Chapter Two: Practice

Later that evening, the Yagami family sat down to dinner, catching up on news that both families had missed since Hikari's last visit to Tokyo. She was telling them about the ballet school she attended before leaving Osaka.

"It was disciplined," Hikari said, fiddling with her chopsticks. "If one person was caught fooling around, they would have to perform a number of plies and chasses until my teacher said it was enough."

"I thought you were a ballerina, not a militant," Sayu piped up, furrowing her brow. Hikari laughed.

"I am, Sayu, I am. But this ballet school was serious, and they took great pride in producing genuine dancers," she explained. "Hopefully their training, and all the dancing I did since first grade will be enough to land myself a job with the ballet company."

There was a pause at the table. Hikari thought about the auditions a couple of days from now, and her stomach gave a nervous squirm. She tried to shake the feeling, and turned to her uncle, who was sitting across from her.

"How is your job going, Uncle?" she asked. "You must be busy with this Kira murderer on the loose." Soichiro put his chopsticks down, and nodded solemnly, a crease forming in between his eyebrows.

"It's very stressful," he replied seriously. "Criminal deaths have sky rocketed since we started this investigation. We're currently being helped by L." Hikari smiled.

"Yes, I heard that he's the head of the investigation," she said, nodding.

"Dad met L!" Sayu proclaimed proudly. This surprised Hikari even more.

"Really? That's amazing. No one has ever seen his face before." She gave her uncle a curious look. "What was he like?" Soichiro laughed good humouredly, and shook his finger in front of his niece.

"Now, now, Hikari, I'm prohibited to say anything about L's identity, you should know that," he told her. Hikari pretended to pout, although she was a little disappointed that Soichiro couldn't tell her anything about the world's most mysterious person.

"You picked a bad time to come to Kanto, Hikari-chan," Sachiko said, worriedly. "Not that I'm not happy you're here of course, but it is a dangerous time right now."

Hikari lowered her chopsticks from her mouth, swallowed her food, and nodded.

"Yes, I was rather frightened to come at first, but I haven't committed any crimes, so why would Kira pick on me?" She thought about all the murderers, and the safety of her uncle, and shuddered. "Even so, I suppose it is rather scary."

"Don't worry, Hikari," Light, who was sitting beside her, told her amiably. "I won't let anything or anyone hurt you."

Unaware of the double meaning behind his words, Hikari beamed, and gave a quick one armed hug to her cousin.

"Thanks, Light-kun."

--

The next morning, Hikari and Light were alone in the house. Soichiro had gone off to work, Sayu was at school, and Sachiko went shopping. Light didn't start To-Oh until the fourth, and was up in his room. Hikari was downstairs in the basement. She had moved the two couches and the coffee table down there, and was practicing a dance she planned to show for the ballet company.

Front, back, turn, side, twirl, arabesque, en pointe, and back again. Hikari went through the various movements in her head as she preformed them in the middle of her relatives' basement. Her ballet shoes made a soft pattering sound on the hardwood floor as a soft classical melody floated from the speakers of her portable radio at the side of the room.

Hikari had been working hard on her dance for the past two hours, and was determined to perfect it as much as she could today and tomorrow, for after her cousin's initiation ceremony, she would have to attend the audition with a group of other well trained dancers. Some would even be better than her. If she was going to get a solid job here in Tokyo she would have to give ballet her all.

The song's tempo sped up a little, and Hikari responded to it. Her turns and spins became sharper. She pulled off more difficult maneuvers like the foutte en tournant and the saubresaut as fast as the music required her to. Finally, she ended her dance with a grand jete. She leaped into the air, separated her legs into the splits while airborne, and came down on her other foot. She landed lightly, but her shoes had wooden points on the ends, and hitting the floor made a loud noise, which she was sure Light could here upstairs.

Thirty seconds later, Hikari's assumption was confirmed, and Light came downstairs with a confused look on his face.

"What's all the noise?" he asked. "I'm three floors above you, and I can here you dancing down here. I thought something happened to you."

"Oh, sorry, Light," Hikari apologized sheepishly. She paused her music, and approached her cousin, wiping some light perspiration off her forehead. "Am I disturbing an important work of yours upstairs?"

You have no idea, Light thought sardonically. He smiled, half to his cousin, half to what she asked him, and said, "It's all right, Hikari, I know you have to practice."

Hikari grinned as an idea struck her. "Hey, Light, would you watch my routine?"

Light's smile remained. "I have to prepare for tomorrow. I'm the one giving a speech, you know."

"And I've never been more proud of you," Hikari crooned, standing on her wooden points to pat his head. "I thought another kid was giving a speech with you?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I can slack off," Light explained. Hikari nodded, humouring him, and then went back to asking him to watch her dance.

"C'mon, Cuzzy," she said, giving him a hug. She looked up and gave him her best puppy dog eyes. "Please watch me dance? Just for a few minutes?"

Light was silent for a minute, as if weighing his options. Finally, he wriggled out of Hikari's embrace, and sat down on one of the couches that were pushed off to the side.

"Okay, I'll watch you," he said. "And please don't call me Cuzzy."

Hikari gave him an appreciative look and took her place in the middle of the floor, in front of the couch her cousin was sitting on. He was right next to the radio, so he pushed the play button for her.

Most people felt self conscious when they performed in front of other people, including their families. Not Hikari. The young woman felt confident with Light watching her, and performed her routine as best as she could. She twirled the wrong way, and missed a step, but those were the only mistakes she made, and they could be corrected with a little more practice. She showed Light her grand jete at the end of her dance, and he leaned out of the way, afraid she might hit him.

"That's a very nice dance, Hikari-chan," he said, pushing the stop button on the radio, the classical music ceasing. "When did you come up with that?"

"About a week before coming to Kanto," Hikari answered, sitting down on the couch beside him. They were silent for a moment until Hikari expressed her worries. "I'm nervous about the audition."

"Are you kidding?" Light asked, punching her shoulder gently. "You attended ballet school since you were seven, and you're nervous?"

"Some have been dancing since six, or five, or even younger," Hikari pointed out. She wrung her hands, and bit her lip as thousands of butterflies fluttered in her stomach. "I'm going up against people who have been practicing ballet their whole life, and I had to take a year off because my freshman year in college was very busy." She looked up at her cousin. "This is my dream, and if I don't achieve it, what will I do? I would have come to Kanto for nearly nothing."

"What about us?" Light asked.

"I said nearly nothing."

"So we're next to nothing?"

Hikari gazed up at her cousin, a smile playing on her lips. "All right, sorry, I didn't mean it that way," she said, laughing. "What I meant was, I would be unemployed, and I can't stay with you guys forever."

Light snaked an arm around his cousin's shoulders and gave her a squeeze. "Hikari, don't worry," he told her, softly. "You'll be fine. One way or another, you'll become a dancer, and you'll have the life you always dreamed of. Dreams as big as this have ways of coming true, I can assure you." Light hid his sly smile away from Hikari, for he didn't want to give himself away. Hikari wasn't the only one with big dreams for the future.

Hikari hugged him back. "Thank you, Light." she murmured. "Thank you." She smiled at him. "I can't wait for your entrance ceremony tomorrow."

Light rolled his eyes, grinning. "Are you really? It'll probably be very boring for you. It's just a bunch of teachers and superiors welcoming the freshmen."

Hikari laughed and ruffled his hair. "You're such a bad liar, you know that?" she teased. "You're trying to make it sound like it's not a big deal for me and for you."

Light laughed as well, and got up off the sofa. "So, you're still practicing down here?"

Hikari nodded. "I need to get in as much as I can."

Light nodded, and started up the stairs. "Well, you have fun down here," he said.

"And you have fun up there," Hikari called, getting up off the sofa as well.

"Oh, I will," she heard Light mutter. "I will."

--

Thanks for reading, everyone. More on the way