Disclaimer: I don't own any Death Note stuffs or things, nor do I own an actual panda puppy -holyshit did ya know they're actually real? Google that shit, people!!- but I do own this story, so no stealzies please. I also do not own the websites Google or Urban Dictionary.
I'm going to reply to some random stuffs in teh comments before going straight into the story, which I'll probably be doing for every chapter since I get so many awesome comments from so many awesome people.
To EVERYONE: Wow. I actually have fans. I'm in absolute awe. hugs!!
Madeline Cullen: ZOMG!! AWARDZ!! jumps up and down excitedly Ooh. And a cookie :D Thank yooo!!
Sparanda: But I just figured out how to spell your last username properly….
Volital: -ponders- Hmmmmpossibly :P. And yes, he definitely should have stayed asleep O.o Poor Mattie. He's going to be scarred for life XD
MoonCrisis: That shall come soon… -evilKiralaugh- I actually looked "panda puppy" online after reading your comment being the total dork that I am, haha. Now it must be included in the story. -credits to MoonCrisis-
To everyone who commented: OMG!! A REAL panda puppy! ( i34 dot tinypic dot com/de4nqf dot jpg . Replace the 'dot's with '.'s for it to work). Holy crapshki!! I'm effing amazed. I so want to buy a panda puppy and name it L now.
L bit his fingernail as he stared at the computer screen, debating with himself over whether or not the idea was even remotely rational, sensible, or even sane. But it had been bothering him for the past six hours. It was six thirty in the morning, and he was the only person awake in the investigation headquarters. It seemed so farfetched, so utterly improbable, but his curiosity wasn't going to let him live it down without figuring it out. It would simply torture him to death. The only way to know was to actually find out. Thanking some higher power in the internet dimension for Google, he typed in the web address on his browser and typed in the two words that had been attempting to gnaw a hole in his skull for the past six freaking hours. The results were absolutely astounding.
'Results one of ten of about two million six hundred seventy thousand for… panda puppy…?' It's actually real?? he thought to himself, gaping at the computer screen. He scrolled down and clicked on a link to 'Urban Dictionary' and read silently to himself. 'A Taiwanese puppy whose hair has been dyed to match the markings on a panda, found on various websites and commonly used as an image icon.' That's disturbingly coincidental.
"Watcha doin'?"
L minimized the screen as Katherine sat down right next to him. "Nothing."
"Uh-huh. What're you looking up on 'Urban Dictionary,' then?" she asked, pointing at the taskbar, amusement dancing in her tone. She moved his arm a little to shift closer to him and rest her cheek against his shoulder. He looked down at her.
"It's a… pop-up window."
"Then why're you turning red?" she teased, poking one of his cheeks. "Was my panda puppy trying to figure out what a panda puppy is, by some chance?"
"… No…"
"You'll be hard-pressed to figure it out," she said with a soft laugh, nuzzling his shoulder. "I just made it up on the spot."
"But there's over two million results for it on Google."
"Oh?" She giggled when his face flushed again as he realized his admission. "So you were looking it up?"
"Yes…" he said with a sigh. "I figured no harm could come in looking it up if you weren't going to explain its meaning. I still don't entirely understand, however. Why am I a Taiwanese puppy dyed to look like a panda?"
"It's called a metaphor, silly," she said. "It's like saying 'you're as cute as a panda and a puppy put together,' but without all the extra words. Do you understand now?"
"I figured it was a metaphor," he said. "I doubted you were literally implying that I was the offspring of a dog and a bear. I just didn't entirely understand the meaning of the metaphor itself."
"Awwww…" she said, looking up at him with wide eyes, "did you think it was implied as a derogatory statement meant to offend you?" She smiled. "I can use immense terminology, too, you know."
"I assumed you were capable of doing so, but I wasn't aware you were a living thesaurus."
"Whether I am a thesaurus or not isn't the matter at hands. The issue here is that you didn't reply to my query." Her grinned widened evilly as she made his cheeks redden for the third time that morning. "You're so endearing when you're embarrassed."
Sensing a chance to revive his loosing side of the battle (although he wasn't entirely sure when it had become a competition again), he immediately retaliated. He was sure it would be enough to at least tie him with her again.
"Well, then you're absolutely adorable."
It did make her flush, but that evil grin barely faltered. Katherine's retaliation worked better than his tenfold, even though she didn't have to speak a word. As he hadn't been looking at her, L also hadn't expected it in the least, doubling his shock. Only a couple seconds after his last sentence, he felt a pair of soft lips touch his cheek. The small, chaste touch quickened his pulse as blood rushed to his face yet again. He thought of what his next retaliation could be, but all ideas led to the same solution. Without reading in much thought to that solution, he decided to use it.
As her lips began to leave his cheek, L turned his head and captured her lips with his own. Her breath hitched in her initial shock from this sudden move. After a moment, his action and his thoughts connected. He quickly pulled away, his eyes widening as he realized in an instant just how horribly his absentminded plan had backfired on him. He started to apologize for this thoughtless action, but he only got out the word "I." He stopped when he felt the fingers of one of Katherine's hands entwine themselves within his hair. He barely comprehended the fact that they were getting closer, unbelievably closer, not until their lips were together again.
This time the shock was all his, but he didn't pull his lips away from Katherine's. This may have been due to the fact that it barely lasted a moment, as her lips had only brushed softly against L's, leaving their foreheads together as their lips parted and remained only centimeters away. The closeness was near unbearable as he breathed in her warm breath. Granted, this meant he was breathing in a combination of Carbon Dioxide and water vapors, but the hell if he cared. He was completely unaware of why a thought like that had just crossed his mind at such a time as this. That was odd.
L managed to shake these oddly logical thoughts out of his mind for the moment to gaze into her large turquoise orbs. Powerless to resist this new, unfamiliar temptation that he had never before been subjected to, he pressed his lips to hers, capturing her breath along with them.
Katherine's breath had hitched in her alarm at the sudden movement, but she managed to find it again. He didn't seem very experienced in this…. This was normal, considering how L had basically cut himself off from society for most of his life. However, it seemed that his nervousness was preventing him from moving. She smiled against his lips before slowly before moving her lips slowly against his. It was true that she had only ever kissed someone once before, she wasn't much more practiced than he was.
Katherine glanced over at the computer screen, and was lucky she did. It was six fifty-eight. That meant trouble. She pulled her lips away from L's slowly after a barely ten second long kiss.
"Time…" she said, her increased pulse making her nearly breathless as she stared into his wide eyes. "M-Matsuda's cell phone alarm goes off at seven, remember?"
L reached his hand up and caressed her cheek, sending heavenly shivers down her spine. His eyes darted to the computer screen for a moment to look at the time in the very corner. The glazed look of relaxation in them disappeared to be replaced with something else, something Katherine was sure was disappointment. Then there was another emotion entirely, one that indicated something like the click of a light bulb turning itself on. The look was one of realization, but not the same nervous realization as a moment ago. He was formulating a plan. As asking would make things boring, she decided not to, and even to pretend that she hadn't noticed that momentary glint in his eyes.
They pulled away from each other in impeccable timing. Matsuda's cell phone went off, and this was immediately followed by an irritated noise and the sound of a hand flopping carelessly over onto a table to pick up the source of the noise and shut it off. L, quickly remembering it was there, closed out of the internet page he had up. Katherine suppressed a laugh at this. Then there was drunkenly tired stumbling to be heard a moment later.
"Is Aizawa-san awake?" L asked, looking back at Matsuda.
"Eh?" He looked over. "Yes."
"Then all three of you listen," he said in his regular stoic tones. "As there is practically no work to be done as of right now except for keeping an eye on the monitors, which I can easily do by myself, you may all have the day off."
Oh, Katherine thought, her lips almost twitching into a smirk at the pure genius of the idea. That's the plan. Simple, yet effective.
"Are you serious?" Matsuda said, shaking off his drowsiness. "We can actually leave?"
"Yes," he said. "I am."
"About time…" Aizawa said, standing up. "When?"
"Whenever you wish. Be back here tomorrow between ten o' clock and noon, however."
After agreeing to comply to this order and a few hurried goodbyes, Matsuda was out the door like a bullet, and Aizawa wasn't far behind. Katherine laughed.
"That was pure brilliance," she said, looking at the door. "They probably won't even come back if they forgot something."
"Probably not…" he agreed absently.
Not wanting to waste a moment of time, he reached his arm around her back and pulled her closer. He curved the fingers of his other hand under her chin with his thumb lightly caressing her cheek, and he tilted her head upwards both to look into her eyes and to press his lips to hers. Her hand managed to find its way back into his hair as she felt him initiate the mood of the kiss this time. She kissed back in the same slow rhythm. His hand moved over to her cheek, then into her hair for a moment, and then down to her neck. His nervousness and hesitation to make any action was utterly adorable.
Katherine slowly pulled her lips away from his and rested her forehead against his, looking into his impossibly wide eyes. She couldn't help but smile at the look of horror on his face from the sudden parting of their lips.
"What–?" L started worriedly.
"Try not to be so nervous," she said softly, stroking her hand through his hair.
His eyelids fell a little at the sound of her quiet, soothing voice. "Sorry…"
"You don't have to apologize," she said, now grinning in mild amusement. "Just relax."
"I'll try to." he said. "I just have my doubts that you haven't been kissed before, since you obviously know what you're doing and –"
She blushed lightly, her cheeks turning a light rosy color, but she was still smiling when she interrupted him. "My first – and only – kiss was on a twenty dollar bet that I wouldn't do it, while I was half-blitzed. I barely even remember it." Her hand moved down to his cheek, and she brushed her lips against his for a moment. "Just relax. Don't be so tense."
"Y… yeah…"
"And don't get too focused," she said. "That will make you nervous. And especially don't start thinking too much. I know you have a tendency to do that… basically all the time."
"But–"
"Just don't," she said quietly. "Trust me."
He mumbled something that she didn't quite hear before he pressed his lips to hers again. As his lips began moving, her breath hitched; she quickly decided she wasn't going to bother asking him what he had said when she kissed back.
It was absolutely nerve-racking when Aizawa and Matsuda returned the next day (they both took care to show up at exactly noon, the latest they could). Katherine was careful to act like she had taken the day off as she complained at them for getting there so late when she had showed up at ten o' clock. She kept her distance from L as much as she could, trying hard not to turn red on the occasion that he glanced back at the three of them doing paperwork. She knew it was going to be a long day.
When L decided later on that it was best for the team to go over possible scenarios as to how Light could have been Kira or Misa could have been the second Kira, Katherine took to watching the monitors and conversing with (a.k.a. picking on) Light. That was a lot more entertaining than discussing something that would have just bored the pants off of her and forced her to go near L after the day before, which was going to be impossible for her to do without tackle-glomping him, which she definitely wasn't going to do with the other two there. It might raise some rather inappropriate questions. Consequently, she decided, talking with Light would be better than nothing. And so she pressed down the red button leading to the speakers in his room.
"Oi," she said, deciding to speak in English for no particular reason. "Kira-face. 'Ow's it goin'?"
"Wonderful, of course…"
"Well, damn, lucky you," she said, ignoring his sarcasm. "I'd be in a right state after hanging out in a prison cell with me arms tied up for Jesus knows 'ow long."
"Do you have to speak in English?"
"No," she said. "But I am. Got a problem with it?"
He rolled his eyes. "No, but your Japanese sounds more propper than your native language, which is just… strange."
"Oi!" she said in false outrage. "Are you imply'n that you can speak English better than me? I somehow doubt it. And if your best friends were criminals, you'd probably pick up on a lot of improper bloody terminology as well."
"I'm not implying that I can speak English any better than you, and I'm quite happy that my best friends aren't criminals."
"Why's 'at?"
"Because… I don't like criminals…?"
"Oh?" she said. "That sounds like somethin' 'at Kira might say, you know that, Kira-face?"
Light closed his eyes in agitation. "Don't you have anything better to do?"
"Nadda thing, Kira-face."
"Would you stop calling me that? I'm not Kira."
"Whatever you say, Kira-face," she said airily. "Speaking of English," she added thoughtfully, "have you ever tried spelling your last name backwards in English letters?"
He thought for a moment. The pensive look on his face quickly turned to one of shock, then annoyance. "Shut up!" he said agitatedly.
She laughed, taking her finger off of the button. Then she heard Matsuda's voice from behind her, "It spells… oh. I never thought about that…"
"Focus, Mattie," she said. "You're supposed to be discussing stuff. I'm monitoring. Now…" she mumbled to herself. "Onto the next victim…"
She pressed another button and spoke into the microphone. "Amane Misa."
"Eh…?" Misa said vaguely. "Stalker-san?"
"Yes. This is stalker-san."
"Are you going to ask me about that stupid Kira stuff again?!" she said, now sounding impatient. "I told you–"
"I am not."
"…Oh. Then what?"
Katherine paused, holding back laughter. "I am sad to inform you that your beloved 'boyfriend…'" She paused dramatically, allowing Misa a moment to think. "… is gay."
She lifted her finger off of the button and laughed as Misa burst into a fit of anger.
"You liar!! That's a really mean joke to play on someone!!" she shrieked. "Stalker-san is a meanie!!"
"Did you have to do that?" Aizawa said irately.
"No," Katherine said, still shaking in laughter, "but it was too awesome not to do. Chief's having a hard enough time holding onto his insanity, so I'm not going to bother him. Back to Light-kun."
She pressed the red button again, a scheme hatching in her mind. It was pretty random, but it would be interesting to see the results….
"Light-kun."
"What now?"
"Would you like an apple?"
He paused, taking in what he had just heard. She was sure she detected a flicker of remembrance in his expression before he answered.
"No…" he said slowly. "Why?"
"Just wondering."
Katherine watched his reaction closely. This was more an experiment for herself than anything, but the randomness of the question would make the team think that it was just her amusing herself. She wanted to know if there was any way to stimulate the memory of a person with Death-Note-loss inflicted amnesia. It seemed that the thought of apples had obviously crossed his mind with some aspects of familiarity, judging by the momentary flicker in his expression (a week in a psychology class at Toudai had taught her a little about things, and the fact that she got bored and read the whole textbook once hadn't hurt her, either).
That was interesting, considering she was under the impression that forfeiting a Death Note caused the owner of that Death Note to forget everything that had happened while they had used it. That impression was obviously wrong. Light remembered everything that had happened while he was Kira… except that he was Kira, that there had been an apple eating Shinigami following him everywhere, and that he had owned a Death Note that he wrote criminals' names in durring his spare time. However, she imagined mentioning apples had caused a memory of how many apples he had bought in the past year compared to previous to flicker in his mind.
Of course, there was always just the chance that the flicker of memory she had seen in the teenager's eyes was just contemplation of what would happen depending on how he answered. Between herself and L, she had no doubt that he knew that any question, even something as simple as being offered a cup of tea, could be some kind of scheme to make him out as being Kira.
One fun thing to do when he got out of confinement would be to ask random questions at inappropriate moments to confuse him. Katherine was soon going to have two geniuses to confuse on a daily basis. Of course, there was the difference that confusing Light was just going to be to torture him, not like she confused L because of the puppy-like expression it left on his face. No… she despised Light right down to the very center of his being, not just because he was Kira, but because… something. She wasn't sure what it was, but something about him just made her want to punch him in the gut. Punching him, though, would make Misa kill her without means of a Death Note or any other weapons. She didn't feel like being decapitated by an angry model, so she would resist attacking Light.
For now.
Hoisahgudhg.
That's the new word of the day.
It's pronounced 'kee-bored jibb-err-ish.'
Its definition is 'Holy FREAK I'm hyper!' And it is a nounjativerb.
This is due to the fact that I couldn't talk 'cactus' into coming back from Arizona. It read Justice Never Dies and is now waiting to fall on a motorcycle there, and it refuses to come back until that happens. -sigh- It could be a while.
Anyway, thanks again everyone!
And sorry for not updating for the past couple days -hides from attackers- I know I usually update every day, but I was busy with being drug around school shopping. Sorry!!
