Disclaimer! All fictional entities featured/ mentioned in this segment belong to Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. This fanfiction is not for profit and written for entertainment purposes only.
Written for my friend and long-time supporter Fenikkusu Ai (aka, ShiningSteel on DeviantArt) for her birthday. I guess it's a little early but I wanted to be sure I finished it in time before school started for fall. She asked for a Light/Misa fic, specifically "a date night, with some kissing and cuddling." Jess, I hope you don't mind I expanded on the prompt a tad, and I hope you get all that you wish for! Thanks!
Warning: dark themes, implied sex, depictions of a very dysfunctional relationship and some creepiness towards the end.
5 TIMES LIGHT AND MISA GOT TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT
1.
She doesn't believe in the least that she's being unreasonable. One date for a few hours a week is hardly asking for all the time in the world and besides Ryuzaki's not doing anything special at the moment.
(If only he had a girlfriend for himself, maybe he'd feel better? Or boyfriend. Misa could care less which way he swings, so long as he keeps it to himself instead of getting Light involved in it when he's already got someone.)
Plus Light could use the break; if he keeps pushing himself he might end up just like him. Misa can't have that, ohnonono. Tonight they're staying in, nestled in the sofa watching a rom-com of her choosing. Light balks slightly as he reads the description on the back of the DVD case. "What's the matter, Light? Don't like romantic comedy?"
"Not particularly," he answers slowly, like he's bracing himself in case this ends up hurting her feelings somehow. Oh Light, always the chivalrous knight.
"Did you want to see something else?" she presses. "We can make it a double-feature and you can pick the other movie."
Light rubs at the nape of his neck which she can't wait to get her own hands on. "No, no. It's all right. Tonight we'll watch what you want." He doesn't look at her as he concedes; his blazing bronze eyes land on either the door or Ryuzaki who's already taken his place on the end of the couch and has been eyeing the two of them the whole time with that deceptively blank look on his pasty alien-like face and a nub for a thumbnail pressed to his teeth.
Whatever Light's looking at, Misa doesn't like it. Hopefully she can get his mind off of work at least for a few hours. She scoots as far down as she can to the end opposite Ryuzaki and pulls Light to her like the oversized stuffed animal he looks like he'd rather not be. She likes feeling squeezed up against a person as tightly as possible like nori around a sushi roll; it comforts her and makes her feel protected and cared for.
If Light objects to such closeness he doesn't say so, though she thinks for a second she hears a small undiscernible grunt from him as she takes his arm to wrap around her like a scarf while one hand rests on the back of his head and the other on his chest. Neither of them are snack-eaters (Misa has a figure to watch and Light just isn't the type to eat wastefully); whatever junk food that's spread out in front of them is there to placate Ryuzaki.
"Ryuzaki, can you not eat so loud?" she asks when they're only ten minutes into the story. "We can't hear."
"I am being quiet," he answers from the far end, the handcuff dangling from his bony wrist connecting him to Light like a winding stream of steel trickling across the cushions separating them. In his free hand, he's squeezing a pastry over his gaping mouth (geez, his mouth looks like it's half the size of his whole stupid head!), lapping up the thick yellow cream oozing out from the bottom in such a way that Misa can't tell is supposed to be suggestive. Nevertheless her cheeks involuntarily grow flush and it doesn't help matters that Light is looking at what he's doing too, albeit with a more agitated look than she.
"Ryuzaki, will you cut that out? That's disgusting," he scolds, echoing her sentiments.
"Is it, now? I think this film is much more disgusting by comparison," says Ryuzaki with a slurp. "These so-called 'romantic comedies' all play out the same way, shattering the willing suspension of disbelief for what is acceptable courtship behavior in favor of what sounds more 'romantic.' If you see one, you've seen them all."
"And how would you know that?" Misa shoots. "Misa bets you've never even been to first base so there's no room for you to talk."
"What does baseball have to do with romantic comedies?" Comments like these leave you to wonder if Ryuzaki is a literal thinker or simply messing with you by pretending to be. Either way, Misa remembers then not to feed the troll and instead go back to what's really important. She takes Light's chiseled jaw in her hand and turns his head so they can lock eyes, careful not to land her fingertips on the faint yellowed bruises marring his handsome face, courtesy of Ryuzaki's feet during their last falling-out.
"Pay him no mind, Light. Just relax and forget about work."
He blinks at her. "It's…rather hard for me to forget about the case, Misa. I do have a lot at stake in it, and so do you."
"Oh! I know it's important; what I mean is you can't constantly be working on it and worrying. You'll run yourself ragged. Doesn't matter what he says, Ryuzaki's got nothing on you or me anyway. Or else why let us out of jail? It's not like you to take someone's word so seriously without questioning it."
She puckers her coral-pink lips to plant a sweet kiss on his lips that he doesn't respond to. If anything he tenses up at the contact. "Though between you and me…I kinda like the idea of us being Kira. That'd be the coolest thing ever," she whispers to him.
"I know, you've mentioned it before," he mutters back, looking a tad uncomfortable at what she's implying. "In front of everyone."
"I wouldn't be saying things like that if I were you, Misa Amane," Ryuzaki cuts in, sucking the glaze off each of his fingers. "It's not helping your case at all."
She can't help herself then. It's her chance to get even with him for always driving them crazy, no matter how petty it is. "Oh pish! If you could convict Misa for just talking about being Kira you would have done it by now. But you can't. Be grateful that Light's taking the time to help you with your stupid investigation and get over yourself, 'cause Misa hasn't seen you do much of anything towards it either. At least Light has me as an excuse to take breaks. You don't even have that."
"Well Misa, you rarely have a point but in this case perhaps you do? If it weren't for you, Light probably wouldn't need to be bothering with my supposed nonsense at all."
"Guys, can we just sit and watch the movie, please?"
Misa nods and rests her head against Light's chest, her favorite pillow. No one says another word for the rest of the film, though Ryuzaki does go back to eating in that nauseating faux-erotic way of his.
…
2.
It's really too bad that Ryuzaki (L) had to die, and Misa would be lying if she said she wouldn't miss him a teeny bit but she won't miss him terribly. After all, he had it coming.
Speaking of lies though, there's something she needs to get off her chest now that they're back on top and off of surveillance (and as she and even Ryuzaki had predicted, Light is going to take over for him as the new L). The night they met she'd promised she would be straight with him about everything, and this is no exception.
On their weekly date night the two are standing at the bridge taking in the scenery, the water below them rippling like warm black satin adorned with a myriad sequins from the lights off the buildings. What a beautiful dress that would make, she notes to herself as she huddles a little closer to Light for warmth from the autumn chill. He lets her. It's the least he can do for what she's done for him.
"Hey, Light? I have something to tell you," she says, still giddy and weak at the knees about his seemingly out-of-the-blue proposal earlier today that they move in together.
"What's that?" he asks flatly, turning to glance down at her. He knits his brow.
She entwines her small fingers with his, slightly callused from long hours of desk work and sentencing criminals to death but tender around the middle. "You're probably wondering how Misa got Higuchi to believe that she was the Second Kira."
Chances are that Light already figured it out long ago, he's smart that way, but he nods to grant her permission to continue. She takes a breath to collect her thoughts and lowers her voice. "Well, the day Misa went to Yotsuba to have that interview, Rem met up with her and told her everything, about you and about Misa. She pointed out Higuchi and helped Misa trick him on that date by killing someone he asked Misa to kill. Misa's sorry she couldn't tell you sooner; you didn't have your memories back yet. Though technically Misa didn't, either…"
"Yeah, that's what I thought must have happened," he responds coolly, a small ghost of a smile flickering through his lips. "But thank you for telling me that, anyway. I appreciate your honesty." He pulls her hand up to his mouth to brush his lips against her knuckles, a gesture that feels strangely stiff and is incredibly rare for him but it's enough to put her back in a tizzy as the electricity from the kiss shoots down her arm and hits her heart.
"B-but Light, there's something else I've been wondering now that Ryuzaki's gone."
"Oh?"
Misa does miss Rem and hopes that wherever she is now, she knows that it was nothing personal. It just so happened that her dying for Misa worked out for the best. "D'you think maybe Rem couldn't have killed you even if she wanted to?"
His grip on her hand tightens then, painfully so with the cold already making her skin and bones feel brittle. His eyes seem to widen and flare in the dimming lights. "What are you talking about?" he asks, an edge creeping into his voice. Uh-oh, she's crossed an unspoken line.
She squirms against him, suddenly unable to look at him. He doesn't need to raise his voice or toss things around to be intimidating. "Light, I don't—I don't mean anything by it, I was just thinking that after all those times Rem said she wanted to kill you, how come she never did? Rem was smart, not as smart as you, mind, but she could have found a way to do it while saving me. She never seemed to like you all that much. Maybe there was a rule that kept her from killing you directly? So…she was bluffing the whole time."
"And what is that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing! Light, Misa fell for it too. I'm sorry, I never should have said anything," she cries, tears welling up in the back of her eyes. Their first good date in ages, their first one without Ryuzaki and she ends up ruining it with her big mouth. No one ever gets a one-up on Light and gets away with it. No one. She should know that better than anyone, who's still among the living that is.
Light stops squeezing her hand then and says nothing for an agonizingly long moment, like he's trying to come up with a reply to that which will help him to save some face. Only one other person could pierce through his armor in such a way and like Rem, he's gone like yesterday. Even if the pain and regrets from yesterday still linger today.
Then a more troubling thought seeps in while she waits on him. Does Light miss him? It's been almost two weeks since they killed him and since then Light has seemed unusually moody and withdrawn. What on earth would he miss him for? He never did a damn thing for them except be a problem. But she dares not say any more, less so about this.
Eventually his ruffles become smooth again, and he makes a noise that sounds either like a scoff or a chuckle. When he laughs it sounds like he's mocking the whole world and everyone in it. "Oh Misa. I was only playing along. Of course I knew that. I admit she might have had me fooled at first, but I eventually came to that same conclusion. Otherwise I would have come up with a different plan accordingly. Anyway, it doesn't matter now. All our obstacles are cleared. Let's talk about something else, like when we want to start looking for an apartment. It needs to have enough space where I can work, seeing as how we won't be using Ryuzaki's building anymore."
Yes. Make a new start. Erase every dirty trace of that man from their lives. Still trembling, she chirps hesitantly, "Ah, Misa thinks we should start apartment-hunting first thing tomorrow."
So Light was playing along with Rem.
Just like he plays along with her. But it's all right, Misa always did enjoy pretending. That's how she makes her living and how she keeps living at all.
Behind them, Ryuk stares and snickers. He snickers at everything these days.
…
3.
When it's all said and done, Misa doesn't check the time when he finally slips into the room, but from the look of things from the crack in the curtains it must be the middle of the night. She's on her stomach hugging a pillow to her breasts and wet face when he takes a seat on the other side of the mattress. She takes good care not to cry in front of him, especially these days. He's got more important things to worry about than hurting her feelings.
She listens to the rustle of his clothes as he pulls them off himself. In that premeditated way of his he softly calls out, "Misa? I know you're awake. I'm sorry for earlier, when I lost my temper. It wasn't your fault and I shouldn't have taken my frustrations out on you."
He always does this. No matter how much he thinks it's beneath him to make up they have to maintain good relations. Misa's all he has, unless of course he can find someone else to be his Eyes but what are the chances of that happening at this point?
She sniffs and lifts up her head, peeking out through the blankets at his silhouette which is outlined by a thin silver halo of light like the celestial body he's named after. "It's okay, Light. I know. D-did it get all straightened out? What happened, anyway?"
He sighs. "Someone kidnapped Sayu and held her hostage for the notebook. We did manage to get Sayu back. She's fine, at least for now. Unfortunately we lost the notebook."
She gasps. She could have sworn she heard Light mutter something about his little sister in the bathroom the night before they flew to LA, but other than that he'd been so tight-lipped about it, ordering her to take over his judgments for him in the meantime which she did. "Oh my God. Sayu? That's horrible! Why didn't you tell me? I could have helped."
"No. There was nothing you could have done. We're not sure yet who this guy is, but another person going by the name N just contacted us. He says he'll help us find him and get the notebook back, but I can't say that I trust him. If there is anything you can do, I'll be the first to tell you."
N. For some reason Misa gets a bad feeling when she hears this. They've had unpleasant experiences before with people that referred to themselves as single letters. As soon as he slips in under the covers next to her she gets the courage to scoot over and crawl on top of him. She rests her head on his broad shoulder and she feels his arms loop around her in that practiced way. It's gotten easier for him to accept Misa's affections over the years.
As she plays with his soft golden-brown hair, she asks against his pulse, "Why would this guy wanna kidnap Sayu?"
"Somehow he knew enough about my dad's involvement in the Kira Task Force and the fact that we had a notebook, and thought that was the best way to get to us."
"I heard you guys talking about that Takimura guy a couple nights ago. Did this guy kidnap him first? He's dead now, isn't he?"
"Yeah. I used the Death Note to force him to kill himself. I thought it would keep him from talking but I—"
He can't bring himself to say, "I was too late." He will never admit to failure. He's a god. Gods cannot fail.
Misa squeezes his other shoulder and notes the tension in his muscles. As much as she herself likes Sayu and is glad that she made it out all right, she can't help but ask, "So why didn't you kill Sayu?"
She flinches at the sensation of his nails digging into the tender flesh of her back. "I couldn't," he hisses. "Only we would have any way of knowing about the kidnapping. If I'd have killed her, I might as well have told everyone that Kira was on our task force. It's the only way he'd know what was going on."
"Should you have spared Takimura too, then? I mean, isn't the kidnapper gonna get ideas about who Kira is either way since you didn't—"
"Shut up, Misa!" Before she knows it the world spins before her eyes and it stops with her underneath him. He's got her wrists pinned above her unkempt head and though she can barely see his face she can just feel the anger radiating on her from his eyes like the sun on a particularly brutal summer day. "You're not here to question everything I do, understand?"
She's vulnerable to him in this position and it both scares and excites her. She squeezes her eyes shut and squeaks, "I wasn't trying to question you, I-I was just trying to help!"
If I'd been the one they kidnapped, would you have saved me too? Or would you have snuffed me out like you did Takimura? I wouldn't care either way as long as your secret stayed safe, but…
"Oh Light, I can't stand to see you like this. Whatever's happened, Misa has faith that you'll find a way around it. You always do. Please, what can Misa do to make you feel better?"
He doesn't answer her with words but definitely in a way she understands: by lowering himself on her and crushing her with his weight, his lips, his hands, his scent, his heat. For someone who likes to act like he's not interested in this sort of thing, he's quite good at it.
She opens up to welcome all of it, and from above Light's heaving body she catches a glimpse of Ryuk scramble back out the door for an apple. She could have sworn she heard him say, "Yuck. I'm outta here."
…
4.
Light warns her not to expect him home until late, putting a damper on the plans she'd had for a candlelit dinner in celebration of their recent engagement. Around this time she'd had the TV on to NHN while looking for something to watch, just in time for Takada's nightly sermon on the word of Kira. She knows her because Light used to date her in college.
They hardly see each other anymore. Misa sends him care packages every other day but if he's grateful for her support he hasn't told her so. Ever since his father died he's gotten colder and further away from it all.
That night a little past one she's still up and waiting for him when he closes the door behind him and loosens his tie. "You're still up," he comments, somehow not sounding that surprised.
She hobbles off the couch, loosened up by the bottle of wine she's been nursing in the meantime. "I couldn' sleep. I want'd to make sure you came home."
"Are you drunk? I won't sleep with you while you're drunk, Misa. Besides, I'm too tired and it's late."
Sometimes she wishes she'd drop the "officer and a gentleman" pretense for good. It's not okay to sleep with her when she's drunk, but it's okay when she's vulnerable in every other way?
"No, I jus' wanna talk. I saw one o' your exes on TV t'night," she slurs, propping herself up against the wall to block Light's path. "Taki."
He takes off his jacket next, playing coy the entire time. Coy as in, "I feel no need to explain myself to you since this is my world and I'm just letting you live in it." God, he's not even trying anymore. "Kiyomi Takada. Yeah, she's the new spokesperson for Kira now. What about it?"
Misa hiccups, then pounds at her chest for the next few words she means to say. "You went t' go see her t'night, didn' you? Is that where you were? Don' lie to me, Light. If we're gettin' hitched we gotta be honest wi' each other, darling. Mochi's been stayin' wi' me while you're a' work-uh."
He turns up his nose at that pet name. He doesn't like it, but she's too sauced to care at the moment. "I know, I asked him to. I was working, Misa, that's all."
Oh yes, he must've been working real hard with her. Maybe it's just her imagination but she smells distant traces of a perfume she can't recognize but knows isn't hers as she takes his jacket from him and puts it over her head. "Did you sleep wi' her? Don' I give you enough? Wha'she got that I don' got? Huh? Bigger titties?"
"It's not about you not giving me enough, it's just part of the investigation. We think she's in contact with Kira and I'd be stupid not to take advantage of that. I shouldn't even be talking to you about this, it's none of your business."
"Baby, you made it my business when you hooked up wi' me—"
She reaches out to either embrace or take a swing at him, she's not totally sure which she wants to do, but misses and collapses on her knees like the poor wretch she is then, and this time when she claws at the wall for something to pull herself back up she can't find any. She's seeing double of everything, including Light who's somehow moved out of reach. What he is and what he pretends to be. Is she going to die? She's almost kind of hoping for it. "Light, Light I can' get up. Help me, please help me…don't leave me. I-I think I'm dying, Light. I bet you're happy tha' I am. But you're dyin' too, y'know..."
Light towers over her for a moment, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. But he can't just leave her there crying on the floor. It wouldn't reflect well on him if the task force ever found out he treated his woman so cruelly in her hour of need.
Or maybe they wouldn't care? From what she can see, they seem to be okay with him messing around with that slut Takada.
Either way, he hunkers down to scoop her up into his arms and heads for their bedroom (well, it's more Misa's bedroom now), carrying her like the bride she longs to be across the threshold. Or more accurately, a small sleepy child being put to bed.
"You don't know what you're babbling about. Sleep it off, you'll feel better in the morning. I'm not going anywhere. I promise, it's nothing. Takada's just a means to an end. You're the only one for me."
Misa nestles her head into the crook of his neck too out of it to press the matter, wondering if Light told Takada the same thing about her.
…
5.
The last time they'd speak to each other Light promised he'd call her again. It would be the last promise he'd ever break.
The last time they'll see each other, Misa's wearing a black veil, no makeup (the tears would just make it all runny and ugly so what's the point?) and hovering over his statuesque body laying in a coffin and prettied up for the viewing before they put him in the ground. Not all the makeup in the world can disguise the sunken angular look in his face. The face of regret. She's been in here too long, his mother and sister are waiting to see him next. What will they see when they look into this face? Certainly not what she sees. They never knew him nearly as well as she does...did.
Why, Light? Why'd you have to leave me again? If you really had to die, why couldn't you at least take me with you? We can be together in death, I can take you to meet my parents. They'd adore you as much as I do.
She is struck by the urge to crawl into the coffin with him, lay on top of him like she used to with her fingers in his hair and her lips to his now pulseless neck. Let them bury her with him, she doesn't care. There's nothing left to keep her in this world, not even the empty promise of a new one. It looks big enough for both of them and her time is long overdue.
In fact after she tucks the flowers she'd brought into the other side of the satin-laden box she starts to crawl on top of the altar and over the side, snagging the hem of her dress in the corner for a moment. With her legs spread on either side of his waist she unbuttons his suit, missing the feel of his bare skin against her hands and cheek. Even in death his lips are frozen as stones against hers, like kissing an idol.
She manages to see two suspicious wounds on his chest packed with gauze (Matsu had never said anything about him being shot up) before Mochi and Monchichi storm in and yank her off of him. The struggle almost knocks the entire setup to the floor before they show her out the door kicking and screaming the truth in tongues that she's the only one left to understand.