AN: Not much to say, hopefully you're all still liking the story. We've got some interesting twists coming up! (^_^)/
January 22, 2004
"Watari, I need to speak with you about something," L said without looking up from his papers. Sakura was sleeping, Asya was out getting a few things that Sakura had asked her to pick up at the grocer and the NPA detectives had not yet arrived at the hotel.
"Of course," Watari replied as he came to L's side waiting for him to continue. L hadn't yet had a chance to tell Watari about Sakura with how busy they had been staying with the case.
"I believe that in the continuation of this case we will need a real headquarters, something more than these hotel rooms…" L began as he set down the stack of papers he had and sat back slightly in his chair resting his forearms on his knees.
"Just for the case?" Watari enquired with a gentle gaze as he waited for L to explain further.
"It would provide us more security and we wouldn't have to keep telling the NPA gentlemen to go to different hotels. And it would be nice to sleep in the same bed for more than a few night," L replied. Watari gave a curious glance, L rarely slept, and even more rarely did he make it to a bed to sleep.
"And that's all?" Watari said coaxing him a bit more. Watari was already certain of Sakura's pregnancy even though she attempted to feign that she had the flu or food poisoning to him since she had been staying at the hotel with them. It was all too clear in how L doted upon her when no one was around to see it.
"No, that's not all," L replied with a sigh. He could tell Watari knew and he was also never much good at keeping anything from him. "Sakura will need a stable place to be, as her pregnancy progresses…"
"That she will, my boy," Watari said with a smile. "I had been thinking about that too the past couple of days and I took the liberty of drawing a few architectural designs. I have them in the back bedroom closet. You and Sakura should look over them, whichever design you decide I will have a contractor get to work on immediately."
"Thank you Watari," L replied quietly.
"And if there is anything else you would like to talk about, you do know you can come to me," Watari told him, though he knew that L would talk in his own time, if he wished to. L simply nodded and returned to his work.
"So there was nothing unusual about those girls after all huh?" Ryuk asked as Light tossed him an apple.
"It was just like they said; everything in the online profiles that I could find came up normal. Or at least fairly normal… There did seem to be some spans of time that were missing though," Light replied as he went to get his phone.
"Who are you calling?" Ryuk questioned as he chomped down the last of the apple core.
"Well it never hurts to be thorough… I'll call Haruko and set up a date. If she's not part of the Kira Task Force, then based on what she's said she is a supporter of Kira. And perhaps she could be useful later on… If nothing else, she'll provide me a bit of entertainment," Light told him with a smirk. Ryuk gave a slightly surprised look but then began laughing.
"Humans are so interesting…" Ryuk muttered to himself as Light scrolled through his phone and called Sakura.
"Hi, it's Light. Yeah from To-Oh. Are you busy tonight? I was just thinking, have you ever tried Kaiseki? No? Well I know a really nice place, if you wanted to go. Great! So, why don't we meet at Shinjuku Station around six and we'll be able to walk to the restaurant from there. Okay, I look forward to seeing you." Light hung up and laughed to himself. "Well, I guess since I have a bit of time I can do some writing while I wait…" he got the Death Note out of his desk drawer and turned the TV on to the news channel.
"Asya, Asya, Asya!" Sakura called out running around the suite with her phone.
"What's wrong?" Asya asked with a concerned look as she rounded the corner from one of the rooms.
"I got a call…" Sakura replied as she showed her phone to Asya pointing to the caller's name.
"You're not seriously still pursuing that, are you? They cleared him when they did their surveillance here," Asya said quietly as she pulled her into another room.
"If he's cleared then it's just friends going to dinner," Sakura said nonchalantly.
"Who's going to dinner?" L asked seeming to have materialized out of thin air in the hall between the bedrooms.
"Asya and I?" Sakura replied with a meek smile.
"Is that a question or an answer?" L asked in a despondent tone.
"Yes…" Sakura said and went to go to their bedroom and get a new outfit.
"So you were yelling her name throughout the entire suite to invite her to dinner?" L questioned; his disbelief was clear in his voice.
"I get excited about food sometimes, what can I say?" Sakura replied as she threw a dress on the bed. L raised an eyebrow at her attire choice. "What?"
"This must be quite the dinner you two are going to… It's rather rare to get you into a dress…" L said as he snatched it off the bed examining it. "Isn't it a bit cold out for that at any rate?
"Well a girl likes to look nice now and then, and besides I'll be wearing a jacket, I didn't realize I had to have wardrobe approval," Sakura retorted attempting to take the dress back from him.
"I hadn't said I disapproved, as if that would stop you at any rate… I'm simply saying it's not exactly the season for this," L replied still keeping the dress out of her reach. "The truth and you can have it back." He told her attempting to bargain.
"You won't like the truth…" she said crossing her arms over her chest.
"Oh I'm sure I won't, but that doesn't mean I don't want to know what it is," he said as he draped the dress over his shoulder still waiting.
"Light called me; he wanted to go to dinner. I figured it's a good chance to do a bit of observation," she finally confessed and went to take the dress per their deal. L kept his hold on it yet.
"Light? As in, Yagami?" L questioned. "You actually think you ought to go to dinner with him, by yourself?" Sakura couldn't tell if he was concerned about Light possibly being Kira or jealous that she might go to dinner with Light.
"I'll go with her," Asya said, hoping this dinner would get the thoughts of Light being Kira out of Sakura's system once and for all.
"And how do you purpose to get yourself invited to this romantic dinner for two?" L asked bitingly.
"Oh, wait a minute; you're not jealous, are you?" Sakura questioned with a curious gaze.
"Jealous no, concerned, yes," he replied without looking at her.
"Then look me in the eye and tell me you're not jealous," she challenged.
"Can we have a moment Asya?" L asked in an unusually polite tone. Asya gave Sakura an uneasy look and backed out of the room. L closed the door and turned looking at Sakura, just staring at her for a while, why on earth would he be jealous? She was carrying his child after all… One doesn't get much more committed to another person than that. He let out a heavy sigh. "I just think this is a dangerous move. I know we both still suspect him, but I don't think you should get too close to him."
"I already accepted his invitation," Sakura told him as she took the dress from him.
He took a deep breath and ran his hand over his mouth, attempted to start talking but he couldn't quite get the right words out then he ran his hand over his mouth again. "Do I need to give you a list of the multitude of reasons that this is a terrible idea?" he asked finally.
"Please do…" she replied plainly as she began getting changed.
"Where do I start? One, you're pregnant, with my child, he's bound to notice at the very least that you are pregnant eventually, and the best scenario would be he loses interest, at worst if he finds out we're together he might harm you to get to me. Two, he's the son of one of the NPA detectives we work with, said detective knows about us, you do realize how betrayed Chief Yagami would feel if you played his son, don't you? And in turn how that would demolish trust from the NPA. Shall I go on?" he told her hoping there would be a way to get her out of this without raising Light's suspicions.
"Well then maybe I should steer his interest another way. He seems the type to enjoy a challenge and Asya flat out told him she thinks Kira is wrong, so…" Sakura began and L shook his head.
"Let's say he takes interest, generally one eventually wishes to indulge in physical contact, which she is not fond of," L said then got a pondering look. "But then we would know… Without a doubt…"
"I know…" Sakura replied, but felt a bit ashamed of herself for wanting Asya to find the truth in that way. The door opened and Asya entered the room.
"I'll do it," Asya told them. Sakura looked at her apologetically. "Maybe then you two can finally get over him."
Light sat on a bench at the train station waiting for Sakura to arrive. He looked at his watch it was five minutes until six o'clock. He glanced around watching people going about their daily lives and felt a moment of pride when he heard a child say that thanks to Kira he didn't have to worry about school bullies on his train ride home. Light's gaze scanned further in the crowd and his eyes narrowed on two women. She brought her friend? Doesn't she get what a date is? Light thought to himself with a sigh. Then he looked closer, something seemed off, Amanda looked rather sad. This would be inconvenient.
"Hey… I know I probably should have called you, but Amanda was really upset so I thought maybe if we all went out it might help cheer her up," Sakura told him in an apologetic tone.
"I hope everything is alright," Light replied giving a sympathetic look to Asya.
"I suppose it will be… Eventually," Asya said still putting on that depressed gaze.
"What happened, if you don't mind my asking?" Light questioned feigning concern.
"Shinji and I…" Asya started as she spoke of the fake boyfriend she mentioned in their first encounter and worked up a few tears for effect. "We broke up…"
"Oh… I'm sorry to hear that…" Light told her. He had to fight the unenthused sigh that he wanted to make at her display of emotion. "Well maybe getting out and having a nice dinner will help take your mind off things. Shall we?" The two nodded and walked with Light to the restaurant.
He apparently planned to spare no expense. The restaurant looked like a treasure hidden amidst the bustle of the city. An iron gate seemed to be guarding against the passage of time. When they entered the property the followed a stone path to a small wooden walking bridge that went over a stream gently flowing that koi fish flittered about in. The doors to the restaurant were ornate carved wood that shown in the light of the setting sun. Upon entering it was like stepping into the past, the long hall had various shoji screens leading to dining rooms on either side and they were greeted formally by a woman in a traditional kimono. She led them to one of the rooms and handed them each a hot towel to cleanse their hands with after which she quietly left to get them drinks to start of their dinner.
"This place is gorgeous," Asya marveled as she looked around at the artwork displayed on the walls. "I feel really guilty about barging in on your plans now…"
"Don't worry so much," Light told her as he reached out placing a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. Asya braced for the flood of memories, but nothing came. Light noticed the pensive look on her face. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have…" Asya stopped him and smiled.
"No, it's fine… Really, you're so kind," she said and the smile couldn't seem to remove itself from her face. What did it mean? It was refreshing to not have that surge of thoughts come in to her mind. Light gazed curiously at her, just this grazing touch made her so happy, she might be more manipulable than the other one, Light thought to himself.
Sakura had to hide her confusion at the sharp shift of the atmosphere in the room. She quickly became the third wheel as Light and Asya got to know each other. She couldn't believe Light was apparently innocent… The enamored look in Asya's eyes as she spoke with Light wasn't pretend. She wanted to know what Asya saw but she had never seen Asya look as happy as she was that night and Sakura couldn't bring herself to interrupt.
As the night wound down and they went to leave Light took Sakura to the side, "Sorry about how the night went, I know it was supposed to be you and me but…" he began fighting to hide the smirk at the hopes they might fight over him.
"It's alright, you two seem to be a good fit…" Sakura told him but gave a small sigh letting him think he was that important. "I guess it's time to go Amanda."
"Actually Light invited me to a movie, so I'll be home later on," Asya replied still beaming. Sakura couldn't help the confused look that came to her face. When had that happened? She never heard them say anything about it.
"Sorry Haruko, I asked her when you were in the restroom… I didn't want this to get awkward… I'm really sorry," Light said apologetically.
"Oh… I see…" Sakura replied as she put on an act of dejection. "Well, you two have fun then." Sakura really didn't like the idea of leaving Asya alone with him, but she also couldn't get over how much Asya seemed to genuinely like Light. Maybe she really was wrong about him being Kira after all.
