Title: If You're Happy And You Know It…
Rating: G
Pairings/Characters: child!Mikami, child!Light, child!L, Ms. Mikami, Sachiko, and Watari.
Warnings: An odd format. (Please read the Author's Note!) Kiddish language which is grammatically incorrect, I suppose. AU because Mikami, Light, and L obviously did not go to kindergarten together.
Word Count: 2,478
Author's Note: Slightly disjointed snippets about the first day of kindergarten for Mikami, Light, and L. I had no idea how to approach this concept since they are going to be…well, tiny, so I decided to go with small snippets about various parts of the day regarding various things. (Yes, Mikami, Light, and L are in the same class. XD;) Incidentally, Watari happens to be L's guardian in this. Dedicated to SunMoonAndSpoon because this was inspired by our "What if…" conversations.
"Mommy? Do I have to stay here?"
Teru looked around the small room. It felt stuffy. He did not like the red and blue and yellow colors on the walls. They reminded him of arm floaties and ocean and sand. They reminded him of beaches. Teru hated beaches because the last time mommy had taken him there, she had forgotten to put on that cream that helped protect his skin—that sunburn stuff. So when he had gotten home his skin had been red like a tomato. Then it had started peeling, and Teru had cried because he had thought some invisible person was peeling him like a baked potato.
"Teru, you have to stay."
Mommy, why are you being so mean to me?
"Watari, does the teacher know I want cookies for snack time?"
L continued to gnaw at his thumbnail, trying to break it because he didn't like how it kept getting caught on his white T-shirt. He knew it would probably hurt once it broke off. Maybe it would even start bleeding. But L hated it when his nails were too long. It made him feel like one of those zombie peoples.
"I'm sure she does."
L bit off a large piece of his thumbnail and spit it onto the floor. His thumb did start hurting, but at least it wasn't bleeding. Instead of saying "Ouch!" he wiped his wet thumb on his jeans and shoved his hand into his pocket.
"Good, 'cause o'erwise I'll have'ta eat my nails."
Light skipped forward, tugging his mom along behind him. He wished she could hurry up because he wanted to meet the other kids. He wanted to play with the cool white boards and colorful markers that smelled funny. He wanted to show the teacher that he could already read, and that he knew how to spell Mississippi. He wanted to play Duck Duck Goose and beat the other kids because he knew that he could run faster than they could.
"All right, dear, I'll be here to pick you up this afternoon."
"Bye, Mama!"
Light hugged his mom quickly. She bent down and kissed his cheek, and he wiped it away with his hand. Yuck. Mama, why do you always do this? He didn't want lipstick on his cheek! That would make him look like a baby in front of all the other kids! He was grown-up. Soon he would be as tall and brave as daddy.
"Make mama proud, Light!" was the last thing he heard before he ran inside the open door.
L stacked each of the painted wooden blocks very carefully on top of one another. The dumb teacher had not noticed that he had left the circle and went to the building blocks instead. This made L happy. He did not like it when one of the smelly kids tried to talk to him because he did not want to talk. Why was it so hard for them to get that he wanted to be alone?
He peered up over his tower of blocks and looked at the kids in the circle. L didn't like that they all looked the same. They looked like the things in those alien movies— clones, or something. There were two that looked different though. One was a brown-haired boy that kept moving around and looked like he needed to go potty. Another was…a girl?…no, a boy with long black hair who was blowing his nose into a tissue. He was the only kid who had ran after his mom when she had left. She hadn't come back so he had started crying.
What a baby, L thought, placing a yellow black on top of his green one.
After mommy had left, Teru had began crying. He had not wanted mommy to leave. Mommy was safe. Mommy didn't change. Mommy was normal. All these kids that were sitting with him in the circle were not normal. They kept staring and coughing and sneezing and Teru did not want to get sick because being sick felt bad. He wiped his eyes with the tissue the teacher had given him and put his glasses back onto his nose.
"Why don't you tell everyone your name, sweetheart?"
Teru realized the teacher was talking to him and he sniffled before mumbling, "M-My name is Teru."
It was almost Light's turn to stand up and tell all the other kids his name, and he was very, very happy. It kind of felt like he was…was—what was the word that mama used?—hippie? No, no. That wasn't right. Hyper. Yeah! That's what it was. Light felt like he was hyper and was going to burst if he didn't get to talk. He had to keep wiggling his toes to keep from jumping up and starting to run because he was just so happy. He thought the nice little blonde girl sitting next to him must have felt the same way because she was humming the Itsy Bitsy Spider song.
"And what is your name, little boy with the cute blue sweater?"
Light jumped to his feet and stuck out his chest, grinning proudly. "Hiya! My name's Light! Did you know I can spell Mississippi?"
"Teacher! Why does that boy get to sit outta the circle?"
Shut up, stupid girl!
L frowned and tried to hide behind his tower of blocks. But of course it was too late because the dumb teacher in the dumb pink dress with dumb smile was already walking towards. L formed a tiny fist around the red wooden block, wondering if he could hit the kid even though he was really far away.
"Honey, why don't you join our circle?"
L looked at her and said very simply: "I don't wanna."
"Why not, sweetie?"
L turned to glare at the girl who had told on him and the weird boy sitting next to her—the one who had said his name was Light.
"Because I don't care if that boy can spell Mississippi, and I think he's stupid, teacher."
"Why are you tryin' to color inside the lines?"
Teru set down his green crayon and looked up at the two boys standing in front of him. He didn't know why, but he felt scared. Maybe it was because this was the first time any of the other kids had tried talking to him. Or because both of the boys looked very angry—like it was bad that he wasn't messing up the picture. He wanted it to be perfect. That way, when he showed mommy, maybe she would like it.
Mommy.
Teru sniffled again and took a tissue from the box the teacher had given him.
"Aren't you gonna say anything?"
Teru went back to coloring his picture. He did not know what to say. But he did know that he wanted the boys to leave. Because they were scary. And smelled like glue. Like they had eaten glue.
"You're weird," Teru heard the boys say as they finally left.
He reached for another tissue.
Yagami Light.
Light had written his name on the board in perfect kanji—just the way daddy had taught him. When the other kids had started to Ooh and Ahh and ask Light if he could write their names like that, he had offered to teach them. But that had gotten boring after a while, especially when the teacher had come and tried to help.
Now he was looking around the room, trying to decide which groups of kids to talk to: the girls around the dollhouse (no, they're I bet they're playin' with Barbies), the boys surrounded by a red car (I bet they won't share), or…the kid who was sitting and coloring by himself?
"Hi! Your name's Teru, right?"
Teru took his time coloring in the last little square on his picture. He was still sad. He missed mommy. He wanted the day to be over. And he did not like being called "weird" because it sounded scary and not perfect. So he was hoping that the boy would get mad and just walk away.
He didn't.
So when Teru looked up and told him that his name was Teru, he did not expect the boy to sit down with him and say: "You color inside the lines, too?"
L was annoyed.
He was annoyed at how all the kids kept looking at him like he was an animal in the zoo just because he was sitting by himself. He was annoyed that the teacher kept telling him to make friends. He was annoyed at the crybaby with glasses who had suddenly become friends with the stupid kid who thought he was better than everyone else just because he could spell Missisippi. He was annoyed at the one kid who (bravely) stepped forward and asked if they could play blocks with him. He was annoyed at how scared the boy looked when he said "NO, LEAVE ME ALONE!" and hissed.
He was annoyed that he had not gotten his cookies.
"W-What happened to my graham cracker?!"
Light blinked at his new little friend, Teru, who looked panic-stricken and on the verge of tears for about the eighth time that day. He sipped at his juice box and stared at Teru, watching as the little boy looked underneath their table for his lost graham cracker and said something like: "No, it can't be on the floor. That would make it icky."
"Um. Maybe you put it in your pocket?" Light suggested. "Or you already ate it?"
"I wouldn't put it in my pocket!" Teru sounded angry. "That would make my pockets full of crumby stuff! And if I ate it, I would a'membered."
Light looked around at all the other kids. He thought they were nice enough. They did not look like the kind of bad guys his daddy put in jail. They did not look like they would steal anything. But when he focused in on the white-faced kid who looked like he was playing zombie, Light was not so sure. Especially when he saw the crumbs on his mouth.
"You took my friend's cookie."
"Says who?"
"Says me!"
"You never saw me."
"So? There are crumbs on your face!"
"Those are from my cookie, dummy."
"Nuh-uh. Teacher wiped your mouth after you ate your cookie."
L picked up his untouched juice box, stabbed the straw in the little circle made of foil, and held up the juice box so that it was facing the retarded kid, Light. All he had to do was give it one big squeeze, and then the stupid kid's sweater and pants would get wet and all the kids would think that he had forgotten to go potty—
"Teacher! That boy stole my cookie!"
…STUPID CRYBABY!
"L, did you take Teru's cookie?"
"No."
Teru moved so that he was standing safely behind Light and the teacher as the scary-looking boy made an angry face at him.
"Are you lying?"
"No!"
"L, don't lie. Light is right. There are crumbs— "
"I DIDN'T TAKE THE COOKIE!"
Teru whimpered. Why was the boy screaming? He hated it when people screamed. It hurt his ears. Teru sniffled as his nose started running. He was awfully close to crying. Again.
"Do you want a time out?"
"LEAVE ME ALONE! I WANNA GO HOME!"
"L wasn't a very good boy today, I'm afraid. He didn't sit with us in the circle or join in with the other children when they began playing. He even took another boy's graham cracker. Then he started yelling and screaming and threw a terrible tantrum. I'm sorry, but I had to put him on time out for the rest of the day."
"No, no. L should be the one apologizing. I'm sorry for the trouble that he caused. I'm sure L is, too. Aren't you, L?"
L glared up at Watari and jerked his hand free of the old man's cold grip. He was not sorry. He just wished that when he had started beating his hands against the wall and scratching the paint and screaming that the teacher had just sent him home. But noooo, she had just given him a stupid time out. So he had spent the rest of the day staring at the wall and "thinking about what he had done."
"L." Watari gave his arm a small shake. "Say that you're sorry."
"I'm sorry," L spat. "It won't happen again…can we go home now?"
Light stood next to Teru as his mama talked to Teru's mama. Teru looked a little less scared than he had before. But he kept looking at L, who was standing next to an old man and talking to teacher. Light thought L was a very different kind of boy—he did not want to use the word weird because mama said that word was mean—because when he had offered to share his graham cracker with him after L had said, "I TOOK IT 'CAUSE I WAS STILL HUNGRY!" L had called him a "teacher's pet" and started stomping his feet and spelling the word Arkansas.
Light wondered if L was going to be at school again tomorrow. He looked at Teru, and even though he knew it was mean for him to think like this and that mama would be angry if she could hear his thoughts, he hoped not—at least for his friend.
"Excuse me, Ms. Mikami?"
Teru stopped when mommy stopped and turned around when mommy turned around. But what he saw made him scared and he wanted to run away and hide and cry because L was there. L had stole his cookie. L had kept giving him mean looks. L hated him.
"What do you want?" Mommy sounded mad. She knew who L was and what he had done to him.
"L would like to apologize to your son, Teru."
Teru knew that the old man was just forcing L to say sorry. He moved behind mommy and held onto her leg. Buried his face into the back of her thigh so L could not see him and give him more mean and scary looks.
"Go on, L."
"I don't wanna. I already said sorry to teacher."
"L, you were very mean to this boy. You need to say sorry."
"Make me!"
"L." The old man suddenly sounded very scary. Like how thunder makes that growling sound.
"Fine, I'm sorry cryba…Teru."
Teru did not think L sounded very sorry, but he did not complain, and neither did mommy. She just said bye and took hold of his hand again and pulled him towards their car. Teru was glad that the day was over. Now he could spend time with mommy in his nice, safe home and eat nice, safe food and sleep in his nice, safe bed.
But as Teru walked away, he thought he heard L whisper: "Yeah, I'm sorry that I didn't get to beat you up, crybaby."