The Little Things Give You Away
By AishiExcel
Hello dears! I didn't bother with an author's note last time, so now I'm back with a vengeance. Firstly I hope everyone had a great Halloween- and it was L's birthday! As a celebration of the wonderful holiday and occasion, I drew a picture- there's a link on my profile, but if anyone is too lazy to go there, the address is: http : // img 232 . imageshack . us / my . php ? image = halloweenze3 . jpg You know the drill, just paste it in your address bar and delete the spaces. Anyways, my HaLLoween was awesome- my costume was Alice with a capital L. That is to say, I was L in drag. It turned out really cute, although most people didn't get the Deathnote undertones and just thought I was an adorable Alice. Which is okay too. ANYWAYS. This chap L and Light are back- hope you're happy! Read on, dears, and celebrate!
The morning after an argument was never any fun.
Light woke up at the crack of dawn, showered and dressed as quickly as possible to get the hell out of the house before his unwanted roommate woke up. He was feeling like utter crap- besides, ironically, his back, which had never felt better. He'd barely slept last night, as frustrated and confused as he had been.
As he slipped out of the house to pick up some breakfast at a café, he wondered what to do. He'd been so embarrassed and angry last night he'd thought about kicking Ryuzaki out. But his mother had taught him more manners than that, and he had to begrudgingly admit that it was unfair to want to kick someone out after they'd lived with you for only one day. Besides that, Light also had to admit Ryuzaki couldn't be blamed for his awkwardness. It obviously wasn't his fault that he'd grown up under a rock, or whatever it was that caused him to be so incredibly … weird. But that didn't stop the uncomfortable feeling in the pit of Light's stomach when he thought about the skinny, pale man. He wasn't sure what to do about it. He couldn't kick the faux-doctor out- that was most definitely against the laws of etiquette. There was a minimum trial period of at least two weeks before he was allowed to say, "This isn't working out." That way, the roommate in question had time to adapt to cohabitation, something that was very difficult to do even for normal people. But Ryuzaki was so… NOT normal, Light wondered if it'd be possible for him to adapt at all. How on earth was Light going to survive two weeks of him crouching around the house like that, asking too-personal questions and blowing things up in the microwave? And now he had to replace his maid. He was going to have a VERY difficult two weeks.
Part of Light thought that he might have been too harsh on the skinny weirdo… After all, Ryuzaki had simply been trying to help with the whole massage thing, and it wasn't his fault that he had no idea about personal space and borders. But then Light's mind would argue back, saying that it was impossible for a person to have NO concept of social standards and what was acceptable behavior. Even a person without modesty should at least know that other people were bound to get angry if you embarrassed them. And it had just made Light so… well, he couldn't even explain it. It was such a weird, unfamiliar feeling that it was only natural he fully reject it- right?
At any rate, thinking about it was only making him angry. He needed to finish breakfast and head to the studio early for a cold read of the script and a basic blocking rehearsal. He gulped down a latte and ate a croissant on the way to the studio, hoping that a good makeup artist would be there to make him look more like a human being and less like a zombie who'd just had the worst night ever.
Light's day had just taken a sharp turn for the worst.
It had only taken three point five seconds.
The second he left the hair and makeup artist's trailer, looking somewhat more presentable, he'd seen two blond heads of hair far too close together.
It was the two LAST people he wanted to see. They were bad enough separately, but at once… that was more than his fried nerves could take.
"LIGHT!" Misa cried out, blushing slightly. "Hi! Misa didn't expect to see you…"
Mello simply smirked at him. "Hey. Light. Fancy running into you here."
"Hmm. Fancy that," Light murmured, smiling his iciest smile. "What business do you have here today?" It was carefully phrased to sound exactly the way it did- polite on the surface, but letting Mello know he had no place on Light's set.
"Oh, you know. They wanted me to sit in on a filming, see how it works, pick up a little inspiration from superstars such as you." He lifted Misa's hand and placed a smooch on the back of it. "And then I ran into the lovely miss Amane. I had no idea how cute she was in person, you lucky dog."
"Oh, STOP!" Misa giggled. "Light, don't listen to Rockstar-san, he's just trying to embarrass me. We only just met. He was telling me all about how he's going to be an actor now! I was saying how exciting it is to have two careers- like how Misa Misa's a model, too."
Rockstar-san? She was calling him ROCKSTAR-san?
Light narrowed his eyes. Well, this was wonderful. The two greatest pains in his ass were totally hitting it off. No wonder- they had SOOO much in common.
"Well," he murmured, "we have to start our blocking rehearsal and choreography, Misa, don't forget."
Misa waved a hand dismissively at him. "Oh, Light, that isn't for another hour. Come talk to Misa and Rockstar-san, we were just discussing you!"
Light glared at the cocky little upstart, Mello, who was smiling like this was all intensely funny. 'Oh, were you?" Light murmured.
"We were just talking about how you and Misa are the talk of all the magazines. Isn't love grand? If only." Mello winked at Misa and she blushed a deep red.
OH, THAT WAS IT. Mello needed to MIND HIS OWN BUSINESS and stay OUT of Light's. He thought he could come in here and get into EVERYTHING that was Light's? He invaded his job, he was trying to take his fame, and now he wanted to flirt with his GIRLFRIEND? Sure, Light may not have liked her, but that wasn't the point. It was a territory thing- a male, testosterone kind of thing. Light would be DAMNED if he let Mello flirt with her like that. She was HIS, whether he wanted her or not.
Light slipped up beside Misa and slipped his arm around her waist, causing the short blonde to look at his slightly guiltily. "Hey, Misa," he murmured, "He's right. Love really is great. I sure am lucky."
Misa looked up at his with a sickeningly lovelorn expression. "Oh, Light. Misa has to have the greatest, cutest boyfriend on the face of the planet."
Mello made a gagging motion behind her back, which only succeeded in pissing Light off more.
"Anyways," Light continued, ignoring the sickening wannabe that called itself Mello, "I was just thinking. We haven't hung out in so long. Would you like to have dinner tomorrow night?"
He took the high-pitched squeal of delight Misa sent forth as a 'yes.'
Mello looked back and forth between the two of them. "How cute. But Misa, weren't you just telling me you had a photo shoot to go to tomorrow night?"
Misa's tiny face scrunched up in despair. "Oh noo, you're right! What can Misa-Misa do? She loves her Light, but she has to work…."
Light patted Misa's pigtailed head. "Go talk to Mogi. He works wonders with scheduling, I'm sure he can move it to some other night. I'll go ahead and make dinner reservations. You want to go to that little Indonesian place you like so much?"
Misa looked up at him, starry-eyed and excited, and nodded. "Yes, that'd be wonderful. Misa will go talk to Mogi now! Light is the Light of my life!" Misa cheered as she ran off in search of the hulking mountain of a man that called himself her manager.
This gave Light just the opportunity he'd been looking for. He spun on Mello, eyes ablaze, ready to fight.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he hissed.
"Nothing," murmured Mello, slipping out of his cheerful flirtatious persona into one Light had never seen before. Mello seemed cold, ruthless, and almost… deadly. If Light were any lesser man, he'd be scared of the little upstart. But he wasn't. So he got two inches from the shorter blonde's face and let his voice drop to a threatening whisper.
"Don't let me catch you near my girlfriend again. I may be okay with you coming onto my show and trying to use my fame to your own ends. Hell, I may even be okay with you attempting to win more publicity and overshadow me. But you have NO right to take what belongs to me, and what belongs to me is Misa."
"Oh, she belongs to you?" Mello murmured, smirking a little. "I had no idea. See, that pretty little thing right there is part of the reason you're so famous, isn't she, Oh Light?"
The blood drained out of Light's face. Oh, HELL no.
"So what you're telling me," he murmured, voice shaking with rage, "is that you're… Misa is…."
"Even if I were to become more famous than you," Mello muttered, almost as though talking to himself, "there's an area of fame that you'd still have a monopoly over. And that's the celebutant-tabloid-romance section. The press eats up all that 'who's dating who' or 'who's engaged' or 'who has a baby bump' stuff. And you two are the talk of the town. It's all, 'when will Light pop the question?' and 'Are they the next Brangelina?'"
Light would have liked to punch the smart-assed blonde right then and there. But things like that got to the press fast, and the last thing he needed right now was any negative press. "So you're just ensuring your fame. By making sure Misa is another of your stepping stones to the top."
"Exactly." Mello's blue eyes glittered coldly as he stared at Light. "Can you blame me? Don't tell me you wouldn't do the same. Aren't you just using her, too?"
Light turned away from Mello, so angry that he was about to explode. But he wouldn't give this little brat the satisfaction of seeing it. "Don't you dare compare me to you. I am nothing like you. I'm the king of this show, and you're nothing. You hear me? Nothing." He moved to leave, but glanced over his shoulder at the blonde. "And you'll never get her. See, she actually loves me."
"We'll just see about that," Mello murmured, grinning slightly. "We'll see."
He'd stalled as long as he could, but the time had finally come for Light Yagami to go home.
Going to one's own residence wasn't supposed to fill one with such an inescapable sense of dread, was it? Light had tried every excuse he could think of to avoid going home. He'd stayed an extra hour at the studio talking with the director about his new season. He'd gone out wandering his favorite shopping district looking for a new outfit or a new book to read (he'd bought a copy of A Clockwork Orange, but had no luck finding any clothes that he didn't already have.) He'd eaten dinner at a café and then spent half an hour there reading his new book and nursing the same cup of coffee. But when nine o clock rolled around and he had to dismiss the idea of simply not going home that night and staying in a hotel (it was too conspicuous, the rumors would start flying immediately,) he was forced to head home.
He closed his eyes as he twisted the doorknob and prepared himself for the worst. The door swung open and Light braced himself as he walked into a condo that was…
… Clean.
Light looked around, confused. He'd expected a nuclear wasteland, or at the very least crumbs strewn all over the furniture and floor. There was no jelly donut waste in the microwave. There wasn't so much as a dead fly in the windowsill. The place was utterly sparkling.
A pair of black eyes peeped out of the door to his study. "Ah. Yagami-san."
Light looked around and swallowed his pride. Well, he might as well talk to Ryuzaki, if at least to find out how he got this spectacular new maid.
"Hey. Ryuzaki." An awkward silence blossomed for a second before Light cut it short by clearing his throat. "The place looks really clean. Did the maid agency send a new one, or…"
"I called someone," Ryuzaki murmured, still peeping out through the crack in the door as though hiding from his housemate's wrath.
Light looked around for a moment. Even things like the top of the fridge and the light sockets looked clean, places his old maid had conveniently forgotten. "You did? This maid is fantastic, I can't believe I didn't know about them, I should recommend the agency…."
"It wasn't a maid," Ryuzaki murmured, opening the door slightly more. "It was Watari."
Light's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as he imagined the distinguished old gentleman scrubbing the floors and windows. "What? No way, he's a hospital director, surely he-"
"When I stayed at the hospital," Ryuzaki murmured, stepping out of Light's study and into the hallway, "my room had to be kept clean. And I wouldn't let any of the nurses in to mess with my things, so…"
"So Watari cleaned for you?" Light couldn't imagine what kind of influence Ryuzaki must have had if he could reduce the hospital director to a cleaning lady. Either the two had a very close relationship, or Ryuzaki was just that good that he could get whatever he wanted.
"Yes," Ryuzaki said, chewing on his thumbnail. "So I got him to clean Yagami-san's house, too." He looked Light up and down for a second. "Yagami-san is impressed."
"I am not!" scoffed the teen star, although he may have been a TEENSY bit impressed. "I mean, I…"
"Light-kun IS impressed," Ryuzaki said, a shadow of a smile turning his lips up. "He's in denial about it, with his closed off position and tight shoulders, but he's in awe of the service I have done him."
"Now you just sound cocky," Light muttered, sitting haughtily down on the couch and flipping on the TV. "Don't get TOO full of yourself. I'm still mad at you."
"Whatever you say, Light-kun," Ryuzaki said, crouching on the couch next to him and picking up the remote. "I would like to watch Young and The Restless. It is actually quite addictive."
"If you're blind and deaf and don't notice the horrible acting," Light retaliated, but he let the oddball change the channel.
"Light's letting me decide what we watch on TV. He can't be too angry with me."
"I will be in a second if you don't quit that emotional diagnosis thing."
"Now Light is bluffing. He doesn't think I'm that bad."
Light turned and glared at the faux-doctor. "Even if I did, there's no way I'd say it to you, you horrible awkward thing. It'd just swell your ego some more."
"I love you too, Light-kun," Ryuzaki murmured, smiling.
YAAAAAY! I FINALLY finished this chapter! The fact that it's taken me almost a month to get there… well, I'm sorry guys XD But anyways! I finally did it! It took the Thanksgiving Holidays to kick my butt into gear and get me to update. What do you think? Actually, Light and L's interaction is based on how my roommate and I are. We'll clash one day like we're the worst of enemies, and the next day we'll be buddies again. We've actually taken to calling each other Light and L because it's so like them XD Anyways! I hope you guys are looking forward to gorging yourselves on turkey, or turduckens, or whatever it is you're going to eat, because I sure am… Well! Review, review, review! Thanks for the patience folks! XOXOX!