December 25th, 2003
Christmas is spent cuddled under blankets and watching cheesy movies with her parents like every year.
Just the three of them and an obscene amount of presents for her birthday.
She absentmindedly remembers that Maria died a few hours before and wishes herself a good death anniversary - finding humor in those types of things, she found out quickly as Misa, really did help with dealing with it.
Like how the world's greatest detective looked like a hobo, or how Kira the savior/mass murderer was a teenager with a ridiculous God complex. Even funnier, the two did their thing (killing criminals, sending criminals to their death or prison and so on) like one might play a game of chess.
(hilarious)
"You guys want some popcorn?" she asks, already up on her feet and Yui Amane mother extraordinaire shakes her head fondly.
"Thank you darling!" the woman smiles, remembering a few years back, when she had the chance to meet one of her old high school friends' children. The woman had ended up with six of them, Kami-sama have mercy, each one worse than the one before.
Misplaced pride or not, Yui has the most amazing daughter ever, all things considered.
As if reading her thoughts, her husband leaned down to peck her lips with a deep chuckle. "Careful honey, that smile could scare whole nations away." The woman, positively thrilled at the prospect, surged forward for an actual kiss.
"You certainly know how to charm a woman," a bowl of popcorn was dropped on the low table in front of the couch the couple was cuddling on and Misa laughed, "Or scare away daughters."
Lie.
Nothing could ever scare her away, they'd drag her cold dead body away if anything.
December 30th, 2003
The newly nineteen years old of age meets another (un)familiar face that morning.
Her hair is up in a ridiculously messy bun and she is clad in a thick red wrap coat to shield herself from the cold weather, intent on only one thing : getting herself the coffee she so desperately needs.
Because of course their coffee machine - God's gift to mankind, had to die unexpectedly this morning. Before anyone in the Amane household could start a batch, her parents had left in a hurry as to get a new one from the closest discount department store. Misa had been happy to leave it at that, until she caught a glimpse of the stack of papers she had to get done before winter break ended.
There was no way she could do this without caffeine and well she did supposed those to die for brownies would make a good treat for herself, with the new year fast approaching and all that.
The place was almost empty when she got there with only a few workaholics heading to work in the busy streets of Tokyo, people usually did prefer to stay home this time of year after all.
"Oh!" Just as she leaves the coffee shop, she bumps into a, taller than her own, figure. The cup of coffee she barely had the time to take a sip out of almost falls over and Misa feels her soul leave her body. The person's reflexes are better than her own and easily manages to stabilize the blonde, one hand at her waist and the other gripping her elbow, not more than a drop falls out of the cup.
"Thanks! I don't think I would've survived if this here had fallen, sorry for bumping into you." The blonde takes a step back, having to look up as to get a good look at her savior.
The woman - far from a girl if those elegant features lacking any trace of childhood are anything to go by, is something out of a movie. "It's fine..."
Long dark hair and grey eyes and legs to die for, Misa blinks at her thoughts', briefly worried that she could be something as petty as jealous of the beauty in front of her and does a double take. Her inner monologue stops abruptly when she realizes she's not jealous and merely attracted to the woman.
That's much better, and wow if she previously thought herself immune to hormones, she's just been proved wrong.
The blonde realizes that the silence has stretched out for far too long, with the both of them taking the other in. Good, at least she's not the only one who would've seemed like a creep, staring like that. "Have a good day then?"
(her eyes are so sad)
It comes out as a question, despite not it being meant as one and Misa feels a surge of annoyance at herself.
"Yes of course, I'm sorry I just..." this woman does not seem like the type to trail off and fall silent like this, soft-spoken and looking something like worn out.
Misa scolds herself. Oh, what does she know anyways?
(a lot)
(too much)
"Don't be, I was staring too," Misa smiles, taking a small sip of her not-quite-scorching-anymore coffee. "Word of advice, if you were going for sweets of any kind in there, go for the brownies. They're to die for," she waves the bag of treats in her other hand with her friendliest of grins.
The woman's breath catches in her throat, eyes suddenly filled with tears.
Misa promptly pales, "I didn't mean to say anything inconsiderate!" she thinks of her previous words, mind whirling too fast for it to be healthy. "Not a fan of brownies are you?"
The dark haired woman shakes her head, looking away sharply. "Not at all, I don't like sweets very much...I just knew somebody who did, he liked this place's brownies especially."
Past tense, Misa notices, either a really bad break up or he's dead.
"I'm sorry, was it any recent?" Pale lips part, grey eyes wide with shock. The next few words the law student says are bitter on the tip of her tongue, she drinks a sip to wash the taste away. "Break ups are rarely easy."
She's a horrible, horrible person. Playing idiot and playing with feelings like that, bubblegum colored lips twitch slightly downwards.
The woman's face pinches, eyes tearing up once again, "He's dead."
(I know)
After minutes of this sinking feeling in her gut, of never letting her eyes move past eye-level, she looks above and sees exactly what she was expecting - dreading.
Naomi Misora, of fucking course.
She doesn't have to fake the sympathy, softly ushering the woman farther down the street as to get out of the way of a moody man's way. "I'm so, so sorry for your loss - God I have such a big mouth I...take a walk with me?"
Misa leads the both of the to the nearest bench, the older girl sitting down uneasily. They don't say anything, the blonde waiting patiently for what she suspects comes next -
(so very sad)
"He was my fiancé," she nods once, then boldly deciding to rest a hand on the other woman's colder one. "I...I can't believe he's just gone, dead." Guilt is not something she allows herself to feel often, seems like it comes back with a vengeance.
(wretched little girl, hands clean of blood do not make you any less of a killer)
Naomi has eyes the color of ashes, when the sun hits them like this they remind her more of burning coals.
"Yeah, grief does that. It sucks," Misa has always known herself to be selfish and thought herself to be fine with it, until now. An innocent man is dead, look at what he left behind, her head feels dangerously light.
(look at what Kira's rise leaves in it's wake, you who did not care enough)
Something tells her Naomi Misora does not cuss often, "No fucking shit." There's a sob, a single sob that might as well have torn Misa's soul apart. "I'll get justice for him, I swear it."
She believes it, she actually believes it for a second. Even when she knows the outcome, she believes this woman with every fiber of her being.
The blonde has to choke back down the laugh that threatens to spill out at the irony, she's quite pathetic really.
"I believe you," she shouldn't, but she does and maybe that's what makes things shift. Because she's still the same, still sceptic and so very far from just or fair, still unwilling to play this game that has become her life. She's the same, but was does change is what she wants.
(the wind picks up, the gears turn)
Misa had never cared who won, whether it was Light, L, Mello, Matt, Near, the task force - whoever wanted the title. She frankly did not give a shit, now however...
It would be nice, wouldn't it? Poetic in a way she has never been even, for this woman standing in front of her to win.
(winner takes all)
Someone she's quite sure they wouldn't see coming - someone like her, someone who's far much more deserving than they are, than Misa is. Someone whose call for justice should be answered, and well, maybe it won't change anything.
Not with Naomi's numbers dropping so very rapidly and an invisible noose tied around her pretty neck.
She speaks before she can stop herself, "Men will never not underestimate women."
Misora's face closes off, years of working as an FBI agent and having to do twice the amount of work her male counterparts did to earn even a quarter of the recognition they were given or climbing the ranks not like a ladder but like a steep mountain, all of it resurfaces at once.
"Use it, make them pay for it." Naomi still does not know the girl's name, but she is a woman of instincts if anything and so she follows hers and keeps her mouth shut. Even when it becomes clear the teen(?) is not what she seems.
Misa dusts off her pants as she gets up, looking at the woman who stays seated, as if waiting for something big. "Don't give your name, ever." The former FBI agent scoffs, something like : I'm not stupid, her mouth promptly snaps shut when she realizes that a warning of this sort can only mean one thing, Kira.
"How did you kno-?!" The blonde shakes her head, a sad smile stretching her lips, "Don't let them use your grief, and they will because that's what they do, they play dirty."
Playing with the hem of her coat that reaches somewhere along the end of her thighs, Misa continues, "Even more important than that and you need to listen to me on this, don't trust pretty faces with even sweeter promises."
(they never find a body, the death note is one scary, endless well of possibilities)
Despite not having the advantage, Misa still would rather bet on what's standing in front of her than on that damned book. She believes that this right here, that's potential.
Who knows, Naomi might even change the outcome, make things just a bit more interesting not only for the menace known as Ryuk but also for Misa herself.
And so, she leans down without a thought and drops a kiss to the crown of the older woman's head. "Don't let them use your grief," she repeats, "But know that I am sorry for your suffering and your fiancé, he did not deserve it."
(no he did not, she has to live with that)
Misa leaves the bag of brownies on the bench behind her as she walks away, the cute pink bow sent into the wind haunting the former FBI agent.
Misora does not make a move to follow the girl, only starring as newly set loose blonde strands flutter down her back.
Damn it all.