That morning, Isabella could smell the blue berry muffins from the kitchen downstairs. It was a shockingly sunny day, something you would see rarely in Britain. She could hear the excited screams and cheers of the children, who had already begun their games outside.
She sat up from her bed and remembered the event of last night – L had left.
She walked out of her room lazily from all the sleep she hadn't gotten from the genius's departure. Truthfully, there didn't seem to be a difference in the house since he wasn't here. She walked down the long flight of stairs to enter the kitchen where she saw Near sitting at the breakfast table eating a fresh batch of muffins with some chocolate milk on the side.
"Hey Near." She said tiredly as she took the chair across from him. He nodded a hello; the boy doesn't talk in the morning. He passed over to her the plate of muffins but she refused. She simply wasn't as hungry as she thought she was.
Mabel came into the kitchen with some new ingredients to make more breakfast meals for the rest of the house, mostly teenagers, who didn't wake up until 12 in the afternoon. She set them on the counter top after bidding Isabella good morning, "Aye, you're relieved aren't you?" She said with a friendly tone.
"You better believe it, Mabel." Isabella responded aggressively. Honestly, she was happy L was gone for a while. She needed a break from the worshiping he got. After all, she needed some fans too. "You know...your grandfather has got a case for you." Mabel whispered, obviously trying not to let the other children hear. "He has a WHAT?!" She said in her most happiest voice.
"Shh! If he knows I've told you he'll behead me!" Mabel said somewhat sarcastically. Isabella stood up and gave Mabel a huge daughterly hug while Near watched. "I just finished a case yesterday." Near spoke monotonously. "That's great for you, Near. I've gotta go to Wammy!" Isabella said. She ran up the stairs, got dressed as quickly as possible, and went to go see her grandfather in the library, where he always was.
She looked through the tiny glass window on the huge French door that let the house enter the library. Wammy was in there, sipping a glass of red wine and reading a very large book. She opened the door quietly as she went in. Wammy looked up from his reading and gave her the warmest of smiles that he gave the children.
She sat next to him after he greeted her. "What are you doing?" She asked as politely as possible. She needed to get information on this case. "Reading. After all, I am in the library." He chuckled. Wammy always had those grandfather cheeks – the very rosy ones. He had that certain smell that all grandfathers have everything you bid them goodbye, or greet them hello.
"It's been awfully quiet since L's left." Wammy continued. "Quiet? When he is here it's not like its loud." She said forcing herself to smile. "Yes I guess you're right. Well I'm glad he'll be coming back soon. There was a new assignment I wanted him to go on. I was going to assign you on it, but it was too dangerous for a girl." He said reassuringly. "Soon? He just left yesterday." Isabella said cautiously. She tried not to be upset about the assignment she was supposed to receive despite her excitement she had for it.
"Even if he leaves just for a night, I still miss him greatly."
Isabella frowned and her eyebrows pointed as low as they can possibly reach. "Just a night?!" She spoke angrily. "Yes, did he tell you something different?" Wammy said, still keeping his graceful tone that he always seemed to have even in the worst situations.
"Yeah." She said basically as she left the room after saying goodbye to her grandfather. She went up to Matt's room and opened the door. He was sitting on a comfy bean bag chair staring googly-eyed at the screen where a pretty model with blonde hair and pigtails was advertising her new line of lipstick. Isabella stood impatiently at the door tapping her foot and crossing her arms, waiting for it to be done. After the catchy music slowed down, Matt realized she was standing there the whole time.
"Er, hi Bella." He said finally. "Do you know that L lied? He's coming back today!" She said, still filled with an anger. She thought she could relax while he was gone for a whole 30 days, while instead he was just coming back in a few hours.
"Oh. Well of course, no one tells me anything. They all say I have a big mouth and I tell secrets to everyone...did you know that Near has these dreams where Mello and I are--"
"OKAY!" Isabella interrupted. Somehow, some of the older girls at Wammy's paired up Matt and Mello together, so she already knew what Near's dream had to be about.
Matt was going to continue talking when they heard several cheers outside. They ran to look out the window of Matt's room and there was L's driver's car parked in front of the gates. After saying goodbye to Matt, she locked herself in her room so she wouldn't have to see him for the rest of the day.
**
It was well past eight at night when Isabella had heard a quiet knock on her door. She already guessed who it could be, "Leave me alone. I'm not coming back for a month." She said quite rudely. You could hear L's sarcastic sigh from the other side of the door, "Isabella. Please come out." She replied with a strong, "No!"
"You are being awfully too childish once more, you know." He stated with that certain swing of his voice. "I don't want to talk to you." She said right back. Although her statement was supposed to be rude-sounding, she was smiling. L, being the amazing man that he is, opened the door himself, and broke the lock from the outside somehow. Isabella gasped as he came in with a whole 2 pound bag of lollipops.
"Would you like to share?" He said quietly and calmly as he could possibly be. Isabella's eyes opened very widely, because she too, loved sweets. He began swinging the bag in front of her eyes, "You can have many if you forgive me."
It's like she was hypnotized. She didn't realize anything around her, only the huge bag of the sugary goodness L called "food". "Fine, fine! I forgive you! But, why did you say you were going to be gone for one month?" He turned around to her mirror, making her face his back as he spoke the next sentence with delicacy, "I wanted to see your reaction. If you were implicated of my divergence."
Isabella's face became purely wondered. She smiled without forcing herself this time, "Well...of course I was."
Wait. Huh? I was?!
"Were you really?" He said as he sat next to her. He handed her a swirly blue lollipop with the tips of his fingers. Here they were sitting by her window sill, eating a 2 pound bag of lollipops as if they were the best of friends.
"Well...yeah. Not that I kinda- er...was upset...um...at first but--"
What the hell am I doing?!
"It is alright now. Everything is fine." He said mellisonantly. He gave her this look where somehow, if she died now, she would be happy...at least thats what she didn't want to believe.
He put his hands in his pockets and took out a blank blue index card by accident. He shoved it back into his pocket a little surprisingly as Isabella noticed.
"Well...this was entertaining. I'm afraid I will have to be going now, I'm tired." L spoke monotonously. "Ha! You, tired? That's a surprise!" She noted as she giggled. "You'll be seeing a lot of surprises soon, I can be sure of it." He said as a smirk came across his once-blank face.
A surprise...from L? This is going to be interesting...
