Never Enough Time.
Summary: Rem had heard the rumours, and strange rumours they were. Apparently there was a shinigami who had been watching a certain human for over a hundred years.
Rating: K+ for predictable death.
A/n: Aren't you guys usually all for the 'Mystical being loves a human' thing? I found next to nothing with Misa and Gelus' relationship. Which makes me sad…
The Shinigami Realm was lifeless, dead, quiet, dry, and many other unpleasant things. This is why the rumour spread like wildfire when some god of death caught wind of someone being interested in a human. This Shinigami had something none of the others hadn't even the slightest clue about, and those who had heard about it didn't believe it was possible for one of their kind to feel. That is why this one, pathetic little shinigami became so famous so fast.
He had felt something.
And nothing of the physical type. He had felt emotion.
And it wasn't the type of emotion one would get when they won or lost all their possessions while gambling.
He had been feeling.
Another shinigami, a female that went by the name Rem, had been hearing the latest scandal by a gambling group nearby. They were all laughing about how stupid it was to be obsessed over a certain human for so long, over a hundred years apparently. But how is that possible? Humans have been known to live longer than the previous generation, but were they already at the point they could live over a century? Ridiculous. Rem stared with a golden eye at the group as they teased and took their winnings. One of them finally notice of her after she had been staring for what she considered a long time. He quickly dismissed her, but she wasn't in the mood to be dismissed at that particular time. Rem walked over to them, one long white skeletal leg after the other, and loomed over them as they continued playing, not even being asked to join them. Or maybe they knew she would reject them as she had been doing for the past few decades.
"What do you know of the one who watches the human?" she questioned. The others had finally glanced in her direction, a couple of them shrugging while they did so, most of them going back to their game. Her friend, well, a well-known acquaintance would be better descripted, Daril had been the only one interested in replying to her fellow female Shinigami.
"You mean Gelus?" he asked with a playful tune.
Rem squinted in confusion, what? "I am not jealous…"
The other female Shinigami shook her head with a giggle, "That is not what I had meant." She spoke with a long drawl and a scratchy voice, "The Shinigami's name is Gelus. Most of us had never even heard of him until very recently."
"I can understand, we live in a large world." Rem countered with nonchalance, most of them had met thousands of years ago, back when everything was interesting and a bit livelier. Nowadays everyone just knew each other and the new ones would simply exist and be given a Note by the King. The newer ones would always be a little less known than the elder ones, it was only natural.
"Agreed," Daril nodded, throwing a few skull chips into the middle of the circle she sat in, "But I heard that Gelus has been around as long as the king." She peered up mysteriously through long dead, greasy hair as Rem's eyes widened. The King was the eldest and debatably the creator of the shinigami race itself. How was there another within the same age range?! Unless…
"Perhaps the King created him first." Rem suggested with a flat tone. It would make sense if the King would want to test out how creating a shinigami would work. If he made a dozen shinigami and they all turned out to be empty shells or humans, then there would definitely be a problem. Gelus was probably a shinigami patched together experimentally to test the King's abilities to create some form of life.
"Possibly, never officially met the fellow myself." She muttered as she pushed her entire pile of goods into the middle, gambling the whole lot. The small group sniggered, some calling her bluff, a couple folded with hesitance.
"Where can I find him?"
Daril then broke out into laughter, and Rem couldn't tell if it was because of her question or because she had won every item on the table and relished in scooping all the items in her arms.
Gelus sat comfortable in a crouch as he watched his human walk merrily down the streets with a grin plastered on her face. She seemed so happy with everything around her, so kind to everyone she ran into. He knew she was sad though, and he was sad that she all her smiles and polite greetings were all fake. He knew that every time she went home after a long day, she would cry about her family loss. Angrily throw random items around the room to vent her anger on something. He would want nothing more than to make her feel better, to help her smile for real.
These feelings weren't natural for a Shinigami, he knew this. He had felt empathy for the humans along with sympathy. He was…well, jealous of the humans in general. He always wished he could be a human like them, able to interact with others and learn more about all their history and knowledge. To be with her…
He sensed someone land behind him, causing him to stiffen. Oh no. What was this shinigami's intentions? Would they write her name down just for a laugh? No, she was still too young. He risked looking away from the smiling girl through the portal to shyly and hesitantly glance up to the much larger being behind him. A female, and she didn't seem to hold any hostility or trickery up her sleeves. The female looked down at him and caught eye contact with him, gentle and sharp eyes stared back at sad wide ones. They stayed like that for a short amount of time until Gelus slowly went back to watching the portal when he came to the conclusion that this one wouldn't do anything harmful here.
He recognized this shinigami, but not as quickly as he would with most. He knew every shinigami, even though most did not know him. Mainly because he would wander around once a century to stretch his legs and wings, and most wouldn't even spare him a second glance due to his small and patchy appearance. The shinigami behind him at the moment was known as Rem, born around the same time as a few others, Ryuk, Daril, and Kinddara to name a few.
"A human." Rem stated, breaking the silence. She curiously peered over Gelus' form to watch the portal with the smaller one of the two, attempting to quench her curiosity. The human didn't seem like much, looked the average flesh-ridden skeleton with a long patch of hair on top with clothing over most of the body. What was so special about her? And how was she over a hundred while still looking so young?
Gelus nodded at Rem's statement and continued with watching as the girl shopped in a store with many people surrounding her. It was like watching a television with mute on, they couldn't hear a thing so neither of them had much of a clue as to what was going on.
Rem squinted at the red lettering above the girl's head and looked at the patchy shinigami with a troubled look, "She doesn't have much time left."
There was some sort of an inhaling sound that didn't sound so clear, what some might call a sniffle. "She never has much time." He said quietly as he clung to his legs even tighter and head went lower.
Suddenly, the young girl was shot in the head out of seemingly nowhere. The crowd around her went ballistic and scrambled about everywhere, and Rem had no doubt that they would be hearing shrieking of they could hear them. A few more human's dropped dead in their tracks along with the girl had previously done.
Gelus sobbed empty tears, "Why so young?"
Rem had left nearly immediately after the young girl had died, even extending an invitation to the smaller to join her if nothing more than for company. Gelus didn't respond as he continued making strange sobbing noises, which Rem had only heard from humans when she tunes in every once in a while. Gelus was in her thoughts from time, but never for very long. Decades later, as humans put it, Rem had decided to visit the patched shinigami again to see what had happened to him. Did he find another human to obsess over? Did he go to the human realm for any reason? Did he stoop to gambling with the others?
Rem went to Daril, where she had been known to be for the past few centuries, and asked for directions again to Gelus. Daril scoffed and said "The same place as last time. Really, did you get lost on your way there?" Rem didn't respond and simply lifted off into the air towards her destination. When Rem had finally reached Gelus' location, she couldn't help but notice that he was in the exact same position as she had left him in.
She landed behind him and Gelus didn't even bother to look around to confirm it was her before he spoke. "She's still alive." The smaller said almost proudly.
Rem nodded, not that he could see, and she watched the portal in front of them, making it seem as though one could simply walk through the portal to that destination. Rem had never tested this theory out, so she couldn't tell for certain.
Gelus replied almost happily, "She's lived longer this time. She's almost 17."
Rem crouched beside Gelus and hummed. "She looks happy."
"She's always happy. It's what I love about her." He nearly sighed dreamily, "She's amazing." Gelus extended a hand and hovered it over the girl's face, "What I wouldn't give…"
Rem looked at him questioningly, "Why don't you drop your notebook so you can meet her?" she suggested. "You could write in a few names beforehand-"
"NO!" he interrupted her quickly, actually turning his head to face her to see her flinch from his sudden outburst, "I-I couldn't do that. Not to her. Don't you know?"
Rem tilted her head in confusion "Know what?"
He angrily gave her the cold shoulder for the rest of her visit. Rem left shortly afterward.
The next time Rem had visited, Gelus was watching a toddler. What was with the change of pace? The female had asked and Gelus smiled softly and faced her as he explained calmly.
"Human's reincarnate, each time one of them dies, they are born into a new body in a new time. Sometimes reborn in the future, sometimes in the past." He did something similar to a laugh, but not as loudly or maniacally as others do, "Their personalities remain relatively the same through each life. Her… she's always bright, smiling, strong, and passionate."
Rem nodded with quick understanding as he explained further in depth, about how each human goes through similar tragedies in each life, and almost always dying in the same manner. He told her that this particular human would always end up without parents by the age 17, but she would always power through and keep up a strong façade in front of others.
Rem had watched this human's life for the next twenty years with Gelus in silence, watching as she would go through several tragedies and being bullied by other humans. Rem felt something whenever the girl cried, but couldn't place her finger on it, she assumed Gelus felt the same thing because he would always make weird noises when she cried. The girl went through school, went to her parents funeral, was comforted by several people, finished school, started a career as an actress, but one day…
"Today's her last day." Gelus said with sadness. She didn't know why he mentioned it as it probably brought his sadness, not to mention she could see her remaining lifespan just as well as he could. She decided to point out something obvious as well, but not sure why.
"She's still young." Rem pointed out, seeing as the girl was only twenty-six.
"Yes, she never dies from a natural cause. It's always an accident, murder…"
"Suicide." Rem finished, predicting that this would most likely be the saddest of the three causes of death.
Rem watched as Gelus nodded slowly and sadly. The medusa-resembled god of death was simply fascinated by this one, he showed an amazing amount of emotion and empathy than any other shinigami combined.
"Why don't you kill whoever's about to kill her?" she asked curiously, asking a different question from the last 'Why don't you give her your Note?' one that had terribly upset him.
"I-I can't." he stuttered as he closed in on himself once more.
"Why not?"
"I just can't."
"…"
The two watched as the girl suddenly launched herself off a bridge and dived in to a river in the dead of night. Gelus resumed his dry tears once more, and this time Rem stayed to awkwardly comfort him.
Rem has decided to visit her friend Gelus every few years, to check on the human he was always watching. A few times, she had tried to ask why he doesn't just drop his note so she could defend herself, but he never really replied. The male shinigami never seemed that keen on sharing that particular fact, but he would always gush about how the girl had graduated high school, or how strong she was during the times she was bullied. Rem never did much to stop him from his obsession, which couldn't be healthy, but she always listened when he showed happiness and pride whenever the girl achieved something.
"So why don't you give her a death note? Surely you could fill the pages up and give yourself a healthy amount to survive on before dropping it in front of her." Rem suggested for the millionth time.
"I wish I could… I really wish I could…" he trailed off, while he watched.
"Why don't you?"
"I… just couldn't."
This time around, they were watching Gelus' human walking home from a late-night photo shooting, and they both could see her lifespan getting closer to death. She didn't seem to be on her way to any tall building this time, so that only meant murder or an accident. No one else was probably even awake at this time of the night, so probably an accident.
"It's today, isn't it? Her last day of life?" Rem asked sadly.
"But she looks so healthy…why today?" Gelus asked rhetorically. His reasoning and emotional stability always seemed to flounder on the day of the girl's death, and for this Rem felt sad for him.
"Probably an accident," Rem then hesitated, "or something." The two of them both hating murders and suicide the most of the three. "The lifespan of a human isn't something we decide." She reminded Gelus for the umpteenth time. Gelus was getting sadder and sadder with each death, making him more reckless with his actions. Rem had to prevent him from rampaging to the Shinigami King the last time and stopping his plans to kill every human when she was reborn.
They watched as she was stopped in her tracks, the sidewalk being blocked by a deranged looking man with one knife in the grasp of both his hands. Rem was surprised when he started declaring his undying love for her and how he would take them out together. The girl had never been killed quiet like this before, murders usually involving a mass genocide, or poisoning through jealousy.
"What a way to go…" Rem said almost with relief. At least the person killing her way in love with her, which meant he would probably make it painless for the girl. Who'd have imagined she'd be stabbed to death?" Rem paused when she saw Gelus finally flipping out his Death Note along with a pen. She watched as Gelus quickly wrote the name of the attacker before he could make it within a five feet radius of the girl.
"Hey." She was about to ask why he had a sudden change of heart on killing the murderer, but quickly stopped when his patched up body began to turn into sand, slowly pouring his body mass into sand, rust, and who knows what else? Was this why he was so hesitant to do it before?
"Live…" was his last words before he was no more, leaving behind nothing more than the Death Note that had taken his life and saved the girl from death. Rem picked up the Note and finally put the pieces together. Gelus must've known that writing a name down to save the girl would result in his own existence coming to a halt. But why didn't he just give the note to her instead? He would be able to meet her and save her at the same time…
Rem clutched the Note tighter in her grasp. She was never told why he didn't give the Note to the girl, but she couldn't see any reason not to. The girl was still only 20. 'You can still protect her' she mused as she looked back to the portal where the man died alone on the street from a heart attack and the girl, her name being Amane Misa in this life, running down the streets in confusion and fear. Rem concentrated and focused the portals door on her and flew threw. Gelus had taught her many things regarding the shinigami world, mainly in the span of time when the girl was in her toddler years, before she could even speak. Rem had learned many things from him, and he answered every question of hers. She was feeling something due to his absences, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. The feeling wasn't pleasant in the least.
Rem hovered over the girl as she caught her breath as she leaned on a nearby fence, sounds of sobbing could be heard from the girl, and she could identify this as fear. She tentatively tossed Gelus' Note directly in front of the girl.
End