Last time on No Matter What...
She crept up slowly on him, and when she was right behind him, gently, but firmly, put her arms around him.
"I'm back, Ryuu." She whispered in his ear.
L started slightly, then relaxed, and she could the smile in his voice as he replied,
"Welcome home, Sunny."
LESTARTINGPOINT
"So, what're you looking at?" Sunny asked, pulling back from the embrace and going to sit beside him. She tucked her legs under herself and sat on them.
"Student ranking in schools in the Kanto region. You yourself said that Kira must be a psychopath, and that most psychopaths are geniuses." He sipped his tea, wrinkled his nose at the taste, and promptly added 5 more sugar cubes.
Sunny smiled. "No, I said that Kira must be a psychopath, and most psychopaths are distinguished members of society. I never said they had to be geniuses."
"Perhaps you didn't," he dipped his spoon into his tea and stirred the sugar in "However, if Kira is indeed a student in Japan, then he or she must be a brilliant student because the Japanese place a lot of stock in education."
She chewed her bottom lip thoughtfully. "Well, when you put it that way... I guess you're right."
"I know I'm right, Sunny." He lay the spoon down by the saucer, picked up his cup by the handle with his thumb and forefinger, and sipped his tea, humming in satisfaction at the taste.
She snorted softly and went back to scanning the screen. As she looked up the list of students, Sunny froze when she got to the top spot. She gaped in shock. This was...
"Hm?" L followed her gaze to the screen and read the student's profile. "Light Yagami. Ranking: #1 in the Kanto region. Grade: 12 School: Daikoku Private Academy. Hm," L chewed on his thumb, "If I'm not mistaken, Daikoku Private Academy is quite a prestigious school."
"Th-that's not it, Ryuu. This Light Yagami isn't just anybody; he's the Chief's son!"
L's eyes widened slightly. "Chief Yagami's son? Are you sure?"
"Yes." L looked at her blankly, but she knew he was interested. "I have to send reports to the Chief sometimes to assure him I'm actually doing something; he doesn't know I'm spying on the police for you after all." She smiled briefly, secretively at him, and continued. "Whenever I go to give him a report, there's always a photo of his family on his desk. And since I pretty much notice everything..." She shrugged, "Well, you get what I mean." Her face turned thoughtful, and she chewed on her lip before distantly speaking, "I wonder though, why he never talks about his son. I mean, I should think he'd be proud of a son like this. Most people would be. Hm," She chewed on her lip a bit more before concluding with, "I suppose he's more modest than I thought he was. No wonder he's the Chief."
"Speaking of the Japanese Police, how were their reactions to the meeting?"
"Well, they were really shocked at the idea that Kira could be a student, but that's to be expected. However," she hesitated, trying to find the right words before proceeding, "When you asked them for that little request at the end, they were kind of... how should I put this? Surprised, maybe? And they were also perhaps a little bit offended that you were asking so much of them." She waited, watching L's face for his reaction.
If L had eyebrows, he probably would've raised them in interest. As it was, he just replied with, "Offended? Hm, that's rather interesting. Any idea as to why, Sunny?"
"I think it's because they just can't empathize with someone they can't see, someone's name they don't even know. Heck, they don't even know your real voice, Ryuu! They don't trust you as much we need them to if we're to work together to solve the Kira case."
L sipped the last of his tea, swallowed, and said in that ever-changing tone of his, "That makes perfect sense. I don't believe I would trust myself either if I were in their position. However, this is an extremely difficult decision to make; on one hand, if I show my face to the police, then there's a chance my face could be exposed to the public, on the other hand, if I don't show my face, then I shall never gain the police's trust, and we can't move on with the Kira case if this occurs. Hm." He chewed his thumb, trying to figure out how to best get around this situation.
Sunny sighed. It hasn't even been a week on this case and already her friend is stressing out because of it. What was she going to do with him?
She stood up, wincing as the blood rushed to her legs. "I wouldn't worry about it too much at this point, Ryuu. It's been barely a week since you took up this case, not even. It'll turn out fine. Let's see how many people still want to do this case by the end of this year, and then we'll see what we can do. Until then..." She glanced at his empty tea cup, "Want more tea?"
"Yes please. Oh, and can you refill my sugar bowl while you're at it?" He passed her the empty tea cup and the barely overflowing sugar bowl. She chuckled and took the empty teacup.
He pushed the sugar bowl nearer to her, implying that she take it too.
She laughed again, and shook her head. "No Ryuu. Finish ALL your sugar first, and then I'll take it up to get more. Until then, let me just go get you some more tea." With that, she left the dark room and went to the kitchen.
When she got to the kitchen, the first thing she did was turn on the lights. No use getting him more tea in the dark when it would do more harm than good. Then, she went over to the kettle and picked it up. It was empty.
Dang it! She thought. Now I have to brew him more tea. Now, by no means was Sunny a lazy girl, but she was a rather clumsy one, especially when she was bone-tired. She racked her thoughts into focus and climbed on top of the counter to look for the container of tea leaves, which was just so conveniently located on the very top shelf.
She was just about to grasp it when her feet hit an inconvenient patch of water, and she slipped. As she fell, she banged her head against the counter. Pain instantly blossomed in her head, and that was all she could register until she heard, "Sunny, Sunny, are you okay?"
"I-I think so," she managed to croak out. She reached up and touched her head. She winced at the bruise.
L looked it over too. "It's not bleeding. You should be fine, although you might have a headache in the morning."
She laughed breathily. "You know how many accidents I've gotten into! At this point, the headache probably won't even hurt much anyways." She tried to get up, but her head was still pounding, and she was so, so tired. She looked up at L's face and stretched out a hand. "Help me up?"
L took the outstretched hand and gave it a gentle tug, trying to help his best friend get up without causing her pain. "Can you get to bed by yourself, or should I carry you?"
Sunny blushed. "N-no, y-you don't have to c-carry me!" she exclaimed. "H-however, I might need a little bit of help getting there..."
L understood immediately. Without a word, he placed Sunny's arm around his neck, and slowly, but surely, helped her to the bedroom.
Once they got there, he tucked her in safely, and turned around to exit when...
"Wait. Don't go." Sunny whispered.
He turned back again. "What do you need?" he whispered back.
She bit her lip. "C-can you stay? At least, until I fall asleep?"
Again, L understood. Silently, he pulled up the covers, got into bed, and pulled her close to his chest. "Goodnight Sunny." He whispered into her hair.
Sunny sighed in contentment and stretched out her toes.
"G'night, Ryuu."
SKIPTYSKIPTILLMORNINGTIMEMYLOVLIESANDNOIDON'THAVEADREAMSEQUENCEYETTHOSEWILLCOME
When she woke up in the morning, all Sunny could register were warmth and the familiar smell of vanilla and strawberries, a combination so delicious she buried her head into L's chest before groaning in pain.
The noise seemed to wake L up, and he pulled back to find a sleep-rumpled Sunny gingerly rubbing her bruise in pain.
"Agh! That's gonna hurt for a while," she looked up to see L staring at her. "Oh, good morning Ryuu."
L stared at her blankly. "Good morning Sunny. How's your head?"
"Not the best it's been. Could be better. You'd think that by now I'd get used to it."
"Yes I would think..." he drawled off. They didn't talk after that, and the room was encompassed in a comfortable silence. Neither one wanted to break this brief bubble of safety, innocence, and sunlight.
They stayed that way for almost 10 minutes, when Sunny scrambled out of bed, exclaiming, "Shoot, I need to get to work!"
During this commotion, L had fallen to the floor. He blinked once, twice, thrice in confusion, then, sighing, he got up and brushed himself off.
All this time, Sunny was running around the condo like a chicken with its head cut off, trying to find the things she needed to take with her to "work".
L watched this with inward amusement, all the while showing the world a totally blank face. Sunny hated being late to anything, so that's why it was a rare sight to see her all flustered and fluttering around in the morning like this. Any other time though...
Sunny stopped her frantic scrabbling for a second. Okay, breathe Sunny. Check, are you missing anything? Keys, papers, folder, coat, cellphone, laptop...
The list went on and on. When she finally determined she had everything she needed, she put on her coat, stuffed her folder into her bag, slung it over her shoulder, and went to give L a hug.
As she pulled away from the embrace, she said, "I'll be back early if all goes well today. If there's anything new going on with the Kira case, I'll email you. If I can't access the files, Watari will. Ok?"
"Alright Sunny." He watched her put on her shoes when an urgent thought crossed his mind.
"Sunny, have you eaten yet?"
She looked up, about to say yes before stopping to consider if she really had. Her face grew sheepish when she realized she hadn't, and she rubbed the back of her neck in embarrassment. "No," she muttered before standing up, reaching over L to the box of doughnuts by the table with the big vase, took a chocolate doughnut and stuffed it in her mouth.
"Mm, not the best breakfast I had, but it'll do. Bye Ryuu!"
L stared at her in amusement. "It's not healthy to eat just a doughnut for breakfast." He said to her back.
She stopped and turned around with a smile. "This is severely hypocritical coming from you, Ryuu." She looked down at her watch, and her eyes widened comically in alarm. "Gah! I'm late!" And with that, she rushed down the steps, leaving an extremely amused and doughnut-hungry L in her wake.
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Sunny let out a big sigh of relief. I made it. Right on time. Thank the heavens and all that is holy.
"Good morning, Kobayashi-san."
She looked up from her papers. "Ah, good morning Matsuda-san. How are you?"
Matsuda rubbed the back of his neck good naturedly. "I'm fine. How are you and your grandmother Kobayashi-san?"
Grandmother? Oh that! Sunny smiled. "We're both fine, thanks."
"Hey, I was wondering if we could go grab some coffee later. There's a coffee shop not far from here, and it's one of the best coffee shops I've ever been to. My friends and I are gonna head down there during lunch break. Would you like to join us?"
Sunny smiled again. Usually I wouldn't focus on matters like these, but... this could be the perfect chance to find out how they feel about Ryuu!
"Coffee sounds wonderful, thank you. So, where is this coffee shop of yours?"
Matsuda's eyes lit up. "Well, it's..."
"Matsuda, can you check over the rest of these papers? I'm too tired to make sense of anything, let alone these things!"
"Ah, sure..." And with that, Matsuda was pulled away, leaving Sunny to her own pile of papers to get through.
Just looking at these pages of white paper dotted with black ink made her headache in full force, and then some. She sighed and rubbed her temples with her left hand. This was going to be a long day; she could just feel it.
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Sunny stretched her hands above her head and let out a tiny yawn. She'd been here for 2 or 3 hours now, and so far, nothing interesting had really happened. She looked at the pile of paperwork on her desk. Most of them were reports on Kira's mentality that she herself had filled out. She had also carefully considered how a lot of other people might react to Kira, which wasn't exactly hard to do. All in all, it had been a pretty bland day so far.
She decided to go get a cup of water. As she made her way to the water jug at the front of the room, she saw that everyone was working extremely hard on the Kira case. She smiled. Good news Ryuu! The Japanese police are determined to stop Kira, no matter what!
She sipped her water slowly, making it last as long as possible. When it was done, she sighed, cracked her knuckles, and got back to work again.
She had been working diligently for over an hour when a policeman burst out in a cry. Suddenly, the previously silent room was filled remarks of confusion and eventual disbelief.
Puzzled, she got up from her desk to see what was causing the commotion. As she entered the crowd that had gathered near the man's desk, she heard people say, "He's done it now." And "How did he know?" Intrigued and heavily mystified, she ducked under an opening to see the papers on the desk clearly. She squinted to see the title and gasped in shock.
How is this possible?! How is Kira killing off criminals by the hour?!
AN: Hey guys! So I'm back with the second chappie of 'No Matter What'. All in all, this chapter was a pit of shameless fluff, and a teensy bit of plot to keep it going. I REGRET NOTHING!
Alright, explanation time. So the reason why Sunny asked L to sleep with her is because they both have nightmares about either the crimes they've faced, but mostly about their parents. When they were still at Wammy's, their rooms were right next to each other: L had the dorm next to where the girls' dorms started, and Sunny was the girl in the room next to him. This way, they came to comfort each other because they could hear one another's distress, and a tradition was born. So maybe it seems like it's for fluff, but shemurr, I'm not changing it because it makes perfect sense to me!
Thanks to those who've reviewed! Remember, I can only get better if you guys tell me what's wrong with me!
Also, thanks to CodenameJellybean! Best beta reader one could ever ask for, and all you HP fans out there? Check out her stories! I'm serious, she's amazing.
Well, I think that's about it. If you have any comments or questions you'd like me to answer, post a review, and if it doesn't give away the plot, I'll answer it in my next AN. Also, I do not know when the next chapter will be posted, but I'm giving myself a deadline; it should be up within 2 weeks, and no longer. So please bear with me!
Yup, that's all for now. Bye guys! :)
Rafa-chan