretty darn scary for a boy of seventeen.

"Ooh! That sounds very kinky, Lulu. I would love to see that! Think of the school newspaper's headlines; 'the two hottest guys in Ashford Academy share an intimate moment together early Saturday morning on the main lawn!' That would be the best selling issue yet!" Her cerulean eyes sparkled as the images traveled through her little blonde head. The two sighed in aggravation, she really was a handful, their council president.

"Shut it, Milly." The sentence flew coldly from the prince's lips as he stood up and brushed the dirt off his uniform pants. "I don't appreciate your crap this early in the morning." With that, Lelouch strolled towards the rakes and commenced his own personal initiation into hell.

Kallen shivered from her stance behind Milly.

"Well, if Zero deals with crap, then I guess I have to as well." She then joined Lelouch on his escapade to conquer the fallen leaves.

Suzaku, still dawdling on Milly's latest statement, looked at the blonde in full honesty. "You really believe me and Lelouch would make a good couple?"

Taken aback from his question, Milly giggled to herself. "Well of course!"

Processing her answer, Suzaku got to his feet and looked her straight in the eye. "I apologize for my rudeness, but Madame President, that has to be the dumbest thing you have ever said." With that, Suzaku strolled over quickly to his raven haired friend. "Sheesh, where does she get off thinking you and I would look good together?"

Lelouch nodded in agreement. "I see your point exactly." Kallen stifled a chuckle as she controlled the laden colors with every shift of her rake. The images of the mighty Zero having a homosexual lover were just too much for one female terrorist to bear.

"I mean seriously! Who would find that appealing?"

Kallen had to restrain herself from letting go a quiet, "Me."

The two laughed together as they collected more and more dead leaves within the teeth of their rakes.

Shirley and Rivalz puffed out heavy breaths into the cold, dry air as they jogged up to the location of their friends at the very start of the academy's lawn. They had just gotten back from bringing Nina's limp body into the now warm Student Council room and wrapping her goose-flesh covered skin in heavy, cashmere blankets.

"Hey...Shirley?" Rivalz was facing forward as he kept his pace steady.

"Uhuh?" Her warm green eyes darted to the side, her body bouncing as she continued on over the pallet of the autumn spectrum.

The navy-haired teen had pink dusted on his cheeks as he mumbled. "Um... sorry about before..." Was that all he wanted to say? Shirley let out one effervescent chuckle, her eyelashes pressed firmly on her pale cheeks as her eyes closed in her laughter. When she had composed herself, she pushed a strand of hair behind her left ear.

"Hey! No problem, Rivalz! I guess when you gotta go you gotta go!"

"B-but, before you-!"

"I just went along with Nina." That was the final thing spoken as they reached the group. Shirley was giggling immediately when she saw Lelouch and Suzaku throwing leaves at one another, both laughing hysterically as Milly yelled for them to stop.

"Hey! Suzaku! Lelouch! Stop this instant!" Her cheeks puffed when she crossed her lithe arms, the two still weren't listening. Suzaku was giggling like mad as he grabbed a hand full of leaves, then, using the agility that Lelouch could never possess, stuffed the cold and rough pile down the back of his obsidian school jacket. He squeaked as the cool substance contacted his already chilled skin. With flushed cheeks and averted purple eyes he lifted up his shirt and let the material flutter to the ground.

When he felt everything had exited from under the fabric, he immediately pulled it down. He growled towards the brunnette. "Dammit, Suzaku. You are such a child..."

Covering his mouth, Suzaku chuckled out, "C'mon, Lulu! You should have seen the look on your face! I never saw so much color on that pale skin of yours!" With that, he broke out into a new fit of giggles and clutched his sides. Angrily, Lelouch huffed out and grabbed his rake. Within seconds, he was back into the fray. It was as if nothing ever happened.

"Dammit... Suzaku is going to be the death of me..."

Shirley had witnessed the whole ordeal. She saw the anger plastered across Lelouch's face; she noticed the effervescent sparkle in Suzaku's eyes; the sight of the two joking around had never failed to bring a smile to her lips. In the past, she would have fainted if Lelouch lifted up his shirt, her fingers itching to drag down his chest, to touch every inch of his pale skin. Now, she didn't even bat an eyelash.

When Suzaku first entered their lives, the student council, she could hardly meet eye-to-eye with the brunette.

It was all because he was an Eleven.

Her former self made her want to wretch; judging a person by their race, not by their actions, their words, or their heart, was wrong. The world was wrong...Britannia was wrong. Throwing away a person, never giving them a chance; that was a sin no one could atone for.

Yet this was the society norm now. All the areas under Britannian rule were considered weak...

...vulgar...

...and useless.

To be a human that wasn't even given a chance, that was a fate to horrid for anyone to bear.

When Shirley had finally figured this out, that's when she started to accept Suzaku for who he truly was. After that day, she had gotten to know him more and more. Suddenly, the scary Eleven boy seemed smarter, his eyes were greener, and his appearance was a whole lot more attractive.

She had developed a crush on the very boy she never wanted to be associated with.

It was funny how Lady Fate could change things; her body limp on her throne, that smirk played on her lips as she watches the time play out before her eyes, warping it whenever she sees fit. (1)

With her new found love interest, she tried with gusto to befriend Suzaku, to become as close as they possibly could... and this was one of the great chances she could use to make that happen. That, and maybe a bit more as well.

The same scarlet color returned to her cheeks, eyes downcast to her feet. That same comforting, bubbly feeling had washed over herself again. She was craving for him, his smile, his embrace, his kiss... she wanted nothing more than to be close to him. Her ultimate goal was to become his close friend, but somehow, that didn't seem enough. The Brittanian girl desperately wanted to meld her lips with his, kiss him with everything she had; let all of her pent-up passion flow into just one kiss.

Her heavy breath soon caught the attention of her friends. Each person discarded their previous task and moved in closer to observe the Finette girl. Her vivid jade eyes seemed to be in another world, each pupil dulled and lifeless, nothing like their usually vibrant glow.

Raising an eyebrow to form a perfect arch, Lelouch scrutinized the oddities Shirley was displaying. She probably was having another one of those fantasies Milly described, the ones she explained aloud so the entire school could hear. According to what the blonde president had said, it involved him and Shirley doing something "romantic" such as having a private picnic under a blooming Sakura tree and so on. Sighing lightly, he turned on his heel to get back to his tedious work of clearing the colorful awning of foliage off the school grounds.

Not everyone was as carefree of the situation as was Lelouch, and one of those people who weren't were Suzaku. Thinking the redhead had developed some sort of illness out on the common wasn't such a far-fetched idea, so he thought that to be the case.

Two strong, tanned hands found their way onto the shoulders of the girl, each gently grabbing the flesh and calmy rocked them back and forth. Suzaku was trying to wake the girl from her stupor, but in reality, it was just making her mind sink lower and lower into the abyss of happiness her mind was currently preoccupied with.

"Shirley. Wake up." His voice was firm yet caring, but somehow, the tone was altered before it reached her ears. Her translation went something like this:

"Shirley, my beautiful and precious Shirley, please wake up. It's me, your loving boyfriend, Suzaku..."

In her imagination, she was snuggled into her bed, the soft covers snuggling her body. Suzaku was straddled above her, massaging her shoulders and sweetly telling her to wake up.

"Mmm... Suzaku..." Her eyes shut at the feeling. His warm hands felt so good rubbing her tired shoulders like that, so good she went lax against his chest and let out a sigh of complete and utter content.

Scarlet enveloped his face as the girl nestled into his body, her arms slightly wrapped around his small waist. Suzaku knew she had to be out of her right state of mind to openly show this much intimacy towards him or else she would be off him in a second's notice, profusely apologizing to him over and over for her invasion on his own personal privacy. Although the situation was awkward; having Milly laughing maniacally behind him and adding a few shocked stares didn't seem to alleviate the tension at all, it was kind of nice to have somebody wrap an affectionate carress around him. Not ever really being hugged before made him extra fond of the situation, he never had had any physical, emotional contact as long as he could remember. His father never even patted his head to tell him how proud he was of him. So, with a pretty girl's arms snaked around him like that, he felt a fluttering sensation spread throughout his nerves, and with it brought a lively smile onto his lips.

From the corner of his violet orbs, Lelouch saw the scene play out before him. He saw Shirley's face when she was brought back into reality, he noticed the spontaneous flare of red blossom on her cheeks when she saw the position she was in with Suzaku, he also noted the way the mop of unruly chestnut hair nonchalantly told her it was no big deal, in fact, he looked damned pleased that it did happen in the first place.

Clenching the wooden handle of the rake, his face transformed into a hazy blur of anger. Why was Suzaku allowing this dimwitted girl to hold him? To touch him without permission, to smile at him, to fall so easily into his own embrace?

It was absurd.

It was unforgivable.

It was his territory.

It was Lelouch vi Britannia's own claim...

..and there was absolutely no way in hell he was going to give it up to some shallow broad. He would give his own life before he ever let that happen.

TBC

(1) There really is nothing to be explained here, but when I mentioned 'Lady Fate', I couldn't help but picture Yuko Ichihara from xxxHolic. She just fits the image exactly, being the space-time witch and all.

Ooh~ a love triangle has come into play! The plot thickens! :D

I'm sorry, but I couldn't think of an appropriate ending for this to be a oneshot, so I decided to let our favorite prince get a bit catty. Meow....

So anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter of this, so please, if you do like it, why not write a review? I hope you at least look at it Val, if you do, I'll be honored you even read the first sentence!