Chapter 2: Premier Jour
"I'm going to miss you very much, L." Kyoki said as she hugged tightly onto him. They were currently standing in front of the hotel where they were currently living, the taxi parked at the curb waiting for her. Her bags were already packed into the vehicle.
"The taxi driver is starting to get annoyed. He's been waiting for the last fifteen minutes."
"Oh, has it really been that long? I thought I had only been hugging you for a minute." She giggled nervously and took a step back. "Well, then, I guess I better be off." Kyoki leaned forward to give him a kiss on the cheek.
When her lips were centimeters away, he turned his head her lips pressed against his own.
She immediately took a step back and blushed, totally unsure if he meant to do that or if it was a mistake. "I-I should be going. See you later." She smiled at him as she turned around and looked at him over her shoulder. She began to feel sad like she normally did when leaving someone she cared about for a short time. Kyoki had to fight back the urge to run back to him and glomp him and then forget about this whole going to someone else's house for a week. But she held back the urge and got into the back seat of the car. She started to wave to him as the car pulled away from the building.
L waved until she was out of sight. Afterward, he sighed and went back inside and waited for the 'surprise' person to come.
"I promise I will call the moment I get there. Well, not the moment, I will get settled in for a few moments before calling you. And that is if I can, you never know, they might turn out to be Amish. There may be some rules, and one of them may be that I cannot contact others from there, or something." Yume told Mello. "But if I can call, will that make you feel better?"
Mello looked away, but nodded.
"Good. We have enough chocolate to last a normal person two months, so you should be good with that. Don't forget to do the laundry and be nice to whoever is coming here." Yume said all of this in a stern tone.
"Yea, yea. You should go, the drivers waiting."
"Right." She gave him a hug and a kiss and then ran and jumped into the car. She waved happily to him as the car pulled away.
Mello waved once and then marched back into the apartment. "Who ever is doing this better not send someone stupid. Or annoying."
Yume sat in the back seat as the driver, who was apparently one of the people in on the whole event, told her of the rules for the next week.
"You must live in the designated household and the inhabitants for the entire time. If you give up during this week, then you lose and will not receive the prize. If you make any contact with anyone from your own household, you will be disqualified. You are to try to live like those in the house. Try to eat what foods they have. If you are allergic to something, then you are allowed not to eat the item. That is pretty much it for the rules. Do you have any questions?"
"Um, I told Mello I would call him when I got to wherever I was going. Could I call a next door neighbor to tell him I got where I was going safely, or would that not be allowed."
"That would be breaking the rules. We already have it prepared so he will be informed when you get there."
"I see." Yume sighed.
"Anything else you would like to know?"
"No, that is all."
"Very well. We are nearing the location." The driver slowed the car down. "Please put open the bag next to you and put on the blindfold."
That threw Yume off. "Wh-"
"-at? Why do I need to put on a blindfold for? You're going to take me somewhere and then... and then do inappropriate stuff, aren't you? Well, I say no to that."
"No offense lady, but I'm not into you that way. I'm just doing my job. My boss wants you to be surprise when you first pull up to the house. Besides, he doesn't want to be seen as he leads you to the door of the one you will be staying with. You'll need to keep it on until you get in the home." The taxi told her.
"I understand... I guess. You better not be lying or I will cause great pain upon you and your children." Kyoki told him as she placed the blindfold over her eyes. 'I really hope I'm not walking into some kind of trap...'
Moments after putting the cloth over her eyes the car began to slow down and stop.
"Stay right there until he helps you out, ok?"
"Ok..." Kyoki nodded.
She heard the trunk of the car opening and her belongings being removed. Seconds later the door opened and a stranger took he hand and helped her out of the car. Kyoki couldn't help but think about how that hand felt familiar... yet so different at the same time.
As the person was leading her, neither of them spoke. They walked for a few moments, rode an elevator and then walked a few more moments before stopping. Kyoki heard her bags being put on the floor, the stranger removed his hand from her own hand and then heard a knock on a door.
Kyoki only had to wait a few moments before the door opened. She bit her lip out of curiosity and a little fear.
"Hi...?" She managed to say.
"Kyoki, what are you doing here?"
The voice was familiar. She was so happy she was going to be staying with someone she knew. Kyoki smiled happily at...-
L looked down at Yume, wondering why she was there with a blindfold on.
"Are you the one who is suppose to stay here for the week?"
"Yep, that would be me, L-kun. I'm surprised that you're the one I'm gonna be staying with. A little happy too since you are someone I know."
L helped her in his home and took her bags and brought them in. After she heard the door closed she removed the blindfold.
"I'm guessing that Kyoki was the one to go then, right?"
L nodded. "Yes, that is correct."
"I wonder if since I am here, she is there with Mello now." Yume thought.
"It would probably appear that way. I think there is a ten percent chance that is the case." L shrugged. "But this may be a little bit more complicated than what it seems."
"Where are we?"
"Chicago. Kyoki and I arrived here a few days ago since we think that a Death Note may be in the area."
"I see. If you were here, then why didn't you two come to visit Mello or me or call us to let us know you were in the area?"
"We were trying to keep a low profile."
"I see. I think."
L went into the living room and sat down on the couch. Yume followed and sat down on a separate couch.
"So... what do we do now?"
"Make yourself at home. You've been here before so I take it you still know where everything is, right? In case you forget where something is, or whatever, just let me know. If there is anything else you need, just tell me."
"I shall do that, fellow friend Mello-kun."
"If you're here, then is Yume with L?"
"Maybe. That is most likely the case, at least I think so." Kyoki told him. "Oh, she probably would have called you when she got there, but there is a rule in this little game we are apart of that says we can't call our homes. So sadly, I won't be able to call and talk to L-sama."
Mello sighed. Even though he wished that he could talk to Yume to make sure she was ok, but he was relieved that the chances that she was with L were pretty high.
Mello picked up her bags that were resting on the floor and took them toward the second bedroom that would be hers to use for the time she was there. He led her down a hallway to the first room on the left. Inside the room looked like a normal room, somewhat, it had a desk and a bed and a drawer. But all along one side of the room there were boxes packed with chocolate.
"This is where we also store the extra chocolate, but I can move them out of here if you want."
"No, it's fine. It's interesting being so near to so many wonderful bars of chocolate. Have you had any breakthroughs in the Kira case? That is why L and I are in America. I appears that Kira has been focusing his attention here."
"If L is here, then who is watching that Light guy and that one chick?"
"Soichiro-san and Mogi-san and Matsuda-kun are handling all of that at the moment. I think Aizawa-san is also helping them while L is here. But I could be wrong."
"Yume and I have traced him here as well. But other than that we don't have any other leads. I gotta go make a few calls but after that I will be free. Do you, uh, wanna go see a movie or something?" Mello wasn't sure how he was supposed to go about this 'babysitting' bit. He wasn't exactly babysitting her, but he knew that she could be rather... immature and childish at times. But he didn't think it would be too hard to do since it was Kyoki he had to deal with.
"Oh! Can we go see that zombie movie that is out right now? Or is there a movie you wanted to go see? If so, we can go see the one you want."
"No, I don't. The zombie one is fine. If you need anything let me know." Mello told her and then left the room.
"Hmm. What should I do? Guess I should unpack my things." She went to one of her bags and opened it to reveal a few game systems, several manga, many games, and a few DVDs. After she was finished with that, she unpacked her tiny bag of clothing and tossed it in the dresser. After that she sat in front of the television and started to play a video game.
Near sat on the floor playing around with some of his toys as Gevanni, Lidner and Rester stood nearby, waiting for orders. Aizawa was on a screen. He had to 'attend' the meeting through technology since he was half a world away from them.
Near told them all what had happened and asked for their help. They all said they would do their best.
"Gevanni, I would like you to try to trace where the envelope was sent from and where the paper and envelope were bought from. It does not feel like normal paper, so that should hopefully make it easier to track. When you are finished with that, I may have another task for you."
Gevanni nodded in understanding.
"Lidner, I would like you to try to get a hold of L and Mello to see if they were also sent the same letter. There is not need to contact Kyoki and Yume seeing as they are most likely with Mello and L."
"Yes, sir." She told him.
"Getting in touch with them is not going to be easy. They most likely have their phones equipped with call blockers."
"I will find a way to get in touch with them." Halle assured him.
"Good. And Aizawa. At the current moment I would like you to monitor Light until Gevanni is completed with his mission and then I'll give you your main task, is that all right?"
"Sure, I guess." Aizawa told him. "I'll be here waiting."
"Thank you. That is all for now. Please tell me when you find out any new information."
They all nodded. Gevanni and Lidner left to get started. Aizawa terminated the call; the screen he had been on went blank.
"I wonder if perhaps this is nothing but a big misunderstanding..." Near shook his head. "No, there is definitely something strange going on here..." He picked up one of his action figures and started to play with it.
Kyoki took a break from her game to check out the room more carefully. She had stayed in this room before, but that was before it was a bedroom and chocolate storage room. And all she mainly did was sleep due to jet lag. She decided to look out the window to see what her surroundings looked like. She sat on the bed and rested her elbows on the window edge as she peered outside. She froze in terror as she looked down at the sidewalk that appeared to be hundreds of miles away, though in all reality she was only on the seventeenth floor of an apartment building.
Kyoki snapped out of her frozen state and jumped off the bed and ran out of the room. She went to the to the living room where Mello was sitting in a chair in front of the computer desk.
Kyoki dive-bombed into the space under his chair and where the footrest was.
Mello jumped in surprised annoyance.
"What the hell are you doing?" He asked.
"Are you crazy? Do you realize how high up we are from the ground? Do you realize that any moment this building could crumble and we would fall down hundreds of horrible feet? What if we die? How will I help L if I am dead? I don't wanna die!"
Mello sighed and realized that perhaps this week wasn't going to be as easy as he had thought earlier... He scooted the chair back and leaned over so he could see her.
"Kyoki, trust me, this building is safe. I even made sure before I bought this apartment."
"Are you sure?"
He nodded. "Yes."
"Ok... if you say so... I will believe you... But if I end up dying in this place then I am going to haunt you and your children for the rest of your life... did I already say that today? Oh well."
"I don't have any kids."
"Then... I'll haunt you... in the afterlife and bug you about the fact that you did not have any children." She slowly came out. "I'm sorry... I'm sure Yume-chan told you, but I have a great fear of heights."
"Yea, she mentioned that. What do you do when you have to stay in hotels in the upper levels?"
"Well, L is very nice and he tries to get them toward the mid-section. He also gets them there in case there is an emergency and we need to get out fast. Something like that has never happened, but you never know when it could happen. We generally keep the curtains closed if we do have to stay in places way up there. It helps with my fear and my hated for light. Lights tend to hurt my eyes over time."
"Would closing the curtains make you more comfortable here?"
"Eh? Oh, no, I mean yes. But you don't have to do that for me. I don't want to be a bother to you. I'm the guest after all so I should be good. I'm sorry for causing a scene like this."
"It's fine. It's not that much of a problem." Mello walked over to the nearest window and closed the curtain. After that one he sent out on closing the rest of them. After that he grabbed two bars of chocolate and rejoined Kyoki. He held out one to her. "Want it?"
"Sure. Thank you so much for everything and I'm sorry to be such a bother to you."
"Stop apologizing." He sat down on the couch. He pulled the wrapper off the candy and took a bite.
Kyoki kneeled before the living room couch table and opened her candy bar. She then broke it into small squares and then stacked them. Once they were stacked she began to eat them one at a time.
Mello watched this amused.
"Sorry about that. But this is how I eat chocolate. It's a old habit." She laughed nervously.
"Kyoki-chan is so weird for disliking lights so much." Yume said as she pulled open a curtain to look at the street below her.
"Too much light causes pain to her eyes." L reminded her as he sat on the couch in his normal way.
"Yes, I remember." Yume nodded. She stared at him for a few minutes, wondering what he was doing. "What are you doing, L?"
"I'm thinking about the Kira case right now." L told her.
Yume laughed. "Mello does that a lot too. Do you only do that? Don't you ever go out and have some fun?"
L titled his head, a little confused. "Fun? Hmm... Solving cases is fun."
Yume sighed. " I mean, like go out and see a movie. Go shopping at the mall. That kind of fun."
"For me to go out there would be dangerous for the world." L told her truthfully.
Yume thought about this and his situation as the worlds' best detective and nodded. "I understand." She smiled at him. 'Kyoki-chan must really get along and loves living with him seeing as she hates going out into public. And with L having to stay out of the spotlight must make her happy too...'
L, mistaking her smile for hunger said: "If you are hungry, help yourself to whatever you want to eat."
"Thank you. Now that I think about it, I am a little bit hungry. Wait, why did you think I was hungry just by my smiling?"
"Kyoki-san tends to smile more often when she is hungry." L said.
"Oh... I see... Well, that is odd." Yume got up and headed toward the kitchen to look for something to eat. She wasn't quite surprised when all that she found in the hotel cabinets were candy, cake, pies, cookies, ice cream, and other sweetening products were packed where a normal person would put normal food.
"Um... L?"
"Yes?"
"Is there anything other than sugary foods here?"
"There might be something like that in one of the cabinets behind something. Who knows though. I don't pay attention to food like that. Kyoki usually orders food using that phone." He pointed at the phone near the kitchen table. "It gets delivered to the front door. The menu is next to the phone so order something if you want." L told her as he took some of the candy that had been resting on the table next to him and began to eat that.
"Thanks." Yume walked over to the menu and phone, picked up the menu and looked at it to see what they offered. After deciding what she wanted, she picked up the phone and made her order. When she was finished, she hung up the phone and sat back down on the couch. "That... sounded like Watari..."
"That was Watari." L told her as he ate a chocolate covered cherry.
"Huh? W-what?"
"He oversees Kyoki-san's and mine food preparation. She is worried that someone will poison the food and then somehow I will eat it and then die. We have a small private kitchen here so she shouldn't worry too much."
"Shouldn't she be more worried about herself since it doesn't seem like you eat... regularly." Yume said as she watched him eat some more candy.
"That would be logical for her to worry about herself. But for some odd reason she is worried about me." L told her. "There really is no reason for her to worry at all."
Yume nodded, but she was a now a little worried about her cousin and she didn't even know why... well, she knew... but not really...
"That movie was so awesome! Thank you so much for taking me to see it. I'm so happy we saw that movie." She told him as they left the theater.
"It was pretty good, I guess." Mello said. He hadn't really watched that many zombie movies, but that one was all right.
Kyoki's stomach let out a tremendous growl.
Mello stopped at looked at her stomach. "Are you hungry?"
Kyoki nodded. "Hehe, yea."
He sighed as he tried to stay calm. "You should tell me when you get hungry."
Kyoki giggled. "You remind me of my cousin. She says stuff like that quite a bit."
"That is because you never say when you are hungry."
"I don't really notice I'm hungry unless I think about if I am hungry."
"You should think about it more then. C'mon. Let's go get some damn food."
"Yes, sir." Kyoki smiled and followed him.
"Is there anything you eat that isn't loaded with sugar?" Yume asked as she was eating the food that she ordered. It smelled so wonderful and it tasted just as wonderful as well. "Do you only eat cake for dinner?" She said, looking at his plate of cake that he was eating.
"Normally I eat cake. But there have been occasions when I will eat cookies, donuts-"
"All sugary stuff. How do you stay so thin when you eat so much sugar?"
"I figure that if I use enough of my brain, I will burn off any unnecessary weight." L informed her.
"Really? I guess I should try that, somehow." She said. "You know, you really should eat something else for a change. And I can't believe I'm telling someone else to eat healthy. What is the world coming too? But seriously, you should. Maybe I should force you to eat something-"
"What would Kyoki-san think if she found out that her dear cousin was making me eat things that I do not want to eat." L said as he dumped a handful of sugar into his drink. He then sipped it.
"Are you blackmailing me?"
"You may see it anyway you wish."
Yume remained quiet for a few moments. "Before I leave, I am going to see you eat something other than your sugar-filled-cuisine."
L just shrugged as he continued to sip his sugary drink along with his delicious cake.
Kyoki tossed and turn for an hour in her bed, trying to get comfortable. It was odd sleeping in a room alone. She was so use to sleeping near L that she couldn't stand being alone now. She cursed herself for becoming that way. Before she had been able to sleep alone. She had preferred to sleep alone, but after becoming close with L, she felt safe sleeping only when he was nearby. Finally she gave up on sleeping and got up and went to the living room in hopes that Mello was still up so she could possibly talk to him and perhaps get tired enough to fall asleep. But he was not out there. She sighed and sat down on the couch and grabbed the television controller and turned on the machine. She turned the volume down so she would not disturb the chocolate lover. Ten minutes later she had her head resting on the armrest and was fast asleep.
Meanwhile in his room, Mello was awake, unable to sleep due to the fact that he was so use to Yume sleeping right beside him. She was a bed hog so it felt strange being able to sleep without someone curled up right next to you and slowly pushing you toward the edge of the bed while they stole the blankets. He sighed and got up to get some water.
When he got out into the kitchen he realized that he television was on. He walked out into the living room and found Kyoki sleeping on the couch. Mello immediately figured out the reason for her being out there. He grabbed a blanket from a nearby closet and carefully placed it on her so as not to wake her up. He left the television on seeing as it was helping her sleep. He went back to the kitchen and poured himself some water before heading back to bed.
Eventually he was able to sleep. But it wasn't a nice night of sleep. He woke up many times, and tossed and turned even more than that.
At one point during the night he growled in his sleep and spoke out loud his desire to have Yume come back so he would be able to get to sleep.
AfterNote: I really like the path this fanfic is going in. I really must say. My original idea was very simple and boring. But then I was plotting and thinking and I came up with an idea that would make it much more interesting... at least I think it does. But that is just me so what I think is interesting may be stupid and boring to the next person. I know this chapter may have felt a little slow and uneventful, but I wanted to display how L interacted with Yume and how Mello and Kyoki got along just a little bit. The whole fanfic won't be this 'boring.' Things will definitely start to get going soon. And I am so sorry if characters are out of character. If there is anything that a character said or did that is not right for them, then please let me know and then I will change it right away. Well, I think that is all for this little note. I seriously don't know why I am having the title names be in English and then the title in the actual story be French. So if people are wondering if there is a reason, there isn't. Anywho, IO really don't think that Pepsi and sugar are a good combination together, at least for me... Later.