Plot Twist

"If you can live with the fact that you're putting someone through that pain, through that fear; if you can live with the fact that you'll have felt, literally, their lives slip away from your hands, feel them die, feel yourself the cause of their deaths, of their unjustified ends, then- I think, you could murder someone." - B Part II, Ch. VIII

My hand reached for the light switch, but in spite of the dark, Coil's hand was faster.

He exhaled deeply, but I couldn't tell what kind of exhalation it was. Was he angry? Was he going to beat the crap out of me? Was he going to do ungodly things to me?

No, he didn't sound mad... I mean, I should know. I was mad all the time.

I gasped, noticing I'd broken my breath holding record.

The room was dark, the air was tense, my ideas uncertain.

"Listen, Mr. Phantom of the Opera..." I blurted out, for some reason whispering. My sentence died mid-way.

My pinky finger escaped his grasp and, before he could help it, the lights were on.

As he was looking down, all I could see was his long and messy black hair, his long-sleeved white t-shirt, his jeans, his feet...

My head hurt. All that was terribly fam...

He looked up.

...iliar.

Two big, dark grey eyes were piercing mine, cautiously. He was pale, he was young, he was tired.
But above all, he wasn't Erald Coil.

"Y-You're not..." I gasped.
"...Erald Coil." He helped me out.

He was L.

As of now, I'm sure you want to hear of how we blended into each other's arms, anger and pain and joy dancing underneath our skins in a carnal representation of all human tragic passions, but if I have to be completely honest, things took a slightly different route.

"Help me out here, young lad..." I incomprehensibly mumbled as I went down on my knees, trying to fight my way back up by clutching on to his arms.

'Error 404: Explanations not found.'

My vision was becoming blurry, the corners darkening and taking a rather purple staining.

'Where is my breath?'

"Amelia, you're not fainting, are you?"

'Seriously, guys. My breath?'

I resolved to lay down and hold my legs up against the wall to increase the blood flow to my head.

"On the contrary, dear, that is precisely what is going on..." I muttered faintly.

"A?" The voice was more curious than actually concerned.

Well, that went well.

I'd been preparing myself for that moment for years. I had pictured my reunion with L so many times that I knew our lines by heart, and would have probably corrected him if he'd dared change my script. And there was, in none of my expectations, the idea of fainting in front of the world's greatest detective. I'm sure I must have looked like a worthy successor. That rather unfeminine position wasn't helping much either.

I could hear dozens of Wammy generations facepalming inside my head.

"I was not-..."
"...Expecting this." He cut me off.
"This changes-..."
"...Everything." He nodded.
"You need to-..."
"Explain everything? We both owe each other quite a few explanations, dear A..."
"I was going to say 'shut up'."

He took a moment's pause.

"Oh."

After the ground stopped moving, I opened one eye to find him eyeing me as a kid would stare at a dead squirrel, fighting the urge to pick me with a stick.

"I could murder you." I threatened once I'd regained half of my consciousness, filled with poison "You don't know how hardly I mean it."

He responded with a half-smile, amused by something possibly funny only to himself.

"I believe you." No signs of emotion.
"You don't look too scared." I watched him stand up and leave my corpse by the door.

"Oh, I am quite terrified." I heard him reply from a distance.

I intended to follow but it still wasn't time to stand up.

After a while, I heard his footsteps creeping their way back to my position.

He stopped a few meters before my eyes and, once he'd made sure I was looking, he started tumbling to his sides, holding a piece of cake between his hands. It took me a while to notice the movement existed because of how subtle and slow a pace it was being carried at.

"J-Just what are you doing now?" I demanded, fearing I probably didn't want to know.

He stopped and looked down at me, disappointed.

"I'm shaking in fear." He replied as if it'd been obvious.

I turned my face away from his sight. He didn't have the right to make me smile.

I heard him approach and crouch by my side.

"I believe this could be of help." He observed before leaving my body by the door again.

I waited until he was a few meters away before turning.

"Where are you going?" I cried. I noticed he'd left the plate with cake by my side.

He sat crouching on the sofa on the other side of the room, where both his laptop and a cup of tea had been waiting for him. He replied without looking up from the screen.

"Well. You know what they say..." He replied dryly, getting so sucked up by his computer that he almost forgot we were conversing "If you touch your pets when they're eating, there's a chance you might get bit." He hit the enter key and started typing.

I could feel myself boiling.

He lifted his eyes briefly as to observe my reaction and, after finding himself very much pleased with the results, his attention drifted back to his computer.

I started eating, reminding myself to chew my food. I didn't want to choke before I had had my chance to... To...

'Ugh. Forget it. I'll deal with you when I wake.'

I decided to fully wake up when I noticed that no bells would be tolling. It was always strange to me how synchronized I'd become with them. Sometimes I'd stop and listen to check if they were sounding in the background, only to meet disappointment. They had left quite a sick scourge within my brain.

'I'm not in Kansas anymore.' I remembered, opening my eyes.

I couldn't help but to notice that I was no longer lying on the floor. Either I could teletranport in my sleep or someone had taken the noble trouble to transfer me to the coach and place a bed-cover over my body. Try to guess which theory was awesome and which theory was a PG-13 cliche.

I sat trying to figure out who was whistling Bach. I was so focused on figuring out which Cello Suite it was, that I had completely ignored my natural instinct to look for an expensive vase to smash the possible intruder's head with it.

Ah. The fifth Suite.

I took the bed-cover off and followed the whistling sounds. The aroma of coffee met me by the kitchen's door.

I smiled. Watari.

He was still too much into his labor to notice my presence. I took pleasure in watching him work, patiently, but a bit distractedly. He was possibly reminding himself to buy the paper.

I suddenly remembered the last time I'd seen him. I didn't really know if he'd be happy to see me. I panicked.

After a while, he'd poured the coffee he'd prepared into two white mugs and put them in a trail. It was when he turned to leave that he noticed me standing warily by the door.

For three long seconds, there was nothing I could read off his face. He set his tray aside and, once he'd made sure it was safe, his every expression changed into one of the deepest joys I'd seen. Not even a dog ever looked that happy to see me.

"A...!" He extended his arms and, without wasting a second, I stepped forward to hug him, fighting the urge to weep like a toddler "You're awake..."

"Hello." I mumbled.

It is quite unexplainable how glad I was that that had been his reaction. I mean. It was pretty much a re-enactment of "The Parable of the Douchebag Son". I had totally screwed up in every way possible, and upon my return, he was simply glad to see me, ever forgiving. Of course, we couldn't lose focus of the fact the children under his responsibility weren't exactly normal or living under normal circumstances (regardless of how fabulously rich). What I had done was probably but the tiniest part of what he was fearing I could do or that I could turn to. He was probably just glad that I wasn't hurt, that I was sorry, and that I wasn't going all Vlad Tepes and terrorizing villagers like...

Like B.

(Yes. On a lesser scale.)

I'd never thought how Watari must have been feeling that one of the kids he'd taken under his care had committed murder and escaped. Just imagine. If I felt as horribly responsible as I was feeling, then...

We separated and he took the tray back on his hands.

"Come on now, let's have coffee, yes?"

See what I tell you? Let's have coffee. Just that. 'Let's have coffee'. It is as bizarre as a family can get.

We sat on a table by each other's side, facing the windows to enjoy the view. Of course that the Eiffel tower was visible, what were you expecting? But when you think about it, that was probably as close as L would ever get from it.

I carried my mug to my mouth, turning to Watari. He had his sight lost in the city, but seemed to be looking for something. It was words.

Upon noticing that I was observing him, he turned and smiled. He looked the exact same way that someone looks like when they're going to tell you a long hidden truth.

"I had only seen you in pictures, or also occasionally in the video-conferences that we'd hold for the orphanage..." He started with no introductions.

"Video-conferences?"

"That's right." He nodded, to then add smilingly "And yes. We could see you sitting quietly in the back, playing staring-contests with the carpet..."

I looked down, embarrassed.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Well, to be fair, you never asked, child."

I frowned, amused by his reply.

"I think you've been spending too much time with L." I accused.

He chuckled.

"Well, when you put it like that, it is true."

"You were saying." I hugged my knees. Quite improper for sitting at the table, but that's just the way one is meant to listen to stories.

He retraced his words and went on.

"Anyway. Years of watching you grow, however indirectly, of hearing you play devil's advocate on the phone every time that Roger was on the verge of getting an apoplexy... I guess it all should have prepared me for meeting the young lady that ran to me that night we arrived... But even after hours after our arrival, I still couldn't get used to this new, taller, and beautiful young woman that you had turned into after so long..." He paused "What?"

I was biting my lip. He was such a dad. Or even granddad.

"So much for taller. I'm like 162 cm tall. I could pass for an Oompa-Loompa if I wanted." I protested.

Shaking his head, he went on. I was beginning to tell he'd started to remember what it was like to tell stories to me: impossibly long.

"You made your way through the other children and were first to give me a hug and a kiss, but, before you could remember to ask about my flight or read me my Miranda rights, you were already interrogating me about L. It seemed as if you didn't fully trust that he was coming and you needed to make absolutely sure. I knew that whatever I said at that point would have been held against my..." He noticed my face "What now?"

"Nothing." I rolled my eyes over "Go on."

"And then he came out of the car... You know? I was watching a documentary on telly last night about monkeys," Of course he was "that reminded me just about that moment." Of course it did "You two looked exactly like those monkeys did when they saw their own reflection in the mirror for the first time."

He looked at me, expectant. I shrugged.

"I'm a genius, not a mind reader." I complained. But secretly, I felt like I knew what he had meant.

He chuckled again.

"It was as if..." He returned his gaze to the window, fixing his glasses "As if you knew who it was that was standing in front of you, and yet some part of you couldn't fully understand the obvious." He shrugged "I guess that maybe it was because you'd been waiting for the moment so long, that you'd never really thought it would come..." He cleared his throat "Anyway. As you might have noticed, L was never a fan of noise, or crowds..."Noticed? What kind of detective would I be if I hadn't..? "Both he and I had been fearing that the children's cheering and their whole furor to see him, and talk to him, and touch him would stress him too much... But as he walked up to we were standing at, he had seemed completely oblivious to the multitude gathering at the entrance.

It took you a while to smile at each other..."

"The whole monkey's thing." I helped out skip that part and he smiled in agreement.

"... But that was possibly as warm as your greetings got, which, to be honest surprised me... Although, pondering on it, maybe not so much..."

"What things are those that you're pondering?" I asked innocently, feeling strangely threatened.

He shook his head, discarding it.

"You told me you and Roger needed to talk to us about something important as soon as we got a chance, which was right after supper. We went to Roger's office, and that's when he explained us about the letter that B had given you before he parted. It said he'd be back after a week..." Yes, I remembered that "It was merely preventive when we called the police, really. We actually thought he'd be back after the first week..." He got lost for words for a moment and sighed "We got Linda to draw a portrait of him to give the officers, (I think that was your idea)," Quite probably "and you and L started to work out where it was that he could have been gone to, and searched his room for possible ideas... But in the end, it really all came down to waiting for that first week to pass... You were the one worried the most, I remember."

He took his glasses off to clean them and returned them to their place. He did that every time he found himself rather uncomfortable.

"On the sixth day's night, (or more like the seventh day's first hours of the morning), you and L went missing.

What he told me, was that he saw you 'irrationally waiting for B to show up at the entrance'. Apparently he'd tried to convince you that going back inside was 'the rather reasonable approach', but you politely refused to go. He left you to your wait, but he thought it would have been 'wise' to keep an eye on you. And so he did.

Around 4 in the morning, L was about to insist that you went back inside, but he saw you run to the entrance. Neither him or the cameras caught what it was that had called for your attention, but we later on learnt that it had been B.

He must have said something terribly convincing, because the next thing everybody knows, was that you were climbing your way up the fence and chasing after him."

Oh Gee. How could that have gone wrong?

"Instead of telling anybody, L went after the two of you." He sighed "You two are terrible..."

I looked down. But I was terrible the most.

He lifted his sight back again and placed it on the horizon.

"The three of you walked far away from the orphanage. You almost got to the center of Winchester. L said that even though you didn't seem threatened by him, the whole atmosphere was, in his words, 'wrong'. At first he was close enough to hear bits of your conversation, which ranged from your 'mothering him into going back to the Wammy's House' to his discarding the topic into trivialities, convincing you that everything was alright..."

He looked down and cleaned his glasses. He was taking his time.

"I think those glasses are clean now, Watari." I muttered, holding my legs closer to my chest.

"Are you sure that you want to hear what happened?" He stared into my eyes.

I knew that it was a one way ride.

I cleared my throat.

"Yes."

He scrubbed his glasses one more time and put them back into their place.

"You and B were talking by the street. It was hard for L to see anything, and very few cars were driving by. He was about to show up, which was when things took the unexpected turn. To this day, we still don't understand what or why or... We don't even-"

He would be going off topic if I didn't stop him.

"What happened?"

He sighed.

"A car was passing by and B, he... He pushed you in front of it."

I sat frozen and thought about it. I shook my head.

That did not make sense. Why would B ever want to push me front of a car? Just. What?

"That doesn't make sense." I refuted.

"I know." He was looking straight at me.

"I mean, that can't be right. B would never want to push me in front of a car. Why would he do that?" I became uneasy "Are you listening to this story? It doesn't compute..!" I tried to keep my agitation to myself.

Watari didn't answer. If I wanted to get to the bottom of everything, I'd have to stick my feelings where the sun ain't shine and listen to the rest. Even if it included aliens and a Broadway musical number of The Lion King, featuring B as Scar.

I sighed, cautiously.

"Go on." I made a hand gesture that it was safe to proceed.

He no longer presented any warnings.

"Before L could reach you, the car driver had stopped to check on you. However, he never got to make sure you were alright, because, for some reason, B opted to stab him. Repeatedly. The news didn't put it half as bad as it really was."

I would have asked 'He had a knife?' but it was pretty safe to assume that he hadn't stabbed the man with a loaf of bread.

I sat staring at the horizon and thought of a better question.

"Watari." I snorted, suddenly remembering "Did B say anything about some numbers?"

He frowned curious.

"Yes... L-... Yes, do you know what he meant?"

I shook my head. But he'd pushed me in front of a car for no reason. What gives?

"Please, continue." I urged him, going back to my preferred position. I was pretty much sure that another wouldn't have kept my body together just as well.

"So L got there and he and B had some kind of exchange..." I assumed that 'exchange' was Watari for fight "But L labeled it as 'irrelevant' and didn't talk about it more than necessary." He frowned "Anyway. In the end, B ended up running away. And given that you were literally dying on the street, there was no time to run after him."

We shared silence and took a sip of our coffees simultaneously.

"L searched the man's jacket, and upon finding a cellphone, he used it to phone an ambulance that, thank the Heavens, didn't take too long too arrive. We learnt everything that had happened minutes after the ambulance had taken care of you. Past that point, L really thought you were beyond help... When he called, we... We were told to expect the worse."

I shivered, remembering the way my body and face looked like after I'd woken up. I noticed I was scratching the scar hidden in my lip as I did.

"...But for some reason you survived, thank God for that."

"As for the man...?"

He shook his head.

"No, A. The man was almost beyond recognition. He'd lost so much blood that he never even made it to dream about being s-..." He realized his language had probably come off a bit too strong. His eyes calmed down.

I wasn't sure why I wasn't crying. I just... I don't know. At that point I wasn't sure about anything really. Everything was so... Different.

"And then." I requested, before he'd even dare think change the subject.

"And then everybody waited. We didn't know if you'd survive. You were in a coma for about 9 days until you woke up, which, at first nobody would believe. I'm sure you know the rest."

"Hah." I exhaled "Well. Not everything."

"What is troubling you, dear?"

I fiddled with my thumbs.

"You understand why I pretended to kill myself, right?"

His lips curved, not exactly forming a smile. He nodded after processing my question.

"You figured the boys wouldn't let you play." He put it simply.

I took my breath.

"Yes. In a sense, that is what happened. I wanted to... I want to find B. He is..." I looked down, wondering if I meant it as passionately as I once had. I did "He is my friend. I could have helped, and I didn't. It was, at least partially, my fault."

"A, you can't think that. I mean, not that he can't be-..."

"Oh, but I do. Because it is true." I cut him off. I wasn't looking for pity "I can't blame myself for his strange personality switch, but I could have done something to prevent what happened. And I didn't. And he's my friend. And it's my life." I fought the urge to lead a thumb to my mouth. I'd probably lost it "And neither you, nor L, nor Roger had any right to keep the truth from me. My lie was the outcome of yours." I said grimly, feeling my throat getting funny "And so you came after me. Fine. You caught me. I tried. And I would have tried it again... But what's with this Coil thing? Seriously. How was it necessary? How come we never discussed this? Don't you think it's taking things a bit too far?"

Watari sighed, seizing his words carefully.

"A... L... You're not too mad at him, are you?"

"I am furious." I admitted.

"But don't you see?"

"See what? How I'm constantly treated like I am 8 years old? You can't- He can't choose on this matter for me. Nobody can. And he deliberately violated that right of mine."

He sighed again.

"I know." He admitted after a while "But what do you think made him do it?"

"I don't know." I shrugged "Maybe I was a suspect too. Maybe he was fearing I'd go nuts and start a vampire clan with B. Maybe he thought he knew better than to just ask."

He smiled to himself, as if seeing an obvious mistake I was oblivious to.

"No, A..." He finally looked at me "Do you think that after an incident like that he'd let you anywhere near B? Or, better put it this other way: do you think that after an incident like that, he'd let B anywhere near you?"

I gasped. I hadn't thought about it that way.

"What does he care, anyway? You just send watches and stuff for my birthday..." I shrugged, trying to forget he'd ever answered.

He smiled, shaking his head as if saying 'Blessed are the dull ones, theirs will be the kingdom of detectives... Sadly.'

"Do you know how he found you?" He brought it up.

I looked up, still frowning and shook my head.

"You asked him to?"I took a guess.

He smiled at himself.

"I'll let you ponder on it..." He looked away, thoughtfully "I think there's quite a plot twist you've got to process." He stood up to take our mugs back to the kitchen. I offered to help, but he signaled me not to.

I rested my chin over the table. Yay. More processing.