Hey guys I am so sorry that it has been so long since I have updated this! Hadn't even realised how long it was until I got an email about Torho's review... and then went back and realised that I haven't even logged on since before I started/ moved in at uni... oops. Thank you Torho for reminding me that I do actually have to finish this and it can't live on my laptop taking up space forever and I am glad that you are enjoying the story! As for an explanation as to why it's been so long... well, I've been at uni and just recently returned from a trip to Amsterdam and still have an essay and exam to finish/prepare for so, another update may be a while, I make no promises! But thank you all for your support and interest in this story!
As honourable mentions thank you to Laonasa Enllyn Avery, Super Serial Ethereal, map of rose, Fairwaters, ThatSassAngel and of course Torho for reviewing this. ThatSassAngel also, thank you for your review, I appreciate that OC's are not to everyone's tastes (not usually to mine either to be honest) and I'm glad your enjoying the story despite this :). Also shoutouts to KonekoKai, Izumikii, DemonishFangirl, AnnaTheEmporium and LLawloet365 for favouriting/following this story in the incredibly long time that it has been since this got an update (again the egg is on my face for not noticing the time slipping away :D).
Anyway guys, hopefully the next update will not be in nine months time and never be afraid to review even if it's been so long! Usually it's because I've been busy/lazy/on hiatus with that particular story. And so, on with the long awaited chapter!
WARNING: There is mention of suicide/self-harm/some graphic description of a corpse in this chapter. If this is triggering for you, please skip anything at the beginning in italics.
The sight in the bathroom was none too pretty. The water was overflowing, but the corpse so fresh that it stained the water dark enough to make it seem like there was gallons of blood on the floor, rather than merely a few pints, leaking out steadily from slashed wrists. L was no stranger to grisly corpses, he worked on cases about some of the most heinous crimes that had ever been committed by members of humanity. He had even seen corpses in real life, preserved downstairs for the forensics group to work over, one of B's favourite classes. But he had never seen a corpse this fresh, with lifeblood oozing from it so quickly. It was hard to believe that the pale floating thing in the bathtub had once been a person, or even the person that he had once known.
B had warned them that there was something wrong with A. He had stated that his roommate was acting out of character, depressed in every sense of the word. He hadn't mentioned that he was suicidal, that he would attempt something like this. L glanced around, out of breath from sprinting through the corridors to find this horror in the bathroom and B hunched up in a corner, hands pressed to his mouth like he was about to be sick. From the smell in the room –that which was not the cloying scent of blood- he had already been sick at least once.
"What happened?" L asked numbly, unable to quite process what had just happened. B merely glanced up at him, red eyes hovering over his head, reading and re-reading his name and numbers like it was a lifeline.
"I-I know what the numbers mean," he whispered. L realised that he was most likely in shock, that the reading was some kind of hold on reality. Most likely B would be in need of a psychiatrist almost as immediately as A had needed one. Where is Mitsu when I need her? L thought. Deciding that cutting himself off from the living was going to help nothing, he crouched gingerly in front of B, blocking his view of the body in the bath. He didn't say anything, merely prompted with his eyes.
"The numbers… T-They're… They're lifespans." B's voice was barely audible, red eyes still fixed on that spot above L's head. "I didn't realise it at first because there's no values. But the numbers… they count down years, months, days, minutes and seconds." Apparently B in shock meant that he would just rattle off facts- that was not good since it meant he was distancing himself from the situation, perhaps even forcing himself to believe that it was all a bad dream. Hopefully it would wear off with some help, but right now there was nothing he could do about it.
"What happened?" L asked again, but much softer and gently. It was clear that B had been here to witness the whole thing, to watch as the numbers ticked down those last few seconds until A gave his last breath.
"I came back here after that meeting with Roger but A left and said he was going for a bath. He locked the door on me and I knew that wasn't right because A doesn't care if I'm in there with him or not, so he always leaves it unlocked. I tried to get him to open the door but all I could hear was the taps running so I figured he was going for a bath. It wasn't until I heard him crying that I thought he was going to try something he would regret so I kicked the door in. But I was too late…" B's red eyes were haunted, staring down into L's, focused now more so than usual. "I couldn't save him." L grabbed the boy into an awkward embrace, something he did for Mitsu when she was upset. He had always thought of B as a brother over the years and it seemed like the right thing to do. B was shaking and unresponsive, but from the wetness on his shoulder he guessed that he was crying.
L knew that he shouldn't be wasting time like this. He should be running out of the door, trying to find anyone that could possibly help in this situation but he also knew he couldn't leave B here alone. To leave him here left him at the mercy of everything that he had just witnessed, a danger to both himself and the scene. There was nothing more he could do but hope that someone else had heard B's earlier screams- most likely on the point at which the numbers ran out- and came to investigate. Unfortunately for them, in the past few days, the pair had been having rather loud arguments in their room- something that was not out of the norm so much as the increase in number and severity. It wouldn't be until someone came to physically find L that someone would come to find them.
L paused in letting B go, but knew he would have to eventually. In his shock, B didn't seem to be violent, but he also didn't seem altogether all there either. It was like someone had taken the B that L knew and replaced him with an empty shell that was currently staring at the floor. Taking a deep breath, L let him go and went to investigate the corpse in the bath that was all that was left of A.
It was clear that B had at least attempted to help A if the bloodstains on his hands and the wetness of his clothes were anything to go by. There were also faint bruises where B had grabbed his wrists, attempted to stem the bleeding with a bloody towel, the first aid kit scattered across the floor. L leant forwards and deftly turned off the still running taps, aware that the room was far quieter than it should have been. He knew that B was skilled- as the best forensic scientist in all of Wammy's, there was no one else more qualified to treat A's wounds other than perhaps the doctor who taught the subject. Yes, forensics didn't teach medicine, but B spent enough time opening and closing bodies that he would have instantly known that this amount of blood loss was deadly and what was required to prevent a death like those in the hospital morgue that he sometimes visited. Like L, he had been put to work straight away and had even given suggestions in some of L's earliest cases, before he was whisked away from Wammy's House and everything he held dear.
L bent over A's body and closed his eyes. It was the one thing that B had forgotten to do, but that was forgivable. To watch someone die, someone as close as to consider a brother, was no easy task and especially for B, who had known no closer friends than them at Wammy's House. He rarely spoke of the mother that abandoned him, didn't speak of the father that he had never known. It was hard to get a story out of him that involved anything to do with his life before Wammy's and now L feared that this would lead him away from those who called him family. Mitsu might have liked him in a different way, but L loved him like he was the missing member of their family- as if they had been born triplets rather than two different boys from two different countries.
B was quietly murmuring something in Russian- he heard the word 'puppet-master' in there somewhere and L abandoned the bathtub. There was nothing more that could be done for A and he would need to concentrate on keeping B from further delirium. He decided that it would most likely be best to remove B from this room, to take him at least to the other side of the door but most definitely not back to his room. Perhaps L's room would do (he had a spare bed after all) but any thought of staying in that room alone would not help B at all.
"Come on B," L murmured, hooking his arms under B's own and helping pull him to his feet. For now L was slightly taller than B, but slighter, and so it was hard to hold him upright when he swayed worryingly, fighting to stay on his feet, blinking in alarm. "We need to get help." They needed to do far more than that but right now, B's wellbeing was the priority. B didn't seem to hear him but for once, God seemed to be on his side as Mitsu flew around the corner.
"I heard that B and A were in an argument again-!" she called, cutting off as she reached the door, taking in the bathtub, A's body and B's blank face. She paled considerably, glanced once at L to ascertain that he was fine on his own before running back down the corridor, screaming out for Roger all the while. That seemed to startle the orphanage to realise that something was very very wrong. A mere two minutes Roger was on the scene just as L managed to get B out of the bathroom but no further. As soon as the passed the doorway B's legs gave out on him and he refused to move, locked within the confines of his own mind and the dreadful conclusions it had come to.
Roger spent all of five minutes in the bathroom before emerging and shutting the door behind him. In that time it seemed that the entire orphanage had descended on them, the trio sitting up against one wall, the twins flanking B on either side. He had barely moved or spoken since L had managed to get him out of the bathroom and it was them that Roger approached as the other children pestered him with questions. The noise was too loud to hear the world outside but L knew, from the time that had passed, that Mr Wammy had to have either arrived, or would do so soon.
"Take him to the sickbay and stay there with him until I come to get you," Roger said, eyes staring down with concern at the catatonic B. L nodded and, with Mitsu's help, managed to get B back on his feet once again.
It was no easy task to move him through the orphanage. B was nothing more than a dead weight, lost to the world for the moment, and Mitsu was shorter than L. By the time they got there, they were both hot and sweating but neither particularly cared. They set B down carefully on one of the beds, slightly breathless. Neither of them spoke, too caught up in the moment as B merely stared up at the ceiling, every so often murmuring in Russian, although L wasn't sure exactly what he was saying.
They spent most of the night that way, waiting in silence, always waiting for news that wouldn't end well. Sometime during the night, B started sobbing, hiding under the sheets.
Raito wasn't entirely sure what was going on upstairs. There was the sound of crashing and shouting, like some toddler in the middle of a temper tantrum, only much louder and much more sinister. He also wanted to leave this room with its connotations towards what had happened between himself and L, where it had all started to go wrong.
No, I can recover from this. Use this time to think of ways to divert her. Dr Collins didn't specify when she would return only that she would. That left Raito in the uncomfortable position of being stuck in a room with no one but himself. And although he was able to now concentrate on keeping her off the scent whenever the doctor returned, his mind was no so keen to let him go. The other half had been simmering in the back of his mind, unhappy that Raito was shoving it as far back as he could. You've interfered enough he spat at it, attempting to shove it down further. There was another distant crash, the sound of shouting and then silence. Shocked at the sudden absence of noise, Raito stood from the chair he had been sitting in and quietly opened the door.
Wherever B was, it had to be somewhere close, closer than Raito had thought. The tenth floor was one of many that Raito had barely paid attention to at any time before, but he now realised that it was slightly different in the fact that while there were doors all down the left side of the corridor, most likely much like the ones he was residing in at the moment, there were only three on the right side. The furthest door on the right was open and Raito could hear the faint noise of voices speaking quietly, only audible due to both doors being open. Even more disturbing was the even fainter sound of someone crying. Feeling for once as if he were intruding, suddenly out of his element and unable to help in any way, Raito merely closed the door, thinking on that.
He couldn't tell who was crying down the corridor, but it was obvious that it had been B creating all the noise- only someone as unstable as to think that they were a corpse could create such a racket. It seemed unlikely to be L who had suddenly had some kind of emotional breakdown, but the same couldn't be said of his sister Mitsu. But then again, he couldn't think of a reason why anyone would suddenly lose all control of their faculties like someone so obviously had down there. He wondered what had set it off, wondering if he could use that to his advantage later. He settled himself down once more into his seat, thinking on that idea. Having a clearly unstable person in the building could actually be a blessing in disguise, especially if he could use this to further turn suspicion away from him. To everyone else in the building, Kira was also mentally unstable and if this boy had murderous tendencies (as he so clearly did) then turning that suspicion to him specifically could only be so easy once this annoyance of an interview was dealt with.
Ten minutes later, Dr Collins appeared again in the room, that same stupid smile on her face. She said nothing to explain what had occurred outside, merely sat back down in the seat opposite him and opened the notebook once more, picking up her pen.
"So sorry for the interruption. Now, where were we?" she asked sweetly, and Raito was suddenly struck by just how dangerously perceptive this woman was. Not only had she easily seen through his disguise, not only had she taken in stride a breakdown from an unstable patron of hers but she was now acting as if nothing had happened. Well, two could play at that game.
"I believe we were discussing my internment by L," Raito said, giving her a warm smile back, as if to say that he understood that things between her and this B were private and he respected that.
"Ah, yes." She nodded, glancing down at her notes- of what little there were- before moving on. "Now as I was saying, what about after that? How was your relationship with L? How did it make you feel that he never mentioned Interpol's actions to you?" Raito paused, considering this, deciding that he could use these stupid emotions once again to his favour.
"Well, I'll admit, it hurt that he thought I was capable of being Kira and continued to do so even after evidence showed up against the fact and it turned out that Kira was using the Yotsuba Company instead of some teenagers." He paused and then glanced at her through the corner of his eyes. "My girlfriend, Misa Amane, was near traumatised by the whole thing." Dr Collins raised one eyebrow at that and Raito internally smiled. Now he could get her on his side. If she didn't believe him entirely, Misa was far more emotive with her feelings and he could use her to prove his innocence.
"Yes, how is your relationship with Misa going?" Dr Collins asked. "It's surprising that the two of you got together considering L noted many times how you couldn't stand her affections." Raito refused to allow any expression of anger take on his face but he couldn't stop his fingers from clenching. Of course L would have taken note of that as he did everything else. He just had to note that one tiny fact down, the one thing that was true in his relationship with Misa that it would come up now.
"It's going wonderfully. I just didn't appreciate it much at the time with all the stress, but I realised later that she had helped me so much through that time with all her kindness and support that I felt I had to give her a chance." Liar the pitiful little creep in his head spat. You can't stand her because she's such an idiot.
Shut up he spat right back, ignoring it. Dr Collins smiled, nodded and made another note.
"Moving on then, I just have a couple more questions. After your name was cleared completely, how did you feel? You seemed to have drifted away from Ryuzaki a little before the, ah, incident?" she asked, tactfully mincing around L's death. Raito paused, wondering what on earth she meant by that. He hadn't acted all that differently from before had he? You tried to get rid of me back then, remember? You had no time for anything but being Kira and trying to crush me into pieces the other side of him snapped, rolling its eyes at him. Someone was bound to notice. A bit thrown by the pair of them, Raito blinked, trying to form an answer.
"I… A lot was going on at the time. I didn't really notice, but I suppose with the relief of being free and getting together with Misa, I just didn't have a lot of time left over to spend with L." Something seemed very wrong with that lie but Raito wasn't entirely sure what it was. Once again this woman had brought his mind to its knees, and he felt unprepared for what the inevitable last question was. Dr Collins seemed to look over him once and, after making a couple of more notes, closed her notebook and smiled at him.
"Thank you for your time Raito, I've got enough now for your father and L." She smiled at him, rising from her seat and offering out her hand. "Feel free to call in anytime if there's anything else you wish to discuss." Raito stared a moment at the hand before smiling and taking it, all the while lost at sea on the inside. What had just happened? Why had she not asked about L's death? She had asked about literally everything else, all those things he had never wanted to remember or go back on, he had been forced to do so but this? The thing he had been the most prepared for and she hadn't even asked? Perhaps she had some plan to get him to bring it up himself, to fall into some trap she had laid? If so, he wasn't going to fall for it.
"It was no trouble," he said, not missing a beat. And then, as an afterthought to sweeten her up, "I hope your patient feels better soon."
"I'm sure he is," she said cryptically, before walking towards the door and leaving, not even waiting for Raito and his floundering thoughts to catch up.
Ok so that was that. I was going to have Dr Collins ask Raito about L's death but then decided not to. I have stuff planned later on about that ;). Other than that, I'm sorry this is a bit shorter than previous chapters but I honestly didn't have the time or energy left to put it into this one (a bit rusty if the second half of this chapter clearly shows) but I will try to make the next one longer/updated faster. Anyway, just to touch on this, I did get a request to make this M, however I do not feel that this requires that high of a rating (I trust you all to be responsible -mostly- in what you read) and this is honestly as graphic as it gets. If anyone feels that the rating should go up, feel free to message me/leave it in a review as I am open to the fact that others may see this more in the mature section, however I try to rate my fics by their content rather than writing style. Just thought that I would leave that point out there if anyone else felt this way.
Please read and leave a review - for all those flamers out there of constructive criticism if you must- and I will try to get back to you sooner!