Okay. Writing the last chapter cheered me up :D haha
This story has reached over 5,000 views so eeeeeeeeep!! Yay :)
And my last chapter got eight comments. RECORD!!
That made me happy when I logged in and saw that :D
Disclaimer: Blarg. I'm too lazy. Look at the Prologue chapter, there's one there.
It wasn't a surprise to hear a loud snore issue from the couch in the hotel room at around seven o' clock that evening. Matsuda obviously wasn't used to copious amounts of caffeine and irregular sleeping patterns. Five minutes after an hour long period of exclaiming that he was awake every time his name was mentioned, he had fallen over on the couch, passed out. The entire investigation team could inwardly breathe a sigh of relief at this purge of distraction.
"Now that Matsuda-san is no longer hitting his head on the ceiling at the mention of his name…" L said. "Do either of you know what he has been up to?"
"I don't know," Aizawa said, looking back at Matsuda. "If we had put him up to that, we would have made sure he was a little less obvious."
"I supposed you'd say something of that sort."
"What's that supposed to mean? You think I'm lying?"
"I'm not sure, but your suspiciousness is making that seem to be more likely."
There's that idiotic word again, L thought, shutting his eyes momentarily in annoyance.
"Ryuzaki, I assure you that if Matsuda has any sort of plan, we have nothing to do with it," Yagami said. "It is unlikely he does, or he would have in some way slipped up about it by now."
"And besides which," Aizawa said, "the thought of Matsuda coming up with a plan of any kind isn't that threatening."
"Probably not," L agreed negligently. "If he's not working on anything, there would be no purpose served in questioning him. He is obviously not helping in your plan."
And then there were the familiar sounds of an awkward silence. L's accusations often led to these silences, so he had grown used to them. They didn't particularly bother him anymore. They were only awkward at all for those being accused.
"W… we… what?" Aizawa said slowly. "What're you talking about?"
"Judging by your reaction, Aizawa-san, you at least know what I am talking about. I fell asleep last night and awoke to a somewhat more suspicious environment than what I've been used to over the past year of this investigation. I have a feeling I know what you're planning, and don't bother. There's absolutely no point in trying to convince me to do anything. You would just be wasting time that could be put to much better use in investigating Kira. I would suggest that you use your time to do that rather than waste it."
Yagami and Aizawa looked at him blankly. They knew exactly what he was talking about, there was no point in them trying to pretend that they didn't. Matsuda had left to call Katherine and try to talk her into coming back to the investigation team. Considering her pride, she probably said she wouldn't unless L asked her, since it had been his decision to get rid of her. If Yagami Light didn't act soon, it was presumable that she had been bluffing entirely about him having a plan.
As was usual lately, he stayed up all night in a state of such deep thought that may as well have been sleep, for as much as he lacked noticing around him. No matter how hard he tried not to, he came to the same conclusion over and over. The team did need her. They hadn't needed her when she first became a part of the team, but they did by the time she left. That was an unfriendly thought.
At about noon the next day, while he was questioning Amane Misa with absolutely no luck, his cell phone rang. He took it from his pocket and looked at the front.
"Yagami-kun…?"
This caused the rest of the team to pay closer attention.
"He says us having his cell phone number could be a bad thing if Kira were to intercept the calls…" Matsuda said quietly.
"He probably just doesn't want to talk to you when you're not here," Aizawa said.
"Wha… oh, shut up."
"Yes…" L said into the cell phone. "I see. That's right…. Okay. We're in room K-2801."
L shut his phone.
This isn't good… L thought. If I'd trusted what she was saying, this wouldn't be happening. Dammit, Yagami Light, what are you planning…?
"My son is coming here?" Yagami asked.
"Yes. Matsuda-san –"
"I'm going…" he said.
He grumbled sardonically under his breath as he walked towards the door. As it turned out, Matsuda could be quite unpleasant durring a caffeine hangover. L would have to find somewhere else to hide his coffee to keep something like this from happening again. He returned a minute later with Light walking behind him. Matsuda sat on a sofa, staring at the coffee maker.
"Ryuzaki," Light said, "it is as I told you on the phone." The team was silent. "I may be Kira."
"What?!"
L listened vaguely as Yagami attempted to talk sense into his son, to talk him into taking back what he had just said. He couldn't help but wonder if this was one of the moments when she would have made a trademark smart-aleck comment, causing an uproar from Aizawa stating that it was a serious situation, resulting in Matsuda making an at least somewhat sensible comment, causing Aizawa to then call him an idiot and causing her to tell off Aizawa for calling her "brother" an idiot, then dimly asking what the original subject was when she finished telling him off. Thinking about it was a headache, but at least it had been mildly amusing when things such as that happened. This was somewhat boring.
No… L thought to himself, sighing inwardly. Am I starting to think like her now? That can't be good. Or normal. At all.
"Dad, if Ryuzaki is L, then he's the best detective in the world. If L thinks I'm Kira, I probably am."
"Wh… Light!"
L looked back from his computer. "I'm ninety-nine percent sure that Light is Kira," he said. "So he is right to say this. I should be prepared to interrogate him soon."
The reason you think you're Kira is because you are. L thought as he looked back to his computer. You know you're Kira. That damn Shinigami and its incessant laughter…. You kill with a Death Note, which means you should be able to see it. If we could get proof that you have spoken to it… then the team would think you were going insane, as they can't hear the thing. This isn't good at all. Dammit! If I had listened to her, then this wouldn't be happening….
"I think that I may have subconsciously become Kira," Light said.
Of course you did… L thought, glaring at his computer's screen to avoid doing so in Light's direction.
L half listened as Light began spouting about how he could have become Kira subconsciously. It was really pointless to listen intently at all, as L knew that Light knew he was Kira. This was the first part of his plan. What was the rest of it?
Around an hour ago, Katherine had locked and shut the door to her investigation room, leaving the key inside the room. She had felt content with this decision, as she didn't want to be tempted to watch the Kira investigation team. If she did, she only would have become more frustrated. If she couldn't get to her surveillance displays, she would be fine.
However, this thought had crossed her mind an hour ago. The only thought in her head now was how to pick the lock open with a hair pin. She swore as the door unlocked and she opened it, and she sat with her legs crisscrossed on the floor, tugging at her bottom lip as she stared at the blank television screens through the door way. She was being weak. What good would watching the investigation team bring her? She did miss them, though….
Wow… a small voice said in her head suddenly. You really need to get a social life.
"Shut up!" she said aloud in her frustration.
She crossed her arms. This voice had been nagging her for the past twenty-four hours. It was the same type of voice she used to hear back in her house in the country-side in Ireland every time she began to feel lonely. Back in Ireland, it had sounded like the woman who owned the orphanage she used to stay at. Now, it sounded like L, of all the people who could have invaded her thoughts…. It was the most annoying voice in the world, as all it did was nag her about things. She could just call that stupid letter-face and tell him what that stupid murderer had told her. It would have made things so much easier. She couldn't stand her own stubbornness.
Stupid astrological Taurus bull thingy-ma-bob making me so damn stubborn abour crap…. This is about to drive me freaking nuts if it hasn't already. Don't even freaking know if I'm sane or not anymore….
She looked down. She was still sitting on the floor like a small child durring story-time at pre-school. She made a frustrated noise as she stood up. Katherine reached around to the other side of the door, turned the lock on the doorknob, and slammed the door. She stared at it, and then walked over to the couch and sat down, quite content with her decision. She looked at the door again. Her mind went through about a hundred thoughts, then she walked back over to it.
Fucking door… she thought to herself as she commenced picking the lock about thirty seconds after locking the key inside again. I'll just go inside and see what's going on for a minute. That's all. If it's interesting, I'll leave the cameras on. If not, I'll leave. Simple. I won't turn into a television zombie.
So much for that idea…. It had indeed been interesting when she turned on the television and saw that Light was "confessing" that he might be Kira. However, after a few hours of staring at the televisions sets with the glazed look of the dead in her eyes, she knew her inner-zombie had taken over and she couldn't do anything about it. She took a bite of her chocolate bar as she listened to L interrogating Light. He needed her help…. That was obvious. He was at least somewhat confused about Light's intentions when he played the I-may-subconsciously-be-a-psycho-mind-killer card, and interrogating Light wasn't going to do any good. Light and Ryuk had probably developed some sort of code, some word for Light to say when Light forfeited his Death Note.
She felt like a complete idiot not for helping L. There really wasn't any excuse for it. Her only excuse when she had first been kicked off of the team had been that she had been awake for over half of the past week, living off of caffeine. Now, she was just being stubborn. Despite the fact that he had only been using her for the purpose of gaining information, she had the problem that she couldn't help but look at the son of a bitch as her friend. She was extremely angry with him, but that didn't stop her from feeling bad about not helping him with the Kira case. She knew something that would help him, and she was refraining from telling him out of her own spite. That was stupid and immature.
She took her cell phone out of her pocket and stared at it, debating with herself. It had been almost twelve days now. Katherine couldn't believe she actually missed staying awake for weeks at a time on nothing but caffeine and sugar. She missed the investigation itself. She hated that. She would have to swallow her pride and call him.
Katherine reached over onto the coffee table and started to turn down the volume going to the televisions. She stopped as she looked up, then continued turning down the volume, now grinning. She didn't have to bitterly give up her dignity and give him her information just to get back on an investigation team that didn't even want her there. She watched as L flipped open his own cell phone with a sigh. The rest of the team watched him as he dialed numbers, as did Katherine.
I won! she thought gleefully. I don't have to swallow my pride because you gave up first! Ha!
Her cell phone rang. She looked down and saw "Untraceable Caller" on the front screen. That was definitely L. However, she should pretend she didn't know. That would be best. That way, he wouldn't know she had been watching the team like a zombie on Ritalin. She flipped her phone open and held it to her ear.
"Oi," she said.
"This is –"
"Oh. You."
"We need you on the team," he said.
"Not going to force me to give you the information I have first? That's surprising."
She grinned at the look of exasperation on his face. "No, I won't. We are still in the same hotel room. Come here as soon as you can."
"What makes you think I'm not busy?"
"I didn't say immediately, I said as soon as you can."
"You implied immediately."
"Then just get here eventually."
"Fine."
"Fine."
She snapped her phone shut, and then turned the volume back up for her monitors. The rest of the team had been watching L as he spoke on the phone curiously. The three of them seemed to refrain from speaking immediately, but Matsuda eventually asked the obvious question. Or, tried to at least.
"Was that –?"
"Yes," L said.
"Is she –??"
"Yes."
"She must be…" Aizawa said, "I can already feel a headache coming on."
Katherine laughed as she shut off the television sets. Naturally, she couldn't tell L about Kira's plan until after everyone else was asleep, but she wanted to get back there quickly. It was strange, but she had actually missed all of them. Over almost two weeks, she hadn't gotten into a completely ridiculous conversation about something completely irrelevant to the Kira case with Matsuda, triggering Aizawa's general reaction of calling them idiots, which generally resulted in an argument that lasted until Yagami would impatiently tell them to get focused. She didn't miss L… the dumbass…
"Aizawa-san," L said, glancing up at the monitors as Katherine entered the lobby and stood by the door.
"That's Matsuda's job…" he complained.
"Sending Matsuda-san would result in her getting tackled and him possibly getting thrown out of the hotel by security."
"Hey!"
"Yeah, yeah," Aizawa said, walking past a very offended-looking Matsuda. "I'm going…"
Aizawa looked around once downstairs in the lobby. She had somehow managed to disappear in the ninety seconds it had taken him to walk down to the lobby. That was maddeningly annoying. How could anyone have managed to –
His thought was interrupted by a tackle from behind, accompanied by an excited and overly hyper whoop. He cringed a little.
"Oi, Aihara-san," she said, "'ow's everythin' been going?" She paused, realizing her sudden slip-up of English. "Oh, sorry," she said, switching languages quickly. "Much time as I've had to talk to myself over the past week and a half, I've gotten used to English again. Ryuzaki said the same room, right? Cool."
She took off at a fast pace towards the hallway where the stairs were.
Aizawa caught up with her at the door, where she was using a hairpin to pick the lock.
"Mattie and dumbass are arguing," she said, listening with her ear to the door as she picked the lock. "Or rather, Mattie's telling him off from the sounds of it. Any idea about what?"
"That depends," Aizawa said. "Who's dumbass?"
"Ryuzaki."
"Oh," he said, not fully comprehending. He decided it would probably be best not to ask.
The door unlocked. "I've been doing that a lot lately, too," she said. "I kept… uh… accidentally locking important things inside rooms a lot. Lost my head for a while." She opened the door. "Mattie!"
Another tackle ensued her yell, resulting in another yell of surprise from Matsuda. After saying hello to Yagami-san and avoiding speaking to L entirely, she took a seat on a sofa while they all discussed the investigation. She participated and offered her own theories of what was wrong with Amane and whether or not Light could possibly be Kira, but she decided to ignore L when he addressed her directly. The sense of irritation and anger towards him was still there. That was something she had a feeling she would probably have a hard time getting over. However, the small headquarters did still feel more like a home than her actual home felt.
In fact, she knew that the headquarters was her home when another argument between her and Aizawa was started an hour later. He had told her and Matsuda to stop being idiots when they started discussing names for the awesomely-cool rock band they were going to start after they had caught Kira. The argument ended in her calling Aizawa a stupid afro-head, and him rolling his eyes and leaving them to discuss their rock band.
She wasn't sure what she would do once the Kira investigation was over and done with. Perhaps she would celebrate that L would be gone entirely from her life. Probably not, judging by the feeling she got in her stomach at the thought. It wasn't so much a feeling in her stomach as it was a feeling that her stomach had disappeared. She was still angry with him, but she definitely wasn't in denial. She silently admitted to herself that she would, indeed, miss that crazy insomniac once the Kira case was over and he had to go back wherever he came from.
For now, however, she was mad at him, madder than she had ever been at anyone in her eighteen years of life. She wouldn't talk to him if her life depended on it. She supposed she could drag that on for about a week to perturb him, then blow up at him if he was still pestering her five days from now, ignore him for another day, and then start talking to him again. That seemed like a good plan.
