Disclaimer: My name is King, FML, and I do not own DeathNote, FMLx2.
Devil's Trill
III: Devil's Trill
CH22
Happiness – pt.2
"-because I am a genius, Mello."
"Right."
"I am."
"Yup. You're a genius. Right 'till you realize this is really stupid, you can play genius. I'll be Batman."
L raced down the highway. The headlights in the old Volvo were old and dim, and L could see three, maybe four feet ahead at best. The lightpoles framing the road were becoming increasingly rare, instead the trees sprung up more, and the serpentine road snaking around the mountainous terrain was very light on traffic.
Or maybe not so much, but it was dark, and L wasn't really paying attention to anything but racing through the type of road one really shouldn't be racing through. In the middle of the night. With practically no headlights. On an old Volvo that threatened to lose a tire on every screeching turn.
And it made Mello irritated, L could see it by the raised hairs on Mello's neck, by the way he gritted his teeth and gripped the door railing.
Mello wanted to sleep.
It was 2:08 AM.
And had L been driving like a normal person, Mello would sleep.
But Mello couldn't sleep for obvious reasons, and instead chose to give L hard time, making L feel a need to justify himself.
"Baw-baw-baw Batman!" Mello sung.
L was pretty sure this wasn't how it went.
"If he knew where to find me, it's only fair I would know where to find him."
L's new Stradivari knockoff was resting safely back in its case and original newspaper wrapping at the back seat.
L even buckled it up.
"True. It's fair."
"See? And Mello was worried I drove him for thirty hours for nothing."
"Nah, that's okay."
"I will make it up to Mello."
"No, really man. It's okay. It's an occupation hazard, and I'm ready for it."
"Occupation?"
"Yeah. As Batman."
L reached out to smack the tired blonde, and nearly drove them off-road and into a massive pine tree.
"Sweet mother of Jesus, fuck it L, either get the hell out and I'll drive, or you fucking look where you're going! One day you'll hit something and your head will get cracked open, and where the fuck would we get a brain transplant?!"
"Hmm, that has more than a fair chance of happening," said L dramatically before brushing it off, " but not today, Batman."
And joking was a mistake, and a mistake of making a mistake was enough for Mello. The blonde gripped the handbrake in the middle of the car threateningly.
"Okay, seriously. Stop the car, get out, go cuddle with your cello or something. Get some sleep. I'll get us there myself."
"Violin."
"Out."
"Violin."
"Fucking Triangle that goes 'ting!'. Back seat. Now. Oh fuck L, OH HELL NO, not now, stop the car first you fucking psycho-!"
Another joke.
He wondered just how much it worried Mello.
When L was buckled up - or rather, tied up with the seatbelt - at the back seat right next to his violin and Mello was driving, safely, considerably slower, and the engine roar was stable, and the trees passed the window in a long, even row of trees and lightpoles and occasional animal-crossing warning signs, it was dawn.
"Good morning, sunshine!"
"I was not asleep, Mello."
The dashboard clock read 5:55 AM. The time L figured they would already be there.
"We are still driving," he noted
"Relax. He's hitchhiking or taking a bus. Or fucking walking. He'll get there… here, tomorrow at best. Oh look. We're here."
L squinted and focused his eyes to read a sign as Mello sped past it.
WELCOME TO TSUWANO
Old, yellow or pink low-rises with peeling stucco towered high and advanced over ancient single homes, single-building pawn shops, gallery-shops and dirt off-roads.
It was stale. Old.
This early in the morning, the small and forgotten town was empty; two cars that passed the stolen 1990 Volvo made the piece of junk fit right at home.
Mello said something about staying at that cabin he always stayed at when he visited this place that was as much in the middle of nowhere as Mello's cabin was.
It was going to be scorching hot in a few hours.
Air-conditioning.
And a bed.
L insisted.
Mello took them to one of the few Inns in town. It was completely empty, of course, and L was at the point of tapping Jingle Bells on the clerk bell before a woman in her fifties showed up to give them a room.
"What are you boys doing so far from the city?" she kept prying, already giving Mello The Eye when L asked for a single room suite with two queen beds.
"We're on pilgrimage," said Mello cryptically and winked at her. She stared, and after a short mental debate whether she should ask or not, she walked away.
"A pilgrimage," said L once he settled and curled up on the furthest left of his bed. It was too early to do anything. They could sleep until noon. They covered half of Japan in under forty hours on car. They deserved it.
Mello changed into an oversized black shirt and L's poor bed yelped and L was thrown in the air when Mello charged and dove next to L cannon-ball –style. L would give Mello five seconds. "That's right," said Mello, settling in, "This is my pilgrimage spot. That you violated."
"Mello should avoid saying things like this while his is in my bed."
"Correction. You're in my bed."
"Mello's bed is in the cabin. With bears."
"Ugh," said Mello when he became acquainted with the moldy hotel carpet.
"Indeed."
"Fine, I'm fucking off. Jerk. How the hell did our high-horse boyfriend end up agreeing to come to my dump, anyway?" Mello shuffled to his own side of the room and his own bed.
"I did not tell him where we were going."
"Uh, wow. Okay, Lemme guess. You said you were going on a shopping date to a place with lots of hair salons; you bought a train, put him on it, kidnapped him, took off. Am I right or am I right?"
"Mello is incorrect."
"Huh."
"I rented the train. Wammy insisted."
"Wow. For what, again?"
"Spiritual cleansing. Mello, we talked about this in the car, remember? I mentioned my 'good catholic friend' who comes here. He knows who I am, he knows who you are, he knows we were cooperating before I died. He is after you, and this is his only lead on you. This place is also significant to him. He is coming here."
L left Mello to speculate the thought.
"All while assuming you're dead… you know, we kinda have a very unfair advantage over him."
"I have right from the start."
"…and yet he managed to get away from you like, four times. And almost kill you. And then there is a problem of, you know, 'now what?'. Yup. You're a genius."
"Yes, Mello. Here is my genius plan: he comes here, we catch him. Then he tries to kill me twenty more times, problem is, we're in Mexico. The end. Good morning, Mello. Go to sleep please and stop bothering me."
It was beyond any doubt that Mello did not believe a word L said anymore. L didn't need to check Mello's face for light muscle spasms that would indicate distrust, nor did he need to listen for fluctuating voice pitch or strategic drifting off-topic. L didn't like to use these things on Mello; he simply trusted himself to know what Mello would and wouldn't buy.
One day, he would have to come to terms with everyone, he knew that one day his antics would be questioned, by Mello, by Wammy, by Roger, hell one day Near himself would stop dancing around the subject and just ask.
One day, Mello would refuse to blindly follow orders and eat up everything that is given to him.
But not today, Batman.
But it would happen. Eventually and soon. And it wouldn't mean that everyone would spontaneously turn on him, it would simply mean that the privilege of the big-time jerk he had enjoyed so far would end.
It began crumbling the day he met Light, and it continued crumbling, and it was falling apart right before his eyes, and L resisted the change, but the closest to any personal closure that he ever got was the idea of sitting back and watching and accepting whatever was to come.
And L wondered if Mello figured out that whatever was to happen here, in Tsuwano, and further on, L would let happen.
But it felt close.
However it all would end, it felt close. Whatever he deserved, it would be his, and he would sure as hell fight for it, but however the fight ended, he would accept it. And there would be no going back after Light if Light simply didn't show up, or managed to get away again, or anything.
Love was worth fighting for if it was worth fighting for.
Was it happiness he was fighting for?
Wherever he would take Light, Light would hate him for it, and try to keep playing right through his loss. He would resist L's every advance; there would be no way Light would settle for anything but L's loving head, severed and possibly even impaled on top of a Christmas tree, and since that would never happen, Light will always be miserable with L.
Was happiness so one-sided?
No wonder Light wanted it.
If this was it though, than L had nothing to lose, because if he had happiness, it wasn't anything like that.
---
"L, there are eight thousand people in this town."
"Yes."
"Want to explain to me how eight thousand fake L cards managed to make it to doorsteps of all of these people?"
"A very heavy bribe to the local post office."
"Eight thousand L cards!"
"They were inside of an Ikea flyer."
"Eight thousand!"
"That is what follows seven thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine."
"Are you trying to get us killed!?"
L crushed his jaws hard around a lollipop and chewed down the sweet melting mass as a car passed between the frame of a stolen TV.
This town had a very good strategic advantage: one highway in, one highway out, three roads to detour.
Five live feed cameras on five pine trees.
Seven TVs.
Now though, the monitors were more for sight-seeing than anything else, since Light entered the town about an hour before the thick Ikea catalogues got distrusted.
The 6th camera was on the hotel clerk.
"You aimed that on purpose, didn't you?"
"I aimed it perfectly." The camera was focused on the clerk and the reception desk, and not on the vacant visitor spot.
The woman was frightened.
The whole town was frightened.
The radio public service that started broadcasting 'lock all doors and windows' earlier that morning was frightening.
The old and small town was a town where the most that happened within the year was the preacher's affair and some runaway children, the oppression was high with gossip and daily life was low on variation. It was a bowl. A closed bowl. Whatever happened here was trapped by the curved slopes of the bowl.
The old clerk reported suspicious homosexuals staying in her hotel to the police about six times already.
They didn't come to investigate, yet. Police radios were going off everywhere from alleged psychopaths being administered by the local hospitals to reports suspicious cabbage rolls allegedly stuffed with explosives.
The police force in Tsuwano was too small to handle anything even close to eight thousand people simply panicking.
And the beautiful thing was, L had Light trapped in this bowl with fake business cards spilling out of it.
The only way out of town now, without being noticed, was hiking though the vast and thick forests. There were bears in those forests. L wouldn't dare, Light wouldn't even think about it.
And checkposts with officers searching every car coming in or out of the panicking town is a problem if you are wanted by NPA on charges of premeditated murder of your boyfriend, illegal cooperation with unauthorized police forces, and skipping bail. In other words, in a complete town lockdown, if you are Light Yagami, you are-
"He's screwed," said Mello. "So are we. But then, he's screwed, so it's all good."
"Mello calls it 'good' when, if caught, we are very dead?"
Mello was about to reply when the monitor L was watching got serious movement. Muted, there didn't appear to be a cause for the female clerk to be startled, but seconds later she rushed to the phone the camera was specifically aimed to, and picked it up.
'-yes officer,' said a phone-listening device resting on the floor next to L, 'yes, oh thank you for getting back to me, goodness I must have reported them so many times, yo-'
'Ma'am, a physical description of the suspicious characters would be helpful; we are short on men-'
Mello gasped, bit his bottom lip, giggled and started clapping as soon as he heard the 'officer's' sleek and honey voice.
L grinned too, but smacked Mello to keep it down so he could hear.
'Short on men?! But you must come, they could have planted bombs in that room of theirs, God only knows what they did in there last night-'
'Is there any reason to suspect explosives in your premises? Ma'am, have you seen or heard anything? What do the suspects look like?'
'No, they have the sign on, I can't disturb them when they have the sign on-'
'What sign, ma'am? And their descriptions-'
'Do-not-disturb sign, anyway they're real suspicious characters, you should get down here and see for yourself! Evil glittered in their eyes, I swear-'
'Alright ma'am, I still need those physical descriptions. We have suspects on file right here, and if they come to even close of a match, I will come right down there to you, ma'am.'
Mello giggled and hid his face in his hands to suppress tiny snorts, giggles and squealing.
Squealing.
L tried not to judge.
'Well, the most homosexual one is with a scar, said he was on some kind of God's mission, something to do with travel... a crusade, yes! That's exactly what he said, 'a crusade against people-''
'A scar? Was in a severe burn scar? Did he have blonde hair, ma'am?'
"That is very unprofessional manner of questioning, officer," L noted though a grin that grew wider and wider. This was amusing, he had to admit.
'Why yes, yes, a burn scar! A scar you would get from setting babies on fire, an evil scar, and heaven forbid that blonde hair! Leather, he was wearing leather I tell you, like a, like a, - a prostitute..!'
'Ah-huh, right. And his companion, ma'am? American, artificially dyed hair, orange goggles, leather steel-toe boots, very young, looked kind of like… well, one of those poor boys possessed by computers?'
'Oh no, nothing like that! The second homosexual was simply terrifying! Large, bulging and blood-thirsty demon eyes! As black as his hair! Looked like he lived in a cave, a hell's cave, came straight from hell, I tell you, to kill us all! His clothes were so old and so carefully washed, he must have bleached them from all the babies' blood-'
"Oh snap!" Mello stopped sitting on the floor next to L in favor of gripping L's shoulder and giggling into it hysterically.
L didn't let tiny chuckles escape his own throat until the woman on the phone realized the silence on the other side had been too long.
The 'officer' had hung up on her.
"Heheheee, L, oh L if only all common cops had our descriptions and knew exactly what to ask for, when and where, oh god we'd be so dead- heheHAHAHA!"
"Alright Mello, stop - stop laughing. I admit this is funny-"
"Funny? Haha, this's fucking hilarious! Dude! What'd you figure, now that he knows you're alive an' all, he's having a seizure, or realizing how screwed his is, or crying or-?"
"Mello, enough. Go take a cold shower in the babies' blood, and come back when you are ready. I do not appreciate my officer Raito Yagami-kun being mocked."
Mello started laughing even harder.
"Y-you figure, he'd come down to the hotel?" Mello managed after he calmed down enough to make logical assertions.
"I don't think so. Still, we will wait for an hour before torching it. The clerk is dangerous if she really talks to someone."
All six 911 calls were received and processed by Mello personally. All Light did was call all local inns and rentals and searched for a freaked-out reaction.
Now... oh, how much would L give just to see his face, see his horrified reaction when the semi-harmless Matt he'd been expecting in Tsuwano is no-longer an issue, but L personally had come back from hell to haunt him.
How did L do it?
Was he alive all along, did he hide out somewhere until the storm passed, leaving Light all alone to deal with the consequences and penalties of their little game?
Did he wait for Light to make his move just so that he could spite him and make a move of his own?
L was alive, alive for fuck's sake. What about the revenge, the games, Mello, the hunting, the playing, the stupid, stupid violin?
Was Light... happy that L was alive?
Finding out second-hand from a hotel clerk that a man Light had given up his life for to kill was alive? Was it happy news?
There was no walking out of this, Light knew it, he gave up his life, whatever was left of it that L hadn't destroyed or taken away from him at that point, to finish everything.
And now...
He was back where he started.
It hurt. And yet it was...
...satisfying.
L was alive.
L would see him again, be with him, touch him, and Light would hate every second of it and yet he would be with... with L. L could lose to him again.
Stability.
Was stability a consolation prize?
Did Light lose?
Did they both lose?
Light drove though the empty streets as fast as he could without arousing any suspicion in the panicking, dying dump; the stolen car was soaked in sweat and cigarette smoke, the deteriorating upholstery was itchy and the flapping tarp covering the window light broke in through were all reminders of death. Dying. Tiredness.
The town was tired.
So was Light.
He parked the police cruiser in the front, straightened his black tie and black dress shirt, and walked right into the hotel through the front door.
"Hello ma'am, I am officer-trainee Suzuki with the local PD, I have received a report of persons of interest, what room are they staying in ma'am?"
"Can I see some ID?" the woman asked, eyeing him.
Light flashed a stolen badge at her as well as showed the gun on his belt, and topped it off with a fake safety-smile he flashed to the officer he took the car, badge and gun from earlier. The woman felt at ease right away.
"Room 202, thank you for coming offi-"
---
"Okay, so he actually went-HOLY SHIT!"
L said nothing, he just sat back and watched the clerk's brains glide down the wall behind her, slowly, and a pool of blood expanded into a black halo around her slumped head on the shiny surface of the front counter. Face down, L couldn't see a large hole with skull pieces crushed inward from a point-blank shot in the left eye/nose area, but he knew exactly where the sloppy shot connected and how much blood would tackle down the counter surface from the dead woman's defaced head within minutes.
"'Kay, not cool, that thing'd better have a silencer!" Mello said in outrage, and L said nothing.
L didn't think anything, either. His mouth didn't hang open, on the contrary his lips were pressed firmly together without any expression.
As he watched the tiny bloody pieces glide down the wall, blood soak into the scattered hair, and Light walk out of the TV frame towards the hallway with doors to hotel rooms, L wondered briefly just what the hell happened.
And then he screamed.
He screamed without words, it was a cry, a cry to whatever god was up there to explain what the fuck just went on in that TV.
In his rage, he picked up an ashtray Matt used when he came to the cabin with Mello, and threw it into the television screen so hard that the round, shaped, thick glass cracked the plastic plasma screen and the image of the dead woman Light just shot in cold blood broke into pieces and,suddenly speckled with neon pixel dots, warped and leaked out.
L slapped his fist against the ancient wooden drawer-table, grabbed the little silver-white phone and pushed the speed-dial button so hard the phone keys got lodged inside and didn't come out.
The phone rang once, twice, and when Light entered the room 202 on another plastic monitor, it was on its sixth ring. Light saw the phone's double on the bed and picked it up on the eighth.
"What the fuck was that?!" L roared into the phone, still crushing the thing in his fist and against his ear without Light getting to say a hello.
On the little monitor, Light froze and stayed still until L screamed "WELL?!" into the other end.
Then Light slowly sat down on the bed he found the phone on, and hell if L was there, he'd strangle the little son of a bitch.
"Hi," Light said quietly, gently almost, bringing up the second hand to hold the phone with, as if afraid talking too loudly or holding the phone too recklessly would break the phone and with the phone, it will make L on the other end disappear, forever, again.
"Don't you 'hi' me you little-"
Little... what?
What did Light do so terrible that deserved to be strangled for?
Kill someone, in cold blood.
L was ready for this, L knew Light would kill people on his way to get to Mello, hell, Light indirectly killed those 'criminals' though a half-assed brainwashing scheme, L did all those things, too, logically there was nothing to be angry about, nothing to make him want to crush that stupid little neck between his hands and feel the life sip out of that bastard...
L came prepared for fuck's sake, emotionally L was always prepared to react to anything like a rock would react, anything; than what the hell was he so angry about?
He was furious, livid.
Instead of saying anything on the subject, or even close to the context, Light tried to say something, and stopped himself a few times before the perfect words came out.
"Where have you been?" he whispered carefully.
L was about to insult from afar when Mello stole the phone away from L with ridiculous precision. L was about to grab the blonde and kick him to hell and up again, but Mello met his angry gaze and L looked into the frightened dark green eyes for a long moment before letting all tense muscles go loose.
L realized he was not capable of making decisions.
So he stepped away, and put Mello between himself and Light.
"Listen kid, I'm Mello by the way, nice to meet you, hi, you need to get the fuck out of there now, you just shot someone in broad daylight without a silencer, you're fucked. Keep the phone, talk to L later. Go downstairs to the basement, the fire-door to the basement is unlocked. Lose the tie, put it in your pocket; roll up your sleeves, look like some kid they won't remember. Go there, straight through the heating room, the room is shared, you'll get out at the stationary store next door. Ninja though, buy some Sharpies, walk out. Get as far away as you can. Then hide."
"Call me back in an hour," said Light and hung up, walking out of the monitor view and L's sight as he talked.
-two months ago-
King1: I quit.
King2: What?
King1: I don't feel like updating anymore, my fics, my art, my posts, my life, etc., etc., etc., emoemoemoemo.
King2: Oh. Okay.
King1: What. That's all the sympathy I get? You asshat. Well, you know what? I've done up to the end of Happiness, I'll publish that, then I'll quit.
King2: Nope. You aren't publishing anything 'till you snap the fuck out of it.
King1: But but but this and that and that and this—
-two months later-
A/N: I LOVE MY STORY AND MY READERS AND I FEEL VERY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY. :D
L: It happens to her. She just gives up once in a while. On everything. She goes on Gaia hiatus, she closes up her DA, she gives up on school, and overall she kind of ignores everyone. Trouble is, she won't medicate.
Mello: and a withdrawal later…
A/N: WHAT THEY MEAN TO SAY IS, THIS CHAPTER WAS A MESS SO I WAS FIXING IT. THIS IS CORRECT. AGREE.
Light: I object.
A/N: THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO'S BEEN PATIENT WITH ME. THANKS SHOUTOUTS GO TO DrRabbit, Your Alien, jarnee337, Shaniachan, dragon_fly126, ellan54, Lizzie, Sovoyita, IsobelAnis, happyalien, Dacara, fluffy2044, goldentongue, Oveja Negra, Hime, incandescentglow, angellovedark, Katsheswims, rain angst, s3v3n-d3ad1135, My Favorite Crooked Smile, Dlack-Dranzer-1119, bubblepop, Nardaviel, ArtistofLight, Anna Marie Lynn, lil joker, Zemar, isamu-michi, Dark Green Poop, Rin5o, Emery Board, Jetta, Not Yet Knowing, Altair 718, fouloldron, Chou ni Natte, Purple Glass, .,, AngelToes, Eadha Ohn, JediMasterWithPen, SunnydayinPallet, amarinta453, Huehuetechi, White Hair is Hawt & U know It, MisoraIsBitchin, Uchiha-on-Crack, Wicked Cheshire, YourBestFriend4, Yami-noHikari-7, yuis and Yolanda!
I had the 'I'm dropping this, sorry everyone!' chapter-note ready, and just when I was about to post it, like, a review came in. I love you guys. Don't worry anymore. I'm done. Donedonedonedone. All the remaining chapters are done. They just need to be expanded, but it's kinda done. I'm happy.
Loveyouloveyouloveyou,
PRESS THE MAGIC BUTTON IF YOU'RE HAPPY.
WAIT A MINUTE. YOU AREN'T HAPPY.
LIGHT JUST DID SOMETHING VERY BAD, AND L ACTUALLY WANTS TO KILL LIGHT ENOUGH TO GIVE UP ALL CONTROL TO MELLO 'CAUSE THEN HE'LL ACTUALLY KILL LIGHT.
THIS IS BAD.
UH-OH. TELL ME ALL ABOUT IT.
HERE.
l
l
l
V