The Little Things Give You Away

By AishiExcel

Disclaimer: Don't own Deathnote. Half credit goes to Nikkiacat.

Those who guessed last chap's song as Jack's Lament from Nightmare Before Christmas were wonderfully right! As a prize… they get virtual hugs from me. At the moment, that list is: FrayedSoul, rain angst, whitelilly, RavenSohma and Sarahfreak. Sorry if I didn't include your name!

Try to guess at this chapter's song, even though it's a bit more obscure… It more refers to Light than L, but I think it fits well.

When Light stepped out of his limo, he didn't wince at the camera flashes. He was used to that by now.

Upon stepping inside he saw Matsuda, fidgeting with his suit, and Misa's manager Mogi (thankfully without Misa.) He made a beeline for them, turning the heads of all of the women and many of the men along the way. Matsuda bounced up and down as Light approached, looking more like a puppy than ever.

"Light! Hey! How are you? Mogi's here!"

"I noticed, " Light drawled, glancing out of the corner of his eye at the quiet man. Mogi nodded at Light and resumed… being quiet.

"Oh! And Light! I told you there was a musical guest tonight, didn't I?"

Light shook his head, and acted interested. He didn't really give a crap.

"Ah! Well… there is. The group… I think they're called Wammy Kids, or something like that. The producers really like them. They might be featured on an episode!"

Now Light was interested. The show was popular because of HIM. Some bottom-feeding musician wanted to exploit his success for fifteen minutes of fame? Nuh-uh. Not gonna happen. He was going to tell this musician how it was. Light was KING of his show.

"The lead singer's name is Mello," Matsuda continued to ramble, "and I think the keyboardist is named Matt."

Light nodded absently. As Matsuda continued to rattle of stats, album sales and hum the tunes to their songs, Light began to drift off and stare at the crowd.

That's when he first noticed him.

I met him in a crowded room
where people go to drink away their gloom
He sat me down and so began
the story of a charmless man

He was hunched up on a chair near the bar, even though he wasn't drinking. His darkly shadowed eyes were locked straight onto Light. They made eye contact for a second, and then the stranger looked away.

Strange, Light mused, but he ignored it for a while.

He wandered off to toy with a few B-list starlets, but he could feel the strange man's gaze burning into his back. It was beginning to annoy him. Who was this guy? A stalker? A fan? (Both were essentially the same thing.) A director? Directors often looked weird…. Just look at Peter Jackson…

Light couldn't ignore it. Finally he put on his best business smile and made his way towards the bizarre, unfamiliar person.

The man (boy? Young man? He looked like he was Light's age, or maybe slightly older. But in show business it was hard to tell) had horrible posture. He was squatted on the seat with his feet drawn up into his chair and his hands on his knees. His eyes were deep brown, maybe even black, and darkly shadowed as if with insomnia. His hair… Light wasn't even going to START. It needed to be brushed, washed, conditioned and gelled or chopped off completely.

He didn't let his distaste show on his face. He was perfectly composed, of course.

"Hi," he murmured. "I'm Light Yagami."

He thinks his educated airs those family shares
Will protect him, that you will respect him
He moves in circles of friends who just pretend that they like him
He does the same to them and when you put it all together
There's the model of a charmless man

The stranger's eyes shot fully open for just a second before he composed himself. "I know," he muttered.

Light raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"I know you're Light Yagami."

Light mentally twitched, but kept his cool. "Oh. Well then… Hello! I don't think we've met before."

The stranger tilted his head. "Ah."

"Pardon?"

"I said 'ah'. It is a monosyllable that means you have come to a realization-"

"I meant, why the Ah?"

This guy was inept at small talk. Light persevered on, though, determined to learn the identity of his … watcher.

"It's unimportant," muttered the stranger. "Light Yagami…"

"That would be me. I didn't catch your name… what was it again?"

The messy young man pondered for a second. "Ryuzaki."

"Ryuzaki?"

"Yes."

"No last name?"

Now the weirdo turned his face to look up at Light. Black eyes met mahogany ones.

"If I told you my last name, would you use it?"

Something entirely unexpected happened. Light actually laughed.

He quickly suppressed the outburst. "No. No, I probably wouldn't."

"Then there is no need to tell it to you," the oddball confirmed, nodding assuredly.

Light held back the grin trying to sneak onto his face. "Um. Right. Well… haha. Do you come to benefits often, Ryuzaki?"

Light mentally assessed the man. He could have been a comedian. Some comedians had that deadpan sense of humor… Perhaps he was something unimportant, like a costume designer or a makeup artist. They could be weird. But this Ryuzaki hadn't called him "honey" or acted effeminate yet… so maybe he wasn't. That ruled out hairstylist, too. Was he a musician? A writer?

"Not really," Ryuzaki muttered. "This would be my first. Wearing suits is rather inconvenient."

His suit WAS rather rumpled… and it smelled of frosting… a caterer?

"What do you do for a living?" Light pressed onwards.

Ryuzaki's eyes met Light's for a long moment. Finally, some semblance of a smile crept onto his formerly expressionless face.

"I'm a doctor."

He talks at speed he gets nose bleeds
He doesn't see his days are tumbling down upon him
Yet he tries so hard to please he's just so keen for you to listen
But no-one is listening and when you put it all together
There's the model of a charmless man

Sorry, short chap! When I originally wrote this, I didn't divide it into chapters at all, so deciding where to end each chap is a big pain for me… I hope my characterization was good this go-around. What'd everyone think? Oh, and I have a few responses to some reviews… to LK: TT I didn't pay very much attention to the number stats. Sorry about the mistake. We'll just say the 4 inches came from some 4-inch high-heeled boots XD

And to desdemona: I hate to disappoint you, but it is Ryuzaki... It does get kind of flat only calling him by one name, but it's the most commonly used alias... So sorry! Please keep reading despite that!

Well, review review review folks! Mwah!

-AishiExcel