I hope you all had a Happy Easter! (To those of you who celebrate it, at least. To those who don't: I hope you had a Happy Sunday!)
So, I may or may not be going on a hiatus. Finals are coming up, and failing would be less than ideal, so I need to be spending more energy on school. I'll still try to update at least twice a week though, so be not afraid, but don't get upset if you don't get a new chapter every day like normal.
Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note. (But holy heavens, I wish I did.)
L Lawliet's P.O.V.
"What the fudgenuggets is Capoeira?"
There was that word again. I knew she was against swearing, but she truly went the extra mile. I briefly wondered if our son would pick up on her odd habits; Not that I had room to talk. Speaking of, Nate was sitting in a fenced-off area in the corner of the room chewing on his stuffed spider-toy. He watched us curiously.
We stood on the second floor, where all our recreational equipment was held. Aside from the pool and hot tub, it also had a gym and an open area for dancing or – as we are about to do – combat training. Ellie may be a literal goddess, but she was harmless; I've never even seen her kill a fly.
"Capoeira is a martial art that involves dance and acrobatics. It originated from Brazil. It is not a common or well-known practice, which in and of itself is an advantage. If an enemy is trained, but they aren't familiar with your fighting style, then it's significantly more difficult for them to counter your attacks. It is partially because of this that I chose to master it."
"Dance?" She cringed, "I'm no good at dancing. I have training in 7 different styles, and I'm only sort of okay at some of them. I even practiced Ballet for 9 years straight and never surpassed the skill level of a 12-year old. If Capoeira has a dance element, I'm already pretty sure I'll stink."
"If that's so," I said, looking at her through a lock of hair, "then you have already failed because of an unwillingness to learn. Shame, I thought you were more determined to take down Kira." I egged her on. I knew I'd strike a nerve if I worded things right.
Unfortunately, she knew me too well, "Don't you go all manipulative on me, I'm not falling for it. I promised I'd train with you, I never promised I'd be a perfect little debonair student. Take it or leave it," She folded her arms and gave me a don't-even-try-it stare.
I smirked. God, I love her. "Very well," I surrendered, "although you'd do well to have more confidence. You have a far more capable body now. Any limitations you had before are no longer a factor. All you need is technique. Strength training and flexibility are no problem; you proved that last night." I referenced her newly-acquired vigor in the bedroom. Apparently, she missed being able to move freely, and now that she could, she was not wasting it.
"Fie upon thee," She teased, quoting Hero from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, "Art thou not ashamed?"
I responded by reciting the next line, "Is it not honorable to be the heavier for a husband?" Something about quoting Shakespeare always made her grin. I've come to notice it was one of her favorite ways to flirt second only to sarcastic teasing and followed closely by fluffy compliments. I tried to implement all three on a daily basis at least once.
"You sure know how to charm a girl, don't you?" She laughed.
Nate made a noise and Ellie glanced his direction, a sweet smile on her face. She'd been playing with him nonstop for the past several hours, and was reluctant to stop, but I'd asked her to join me. She's been particularly active since her little revelation, refusing to take a single day to vedge like she used to enjoy doing.
She's also been slightly more mischievous. I'd always had a bad case of insomnia, but I'm only human so I still have to sleep now and again. When I do, I wake up to find Ellie staring at me. Evidently, she no longer needed to rest, so I got a taste of my own medicine; she nearly startled me out of my chair when my eyes opened up to find her an inch away from my face, grinning like a she-devil. Once, she even dressed up as me, with a wig and makeup and everything in order to get a perfect likeness – provided by none other than Weston – and imitated my sitting position, just to see how I'd react. I don't know how long she sat there waiting for me to wake up, but knowing her it could easily have been hours. Apparently, creatures who've existed for millennia were surprisingly patient.
I walked up and whispered in her ear to get her attention, "Shall we begin?"
She pretended to roll her eyes and gave me a melodramatic curtsey, "As you wish, good sir." She stood back up, using the movement as an excuse to move closer her face closer to mine. We were an inch apart. She was trying to distract me.
I was having none of that. Instead of giving in to her intoxicating scent and leaning forward, I began our training by taking her by surprise. I whipped around and swept her leg, knocking her off her feet. She gasped in surprise, falling to the ground. That caused her to lose her concentration, and she released her glow, temporarily blinding me. Nate squinted his eyes, giggling at the sight.
"Cheater," She accused, imitating my move and using it on me. Her form was sloppy, but impressive for a first try. I jumped over her leg and landed on the ground in a crouch, one hand on the floor for support.
"It's my nature," I responded, "Did you expect any different?" I went in for another strike, holding nothing back. This time she saw it coming and jumped, performing a perfect backflip. I glanced at her feet and briefly noticed she wasn't touching the ground.
I raised my eyebrows, "I was not aware that you had the ability to fly."
"Really?" she offered a sly smile, "I'd think the great L would be able to figure it out for himself. I'm almost disappointed you didn't notice earlier."
It did make sense. The shinigami hardly ever walked anywhere, why would Ellie not have the same capability? They weren't all that different. I chewed on my thumbnail, "This will be useful," I said to myself.
"Are you gonna teach me or not?" Ellie asked jokingly.
"Yes," I said, "But I need you to refrain from doing anything a human wouldn't be able to do. The majority of the scenarios in which your fighting would be used require keeping your identity a secret. Otherwise, knowing martial arts is futile. It's not like a person could genuinely hurt you, any weapons would go right through. But, if who you truly are is revealed, who do you expect will be the first that our enemies target?"
She thought for a moment, then it suddenly dawned on her. Ellie's eyes widened as she looked toward our son, playing with his spider-toy. "Nate…" she whispered.
"Yes," I confirmed darkly, "Him. So, are you going to learn, or are you going to show off?"
She frowned, a determined look on her face. I now had her full attention.
Every afternoon, for two hours, I taught her the complex art of capoeira. Since her physical body was and always would be in perfect condition – not complaining – it meant we didn't need to spend time on exercises and could instead work on memorizing the technique. She was good at it, but she was clearly pulling her punches. She still didn't have enough motivation to give her all to take own the opponent.
"You're not even using a tenth of your full power," I accused, sparring with her.
She continued to move on the defensive, "That's the thing about gods of life. We aren't fans of hurting people. It's not to say we can't, but for the most part we're not particularly fond of it either."
I decided to provoke her into it. I began by taunting, criticizing her technique. Then, when that wasn't enough, I brought Nate into it, "If you keep this up, then when the time comes for you to take someone down, Nate will be as good as dead."
That worked. Note to self: When needing to strike a chord with my wife, use our son. Ellie glared, her slight glow turning a frightening shade of red. She rushed forward and punched me in the stomach, sending me flying across the room. I landed a few feet away from Nate, who was sucking his thumb. I bonked my head on the floor.
"Ouch," I said, "You know, that really hurt." If she had that much strength, why did she refuse to use it?
Her glow intensified, still a dark red, "Never talk about my son that way," she warned menacingly, "This lesson is done for today, I'm going upstairs." She walked over to our baby and picked him up, making sure to grab his favorite toy. She handed him the stuffed spider and he clung onto her neck, letting her carry him out the door.
When she was gone, I lifted my shirt to reveal a fist-sized bruise in the center of my torso. The back of my head felt wet, so I reached back to inspect it; When I brought my fingers back in front of me, I found that I was bleeding. I decided to have the doctor patch it up, but made him promise not to tell Ellie, she'd beat herself up about it and I wanted her to be proud of what she'd done. If she started feeling bad, all the progress she made today would regress.
"Well," Kaneko said, inspecting the back of my head, "It's hard to see under all this hair, but looks like she got you good. You're gonna need stitches." He smiled slightly, "Got beat up by literally one of the gentlest creatures in the universe. You must've really egged her on. What'd you say?"
I chewed on my nail while he stitched me up, "I told her if she doesn't get serious then Nate would be the one to get hurt." Kaneko yanked on my hair. "Ow," I complained, "What was that for?"
"For a genius, you're such an idiot," he said, "Everyone knows you never threaten a mother's child! It's like buying a one-way ticket to her black list. You're damn lucky she loves the hell out of you, because if she didn't, you'd probably be dead on the floor, especially with her strength and power."
"No," I commented, "Just as gods of death are forbidden to save lives, Ellie has already told me that gods of life are forbidden to take them. If she kills a human, she too will die just like Rem did when she murdered me. It's a most inconvenient law when it comes to our end goal."
"I see," He said, "but she can obviously beat you up like hell," he snipped a thread, "All done. But no more Capoeira until the stitches are out, otherwise it might open back up. Now let me see that bruise." He inspected my torso, but didn't do anything other than poke at it.
Just for fun, I wondered aloud, "How long have you been in love with my wife?"
Kaneko froze, slowly standing up, "You're mistaken," He didn't look me in the eyes, "I don't think of her as anything more than a friend and ex-patient."
He was obviously lying. I'd noticed his body language around her every time she was in the room. He always subconsciously faced her, he'd smile when she spoke, and he teased her significantly more often than anyone else. There was no doubt; the doctor was suffering from a severe case of Florence Nightingale Syndrome. "No point trying to deny it," I said casually, "I've known for a while. In fact, I'm 87% certain that the only one in this building who doesn't know is Ellie herself."
His face turned a humiliated shade of red, "Is it that obvious?"
"Yes," I confirmed, "The only reason I haven't said anything is because I know that you care enough about her happiness not to try anything. Although if you did, it may be quite entertaining to watch."
He glowered, "You can be quite the asshole, can't you?" With that, he stormed out, leaving me to my own devices. That's two people mad at me today. I was on a roll. I was far from my record of several million at once, but it was still 40% of the total adult population that knew of my existence.
I made my way up to the control room. There was work that needed to be done.