CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Relationships

A knock on the door made Misa squeal, running too it excitedly, her blonde hair flying. "Light -" She stopped, her face dropped as she realized who it was. "Oh, it's just you."

Elaine smiled. Sort of. "Can I come in?"

Misa sighed. It wasn't like she disliked Emiko or anything, it was just that she was hoping she would get more time with Light since their date had been cut short by a certain girl who had gotten hurt. "Sure, I guess." She opened the door wider and Elaine slipped inside, but still hung around the entrance.

"So," she began, "I want to apologize."

"Apologize?" Misa repeated, her blue eyes narrowed suspiciously. "For what?"

"Well," Elaine said slowly, "I was assuming that you were on a date with Light when..."

"Oh!" She stopped. She had never thought that Emiko would apologize for that. In fact, an apology didn't even cross her mind. She was upset, sure, but she didn't expect an apology. In fact, knowing L, she didn't expect anything but it helped to complain anyway. "You don't have to!"

"But I should." Elaine sighed. She never had to apologize to suspects before but with all this guilt and how down she had been feeling these past couple weeks, she figured this was a good way to get things off her chest. "I know that things are tough that you are locked here and everything, and I guess we really didn't get to talk too much about it and..."

Misa waited.

"And it must have been hard being locked up like that for all that time, and I am sorry even if I didn't say that but...but I guess what I'm trying to say is that even if Ryuzaki doesn't apologize for his actions, I will."

Suddenly, Misa was seeing her in a new light. Elaine had a small smile on her face.

"So -"

"Oh, Emi!" Misa cried out, throwing her arms around the taller girl. "That's so nice of you!" Being the passionate person Misa was, she didn't let go of her even when Elaine laughed and tried to push her off. Misa didn't expect an apology from that dark period – from being tied up and bound. Everyone had yelled at her that she should be grateful that she was even released. "I promise I won't steal your stuff anymore!"

Elaine stood there awkwardly, not used to all the affection from another girl. She didn't even think about the other comment about her stolen things. Her world had been pretty restricted to L and Watari, and everyone else she was forced to work with on a much farther extent. Like L, as much as she may lie about it, she knew that her number of friends was one until she joined the Kira case.

"Sure," she said as she detached the girl from her. "So...forgiven?"

Misa nodded, beaming as she winked. "Sure."

Elaine seemed like a weight was lifted off her chest and she exhaled loudly. There it was – lightness. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow," then she paused when Misa called out her name. "Hm?"

"I've been curious," she said and there was a playful glint in her eyes, "what exactly is between you and Ryuzaki?"

This caught her attention. "What do you mean?"

"Well are you like...married?"

Elaine stopped.

And then laughed.

Loudly.

"Married?" she repeated, unable to really get out – hell, she could barely breathe. "You - you think we're married?"

"Hey! What's wrong with that! I mean, you two are together, right?" Misa asked, pouting with her eyebrows pulled together. She didn't like being laughed at, but she it was hard to be angry at Emiko who had been so tired and dull lately. She was nothing like the girl Misa remembered seeing walking home from Light's house all those months ago. The mature, happy looking one that warned her to be safe because it was dark out. But hearing that laugh now, it made her feel like she wasn't stuck in a building because she was suspected of being the second Kira.

Elaine wiped a tear from her eye. "I really needed that laugh...but no, we're not married."

"Why?"

"Why?" She raised her eyebrow.

"Yeah, I mean – I know he's weird and everything -"

"He's not," Elaine said quickly and any trace of laughter disappeared in that instant so obvious even Misa stopped. Suddenly, all Elaine could think about was being back in the Wammy's house, of people pointing at L and whispering about him. She was only six the first time she clumsily punched someone in the face because they called him buggy.

L was not weird.

Okay, he was. But more than anything, he was intelligent, he made her laugh – and...and remembering waking up seeing his face so close to hers a couple days ago, he was handsome. But she couldn't say this so instead, she simply added quietly, "he really isn't."

Misa looked at her strangely, wondering how she got so defensive. "Well, okay."

Elaine turned away, but she couldn't leave it at like that. She came to apologize to Misa, and couldn't leave after snapping. With her hand on the knob, she said, "I'm sorry. And I'm glad that you can get over everything so well."

"Get over what?"

Elaine stared and very slowly with her light eyes wide, she said, "You know...being treated like a criminal and monitored...strapped down..."

Misa blinked and then laughed. "Oh that? I'm strong, I can handle it."

Elaine winced, her hand still on the knob. She could just say good for you and leave things in a better state, but that guilt would just crawl back. She took a deep breath and spun around. "Misa."

"Hm?"

Should she? Elaine opened her mouth and then closed it. Should she speak her mind? They had spoke about relationships, after all. So should she give Misa her thoughts on Light – and how deep his feelings went for this blonde girl? He cared for now but the Light she knew before the imprisonment was sketchy between alternating with Misa and Kiyomi..."You deserve happiness, Misa."

The girl blinked, confused.

"What do you mean?"

Elaine looked like she was about to say something again, but only ended up sighing. She touched her hair habitually, and suddenly Misa saw that same, tired stressed out girl again and she had the urge to make her laugh again. When Elaine did spoke, her voice felt drained. "And I know that Light makes you unbelievably happy but..."

And as Elaine stared at the girl in front of her, she knew that no matter what she could say about Light, it would never change her perception of him. Misa would forever be in love with him, even if he didn't return those feelings in that way. "Don't be blinded by it." And before she would say something she regret, she left Misa's room.

xxx-xx-xxx

Elaine laid in the centre of her room – on the floor, not the bed – and stared up at the ceiling, thinking, wondering. Despite her discovery, she still felt off her game. She didn't feel normal. And as selfish as she was being, she still couldn't deny the fact that she missed the times when it was just her and L talking, whispering in the dark about a case with Watari strolling in periodically to check up on them and feed them. Like animals, in a way.

If someone had told her when she was six years old that if she were to befriend this enigma, she would guarantee her life as a partner to the greatest detective in the world, she would have laughed, said that she had always known that, and then proceeded to playing whatever it was with him. And it had happened exactly like that, and with each case, she found herself closer and closer to L to the point where she couldn't even remember when or how exactly it had happened.

But this Kira case was different.

All the others were like a puzzle and she was waiting for the right thing to pop up before it was solved and all over. This case felt like an impossibility. Gods and shinigami and death surrounded her in a whole other way and perhaps it was this concept that affected her like this, that trapped and encased her.

God, she missed the simplicity of the other cases. Of simply reading, understanding, setting up plans and then leaving home base to play whatever it took: a mafia doctor, a client, a potential victim, a target. It was easier putting herself to use, to being thrown out but with a goal in mind. This Kira case was different, and even with the realization of the Yotsuba group, she still felt like she was going in circles. And. It. Was. Driving. Her. Crazy.

She groaned.

She didn't want to think anymore. She was letting her thoughts run freely now, so here was the naked truth, concealed by not the tiniest bit of excuse:

Elaine missed the past.

She wanted to be with Lawliet, and just him.

And the only question left was why. If it was natural, territorial, fear or maybe...maybe even a romantic intent...she wasn't quite sure.

xxx-xx-xxx

"Hey, Ryuzaki?"

"Hm?"

"Do you think we'll actually solve this case? Find out who Kira is?" Light asked distractedly as he leaned back against the chair, staring up up at the silver ceiling as he spun a pen in his hand. Even though the past couple months had been a blur to him, the future was even worse. How did he expect all of this to end? How could he find the solution? Usually, this sort of thing came easy to him but so many important things felt scattered...even if he didn't know what it was.

He remembered still being bored in high-school when he first met Emiko. He remembered getting into To-Oh University and meeting Ryuzaki there for the first time. He remembered a tennis match, and he remembered being brought up to a hotel where he had his intelligence questioned. He remembered kissing Emiko – and he remembered her choosing to forget the entire incident.

But he did not, at all, remembered what he was thinking throughout the entire time. It was like watching a movie. And even though he was living it right now – he felt like he was missing a large chunk of something, something important...something that could maybe solve this case.

"Of course," Ryuzaki said reassuringly, "after all, how can we possibly fail?"

Light laughed. Of course he would say something like that. "I guess that isn't an option for you."

"No, it's not."

A new thought suddenly occurred to him. "Have you and Emiko ever...not solve a case?"

"No."

"Been stuck?"

"No," was his immediate, bored response but then Ryuzaki sighed, "not until this one." And Light knew he was testing his patience, but he still continued.

"Say, how long have you two been working together anyway?"

Ryuzaki finally spun around, staring at him with an unamused expression in his black, sleepless eyes. "Just where are you going with this, Light?"

"Just curious." He sat up straighter in his chair, making sounds as he stretched. Ryuzaki seemed to relax slightly and returned to staring at his food. The silence was long enough for Light to drop the topic altogether, but surprisingly, he responded.

"Long enough. We are quite close," he said but there was no intimacy in his statement. It was as if someone was asking about how long one knew a teacher – clipped and professional. But Light knew – in fact, anyone with eyes could see the relationship between the two – that things went deeper than that.

"Childhood friends?"

Pause.

"Something like that."

Because despite the seven language he knew fluently on a University level, he could not find a word right enough to describe the relationship that he had always had with Elaine.

Except maybe one word in Chinese.

Yuanfen.

Something just kept drawing them back together.

Sorry for all the filler-like chapter! It's just...well, the gap between the Yotsuba group and L's death is really short and I don't want this story ending on the fourteenth chapter or whatever.

But yes, thank you for reading! Reviews would be lovely :)