This fic is part of a series - Please refer to my profile for where this falls in the timeline. However, this can also read as a stand-alone fic, so feel free to take it as it is. :)
I had a lot of fun writing this. It's further exploration into my idea of Near and Sayu's relationship, and as such, it piggy-backs off my previous Near/Sayu fic Next Time. If you haven't read that one first, I would go ahead and do so. I imagine in this fic that they have been dating for maybe six months or so. I took some creative liberties with Sayu's hobbies, more so for my own amusement than anything else as you'll see (i.e. I am not above minor breakage of the fourth wall). Also, as this involves the reading of Tarot cards, I must announce that I myself am not a Tarot card professional - however, I am proficient at using the googles. If anyone reading this happens to actually be skilled at reading Tarot cards and you can tell that I BS'd my way through this, I apologize. :P
Anyway, insert usual disclaimer stuff here.
"I really miss you. How much longer until you come home?" Sayu sighed.
"I would say no longer than ten days," Near replied with certainty. "I cannot guarantee that the case will be finished before then, but based on my prediction, our killer will try to kill again within that time frame."
Sayu sighed again. "This is what I get for dating a detective. My father did try to warn me," she complained.
Near watched her quietly, unsure of how to respond. He did not like seeing her upset, especially when it was because of him (or because of his absence), but there was simply no helping it. Sometimes his life as L took him to the other side of the world for extended periods of time, and although she did not know all the details of his occupation, she was aware of this fact. She had handled this knowledge well, with the occasional pitiful bottom-lip quiver, up until now. Now she was just complaining, which was not something Near knew how to redirect. While he had learned a thing or two about how to emotionally maintain a woman, he still was not what one might consider an expert. Not knowing what to say this time, his eyes went back to the wall of dice he had started on just before calling her until a third sigh regained his attention.
"No, I'm sorry, don't listen to me. I'm being selfish. Of course your case is more important - people's lives are at stake," she said, squishing a pillow against her chest as she leaned back against the wall behind her bed.
"Not necessarily anymore - I have one of my best agents acting as bait to lure him out. He only targets blonde prostitutes in their late 20s or early 30s, who wear a specific brand of perfume. Incidentally, said agent of mine is not an actual prostitute, though she is, in fact, blonde," he explained.
"Are you sure that's safe? Will she be okay?"
"Not to worry, she is well-versed in self-defense and martial arts. She will be fine. "
"How can he tell someone is in their 20s or 30s just by looking at them? I mean, I once thought my Algebra teacher was in her 50s, but turned out she was only 34! She just smoked a lot and wore a ton of make-up, so it made her look much older."
"There are ways of telling, and serial killers with a particular MO are experts at such things." He carefully lowered a die onto the towering stack that would have appeared just to the left of him from Sayu's perspective. "Also, going back to what you said a moment ago," he changed the subject, giving his hair a gentle tug and sending a small smile her way, hoping it would make her feel even the slightest bit better, "I would say that both you and the case are equally important, and I like listening to you."
A small smile flickered on her lips, her chocolate brown eyes visibly glimmering even from the other side of the screen. "You're so sweet sometimes."
"Only because I like it when you smile."
Her smile widened and then faded just as quickly. "Ugh, I wish you were here. I'm bored."
"I'm sorry, am I boring you? If so, I can let you go to bed. I know how late it is there," he asked with a quirked eyebrow.
"That's not what I meant," she retorted with a small huff.
She was in quite a snit this evening. He fleetingly wondered what might have set it off, but then a different idea crossed his mind. Near hummed, thinking, and then said, "Excuse me a moment."
He heard her shout after him, "Hey, where are you going?" as he abruptly stood from where he was seated, shuffling past his stacks of dice and retrieving one of his decks of Tarot cards. He returned to the floor in front of the laptop moments later and began to shuffle the deck.
"What are you doing?"
"Reading your Tarot," he replied as he began to lay the cards out in the Celtic Cross spread.
She raised a skeptical eyebrow at him. "Why?"
"You said you were bored."
"Well, yeah, but-.. You really know how to do that?"
"Among other things, yes."
"You really are a nerd," Sayu chuckled, her nose wrinkling up in a way that Near found most endearing.
"Funny, others have referred to me as a genius."
"And humble, too, I see."
"Hardly," he said with a good-humored smirk.
"Besides, nerd and genius are synonymous to the rest of us simpletons."
Her words made him look up at her sharply. "You are not a simpleton."
"You don't think so?"
"Sayu, you are exceptionally bright - you were merely overshadowed by your brother's accomplishments," he said as gently as he could. "Overshadowed" was putting it lightly, especially in regards to Yagami's more clandestine "accomplishments", but by no means did he think she was dull, as she obviously thought herself to be. In retrospect, perhaps he should have used the word "unfortunately" as opposed to "merely", but it was too late to make a retraction now.
Sayu appeared to be uncomfortable for a moment before she said, "So, what's my fate?"
Understanding her discomfort with compliments, he followed her cue and turned the first card over, gazing down at it. The Empress. "You're ovulating soon."
Sayu wrinkled her nose, "That's hardly a mystery - you know when my cycle starts and when I take my placebos. And why else do you think I want you to come home so soon? Not just because I miss you, but so I can spend a whole day shagging your brains out before my period starts."
"Interesting choice of words."
"What? I thought that was a term you British liked to use."
"Now, I don't know what you mean by 'you British', but I personally have never used that particular term before."
"Well, we already established that you're a nerd - perhaps it's a term that only suave British men use."
"I have never advertised myself as either," he said, flipping over the second card, which was laying perpendicular and on top of the first, revealing the Lovers card.
"Do I even need to ask what that one means?"
"Let's just say that I didn't need to see this particular card to have an idea about your current state."
"My current sta-.. Oh. Well, unless you plan on coming home right this instant and doing something about it, let's not talk about that."
Near smirked, "Very well." He used one card to flip over two more. "Ace of Wands and Page of Cups. You're starting on a new short story."
"...Have you been following my fandomfiction . net account?"
"Nope."
"You realize I could just log in right now and see if anyone in the United States has been visiting my page."
"It could be anyone from the United States visiting your page."
"Oh honestly, how many Americans do you know who can read Japanese?"
"You know what happens when we assume, Sayu."
"And yet we are making assumptions based off what a bunch of cards say."
"Observations are not assumptions."
"No, they're interpretations."
"Which is exactly what I am doing with the cards."
Put off, Sayu crossed her arms. "Well, either way, that's also not that much of a mystery, is it? You know that I write fiction, so I could, theoretically, start a new story at any time," she said with a sniff of derision.
"But this one you are excited about more than any other you have written before. You have so many ideas surrounding it, it's taking you in many directions at once, which may lead you into a tailspin if you are not careful with your ideas. And," he turned over another card, revealing the Ace of Swords, reversed. "Just as I thought. You have great potential and feel you could have a real influence on others by presenting your ideas. You have initial strength and willpower when it comes to your own skills, but.. you doubt yourself. Your enthusiasm over your ideas lifts you up," He illustrated this by lifting up a single die, "provides you with many promises," He made said die soar up high above the stack, "some of them you feel you have no hope of attaining." Suddenly, the die made a steep dive, colliding with the tower and knocking it over, the dice scattering around him and their clacking sounds ringing in the air as they contacted the ground and each other. He only resumed speaking once the noise ceased, "And then your own harsh self-criticism and self-deprecation brings you crashing back down." Ignoring the mess, he moved is hand back to the Ace of Swords and ran his fore and middle fingers down the blade, "Your enthusiasm is, quite literally, a double-edged sword."
Sayu's snarky remarks were rendered silent as she watched his theatrics. He could sense her surprise and unease at what all he had revealed about her. He was, after all, never wrong about somebody, so this was not altogether surprising to him. He certainly did not mean to cause her any distress with his observations, so he glanced at her quickly to make sure she was okay. Satisfied with her overall calm demeanor, he moved quickly to the next card.
"So.. what to do." He turned it over. "Nine of Cups. Rely on those closest to you to lift you up. Remember that they are always there for you and also remember that you yourself are strong. With those two things put together, you can accomplish your goals."
He noted her continued silence as he unveiled the final cards in quick succession.
"I see we have multiple Cups here as well as all four Aces. Cups represent many things, some key points being this Six of Cups, reversed, being in the position of your hopes and fears - you are unsure about that which is to come, which is only natural. The Six of Cups in its upright position would represent something from your past which no longer exists. Perhaps in your case it is that you are uncertain of how to face the future and proceed without your father and brother around to guide you."
He paused for a moment, gauging her reaction, but she remained silent, her eyes focused solely on him and what he was doing. He cleared his throat and continued. "But, all in all, the Cups represent good things - Love, attachment, new beginnings, success, the birth of ideas. All of these things will help in moving you forward." The corner of his mouth lifted once he saw a similarly slight smile growing on her lips as well.
"Now, this last one, the Sun - that is your overall outcome, what you have to look forward to, and is what you should really focus on. All of these other cards have only revealed to you what you already know. This one," he gestured towards the final card, "is telling you to remain positive and to use that positive energy to influence others. In other words, be the change you wish to see in the world."
It was ironic, he thought, that Yagami's sister should receive such a reading. He was sure that Light Yagami himself would have received a similar reading, though his would have contained more Swords than Cups, for sure. It was a moot point, though, seeing as Yagami was dead.
At first, he was afraid he had somehow upset her with the bluntness of his reading. He really did need to work on his conversational embellishments, he thought. His eyes remained on the cards momentarily to give her some semblance of privacy, however much privacy one could give during a live video exchange.
Finally, from the long bout of silence, Sayu softly spoke, inviting Near to look at her once again. "...How do I know you aren't just reading me instead of reading the cards? I mean, reading people is what you do for a living."
Near smiled pleasantly. She really did ask a lot of good questions, even if she thought she wasn't aware of the deeper thinking behind them. Again, there was the whole being overshadowed by your outstandingly genius older brother thing looming over her.
"Can't I do both?" he replied.
"Isn't that what I just asked you?"
"They go hand-in-hand - one cannot be adept at reading Tarot cards if he or she is not also adept at reading people. But they are not necessarily mutually exclusive things either."
"I'm.. not sure if that answers my question or not."
"That's good. A Tarot reading is not meant to reveal absolute truth. It's meant to be vague. We have already ascertained that it is all open to interpretation, after all. There are many ways of manipulating such media as well. What you take away from it is up to you. All in all, a Tarot reading is meant to be taken with a grain of salt."
"A lot of salt, if you ask me."
"That's not really good for your blood pressure," he smirked. "Now, that'll be 2,000 yen, please."
"For what, exactly? The Tarot reading or the lame medical advice?"
"Both."
"..You're already rich, you smarmy bastard!"
Near shrugged nonchalantly. "I never said I wasn't going to charge you for my services."
"Couldn't I just strip for you or something?"
"You do that anyway," he said with one of his more feral grins, the kind he knew always had a certain affect on her. His grin only stretched wider when he noticed that she was now gnawing on her bottom lip.
"I really hate you sometimes," she said with a resigned sigh. "But I am also really turned on right now."
"That would make two of us."
"You know, you could always take me up on my suggestion for when you are away for an extended period of time."
Near looked a little uncertain, not wanting his response to hurt her feelings. "I'm.. not quite comfortable with that idea, yet."
"I know," she said with a sigh. She seemed to be sighing an awful lot tonight. "I'll just take care of the problem later after we disconnect."
"That's probably a good idea. You do seem a little stressed out this evening."
"Yeah, well, it's all your fault."
"I'm very sorry for that," he said, and then trailed off for a moment, looking to his right as one of his other computers caught his attention. "And I'm afraid I must apologize to you again, because I must be going. I'll call you tomorrow."
Sayu sighed. Again. "All right. Thanks for taking the time away from your case to talk to me. Have a good night. Or day."
Near smiled at her, gingerly this time. "Good night, Sayu."
And with that, the transmission ended.
It was ten o'clock her time the following evening when Near decided to call her again. He was nervous. He wondered what she was going to make out of what he had planned. Well, there was no going back on it now. He had already told his team that under no circumstances were they to interrupt him, giving them the excuse of needing his required hour of sleep in order to recharge his high-powered mind. He ordered them to go out grocery shopping or something in the meantime, but to absolutely not disturb him.
"Hey, you!" she exclaimed as the couple gained visual of each other. He could see that she was still in her daytime clothes - she must have gotten home recently. "I'm so glad you called just now, I-... Are those candles?"
"It appears so," said Near from where he sat, indeed surrounded by various sized candles, ranging from small tealights to larger ones with wax already beginning to roll down their sides.
"So, first you read Tarot cards and now you're going to perform some type of seance or something? You know, for someone whose career is based on logic, you sure are into all this mystical, otherworldly hullabaloo."
Near merely smiled at her. He understood where she was coming from, but the truth was he had dealt with death gods and killer notebooks, two things whose very existence defied all logic. Occam's Razor couldn't always be applied to everything, even to the most logical of minds. Cognitive dissonance aside, he did have an important task at hand in the form of an attractive young woman sitting both on the other side of the laptop monitor and the other side of the world - not close enough for his complete satisfaction, but it would do.
"Why don't you go change into something more comfortable?" he said, simpering at her and relishing in her perplexed expression. "I thought I would take you up on your suggestion."
Sayu's perplexity immediately melted away into one of the most coquettish looks he had ever seen on her. That look most definitely had an affect on him, another reason to prefer loose and comfortable pajamas over traditional clothing.
"You really are full of surprises. What made you change your mind?"
"It was in the cards."