Chapter 1: August Serenade
"Well, isn't this perfect?" Raito sighed sarcastically.
Raito stood in the entrance of Kyoto University looking up towards the cloudy, August sky. The clouds were enormous and grey, threatening to release rain at a moments notice. Raito sighed and put the stack of books that he was carrying into his backpack.
"Good thing I drove today." He mumbled.
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Raito drove on through the now heavy rain. The sounds of puddles splashing around him filled the silence of the car as he sped on.
'What a horrible day to be outside.' Raito thought to himself. 'If only I didn't have an appointment today.' But, alas, he did. And he wouldn't have the luxury of having the family car for it either. His father needed the car for work and Raito only promised he'd use it for school. Looking down at his watch, he noticed he had approximately one hour before his next appointment.
"Hey! What are you doing?! Watch out!"
Raito looked up and immediately slammed on his breaks. Standing in the street was a man who was using the crosswalk. The heavy rain made it impossible to see finer details, but the man stopped in his tracks as Raito's car screeched to a halt, barely missing him. Raito's hands were frozen to the wheel it seemed as time continued slowly. The man standing in the pouring rain was staring intensely back at him. Raito stared back at the figure as he allowed his breathing to be slowed. He finally looked away from the man long enough to inspect himself. Nothing seemed broken. It appeared Raito was about to run a red light adding up to how he almost hit this person. Raito looked up again to see the stranger gone.
Raito panicked. He needed to find him and see if he was all right. It was his fault after all that the man was almost run down by his father's car. Raito, not caring that his car was almost on the sidewalk, parked it and ran outside into the freezing cold. The stranger didn't go far. He was in front of a local grocer when Raito caught up with him.
"Excuse me, sir. Sir. Please, are you all right? I'm very…sorry," Raito was almost at a lost for words.
The man in front of him was standing hunched over, as if he was ninety-five years old with scoliosis. He had dark rings under his eyes like he hasn't slept in a few years and his black hair was very unkempt looking that hung down over his eyes and clung to his pale skin due to the rain. What Raito found strange was that he wore a very baggy shirt with equally baggy jeans and converse with no socks.
The man looked at him, annoyance clearly shown on his pale features as Raito rudely continued to stare at the man standing before him. What broke the awkward silence was a clap of thunder. Both men jumped at the sound, clearly unexpected, but Raito was glad for the distraction. The man looked back at Raito and said, "Thank you for the concern, but I'm alright."
As the man started walking away again, Raito called out to him, "Wait. Why are you walking in the rain anyway? You're completely soaked to the bone. Um…can I offer you a ride?"
The man stopped walking and turned to Raito. Raito could see that he was seriously thinking about the offer. Showing honest concern for the other man, Raito added, "I'll even make you lunch. What do you say…?" Raito stressed on the word 'say', insinuating he wanted a name.
"Lawliet," was the only thing that came from the man's mouth.
"Lawliet," Raito repeated, waiting for a reply from the man now known as Lawliet.
Slowly but surely, Lawliet nodded and followed Raito back to his car. Once inside, Raito turned the heat up to full blast and started to drive off. There was another awkward silence in the car before Raito broke it, "You never answered my question."
"I seem to recall that you asked me multiple questions. Such as 'Are you okay?' 'Can I offer you a ride?' But I think the question you were referring to is 'Why was I walking in the rain to begin with?'"
Raito shot the older man a look but answered, "Yeah, that's the one."
Lawliet brought his knees to his chest and rested his hands on his knees, letting the rainwater off his clothes get on his father's leather car seat . Looking straight out of the front window, he said in almost a mumble, "I personally believe that unless someone tells you first, it is very rude to ask questions like that. What I do is only of my concern unless I tell you first. Having that kind of curiosity is a bad trait to have, or so I was told when I was a child. But that never stopped me," Lawliet looked over at Raito with a small smile on his face, enjoying the confused look on the other man's face. "But I suppose since you are providing me lunch, I guess I could offer an explanation as to why I was outside in such weather," with a sigh, Lawliet continued. "Basically I had to go back to my building where I usually stand to get business. I was returning from a customer's hotel room when I was almost run down by your car. Now, does that earn me the honor of knowing your name?"
Raito stopped at a red light. It grew deathly silent. "So that means you're a…um…"
"A prostitute. Just say it. It's the name of my profession after all."
The light turned green as Raito turned on the street heading toward his home.
"So does that mean you have a pimp also? Or are you your own boss?"
"I don't have to answer that question because you never answered mine."
After a few seconds of wondering what question Lawliet asked, Raito answered him emotionlessly, "My name is Yagami Raito."
"Hmmm…..So it's Light Yagami. Interesting," Lawliet moved in his seat making the seat squeak from the loose rainwater. Raito pulled in front of his home and shut off the engine.
"You know English? I do, too," Raito asked leaning behind him to grab his book bag.
"I am quite fluent in the language. It seems we have something in common," Lawliet replied opening the car door. Before Lawliet could walk any farther, Raito stopped him, "If my father asks, you're a friend of mine from Kyoto University that I invited home for lunch."
Lawliet just stared at Raito, making him very uncomfortable. Lawliet's eyes were a dark grey in this rain that seemed like two endless pits of darkness. Lawliet turned away from him, walking towards Raito's house in a nonchalant fashion like he himself lived there. Raito sighed and followed him through the front door.
Once inside the warm house, the two men heard Raito's father from the family room. "Raito? Is that you?"
"Yeah, I'm home dad," Raito replied. "I brought a friend home for a late lunch."
Lawliet gawked at the very tidy home. It was a modern day, normal sized house with a second floor to it but it amazed him. It was so clean. The wooden floors were so clean, you could see yourself in them. And everything seemed to shine. Even the smell was an apple scent with a hint of a lemon cleaning solution, which gave Lawliet two theories. Either this family was very OCD and germ phobic. Or there was a recent murder in this house and they wanted to make sure there was no evidence. Chances of it being the second one, 1.2%.
Raito's father walked into the room they were standing in. Raito stepped out of in front of Lawliet to properly introduce him, "This is my friend Lawliet. He goes to school with me. Lawliet, this is my father, Soichiro Yagami."
Soichiro held a hand out for Lawliet to shake, but Lawliet never returned the gesture.
"Good afternoon. I'm Lawliet."
Soichiro looked at Lawliet with a disapproving face, then looked at his son.
"So tell me Lawliet, what's your major?" Soichiro asked.
"Music performance, " Lawliet said almost immediately not changing the serious mask on his face.
"What instrument…?"
"I can play a various number of instruments, Soichiro-san, If you want, I could perform for you sometime," Lawliet grinned a very sheepish grin.
Soichiro suddenly looked like he remembered something as he darted out of the room and came back moments later with a briefcase in hand.
"Raito, I'm late for work. Make sure you're not late for your appointment and clean up the rainwater from the floor before your mother gets home. I don't feel like hearing the complaining tonight," And with that, Soichiro left through the front door.
Raito looked at Lawliet and motioned for him to follow him, "Come on. I'll let you borrow some of my clothes while I wash yours."
Raito led him up the stairs into his bedroom. As Raito rummaged through his drawers to find something for Lawliet to wear, Lawliet stood by the entranceway. Raito handed him a pair of boot cut blue jeans and a black shirt. Immediately after Raito turned around, Lawliet started taking off his wet clothes and replacing them with the dry ones.
"Hey, don't you want to take a shower first?" Raito asked.
Lawliet poked his head through the hole of the shirt, his rain tattered hair sprayed rainwater all over Raito's face, "No thank you. You've done enough for a low life prostitute as myself. I don't want to take advantage of your kindness."
Anger slowly eased up to Raito's face as he exclaimed, "Don't say that! What's wrong with you?!" Turning his face away from Lawliet, Raito sighed to calm himself down. "By the way, that was quick thinking back there. You know, about playing different instruments, but what happens if my father takes you up on that offer and wants to hear you play? What will you do then?"
Lawliet, now changing his own jeans to replace them with Raito's, replied, "I was being truthful about that part. Although I have never stepped foot onto a campus before, I do know how to play various instruments."
"Really? I'm also interested in music. What instruments do you play?" Raito asked taking a sudden interest in the conversation.
"The kazoo, Raito-san," Lawliet smiled
Raito's eye twitched involuntarily as he stared at Lawliet. 'And here I thought I could take him seriously,' Raito thought. "Whatever. Just meet me downstairs in the family room. I'm taking a shower."
Without giving Lawliet time to reply, Raito stormed past Lawliet into a room Lawliet could only guess was the bathroom. Shrugging his shoulders, Lawliet shuffled down the stairs into the family room and then he froze in place. The lights were all off, and the only light that was in the room was from the window, letting in a calming blue-ish hue due to the rain. But sitting in the middle of the room, was a beautiful, shinny Yamaha grand piano.
Lawliet cautiously walked toward the glorious instrument. Its keys were all polished and the brand name was all in gold letters. It truly was a marvelous sight to behold. Lawliet cautiously sat in front of the piano. Letting his curiosity get the better of him, he touched a black key. B flat. It was perfectly in tune. Lawliet's heart swelled. The sound was too beautiful to ignore. He plucked it again. And again. And again.
Lawliet didn't hear or see Raito coming, so he figured what's one song going to hurt. Lawliet turned to completely face the piano. To test it, he played a G major chord. Making sure no one was around, Lawliet's slender fingers began to ghost along the keys playing notes, then chords, then eighth notes, until what was born was a beautiful melody. It reminded Lawliet of a song he often sang in his mind. One that he remembered but didn't know where it was from. A song from inside of his heart.
Once Lawliet finished the song, he was out of breath and sweating. Quickly, he grabbed the bottom of his shirt and tried to polish the keys clean of his fingerprints until he heard from behind his back.
"…Lawliet?"
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That was the first chapter. It gets interesting from here on out. Please R&R. ^__^ Each chapter name will be named after a song. This chapter is named from Suga Shikao's song August Serenade.