Nine Months Due
By: Kaytee Kudo
Category: Death Note
Genre: Romance, Humor
Rating: T
Summary: The Shinigami decide to take matters into their own hands and attempt to put the Kira case to a close by erasing the world's memories of Kira. But this is not without consequence…
Other Notes: Alternative ending bordering AU; LxLight, Mpreg in later chapters
Quick Recap from Previous Chapter: L decided to announce the news to Watari and Raito's family, and although after some time, they settled down and accepted it, when asked for his hand in marriage, Raito just freaked out and ran away. Now everyone is worried...
Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note…not even in my dreams…
Nine Months Due
Chapter Seven
Father's Intervention
"Good news, Raito! You're going to have a sister!"
Young Raito smiled, eyes wide open as he heard the news from his father.
"Really, Otou-san?" He asked curiously. "When?"
"Oh, you have to wait until Okaa-san's stomach gets bigger, but it will be soon", Souichiro explained to his loving son, smiling widely as he messed up the boy's hair. "You're going to be a brother really soon."
Raito's smile grew even wider, grinning.
"Yeah!" He said as he went to where his mother was. "Mommy, can I touch my little sister?" He asked innocently, and Sachiko smiled.
"Sure, honey."
L got to his feet the moment he got a hold of himself. Sure, a part of him knew that this was going to happen, there was a seventy percent chance of that, and he conditioned himself for that event. But when it actually did happen, he got stunned completely, Raito effectively shot him down, that he could even hear his heart break. This was his first rejection, after all.
Nevertheless, he had to keep this situation under his control, because even though he expected a high possibility of Raito rejecting him, he was not fully prepared for the chance that the said teen would run away like that. As such, he did not prepare the necessary measures.
He scrambled away from his seat, and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" Souichiro inquired, eyeing L suspiciously.
"I am going to look for Raito-kun, Yagami-san."
"Well, don't", he said sternly. "The last person he'd ever want to see right now is you, and I think that you'll just make the situation worse if you follow him."
"I'll go after him", Watari offered, and Souichiro wordlessly nodded his approval, understanding each other through a fatherly bond.
Then, Souichiro faced L again.
"You come with me", he said, commandingly. "We will talk."
L visibly gulped, but followed nonetheless, anxiously thinking what lay ahead for him.
Raito panted heavily, holding hard on his knees to keep himself standing. Running was definitely a bad idea, as he realized now. It was harder to catch his breath because of his state, and his knees were a little shaky. Damn that detective for turning him into this! He had never been exhausted like this before. He longed for the days where he'd play tennis for hours and not break a sweat. He used to be so fit.
And now, thanks to that quirky detective claiming himself to be L, he knew that his life was officially ruined. To think that he'd worked so hard to get his reputation. If only he could turn back time.
He walked a bit more, determined to lengthen the distance between himself and the detective a little further, until he concluded that he was lost. Either that or he was just unfamiliar with the place. After wandering for another minute, he realized that all of this was fruitless, and he gave up altogether, sitting in the corner of the street. At least they won't find him there.
It was then that he realized the state of disorder he was in, as well as his whole body. His clothes were crumpled and messed up, swear covered him all over, skin sticky from his own bodily fluids, hair sticking out in all directions. He figured that if things go on like this, he'd end up homeless and unnoticed, and he'd live his entire life begging until life finally gave up on him. The very thought made him want to cry. Cursing himself for being such a loser, he searched his pockets for his handkerchief, only to find that he lost it during his escape.
"Hey there, sexy!"
Raito visibly twitched, as he saw the source of that illicit comment thrown directly at him. It was a man horribly dressed as a woman, a low-class cross dresser, muscles showing out in unwanted places. Raito looked more horrified as the said man winked at him.
"How 'bout we spend the night together in this pretty place I know?"
At that moment, Raito knew he was screwed, big time. Taking in his surroundings one more time, he finally realized where he was—and he didn't like it. This was the infamous red light district near his place, but since it was daytime he didn't recognize it earlier. He started to feel scared now, knowing that being here only meant trouble for him, and when he turned to move his legs in an attempt to run for his life, he found that he couldn't, knees too strained after running too hard. His body started trembling badly, his own body failing him altogether.
'Help me', he thought silently, as if someone might hear his thoughts.
"Come on, kid. There's no need to be scared." The man approached him slowly but steadily, and Raito felt tears streaming his face.
"Heh, you're cute. I'm definitely…"
The sentence was left unfinished as the man just fell on the ground with a loud 'thud', groaning before finally slipping into unconsciousness. Raito just gaped as the events happened before him, too shocked to even move, heart pounding, breath heaving violently against his back.
Suddenly, a hand reached out to him, inviting him to take it. Raito looked up, and recognized Watari.
"It's all right now, Yagami-kun. Let's go back."
Raito looked at the hand, but hesitated.
"I-I don't want to go"
Watari smiled patiently, understanding how Raito felt.
"Then why don't we go someplace else?"
Raito considered this for a moment. On second thought, he didn't want to stay in this shady place any longer.
"Okay", he said weakly as he slowly took the elder man's hand. Watari gripped it firmly and pulled him up, offering his handkerchief to the teen.
"Thanks", he mumbled quietly as he followed Watari to the car.
"Arrgh…" Sachiko groaned, obviously in serious pain. Her water just broke, and was currently experiencing hell from her contractions.
"Mommy! Mommy, are you alright?" Three year old Raito frantically asked, panicking at the sight of his mother.
It was just their luck that on the day Sayu decided to arrive at the living world, no one else was there to rush his mother to the hospital. No one else, except Raito.
"Raito…" Sachiko spoke through the pain. "Call the ambulance quick! I'm going to…"
Realizing the urgency of the situation even as a young boy, he hurried to the phone and dialed the number he had long memorized, which his father taught him to call during emergencies. Raito told the address of his house quickly, scared at what was happening to his mother.
"Please hurry up, my mother is in pain…"
He hung up quickly and rushed to his mother.
"Aaaahhh!"
Raito froze on the spot.
Bang!
L continued to watch Yagami Souichiro in silence, one finger in his mouth. The police chief took him to the shooting range where police officers practice, and started shooting the target immediately. L did not dare talk, seeing how dangerous the man looked, and just let the older Yagami initiate the conversation. After another shot, Souichiro stopped for a while and reloaded his gun.
"When Raito was about three years old, Sayu was born", he started. "I was not at home when it happened, I was still a young officer then, and I was in the middle of capturing our suspect. Raito was alone with his mother then, and he was the one who called the ambulance. He witnessed everything."
Bang! Souichiro shot again, barely missing the center by a few centimeters.
"When I arrived at the hospital, Raito was in shock, and when he saw me he started crying, asking if his mother was alright."
The chief aimed again, this time hitting the target perfectly.
"Of course, when he saw his little sister, he smiled again, completely forgetting that incident." Souichiro looked at L for the first time. "But I had a feeling that he was traumatized by that. And I'm afraid that those memories might resurface one day, especially now."
Bang!
L stared at the still smoking gun, wondering when the chief will stop. He'd been doing this for an hour now.
"If you're really serious about my son, you have to know even these seemingly unimportant things about him. You have to be very patient and dedicated to him, and understand him completely."
Souichiro lectured, emotions spilling for the first time.
"When I first saw you, I pictured you as a man who never took anything seriously. You've only ever known Raito as a suspect to your case. Do you even know a thing about him that does not involve anything about the case?"
The teen's father demanded, looking at him with judging eyes, as though he can see through the detective. L hated it, but he knew he had a point. The only things he knew about Raito were the things a detective would know about their suspects: general appearance, schedule, personality, habits, all summarized in a neat profile, and although in that respect L knew Raito that well to the point of knowing his breathing pattern, he knew, at the end of the day, that these things were only ever important in solving a case. It was the kind of thing you have to know in order to predict a person, not to understand him.
It might be the only things you need to know if you're analyzing a robot, or a computer, but for a person, it was different. You have to know more, you have to understand. And L, as great as a detective that he was, had to admit that on that aspect, he knew nothing about Raito. But…
"I understand what you are trying you are trying to say, Yagami-san. I do not know anything about Raito in that respect." He held the gun, which was already lying on the table, after the chief had enough shooting, and inspected it. He aimed, and fired.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"But I love your son enough to try and understand him. I will learn all about him if you give me time, and I will try hard to make him love me too", L boldly said. "If it is for Raito-kun, I will do anything."
The chief looked at L, and the bullet marks he had fired. Looking closely at the marks, you could tell that L aimed at the places where Souichiro's bullets hit, each of his shots hitting that same spot perfectly.
"I will not give up that easily, Yagami-san."
"Here"
Raito looked up to Watari to find a towel offered to him.
As promised, Watari did not take him to the headquarters where L was, but instead took him to a nearby park. Where Raito began washing his face in the nearest fountain.
"Uh, thanks, Watari-san", Raito mumbled as he started cleaning himself of all the dust and grime he had accumulated, drying himself with the towel.
"You should change your clothes too", Watari said, as he presented the boy with a freshly ironed one, Watari was really reliable, and prepared.
'You really shouldn't have", Raito said, a little embarrassed at the man's concern. "I'm already fine."
"On the contrary, Yagami-kun. You really should take care of your health, I am worried about you." Watari offered the clothes again.
Raito hesitantly took the clothes.
"Thank you", he said timidly as he changed into them.
Raito spent the rest of the hour watching kids play in the distance, face blank, but Watari knew otherwise. He had spent eighteen years with one pokerfaced detective that it was easy for him to know emotions, however hidden they were, and upon seeing the silent boy, he knew right away that Raito was under a pool of mixed emotions.
"Ah, it's so fun to watch children once in a while. They remind me of my youth", Watari suddenly spoke, which caught Raito off guard. He never spoke to Raito before, if it could be helped, so he didn't expect him to say something personal like that.
"You like kids, Watari-san?" Raito asked, still shaken at how the man opened up to him.
"Terribly so. I had founded many orphanages because of that."
"You must be a really great father", Raito commented.
Watari let out a sigh.
"Unfortunately, I could not have a child of my own. I had been too caught up in my dreams that I forgot what was important. I thoroughly regret that even now."
Raito looked at him, with sympathetic eyes, showing emotion for the first time.
"I'm sorry."
Watari smiled at him.
"I met Ryuuzaki when he was seven years old. I taught him everything I know, and he has by far surpassed me tenfold. I consider him as my son, or the closest thing to a son I would ever have."
Watari looked at the boy, who was listening intently to every word he was saying.
"I assisted him in his needs, took care of his wants, I connect him to people, and people find him through me. He listens only to my advice", Watari explained, and Raito nodded. "But the environment I could provide was not enough for his growth as a person, that his intellectual skills are directly adverse to his social skills."
He rested his hand on the boy's shoulders.
"You were the one who provided him a place where he could catch up with his deficiencies, and I have a feeling that he will be at his best with you. I trust you, and I know that L is better off with you."
Raito looked away, feeling guilty.
"B-but…it was all a mistake…"
"There are no mistakes in this world, Yagami-kun, only opportunities to learn. Humans have a way of recovering from anything they face, and learning from their mistakes. You are an exceptional boy. I know that you can make it more than anyone else."
"Watari-san…"
Raito hesitated, a little moved from what the gentleman said. He watched the children play again, with longing eyes as he heard them laugh.
"If given a choice, I would have wanted another brother, or sister. But I knew that if my wish would come true, my mother would suffer again." Raito mused quietly. "Childbirth is definitely painful."
Watari smiled, hearing those innocently spoken words, understanding the teen's worries.
"It might be so", he said, looking at the boy as he did. "But the reward is many times worth it."
Raito's eyes widened.
"You would be so happy that you will completely forget about all the pain, and at the end of the day, the happiness on seeing the miracle of life would be all that matters", he continued. "Your mother felt the same too, when you were born, and seeing that you grew like this might have made her feel like the luckiest person in the world."
Raito did not notice the tear falling freely on his cheek, and Watari's smile widened.
"Thank you, Watari-san", he smiled weakly.
L was at a loss for words when he saw Raito return with Watari. That is, for a few seconds until he confirmed that it was really him. The fear of Raito not returning had been enough of a nightmare for him. The moment he was within reach of the boy, he hugged him immediately.
"Raito-kun, I'm so sorry for scaring you like that. I've been a complete and utter fool, but I will make it up to you now, I won't ever leave you even if you don't want to. I'm going to learn everything about you, and understand you. You'll always have me by your side…"
L blurted all these things in a ridiculously fast pace that Raito could not catch up with him, but he got the gist of it anyway. L had even dropped his speech pattern, enough evidence to show how shaken-up he had become without Raito.
"I love Raito-kun enough to marry him, but if he does not wish to, I will understand", L said, relatively calmer now, but still not letting go of Raito. "But could Raito-kun at least allow me to stay with him until he makes his decision? Or at least until our child is born? I will not allow him to be alone even for a second for that duration, I refuse to let him experience that without me."
"L, I…" Raito thought of what he would say. There were a lot of things he wanted to say, plenty of explanations he wanted L to hear.
"Would Raito-kun allow me to stay with him forever?"
The tight embrace the boy gave to him had been enough to answer all the questions L had in his heart.