Feline Faults
ChipsAhoyPup
Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note. Never have, never will. (This doesn't stop me from wishing I did, though.)
A/N: I apologize so much for the long long delay. I'm sure I've lost plenty of readers due to this.
By the way, I enjoy putting lyrics to a song that I've been addicted to recently. I stopped doing that for a bit, but I'm going to start doing it again.
"Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars? I could really use a wish right now, wish right now, wish right now." ~Airplanes by BoB and Hayley Williams.
Light didn't hesitate in tugging the piece of cloth off the cat's muzzle. He had begun a quiet chant of "Shitshitshit" ever since he had opened the box to reveal the passed-out black kitten, whose paws were tied together with rope and muzzle covered in a cloth. He untied the rope before attempting to save the cat.
He quickly opened the cat's jaws so that its mouth was gaping open. Then he pressed his lips against the cat's open mouth and puffed air into its lungs. The cat still didn't react after 15 puffs. Desperate, Light pumped the cat's chest gently 15 times. He reverted back to the mouth-to-mouth procedure when the cat still didn't move.
After a couple of these rotations, the cat's ear twitched. Its eyes slowly opened and it sat up, breathing regularly as if nothing had happened. It looked half surprised and half confused.
Relieved, Light cooed to the cat as if talking to a five-year-old, "Hello there."
The cat's fur bristled, eyes widening. In an instant, it had leapt off the table and scrambled underneath the couch, trembling. Light stared sympathetically at the poor kitten, already guessing why it was hiding.
Poor thing must've had a rough time with its last owner. If I were in its position, I wouldn't trust just anyone either, The officer thought.
L watched the human cautiously from his safe haven underneath the sofa. He was surprised that he was even alive, and then, to his horror, he had realized that he was back in Hell, with another human that would abandon him or hurt him.
After a small moment of silence, the human asked, "Are you hungry?" L didn't so much as twitch. "...Well, I'm sure you are, since you've been trapped in a box for who-knows-how-long. I'll get you some food."
With that, he turned around and walked away, leaving L alone. I bet he doesn't have any proper cat food... Oh well. Doesn't look like he has a dog, so at least I won't be fed that icky kibble.
Light rustled through the cabinets, trying to look for anything that was suitable for a cat's picky taste buds. "Let's see, what do cats eat, other than cat food?" He mumbled to himself.
"Definitely not potato chips... Those are mine anyways... Hmm... We don't have anything fish-related, but we do have milk. I'll give it that as a drink. And I guess... Hopefully it'll be okay with eating Misa's leftovers."
Light ended up scooping the rest of Misa's leftover cowboy stew into a bowl and pouring milk into another bowl.
He walked back into the living room. The cat was still under the sofa. "Here, kitty, kitty," He called quietly, placing the two bowls on the ground and backing away some.
The cat didn't move an inch.
Light sighed, tiptoeing back towards the bowls. He carefully pushed them closer towards the cat, who was watching him with wary eyes.
Then he backed up again. This time there was more distance between him and the bowls. He watched patiently for a moment. But the cat still didn't budge. The brunette couldn't help but smirk a bit. "Oh, I see. You're shy, huh? Don't want me to watch?" One of the cat's ears twitched. "Okay, I'll go back into the kitchen... I'm hungry anyway."
Still smirking a bit, Light walked back into the kitchen and pretended to occupy himself with staring into the fridge.
L blinked, trying to decide whether he should eat the food or not. This human hadn't seemed to harm him... yet. Even so, he would have to keep his eye on the human. And he knew he could never, ever trust the human, for fear that he would wind up heartbroken, on the streets, once more.
His stomach growled loudly and obnoxiously, snapping him out of his thoughts. Better eat, He thought.
L glanced around, as if expecting someone to jump him the instant he left the couch. The human was still in the kitchen. Time to eat now before he came back.
L dashed for the food. He began gulping down as much of the beef and pasta as possible in an effort to finish them before the human got back. He was able to finish in record time. But now he was thirsty.
He began lapping up the milk. But since it would splash all over if he rushed, he forced himself to slowly drink it. The human still hadn't come back. L felt himself relax as he continued to lap up the white liquid.
Light listened closely. He heard a sound that was the equivilant to a drop of water repeatedly dripping off of a faucet. He could only think of one possiblity for what that noise was:
The cat was drinking the milk.
For some reason, this caused a sense of pride to wave over the cop. He had saved a cat, fed it, hydrated it. If he hadn't done any of this, that poor, adorable little kitten would have died.
If I peek out of the kitchen at it, will it notice? Light thought. ...Probably. And anyway, I should probably let it finish drinking. It wouldn't be a good idea to interrupt him.
So Light waited. And waited. And waited. The lapping noise seemed to go on for forever.
Finally, he got impatient and figured that the cat had drank enough to live. Light peered out of the kitchen. He couldn't help but smile when he saw the black cat lapping at the milk, black muzzle splotched with white from the milk.
It's so cute, Light thought, despite his usual cool demeanor. I wonder what its gender and name is.
It was just then that the cat noticed him. Its fur bristled in fear as it turned and high-tailed it back to cover. It quickly ducked back under the sofa.
"Sorry," Light told the kitten. "I guess I'll just talk out loud now that you know I'm here... even though you don't understand me."
The cat just stared at him.
"I wonder... what's your name? If you even have one. It looks like you were treated poorly." The cat's ears flattened at that. To Light's surprise, it padded out into the open without reason.
Then it turned and sat down, its tail at an odd angle that made it look like an L.
An L...
"Are you trying to tell me something?" Light asked, feeling stupid for a supposed genius. The cat nodded, causing Light to jump. "I... I wasn't being serious... can... can you actually understand me?" The cat nodded again.
"Well... that'll make things a whole lot easier. You were trying to tell me your name, right?"
The cat nodded again, starting to look tired from nodding so much.
"So... an L... What's next?"
The cat merely blinked.
"...Your name only consists of one letter?"
Nod nod.
"So your name is L?"
Nod. Nod.
"...Okay... It's nice to meet you, L. I'm Light." Light held out his hand towards the cat. L tilted its head to the side, as if trying to decide something, before cautiously putting its paw on Light's hand. Light laughed as he gently wrapped his fingers around its paw and shook its paw a couple of times.
"That," He announced as he let go of L's paw, "is called a handshake. Or, in your case, a pawshake, I guess."
L blinked, staring at its own paw. Curious, it put its paw out towards Light. Light laughed again, gingerly grabbing L's paw and shaking it once more. L purred.
"So, now that that's out of the way..." Light cleared his throat before awkwardly asking, "Are you a girl or a boy?"
L lay down on the ground, about to roll over, when Light quickly interrupted, "No, I don't want to figure it out that way!"
L stared at him, confused, as if asking, Well then how will you know?
"How about... how about you either twitch your ear or lash your tail? Twitching your ear means girl, lashing your tail means boy." Light suggested.
He watched the cat intently. L's tail lashed without hesitation. Light smiled. "Boy. Okay. I don't know if you can tell human genders apart, but I'm a boy too."
The cat looked Light up and down. The brunette watched, feeling slightly uncomfortable and awkard. L seemed to notice this. As if he was attempting to make Light feel better, he put his paw out again.
"You really like handshakes, don't you?" Light chuckled, shaking L's paw.
For the rest of the day, L didn't return to the sofa. He also kept holding his paw out for Light to shake, but he didn't mind at all. In fact, he found it utterly adorable.
But the thing Light dreaded most finally happened.
His wife came home.
A/N This chapter doesn't satisfy me as much as the other ones have. D: