Hilo! I apologize that this took so long. I started off with L's P. O. V. and I got stuck on the Chinese finger torture comment, so I had to come up with an idea to continue. This was especially tough because I couldn't make up my mind or not to include another kiss. I want a lot more to happen, but L's personality is hard to manage (but not impossible). Needless fluff is something I'm trying to avoid.
"Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?" - Francois de La Rochefoucauld
. . .
Charlotte's P. O. V.
The movie was getting pretty intense, and it wasn't even fifteen minutes in, so that was a good sign in more ways than one. I was waiting for a certain point though. No one should say 'I won't scream' while watching a horror movie, and not expect for a person to scare them-and I had the lucky spot of sitting right behind the poor sap. Light, who was sitting in front of L, wouldn't be able to protect Misa even if he wanted to, which I don't think he would want to anyway. I was surprised that the handcuff chain was long enough for L and Light to be comfortable, and still have room to drag onto the floor.
Unfortunately the college teenage twats in the movie were being idiots, so there were parts that got boring.
L's P. O. V.
I had known that Charlotte had talked Misa into going into a horror movie, so it wasn't a surprise to see people dying in supernatural ways due to an evil spirit. Even though I was technically supposed to monitor Light and Misa, it was too dark to tell if they were doing anything suspicious or not, and we were behind them, but that was just my excuse. Sitting in the back row, however, had served a different purpose.
Charlotte wasn't focused on the movie, but on the handcuffs, trying to figure out if she could get out of them or not. She kept moving her hand, which pulled on my hand, and hindered me from eating my movie snacks. When I got too annoyed, I grabbed her hand to cease it. I still wasn't sure if she was putting up an act, or if the handcuffs were too much.
Well, what else was I supposed to do to get her to come with me? Chinese finger torture?
She leaned in towards me and whispered, "Can you please loosen the handcuffs?"
"No."
"Why not?" There was a twinge of annoyance in her expression.
"Because you'll try to sneak out."
"Not when I have an objective that has a higher priority. Besides, I don't have cash for a cab or the bus, so I have no way of getting home."
"'Higher priority'?"
"You'll see in about an hour. So can you please loosen the handcuffs? No one has to know that they're loose, and like I said, I have no way of getting home on my own."
"You can hitchhike." I was kidding, kind of. She was stubborn, so she might have tried almost anything.
"Uh, no," she deadpanned. "I'm not some stupid twat who would want some psychotic rapist to attack me, especially when the chances of that happening are higher when I'm wearing this god-forsaken shirt."
Point taken, even if it was exaggerated. "No."
"You like seeing me suffer, don't you?"
"It does have a certain amusing appeal to it, yes." Charlotte caught my joke that time, but still gave me a dirty look, so I held out a box with my other hand. I didn't think Charlotte noticed I was still holding her hand. "Pocky?"
She looked at the box in scrutiny, as if I hid a shrapnel bomb in it and sighed quietly, but took a couple sticks with her free hand.
I leaned towards her, and whispered, "Besides, I left the keys to the handcuffs in the car, so I really can't loosen the cuffs."
If I thought her earlier look was dirty, the one she was giving me was rotten. "Think you could've said that earlier?"
"Probably."
Charlotte rolled her eyes and started nibbling on the cookie-stick. She didn't know how to eat sweets properly, and I hadn't even seen her open her box of chocolate covered raisins. It was just sitting there on her lap, practically untouched. "What now?" She asked in a lightly aggravated tone, probably because I was staring at her too slowly diminishing pocky stick.
"Do you not like sweets?"
She took the cookie out of her mouth and saw that she was nibbling the chocolate off. "I'm eating it aren't I?"
"Eat the cookie too."
"I will, so stop telling me how to eat."
"Eat it properly."
"There's a proper way of eating pocky sticks?" She looked like she seriously didn't know.
Misa turned around and harshly whispered, "Will you two shut up? If you two aren't watching the movie, make-out or something." She turned back around and cuddled into Raito's arm.
Now there was an idea. I moved my snacks that I had already finished half of to the empty seat next to me, and leaned over Charlotte, getting another whiff of her lotion, the main reason why I was doing it.
I could tell Charlotte was nervous, even in the dark, because she was leaning as far back in her seat as far as she could go, but she tried to act more annoyed than anything. "What are you doing now?" The sarcasm in her voice fell short.
"What lotion are you using?"
She gave me an incredulous expression before asking, "What? What do you mean? And why is my lotion important?"
I tucked my finger (the one that was handcuffed to her) under my lip. "I smells good. What is it?"
"You can't eat it." She was joking of course.
"I know that, but what is it?"
"Loosen the handcuffs first, and then I'll think of telling you."
"I told you. The keys are in the car, I can't."
"Too bad then. I guess you'll just have to wait."
"If this was a serious negotiation, I wouldn't follow through with it. You can just suffer being handcuffed to me."
"OK then," she shrugged. "It's not like I have anything to lose. I just had the impression that you really wanted to know, Especially since the scent is of something you would really like. It's sweet in a slightly bitter way, and you can practically put anything sweet in it to make it even better. Whipped cream, chocolate shavings, caramel, candy cane: anything. Heck, you can probably put in gummy bears in it too. " She turned cocky, and had a cunning grin. Charlotte probably thought she held all the cards.
Even so, I had to admit, I really wanted to know, and I almost started to drool at the thought of having whatever it was later.
Charlotte's P. O. V.
God, I thought he was about to kiss me! I was glad I was wrong on that part. Teasing him was fun, but it would have been even better if he could loosen the cuffs; I needed to use the bathroom. I could probably hold it for a couple more hours, but it's bad for a bladder.
L didn't move away from my face, probably irritated because I wouldn't tell him. He was thinking of something, but there was no way I could even guess.
He wouldn't resort to torture just to find out what my lotion was, would he?
"You're not going to tell me, are you?"
"Definitely not before you loosen the cuffs first."
He sighed in my face. I could smell all the chocolate and sugar he just had. "Fine," he said, right before he took his finger out of his mouth and planted a kiss on mine. It wasn't chaste, but it was just as quick as the first kiss.
I was surprised and shrieked, but luckily Misa screamed louder. I punched his shoulder and harshly whispered, "What was that for?"
"It's not as if we never did that before," he deadpanned. "Besides, you know you were thinking that I was going to kiss you anyway. It was pretty obvious."
I could feel my face heat up, so I tried to hide it by munching on my pocky. Lo and behold, I couldn't find either of the sticks I was just holding, so I look to the side to see L about to eat the same stick I was nibbling on. I know it was mine because I had already gnawed off at least half of the chocolate. "You gave that to me!" I whispered harshly.
"Eat it quicker next time," he shot back.
"But I was just eating it. As in, that was in my mouth."
"So, what's your point? We just kissed."
This reminded me too much of the cake argument, so I dropped it. It was getting too annoying. Besides, I kind of liked the kiss. It was something that I needed to get use to (without hitting him at least), but it wasn't bad.
Oh crud! I missed my cue.
. . .
Hilo again! On another note, I am so happy you guys are liking this story. Seven full chapters in and there are over twenty favorites, and almost forty alerts, and not to mention almost thirty reviews. The reviews are what I want to talk about though. I know I've been taking a while to update, I explained my reason above, but I also do work on other stories, and there are more stories I've been working on that aren't on this site yet, along with my original fiction stories. Please stop telling me to 'update soon' or asking me if I've 'abandoned' this story. I will update because I do enjoy writing this story (I have a lot of plans for this), and it was a request from someone else. Even though I've technically finished the request on the fourth chapter, I wanted to continue because it was fun. Asking me to update does put some pressure on writers to hurry up and finish a chapter which can turn out crappy if they rush, and I personally find it a little rude. You guys are awesome, and I'm glad you want more, but please be patient and refrain from asking if I've abandoned the story, or telling me to update/continue. Thank you.
"What our ancestors would really be thinking, if they were alive today is: 'Why is it so dark in here?'" - Terry Pratchett
