Disclaimer: I still don't own Death Note.
The next afternoon, I had to lean against the house beside the door, grimacing and holding my side. Light opened the door and didn't say anything, just looked utterly shocked.
"Sorry, I didn't have anywhere else to go." I said quickly and quietly, flinching from the pain of clenching my fingers too tight while they were pressed against a sensitive area.
"Who's at the door?" A girl's voice called.
"Just a friend of mine." Light called back, still sounding as surprised as his face expressed. "Rin, what happened?" He helped me inside and let me sit down on the floor to take off my shoes.
I'm not sure if he was acting or not, but I knew something was up with him these past two days. Despite not knowing him well, he didn't seem like he would care all that much about what happened to me unless there was something in it for him. I pulled my hand away from my side and looked at it to see the red liquid covering my fingers. I flinched and put my hand back over the wound, cursing under my breath. I tried my best not to get any on the floor as I stood up.
"Uh, it's a long story."
He crossed his arms and gave me a hard look. "No it's not."
"Okay, fine. I can make it short. But, uh, I can't tell you with your sister in the other room." I whispered the last part, glancing to where I believe the living room was.
He nodded and helped me upstairs to the bathroom where he pulled out a first aid kit and I pulled up my shirt to let him clean and bandage my wound. I guess he really was smart if he knew what to do and could keep a level head right now. For some reason, this situation was oddly familiar, but it felt off that someone else was tending to my wound. Maybe I got injured a lot and treated myself? I can't remember. I'm probably a klutz or something.
"Thanks." I muttered while he got something ready and dabbed it on my wound, which made me follow it with a hiss of pain.
"Why didn't you go back to the hospital?" His voice sounded strained and irritated. "Won't they notice?"
"Uh, well, I was released this morning. All the tests were normal. But, when I got to my house, my mom freaked and then told me she was being evicted and she was moving into an apartment. She gave me the address and I told her I'd come later when everything was settled since she pushed for me to leave, so I was wandering around."
"That doesn't answer my question."
"Okay, I just didn't want to stay there for another three days. And be asked more questions about why I didn't need more than a couple sessions to move properly."
"Then how'd you get hurt? Is this…a stab wound?" He seemed shocked when he identified the type of wound upon closer inspection after cleaning.
"Uh, yeah, about that…A guy stabbed me." I replied, giving him a sheepish smile and rubbing my neck.
"Rin! Who?! Why?!" He demanded, giving me a concerned as well as angry look that actually just seemed out of place on him. Well, to me, anyway.
"Um, some gang member? I don't know. I accidentally made a comment about how he was treating his girlfriend out loud and he told me it wasn't my business. She looked like she was terrified of what was going to happen to me, but I couldn't stop myself. He kind of pissed me off and I told him he didn't deserve a girl like that and called him a horse-face. That's when he stabbed me, then took off after his girlfriend who ran away when he did. So, yeah, I got stabbed for trying to tell a guy his girlfriend was uncomfortable and he was being a jerk. Wrong person and a big mouth."
Light sighed. "I should've known it was your fault."
I shrugged. "You really should've. I thought the guy couldn't hear me when I said it and then I couldn't stop myself." I took a deep breath, then crossed my arms defiantly. "I didn't think he would just randomly stab me! What kind of person does that when criminals are dropping like flies!"
Light tensed up, then relaxed and gave me a sad look. I returned it with a confused one. He finished putting a pad of gauze over my wound. The silence was pretty heavy, as if Kira was something depressing and I wasn't supposed to mention it at all.
"A-anyway, sorry I came here. I didn't want to freak my mom out more. She's having a hard enough time. I was going to go to the cafe today and see if I could get my old job back."
"Already? Are you sure you don't need more time to recover?"
I clenched my jaw briefly. "I don't have time for recovery. My mom's barely getting by right now and I need to help her since I'm gonna live with her again." I sighed and got up, pulling my shirt down again. "Wanna come with me? You know, just in case I start feeling faint from blood loss?"
He stared at me for what seemed like a long time, then sighed and motioned for me to follow him to his room. "That stain is going to scare people. You can wear this to cover it up." He tossed me a hoodie out of a drawer.
I pulled it on and held out my arms to look at how much it hung off of me when I zipped it up. "Geez, you're taller than me, so this is crazy big."
He laughed light heartedly. "It's fine, let's go." He led me out of his room and down the stairs.
"But what if people think I'm your girlfriend because I'm wearing your clothes?" I whined.
"No one will think that." He retorted, completely serious.
"No one will think what?" The girl's voice from when I came in approached along with a dark haired girl who looked somewhere around preteen age. "Woah, Light! You didn't tell me you had a girl over!" She said with a mischievous grin.
"Sayu, this is my friend from middle school, Rin Kobayashi. Rin, this is my little sister." Light introduced politely.
"Hi, nice to meet you! Light hardly ever has girls over!" The dark-haired girl said cheerfully as I stared at her blankly.
"Uh, I'm not his girlfriend, I'm just borrowing this." I stated awkwardly, trying to motion to the hoodie but instead just flopping a sleeve around.
Sayu blinked and looked me up and down, then burst out into laughter. Surprised, I took a step back and looked at Light, who was rubbing his forehead like he was dealing with two idiots at the same time. Honestly, I hadn't realized I had just said that until after she started laughing. Okay, I really need to work on filtering what I say now that people can actually hear me.
"Rin, no one will notice unless you just blurt out stuff like that. What happened? Did you lose the ability to filter what comes out of your mouth?"
"Uh, sorta, I guess." I mumbled, looking down at my feet. "Sorry."
"I didn't think my brother had a girlfriend anyway. He's pretty boring." Sayu told me, calming down to just a grin.
"Yeah, all he does is study and hide di-"
"Hey!" Light cut off my comment as Sayu started laughing again. He glared at me, but I just smiled innocently and shrugged.
"Hey, I like her! She's funny!" She said to her brother, then turned and ran off calling, "Mom! Light is going out with a girl!"
Light pushed me out the door, yelling a goodbye over his shoulder and then closing the door behind him and sighing in relief. He looked around to make sure no one was following us once we were off his street. As we walked, we didn't say anything and Light was checking all the creases and pockets of his clothes, then he checked mine, which was somewhat awkward, but mostly just weird.
"What are you doing?" I asked suspiciously when he made me stop because he was checking my pockets for something.
"Good. I don't think they bugged us." He said, ignoring me.
"They?" I raised an eyebrow.
He sighed. "The Task Force."
"The one your dad works on?"
He nodded. "Yeah. They're working with L now."
"L?" I gave him a curious look. "Who's L?"
He gave me a weird look. "A world famous detective."
"Oh. Well, I've never heard of them." I didn't get a chance to add my question of why it was only a letter.
"No one knows his name or his face, but I'm pretty sure there are cameras all over my house. I made Ryuk check and he told me where they were."
"C-cameras?!" I froze up in fear. "Y-You don't mean they're e-everywhere, right?"
"No, they're everywhere. The bathroom too." He didn't seem to be paying attention to my fear, but I'd guess he was just ignoring it.
"W-Were they there when I-I-" I couldn't even say it out loud.
"Yes." He was back to being serious and rather cold again.
"Light! You could've told me not to use your shower! Who saw it?!" I waved my arms around frantically, which probably was quite the sight with the sleeves flapping around everywhere as I did so.
"I don't know. A bunch of men on the task force and probably L, why?"
"Because that's a total invasion of privacy and I'm not even the one being suspected of being Kira!" I hissed, then flinched and grabbed my side at the feeling of the gauze becoming wet with the piercing pain that randomly tore through it. I took a few breaths to calm down and stop stressing my body just because I got worked up. "So, that's what's up with the act that we've been friends for a while."
"I'm just glad you played along. That could've been bad if you mentioned anything about me being Kira." He said quietly, looking around the mostly empty street.
"Well, I figured something was up if you were acting like I was your friend and acting completely clueless. If things were normal, you probably would've just went and wrote names while I was talking to you and talk to me all serious like you are now."
"Well, since you showed up like that, we're going to have to act like old friends." He said, slightly annoyed.
"Sorry, I don't know anyone else."
"Didn't you have friends?"
"No." I answered, looking up at the overcast sky. "Not anyone I saw outside of school. I don't really remember their names anymore anyway. Actually, I don't remember much of anything about myself other than my parents and a little bit of school."
"So, that astral projection thing you mentioned, was that what really happened?" He decided to change the subject to something that would actually get somewhere.
"I have no idea. It was a theory."
"It was just a theory? Are you going to try and back it up?"
"Well, as soon as my mom's all good in the money area, I'll be searching for my dad and some answers."
"What was his name?"
"Rick. He's descended from an American family, but mom said his parents changed their last name when they came to Japan, so I have no idea what name he might be using now. That is, if he or anyone from his side of the family is still alive."
He just nodded, seemingly going into thought.
"So, you've got a world-famous faceless detective on your case? What're you going to do to throw him off?" I changed the subject.
"Well, you might've already done that for me."
"Huh?"
"Really?" He seemed slightly surprised I hadn't figured it out already. "Randomly showing up when no one's home but me, then showing up the next day with a stab wound is pretty suspicious, you know."
"Well, you could've told me your house was bugged by coming to visit me at the hospital earlier!" I snapped, crossing my arms defensively. "Besides, is that really behaviour that Kira, a completely unknown criminal, would have?"
"He doesn't know, that's why I'm sure he'll be suspicious of you."
"He?"
"L."
"Why is L a guy all of a sudden?"
He sighed. "You're missing the point."
I narrowed my eyes, but dismissed it. "Alright, so what you're saying is you want me to act more suspicious, right?"
"No, just act normally."
"Hey!" I swatted his arm, but grinned. "Alright. I'll visit again tomorrow, but you've gotta show me how to see Ryuk now that I can't after you're not being watched anymore."
"If you're not arrested by then." He replied in monotone.
"I won't be." I shrugged, then spotted a dog tied up and ran over to it, crouching down to pet it. "Hey there little guy! Your owner in there?" I asked, looking into the store to see a woman watching me be affectionate toward the dog. "Is that her?" He barked in reply, so I smiled and waved to her. She waved back and smiled, then disappeared further into the store.
"You know, I think I liked you better when you were a ghost." Light said in exasperation.
"Why? Just because I love stopping to pet a dog?"
"No, because when you were a ghost you didn't get into as much trouble."
"Fair enough." I stood up, waved goodbye to the dog, then continued to follow Light toward the cafe.
He stopped at the end of the street though and grabbed my arm to make me stop too. I turned to ask what was wrong, but he pointed to my side. I looked down in confusion, but my expression melted to shock when I saw the small spot of red starting to stain the sweater. I panicked, looking at Light while blinking my stinging eyes rapidly.
"Oh no! I'm so sorry! I'll take it off and go home so I don't stain it more! I'm sure it'll come out, right?" I said in a rush, removing the sweater and shoving it into his hands. "I'll see you later!" I shouted over my shoulder as I ran off toward where I believed the apartment building we were supposed to be moving into would be.
When I got there and into the room I had a key for, I was relieved to see my mom had left a note saying she would be working late, but everything was already moved here. I rushed to the bathroom to take off the bandage patch and check the damage. It didn't look like a very deep wound, but I opted for putting a lot of pressure on it until it stopped bleeding so I could clean and re bandage it. Surprisingly, that familiar feeling came back, just stronger this time, and I somehow knew what to do without looking at the instructions provided in the first aid kit.
After I finally managed to stop the bleeding and dress my wound with the first aid kit I found under the sink, I went to eat something. I decided to go to the cafe after, with a clean shirt and no blood this time. I had no doubt gotten some weird looks when I was running back here with a bloody shirt, but I didn't see anyone from the building giving me weird looks when I left, so I believed I was good. I applied for my old job and had an interview with the lady who owned the small cafe almost immediately afterward. She re-hired me, but insisted I took the week off to recover more and just come in the following Monday. Reluctantly, I agreed, enjoyed some cake and telling her about when I woke up in the hospital. I left with a polite goodbye and returned to the apartment shortly before it got dark out. I was exhausted, so I just collapsed onto my bed and didn't even have to try to fall asleep.