"We booked our flight those years ago
You said you loved me as you left me.
Regrets still haunt your saddened head,
But I promised you that I will see you,
We booked our flight those years ago
I said I loved you as I left you
Regret's no longer in my head,
But I promised you and now
I'm home again, again, again, I'm home again, again, again.
I'm home again."
Mortician's Daughter - Black Veil Brides
17 Years Ago…
"L! Wait up!" A young voice called out from behind the haunched boy. Lifting his charcoal eyes from the ground that was being patted with loud rain. The boy turned to see another. Rain dripping from the younger boy's ebony locks, he was panting slightly after running to catch up.
L blinked slowly as a small smile spread across his face, "Ah, Backup. What do you want?"
The nose of the younger crinkled in distaste, "Please don't call me that… I like B more!" B threw his arms around L, the latter tensing up instantly. "I wanted to say good luck! And ask if you'd bring me something! I've never been to Paris before."
L nodded pulling himself from the clutches of B, "Of course… Backup." His voice carried monotonously as it always did, but he felt a knot deep in his chest at the reaction of the other. B looked down and nodded solemnly.
-x-
The car pulled into the drive, L glanced out of the window to see a multitude of children playing in the yard together. His charcoal eyes landed on a solitary boy sitting on a bench, hugging his knees resting his forehead on them hiding his face from the others behind obsidian bangs.
The car stopped with a smooth halt, the back door opened for L. His eyes drifted up after removing himself from the back seat to be met with a pair of excited crimson irises, "Did you remember?!"
Jerking himself away from the younger boy as his pockets were searched, "No, Backup, it wasn't important."
B stopped and looked down with a sad sigh before looking up with a brilliant smile again, "That's okay! You were probably really busy! Was the case hard? Did you get to meet a bunch of new people?" L turned and began walking up to the house.
L glanced over his shoulder in annoyance, "No. Backup, I didn't meet anyone new. The case wasn't hard. Please leave me alone. I have a lot I need to get done." His eyes widened when B's smile didn't falter.
The smile persisted as B cocked his head to the side, tucking one hand behind his back and waving with the other, "Okay! Well, if you need someone to talk to, let me know!"
-x-
13 Years Ago…
L slinked towards the building and flinched when he heard loud steps coming towards him. "Oh no…" His voice quietly trembled out.
"L! You're home!" A voice shouted loudly as the two figures collided sending both of them onto the ground in a small ball that rolled back slightly. B pinned L down to the ground by his shoulders as his scarlet eyes gleamed with elation. "I missed you!"
A long drawn out sigh escaped L's lips, "Backup. Getting a little old for this."
B nodded excitedly, "Yeah! But I have a surprise for you!" He younger raven scrambled to get up and held his hand out with a mischievous smirk, "Please? Just hear me out this time."
L stared blandly at Backup's hand and lifted himself from the ground, not taking his hand. He glanced at the young boy who awkwardly recoiled his hand back to his side nervously chewing on his lower lip while blushing slightly. "Very well." L responded dryly.
Vermilion eyes lit up as L's right hand was grasped and yanked. L stumbled behind the boy as he was being dragged through the Halloween decorated yard. The back door to the kitchen flew open and charcoal eyes landed on a beautifully decorated strawberry shortcake. "Happy Birthday, L. Roger helped me. Okay, he helped a lot. Alright, he basically made it, but I helped!" A small smile graced the younger boys features with a mild blush.
L stared blankly at the pastry with a dull edge to his stare. "Thank you, Backup. It looks nice. I'm not much of a fan of strawberry shortcake though."
B hung his head slightly his voice timid and trembling quietly, "Please don't call me that…"
-x-
11 Years Ago…
L sat silently listening to Quillish with news of one more of their agents being disposed of, he could feel discontent stir inside his chest. All the words around him seemed to muffle as he retreated into his mind. 'This is what it is to be us. We surrender our lives to be a faceless threat to international criminals.'
After some time L looked up to find himself alone in the dimly lit room with a timid voice calling behind him. L glanced back at the lithe figure of a teen with ashen hair in his face. "Backup."
B sat next to L, he didn't touch him, he didn't look at him. He only let out a sad sigh, "L… If you ever need me… Call me. I'll come running. But I won't wait forever, if I get too far to hear your voice, I wont be able to come back."
L glanced his deep eyes to the younger boy with raised eyebrows of interest, "What are you saying?"
B looked down to his hands and shook his head, "Never mind. Just… Stop calling me that. I just came to see if you're alright. You seem fine." B stood up quickly then silently and briskly left the room.
L blinked a couple times in astonishment. Then once in slow motioned sadness, 'He's distancing himself… What could he be planning?'
9 Years Ago…
L sighed as he left his room, 'I haven't heard much out of Backup in a bit.' Bringing his thumb up to his bottom lip, he gently rubbed the ridge. 'Oddly enough… I look forward to coming home to his antics. I feel bad for always being so cold towards him… But lately… He's been distant himself.' L glanced up to the room door. 'I'll make it up to him, today is our birthday. I understand his loneliness. He just wanted a friend… It took me so long to see it. I understand Backup, I know what you were saying two years ago. I know the other kids are mean to him… Maybe that's what I've wanted this whole time. A friend.' He nodded his head with a small amount of determination and knocked gently on the door. "Backup? Uh, B?"
The door fell open slightly as a cold draft from the open window pushed the door open the rest of the way. "Hey B, uh, I came to say happy birthday… I know, it isn't easy sharing one with me…" His voice trailed silently at the empty room. Most of B's personal belongings were removed. Just a picture held down by a pocket knife.
L padded his bare feet over to the now empty shell of the desk his previous successor once used. A frighteningly sharp knife buried into L's half of the photo. Trying to remove the knife, L hissed slightly between his gritted teeth while yanking his hand back, brilliant scarlet droplets began to fall on to the photo. A young blonde stood in the doorway holding a black stuffed horse. "He's not here anymore… He left yesterday before the sun came up."
L stared at the horse and recognized it as Beyond's favorite, he always had it with him when he was little. 'He's been gone for an entire day… And I didn't even notice…'
The blonde approached the desk and pulled the knife out with ease from a different angle, "He was really sad. He's been sad for a long time." The young boy crawled into the now empty bed, "He said I could have his room… He said he didn't need it anymore."
L stared at the photo reminiscing on it.
-x-
"L take a picture with me!" B ran up to him holding an instant Polaroid camera. "It's our birthday! Please!"
L glanced up from his file, "I'm beyond busy…" B sat next to him anyway throwing his arms around L and giving Quillish a grand smile while pressing his cheek against L's. L narrowed his eyes in irritation.
-CLICK-
The photo contained a small message on the back he letters were script-like, obsessively neat, looped perfectly, every t crossed, every I dotted. An odd wrinkled spot left where the ink looks like it may have had water dropped onto it, it was just below the loop of the Y in birthday:
"You were beyond busy… I'm beyond you and this dreadfully shared day." The handwriting took a coarse change the letters that were once looped now at a sharp point, the obsessive script more jagged into sharp points in every cursive letter. "And me… I'm Beyond Birthday. Backup to no man."
L glanced up to the small boy on the bed and sighed, "Can I have a minute here alone?" The boy nodded and padded his way to the hall. L sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the room analytically. 'He didn't leave in a hurry. The room is freshly and obsessively cleaned. Just like he always kept it. He took his time. He knew next to no one would realize, until he was long gone.'
L hugged his knees and fell onto the bed. He closed his eyes and tried to piece together B's final days spent in this room. "Why… Why'd you do it…"
L curled himself into a ball on the bed and let out a shuttered breath, "It feels so much more empty now… Why would I bother. All of my successors will either kill themselves or run away." His eyes stung slightly as he clutched B's pillow tightly to his chest, 'I'm truly alone now… It's what I've always wanted… Why does it hurt?'
L gently touched the rogue tear droplet on his cheekbone before whispering weakly, "B… I need you…"
L's eyes opened slowly as a loud thud was heard followed by a groan. "Oh… That sucked." L's lips curled upward slightly at hearing Beyond's voice. He smirked at the camera feed when he saw Beyond enter the previously locked room. 'Once you set your mind to something… You're impossible to stop.'
Beyond's scarlet eyes drifted along the dusty walls and he sighed before yanking a heavy cloth away from the window. The sun pierced into the room instantly blinding the younger raven for a moment. He squinted his eyes then smiled at the brilliant rays before he morphed his face and coughed loudly, "Fuck! When was the last time someone was in this room?!"
The intercom queued and stated matter-of-factly, "Twenty two years."
Beyond rolled his resplendent crimson eyes as he chuckled while retreating to the living room with the heavy blanket, "Well. I guess I'll have to clean it then. It's filthy."
L widened his eyes, "B, don't. It's…"
Beyond stopped walking and stared innocently at the camera before a devious smile crossed his sharply lips, "You said the house was mine to do whatever I wanted with it. I want to clean that room."
He threw the blanket into the washing machine and happily trotted back to the room and shoved the window open aggressively. "That's more like it." He turned around and tilted his head curiously at a large object covered in a white cloth. He stepped over to it and smirked before ripping the sheet from a grand piano causing another flurry of dust to plume into the air.
Beyond's eyes narrowed to soften his features as he dragged his fingers along the ivory keys his voice hardly above a soft call. "Hey, L?"
L looked up to the live feed that was pointed towards the room, he studied the lithe form of Beyond from behind. "What?"
Beyond glanced back over his shoulder with a blinding smile. "Can I keep the stuff that's in here?"
A long silence was deafening between the two before L could gather the bearings to answer, "I guess it's too late to say no anyway…"
