You sat with your head in your hands, deathly tired, but not wanting to stop now that you'd just reached a critical part of your programming. You glanced under your right arm to see L typing away on his computer, a lollipop in his mouth. 'How does he do that? Stay awake for so long without collapsing from exhaustion?' you wondered, secretly jealous. "You look tired, you should sleep," L commented, eyes not leaving his computer.
"No, it's alright, I just need some more caffeine," you said, "Do you have a kitchen?"
He looked over at you and nodded. "I'll have Watari show you the way," he said and pressed a button before talking into a speaker.
A door slid open and the kind elderly man entered the room, "This way, Miss Ahiru."
He turned and walked out of the doorway and it took you a second to react before you followed him. He took you down so many twists and turns, you soon felt dizzy. 'Gee…I hope I don't lose him or I'll die of starvation…' you thought, your mouth twisting up in irony. He opened a closed wooden door and you walked inside, looking around in wonder. Not only was this kitchen massive, it was home to mounds of cakes, sweets and sugar cubes. 'He must eat nothing but sweets! I'm surprised that he hasn't died from sugar overdose!' you thought.
"So…where can I find coffee?" you asked Watari.
"Hmmm…there's some around here somewhere…ah…and here's the milk…and I think you'll find how ever much sugar you need…" Watari said, sweatdropping.
You quickly boiled some water, made your coffee, and followed Watari back up the winding staircases to the room used as the investigation headquarters. "Arigatou," you said, bowing to Watari.
He smiled and nodded at you before leaving to go back to his normal post. You turned and sighed as you saw that L was still sitting in the same place. "Did you get what you wanted, Ahiru-chan?" he asked, softly.
"Yeah, thanks," you replied, daintily sitting yourself down in your swivel chair, steaming mug of coffee held lightly between your fingertips.
You blew on it to cool it down enough to drink. You lifted it to your lips and took a small sip. The burning liquid scalded your mouth and you stuck your tongue out to cool it (…if u can imagine that). L looked over at you, obviously curious as to what you were doing. "I burnt my tongue…" you managed to say.
He looked away and you saw the corner of his mouth lift. 'Heh…I'm getting better at this. Well, he needs to smile more anyways…' you thought, staring over at him.
He looked back at you, catching you staring. "Something wrong?" he asked, blankly.
A light blush crossed your cheeks and you murmured, "Betsuni."
THUNK!
'What was that?' L thought, and he looked around for the source of the noise.
He saw that your head was lying against the table and realised the noise had been you collapsing when you passed out from exhaustion. He stared at your motionless body, biting his thumb. 'Do I leave her? No…I guess I'll have to take her to the guest room Watari prepared for her…' L concluded.
He got up and walked over to you, wondering how to get you there. Deciding on a course of action, he slipped one arm under your legs and used the other to support your back. He picked you up and carried you all the way to your room. On the way, you started stirring in his arms and clutching at his shirt. "Mum! Iie! I don't want to leave you!" you murmured into his chest.
'I wonder what she's dreaming about,' L thought, dismissing it as a nightmare.
You awoke to a hand roughly shaking your shoulder. "Ren! Get up! We have to go, there's a fire!" shouted your father, his eyes wide in panic.
Half-sleep, you rubbed your eyes as you sat up in your comfy bed. You saw your father wearing his usual pinstriped pyjamas with a hastily pulled on blue dressing gown over the top. "Otosan? What's wrong?" you asked, dreamily.
"The house is on fire, Ren-chan…it'll reach us soon if we don't get out now."
"Where's Okasan?"
"Your mother's waiting outside in the hall for us," he said, his normally kind brown eyes taken over by panic.
You nodded, crawled out of bed and pulled a pink dressing gown over your pony-patterned pyjamas before following your dad out of the room. "Okasan!" you said, as your mother came into view.
She smiled at you, trying to mask her worry. "Everything's going to be alright, Ren-chan," she said, giving you a small hug before you set off at a run to the front entrance.
You could smell the smoke, it was getting thicker and you saw the entire house around you was aflame. Realising that you couldn't keep up with the pace, your father pulled you up on his back, not missing a step. "Arigatou, Otosan," you said, your small arms wrapped around his neck.
CRACK! AAAAAHHH!
"HITOMI!" you father cried out, turning around to see your mother pinned under a burning heavy beam from the ceiling.
He sprinted back and tried to pry your mother from under the flaming wood, but to no avail. You stood there, feeling utterly useless. "Just leave me, Tomokazu…it's useless…" said your mother, gritting her teeth with the pain.
Your father shook his head, "Either we come out together or we don't come out at all," your father said, determination showing in his eyes.
"Ren-chan, you have to go…" your mother said, her voice pained.
"Mum! Iie! I don't want to leave you!" you cried out, hugging her around the neck.
"Don't worry, Ren-chan. We'll be out as soon as I get your mother free," your father smiled, reassuringly.
"Ren-chan, don't ever forget us…remember that we love you and always will," you mother said, stroking your cheek with her thumb.
You nodded and hugged them both before running to the front entrance and standing outside, waiting for them to appear. From where you were standing, you could see that the entire house was aflame and was collapsing into itself. The entire second story fell in, demolishing all the walls and hitting the first storey like an explosion. The smoke billowed out of every opening as the flames finished eating the massive pile of rubble you had called home the entire 8 years of your life. You heard sirens wailing and vaguely noted that there were men in coats hosing the house in an attempt to put out the raging fire. You felt a blanket cover your shaking shoulders and you looked up to see a kind face staring down at you. "Were your parents still in there, little girl?" he asked, his moustache moving as he spoke.
Drops of water hit your face and rolled down, gradually getting heavier until the rain was pouring down heavily. You nodded your head and began to cry, your salty tears mingling with the rain. "They didn't come…they didn't come!" you cried out, and began to sob as the fire was finally put out and the only thing left of the place you knew of as home was a smoldering ruin.
You woke up, yawning. Your eyes still closed to try and remember your dream even as it hovered out of your reach like a butterfly. Realising your hand was holding something, you opened your eyes. They widened in shock. Your hand was tightly gripped around someone's wrist. Your eyes followed the arm up to the side of the bed, where you saw messy black hair and closed black-rimmed eyes. You dropped the arm and shrieked, the shrill tones piercing the early morning. The dark eyes opened and stared at you, a questioning look in them. "Ryu-kun?" you whispered, wondering if you were still having a nightmare.
"Un?" he answered, rolling a little more forward on the balls of his feet so you could see his entire face above the level of your bed.
You sighed in relief, before your eyes narrowed. "What were you doing next to my bed?" you snapped, wondering if he was some kind of pervert (poor l…. always seen as a pervert…XDDD).
"When you fell asleep…you grew rather attached to my arm and I didn't want to wake you," he said, voice not giving anything away.
You blushed lightly, "You could've woken me up."
L shook his head and said, "You needed the sleep and I've been investigating while you slept."
Curious, you looked over the corner of the bed to see a laptop on the floor, screen covered in many different bright windows. "Found anything useful?" you queried, trying to draw L's attention away from your burning face.
He shook his head. "Iie. I haven't found any more leads… are you hungry?"
"Un," you said, nodding your head.
He looked down at the floor, unwilling to meet your eyes. "Do you…want to go for breakfast?"
You gaped for a second, wondering if you'd heard right. "Breakfast?" you echoed, stupidly.
He nodded his head and you beamed at him. "Yahari (of course)!" you agreed.
Feeling more refreshed than you had in the last couple of weeks, you were practically skipping down the street next to L. "How can you be so energetic?" he murmured, walking slouched with his hands in his pockets.
"How can you not be?" you shot back, swirling in your knee-length gray dress.
He sweatdropped at you. "Maybe I shouldn't have let you sleep…" he sighed, watching as you spun around the light post.
"And miss all the fun?" you called, poking your tongue out at him.
"We're here," he said, looking up at the sign of a store.
"The Hotcake House?" you asked, finally standing still.
You walked inside and sat in an empty compartment. You picked up the menu and perused it. "Does it sell anything but hotcakes?" you said, sweatdropping.
"The Hotcake House?" L said, eyes on his own menu.
'Kuso…I'm such an idiot this morning,' you thought to yourself, annoyed at yourself.
Deep in your thoughts, you completely missed what he'd said. "Pardon?" you asked, blankly.
He sighed in annoyance. "I wanted to know if you had decided on what to order…since the lady is waiting to take it…" L said, gesturing at the waitress tapping her foot next to your table.
"Oh…I'll just have some water or something," you said, not really feeling hungry anymore.
"I've never seen you eat," L said, accusingly.
"I've never seen you eat healthy!" you retorted, "Alright, fine. I'll just have 2 sesame seed hotcakes then."