What You Didn't Know

One

Chou Kiyomori had had a crush on Raiden Fukamizu for about a month and a half now, and still didn't have the courage to actually go up to him. Well – until today, that is. Working a job and going to college at the same time left little room for personal relationships, but if she could get him to go on just one date with her, that would be good enough. She just needed to know if he was worth it. And if he wasn't, she would move on, no questions asked. It was just that… he was so odd.

He always wore the same outfit to the campus, day in and day out. She wondered if he simply did laundry every day, or if he had multiple copies of the same clothes shoved into his closet. He always wore the following: a white long-sleeve, plain, non-buttoned shirt; a pair of Blue Jeans; and a pair of plain black sneakers. And his clothes, minus the shoes, always looked a bit too big for him. They were baggy and frumpy, and hung loosely on him. Then again, that might have had more to do with his skinny form than anything else. He was, after all, quite slim and almost lanky, though Chou didn't like that word… lanky. It made him sound unattractive, and that was one thing he was not. He was, in fact, quite attractive, in an I-just-got-out-of-bed-and-threw-on-some-clothes-and-forgot-to-brush-my-hair kind of way. His hair was always unkempt, and his eyes always had shadows beneath them, as if he never got enough sleep. He was also tall, which only added to his list of attractive qualities.

Partly because of his strange appearance, and partly because of his odd mannerisms (which we'll get to eventually), Chou realized one day that, despite having never talked to him one-on-one before, she was attracted to him. If nothing else, he was a puzzle to solve. A very tired-looking, slouching, dead-faced puzzle to solve. A puzzle with an oddly soothing voice, to boot. She had never heard him raise his voice above a barely-audible mumble, and he always sounded as if he were on the verge of a) falling asleep and b) having the greatest epiphany since Einstein's Theory of Relativity. His voice had a breathy quality to it, and he was always pausing at odd times while speaking. And the way he sat…

No matter how many times the professors would tell him to sit correctly in his chair, Chou would always glance over at him and notice that he was sitting with his feet on the chair, knees to his chest. And when he was feeling unusually bold, he'd even take off his sneakers. One time she had passed him sitting on a bench outside and he'd been barefoot. Trying not to make it obvious, she'd slowed down enough to study his feet, and found that there was something funny, and almost monkey-like about them. He had long toes, and she giggled then, imagining him using his toes to pick things up. He'd looked up at her when she'd giggled, and with a blush that had burned her entire face, she given a tiny smile and then hurried away. Other than that, they'd never really conversed outside of class. She had all of one class with him, and wished she had more, because he was quite fascinating.

Once, she'd had to do a group project with him and two others in class and he'd hardly spoken a word the whole time. Every once in a while, he'd call someone out for suggesting something that made no sense, but other than that, he simply sat oddly in his chair and stared past the group and into space. Which was funny, because when it was time to present the final project, he'd done most of the talking, in his flat voice with his deadpan face. Chou, for the life of her, simply could not figure him out. Which just made him so… mind-bogglingly sexy. It drove her crazy sometimes, trying to imagine what he must be thinking, who he was outside of school, what his family must be like. And she finally realized she'd never find out if she never plucked up the courage to ask him on a date. He didn't seem the type to ask, after all, and she wasn't going to waste her time waiting for him. He probably wasn't even aware of her. He probably wasn't aware of many people, honestly. He seemed off in his own world ninety percent of the time. She didn't expect the date to really go anywhere even if he agreed. She just wanted the chance to ask him questions about himself. That was all.

And so, as he came toward her down the walkway, she gave the biggest smile her shyness would allow, and waved to him. He stopped, looked around, then looked back at her and pointed to himself questioningly. She smiled some more and nodded. He blinked, began walking again, just as slowly as before, his hands stuck in his pockets. To help the process along, Chou began to walk towards him, and they met somewhere in the middle. She looked up into his face, realizing for the first time just how tall he really was. And then blushed and looked away, not knowing where to begin and knowing her question would be quite sudden.

She opened her mouth –

"D'you wanna go get some dinner some time?" Raiden asked, voice as flat as it always was.

Her head snapped up to look at him. She swallowed, brushed a strand of stray hair off of her forehead. Her brows drew together in confusion. She gave a vague smile.

"Sooo… Is that a yes?" he said.

Still confused, she simply looked at him, and then shook herself as his words actually sunk in, and nodded.

"Good. D'you wanna go tonight? Or… does some other time work better for you—

"Tonight is fine," she answered quickly, ignoring the heat in her face. "But… I mean, as long as you don't mind what I'm wearing."

He blinked, and then his eyes looked her up and down slowly, head remaining stationary. His eyes felt like lasers wherever they went, and she felt suddenly quite naked beneath his stare, although he looked just as bored as usual. Eventually, he drawled out the words, "You look fine." The words had a lighter tone to them, as if he was trying to make her feel better.

She smiled, and then gave a sort of shrugging motion, at a loss. "So… are we going now, then? I mean, it's a bit early, but…"

"Why not? I really have nowhere else to be, except sitting in my room by myself staring at a computer screen all night." He gave a faraway smile, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. "That sounded a bit depressing. Sorry."

She couldn't help it, and began to giggle. He was just as weird as always, and that put her a bit at ease – to know that he wasn't any different no matter what situation he was in. It made her feel as if she knew him a bit more than she thought she did. He felt more human now somehow. "So where are we going?"

He turned on his heel and began walking down the sidewalk, leading to the parking lot. When she did not immediately follow, he stopped, then slowly turned his head to look at her. Quickly, she caught up to him, and they began walking together.

"I don't normally go out to eat," he said, voice small and calm as usual. "So I don't have anywhere in mind."

"Why did you ask me out?" Chou questioned, quite suddenly, to her own complete surprise. She blushed immediately afterwards and turned her head away from him, and so did not notice right away that he had stopped walking. She turned out of curiosity, to see that he was now a few steps behind her, staring at her as though coming to some kind of decision. His eyes glanced upward at the sky for a long moment, as though deliberating, and then he looked at her again.

"I knew you like me," he said finally.

She blushed, looked at the ground.

"I thought it would be best to at least give this a shot, since I knew you were too shy to ask me."

Now she just felt awkward, like this whole thing was forced. Still looking at the ground, she murmured, "You don't have to do this if you don't want to."

"Maybe it'll be fun," he replied, and she looked up just in time to see the tail-end of a tiny smile.


Author's Note: One, this is set in an AU (Author's Universe) in which EITHER the events of Death Note the story haven't happened yet OR in which they will never happen. I haven't decided which yet. Two, I never finished watching the anime, so if certain things are incorrect, chalk it up to this being both a fanfiction and an AU. (Every time I get to the episode in which L dies, I stop watching it because it's no longer interesting to me). Three, I write short chapters. I do better writing short chapters. Deal with it. Lastly, I watched the anime in English, not Japanese, so anytime I'm describing L's voice, I am describing his English voice.

Reviews are welcome. ^_^