Away From Home

Chapter Thirty-Six

By Andruindel

lilililili

I had always believed farewells were sad, but Matsuda's farewell to Misa was just pathetic. I'd always known Matsuda was a moron, but.. well... I'd never known to what extent.

I, on the other hand, was absolutely exstatic to not have to deal with Misa any more. On the one hand, I was completely free from Misa's irritations, and L and Light were no longer hand cuffed together (I was currently taking much advantage of that fact). On the other hand, I knew I only had a matter of.. well... days. My stress level was rising drastically; I could tell, and I'm sure the others could tell. I needed to keep my eyes open for the day everything went down, and my life either took a turn for the better, or completely crashed and burned. The stress was going to kill me if it didn't come soon.

That was why I was trying to distract myself by trying to distract L. Ever since he'd taken off the handcuffs, I'd taken advantage of every minute I could get to keep L to myself. However much I liked our little minutes of alone time, I knew L had more important things on his mind. But he didn't protest when I did manage to get him alone for a minute or so. He had to be enjoying it as much as I was, our little game of 'dodge the task force'.

It wasn't until that night that L made any comment on my behavior.

"You've been oddly.. affectionate today, Amy-chan." He remarked as we sat together on one of the couches.

I smiled to myself. "I know." I replied, hoping to leave it at that.

"Why?"

He wasn't going to just let the matter drop. I considered for a moment. "I guess..." I wasn't sure how much I could say. "I guess I feel like... like we may not have that much time together."

L pulled me close. I buried my face in his chest, willing the emotions to rest for just a while more. In a few days, everything would be over, for better or worse.

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L hadn't let on at all that he knew his death was approaching. I had tried my best not to either. And we spent the next day or so in complete bliss. Or, we seemed to. Our game of 'dodge the task force' continued, and we annoyed everyone with our couple behavior. I loved every minute of it, but the thought that, in a few days L could die, kept struggling to make it to the front of my mind, and it was distracting.

A few days later, I was afraid to leave my room. It had been raining hard all day, and I knew what that meant. And I was terrified. But more than that, I was ashamed, and angry. It seems, when it came down to it, I was a coward after all. I'd frozen, and it took me hours to find the courage to get out of bed and get dressed, and then another few hours to find the courage to leave my room. I dreaded what was to come; what I had to do. My heart was beating, adrenaline was pumping through my veins. But my mind was blank. There was nothing left to think about. There was only action.

As I left my room, my only thought was the find out where L was. I rushed to the work room, and without bothering to descend the stairs, called down to the task force. "Where's Ryuuzaki?"

"I don't know!" Matsuda answered. "I think he's up on the roof."

My heart jumped into my throat. I only had a short amount of time left! Without answering any of Matsuda's enquiries, I dashed away. I had to find Rem. She was no doubt wandering about the building, searching for a place to hide while she wrote L's name. My pulse was racing as I ran; adrenaline surged through my veins, heightening my sense of urgency. I needed to find Rem. I had to!

As panic welled up in my chest, I turned a corner sharply, and then slid to a stop. I had finally found Rem.

"Shinigami!" I called; my voice was much more forceful than I'd intended, but it worked.

She turned, her gaze as curious as it could be. "Listen to me, Rem. You don't have to kill Ryuuzaki."

"How do you..."

I cut her off. I needed to hurry and get my point across. My heart was still thumping madly behind my ribs, threatning to choke me with its wild attempts at escape. "I know a lot of things, about Shinigami and the death note. I know your name. I know the rule about not using the death note for thirteen days is fake. I even know that Light is Kira, and he made Misa start killing people just so you would feel the need to kill Ryuuzaki. Don't ask me how I know. The fact that I do know is enough."

Rem remained silent, but I had her attention. I took a deep breath, trying to steady my breathing, and my heart rate. "Listen to me, Rem. You don't have to kill Ryuuzaki. It is not his fault Misa is in danger. It's Lights. If you give me time, I can prove that Light is Kira, and convince the task force that Misa was just under Kira's power."

"How can you do this?"

"I have proof." I answered vaguely. "Just give me the time to try, and I promise you, I will save Misa from punishment."

"If you fail, I will kill you too." I saw her eyes rest just above my head, where I knew my name and life-span hovered, plain for her to see. I gulped, feeling sweat trickle down my neck and back. My mind went blank, except for thoughts of L.

"So be it."

"You would give your life for him?" Rem asked.

"Surely you can understand, Rem." I answered wryly. "But if anything happens to Misa after Light is put to death, then you can't blame me, or Ryuuzaki, understand?"

"Yes."

My heart felt as though it were skipping beats. I had convinced Rem. It had been easier than I'd thought. Now, there was just one last thing to do. I needed to convince L and the others that Light was Kira. It was going to be difficult. But I had time, now that Rem was on my side.

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Everyone was in the work room when I arrived, walking unaccompanied down the stairs. Rem lurked at the top of the stairs, no doubt waiting with her death note to kill L if my plan did not work. Surprisingly, I was calm. I knew now that no matter what happened, I would be happy. If I failed, I would die alongside L. If I succeeded, Kira would be stopped.

"Ryuuzaki, Mr. Yagami, everyone." I spoke loudly and firmly, and my words immediatly caught everyone's attention. I remained where I was at the foot of the stairs, staring at the group. They stared back, curious. With no preliminaries, I took a step forward, lifting an arm to point accusingly at Light. "That man you call coworker, son, and friend, is Kira."

The room erupted into noise as the task force bore down on me en masse. Everyone was shouting. Mr. Yagami looked ready to explode with rage. Confused by the noise, I backed away, struggling to discern each sentence from the next. It was impossible.

"Silence!" L was the one to finally silence the storm of noise. He remained where he was, standing beside his computer chair, watching me closely. "Please, let her explain."

"Yes." Mr. Yagami glared at me. "Do you have any proof?"

"Light's wearing the proof." I glanced at Light. My heart was in my throat, threatening to choke me, but I needed to get the words out. "There's a scrap of the notebook in his watch. It's hidden, but he used it to write Higuchi's name and kill him. It should still be in his watch."

The task force turned to Light. I could tell that he was thinking furiously. He hadn't taken into account the fact that I might know about his watch.

"Well, Light?" L prompted him.

"Ryuuzaki, this is insane! You're going to listen..."

"Light!" L snapped. "Show us your watch."

That was when I saw it. I saw that Light had given up hope. He moved as though to reveal the hidden scrap of death note, but at the last minute, I knew what his intention was. He was going to write someone's name. "Stop him!" I screamed as he pressed the needle into his finger to draw blood. "Don't let him write anything!"

Instantly, action broke out. Light was tackled by at least three people, to stop him writing any names down. He was handcuffed, screaming his innocence, and finally, he was led away. I sank down onto the bottom step, my mind blank, my heart rate finally slowing. I stared at the floor as activity went on around me. I didn't look up until L stood before me.

"How did you know?"

I needed an exscuse. "Rem told me. She was going to kill you, until I told her that catching Kira would protect Misa more than killing you. Misa wasn't murduring people because she wanted to. She's under Kira's power. But, you need to make sure she doesn't have any pages of the death note. Kira might still be controlling her." The words poured out of my mouth easily, even the lies. L could never know that I knew everything about the case because I'd watched it as an anime in a whole different world. It was just too weird.

"You're lucky Light didn't know your full name..." L whispered, pulling me to my feet and into his arms.

The dam I'd constructed to keep back the flow of emotions finally broke, and I broke into sobs. Everything was going to be okay. Kira was caught, once Misa found out about his death sentence, she would kill herself, and Rem and Ryuk would both leave. L was okay. He was fine. I'd managed to save him.

"I love you, L." I whispered through the sobs.

"I love you too."

Once, I'd ridden home from school, reading the manga of the story I'd just lived through. That day seemed so long ago, more like a dream than a real experience. The day I'd run into the street after a cat was the day my whole life had changed. But it had changed for the better. And I knew, as I rested, still sobbing, in L's arms, that I never wanted to go back to my old life. I wanted to stay here, living a life with L as he continued his work as the best three detectives in the world.

And now, I was going to be able to.

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There you have it. The end.

Thank you very much, dearest readers, for all the reviews, and for reading my story. Special thanks go to the readers who have been with me from the beginning and who didn't give up on me dyring the year I was inactive.