Hikari: You've got to be kidding – I'm writing more than one fic after such a long period of time?! NO WAY! Well it's true folks… I know, I know. I'm in shock too.

An Author's Side Note: I. Hate. This. Pairing. Mainly because I am totally in love with Mello and the thought of this is just… I am dying writing this. But I have had the urge to write it because SOMEone's a bad wife and wrote it herself first… at least it's unrequited. That much I can deal with. And, it's not THE PAIRING which I can't even say. Oh, I'm going to go off and cry now…

Dedicated to Angela and MiniMix, because she is a terrible wife. :P

Disclaimer: Hikari Daeron does not own Death Note or any affiliations. Any ideas and themes in this are her own. She hopes someone will destroy her for writing this pairing.


Chain Reaction

"You should get some sun…"

His hair was like the sun. Golden, bright, glinting even under the single florescent light bulb that illuminated the cell. Impossibly shiny, if only she could reach out and touch it –

But Mama always said not to look straight at the sun, and if she couldn't even touch a flame, how could she touch a star?

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

In the world there are some reactions known as chain. Something collides into something, to create a third thing, and that triggers something else to do something, and so on.

Ryuk the Shinigami started this reaction. He was bored, and dropped a notebook. What did it react with? Light Yagami's own boredom – he picked it up. Which triggered his desire to eradicate the world of evil, which nudged the detective L to get involved and try to stop him. But when one unstoppable force meets an immovable object, bad things tend to happen. In this case, L was killed by Kira.

Seemingly the story ends there; the villain triumphs, while the hero is laid to rest. But, it did not end there. Because when Light Yagami triggered the side chain-reaction that caused L to die, he did not take into account L's heirs.

After L was killed, two boys were alerted to the event by their caretaker. One was named Near. The other, Mello.

Mello caused this particular branch of the chain reaction. Infuriated by his mentor's death, he left the orphanage he called home and stormed off, to America. There, he killed someone that "not even Kira could kill" and brought his head to the Los Angeles mafia.

He became a part of them in an instant.

Mello's anger and determination to not only avenge L's death but beat Near and become Number One enveloped him. He looked only at the end result, and didn't care the means to it. So, what did he do?

"Kidnap Soichiro Yagami's daughter, Sayu, next!"

Oh, silly Mello. He had no idea that he had just triggered another.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Sayu was a pretty, albeit perhaps a little plain, college girl with features that contrasted her captor's to a core. Her hair was dark, mirroring her dark, pretty eyes, the one thing she shared in common with her brilliant brother. Even her skin seemed tan next to the cream alabaster of her kidnapper. Sayu hated alcohol and enjoyed shopping, and in her free time she would even curl up with a book and a nice cup of tea.

There was, however, something they both actually shared in common: they both hated Kira.

Sayu at the time didn't know that the brother she adored and the murder she despised were the same person. Maybe in some senses they weren't, at first, but eventually, Kira overtook Light Yagami to attempt to be the god he wanted. Sayu never would have guessed this at the time. Light was the perfect student, and Kira…

Kira killed L, and that was unacceptable.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Kira killed L, so a part of Mello died. And no one messed with Mello and got away with it. Even though he didn't know that Kira was Light Yagami was the new L at the time, Mello had Sayu Yagami kidnapped anyway.

Sayu had never really been drawn to the bad-boy type. But there was something about him… something about him that the moment she first lay eyes on him, she forgot that she was a captive, forgot that she was strapped to a chair and gagged, forgot that she had to be older than him (she was in fact two years older) – none of it mattered. Maybe it was because she when her blindfold was lifted, the first thing she saw was the sun.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

He'd been so kind. She had learned to recognize his voice long before she ever saw him – the one who spoke English with a strange accent, like one she thought she'd heard before. Always accompanied with a snap of something as he ate, always the firm click of his shoes as he paced. And then one day, her blindfold fell from around her eyes, and dark brown met shockingly icy blue. Stunned into an unmoving silence, she watched as he shifted to draw away her gag as well. English turned to Japanese, and she heard, "It's time for you to eat."

She didn't understand why he was kind to her, or why he made sure that, while she was a captive, she was not treated with complete unfairness. The first time she spoke to him she asked him this. Surprised, he shrugged and took a bite of chocolate – so that was the snapping noise – and said, "You're not exactly at home now, are you?" She ignored that he gagged her again so that she couldn't say such things, and left the room.

All she cared about was that he answered.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

He was taken.

Late at night, when there was no one else around, he returned, a redhead on one side of him, a brunette on the other. The redhead went after the cameras and surveillance equipment that was in the room. The brunette knelt behind her and started to untie her from the chair – she was still bound otherwise – as he knelt in front of her. "Your father's coming for you tomorrow. We're taking you to the pick-up site now."

She watched as the redhead said something in English to the blond, arm full of equipment. He nodded and reached for the brunette instead, who went into his arms. Sayu felt the color drain out of her as he rubbed the back of her head, murmuring to her, before gesturing to the bound girl. The brunette looked at her and smiled a bit before coming towards her. "We'll help you to the car," the girl promised. "You're going to be okay."

Sayu, shaken by her kindness, suddenly realizing that he had been nice to her because she reminded him of his brunette… whatever-she-was, began to cry.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Sayu never told her parents. Her father was left to blaming himself for her "condition," and her mother to caring for her even though she should have been living her own life. She didn't speak much, after the kidnapping. The doctor's attributed it to stress.

Then, Soichiro died. And a few months after that, so did Light.

But Sayu stayed in silence not for them, but for the blond that had gone when they had. First half his face, and then the rest of him. She didn't know that, of course. But as far as she knew, he was dead. The moment she went into her father's arms, she knew that she'd never see the blonde again.

And she never did.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Mello loved L fiercely. He was his mentor, his idol, practically his older brother. And when L died, Mello was so infuriated that he went after his killer.

Mello continued the chain reaction, taking it down another course, another branch. Many reactions combust, lighting the world with fire. Mello's part ended in just that. Where he died in fire, another was put in Sayu Yagami's heart.

The final collisions came soon enough. Near exposed Light. Kira was killed. The reign of terror was over.

Sayu went silent, and loved her unnamed, unknowing captor, until the end of her days. That was the last remnants of the reaction, the flickering and dying ends of the chains. Soichiro was dead. Light was dead. Mello was…

Well, in any case, the sun still shone brightly overhead.


Hikari: Well, like I said… I hate this pairing. Anywhoosle…. Reference to the random OC – remember, this is Sayu's madness. As far as you know, that was a hooker that Mello called over, or a member of the family for help that he slept with. Or, maybe, she was so stressed by the kidnapping that she invented her. (Kelpy and I know better, but shhh. ;3) Your interpretation. It's not important.