So, so, so, so wonderful!(and then I didn't know the lyrics and decided to stop the song). Okay then, let's write on!

And yes, I'm updating a bit later. I almost forgot, actually! The days went by too fast for me. Before you know it, it's already time for school again. Jesus Christ, how will I live?

**Oh look, I still do not own Death Note. What a shame. Also, I make typos. And I am often too lazy to correct them, so if you hate reading stories with typos, you've been warned.

XxX

37. Adventage

Ryuzaki was silent as I walked after mister Heirs, who had become quiet as well. Natalia had stayed behind to send me (well, Ryuzaki, technically) the files I had requested. I was kind of in the dark now, Ryuzaki didn't ask me to say something, which probably meant that if he had been in the same situation as me, he would've been quiet as well. No wonder people were scared of him when he appeared in public.

'Ryuzaki?' I whispered, but there was no response whatsoever.

Great. Maybe he had fallen off his bed and broken the equipment or something. Or maybe he was in shock.

We walked for quite a bit. When we were walking for so long that I started to frown, Victor heirs started to talk. 'At first, he wasn't so far away from the others,' he said. 'But because of his… behaviour, we decided that it would be better to keep him away from the others.'

Naturally. Because madness was contagious. Seriously, what was up with this prison's logic?

'We're here,' Victor Heirs then said and my head shot back up.

It wasn't like Silence of the Lambs or anything, but the feeling I got as we approached the prison cell was pretty damn close. It was a clean cell, nothing like the movies where it looked like the prison was build hundreds of years ago. They were painted a lighter grey and the door was open.

But the cell was the creepy part. It was the blood on in the corridor. The bodies had already been removed, it had already happened three days ago, we were only here now because of my struggles with coming or not. Stupid. So ridiculously stupid.

'Is… Do we know how he got the door open?' I asked, trying to stay calm. L had seen so many scenes like this. I had seen so many scenes like this. Why was this bothering me? I wasn't even sure why. Maybe because Ryuzaki seemed to know this person.

'He didn't have to get them open,' the manager admitted with a sigh.

I frowned. 'What do you mean?' Ryuzaki asked before I could and I repeated to question to mister Heirs.

'He was going to go outside. He had been on good behaviour for months, it was his prize for being kind.'

'How many months?' Ryuzaki asked.

'Three. That's our thing. If you are good for three months and there are no problems, you get that privilege.' Mister Heirs made a sour face. 'He might have taken it too literally.'

'So… what happened?' I then asked before Ryuzaki could, staring at the blood.

'That's the… unusual thing,' Mister Heirs said. I already noticed he took a lot of breaks before finishing a sentence. 'He killed them by choking them with the handcuffs he was wearing, because he was going outside, safety measures, but then, he… cut them open.'

I was silent for a moment. 'Cut them open?' I asked.

'Ask him if he has left any messages. Any clues,' Ryuzaki's voice sounded odd, but I didn't have time to think about that now.

'Has he left any messages?' I asked before he could answer my first question.

Mister Heirs nodded. 'Three, actually.'

'You only told me about one.'

'Because we only knew about one when we spoke.'

'What has changed?'

'The bodies were removed. And then we realised that there… were messages on their back.'

'Messages?' I asked.

'Yes,' Mister Heirs said with a nod. 'We had the numbers on the guards' arms, of course,' he went on as if I knew everything. 'But on their backs, there was more.'

'Letters?'

Another nod. 'Yes. On one guard were the letters BB, a reference to his own name, we assumed.'

'And the other?'

'The other one of slightly more… random, at least it seemed to us as such. Two letters again, but this time, it was LL.'

Ryuzaki didn't say anything. And he didn't have to. I suddenly felt the truth more than I ever wished I could.

Those weren't Beyond Birthday's initials. Those were L's.

XxX

I took a cab back to a hotel I wasn't staying at, according to plan. I stayed inside for about an hour, than sneaked out through the window in the toilet. Then I walked on the street and entered the bakery Ryuzaki had showed me a photo of, bought a chocolate cake (which felt like the most Watari-thing I'd ever done) and walked to another hotel. There I ate a bit of the cake (I was waiting, anyway) and as I waited in the lobby, I looked around, watching people.

There was a family of four at the reception, checking in probably. And there was a hotel working watering the plants. When he came to water the plant near me, he gave me a little not. 'Got your heart broken, honey?' he asked with a thick southern accent. He was young, probably just working here temporary to buy of his college debt or something, and had dyed red hair and big brown eyes. He looked at me for a second, than looked away with a lot of disinterest. As if I bored him right out of his mind.

Maybe I should've just said 'yes', but I really did not want to. 'No,' I said, shaking my head. 'I was just hungry.' I couldn't manage to smile. I kind of felt like I was in shock, to be perfectly honest. But if I was, Ryuzaki would notice as soon as I would be back. And then he would slap me. And laugh I my face. And fire me.

'Sure, honey,' he said, not convinced at all. He stopped watering the plant, but didn't look up to look at me. 'You're not going to jump in front of a bus for some mysterious guy with dark eyes, ey?' he asked. 'Time's running out, dearie.'

I shivered and wanted to stand to tell this person that he really had no right to say those things to me, but then I saw a familiar car and grabbed the box of cake. 'I have to go,' I said as rudely as I could.

'Sure, honey,' he answered. I walked away, shaking my head. But before I could leave the hotel, I realised that he had no reason to assume that the guy who broke my heart had dark eyes.

I turned around to quickly the cake fell out of my hands and on the floor. No one. He was gone. Only a female worker came running to me when she saw the mess I'd made. 'Oh miss! Are you alright?' she asked me, but I was still staring at the spot where the young man had asked me if I had gotten my heart broken.

Jesus Christ, I was starting be become just as paranoid as Ryuzaki.

XxX

I stepped into the car and immediately Watari asked me what had happened to the cake. I mumbled an excuse and we started driving. Even though he asked me questions, I was too much in a daze to answer them.

I wondered if Watari was just as blind as I was. Not knowing anything, not doing anything. Just… listening to Ryuzaki and doing what he said. Just staying by his side. Could I do that? I always wondered if I was good enough, but that wasn't the issue here. Could I handle being blind, that wasn't the question either. The question was whether Ryuzaki could stop keeping me in the dark, if I could convince him to enlighten me.

Probably not.

I had been right about something, though. As soon as Ryuzaki saw me, his face became paler and he jumped of the bed. 'Watari, fill the bathtub with warm water. Now.'

Watari was immediately gone, but Ryuzaki stayed, grabbed the blanket from his bed and wrapped it around me.

'I-I-I-I'm not cold,' I said. Then I remembered the blood on the wall and the man with the red hair. Oh my god, he could've just killed me right there if he'd wanted to! If he really knew L well, he knew I wasn't him. 'Oh g-g-g-g-god. I have to go back. There was—' I was heading to the door, but Ryuzaki stopped me.

'No, I advise you to not move. I rather have you lying down, but I think the warm water will be the better option.'

'I want… water,' I said. I swallowed. 'And I feel sick.'

'Sssh, everything's fine,' Ryuzaki said, something he never really said. 'I think you're just having another one of your attacks. It's fine.'

'What? Huh?' I found myself laugh. 'That's funny. I've never had this kind of attack before, right? I mean, if it was, you would just hit me and I would be angry, but I'm not trapped in the past, I'm actually quite sure I'm in the present right now and If you do hit me, I will hit you back of course. I still have to hit you for a lot of things I believe and oh my god, why can't I stop shaking?'

Ryuzaki grabbed my shoulders to keep me in place, his face pale and dark, but he didn't seem worried necessarily. He just looked… calculating. He studied my face for a long while before he asked: 'Where's the cake?'

Asking about cake in such a situation, I managed to laugh. But it still sounded scared. God dammit! Could I not be weak in front of L for once? Jesus Christ, it was like the universe wanted him to think I was some weak rabbit or something. 'I dropped it,' I said, sounding much better already.

A small smile appeared on his face. 'How did you manage that?'

'There was—' I stopped. Realised that Ryuzaki was already pretty freaking paranoid. Would it really help him if I told him this? What would Watari do? Watari, even though he was very obedient, always had Ryuzaki's best interest in mind. The thing is, I wasn't sure what was in Ryuzaki's best interest right now. 'I was just being stupid,' I lied, trying to shrug. The lying kind of distracted me, even though I did not stop shaking.

Ryuzaki studied my face again, this time much longer. I noticed how my eyes widen and it became harder and harder to breathe, as if his eyes were choking me, but in a good way.

And then he suddenly flicked his finger against my forehead.

'Jesus Christ!' I shouted, stepping back instantly. With one hand against my forehead, I asked: 'What was that for?!'

A smug smile played on his lips. 'I wanted to try something else instead of hitting you. It seems like it had a similar effect.'

'You little— Come here! I'll kill you!' I ran towards him, but he grabbed my wrists and he started laughing as I tried to pull myself free.

It was his laugh that stopped my anger, made my stare at his face in awe. And as soon as my anger left me, Ryuzaki's grip loosened, though he did not let go. He was looking back at me, the same sort of fascination in his eyes. One of his hands crept up, to my shoulder, the other one still held my wrist. He moved so slowly, as if I as an animal that would bite if he wasn't careful.

The hand on my shoulder moved further, to the back of my neck. My mouth fell open slightly and I immediately noticed how his eyes dropped to my mouth and I knew what he was going to do, wanted him to do it so badly. The hand on the back of my neck pulled me forward, so close that I could feel his breathe on my face, so close that I also dropped my gaze, looked at his mouth instead of his eyes.

And then the door to the bathroom opened. 'The bath is ready,' Watari announced.

Ryuzaki acted way faster than me, shot away before I could even process anything that was happening. When I did, about half a second later, I shot away from him, too, leaving e huge gap between us.

Watari noticed, of course, but interpreted it the wrong way. 'Oh my,' he said, 'don't tell me you youngsters are having a fight?'

'No!' we said at the same time. I felt a sudden urge to look at him, to see if I could read his expression, but I didn't, simply because my face was already red and I really did not want to look any more like a tomato.

I decided to completely change topics. 'Did you say the bath was ready, Watari? I'll take a quick bath.' I walked towards the bathroom door and Watari made room for me to enter. Standing in the door frame, I turned around once more, still not looking at Ryuzaki's face. 'Well then. Bye.' I did the unnecessary thing and bowed before flying into the bathroom and closing the door, after which I sat on the ground against the door for a few minutes, wondering what the hell just happened.

XxX

'That code,' I asked much, much later that evening, when it had become clear to me that Ryuzaki was once again going to act like nothing ever happened. 'Do you have a copy of it here? Did you decipher it?'

Ryuzaki didn't look up from his laptop as usual. 'I was actually wondering how much you could get out of it.' Without looking at me he grabbed something from the bunk bed and put his arm over the edge of the bed zo that I could reach the paper he was holding out to me.

It was a picture with the following numbers in the following order. 7 12 8 14 22 19 15 12 20 22.

Codes, coding in general, was my thing. My brain immediately started to work and I also immediately started to ramble. 'The numbers suggest that we need to transfer them into the letters of the alphabet, which creates… G. L. H. N. V.S. O. L. T. V. With the lack of certain important letters and the amount of letters at the last half of the alphabet suggest that this is also the alphabet backwards, which means… TOSMEHLOGE.' I frowned. 'That doesn't seem right either. I miss a step, one that's harder to figure out. If it's columnar coding, I'll probably need a keyword, but both LL and BB aren't an option for the keyword. Too short and two letters that are the same never work with coding, unless it is a letter count, but that would mean that the keyword had something to do with the number 2 and that seems way too easy for a guy who put the code there for the greatest detective on earth to find. And also—'

I stopped when I noticed Ryuzaki was looking down on me with a smile I did not understand. 'What is it?' he asked when I stopped, a small frown on his face.

I swallowed and cleared my throat. 'Nothing, I just—' I glanced over at Watari. Having any sort of talk about what almost happened today with him there seemed odd and honestly kind of awkward, but it was killing me. 'I wanted to ask you if you'd already figured it out and only asked me to test me.'

Were you really going to kiss me?

Ryuzaki slowly shook his head. 'No, I actually came about as far as you. Your solution is clearly the most logical one, but, of course, not the only one. So, your next assignment is to decipher it using as many coding systems as possible. If it's a keyword you need, I be BB will leave a hint for us soon enough.'

'Leave a hint?' I asked, suddenly I felt cold, like my body realised what he'd meant before I did. 'Leave a hint where?'

Ryuzaki sighed. 'Near a crime scene, probably.'

I was silent for a while, staring at Ryuzaki as he looked at his laptop. 'What are you looking at, Ryuzaki?' I asked, because he wasn't typing as much.

'Why did he do it?' Ryuzaki mused. 'That's what I'm trying to figure out. He could've escaped before, I truly believe that, since this all seemed so easy for him. But why did he suddenly want to escape? Was it Kira? Does BB really have something to do with Kira?'

'Could it be possible?' I asked. 'Could he have a Death Note and traded for the Shinigami eyes? That would explain his rambling about numbers and letters.'

Ryuzaki looked down at me, his eyes wide. 'It would, wouldn't it?' But then he shook his head. 'But that can't be it, not completely it. I'm missing something. What am I missing?'

A girlfriend, perhaps? I almost laughed out loud at my own silent remark.

Of course, almost or not, Ryuzaki noticed. 'What is it?'

I pressed my lips together. 'Nothing.'

XxX

After hours of deciphering Watari sent me to buy some sweet foods for Ryuzaki and some more substantial food for the two of us.

'Try to buy something else than cake. Muffins perhaps,' Watari suggested. 'Even sugary sweets can be varied and a varied diet is important.'

I didn't bother asking Watari 'what diet?' but I did give him a small smile to confirm out little conspiracy.

I bought some cupcakes at a local grocery store and a bunch of cookies and candy. The bakeries were closed, so cake wasn't really an option anyway. It was late, too, probably after 10, so most stores were closed. I grabbed three packages of those crappy 'to-go'-sandwiches that stores sometimes. With one plastic bag full of food I headed back to the hotel, when something stopped me.

A small café. There weren't many people there, but a group young women were sitting outside of the café, clearly a bit drunk, but also having lots of fun.

I don't think I ever had that much fun with friends before.

And I only looked because one of them had shouted at me: 'Hey lady!'

It was weird that she'd called me lady, but she was drunk, so I guess I could forgive her.

When I looked at the group, the girl who'd shouted – a young woman with blond hair and sunglasses on, even though it was already dark outside – kept on talking to me: 'You look lonely. Want a drink?'

And maybe being stuck in a room drove me mad. Maybe Ryuzaki was so frustratingly confusing that I needed it. Or maybe, just maybe, I just stopped thinking for a moment, but when the girl said: 'Well? Do you want a drink or not?' I answered with a short: 'Sure.'

XxX

'And then he leaves me!' I shout out to the girls. 'Just because we're done with work doesn't mean we cannot be friends anymore, right?'

'Friends with benefits!' said the girl with the red hair who I now knew was called Chelsey.

'To hell with boys!' shouted another one.

'Heavens to Betsy, Liv! You must have it tough!' the blond one said. 'Office romance never works out!'

'Let's drink on that one!'

I laughed. 'Office romance,' I said, knowing that I was talking strangely, but not bothering to try and sober up. I wasn't far gone enough to spill secrets or to even start having flashbacks and rambling about all the horrible things in life. This was drunken complaining. And I had needed it more than I'd thought I did.

I hiccupped as if my brain was telling me that no, I didn't need this and yes, I had to stop drinking. But I decided to ignore it.

'Have you ever done it with him?' the girl named Sylvia asked then, shutting the other three girls – and me, of course – up.

'Pfft!' I laughed even louder, then gave her a little push as I spoke. 'He isn't like that! He's like… not a human, you know? He's like an alien. An alien with weird hair and dark eyes.' I laughed as I raised my glass again. 'And he kind of looks like vampire, too.'

'Oh what, does he sparkle in the sun?'

'He's rarely in the sun.'

'Good Lord! He's also an introvert? Liv, you know how to pick 'em.'

'At least tell me he's – like – ridiculously hot.'

'Well, if he was, it would be an extreme medical condition and I really cannot advise you to fall for that sort of physically fragile being.'

My eyes shot up and I saw four faces. No, wait… two faces. Watari and Ryuzaki. Both did not look amused.

'Hey! Guys!' I pointed at his face. 'He's the alien I was talking about.' I laughed again and my head hit the table, which made me laugh again.

'Wow, he really is pale.'

'And she's kind of right, maybe he really is an alien.'

'Who's the grandpa, though?'

I pointed at Watari with what I believed was a paper umbrella. 'That's his sidekick. Like Batman and that old butler. Adrian? No, that's not the name… Albert? Nope… That's not it either…'

'Olivia,' Ryuzaki said and there was an anger in his voice which normally would've surprised me, but now, it suddenly became funny.

'Yes?' I asked, but before Ryuzaki could speak, I shouted in his face: 'Alfred!' I pointed at Ryuzaki's face as I said that.

I saw him rolling his eyes, but everything seemed to be rolling around, so maybe that was just because of the alcohol. 'Let's go, Olivia, you've done more than enough.' He grabbed my arm and pulled me up, but because I wasn't doing anything with my legs I fell forward and I fell against his chest.

'Hey look, it's Ryuzaki!' I said.

'We've already been over this.' He sounded annoyed now.

I frowned for a while, then laughed again. 'Alien! Alien! You are an alien!'

'Yes, yes.' Suddenly my feet weren't touching the floor anymore and I kept laughing as the girls were shouting things to drunken and weird to understand.

'Watari, the bag,' the alien ordered the older alien and he obeyed.

'King of the aliens!' I said, looking at the young man's face with as much fascination as I had in me.

'Yes, yes,' he agreed again, still sounding annoyed, only slightly less now.

Suddenly, my mood changed and I stopped laughing. A frown came onto my face and I knew I was pouting when I asked: 'Why'd you kiss me?!'

'I didn't kiss you.' He sounded confused now.

His answer only made me more angry. 'Why didn't you, then?!'

He sighed, looked straight ahead as we were suddenly inside somewhere. His UFO? 'Finally asking the right question.' Then he looked back at me. 'We're in the United States, are you even allowed to have any alcoholic beverages?'

'Do aliens have alcohol, too? Waaaah.' I suddenly felt sleepy and yawned, not bothering to cover my mouth, as my hands were around the alien's neck. No, not an alien.

'Ryuzaki,' I said softly, staring up to his face.

He stopped walking then, abruptly, and looked down on me as if I was an alien. He looked so confused that I laughed again. 'What? What's so wei—'

His lips touched mine and were gone before I could even think about it. I heard Watari gasp, but the sound of our lips touching and then him pulling away was the sound that resonated through my brain as we entered the elevator, Ryuzaki still carrying me.

But I wasn't sober and that was enough. I was dreaming it. I laughed again. 'If you toss me across the lobby now, I'll be a UFO, too, did you know? Unidentified Flying Object. Ah, of course you knew that! MISTER ALIEN KNOWS EVERYTHING!' I shouted so loudly even I cringed.

'Yes, yes,' Ryuzaki agreed.

That made me laugh. 'Hahahaha, so you know that, huh? Interesting.' Well, it sounded more like 'interesssssssssssstingggggggggg'. 'Hey, kiss me again,' I said, grabbing his white sweatshirt and pulling.

We walked into the hotel room now, the ceiling seemed familiar and the bunkbed was definitely there before. Oh, yes, I had been here. 'TOSMEHLOGE!' I shouted as he put me down on the bed, so soft that my eyes naturally closed.

'Kiss me again,' I ordered with my eyes closed.

'Yes, yes,' he said again, but without actually doing it.

I opened one eye. 'Mister Alien Ryuzaki L?' I said.

'Hm?'

I giggled, which was stupid. But fun, too, in a way. 'What would you say if I said I met your friend before?'

'What?' he asked me.

'Be-yond-Bi-rth-Da-y.' That made me laugh. 'I think he followed me.'

I closed my eye again, but I saw him frowning just before I did that.

'I feel like I've made a terrible mistake making you part of this,' he then said, but I couldn't quite grasp the meaning of those words.

I giggled again, but it stopped when I yawned once more. 'You know you love me.' That made me giggle again. 'Xoxo, Gossip Girl. I never actually saw that show. People always told me I sounded like Chuck, but that's an insult, you know? Cause he's a guy.'

'Yes,' Ryuzaki sighed. 'And you really should sleep now.'

'No! I want you to kiss me again.'

'I didn't kiss you.'

'Well, kiss me now, anyway.'

'I won't.'

'Why not?'

'Because even someone like me has his boundaries with taken advantage of drunken women.'

I frowned. 'I'm not drunk.' But I did yawn again and I noticed that my concentration, as well as the world around me, started to fade.

'Yes, yes.'

XxX

The man laughed as he saw how the knight in shining armour took the drunk girl in his arms and carried her off. It was funny how much information this had given him. One mistake. This one mistake would mean his victory.

But that wasn't the only reason he enjoyed himself so much. 'You sure are an interesting creature, miss Severs. But more importantly… why aren't you dead yet?'

He waited for a while, but when the ladies got up to leave, he aproached them. 'Ladies!' he said, his smile fake, but still so, so, genuine. 'Do you want to have some fun?'

Let's have some fun, Allison Severs.

XxX

End of the chapter! Waah, this was kind of a weird chapter, ey? But an important one, in a lot of ways. And I always love it when characters get drunk. It makes everyone around them more interesting, I think?

I also think that Olivia really would be pressured into drinking. Just one bad decision and she's drunk. Maybe that's why she's better off alone or in small teams. I don't know.

Anyway, even though this was an oddball of a chapter, I hope you guys enjoyed it, bye bye!

XxX

REVIEW REPLIES

Realworld no Shinobi: hahahahaha ooh ooh. Both of your requests will be a 'maybe' for now (sorry about that). Though I must admit that A, I don't like killing off characters, it's just not my thing (says the woman who killed Light, Naomi and Rem without a problem, but you know what I mean) and B, I'm really bad at fluff and romance, actually (ask anyone), but maybe I'll do more fluff. I don't know, I just have to see. Anyway, thank you and sorry about the vague answers ;)

Luna Latanya: sometimes when I read your reviews I'm kind of scared you can read my mind or something ;) It actually would be kind of fun if she's driven nuts, though XD, for me, at least, it would be fun to write. But yes, I do agree that for Beyond, she's definitely a great option. Not sure how L will feel about that, though…

AuroraStargazers: Yeah, I took quite some liberties with BB, he almost feels like half an OC and I like writing long chapter, so hey, we're both winners! Whether she'll become a great Watari we'll just have to wait and see, but she definitely makes mistakes right now. A lot of them. But hey, mistake are human. Thank you for reading and reviewing again!

Guest review (Amy): Ooh, I get what you mean and I never really noticed. I guess, for one thing, there isn't really anything left to show how smart she is, because there were no mysteries to be uncovered. And of course, in the orphanage, I had to make sure to emphasize the fact that even though she's really smart, a lot of the orphans are smarter than her. And of course, since Ryuzaki left her, she's lost a lot of confidence, but don't worry. As there is a new mysterty know, you'll definitely see more of her smart side in the near future!

XxX