A/N:

I would like to thank everyone who read and reviewed this story. You inspire me. ^_^ Now I can say my challenge fic is complete. But if this ending doesn't satisfy, then hop on over to the fic I will be posting here shortly. It is an alternate ending for the hopeless romantic. House of Cards will be structures slightly differently and may not be updated daily (but I sure will try) and I even have a beta for it. So keep an eye out! Also, I'm about halfway done with what will likely be a 4-part story called K is for Kittens (title tentative), in which Light is a demon L is well, L. Keep reading folks! Like it, love it, hate it, have a wild theory or comment? Please review. Wanna chat? My PM box is always open.

Fool's Gambit

By Catsitta

Epilogue?

In some faiths, it is believed that man once possessed two heads, four arms and four legs, and that we were split asunder into man and woman. That we are the descendants of these ripped pairs, forever destined to seek that which is our other half. The mate of our soul. For the longest time, I never thought of souls and their courtship, never felt that ethereal longing...that despairing yearning. Then you came into my life.

You, who were my opposite in your intensity. A shining sun of heat and fire, while I'd known only the dim radiance of my computer screens. You were day and I was night; I darkness and you the embodiment of light. But we both carried our burdens, hid our shadows best we could. You stood in the sunshine, hiding in plain sight, while I lurked in bare rooms, concealed by a single letter name.

We were star crossed, as Shakespeare would say. Born of two different houses whose hands would ever be unclean. You, the troubled daughter posing as the prodigal son. I, the apathetic assassin who saw you standing beneath the cherry blossom trees. We were bound by a notebook dropped by the gods of death themselves. Our meeting cursed.

But that did not stop me from loving you as I shouldn't. I knew that death lurked should I chain myself to you, because you were Kira, my enemy...but you were also Light, my light. My other half, my equal, my love. Some might call it obsession. Because my dear, I was obsessed with you. It was agony wanting you. But I prefer to think of it as that sweet poison of two souls at able to embrace. Apart we were broken, unstable pieces of a greater whole. We could have been unstoppable had we joined our hands in unison, taken this world by storm.

We could have had justice.

Instead, we have this.

It has been six months since your death. Wherever you are...or are not, may your fears be at last alleviated and your torment put to rest. I don't believe in an afterlife, or a god. Heaven and Hell are mere concepts. But should there be something to the jumbled mutters of the worshipful, I hope your damaged soul is whole again. Because, Light, you have taken mine with you. I can feel it. It was torn from my chest as those bullets ripped through yours.

As your life faded, as did mine.

Yet I still walk. Hollow. Empty. My very existence now monochrome.

Some would be wallowing in grief in my situation. Drowning themselves at the bottom of a bottle or losing their minds to some cheap high. Instead I keep moving my feet, pretending that I am whole.

I am not alive without you Light.

These hours of mine feel borrowed. Stolen. These years I see ahead of me wrest from those who died in my name. I stole them from my parents and my rivals...from Watari and Misa and...of course, from you. You could have led this revolution. Been the guiding angel in this new era of darkness. The Oligarchy is gone, but in their place stands a ruined country without a leader. They are lost.

In a decade, perhaps, old wounds will heal and they will have rebuilt themselves. The countries of old will return, their people proud and their governments reborn. In a century perhaps, the name Kira will be part of the mythos and the Oligarchy a bad taste in everyone's mouth. Perhaps in a millennium, all of this will be forgotten, the real victims of this fight forgotten and just ink written on mouldering pages by a 21st century scribe.

Until then, the people remember. The land remembers. I remember.

Each haunted by their ghosts.

By the loves they lost. By the battles they fought.

I think...tomorrow, I will place some cherry blossoms on your grave. It's so plain. Just a stone with a single name and date of death. Insulting to your memory. But anything more elaborate would attract unwanted attention. Maybe, if I'm alive in a decade, I'll rectify it. Would a grand marble statue of your resemblance with the wings of an archangel be satisfactory?

Light. Will I ever be able to say that word aloud again?

It wouldn't do for the great assassin L to break into tears at the mention of a lamp, now would it?

I think I should like to retire, my love. Being a detective was what I was trained to do, but...it is numbing work now. Empty. I've been to all the countries in the world, but I have seen so little except for death. After my life of service, I think I deserve that much. You would like that, wouldn't you? Traveling to see the world? I think you would have liked England.

Speaking of England, I took your mother and sister there. I found them a few months ago. You should know that Matsuda defied any expectations I ever had for the man. He dearly loves your sister, protected her after you passed on. Last week I received a call, asking for permission for them to marry when Sayu turns eighteen. Strange times these are. I wonder, did you ever tell your sister that you were a girl? She was quite distressed to learn that her big brother was dead, and Mrs. Yagami never corrected her. So many things left unfinished. You were not supposed to die young.

My, how I am rambling. There is work to be done and sitting here, scribbling with this old pen isn't getting anything done. You would laugh at my handwriting. I do so prefer my laptop for a reason. Come to think of it, it will be quite hard finding cherry blossoms this time of year, but I think I can manage a small miracle for your sake. For you I am a sentimental fool.

Your fool.

Because only fools gamble in hopeful halves and with dice made of wishful thinking. Yet here I am, still playing the game despite the dice turning to dust in my hands.

Until tomorrow, I bid you goodnight my love.

This is L Lawliet.

End Log.

.x.

A/N: ( The end. Hope you enjoyed the ride!)