It was nearing the end of the school and Light Yagami was in his room. The To-Oh exams were fast approaching and he had to study hard if he wanted to achieve a perfect score. He always aspired to make his parents proud and therefore he felt this compulsive need to be perfect.
This usually resulted in Light being quite content with his life; his family loved him, he was good at sports, he was intelligent (always been the top of his class), had never been bullied, and was very charismatic and popular with most people. Then there were times when he just felt very tired and could no longer see any worth within himself or his actions. Like right now, he couldn't seem to concentrate for the life of him; his thoughts kept drifting back to his sham of a relationship with Misa Amane and how it really wasn't fair to either her or him. But it would be just as unfair to his family if they were to discover that he was gay.
"Big brother! Its dinner time," shouted Light's little sister, Sayu, breaking him out of his troubled thoughts.
Light left his bedroom headed for the kitchen. Sayu was just start to set the table and Light decided to help her as he quickly grew fearful of her precarious balancing act with the dishes on-top of the utensils on-top of the drinking glasses on-top of a bowl of salad.
When they were done their father, Soichiro, had just come back from work. Light was honestly glad to see him home tonight, though he may not have shown as much enthusiasm as Sayu. Soichiro was the chief of the NPA (National Police Agency), and would often times work very late hours. From what Light could glean from his parents' conversations and news reports, his father was working on a very difficult case; the Kira case. Light found it all rather strange with the police force having to protect these criminals from a vigilante that was somehow causing them to die of heart attacks.
"Dinner smells very good," said Soichiro, smiling as he entered the kitchen.
"Thanks, Mom and I worked really hard," said Sayu, grinning proudly as Sachiko, Light and Sayu's mother, served up the plates of food.
"For a while there I thought you'd be working another all night… again," said Sachiko, in a passive-aggressive manner. She hated it when her husband left his family for so long, not seeing them for weeks on end and not calling to let them know he was okay.
Light felt something a kin to ice entering his veins; his parents never argued, but would rather say half-hearted comments that were quickly dropped and the leftover anger and bitterness repressed. These little habits left Light feeling mildly ill. Maybe with the exception Sayu, no one in this family was completely in touch with each other or themselves.
For several long minutes, dinner passed by in complete and utter silence. Light found himself mostly pushing around food rather than eating it. The silence felt as though it was the one eating away at him.
"So Dad, how's the Kira case going?" inquired Light, wanting to break the silence as well as being legitimately curious.
"Oh look at that Dad, Light is questioning you about work," exclaimed Sayu, enthusiastically. She was pushing for her father to spend more time with her brother; Light had just seemed so detached lately. "Don't you think Light will be a great detective one day? Right, Dad?"
"I know he will. And about that…" replied Soichiro, briefly pausing as he wiped his hands and face on a napkin. "Light, son, I know that you are close to entering college, so you are very busy. But my colleagues and I think we could use someone of your intelligence on the Kira case."
"Are you asking me to come and work with you?" asked Light, hopeful as looked into his father's eyes.
"Well, yes," answered Soichiro, somehow remaining oblivious to his son's elation.
"R- Really?" stuttered Light, feeling overwhelmed. He rarely got attention from his parents in recent years, since he was doing perfectly fine and they just assumed he didn't need it or want it. It probably didn't help that he pushed them away too, but he was teenager and honestly, when did it, he thought that they would have fought a little harder; well, he wasn't going to make that mistake again. "I'd love to assist you. I'm ready whenever you need me?"
"It's settled then," replied Soichiro, smiling at his son. "We'll let you in on the case tomorrow. But I still want you to go to school every day, and to stay on-top of your studies. Do you think you can handle this along with the additional hours down at the station?"
"Of course," answered Light, immediately. He could and would do anything to please his father and solving the Kira case may make him finally be worthy of his father's praise. "I managed just fine earlier this year. Remember the insurance fraud murder?"
"Yes, I do," answered Soichiro, smiling. "Welcome to the team then."
"Well, then it might be wise if we all head to bed early tonight," said Sachiko, as she cleared the plates off the table; she gave Light a disapproving look as she gathered up his nearly full plate. "Big day tomorrow."
"I guess you're right, Mom," said Light, getting up from the table. "Goodnight."
When Light got back to his empty room all of his previously experienced happiness drained out of him. It's been like this for several weeks now; holding up the perfect image was more difficult, smiling hurt whether fake or legit, and the idea of dying was looking more and more appealing. He honestly couldn't understand it; he was genuinely happy only moments ago and now he was sad.
At times like this Light wondered if he might be depressed, but always shrugged it off. His life was too perfect for him to be depressed. Perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect. Besides he was finally going to spend some long-overdue time with his father. He now had a job to do; he had a purpose.