A/N: Fits with canon events; set around chapter 83, when Matt was stalking...er...tailing Misa and Mogi. ;)
Dedicated to dragonnova, because she writes some of the funniest DN (and KH) fanfic out there. I know she doesn't particularly like Misa or this pairing, but it's not REALLY a pairing fic...
Matt sighed, leaning back against the nearest building and digging into his pockets for a pack of cigarettes and his lighter. He'd been tailing his target for most of the day, and she showed no signs of slowing down. So far, he had been forced to linger around a swanky hairdresser's salon, a lingerie boutique, four different shoe stores, a perfumery, and several other shops that he wouldn't have been caught dead in, before his target finally stopped someplace more interesting: the biggest electronics store Matt had ever seen, and he'd seen a lot of them.
He scoped things out a little as he paused by the entryway to stub out his half-finished cigarette (it was times like that when the habit really came in handy, giving him an excuse to take his time going inside whatever building he happened to be entering). The place actually had two levels, and what with all the signs and the crowds and the lure of video games flashing across enormous screens, it took him a minute to find his mark. The girl and Mogi (he really did look like her boyfriend, with the way she hung on his arm, but he was too stiff and standoffish towards her for that to be the case) were standing in line at the customer service desk. From the look of the box Mogi had tucked under one arm, they must have been there for computer repairs, or maybe an upgrade.
The store seemed exceptionally busy today, so the line was lengthy and moving very slowly, and it didn't take the girl long to get bored and wander off, leaving Mogi to wait alone. Matt hesitated, momentarily unsure which he should be keeping an eye on; from the look of that line, Mogi wouldn't be going anywhere for quite some time, so Matt moved off in the same general direction as the girl.
She looked through the cell phones first, openly admiring a slim black one with a faceplate decorated with something that looked like spiderwebs, skimmed the music section, then headed towards the best area in the store: the games section. She peered briefly up at the screen of a shooter game that was on display, made a face (which was adorable), and moved right along. The sports game met with an equal disinterest, though she did watch a little kid play the Mario game for half a minute or so before the Rock Band set caught her eye. There was an eager little bounce in her stride as she scuttled over to the display, plopping down on the drummer's stool without a hint of hesitation and leaning over to fiddle with the controller set into the drums.
Considering how much time he spent on the things, Matt was something of an expert at judging how much other people played and how good they were by simply observing the way they handled a controller. Watching this girl over the top of the gamer's guide he'd picked up, it was pretty clear that while it had been a good long while since she'd last picked one up, she wasn't a total n00b in the world of video games and game consoles.
Still, he blinked in mild surprise when she set the difficulty on HARD, and then blinked again when she actually managed it…for all of ten seconds. Moving the setting down to MEDIUM got her another ten seconds or so (and thirty total when she tried an easier song), but though he could tell that she should've been able to manage it, by the time she'd moved the setting down to EASY, she was just too frustrated to keep the beat.
…Could this girl really be the Second Kira? Mello had sounded so certain on the phone, but all Matt saw when he looked at her was a woman who looked and acted like a child, carefree and innocent and inclined to the occasional fit of temper.
Like, say, when faced with a game she couldn't seem to get the hang of.
It was pretty ridiculous of him, and he knew it, but for some reason at that moment, he couldn't help comparing her to one of the princesses in his many video games: she was a cute girl who needed help after all, and even in a store full of tech-geeks, he was doubtless the best-equipped man around to rescue her.
…Of course, the princesses in those video games never looked like they were seriously thinking about putting a fist (or a pair of drumsticks) through the nearest television set, and following that with the drums themselves and maybe the stool she'd been sitting on as well. Then again, it was nice to see a princess with some real fight in her. (Sort of a little like Sheik, maybe, only a lot cuter, and without the cross-dressing or the gender-switch.) Still, he knew he could help her, and before he'd really even thought about it and all the problems it could cause, he was stepping up behind her.
"Mind if I join?"
The girl, who had until that point been glowering at the latest SONG FAILED! screen, gave a little jump at his question, swiveling on the stool and nearly hitting him with one of the drumsticks still held in her tiny clenched fists. "Wah! Don't sneak up on Misa like that!"
"Sorry," he said with a chuckle, leaning forward and reaching around her to add a guitar to the band and change the song selection to something easier for the drummer, using the controls set into the drums, which the girl had pulled nearly into her lap, meaning his hand was only a few inches away from…
"H-hey!" She'd noticed that too, apparently, and moved the stool away from his hand so fast, she nearly tipped over backwards. "What are you—?"
"There." He stepped back, strapping on the nicer-looking of the two available guitars. "Try it now. And don't forget to use the foot pedal this time, too."
She gave him a sideways, suspicious, and totally unfairly accusing glance that said you better watch yourself, pervert, but then the music started, and she was too busy focusing on the screen to glare at him.
"Uwah!" she said a few moments later, missing a few notes to gawk at his side of the screen: he was playing on EXPERT, just to give himself a bit of a challenge, but he didn't see anything impressive about it. It was one of the easiest songs, after all.
Still, easy or not, the girl seemed to be enjoying it now that she'd relaxed and let herself find the beat, focusing on having fun instead of getting every single note right. She seemed to have forgiven him or else just forgotten the unintentional almost-but-not-quite touching earlier, too, waving the drumsticks in the air and beaming up at him after they'd completed the song.
"Yay! Misa wins! That was so much fun! Misa is usually too busy with work to play video games, but she used to play them lots when she was in junior high! Let's play another song!"
This was really a Very Bad Idea, Matt thought to himself as he helped the girl—"Misa" apparently—select songs for a playlist. Making contact with the person you were supposed to be tailing was generally one of the worst things you could do, since now she would recognise him if she happened to notice him following her. Of course, he hadn't taken off his goggles, and his hair and the collar of his vest were both shaggy enough to make the shape of his face less distinct, so if he just dressed differently, she probably wouldn't recognise him…then again, if they hit it off and he got her number, he'd have a perfectly legitimate excuse to be hanging around. And if they just so happened to run into each other, he could always make up some story about living in the area or being out to run an errand; she didn't seem like the type to second-guess something like that. He wasn't sure which option made him more nervous, so as usual, he focused on the game in front of him rather than the person beside him. At least you always knew what the rules were and what to expect from a game. People were much too unpredictable, and a lot less logical.
…Of course, he thought, and his eyes strayed to Misa, taking in the frown of concentration turning those full lips down at the corners, the brightness of her eyes, how soft her skin looked, it wasn't always the most fun to play games alone…
"After this song, Misa wants to try playing the guitar, too!"
"Okay," he said agreeably, and true to his word, he walked her through the basics; after a few songs, she'd already moved from EASY to MEDIUM, though Matt could tell that it would take a lot of practise before she'd be ready to move up to HARD. Still, she wasn't bad…
Creating a playlist together was sort of like creating a mix tape, Matt mused to himself, except there weren't that many songs to choose from here, which made it less personal. Then again, in a way they were actually making the music together, which made it even more personal—not just a shared experience, but actually putting something of themselves, their effort and attention at least if not their talent, into the music. Falling into the rhythm, finding the beat, moving together…
"You're a little too good at this, you know? You must spend a lot of time on this game…"
Quickly shoving his current train of thought aside, he looked over at the girl, trying to sound casual and hoping that sudden nervous waver in his voice was just his imagination. "Yeah…I play games all the time. All night, a lot of the time."
Misa flashed him a mischievous, almost sinful little smile that did nothing to put a somewhat socially-challenged geek-boy like himself at ease. "Really? I bet your girlfriend cries every night then, since you spend more time with your games than you do with her." She blinked, eyes widening a little. "Unless…you only play so much because you don't have one?"
"I play them because I like playing them," Matt said, unable to keep a certain defensiveness out of his tone. Wammy's House had been full of odd children, but even so, kids were kids no matter where they were, and he'd still gotten teased for his 'gaming obsession' every now and then. A stolen game cartridge, missing batteries, snatching his GameBoy and turning it off or running away with it…even the adults had been guilty of a few of those, wanting him to interact with his peers more often or focus on his homework or whatever class he was in. He was an extremely bright child, various test scores had proved that. But after losing his parents, he just wasn't interested in investing himself in anything that he had so little control over. Games were safer. Games made sense. Games were easy to control. Sure it might be a sort of escapism, but there was always a solution, and things came out all right in the end. The monsters were defeated, the puzzles were solved, the princess was saved. Why would he want to pay attention to the dark, dreary world around him when there were bright worlds full of music and magic right there at his fingertips?
But Misa…somehow, she was a hint of that same sort of brightness. They'd only spent maybe half an hour together (give or take ten or fifteen minutes, and had it really been that long?), but he'd been watching her all day, and there was just so much energy in her. She said whatever she wanted, whatever she felt, and didn't care what anyone else thought about it, which was something admirable. She seemed real in a way most people weren't. Real and honest.
…Real and honest and possibly the Second Kira and your target. Keep your distance. Mello wouldn't hesitate to capture her and probably torture her if he thought it would get him any sort of information on Kira. She isn't yours. A girl like that never could be, so just forget it.
"…Hey, what are you getting all mopey about over there? It's okay if you don't have a girlfriend, you know! You'll probably find one someday, but you'll have to make sure to pay attention to her or she won't stay around very long. Now, come help Misa choose a new song!"
As he scrolled through the playlist obediently, he paused on a certain song, considering; then he smiled faintly to himself as he set down the guitar and picked up the microphone instead. Mello would be angry enough to chew up nails and spit out paperclips if he found out his partner-in-crime had been playing around like this, with their biggest current lead on the Kira case no less, but Matt couldn't help it; job or not, he was having fun, and what the hell, he had nothing to lose. He didn't have a bad singing voice either; he might not be the next American Idol, but music lessons had been a part of life at Wammy's House, and all the children had gotten some vocal training.
Besides, who was he to turn down the chance to impress such a cute girl by singing for her?
"Ooh, you're going to sing? Are you any good?"
"Guess you'll see, huh?" He hoped that came out as cool as he'd wanted it to, and was satisfied that it had, more or less, when Misa chirped a cheerful "Guess so!" in reply.
Then The Killers' "When You Were Young" started playing. Matt took a deep breath, alternately wiping inexplicably sweaty palms on his jeans, then sang:
"You sit there in your heartache, waiting on some beautiful boy to, to save you from your old ways, you play forgiveness, watch it now, here he comes. He doesn't look a thing like Jesus, but he talks like a gentleman, like you imagined when you were young…"
His voice was a little rougher than it had once been due to his current bad habit of chain-smoking, but he liked to think that it gave it a more rugged, distinctive quality. In any case, he knew the song and liked the band, so he knew he could pull this one off. Misa really seemed to be enjoying it, too, which only encouraged him to sing it to her rather than for her. That didn't come across quite the way he'd wanted it to; her only response was to step back with a smile and a laugh, and while she looked flattered or maybe just pleased by the attention, she didn't look interested, at least not as far as Matt could tell (which truthfully probably wasn't very). Still, that didn't stop him from singing the rest of the song in her general direction, though the way she clapped for him afterwards left him feeling oddly off-balance and embarrassed. They were in the middle of a store, after all…
"Not bad, not bad at all, but now it's Misa's turn!" After putting down her guitar, she turned back to him with a wink. "You're pretty lucky, you know," she said playfully as she took the microphone from his gloved hand. "Misa is actually an idol back in Japan, and you get a solo concert!"
Matt filed that bit of information away as he seated himself to take a turn on the drums. He'd have to Google her later. For now, he focused on playing the drums (set on EXPERT) while Misa launched into a surprisingly good version of Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation"; by the end of the song, a small crowd had gathered around them, drawn by Misa's clear, sweet voice and lingering to ogle the pretty little blonde and gape at the rather impressive drumming of her red-haired companion. At one point during her second song (Alanis Morissette's "You Oughta Know"—he was a little surprised a Japanese girl would know that one), she'd suddenly stepped in close, startling him into missing more than a few notes as she pretended to act out the line and every time I scratch my nails down someone else's back, much to the approval of the gathered people, a few of whom whistled and catcalled good-naturedly.
"They really liked that one!" she stage whispered to him between songs, thrilled at the response even from a small crowd like this. "Then they'll really like this next one…but Misa is just acting, so don't go falling for me, okay? I already have a boyfriend!" She'd turned away before he could respond to that, not that he'd had any idea what sort of reply to make. Dealing with girls (real ones, anyway, and especially very cute real ones) was generally pretty far outside his realm of experience. He'd only done as well as he had so far because he was used to playing it cool, and anyway, there was the game to focus on, which gave him confidence and something to talk about. But flirting, even fake flirting, would be awkward at best and humiliating at worst.
Damn, he could use a cigarette right about now.
As it turned out, he needn't have worried about it too much, though; the song had barely started when Mogi suddenly showed up, a concerned frown on his face. The small crowd took one look at him and dispersed like a puff of smoke, vanishing as quickly as it had formed.
"Hey Motchi!" The greeting came out much louder than usual, since Misa was still holding the microphone up to her mouth when she spoke. She must've been used to that sort of thing, though, because she didn't lower it before continuing with, "Misa's really good at this game! Let's buy one!"
"Yes…but maybe later. We should go back now."
Out of the corner of his eye, Matt noticed 'Motchi' eyeing him, but he just kept playing, pretending not to notice. "Are you leaving already?" he said, forcing the words to come out casually. "Bummer. I was waiting for the right time to ask you for your number, in case you ever broke up with your boyfriend."
Misa giggled, bending over to tap a perfectly-shaped fingernail on one of his goggle's lenses and give him one of those bright, childlike smiles. "Well, you are pretty cute, but Misa is deeply in love with her boyfriend, and he would never break up with her. We're already engaged!"
Matt knew enough to act surprised by that, and paused the game to pretend to shoot a nervous glance towards Mogi, though he still didn't meet the big man's eyes. "…Well…congratulations then, I guess…"
"Thanks! Misa has to go, but it was fun playing with you! Bye now~!"
Matt nodded a farewell and let her go—following her now would be way too obvious, especially since Mogi would probably be on the lookout for him, so he stuck around to play Rock Band a little longer. Oddly enough, his heart wasn't in it at the moment, so after browsing through the games long enough to be sure his targets would be long gone, he headed out as well.
He'd hardly gotten out the door when his cell phone went off; after checking to see who was calling, he let it go for a little longer than necessary, smiling inwardly at the Zelda ringtone he'd downloaded onto it the other day.
"What are you doing?" Mello's voice snapped at him the instant he raised the phone to his ear. "You haven't answered your phone for hours! Where are you?"
"Sorry, I've had my phone off. I was trailing Mogi and the girl, and didn't want to risk drawing their attention." Shoving one hand into the pocket of his oversized vest, he began the long trek back towards his car. "Are you sure that she's the Second Kira? With the way she acts, I find that pretty hard to believe."
He knew he'd have to admit that he'd made contact with the girl eventually: it might complicate or derail one of Mello's plans if he didn't, and they couldn't afford that kind of risk. Also, Mello might be able to figure something out from their conversation, though it had all seemed casual enough to Matt. Nothing big, no real information other than the girl's name.
Misa…
"She might not be any more, but it's almost certain that she used to be. Now get back here—I have a new assignment for you."
"Okay." Matt had known Mello long enough to catch the hint of suspicion in his voice even over the phone. Great. Mello probably thought he'd compromised himself somehow. He'd probably get stuck watching the police officers now instead of the girl. How boring. And if he told Mello that he'd actually talked with the girl…
Yes, he'd tell Mello eventually, he told himself again, pausing to put his phone away and light another cigarette. Just not quite yet.