Author's Note- Hey everyone. This one has come a litte earlier than the past chapters. I hope you enjoy it! Your reviews arevery helpful thanks :) keep them coming!

Winchester: Wammy's House [10 years prior]

L's P.O.V

Boredom.

"L- would you like another cup of tea before we leave?" The elderly man asked me from the door frame of my bedroom.

"No thank you, Watari." I replied from behind my book apathetically. "I haven't finished the last cup."

Long before the Kira Investigation, before the murder cases, the reign of L, the only trouble I seemed to face on a regular basis was boredom. Being the first child of Wammy's, and the eldest, I was uninterested in socialising with any other child involved in Watari's scheme. Therefore, I had nothing but my reading to entertain my needs.

Watari's programme, that aimed to bring gifted children together, had not started out very well. Being a moderately successful and wealthy man, Watari had no problem funding it. It was constant struggle to find children worthy enough to attend Wammy's 'orphanage' that bothered the slowly aging man.

But it was his gradual aging that motivated Watari to continue the programme. He was 64, rich, but alone. His wife, who was 7 months pregnant, dying of terminal illness over two decades before. But his goal was not to restore the family he had once had the privilege of having. But to provide other children with that same privilege.

But as the years past, Watari began to see talent in me. Causing him to change the orphanage and it's purpose. For the talented, the gifted, the less fortunate children,

And to succeed the detective everyone would soon learn the name of: L.

There were approximately 20 children at Wammy's. But only 5 were recognised as the top children. Those being A, a very optimistic young boy who was taking in by Watari soon after his mother successfully took her own life, B, a very knowledgeable teenaged boy- but suspected to be mentally ill soon after his arrival- nobody knows of his origin, and D, one of the less popular children amongst the lot- he came from a normal background with loving parents- but was transferred here after a large discovery of stolen artefacts were found unearthed from underneath their house. His parents were successfully caught and identified as the thieves.

There was L, otherwise known as myself. Both my mother and father abandoned me at a nearby orphanage when I was suspected of having mild autism. My mother could no longer undergo the stress of her 'special needs' son, bringing her to the decision of abandoning him at a Catholic orphanage north from Winchester. At the young age of 4, Watari discovered and invited me into his homely mansion- too large for just two people. Soon Watari began to look passed my intelligence looking deeper into my behaviour. My tendency to over think things, my abnormal posture, my unhealthy addiction to sweets and pastries…

And then there was S: the only female in the top 5. The newest addition to Wammy's rather dysfunctional family. Quite a lot like myself, she was a deep thinker. A mature young woman. Very unpredictable. But she was not only an extraordinary girl, but she was the only one I could not fathom. For Watari and I knew nothing about her. Her past, her name- all a mystery from the day Watari brought her in.

Laying a fresh bouquet of yellow tulips on the grave, Watari sighed. It was not often he would visit the grave of his beloved on his own. And he was struggling to cope with it. Happy birthday, Olivia. He kissed the brass ring on his finger smiling. "Time to go home…" he stood up straight and made his way through the light rain. He buttoned his leather coat to his neck shivering. Beautiful. In the middle of Autumn, the park was painted brilliant shades of red, yellow and brown. The stars were significantly bright, and the sound of the rain hitting the path made a soothing atmosphere. Nothing could have wrecked the current mood.

Until Watari was dragged backwards by a strong arm.

Overwhelmed, Watari swung himself around attempting to free the grip of his attacker. He paused, looking down at the 'criminal'. A young girl, no older than L, was gripping firmly to his sleeve. "Do I know you, sweetheart?" he asked hoarsely.

"Shh." she whispered placing a finger to his cold, thin lips. "Don't walk this way. The man over there has a gun."

Watari gave a baffled look to the small girl. He slowly rotated his head to look for a man in any direction. No one was found. "I don't see a man… Are you sure, little one?"

"Please sir- it would prove advantageous to you if you just listen to me. For the past month or so, that man over there has been watching you pass through this park to the memorial across the road. Judging by his patterns, he was targeting you specifically, however, you normally have a child with you when you pay your visits to the memorial." she said. "The one about my age."

"I see…" Watari frowned. "Have you also being watching me?"

"Yes." she replied bluntly. "I watch everyone who passes through here. However, that is not relevant to the matter at hand. Your attacker cannot be any older that 16. Before he turned to crime, it seems he was in full education and Fairclough Grammar School. But I presume something happened with his family leaving him alone and penniless- a common factor resulting him turning to crime."

"Madam, you've done your homework haven't you?"

"You could say so." She looked away distraught. "It's not 100% guaranteed to work, but if you were to walk with me, perhaps you will not be mugged. He seems to have quite a haunted conscience- so I doubt he would attack a teenaged girl."

Watari nodded slowly holding out a hand to the girl. After she took it, they both cautiously strolled along the bright paths leading to the old gate at the entrance of the park. Watari sighed in relief turning to the girl. Her clothes- tattered rags and loosely fitted to her small figure. Obviously homeless "Do you have anywhere to go, miss?" he asked regardless.

"No. Why sir?"

"I think I know someone you might get along with at Wammy's." he smirked wisely. "He's very smart like yourself."

"Ah… You own Wammy's…" She furrowed her brows. "I knew that."

"Are you interested in joining Wammy's?" A long pause on her behalf. Nervously, she twiddled her thumbs and looked away from him in thought.

"With that boy? Why not…" She smiled shyly looking at her old boots. "I'll come with you."

She tightened her nimble hands around his and walked home. The home that would soon be recognised as her own.

At least 2 weeks had past since S's arrival, and Watari had failed to present her with a suitable alias. However, she had specifically asked for the letter S. "It is the same initial as my actual name." she revealed to him and I. "Please do not feel unhappy with my choice of not revealing my name. You must understand that I have never given my name out to anyone before. Forgive my secretiveness."

"Don't be silly. It is no burden." Watari smiled like the old man he was. "This is L- the boy you will be succeeding. Right now, you are currently drawing with B as leading successor based on your results for the IQ test you took a few days ago. However…" he rested his cup down on his newly polished desk. "The age difference between you and L are only by a few months, so having you succeed L would be quite strange…"

"Is that a problem?" she stressed quietly. He chuckled leaning down and ruffling her black hair.

"I'm sure we can sort something out, S. Perhaps you will be able to assist L alongside me during cases. I am but an old man now so there's nothing really I can help L with but bringing him tea. Would you be up for it though, miss?"

"Very well." she accepted the challenge with ease. Ever so slowly, her turquoise eyes met with mine in an discomforting silence. "Nice to meet you…" she smirked.

"Hello. I am L."

And from that moment, Wammy's began to change slightly.

Every night, around midnight, I could hear quiet feet echo through the halls of Wammy's. I pushed it aside for a few days deducting that D had finally left his room for some snacks. But as a week or two passed by, my suspicions of the late night wanderer grew.

Rain hit my bedroom window violently in sync with my typing and faint crashes of thunder could be heard. Becoming distracted, I pushed away from my desk and observed the droplets sliding down my window. Hmmm… Darkness covered the grounds. Nothing could be seen for a few miles off. Interesting. I haven't seen a storm this bad in around 5 years…

An abrupt flash of lightning blinded me lighting up the gardens revealing a figure outside. A female physique and medium length hair. "S?" I mumbled rising to my feet deciding to investigate into her abnormal behaviour seeing it as an opportunity to learn more about her. Reaching for the door's handle, the door slammed itself open allowing the wind to push inside forcefully. It's getting worse. I heaved myself forward straight into the wind until I was beside the teen girl.

"Hello, L." she said above the sound of the torrent.

"Hello, S." I replied. "You should really get back inside before you fall ill. It can effect your rate of performance here at Wammy's."

"Can't you hear that?" she complained looking concerned into the sky above. "Those ringing bells?"

"No I can't…" I frowned softly tugging her arm to come inside. "You're probably just hearing things."

"Don't be so close-minded," she said turning around. "Why don't you try looking passed what you can see or hear. Explore out of the box- then you might hear them."

"Alright, but please come in."

I slammed the door shut behind me and locked it. I shivered, drowned head to toe with the rain. S ringed her hair out on the door mat and sighed. "Will Watari be giving me an alias soon? I'm slightly worried that I haven't been provided with one yet…"

"I think he's mulling it over. As you can see, the aliases given out at Wammy's normally have meaning to them." She sighed again.

"Well I don't have the patience to wait for one- I'm childish like that." she smirked. "Can you just give me one?"

"If it will please you…" I played with my lips deep in thought.

"Don't worry. I trust your judgement."

"Hmmm…" I thought. "Shadow." S smiled approving of the name I had given her.

"I like it." she said stretching her long arms out wide and yawning exasperatingly. "Thank you. I'm going to retire now. Maybe you should do the same. I understand Watari is preparing you for when you get your first case, but depriving yourself of sleep every night like you do is unhealthy."

"Have you being spying on me, Shadow?" I came closer to her face concerned of her knowledge.

"No. I'm just a deductive person." she closed her eyes. "Goodnight, Lawliet." she whispered. My eyes shot open alerted by the sound of my name.

"Shadow-"

But before I could ask, Shadow had disappeared into the darkness.

[10 years later: Task Force Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan]

Shadow's P.O.V

"So how do you know L, Shadow-chan?" Matsuda asked. Smiling lightly at him, I threw him a pile of documents at him. Confused by my actions, the child-like detective looked down at me in awe. "Huh?"

"It's not important, Matsuda. Let's just say we're childhood friends." I said softly. "Try focusing a bit more on the case and I might tell you a bit more about myself."

"O-ok, miss." his bottom lip quivered as he sullenly walked away in the opposite direction. "L still wants to speak to you, by the way."

"Oh- thanks." My mind blissfully flicking through research L had done. Impressed by the amount L had covered on such short notice. Before marking it and passing it on to Aizawa, Light entered the room.

With Misa.

"But Light you promised to take me out tonight!" Misa ranted crossing her scraggy arms over her flat-chest bust. "Can't you bend the rules and take me anyway?"

"Listen Misa, I don't know how many times I have to tell you this but we're not seeing each other. Plus L wouldn't approve of you leaving the building just yet."

"But Light-kun!" she whined nostalgically.

"Is there a problem?" butting in half-way through their pitiful quarrelling. Light's thin lips curled up and he chuckled softly at me.

"None at all, Shadow." he smirked. "How have you been?"

"Alright…" I chewed at the side of my lip fretfully. "Have you seen Ryuzaki at all?"

"Actually no. Not since he unchained the two of us. Isn't he where he normally is?"

"Nope. I need to speak with him as well…" I said. "Regarding the Yotsuba Group of course…"

"Right," Misa snickered to herself. "We all know you're his girlfriend!"

"If you reckon so," I clenched my small bag in my hands and returned Misa's gormless look upon her. "Do you mind helping me find him Light?"

"I'd be delighted to!" his heavenly eyes sunk into me as he offered a free hand to me. Distrustfully giving him my hand, we exited the room slamming the door shut behind us. "I don't mean to sound harsh, but how are you in any way significant to this case?" Light squeezed my hand thoughtlessly sending signals to my deathly pale face to flush with colour.

"I'm not at liberty to say. I'm sure L will tell you soon though" I mumbled staring down at the baby blue carpet in front of us. "Didn't he mention me at all?" A small ounce of hope laid in my heart that he had at least hinted to his colleagues about my existence. A large part of me still remained unsure of whether he cared anymore. Which, of course, I wanted him to.

"Not that I know of." he sighed. "Unless you're dead."

"What an odd thing to say…" I thought aloud. "Elaborate."

"Well, before you arrived, he was talking about this dead girl he used to like. But apparently she had died as a result to one of his previous cases…" Light's brash face was lost in thought. "I think he's in there if you want to go check."

"Thanks- I'll be fine from here" Unclenching the teen's warm hand, I pushed the heavy fire door to leading to the outside balcony.

"You know- I'd love to get to know you better, Shadow." Light's flawless face tinged pink. "You're different from the other girls- you're independent and not needy… I like that."

"I don't think that would be appropriate…" Our faces fell in unison. "You see- I'm not really supposed to be here."

"And yet- you are…"

"I-I mean- I'm not supposed to be here at all." I grabbed the door handle behind me and backed away through it.

"I'm afraid I don't understand-"

"I'm sorry but I have to go…" The door closed briskly behind me leaving me standing in the winter breeze. I can't trust him… I just can't. Grabbing the rail cautiously, I managed the stairs on the side of the building avoiding losing my balance and toppling down them again. As I reached the top, an unruly mop of hair could be seen on the far side of the roof. "L?" I yelled over to him. His head turned tiredly looking at me. "What are you doing up here?"

"I can hear those bells…" L said. His eyes searched the skies curiously. "I've… never heard them before."

"What?" I gasped. "You can hear them now?"

"Yes…" He itched the back of his head. "I used to listen out for them every night for them after your death."

"But why?"

"Wishful thinking really. I thought maybe if I could here the bells, there were the off chance you were still alive." He turned his body towards me. "However, there was only a 2 percent chance…"

"Oh L…" I whispered unrequitedly. "They're so happy tonight… The bells. Like church bells- just like I used to hear them."

"I assume you mean wedding bells?"

"Y-yeah." Soft fingertips brushed across my face as I closed my eyes.

"I'm sorry- but no." L said. "I cannot have a corpse bride. Our arrangement is cancelled."

"W-what!" I choked out his hand leaving my cold face. "But Lawliet-"

"It's Ryuzaki or L, Shadow." L said. "Please prevent from using that name. After all, it's not like I can call you by yours…"

"But L- I'm not dead! We can-"

"Hmmm yes…" L let his mind wonder. "I suppose you're right. However, I believe we will need to get some trust issues out of the way…" He strolled away towards the stairs. "Until then, I'll see you at work, Shadow."

And then he left me in the dark. With nothing but the stars to comfort me.

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