A/N: So everyone like I said I would update as long as I could :) and here's the next chapter! All errors are on me guys so I do apologize!

Please enjoy!

Celest


Light laughed nervously after what Shiori had just said. She saw him die? But that didn't make any sense. How could she have seen him die?

"Shiori," Light started out calmly, "I'm not sure how you supposedly saw that, but you seem slightly hallucinatory right now. So maybe you should just rest…"

But before Light could even finish what he was trying to say to the distraught girl, Shiori was shaking her head, tears still streaming steadily down her face.

"No! Light I saw you die! I saw it! Please, don't go after Misa. Please, Light. We can't lose you."

At a loss, he watched as Shiori grabbed onto her knees and began rocking backwards and forwards in the same spot. She wiped her eyes on her sleeve as she tried to slow her breathing, taking large breaths.

Without making a sudden movement, Light slowly enfolded Shiori in his arms and dragged her until she was sitting in his lap. Rocking her back and forth he whispered soothing words of nothing, and sounds to her. He rubbed her back in slow circular movements applying gentle pressure between her shoulder blades. The two sat this way for what must have been half an hour or so, long enough for L to find them that way still.

L paused in the doorway as he took in his two young pride members rocking on the floor.

Hearing the door open, he looked up to see L standing there gazing at the two of them. Shiori had not heard the entrance of the alpha and still had her head turned into his shoulder sobbing quietly.

Clicking the door shut behind him, L slouched into the room with his hands shoved deep in his pockets. He stopped in front of the two of them, gazing at them with his fathomless black eyes. He slowly lowered himself until he was down on the floor with the two of them.

"Shiori," L calmly spoke.

Gasping in surprise her sobs choked in her chest as she looked up at L, her eyes wide.

"L!"

Trying to compose herself she quickly rubbed at her eyes trying to hide the tear tracks in complete vain as L had seen everything. Her breaths hiccupping, Shiori tried to calm herself while still under the alphas inscrutable gaze.

"What's wrong, Shiori?"

"L! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to disobey your orders," Shiori stated haltingly almost afraid of L's response. "I just…I needed to find either you or Light because….because I…"

L cocked his head to the side still remaining crouched on the floor in front of the two of them. He didn't take his black eyes off of the hesitating girl, waiting for her to explain what was wrong.

When it seemed that Shiori wasn't going to be able to explain, Light decided to step in for her.

"She said that she saw me die, L."

L's black eyes snapped up to lock with Light's. Light shuddered at seeing a dark spark flash through his eyes. When the black eyes snapped back to stare once more at Shiori, Light couldn't help the shudder pass through his body.

"Is that true?"

Shiori looked at L with her large brown eyes then quickly looked down. Not being able to answer the alpha she merely nodded choking back more sobs.

L nodded. "Thank you for passing this information on, Shiori."

Standing up, L walked over to a PA system mounted into the wall. Pressing a button on the keyboard, Light heard an annoyed, "What?" over the speaker.

"Mello, I need you to escort Shiori from my room and to Wedy please. I need her to look over Shiori and then I need you to send for one of the scribes. They should still be here. Send them to the hospital wing to talk to her."

It was quiet for only a split second before Light heard Mello's voice say, "Understood."

The intercom went silent after that and L turned back to face the two of them. Walking back towards them he stood slouched over staring down at them still on the floor.

"Shiori, I need you to go with Mello to the infirmary when he gets here. A scribe will come to visit you after and I need you to tell them everything that happened to you. That means before and after you got here to this room and talked to Light-kun about this. They will be able to give you your answers."

Shiori stood up shakily, wrapping her arms protectively over her chest. She nodded to L.

"I understand, but L I really feel alright. I don't think I need to see Wedy-"

"Shiori, that's an order. I want you to go and see Wedy. This brooks no arguments. I'll be expecting a full physical evaluation from her later after she looks over you."

Before Shiori could answer there was a knock on the door and Mello walked in. He didn't have to say anything as Shiori walked over to Mello. Without another word the two of them walked back out, the door shutting with a quiet click behind them.

When it was just L and Light in the room Light shifted awkwardly on the balls of his feet as L kept his full and undivided attention riveted on him. Slouching closer to him L looked down at the floor as he walked up to him.

"It has come to my attention that I may have been sending you the wrong impression, Light-kun."

Light arced an eyebrow. "It has come to your attention?"

L bit the tip of his thumb. "Yes, that may have been a poor choice of words I have to concede."

Light huffed in exasperation. "L, how do you honestly expect me to take any of this? First I get smacked a new one and meet Deynor, then I just have to go through my first heat, and then after all of that you shun me as if I have the plague! Why would you do that to me? How do you think I'm supposed to feel about that type of treatment?"

L paused as he stared down at his run down white shoes.

"Light, I know I have confused you and it wasn't my intention to shun you I just-"

"Oh I can't wait to hear your excuse on this. I really can't."

This time L paused longer. "Try to understand this from my position, Light-kun."

"Your position?"

"Yes," L said tiredly as he walked around Light to stand at a window. "When you entered into heat, just before I was lost to my rut, I was able to despair somewhat."

Light frowned at this. "Why? Did you find me repulsive or something?"

L turned and stared at him with his wide panda eyes almost seemingly at a loss for words.

"No! I've never thought you were repulsive!"

Light couldn't help his snort of derision at L's answer.

"Oh come on, L. You don't have to lie to me. When I was first brought here you can't sit there and deny that you didn't feel some shame in me. You knew I would bring you and your pride down. You can't say that you didn't harbor any bad will towards me."

"Light-kun, I am astounded that you would even think that I would think anything like that about you!" L seemed seriously disturbed by what he had just said.

Shaking his head Light couldn't help but try and brush off L's reassuring words. "But after what everyone in the pride has said about what I stood for-"

"Stood for, Light-kun, stood for. But I would have thought that by now you would have realized that I don't do things very traditionally around here. I basically adopted Shiori when she in and of herself would be considered a shame to any therianthrope group that she would belong to. I allowed B to stay in the pride when I was under no obligation to do so either.

And then there's you. By all means I should have killed you that day when you showed up in my mansion, Light-kun. You and I both know this is to be true. But I spared you. And now I have to think that you don't even understand why I did what I did."

Light scoffed. "Because you knew that I was a chosen one. The ultimate chosen one all along. Just admit it L. I found the picture on your desk."

With that omission, Light reached into his pocket and pulled out the folded photo that was still nestled safely within. Unfolding it he showed it to L.

"You knew this whole entire time and you lied to me."

"I did."

Light was taken aback by L's honest and easy omission. Pausing to collect himself he barely managed to achieve a quiet, "Why?" before his throat closed once more.

L turned to full face him once more, the sun behind him throwing him into shadow.

"Light, how would you have reacted if I had told you that? You would have no idea what I was telling you and the responsibility that comes with a position like that is extreme. I didn't wish to cause you even more distress than you had already been put through by Misa. I wanted to protect you."

"Protect me?"

"Yes. When I first saw you I had this overwhelming urge to protect and shield you from everything that this life entailed. At first I didn't want you to be the ultimate chosen one, I wanted the prophecy to be wrong, that the picture that I had had for as long as I can remember would be false. But I saw so much in you that showed you very well were the ultimate.

"Your courage, the self-sacrifice that you show time and again for your friends and anyone else you care about. The strong will and desire to protect and nurture. All of these qualities showed a strong individual and even though I knew all of this I still didn't want you to have to take on the role of the ultimate chosen one because I knew what it would mean.

"I of course contacted Romulus immediately after our first meeting in order to confirm with him that you had finally surfaced once more after five thousand years. While he was overjoyed I couldn't exactly say I was the same.

"You see, Light-kun, I think the reason that I never killed you wasn't because you were the ultimate chosen one. It was because from the first second that I saw you I loved you."

Light felt his heart stop at L's shocking admission. He opened and closed his mouth a few times snapping his mouth closed just as quickly. L watched him try to gather himself after the bomb shell that he had just dropped on the young kitten.

"You love me?" Light finally managed to utter.

"I do. And that is why I can't allow you to go after Misa."

Light felt as if he was in the twilight zone and tried to shake himself out of it. As much as he wanted to answer L's admission back with one of his own he was terrified of saying it out loud. For so long he had felt this weird feeling bubbling up inside of him every time him and L interacted over the last two months.

The way his palms would sweat, his heart would beat so wildly that he thought a couple of times it would burst from his chest like in those classic cartoons. His stomach doing somersaults inside of him almost as if there were butterflies in there. He would get crazy nervous whenever he was near the alpha and it was even the scent of the alpha. He had this type of musk that seemed to surround him wherever he went that seemed to make him a large ball of nerves. The domineering presence, his sheer brilliance in everything he did amazed him.

He knew that he was getting in over the deep end especially when he started seeing the little things that L would do as endearing. The way he bit his thumb gently. The slight warmth that came into his eyes when he would look at Light. His posture while stooped somehow still commanded respect, dominance and loyalty. How he cared for every individual in his pride. The way he showed mercy to B even when he really didn't need too and had every right and reason to at least abandon him.

B had hurt L on a level that Light hoped he never would. His betrayal had cut the alpha deeply, forced him into a position that he never aspired to, and had made him loose a friend, brother and confidant in a way that never heals. But even after all of that, L had shown kindness and compassion to Shiori, a child that was entirely innocent that under anyone else's rule would run a very good chance of being killed after that kind of scandal.

It was this same compassion and kindness that L had shown to Shiori that had allowed Light to finally admit and see that he was falling in love with the alpha. However, thinking this and then uttering it out loud were two entirely different things. It may seem idiotic to some but he felt that if he said it out loud then it would make it real. It would be something that he could never take back and the vulnerability that that entailed scared him more than anything.

In an effort to try and change the subject Light quickly cleared his throat and asked, "What exactly happened with Shiori? Did she just have some kind of breakdown or..?"

L seemed to close off when Light didn't meet his admission with one of his own. Light had to clench his fists at his side in an effort to physically restrain himself. The quick flash of hurt that went through L's black eyes made his heart clench. He never wanted to hurt L and he just had.

Composing himself somewhat quickly L shoved his hands back into his pockets.

"Shiori is going through the process of awakening."

"Awakening?"

"Yes." L paused as he looked out the window behind him, slouching against the frame hands still deep in his pockets. "The awakening is when an individual is going through the process of becoming a scribe. Usually they begin with visions. They start in dream form, so it's very unpredictable and can't be fully pinned down if someone is experiencing a prophetic vision or merely a vivid nightmare at times. However, if they really have scribe blood then the next vision should happen while their conscious which then allows us to finally pin point them and allow them to go through training."

"So…Shiori is going to become one of those scribes?"

"If she chooses to, yes."

"If she chooses to?"

L looked back at Light now, the sun shining through his raven hair. Raising an eyebrow he cocked his head to the side just slightly. "It is a choice, Light-kun. We don't force anyone into any position that they don't want to be. Shiori has that right as well. If she doesn't want to become a scribe then she doesn't have to be. Although I wish this didn't happen since it further complicates matters when it comes to her."

Frowning at that Light asked, "What do you mean this complicates things?"

L's shoulders hunched even further as a sigh rocked his body. "If Shiori is going through the stages of awakening then that complicates matters for the sole factor that no one actually knows who her parentage is. Now that's a complication because usually the scribes' powers are passed on from parent to child. But Shiori's records are classified."

"Why are they classified?"

"Because I made it that way." L got a faraway look on his face. "I sealed her records and put her parentage under unknown. A mother who didn't have a name, a father who was gone in the wind. It was all to protect her. To give her a fighting chance. People didn't pay any attention to her. It helps that this place takes in orphans all the time. Shiori was "lost" in the system." L's voice tapered off into silence after finishing.

Light stood there silently as well processing everything that L had just said. "So does that mean that she's in some kind of danger?"

"Not if I can do anything about it."

"But L-"

"Shiori can pursue this course in life if she chooses too. I won't stop her one way or another. She knows the risks either way, it's up to her. Maybe one day things will change and she'll be able to say who her rightful parents were. For now she should remain quiet. She's an intelligent girl, I know she knows what to do and what not to say."

"L," Light's voice broke and L looked at him, "she's going to be okay, right?"

The pleading tone of his voice seemed to melt something in L's gaze, as if his defensiveness was gone from when he hadn't answered L's omission. Pushing off from the mantle he walked closer to Light until he was standing in front of Light once more.

"I promise you, Light. I won't allow anything to happen to her. She is as much a part of this pride as anyone here who is a therianthrope. She will always be safe with me."

Nodding Light swallowed harshly as L turned away from him. He could feel his chest constrict as everything that Shiori had said to him came flooding back with a vengeance. Knowing now that what Shiori had been saying to him meant that she was having a vision made this even more surreal. Now everything seemed more real to him. The fact that she was actually a seeress was setting his stomach churning and knotting.

Trying to summon his last shred of courage he looked up at L's turned back once again.

"L, if what you're saying is true then that means that Shiori really did see my death."

L turned his head to look over his shoulder at Light his black eyes taking him in.

"Yes, her vision."

"So then it was real. What she saw I mean. She said she saw me die, L. She begged me not to go after Misa so then that means that I don't survive the confrontation. L, are these prophecy's accurate?"

L grabbed the post of the bed as he looked down at his bare feet. Curling them into the carpet he took his time in answering Light' question seemingly tossing and turning it over and over in his mind.

"They can be. However, more often than not they do have discrepancies within them. How the seer's have their visions is usually described as chaotic once they come to and calm down."

"But, L, she saw me die-"

"Light that's just it. She may have not actually seen that. Those visions don't mean that you're going to die. She could have very well not have seen properly."

"L how does one exactly mistake seeing the death of someone?"

"Light-kun, I'm merely stating that Shiori could easily be just as wrong as she is right."

Light huffed in amusement. "For some reason that isn't exactly comforting, L."

"Light I can't do much on this I'm sorry to say. If I could I would."

Sighing Light moved across the room and sat at the foot of the bed. L still stood hunched over beside him still holding onto the bed post.

"I need to know, L." Light paused for a second collecting his thoughts. "What happened at the wolf therianthrope palace-"

"Light, what happened at the wolf lord's place is not something that you should be ashamed about. It happens and the fact of the matter is I'm only sorry that it didn't happen here, in the privacy of our own home."

The silence stretched between the two for a few minutes. Finally, Light looked up at L.

"You said our."

L looked at Light in confusion. "I beg your pardon, Light-kun?"

"You said our. You said that this was OUR home."

L cocked his head, his eyes clouded over with confusion. "Correct. I was under the impression that you already considered this place to be our home, Light-kun."

Light smiled a tight lipped smile. "It's just satisfying to hear you say it."

L offered him a small smile. Coming around the side of the bed he sat down beside him. For once not slouching on the balls of his feet.

"The next time your heat happens we will do it properly. Here in our bed."

Light glanced behind him at the head of the bed they were sitting in. Smiling at L he nodded back.

"Want to rest for a little while?"

L raised an eyebrow at him. "Rest? Now? It's still early, Light."

Light smiled. "I know."

"Then-"

Light laughed. "L, is it so hard to believe that maybe I want you to hold me?"

L paused at that. Then, slowly, a smile quirked his lips upwards. The two of them moved to the head of the bed and covered themselves. Snuggling down, L wrapped his arms around Light's waist locking them and curling the rest of his body around his young kitten.

Huffing in satisfaction, Light settled himself deep into L's embrace. He wrapped his own hands around L's tightly clasped ones as he relaxed. Closing his eyes he slowly drifted off into a light sleep listening and feeling L's light puffs of air on the back of his neck.

~x~

Somewhere in England

~x~

Splashing cold water on her face, Misa looked up into the mirror overlooking the dirty bathroom sink in this dilapidated shack that had the audacity to call itself a motel. Looking into the mirror she took in her slit pupils and black veins trailing delicately from around her eyes and creeping downwards and upwards over the rest of her face.

The slit pupils contracted in the light once more in order for her to see better in the dingy lighting. Gripping the dirty porcelain she reminisced about her last encounter with Light and the two alphas. The fact that she couldn't destroy those two alphas was telling about how the curse was back lashing on her finally.

Before, when she had taken on B and L at once she was easily able to overpower them both. Now, with the sands of time running through the hourglass and with Light's powers growing steadily stronger she knew her time was running out quickly. She was incredibly powerful yes, but even her powers had limits and those limits were being imposed upon her because of the curse that had been inflicted on her five thousand years ago.

The fact of the matter was that she was getting weaker, slowly yes, but it was happening. If she didn't get Light as her mate, or kill him once again she was in for one hell of a surprise.

For five thousand years she had lived in relative comfort. The curse was horrible, but the perks that came with it were amazing. So what if everything died in her presence, or the fact that she couldn't make any other therianthropes like her and her race died because of her actions?

"It was wrong what we did."

"Was it?"

Another voice from over her other shoulder intoned passively. Glancing up in the mirror she saw two people who were her twins in every aspect of the imagination. One done up in her black gothic style of clothes with her pigtails tight in her hair, sitting propped on the edge of the filthy bathtub.

The other came from a younger version of herself. She was wearing her hair down, and it was long all the way down her back, reaching just above her butt. She wore a ruffled white dress with slip on sandals. She startled at the appearance of this other version of her. The last time she had seen herself in this type of guise was five thousand years ago just after she had killed Light and changed her appearance permanently after that day.

Talk about having two angels over your shoulders.

"It was. We should have been happy for the two of them. They were our friends! And how did we repay them? By slaughtering Light and thereby condemning Deynor to an agonizing death over a broken heart." The one in the white dress sniffled as she wiped her cheeks of tears that had fallen.

Scoffing Misa rolled her eyes. "Oh please. You weren't so cute when you smacked him over the back of the head killing him with one blow and letting him bleed out. Look at you, you little cutie."

"Enough!" Turning to face the both of them she glared at each in turn. "What's done is done. There's nothing either of us can do to rectify the situation. And Light isn't about to forgive us for anything so shut up," she finished on a snarl directed at the white dressed Misa.

Misa in the white dress raised her chin stubbornly. "Yes, because that's so like us. Rub it off. Either blame it on someone else or make excuses for our behavior. Glad to see that the last five thousand years has shown that we've grown in maturity."

"And what would you have us do?" Misa in black asked from the tub as she checked her black nail polish for chips. "Do you want to give him a sorry card and a fruit basket? Maybe what you should do is accept what happened and move on. There's nothing to be done anyways. You can't change the past."

"I realize that, but so what? Were gonna do the exact same thing again? Kill Light? And what's that going to accomplish? We'll still be miserable-"

"I don't know it was a pretty good ride."

"And now we start taking out the other therianthrope groups? I mean have you seen what the curse is doing?"

"Oh yes, the "zombie therianthropes?" Pft, really it's quite ingenious."

"Ingenious?!"

"Well yeah, they are a physical manifestation of our pain. The same pain that we've been feeling for five thousand years now. So good riddance."

"How could you say that?"

"How could I not?"

The girl in the white dress turned to look at Misa, a beseeching look on her face. "Misa, you can't think this is the right thing to do."

Misa was quiet for a second ruminating everything over in her head. Quietly she whispered, "What does it matter anymore?"

"What does it matter? What does it matter?! Misa, everything matters on this decision! Go to him. Go to Light. Talk to him about all of this and ask for forgiveness. Stop all of this and let it all go."

Misa in black threw her head back and laughed. "Oh that's rich! Were five thousand years down the shitter and you want him to forgive us? Yeah, okay, that'll work out. Go ahead Misa. Send me a postcard about how it went."

"Misa-"

"I don't want to talk to you right now. Just leave me alone." Misa made a shooing motion at the one in the white dress.

With a forlorn expression she vanished as if she had never been there.

"Oh thank god you got rid of her. You know her pansy ways bother the hell out of me. That was you five thousand years ago? Wow, you were a sap."

"Shut up," Misa gritted out past her teeth.

"Well it's true! I mean no wonder Light didn't pick you."

Misa turned with her hands crossed over her chest and stared at herself sitting perched on the bathtub.

"Tell me something."

"Sure."

"What exactly are you?"

"I thought that was fairly obvious."

"No, I want to hear you say it."

The "her" on the bathtub bounced up with exuberance and skipped over to stand beside her. Grabbing her gently by her shoulders she turned her back around to face the mirror and looked in it over her shoulder.

"Isn't it obvious who I am? I'm the curse! The cursed you! All that anger, jealousy, frustration…hate. All of it bottled up and perfectly packaged in yours truly!" She winked at Misa over her shoulder. "I'm a pretty good indicator that you haven't let go of anything after all. See that other you, little miss angel in the white dress, wants to believe there's some good in you. But let's be honest, girl to girl, you aren't looking for forgiveness. You're looking for vengeance."

Misa frowned at that. "I wouldn't say I'm looking for vengeance."

"Oh please," Misa rolled her eyes at her, "if you weren't you wouldn't have sent the other one away."

Misa paused at that. She was right. If she had been having a change of heart then she wouldn't have sent the other one off, she would have kept her here. The fact that she was keeping her more vengeful side still present spoke volumes to her. Subconsciously she had already made her pick, now she had to own it.

"I need a few moments on my own."

"For sure girlfriend! Don't take too long!"

She made a kissy face at her reflection and then disappeared. Misa glanced over her shoulder to take in the missing space behind her and that the bathroom empty. She was alone. Glancing back in the mirror she took in her reflection once more.

Taking a deep breath she calmed herself down and thought back to everything that had just been said and talked about in here. The more she thought through some things the more she came to realize that she wasn't quite ready to thrown in the towel. And one thing became more and more clear.

With the re-emergence of Light back into this world it had set off a whole chain of circumstances that had been plaguing her. All of this was forcing a confrontation between the two of them. Either she would win or he would.

Like the famous saying said: "History always repeats itself."

Misa smiled into the mirror as her fangs elongated and she heard the sharp crack of the porcelain beneath her hands.


A/N: So for anyone confused, Misa is unhinged to say the least. It was kind of like a split personality what you saw at the end there. If you could crack her head open and look at what's going on in there and be able to see it with your own eyes that is the exactly what you would see. You see her internal dilemma, how she constantly argues with herself and struggles to come clean and be what she once originally was. However, sometimes the negative outweighs the positive to some people so you can't always win. Stay tuned for the next chapter!