Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note or Bleach.

Spoilers for L and Watari's real names.

Believe in Angels, Part 1

L – Age 4

She sighed and collapsed on a hospital bench in the hallway not far from the room she had just come from. It had been a long day. There had been a major traffic accident at dusk, and she had sent three people to Soul Society right there on the sidewalk. Then she had followed the ambulance to the hospital and had just sent two more that died a few hours later. The time in between had been spent tracking down stray ghosts in the hospital and making sure they got sent before they got the chance to turn into Hollows. It was exhausting, and the shinigami was looking forward to the end of her mission in a few days.

"Your clothes are funny."

The young woman looked over from where she was relaxing on the bench. A small boy was standing by her feet and looking up at her with wide, glassy eyes. She looked over to her other side. No one. The hallway was empty. So the boy had to be speaking to her. She looked back to the boy.

"Well, your hair's funny. I mean, really, do you even comb it at all?"

The boy shook his head.

"…Oh."

"Why are you wearing funny clothes?" the boy asked.

"It's my uniform. Just like how the doctors and nurses wear scrubs."

"I don't like the doctors."

"No? You should. They work very hard to help sick and injured people."

The boy thought about this for a minute. He looked back at her for a second before climbing up onto the bench to sit next to her. He then proceeded to stare at her, unblinking, for a solid minute.

She resisted the urge to look away.

The boy leaned in a little closer but didn't lower his voice. "My mommy and daddy are dead, but the doctors don't want to tell me that. They're over there." He pointed down another hallway nearby.

The young shinigami paused. She had just come from that very hallway herself where she had performed the sending ritual on the couple from the accident, a husband and wife. This might explain why the boy could see her. If this was the couple's son, then it was possible that he was in enough shock to see the world of spirits. It was rare, but once in a great while, a person was able to see the shinigami that sent their loved one. This usually only happened with very young children, though. She had always thought that this was simply because kids were just capable of seeing things that adults knew were impossible.

"How old are you, kiddo?"

The boy held up four fingers.

"Four? What does a four-year-old know about death?"

He just shrugged. "Everyone dies."

Maybe he wasn't in shock, then. Maybe he was just a very, very practical four-year-old.

"Yes, I guess everyone does."

"I had a kitty die once." The boy leaned down until he was on his hands and knees on the bench. Then he twitched his nose as if he had whiskers of his own.

"Oh yeah?"

"It wasn't my kitty. I saw it get hit by a car. I went over to see if it was okay, but it died on the street." Then the boy shifted his weight incorrectly, and his hand slipped off the bench.

"Whoa!" The woman snapped her hand out and caught the boy by the back of his coat before he fell clean off the bench and landed on his face. She then lifted him up with both hands and sat him down on the bench properly. "Careful."

The boy hadn't screamed or given any kind of startled noise. His blank, wide-eyed expression never even changed.

"You okay, kiddo?"

The boy looked up at her and nodded.

"What's your name, midget?"

"L."

"Elle? Like Ella? Isn't that a girl's name here in Germany?" Actually, she was sure it was a girl's name anywhere she had ever heard it. Humans were so odd.

"No, L, like the letter." He used his pointer finger and wrote the letter in the air.

"Just L? Your parents weren't very creative, were they?"

The boy just shrugged.

"You hungry, L?"

He nodded again.

"Do you have any money on you? I think I saw a vending machine around here."

"I have money," L said, "but I can't reach the buttons."

"I'll take care of that for you. Let's go."

She took little L's hands and helped him hop off the bench. They soon found a vending machine around the corner, in the opposite direction of L's dead parents.

"So what do you want, kiddo?"

"Reese's peanut butter cups," L said as he handed the woman some coins.

"Have you had any dinner yet?" she asked. L shook his head.

"How about some pretzels or crackers instead? Sugar on an empty stomach will make you sick."

"I like Reese's."

"I'll get both for you, but you have to eat the pretzels first, okay?"

"…Okay."

She retrieved both items and handed the pretzels to L and stuck the peanut butter cups in his coat pocket. L opened the packet of pretzels and started nibbling on one. Then the woman took L's available hand and led him back down the empty hall. Once they reached the bench where they first met, she knelt down to L's level to look him in the eyes.

"I've got to get back to work," she said. "Someone should be coming to pick you up soon. Are you going to be okay by yourself until then?"

L opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by another voice coming from the direction of his parents' room.

"There he is."

A doctor walked around the corner towards him, followed by an older gentleman in a suit.

"Mister Lawliet, you shouldn't go wandering off like that," the doctor scolded as he came up to the boy.

L said nothing but just looked up at the two men. The older man that L didn't recognize knelt down in front of him.

"Hello L," he said in slightly accented German. "I'm Quillish Wammy. I'll be taking care of you from now on."

L broke eye contact with the man and looked to his side. The woman from before wasn't there anymore. He looked back to the man.

"Mister Wammy?"

"Yes?"

"Do you believe in angels?"

Wammy gave a soft, sad smile and shook his head. "No, L, I do not."

L paused. "Me neither."

On his way out of the hospital, L threw away the pretzels. Mister Wammy said he could have the candy after all.

To be continued…

Pointless, slow, and anticlimactic. Very characteristic of my fanfiction.