I'm sorry about the delay here. I haven't been very motivated to do much, and I'd made a resolution to be more so during the summer... Well, so much for that. Well, here is my fourth installation anyways. Please enjoy.
It was an unmerciful night's sleep that night, as she had the same dream as the night before. She whimpered and moaned in sheer pain of the contorted look of agony on her father's face in her sleep. As much as she disliked Ryuzaki, she wished no harm on him- especially not death. Her voice was rendered useless; the sound barely reached past her own ears. It wasn't until Ryuzaki suddenly opened his dark eyes from the ground and spoke that she was permitted to scream aloud.
"Kotone, wake up."
Her eyes shot open, and she instantly began gasping for air as if she'd been underwater several minutes, and on the verge of drowning. L, crouching over her, his legs on either side of her waist, peered down at her, inches from her face. His finger was in his ear as if he'd just been nearly deafened, which, Kotone reminded herself, he probably had. Dropping his hand, he popped an animal cracker into his mouth from the bag in his hands.
"You are a heavy sleeper," He informed her.
It took Kotone a few seconds to register what was happening, and just where L was. In a burst of shock and anger, she sat up abruptly. L, however, was prepared, and leapt out of the line of fire, jumping off the bed as Kotone nearly flipped over herself when she hit nothing but air.
"What are you doing?" She demanded.
"You sleep like a rock," He commented.
"Not only that, but you're a very uneasy rock in your sleep. You toss and turn and groan in your sleep, too."
"Shut up," She replied defensively, suppressing a whimper.
Beads of sweat were collecting on her brow and neck, she could feel it, and knew that Ryuzaki was probably able to see it as well. Still, she was afraid to talk too loud, as if to disturb her own serenity.
"It's seven-thirty," L droned, tipping the remaining contents of the bag into his mouth, then disposing of the bag in the wastebasket beside the door.
"Please get up and get yourself around."
He turned, opening her wardrobe, much to Kotone's horror. Ryuzaki plucked a purple summer dress from the back and held it out in front of him with his index and thumb fingers, as if afraid to get his hands dirty.
"Here. Wear this."
"I don't think so," Kotone snapped, hurling herself out of bed to defend her clothes.
"I don't wear dresses unless it's for some occasion or forced upon me."
"Breakfast out with your father isn't special?"
Kotone faltered, stunned. Regaining her composure, she realized that this must be one of Ryuzaki's coy tricks. Hands on her hips, she challenged him.
"Oh? And would you happen to be accompanying us?"
"Well of course."
"I thought as much," She sighed, thumbs fiddling irritately with her pajama pants pockets.
"Well, that's no special occasion. I won't wear a dress."
"Then it's being forced upon you. Your father's request."
"I don't care," She lied.
"I'm wearing what I usually do- A long-sleeved shirt and a pair of jeans."
L replaced the dress back into her closet.
"Do as you wish, but your father won't be pleased."
"My dad wouldn't even let you come near my room, I know him better than that."
"Suit yourself," Was Ryuzaki's bored reply, turning to sit in the chair by the nightstand.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" She hissed, pointing towards the door- The shut door, she noticed.
"Keeping an eye on you."
"You can do that some other time, but not now, not while I'm getting dressed!"
"If you are Kira, I want to see this weapon, or power you use to kill. If we're leaving the household, surely you'd take it with you. So, you'll either show me here, or you won't take it- "
"Out!" She fumed, face radiating.
"No need to be embarrassed," L responded, watching the woman's face heat up more rapidly than boiling water.
"Either I check you now, or I'll check you later."
"Fine!" Kotone seethed.
"Once I'm dressed, you can frisk me later, is that okay?"
Ryuzaki stared at her, irritated.
"You take me for some lowly pervert."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I get weird vibes from you. Haven't I already made it clear that I don't like you?"
"I might have noticed it once or twice," He answered with a grimace, standing up and shoving his hands in his pockets, heading towards the door.
"Thank you," Kotone snapped curtly, and very insincerely.
"You apparently haven't spent much time around women, but I suggest you learn real fast the courtesy you give a female!"
"If you were the typical female I am accustomed to," Ryuzaki retorted, slouching with his hands in his pockets in the doorway,
"Then you'd be wearing much more feminine attire- not dressing as a slacker everyday. I assumed that special women get special treatment."
"So… because I'm not a typical woman, you think you have the right to watch me in my sleep?"
L peered at her lividly through his bangs.
"I was looking for the murder weapon."
Kotone laughed, pulling a long-sleeved black shirt from her closet.
"And I suppose you expected it to be stuck to my face, huh?"
"I was looking through your desk drawer and under your bed when I heard you cry out while you slept. I can't concentrate at one hundred percent under distraction."
She blushed, ashamed, and abruptly turned around, scrounging for socks.
"It's nothing to be embarrassed about," He informed her, with a tone of almost mock sympathy.
Kotone glared at him, throwing the long-sleeve onto her bed furiously. It was almost as if he was saying "So you're afraid of a little dream. Don't be shy- everybody is. Well… Not everybody…"
"Are you making fun of me?" She challenged.
"Not at all."
He turned to leave, almost shutting the door behind him. He hesitated, then added,
"And hurry up, if you don't mind. We've got to leave soon if we're going to breakfast and then to the Yagami household before the others return home."
Then he clicked the door shut.
Kotone felt like bashing her head against a wall. She'd forgotten all about today being the big day to install all those wires, taps, and etcetera in the Yagami's. That meant that her whole… dreadful… day… it would be spent with that Ryuzaki. Or at least most of her day would be. A shudder rippled down her spine in disgust.
"Kotone, why aren't you wearing something a little nicer?" Her father demanded as she ascended down the stairs.
Ryuzaki gazed almost mockingly at her, as if to say, "Told you so."
"It's just breakfast, dad," She insisted, ignoring her accomplice's antagonizing stare.
"We've gone out for breakfast before, and that was nothing special. So what's the big deal now?"
Ulrich smoothed out the front of his suit, his hand traveling up to the knot in his tie.
"This is your first official day, hands on as a... detective."
It appeared as if he was having trouble calling his daughter an official investigator. Which he probably was.
"You're going to have to start dressing the part now."
"Ryuuga doesn't have to dress all formal," Kotone argued, jerking her thumb towards the "madman".
"He isn't my son," Her father pointed out.
"Otherwise, he would be. Now, back upstairs with you."
"Daaad!" She whined.
In her mind, she saw herself pulling her hair out and stomping her feet like a child in a temper tantrum.
Ulrich swiftly pointed back upstairs, his eyes narrowing dangerously. A sign that he wasn't in the mood for arguments.
"And make it quick. After we eat, we're heading directly out for the Yagami household."
She retreated up the stairs, opening her closet with a sour frown. Glaring at the purple summer dress Ryuzaki had picked out, she stepped out of her jeans, her foot coming down with all the force of a crash symbol. If it had to be a dress, more formal than usual, but not as formal as the one she'd worn with Matsuda, then…
Ulrich scowled, turning to Ryuzaki.
"Your slacker attitude is already wearing off on her," He accused.
"Ulrich, I get the feeling that your daughter was always a slacker," Was the detective's casual response.
"You're making it worse."
"I'm sorry. That much I cannot help. Unless of course you don't want her on the case."
"I don't!" He replied curtly.
"You're the one who insisted!"
"It was her decision, so you can't intervene. Sorry."
Ulrich opened his mouth wide, about to point out that Ryuzaki had been the one to bring it up, when a knock on the door interrupted their argument. Upon Ulrich opening the door, Ryuzaki pushed past him, causing the man to growl lowly.
"Ah, Watari."
"We're ready to leave at any time."
"Good."
The detective turned to the staircase, cupping his hands around his mouth.
"Ah, Kotone!!" He called.
While Watari wasn't phased in the least, Ulrich plugged his ears with his fingers, letting out a yell of agony. A plate shattered in the kitchen.
"What's wrong?" Kokoro asked, rushing out of her hiding place.
"This fool!" Ulrich fumed, pointing to Ryuzaki.
"What?!" Kotone answered, scrambling to the top of the stairs.
She wore one legging, the other in her left hand. Finally, she'd decided on wearing a black standard long-sleeved, knee-length dress. Her mother wouldn't let her wear it out with Matsuda- it was "boring", as she'd put it.
"Watari is here," L explained, his voice back to normal as his hands dropped back to his pockets.
Kotone wanted to explode. She wanted to throw something at him for scaring her like that, so she did just that. She flung her legging at him, and, to her dismay, it landed six steps from him. He stared at it a moment, before reaching down and plucking it up with his index and thumb.
"Here you are," He offered as she stormed down the steps.
Snatching it from him, she hopped to the door while slipping it over her leg.
"C'mon, people! We're wasting daylight!"
"I still can't believe you wore tennis shoes."
"Dad, please!"
"It's quite alright," Shoichiro defended from his spot across the table.
He folded his hands in front of his face, casting Kotone a sidelong glance.
"I'm not offended."
"But Chief, I, as her father, am. This isn't how I raised her. To be some barbarian."
Kotone ignored their petty squabbling afterwards from then on. She figured her father was only angry that she'd taken the sole vacant seat in the two-person booth beside of Chief Yagami that he was being such an ass, leaving him to seat beside of his oh-so favorite detective… Not that being such was out of character for him.
L scratched his knee, legs pressed to his chest. Reaching forwards, he took a couple napkins from their holder, delicately twisting them horizontally with his thumb and index finger.
"Mr. Yagami, please map out a layout of your home on these. Draw only one room per side on the napkins, and use both sides."
The Chief accepted the napkins, a look of bewilderment on his face.
"Alright, but what for?"
"Based on your sketches, I am going to figure the most appropriate locations for the equipment."
"I see…"
Yagami patted his jacket, then his pockets.
"I don't seem to have any pen on me…"
"Here, use this marker, but then you can't use the opposite sides of the napkins since the ink will bleed through."
"That's quite alright."
Ryuzaki leaned towards Ulrich, who mirrored the detective simultaneously, leaning to his right as L did, until Ulrich hit the wall. As the detective fast approached, Ulrich looked like he either wanted to be sick or shove L back over as he fished in his pocket for the marker. Or maybe both.
"Here," L offered, straightening back over to his own vicinity.
"Oh. Thank you."
The waiter came as Yagami commenced his sketch, questioning if they party was ready to order.
"Coffee, no-decaf," Ulrich grunted.
"I'll have the same," L echoed, much to Ulrich's displeasure.
"Umm, I think I'll have an iced tea," Kotone sighed.
"Decafinated coffee, please," The Chief answered, taking his eyes away from his napkins long enough to give the blonde waiter a brief glance.
"Unsweetened?" The waiter inquired.
"Huhn?" Kotone replied blankly.
"Your tea," He answered carefully.
"Unsweetened?"
"Oh, umm… No, sweetened, please."
"I'll be back in a moment."
He left, and L's lips twitched, barely noticeable.
"I think that waiter likes you."
Kotone scowled, flashing him a dangerous scowl.
"You think a lot of things that all add up to bull."
"Perhaps you're right… But I don't think you always are."
She curtly turned her head, glaring at the hanging basket of petunias looming beside her.
"I won't stoop to his level, I won't stoop to his level, not today…"
"…I think it's a more accurate assessment if I said that it seems to be a pattern I've noticed for the darker haired males to take a liking to you, and his hair was obviously bleached. And that's saying a lot, seeing how most people in Japan have dark hair-"
He was cut short by a wadded up napkin being thrown at him. Barely having to tilt his body at all, it easily missed. It hadn't been a good shot to begin with.
"Stop that, this instant!" Ulrich hissed.
"I won't have you throwing things in a public restaurant!"
Kotone crossed her arms. She hated that detective…
The waiter returned, and they ordered their breakfast; to her horror, she caught herself trying to catch the waiter to see if he was trying to make a pass on her. What horrified her more than that, was when he unnecesarily stated that he didn't have a girlfriend. Kotone began to think that this was some game to Ryuzaki; each and every time the waiter questioned her father about his food, Ryuzaki would give the same exact answer.
"I'll take an order of Congee," Ulrich ordered.
"Yes, that sounds good. I'll have the same," L complied.
"On second thought… I'll take the sweet omelet."
"Actually, that does sound better. I'll have that as well."
"Don't add any onions."
"Same here. No onions, please."
She found it highly amusing.
Shoichiro ordered miso soup and rice, while Kotone stuck with the sweet omelet. This seemed to further infuriate her father, convincing him that she was in on Ryuzaki's conspiracy to make his life a living hell.
"Here you are, Ryuuga. I've finished the maps."
"Thank you," Ryuzaki responded, reaching for the napkins.
"We'll be leaving now."
"What?!" Ulrich seethed, glaring angrily at Ryuzaki's plate- that he hadn't touched. Only his coffee cup and the once-full sugar bowl were empty.
"I'm ready," Shoichiro assured him.
"I'd rather get this over with as soon as possible, and before my son gets home. Sometimes he stays on campus to eat his lunch, but at other times, he comes home at noon."
"Understood," Ryuzaki replied.
Kotone lifted her arms, popping her elbow joints.
Ulrich remained the only one still seated. To his anger, soon he was the only one at the table.
"What is the meaning of this?!"
"I've indicated in red the areas in which cameras and wire taps will be installed."
"The whole napkin's red!!" Ulrich fumed.
They were in the back seat of Watari's black car, and Ulrich had snuck a peak at what L had been doing with the napkins as he wrote on them with a red pen.
"Precisely," L answered.
"Even if the Yagami family is keen enough to locate one or two of the cameras, they won't find all of them."
"Of course they won't! Everything is red!!"
"You know, that is a good idea," Kotone agreed, stunned she was actually agreeing with him.
Ulrich glared at her once again.
She tried her best to ignore him.
The limo came to a halt, and the sound of a door opening and closing could be heard. Seconds later, Watari opened the door, and the four of them clambered out. Matsuda waved from the gate of the Yagami household, calling as he ran towards them.
"Matsuda," The Chief reprimanded as they approached the rambunctious boy.
"We need to keep a low profile now. With your yelling, that won't be possible."
"Oh- Sorry, Chief..."
Kotone felt sorry for Chief Yagami. She failed to express in words how upset she would be if she knew that her mother would be monitered with cameras and wire taps, even while taking a shower or dressing herself- and she couldn't breathe a word to her about it. And it upset her on another level at the thought of herself being watched, and not able to do anything about it.
"Mr. Yagami, you will install the bedrooms. Ulrich, please handle the living and dining rooms. Matsuda, please get the kitchen and utility rooms."
Ryuzaki then turned to Kotone.
"Your father tells me that you've never worked with this type of equipment before. So you and I will attend the bathrooms."
"Understood," Shoichiro agreed on behalf of everyone.
So everyone went to thier respected rooms. But as Kotone stood atop the toilet lid while Ryuzaki sat below her, her bugging the ceiling tiles while he bugged around the base of the porcelain throne, she couldn't shake the feeling that he was stealing a peek up her dress. She tried to tell herself that this man was not a cheap peeping tom, but she paled when she glanced down at him and saw him looking straight back up at her.
"What?!" She demanded, voice quivering.
"I'm done here," He explained.
"Are you about finished?"
"Y-yeah... I think..."
He climbed atop the toilet, the two now near wrestling for space.
"Get down, before you push me into the bathtub!"
"No wonder you were taking so long. You couldn't find where this wire went, since you already had that one in it's place... If it had stayed like that, the picture would not have come in for this bathroom."
He switched the two wires, then brought his hands down, gazing curiously over at her.
"Intentional...?"
"No," She protested quietly.
"Good."
He reached back up and fumbled with the wires a bit longer. Crowded and feeling violated, she made a move to step down.
"No, you should stay up here and watch what I do, so you can see for yourself."
She silently obeyed, and analyzed his actions and corrected her technological mistakes. Also, she unintentionally and quite randomly, noticed, as he nearly stood ontop of her, that she was actually much shorter than him. Kotone had never considered herself a tall person, but she came up just below his shoulder with Ryuzaki standing up straight for once, and she felt all that much shorter.
Ryuzaki dropped his hands once again, then climbed down from the toilet.
"That's that for this bathroom. But there's still one more in the master bedroom. We'll get that one, then see how the others are doing."
"Alright."
The next room was much easier for her. Despite the fact that she'd been distracted by her height in comparison to his, she must've learned something watching him, because Ryuzaki was only waiting two minutes. Perhaps she'd obtained such abilities through osmosis.
By the time they were done, Ulrich and Matsuda were still working on thier rooms.
"Mr. Yagami, please go see what is taking Matsuda so long in the kitchen," Ryuzaki droned.
"Help your father, while I observe," He addressed Kotone.
She swallowed hard, nervous. Her father was hard headed and independent. He wouldn't be quick to accept help from her, she was well aware.
"Heya, pop... Uh, how's it looking up there?"
"Don't rush me," He snarled, standing atop the couch.
"If you want it done right, then leave me to it."
"No rush," L assured him.
"It is only ten fourty-five. Even if Chief Yagami's son does come home for lunch at noon, we will be gone by then, at this rate."
The faintest smile flickered across his lips.
"We are well ahead of schedule."
"If he doesn't want help..." He added, scratching his chin, walking into the opposite room.
"...Then allow me to teach you a lesson in repairing such equipment, in case it becomes worn or damaged."
"...Repair-?"
She poked her head around the corner just in time to see L rip a handful of wires from the ceiling. Her jaw dropped.
"What was that noise?!" Ulrich called.
"Nothing," Ryuzaki lied.
"Here."
He connected the broken metallic cords on the insides of the wires.
"You can't just jam them together. You must get them just right... And then hold them fast with something rubberish... Duct tape works perfect. Regular tape is the method of ignoramouses. It doesn't work. It will not conduct the flow of electricity once you have the rest of the wire together..."
An awkward place to end, but I think I'm finished for this chapter. It's getting a bit too long now!