CHAPTER FOUR!! WHOO!! AND: THANK YOU: something541 (I'M SO SORRY I DIDN'T MENTION YOU LAST TIME!!!) Diabolus Kara and XxObviously Oblivious-MexX for the reviews and favoriting!! :D
"Salve e benvenuto signorina, may I offer you something to drink before you order your meal?"a young waiter of about twenty five asked Akasuki as she sat at an outdoor table outside her favorite Italian resturant.
"Si per favore, I'll just have some water, grazie," Akasuki replied, stumbling ovre her Italian but the waiter smiled at her kindly then disappeared back into the resturant.
It's been two months already, since Light's becoming a shinigami. I wonder if Katsu still remembers, or she thinks he's really dead. I hope she realizes that all she has to do is touch Light's Death Note and they can be together, Akasuki thought and a strand of light brown hair caressed her tanned face.
The waiter returned with her water and then she ordered a plate of spagetti before the waiter was once again inside the resturant, leaving Akasuki to think again.
I can't believe how fast time has gone by. Two months since I moved away, and I haven't talked to Hirota-senpai since. I guess that's a good thing though, considering after what I did, I bet she never wants to see me again. Even so, I wish I could know for sure if she'd be willing to forgive me and we can just go on like it never happened.
"You were without a doubt the truest friend I ever had...truest friend..."
Katsuko's words echoed in the brunette's mind and she covered her ears. Akasuki's green eyes closed and she tried to block out Katsu's voice and the disgusted, betrayed, wounded look she had shot at her during the confrontation. It had hurt so much to see someone as wonderful and gentle as Katsuko have her life ripped and torn apart by people betraying and lying to her. She had lost Light to death and to him being Kira, and she had lost Akasuki because of the betrayal, plus her parents with their totally screwed up deaths, L being murdered, it was amazing how the red head was still able to live. What exactly kept her going, Akasuki had no idea, but whatever it was, it was enough for Katsu.
Her spagetti arrived and Akasuki twirled her fork around the noodles, drifting back to her middle school days and early high school life before she had met Katsuko.
Flashback...Akasuki's past
Everything before Senpai had been a life of weed, cigarettes, getting in trouble with the law, failing all the classes and I was just a typical drop out that was destined to live a life on the streets selling drugs while lurking around in the ally. Gangs, shootings, being drunk and high all the time, but my mother was dying of cancer and the drugs and alcohol made all the pain disappear for a while. While I was high, I could only see the pretty colors in life, everything was floating, perfect, and I only smiled and laughed. The alcohol made me dance and have fun, laughing with friends and being crazy and free spirited. I had made mass amounts of money selling the weed and I was finally able to pay for Mother's treatment after saving so much from selling endless amounts of weed and cocaine, it was suiside to stop.
A month passed and Mother seemed to be getting better and I continued school just to keep my mother at peace. My grades were horrible however because I never cared enough to pass. I had no goals for myself, just to get through high school as best I could, maybe study hard enough to get an A here and there, but other than that, I could have cared less about school. I managed to cheat on the final exams and got into high school, thinking only four more years and then I could be free of education. My mom was so much better and my spirits were higher, which I guess caused me to study a little bit more, and I worked at her clothing shop as a job just to pass some time when I wasn't being tormented by my teachers.
My high spirits must have jinxed it all then because my mother soon got so sick she was bed bounded and I had to practically spoon feed her. After all the time and money I had worked so hard to get, the kimo had failed. I called a doctor and he said as sympathetically as he could my mom only had a few motnhs left to live, and there wasn't anything he could do. I cried for days, not wanting my mom do die, thinking about what I would do, where would I go, and I didn't even know my father. My grades were already down the toilet and there was no way I'd be able to get a good job at fifteen, not to mention I was also a druggie and an alcoholic, so jobs were just out of the question.
School just got worse and it was just my luck to have people start picking on me, calling me stupid, which I was, and pathetic, which again I was, and I was left with no friends. All my other so-called friends had gone in different directions and I never heard from them again, so I was just left alone with no one to help me out or be there for me to be running to for some comfort. I was the only person I could trust and everyone else was just an enemy, not me, untrustworthy. I hated them all, I hated the pointing fingers and the gloating faces, I wanted them all to just die. Disappear, I thought, all of you, just leave me alone. Go to Hell and perish for the worthless idiots you are!
My feelings just stayed inside of me though. I never spoke to anyone, and I acted as if the insults didn't hurt me. If someone pushed me down because of my small size, I'd just stand back up and keep walking as if it never happened, hoping I could just brush it off. I never showed anyone how hurt I was, I just kept my mother being sick to myself and I kept my bullying issue a secret as well. I was jsut a shadow on the wall, silent, everyone knows I'm there but they just walk past me, not even awknowledging my presence. It hurt to not have someone, anyone, reach out to me and offer some type of friendship, but I never showed this. I never showed my tears, I never ran into the bathroom crying, I would just look at people with a blank stare, not interested and answered everything in the monotone voice the depression caused me.
Finally, my grades had gotten so rotten, my teacher finally ordered me to get a tutor, and that's where Katsuko came in. I had been hearing some stuff floating around school about her and how she was a senoir, not to mention one of the top students in the whole class. I found it funny when I overheard a girl say that the feature she was known for her was her scarlet hair, and how it was such a rare color to have for hair unless someone dyed it. I had been getting glimpses of her around campus after I heard that and I had to say, Katsuko Hirota had the reddest hair I had ever seen. It was certainly attractive and she was far from ugly, but still, Katsu's hair was scarlet...not just a regular, average red head, her hair was scarlet.
How I managed to muster enough courage to ask her to tutor me in every class I had, I'll never know, but all that happened was that some kid had pushed me over again, knocking the books out of my arms. I was tired enough and not to mention late, but I still had to go in zig zag patterns to get my books back. Bending down to get my science book, I saw a pair of polished silver heels stop in front of my face and a slightly tanned hand with fresh, manicured red nails reached down and picked it up for me. I raised my eyes, and that was the first time I had met Katsuko Hirota formally. She was wearing a light, long sleeve white shirt with a stylish black vest over it and black capris then her glistzy silver heels.
"Hello," she said, her voice soft and musical, "I take it this is yours."
"Yeah," I said, my voice still the monotone and Katsuko handed it back to me.
"Are you alright? I heard a thud," she told me, her bright, golden brown eyes studying my blank face with genuine concern.
"I'm fine," I told her absent mindedly and then started to walk away.
"Okay, I just wanted to make sure. See you around campus then!" Katsuko said and tossed her scarlet ponytail over her toned shoulder.
"Yeah," I told her and she strode away, her scarlet waves flowing behind her.
I stopped walking and then turned to look back at her again.
"Hey--! Hirota-san!" I called out and she turned, "I was wondering--do you have any--I mean--do you have some spare time I could use? My grades suck and I need extra help."
"Oh, sure! I'd love to help! I have lots of free time, just tell me when and where," she said and I felt relief wash over me.
"Any time I guess."
"Well then, the sooner the better. How about today at the library after school?" Katsuko suggested.
"Alright, fine by me," I told her, trying to get my monotone to sound more interested and grateful, but Katsuko just smiled at me and then went to her class.
The day passed and the tutoring session didn't go as well as I had hoped. I was so frustrated with myself and scolded myself for making Katsuko waste her time on such a faliure like me. Even so, she kept helping me, her patience never grew thin no matter how stupid I seemed or how many times she had to explain the same thing to me. It only took two weeks with meeting with Katsuko every day after school did my grades begin to slowly rise. My interest in school increased and I devoloped better study skills and passed more quizzes and test as the weeks went by. Two months passed abd my grades had raised from failing to almost all As and Bs. My self esteem had risen a little bit too, and when people earned Katsuko and I were friends, poeple didn't bully me as much. I soon learned why.
Katsuko had just solved three mind bending cases and had won the respect of all Japan. She was known for her brilliant mind and her radiant beauty as the papers put it, and after I came to learn this, I felt so out of place around her. I felt so dirty and bad around her, I couldn't believe someone as good and kind as Katsuko could ever reach out to a former druggie like me. How she was able to stand by me for all this time and consider me a true friens, I'll never know, but she did. It didn't bother Katsuko how I used to be in the past, all she cared about was how I was now and I was okay now.
By the time Kira had come around I had already gotten my life back on track and I was feeling much more optimistic and happy. Katsuko graduated and I was left alone again. People left me alone, but I didn't make any new friends, however I was hanging around Katsu every weekend. I didn't discover I was half shinigami until my mother told me on her deathbed, saying how she had fallen in love with a man and had made a deal that if he became a shinigami, then she would trade half or more of her remaining life span to the shinigami that sealed the deal. My father was a handsom man, wavy black hair and deep blue eyes, but always scowling. I never used his Death Note but he told me that Mom would soon be joining us as a shinigami and we could all be a family again.
While waiting for Mom, I guess I let the wrong person know who I truely was, because that lead up to me thinkng I'd be able to have some reward if I killed L Lawliet, the current lover of Katsuko's. I had commited the blackest sin of all, and I had caused Katsuko a life time of pain. One of her only friends was dead because of me, and yet, I could still go on living as if it never happened. I cursed myself so much, and I don't know what came over me after that, because I had just turned into a rebel against the only person that had ever reached out to me. I manipulated her that day she found out I was a half blood, and I wanted her to know my secret. What had happened that day was not an accident, although, I didn't expect her to figure it out as quickly as she did nor did I intend her about finding out Kira was really Light Yagami. She had trapped me there, and from that moment on was just empty words.
The confrontation was the worst. I was yelling things at Katsu I knew I didn't want to be yelling. It was as if every bad emotion I had ever felt had returned to me and I wanted someone to suffer for it. After she had spat that I was the truest friend she had ever had, that's when I realized I really was a pathetic induviual. I wanted to end my life to put everyone, Katsuko especially, out of the pain they got from me. Light had no use for me any more, Katsuko hated me, and I didn't blame either of them for what they did. The second I put the gun up to my head, I intended to blow my brains out, then Katsu had yelled at me and looked like she might burst. After everything was all said and done, I just moved. Katsu didn't need someone like me, she never did need me, I needed her, and what did I do in repayment of her kindness? Backstabbed her. I ruined her life beyond repair.
Akasuki finished her spagetti and her water then paid before leaving.
I wonder if she'll ever be able to forgive for what I did. I doubt it, but maybe there is a possibility, if by some miricle, Katsuko would accept me again as her friend.
The brunette looked over her shoulder and saw nobody following her. Her father had reunited with her mother and together they were in the shinigami world, waiting for Akasuki too when her Time came.
I'm alone again, she thought, I'm alone. Katsu, I pray to God that somehow, some day, you'll be able to forgive me for what I've done to you, because Lord knows, I'm sorry. If I could have done it all over again I would have. Hirota-senpai, forgive me for the hideous sins I have done against you. I'm so sorry.
Akasuki looked out over the city, a strong wind making her hip length, light brown hair whip back.
"I'll make it up to her," she told herself, "I'll make it up to Katsuko-senpai. I won't let her get hurt anymore, I'll protect her, just like she did for me."
Yay! Hi again and I just wanted to say I loved writing this chapter. Out of all the OCs I have, Akasuki has to be one of my all time faves right now...for the time being. I love writing about her. ^^ I'll bring her to life more and give her a bigger role in this story than I did in My Love's Murderer. To be honest, I was really just planning to make her a random school girl and the only time you saw her was when she asked Katsu for homework help in the first chapter of the fic...wow...I never expected to get this detailed about her which I guess is why Akasuki is never boring for me. XDD Anyway...enough of my rants. I hope you enjoyed it and I'll update soon!!! REVIEW!! I need at least 4 before the next chapter is up!!! :D