Chapter 1: The Beginning's the Worst Part

May 19, 2003

20:04

Blood. There was blood everywhere. She had stepped right into a pool of it, her boots meeting the slightly dried substance instead of the wood floors. It trailed from the living room all the way to the kitchen, where she could see a body on its side. Shaking, she took another step forward and identified the broad figure to be that of her father. He was next to their home line, after most likely dragging himself across the floor to it, intending on calling for help.

In her state of shock, Misa started backing up, only to trip over another body. After falling roughly on her behind, Misa froze. Looking right back at her from her place on the ground was her mother, although the light in her eyes had been snuffed out quite some time ago. Her mother's jaw was left hanging open, though no noise would ever escape it again. She looked so much paler than normal, despite her Caucasian background, as if all the blood had been drained from her body.

Misa did not scream, could not find it in her to possibly scream. She just sat there frozen to the ground, a deer in headlights, as the blood continued to seep into her clothes. Oh God. Oh God.

The room started spinning and breathing did not come as automatically as it should. They're… they're… Her hands were trembling, and a small sob escaped her. Still, she could not move, and it felt as if the world were crashing down around her.

Finally, something snapped inside her, and she quickly grabbed her flip phone from her purse and fumbled as she dialed the number for the police. Tears were streaming down her face and the operator could hardly understand her through her sobs, but twenty minutes later the police showed up at her door.

It was a rainy Monday night and she had been coming home for the first time since her graduation to tell her parents all about her new job with this new agency. She was an hour late because she had been flirting with this cute boy she met on the train. How could she have known that this mistake would haunt her for the rest of her life? How could she have known that when she opened that door her parents would already be long gone?

A young woman with straight black hair came up to her and wrapped a blanket around her shoulders while the other officers set up the crime tape and began investigating the scene.

"We are going to get you through this. We will find whoever did this and bring them to justice."

The night was misty and cold, and as if the heavens could feel the ache in the young girl's heart, the skies opened and water pelted the earth, grieving alongside her.

Okasan… Otosan… please forgive me…

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May 20, 2003

04:30

Eight long hours of interrogation later, and the model was exhausted. They kept asking her the same questions and getting the same answers. The officers interrogating her were nothing like the ones that found her at the scene of the crime. Those officers had been kind to her, but the men in front of her now were much more hostile.

They were both quite ugly, the younger one had a pornstache and a horribly cut French crop, while the older one had a receding hairline and lots of gray hairs in his beard. No wonder they were so mean.

The blanket kept around her shoulders no longer gave her any warmth and she wished to disappear from this place altogether. And yet they continued.

"When did you arrive at the scene?"

"20:04."

"And where were you before you arrived at the scene?

"Like I said… I was at the t-train station."

"Do you have anything to prove your whereabouts? An alibi?"

"There was this boy I was t-talking to… I got his email… And you already have the receipt for my train ticket."

"This says you arrived an hour earlier."

"Y-yes… b-but-"

"What were you doing between 19:04 and 20:04?"

"I was t-talking with that b-boy… um-"

"What's his name?"

"Uh- Hiroshi-"

"Last time you said his name was Hiroki. Get your facts straight."

"No! No! T-that's what I meant! Hiroki!"

"That's enough." A new voice called from behind her and she flinched. She hadn't even heard anyone else enter the room. "You're wasting your time with this line of questioning. The witness has been through a traumatic event. To expect her to relay the exact details of what occurred is unreasonable. To expect her to do this multiple times, completely illogical. Not to mention your hours of interrogation are highly unethical. You are just trying to scare her into admitting something she did not do."

Pornstache scoffed at this, but did not confirm or deny what the new voice said. "And who are you to tell me how to question my witness?"

"Detective Otonashi. And from this moment on this is my witness and my case. You are excused."

Pornstache looked enraged at the so-called detective's audacity, but before he could approach him, receding hairline guy had grabbed him by the arm and nodded his head towards the door, where their boss stood making a "come here right now" gesture while tapping his foot impatiently. The two horrid officers finally, begrudgingly, left the room.

Misa sighed in relief as her two torturers left her and finally turned to face her savior. He was a strange looking man with wild, black hair that went out in every which direction. He was wearing a white long-sleeved t-shirt and a raggedy pair of jeans that looked like they were only a few washes away from completely falling apart. He wore white sneakers that were covered in mud and it looked like he had no socks on underneath. When she finally looked up into his face, she found the darkest eyes she'd ever seen in her life as well as the darkest bags underneath them, as if the man had not slept in the last decade. Despite his exhausted appearance, he looked rather young for a detective, as if he were only a few years her senior. No matter what he looked like or how much experience he had, he had gotten rid of those nasty cops, and for that she was grateful.

Before she could thank him, the strange man began again. "Amane Misa. Age eighteen. You graduated from Katsura High School two months ago. You started your modeling career last fall and just got signed on to do an issue with Eighteen Magazine last week. It is nice to meet you, I'm a big fan."

Misa was slightly taken aback, and an embarrassed blush graced her face. "Oh, t-thank you." Misa replied.

"Let's go get some ice cream." And with that, Otonashi-san turned on his heel and left the room.

"Ehh?!" Misa called out, rushing after him. Just who was this guy?

.

Despite it being the early morning, the two did not have to go far for ice cream. Otonashi-san's driver had some waiting for them in the back of his car. The old man looked like a stereotypical butler, with his nice suit and bowler hat, and he bowed to her when she reached the car. The little crinkle in his smile made her feel safe and loved, reminding her of her Ojiisan, though he too had passed some time ago.

Otonashi opened the door for her and she scooted into the far side of the car. He climbed in after her and sat down on his feet in a weird little hunch instead of on his ass like a normal human being. Misa couldn't help but laugh a little at this strange man, but she immediately blushed at her rudeness.

"Oh, sorry Otonashi-san…" She trailed.

"That's quite alright." He handed her a dish of strawberry ice cream and grabbed one of chocolate for himself. "Eat up. It'll make you feel better."

Misa didn't usually eat sweets, but ice cream was her guilty pleasure, and she needed something to brighten her mood after the shit she just went through.

"Thank you."

They ate their ice cream in silence, the only sounds that of traffic as the car cruised down the road and the light fall of rain still sprinkling down. After she finished her ice cream, Misa still said nothing, turning to her window to watch the raindrops race each other across the glass.

Finally, Otonashi-san cleared his throat. "Amane-san, I know this is a difficult time for you, and you have not yet processed all that has happened in the last twenty-four hours, but unfortunately, I must ask you a few questions."

Misa nodded slowly, but did not meet his eye.

"Amane-san… do you know what your mother did for a living?"

"Yes," she breathed, but stopped herself from saying anymore.

"I'm sure your mother swore you to secrecy to protect your family's livelihood, but you can be honest with me here. I knew your mother."

Misa eyes slightly widened at that, but once she thought it over it made sense. A detective comes out of nowhere to work on her parent's case, whisking her away from the local officers. He knew this case was important, which means he must also know…

"She was a detective… like you."

"And do you know what alias she went by?"

"Deneuve."

.

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Author's Note: Hello everyone! Welcome to my first fanfic on here! I also posted this on AO3, so same author! It has been a very long time since I last wrote fanfiction, so I'm sorry if this turns out horrible. I've loved this pairing for a long time, and I wanted to finally write about them after seeing a couple of others finally put stuff out there, and I thought this fandom was dead! Now I am a graduate student, so I'm sorry if I update this sporadically. I'll do the best I can.

My idea for this fanfiction was inspired by a few others like it. Obviously, I'm not the first to do the Misa meets L first trope, but I wanted to do my own spin on it. I also wanted to give credit to the fics I was inspired by, "Rewrite" by JustaMinuet, "His Dragons & Her Monsters" by RavenRois, and most recently "Candied Façade" by Herembers. If you haven't read any of these, I highly suggest them!

This is an AU, but I'm going to do my best to stick to the timeline we see in the manga. All of this is going to be from L and Misa's perspectives and I will obviously be going against canon in what they do, but you can assume that Light's actions are exactly the same as they were in the manga, at least for the first half of this fic. L and Misa might seem a little out of character, and I will be using the smarter Misa trope, but I hope you all enjoy anyway!

I have no idea how long this is going to end up being, but I'm determined to finish it! No matter how long it takes, I promise I won't abandon this work.

Thanks for reading!

Okasan – mother

Otosan – father

Ojiisan – grandfather

Otonashi – a fake name for L