Risks and Rewards
Description: Elijah has a new year and a new mission, but this time Light won't be so cooperative. Let the battle of ideology begin.
Disclaimer: Death Note is still not mine. Go figure.
A/N: Got bitten by the oneshot bug, so this chapter is a few days late. At least it's out before the week is up. And there's a bit of Elijah/Light subtext for rain angst, too. :)
I apologize in advance for the cliffhanger, and I promise to get the next chapter up as soon as possible.
Chapter 13
Towel? Check. Sunglasses? Check. Suntan lotion? Check.
A shadow briefly fell in front of Light's eyes, and he looked up in time to see two twenty-somethings walk by.
Beautiful women in bikinis? Check.
"Oniisan!" Sayu leaned over to smack her brother in the head. "Are you checking girls out already? We haven't even been here five minutes!"
Rubbing his head gingerly, Light glared up at her as best he could with the sun shining in his eyes. "Sayu," he half-growled, "I am a healthy, warm-blooded teenage male on a beach in the middle of July. You should be impressed that it took as long as five minutes. Besides, Elijah informed me that your main objective of the afternoon is to find one or two good-looking guys and flirt your way into your first kiss."
Sayu's eyes widened, and a flush rapidly spread over her cheeks. Turning slightly to look behind her, she chastised, "Elijah!"
The young man in question paused in his attempt to help Julie set up a large umbrella and blinked at the pouting girl before him. "Yes?" he asked innocently.
"You weren't supposed to tell my brother that!"
"Tell him what?"
Sayu threw up her hands in defeat and stalked off towards the parking lot from which Rich, Charlie, and Lily were approaching, the first two carrying a large cooler between them. Light and Elijah watched Sayu go, one with an expression of amusement, the other with confusion.
"What did I do?" Elijah asked after a moment.
"Don't worry about it," Light told him, suppressing a grin. "Finish helping your mother."
Elijah shrugged and complied while Light continued to lay out and straighten his towel. He had been looking forward to this trip to the beach and was in quite a wonderful mood. Even the presence of the she-devil had done little to dampen it so far, although he had to attribute that mostly to the fact that she had ridden in the other car. Even so, he doubted she or anyone else could rattle him today, not with his plans to lie in the sun and let other people admire him for pretty much the entire time.
As Light began the process of smoothing lotion over his skin, Rich wandered by, now carrying the cooler alone. He placed it down by his wife's folding chair, grabbed the umbrella out of Elijah's fumbling hands, and finished its setup in five seconds flat. Julie threw her arms about him and cried something along the lines of "My hero," although when Elijah began to pout, she kissed him as well and thanked him for his help. Then she and Rich both settled into their chairs and proceeded to act as if they did not know the teenagers they had brought with them in a parental attempt to not embarrass anyone.
Light watched all of this with amusement, chuckling to himself when Elijah stared at his parents in confusion at their sudden refusal to speak more than two words to him, and then looked about to see where the girls had gone. He found them loitering near the parking lot, apparently having stopped to chat once Sayu had caught up to the other two. Only half conscious of the fact, he found himself comparing and analyzing them in that quintessential way that all males do when confronted with women in swimwear.
His sister had worn a bright pink bikini that highlighted her tanned skin and her long, dark hair. She was still a bit plump in places -- her upper arms, thighs, and belly -- but Light had to admit that she had a very nice body and it made him feel even prouder, and more protective, of her. Charlie, on the other hand, was all lean muscle. She wore a black bikini and had her golden hair in its traditional pony-tail. Light noticed with a twinge of evil satisfaction that she was rather flat-chested, but he also conceded that her athletic body would have looked ridiculous if curvy breasts had interrupted the sleek lines of her legs and stomach. Lily, unsurprisingly, wore a one-piece, its color a delicate blue, and she had wrapped a dark-colored sarong around her waist to hide her thighs from view. She did have breasts, Light noted, small but rounded and soft-looking, perfect for the gentle innocence she always radiated.
The three of them really were quite attractive, individually and as a group. And from the looks that they were receiving from males all over the beach, Light knew he was not the only one who thought so. His eyes narrowed a bit at the thought that a portion of those hungry stares were being directed at his sister. As long as they stayed stares, he would restrain himself, but if any of them began to border on anything even approaching indecency, he would have to intervene and reacquaint these hormone-driven pigs with their proper place.
His thoughts of vengeful retribution ended with an abrupt jolt when something bumped against his cheek. Surprised, Light shifted his gaze to find Elijah standing next to him, a bottle of suntan lotion in his hand. "I need to have this applied," he announced as way of greeting.
"Do it yourself," Light snapped, still irritated with thoughts of his sister's chastity in danger.
"I have," the other returned evenly, "but I cannot reach my own back. I require your assistance for that. In return, I will be happy to do the same for you."
A host of snippy remarks tried to seize control of Light's tongue, but he bit them back at the sight of those calm, stubborn eyes. Sighing, he snatched the bottle from Elijah's hand and ordered, "Sit down," indicating the end of his own towel.
The blond complied, pulling his legs up into his customary position and presenting his smooth, rounded back to the brunet. Light couldn't help but shake his head at how white Elijah's skin was as he popped open the cap and dumped a healthy amount of the smelly lotion into his hand. He slapped it onto the back in front of him and began to spread it out, wanting nothing more than to finish this job as quickly as possible.
As he worked, however, memories began to come to him unbidden. That white skin, pale as death, covered in tubes and wires as his dear friend lay comatose in the hospital. Looking at still fingers, wishing with everything he possessed that they would move, just a little. The overwhelming joy when they had. Light's own fingers slowed and he worked more carefully at his task, paying attention to where he spread the lotion so that he covered every spot and taking the time to massage in any white streaks that persisted after his initial application. More memories came to him. Another massage, Elijah's hands on his aching feet. That terrible feeling of despair and helplessness. Blood on his lips and tears in his eyes as he listened, just listened, to the other man's breathing and tried not to think of how soon it would stop.
Light bit the inside of his cheek to stop the stupid tears that suddenly wanted to spring up. He'd be damned before he let himself cry over a memory. And yet he knew he probably would cry come next spring; he'd probably cry more than he had in his entire life. He didn't want to lose Elijah, but he had no choice. His goal was far too important. So he couldn't really reach the ideal of which he had once dreamed, so what? Flawed or not, human or not, it was still important, too important to let go for his own selfish desires.
Gently, Light let his fingers glide over the pale expanse of his friend's back one more time, as if simply by touching him he could keep him there indefinitely. Then, he scooped up the bottle, flipped the top closed and dangled it over Elijah's right shoulder. "Here. I'm done."
Ignorant of the younger man's recent thoughts, Elijah took the bottle and turned slightly to send him a small smile. "Thank you, Light."
"Not a problem."
"Would you like me to reciprocate now?"
Light shook his head, sending wayward brunet strands into his eyes. "No thanks," he smiled. "I'm going to do some sunbathing, so I'll be lying on my back for a while. When I'm ready to flip over, I'll call you, or if you're busy, I'll just get someone else to do it."
"Very well." Elijah rose and took the bottle back to his own towel. Crouching down, he shoved the bottle into the bag he had brought and, in the next movement, yanked out a white T-shirt which he proceeded to pull over his head.
Light stared. Had he really just spent the last few minutes applying sunblock for the other man -- and undergoing some rather uncomfortable and painful reminiscing -- just to have his work negated by the presence of a shirt? The melancholy that had taken over him evaporated instantly, leaving severe irritation behind in its place, but he decided at once not to bother hounding Elijah for an explanation. The resulting argument certainly wouldn't be worth the trouble. Rolling his eyes, Light donned his sunglasses and flopped back onto his towel to begin his sun-worshipping.
"Onii-saaaan!" Sayu was back. "Aren't you going in the water?"
"Nope," he replied, not even opening his eyes to look at her. Lazily, he lifted a hand and shooed the air in the direction from which her voice had come. "Go have fun. Leave me alone."
He heard Sayu huff in mock-anger and a gentle giggle that was probably Lily. "Fine," his sister said. "Come on, Elijah-niichan. Let's go swimming!"
"Ah, but I have not had significant instructi--" His protest ended in a yelp, and Light opened one eye long enough to see his sister dragging the shell-shocked blond down to the shore.
Various shuffling and chatting occurred as the two remaining girls laid out their towels, but Light tuned them out. He was enjoying soaking in as much warmth as he possibly could, letting his body turn into jelly as he lay there and did absolutely nothing. It was heaven, pure heaven. Nothing could possibly ruin this moment.
"Hey, pretty boy."
That is, almost nothing. Light growled out a word in Japanese that surely would have made his sainted mother faint dead away and demanded, "What do you want, she-devil?"
Her shadow fell over him, making him frown even more. "Just want to talk for a bit," she replied in a strangely neutral voice.
"Fine," he said, "but move. You're blocking my sun."
Surprisingly, she did as he had asked and moved around to his other side to sit next to him in the sand. Light cracked an eye open to gaze at her in distrust. He was more than half expecting another round of Kira insults now that Sayu wasn't nearby, but the calm look on her face as she stared at the water made him doubt that assumption. And when she spoke, her words informed him how far off the mark he had been.
"It has been suggested to me that I might want to rethink my attitude in regards to you and give you another chance." She pulled one leg up and rested her chin on it as she continued, "I have a habit of making snap judgments and then stubbornly holding on to them in spite of what others say. I've never cared enough to change before, but in your case, I'm thinking it might be worth it to give it a try."
Light stared at her, not bothering to hide his shock or his skepticism even as she turned to him and asked, "What do you say?"
"What do you expect me to say?" he asked back. "'Oh, thank you so much for this second chance'? 'I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart'? Like hell. I'm perfectly happy hating you and having you hate me. You're a bitch."
He had thought Charlie couldn't surprise him further at this point, but he realized he had been wrong when she threw her head back and laughed at his insult. "Thank you," she replied, throwing him a wink. "I'm glad you think so."
"You're kidding me. You're happy that I think you're a bitch?"
"Sure. You only think so because I have strong opinions and enough self-confidence to voice them and fight for them. That's feminism at its core right there."
Light scowled and shut his eyes again. "Being a feminist does not automatically equate to being insufferably loud, pushy, and rude," he argued.
"Well," Charlie replied lightly, "nobody's perfect. I have my flaws, but so do you. You're a textbook case in arrogance."
"Because you know me so well," Light sniped.
"No," Charlie countered, "but your sister does."
Concerned, he cracked one eye open again and glared at her from behind his sunglasses. "Sayu? What does she have to do with anything?"
Charlie was smiling at him, although it wasn't her usual smug expression that she used for Light; instead, it was a real smile, the kind she seemed to show only to Lily. "Nothing," she answered his question. "She was just telling me how much of a peacock you are in regards to your looks and your brains. And honestly, the fact that you're here working on your tan instead of having fun like everyone else goes a long way to prove that. If you're half as smart as she says you are, though, I'd be willing to cut you some slack on being proud about that. But not too much," she joked with a grin. "I have to admit that whenever I see some puffed-up pretty boy, it's always extremely hard to resist the temptation to pop his over-inflated ego." And to accentuate the point, she poked Light hard in the ribs.
Feeling his temper flaring and beginning to burn, Light sat up abruptly and tore off his sunglasses to glare at her. "And what," he demanded, "is the point of all this?"
"The point," she told him, not at all intimidated by his anger, "is that I want to try to get to know you, arrogance and all. And I want you to try to get to know me, bitchiness and all. And hopefully that will allow us to peacefully coexist if not exactly be friends."
"Why?" he shot back. "You still haven't answered that. Why should I? And why do you care enough to even try it?"
Charlie answered him by shifting her eyes to the water and inclining her head. "For them," she said in a significantly quieter voice.
Light turned and followed her gaze. Down at the shoreline, Sayu and Lily were trying to coax Elijah into doing more than just allowing the waves to lap at his ankles. As he watched, his sister's patience finally expired, and she began splashing the poor blond, getting him soaked in seconds. Lily scolded her and walked out of the water to take Elijah by the hand, once more trying to get him to come in with them. Elijah, presumably deciding that since he was already wet he had no reason not to go, let her lead him in and waded out until the water reached his hips at which point he stopped. Sayu splashed him a couple more times, but in retaliation Elijah ran his arm in a wide circle along the top of the water, creating a wave that drenched her and effectively ending the splash-war before it had truly begun.
Light returned his gaze to Charlie and found her watching the scene with deep fondness shining in her eyes. "For them," he echoed her words. "You mean, for Lily."
"And for Elijah," she corrected. "But yes, mostly for Lily." She rotated her head so that her cheek rested against her knee and glanced over at him sideways. "She likes him, you know."
"I know," he replied, nodding a little. The sudden gentleness in her manner had eased his anger and left him feeling calm and mildly detached.
"Does he like her?"
"No. At least, not the way she would want."
"That's what she thought," Charlie sighed, turning her eyes back to her friend. "Neither of us think there's someone else, though."
"There isn't," Light replied immediately. "'Lij just isn't interested in girls or romance in general." He also returned his attention to the figures in the sea and watched as Elijah showed a seashell that he had just found to the small girl standing next to him. "But if he ever does become interested," Light added to the blonde beside him, "I have no doubt Lily will be the one he chooses."
"Which is why we need to learn to get along," she insisted, poking him again, this time more gently. "I'm not going to go through life hating my best friend's boyfriend's best friend."
Light quirked an eyebrow at her and was met by that stubborn blue gaze, staring at him with fiery determination. With an exaggerated roll of his eyes, he put his sunglasses back on and lay down on his towel once more. "Fine," he sighed with an extra touch of drama. "If you want to try to get to know me better, go ahead."
Fifteen minutes later, he was trying to convince himself that he wasn't enjoying their conversation. Thirty minutes later, he no longer cared.
xXx
Building a sandcastle, Elijah had learned, was much more difficult than it first appeared. Or at least, it was if you wanted something more than a single overturned bucket with a stick in the top for a flag. If you wanted something more aesthetically pleasing, something with a moat and turrets and a courtyard and maybe even a working drawbridge, it was much, much more complicated.
It was all the sand's fault, really. It had to be just the right consistency. Too dry and it wouldn't stick; too wet and it slopped everywhere. And it didn't help that the stupid stuff was all over his body. His hands, knees, and feet were covered in sand, and it had managed to worm its scratchy, gritty way up his thighs and under the collar of his shirt. He felt like a giant powdered donut except not nearly as appetizing.
"Elijah?" Lily called from the other side of their growing fortress. "Is this acceptable?"
He peered around the walls of the castle to inspect her work on one of the turrets. "You need a bit more support there," he stated, pointing to a weak spot. "Otherwise, it's fine. The rough edges will need to be smoothed of course."
"Of course," she echoed, already working on fixing the problem he had indicated. "Have you figured out a way to add a portcullis yet?"
"Not yet," he admitted with a sigh. He lifted a thumb to chew on it but stopped when he realized it was covered in sand. With a flash of annoyance, he wrapped his hands around his knees instead and let his eyes wander over the beach and its inhabitants. After passing over his mother -- reading a magazine in her chair -- and his father -- stretched out asleep on his towel -- they came to rest on Light where they stopped.
Around the time he and Lily and begun their castle, the sun-baked young man had deemed his front sufficiently tanned and had flipped onto his stomach to begin the same process for his back. Elijah had offered to fulfill his end of the sunblock bargain, but Light had entrusted the task to Lily, stating that he wanted the lotion worked into his back, not just poked at by tentative fingertips. Sayu and Charlie had already gone off together by that point, so Lily had agreed without complaint, leaving Elijah to watch and think about what he had been witnessing for the past forty-five minutes.
Somehow, Light and Charlie had managed to spend that entire time within a foot of each other without drawing blood. It was surprising to say the least. Even now, as Elijah sat and contemplated how best to accessorize his medieval structure, he found himself wondering how the two had managed it. Perhaps the girl had taken his advice and was attempting to get to know her enemy better in order to better fight him. Or perhaps Lily had finally worn her down. Whatever the reason, more unbelievable to him was that Light had agreed to the truce. Elijah knew his friend was just as unforgiving, just as stubborn as Charlie, and he had no obvious reason to accept a cease-fire or to believe in its integrity. Light could be cynical and vicious and held grudges with the best of them.
He also was rather vain, a fact that suddenly gave Elijah a most agreeable idea.
"Just a moment," he said to Lily. "I'll be right back."
She acknowledged him with a nod as he rose to his feet, a few loping steps bringing him to his friend's side. The brunet slid his sunglasses slightly down his nose as Elijah approached and peered at him over their rims with wary brown eyes.
"Yes?"
"Light," Elijah told him, "I require your comb."
"What makes you think I have one?" the other asked, suspicion evident in his voice.
"You take far too much pride in your physical appearance to not have one."
Light conceded this point with a slight head inclination and then asked, "Why do you need it?"
"For my castle's portcullis," the would-be structural engineer declared.
"'Lij," his friend sighed, pushing the glasses back up his nose and laying his head down, "I am not letting you get my comb all sandy just so that your castle can have a portcullis."
"I would not get all of it sandy. Just half of it." When Light lifted an eyebrow at him, he explained further, "Your comb is too long for my front gate, so I would have to break it in half for it to fit."
"Hell no. Break your own comb."
"I did not bring one with me."
"I'm not surprised. Do you even own one?"
"What an odd question. Of course I do."
"Could have fooled me."
"Elijah," Julie interrupted the mild fight. When he turned his eyes to her, he saw her holding up a plastic pick in one hand. "Here," she said, offering it to him. "You can use this. I have extras."
"Thank you, Mother," he said as he crossed to her and took the pick from her.
"You're welcome, sweetheart. Your castle is very impressive. You and Lily have done a wonderful job."
"Thank you." He leaned down and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek as an extra thank you, then wandered back to his architecture-in-progress with his prize in hand. He arrived to find that Lily had finished her turret, and together they designed a way to add the portcullis to the front gate.
Some time later, when they were discussing how to add water to the moat without it immediately soaking back into the sand -- Elijah was in favor of stealing someone's beach ball, popping it, and then cutting it up to create a lining -- a familiar shadow fell between them. Elijah looked up to find Light looking down at them and their creation, a small smile on his face.
"Have you baked yourself to a sufficient shade of golden brown?" the older man asked with a smirk.
"I have," the younger replied, refusing to rise to the bait. "I thought I'd come see if you needed any help, but it doesn't look like you do."
"Yes, we are almost completed," Elijah agreed, "so further help at this point is unnecessary." He cocked his head at his friend and suggested, "Why don't you use this opportunity to spend some time with your sister?"
To his surprise, Light grimaced and shook his head. "No," he said. "Sayu's found a couple of targets and is completely engrossed in flirting right now."
Intrigued by this news, Elijah tilted his body to the side so that he could see past Light and cast his gaze down the shoreline, looking for the pretty younger girl. Sure enough, he found Sayu playing an informal game of volleyball with Charlie and two well-built, tanned blonds. The girl was giggling non-stop and missing the ball far more often than was plausible, not that either of the males seemed to mind.
Returning to his proper equilibrium, Elijah looked up at the girl's brother and remarked, "I'm surprised you're not down there breathing fire at them."
"Believe me, it's hard not to be," Light returned. His fingers twitched slightly, as if they wanted to curl into fists and beat the ever-loving crap out of something. "But Charlie said she'd watch Sayu for me," he continued, running one hand absently through his hair.
"Charlie did?" the older man echoed. When Light nodded, he questioned, "And you are all right with that?"
Light favored him with one of his classic scowls. "She and I have formed a sort of temporary non-aggression treaty," he stated. "I still don't like her, but because of what we've discussed, I feel I can trust her to take care of my sister if she says she will. I verified her views on the limits of decency and her thoughts agree with mine, so I know she won't allow anything I wouldn't. And I definitely trust her to kick ass if necessary." He huffed out a breath, sending his bangs flying. "Sayu will be fine," he finished, sounding almost as if he was trying to reassure himself.
Blinking, Elijah turned to Lily and stage-whispered, "Armageddon is upon us. Light and Charlie are in a quasi-agreement over something." Lily laughed softly at his comment, but it turned into a squeak when Light kicked out a foot and knocked Elijah over into the sand.
As it turned out, no asses needed to be kicked by either Charlie or Light. The two blonds behaved themselves, much to Sayu's disappointment, and by the end of the day, she had done nothing worthy of raising her father's blood pressure except take a ride on one of the young men's shoulders out into the ocean where she had been tossed, shrieking, into the water. Both had offered her their phone numbers, but she had wisely turned them down.
"So," Julie asked as the group packed up their things and began heading towards the cars, "did everyone have a good time?"
Elijah ignored the chorus of affirmative answers that rang out around him. He was still trying to remove the last of the sand from his body. He and Lily had successfully made a magnificent castle over which everyone had marveled. Julie had lamented the fact that the tide would wash it away overnight, but Rich had taken a few pictures and half-jokingly had offered to get one enlarged and framed to hang in her office. Part of it had fallen down when they had removed the pieces that were not made of sand -- Lily had been adamant about not littering -- but the rest still stood, left behind to meet its eventual watery death. It had been a very satisfactory accomplishment, and quite fun if he cared to admit it to himself, but the side-effect of little grains of sand all over his skin was something he could most certainly do without.
He climbed into the front seat of his mother's car and immediately shed his flip-flops. Behind him, Light and Sayu slid into their respective seats, the girl complaining alternately about how tired she felt and how neither of the blonds had even tried to kiss her. Light occasionally acknowledged her with small humming noises, but most of the time he was silent. Elijah didn't blame him. They were all exhausted, from the activity and the heat, and the prospect of a quick, cool shower and then bed had never sounded so appealing. He almost wondered, as they pulled out of the parking lot and onto the highway towards home, if he would make it the entire trip without falling asleep in the car, something he had never done in either of his lives.
By the time they were only about twenty minutes from the house, Elijah was drifting in and out of consciousness. Behind him, he could hear two sets of steady breathing as both Yagamis slept. Julie, thankfully, seemed to be fine and had said as much when he had asked, so he allowed himself to sit there with his head against the window and his eyes shut and let his mind and body rest.
A sharp squeal of tires was the only warning he got. In the next second, the car shook with a loud bang and the crunching sound of collapsing metal. Before he could even open his eyes, the world was spinning, the car having been sent into a skid that ended almost as soon as it began with another bang, the sound of shattering glass, and another tremor that rattled his teeth. More tires screamed from a different vehicle, perhaps Rich trying to avoid the accident that had just occurred in front of him.
"Elijah!" his mother gasped, her voice barely making it through the roar in his ears. "Are you all right?"
Stunned, he stared at her, but after a moment he found the presence of mind to analyze himself. The initial impact had thrown his body forward, crushing the seatbelt against his chest and forcing the air from his lungs. After the abrupt end to the side skid, he had banged his head once on the window, but he appeared to be all right. The seatbelt had sliced into his neck a little but not enough to draw blood. Deciding that he was essentially unharmed, he nodded, ignoring the throbbing in his head which only intensified at the movement.
Julie smiled at him, some of her worry eased, and then turned to address the two in the back seat. "Light? Sayu? What about you? Are you … ?"
Elijah's stomach filled with icy dread as his mother trailed off and her eyes grew wide and frightened. In the next instant, she was struggling with her seatbelt, desperately trying to get out of the car.
"Rich!" she screamed the second she had shoved the driver's side door open. "Call 911!"
As Elijah sat, paralyzed with shock and fear, he heard the beginnings of movement in the back seat. Someone -- Light, judging by the pitch -- moaned and coughed a little.
"What happened?" he whispered a moment later, his voice scratchy and dry. "Sayu? Do you know? Sa … yu … ?" His voice trailed off into a silence that seemed to last forever, a silence that somehow interfered with Elijah's nervous system and refused to carry the orders that his brain was sending to his body to move. A silence that had woven a spell around the world and stopped time completely.
And then Light Yagami, who had kept his composure through countless mental battles with a man who would burn him at the stake if he made even one error, who could plot out a man's death in painstaking detail and never bat an eye, who had a tight enough leash on his emotions that he could smile, charm, and reason his way through just about anything -- Light Yagami screamed.