CHAPTER 34 - UNEXPECTED, part II.

Light panicked for a moment and pressed his body against the wall in the corridor not to reveal himself. By the proximity of those voices, he was only a corner away from a big big problem. He was not sure what he was going to say and how to explain it. So he decided to stay where he was for now and only moved silently closer to the corner, to eavesdrop on the conversation.

"L is not really the one to explain his reasons. But I believe he followed a lead." The voice of professor Wammy answered.

"He followed a lead without letting us know?" A female voice asked. Light didn't know that voice. It must have been someone from the investigation. Perhaps the dark haired woman he saw at school a few weeks earlier? Did the Aurors' office already send someone to investigate the accusation of the Prophet?

"You know him well enough, Naomi, he likes working alone…"

The woman let out a long sigh: "Last time he went somewhere alone we almost didn't save him in time! Seriously professor Wammy, you should put The Trace on him!"

Light heard professor Wammy laugh: "Don't worry, my dear, I have my ways to track L down. And I am sure he will be back soon. He packed quite lightly."

Then there was a moment of silence before professor Wammy spoke again: "Did something happen? You two look… tired."

That made Light frown. He didn't see them but it was true that there was something heavy in their voices. The woman lowered her voice. But luckily, Light was near enough to hear:

"Yes, unfortunately. We wanted to discuss the situation with L before evening's edition of Daily Prophet will be out."

There was a moment of silence. Light could literally feel the atmosphere growing thicker. Professor Wammy sounded concerned: "Did some information leak out?"

"No…" Light's father said: "But we just returned from a crime scene. There's been another pair. They were found by a family member who works for the Prophet. So we won't be able to keep it off the press entirely this time. If we try, this person might go to another Newspaper and it would come out that we withdrew information from the public."

Light couldn't believe what he just heard. The fact that his father wasn't there because of him and the article wasn't the most important thing. But that he obviously worked on the Kira case with professor Lawliet, was shocking. And that he participated in withdrawing the information from the public. That was unheard of.

"I see…" Wammy mumbled under his moustache and Light heard the steps heading his direction. The group moved: "I am afraid you will have to handle this one without L, Naomi…" Light heard the old professor saying and he knew he had to move or he would be discovered.

Light stepped into the corridor with his eyes on the ground, making it look like he was deep in thoughts and just passing the corridor. At the very second, he bumped into someone tall and broad.

"I am so sorry!" He started apologising immediately and acted surprised, especially when he realised he bumped into his own father.

"Dad! What are you doing here?!" Light asked with fake wide eyes.

The man looked equally surprised. He obviously didn't plan on meeting Light there. He must have thought Light would have some class at the time.

Soichiro composed himself quickly and smiled at his son: "Hello Light, I am here to discuss something with professor Lawliet."

Light's eyes went slightly wider. He was not sure how to react to that. He should probably say something concerning the morning article, because from his point of view, that should have been the only thing his father could have wanted to discuss with Lawliet. But he also knew that his father hadn't read the article yet. He was probably at the crime scene all night long.

"Ah, dad if this is about the arti…" Light started but was quickly cut off by professor Wammy:

"Your father came to discuss a professional matter."

Soichiro looked at him suspiciously, but Light was quite grateful for the way out.

"Yes, we… are seeking his assistance in a… professional matter." The older Yagami lied and didn't fool his son for a single second. But Light only nodded.

Then there was a moment of silence before Soichiro stepped aside and uncovered the black haired women who stood behind him. Light was right. It was the one he saw some time ago with Lawliet in the great hall.

"Light, meet agent Naomi Misora, she is an Auror who had been working closely with professor Lawliet. Naomi, this is my son Light, he is working hard to become an Auror."

Light smiled and offered his hand. She shook it but was looking at him warily.

"Nice to meet you." Light said politely.

"Likewise. I heard a lot about you." Naomi answered.

"Only good I hope." Light said both Soichiro and Wammy chuckled.

Naomi didn't seem amused and her dark intelligent eyes were scanning his face: "I heard you are the person who never gives up on what he wants."

"That's my life philosophy." Light said, acting up a bit, trying to look confident but at the same time he was a little nervous under her gaze. He knew that if one of them realised he was eavesdropping, it would be her. But if she did notice, she didn't let anyone know.

Light's father spoke up again and put a hand on his shoulder: "Indeed that is right. You know Naomi, Light is now even taking private lessons with L, to be ready for his admission to Auror's office."

Light's breath hitched and even professor Wammy didn't seem happy about the notion. For obvious reasons. Once this woman reads the morning's Prophet, she will know exactly who the article was talking about.

Naomi looked from the father back to the son and raised an eyebrow. If that gesture meant that she was surprised, Light wasn't sure. She was very hard to read.

"Really?"

Light cleared his throat and answered: "Yes. Professor Lawliet was very kind to make time for me." But both this woman and professor Wammy obviously knew that "kind" was definitely not usually one of Lawliet's qualities. At least not towards outsiders. But for some reason, they didn't laugh and played on:

"Well you must be really good if L is willing to share his time and knowledge." She stated and Light decided to push some clarification into her, before she reads the article:

"I… I am not bad, but I think he teaches me just because of my father."

That drew laughter from both the father and the old professor.

"I must admit…" Wammy started: "...that it might have played some part in persuading him to do it but…" he drifted off for a moment: "... he would have never agreed if he thought you didn't have what it takes. If he is teaching you, it is because he finds you worthy of his time."

Soichiro beamed with the widest smile: "See Light? I told you it would be okay to ask him."

Light smiled but inside he dreaded the moment his father would read the article. And anything that might come after that. But professor Wammy must have had similar thoughts because he said: "You worked hard to earn his time. He wouldn't let you teach younglighs, if he didn't trust you."

"What are you talking about?" Soichiro asked.

"L named Light as a substitute for the first three grades while he is gone."

"That's amazing Light!" Soichiro said and his back straightened with pride.

"Truly, L must think very highly of you." Naomi said with a calm voice, but narrowed her eyes and scanned Light again.

"I… hope he does." Light said nervously, under her scrutinising look. But what she's done next surprised him. She reached into her jacket and took out a visit card. She handed it to him: "L's friends are my friends. If you'd ever need something, let me know."

Light looked at her in surprise and took the card: "Tha… Thank you, agent Misora."

She only nodded.

"Thank you, Naomi." Said his father, who was also surprised by the gesture of one of the best Aurors in the country.

"I'm afraid I will have to return back to the office. Professor Wammy, please contact me as soon as L comes back. Now if you'll excuse me." Naomi said and after a few more exchanged pleasantries left.

When the three men were left alone, Light suddenly felt afraid. His father always knew when there was something wrong with him and the longer he stayed in his presence, the greater possibility of the discovery. Light shot a look towards professor Wammy and the man seemed to understand.

"Mr. Yagami, are you in a hurry? Would you have a cup of tea with me?" the old man asked.

Yagami senior seemed surprised and looked at Light. The boy smiled at him: "Oh, don't worry about me. I have to go to teach a DADA class anyway. It starts in 20 minutes." Light started backing off and added: "Kiss mum from me! Bye!"

L quickly understood why the woman was so suspicious of him and backed off without turning her back at him. The portkey treaty of his wand still didn't work and porkeying was probably impossible long term in this area. The woman must have known that and knew he was lying when he said he portkeyed himself in. She most probably ran to call her wizard husband or the law enforcements and he would be surrounded within minutes.

"Great. That's just great..." L let out and thought about his options. He needed to move out of there and preferably get somewhere where any kind of magical transportation was possible. It wouldn't be such a big problem to face a police force, given the fact that he had an Auror badge, but he thought it would be better not to draw too much attention to where he was.

He decided to follow the safest path and wanted to step in the direction where the woman went. But when he took one step and transferred the weight on his injured leg, the pain suddenly doubled and he lost his balance.

"Aaaa…" L screamed and fell to the ground with a loud thump. He stayed unmoving for a moment, breathing heavily, feeling excruciating pain coming from his leg.

"God damn it…" he cursed when he came back to himself and reached towards his leg. The wound was indeed opened again and bleeding through his jeans. L's wand started quickly performing spells to stop the bleeding and close the wound but it didn't seem to work much. The alpha was laying on the ground, trying to breathe slowly to calm down. But he had his eyes shut tightly and tears were falling out from its corners. It was an agony that came out of nowhere.

L was so distracted by the pain he didn't even notice the Asian lady came back and was suddenly kneeling next to him. She took off her scarf and put it around his leg. L's eyes shot open in surprise by the contact. He looked at the lady, who was currently focused on his wound. He barely realised that his wand, who was usually overprotective, must have seen the lady as harmless to let her close again.

"We must absolutely have this cleaned and treated now." She said with a voice full of worries and looked at the pale young man. "My house is not far away, but we have to get you there."

L was in too much pain to refuse, but he had to ask one thing: "You know I lied to you before. I might be dangerous, why would you offer to help me?"

The lady seemed to be surprised by the question. She hesitated for a moment and then smiled at him: "I don't know where you come from, young man, but in Japan, we are taught not to let injured people die in the forest."

Matt was completely out of his skin in his morning classes. He was still watching the door, waiting for Mello to come in. But as long as Roger didn't release him from the spell, it wouldn't happen. And Matt was quite sure Roger wouldn't let Mello go at least until the evening. He was also quite sure that the freezing spell was harmless and the only problem Mello could have after it was a bad cold. And yet… Matt had a hard time leaving Mello in the morning and he was fighting a constant urge to run back to the great hall and unfreeze him himself. Not that he knew how. The freezing spell had to be usually undone by the wizard who had spelled it. There was ofcourse a more general contra spell but as far as Matt knew, it was in the curriculum of 6th, maybe 7th year. Which he found, at the moment, incredibly stupid. But even if he knew the spell, doing it behind Roger's back might turn out to be even a bigger problem. So he just sat through his morning classes and waited for the punishment to pass.

Mello was still in a frozen state at the mid-day. When Matt came to the Great hall, there was quite a large group of people fooling around him, sticking notes on his uniform and drawing things on his face. He wanted to run and curse them all, but before he got to move Misa was there, screaming at them and shielding Mello from any further humiliation. That made Matt literally stop in his tracks.

Misa has been everywhere for the past two days. Not only was she hanging around them, but she was clinging on to Mello more than Sayu did. What was worse, Mello let her. And what was it Mello said to her yesterday? When Matt saw her and Mello coming out of an empty classroom? Something about her being good with her mouth?

Did she really give Mello a blow job or am I imagining things? Matt was asking himself when he watched Misa carefully taking the sticky notes from Mello's uniform. For some reason, the thoroughness with which she was taking care of Mello now, was making Matt sicker to the stomach than the thought of them being physical. Or maybe it was both.

Matt literally ran out of the great hall and skipped lunch. He just couldn't watch it without having an urge to rip out Misa's throat. Which made literally not sense because this was what he wanted for years now. For someone to come and shift Mello's attention away from him. Like this he could have had more freedom. Maybe he could even get some attention from Sayu, now that Mello would be off the market.

That realisation hit Matt like lightning.

"He's dating her…" he whispered to himself and had to catch the railing on the stairs he was currently walking. The pain that went through his chest was so unexpected and strong that he thought someone hit him with a spell for a moment. He was barely able to come back to his dorm and decided to leave out the rest of the classes for the day.

"You can lean on me." The lady said when she helped L back on his feet. He hesitantly leaned on her. She was much smaller than him and his weight must have been really hard on her. But they slowly managed to move forward through the forest. When after a moment they got both sweaty with the effort, L realised that she smelled nice. Not inviting, but calm and motherly.

L still couldn't understand what was happening. This whole situation was ridiculous. Why would a stranger, who originally thought him dangerous, suddenly step forward to help him? It made no sense. There were no people who helped others selflessly. Not in his world.

The lady must have sensed his inner turmoil because she suddenly started speaking: "I have a son that might be approximately your age. If he was in this state somewhere in the woods, I would want someone to offer him help. Maybe by helping you, the heavens will one day pay me back and send help to my son when needed."

L fought and urge to roll his eyes. Thinking that "heavens" will pay her back was a ridiculous thought as many other muggles' beliefs. But there was literally nothing he could say against motherly love. He still faintly remembered how it felt. But still, he found it stupid, because if he was really someone with bad intentions, the lady would have a big problem: "You shouldn't be so opened to strangers. I could use you to help me and hurt you later."

But the lady didn't seem unsettled by that statement: "You are a little too concerned for my well being for a bad guy." She said,

"Maybe it's a strategy…" L answered and then cursed under his breath, because a pain shot through his body again.

The lady who needed a pause for a moment helped him lean against the three and looked into his face.

"You are not a bad person." She said with a voice full of conviction and feelings. L looked into her eyes, completely startled by this proclamation:

"How can you be so sure?"

L was not sure what he was expecting, but definitely not for her to come closer to him and unreveal the Auror's badge he had hidden under the collar of his jacket.

"I was told these are not usually given to bad guys…"

L wanted to laugh. She totally got him. Although it was practically impossible for her to see it when they first met. So she must have made her decision to help him before she noticed the badge and that still meant she put herself in unnecessary danger.

"As an Auror, I must tell you, that inviting strangely looking… injured wizards to your home is unwise."

"As a wife of a police officer, I can assure you, that if something happens to me, you will have nowhere to hide."

L laughed at that out loud but didn't have enough strength to ask who the lady's husband was. He just accepted her invitation to lean on her again and they continued their limping journey.

L was actually quite calmed by her statement. She was in fact really cautious. At first, she immediately caught on to his lie, back away from him without showing her back and then she must have been watching him from the shadows, interacting with his wand before making her decision to step forward and help him. If nothing, she was well trained to be wary of wizards. Pity that her motherly instincts obviously won over all that. L could only hope that it will not get her into problems in the future.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to lie to you…" L started with gritted teeth… "... but I am on a mission and I wasn't supposed to meet anybody." he said, not even knowing why. He was not usually saying these things to strangers. But this lady was nothing but nice to him so far, so he felt a need to pay back somehow. Part of the truth was the least he could do.

"Don't push yourself, you will tell me once you feel better." She said and headed forward.

Together, they passed through the forest slowly and at the point, when L almost couldn't walk anymore, the wand flew out of his pocket and conjured up a wheelchair. L collapsed into it without a second thought and the lady only gaped.

"Your wand is not the brightest, is it?" she said: "That could have been useful from the beginning."

L chuckled and the wand was turning between him and the lady.

"My wand is generally ordered to back off. It only acts on its own when it's absolutely necessary. It is a precaution. I'm sorry."

The lady frowned even deeper: "In that case you are not the brightest yourself. You could have used it to conjure up the chair yourself."

L's eyes almost popped out of his head in shock. She was right. He could have done that. He could have blamed it on the pain from the injury, but Watari himself told him on many occasions that he was a genius when it came to cases and spells, but when it came to practical things he was completely useless. Somehow it felt more embarrassing when an outsider told him that.

But the lady didn't make any more fun of him and pushed the wheelchair forward. Silence spreaded between them for some time. The lady only spoke up again, when they had the village in sight: "Anyway… how can such a young person be an Auror? You can not be much older than my son."

"How old is your son, madam?" L asked and examined her again over his shoulder.

"He will be 18 in February."

"I am 25."

"You look 20."

L chuckled: "Sometimes it's not a bad thing. It makes caring strangers take care of me when I'm injured."

The lady stopped and L looked over his shoulder to see the lady's stern look. He bit his lower lip: "Sorry… I didn't mean to be ungrateful."

"You definitely are full of yourself."

That shut up L effectively. The lady began to push the chair forward again and smiled without L seeing it: "But… you know when you step over the line and you are able to apologise. That's a rare thing."

L smiled a little at the compliment.

They continued through the village and then turned towards one of the houses. There was a step in front of the door, so L had to get out of the wheel chair and lean on the lady again. When the door to the house opened, L was flooded with many amazing smells. Flowers, autumn leaves, cakes and other things that made his body immediately relax. It smelled like… home. The lady helped L to the chair in the salon and ordered him to wait. He leaned his back into it and closed his eyes for a moment. He didn't understand how he got into this situation. He usually hated asking for help and getting it from strangers was even more out of character for him. But he was in so much pain at that moment that he didn't feel like he had any other choice. And for some reason, now he felt so relaxed and safe. He just wanted to keep his eyes closed and fall asleep. He even would if after a moment, he didn't feel something poking into his cheek. He opened his eyes and looked at his wand which was floating in the air next to him.

"What is it?" he asked and the wand pointed in a direction to the right. L turned his head to see what it was showing him. There was a small table next to the chair with a lamp and a family photo.

L's eyes widened. It was the same family photo he had seen in Light's room. With Light, Sayu, the chief and his wife looked at him.

Oh fuck… oh fuck… I'm in Yagami's mansion. The woman is… Light's mother!