I do not own Death Note.
Search For The Sun
Chapter 10
Day 18
Dakota was sitting in her chair at the dining room table tapping her fingertips against the surface.
It made a loud rapping noise that had everyone in the room staring at her.
She had her legs crossed, and was leaning back against her chair.
She hadn't said much, but was extremely anxious about being in such a crowded room.
Aden, who was sitting beside her, was telling her to be quieter.
He didn't like the looks that the others were giving her.
She ignored him and continued making the noise.
She started to hum along with the beat.
It was a song her mother used to hum to her, it never really had words.
Her mother would just hum it to keep her calm after her father left, seeing as she was just a little girl who had lost her father.
L thought the noise was humorous, and the stares didn't bother him.
The song she was humming was quite interesting.
He was sitting in his strange way with his knees pulled to his chest, and was eating a strawberry cupcake he had brought with him.
Some of the children who were watching him were wondering why he wasn't being yelled at.
Normally no sweets were allowed until after the meal, Mello, Near, Beyond, and apparently this new guy were the only ones allowed sweets.
Anyone who broke that rule usually got scolded by Mrs. Evans or one of the other caretakers.
"Can you stop staring?" Dakota asked pulling a quarter from her pocket and twirling it on the table top.
She started to flip it, before Aden snatched it from her.
She gave him a halfhearted glare and tried to retrieve her coin.
Aden held it just out of her reach.
"Introduce yourself Miss Hudson," Mr. Roger said appearing out of nowhere.
He was glaring slightly at all the children, except L.
Who was now eating a bowl of strawberries, that no one had seen before now.
"I'm Dakota, call me D. It's a pleasure to meet you all," Dakota stated, with a fake smile on her face.
She was obviously uncomfortable with being in a crowded room, and it made her slightly meaner than usual.
She sat back down in her seat, and held out her hand for her coin.
Aden set it in her palm, with a stern look, before introducing himself, "I'm Aden, It's nice to meet you."
"Now that you know who are new guests are, I would like to introduce you to the L," He informed them as L stood.
He gave a half wave, and stuck a pick of candy in his mouth.
His face was impassive as usual.
All the children started to whisper about him, it was expected considering he had been their idol for years.
Some were excited, some uncaring.
Most refused to believe this boy was L.
He wasn't what they had built him up to be, but he was still L.
He was the man (adolescent) they were all hoping to become.
"That's not possible!" Mello whispered angrily to Matt.
Matt nodded in agreement, his eyes never leaving his game.
Mello's eyes were watching L in disbelief, for once he wasn't eating his chocolate.
"He's L!" A girl near the end yelled.
She ran to his side, and fluttered her eyelashes.
She looked a little too old to be flirting with a 14 year old. "I'm Linda, it's so nice to meet you!"
"Yes, Linda. The artist, am I correct?" He inquired, sitting back in his seat.
He was biting into the last strawberry that he had.
"Yes! I'm the best in the orphanage!" She exclaimed, gripping his arm tightly.
He dropped his strawberry and was now glaring at the girl, who didn't seem to notice his hateful gaze.
"The best in the orphanage?" Dakota questioned, twirling her coin.
"Yeah I am, got a problem with it!" Linda growled, her hazel eyes narrowing. "Can you move? I would like to sit next to the L."
"No, I don't have a problem with it, but I'm not going to move. I'm quite comfortable where I am, and besides I don't think the L want you to sit by him." Dakota told her, putting the silver coin back in her pocket and looking away not really caring.
"Well, I'm one of the best here! I'm ranked Fifth! You have to listen to me!" She yelled, flicking her wavy brown hair.
She was obviously one of the stuck up girls in the house.
Dakota thought about hitting her like she hit Mello, but decided to give her a chance.
Everyone here had lost their parents, maybe she wasn't quite over it yet.
"Seventh," L stated trying to shake her off his arm. "Miss Hudson is ranked fifth now, and Aden is ranked third."
"I was moved down?" Mello asked anger seeping into his voice. His blue eyes were filled with Malice towards the new boy.
"Yes you are fourth now," L succeeded in shaking the older girl off his arm. "Though I assume Miss Hudson and Aden will be moved up soon."
"What!" Mello shouted jumping from his chair, which fell backwards with a loud crack.
"C-calm d-down," C said, gripping his arm gently.
Her touch seemed to help a little, but he was still to angry to completely calm down.
"No! It's just like it was with Near! She's here one day and she's already above me!" He yelled, yanking his arm from her grip and running from the room.
His chocolate lay forgotten on the table.
"I'm s-sorry a-about M-mello," C picked up his chair and pushed it back in place. "I s-should go s-speak t-to him."
"I should go too. This is my fault," Dakota stood from her chair.
"No, he needs time to calm down," Near told her, his tone uncaring.
He was stacking dice on the table, a girl sitting next to him was helping.
She looked a year or two younger than Near.
A small boy, who sitting across the table from them, threw a spoon at the growing pile of dice.
Successfully knocking them down.
The dice scattered across the tabletop.
The young girl's ice blue eyes narrowed dangerously at the young boy.
Her small hands gripped the tablecloth tightly.
Her eyes dropped to the ground, covered by her ebony black bangs.
She stood and walked from the room, Near followed her silently.
"That was Rain," Matt told Dakota. "She has anger issues. She hasn't spoken to anyone but Near."
"Why are we the only people here with normal names?" Aden asked, leaning back in his chair.
His eyes were slightly narrowed towards the other boys, like always, but they didn't seem as hostile as usual.
"We have normal names, but we use fake names," He informed them, "My real name is Mail."
"I like that name," Dakota smiled at him. "It's not common."
"I'm Beyond," B sat where Mello had been sitting.
He was eating from a jar of strawberry jar with his fingers.
It made Dakota a little uneasy, but she didn't say anything.
"I'm C-colette," C stuttered, sitting back down.
Her emerald eyes flickered up to meet Dakota's Jade, before dropping to the tabletop.
"I can't tell you my name," L stood and walked from the room.
His expression was slightly pained, before it smoothed out and became emotionless.
The rest of the children followed him out, leaving Matt, Beyond, Crimson, Dakota, and Aden sitting alone in the dining room.
"Why can't he?" Dakota asked, her eyes staring at the door he went out.
She would have liked to know his name, but didn't matter that much.
"It's too dangerous for the L to tell his name to others in case one tries to hurt him," Beyond answered licking some jam off his fingers.
His dark eyes were watching Dakota intensely.
It gave her the chills, and made her slightly uncomfortable.
"Beyond, you speak french?" Dakota inquired, her eyes shining with curiosity.
"Yes, everyone here has learned at least two languages. I know French, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, and Japanese," He told her. "How about you?"
"I only speak Spanish and French," She said rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly.
Usually Dakota was the one who impressed others.
Not that she cared, but Beyond was incredible intelligent.
Nobody else at the table seemed impressed by his vast knowledge of languages, but it was an orphanage for overly intelligent children after all.
They all probably knew this, and were no longer impressed.
"Do you wish to learn any others?" Beyond was watching her with excited eyes, hoping she would say yes.
He liked this girl so far, and L had shown an interest in her.
Which usually meant Beyond would as well.
"Japanese would be helpful to learn, as would German," She started to spin her quarter again.
She really wanted to learn both, but didn't want to seem too excited.
"I could teach you," He smiled widely. "It wouldn't be that hard."
"That would be really great. I have always wanted to learn Japanese, but it wasn't available at my school in the US," She pulled a jolly rancher out of her pocket and stuck it in her mouth.
"What state did you live in?" Matt asked, his fingers still pressing the buttons on his game.
"Washington," She answered, standing up and walking towards a nearby window.
It had an amazing view of the grounds.
It was cloudy outside, but that didn't affect Dakota.
She wasn't fond of days where the sun was too bright.
You are my sunshine.
My only sunshine.
She rested her palm against the cool glass.
She noticed there wasn't any children playing outside, unlike at Fircrest, where there were always children outside.
It was depressing considering they were at an orphanage.
It was a lonely sight, there should be children playing outside.
Her fingers moved up to softly touch her necklace, as they always did when she thought of home.
"Are you okay?" Beyond asked, he had moved to stand beside her while she was spacing out.
Her eyes had glazed over, and she had stopped moving completely except for her hand gripping the small red gem hanging from her neck.
Which she released and allowed it to fall back inside her shirt, hidden from the world as it usually was.
"I'm fine," She shook her head, and looked away from the window.
She moved to sit back down when Beyond hand gripped her wrist gently and gave her a concerned look.
Her partially forgotten dream returned fresh to her mind.
She shook off his arm, and sat back down.
His eyes, in the dream they had been crimson, but they weren't.
They were a deep gray, but that's not what bothered her.
It was the fact she had dreamt of someone she had never even met before.
At first she had thought it was L, but it wasn't.
It had been Beyond.
"I'm getting a migraine, I think I'm going to go lay down." She stood and walked to the door. "I'll see you guys later."
It was just an excuse to get away.
She didn't feel completely comfortable around Beyond, and wished she hadn't excepted his help with languages.
She walked down the empty halls, looking at the doors she passed.
Most of the rooms she passed were bedrooms, she also passed a library, a kitchen, and a computer room.
She passed a door that was painted white, while the others were plain wood.
She wondered who lived in the room, when the door opened and L walked out.
He inspected the hallway for children, and gave her a almost nonexistent smile when he saw her.
"Oh, hello," He said, smiling slightly at her. "I was able to outrun those children."
"They're just happy to meet their idol," She leaned against the wall.
She tugged lightly on the hem of her shirt.
"Do you want to come in?" He smiled and held open the door to his room.
He was trying to make her comfortable.
"Yeah sure," She accepted walking through the open door.
Every thing in his room was white except the messy comforter on his bed, which was black, and the laptop on his desk, which was light gray.
It all seemed very boring, but nice at the same time.
She sat on his bed, which was as comfortable as it looked, while he sat in his desk chair.
"I know about your nightmares," He drank from a cup of tea that was sitting on the desk, before adding more sugar until it more sugar than tea.
"I don't know what you are talking about," She wasn't sure who told him, but she wasn't happy about it.
"I know that you rarely if ever get a few hours of sleep at a time. An old friend informed me about the incident on the plane," He informed her.
"I would ask who, but you probably wouldn't tell me. And my nightmares are none of your business," Her fingers brushed against her necklace, which L hadn't noticed until then considering it had been hidden in her shirt.
It stood out against the pale of her skin and the dark of her clothes, complementing both.
"Where did you get that?" He walked to her side, and leaned down until he was right in her face.
She scooted back a bit, as he climbed on the bed and reached for her necklace.
His fingers brushed her's aside as he ran his fingers over the jewel in a manner much like her own.
"It was my mothers," She scooted back a bit more until her back hit the head board.
"Am I correct in thinking it is a ruby?" He asked, bringing his knees to his chest.
His head tilted slightly to the side like a young confused child.
His face was emotionless, while his eyes showed curiousity.
"Yes you are," She swung her legs over the side of the bed, staring down at her converse.
They were wearing down.
She would need to switch to the new pair that Mr. Hodgens had gotten her, and soon.
Or she could just do what L does, and walk around barefoot.
In this place it wouldn't seem strange, considering people just wore whatever they wanted.
"What haunts your nightmare?" He asked after a moment of silence.
"Death," She stood and walked from his room gracefully, once out of sight she sped up and hurried to her room.
She found her room quickly, and shut the door behind her pushing her chair under the doorknob to keep it shut.
She didn't feel like talking to anyone else.
She lay in her bed staring up at the ceiling surprised to find it was already one in the afternoon.
She had spent the morning doing basically nothing, which was all she seemed to be doing lately.
Dakota reached into her nightstand and pulled out the picture of her and her mother.
It had a small tear in the upper right corner but nothing big.
It had been a sunny day when the picture was taken.
A twelve year old Dakota was sitting on a balcony in a black sundress that made her pale skin look even lighter in the bright sun.
Her long blond hair had been cut to her shoulders and curled into perfect ringlets.
Her lips had curved upward into the smallest of smiles as she looked at the young children playing in the green grass below.
Dakota's mother had set the timer on the camera so she could be in picture with her.
Her mother was wearing a pair of old faded jeans, that were a few sizes too big, and a bright blue tang top that showed off her thin frame.
On top of her auburn hair sat an old straw hat, that had seen better days.
She was barefoot and it was easy to see the small heart tattoo on her ankle.
It was a reminder of her college days, where every night was a party.
There were barely noticable bags under her eyes that were covered up by make up.
She looked exhausted, but had a wide smile on her face as she spent her Saturday off with her daughter.
Dakota loved this picture.
It had been a fond memory of her mother.
On the rare days her mother got off from work she spent them either cleaning the house, which was easy with Dakota's help, or spending time with her only daughter who was more than happy to see her mother.
Sometimes they would spurge and go somewhere nice like a local restaurant or to the zoo.
Dakota loved the zoo, seeing as there were plenty of things to draw.
She had millions of pictures from those days hidden in the bottom of one of her drawers.
She shook off the thought and walked over to her desk, pulling out her sketch pad.
She flipped through the recent pages and tore one out.
She trimmed the edges until she deemed it okay and tacked it to the wall.
It was a drawing of Aden, Kendall, and Dylan.
Dylan and Kendall had talked her into going outside, and Aden came with just to make sure nothing happened.
She had sat herself in the grass and had drawn her newly found friends.
Aden had been leaning against the trunk of a nearby tree, watching as Dylan and Kendall fought over a piece of candy they had found in the grass.
Dakota had said neither one should eat it, but as usual they ignored her and fought over the old piece anyway.
She rolled her eyes and filled the time by drawing them.
Eventually it had started raining and they had hurried inside.
The picture had spots where the rain drops had hit it, but she had made it back inside before any real damage had been made to the image.
It looked quite lovely and the spots added character or so Bell had said.
She missed bell and had only drawn one picture of the raven haired little girl.
Which had been basically a quick sketch.
She would have to ask a favor of L later.
Maybe she could talk him into getting her a picture of the small girl?