Disclaimer: I don't own death note.

Chapter 55

Caught

Just as the diary said, Matsuda, Raito and I went to spend the day in Aoyama on the 22nd. I was expecting to be alone with the two of them, but Raito had already arranged to have that plan backfire.

"Taro, Yumi... these are my friends from school." Raito said, introducing us to a group of students, there were seven of them, ten counting Raito, Matsuda, and I.

"H-hi, guys..." Matsuda stuttered, he was just as surprised as I was that Raito had brought friends.

"So these are my cousins, Taro and Yumi." Raito introduced us, "this is their first time in Tokyo, and they wanted to check out all the sights with us."

I was impressed, annoyingly enough, it was a good move to bring these kids with him. It meant that the second Kira's shinigami wouldn't be able to tell who Ryuk was attached to if it was the kind to help out the human owner.

"And Taro's also looking for a girlfriend, so if anyone wants to volunteer..." Raito joked. The group laughed, and I did too. I would have to keep my eyes open, but there was no reason I couldn't treat this like a day off.

"Hey... Raito..." Matsuda protested.

The group started walking down the street, I took note of all the security cameras that Watari had placed in the area, I hadn't been able to help set them up because I couldn't be seen around here doing surveillance work before today.

Something caught my eye inside a small café, but as I turned to see what it was, I felt something tap my shoulder. I had to turn away from the café to see what it was. Matsuda was withdrawing his hand from my shoulder as I turned to face him.

The thing in the café could have been important, or just a trick of the light, but I wouldn't be able to tell until I got a good look at it. What did Matsuda want?

"What is it, Taro?" I asked politely, if he answered quickly I should be able to see what the thing was.

"Uh... well, it's about what you said a few days ago, about me having a girlfriend... did you mean it?" he asked.

What was I suppose to say? There could only be two answers, and only one of them was honest. It was right then that I noticed one of Ryuzaki's cameras, it had a perfect view of my face.

"Sorry, Taro, you're really nice, and probably a great guy to go out with, but I was only joking when I said that." I answered, I tried to be nice about it, he looked depressed.

"Oh... I see, sorry I asked..." he said looking down at the ground.

Oh man...

"Well, I'm sure you're a really great guy... I just..." I felt like I was repeating myself, he suddenly looked up hopefully. Uh-oh.

"Wait, so does that mean you'll go out with me? Not as a boyfriend, but on a date?" he asked, he was turning pink.

"Uh..." what was I going to say?! I couldn't say no, well he was nice... "sure. Why not? It could be fun." I answered, but I couldn't help looking up at the security camera, that I knew Ryuzaki would be watching through.

"Really? That's great! Uh, I mean, how about tomorrow night? We can have dinner and... yeah." he seemed really excited, which gave me the annoying feeling that he had been planning this for a while, but it wasn't like I had anything better to do, in fact getting out of the hotel would be great.

"Sure, tomorrow sounds good." I said, I could see him radiating with joy at my reply.

"Hey Yumi, Taro, what are you doing?" one of Raito's friends asked, the group had moved a way's ahead while Matsuda and I had been talking. We caught up with the group and kept walking.

I looked into the window of the café, but whatever I had seen before was gone, hopefully it had just been an innocent bystander...

The rest of the day passed without anything interesting to report, Raito seemed rather persistent about going to some club called the Note Blue, it was probably where the second Kira was supposed to be, but no one with a shinigami was there.

Once the sun started setting, our group broke up and we all headed home until the 24th, Matsuda insisted in giving me a ride back to the hotel, and I had no choice but to accept.

The task force wasn't meeting at the time, so as I walked in door, the only one there was Ryuzaki.

"So, you're going on a date with Matsui-san?" he asked, I turned red at the question, though I had already assumed he knew. Even without sound, I had been facing the camera when he had asked me.

"Yeah, I am." I answered. I wondered how he felt about it at first, but then I decided I didn't care. "Tomorrow night."

"I see." he said, he wasn't facing me.

I crossed the room and sat down on the couch next to him. "Where are you going?" he asked.

"I don't know." I answered, partly because I really didn't and partly because I had a paranoid hunch that Watari would set up cameras around wherever it was.

He didn't say anything else, I got bored after a few minutes of silence, and went to my room.

Matsuda is a really nice guy, the only problem with dating him was that I didn't really see him as more then a friend, yet I still waited in front of the hotel the next night for him to pick me up.

"Hi." I said as I climbed into his car, this may sound strange, but I had never been in the front seat of a car before.

"Hi." he said back, turning pink as he watched me sit down next to him. This could be a long night, but he was a nice guy, I should try to have fun.

He didn't drive for very long, the restaurant he brought me to wasn't far, though it was fancy looking, and I wished for a moment that I had worn something more formal then jeans.

"Reservations for two under Taro Matsui." he said to the receptionist as I looked around. He was using his fake name even while booking a table at a restaurant.

The room was dim, and warm, there were potted plants that separated the booths along the walls, and dark wood tables filled the spaces in the center of the room. The place was packed full and I wondered how far ahead he had to call to get a table.

A waitress led us to a booth in the back then she handed us menus and left to seat more costumers. Matsuda sat across the table from me and we sat in silence as we looked over the menu.

It finally hit me that I was nervous about being there, it was my first date after all and I had no idea what to say to him to fill the silence.

I ignored the main corse section of the menu and went strait to the back to look at the desserts, a moment later the waitress came back to ask what we wanted.

Matsuda ordered some kind of soup and an unusually expensive bottle of wine, but I was torn between a large chocolate cake and a strawberry sundae, I asked Matsuda to help me decided and he said I could get both if I wanted, I was embarrassed about eating so much and chose the sundae so I wouldn't spend too much of his money, but I also ordered a chocolate milkshake.

"You eat like Ryuzaki, Yumi." he laughed once the waitress had left.

I laughed too. "No one's told me that before." I smiled, that was probably because no one besides Ryuzaki and Watari had ever seen me eat.

Once we had ordered, conversation seemed to come quite easily, Matsuda had an abundance of jokes to tell, and we laughed a lot, by the time the waitress returned with the food we had both laughed so much that I was grateful for something to distract myself long enough to breath a little.

Of course I ate the sundae and drake the milkshake so fast that I got a brain freeze which made us both laugh more.

After dinner, we got back in his car and he drove me back to the hotel.

"I had a great time." I told him, smiling, I couldn't remember why I had been so worried in the beginning.

"Me too." he agreed cheerfully.

"See you tomorrow." I said.

"Yeah, see you tomorrow." he smiled, and drove off as I walked back to the room.

As the elevator reached my floor I remembered why I had been uneasy about the date.

Ryuzaki.

"How was it?" he asked as I entered the room. I wasn't sure if he really cared or if he just wanted to remind me that he was there.

"It was fun." I said, being back in the room with him made it hard to continue with my good mood, "we went to dinner, and talked, he's really funny."

"Hmm." he mumbled, I didn't know why he suddenly seemed different.

Wait... something dawned on me and I smiled at the thought. "Are you jealous?" I asked, stepping over toward him, he looked at me.

"No, I just wanted to know." he said flatly. I didn't buy it.

"Then why are you watching the Aoyama videos?" I asked, though that could have had nothing to do with it.

"I wanted to see your reaction when he asked you." he answered.

"Didn't you see my reaction when we were there?" I asked, I knew he had been watching the cameras on that day.

"No, I was watching Yagami-kun at the time." he said, eating a chocolate from a box on the table.

"Wait, then how did you know he even asked me?" there was no way he could tell just because we had fallen behind.

"Matsui-san asked me, a few days before, if you were seeing anyone." he answered flatly, not even looking at me.

I took a seat on the couch next to him and ate a few chocolates from the box. "And you said no?" obviously.

"That was the honest reply." true. But that didn't mean he had to say it to anyone who asked.

"Why did he even ask you, anyway?" I questioned, eating another chocolate.

He eyed me skeptically. That had been one of the dumbest questions I'd ever asked him, obviously if I was seeing someone he would know. No worse, if I was seeing someone, it would most likely be him. "Never mind."

This conversation was getting annoying, maybe I had been wrong about Ryuzaki being jealous, after all if Matsuda had asked him about me a few days before, then he must have been completely fine with me dating him, or he would have lied. He lied a lot after all.

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author's note: ok! Saturday chapter, I had nothing to do today so I decided to write something. But I haven't slept in about 72 hours, which means it probably isn't as well thought through as some of the others. Oh well. Thanks for reading and thanks for the reviews!