Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or any of its characters except Terra.

Travel

Terra woke up dazed on a bus. She didn't remember how long she'd been asleep, although it must have been a while or else her butt wouldn't hurt from the crappy cushion provided, nor when she had even gotten on the vehicle. There were a lot of people on board considering the time of day, and as a shock to her, they all had black hair. Last time she checked, that just didn't happen. Did I miss my stop or something? and What. The. Hell. crossed her half-awake mind and were blatantly plastered on her face. No one had seemed to notice though, they were all busy with their own important lives.

The driver spoke through the microphone, probably saying what stop they were approaching, but Terra wasn't positive. He was speaking in a foreign language. Some business-looking men stood up from their seats along with a mother and her small child clinging to her arm. It would've been cute if it wasn't for the fact that Terra was confused as hell.

She had no freaking idea what to do next. They don't teach you how to handle finding yourself on a bus where drivers don't speak English and you don't know where you are. Staying on the bus didn't seem like a very good option, since it was just a waste of time, but getting off and being lost like a tourist sounded just as bad. So this is how children felt when they lose their mothers in a public area. What a crappy feeling.

Terra then decided to leave this up to chance. After quickly digging through her small bag that was hung around her shoulder, where was she going originally?, a coin was found. She flipped it. Heads. Off the bus she went.

The street was moderately busy as well. More black-haired people. A few people gave her second glances for being the only brunette in the area. But now Terra was at a loss for ideas. She couldn't just go down streets flipping coins and seeing where she'll end up; that solution was used up. But there had to be something or someone that could help her.

It was then that she realized something was off, more than being lost. All the buildings and people looked almost drawn. That just wasn't possible; these sort of things are just plot for fanfictions, not real. You can't actually wind up in an anime. But she needed to keep an open mind. If this was the case, then that would explain the bus driver's language and the people's black hair. Terra never had been in Japan before. This was actually pretty interesting now.

She wandered through some streets, searching for any familiar faces or featured buildings she might recognize. This would really help if I knew which anime I was in, but she didn't know and it was getting dark. Lights started to come on in the buildings around her. Panic was induced in Terra's mind. Being alone on a dark street was the stupidest thing a person could do, whether they were in an anime or not. She rushed into the nearest building.

Had Terra stayed outside and kept walking, she would have met a certain character and would have witnessed a terrible motorcycle accident. Perhaps her fate would have been different then. Perhaps not.

It was a hotel lobby, full of travelling people and the usual morons that lounged about. She didn't want to get caught and identified as a runaway seeking shelter, so she acted like she knew what she was doing and walked past the front desk towards an elevator. One of the people at the desk saw her, a woman, and called out, but Terra ignored it since she didn't have a clue what the woman was saying anyway.

The doors slowly closed and she was now in the shaft with a few strangers. They pushed different buttons and patiently waited for their stop. One got off on the second floor, three on the third. She decided to get off with one of the people on the fourth; he seemed too preoccupied on his cell phone to question her motives.

The hallway was a tad eerie to Terra. No one except the man and staff member with a tray of some food was not in a room. He then left her alone with the waiter-like person by entering his room, still talking to whoever was on the other line. She kept walking. Halfway down the hall, the waiter also stopped at a room and started to knock on the door. Terra went to a different door and pretended to look for her room key, watching the man out of the corner of her eye.

She was close enough to hear someone on the other end fiddle with a lock, then saw a hand take the tray. The door opened all the way for a brief second while the waiter turned to leave. The man walked back into his room, the door closing itself. Instinct made her shove her precious foot in the door right before it closed. Terra didn't get a good look, but that person rung a bell in her head.

"Great, so now I'm trespassing into strangers' rooms. This won't get me arrested" was muttered under her breath. Even so, she still quietly opened the door and sneaked inside, then tried her best to shut it without it making an obnoxious sound.

She stiffened when the man started to talk, also in Japanese. Wasn't that just freaking useful, he probably knew she was here from the door and was telling her off or warning her that he'll call the cops. It took a minute for her to realize he was on the phone, pausing occasionally to listen to what someone else was saying. She was safe.

On the tips of her toes, Terra crept around the hotel room, trying to find a spot where she could see the person without him seeing her. She was no ninja, but thanked her luck for not hitting anything while crawling on the floor near furniture. One of the chairs hid her well, so she decided to keep behind it and wait. Finally, she got a view when the man walked to a different spot from before with the phone.

She could only see his back, but immediatly recognized the figure. Unkept black hair, a wrinkled white shirt, generic blue jeans, and just the way he held the cell phone, like it was dirty. Terra was right when she thought he was familiar at first. She had snuck into L's hotel room. She was in Death Note.

A gasp of breath came out suddenly, but was unheard since the detective was still speaking to someone. The conversation was then ended, and he closed the phone. Turning around and coming to an abrupt stop facing her direction, Terra had been spotted from behind the chair. She stood up, habitually straightened her shirt, and spoke a bit nervously. "Uh, hi."

"Hai?" L betrayed no expression.

Shit, of course anyone would mistake that for yes in Japanese, why do the words have to sound so close?

He then said somethiing quickly; it sounded like a question.

She tried again. "Errr, hello. What did you just say?" Terra scratched her head. L was British or something, right? He should understand English, or so she hoped. It was hard to think clearly at the moment.

"Oh." This time he understood. "Hello. I asked how you arrived in my hotel room." He sounded the same as in the English version, and suprisingly fluent.

"I, uh, you lef the door open and, well-" How would you explain this sort of situation to a nonexistant genius? "I'm lost."
L was still as serious as ever. "Lost?" The cell phone was placed into the right front pocket of hist jeans. "Lost." Now the tone was affirmative. "You got lost and let yourself into my room."

"Yeah, that sounds about right." The way he said it made her feel as if it was the stupidest idea in the world, which couldn't exactly be denied.

The next question was to the point. "Do you know who I am?"

"Uh." Shit. If she said yes, he'd immediatly lock her up in the nearest cell as Kira, but if she said no, then she wouldn't be able to explain her situation without being branded as a liar and untrustful. "Am I supposed to?" Hopefully, this would buy time.
L looked as if he was thinking about whether or not this answer satisfied him. His head turned a bit, as if to examine the hotel room. "You got lost and let yourself into a stranger's room then." He head suddenly snapped back in front of her, making Terra flinch. "Or not a stranger? The answer was too vague."

It was obvious she needed a better answer. "Well, you see, I didn't-"

Luckily, the cell phone in L's pocket started to ring. L made no hesitation in picking it up. Terra couldn't help but think that was rude, even though it saved her skin for the moment. "Watari" was the only thing understandable in the conversation. The detective rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet while discussing something with the man, although he was perfectly capable of multi-tasking, and was doing so by watching her reactions.

----

Watari called at an incovenient time, but the girl's nerves were already shattered. Perhaps a little break for her to think would get a better answer from her, or a believable excuse. He told the man on the other line about this predicament; Watari said to do what was best. Which meant L had to keep her in his sight until he found out the girl knew.

"Goodbye." A glance at her, women really could not hide their emotions. She was confused; the girl really didnt know Japanese. Problematic in the future, or perhaps useful. The girl was at a huge disadvantage. He could say anything he wanted without worrying if she'd relay it somewhere. So the possibility of a spy for Kira was immediatly reduced to a meager one percent.

"Girl." A pain this was, switching languages just to speak to one person. "You will stay with me for now." Her face lit up; so she really was lost?

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" The girl made a motion to hug him, but abruptly stopped. An inner mental conflict?

"Once was enough. You will clean this place before we go, wear gloves." A simple task that was improbable to screw up.

"Why?"

So demanding. L walked over to where he put the food tray room service brought him and opened it. Strawberry cake, one of his favorites. "To eliminate fingerprints." Telling her wouldn't kill him; Watari would come in later and clean up like always; this was just meant to keep the girl busy.

"Okay." But she still just stood there. L went through some drawers and found what he was looking for, a fork and a washcloth. He then handed it to her and sat down in a chair with his delicacy, ready to observe.

A thought came to him. "What do you think of Kira?"

----

Terra stopped in her tracks. Kira? He brought that up fast. But she didn't know what to say; she was a Kira supporter. Hesitation crept into her voice. "Oh, well, Kira is" her scrubbing got a bit harder, "he's a mass murderer that kills people who are in his way. A god complex definitely." She then remembered that she didn't have gloves like L instructed. "Gloves?"

"Yes. Drawer next to the sink." Well, wasn't someone social today?

As she rummaged through the door, her back facing him, Terra slipped up ever so slightly. "He's also hot."

"Excuse me?"

Shit, did she just say that? "Nothing." She realized that was probably the worst thing a person could say in this situation. L's social skills suffered, but he wasn't stupid.

"I believe you just said Kira was hot, correct?"

No use denying it now; Terra couldn't have been in a deeper hole. "Yes I did."

"I see." He returned his attention to that cake on his lap. What was L planning? She didn't want to know actually. "We leave in thirty minutes for our next location, so please keep that in mind." He was saying she cleaning too slow. God I want to kick him so hard right now, Terra felt self-pity as she scrubbed the coffee table with gloves with bad friction. A once in a lifetime opportunity, and I get to spend it as L's slave. Where's the romance? Fanfiction lied to me, the bastards.

In twenty-eight minutes, L was checking himself out of the hotel in the lobby, while Terra struggled with his luggage cart to keep up. She couldn't help wonder why it was so heavy, but as a genius detective, there was a likely chance that the work he had to bring with him was not light in weight.

A limousine was waiting for them; Watari was on time as always. He took the cart away from her and opened the door for her. It was polite, but she felt that she was mocked somehow in the process, like she couldn't open doors herself.

All of the luggage was in the car, everyone was in and had proper seat belts on, then they were off. Watari asked L a question in Japanese.

"Kanto." The region where Kira's judgement started. They were going there right now. Terra remembered the plot of this series. This was seriously happening.

Looking to her left, she saw L pondering something and realized they had not actually been properly introduced. "I'm Terra."

The detective turned to face her, but said nothing.

"That's my name. When people tell you their name, you're supposed to respond with yours back. It's called proper manners." An irritated tone snuck into her voice, but there was no point in stopping it.

"I see then." L looked out the window once more and Terra started to make strangling notions with her hands, but he faced her again. "Hello Terra, please call me Ryuga."

So, my first story with an OC. I hope it sounds okay so far. I wanted Terra to make a reference thinking she was in Code Geass and was looking for terrorists, but it somehow didn't make it in. Oh well. I promise that I'll try and update one of the other stories that were supposed to be updated a while ago before another chapter of this, but I said "try", not "will". Enjoy the rest of your day. :D