Alright people, here is the intro chapter/preface/prologue...whatever ya want to call it...for my new fic! Sorry to those readers of "Thnks fr th Mmrs"--I promise I WILL be continuing it...just very slowly. If push comes to shove and I take too much longer on the chapter I'm working on for it right now, I'll just post what I have and make the chapter two parts.
But, on this story, I plan to keep going... Yes, this is a AU and slash fic (it's T now...but has great chances of changing to M), and is sort of based on a idea that randomly popped into my head while replying to an email from a friend (Hihothedairyo)..yeah. Like the title says, it's called "Coffee and Chlorine" ...the name is to kind of depict the characters and it has to do with how amazingly quirky and random I am (coffee and chlorine are my two favorite smells) ...and before you get bored and skip this to read the story, you MUST KNOW SO YOU DO NOT GET CONFUSED: this story is going to jump back and forth from when L (Lawliet...ooh spoiler) and Raito (and if your a newbie and don't know, that's Light) are twelve and fourteen (L being younger) and then them being eigtheen and twenty. Not sure exactly how I'm going to do this story (like first or third person)...but I'll figure it out, and I may even end up co-writing this with a friend and putting it on another acount or something...so bare with me. A lot of things will be explained as the story progresses...(and you guys better appreciate the literally HOURS I took figuring out the whole what age and what grade they'll be in since they each skip a couple...it was hard and I had to go back and change my ideas for the story a lot and just...UGH...let's just say I've put A LOT of thought into this). Oh, and never ever be afraid to review! They are HIGHLY appreciated! And I promise to reply to all you members with email addresses...to anon.'s...if you leave your email address, I'll reply to you personally!
Ok, enough rambling.
Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note nor do I own any chlorine or a pool...but I do have a cup of coffee sitting on my desk...and I own half of the computer chair I'm sitting on (eighty bucks worth of it at least) and I DID buy the song that's lyrics are mentioned on the bottom off iTunes...don't own the band though...or title rights...or anything like that...
Summary: not really too much of one as of yet...
xXxXxXxXxblack.is.the.new.bloodxXxXxXxXx
"Lawliet! Hurry up and come in before you catch a cold!"
"You know that is nothing but an old wives tale...you can't actually get a cold from just being outside."
"Yes, Lawliet, I know that. But, it's still not good for you to be standing out there in the muggy heat in those damp clothes. You really should wash your hair anyway...it's beginning to feel like straw from all that chlorine."
"Yes Uncle. Just a little bit longer."
"Huhhhh...fine Lawliet. But, please come in soon, okay?"
"Yes."
It was the beginning of summer, and just like any Georgia summer, it was muggy and warm. The air around me held almost as much moisture as the olympic size pool I call my one true home. It was hot, sticky, and suffocating. The sharp smell of fresh cut grass lingered in the air mixed with the smell of the pulled onion weeds and clover flowers. The sun played over the tips of the oaks and pines, illuminating the semi new tar on the road. And my two story home with my uncle stood sad and proud in all it's old antebellum grandeur.
The house uncle and I stayed in was nothing short of magnificent, or at least, it could have been had uncle been younger and able to do the physical labor required to keep the house at it's original splendor. It was still beautiful though, despite the dirty white shutters that sat crooked next to the scum caked windows. The original daisy yellow paint was in need of a fresh coating to help cover the cracks and pealing (which showed that once the house was blue..a very lovely blue it was too). I know if mum and dad had still been around, they would have taken care of the house and kept it the envy of the neighborhood, but, there was nothing they could do about it now. Why? Oh, nothing really, just the six feet of dirt covering them. Not to mention the wooden cage they'd been placed in.
My parents died in a car crash when I was three. Its not like how most kids would say either, because I did remember and know them. I remember them rather vividly, just as I remember their personalities. My mother had shoulder length barrel curl black hair, wide emerald eyes, a sweet and soft smile, creamy porcelain skin, and a small petite figure. She always reminded me of a china doll...and obviously she was the way she had shattered and broken that night. Though, before that, despite her fragile facade, she always stood firm and strong on everything. Her voice was low and soft, and always had a intelligent edge to it. My father was something of a opposite though. He had short blond hair, calculating blue eyes, lips that always seemed super glued into a line, freckled beige skin, and a tall and stalky frame. He always sort of intimidated me. When I was an infant, far too young for even my memory to serve, it is told that every time he would hold me I would burst out into tears. He wasn't cruel, but he was cold. Always like a hard statue, except when mum held his had. That was the only time I ever saw him weak. That, and when he was on the hospital bed hooked to all those machines...
But, that had been six years prior. I'm not going to say I'm some side show freak and that I didn't feel any sadness about my parents death, because I had initially. Thing was, I just got over it quickly. Teachers would always scrutinize my features when I would tell them that my parents were deceased, and they almost looked disgusted with me. But I ignored it. After these past few years of my life, I learned to ignore a lot of things. I had to, if nothing else for means of self-preservation.
When I was seven, after noticing my pristine grades at the end of first grade, I was given a test that was supposed to tell me what age I really was mentally and what level my brain operated on. Obviously it was very high, because they bumped me up from being in second grade that following year to fifth grade, getting to skip second, third, and fourth grade. So it was needless to say that I had to find a way to survive being the lamb in the lions den. It hadn't been easy, and I still came out with several black eyes by the end of the year, but I survived. I even found my true love...swimming.
I joined the swim team, and of course, was thrown into the runt lane for the first day or so. But, after leaving the poor children sobbing in my dust, the coach moved me over a few lanes. Before I knew it, I was in the advanced lane with all of the older, more experienced swimmers. I was small and boney, yet deftly fast. Not to mention I perfected my strokes quickly due to my keen observation and quick learning ability. I had little to no muscle, but as the months went by, I could tell my scrawny body was beginning to show signs of toned muscle.
My dark ebony curls that looked so like my mothers morphed into straight, wild spikes from not washing my hair properly after swimming in the chlorinated water. But, I loved carrying that smell of chlorine with me. It was soothing, strange as it sounded, but the smell of chlorine just made me feel whole, and like I was at complete peace. My uncle, Watari, never truly got that. But he never questioned, and I never elaborated. That was our relationship, and that was how I enjoyed it.
When the year for ninth grade came, I had few to little friends. The year progressed just the way I had expected it to, and just as the previous years of middle school had. I gained one or two female friends, lost one, and never once did I gain a male friend. Though, I WAS a twelve year old. If it hadn't been for that test, I still would have been back in the sixth grade learning simple cross multiplication and geometric figures. The year thankfully went by fast, though simply not fast enough.
It was a hot May here in Georgia when I completed that awful first year of high school. I no longer had school for the next two months, nor did I have any swim meets for the next month. I had just walked away swiping every first place metal and trophy from the meet that day. My skin was dry, yet soft from the chlorine, and my white t-shirt was blotched with wet patches. My nylon shorts were wet at the seat where my Speedo clung to my rear, but it didn't bother me. My hair was still quite wet, and drops of pool water were still dripping from the unruly tips. But I was not in the mood to reach over and grab the towel to wipe the water away. I was simply entranced in my own thoughts as I rocked slowly on the wicker porch swing, humming the tune of my favorite song. I hadn't any idea how crucial that night would become to my future. How much that one person, that one teenage boy could change my life. But, that night, it all began. All under the setting sun of a Georgia day in May, 1999.
"Out of the island
into the highway
past the places where you might have turned
you never did notice
that you still hide away
anger of angels that won't return
He's everything you want
He's everything you need
He's everything inside of you that you wish you could be
He says all the right things
At exactly the right time
But he meens nothing to you, and you don't know why"
-"Everything You Want", Vertical Horizon, 1999-