DISCLAIMER: swim4life4ever does NOT own Death Note. I do, however, own a used snowboard.
Random, I know.
L's PoV
Since when did sunburn sting this much.
It was so illogical, how could such damage occur to my skin in such a short amount of time? Four hours isn't that long of a time, and Misa and Light-kun didn't even turn slightly pink.
This was not fair. At all.
I was lying on my stomach on the couch of the lobby in the task force building, my shirt still off. Light-kun was standing by my side, trying not to laugh at the pitiful situation at hand. I saw Kaori-san talking to Watari, but I couldn't hear what they were saying. I saw Watari nod and the two walked over to us. Misa had long since gone home, to exhausted to walk. Kaori crouched down by my side.
"It hurts, no?" she smiled. I gave some unintelligible noise as a response, turning my head away from her. Yeah, the sunburn hurts. But that isn't what hurt me the most. I felt her slip her hand into my back pocket and I gasped in surprise, my head snapping to her.
She had the key in her hand.
She grabbed my cuffed hand, unlocking it, and placing it on Watari, and she bent down and whispered to me,
"Watari will look after Light." she grabbed my hand and pulled me up and I followed her, a bottle of green like gel in her hands. Her hand was covering the label, so I couldn't see what it was. Finally, we ended up back at my suite. She turned the light on, illuminating the room. She opened the bottle.
"Ryuzaki, lay on the bed on your stomach, please." She said. Dumbly, I complied, not really thinking why, more so of thinking what she was going to do, my head not thinking too clearly.
And then one spot on my back was both freezing cold and burning hot at the same time.
Kaori's PoV
The instant I put the aloe gel on Ryuzaki's back, he lept a foot in the air in shock.
I rolled my eyes and chuckled a bit as he winced in pain. "Ryuzaki, please stay still while I put this on. It'll make it feel better, I promise. This stuff works wonders." Dully, he nodded, turning back over onto his stomach. I squirted the green gel onto my hands and spread it on Ryuzaki's bony, red back. He shivered slightly, goosebumps raising. My hands worked up and down his back, making sure to get every sunburned spot.
"Mmmmmm" he murmured slightly, his eyes closed. I let out a laugh.
"Ryuzaki, are you purring?" I said as I traced my hands up and down.
"Perhaps so, Kaori-san," He mumbled. My hands traveled to the small of his back, feeling a raised line. A thin, white scar went across the width of his lower back.
"Ryuzaki, what's this?" I asked, my index finger tracing across.
L's PoV
That scar.... Brought back so many painful memories.
Should I tell her?
No, she doesn't need to know.
But, she told me about her drinking.
Would she understand? Would she think less of me? Then again, she doesn't think that highly of me right now. Questions flashed in my head, each one different, but all had the same root.
Would she prejudge me?
To hell with it.
I pushed myself up from the position I was laying in and sat crossed legged in front of Kaori, who was kneeling on the bed.
"Back when I was a mere toddler, before Watari found me....."
I looked up at my mother, her eyes shining at me as I completed the puzzle in front of me. I knew we didn't have much money, even at three years old, I could sense it. But I never complained. I didn't want to upset my mother. I loved her too much.
"That's the fastest puzzle I've ever seen!" she exclaimed, hugging me tightly, ruffling my hair. I held on to her tightly, not letting go. Suddenly, I heard a loud bang and saw a man stumbling in. My mother's eyes turned from love and adoration to hate and disdain. "Sweetie, please go to your room." I nodded and ran into my room. Soon after, I heard slurred shouting.
"Listen baby, I can't leave, you know that?" the slurred voice, coming from my father, shouted. I cringed slightly.
"Get the hell out of here now! We don't need you here!" I heard my mother, her voice normally soft and caring, shout. "We don't need an alcoholic drug addict here. We, no, I have a child to raise. A gifted, brilliant child. I want what's best for him, what's best for myself!" I heard a wicked, evil laugh.
"Come on baby, that kid, he ain't nothing. You know that. He's a freak!" My father started laughing. "Really now, how did he happen? I'm the coolest guy in the WORLD, and you, you baby are amazing. How did we make such a little freak?" Tears welled up in my eyes. Not true, not true, I told myself over and over again. I'm special, that's what Mother told me. "Unless, of course, you CHEATED on me. Little whore!" His voice boomed and I heard my mother scream. Scared, I dashed out of my room into the living room, hiding behind the bookshelf. I saw my father raise a knife up in the air.
"Momma?" I whispered, scared. He swung down, knifing her across the head. Her scream was cut off as she dropped to the floor, blood pooling out of her head, her eyes rolled back into her head. "MOMMA!" I shouted, my father spying me.
"There you are, you little bastard!" My father shouted, swinging the knife around wildly. I ran across the room as fast as I could, covering my head. Just as I reached the door, I felt a sharp pain in my lower back, and then it felt warm. I touched my hand to it, then covered with blood. I screamed as I exited the house, running as fast as I could, not knowing whether or not I was being followed.
Finally, after I don't know how long, I collapsed in front of a middle aged man with a kind face.
Kaori's PoV
Ryuzaki looked down as he told the story, ashamed of it. I was speechless, I didn't know what to say.
"Ryuzaki.... I'm.... I'm so sorry you had to go through that," I said, not really sure what to say. He looked up at me, his face dead serious.
"Kaori," he said, leaving off the honorific. "I'm so sorry for what I did to you. I-" he stopped, looking down in shame. "I had a reason for leaving. You were the first, and only person I had ever slept with, had even had remote feeling for. And that's not something I'm used to. It was so out of the norm, bizarre, and a million different words. And how was I, the great detective L, supposed to stay focused on the task? Kaori, I had finished the case three weeks before I left because I didn't want to leave you. I didn't even tell Watari I was done. I just... stayed. What was I to do? Tell you who I was? Expect you to follow me wherever I went, wherever my next case led me? You had, no, have such a bright future. Who was I to ask to to do such a thing? And even now, I keep you in the same building, same presence, as my top two suspects for my own, selfish reasons. Do you know what's it's like to live with that, knowing I'm putting the person I love in danger everyday?"
The words shook me to the core. Thousands of possibilities reared through my head, my eyes glazed over as I leaned against the headboard of the bed, my eyes wide.
"Kaori?" Ryuzaki asked, poking my cheek. "Did you hear me?"
For some stupid reason, I couldn't speak. All I could do was stare at him. Finally, one word bubbled to my lips.
"Ryuzaki...." I whispered, my tongue thick. Before either of us could say anything, I was crushed against the headboard, his lips at mine once again. It wasn't playful like the last one, this one had meaning, years of bottled up emotions and unsaid words behind it. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me to his bare chest. I pulled back slightly, breathing the words,
"You were wrong, you kissed me first." I felt him smirk and weave his fingers in my hair as he said,
"I never said it was 100% certain." He pushed me down on the bed.
And something in me snapped.
Ice cold fear.
Harshly, I turned over, breaking the kiss, leaping off the bed, leaving Ryuzaki sprawled on the bed.
"I-I'm sorry, I-I can't." I stuttered, running out of the room.
Errr L might have been OOC.... please tell me if he was. I really did try to make him in character, but in a scene like, that, it's hard..
Reviews=Love, and you all want my love! And cookies, which I did make today.