DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT CONDONE ANY FORM OF SEXUAL ABUSE AND HARASSMENT. ALSO, SUNNY'S MOUTH/MIND IS A BIT FOUL IN THIS ONE, SO VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Last Time on No Matter What
In the darkness, she saw a boy grin as he started to step ever closer towards her. Sunny's eyes narrowed in concentration. 'So this must be the bo-'
THUD! Her back hit the alley wall; her eyes widened. The grinner closed in, teeth flashing like a shark's. Closer, closer, closer. And there was nothing Sunny could do about it. She was officially trapped, and it didn't look like anyone would be walking around this area at night.
The leader let out a dark chuckle, and in one fluid motion, he reached forward, grabbed her by her hair, and tugged her face close to his. She hissed at the sharp hold, but tried to focus on getting out of his grasp.
She tried to recall her training from Wammy's. It was extremely hard, and for once in her life she wished she had paid more attention in class instead of reading.
Her eyes narrowed as she considered the most probable escape plan.'If I kick lower, I could get out while he's hunched over in pain...' She aimed a kick to his nether regions, and before she knew it his hand was gripping the middle of her thigh like a vice. He held it in place before slowly moving upwards, a lewd smile on his face. Her face burned in shame and embarrassment, and she struggled to get out of the boy's grip.
Seeing this, he tugged harder at her hair and was about to force a kiss on her when...
"HEY! What are you kids doing down here?!" Sunny's eyes widened in recognition. 'Chief?'
"Aw come on, officer, we were just havin' a bit of fuuuun!" It was boy from earlier, the one who had told the boss to "hurry it up a little".
"Tsk." The Chief looked around at the scene, and he cried out in surprise when his eyes fell on Sunny. "Dr. Kobayashi?! What are you doing here?"
The leader panicked and tried to get out of the hole he had dug himself in by saying, "Sh-she was just looking for a bit of fun too-"
"I most absolutely was NOT!" Sunny snapped indignantly. Frightened by her sudden outburst, the leader let her go, and she winced as the hold on her hair was released. She huffed as she straightened out her dress pants, then she looked up at the chief calmly and said, "I was walking home when I made a wrong turn and landed in this area. That's when these guys," she jerked her head in their direction, "surrounded and attacked me."
The Chief's eyes narrowed, and he asked the other boys one, simple question, "Is this true?"
For a minute, no one answered, and suddenly, the leader said, "Run!" The whole gang took off down the alley, their feet slapping the broken asphalt.
"Oi, get back here!" The Chief was about to go after them when he noticed Sunny rubbing her arms up and down. He saw the hollow, haunted look in her eyes, and his own eyes softened in sympathy. 'So strong when people are looking, and yet, she breaks down when she feels everyone looking the other way...'
"Dr. Kobayashi?"
This snapped her out of her trance. "Yes?"
The Chief hesitated on his next few words. "Did they... do anything to you?"
He couldn't be certain, but he was fairly sure that she was blushing. "No, they didn't do anything," she replied evenly.
"...I see." They fell into an awkward silence before Sunny piped up and said,
"Thank you for your help, Chief, but I really must be getting home..."
"Not in this condition you aren't. My house will come up in a block or so, I often use this area as a shortcut, and my wife will probably still be up at this hour. If you come with me, we can get you warm and comfortable, and then we can call someone you know and ask them to pick you up."
Sunny shook her head frantically, "Y-you don't have to do all this. I'm totally fine with walking home by myself..."
"Dr. Kobayashi," the Chief said sternly, "you have faced tremendous trauma tonight. Come to our house and relax a little before you go home. If you have people waiting for you, I'm sure they'll understand the situation. Now, please follow me."
With that, the Chief took off down the alley road, leaving Sunny with a decision. Should she follow him, or should she just use this opportunity to walk away and somehow find her way back to a road she actually recognized. 'The chances of me being able to strike it off on my own are pretty slim...'
She sighed in defeat and followed after the Chief. 'Ryuu... I hope you're not mad at me...'
10 MINUTES LATER
The two officers walked up the pavement to the door of the friendly-looking little house. Sunny hid slightly behind the Chief as he knocked on the door; they both took a step back to allow the door space to open.
They heard a muffled "Coming!" from inside, and not long after, the door opened wide to reveal a matronly woman with a short brown bob, soft brown eyes like a cow's, and a small expectant smile. 'She must've been waiting up for him,' Sunny deduced. Instantly, she felt guilty for ruining the little, daily peace the Chief and his wife had to themselves.
"Sachiko," the Chief began, "this is Dr. Kobayashi, our main criminal psychiatrist on the Kira case who doubles as a normal police officer from time to time," he stepped behind Sunny and pushed her forward, slightly, "She was walking home tonight when she took a wrong turn and landed in an unknown alley. She was attacked by a group of teenage boys; luckily, I came by before they could do any damage. She's in shock though; can you he-?"
She gave a little cry of shock at his words, and in an instant had wrapped her arms around Sunny and dragged her into the house, saying, "Come inside dear, and get yourself warmed up! If you come with me, I'll show you the dining table," she turned to the Chief and said, "Soichiro, please get cleaned up and then join us at the table." She then turned and tugged Sunny deeper into the house with a little, "Come along!"
Sunny was stunned by her hospitality, so she allowed Mrs. Yagami to drag her to the dining table, which was a well-lit area adjacent to the kitchen. She sat down in one of the chairs and kept her back straight; though she was an expert on human natures and tendencies, she had never been invited to another person's house before, due to her work, and she was confused on how she should act. Mrs. Yagami saw this and said, "Oh go ahead, relax! You don't have to be so formal right now, Dr. Kobayashi."
Sunny cleared her throat and replied, "Please call me Sanae, Yagami-san. Dr. Kobayashi is a bit of a mouthful."
Mrs. Yagami's eyes sparked with pleasantness. "Alright, but only if you call me Sachiko."
Sunny nodded. "Arigatou, Sachiko-san," she called after Sachiko as she went into the kitchen.
Sachiko turned back with a warm, close-eyed smile, not unlike the one Sunny often gave L. "It's no problem at all! Just try to relax, Sanae-chan, and I'll brew you some green tea with honey."
Sunny eased back into her chair as Sachiko had asked, but she could not help stiffening to attention once the Chief came into the room. His suit and tie were gone, leaving him in his white, collared shirt, in which the sleeves were pulled up to the elbow, and in his black suit pants.
The Chief noticed that Sunny had straightened once he had walked into the room, and he motioned for her to relax again. "You don't have to spring to attention here, Dr. Kobayashi. It's fine; now, please make yourself comfortable."
Sunny nodded slightly and relaxed again into the chair. As the Chief took his seat, Sachiko brought over his dinner with a, "Here you go, darling." Then, she turned to Sunny and said, "Please wait a little bit longer while the tea brews. I'm sorry it's taking so long."
Sunny waved her hands in front of her and shook her head at the same time. "N-no, it's quite alri-"
"Eh? Okaa-san, who is this?" Sunny's eyes trailed over to the doorway where stood a sleepy, young, middle-school girl in a Hideki Ryuuga t-shirt and pink pants.
"Ah, Sayu, you know you have school tomorrow!" Sachiko scolded.
"But Okaa-san, I woke up, and I was thirsty!" Sayu whined sleepily.
Sachiko sighed. "Alright," she said in an indulgent tone, "come here and have some water."
Sayu wandered over to the kitchen slowly, almost as if in a daze. She took the water glass from her mother's outstretched hand, drank it in a few gulps, and then handed it back to her mother. She dazedly dawdled back to the door, and upon reaching it, turned around and said, "G'night Okaa-san, Otou-san, and-" she stopped abruptly, and tilted her head at Sunny. Sunny got the cue, and said, "My name is Kobayashi Sanae, but you can just call me Sanae."
Sayu let out a sleepy smile and said, "Goodnight then, Sanae-nee-san."
Sunny's eyes widened in surprise, but then they slowly softened as she said, "Yes, goodnight, Sayu-chan."
After hearing that, the little girl walked out of the room slowly, and the whole room heard her go up the stairs one by one until her footsteps faded away.
Sunny turned back to Sachiko and the Chief and asked, "Is she your daughter?"
The Chief smiled softly and said, "Yes, she's in middle school."
Sunny nodded. "I guessed as much."
Sachiko raised her eyebrows. "How?"
Sunny pointed to her own clothes and said simply, "Hideki Ryuuga. As far as I know, all teenage girls are infatuated with him, and Sayu-chan's a bit too short to be a high schooler."
Sachiko smiled warmly. "You have a keen eye, Sanae-chan."
Sunny blushed and stuttered, "N-no, i-it's nothing really. I kind of need the skill for my line of work so..."
Sachiko turned to the stove and turned it off, all the while asking, "I heard from Soichiro that you're a criminal psychiatrist, but what do you exactly do?"
Sunny was oh so tempted to say, "Well, you see, I spy on the Japanese police force in order to gauge their reactions to the ever-elusive L, who is my childhood friend." However, she didn't feel that would go down too well, so instead she said, "As my name suggests, I look over the psyche of criminals in order to predict their next move. Sometimes, I'm hired to look over their mental health so that they can get the right sentence if they actually are mentally unstable."
At this time, Sachiko came over to the table and handed Sunny her tea, which she accepted with a, "Thank you." Sachiko nodded and sat down at the table as Sunny took a sip.
"Mm, this is delicious, Sachiko-san!"
Sachiko smiled, pleased. "I'm glad you like it, Sanae-chan." She leaned forward a bit, and asked, "So, what's your favorite part of your job?"
Sunny smiled back and said, "Well..."
BACK AT THE CONDO
Watari came in with a bowl of sugar for L. As he placed it on the ground near him, L's face turned quizzical.
"Is something wrong, L?"
"No, nothing's wrong Watari, thank you, but, where's Sunny?"
Watari sighed. "She hasn't called yet."
If L had eyebrows, they would've knit together in worry at this statement. "Do you think she's alright?"
Watari sighed again. "I don't know. Tell you what, I'll give her a call, and you can talk to her to find out if she's okay or not."
L nodded. Watari dialed the number and handed it to L, who accepted it silently.
RIIIIING... RIIIIING...
AT THE YAGAMI RESIDENCE
While the Chief had eaten his meal in silence, Sachiko and Sunny had really been hitting it off. They had held a pleasant conversation as Sunny drank her tea, which was now at its end. Sunny gulped the dregs of the tea down, finishing it off.
Sunny pushed her chair back slightly and stood up. "Thank you for the tea and the hospitality, but I really must be going-"
RIIIIING... RIIIIING...
Sunny pulled out her phone with a confused frown on her face, which soon turned into surprise as she saw the caller ID.
'Ryuu... Shit, I'm screwed...'
She turned to Sachiko and the Chief, and said, "It's my father, he must be worried. Excuse me."
"Of course."
Sunny turned away slightly and answered the call.
"Sunny, where are you?" L asked. Sunny's eyes widened. 'I can actually hear the worry in his voice without even trying to look for it... shitshitshit!'
On the outside, she schooled her face to be a mask of reassurance. "Otou-san, I'm fine! Nothing bad happened, I promise you! I'm just running a bit late, that's all..." 'Haha! Yes! Good one Sunny! Mental high five!'
"Dr. Kobayashi, may I speak to your father please?" the Chief asked, though it seemed much more like a command.
Sunny's face drained of all blood. 'Crap... welp, I'm shcrewed.'
To the Chief she smiled and said, "Yes, of course! Wait just a moment..." She switched to L. "Otou-san, the Chief wants to talk to you." 'There, Ryuu should know enough to go from there.'
She handed the phone to the Chief, nervously wringing her hands as she waited for the conversation to begin.
"Hello? Are you the father of Dr. Kobayashi?" A pause. "Okay. Please sit down so that you don't fall down from the shock of what I'm about to tell you..."
AT THE CONDO, 15 MINUTES LATER
L sat on the cold, hard floor, chewing his thumb as he mulled over the situation at hand. Watari had just gone to the Yagami residence posing as a concerned family friend to pick up Sunny. L sighed softly as he considered the events that led up to this...
He was obviously worried when he had called Sunny, but he had thought that she was running late as usual. Then, his worry had grown as Sunny had told him that the Chief wanted to speak with her "father". Of course, he had picked up on the hint and had quickly adopted a concerned elderly accent.
Most of the conversation with the Chief was a blur; all he could remember was the rapid beating of his heart, the shock coursing through his veins, and the anger. Yes, he had been angry, and he still was, in fact. He was angry at the coworkers who had given Sunny extra work, angry at the guys who had attacked Sunny, angry at Sunny's stupidity. But most of all, he was angry at himself for the way he had let Sunny get in danger.
Of course he had sent Sunny to spy on the police force on every case he was working on, but this case had been different from the start. While he and Sunny had gone into other cases with gusto and interest, he had gone into this case with more than the slightest feeling of trepidation. If Sunny'd had the same feeling, then he honestly never knew; she was always so good at hiding her emotions behind a smile.
L's mind drifted off to the day he had voiced his doubts about the case to Sunny...
FLASHBACK
Fingers flew across black keyboards. The sound of keys click-clacking together was the only noise that filled the room, at least for the time being. They were both on their respective laptops; he was working on analyzing the evidence that he and Sunny had so carefully scrounged up together, and she was doing some last minute research on the Japanese police force. She and "Watari" would be infiltrating them tomorrow in order to gauge their reactions to him and also to gather additional evidence that only the police would be able to get.
L looked up at Sunny now. Her eyes were glued to the screen, flickering at almost an inhuman pace as she looked over the information. She was excited about this case, he could tell. It had been over a year since their last big case, and, like L, Sunny had gotten bored. Sure, she had her patients she worked with when she and L were off cases, but even they had become boring to her. That was not to say that she didn't take each and every one of them seriously; unlike him, she valued all human lives, and viewed none of them as sacrifices, not even the ones who were behind bars for serious crimes like arson and murder. She had told him earlier that that was why she became a doctor. It was only after he had asked for assistance that she had joined him and his work.
He continued to stare at her absentmindedly, his mind wandering off to the case and her role in it. The case...
He felt a surge of protectiveness well up inside of him, and it was so sudden he felt shocked. He discreetly clenched and unclenched his fingers out of Sunny's sight and tried to keep his breathing normal. Sunny was like a bloodhound when it came to him; once she caught a whiff that he was distressed in any way, shape, or form, she'd sink her teeth into him and pester him until he told her what was wrong. It was an annoying habit she had picked up once she had become his friend, but it had grown on him over the years, and now, he honestly thought it was quite cu-
Whup, no. He shook his head slightly, raven bangs falling slightly into his eyes. Nope, he was NOT going there, down that road, EVER. It was just too dangerous, both for him and Sunny, perhaps even for Wammy. He knows what he chose when he got into this line of work, and he wasn't going to risk it all on such silliness...
"Ryuu?"
L snapped out of his thoughts. Oh shit, he was going to get it now. His face kept its ever-present neutrality; however, his gaze snapped promptly back to his laptop screen, the lines blurring and converging in his eyes. Sunny had an uncanny ability of reading his emotions just by looking at his eyes.
She tilted her head, almost birdlike. "Is something wrong?" she urged in a concerned tone.
"Nothing's wrong," he replied back, pretending absentminded as he started to bite the top of his thumb. He still didn't trust himself enough to look directly at Sunny, so he kept his eyes locked on the computer, seeming almost fascinated by the evidence in front of him, and hoped she would just go away.
Not a chance. "Y'know, you really can't fool me with that get up, Ryuu. Especially when I haven't seen you scroll down, click, or type anything in the past 3 minutes," she said amusedly.
She impressed him yet again, the way she could always read him. Perhaps this was what came of being friends for almost 12 years. "Perhaps I've just been stuck on one piece of evidence," he answered.
Sunny smirked. "I highly doubt it." The smirk washed away, and instead there were soft eyes and a face luminous with concern. "Seriously though, what's wrong?"
He internally panicked, trying to come up with a plausible lie. His teeth pierced his thumb harder as he tried to think of the best lie he could tell her when he realized he couldn't exactly tell her a lie; Sunny would know in an instant. He could, however, tell another truth, about something that was actually bothering him. His thumb left his lips, and he let out a sigh.
"I'm... having doubts about this case, Sunny."
He looked up into her eyes and saw that her posture had totally changed. She had set away her laptop to her right and had pulled up her legs in order to mimic his sitting posture. Her eyes were focused on him with an intensity he didn't expect, and that threw him off enough for him to lose his train of thought.
"Um, Ryuu? You okay?"
By all rights, he should've blushed, being caught staring like that and all. However, L did NOT blush, so he simply reinforced his stoic expression before answering.
"Yes, I'm fine."
Sunny didn't look entirely convinced, but she decided to drop it in favor of the larger, more important topic. "So, why do you have doubts about the case, Ryuu?"
'Here it is...' "The case... something seems off about it, somehow. As if the other party, Kira, has something up his sleeve that no one can anticipate. To be frank with you, Sunny," he took a deep breath, "I think that this might be my last case."
Sunny furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, shock rising on her face as it finally clicked. "R-Ryuu!" she sputtered, "you can't be serious!"
He intensified his gaze. "Do I look like I'm joking?"
"No, but-"
"Then I'm not. Sunny, I think" he sighed softly, "I'm going to die."
Sunny looked as if she was about to burst with emotion, but it all fizzled out as she saw her friend's dejected, almost defeated posture. On an impulse, she strode over to him, sat down on the couch, and hugged him. Hard.
L started. "What? Sunny?"
She merely hugged him tighter, and said gently, "No you're not, Ryuu, don't say that. I'll protect you, no matter what."
BACK TO THE PRESENT
L found himself back in his current predicament, waiting for Sunny to arrive with Watari. He looked around at the cold walls before his gaze dropped to his bare feet.
'Sunny... you said that you would protect me, no matter what, but today... I failed to protect you.'
AN: Urgh... I was so happy about this chapter in the beginning, but now I'm not so sure...
The reason I was happy about it was because it just flowed beautifully as I was writing it. Then my lovely beta CJ told me that there were a lot of things she felt was off about it, like how Sunny sort of turned into a damsel in distress and that scene in the beginning... GAH!
I'm going to let you guys be the final critics on this one. If a lot of you say that this needs changing, I'll take it down and change it (though it might take longer...), no questions asked.
I think I'll share my thought process of this chapter with you guys. Sunny's the type of girl who never really paid attention to physical activities, and she always snuck a book into her PE classes when she could. Therefore, her knowledge of self-defense is rudimentary at best and nonexistent at worst, and this later comes back to bite her in the butt (now).
Also, I'm sorry if L acted OOC in this chapter, but I just feel like this is how he would react if he had a childhood best friend who got into this kind of danger. Add to the fact that this has never happened before and...
If you guys have any more questions on this chapter and others, please either review or send me a PM. I'll respond as soon as possible.
Speaking of which, I do not know the next time I'll be able to update. Don't count on it being soon. However, I'll be in full swing come June, with a new chapter of this and (hopefully) the first chapter of a new story called "Trust Me, My Love". Read the summary in the last chapter's AN.
So... we've had the flashback, we've had the attack... time for the argument? Tune in next time, and don't forget to review.
Bye for now!
RaFa-chan.