Chapter 24

Kat wrinkled her nose as she led her little charges to the nearest airport. But she had no reason to be so petulant, right? But, oh no, Lawliet had requested of her to take the boys to the airport herself. The memory was blazing clear in her head.

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"Gah! Nee-chan!?!?!?! What the hell was that one for?!" Mello huffed, rubbing the bump on his head.

Kat turned lazily towards him, green eyes boring into him as she spoke with her naturally soft voice. "For putting that disturbing mental picture of Roger and Ms. Mercy in my head you dimwit," She stuck her tongue out from her mouth, feigning a gag. "Really, I did not want to know what they do with their free time." She certainly was learning abundance from all of the human interaction. She was beginning to be able to emulate their mannerisms and slang.

"But that doesn't mean ya get ta abuse me with the goddamn text book!!!" He continued, muttering swears under his breath.

"You brought it upon yourself, stand up and atone for your errors." She said putting in a card to complete the clock tower located in Volterra, Italy. It was a master piece, what Near was constructing. The towers and arcs were exemplary, the fountains superb, she doubted she would ever be able to find a finer duplicate anywhere else in the world.

Nearly everyone jumped when a blare of music enveloped the room.

To say that Kat jumped would be an understatement, she nearly yanked the carpet up in the ferocity of the leap, for they were (quite stupidly) lodged her claws in the carpet.

A heat spread across her face as she took out her cellular phone, cursing quietly in an act to try and smother her embarrassment. That is what it was, correct? At least, that is what the dictionaries called it.

"…Hello…?"

"Kokoro," the bleak and toneless voice instantly made a wave a calm go over her. "I need you to drop them off at the airport."

Her eyebrows had scrunched up as she pushed a few locks of hair out of her face, green eyes suspicious.

"Why must I take them? Do we not have drivers for that? I am pretty sure we have them in excess." She stated, K leaking through.

"Yes, however, I want you to take them to ensure that they arrive safely." She could hear the crunch of food on the other end.

"Oh yes, you ask someone that has only ever have driven in illegal races, that truly does ensure their safety, Ryuuzaki." She retorted acidly, she was not at all fond of doing errands, even if it was ensuring any ones safe passage, lest they be for a paid mission…Albeit, even then she would be stoically fuming.

"Please, just do it." And then the line went dead. She snapped the phone shut, clenching it in her hands but not enough to break it.

"Boys, lets go, L's sending you off to England, back to Wammy's house."

Matt, sensing his "sisters" dangerous mood, decided to stick his neck out on the line. "WHAT?!!! L'S DEPORTING US?!!! I THOUGHT HE WAS OUR FRIEND! THE FIEND!"

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She pulled a particularly sharp right turn at a red light, causing the drivers to yell out unseemly obscenities and make less then polite hand gestures. But no matter the amount of police cars she passed in the fairly ostentatious cherry red Mustang Cobra, they did not give chase. She had sent an e-mail to all the stations ordering them not to pull over her vehicle and enforced the name of Agent K and Detective L.

At one point, someone actually had the audacity to try and rear-end her. In her rage she slammed the accelerator down to the limit and was a centimeter from demolishing the small car, about ready to take out one of her many stashed guns and ram into a window.

All the while, the three Wammy boys sat ram rod straight, pallid and frightened of their "sister's" manic driving. This took road-rage to a whole new level.

But then, her anger cooled down (her speed however, did not).

Dammit! Why am I having a conniption! It makes complete sense. He just wants to ensure their safety; therefore, he would only trust either myself or Watari to take them to the airport. And seeing that K would just throw a knife at Misa and say the case was half way done…well then, the only logical choice was to have me take them, no matter how incredibly horrible I am at obeying driving laws.

And in a way…it is another way to show that he trusts me with the safety of his successors (and mine, but that is completely beside the point).

Does he take some sick pleasure from seeing me completely at wit's end? He seems to do it quite a lot, even when we where children.

She took one of her hands off of the wheel, turning her eyes away from the road in favor of the CDs that Suture had persuaded her to buy. She shuffled through them (much to the horror of the boys, even Near had not even touched his toys for fear of going flying through the window) and giving a cry of victory when she found the desired disc.

She placed the disc in the slot and pulled the music up a bit, Yonekura Chihiro's voice filling the car as she sung "Distance." (1)

She pulled into the special hanger that they had. It was near the edge of the airport and could barely be differentiated from any of the other hangers apart from the fact that the other hangers did not have an assortment of both luxury jets and helicopters in them.

She did not flinch, cars were more her thing, his was flying.

Why, she would never know.

She filed out of the car with ease while the boys had a bit of trouble, adjusting to the fact that they were no longer in danger of dying from a vehicular accident.

But the queued up when they did manage to get out. She Wrapped her arms around all of them in a quick embrace (though she just was emulating those people she saw saying there farewells to those they called family.)

Mello went stiff when she did, chocolate that was surely melting in his pocket forgotten. Near simply stayed limp, letting her do what she wanted now that he had regained his composure. Matt, of course, wrapped his arms around her and gave her a cheeky grin when he pushed off.

"C'mon sis! We got a plane to catch! The pilot won't wait forever!" He exclaimed, picking up his backpack. (2)

She simply flashed a smile, "Matt, L most likely wired it to be autopilot. You know how he does not trust anyone with anything that he remotely likes."

And with that, she shooed them off and returned to her car, revving the engine and pulling out in a flurry.

-

She pulled into the garage of hotel they were currently using (Kat had told Watari and L about how she was getting tired of getting information second hand, therefore, they allowed her to leave and go to where, in the words of Matt, "All the action was happening."). It was completely annoying to her, how she had made a dozen comments, more so, K did, and no one could hear it when they put Yagami Soichiro in confinement.

In no time at all, she was inside the hotel room, crouching next to Lawliet, ignoring the fact that the task force was absent.

"Anything new…?" She asked quietly, as if speaking any louder would disrupt Lawliet's train of thought.

He simply shook his head no slowly, bringing his thumb to his lips and biting it. Should he go through with it? The task force was not present, which rarely happened unless, like now, he ordered them to take a respite.

He had researched enough… (Though he always ended up getting caught by Kat someway or another…at least she did not sneak in the "history" of the computer).

And, from what he read and the people he spoke to, all the signs were pointing in the correct direction. But, there was also data saying that a single action could ruin all he had. And then, he had people breathing down his neck saying that he should take a risk and try it or else…the results were likely to be less than …likeable.

Kat looked on at the monitors, settling herself on the arm of Lawliet's chair, leaning back and folding her arms on top of her exposed stomach. She had taken to wearing her usual thin fur parka, bandages and cargo pants since she did not need to worry about going to photo shoots and the like any more. Watari was the one that had fabricated the whole "we arrested Amane Misa and Saionji Tomoe's manager for…" and she all but threw a party consisting of sweets and whatever else popped into her head.

And she was still unaware of Lawliet's pondering.

However, his shifting caused her to sit up. He turned around in the chair, awkwardly, to face her. His blank eyes calculating and made Kat uneasy.

"Um, yes, can I help you?" She questioned apprehensively, trying to make sure that her voice did not crack. (3)

"Yes, actually," He said slowly, almost in a whisper as he started to lean in.

Her eyes were the size of saucers in her unease, the hair on the nape of her neck on edge. This was in no way a comfortable position, what the in the name of justice was he doing?!

His lips pressed to hers; caressing them against hers but in some way she could feel his trepidation through the action. She was unsure what to do but resorted to staying stock still, waiting for it to be over.

He was blissfully unaware of her state until the lack of movement (so audible to him) on her part was noticed mere seconds in.

Lawliet backed away from her, not much, a few inches perhaps, but enough to see her expression, see if her face was covered in disgust or fear.

It was neither of course. She took a shuddery gasp, looking into his pools of gray and voicing her thoughts. "W-what…? What was that?"

"A kiss," he answered simply, hanging on to the single shred of hope.

Then her face morphed into that of incredulity; her brows furrowed, her mouth slightly gaping as she pressed the pads of her fingers to her lips. "What does an American chocolate confection have to do with anything?"

He sighed, disappointed. "Nothing. It is what the action is called, is all." He turned back to the monitor, gloomier than before, drowning in his despair.

Kat's mind was swirling, still hazy from the 'kiss.' What was expected of her?

She traced back to the moment, face flushing for some unknown reason and her stomach churning in a flurry. Oh great, did she have some stomach virus? It happened so often now!

Wait, she was digressing. The 'kiss' was gentle and had to have meant something. Misa was always on about it when they were out on the town doing some publicity activities…And as far as she was concerned, it was mentioned in most books she read.

But, I liked the way it felt…

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Author's Note: okay, I love this chapter, and if you have visited my DeviantArt account kyosohma04 then you would have seen this coming. Eventually at least.

(1) YouTube it. The one that comes up with a girl holding a guitar is the one that I am referring to. It is the only one that I could find that was remotely good.

(2) The whole "Matty is so loveable" thing is dedicated to BlueHarpy but I feel like I am shooting in the dark with this. I am trying my best to make him sound like someone you'd want to glomp without turning him into a Naruto Uzumakiclone. ^-^

(3) Okay, so this one is Kat. Kat is the teenage persona. She is that girl that Kew missed out on because of her constant "I had to grow up in a hostile environment." It is easy to describe her as the jittery teenage girl who doesn't know what her name is when one of the male species approaches her. I'll be posting a full character sketch on all the personas if need arises. Just say it in a review and I'll post it.

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Now, on to replies to reviews.

Timekeeper101: S'ank chu! I liked putting her in those positions, making her more animalistic than human is my way of forcing the "she is a PRODUCT OF SCIENCE" into people's mind without actually having to mention it in the story.

White Alchemist Taya: Nope. She hasn't mentioned anything to him about the shadow behind Light and Misa. She is classifying it as…well, I think I can fit that in to the story somewhere. S'ank chu for reviewing!

Shannon55544: Wow! I feel special! I'm the only one? Sheesh –goes off in a corner to blush-. Not abandoning! Apparently people actually like it from the number of people on the alerts list and stuff….S'ank chu!

And my last comment, I have never kissed anyone. This is all my guess work. I have written mature worthy material before and am trying to go on the words that my friends react to the most. They usually are as big of romantics as I am and two out of four of them have actually kissed, the rest of us haven't. If you have any qualms with that, please contact me, otherwise, I'd still like to hear how I did with that particular scene.