A/N: I started writing this whilst I was trapped in my room on sunday. The mechanism in the door handle twisted and stuck and the door wouldn't open. It would've been annoying, since it's a fairly new door, but I found it fairly amusing, especially when my brother climbed on the roof of the garage to pass me a cup of tea through the window. They eventually got me out by using a saw to cut through the thingy. Anyway getting locked in my room made me start writing this earlier than planned, and therefore finishing it earlier than planed.

Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note…


Natrat returned to the shinigami realm feeling positive. He'd done what he meant to do, everything was fixed and shiny and happy. He felt like he'd accomplished something and was deeply satisfied, an unusual sentiment for a shinigami, but not an unwelcome one. He was therefore surprised when he drifted overhead, to see the forms of Ryuk and Jealous sitting by his, of late, favourite spot, looking deeply depressed. He hadn't been heading there of course. He wouldn't be able to see her for about a week, and he wasn't going to try and be sneaky and find her by other means. A week of not being able to see her was a small price to pay for her continued happiness, and not much could happen in a week.

The sight of the two gloomy shinigami intrigued him so he drifted down to see what their problem was.

"Hey guys, I'm back." He chirped at them. "What's up with you two?"

The pair looked up at him, Jealous's face broke out in a smile. "Yay! You're back! You didn't have a horrible time in the human realm and get eaten by the name monster did you?"

Natrat met the eyes of the name shinigami in confusion. "Name… monster…?"

"Yeah, the monster that ate that woman's name, which meant we couldn't find you from up here."

Natrat laughed at the shinigami. "There's no such thing a name monster Jealous."

"But Ryuk said it was the only possible explanation."

Natrat glared at Ryuk.

"What? I couldn't think of a better explanation than that."

"You two really have no idea about human customs do you. But Ryuk, I expected better, you're always watching the human world. Her name's changed because she got married. She took on her husband's family name. Although she gets a week long grace-period where she doesn't have a name at all."

"Oh, so that's what it is," said Ryuk, rubbing his head embarrassedly. "No wonder Rem was calling me an idiot. I have heard of that custom, just not seen it happen before."

"I guess that comes of you only watching a certain type of person. In Jealous's case it's understandable since he's never taken much interest in the human world."

"But it's ok, 'cos you're back now!" Jealous grabbed hold of Natrat's arm and hugged it. "We were worried something bad had happened to you." Natrat looked down at the small shinigami mildly shocked at the clingy behaviour, and then wriggled his arm, struggling to free himself from the unwanted embrace. "So what did you do down there? Did you let her see you? Did you help her like you wanted? You didn't do anything bad did you? Rem's really worried that you'll get in trouble with the King…"

Ryuk looked at Jealous as he trailed off, running out of momentum to keep up his hyperactive tirade. Ryuk neglected to mention that what Rem was really worried about was them getting in trouble for helping, since it wasn't important, and instead turned expectantly to see what Natrat had to say for himself. It would be undoubtedly amusing.

Natrat sat down, putting a little distance between himself and Jealous, as if he might grab him again, and began to tell them what had happened.


He'd sat and watched it unfold in the world below. Beatrice breaking down in tears as her fiancé's friend spoke to her. Told her a story of her beloved Byron's college days, which she could hardly believe true of him. But the friend, Natrat couldn't recall his name right now but he was to be the best man at the wedding assured her that it was true.

Apparently he'd got into difficulty with money whilst he was at college, some sort of gambling problem said the friend, and he'd borrowed money from someone who he really shouldn't have trusted, especially since he couldn't at that time guarantee he'd be able to pay it all back. And he hadn't been able to. So instead this man had made him pay him back another way, and that was at first just to do him a couple of little favours. Byron had realised at this point that this was not the type of person he should have gotten involved with. The favours were initially small, helping out with small time jobs, but eventually it got bigger, and Byron was afraid because the jobs weren't exactly legal, and if they were caught, he'd be in trouble, but he couldn't get out of it because he owed the guy and if that guy didn't feel he'd had sufficient payment, he was sure he wouldn't think twice about murder. Eventually he passed his course, just barely, and he'd got help with the gambling and managed put a stop to it. He moved away, and the guy had let him go, deeming it sufficient payment, for then anyway.

But unfortunately Byron had recently heard a rumour that the guy was extending his gang into the city where they'd been planning to live when they were married. And he didn't want to tell her, but if they found out he was there, he was afraid he might be suckered into the underworld again, and this time they'd have a wife to threaten to cajole him into doing the jobs. And he hadn't told her any of this, and had told the friend not to speak to anyone about it, but he thought she should know. She'd held together quite well until she got home upon which Natrat had decided to take matters into his own hands.

He'd decided that as an outside onlooker he had a better idea of the situation, especially having watched her interactions with Byron, and he'd watched him a little bit as well. He'd made his decision and left for the human world, without telling anyone, only Jealous had had any clue as to what he was doing and he wouldn't figure it out until he was already gone, so no-one had been able to stop him.

There was only one entrance to the human realm, and it was never guarded since shinigami came and went from time to time, merely for the task of finding a suitable human victim. This portal theoretically lead to everywhere in the human world, but where you actually ended up depended on whether you actually knew where you wanted to go, and if you didn't it might take a day or two to get to somewhere that actually contained people. It was a big planet, and though there were a lot of people who lived on it, they tended to live in aggregated clumps, and if a shinigami came out over a large ocean he might even end up flying round in circles and not coming across a population.

Natrat however hadn't had much trouble finding where he wanted to go. Having watched Beatrice for quite a while, he had a very good idea where she lived and how to find it, and as such it didn't take him long to travel between the worlds and come out in the right place over her home town. He spent sometime circling above her house, after checking she was still there, figuring out how to go about what he wanted to do.

Natrat drifted in through the window and observed. Beatrice had fallen asleep on her bed, but she was still dressed in what she'd been wearing earlier, and her face was tear-streaked, so it was apparent she'd fallen asleep crying. It was late, her clock showed the time to be one in the morning. Natrat pulled his death note out of its holster and carefully tore of the corner of a page. The fragment was small and certainly not large enough for anyone to consider writing on it.

He hesitated, momentarily, considering the possible ramifications for this action, but as far as he knew revealing oneself to a human wasn't against any rules. Then he gently tucked the paper into the woman's outstretched hand, and curled the fingers around it gently. This action stirred her from her sleep, and she whispered Byron's name as she tightened her grasp on the paper.

"No, I'm sorry, but I'm not Byron," said Natrat, trying not to wake her too quickly. He knew she'd be startled by his inhuman appearance if he didn't do this right. "I'm… well I'm what you've been calling 'your guardian angel', but that's probably not the best description."

She'd sat up, and peered bleary eyed to the source of the voice. In the dim light of the room, provided by a streetlight across the road seeping in through a chink in the curtains, she probably couldn't make out very many details. The glimmer of his eyes on her, the shadowy shape of his wings curved out behind him, and the slight glitter of reflected light on his sparse jewellery. But still, she could almost certainly tell that he wasn't human, and that he didn't really fit with typical form associated with angels. He guessed she was still a little afraid that he wasn't safe, that he was a human here for some malevolent purpose, or that he was indeed otherworldly but not on her side.

"Can I turn on the light?" she whispered cautiously.

Natrat had reached out his hand, as if to stop her, and for a moment it had been clearly visible in the sheet of light that reached across the room, then he withdrew it and muttered an ok. Light flooded the room, and she had been momentarily blinded, blinking rapidly to adjust her eyes to both the increased light level and in disbelief at seeing the shinigami. Natrat had stood there silently, waiting for a reaction.

"What are you?" she said finally.

"I'm a shinigami, a god of death. I took the life of the man that attacked you in the alley, and since then I've been watching over you from my world. I… I wanted to talk to you about what you discovered today."

"Why?"

"Because… because I care about you. I saved your life, and though it wasn't my intention, you thanked me, and I felt the need to do something to earn your gratitude so I started to watch over you. And though I will not be able to save you again that way without breaking the rules of my realm, I feel the least I can do is ensure that the remaining lifespan you gained when I saved you is spent happily. And I think that is more likely to happen if you do get married today."

Beatrice had paused, something in the way he'd said that had made her think that perhaps she didn't have as much time left as she would've hoped. "How much time do I have left before I die?"

"I'm sorry, but it's against the rules to tell you that, and I wouldn't tell you anyway. Humans tend to do stupid things if they know when they're going to die, and more often than not end up causing their own deaths. But it's more time than you would have had if I hadn't interfered. What's that human saying? Oh yes, you're 'living on borrowed time'. You should be dead, but you're not. I suggest that you make the most of your extra time. That man, he loves you very much, at least from what I've seen. I'm sure he was only trying to keep you safe. So what if he should have told you, I know that humans are also especially prone to do stupid things when it comes to people they care for. And I wouldn't worry about that gang stuff, if it happens it happens, you shouldn't let the thought of what might happen in the future mess up your present."

Beatrice had watched and listened as Natrat had spoken, her face breaking from her worried frown, into a faint smile.

"I suppose you know what you're talking about; since I'm sure you've been watching humanity for a long time." she paused. "I'm glad you came. I didn't really want to leave him, but I was afraid, and I guess I felt a little betrayed because he didn't trust me enough to tell me about this. I guess I was having trouble seeing it from his side. Mr. Shinigami? You're invisible to everyone else right?" Natrat nodded, smiling at the human, warmth in his eyes. "Would you like to come to my wedding? I would be honoured to have you there."

Natrat had agreed to come to wedding, since he didn't have to back to the shinigami realm yet, and had left the human to sleep, spending the rest of the night drifting over the town, observing the peaceful setting. He'd watched the early morning activities of humans getting up and going to work or occupying themselves in other ways, witnessing the remarkable difference between the human realm and the shinigami realm, in that down here everyone always seemed to be rushing about to get things down, whilst in the shinigami realm everything moved at a much more sedentary pace, often with nothing in particular happening for months or years at a time. He supposed this was the difference between mortals and immortals.

The wedding took place in the early afternoon. Beatrice had momentarily met his eyes as she entered the church, acknowledging his presence. She probably considered him an otherworldly blessing. He thought she looked beautiful in her dress and was pleased to see her old name which she would be giving up today had was already somewhat faded and indistinctive. He was somewhat amused to see the surprised look on the groom's face, perhaps his friend had confessed to talking to Beatrice yesterday, and he'd been afraid she wouldn't show up?

He's felt out of place as the ceremony proceeded. A wedding was not really an appropriate place for a God of Death, to be hanging about. But nevertheless he felt somewhat happy that this wouldn't be happening were it not for him. Perhaps there was more to shinigami life than merely killing?

After the wedding he'd followed the group at a distance and had watched the reception. The newlywed Beatrice and Byron Birthday left to go on their honeymoon, but Natrat didn't follow them. He had assumed that since they were going away from the rest of their friends they wouldn't want supernatural associates tagging along either. But he hadn't returned to the shinigami realm. The rules said that a shinigami could stay in the human realm for 82 hours or three and a half days without dropping a death note, and he was determined to make the most of it. Instead he'd flown around, learning as much as he could of the human world, seeking the understanding he'd been unable to get from merely watching. When his 82 hours were more or less up by his guess, he'd returned to the shinigami realm.


When he finished his story, Jealous was looking at him somewhat awed and Ryuk was still sniggering. He sighed as he realised that the other two hadn't changed even remotely whilst he'd been gone. He looked up to the sky to roll his eyes, and caught sight of the silhouetted form of Rem, flying rapidly towards them.

She landed before them, somewhat out of breath."I heard you were back, and I'll hear your story later. But I just heard that the shinigami king wants to see you. I don't know what's happened, but it didn't sound like he was happy with you. I'd be prepared for the worst."

"But I didn't break any rules. At least I don't think I did."

"That just means you won't be getting a conventional punishment."


A/N: Yay! Cliffhanger! Oh I wonder what that punishment will be... Also I finally mentioned the name Birthday just to reassure people this story is actually about Beyond, even though he still isn't around yet. And next chapter... well that'd be telling... Also I was somewhat amused by the fact the Jealous started acting like Misa (weird... and yes I know I'm the writer and therefore responsible, but it seems as if the characters have a life of their own, and thus I apologise for any OOC actions on their part).

Also, now we're at the end I can write the dedication (it's weird place for it, I know, but I didn't want to reveal too much about the chapter). Anyway, this chapter is dedicated to my friend Anne and her husband Dave who got married last month as an apology for not making it to the wedding as I was on a field course at the other end of the country (although I'm not sure she's reading this, because I don't think she's read Another Note, and he almost certainly won't read this because I don't think he's seen Death Note). And whilst I'm dedicating this chapter to people who will never read it: my old friends Matt and Georgie who I recently found out are engaged. And finally on the wedding front, my dad and his girlfriend Hilary are also planning on getting married. Although I'm not too happy about that one, since in general I don't get on with Hilary brilliantly, and I really don't want to have to refer to her as my 'step-mum'.

Reviews make me happy? Please?