18 - The Day He Met L
May 12, 1995... An elderly man and a young boy who appeared to be ten stood in the pouring rain. They stood just inside a pair of wrought-iron gates. The gold plaque outside the gates read: The Wammy's House. The man glanced down at the boy.
"This will be your house from now on. The great L currently resides here. You have heard of L?"
The boy shook his head. "No Roger. Who is that?"
The man looked away and started walking to the door. He lead the boy by the arm.
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DY reached the shore. He took the path that BB took. He held his gun at his side.
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"So, what do you call yourself?"
The boy didn't understand the question.
The one who asked the question walked up to the boy. The questioner wore a plain white shirt and jeans. His bare feet weren't completely inside his sneakers. He leaned forward with his hands in his pockets as he walked. He put his hand on the boy's head. "I mean... An alias. What alias are you going to use?"
The boy hadn't thought of anything of the sort before. He put his index finger on his lower lip and looked to the upper right as he thought. He smiled as he remembered vague and scattered bits of his past. After a moment he managed a single word.
"Slick."
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The path was narrow, long and winding. The trees that lined the path's edges were so close together a piece of paper couldn't be forced between them. A frown formed on his face, but a smile formed in his head.
He was upset... No. Angry. He was angry that the path was so damn long. And yet...
The trees were impenetrable. Nothing, not even paper, could fit between the tree trunks. However long and winding the path was, one fact held true.
BB was on the trail too.
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Months past... Slick gained a reputation. A reputation that followed him where ever he went.
"That kid's a thief."
"Yeah... Look at his shifty eyes."
"He stole my book just last week."
The whispers were everywhere. For some reason, he couldn't escape them. They haunted him since the day he was born. The day in the late summer of 1985 when he stole his mother's life. The name followed him too. This time... This time, he was the one to bring the name. He brought the whispers.
He did nothing to disprove his reputation.
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The path suddenly opened into a wide valley at the base of a mountain.
DY stopped and kicked the dirt.
"Damn it...! Shit. Where did he go...?" He kicked the dirt again.
The wind picked up and nearly covered BB's tracks.
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L sat with his knees to his chest on a chair. He was snacking on a dokubob. He held it in his left hand and wrote in a notebook with his right. He frowned at the boy sitting across from him.
The boy was twelve now. L was nineteen himself. The boy slouched in the chair with his arm in his lap propping up his head. The boy's dark hair fell below his eyes, obscuring his thoughts and intentions. The two stared at each other for a long time.
The boy suddenly shot up. He was sitting on the edge of his chair. "Did you call me here for anything, or can I go?"
A slight frown found its way on to L's face. It disappeared a moment later, but both of them had noticed it. L spun his chair to face the window. He thought of the last time he talked to this boy. His attitude had been the same then. The only word Slick had ever said to L was, "Slick." That had been delivered curtly as well. The boy seemed to be predisposed to indifference towards other people; if he wasn't two years ago, his time at Wammy's House certainly didn't help...
L quickly spun around. He resigned himself to the fact that this was going to happen. "I have called you here to voice some grievances that were filed against you."
The boy leaned back, as if he was suddenly relaxed. All he needed, it seemed, was a reason to stay.
L waited for a reply. When none came, he repeated his statement.
The boy finally picked up on the hint and said one word. "Oh." Another curt reply.
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DY nearly cried with relief when he saw BB's trail heading up the mountain pass. He looked at the side of the mountain for a moment and saw the tiny dot that was BB slowly making it's way up the mountain.
DY smiled and resumed his chase.
If someone had seen DY make his way to the mountain, they would have said that he was skipping and prancing rather than running.
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L sighed.
The boy looked at a bug on the inside of the window. "Only some grievances?"
L gestured to the papers on his desk. It was a pile, a few inches tall. "If you call this a few grievances..."
Slick looked through the papers. The frown on his face became more pronounced as he neared the end. He suddenly threw them down. "What do these prove?"
L sighed and ignored Slick. "I could have ignored them - and I had been - until I saw this one." He held up an envelope that had red stains all over it.
Slick looked briefly, then quickly looked away.
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DY grinned.
He was catching up. BB's ragged, labored breathing carried back on the wind.
He grinned.
He could see the man he had been chasing since Tielwal came into his life many months ago.
The man's sweat flew back into DY's face.
He grinned.
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"Do you know who this is? Do you know which person filed this?"
Slick shook his head.
"A girl by the name of Maria filed-"
"I Thought you said we had to have aliases."
"That is her alias. Anyway, do you know how old she is?"
Slick thought for a moment. "Seven?"
"Yes. Do you know why she filed this?"
Slick put his index finger to his lower lip and looked to the upper right. Eventually, he stopped. "I stole from her?"
L sighed and opened the envelope. He took out the red stained paper. "This says that you attempted to steal a toy from her and attacked her when she wouldn't let you have it."
Slick shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
"It says that you ripped her jacket and pushed her down. And when she got back up, you shoved her into a wall. Is this true?"
Slick sighed. "Yeah."
"All for a toy?"
"I guess."
"No. Not, 'I guess.' You'll have to come up with a better excuse than that. While you think of a suitable answer to my question, I want you to do two things."
Slick stood up. "Sure. What?"
"One, do whatever menial task I see fit to give you. And two, go straight to her infirmary bed and apologize to her... And give her the toy back."
Slick sighed again. "Yes, L..." He walked to the door. He grabbed the handle and pulled it open. He had one foot out the door when L said something that haunted Slick to this day.
"Don't let me down again."
I don't own Death Note.
If you couldn't tell, DY was born in late summer 1985. He didn't intentionally end his mother's life.
Sorry for the abnormally long wait... I got sick, then I had to make sure I was able to graduate high school, then I had make sure I could get into the college that I was going to (which was fucking hell, I needed a college ID card, but for that I needed a regular ID, but for that I needed a birth certificate, but I needed a real one, but it was in the safe deposit box, but we lost the key to the safe deposit box, and then I needed a social security card). Getting the IDs took up most of my summer, and I've been getting acclimated to college life (which is awesome) until now. I also suffered from writer's block when I did try to write.
But I'm back. I'm not going to make promises anymore because I don't want to crush your hopes for an update, but I will aim for at least every other week for all my stories. If I'm unable to do that, I have a long Thanksgiving break coming up and I have a month off for Christmas. You will get your stories by January.
I would have updated more if I had more chapters... But I suffered from writer's block because, while I do know where I want the story to go, I don't know how I'm getting it there.
Don't stop reading because of the long wait. It wasn't the story's fault.
Chapter 19 by Nov. 9, 2009.