Sayu woke up and reached over to where she had felt Matsuda's presence the night before. She'd had her first decent sleep in ages, and was feeling a lot more refreshed now. But as she reached over, expecting to feel the warmth of his body beside her, all she felt was empty bedsheets. Matsuda had stayed true to his word. He had left early that morning so that he could go to work, and he had done so without waking Sayu or her mother on his way out.
As Matsuda made his way into the building, he ran into Hideki Ide in the downstairs lobby. He had also just arrived by the look of it, as he was sorting through his documents in his folder to ensure he had the right files in the right place. "Ide!" Matsuda greeted in his usual chipper tone, and Ide looked up at him, then raised an eyebrow without saying anything. "What?" Matsuda asked defensively, and Ide gave an amused chuff.
"What's with the getup?" He asked, referring to the fact Matsuda was still wearing the clothes that he had worn on his date with Sayu.
"I-I didn't have time to go home and get changed…" Matsuda admitted, before realising that was the worst possible thing he could have said. There was no way he would be able to get out of this one.
"Wait, 'go home'?" Ide echoed, giving Matsuda a look of disbelief. Great, the fact he was so shocked about it spoke volumes. This was coming from Ide, the guy who was known for having the worst romantic luck ever. I guess it was time for him to come clean.
"Well, I-" Matsuda began, but he heard the door open behind him, and Aizawa walked in, swiftly followed by Mogi. 'Great.' Matsuda thought to himself. 'an audience.'.
Ide waved at Aizawa, and the two guys walked over to where Matsuda was stood. Aizawa also gave a questioning look to Matsuda's dress choice, and Ide laughed. "Yeah I had the same reaction. Guess who stayed over at a girl's house yesterday?"
Mogi answered before Aizawa could. "Well, it couldn't have been you, and it wasn't me or Aizawa. So, by process of elimination, it must be Matsuda."
"I know! How unbelievable is tha- Hey!" Ide scowled, realising Mogi's dig, but Mogi was too busy trying to read Matsuda.
"So, who was it?" Mogi asked. All 3 of them stared intently at Matsuda, who was becoming more and more uncomfortable.
"N-Nothing happened!" Matsuda protested.
"That's not what I asked." Mogi stated.
Matsuda was trying to find a way out of this, when the phone at the desk rang. He gave a sigh of relief. Aizawa leaned past and picked up the phone off the desk. "Shuichi Aizawa speaking." He began before there was a moment of silence. "Uh huh." He muttered. Another pause. "That's fine, I'll send you the files over as soon as I can. Get better soon." And with that he hung up the phone. He turned towards the others. "Yamamoto won't be coming in today, he's off sick. Anyway, let's go to the office. There's news from L we need to discuss."
Matsuda was grateful for the change of subject, and he made his way up the stairs to the headquarters. As if right on cue, the screen lit up on the monitor in the front of the room, signalling an incoming call from L. Mogi pressed the speaker and Near's disguised voice came through. "Hello everyone. I have updated information on the whereabouts and backgrounds of the crime syndicate members involved in the drug heist." He began, and continued to give details to the group regarding the current investigation. They listened intently, asking questions when necessary but also putting their complete faith in Near. He really was L's true successor. Now that he was given the chance to officially take the role as L, he had really shown what he could do. But the focus now was on intercepting the drug heist that was planned for tomorrow, in the same warehouse that Light had revealed he was Kira in. It was going to bring back a lot of painful memories to all of them, that was for sure.
They agreed on a time to meet at the office the following day. The heist was apparently going to be held at 1pm, so Near suggested that they arrive at the office for 12:45 so that they could get to the warehouse for 1:15 with back up. Once they had the plan all sorted out, Near ended the call, leaving the detectives to discuss things between themselves. Matsuda was no longer protected from the barrage of questions. He sighed.
"So?" Aizawa asked him, and the other two leaned in to listen.
"It's Sayu…" Matsuda grumbled. Mogi almost fell off his chair. Ide chuckled and Aizawa stared blankly at him.
"Sayu. As in Chief Yagami's daughter Sayu?" Aizawa asked. Matsuda nodded.
"Wow, got to say, after she rejected you last time, that's impressive." Mogi added and Matsuda looked at him.
"How do you know about that?" He questioned and Mogi smirked.
"Easy, I had to watch over Misa for a while towards the end of the investigation, didn't I? She told me everything." Mogi said confidently.
Matsuda just sighed. "Well, yeah. Now you guys know."
Ide was the one to ask the question that no one else had thought to ask yet. "What about the situation with Light being Kira? If you're in a relationship with Sayu, you'll have to lie to her about her own brother. Can you really do that…?" There was a silence in the room. Ide had a very good point, and it was something Matsuda had been thinking about constantly. The guilt was driving him insane.
"Yeah, I know what you mean... I've also been thinking about that. And I can't lie to her, not anymore. Sayu deserves to know the truth about her own family's death… I hate deceiving her. I want to tell her once and for all about what happened…" Matsuda confessed, before a fist slammed down onto the table, causing him to jump in shock.
"Are you stupid Matsuda?!" Aizawa yelled. "We all agreed to this when it happened. We decided not to release the truth to the public, and that includes the Yagami family. I was the one who had to tell the family the news, and you expect to just go there and tell them Light was Kira? What do you hope to accomplish exactly?!"
Matsuda felt his face heat up as he stood up to Aizawa. "Well I can't look her in the eyes unless she knows the truth too! Do you know how hard it is lying to the girl that you love?! Telling her one thing whilst knowing something completely different?!" Matsuda yelled back.
Aizawa was about to fire back another argument but before he could, Mogi stepped in. "Enough you two. You shouldn't be fighting like this." He kept his voice low and calm, but stood in between the two of them so they couldn't argue any longer. Ide didn't know what to do, and was stood out of the way. "Matsuda, I understand where you're coming from. If I was in your place of course I'd hate to be lying to my partner over something so serious. I know, it must be hard. But Aizawa has a point. We tell her and Mrs Yagami, and we will have to inform Near that we have told them. We will have to consider going public about it which could cause major issues." He looked at the two of them. Neither had any response, so he continued. "And another thing, don't you think Sayu has suffered enough already? Don't you think telling her about Light would just add more to her already huge burden? Think about it…"
Matsuda sighed and left the room. He didn't know what to do anymore. Mogi was right, he knew that. But, could he really just keep on lying to Sayu every single day? He knew he couldn't, besides, there was a chance that he'd slip up one day and reveal the truth by accident. That would be even worse. While Matsuda was mulling over what to do, Ide came out to see if he was alright.
Ide sat down on a bench next to him, and the two sat there in silence. It lasted a while, until Matsuda finally decided to break it. "I don't know what to do…" He sighed, looking down at the floor. "I feel like whatever choice I make, I'm bound to lose either way…"
Ide listened to him and nodded. "I guess there is no real right or wrong answer. I mean, from an objective and logical standpoint sure, Aizawa's argument has more weight to it, but…" Matsuda looked up at him, close to tears. He continued. "But, you love her, so in your situation the best thing for you two would be for you to tell her the truth. I can't say what you should do but, you'll do the right thing." Ide sighed and got up. "You want to go for a drink?" He offered, but Matsuda shook his head.
"Nah, Thanks but I'm not really feeling up for it…" He said, and got up as well. "I'm probably just going to head home, so I'll see you tomorrow okay?"
Ide nodded, turning in the opposite direction from Matsuda. "No problem, see you tomorrow." They parted ways, and Matsuda began his journey home.
He didn't mind the walk. He sometimes preferred to walk to and from work than to drive, as he found that it was a good time for him to think and to clear his head. As he walked, he thought about what Aizawa said. He felt annoyed; partly because Aizawa didn't understand. He only seen it from his own point of view and not Matsuda's. But the other, bigger reason why Matsuda was annoyed was because he knew that Aizawa wasn't wrong. He knew that telling Sayu was a bad idea for many reasons, but he still felt that it would be better to be honest with her. He looked up to the sky, and wondered what Soichiro would want him to do. He felt terrible.
After a lengthy walk back, he reached his apartment and began routing for his keys. Had he left them in the office? Crap. He hoped someone had left a spare around somewhere or maybe he had left a window open by mistake. He began searching under the mat and in plant pots until he heard a car horn, and he turned around swiftly. Aizawa?
"Hey, you left your keys in the office." He said as he lent out the window, and he threw them towards Matsuda, causing him to dive to catch them. Was he still angry with him? Probably. He'd seemed livid before. Either way, Matsuda was grateful that he drove all that way to his house to give him his keys back.
"Thank you…" Matsuda began, and Aizawa nodded.
"No problem. Look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you like that." He apologised, and Matsuda got up, walking towards the car.
"Hey, it's fine, I understand why you got angry…" Matsuda began before Aizawa interrupted.
"No, I mean it. I still think it's a crazy, stupid and dangerous idea but…" He sighed and looked down at the wheel. "I get why you'd want to tell her. I felt terrible when I had to keep the fact I had quit the police from my wife and daughter. It broke me." He turned his gaze back onto Matsuda. "What I'm getting at is, I personally don't think you should tell her; however, I can't blame you if you do. Because I'd probably do the same if it were my family." He started the engine back up, and Matsuda smiled.
"Thank you Aizawa." He said once again, and the two shared a look of understanding before Aizawa drove off and Matsuda unlocked the door to his apartment.