AN: Mm. These would be the drabbles I thought up after seeing the end of Death Note.
Warnings: Spoilers, Raito x L, and probably OOC-ness.
Sight Through Shattered Eyes
The pain was excruciating. He couldn't breathe without feeling daggers slice through his body. Yagami Raito knew he was going to die. He wished he wasn't, but he was a genius, after all. If Ryuk didn't write his name down, then he would die from the wounds Matsuda had inflicted upon him.
To think… that this is how it will end.
The pain from the gun shots seemed to dull, right before a sudden ache in his chest appeared. A heart attack.
He had reigned as Kira for six years. Six years as God. It all accounted for nothing. He was going to die, broken and bleeding, in an abandoned warehouse.
It's not quite fitting, he thought briefly. Or maybe it is. I just don't know anymore.
Raito had heard of the phenomena where, as a person lay dying, they could see their life "flash before their eyes." He had, for years, scoffed at such an idea. Death would numb the mind; it would be impossible for a person to have the cognitive skills to remember their life. Yet, as he lay there dying, he knew he had been a fool about that.
For Raito saw his life flash before his eyes.
His childhood, school, people he knew, his time as a detective… All of it rushed through his mind like a photo album being flipped through. And then the pictures stopped moving. The image stuck in his mind, clear as day, was of Ryuuzaki.
Why? Why him?
Forty seconds was not a long amount of time, but it was enough for Raito to realize something vastly important. Something that could have saved not only his life, but that of Ryuuzaki, if only he had realized it years earlier.
He had loved the quirky detective known to the world as L.
He thought back to the day Ryuuzaki had died. It burned in his mind, and he finally understood. When Rem had killed Ryuuzaki he had been angry. He had held the dying man, and was so angry he could have killed everyone that was in the room. At the time, he had believed that he was angry because Rem had been the one to end the great L's life. Ryuuzaki had been his enemy, and he should have had the right to kill him, he'd thought.
Now, he knew the truth.
He hadn't been angry because Rem had killed Ryuuzaki. He had been angry because Ryuuzaki had died. Period.
A small smile tilted up Raito's lips. That revelation would have inspired shock and disbelief if he had found out at any other time, but death seemed to have calmed the prideful and arrogant Raito. Instead, he greeted it with acceptance, and a touch of sadness. He could see Ryuuzaki's face in his mind, and for the first time, he wished he had never picked up the Death Note all of those years ago.
Things could have been so different. That one moment in my life altered everything, even the world, but now… All I want now is to see Ryuuzaki. To see L.
He recalled Ryuk's words about the death of a person who had used the Death Note. He would not go to Heaven or Hell. He would not see Ryuuzaki there.
Raito felt his heart beats slow. His eyes slowly drifted closed. One last thought drifted through his mind.
I love you.