Disclaimer- I don't own Death Note.

Chapter 35

Control

"Uh, this is only a one bedroom apartment," Noriko pointed out, emerging from a hallway to step into a rather large, but narrow living room that was full of boxes and a few pieces of furniture.

"Is that a problem?" Light asked as he set down a box he had just brought into the apartment the two would be sharing and the task force would be using as a headquarters.

"Well, yeah," she replied.

"We're going to be married, Noriko, sharing a room shouldn't be a problem. Besides, we've done it before," Light said with a small smirk.

Noriko rolled her eyes. "I hope the couch is comfortable," she mumbled before turning back into the hall.

Light sighed, leaning against a metal railing that led to a loft that was to be used as the task force's meeting area.

"Noriko being difficult again?" Mr Yagami asked with a smile as he walked in.

"Yeah," Light sighed. "It's alright though, Noriko's always been a little difficult."

"I can hear you, you know," Noriko shouted from the bedroom where she was putting her things in the closet and dresser.

Light rolled his eyes playfully and folded his arms over his chest. "It's only been a week since we decided to live together, she's still adjusting. She'll be fine though, we'll be fine."

"I'm glad to hear it. You two deserve some happiness. It looks like everything is in, the rest of the new furniture should be here tomorrow. I'll leave you two to unpack," Mr Yagami said.

"Thanks dad. I'll start working on setting up the computers tomorrow, we should be mostly unpacked by then," Light replied with a quick glance around his new home.

The apartment was on the top level of a nice, secure building. It was rather large, a bit narrow in places, but still very spacious for just he and Noriko. When you first walked in, you walked in to the living room, there was a set of stairs on the right that led to the loft and a hallway to the left that led to the bathroom and bedroom. The kitchen was to the right, under the loft, it was a little small and plain, but still quite nice.

It was painted in cool beiges and warm browns, the floors, except in the bathroom, were all a light wood. There was a large balcony opposite the door, the ceiling above it was slanted slightly and that part was made of glass to allow more natural light to filter into the apartment.

The bedroom Noriko was in was almost completely unpacked. She had been working in there since the morning when they had first begun moving in. The one bed was against the wall to the right of the door, it was draped in a plain dark blue comforter. The furniture in here was relatively plain, dark wood dresser and nightstands as well as several bookshelves against the entry wall. A rug adorned the wooden flooring, it was several shades of blue that were in circles throughout it.

Noriko had just finished unpacking her clothes, the few boxes that were left were Light's and with a small sigh she began to unpack those and put them away as well. Once she finished with that, which didn't take long since everything was folded neatly and all the hanging items had already been hung, she made her way back out to the living room. She lifted an eyebrow when she didn't see Light right away, when she caught sight of him in the kitchen she walked over and leaned against the wall.

"I hope you're hungry," Light said when he turned to see her watching him.

"Not really," Noriko replied disinterestedly, even though she was starving. She eyed the meal that Light was cooking, it looked like a simple dish of rice with pork and vegetables, and smelled delicious.

"Noriko, are you ever going to trust me again," Light asked as he turned back to what he was doing.

"When the killings stop."

"But you said that there was no one out there with a notebook. And from what I know a person can die twenty three days after their name is written, I think that's the limit though. It's only been nine days since Misa gave up ownership, she must have written a bunch of names and dates before she did it."

"Did you tell her to do that so that it-"

"Jeez, Noriko," Light interrupted, turning around to face her. He was frowning and his eyes looked strained, tired. "Why would I tell her to do that? I told you it was hard enough to get her to give up the notebook in the first place since I was doing it for you. She was jealous, she may not be that bright, but she probably thought if the killings continued for awhile you wouldn't trust me. She doesn't know you can sense anyone possessing a notebook, so to her it would seem like a good plan."

"You're right it would be," she replied blandly.

Light sighed and leaned against the counter. "You don't believe me, do you, Nori? You think that I told her to write a bunch of names and dates down so that it would seem like Kira was still active. Why would I do that?"

"Maybe you set things up again. Somehow arranged to get the notebook back to her or someone who would use it."

"Ryuk has the notebook and he's not even in this world, you told me that yourself."

"I did. I already told you though, I can't sense the notebooks themselves only those who possess them. At the moment, the only one in possession of one is you. Maybe you have it set up to get another, I don't know that I'd sense that. So maybe you already have another notebook, Light," Noriko accused, her face blank and her eyes narrowed slightly.

Light let out a bitter laugh and shook his head. "You and L really spent too much time together, you know that. He thought he had me pegged for some ruthless killer and that I would do anything to have my way. That's what you think too, isn't it? You think that I would lie to the one person that means the world to me and go behind your back after I promised you I would find another way to make the world a better place. I can't believe you Nori, you're not the same girl I've always loved. At least she would give me a chance, you're just suspicious and cold. Why did you agree to move in with me, why do you wear that ring," he said as he gestured at the ring on her finger. "If you don't want to trust me, if you don't want to believe in me, then why, Noriko?"

She blinked at him and then down at the ring on her left hand. She moved her fingers a little, the light catching on the gems. "Because I want to Light. I want to believe everything you say, I want you to be my Light again, but..."

Noriko didn't look up as she heard Light click the stove off and then walk towards her. She saw his feet stop next to hers, saw his hands as he put a finger under her chin to force her eyes to look into his.

"Look at me, Nori, I love you and I'm not lying to you. I don't have anything planned other than making you happy and living with you for the rest of my life. You are the most important thing to me, not a notebook that can kill people. Look in my eyes and tell me I'm lying," he said quietly.

Their faces were only a few inches apart as Noriko searched his eyes for some hint as to whether her suspicions were true, but all she saw was love and warmth. Part of her wanted to disregard it all and back away from him, but another part wanted nothing more than to be back in his arms where she had always felt safe. Taking in a shuddering breath and closing her eyes, Noriko lowered her head onto Light's shoulder, his arms were around her immediately, holding her close as he kissed her head tenderly.

'I'm being horrible...How can I keep doubting him, he's done nothing but what he's said he would. I know he loves me, I know he'd do anything for me, so why do I keep doubting him?' She thought to herself as guilt began to eat at her, but this was a different guilt than what she had felt over the past several days. She felt guilty for how she had been treating Light.

"I'm sorry," she whispered against his neck as she leaned up slightly to kiss his jaw. "I've been horrible, there's been so much going on and with L and Watari's-"

"Shhh, it's alright Nori," Light said soothingly as he stroked her hair and hugged her tighter to him. "I know things have been hard on you and I'm so sorry for being the cause of so much of it. I promise to make it up to you somehow. Ok?"

She nodded against his chest and sniffled, she hadn't wanted to cry, but she found it difficult to hold in the tears that threatened to run down her face. So much had happened, so much had changed in such a small amount of time that she was still trying to catch up.

"Let's eat before the food gets cold, alright," Light said as he released her slowly from his grasp, his hands staying on her shoulders to make sure she would be ok to stand on her own.

"Yeah, I'm starving," Noriko replied with a smile.

"Thought you weren't hungry," Light teased.

"And I thought you knew me better," Noriko answered as she went to arrange the chairs around the dining table that was already set up. It was the old one from Light's parents, his mother had wanted a new table so they had gotten the old one. The rest of the furniture they had coming they, well Noriko, had picked out and would arrive the following day.

Noriko stretched and yawned, but didn't open her eyes until after she realized the other side of the bed was empty and a frown pulled at her lips. Blinking her eyes open and yawning again, she got out of bed and stumbled out of the room.

"Light," she called as she rubbed at her eyes and covered them from the sunlight pouring in through the ceiling. She grumbled a few curses before she heard Light's voice answering her.

"I'm up here Nori."

Noriko frowned up at the loft and slowly made her way up the steps.

"You're up early," Light said as he looked up from hooking up some rather complicated looking equipment.

"Yeah, I'm sort of used to it now from living with Reiji-" she cut herself off with a loud squeak as she stumbled on the last step and went flying forwards.

Luckily, Light had stood up to greet her and was able to catch her, break her fall anyways and they both toppled to the floor, Noriko on top of Light who had his arms wrapped around her waist.

"Ow," Light said after they landed. "At least something about you hasn't changed."

"Hey," she whined. "I'm a klutz, so what? Are you alright?" She asked as she tried to push herself off of him only to realize how close they really were and that her face was hovering centimeters over his.

She swallowed when she saw his eyes slide towards her lips and then back to her eyes. One of Light's arms that had been around her waist snaked its way to the back of her neck and then to her cheek. His thumb brushed over her cheekbone like a feather before pulling her towards him.

Their lips had just locked when there was a sudden knock on the door. They both started, banging their heads together and pulling apart quickly. Noriko sat up and started laughing, rubbing at her forehead. Light shook his head at her and chuckled.

"At least you find it funny," he said in a teasing grumble as he pushed himself up off the floor, he held his hand out out to her and pulled her up.

"The look on your face was pretty good," she replied as she stared up at him with a grin.

"We finally have a moment and someone has to go and ruin it. This better be good."

Noriko followed Light down the stairs and waited to see who was at the door. It turned out to be Mr Yagami, Matsuda, Aizawa and Mogi.

"I hope we weren't interrupting anything," Matsuda said sheepishly.

"Matsuda," Mr Yagami scolded.

"Sorry..."

"No, you weren't," Light replied with a sigh as he held the door open for them.

"Good morning," Noriko said cheerily as they all walked in.

Everyone stopped and looked at her funny, she hadn't been cheery since....Well around them...Months.

"What?" She asked awkwardly.

"Are you alright?" Matsuda asked.

"Uh, yeah," Noriko answered. "Why?"

"Because you're...happy."

Noriko tweaked a brow at him. "Is that a problem?"

Matsuda chuckled nervously and waved a hand at her. "No, no of course not. It's just weird."

"Matsuda," Aizawa and Light snapped making the man shrink a little.

"Yeah, anyways. I'm going to go clean up and then continue with the unpacking. We're already almost done," Noriko said as she walked over to Light gave him a kiss on the cheek and a smile before disappearing down the hall with everyone staring at her in disbelief.

"What did you to Noriko, she's...nice," Matsuda said.

"We talked last night and worked a lot of stuff out."

"I'm happy for you Light, you and Noriko belong together. Your mother is going to want to see her you know. She's been wondering where she's been. I told her that the two of you had a fight after she left the hospital and since she couldn't attend school she had moved in with her grandmother and was working a very busy job," Mr Yagami said.

"I'm sure Noriko's going to want to see her and Sayu too. After all, they have a wedding to plan," Light replied with a content smile.

Over the next couple of days Noriko and Light began to grow closer again, after almost two weeks it was almost like they had never separated. Except of course they had and the reasons for it were still very much an issue.

The Kira killings were still continuing, but Noriko was beginning to see that none of the new criminals who were in the news were being targeted. It was only criminals who had been reported before Misa had given up ownership of the notebook. This didn't mean much to Noriko at the moment, she wanted more proof that Light was no longer acting as Kira in anyway and had no intention of doing so again. That meant the killings had to stop completely and then never resume as far as she was concerned. Light was fine with this and was happy enough that she was his once again that he didn't press her and the few occasions she would become suspicious of him he handled with patience.

Noriko was letting Light closer to her, but she kept her distance all at the same time. She didn't want to be betrayed and hurt by him again so her guard was up for the time being. They slept in the same bed, but Noriko would rarely cuddle with him or let him hold her. They would occasionally kiss, hold hands, or lean on one another, but it was nothing serious. It was like it always had been for them, they were comfortable with each other and it was easy to fall back into old habits with someone you had known your entire life.

It had been twenty five days since Misa had given up ownership of the death note in her possession and just over two weeks since she and Light had begun living together. The killings had continued throughout the entire time, but if what Light had said was true then the last of the killings would have taken place two days before. There were reported deaths on the television and in the papers the following day which she had expected, today was the day she didn't expect to see any Kira activity in the news or papers since there shouldn't have been any killings the day before.

She was up early with Light, the members of the task force were set to arrive soon and while she usually left them alone, she planned to stay near by today. If there were no reported deaths the previous day then she would know that Light had told her the truth, the death notes were gone, all except for the one that had been confiscated from Higuchi.

After making a small breakfast for her and Light and turning on the news, Noriko sat around drinking tea and munching on various things in the living room while Light and the task force group talked upstairs. She could hear most of what was being said, and so far there was no indication the killings had stopped. Another few hours went by and Noriko was seriously beginning to think about how Light could possibly be killing people. She knew he didn't have a notebook, his dad had hidden the one and never told anyone where it was located, on top of that no newly reported criminals had died. If Light had been acting as Kira still, she would have expected those criminals to die as well, but they hadn't. Even without confirmation of the killings stopping Noriko was beginning to see that Light had indeed been telling the truth the entire time and that Kira was no longer actively killing people.

It was now mid-afternoon and she was about to go into the kitchen to make a snack when there were several shouts from the loft. She froze near the bottom of the stairs and listened to the five men talk over each other in confusion and excitement.

"There were no deaths yesterday?"

"The few deaths that were reported today were from people who were discovered yesterday, but according to reports appear to have died the day before."

"What's going on?"

"Is he playing with us again?"

Noriko decided to make her way up stairs and stood just in front of the stairs. Everyone was hunched over the few monitors directly in front of her.

"What's going on?" She asked.

"The killings stopped," Matsuda turned to tell to her.

"Really?" She asked, walking forwards to look at the monitors and trying to look and sound as intrigued as possible.

"Yeah, according to the information from the N.P.A and a few other sources, even though there have been reported deaths today the time of death was actually the day before yesterday, not yesterday," Light replied as he glanced up at Noriko and smiled.

"Weird. What do you think is going on? Why would Kira stop killing all of a sudden?" She asked.

Light shook his head. "I don't know, but I think it's a little early to assume that they've stopped entirely. We may have to wait a little longer and see what happens, who knows maybe Kira decided to stop."

"After all he's done though, that seems highly unlikely," Mr Yagami said.

Light shrugged. "I agree. So for now we wait."

"Well I'll leave you to your waiting," Noriko said as she turned to leave. "Oh Light, you don't mind if I go out with a friend of mine today do you? I haven't talked to Lisa in the longest time and I-"

"Actually I was hoping we could go out today, we haven't gotten out much, let alone done anything together in awhile," Light cut in.

"Oh, ok. Sure," she replied a little uncertainly. She hadn't spoken to anyone outside of the five men in the room and Light's mom and sister since she had moved in with Light and was beginning to think that was just how he wanted it.

As it was she was already planning on going back to school full time when the new semester started up in January, less than two months. Light had insisted on helping her find new grants and scholarships and with the new term starting so soon it had been a little difficult, but she had found several and would be able to go back to ToHo University and begin studying again. This time she wasn't so sure she wanted to go into law and was studying business instead. The plan was for her to go back full time, which would leave her little time to do much else. Light was also going to be returning to school so that he could enter the police force like he had wanted.

It didn't bother her that he wanted to spend time with her, it bothered her that he seemed to want to own her still and it didn't sit well with her.

"You seem a little quiet tonight Noriko, is everything alright?" Light asked as they ate dinner at a quiet family owned restaurant just down the block from their apartment.

"It just seems like you don't want me talking to many people outside of your family. I have friends Light and I want to talk to them," Noriko replied.

"It's not that I don't want you talking to them...It's just...The Yotsuba group was connected to Kira and I don't want anything to happen to you. On top of that, the N.P.A knows Higuchi was Kira for a short time at least and what would they think if they knew the chief's son's fiance was a part of the meetings that decided people's deaths. I think it's better that you distance yourself from your old friends Noriko and make new ones."

"You know as well as I do that those men had no choice, and Lisa wasn't even involved with any of it," she argued, trying to keep her voice down like Light was, but finding it a tad difficult.

"But Namikawa was," Light pointed out.

"And?"

"To be perfectly honest, I don't really like the way you talk about him sometimes. It's like you're in love with him or something."

"And if I was?"

"What was in the past, is in the past. I just don't like the idea of you around him, I'm jealous alright," Light said.

"Alright. Do you still see Misa, or talk to her at all? After all, you voiced your desire to see her outside of the old headquarters," Noriko retorted.

"I haven't talked to her since I asked her to give up the notebook. I have no desire to talk to her either, I love you and I don't want to associate with anyone who would try to come between us."

"So that means I can't talk to my friends?"

"I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that it would be better if you didn't talk to anyone from Yotsuba," Light replied.

"While I can partly understand your reasoning, I don't like it," Noriko said coldly.

"I'm sorry Noriko. It seems I'm still causing you a lot of trouble, even though I'm trying not to," Light replied a little sadly with a wan smile.

Noriko sighed, he was good at making her feel bad that was for sure. "It's alright Light. Now that I think about it anyways, I don't have my old phone and the numbers were in there. I'm not happy about this though, but I'll be busy soon without having to worry about having a life."

"Are you excited about going back to school?"

She lifted an eyebrow at him. "Do you not remember how much I loved school?"

Light chuckled at her. "I remember. I guess I should buy some ear plugs so I won't have to hear you complain every night."

Noriko glared playfully at him before replying. "Hey, you wanted to marry me, you have to deal with it. I'm yours and so are all of my problems and rants."

"That doesn't sound fair. They were mine before we got engaged too," Light teased.

"Why you...." She growled, before reaching across the table to poke him in the shoulder.

The rest of dinner went by without another word about the Kira case, Yotsuba or anything to do with Noriko's life while she was gone. It was spent talking about the future and school as well as the wedding that they had decided to have in July of the next year, during summer break.

Originally they were going to wait until they had finished school, but since they were already living together Light's family had insisted that there would be no harm in having the wedding sooner. They even agreed to pay for most of it.

At first Noriko was extremely hesitant about having the wedding so soon, she was still unsure that Light was being completely honest about his plans to find another way to try and make the world a better place. Now she was a bit more at ease with the idea, spending so much time with him and watching him closely she could tell he had changed. He was more like the Light she had grown up with and had fallen in love with, she had no problem marrying that man, it was the man she had seen while he was Kira that she was leery of. That man seemed to be gone though much to Noriko's liking.

Of course that would mean she would be ridiculously busy over the next few months, going to school, planning a wedding and taking care of the apartment would take up most of her time and leave her little time to do much else. She didn't mind much, she had never been all that social and she liked being busy and having something to do.

It would distract her from her suspicions too and that's what Light was counting on.

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