Flight Home

"Mello," the dark-haired one hissed. "Will you please listen just for a moment?"

The blond crossed his arms. "No. I don't care what you want, all right? You've made it clear who you like and who you don't—"

"I never—"

"—and I see that I'm never going to be made your successor—"

"Mello, that's not true—"

"—and no, I refuse to smooth the way for perfect Near. Let him deal with his problems on his own."

Sayu tried to tune out the argument, turning another page of her magazine. Just my luck, she thought. I can't even sleep, like I'd normally do on a plane.

She'd been in the States for two months, visiting an old pen-pal of hers in Los Angeles. Despite her difficulties with the English language—not to mention the time difference—Sayu had had a wonderful time. Now, she was headed home to Tokyo, full of stories to tell to her parents and brother. If Light's even there. Last time I heard, he was in Winchester.

"Mello, this is serious, and I never meant for you and Near to be this competitive."

"Well then, why don't you just pick one of us and get it over with?"

Sayu inwardly rolled her eyes. The two men behind her had been bickering since the plane had lifted off. Giving up on the magazine, she sighed and glanced at the young man seated next to her. He had red hair and goggle-like glasses, and was totally engaged by his Nintendo DS. There was to be no help from that corner.

"Mello, be quiet," the dark-haired one hissed. "You're attracting attention."

The blonde—Mello, what an odd name—responded with a rather rude invitation that attracted several stares up and down the row. Sayu was saved having to hear the rest of what he said by the ringing of her cell phone. She flipped it open, without checking to see who it was, and said, "Hello?"

"Hey Sayu!" came a familiar voice. Sayu winced. Of course, on top of everything else, she was going to have to deal with Misa. When she was younger, she had adored the young model, but since Light had broken up with her earlier that year, she had become a pain, constantly calling Sayu to see if she could possibly mend things between her and Light.

"Sayu, you still there? It's Misa-Misa."



I know that. "Oh, hi Misa. How's it going?"

"Oh, all right. Misa just got done filming the movie."

"How did it go? I heard being an actress is even harder than being a model."

"It was okay." Misa paused and said, with a slight tremble in her voice, "Is Light with you, Sayu?"

Sayu winced. "No, I'm on a plane home. I've been in Los Angeles for the last two months. Why?"

"Misa just wanted to say hi, and tell Light-kun that she m-misses him…"

Oh gods. She was getting the sob in her voice again. Between the blonde behind Sayu—whose language was becoming more inventive the longer he went on—and Misa on the phone, she was quite sure that she was going to have an awful headache by the time she landed. "Look, Misa, I have to go, okay? I'll call you when I get home."

"All right," Misa sniffled, and Sayu clicked the phone shut, dropping it to her lap so that she could lightly massage her temples. Before two minutes had passed, her phone was ringing again. This time, she checked the caller ID before answering.

"Sayu, how are you?" Light asked, in his usual crisp way.

"Light! I'm good, actually," Sayu said, in English.

She could hear the smile in her brother's voice. "Your English has gotten better. How was L.A.?"

"Good. What are you up to, Onii-chan?"

"I'm on my way home, actually, from Winchester."

"Did you solve your case, then?"

"Not yet, but I've got a lead."

"Mello, I told you to be quiet!"

"Just a minute, brother." Sayu covered the mouthpiece of the phone with her hand and turned to face the men behind her. "I'm trying to talk to my brother," she said, in English. She was done being polite.

The weird one seemed taken aback. He had messy black hair and sat in an odd, crouching way, He was messily dressed, as well, and his eyes had dark bags under them, as though he hadn't slpt 

in days. He nodded to her. "My apologies," he said quietly. To the blonde, he said, "Mello, this discussion is over."

"Sayu, what's going on?"

"Nothing." Sayu uncovered the mouthpiece. "Just an interruption. You were saying you have a lead?"

"I do."

"In Tokyo?"

"Yes."

"Can I help?"

Light sighed. "No, Sayu. This is serious work, all right?"

"This discussion is not over! You can't just end it like that because some prissy broad got upset and reamed you!"

Sayu's blood was boiling. "Excuse me, Light. I've got to go." She clicked the phone shut and turned to face the oddball pair again. "You know, it's very impolite to refer to someone like that in their presence," she informed Mello.

He glared back. "So what?"

"So, I—" Her phone cut her off. Again. She flipped it open and said briskly, "Yes?"

"Oh. Hi Sayu. I think I dialed the wrong number."

Of course. Matsuda. "Matsuda, I'm kind of busy right now, okay?"

"Yeah, I know," the young man said, and then tried to backtrack. "I mean, not that I knew you were busy, just….sorry. Didn't mean to interrupt you. Um…goodbye. " Click.

Sayu snapped the phone shut, hoping she wasn't going to be interrupted again. "You were saying, sir?"

The other man put a hand on Mello's shoulder. "He was saying how sorry he was for being rude. Weren't you, Mello?"

Mello scowled, but said nothing. The gamer next to Sayu swore and turned off his handheld as the blond tugged a bar of chocolate from his pocket and began gnawing on it as though it had done something personally to him.

"Matt?" the weirdo inquired. "Could you come over here? Switch seats with me."



Matt sighed. "Yes, Ryuzaki."

Ryuzaki? He's Japanese? He doesn't look it….but then again, he doesn't look completely European either. Sayu primly ignored them as the gamer—Matt—went and sat down next to the blonde, who was still fuming so hard that Sayu wouldn't have been surprised to see smoke pouring from his ears. Ryuzaki took the seat next to her. She continued to gaze out the window. Maybe now, if they weren't going to argue, she could get an hour or so of sleep.

She had every intention of doing so, and was in fact dozing off, when Ryuzaki suddenly spoke. "I noticed you speak English. Have you been in the States long?"

Sayu opened her eyes and gave him a suspicious look. "How do you know I'm not American?"

Ryuzaki shrugged. "You have an accent. And I just guessed. I do that."

"Do you? Are your guesses generally right?"

Ryuzaki's lips twitched. "About 95 of the time, yes." He pulled his knee up to his chest, then extended his leg again, looking irritated. "I hate these airline seats," he muttered, squirming. "So, may I ask your name?"

Sayu saw no harm in that. Odd he might be, but the young man seemed trustworthy. "Yagami Sayu. And you?"

"Sato Ryuzaki."

"Are you Japanese then?" Sayu tilted her head to one side. "You have some sort of European accent."

Ryuzaki's expression did not change. "You're a smart girl, Yagami-san. I was born in England, but given my mother's choice of name. She lived somewhere in the Kanto region. I'm not really sure where."

"Oh." Now Sayu understood. "So your father was English?"

"French, actually. Or Italian. I'm not really sure, again. They died when I was very young."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I cant even remember it."

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence. Ryuzaki beckoned the stewardess over. She came, swaying on her high heels.

"Yes, sir? What can I do for you?"

"Could you bring me some coffee or tea, or something, miss? Just something caffeinated."



"Yes, sir. You want sugar and cream with that?"

"Yes, please. Double, if that's all right."

The stewardess hardly blinked. "Coming right up, sir."

The drink was brought, and Ryuzaki took the Styrofoam cup from the woman with intense gratitude. Sayu watched, disbelieving, as he dropped sugar cube after sugar cube into the cup.

"How can you drink that?" she asked, then, realizing he might find this rude, added, "Not to be rude or anything, but I would think it would be too sweet to drink."

Ryuzaki smiled. "You remind me of someone, Sayu Yagami."

"Really?"

"Indeed you do." He leaned back and took a sip of the now-syrupy coffee. "In fact, you could almost be his sister."

Light tapped his watch, impatient. L was late, as usual, and Sayu's flight would be in in 5 minutes. He took another drink of his barely-sweetened tea and flipped open his cell phone, hitting one of the numbers on speed dial.

It rang several times before L picked up. "Hello?"

"L. What's going on? You said you'd be at the airport half an hour ago."

"I know. My flight was delayed. I am sorry to have wasted your precious time."

Light almost smiled, but thought better of it. L would hear it in his voice, and only become more irritating. "I got a lead. Here in Tokyo. There's a hospital we're going to have to visit."

"You are going to have to visit it. I'm going to check in somewhere and stay there for the rest of the day. I'm tired."

Translation: L wasn't going to show his face anywhere in the vicinity for at least a week. "No way. You're coming with me."

"I am not." There was a pause. "Look, I'll talk to you later."

Translation: L was probably still on the plane, in which case Light would get neither information nor plans out of him until he landed. "You with someone?"

Another pause. "Yes," L finally said. In the background, a woman laughed.



Light smirked. "I can see that."

Click. Light took the phone from his ear and slipped it back in his pocket. It rang again, and he pulled it out.

"I'll be there in under twenty minutes," L said, quite shortly, and hung up again.

Light smiled and drained his tea. Since becoming part of the NPA, he had solved several cases both on his own and with all three of the top three detectives in the world. Two of them had been international cases, one centered in San Diego, the other in London. He was, possibly, the youngest and most successful agent they had ever had. He had put his success to good use, vowing to use his remarkable talents for justice and good. Being part of and investigated by the Kira investigation had given him an almost rabid sense of justice. Well, wouldn't anybody? I was imprisoned, chained to L for six weeks, and monitored both before and after my incarceration via surveillance cameras. It was no picnic.

"Flight number 45, coming in for landing," the intercom blared. "Flight number 45."

Light stood and stretched. I'll just have to take Sayu home and meet up with L later. I'm sure he'll understand.

He strode over to the platform, where Flight number 45's passengers were disembarking. Shouldering his way through the crowd, he spotted Sayu and waved; she waved back and began to wade toward him.

"Light!" She hugged him fiercely. "I'm glad you're back."

Light fended her off with one hand. "Easy," he laughed. "Do you mean to suffocate me?"

Sayu laughed. "Same old Light." She loosened her hold. "I'm so happy to see you, Onii-chan."

Light returned the embrace. "Me too." He glanced over Sayu's shoulder…and saw L, standing in the middle of the crowd, hands in his pockets, looking quite at ease. Beside him stood a tall blonde girl in black leather—who was turned away from Light, so that he could not see her face-- and a shorter man with messy red hair and goggle-like glasses.

"Oh, Light." Sayu turned and beckoned. "This is Sato Ryuzaki. I met him on the plane."

L ambled over, hands in his pockets, and smiled wickedly at Light.

"Hello, Light-kun," he said.

A/N: A few questions that I thought might need clearing up:

No, this is not going to be an L/Sayu. Their relationship will be strictly friendship.



Yes, the "blonde girl" is Mello. No, he has not suddenly undergone a gender shift, Light is just a little nearsighted. wicked grin More on that next chapter.

Okay. R and R, folks!