Me: I had a giant wave of inspiration before Color Guard practice today, and the beginning of this chapter was the result. My friends say there's lots of description. ^.^

L: Feh.

Me: Where did you get that from?!?! That's InuYasha's thing!

L: So?

Me: SO you can't steal his saying!

L: I can do whatever the heck I want!

Me: You don't live in America! You live in Japan! Just because you're the almighty Einstein detective of the world doesn't mean you can take copyrighted sayings from half-demons!

L: It's not copyrighted…

Me: Is too! Rumio Takahashi created InuYasha!

Mello: SHUT UP!

Me and L: O.O Yes sir!

Mello: Saga only owns Lillith!

Chapter 4

The chilly night air caressed Lillith's bare arms gently as she and Near took their sweet time walking to the restaurant. There was no need to hurry-it was a beautiful night. A tiny sliver of moon and the consistently twinkling stars shed a pale light all around the pair, bathing their surroundings in a silver wash. The orchestra of dead leaves as they danced airily just above the Earth and the resounding crunch beneath feet were the sure sounds of a perfect October evening. Lillith smiled as the breeze played with the loose strands of hair that framed her face.

Lillith was enjoying the walk so much that she was almost reluctant when they actually reached the restaurant, which was an Italian place called Italiano Kitchen (A/N:my Mom made that up XD). She didn't feel that way once they actually stepped inside. Lillith's nose was immediately tickled by the spicy, enticing aroma of pumpkin pie, presumably from the candles placed on every table. The scent was boldly contrasted by that of garlic. With only candles and the city lights outside for illumination, the dimly lit restaurant was filled mostly with young couples on dates. Eyes illuminated by the flickering candlelight, the residents of the tables were gazing lovingly into the face and hearts of their sweetheart, the message coming across clearly: I love you with all my being. As you can see, this isn't an Oh-we're-just-friendly-friends-going-on-a-friendly-friend-outing-to-eat type of place. Near didn't seem to notice, and if he did, he didn't care. Lillith observed this and decided to follow his lead.

Once the host showed them to their seat and the waiter took their drink orders, Near promptly picked up the menu and started looking for something to choose. Lillith's menu lay untouched. Every waiter knew her and her favorites. So she just scrolled through old texts on her phone until Near decided what to get.

"What're you getting?"

"Chicken Alfredo."

Lillith nodded and looked out the window. "It's a beautiful night. So many people are out and about. I always love being in the middle of a busy city. Unfortunately, I have to spend most of my time these days at home, with a textbook open in front of me." Lillith gave a small laugh.

"What're you majoring in?"

"Political Science. I love politics."

"I see."

The next day…

"Okay Near, I have to study for a test tomorrow. I have a job for you." Upon hearing Lillith say this, Near groaned inwardly. "I need you to unpack boxes. Except the clothes box. It says Clothes in Sharpie on the side."

"I think I established that."

"Just to make sure." Lillith picked up two textbooks, stuck a pencil behind her ear, and walked to the living room to study.

Near sighed, grabbed a box cutter from the kitchen counter, and walked to her room. He immediately began opening up boxes and taking out their contents. When he got to a box labeled "Guard Stuff", he was curious and opened it to find a bunch of spandex outfits. He twitched and flung them aside. Underneath mounds of Color Guard crap, he found a small binder labeled "Photo Album." Near slowly opened it and flipped through, mildly creeped out at the dozens of photos of spandex-clad girls. When he got to one of the last pages, he stared at it blankly, thinking in his mind, Are those GUYS? He brought it closer to his face to get a better look. Upon close inspection, Near shuddered and closed the book.

Next, he got to the book box. Once he opened the box with his little box cutter, the first book he saw was a lime green fuzzy journal. Seeing as it had no title and appeared to be a normal notebook, Near decided to investigate and opened to the first page. "Dear diary…hmm." Interested, Near sat for an hour or so, nonchalantly reading the diary as if it were a normal book. When he got to the latest entry, he was shocked, to say the least. It said:

Dear diary,

8 more months…I'm really nervous. I'm actually kind of scared. I wish I never met him, then maybe I could actually have a NORMAL life! Oh well, like they say, it must be my destiny.

~Lillith

Without showing any emotion, Near got up, walked over to the door of the room Lillith was in, and burst it open, yelling "YOU'RE PREGNANT?!?!"

She looked up from her book slowly, and, without much thought, said, "What color crack are you smoking, Near-kun?"

Ignoring the question, he ranted again, "YOU'RE PREGNANT?!?!"

"Uh…no…"

"Yes, YOU'RE PREGNANT!"

"Uh, Near-kun, seeing as how I'm a CHICK, I think I would know if I was going to have a child, since it's inside of ME. Not you, ME."

After a moment, Lillith slowly looked down at her stomach, then looked up at Near and screamed, "DO I LOOK PREGNANT TO YOU?!?!"

"NO! I mean…I read this, and..."

"Is that my DIARY?!?!"

"Yes…"

"NEAR!"

"But it was just there!"

"That doesn't mean you should read it!"

"It was just THERE!!! And that's beside the point! And…this…it says eight months…and there's nine months in pregnancy…and you were talking about a guy…and destiny…and scared…"

Lillith took the book from him and skimmed the page quickly. In sudden realization, she said, "OOOOOH…that's how… OOOOH…Uh, well, Near-kun, I'm not going to have a CHILD in eight months, I'm going to DIE in eight months. But I wish it was the other way around, seeing that I would rather have a child before I die. Except if I died during child labor…that would suck…" All this time, Lillith was totally and utterly calm. She was speaking as if it was no big deal.

"YOU'RE SUICIDAL?!?!"

"No!"

"B-but, but!"

"Did that WHOLE explanation just fly by your white hair?!?!"

"Well please explain!"

"Fine! Well…back in high school, in my junior year, I heard about all this Kira business. I was all for Kira and his ideals, and when I finally got the chance to meet Kira, aka LIGHT YAGAMI, I was really eager. I found out that he could see shinigami, and he let me even touch the notebook so I could see Ryuk-san. I told Light-san that I wanted to help him, and he said that Shinigami had a special ability that could make that possible. The shinigami-san have the ability to bind one human to another, body and soul. Once a special ritual of sorts is performed, that person pretty much becomes a servant to the other. They have to obey that person's every order and protect the person's life at the cost of their own. Being the foolish teenager I was, I decided to do that, even when I was told about the strings attached. If that person dies because you weren't around to defend them, you're going to die in eight months."

"So since Light-kun died, you're going to die?"

"Yup. It wasn't a happy time for me. I had to give up being on Varsity Color Guard because I didn't have enough time to practice my skills. Whenever I went out in public doing something for Light-san I had to disguise myself. He made me buy a bunch of wigs and wear them. I even had to cover up as that ditz Misa once. Not to mention how disgusting it was to do that ritual thing in the beginning. It's sort of like when someone becomes a blood brother with another person, you know, they both have to draw blood from a small wound and then press it to the other's wound? We had to prick our fingers with needles. I nearly fainted because I'm so squeamish around the blood of other people."

Near stared blankly at Lillith for a minute.

"What?" she asked.

"You know you're going to die and you aren't trying to do anything about it, Lillith-chan?"

Lillith gave Near a small half-smile. "I believe everything happens for a reason Near-kun. If I'm going to die, it must be shukumei. Destiny."

"But…"

"Near-kun, it's okay. Really. I'm sure that I'll make my mark in the world before this happens. Don't worry over it. After all, there's nothing you can do to keep it from happening. It's my fault anyhow. I should have known better than to put my life on the line like that."

But, deep down inside, Lillith thought to herself, I wish I could just stay like this my whole life…

THE END

Me: HAHA!

L: Haha what?

Me: Idk, I gotta be quick cause my sister wants the computer!

L: Ok, read and review!