Read the Death Note Pilot. This demanded to be written. So I did. All there is to it. Thanks for R&R! -Author Notes at the bottom-

Death Eraser

Light's breaths came in deep gasps as the oxygen flooded his now moving lungs. He grasped at his face as he felt his now open eyelids. It was dark and cold, but it was a different sort of dark and cold. This felt real, like there was something there. He could even see a faint square of light on the edges of whatever box was surrounding him. There were surfaces and he had flesh and his hand clutched the white shirt that clung to his cold body. Light's breaths were still short and gasping as his brain started receiving blood and it hit him that he was indeed breathing. He was alive.

Which, was odd considering the last thing he remembered was watching Ryuk's grinning face as he died cursing everything from Near to his own stupidity for relying too much on Mikami. He could remember his heart stopping and the pain that had filled his chest as he suffered that far too ironic heart attack. He had died. Matsuda had shot him and Near had mocked him and Ryuk killed him. He remembered dying. But that wasn't the point. Light moved his arm up and felt the ceiling of his small enclosure with the palms of both his hands. Where was he? Ryuk said that when people died they turned into Nothing and went nowhere. There was no heaven and hell; Light was certain that's where he had ended up, but he sure as hell wasn't there anymore. The brunette's mind tried desperately to wrap around the situation, but he couldn't come up with an explanation. Only that he felt like he had been ripped in two and that it was still cold.

There was also that short tapping noise of a metallic nature that could be heard under his heavy, but appreciated, breaths. Light squinted his eyes towards the light at his feet and tapped the side of his mini-prison. It echoed the same metallic noise, so whoever was doing the tapping was outside his little box. Maybe if they heard him, they'd let him out. Even if it was Near he'd be happy to find out what the hell was going on. However, there was a sudden yank and Light's head hit the top of the metal box and he hissed in pain. The sliding continued until he found himself suddenly exposed to the light; and a very hideous face about an inch from his own. Light screamed; or he tried to scream. A clawed gangly black hand smothered his mouth and the sound.

"Nice to see you, too."

Light took deep breaths through his nose as he searched around the room. He was in a simple white room; sitting in a sliding drawer of some kind. There were tables with sinks around the room and odd tools. In front of him, skeletal hand still on his mouth, was someone he should be pissed at, but was too confused to manage it. He pulled a hand up to tug at the skinny arm but stared at his hands; they were a deathly white color. Like no blood had been pumped into them for a while; but considering Light was supposed to be dead that would make sense. Unlike everything else that was happening to him. Light looked around the room one more time quickly and came to a dreary conclusion: he was in a morgue.

"Calm now?" Ryuk chuckled at the confused and spooked human before pulling his hand back. He couldn't blame the kid; he had been dead for a few days. Getting yanked from nothing can be quite taxing, especially when the host body's been cold and not used to working for a few days. Normally he'd let Light sit and adjust, but he sort of needed to hurry things along before that doctor guy came back. "You're lucky your wake and funeral got postponed a day or two. Otherwise you'd be a pile of ashes and that's hard to resurrect."

"Ryuk?" Light rubbed his chest again and felt his heart beating. He rubbed it to build up the warmth. Looking back up at the shinigami and at the room again, he found himself back where he started. Light was confused. "Ryuk-"

"We'll talk later." The shinigami interrupted and grabbed Light by the arm to pull him from the drawer. Dead bodies in drawers; humans were such a riot. "We gotta go."

Light's legs buckled under him when his bare feet hit the cold floor. Ryuk was dragging him from the room by his arm but he still didn't know what the hell was going on. He smacked into a metal table when Ryuk pulled him around a corner and he rubbed his side. "What?"

"I don't know when they're coming to get your body so we need to leave now." Ryuk rolled his eyes as his favorite human remained disoriented. He should have seen this coming and prepared better for it. Just a shame they hadn't left his body alone sooner; stupid humans crowding his things. "That doctor likes to come in and out all the time."

"What are you talking about?"

"You're supposed to be dead." Ryuk headed towards a large window at the end of the thankfully empty hallway. He'd just have to hope no one was out on the streets to spot a flying brunette in funeral garb. Though, that would be sort of funny to watch people pointing and screaming and stuff.

Light blinked and realized his arm was bruising from Ryuk's firm grip. The pain was helping him get a more solid grip on reality. That it mind, Light made note they were standing in front of a window while he asked his next question. "And I'm not?"

"Very good." Ryuk laughed and yanked Light up so he was forced to hold on around his neck from the jolt. He shoved open the window so he could get Light through as well (he really hated that humans and stuff couldn't phase through walls like he could) and did what he did best. "Hold on."

"Shit!" Light yowled when Ryuk leapt from the building and started gliding through the evening sky. There was no way this was real. He was still dead and suffering from the backlash of the insanity of absolute nothingness. That was it. Just a dream or something. Light clung to Ryuk's neck for fear of falling all the same. Despite what he was telling himself in his head, it sure felt real. And he could feel Ryuk's claws at his waist and thigh from where he was being held up. He looked down below him and his eyes widened. They were really, really high in the air. "Ryuk..."

"Calm down. You're going to strangle me clinging that tight." The shinigami snickered, but relaxed when Light's grip lessened just the tiniest bit. He knew that this was going to be a blast. Humans were far too much fun to play with. "I'm not going to drop you."

Light swallowed and calmed down after Ryuk's grip tightened. It seemed the shinigami was going to keep his word as far as the not letting him drop to a painful splat to the ground. He watched all the cars and people bustling down below his feet as they flew in the air too high to be spotted. His hair blew in his face and he risked pulling one arm down from Ryuk to brush it out of his eyes. "What's going on?"

"I brought you back to life." Ryuk looked down beneath him for a good spot to land. Light was talking to him, but it was clear his attentions were split between the view and the breeze through his hair. Or possibly the very long drop beneath them. Which was weird, because Ryuk distinctly remembered Light saying he wanted wings to fly. You'd think the kid would be ecstatic to get this chance. "We're gonna' land now."

"Okay." Light mumbled out as he felt the air whooshing up around him as they descended. It felt so good against his skin that it hurt. Ryuk landed in a small park in the middle of some trees and plopped Light on the ground under one with stray foliage hanging out in all directions. He tried standing on his own, but his legs refused to cooperate and Light fell flat on his butt. "Ow..."

"You okay?" Ryuk covered his mouth as he laughed. Light was pouting and had a pained, almost childish look on his face. It made him look much younger than he actually was; it reminded him of when Light was in high school before the police and his days as the new 'L.' And even then, Ryuk couldn't remember the last time he saw Light this out to sea, so to speak. It was almost cute; kinda reminded him of a puppy. "That looked like it hurt."

It did. He thought to himself, however Light kept his mouth shut and rubbed his back before looking up at Ryuk. He really was standing there in all his gangly, ugly glory. Ryuk looked exactly the same as he remembered and he even had that infernal notebook hanging at his waist like he always did. The sun was glinting off his rings on his hands and the boy turned his attention back to his own body. Specifically, Light looked down at his hands and noticed that the color was returning to it's usual shade and were no longer that ghastly white. Probably from all the blood that was suddenly pumping through his veins again. "You brought me back to life? Did I hear that right?"

"Ha, yup. Your hearing is just fine." Ryuk laughed and pulled out a little white rectangle and held it in front of Light's eyes. The boy's eyes narrowed and tried to focus on the tiny object. Ryuk laughed and clarified before Light could even get the question out. "With this."

Light's face scrunched as he took the object from Ryuk's hands and stared at it. If he didn't know any better, he would think it was just an ordinary, run of the mill, eraser. But he knew about regular, run of the mill, notebooks that could kill people, so he did know better. Just to be safe, Light ventured a query to clarify. "An eraser?"

"A Death Eraser."

Ryuk laughed out loud as Light lifted an eyebrow at him. The ex-Kira stared at the eraser and looked back up at the shinigami. "You've got to be kidding."

"No joke." Ryuk took the little eraser back from Light before the young genius completely regained his bearings. He was already getting that bit of ego and recognition back in his eyes and Ryuk only had one of these things. Getting a Death Eraser wasn't as easy as conning a Death Note out of a fellow shinigami. Ryuk made sure to slip the eraser back in its place in his belt loop and shoved it down so it didn't fall out. "As long as the body is fine and still in one piece, if you erase the name from the Death Note with that they'll come back to life. Neat, huh?"

"Wait." Light was thinking back on all the times he'd written names down and the ways shinigami could die and something just wasn't adding up. One would think that would have come up in the official rules somewhere. That seemed like an important loophole that required some sort of mention. Light narrowed his eyes and frowned at Ryuk. "I thought shinigami couldn't give life or they die? That's why Rem died, isn't it? Extending Misa's life span?"

Ryuk shrugged and flicked Light in the head. The young brunette swatted his hand away and Ryuk found himself chuckling again. "I didn't really extend your life span, you know. I just took your years when you died and gave them back when I erased your name. You're not living any longer than you were supposed to."

Light sat up straighter and looked down at the ground. He gripped the grass with his hands and enjoyed the texture. The slight dampness of the grass was soaking into his clothes and becoming distinctly uncomfortable. That could only mean one thing: "I'm alive."

"Yes."

"I'm not dead."

"Yes."

"Ryuk."

"Yeah?"

"Why the hell didn't you tell me that earlier!?"

Ryuk flinched. Yeah, Light was getting back to his old self; so much for puppy dog Light. "I forgot?"

"God, you're an idiot."

"I can always write your name back down, you know."

Light flinched and looked up with what resembled a pout on his face. "Sorry. Stressed from dying is all."

"Yeah, well at least you're not in jail." Ryuk snickered as Light looked up at him and seemed to be pondering that statement. "Though, I might have to peak in and see their faces when they find out your body is missing."

Light hummed to himself and tried for standing again. He'd have to look up at Ryuk to talk to him anyway if he stood; but the distance wasn't nearly as far. Light's lets were unsteady, but he managed to keep his balance. "So, why'd you bring me back?"

Ryuk scratched his head. "I was bored."

Light laughed and wiped his hand down his face. "Is that it?"

"Pretty much." Ryuk poked the human in the chest. He flinched and rubbed the spot tenderly. "It was only a day and I felt like that period where you had given up the Death Note all over again. The only difference was this time I didn't have your return to look forward to."

"You didn't have this planned out at all when you first wrote my name down?" Light held his head and pondered that. He was back because of a whim of a shinigami who was forgetful as sin. How did you forget something like a death eraser that brings people back to life.

"Well, I had remembered about it when Matsuda was shooting you. It just sort of popped into my head." Ryuk chuckled. "I guess I decided to do it then because it was the only thing I could think of to get you out of it without expanding your life span and still having some fun afterwards. Plus, like I said: It's really boring when you're not around."

Light blinked before getting a rather smug smirk on his face. He put a delicate hand to his chest and cocked his head to the side. "You knew you were going to miss me that much, Ryuk? I'm touched."

"Ha, you wish." Ryuk snorted and stretched his arms out. "I was going to miss the apples."

"The apples."

"Yup."

"You brought me back from the dead and snuck me out of a morgue, for apples."

"'Bout sums it up."

"You're hopeless." Light shook his head and looked up to watch the setting sun in the sky as the warm reds and yellows painted the blue a new shade. Felt the cool breeze on his neck, and lingered beneath the shadow of a god of death. He was alive and he couldn't have felt better. "But, thank-you."

"No problem."

Death Eraser: Just as Ryuk described - if you erase the name from the Death Note with it, the person will come back to life under the assumption that their body is still in one piece and fine. While not featured in the Death Note Manga and Anime series that most readers are familiar with; it is included in the Death Note Pilot that features young Kagami Taro and Ryuk which started the series.

AN: The Death Eraser is so cool. I saw it in the pilot and my first reaction was 'why is that not in Death Note?' before realizing that Light did NOT need that feeding his ego. Though, watching him kill L and bring him back to life, to kill him again would have been amusing. But I digress. I read the pilot and all I could think of was Ryuk bringing Light back to life at the end of the series. I ended up writing it before I could stop myself and I needed another fic to work on like a hole in the head. Heh. Either way, thanks for reading and reviewing!