Chapter 36
Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note
"If you come back tomorrow I'll go with you." Anna said, yeah, as a dead body.
"Tomorrow's situation will be different." L replied, his voice flat, his feelings and emotions undeterminable. "Now, Anna would you care to explain why you left to come to a place like this?"
Anna shook her head.
"Fine." L said and turned to the cage-master, "Guns then, if you please."
The cage-master tossed a pair of pistols to Anna and L. "Begin."
Concentrate, just another opponent.
"You'll fail miserably if you think of me as just another opponent." L read her thoughts without even trying.
Anna narrowed her eyes and squeezed the trigger. The detective fixed his eyes on the bullet, and pulled his own trigger. The bullets met in midair and ricocheted off to the side. L took a step forward. "Why did you leave?"
Shouldn't it be obvious to you? Anna thought.
"Enlighten me." L said; some frustration in his tone. He took another step forward, the bullets crushing into each other in the air and spun away by the force.
He's not trying to hit me, he's only protecting himself. Anna clenched her teeth as with each shot, the detective took another step forward. He's better than he let on, I can't go back, I can't! I don't belong in that world!
"I guess blood lust was in my nature." Anna replied.
"Lies." L took another step forward, the barrels of their guns barely an inch apart.
Anna tucked her gun away, and raised her fists to protect herself.
"Is this because you found out I have a fiancée?" L asked, narrowing his eyes.
Good work Sherlock. Anna thought, but remained silent.
L took another step forward, and they stood face to face, electricity seemed to buzz through the air with the tension. "Stella was the reason you left me for this God forsaken place?"
"I needed to get away from the righteous society. I don't belong there, and I don't need to." Anna whispered, then she dropped her head and glared at the ground, "I don't need you, L."
L took one last step forward and locked his fingers around the chain linked fence, trapping Anna between his arms against the fence. Anna looked up, "What do you think you're trying to do?"
"You don't need me, you say?" L casually leaned forward, analyzing the emotions behind her eyes and movements. He smiled slightly when Anna drew her gun and jabbed the end of the barrel into his neck.
"Don't even try it."
"But if you don't need me, why should it matter to me whether I live or die?" L tilted his head and whispered into her ear. Then ignoring the awed crowd and acting as if it's the most natural thing in the world, kissed her on the lips.
Anna was at a complete loss as to how to respond. She couldn't pull the trigger, she just couldn't, so she started by dropping her gun to the ground. She couldn't slip away, not with her back against the cage, and especially not since L had one arm around the waist and the other tangled into her hair, pulled free of the elastic and falling like a curtain around her shoulders.
To her surprise, L opened his eyes and looked into her amber eyes, his mouth still pressed against hers, waiting for her response.
I'm going to tear myself up later for this, I have to get out of this somehow, I have to-
Wait, I'm going to tear myself up later for this anyway. Screw it; I'm taking what I can right now.
So she closed her eyes and kissed him back, her fingers tangled into his messy hair, her hand closed around his pale neck and pulled him closer. She felt L grin as he closed his eyes, satisfied with her response. It was like they were back in that hole under the broken house, ignoring the outside world and the bug-eyed audience, trapped in a dream of their own. L had put his life in her hands again, trusted her again, and she for the first time in the past thirteen days, she didn't want to slip into the darkness; she wanted to stay in the light. She wanted to stay with him.
Wait, what? What am I thinking? I only have a day to live!
Anna placed her hands firmly on his chest and pushed him away. Her train of thought completely disrupted. "Oh crap." She whispered under her breath. What now? "What the hell were you doing?" seemed kind of wrong since she was kissing him back just as much as he was kissing her. Attacking him just seemed out of place after that little display and, "Sorry I had to stop" would just open the forbidden gate.
"Oh crap." She repeated.
"Hey." L lifted her chin up and looked with concern in his eyes.
At least one of us has something to say. Anna thought.
"Please come back with me." He whispered.
I can't, it's for your own good, I'm doing this for your sake, because I love you.
"It's for your own good to just let me disapp-"
L grinned lopsidedly, "Finally, a clear message."
"What?"
The detective leaned forward again, "I love you too." He whispered by her ear, "Come back with me."
He loves me? What about his fiancée?
"Come back."
Please don't hate me, Archangels, give me one more day. Let me be selfish, just this once.
"I don't think you've ever had to ask something of someone so many times before." She smiled.
L finally let out a sigh of relief, pulled her towards him by her wrist and hugged her tightly, "Let's go home." He said.
"Wait," Anna took a small step back and scanned the crowd, "James…James?"
"He's gone." L observed, "Come on, we've already made quite a big fuss here."
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"I came back with you, L, but you really shouldn't have come." Anna sighed. They were both sitting in her room, she sat on her bed, he crouched beside her, wobbling due to the unstable mattress, helping her rub out the sore knotted muscles on her back tense from days of fighting.
"Why did you leave?" L asked.
"Isn't it obvious?"
"I'd rather hear it from you personally." L said, a little bit of frustration seeping through his voice. Unconsciously, he pressed harder on her muscles.
"Ouch." Anna winced, "Well, Stella's better for you than I'll ever be. I'm an assassin, the blood of people stained my hands forever. Stella's a FBI, and you're a detective, you could work side by side with all resources at your disposal, you're perfect for each other." Anna sighed, "Besides, she's willing to kill for you."
"All's well and good." L frowned, "Except for the fact that I don't love her."
"Her being your fiancée through that theory out the window," Anna scoffed. "Hey ouch! That hurts! Don't get angry, it's logical."
L eased the pressure, and brushed away her hair to the side and began unknotting her neck muscles. "It was arranged, like you said, at the time we seemed to be perfect for each other. All in all, we were just friends."
"We were just friends before this." Anna replied, "If you could even call it a friendship."
The detective fell silent.
"What?" Anna began to ask, but then his hand reached around her neck and pulled her chin towards him, meeting her eye.
"Was it really always just that?" he asked.
"What do you mean?"
"I've always felt some tension, especially when I was trying to catch you." L shrugged and went back to unknotting her muscles, "At the time I passed it off as a compulsion to solve the case, after having some real competition. You?"
Anna thought for a while, "I told myself I was looking forward to repaying my debt to you so I can live freely again." She replied after a while, "For saving my life a couple of times, one for one, after all."
"You thought that if I…was with Stella, my life would be better. You thought that you were doing me a favor by not dragging me down with your bloody reputation- literally- and ruining my life." L summarized, "Reasonable."
"Yes." Anna replied.
"I sense that this isn't the only reason why you left." L changed the subject as he finished rubbing out the last few sore spots in her neck. "It's hard to identify the muscles in your back," he murmured, "May I?"
"Yeah." Anna pulled up the back of her shirt, letting L poke and prod the sore muscles and bruises.
L shook his head and let out a sigh at all the cuts and bruises, "How am I supposed to work with this?" he sighed, running down his pale fingers down her back as he tried to find a muscle beside a purplish bruise. "So, the other reason, ready to tell me?"
"I don't think I'm ready to tell you the other yet." Anna replied, "But I will tell you, before tomorrow morning comes, I promise."
L let out a huge sigh and fell forward, his forehead resting on her bare back. He felt her wince, and patted her shoulders to ease the sudden tension in the muscles, "Sorry, I was just eager to straighten out everything. It…unnerves me when unexpected things happen, like when you left."
"I need to straighten out my own thoughts before I can give you any answers." Anna answered as honestly as possible, "I'm not as good with words as you, after all."
"Okay," L nodded and exhaled deeply, his breath sending shivers along her spine. He lifted up his head and gently pulled her shirt back down to cover her back. "You have too many bruises for me to clearly find your muscles; I may end up doing more damage than good. We'll have to wait until those go down. He stood up and made his way to the door, "I trust you, Anna, you asked me to, and I do. Get some rest."
"Yeah." Anna looked back and smiled, "Thanks."
The rest was easier said than done. Anna stared at her watch as the minutes passed, her eyes following the tick of the needle as if in a trance.
"Only hours left!" a voice cackled, jolting her out of her semi sleep state.
"Ryuk." Anna followed the voice to the dark Shinigami shape, "how are you?"
"I came to deliver a message." Ryuk laughed, "I can't tell from whom, and don't kill the messenger. When L came to London, for a safety thing, he brought Yagami Light with him. The execution date is the same though."
Anna narrowed her eyes and glanced at her watch, "Oh no. First light of the date of execution, but since we're both in Britain now…it's here's time." She glanced at her watch and brought it to the correct time, "Which means a few hours shorter." She gritted her teeth, "And I thought I'd have tonight to think it through…"
The Shinigami cackled, "You catch on quick." Ryuk smiled deviously, then soared through the roof.
Whoever sent me this message wanted me to leave the world without regrets. Anna thought, I can't leave things like this. But how?
000
Downstairs, L sat before his piano, his fingers lingering over the ivory keys. Which cord? Which note? He paused, narrowed his eyes. This one is right…
A sad minor cord rang out. Followed by a deep, low resounding melody, accented precariously by a counter melody that flowed back and forth. It began fast paced, then fade back and slowed down again. Any trained ear could tell, he was arguing wit himself. He wanted answers, but he also wanted to be patient. What was Anna having so much trouble saying? What could possibly cause her to leave? It had to be something big, the last reason had something to do with his life, perhaps this had something to do with hers.
Wait…what did she do while he went on the walk with Stella? What did Stella say to her?
The melody quickened, the cords rand loudly, more aggressive.
"She was willing to kill for you."
"She is fighting to die." James said.
Fighting to die…
The music came to a loud crash as L buried his face in his hands, his elbows resting on the keys. "She's going to die." L breathed. Without another thought the detective jumped up and raced for the door. He swung it open, only to find Anna stare up in surprise, one hand poised to knock.
"Anna…"
"So you've figured it out." She smiled, then stepped forward and they wrapped their arms around each other in a tight embrace.
L buried his face in her hair, not sure what to say. Then he felt it, the warm touch as Anna reached up and kissed his jaw. He pulled back, allowing just enough distance to bring his lips on hers. He felt no hesitation that he experienced earlier, only the intense desperation to live. He tried to soothe her by rubbing her back, but he was just as desperate for her to be alive as she was, and in the end his pale hands wrapped around her small frame, pulling her tightly against him. His hands reached up to her cheek, and was about to bring her closer when he felt a tear against his thumb. Anna pulled away, and only as she looked up at him with her red puffy eyes and raised a hand to his face did he realize she was wiping a tear from his eyes too.
She closed her eyes and cried into his chest, each sob sending shocks through her body. He too, leaned into her neck, his tears making their way from his closed eyes and onto her shoulder.
"When? How?" he whispered into her ear.
Anna stepped back and pulled Light's letter out of her pocket. "He left you a letter." She smiled, "On the paper of the Death Note."
L:
This is Kira; Sheila Faust will die with me by heart attack. You have set my time of death, unfortunately for you, this means that your have also set hers. She will die when Yagami Light's heart is pierced by the bullets on November 1st of 2008, first light. If I die earlier, so will she, so don't even think about trying to save her. As the rays of the sun chases away the dead spirits of Halloween, may they take her also.
Kira
"Tomorrow, first light…" L murmured. "Yagami Light…"
"I went to see him while you were out with Stella. I wanted to convince Misa that he wasn't worth her trouble." Anna explained, "I didn't know that Mikami Teru had given him my real name…and I'm sorry I didn't tell you. It doesn't matter though, since my lifespan has counted smoothly, as one of my payments and Sorrow's death. This is when I was destined to die. Eighteen years ago on November first, I was due to die, frozen in snow in a dark alley of Britain. But then Sorrow made that promise, and the Shinigami sacrificed a man, leading me to the orphanage before dying of a heart attack…now…Death Note is the only way I would die in such a time frame. I was saved by it…and now condemned by it."
L nodded, barely listening, he gazed into the distance, eyes boiling with the hurt of betrayal. "What a nice birthday gift…Light kun." Although he suspected Light of being Kira, some part of him registered him as his friend…at least until he was caught. Suddenly, everything came back clearly.
"She wanted to fight for so many days; she's always counting down to November the first." James said, puzzled, "Maybe something important is on that day?"
"L, I've prepared a good gift for you, so on top of the happiness of my death, you get something else as a package."
He understood his words now. He would have the death of Kira, accompanied by the death of the world's greatest assassin, almost like the beginning of a new era.
Minutes passed. L moved on to the most important issue: How was he going to spend his last hours with her?
They sat against the wall, her head resting on his shoulder, both their eyes staring emptily ahead of them.
"Hey Anna." L whispered eventually.
"Yeah?" she looked up.
"Let's go, I want some ice cream, and we have to make up for all the things you missed in this world."
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The water rippled, the tiny waves blurring the picture. The observer quickly leaned back and wiped his eyes, heaving a sigh. "Be still." His powerful voice rang out gently, and the ripples faded. A dark haired man and a girl leaned against the wall in the image, tormented by fate.
He was so concentrated on the scene that he was only vaguely aware of another angel's presence behind him, and was a bit surprised to find his name called.
"Archangel Gabriel." The soft voice called.
"Lady Eva." The angel's golden eyes turned to the new comer, "What brings you here?"
"You've been here a while, looking down into the mortal realm." The blonde angel smiled and sat down beside him, her face saddened as she watched.
"She had to make that additional stupid promise with the Shinigami King, handing over her protection from the Shinigami powers." Gabriel seethed, seemingly angry. But Eva saw through his raging exterior to his troubled thoughts below the surface. He felt bad for the girl. "Even if she didn't, I would've protected the detective from Lust and the others. But because I can even less interfere with her…Lust was able to…"
"Yagami Light was propelled by Lust to write her name, wasn't he?" Eva sighed.
"Yes, so was Amane Misa when she killed the detective." Gabriel added.
Lady Eva's eyes hardened, "She was always the most persuasive of the Seven." She murmured, "She's a thorn in the flesh."
"Indeed."
The angel suddenly smiled, "Cheer up Archangel, things isn't as bad as they seem. They're prepared for whatever comes their way."
"The Seven Sins are nothing to be cheerful about, Lady Eva." Gabriel muttered.
"But I have good news from Lady Beth." Eva smiled, "Don't you want to know?"
"Lady Beth has seen something her visionary eyes?" Gabriel perked up immediately, "Tell me."
"Yes, Archangel," Eva grinned, "The War is going to be postponed, our girl found a way, maybe to maintain peace and balance between the spirit realms."
"What exactly did she see?" Gabriel questioned.
"She saw her with him."
"Approximately what time?"
"There were green trees, gentle wind, blooming flowers, and a beautiful sun." Lady Eva smiled, her eyes following Archangel Gabriel's back to the image in the pool, where snow drifted in the wind across the London sky.
Author's Note: If anyone was confused about the last sentence. Lady Beth saw them together during the summertime...but currently it's winter...what does it mean?? lol I know exactly what i means. Muhahaha. So anyways, a mistake i would like to clear up.
In a previous chapter long time ago, during the roof/first snow scene. L mentioned his birthday was a week from now/then whatever. Which doesn't match with the current timeframe. I don't know if any of you noticed that but just ignore it. :D Bad planning on my part. Also, I've decided about my uh...sequel thing :D
I will write it.
But...yes there's always a but.
But not right now. As in right after this story.
I will write it after the Prequel :D which takes place before this story which i will write after this story (if that made any sense). This idea was given to me by Osage and i owe tons of credit to her :D
So after i finish Detective's Assassin, which i'm telling you guys will probably end two chapters from now, I will be writing its Prequel, because i'm clearly not willing to give up my character Anna and her adventures. I haven't decided on the POV's yet. And after that i will be continuing this story in its sequel. The reason for this is just that...i don't have enough planned out right now. I never start a story without knowing its ending, which means having a goal to work towards. I've learnt that after not finishing many of my stories and disappointing a great many people. So until then, i need to generate as many ideas/scenes as possible to form a possible time line/plot. this is where you guys come in! I was also hoping on gathering some information on the titles. Should i continue with a series like title like The Detective's (blank) or come up with something else? For the Sequel i was thinking something to do with angels...and inspiration from Your Guardian Angel by the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. His Guardian Angel? Something like that? Anyway, let me know in your reviews! I'm clueless about the title of the Prequel though...
Please review!
Hotori
PS: It's my first time having two romance scenes in one chapter. WHEW that was a ton of work! Thanks for reading! I'm sorry if the romance scene disappointed anyone but...I prefered simplicity over paragraphs and paragraphs on end of violent physical terms. That's just me, and i'm the author so...too bad! Other than that i don't have much to say. Have a good summer everyone and eagerly await the exciting end to Detective's Assassin!