Chapter 3: Uroko (Scales)

Thanks for the reviews! And thank you to Tokyokitty for the wonderful editing you did for this chapter! Well here's Chapter 3 of Death Note Sonata

There was an awkward silence at the dinner table as the Yagami's stared at Lawliet. Lawliet just stared back at only three of the Yagami's.'Okay. I know I look bad with the bruises and cuts, but this is unnecessary. Surely I don't look that abnormal.' Lawliet thought as the staring match continued. It wasn't the fact that Lawliet had bruises all over his face and arms, or he had cuts on his face, Sachiko and Sayu Yagami were looking at how Lawliet sat. His feet were on the edge of the chair, knees to his chest, and he was nibbling on his thumb. To Sayu and Sachiko, this was torture. It wasn't how normal people sit, especially if you were a guest in a friend's home.

The silence was slowly driving Raito mad. 'What's wrong with everyone? Why isn't anyone saying anything? Should I break the silence?' But before Raito could say anything, his sister screamed,

"Why do you sit like that?!"

"Sayu! That's rude!" Sachiko spat.

"I can't help it! We were all thinking about it. No normal person sits like that!"

"Sayu…" Raito shook his head in embarrassment.

"No, it's alright Raito-kun." Lawliet answered in a cool tone. "But to answer your question Sayu-Chan, I sit like this because if I were to sit any other way my thinking skills would drop over forty percent."

Nothing followed Lawliet's simple explanation and soon the awkward silence found its way back to the Yagami dinner table. Five agonizing minutes of silence later, the kitchen stove timer went off. Sachiko leaped out of her seat and yelled "Ahhh! Dinner's ready" while running into the kitchen. Raito groaned in irritation. Suddenly he heard the door open and footsteps down the hall.

"Dad's home!" Sayu exclaimed as she jumped out of her chair to give her father a hug. Sochiro returned the hug but focused his attention on the other occupant at the dinner table.

"Lawliet? What happened to you?" Soichiro asked.

"Hello Yagami-San1. Well, funny story really. You see…"

"His roommate beat him up, dear." Sachiko finished for him. "Raito asked if he can stay here until they become roommates and I said that was fine."

"Really?" Sochiro asked. "Sorry to hear that. Are you alright Lawliet?"

Lawliet never looked up from the food being set out in front of him. There was nothing sweet on the table. Absolutely nothing. 'No cake. No cookies. No pie. Just fish and vegetables and bread. Not even sweet bread.'

"Lawliet." Raito pushed.

"I am alright Yagami-sama. I was just thinking of something. Nothing important." Lawliet frowned at the last statement he made. He wanted something sweet. Raito seemed to catch on to Lawliet's sour mood and turned to his mother.

"Hey mom, is it okay if Lawliet just skipped to dessert?"

This caught Lawliet's attention.

"Why? That's a little weird." Sachiko asked with a small laugh.

"Well, Lawliet would never say it out loud in fear of sounding rude, but he prefers sweet things instead of regular meals. And I know he would like to eat your double fudge cake while it was still warm."

Lawliet's mouth started to water. That sounded delicious. Sachiko nodded and disappeared into the kitchen. When she returned, she held in her hands a beautiful dark chocolate cake with fudge on top of it and oozing from the middle. It was the most beautiful homemade cake Lawliet had ever seen. As soon as she put the cake down in front of him, Lawliet already had a knife in it and started to cut himself a large piece of cake.

That was the cue for the Yagami's to start eating. There was another eerie silence until Soichiro asked Lawliet "So Lawliet. You say you and Raito have the same major, is that right?"

Lawliet looked up from his cake and nodded his head yes.

"So does that mean you go to appointments like Raito-kun?" Sachiko asked.

Lawliet, with his mouth full of cake and had his cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk, stopped eating and slowly stared at Raito. Raito barely met eye contact, and then stared back at his parents. 'What should I say?' Lawliet thought. 'If I say yes, then I have to hope they don't ask any details about it. But If I say no, they'll wonder why I don't do these "appointments" if Raito-kun and I have the same major.'

Lawliet then slowly swallowed his cake in one gulp and answered the long ignored question.

"I'm supposed to go, but something went wrong with my credits so I couldn't. Raito has yet to tell me about his appointment yesterday."

Raito's parents' attention went from Lawliet to him in an instant, much to Lawliet's relief.

"That's right Raito! You never told us how this one went. How was it?" Sayu ecstatically asked.

Raito looked calm on the outside, but on the inside Lawliet could tell he was relieved also that the lie continued to work.

Raito answered "I auditioned to play background piano in the new TV series coming out that you've been crazy about and I made it in. That should help with the requirements for my major"

Sayu screamed in excitement "Raito-kun! You're the best! I want autographs and pictures!"

Lawliet put down his fork and started thinking to himself.

'Well isn't this interesting? Apparently, Raito-kun needs to do so much volunteer work that has to have some relation with his major. And I'm guessing these "appointments" are just jobs that he's signed up to audition for for credit.'

"So Raito-kun, how have your grades been so far this semester?" Soichiro asked his son.

There was a long pause between Ratio and his father. His father never lost sight of Raito but Raito looked toward his empty plate.

Soichiro sighed in frustration. After a moment of this, Soichiro replied "If you can't make it in the music world grade wise, at least give the criminal investigation world another thought. You're a great player Raito, but I don't think music should be your career path."

"Dad we've been through this already. I want to stay in music. I like it."

"But with your grades, you'll be lucky if you pass this semester! You barely passed last semester! I don't understand. You were great in all of your other subjects but this you're failing in."

'Hmmm… Now I understand everything.' Lawliet thought to himself, feeling incredibly awkward but still wanted to watch and see where things went. 'I see where I fall into play here as well.'

"May Lawliet and I be excused?" Lawliet heard Raito's voice excusing them from the table. Before Soichiro could retaliate with another argument, they both rose from their seats and left the room. Raito and Lawliet heard Soichiro's voice behind him saying "If you think this is over, you're wrong. We'll finish this conversation later."

Lawliet lagged behind Raito as they walked into Raito's room. Lawliet shut the door as Raito collapsed on the bed in frustration. Lying on his back, Raito put his hands on his face and sighed deeply.

"Raito-kun looks stressed. Can I help in any way?" Lawliet grinned evilly. Raito looked up from his spot on the bed at the chestier cat like smile on Lawliet's lips. 'I seriously hope he's joking' Raito thought to himself.

"You joke too much. I can never take you serious." Raito said in a jokingly matter.

"Who said I was joking?" Lawliet answered as he inched closer to Raito.

"Don't make me say it." Raito said as Lawliet started to lean over his body, his face a mere inches from Raito's. Lawliet licked his lips slowly in a teasing matter.

Raito sighed again, this time pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Lawliet. You were just raped by an unknown man. Any normal human being would be emotionally scarred from the experience."

Lawliet's grin left his face as he slowly climbed down from on top of Raito. His face returned to his normal expressionless mask. Neither of them spoke for what seemed like an eternity. Then Raito said something.

"Since tomorrow's Monday, I'm going to take you with me to school so you can register."

"What if I don't want to?" Lawliet asked not looking up at Raito once.

"Lawliet, just trust me! You have no reason not to. And besides, I said I would help you meet your dream and become a musician."

"Hmmmm…."

"Don't you want to make the man who raised you…"

"Watari."

"What?"

Lawliet looked at Raito at that point. There was that hidden sadness in his eyes that Raito couldn't understand where it was coming from. Lawliet was a master at hiding his emotions, but when Raito would hit a nerve, the sadness and the hidden pain would come back into his dark grey eyes.

Lawliet repeated "Watari. The man who took care of me is named Watari."

"…Watari. Well don't you want to make him proud and prove him wrong?"

Lawliet thought to himself for a moment before he answered.

"Yes. I guess I would."

Raito then shot up out of the bed. "Well then, we have a big day ahead of us."

He went to the dresser and pulled out a pair of pajama pants and a shirt and threw them at Lawliet.

"Put these on. I'm going to sleep in the guest bedroom. Wake up around six-thirty so we can head out."

Just as Raito was about to walk out of the room, he heard Lawliet mutter "Thank you" under his breath.

The next morning, Raito woke up to something sitting on his chest. He slowly opened his eyes and at first he didn't realize what was on top of him. All he saw was a blurry figure with a black top and pale feature. Then Raito thought about it. 'We don't have a pet. No one in my house has black hair. It has to be…'

"Lawliet! Get the hell off of me!"

*thump*

"Oww, Raito-kun! You didn't have to throw me so hard" Lawliet whined from the floor.

"What were you doing?!" Raito, who was a bit calmer, asked.

"I like the smell of your hair. It smells like strawberries." Lawliet answered with a sly grin on his face.

"You creepy bastard." Raito answered very darkly. "You aren't funny."

"Nii-san, what's wrong?" Sayu suddenly appeared in the room and asked while rubbing her eyes. "It's too early for this. Leave Lawliet alone." And with that Sayu left the room.

Lawliet looked at Raito from the floor and said "Yes Raito-kun. Leave Lawliet alone."

"Shut up." Raito commanded. "And that reminds me, why were you up so early? I said to wake up at six-thirty."

"Well Raito-kun, I don't usually sleep. I usually work all day and night at my building. The customers like that a lot. So I only get about two hours of sleep a night." Lawliet stood up and brushed himself off. "And last night, I was completely bored, so I thought I would come see what you were doing. But you were asleep. Then I noticed you smelled like strawberries, so I stayed. Also Raito-kun talks in his sleep. Do you want to know what you said?"

Raito just stared at Lawliet with a look of disbelief. "You're a creeper."

"So is that a no?" Lawliet asked.

"I'll be ready in ten minutes." Raito ignored Lawliet's question and stood up to head to the bathroom.

"You were dreaming of me Raito-kun." Lawliet said as Raito walked out of the room.

'Who did I let in my house?' Raito thought to himself.

"Wow Raito-kun, I didn't know you went to Kyoto University." Lawliet gawked at the enormous entrance. The giant clock tower in the distance stood proudly as the sun shone of its beautiful, white face.

"It's not that impressive." Raito muttered under his breath.

"On the contrary Raito-kun. This school is the second to oldest university in Japan."

Raito immediately looked at Lawliet. Lawliet just stared at the clock tower. 'If he's that smart, that I can start passing again in no time.' Raito thought to himself. Lawliet didn't pay any attention to Raito's staring. He focused his attention on the clock tower. It reminded him of the beautiful clock tower in front of his building.

'But that's in my past. I must keep going forward.' Lawliet thought to himself. He then focused his attention to Raito again.

"Well Raito-kun, let's go get me registered for classes."

"Yeah." Raito answered.

Lawliet had to take a late entrance exam. He passed with a perfect score. The only other one who passed with a perfect was Raito himself. So Lawliet received a complete scholarship to the school. Lawliet was, for the first time in a long while, happy. It seemed like his life was going into the right direction finally, and it was all thanks to Raito.

They were on the train heading back to Raito's home when Raito's phone went off. It was his mother. Lawliet just stared out of the window, pretending not to be interested in the conversation, but it was very humorous.

"Yeah Mom? …..But we're almost home…..I know that but…..Than yell at Sayu! Not me! .....I understand."

Raito hung up his phone and turned to Lawliet.

"Mom…"

"Yagami-san needs us to go to the store because Sayu probably forgot to do it herself and blamed it on you instead of taking the blame. Is that about right?"

Raito's eye twitched slightly at this. "Eavesdropping is very rude Lawliet."

"Your eye twitches whenever you're mad. It's very adorable." Lawliet smirked.

Raito sighed a very deep, irritated breath. "We have to go back. Luckily, we're about to come to a stop so we can get off here and go to the local grocery store here."

A few minutes went by and they found themselves in front of a store. Raito stopped dead in his tracks and turned to Lawliet.

"I command you to stay here."

Lawliet cocked his head to one side and smiled an innocent smile. "Why Raito-kun, are you afraid I'll embarrass you?"

Raito looked down towards the ground to hide his twitching eye, but Lawliet saw it anyway which made his smile grow ten times larger.

"Look, just stay here. I'll be right back. I mean it. Don't move from this spot."

"Whatever you say sweetheart." Lawliet lightly bowed.

Raito turned his back to him and stormed into the store.

Now that Lawliet was alone, he could look at his surroundings and enjoy the alone time. From the looks of things, it was an ordinary store. It was relatively crowded with the smell of crepes in the air. The one thing that was off was a little boy sitting by his self on the sidewalk, crying. Lawliet was not good at comforting people, and he was especially horrible with dealing with children, but maybe this kid was just lost. Lawliet went to take a step forward but froze. 'Now someone told me something, but I don't remember what it was.' After a moment of thinking, Lawliet chuckled to himself. 'Oh yes. Now I remember."

"Raito-kun is certainly scary. And I should do as I'm told." Lawliet said to himself as an evil grin appeared on his face.

Lawliet took a larger step than necessary towards the direction of the boy and grinned to himself as he did so.

Lawliet walked up to him and asked "Excuse me. May I be of any assistance?"

The little boy turned around and ceased his crying. "Huh?"

"Do you need any help?" Lawliet responded.

The boy had brown hair and had dark grey eyes like Lawliet's. He also sat hunched over like Lawliet and looked to be about eight years old.

"I can't find my parents!" The little boy cried. His cries begin turning into sobs. "They're lost somewhere! What if I don't find them ever again?!"

"Stop crying please." Lawliet commanded him2. The little boy began wailing intensely and flailing about on the sidewalk. Lawliet just stared at him for a moment with a look of confusion on his face. He didn't know what to do. As the boy continued to wail and fuss, Lawliet pulled out of his pocket a blue and red sucker. The boy saw it and immediately stopped. Lawliet looked in amazement at the boy, and then at the sucker. 'I was going to eat this myself, but if it gets him to calm down….'

Lawliet handed the boy the sucker and the boy happily sucked on it. Lawliet bent down to his height and asks "Now, can you tell me your name?"

The boy looked up at Lawliet and said "My name is Gelus."

Raito, meanwhile, was paying for the groceries his mother sent him to the store for. He also bought about eight boxes of pocky for Lawliet's sake. 'I guess I do need to get him something for getting a full ride to college. And hopefully this will also get him to open up to me more.'

"Sir? Hey?! Did you hear anything I just said?!"

"I'm sorry. What was that?" Raito asked while turning around.

What he saw was a very weird looking man. He had with him a very weird looking woman. The man had a single long dangling earring, lots of chains on his pants, black skinny jeans, a black shirt, and a large, goofy smile on his face. His hair was black and messy, sticking out everywhere. The woman had long hair that hung in front of her face. Her eyes were a green, but an eerie green. She neither smiled or flinched. Her stare bore into Raito which made him very uncomfortable.

"Hey!" The man said. "We're looking for our son. He's eight and has brown hair and….What else Rem?"

The woman, now known as Rem, answered her husband "Well Ryuk, if you were watching him like I told you to in the first place, we would have never lost our only child."

"So angry. It's always my fault." The man now called Ryuk turned back to Ratio. "So you see, we lost our son, his name is Gelus. Have you seen him?"

Raito was still a little dumb struck from the couple's appearance, but he snapped out of it in time to answer.

"I'm sorry, I haven't. But my friend is right outside. If you want, we can look together."

"Really?!" Ryuk exclaimed. "Awww thanks kid. You're a life saver."

Raito paid for his things and headed toward the exit with Ryuk and Rem right behind him. As they left the store, Raito looked around for Lawliet. He couldn't find him.

"I thought I told him…." Raito started but was interrupted by a familiar voice.

"I'm over here." Raito turned around to see Lawliet coming towards Raito, Rem, and Ryuk holding Gelus's hand.

"Mom!" Gelus let go of Lawliet's hand and ran into Rem's arms.

"Hey kiddo! There you are!" Ryuk laughed while petting Gelus's hair. He then turned to Raito and Lawliet and said "Hey, thanks again for helping us find Gelus. You guys are real pals!" And with that, the family walked into the crowd, disappearing from view.

Lawliet had his expressionless mask on while Raito looked still a little dumb founded. Raito finally broke the moment of silence.

"Well, I was going to yell at you for leaving, but you helped that couple find their kid. So let's go. I bought you Pocky."

"Yes I agree." Lawliet added. "That was my first time working with children….and I hated it."

Chapter 3 End.

Today's Chapter is named after Hata Motohiro's song, Uroko(Scales in English). I wanted Lawliet to have a joking personality. His jokes are mean though. Poor Raito. XD I do plan to add in more instances where Raito and Lawliet meet other people from the Death Note series. Again, no complaining that the characters are OOC. I did that on purpose. Please review and tell me what you think. Until next time!

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