Away From Home
Chapter Six
By Andruindel
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The next morning I woke with a sense of bitter resentment remaining from the day before. I sat up in bed, glowering at the opposite wall, and pulled my knees to my chest. Panda was no where to be seen, so soon enough I moved to the edge of the bed and looked down, and sure enough, he was on the floor, staring reproachfully up at me.
"Be quiet, Panda." I hissed softly at the bear. I picked him up, and hugged him tightly before setting him down and getting out of bed. Seeing as I had not eaten dinner the night before, I was hungry.
The first thing I noticed as I stepped out of my room was that it was darker than it usually would have been at seven-thirty a.m. The second thing I noticed, just as I stepped into the work room, was that it was raining. That explained the darkness. I let a grim smile slide over my features, and wandered toward the window, where my favorite seat was. Any thought of food had been washed from my mind.
Now that I had seen the rain, I wasn't willing to be pulled away from the window. So, I sat myself down, and watched as the water fell, sliding in liquid diamonds down the window pane. The day echoed my mood, for I felt like crying at the moment. But I let the skies cry in my stead, and merely watched, feeling the peace that comes after a good cry washing over me. I had regained at least a little happiness, at the sky's expense.
Eventually, I heard footsteps approaching, and turned slightly to look at L. Our eyes met, and he blinked once before continuing on his way to his computer. Though neither one of us spoke, I felt that we had come to an understanding, of sorts. He was not going to bother me, as long as I gave him no reason to. And I wasn't in the mood to bother him, knowing that he was bound to be annoyed with me. The bruise forming under his left eye was proof that I had actually kicked him harder than I'd thought the day before. That fact was bound to have put him in a bad mood.
For a while I simply sat on the window seat, watching the rain. And then I was gripped by the desire to do something completely random. With a smile crossing my face, I stood and dashed from the room, searching for…. A stick. To my surprise, actually, I found a long dowel in the kitchen. What it was doing there, I had no idea. The next thing to find was some string.
When I had finally found a good replacement for string, ribbon, I went back to the workroom, seating myself back on the window seat, and began tying the ribbon to one end of the stick. I smiled at the finished piece, and opened the window.
"What are you doing, Amy?" L asked, swiveling in his chair to look at me.
I crossed my legs as I sat on the windowsill, with the stick out the window, and the ribbon dangling down for about ten feet, until it met its end in nothingness. "I'm fishing." I replied quietly. "Be quiet."
I could feel L's incredulous stare on my back, and then he turned away again. I smiled. It may have been random, but it was something I'd always enjoyed doing. Fishing, whether it be in a puddle, or even out of a window on the twenty something floor of a hotel, was something I liked to do. It was calming, even if I had no chance of catching anything. I liked it.
Even though I enjoyed fishing for nothing, it was raining outside, and soon I grew cold. But, unwilling to give up the pleasure of fishing, I merely sat there shivering, until, almost an hour later, I could stand neither the cold nor the silence any longer. Pulling my ribbon back up, I sighed as I reached the end of it. Of course, it held nothing but the metal washer I had tied to the end to weigh it down.
"Did you catch anything?"
I turned to look at L, surprised by the question. He sat in that odd way of his, one hand resting on his knees, and the other at his mouth as he nibbled at his thumbnail. His eyes were on me in that unwavering gaze he was notorious, at least in my mind, for.
I raised an eyebrow. "Nope." I replied easily. "I guess there's no fish swimming a hundred feet in the air." My attempt at jest did nothing to affect L's demeanor.
Deciding that I was hungry again, I stood up and went into the kitchen. There I found only a cake. But hey, cake's better than nothing. So, I sliced myself a piece, and put it on a plate. When I turned, I found L peering into the kitchen, a hopeful look on his face.
"Since when is my cake up for grabs?" He asked, stepping further into the kitchen.
"Since I got hungry." I replied, shrugging. "It's not like there's anything else to eat around here." I couldn't quite meet his eyes, for I was still embarrassed about the day before, and still bitter toward him. But, at least we were speaking civilly toward one another.
L gave me his classic calculating look, and I turned away, taking my cake back to the workroom, where I sat on the couch, my knees drawn up to my chest, to eat my pilfered slice of cake. He followed me slowly, slouching, and never taking his eyes off me. I wasn't quite sure what to do about this sudden attention I was getting from him. So, I ignored him, focusing entirely on the cake.
Soon enough, the silence had once again grown too unbearable for me. I liked silence as much as the next person, maybe even more than the usual person. But it was more than the silence that was bugging me. It was L's unblinking stare.
"Don't you have something better to do?" I asked, looking up at L. "There's gotta be something you can do besides stare at me." I was annoyed, and trying not to let it show, and that was never a good combination.
L raised one eyebrow. "Actually, there has been a lull in the case. I can only wait now until Kira commits another murder. It is always the waiting that proves the hardest part of a case."
I rolled my eyes. I could have saved L a lot of trouble on the case. But, I wouldn't. It would only prove to make me seem a more likely suspect. So I kept my silence, finishing off the cake, and wishing I had something a bit more substantial to eat. Cake was good, sure. But sometimes, after a whole week of nothing but sweets, you wanted some good, healthy food. Like meat, or something.
As I sat musing over the amount of sugar L ate, a sudden thought struck me. "Ryuuzaki, how do you eat so much sugar, but not get fat?" I asked. The question was not one that would offend L. I was sure of it. Besides, it was probably quite hard to offend L.
"I have a high metabolism rate…"
"Then how come you're not bouncing off the walls all the time?" Even I was constantly moving, and I'm not a hyper person. Whether it was tapping my fingers on the table-top, or jiggling my foot or knee, I was constantly moving. Right now, I was fingering the zipper of my hoodie while waiting for L's answer.
For a moment L said nothing. His eyes never left my face, but he appeared to be thinking. "I use all my energy to think." He replied at last. "Thinking takes more energy than you seem to think…"
I huffed indignantly at his words. "I know very well how much energy thinking takes." I replied shortly. "If I had more to do, like, some books to read or something, then I would have more thinking to do." L had implied that I didn't think. Sure, I often spoke without thinking, but I did think. Sometimes I thought very deep things.
For the first time since I'd met L, he laughed. I looked sharply at him, unsure what he was laughing at. But as soon as I'd looked at him, his laughter had subsided, and he wore the exact same, passive expression as before. I frowned, and turned away again, idly fiddling with my fork.
"Ryuuzaki?" I asked after a moment.
L regarded me with a curious gaze, which I took as an invitation to continue.
"How old are you?"
I wasn't sure at first if L was going to answer. He showed no signs of replying. And then, I thought I saw a smile quirk the corner of his mouth. "I'm twenty-three." He replied at last.
The sudden leaping sensation in my stomach was completely foreign to me. I wasn't sure what it meant. All I knew was that it caused a fluttery feeling, and I realized soon that my hands were shaking a bit more than normal. I could only come to the conclusion that I was pleased that L wasn't completely unattainable after all. What was six years between friends, after all?
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Yeah... Window-fishing... That's something I've always wanted to do. o.o; Either that or go fishing in the gutter while it's really, really rainy. It's fun, even if there's no hope of catching anything. Not even a leaf or twig. -.-; Anyways, thanks for reading, and don't forget to review!
