Life as a (Not So) Single Twin (Part 1)
June 1998,
Cosplaying a statue was cool. The people that sat out in the streets, painted and still were awe-inspiring. But Heri's statue cosplay? Disgusting. If he had to rate it, it would be negative one thousand out of ten.
He'd made no effort when it came to his costume. Instead of incredible painted garments and skin, Heri had donned a very, very large sweater that Aunt Tammie had made that one time she tried knitting and tied his hair up into a bun. His breaths came evenly but much too deep for anyone to think he was made of stone. Instead of standing on the pavement, he sat on a floor cushion, legs pulled underneath him and books full of people sitting in the same position as he was spread out around him in a ring. He wore large glasses, a recent addition to his face as he had ruined his eyes with all of his reading by candlelight. With his eyes closed, he looked poised, relaxed and concentrated. And if Light were being honest with himself, he would admit that Heri pulled off the glasses rather well.
Heri's statue cosplay clearly needed work. This was why Light was so hesitant to bother him. The problem was, Light's required several players and unfortunately for both him and Heri, he only had two hands.
Light poked him with his index finger. "Heri?" he called out to his brother.
The boy didn't move. His eyes stayed closed and his body didn't move an inch par the rise and fall of his chest.
"Heri," Light poked his brother a bit more forcefully. While his finger caused Heri to sway for a moment, he quickly corrected himself and stilled again.
Light whistled out loud, not caring about whether or not it would annoy his brother. Despite his awful costume, something could be said for his ability to stay still and silent.
He inched closer to his brother, waving his hand in front of his face. When he still didn't move, Light pulled a very juvenile face.
"Challenge accepted," he said, glaring at Heri.
He stood there in front of him, just as still and quiet as Heri for many moments before suddenly lunging forwards and clapping in his face.
"Still not moving," Light remarked, rushing upstairs together with his supplies. he dashed around the room, filling his arms with potential Heri waking instruments. As he ran around, he stomped on the floor for good measure, knowing that his brother was sitting directly underneath. he eventually returned downstairs to the living room, unsurprised to find that Heri hadn't moved an inch.
He set the pile of various noisy and distracting objects on the floor before grabbing himself a pillow, throwing it onto the carpet and plopping down in front of Heri.
Light kicked aside a few of the books, watching disinterestedly as they flipped closed, allowing him to see their titles. "Connecting with the Mind, Meditation for Dummies and Rid Yourself of the Burdens of the Past, Face the Future with a Clear Mind" were among the discarded tomes.
He snorted. It wasn't even a cool cosplay then, Heri was just meditating. Further determined to save Heri from his decidedly grown-up and boring pastime, Light snatched the airhorn from the top of the pile.
He positions it so that it's as close to his brother's ear as possible and pushes down, cringing at the sharp wail of the horn. after a few uneventful seconds, Light stops the noise and glances over at Heri's face which hadn't shifted at all. It was so still that Light had to rethink his earlier opinion on his acting.
Tossing aside the airhorn, Light grabbed a pair of cymbals and promptly slammed them together in front of his brother's face. The loud clang reverberated through the house, eliciting a few yells from Sayu.
He cringed as he heard her stomping down the stairs. At age 8, She had become quite the strict and bossy girl. So when She came stomping down the stairs, Light knew he was about to receive an earful for distracting her from whatever she'd been doing.
As expected, "Yagami Light!" was screeched before her foot even hit the bottom step.
"What do you think you're doing banging things around like that," She spotted the cymbals and gave him an incredulous and suffering look.
" Must you always be so thick-headed. We have neighbours Light, neighbours! Neighbours who don't want to put up with you playing musician at all hours of the day," She continued as she walked up to him and snatched the cymbals out of his hands.
"Go play with some other toys," She told him condescendingly before going back to her room, taking the cymbals with her.
Light turned back to his brother, ready to try his next idea.
Heri, he observed, hadn't moved or otherwise broken from his trance even when faced with Sayu's impressive set of lungs.
Shrugging, he plucked a colourful toy gun off the floor, stepped 10 paces back and pointed his it at Heri's forehead.
His finger snagged the trigger and his aim was true, hitting his brother with a soft smack of plastic on skin. The impact caused Heri's eyes to flutter momentarily but they stayed firmly closed.
A small victorious grin spread across Light's face. He was making progress.
As it turned out, Light was not really making any progress. He tried everything he could think of, even hanging himself off of Heri's shoulders when he became truly desperate.
A glance a the clock mounted to the sitting room wall told him that he'd been working to get Heri's attention for no less than an hour and a half and the growl of his stomach told him that it was nearing dinner time
As his thoughts began to wander to delicious foods, the smell of his mother's cooking wafted in, permeating the room. It caused his stomach to growl again weakly like a drugged animal.
Light rose from the couch, ready to abandon his quest when something miraculous happened. Heri's eyes fluttered open abruptly, his dilated pupils struggling to adjust to the dim light of the single lit lamp.
The reason for his sudden return to the land of the living room became apparent when he rubbed his abdomen, glancing down at it sheepishly.
He shakily rose from his pillow, leaving behind an imprint of his arse. Guided by his nose, he followed the direction of the smell, not pausing once to acknowledge Light's presence. He only looks up when a peal of laughter escapes Light's lips.
Despite having basically taken a conscious nap all day, He looked surprisingly tired. A tinge so dark it might as well be permanent painted the skin beneath his eyes. The sleep in his eyes, chapped lips and dried drool around his mouth did not help with the image.
His haggard appearance did not stop Light's laughter and when his brother did not stop after a few moments, Heri rolled his eyes and walked into the dining room in search of sustenance.
Light wiped the tears that had formed in the corners of his eyes away.
"Food," He said, his voice conveying his dry amusement, "All I needed was some bloody food,"
xxx
Early July, 1998:
Light was not quite sure how to be a friend. he'd never had very many. People tended to gravitate towards him but he pushed them firmly away. This was not an option when it came to Iha Masumi. He could never reject the attention of his stunning goddess. He figured he was doing alright. Their friendship was an affair of casual touches and secret smiles and entwined hands, nothing outside the norm according to Light's thorough research. He did not realise that their bond was heading in a direction he might have hoped for if he even dared to let the idea form in his mind.
The pair had been nestled into the Iha family Library's couch, a moderately sized and plush thing. Each was sucked into their respective books, Light sunk so far into the couch that he was practically sinking into it. His head, placed carefully in Masumi's lap, was the only thing keeping him afloat in the veritable sea of burgundy cloth.
His nimble fingers flipped the pages easily as his eyes flew across the pages of the thick tome he had plucked from the shelves. It was a spy novel, set in the years of the American Lavender scare, a dark time for their intelligence community and many individual spies, officers and detectives alike. It was a particularly fascinating albeit somewhat obscure book and he had immersed himself completely into it, his hearing shutting itself down to preserve his focus.
He could feel reality crumbling apart around him, leaving him in a world of superspies and corrupt Governments.
A scene appeared before him, projecting itself in the back of his eyes. It was clear, almost as if he was watching a translucent movie unless he tried consciously to watch it, causing it to melt away. The scene was of the very passage he was reading, detailing the scare in great detail.
A pair of men, one dressed sleekly in black and the other in dirty slacks and with a false beard, embraced affectionately. One was still tied to a small metal chair, presumably for interrogation though from whom remained a mystery.
Gently, the agent was untied by his partner, allowing him to leap out of his chair and rub the sensitive skin of his chafed wrists.
A genuine smile and a soundless witty reply later, the pair took off running in a veritable labyrinth, the one dressed in a suit checking his watch consistently
As they ran, Light's perspective shifted. Instead of watching them from above like some sort of bored god or horrifying floating head, He found himself inhabiting the body of the man in black.
Fear coursed through his veins as he ran. He knew that they had what they needed to get out before they found them.
He and his companion, a man who's appearance shifted consistently ran into a large room, full of what were clearly enemy operatives. He glanced back at his companion who was currently looking like Masumi. The man appeared to be frantically planting explosives. The sound of thumping boots met their ears, echoed and distorted by the metal corridors.
The planting of bombs became even more frantic, Faux-Masumi's hands shaking and consistently missing the buttons he needed to hit. The sound of the boots got closer and his partner, now finished with planting the bomb, pulled out a radio.
The sound of his voice was drowned out by the sound of heavy boots meeting steel floors like a sinister metallic drumbeat. Despite the lack of words, Light easily read the expression on Faux Masumi's face. Horror and resignation. There was no backup, no miracles. They would die, either there or at the hands of the men stationed in the room and stomping through the hallways.
Their eyes met and they came to a silent agreement. Better dead here than dead having spilt secrets of the state, even if the state scorned them.
His companion swept over to him, pulling him close in his arms. Their foreheads connected as the man pressed the detonator, sending out a deadly blast.
They held each other in a close embrace as they braced themselves for death. The man's hair seemed to be glitching. It couldn't seem to decide between to lengths. Eventually, it settled on being long and Light's eyes flicked up to meet his. They were still the brilliant green that Masumi had although, like the hair, a strange light flickered in them.
As the force of the explosion embraced them, Light pressed his lips softly and chastely to those of the other man. It was the last sensation he felt as flames and energy enveloped him destroying him and his partner completely.
Light awoke gasping for air, tears leaking from his eyes. He breathed hard, keeping his eyes clothes as he processed his dream.
"Light?" A soft voice asked.
His eyelids parted to meet Masumi's worried gaze.
"Light are you alright?"
Light immediately tensed but Masumi's grip was strong and it would take quite a bit of struggle to escape. When he opened his eyes completely, he found that he had somehow slid up Masumi's body in his sleep. His head rested on her shoulder. Her arms were wrapped around him, one rested on his hip and the other held open the YA fantasy novel she'd bought last week.
From this angle, Light had a wonderful view of her face. It was framed by black hair that curled loosely around her face. Where many girls he knew had rounded and delicate features, Masumi face was full of shocking, hard angles and strong features. Her eyes, the crown jewels of the masterpiece that she was, shone sympathetically and with open affection.
"What did you dream about?" She asked him, placing the book onto a nearby side table.
Light stared at her, breathing hard as her face curled into a small smile.
"You," He told her, casting his gaze down as he tried to dry his tears .
"Hmm," Masumi hummed, reaching out nervously. Her elegant fingers tipped his face up towards her.
"Do you dream of me often?" she inquired?
Light felt his face flush and Masumi took his silence as an answer.
She leant down, her warm breath fanning his face. Her lips met his in an innocent kiss. It was much nicer than in his dream. Masumi's lips were slightly chapped, the texture tickling his own pleasantly and much warmer than he'd imagined
She pulled back much faster than she'd approached, sporting a bright blush that surely matched his own.
They said nothing after that, just sitting together on the couch, Light's face buried in her shoulder.
He would really have to thank Aunt Tammie for this, he mused as they sat. She really was quite the catalyst.
xxx
July 1998,
Hindsight really was a bitch.
That was Light's only thought as his twin brother and best friend stared at each other in shock. Masumi had just shown up at his door, ready for their celebratory fast food spree. Having just gotten their exam results, they were both quite proud of their tests. To say that they were at the top of the class would be a gross understatement. Light and Masumi soared above the rest of the class, a pair of Icarus with no sun to melt their wax wings.
It was inevitable that Heri would meet Masumi. Light had just completely forgotten that they did actually live in the same universe. He anxiously watched his shell shocked friends and was not at all relieved when they both started laughing.
They laughed similarly, he noted as he prepared himself to face his self-fashioned impending doom. It was a nice laugh, full of teeth and smiles.
"You... It seems you've got a type, Light," Masumi chuckled as Heri nodded his agreement.
As hard as he tried, Light couldn't keep his blood from rushing to his face. Cursing his fair skin, he bore the blush embarrassedly, knowing that his entire face was probably the colour of tomato ketchup.
"I don't have a type," He huffed, crossing his arms.
His childish response was met by two raised eyebrows.
"Of course Light," Masumi appeased, "Clearly you just thought we were the same person,"
Light's flush darkened.
It wasn't like that. He adored Masumi, he revered her. He loved her as much as a person of his age could love. And Heri... Heri was just his super-smart twin brother. Of course, he loved him but he did not revere him as he did Masumi.
"You two have some very obvious physical differences." He told them stubbornly instead of voicing his thoughts.
He gestured at Masumi. "Your hair is shorter and you don't have his scar,"
Masumi turned to Heri, gazing at him with mock disappointment.
"Oh lost twin of mine, How could you mar your precious skin?" She placed the back of her hand against her forehead dramatically, "Now we may never confuse our peers. We will always be told apart by the mark on your..." She trailed off inquisitively. Heri raised a hand and brushed his hair aside in answer, exposing a jagged scar on his forehead.
"Wow," Masumi told him, moving closer to admire the pink mark. "This looks fairly recent. How in the world did you manage to do that,"
Heri's smile shifted from genuine to pinched.
"Accident at school," He said, keeping his response short and concise.
Light's mind wandered to his nightmare, the night he and Heri had an impromptu sleepover, and shuddered. The image of his twin brother chained to the wall, littered in gashes effectively soured his mood.
"Ah," Masumi answered eloquently, somehow sensing the change in mood.
Heri smiled somewhat painfully.
"I won't hold you two up for too much longer," he gave Light a forced conspiratory look.
"Have fun on your date. Don't screw this up because it might be the only chance you'll ever get" He stage whispered, causing Masumi to snort in amusement and Light to glare at him sullenly.
"Shall we m' lady?" Masumi teased, holding her arm out for Light to grasp. His glare turned to her and softened slightly at the genuine smile on her face.
He rolled his eyes and set off down the sidewalk, not bothering to shorten his strides so that his significantly shorter companion could keep up.
"M'lady!" she cried as she raced after him, "I know you're a strong independent woman but would you please slow down for this poor little knight,"
Light huffed in amusement, slowing his stride by a fraction. Masumi quickly fell into step beside him, the pair falling into a strange sort of silence. As they walked side by side, Masumi fixed him with an unusually intense look.
"What is it?" He asked, equal parts bemused and bewildered.
"Make no mistake Light," She told him solemnly, all trace of her earlier jokes long gone, "We will be talking about this,"
Light shuddered slightly, knowing exactly what Masumi was talking about. He could feel beads of sweat trying to form on his forehead as he forced himself to think of how he would explain to his girlfriend that her doppelganger was his brother.
They continued to walk, hand in hand, neither at all inclined to break the silence that hung thickly between them.
They would speak later and deal with all the problems that would arise from that conversation. For now, they were on a date.
Light paused to glance at his girlfriend for a moment.
They were on a date and Light was going to enjoy it without thinking of his imminent post-conversation castration looming in the near future.
xxx
October 1998,
As Aunt Tammie was laying being operated on, under anaesthesia and on a metal table, The Yagami's lay casually on their couch, watching an old, cheesy Haloween movie.
As the doctors dug out the shrapnel out of her chest, Sayu Yagami laughed heartily at a particularly funny pun.
As the doctors breathed a sigh of relief that they had successfully sucked the blood out of the cavity around Tammie's Heart, Soichiro Yagami received a call.
He moved to a different room so that his panicked voice would not be heard by the rest of the family. The phone call was a short one, short but very important.
"Everyone, we have to go, now." he rushed into the sitting room where the movie was still playing though none were still paying attention.
"What's wrong with aunt Tammie?" Light asked worriedly. Though he would never admit it, his aunt had become a very big part of his life in the year she'd been living with them.
Soichiro looked at him, his expression filled with his own worry.
"She..." He trailed off as he was forced to look ahead by flashing street lights. "She was attacked. attacked during her patrol,"
The panic rushing through Light's veins felt a little less overwhelming when he heard it had been a patrol attack. Patrol was usually one of the easier parts of being an officer. Most ended up taking in only one or two felons for mundane reasons such as public intoxication or nudity or loitering.
Light was almost relaxed for the rest of the car ride. That is until they pulled up into the hospital parking lot. His eyes widened when they passed the sign that read Kyoto City and they stared at the back of his fathers head, full of childish betrayal as that pulled into a parking spot in the car park.
"I thought you said she was injured on patrol!" He exclaimed angrily.
"She was," his father replied, his normal stern voice having replaced the worried, wavery one from before. "Stabbed three times in the abdomen then thrown down three stories into an alley,"
Light's stomach rebelled, stirring uncomfortably.
"We need to go see her," He said softly and the rest of his family nodded in agreement.
It wasn't difficult to find Aunt Tammie's room. After Soichiro announced that he was the police chief and that Aunt Tammie was one of his officers, they were lead straight to her.
Light approached his aunt as Soichiro was pulled away to answer some questions as the police chief. She was sleeping. The drugs in her system had probably already worn off, her exhaustion keeping her unconscious.
"Aunt Tammie," He laid his head on her shoulder which, according to the report, had not been damaged in any way. "Who did this to you?" tears began to roll down his face.
A weak hand stroked his hair lovingly as he lay there, sobbing into her shoulder. His head lifted slightly and he saw his Aunt's eyes were open.
"Who did this Aunt Tammie?" He asked again.
"Terada Natsuko," She rasped out and Light gasped, partly because he hadn't expected an answer at all and partially because of the identity of her attacker.
Terada Natsuko was a well-known businesswoman, the sole inheritor of her father's company, Terada Trading when he died. she was generally very well like about the country, known for her astounding displays of philanthropy and passionate protests against the pollution of the earth.
Terada Natsuko was the kind of woman the public would assume wouldn't hurt a fly. That was what made Aunt Tammie's accusation entirely believable. The people with the cleanest records were most often, the shadiest. that someone with such a pristine reputation could attack a cop shouldn't surprise light one bit and yet he gasped.
"Was there any cameras, any witnesses, any evidence at all?"
Tammie shook her head softly and Light's hands clenched into fists.
"You would never win." He told her and her face stayed serene, as if she already knew that. Considering her job, she probably did.
"But... You're just gonna let her go? She attacked you! You got thrown out of a three-story building! Surely getting justice for yourself is worth the risk of being sued for defamation!"
Tammie just shook her head and he knew that it was a lost cause.
"Sir," A nurse said from behind him. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't yell at my patient,"
"Sorry," He let his head dip slightly.
"Now out you go, your family is standing outside," She shooed him away. he stepped reluctantly ou the door to wait with everyone else for Aunt Tammie's release.
In reality, it took two weeks for the hospital to finally release Tammie. When she came home, she was not the prankster she had once been. She had been more subdued and obedient, closer to being the stuff of some wealthy 50's man's wet dream. Perhaps her experience had shaken her permanently, to a point Light could and would ever really understand.
He never did tell the truth of Tammie's attacker to the rest of the family, barring the letter he wrote to Heri the next day and he sincerely doubted that Tammie had told them either.
he knew as the only one with the information, he would be the one to avenge her. And avenge her, he would.
xxx
November 1998,
Light was beginning to think he was just a masochist, with the way he still watched the woman he was impotent against. It had been a month since the attack. Aunt Tammie was very well recovered and Terada had continued to live her life as normal. She was an important woman, always surrounded by bodyguards. Still, he couldn't help but continue to watch. Watch her go about their life when Aunt Tammie would never really be the same. Watch her enjoy luxuries she didn't deserve, paid for by unearned money. He watches her and vows that one day, she will pay for her crime. Light would not fail where the court did, no matter what it cost him. His family, his life, his freedom, they were all a small price to pay for justice
xxx
May 1998,
It didn't hurt as much as it should've. Light stared up at Masumi and could see that she knew exactly what he was thinking. A small glint in her eyes also told him she knew why.
"Goodbye," he whispered against her lips as they stood together in the airport.
"I'm sorry," She whispered back. "I'm sorry for leaving,"
Masumi pulled back, a small grin distorting her face. "Maybe... Maybe it's for the better. I know it was sparked by Dad getting a new job but I think you might be better off without me around," She told him, looking back at her dad.
Light looked at her, bewildered. "Better?"
Masumi just stared at him, searching for some kind of hidden knowledge within his gaze. She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"You really haven't figured it out yet?" She asked him, the fond exasperation clear in her voice, "Well neither has he, I suppose. Just don't freak out when you find out," She told him, the exasperation turning to mischievousness as she spoke.
She skipped off towards her Dad, leaving Light standing alone, looking more confused than ever.
"Wait. Masumi what do you mean? Come back here!" The laugh he'd heard so much over the last few months was his only response.
He stopped and huffed in slight annoyance. She'd said he would find out eventually hadn't she? Masumi was usually right. He only hoped she hadn't covered his trophy wall in glitter again.
A/N: (WARNING, KIND OF SPOILER AHEAD) I'm not too sure what you guys would consider a spoiler or not but I put the future pairing in this A/N so Don't read the last paragraph if you don't want to know.
Hello everyone, I got a review asking about the future pairings in ADMT (More specifically the Light/Heri dynamic). Like Miklanj noticed, Heri and Light have a strange kind of relationship. I'm here to tell you all that no, I won't be pairing them together. Though Light might like Heri a bit too much to be normal, they're still siblings first and foremost.
While a lot of "Villains" wouldn't give a damn about an incestuous relationship, Light is pretty much the definition of a murderer with morals and shacking up with his brother is completely off the table for him, not to mention I don't think I'd be comfortable writing a relationship between siblings.
Light's infatuation is important to the story though, especially to get to my endgame ship which is going to be L/ Heri (more like L wishes he was with Heri and Heri is oblivious but that's beside the point). I won't spoil any more for you guys but I hope that clears everything up.