![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Title: Old Friends
Fandom: Category: Freaks
Characters: Asagi Nanami/Naoki Amano
Prompt: #70 Years
Word Count: 947 words
Rating: T
Author's Notes: This claim uses the prompts from the brand new second table rather than the old one.
Disclaimer: I do not own Category: Freaks. It is the intellectual property of Gokurakuin Sakurako, and I am making no money from the distribution of this story. The song lyrics used in this story are from Old Friends by Simon and Garfunkel. I claim no ownership over them either.
Old friends,
Old friends
Sat on their park bench
Like bookends.
Amano sat silently, alone on the park bench. His hands were shoved deep into his pockets, and his scarf was tied tightly round his thin neck. Longish grey hair fell into his eyes as he stared at his lap; he was unable to see at all these days.
It was the guide dog at his side that alerted him to Asagi’s presence. The animal growled low in its throat, immediately sensing that it was trying to defend its master from a much stronger predator than itself. The dog’s loyalty made Amano smile faintly.
“It’s been a while,” he murmured.
“You’ve changed.” Asagi’s voice sounded exactly the same as it had all those years ago.
“I’m human,” Amano replied. “Age happens.”
He was looking in the direction he had heard Asagi’s voice come from, now, and was surprised to feel gentle fingers grip his chin and turn his head slightly to the left.
“You’re blind.”
A newspaper blown though the grass
Falls on the round toes
Of the high shoes
Of the old friends.
Amano smiled wryly. “It finally went a couple of years ago,” he said. “It comes with the wrinkles and the brittle bones.”
“If all you’re going to do is complain about how humans age…” Asagi threatened, though there was no actual threat in his tone.
Amano laughed. “No, not that. I just wanted to see you again; to hear your voice again.”
Asagi was silent as he guided Amano’s old, withered hands up to his face. He watched as Amano’s misted eyes blinked, and felt bony fingers trace the lines of his jaw and cheek and the delicate fan of his eyelashes. He saw the wistful smile flicker across Amano’s face and he turned his face into the hand caressing him; pressed his lips against the palm.
Amano smelt of sickness and death, and Asagi was not stupid enough not to realize the words that Amano had left unsaid. Amano knew he was dying.
He glanced up at Amano again, just in time to see a pale flush cross his aged features.
“Bastard,” Amano muttered, drawing his hands back.
“You always loved me this way,” Asagi replied.
Old friends,
Winter companions,
The old men
Lost in their overcoats,
Waiting for the sunset.
The sounds of the city
Sifting through trees
Settle like dust
On the shoulders
Of the old friends.
Asagi’s hand over his own was the only thing that let him know that the Stand was still there. He couldn’t hear breathing, and there was only slight warmth coming from him, so it was the light weight of familiar slender fingers that told him he was not alone.
“What happened to the others?” he asked after a while.
“Mahime married, and died in childbirth five years later,” Asagi said. “My father and Izumi rented a private yacht and are currently cruising round the world… Since the war ended, things have been very dull.”
Amano smiled. He could remember when Asagi had fired him completely out of the blue. It had been just before the investigation into Hainuwele had really heated up, and he had spent months – years – wondering why before he had finally moved on.
He still didn’t know. But the difference now was that he didn’t think he could deal with the truth if he got it.
“What about you?” Asagi asked.
“Nothing much,” Amano admitted. “I graduated university, got a job, worked, retired, got ill…”
“No wife?” Asagi asked.
“No.” How could he possibly admit that he had been unable to even think of a woman without her features being replaced by those of a beautiful young girl he had met long ago…and who he knew fine well wasn’t really a girl.
He could practically hear Asagi smirking, that no-doubt same infuriating expression as he had used all those years ago.
“I missed you,” he murmured. “I wanted to know why for so long, but…”
“I couldn’t risk Hainuwele using you against me,” Asagi told him. “I couldn’t risk you.”
Amano was silent. There was nothing he could say.
Can you imagine us
Years from today
Sharing a park bench quietly?
How terribly strange
To be seventy.
It was time for him to go. The dog by his side was getting restless, and he could feel a chill in his bones that told him he should get home as quickly as possible before his illness got worse.
He doubted he would meet Asagi again before he died, but even so, he did not want the Stand to see how weak he really was now.
He made his excuses and grasped his dog’s harness as tightly as his arthritic fingers would allow as he stood – old joints creaking and cracking with the sudden movement.
He felt Asagi move to support him, and despite his embarrassment he was grateful for the support as his knees threatened to give way. He grasped at Asagi’s arm with his free hand, feeling the sinewy muscle under his grip and the breath against his cheek.
“Thank you,” he said. “For…”
His heart skipped a beat as Asagi pressed their lips together. The contact was brief, fleeting, but it made him feel almost young again.
“Goodbye,” he murmured when they broke apart.
As Amano shuffled off, his dog leading the way, Asagi stared after him. He raised his hand to his mouth and bit his lip. He knew he would never see Amano again: his kiss had tasted of death and ash and the virus that was slowly destroying him.
“Goodbye.”
Old friends,
Memory brushes the same years
Silently sharing the same fears.
Title: The Watch
Fandom: Death Note
Characters: L/Light Yagami, Rem, Misa
Prompt: #68 Watch
Word Count: 588 words
Rating: T
Author's Notes: I completed this quite a while ago, but I never got round to posting it.
Disclaimer: Death Note is the property of Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. I do not claim to own it and I am not making any money from the distribution of this story.
His first day of freedom from the handcuffs came after Higuchi was caught. Light grimaced at the memory of writing the man’s name down on the piece of Death Note hidden in his watch so that he could claim the Death Note as his own. It had taken him a lot of effort to switch the Death Note for a plain notebook, and it had involved the help of the Shinigami Rem, who was much more helpful than Ryuk even if she did want to kill him.
It had been easy, after that, to contact Misa and tell her to bring her Death Note with her on their ‘date’. He had taken her out of the city, to the secluded woodland where they had buried Ryuk’s Death Note the first time. He had already had her hand it over to him along with any scraps of paper she might have torn out of it.
“Relinquish your possession of it,” he told her and she obeyed without a question.
“What are you up to, Light?” Rem asked suspiciously.
Light’s only reply was to shove the two Death Notes into her hands along with the loose sheets so that he could remove the final scrap from his watch. He handed that to her as well.
“Things changed,” he said. “I don’t care if you kill me for taking away your entertainment, Ryuk, but I can’t do this anymore. At least this way Misa will live and I will be able to stop lying to the people who matter to me.”
“The detective,” Rem said.
Light nodded. “I relinquish my ownership of the Death Note.”
LL
Light stood on the balcony of L’s latest hotel room. When the killings had stopped, L had moved out of headquarters, although he had stayed in Tokyo. He said it was because he wanted to be around in case the killings started up again, but Light hoped it was also because of something else.
He glanced at his watch to check the time – he was supposed to be home by midnight – and felt a shiver run up his spine. He didn’t know why, after all, it had only started happening recently, but his watch made him feel uncomfortable. Maybe it was time for him to get a new one.
Absent-mindedly, his fingers fumbled with the clasp, undoing the stainless steel strap. He tilted his wrist slightly and watched as it slipped easily off him to tumble down thirty stories and smash on the pavement below. Light sighed in relief; he felt so much better, cleaner somehow.
“Light-kun?”
He turned to look at L, and smiled when he saw the hesitant way the detective was looking – or rather not looking – at him. Their relationship had only developed past friendship after Light had been cleared of all charges once and for all, and L was still rather tentative about it. Light thought it was cute.
He stepped away from the railing and wrapped an arm around L’s waist. He tilted the older man’s face up and pressed their lips together in a gentle kiss. It had, in retrospect, definitely been worth the pain caused by being the main suspect in the Kira case.
LL
Rem smirked as she stared down on them from the Shinigami World. She did not approve that Light had abandoned Misa, but at least she was alive. And the detective was good for him; could keep an eye on him. It was the closest thing to a happy ending they could have got.
Title: Bonding
Fandom: Death Note
Characters: L/Light Yagami
Prompt: #56 Friends
Word Count: 1005 words
Rating: T
Author's Notes: This, like the other Death Note Fics I'm posting today, has been completed for a while.
Disclaimer: See above.
L walked slowly through the park, trying to ignore the stabbing pain in the arches of his trainer-clad feet. Watari had practically shoved him out of the hotel room he was using as his base, telling him to get some fresh air to help him think. Instead of helping, the fresh air was giving him a headache.
It was also reminding him why he loathed summer. It seemed that everyone and their girlfriend was in the park that day, most of them young couples sitting or walking together and staring at each other as if their significant other was the only person on the planet.
The chain reaching between his wrist and Light’s, binding the two of them together rattled slightly and L subconsciously drew some of it up into his hand, making it shorter and tugging Light closer to him. A few of the couples paused in their cooing as reality walked past, and they stared at L and Light curiously before returning back to their fantasy world of love-hearts and flowers.
Light shot L a look from the corner of his eye, and realised that L was limping slightly. He sighed softly, so there was a reason why L hated wearing shoes after all.
“Come on,” he said, and with a tug of the chain, he led L off the pavement and onto the grass. He found a suitable tree and sat under it, leaning his back against the trunk. He raised a hand to shield his eyes as he looked up at L, inviting him silently to sit with him…not that he had much of a choice, as even if he refused, Light would drag him down to join him.
Thankfully, Light didn’t have to go that far and L toed off his shoes gratefully and wiggled his toes in the soft grass before sitting down in his usual position.
“What do you think got into Watari?” Light asked, quietly so that none of the other couples would hear their conversation.
L shrugged. “He seems to think that this will help me figure out the Kira case.” As he spoke, his eyes followed a young child – one of many in the park – as he toddled into the arms of his young mother, who promptly swept him off his feet and into the air. The father joined them at a more leisurely pace, kissing his wife in greeting and ruffling his child’s hair. L shifted again. Such sights did, on occasion, make him feel uncomfortable, if only because he had never experienced that sort of affection himself.
Light raised an eyebrow and gave L another sidelong glance. The detective was watching a young family closely, watching how they interacted with something close to envy in his eyes. When Watari had been shoving them out of the hotel, he had been talking in English, but Light’s grasp of the language was, thankfully, good enough to have understood what Watari was saying.
“Do you have any children?” he found himself asking. L turned and stared at him and Light felt his face heat up. He indicated the family. “You were staring at them and I wondered…”
“No,” L said. “I told you that you were my first friend Light-kun, anything beyond that is unknown to me.” L paused. “You won’t find out my name, you know.”
“I know,” Light sighed. “I don’t really care either.”
L blinked. It could be that Light was bluffing and that he would try and find out enough information to draw conclusions as to L’s real identity, but it could also be that he was being honest and that he didn’t care. If he was Kira, could it be possible to have found a new way to kill with only a face, just like the second Kira? Or if he wasn’t Kira, maybe his intentions were pure.
“It’s just,” Light continued, “you call me your first friend and you know a lot about me, but I don’t really know anything about you. It’s a bit unfair.”
L had to admit that he had a point. “You are right, Light-kun, but you are also the main suspect in my investigation. Enough information could lead to you finding out my identity through your own means, and, if you are Kira, killing me.”
“I’m not Kira,” Light muttered.
L found himself smiling slightly. It was nice that Light was so predictable in his denial. If he wasn’t Kira, and L one day freed him, he would probably be able to trust him with at least some of his secrets.
“I’m not Japanese,” he said after a few minutes’ silence. Light blinked and turned his head to look at him again.
“I’d guessed that,” he said. “Where are you from originally?”
“Europe,” L admitted. It had a large enough population to find tracing his birth difficult, even for someone with Light’s dedication.
“I’ve always wanted to travel,” Light admitted quietly. “But the furthest we’ve been is a family holiday to Hokkaido. Dad hates planes and Mum gets sea-sick. I’d love to see Europe.”
L blinked. He hadn’t known Light was interested in leaving Japan. “Maybe, if your innocence is proved, you’ll get the chance to go,” he said.
Light smiled. “Everything hinges on that, huh?”
“Of course,” L said.
“You’re older than me, aren’t you?” Light asked. L simply nodded, wondering if Light would ask his exact age. He didn’t.
“Do you have any family?”
“Watari is my family,” L said. “He’s the closest thing I’ve had to a parent.”
“I’m sorry,” Light said quietly.
L shrugged. “Don’t be. They died long before you were born.”
Light asked no more questions after that. Instead they watched the couples come and go in companionable silence, wasting the day away in their spot under the tree. When they returned to the hotel room, Watari smiled at them warmly, watching as they worked together on the case far more cooperatively than before.
Maybe, if his plan worked and Light was innocent, L wouldn’t have to hide anymore.
Title: Meet the Parents
Fandom: Death Note
Characters: L/Light Yagami, Soichiro Yagami, Sachiko Yagami, Sayu Yagami
Prompt: #26 Family
Word Count: 712 words
Rating: T
Disclaimer: See above.
L sat awkwardly on the sofa, in a normal position for once in honour of Light’s request for him to act as much like a normal human being as possible. He was forcibly restraining himself from pulling his long legs up and close to his chest, and it was taking a great deal of effort for him to not chew on his thumb as he usually did.
It didn’t really matter anyway, because Sachiko Yagami was still staring at him in horror. Light’s father didn’t look too happy either, but at least he could…appreciate the effort it was taking L to behave like this long enough for Light to introduce him as his lover. Sayu was staring at her brother rather than at L, and the detective felt a surge of gratitude towards the girl, even though she was asking Light if it was some kind of weird joke.
L knew Light’s sense of humour left a lot to be desired, but he hadn’t realised it was quite that bad.
Light’s mother was now looking at their hands, which lay entwined on the sofa with something akin to embarrassment. She was no doubt wondering what all their friends and neighbours would say when they found out that the Yagamis’ perfect son was sleeping with a male foreigner. She was also, no doubt, blaming L for this apparent switch in her son’s sexuality, which was slightly unfair in L’s opinion. It wasn’t his fault that Light was gayer than a bag of monkeys on nitrous oxide at Christmas.
Okay, so it had been his idea for them to handcuff themselves together, but it had not been an obscure method of getting into Light’s pants.
“So what do you do for a living?” Light’s mother asked, and L shifted even more uncomfortably.
“I’m a private detective,” he said quietly. There, not too revealing, but it hadn’t been a lie either.
“Self employed?” she asked and he nodded. Technically it was the truth.
“What about your parents?”
He shifted again. “They’re dead,” he said calmly, feeling Light’s fingers tighten slightly around his own. For some reason, Light seemed to think he had missed out on not having a proper family. L couldn’t say that he had: after all, how would he be able to tell? And besides, at least he hadn’t had to go through this sort of mortifying experience with Watari. “I was brought up by my grandfather.”
And that explained Watari.
“Does he approve of…this?” she asked.
From the corner of his eye, L saw Light’s lips twitch slightly, no doubt at the memory of Watari subtly telling them that they should probably remove the CCTV cameras from their bedroom. Of course, that had been during the investigation.
“Yes,” L replied honestly. “He thinks Light is a wonderful person, and he is glad to see me happy.”
The non-use of the honorific was deliberate, and L felt a guilty thrill when it was her turn to shift uncomfortably in her seat.
‘Yes, I am that intimate with your son,’ he thought. ‘And yes he has given me permission to drop the –kun from his name.’
He looked over at Light again to see that his younger partner had entered into some sort of staring match with his father. Sayu was looking between them nervously.
“Dad?” she asked. “You aren’t going to disown Light are you?”
And this was another reason why L was somewhat glad his parents were not in a position to object to his relationship with Light. The thought of losing people so important to him just because he fell in love with someone they regarded as ‘the wrong person’ was horrible in his imagination; for Light, to be facing it right now because of him made him feel even more awkward and nervous and slightly ill.
Soichiro Yagami tore his unblinking gaze away from Light and levelled it on L, who could feel the disapproval coming off him in waves.
“I will not,” he said slowly. Ryuzaki felt tension flood from his body, and saw Light slump back against the sofa in relief. “No matter how much I may disapprove of this, Ryuzaki is a good person and I trust him with Light’s welfare.”
“Thank you, Yagami-san,” L said quietly. He would need to work at his relationships with the various members of Light's family - for Light's sake more than his own - but for now, this trust would have to do.
Title: Crash
Fandom: Death Note
Characters: L/Light Yagami, Soichiro Yagami, Sachiko Yagami, Sayu Yagami
Prompt: #73 Hour
Word Count: 1233
Rating: T
Disclaimer: See above.
The plane from Australia had crashed. L sat numbly on his favourite chair after seeing the report on the news, unable to stop himself from picturing Light’s mangled body in the smoking wreckage. Some filial urge, he didn’t know what exactly, had him out of their apartment and half way to Light’s parents’ house before he knew what he was doing. He paused in the middle of the street when he realised where he was going. He knew fine well that Light’s parents didn’t really like him, and he would probably be the last person in the world that they would want to see but…he wanted to see somebody.
He continued walking. Trepidation built inside his stomach with every step: ever since he had been introduced to them, he had only been to their house twice, and both of those times had been with Light. Both of those times had also been incredibly uncomfortable.
It was Light’s mother who opened the door. Her eyes were bloodshot and she was holding a tissue in her right hand. She must have seen something in his face, because before he could even bow in greeting, she had flung her arms around his neck and started to cry into his shoulder. He patted her back awkwardly and guided her into the house.
Soichiro detached his wife from his son’s lover and nodded his head in greeting. He looked worried, the pensive expression identical to the one he had tried to hide while working on the Kira case.
“I…” Ryuzaki murmured, trying to explain himself. “I didn’t want to be alone.”
It felt strange to admit to it, as he had become used to spending a lot of his time by himself, but now, faced with the loss of Light – his Light – he found himself unable to bear even the thought of grieving alone.
Sayu was sitting on the sofa watching the news report. Her face was pale, but she managed to offer him a shaky smile when he entered.
“Light’s going to be okay, right Ryuzaki-san?” she asked. “I mean, there’s a chance he might have survived, right?”
L didn’t have the heart to tell her that part of the reason why people were told to go into the brace position as a plane lost control was so that their teeth survived and so that the tattered remains could be identified through dental records. Instead he nodded and sat on the floor, his legs pulled up to his chest and his teeth worrying at his thumb. It was the first time he had dared do so in front of Light’s family – apart from his father of course – and it earned him a strange look from Sayu, who was at least coherent, unlike her mother, but he didn’t care.
Images of the wreckage shone from the television screen, imprinting themselves on his mind. He felt ill, and closed his eyes.
They sat in silence together, waiting for any news other than that shown on the television. Pictures of victims were starting to come up on the screen – they were identifying the bodies quickly, L thought numbly, but there was no sign of Light’s photograph. It was, L thought, the most horrible hour of his life; spent waiting for confirmation that his lover really was dead and being totally helpless.
A shrill ringing sound made L jump, and earned him a reproving stare from Light’s father when the noise turned out to be his ringtone. Funny, for a moment he hadn’t recognised it at all. The caller ID was not one that he recognised, but he answered anyway: blissfully few people had his number, and there was always the chance…
“Hello?”
“Lawliet?”
“You bastard!” L burst out, thankfully in English. He wasn’t sure how good the English of the various members of Light’s family was, but that was one word that wasn’t included on the school syllabus at any rate. “You’re alive.”
“I missed the plane,” Light said calmly. “Are you…are you okay?”
“Never do that to me again,” L said, switching back to Japanese. “Do you want me to tell your parents?”
“Can you? I’m on a payphone and I’m running out of money, and I don’t have enough to call them too.”
“I’m at their house,” L said, glancing round the room at the hopeful faces.
“Thanks,” Light said. “I’ve got to go now. I’ll see you soon, okay? Love you.”
“Love you too.”
L snapped the phone shut, and slumped back against the foot of the sofa behind him. He pushed his mobile back into his pocket and tried to ignore the fact that he was, for the first time that day – the first time in years – crying.
“Light missed the plane,” he said. Sachiko gasped, and L saw her husband’s hand tighten on her shoulder. “He’s stuck at Sydney airport until flights to Japan start up again.”
“I knew it!” Sayu cried. “I knew he was alive!”
She launched herself off the sofa and into Ryuzaki’s second hug of the day, which had the unfortunate side effect of making him fall over. She lay sprawled over him, not in the slightest bit embarrassed, her arms wrapped awkwardly round his neck and her face in the crook of his shoulder.
Her mother was crying again, this time in relief, and Soichiro was holding her close and murmuring into her hair. L caught only snippets of the words, and decided that he didn’t want to listen.
He didn’t really want to stay the night either, but Sachiko insisted on putting him up in Light’s old room. It hadn’t changed in the slightest since L had last seen it – through CCTV cameras he’d had installed when he had still suspected Light of being Kira – and it was comforting, slightly. He buried his face in Light’s old pillow, and through the scent of the washing powder Sachiko used on the laundry, he thought he could smell Light.
L hung around until the following afternoon, when a tired looking Light arrived from the airport in a taxi. L abandoned Sayu and the homework he had been helping her with – she abandoned it too – and dashed out of the front door and down the path to pull Light into his arms. He was real and solid and very much alive, and L kissed him desperately, not caring in the slightest that Light’s parents and sister were standing right behind him.
Light’s arms wound around his waist, holding him close even when their lips broke apart. L rested his head on Light’s shoulder and glanced, seemingly shyly, back at Light’s family who were watching them. He blinked in surprise at seeing the grin on Sayu’s face and the warm smile on Sachiko’s. Light’s father looked slightly awkward still, but didn’t voice any complaints as he reached around L to place his hand on Light’s shoulder.
“Welcome back, brother,” Sayu chirped, moving forward to press a kiss to Light’s cheek, her movements echoed soon after by their mother.
“It’s good to be back,” he admitted. L felt Light’s grip tighten just a little bit around his waist, and he shivered slightly against his lover’s body. He lifted his head to kiss Light again, gently on the corner of his mouth. Light looked down at him – L’s slouching posture making him the smaller of the two – and smiled.
“It’s really good to be back.”
Fandom: Category: Freaks
Characters: Asagi Nanami/Naoki Amano
Prompt: #70 Years
Word Count: 947 words
Rating: T
Author's Notes: This claim uses the prompts from the brand new second table rather than the old one.
Disclaimer: I do not own Category: Freaks. It is the intellectual property of Gokurakuin Sakurako, and I am making no money from the distribution of this story. The song lyrics used in this story are from Old Friends by Simon and Garfunkel. I claim no ownership over them either.
Old friends,
Old friends
Sat on their park bench
Like bookends.
Amano sat silently, alone on the park bench. His hands were shoved deep into his pockets, and his scarf was tied tightly round his thin neck. Longish grey hair fell into his eyes as he stared at his lap; he was unable to see at all these days.
It was the guide dog at his side that alerted him to Asagi’s presence. The animal growled low in its throat, immediately sensing that it was trying to defend its master from a much stronger predator than itself. The dog’s loyalty made Amano smile faintly.
“It’s been a while,” he murmured.
“You’ve changed.” Asagi’s voice sounded exactly the same as it had all those years ago.
“I’m human,” Amano replied. “Age happens.”
He was looking in the direction he had heard Asagi’s voice come from, now, and was surprised to feel gentle fingers grip his chin and turn his head slightly to the left.
“You’re blind.”
A newspaper blown though the grass
Falls on the round toes
Of the high shoes
Of the old friends.
Amano smiled wryly. “It finally went a couple of years ago,” he said. “It comes with the wrinkles and the brittle bones.”
“If all you’re going to do is complain about how humans age…” Asagi threatened, though there was no actual threat in his tone.
Amano laughed. “No, not that. I just wanted to see you again; to hear your voice again.”
Asagi was silent as he guided Amano’s old, withered hands up to his face. He watched as Amano’s misted eyes blinked, and felt bony fingers trace the lines of his jaw and cheek and the delicate fan of his eyelashes. He saw the wistful smile flicker across Amano’s face and he turned his face into the hand caressing him; pressed his lips against the palm.
Amano smelt of sickness and death, and Asagi was not stupid enough not to realize the words that Amano had left unsaid. Amano knew he was dying.
He glanced up at Amano again, just in time to see a pale flush cross his aged features.
“Bastard,” Amano muttered, drawing his hands back.
“You always loved me this way,” Asagi replied.
Old friends,
Winter companions,
The old men
Lost in their overcoats,
Waiting for the sunset.
The sounds of the city
Sifting through trees
Settle like dust
On the shoulders
Of the old friends.
Asagi’s hand over his own was the only thing that let him know that the Stand was still there. He couldn’t hear breathing, and there was only slight warmth coming from him, so it was the light weight of familiar slender fingers that told him he was not alone.
“What happened to the others?” he asked after a while.
“Mahime married, and died in childbirth five years later,” Asagi said. “My father and Izumi rented a private yacht and are currently cruising round the world… Since the war ended, things have been very dull.”
Amano smiled. He could remember when Asagi had fired him completely out of the blue. It had been just before the investigation into Hainuwele had really heated up, and he had spent months – years – wondering why before he had finally moved on.
He still didn’t know. But the difference now was that he didn’t think he could deal with the truth if he got it.
“What about you?” Asagi asked.
“Nothing much,” Amano admitted. “I graduated university, got a job, worked, retired, got ill…”
“No wife?” Asagi asked.
“No.” How could he possibly admit that he had been unable to even think of a woman without her features being replaced by those of a beautiful young girl he had met long ago…and who he knew fine well wasn’t really a girl.
He could practically hear Asagi smirking, that no-doubt same infuriating expression as he had used all those years ago.
“I missed you,” he murmured. “I wanted to know why for so long, but…”
“I couldn’t risk Hainuwele using you against me,” Asagi told him. “I couldn’t risk you.”
Amano was silent. There was nothing he could say.
Can you imagine us
Years from today
Sharing a park bench quietly?
How terribly strange
To be seventy.
It was time for him to go. The dog by his side was getting restless, and he could feel a chill in his bones that told him he should get home as quickly as possible before his illness got worse.
He doubted he would meet Asagi again before he died, but even so, he did not want the Stand to see how weak he really was now.
He made his excuses and grasped his dog’s harness as tightly as his arthritic fingers would allow as he stood – old joints creaking and cracking with the sudden movement.
He felt Asagi move to support him, and despite his embarrassment he was grateful for the support as his knees threatened to give way. He grasped at Asagi’s arm with his free hand, feeling the sinewy muscle under his grip and the breath against his cheek.
“Thank you,” he said. “For…”
His heart skipped a beat as Asagi pressed their lips together. The contact was brief, fleeting, but it made him feel almost young again.
“Goodbye,” he murmured when they broke apart.
As Amano shuffled off, his dog leading the way, Asagi stared after him. He raised his hand to his mouth and bit his lip. He knew he would never see Amano again: his kiss had tasted of death and ash and the virus that was slowly destroying him.
“Goodbye.”
Old friends,
Memory brushes the same years
Silently sharing the same fears.
Title: The Watch
Fandom: Death Note
Characters: L/Light Yagami, Rem, Misa
Prompt: #68 Watch
Word Count: 588 words
Rating: T
Author's Notes: I completed this quite a while ago, but I never got round to posting it.
Disclaimer: Death Note is the property of Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. I do not claim to own it and I am not making any money from the distribution of this story.
His first day of freedom from the handcuffs came after Higuchi was caught. Light grimaced at the memory of writing the man’s name down on the piece of Death Note hidden in his watch so that he could claim the Death Note as his own. It had taken him a lot of effort to switch the Death Note for a plain notebook, and it had involved the help of the Shinigami Rem, who was much more helpful than Ryuk even if she did want to kill him.
It had been easy, after that, to contact Misa and tell her to bring her Death Note with her on their ‘date’. He had taken her out of the city, to the secluded woodland where they had buried Ryuk’s Death Note the first time. He had already had her hand it over to him along with any scraps of paper she might have torn out of it.
“Relinquish your possession of it,” he told her and she obeyed without a question.
“What are you up to, Light?” Rem asked suspiciously.
Light’s only reply was to shove the two Death Notes into her hands along with the loose sheets so that he could remove the final scrap from his watch. He handed that to her as well.
“Things changed,” he said. “I don’t care if you kill me for taking away your entertainment, Ryuk, but I can’t do this anymore. At least this way Misa will live and I will be able to stop lying to the people who matter to me.”
“The detective,” Rem said.
Light nodded. “I relinquish my ownership of the Death Note.”
Light stood on the balcony of L’s latest hotel room. When the killings had stopped, L had moved out of headquarters, although he had stayed in Tokyo. He said it was because he wanted to be around in case the killings started up again, but Light hoped it was also because of something else.
He glanced at his watch to check the time – he was supposed to be home by midnight – and felt a shiver run up his spine. He didn’t know why, after all, it had only started happening recently, but his watch made him feel uncomfortable. Maybe it was time for him to get a new one.
Absent-mindedly, his fingers fumbled with the clasp, undoing the stainless steel strap. He tilted his wrist slightly and watched as it slipped easily off him to tumble down thirty stories and smash on the pavement below. Light sighed in relief; he felt so much better, cleaner somehow.
“Light-kun?”
He turned to look at L, and smiled when he saw the hesitant way the detective was looking – or rather not looking – at him. Their relationship had only developed past friendship after Light had been cleared of all charges once and for all, and L was still rather tentative about it. Light thought it was cute.
He stepped away from the railing and wrapped an arm around L’s waist. He tilted the older man’s face up and pressed their lips together in a gentle kiss. It had, in retrospect, definitely been worth the pain caused by being the main suspect in the Kira case.
Rem smirked as she stared down on them from the Shinigami World. She did not approve that Light had abandoned Misa, but at least she was alive. And the detective was good for him; could keep an eye on him. It was the closest thing to a happy ending they could have got.
Title: Bonding
Fandom: Death Note
Characters: L/Light Yagami
Prompt: #56 Friends
Word Count: 1005 words
Rating: T
Author's Notes: This, like the other Death Note Fics I'm posting today, has been completed for a while.
Disclaimer: See above.
L walked slowly through the park, trying to ignore the stabbing pain in the arches of his trainer-clad feet. Watari had practically shoved him out of the hotel room he was using as his base, telling him to get some fresh air to help him think. Instead of helping, the fresh air was giving him a headache.
It was also reminding him why he loathed summer. It seemed that everyone and their girlfriend was in the park that day, most of them young couples sitting or walking together and staring at each other as if their significant other was the only person on the planet.
The chain reaching between his wrist and Light’s, binding the two of them together rattled slightly and L subconsciously drew some of it up into his hand, making it shorter and tugging Light closer to him. A few of the couples paused in their cooing as reality walked past, and they stared at L and Light curiously before returning back to their fantasy world of love-hearts and flowers.
Light shot L a look from the corner of his eye, and realised that L was limping slightly. He sighed softly, so there was a reason why L hated wearing shoes after all.
“Come on,” he said, and with a tug of the chain, he led L off the pavement and onto the grass. He found a suitable tree and sat under it, leaning his back against the trunk. He raised a hand to shield his eyes as he looked up at L, inviting him silently to sit with him…not that he had much of a choice, as even if he refused, Light would drag him down to join him.
Thankfully, Light didn’t have to go that far and L toed off his shoes gratefully and wiggled his toes in the soft grass before sitting down in his usual position.
“What do you think got into Watari?” Light asked, quietly so that none of the other couples would hear their conversation.
L shrugged. “He seems to think that this will help me figure out the Kira case.” As he spoke, his eyes followed a young child – one of many in the park – as he toddled into the arms of his young mother, who promptly swept him off his feet and into the air. The father joined them at a more leisurely pace, kissing his wife in greeting and ruffling his child’s hair. L shifted again. Such sights did, on occasion, make him feel uncomfortable, if only because he had never experienced that sort of affection himself.
Light raised an eyebrow and gave L another sidelong glance. The detective was watching a young family closely, watching how they interacted with something close to envy in his eyes. When Watari had been shoving them out of the hotel, he had been talking in English, but Light’s grasp of the language was, thankfully, good enough to have understood what Watari was saying.
“Do you have any children?” he found himself asking. L turned and stared at him and Light felt his face heat up. He indicated the family. “You were staring at them and I wondered…”
“No,” L said. “I told you that you were my first friend Light-kun, anything beyond that is unknown to me.” L paused. “You won’t find out my name, you know.”
“I know,” Light sighed. “I don’t really care either.”
L blinked. It could be that Light was bluffing and that he would try and find out enough information to draw conclusions as to L’s real identity, but it could also be that he was being honest and that he didn’t care. If he was Kira, could it be possible to have found a new way to kill with only a face, just like the second Kira? Or if he wasn’t Kira, maybe his intentions were pure.
“It’s just,” Light continued, “you call me your first friend and you know a lot about me, but I don’t really know anything about you. It’s a bit unfair.”
L had to admit that he had a point. “You are right, Light-kun, but you are also the main suspect in my investigation. Enough information could lead to you finding out my identity through your own means, and, if you are Kira, killing me.”
“I’m not Kira,” Light muttered.
L found himself smiling slightly. It was nice that Light was so predictable in his denial. If he wasn’t Kira, and L one day freed him, he would probably be able to trust him with at least some of his secrets.
“I’m not Japanese,” he said after a few minutes’ silence. Light blinked and turned his head to look at him again.
“I’d guessed that,” he said. “Where are you from originally?”
“Europe,” L admitted. It had a large enough population to find tracing his birth difficult, even for someone with Light’s dedication.
“I’ve always wanted to travel,” Light admitted quietly. “But the furthest we’ve been is a family holiday to Hokkaido. Dad hates planes and Mum gets sea-sick. I’d love to see Europe.”
L blinked. He hadn’t known Light was interested in leaving Japan. “Maybe, if your innocence is proved, you’ll get the chance to go,” he said.
Light smiled. “Everything hinges on that, huh?”
“Of course,” L said.
“You’re older than me, aren’t you?” Light asked. L simply nodded, wondering if Light would ask his exact age. He didn’t.
“Do you have any family?”
“Watari is my family,” L said. “He’s the closest thing I’ve had to a parent.”
“I’m sorry,” Light said quietly.
L shrugged. “Don’t be. They died long before you were born.”
Light asked no more questions after that. Instead they watched the couples come and go in companionable silence, wasting the day away in their spot under the tree. When they returned to the hotel room, Watari smiled at them warmly, watching as they worked together on the case far more cooperatively than before.
Maybe, if his plan worked and Light was innocent, L wouldn’t have to hide anymore.
Title: Meet the Parents
Fandom: Death Note
Characters: L/Light Yagami, Soichiro Yagami, Sachiko Yagami, Sayu Yagami
Prompt: #26 Family
Word Count: 712 words
Rating: T
Disclaimer: See above.
L sat awkwardly on the sofa, in a normal position for once in honour of Light’s request for him to act as much like a normal human being as possible. He was forcibly restraining himself from pulling his long legs up and close to his chest, and it was taking a great deal of effort for him to not chew on his thumb as he usually did.
It didn’t really matter anyway, because Sachiko Yagami was still staring at him in horror. Light’s father didn’t look too happy either, but at least he could…appreciate the effort it was taking L to behave like this long enough for Light to introduce him as his lover. Sayu was staring at her brother rather than at L, and the detective felt a surge of gratitude towards the girl, even though she was asking Light if it was some kind of weird joke.
L knew Light’s sense of humour left a lot to be desired, but he hadn’t realised it was quite that bad.
Light’s mother was now looking at their hands, which lay entwined on the sofa with something akin to embarrassment. She was no doubt wondering what all their friends and neighbours would say when they found out that the Yagamis’ perfect son was sleeping with a male foreigner. She was also, no doubt, blaming L for this apparent switch in her son’s sexuality, which was slightly unfair in L’s opinion. It wasn’t his fault that Light was gayer than a bag of monkeys on nitrous oxide at Christmas.
Okay, so it had been his idea for them to handcuff themselves together, but it had not been an obscure method of getting into Light’s pants.
“So what do you do for a living?” Light’s mother asked, and L shifted even more uncomfortably.
“I’m a private detective,” he said quietly. There, not too revealing, but it hadn’t been a lie either.
“Self employed?” she asked and he nodded. Technically it was the truth.
“What about your parents?”
He shifted again. “They’re dead,” he said calmly, feeling Light’s fingers tighten slightly around his own. For some reason, Light seemed to think he had missed out on not having a proper family. L couldn’t say that he had: after all, how would he be able to tell? And besides, at least he hadn’t had to go through this sort of mortifying experience with Watari. “I was brought up by my grandfather.”
And that explained Watari.
“Does he approve of…this?” she asked.
From the corner of his eye, L saw Light’s lips twitch slightly, no doubt at the memory of Watari subtly telling them that they should probably remove the CCTV cameras from their bedroom. Of course, that had been during the investigation.
“Yes,” L replied honestly. “He thinks Light is a wonderful person, and he is glad to see me happy.”
The non-use of the honorific was deliberate, and L felt a guilty thrill when it was her turn to shift uncomfortably in her seat.
‘Yes, I am that intimate with your son,’ he thought. ‘And yes he has given me permission to drop the –kun from his name.’
He looked over at Light again to see that his younger partner had entered into some sort of staring match with his father. Sayu was looking between them nervously.
“Dad?” she asked. “You aren’t going to disown Light are you?”
And this was another reason why L was somewhat glad his parents were not in a position to object to his relationship with Light. The thought of losing people so important to him just because he fell in love with someone they regarded as ‘the wrong person’ was horrible in his imagination; for Light, to be facing it right now because of him made him feel even more awkward and nervous and slightly ill.
Soichiro Yagami tore his unblinking gaze away from Light and levelled it on L, who could feel the disapproval coming off him in waves.
“I will not,” he said slowly. Ryuzaki felt tension flood from his body, and saw Light slump back against the sofa in relief. “No matter how much I may disapprove of this, Ryuzaki is a good person and I trust him with Light’s welfare.”
“Thank you, Yagami-san,” L said quietly. He would need to work at his relationships with the various members of Light's family - for Light's sake more than his own - but for now, this trust would have to do.
Title: Crash
Fandom: Death Note
Characters: L/Light Yagami, Soichiro Yagami, Sachiko Yagami, Sayu Yagami
Prompt: #73 Hour
Word Count: 1233
Rating: T
Disclaimer: See above.
The plane from Australia had crashed. L sat numbly on his favourite chair after seeing the report on the news, unable to stop himself from picturing Light’s mangled body in the smoking wreckage. Some filial urge, he didn’t know what exactly, had him out of their apartment and half way to Light’s parents’ house before he knew what he was doing. He paused in the middle of the street when he realised where he was going. He knew fine well that Light’s parents didn’t really like him, and he would probably be the last person in the world that they would want to see but…he wanted to see somebody.
He continued walking. Trepidation built inside his stomach with every step: ever since he had been introduced to them, he had only been to their house twice, and both of those times had been with Light. Both of those times had also been incredibly uncomfortable.
It was Light’s mother who opened the door. Her eyes were bloodshot and she was holding a tissue in her right hand. She must have seen something in his face, because before he could even bow in greeting, she had flung her arms around his neck and started to cry into his shoulder. He patted her back awkwardly and guided her into the house.
Soichiro detached his wife from his son’s lover and nodded his head in greeting. He looked worried, the pensive expression identical to the one he had tried to hide while working on the Kira case.
“I…” Ryuzaki murmured, trying to explain himself. “I didn’t want to be alone.”
It felt strange to admit to it, as he had become used to spending a lot of his time by himself, but now, faced with the loss of Light – his Light – he found himself unable to bear even the thought of grieving alone.
Sayu was sitting on the sofa watching the news report. Her face was pale, but she managed to offer him a shaky smile when he entered.
“Light’s going to be okay, right Ryuzaki-san?” she asked. “I mean, there’s a chance he might have survived, right?”
L didn’t have the heart to tell her that part of the reason why people were told to go into the brace position as a plane lost control was so that their teeth survived and so that the tattered remains could be identified through dental records. Instead he nodded and sat on the floor, his legs pulled up to his chest and his teeth worrying at his thumb. It was the first time he had dared do so in front of Light’s family – apart from his father of course – and it earned him a strange look from Sayu, who was at least coherent, unlike her mother, but he didn’t care.
Images of the wreckage shone from the television screen, imprinting themselves on his mind. He felt ill, and closed his eyes.
They sat in silence together, waiting for any news other than that shown on the television. Pictures of victims were starting to come up on the screen – they were identifying the bodies quickly, L thought numbly, but there was no sign of Light’s photograph. It was, L thought, the most horrible hour of his life; spent waiting for confirmation that his lover really was dead and being totally helpless.
A shrill ringing sound made L jump, and earned him a reproving stare from Light’s father when the noise turned out to be his ringtone. Funny, for a moment he hadn’t recognised it at all. The caller ID was not one that he recognised, but he answered anyway: blissfully few people had his number, and there was always the chance…
“Hello?”
“Lawliet?”
“You bastard!” L burst out, thankfully in English. He wasn’t sure how good the English of the various members of Light’s family was, but that was one word that wasn’t included on the school syllabus at any rate. “You’re alive.”
“I missed the plane,” Light said calmly. “Are you…are you okay?”
“Never do that to me again,” L said, switching back to Japanese. “Do you want me to tell your parents?”
“Can you? I’m on a payphone and I’m running out of money, and I don’t have enough to call them too.”
“I’m at their house,” L said, glancing round the room at the hopeful faces.
“Thanks,” Light said. “I’ve got to go now. I’ll see you soon, okay? Love you.”
“Love you too.”
L snapped the phone shut, and slumped back against the foot of the sofa behind him. He pushed his mobile back into his pocket and tried to ignore the fact that he was, for the first time that day – the first time in years – crying.
“Light missed the plane,” he said. Sachiko gasped, and L saw her husband’s hand tighten on her shoulder. “He’s stuck at Sydney airport until flights to Japan start up again.”
“I knew it!” Sayu cried. “I knew he was alive!”
She launched herself off the sofa and into Ryuzaki’s second hug of the day, which had the unfortunate side effect of making him fall over. She lay sprawled over him, not in the slightest bit embarrassed, her arms wrapped awkwardly round his neck and her face in the crook of his shoulder.
Her mother was crying again, this time in relief, and Soichiro was holding her close and murmuring into her hair. L caught only snippets of the words, and decided that he didn’t want to listen.
He didn’t really want to stay the night either, but Sachiko insisted on putting him up in Light’s old room. It hadn’t changed in the slightest since L had last seen it – through CCTV cameras he’d had installed when he had still suspected Light of being Kira – and it was comforting, slightly. He buried his face in Light’s old pillow, and through the scent of the washing powder Sachiko used on the laundry, he thought he could smell Light.
L hung around until the following afternoon, when a tired looking Light arrived from the airport in a taxi. L abandoned Sayu and the homework he had been helping her with – she abandoned it too – and dashed out of the front door and down the path to pull Light into his arms. He was real and solid and very much alive, and L kissed him desperately, not caring in the slightest that Light’s parents and sister were standing right behind him.
Light’s arms wound around his waist, holding him close even when their lips broke apart. L rested his head on Light’s shoulder and glanced, seemingly shyly, back at Light’s family who were watching them. He blinked in surprise at seeing the grin on Sayu’s face and the warm smile on Sachiko’s. Light’s father looked slightly awkward still, but didn’t voice any complaints as he reached around L to place his hand on Light’s shoulder.
“Welcome back, brother,” Sayu chirped, moving forward to press a kiss to Light’s cheek, her movements echoed soon after by their mother.
“It’s good to be back,” he admitted. L felt Light’s grip tighten just a little bit around his waist, and he shivered slightly against his lover’s body. He lifted his head to kiss Light again, gently on the corner of his mouth. Light looked down at him – L’s slouching posture making him the smaller of the two – and smiled.
“It’s really good to be back.”
