In Another's Shoes
Disclaimer: Death Note is the copyrighted property of Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, not me. If I owned Death Note, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction for it.
Chapter 2 Part 1: Confusion
Light awoke the next morning, feeling as if he was drifting up out of a thick, soupy fog. His entire body was tingling with the kind of pins-and-needles feeling one gets when a foot falls asleep. As his mind slowly shed the heavy, warm blanket of unconsciousness, the effect began to subside.
He did not open his eyes just yet, but lay still until the tingling effect completely left him. He had been up particularly late that evening working on the case with L, having had to make up for the time spent out on the 'date', and he was happy to take advantage of these last few moments of peaceful slumber. Soon L would doubtless force him to wake and prepare for another day of work, and Light's body needed every second of rest it could get these days.
Strangely though, he could not hear any signs of his eccentric roommate's presence; no typing, no shifting, not even the sound of breath. It was normal for the detective to wake Light early, deliberately and often in the most annoying and uncomfortable nature. His favorite method was to crouch directly over Light and stare unblinkingly into his eyes, like a great black-and-white owl. Even if L did not consciously work to wake him, he inevitably disturbed his slumber anyways (since the teen slept very lightly) with the tinkling of his spoon against china, the sound of the mattress creaking slightly or by jingling the chain that connected them by moving about.
Light decided to not question this morning's silence. He had not slept this well in a while, and wished to savor it.
When he finally felt up to it, and moved his arm to his head, the movement felt strangely detached; it was almost like he was moving someone else's limb instead of his own. What furthered this alien feeling was the now noticed absence of the shackle that bound him to Ryuuzaki. Ryuuzaki never removed the handcuffs, not unless they were changing their clothes.
Light's mind began to flash warning bells. He sat up quickly, pushed the covers back and slowly forced his eyelids apart. Once his eyes were open, he worked at convincing them to focus on his surroundings, blurred with sleep as they were. Everything seemed hazy for a few moments. Once he had finished adjusting his sight, he blinked and gaped in earnest surprise.
Light was not lying on the bed on which he had fallen asleep in that precious night. He was not even in the same hotel-style room that he was used to inhabiting. He was lying, instead, in an enormous, horrendously fluffy bed. This piece of furniture was decorated with pink heart-shaped pillows and covers laced in intricate patterns in pink, red and black. There was a walk-in closet to his left, the closed door covered with a vast tableau of carefully arranged magazine clippings. You could barely see the door itself under the smiling faces of renowned celebrities and beautiful, curvaceous models. An expensive-looking vanity, complete with heart-shaped mirror and an absurd amount of cosmetics, lay to his right. Beyond that was an open portal to a lavish bathroom and a small archway leading out to a general living area, furnished with sofas and small tables and wallpaper with lilies.
The entire effect of the apartment-like set of rooms was rich and opulent and princess-like. Any teenage girl in existence would have drooled at the very sight of it, and would pay through the nose just to spend a single night in such a perfect suite. It made Light nauseous.
He shivered slightly, a foreboding chill traveling up his spine to fizzle in his skull. The entire room was suspicious; Light just didn't trust anything that was this… pink.
What was he doing here anyways?
Was this some sort of trick? Light thought the situation over with increasing befuddlement. Was L trying to do some elaborate test on his Kira theories by placing Light in a completely new environment while he slept? If so, L would be observing him with hidden cameras.
"Ryuuzaki?" Light called, and gasped at the sound of his own voice. It was high pitched and foreign. Had he developed laryngitis through the night? He might have caught it while he was outside, he surmised.
"Ryuuzaki, come on come out! What the hell is going on?" Light yelled, in ever-growing anxiety, whipping his head back and forth to survey he room for any sign of his raven-haired jailor.
He saw nothing, but the violent movement of his head brought to his attention the shifting of something heavy and smooth on his shoulders and against the back of his neck. As his head moved, the feeling followed. This could only be one thing...
Light reached up to feel at his head to affirm his new discovery. His hair was, against all conceivable odds, long. It was shoulder-length and smooth, and tugging hard on a hair provoked a corresponding pain on his scalp. It wasn't a wig. Either that, or it was a wig that had been super-glued or otherwise attached to his head. He wouldn't put it past L to go to such lengths. What kind of test was this?
Having had enough, Light stood up from the bed and made his way angrily to the door. He was going to find L, and he was going to get some answers! As he made his way towards the door, he caught a mere flicker of bright color reflected in the mirror of the cosmetic-piled vanity. It distracted him from his growing frustration for a moment, just long enough to convince him to backpedal across the plush carpet to get a closer inspection of it. Upon catching sight of the same color again, Light ran the rest of the way up to the vanity and stared wide-eyed into the mirror. For what seemed like an eternity, he just stood there; silent, paralyzed, unable to move or even think. Ttime had frozen in place, breath was forgotten.
Light had never experienced true shock. He was, after all, a genius; he was able to calculate the many outcomes of any action, analyze them and predict even farther into the future with the mental effort it took others to remember how to tie their shoes. He was a strategic prodigy and held an amazing talent for foresight, so it was not very often that he was left completely, utterly flabbergasted. In fact, such an event had never in his life occurred.
..And now he was left gaping like a fish.
…This was just... inconceivable!
Interrupting the stupefied youth's moment of paralysis came a reverberating high-pitched scream, the sound saturated with the same confusion and disbelief as our young anti-hero was feeling at that very moment. The scream came from some several floors above, judging by its muffled quality.
Temporarily shoving his new, troubling revelation far, far out of his mind, Light bolted out of the room in the direction of the sound. He plowed past pillow-strewn couches and over fluffy carpets. He found the door that let him out of the whole suite, and opened it to find the all-too-familiar neutrally toned corridors of the investigation headquarters. He paused for but a moment to quirk an eyebrow at this discovery, scowling. Light granted that he had never been able to fully explore the building, there being many different floors all filled with rooms, and Light being chained to a workaholic who refused to budge from laptop; but still, this was ridiculous. More questions that needed answers...
His mind returning to the reason that he had been running in the first place, Light estimated his approximate location in the building from the arrangement of the hallways and ran in the direction of the central elevator. He found it with ease, dashing up to its metallic doors and forcefully pressing the 'up' button. Whatever was going on, Light was sure that he was not the only one suffering these strange consequences.
The elevator announced its arrival with a small 'ding', and Light clambered inside. he pressed the button for the floor which held the rooms that he and L usually ate and slept in. That area was the only one that was ever inhabited at all during this time of day, so it was the best bet that the scream would have originated there.
Light shivered in the elevator as it rose up, wishing that he had woken up in something slightly more substantial, glad that the elevator ride wouldn't take too long.
To be Continued
Authors Notes: This is the first part in what was originally going to be a whole chapter, but since I want to add to the suspense (and I'm having a little trouble with the second half of it) I decided to split it up.
A big thank you to my two first reviewers, Shadow-L-Chan and hidden warrior1! Your encouragement was very much appreciated!