Chapter 8: Scent
For once, Light did not feel like lounging around in his room.
He'd been reluctant to go in there for a while now, ever since the whole stalker incident, though he knew the sentiment was irrational. He had secured the place, installed shutters over his window and built a flap under his bed for his gun to be securely hidden without being accidentally found by Sayu or anyone else meddling through his stuff. He didn't have to worry about the stalker anymore. If the man tried to do anything major, all he had to do was inform his father about it. It was simple, he didn't have to become so paranoid.
But whatever it was, sitting on his bed made him feel itchy all over. He liked studying under his stairs nowadays, not that that was a bad place to be. There was a hanging light right above where he liked to squat, so it was bright and convenient enough. Besides, nobody really expected him to be there so it was relatively private as well. The only problem was the lack of internet access, but he could manage with what he got.
He flipped casually through the textbook left open on his lap, jumping when he heard the front door slam. "I'm home." A gravelly male voice called, eliciting a shriek as Sayu came bounding down the stairs and barrelled into the man.
"Otou-san! Good evening! You're early!" The girl shouted, and their father chuckled.
"Yes, Sayu. I wasn't getting much progress with my current case, so I thought I'd come back to spend some time with you all." Light's ears pricked up at that. Ask him what his case is about, Sayu, come on.
No such luck. "That's awesome! Hideki Ryuga's special is coming on right now! Come watch with me, Otou-san! Okaa-san is making dinner, she'll be glad you came. Onii-chan didn't tell her he was going out so she made too much."
Light shook his head, rolling his eyes as he continued to skim through his textbook.
"Is that so? Is your brother out right now?" His father sounded disappointed. "I'd thought I would run the case by him, he always has an interesting perspective on things."
Light suppressed a smile. He liked hearing about how much his father respected his deductive skills, it stroked his ego. He glanced at them from his perch under the stairs. He was shielded from direct view, but he could see the two of them standing around, his father in his police uniform with bags around his eyes and that wilted expression that could only be cured by a full night's sleep; his sister with her bright eyes and cheery smile, holding her father's briefcase in her hands as she bobbed around, full of energy.
"No, Onii-chan didn't leave yet, I think he's in his room. Wait, I'll go call him down." She chirped, bounding up the stairs again. Her every step pounded in Light's skull, he wished she could just calm down a bit and not stomp around like she had just had fifteen energy drinks in one shot (not an unlikely possibility).
He ran his fingers nervously through his fringe. He wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to do. He didn't want to look weird in his father's eyes, sitting under the stairs like a homeless person, but it would just look weirder if Sayu turned up empty-handed and they found him after that, eavesdropping on their conversation.
Oh well, he had to do it sometime. He closed his book with a sigh. "I'm over here, Otou-san." He stood up, giving his father the fright of his life. The middle-aged man staggered back with wide eyes.
"What on Earth are you doing, Raito?"
Light held up his textbook with a wry smile. "Thought a change of scene would help."
Soichiro Yagami eyed him suspiciously. "Wouldn't Sayu's Hideki Ryuga program disturb you here?"
The teenager shrugged. "Not particularly. I can tune it out, it's a bunch of nonsense."
"Hey!" Sayu protested as she trudged back downstairs. "It is not a bunch of nonsense, it's awesome. And have you been there this entire time? How did I not see you?"
Light smirked. "Maybe you should try paying attention." He turned back to his father, smiling politely. "You mentioned something about a case, Otou-san?"
"Yes, of course." The middle-aged man went over to take his briefcase from his daughter, then gave his son a quick once over, noting the silky black shirt he wore over blue jeans. "It can wait if you're going out, son."
Light chuckled pleasantly. "No worries, I'm not on a tight schedule or anything. What's the case about?"
The chief of police took his briefcase over to the kitchen table, where his wife was putting out the plates. She stopped and stared at him for a second before bowing. "Oh, anata! You're home!"
"Yes, hello, Sachiko." He pulled his files from the bag and opened them up on the table, on top of the plates. His wife gave him a quietly disapproving look and retreated back to her simmering stew.
"It is a missing person's case. Kousaka Ouji, twenty year old male, went hiking last morning around eleven a.m. He was expected back that evening but never turned up"
Light gave his father a doubtful look as he flipped through the case files. "What's special about that? He could have got lost or…oh."
His father pressed his lips together. "Exactly."
Light stared at the picture of the dead body they had recovered from a neatly packed mound of dirt. "Oh, wow. That's not a wild animal for sure."
"Yes, we presume it to be a homicide. No matter how badly he is injured by an animal or any such thing, he would not have been completely drained of all of his blood or left whole and untouched this way apart from a blow to his head and bite mark on his shoulder."
Light bit his lip, studying the picture of the man's white corpse. "His profile is typical, young man in the woods alone. I think he was randomly selected, he didn't have any connection to his murderer." He looked up at his father, deep in thought. "He must have crossed his path by accident during the hike."
Soichiro frowned. "He could have been lured there to the middle of the forest or stalked."
Light flinched at the word. "Yes, well, the murder itself seems to have been done hurriedly, as if the murderer wasn't prepared right at that moment to come across his victim. Look at the method of killing, it was a blow to the head from the front, the hiker had been facing him, probably finding the killer doing something illicit. Suggests a drug dealer or someone getting rid of evidence of criminal activity, like a previous murder, something explicit enough to draw a passer-by's suspicion. Post-mortem, everything seems more planned out. The draining of the blood, the bite, the burial of the body to remove evidence."
The doorbell rang loudly, jarring them out of their reflections. Sayu's footsteps were loud as she abandoned her Hideki special once more. "I'll get it!"
Soichiro gestured for Light to continue with a most flatteringly attentive expression on his face, so the teenager turned back to the file. "I think the murderer is someone who has killed before, a criminal with some sort of perversion linked to blood. Considering the handling of the body, it's likely they will kill again, and the victim will be another hiker or homeless person, a person who frequents these abandoned places."
"Onii-chaaaan! It's for you!"
Light glanced up from the kitchen at the front door, where he spotted a slouching figure in a white shirt fidgeting as he spoke quietly with Sayu. The man looked up and met his eyes with those wide-set black orbs, pushing back his heavy raven fringe. Light realised there was an involuntary smile tugging his lips up and ducked his head, stepping away from the table.
"I'll be going now, Otou-san. I hope I was of some help."
His father seemed to be smiling as well, which was strange. "You always are. Thank you, Raito." He patted his son on the shoulder. "Won't you introduce your friend?"
"Oh." His eyes darted from Ryuuzaki to his father and back. "That's Ryuuzaki. I, um." Why was he babbling? This wasn't like him, he was too used to his silver tongue to adapt to this weirdness. His father chuckled heartily, unsettling him.
"It's alright, Raito. Go on. I hope I'll see you before midnight."
Light bobbed his head and slunk out of the kitchen, not really sure what was wrong with him. He passed Sayu in the hallway, noticing her awestruck expression as she watched him go dissolve into giggles. He touched his face as he went up to the pale man on his front step, giving her a sharp look.
"Hey, Ryuuzaki." He knew there was nothing on his face, he had been quite thorough in front of the mirror earlier. "Right on time. Let's go."
"Hello to you too, Raito-kun." The black-haired man said in his usual monotone, following him as he walked crisply out the door and pulled it closed behind him. "That was Soichiro Yagami, chief of the NPA?"
Light tilted his head curiously. "That was my dad, yes."
Ryuuzaki smiled. "I have heard of his work. I suspected that he would be using your intellect to solve his cases."
That had Light grinning. "I don't help that much, Ryuuzaki, just sometimes to give him a fresh perspective."
"I have noticed, Raito-kun, that you only ever use false modesty."
"Fuck off." Light elbowed the man, their shoulders brushing as they walked out of the Yagami porch into the street. "Where is your car?"
"I parked it further down. I remembered you saying something about Amane-san getting you in trouble because she turned up at your house and didn't want to make that mistake."
Light laughed. "That wasn't what I meant. You're not Misa. The only possible cons of hanging out with you would probably be looking very boring to the people around us."
Ryuuzaki stuck his thumbnail into his mouth and started to nibble. "Yes, I suppose that would be true if it was only the two of us."
"…it's not?"
Ryuuzaki bit hard into his fingernail and glared at the ground, his fringe shadowing his eyes. "My brothers slashed my tyres in an attempt to get into Amane-san's party with me. So they will be accompanying us."
Light blinked. "They did what?"
The black-haired man looked up at him with a mournful expression. "I hope you do not mind too much, Raito-kun."
"I don't mind? Your brothers slashed your tyres? Are they psychotic?"
His companion turned to him with the most serious face he had ever seen on him. "I warn you not to make sudden movements around them. They do love their knives."
Light snorted. "Doesn't everyone?"
Ryuuzaki raised his eyebrows at him as they approached a bright yellow car painted with black stripes, Light remembered it from the parking lot, it was always parked next to Ryuuzaki's convertible. "I'm not surprised. You are the blade-wielding type as well."
"Again, isn't everyone?" Light stopped by the car and gave Ryuuzaki an appreciative glance. "Nice car."
Ryuuzaki yanked at the car door with a sigh and held it open for Light like a proper gentleman. "It's my brother's."
"Obviously." The brunet rolled his eyes as he slipped inside, the black-haired man hopping beside him and pulling his legs up so his knees rested under his chin.
Light glanced around to find three pairs of eyes staring unblinkingly, almost hungrily at him. Reluctantly, realising that Ryuuzaki's warning about not making sudden movements had more merit than he had initially thought, he gave them a fluttering of his fingers.
"Um, hello."
Fuck, he smelled so good.
Near curled up tighter in his crouch on the car seat, his finger tugging painfully at his shaggy hair. Maybe he should have stayed at home after all. Maybe he should have let L and Mello fight it out and not have meddled with L's car, maybe he should just have answered another of Detective L's emails and not agreed to leave the house at all because he wasn't sure he could stand another second confined in the car next to Light Yagami.
Holy shit, that was lovely. Was that mud after rain? He had always loved that smell, it was what Whammy's House had smelled like before the vampire attack…
Near let out a muffled whine, slamming his finger against the button that slid open the window and taking a desperate gulp of fresh air. He noticed the human get uncomfortable beside him, fidgeting and sending quizzical glances at L. L himself was busy giving Near a scathing look. They were all ignoring Mello and Matt's jittery jokes, those two were too affected by Light's scent to manage to even peek at the backseat.
After a few minutes of awkward silence, L's brunet friend cleared his throat. "So, River-san? You're Ryuuzaki's brother too? I'd never have guessed." His laugh was stilted.
Wait a second. Near's head snapped up, his large black eyes boring into Light's chestnut ones. "How do you know that name?"
His smile looked strained. "We're in the same class."
"In all my classes, I go by the name Near."
Light glanced doubtfully at L. "I assumed that was a nickname."
"Whether it is or not is irrelevant. How did you find out the name River?"
"Um." The human seemed to be regretting starting this conversation. "You used it as your alias in that online doubles chess tournament. You and…Mihael Keehl, I believe. My partner Mikami traced you both after we got into that stalemate."
Near felt a chill go through his spine. "You are Kira?" He thought for a second. "That was a very good game."
"Yeah. It was." Light Yagami grinned. "We should play it again sometime, in person maybe. I'm pretty sure I could beat you if I watched your expressions."
"I doubt that, I am not a very expressive person."
The human smirked cockily. "Want to bet on that?" He leaned slightly towards Near and the white-blond boy got a noseful of that irresistible scent. "If I can read Ryuuzaki, you'll be a piece of cake. No offense."
Near tried not to breathe in. "None…none taken." He turned away from the teenager, trying to fill his lungs with the cool night air. Goddamn it all, he should have stayed inside.
"Are you okay, Nate-san?"
L's voice piped up, full of distaste and disapproval. "Near gets carsick. Don't mind him, Raito-kun."
"Oh, alright." The human said, and Near detected him inching away from him. Thank god.
Near didn't know how L had been resisting the brunet for so long. The sheer number of blood packs he had consumed before this didn't explain it. If it was he who had fallen for this human, Light Yagami would have become a vampire months ago, damn the consequences.
The car turned into a street lined with large, expensive houses on each side. In a city like Tokyo, finding individual houses this size was a refreshing change. With Misa Amane being a B-list pop singer and model, though, it was to be expected. Mello screeched violently into an empty spot on the curb, the occupants of the car swaying with the force. Light Yagami's shoulder bumped against Near's, and the first-ranked successor knew that one more provocation would have been enough to have him going for the teenager's neck.
It wasn't often Near lost his cool this way. He was glad Mello had fed only yesterday, he didn't know what L would do if any of them happened to attack his precious Raito-kun.
"So, uh, Ryuuzaki." The teenager in question grinned. "I'm sorry in advance for Misa."
.
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A/N: I always enjoy writing Light's family, they have such an interesting dynamic XD
