Disclaimer- I don't own Death Notebook's

Chapter 39

Unexpected Outcome

"You're....you're supposed to be dead," Noriko spluttered in disbelief, staring wide eyed at the man standing in front of her.

The man's expression didn't change as he looked at Noriko who was still in a heap on the floor, her cheeks streaked with salty trails from the tears she had shed and her hair a mess from her recent kidnapping and ensuing freak out. He looked as bored as usual, though a black brow did arch up slightly as if he was mildly amused with the disheveled girl before him.

"I'm supposed to be dead," the man repeated slowly, one of his thumbnails resting on his lower lip. "Interesting."

Noriko narrowed her eyes, he was playing with her. The damned jerk was playing with her seconds after she had seen him for the first time since his supposed death. "I watched you die, I held you in my arms while your heart gave out. How are you still alive?"

"I'm still alive because Nori-san saved me."

Staring blankly at him for a moment to process what he was saying to her, Noriko didn't know what to say or do. L was alive and he was standing right in front of her, giving her a look that was bordering on amused and it really ticked her off. She had thought he was dead, that he had died in her arms, she had cried for him and Watari, had spent the last several months blaming herself for their deaths, and now they were miraculously alive and well and hadn't bothered to contact her in anyway until now. As much as she wanted to be angry, she found she was more relieved to see L, to know that he had survived and was safe. Tears filled her eyes again, but she breathed a sigh of relief and leapt off the floor, throwing her arms around the detective's neck and burying her head in his shoulder.

Hesitating at the sudden closeness, L tried to pry Noriko off of himself by gently and carefully grabbing her shoulders between his thumbs and index fingers and trying to push her back. His attempts failed seeing as how Noriko was holding him in something resembling a death grip.

"If Nori-san doesn't let go, her efforts to save me will have been in vain," L pointed out, hoping that this would get her to let him go.

To his relief, it worked. Only not quite how he had pictured...

When Noriko released her hold on the him, her face had gone from relieved to angry and she was now staring rather challengingly at him. Her next action stunned him so much that L never saw it coming, all he knew was that a fist had suddenly collided with his left cheek. He blinked in shock and raised a hand to absently rub at his reddened and quickly swelling cheek with the tips of two fingers. His attention then turned to Noriko who was still giving him a rather menacingly look as she fisted her hands at her sides and her chest heaved as she breathed rapidly, her nose flaring ever so slightly in her anger.

"She's amazing," Matt muttered from a few behind her.

"Shut up," Mello grumbled.

"Hey, it's not my fault that princess can throw an awesome punch."

"Would the two of you shut up," Noriko snapped, turning around to glare at them for a moment before turning back to the still rather stunned L. "And you," she hissed, taking a step towards the detective, who in turn took a step back. "For the last nearly eight months I have blamed myself for your death, Watari's too, but you've been alive all this time?"

"Isn't that obvious," L replied calmly.

"Then where the hell have you been?!" Noriko shouted. "Why haven't you contacted me, anyone, why did you let everyone think you were dead?" Her anger began to melt away again while she spoke, her threatening posture gave way to a more vulnerable stance as she pleadingly stared at him. "Why L, why did you let me think I let you die, that I failed you and Watari and why did you leave me with him?" Her eyes were overflowing with tears while she stared at him, waiting for the answers that would help her understand what was going on. The answers she would receive however were not what she had been expecting.

"If Watari and I were dead then we would be free to continue our investigation on the Kira case without interference. It also meant that we would be fairly safe, so long as no one from the former investigation team knew that we were still very much alive."

"You...You didn't want me to know," Noriko said, blinking away the tears that threatened to cloud her vision and wiping at her eyes hastily with the back of her hand, not caring that by now her mascara was probably running down her cheeks. "Didn't you care how I felt at all? Or were you only concerned for your own well being?" She asked harshly, her voice cracking as she held back the sobs that were still trying to rack her body.

Studying her emotionlessly, L met her pained gaze unwaveringly. "Would you have begun to trust Light-kun again if you had known I was still alive? Would you have moved in with him and have been as close to the current task force? Would you have been able to save Reiji Namikawa and the other Yotsuba members that had partaken in the meetings of death? And would you have been out for breakfast this morning with Namikawa to witness Light-kun and Misa going into that cafe and would you have seen the shinigami that was attached to her?"

Noriko's breath caught in her throat and her mouth worked but no sound came out, her eyes filled with salty water again and she struggled to take a breath or risk collapsing into a broken heap on the floor. Finally deciding that she wouldn't be able to speak, she pursed her lips and blinked back her tears.

This time L was prepared for the assault that Noriko launched at him, ducking away from the punch that she threw at him, not attempting to block since he didn't want to actually hurt her. Spinning around quickly, she tossed her right arm out at his head, hoping that her elbow would make contact. It didn't, L was a lot quicker than she gave him credit for and he crouched down, sweeping her legs out from under her with a sweep of one of his scrawny legs.

Grunting at the impact, but brushing it off, Noriko fluidly launched herself back up onto her feet and gritted her teeth together.

"Uh, you know, maybe we should do something," Matt leaned over to suggest to his blond companion who was watching the scene with a look that was a cross between boredom and interest. "She might get hurt, L's a lot more... scary than he looks after all."

Mello shrugged disinterestedly. "She started it, let her finish it. Besides, do you want to be the one to go grab her?"

Chuckling, Matt looked from his friend's bruised cheek to Noriko who looked very much like some sort of vicious animal as she lowered herself, prepared to launch herself at a moment's notice as she glared quite heatedly at L. "Good point, I'll stay here. L won't hurt her.... Right?"

His only answer was another disinterested shrug.

"You didn't want me to know so that I could gather information for you, you wanted to use me like I was just another pawn in your stupid, childish game to prove Light is Kira? How dare you, my life may not mean much to anyone, but I don't like to be used as if I'm just an easily replaceable game piece," Noriko angrily accused as she took to steps to her right, her legs crossing over each other and her eyes never leaving L who kept up a casual facade with his hands in his pockets, he twiddled his toes, rubbing them against each other distractedly.

"You're not replaceable, Nori-san. I had no choice but to let you think I was dead, I couldn't risk Light-kun finding out I wasn't. He needed to believe I was dead so that he could feel as if he had no obstacles in his way, except for you. The more comfortable he got, the more likely he was to slip up and he finally did."

Noriko flew at L and this time the black haired man didn't move out of the way, but let her small hands grab onto his white shirt and shove him into the wall behind him. "You used me!"

"Yes, I used you to try and find a way to prove Light was and still is Kira."

"Try? You mean even after all of this, you can't prove it?"

"If I could prove it then I wouldn't have had to have Matt and Mello make it look as if you had been kidnapped to make sure that nothing happened to you. I was trying to protect you," L told her evenly.

"Protect me? You let me believe that I could trust that bastard," Noriko argued.

"Nori-san believed that all on her own," he replied. "I had nothing to do with your decisions. You chose to trust him again because you wanted to, not because I wanted you to. You could have easily gone back to Namikawa, but you didn't, did you?"

His words seemed to shock her and all she could do was stare at him before letting her grip on him slacken.

"It was not my original intention to use you, but when it became apparent that you were beginning to trust Light-kun again, I decided to use that to my advantage and see what happened. I knew you would be safe so there was no reason for me to make myself known to you since that would only endanger you, something I had no intention of doing," L explained to her.

Gazing up at him, Noriko thought she could see something in his eyes, a warmth of some sort as he met her gaze evenly. The look made her blink, she was used to seeing nothing whenever she looked into those black pools that she wasn't sure she was seeing things correctly. There was no mistaking what she saw however and she realized with a small start that he wasn't actually trying to make her remove her hands from his body, he didn't like being touched, but he was letting her touch him without a word of complaint. Releasing his shirt, she closed her tired eyes, her head was pounding fiercely and she was still trying to get past the fact that he and Watari were still alive and that things had just drastically changed for her. Letting her head fall onto L's shoulder, she waited for the detective to request that she refrain from touching him or to try and pry her off of himself, but he didn't and it only made her more confused.

"Don't expect me to forgive you for this," Noriko told him with a small shake of her head.

"Hey, uh, beautiful, why don't we get you back to your bed, you're not looking so good," Matt said, walking up behind the auburn haired girl and smiling at L who was rather distracted by the scent of Noriko's hair.

"Strawberries," he mumbled to himself.

"What," Matt asked in confusion.

"Nori-san should get some rest, the anesthetic used to put you to sleep can take several hours to completely wear off even with the help of the drink you spilled all over yourself," L spoke up, completely ignoring the rather confused look he was getting from Matt who was still wanting to know why strawberries had been randomly mentioned.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Matt caught on to the fact that L was looking at him expectantly. "Oh," he said, taking a step towards Noriko and putting a hand on her shoulder. "Come on now, lets get you back to bed," Matt urged Noriko who was becoming quite pale as she leaned against L, her eyes beginning to droop closed. "Woah, careful there," Matt said worriedly when he carefully pulled her away from L and started to lead her down the hall only to have her stumble over her own feet before seeming to realize she was moving.

L watched Matt help her, Mello following a few steps behind the pair. He let out a sigh, raising his right foot to use his toes to scratch at his left leg.

"She'll forgive you, you know," a voice said reassuringly, there was a hint of cheeriness to the male voice that had spoken as if the speaker was smiling to himself.

"I know," L replied surely, playing with his lip as he stared at the hall Noriko had been led down.

"She's not a fool, she'll figure it out sooner or later," the same person said, the smile still evident in his voice.

"Figure what out," L inquired, feigning ignorance, his black eyes roamed over to the brown haired, green eyed man that was sitting on the couch.

The man laughed. "That you like her."

L remained impassive, not a single indication of emotion on his pale face. "I don't like Nori-san, she steals my sweets and she's not a very good cook."

"Maybe so, but she still went through a lot of trouble to stick by your side after rejoining the investigation team despite what everyone else would think of her. She trusted you, believed in you, helped you and saved your life."

"Your point?" He inquired smugly.

"My point is that my daughter has accepted you with open arms and has shown you that there's more to life than just staring at a computer screen. You enjoy her company and the distraction that she provides from your everyday life. It's not a bad thing, you know, having feelings."

–

Light was more than irritated as he took the elevator up to the level of his and Noriko's apartment. His nose was covered in bandages and the trip to the hospital had taken longer than he had expected. It had been over four hours since Noriko had stormed out of the cafe he had been in with Misa and he knew without a doubt that his fiance would not be found at the apartment, but he decided to give it a try anyways.

He threw the door to the apartment open, shouting Noriko's name as he did so. When he was met with no response, he made his way to the bedroom to see if her stuff was gone, to his surprise it wasn't. Everything was as it had been that morning.

"Light, what's wrong," his father asked from the door way. "Noriko isn't back yet."

Trying to remain as composed as he could, Light turned to his dad. "Noriko hasn't come back at all?"

"What happened Light, why-"

"Noriko, has she come back at all," Light repeated, cutting his dad off impatiently.

"No, she hasn't been back at all. Light, what's going on, what happened to you," Mr Yagami asked in concern.

"Noriko, she saw me with Misa. I ran into her while helping Kenta study and she wouldn't leave me alone so I said I'd have some coffee with her. Nori saw us going into the cafe and followed us, she was really upset, she wouldn't let me explain anything and gave me back the engagement ring before telling me not to come back to the apartment for two hours so that she could pack her things. I tried to get her to hear me out, but she wouldn't and broke my nose instead. That was over four hours ago, she should have been back here by now, if she hasn't been then where is she, I need to find her," Light explained hurriedly, worriedly.

"We'll find her, Light, but you need to calm down. Just relax, Noriko probably went somewhere to think about things, do you have any idea where she would go," Mr Yagami asked calmly.

He had an idea, an idea that made every nerve in his body feel as if it were on fire, he swallowed his anger, knowing that it would do him no good right now. He needed to be thinking rationally and jealousy and anger wouldn't help that, especially since he needed to be the desperate and worried man who wanted nothing more than to explain himself to his beloved fiance so that he could win her back. Of course he knew that the day would likely end in having Noriko committed, but he didn't care so long as she was still his because in time he could make her see that he was the only one for her and that he would protect her.

"The only place I can think of would be to Namikawa's or possibly her friend, Lisa's," Light replied. "Maybe the park by the N.P.A building her dad used to take us to all the time."

"The park is the closest, we'll check there first. We'll let the others know so that if she shows up here they can let us know, lets go."

Nodding, Light followed after his dad. He didn't think that they would find Noriko at the park, it was more likely that she was with Reiji Namikawa and the thought made him clench his fists at his side in an effort to remain calm.

After telling the others to keep an eye out for Noriko, Light and his dad left the apartment, taking the elevator to the garage to where Mr Yagami's car was parked. It was when they stepped out of the elevator that they both knew something was wrong, there was a set of car keys on the ground just outside of the elevator doors and a cell phone lie a few feet away, near a discarded white rag.

"Those are Noriko's keys and that's her cell phone," Light said, a wave of real worry washing over him. He hadn't thought that Noriko was possibly in any danger, he had just figured she had gone somewhere to be alone. He jogged to where she normally parked, her car was parked in the stall and when he set his hand on the hood, he knew that it had been there for sometime, it wasn't even remotely warm.

"I'll call it in now," Mr Yagami said when Light looked over at him, clearly upset with the turn of events.

Light noticed a strange buzzing sound and looked around for the source only to see that it was Noriko's cell phone. It was vibrating as a light flashed to signal she had a phone call. He didn't really think this was odd since she tended to leave her phone on vibrate since she would forget to shut it off before class, he walked towards the phone and glanced at the caller I.D, but there was no name just a number. Without thinking about it, he picked the phone up and answered it.

"Hello?"

He was met with silence before a familiar make voice replied. "Where's Noriko?"

He couldn't help it, his teeth gritted together and he clutched the purple phone a little too tightly. "Namikawa," he hissed through his teeth.

"Right, now where is Noriko?"

"I don't know," Light replied heatedly before flipping the phone shut and glaring at the device as he held it in his hand. He wanted to crush it in to dust, but instead he opened it back up and looked through Noriko's call log. 'So I wasn't the only one lying, was I Noriko,' he thought bitterly as he saw the same number several times in not only the incoming calls, but the outgoing and even missed call log. There were even a few texts as well. He had to slacken his grip on the phone afraid he really would crush it if he didn't get a hold of himself.

"There are security cameras in here, one is pointed directly at the elevator, we should be able to see what happened from the footage," Mr Yagami was telling him.

Light responded with a nod, he was afraid that if he spoke he would say something that he would regret later. He followed after his dad as they made their way to the apartment that the building owner occupied and from there they had to go down to the security room in the basement level to watch the tapes that would tell them just what had happened to Noriko.

It took the owner several tries, but the elderly man finally found the correct tape and rewound it until there was distorted images of three people struggling on the screen. Mr Yagami had the man rewind the tape to just before Noriko appeared on the screen, she seemed impatient, angry as she waited for the elevator. She was so preoccupied that she didn't notice the men behind her until one had grabbed her, she put up a fight, hitting her attacker with an elbow to the stomach, but her attackers were determined to not let her get away.

"They're completely covered from head to toe. There's nothing that can even remotely tell us who these people are," Light pointed out as he watched Noriko continue to struggle before going unconscious in the arms of one of the attackers. Her phone was then removed from her pants pocket and dropped to the floor to join her car keys that she had dropped when she had first been grabbed. "Who are these people dad and what do they want with Noriko?"

"I don't know, Light, but we will find out, I promise you that," Mr Yagami assured his son that was staring at a freeze frame of Noriko being held by one of her captors, her head lolling back and her hair spilling over his arm.