Chapter 2: Broken
Kasumi settled in quickly at Quillish's orphanage: the Wammy House. She immediately bolted to her room, circling it quickly before putting her things down.
The next room she found was the piano room. She stared at the piano for a moment before tentatively opening it.
"You play?"
L was standing in the doorway. She nodded. "Then play." She played.
The minor chords flew from the piano, taking over the whole house, everybody's mind and soul. The music dipped under her fingers, spiraling upward, then plummeting, creating a whole show for the children of the orphanage.
The end was greeted with applause. She blushed, looking down. "It wasn't even that good…" she muttered.
The rest of her time in the Wammy house was spent either by that piano, in her room, or following L. She immediately attached herself to him, learning from him, doing what he did, although his quietness encouraged her will to talk.
As she got older, she got quieter, more serious, and sadder. She also developed a love of everything cold, and hated summers. Her birthday, the 27th of September, was the beginning of Fall, although she always called it the end of Summer, a time to look forward to colder times.
Finally, her thirteenth birthday…
"Kasumi-chan?" L knocked lightly on her door.
No response.
He took a deep breath and opened the door. A flash of white and purple greeted him: the room's theme. In the corner, a purple comforter moved slightly as Kashmi rolled around in her bed.
L quietly crossed the room, his bare feet crunching gently against the white, clean carpet. Kasumi had stays up almost u til midnight, excited about the end of summer until she suddenly fell asleep. She was still sleeping peacefully, the tiny light of the barely risen sun shining through the window and playing across her face. Lawliet stopped at her bed, messing with the present he had behind his back.
He was surprised when he saw a tear clinging to her long eyelashes. He hesitated for a moment before gently brushing it away.
She didn't wake up.
Barely knowing what he was doing, the teenager leaned over her until his mouth was an inch away from hers.
He caught himself, panda-like eyes widening. What am I doing? he thought, drawing back. A slight blush crossed his face as he retreated to the office chair in the room.
It seemed like barely a minute had passed when a hushed voice said, "Lawliet?"
He turned around, meeting her sleepy blue eyes. "Hm. You're awake. And I'd prefer if you call me L- for safety reasons."
She nodded to acknowledge his second statement. "I wish I wasn't awake." She yawned and sat up, curling up around a stuffed rabbit like she'd always done.
"Yeah. Uh… happy birthday." He walked to her bed and handed her the present.
She flashed him a thank-you smile, then opened the box.
She pulled out a necklace with a large peridot gem with the Libra sign carved into it hanging off of it. Her eyes brightened, a fresh smile breaking out across her face. "Th-thank you… it's beautiful!"
L awkwardly rubbed his foot against his leg. "It's nothing…"
Kasumi quickly put the necklace on before looking back up at L. "Oh, but it's everything! There. It's on, and I'm never gonna take it off!"
He blinked. "Never?"
"Not for a second!" She jumped out of bed. The silly girl had fallen asleep in her jeans and sweatshirt- her sense of style was strikingly different from the Japanese teens' skirts. "C'mon, let's go do something." She grabbed his hand and started out the door.
L felt a faint flush break out across his pale face at her touch. Why do I feel like this? he thought. "You don't have shoes on," he said instead.
"You never have shoes on."
L ignored his companion's retort. "You'll get sick."
"I don't care! C'mon."
Once their feet met Wammy's house's lawn, Kasumi dropped Lawliet's hand and walked slowly ahead. He slouched over to her. "Sunrise like the sunrise in Tokyo?"
"It was never as beautiful," she whispered, captivated by the colors.
He reached over to pat her head, the same way Quillish had when they met. Kasumi flinched away, as she always did. L frowned. "They hit you, didn't they?"
"Who hit me?" Kasumi's voice was obviously quivering.
"Your customers."
Kasumi kept her gaze fixed on the sunrise, refusing to look at L. He cupped her face with his hands, forcing her to look at him. Tears were pooling in the corners of her crystal blue eyes. "They beat you. They beat you when you didn't give them what they wanted."
"I can't lie to you, can I?" Kasumi choked out, the tears leaking out and gently gliding into L's hands. "Yes… dammit, yes, they did."
The cold hands left her face, the arms wrapped themselves around her. Her hands weakly gripped her friend's shirt. They stood like that, embracing like they had on that cold winter day three years before.
Kasumi felt warm and happy... happier than she had ever felt before. She felt as if she wanted to spend the rest of her life there, in L's embrace. She felt as if she didn't want to move... didn't even want death to pull them apart. Why... why am I thinking like this?
Suddenly L drew away, causing a pang of… sadness? to rise up in Kasumi. "I'll make them pay." L was quietly fuming as he said that.
Kasumi blinked. She had never seen him that mad. "L… don't. Please…"
"They hurt you! Nobody should be allowed to do that!" He turned around, about to storm back into the house.
Kasumi caught his arm. "L, don't! Please!"
"And why shouldn't I punish them?"
"They… they were my life." She hung her head in shame, her grip on his arm slackening. "That's how I got food… how I managed to stay alive."
L's arm stopped tugging at her hand, stopped asking to be let free. "… fine." He gently pried her fingers off of his arm and slunk back inside.
****
Kasumi finished the piece, jumping as L said, "You always play that same song."
She nodded. "You see… I used to have a cat. A little cream point ragdoll cat, I named her Mitzi." She smiled to herself. "I had just read A Murder is Announced- you know, by Agatha Christie? I found that, then the cat. I don't know how old Mitzi was." Kasumi then frowned. "I had Mitzi for about a year and a half… one day I was out longer because of… customers. On my way back, I found this piece. Just this movement. Don't even know who wrote it. I'd had a piano in my hideout. A horrible one, but I'd taught myself to play. When I got back… Mitzi was half-dead. She had gotten out, been mauled by… a dog, I'm guessing, and dragged herself back. She died then… and this piece always reminds me of her."
Lawliet sat quietly through the whole story, looking thoughtfully at the piece for a second before getting up and leaving. Kasumi sighed. She was used to things like this.
She stayed in the piano room, occasionally looking out the window. Her heart rose when she saw L slouching across the lawn. She flew down to greet him. "L-kun! Where've you been? Oh… hi, Wammy-sama."
Quillish smiled. "L decided that we get this for your birthday." He handed Kasumi a bag.
She frowned, pulling a stuffed cat out of it. It looked exactly like Mitzi had. Her eyes shone, and she looked gratefully at L. He just shifted awkwardly and said, "Thank Wammy-sama."
Kasumi smiled her usual upbeat smile, thanking both of them profusely and clutching the cat tightly. She waited until her caretaker left until leaning up and gently kissing L on the cheek and thanking him again, before proposing that they go somewhere.
They wandered through the fields, L quietly eating a sucker. "L-kun?"
"Hm?" He looked at her.
"Age differences don't mean anything, right?"
L took the lollipop out of his mouth. "Mean anything to what?"
Kasumi looked at him. "Friendship. Anything." The slight blush on her face showed that she meant more of anything than friendship.
L pretended not to notice. "Mental age matters."
"A-and… what would you say my mental age is?" She sounded as if she was afraid to ask.
He looked quietly into her clear, blue eyes. "... 17."
"Ah." She obviously relaxed.
"Back when we were running away from those men... when you broke the rope... how did you break it so easily?"
Kasumi shrugged. "People have told me that I'm good at finding weak... soft spots in things."
"And who are those people?"
Kasumi stopped walking for a moment. "... me. There wasn't exactly anybody else to compliment me, was there?"
The corners of L's mouth twitched up into a smile for a moment before he stuck the lollipop back into his mouth.
*****
Later that day, Kasumi sat in front of a fire. It had started raining, which turned to sleet. She had retreated to the fire, and had spent the previous fifteen minutes staring into the fire.
L was sitting in a chair behind her, eating a slice of cake. "… Kasumi-chan, are you alright?"
She jumped. What does she see in those flames? L wondered. "Oh, I'm fine." She shifted. "Why?"
"I just don't want you to be sad on your birthday." He returned to his cake, freezing when Kasumi suddenly jumped up and stormed around.
"You don't want me to be sad? You don't want me to be sad. Fucking hypocrite."
"Watch your mouth," L calmly replied, not looking up.
"Since my third birthday, every five years something's gotten hurt. LISTEN TO ME!" L jumped, turning his dark grey eyes from the cake to a raging Kasumi in front of the fire. The stuffed Mitzi lay forgotten on a sofa. "Third birthday- somebody shoved me down stairs, broke both of my legs. I couldn't walk for weeks. Eighth birthday, this happened." She pulled back her sleeve, showing a scar wrapping around her arm. "Somebody beat me for the first time. I still ripped them off-I wanted cake and milk for Mitzi." An almost maniac grin spread across her face. "It showed me how twisted and biased people are, myself included. I cheated people for my own good, they beat me for their own hood. I thought that the whole world was evil… until you."
A silence pressed down on the two for a few seconds before Kasumi quietly continued, "You and Wammy-sama were the nicest people I've ever known. And it mattered. Until today… you'd be willing to punish people who did nothing!"
"They hurt you!"
"They helped me! See, I'm more at fault than they are." She straightened up from where she had been leaning over the table, the grin replaced by a frown. "All because of the crap this world is." She whirled around and left the room.
"Wait, Kasumi-chan!" L stood up and went after her, cake forgotten.
Dismay crossed his face when he saw the door open. He took a deep breath and stepped into the storm. "Kasumi!"
"You call your opinion justice?" a receding figure yelled. "Some world that'd be, with your 'justice'!"
"Fine! Believe what you want!"
"That I'll do. I'm leaving, and don't expect to see me again!" The figure disappeared into the trees.
"Oh." Quillish was standing behind L. "It's useless to look for her... you know how good she is at hiding."
"I don't care. I need to find her." L walked out, going into the forest where she disappeared.
Quillish sighed as he turned around, walking to the room where Kasumi last was. He gently picked up Mitzi. "Kasumi... why must you be so stubborn?"
End Prologue