A/N: This is a small tribute to Wedy, who, like Aiber, doesn't seem to get much attention around here. While it's not exactly a sequel, consider it as a response to Aiber's one-shot. Please enjoy (:
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Note: The title is French for The Black Cat.
Le Chat Noir
i.
Merrie Kenwood is the second daughter of the Kenwood family – the middle child, an unremarkable and demure socialite. She is a respectable name, a familiar face, and a decent status.
Merrie Kenwood is a polished doll, but she is no simpleton.
She is the reason Watari is replenishing the freezers three times more quickly.
ii.
Her nimble fingers grace the keys, and the guests nod their heads in time with the flowing notes.
But the young Miss Kenwood prefers the success marked by peace when she does not amateurishly trip an alarm or trigger a lockdown.
Silence is golden; it is the music of thieves.
iii.
Merrie Kenwood retires to bed, and Wedy is reborn into the blackening night.
The cheap lycra catsuit clings to her generous curves in ways that satins and silks cannot. It fits like a second skin – it is her best and only friend – and Wedy is honored to wear it.
Wedy is proud of who she is, what she is, and how good she is at being what she is.
Cat got your tongue?
iv.
The second Kenwood daughter decides to splurge on a motorcycle instead of a car, and it shocks her parents. Merrie's sisters turn their noses up at this. Her family, bemused and irritated, warns her that only proper ladies can marry well.
Interestingly, men of all kinds are swarming to her more than ever, like moths to flame.
Not a single one of them is worth Wedy's time.
Courtship is trivial compared to stringing along the world's three greatest detectives.
v.
Game over.
"God, damn it."
The chase has been long and exhilarating, but he has finally caught up with the globe-trotting mouse.
Wedy is trapped.
Capital punishment is legal in Colorado, but Wedy is underqualified for it. Her arms are splayed against the wall; the professional burglar almost longs for the lethal injection. The humiliation of being captured is too painful to bear. There is nothing worse than losing, and the mere thought of prowling in a cage for the next several decades is enough to make her limbs quiver.
Wedy's life is over, she is sure of it –
"I am L, and I have a proposition for you."
– but then again, cats have nine lives.
vi.
When she lays eyes on L for the first time in the years they have known each other, she is like a little girl at Christmastime. She hears the detective's double-edged praises–
(Wedy is a burglar with a talent to unlock any kind of lock, safe and security system. To prove it, she managed to enter this room without anyone taking notice of her)
– and inwardly purrs.
She will not disappoint him.
vii.
Wedy is the elusive thief that L unhesitatingly employs – his ace in the hole, a dazzling and enigmatic figure. She is notorious, an unrecognizable shadow, and beyond the suffocating grasp of society.
Wedy is Queen of the Underground, but she is no villain.
She is the reason Kyosuke Higuchi is spiraling toward the blockade of Japanese police and his inevitable doom.
viii.
"Mother, I helped save the world tonight."
Merrie whispers words that no one else can hear. Her head is filled with singing sirens as she watches the armored cars screech past bearing the third Kira's corpse. The Queen drenches her lips in crimson, discards her gloves and happily shrouds her face in smoke. Wedy has served her people well.
"Are you proud of me now, Father?"
L touches her shoulder. His voice is hauntingly grim. "Pack your things, Wedy. You're going home."
ix.
L and Watari are killed three days after her thirtieth birthday. It doesn't take a genius to realize that she will never reach her thirty-first.
The doctors have given Aiber five months to live. Wedy calls every day to check up on him; Aiber is in constant pain, but he is not alone.
Merrie Kenwood is slowly dying on the inside.
Light Yagami, make it fast, Wedy begs. She hates hospitals, but not as much as she hates the man who has robbed them all.
Light – Kira – is the ultimate thief. Wedy is almost jealous.
It is too dangerous to be out riding. The roads are slicked with ice and the moon has just entered its new phase. Wedy should know better, but for some unfathomable reason, her bike is looking particularly inviting today.
The night swallows her whole and she instantly loses control.
When she swerves, she successfully avoids the furry streak of black. A plaintive, feline yowl is the last thing she hears before she is thrown off her motorcycle and over the metal railings. Below, behind and above her roars a victimless inferno.
On the tenth of January, Merrie Kenwood, along with her alter ego, Wedy, is vanquished into the darkness.
A/N: L's quote and the final line are taken from volumes 5 and 7, respectively. I have also opted to use the Japanese spelling of Wedy's real name rather than the English. Merrie Kenwood is the name Light visibly writes down in the notebook.
I hope you liked that; reviews are much appreciated.