Long time, no read! I cannot even express how sorry I am for taking eons and eons to finish this. Yes, I know I 've been saying for quite some time that this is only the end of the first plot arc, but I'm so sorry to say that is no longer the case. This is the official last chapter, and I have left it open in a way that I may write a more definite epilogue in the future, but for now I am posting it as complete and I think it wraps up in a suitable manner. I'm happy to hear your thoughts on how it's ending might effect Death Note's official ending- no spoilers here, since some of you may not have read/saw all of it, but I think you know what I'm talking about! So I'd just like to express my extreme thanks to everyone who as read this story to the end, all 11 chapters of it. You guys really make my world go round. Thank you so much.

If any of you are interested in any of my other works, please visit my profile! I have a continuing "Mortal Instruments" fanfic that I see no end to in the near future, and I believe it to be my best plot yet. If you have time, check it out!

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It only took a few minutes to catch up with L, but she waiting until they were in the dry sanctuary of Headquarters before speaking. Her heart was racing faster than it ever had pounded on any adrenaline-inducing mission while Scarlett prepared herself to do the one thing she had always avoided: truly expressing herself.

"Ryuzaki! Wait!"

His head spun while the remaining parts of his body kept moving, reminding the agent absurdly of an owl. "Yes?"

Scarlett chose her words carefully in a matter of seconds. "I'm sorry, but I'm curious- why did you, personally, find me and-" while fighting to keep her voice steady, she couldn't quite bring herself to say the "s" word. "Help me out?"

As always, his face was a perfect blank as he gave his reply. "It was obvious, Scarlett-chan, that you needed it. If you had been left even a minute longer, it is quite possible you would be dead right now."

His nonchalant put-down of her skills, though true, rubbed her already-raw skin the wrong way. "But why did you come yourself then?" She edged a foot in front of the detective's next step, forcing him to stop. "Why not send a brigade of agents instead? God knows you have enough at your disposal."

As Scarlett had predicted he stopped, his face and posture still revealing nothing.

"You desire me to say that I came myself because I wanted to? I did. Are you happy?" He made move around her but Scarlett quickly stepped in front of him again. Because escape now seemed more difficult, the detective ceased to move.

In truth, L's words had made the agent's heart soar. He did it because he wanted to. But what would any other reason have been? She knew that she was being an idiot, but she couldn't help but press her case.

"It's not that I'm happy- I am, of course! Thank you. But you wanted to- why?"

His answer caused her inflated heart to pop violently. "You are the only one of your position on the Task Force, and one of the best in the world, I am sure. We cannot afford to lose your skill."

"You cannot afford to lose one of my position? Then I assume that I am not talking to the world's greatest detective! Did it ever cross your mind to think what would happen if we lost someone of your position?" Her carefully muted voice was rising fast and she hated it. Why is he always so infuriating?

He parried each of Scarlett's accusations with one of his own, never wasting a single breath. The only changed manner that the agent observed was that his dark eyes never made contact with her own. "I was coming in with a squad of trained agents. You, while trained, were alone. I'm positive there was, at the least, an 81% chance that I would have survived. Which I did."

"So, if you came in with a whole squad of agents and you said it would be fine... why can't the agents come in without you? Admit it, Ryuzaki, you weren't completely necessary there. You haven't had proper agent training. You-" Scarlett fixed him with a stare, feeling her cheeks redden slightly while trying to convey the full meaning behind her words. "You could have died."

For the detective's cheeks not to colour, she reasoned that he did not have blood in his body. "A risk we both knowingly took, Scarlett. Me just as much as you- if not more." He then side-stepped her and shuffled past, travelling merely four feet before stopping once more. Almost as an afterthought, L turned his head to face the SIS agent once more.

"Scarlett-chan... why do you care?"

The question froze her foot on its journey forward in midair. If she was honest with herself, she knew the answer, but was at absolute loath to give it to him. Her frantic eyes traced the rising line of his jaw as he closed his mouth- an act of finality? – and stared at her, eyes guarded but at the same time as open as they have ever been. He wants to know the answer. Could she, would she, give it to him? As terrible as it was, she couldn't help but laugh in the safety of her own mind. I can accept a mission that I might not return from, but I'm scared to tell a man that I love him? If Scarlett had ever been disappointed in herself previously, it was now that the feeling overpowered her. You can do this. And if he didn't feel the same... she was still a teenage girl, still allowed to repeat the mantras that had become commonly known for others her age. If he doesn't feel the same way, he's not worth it.

She tried to fit everything that she had been denying herself for the past month in her words and prayed that she succeeded.

"Because I care for you."

The silence that settled upon them was not exactly awkward, but something of the same genre. L's face showed not surprise or anger, but only a slight realization- almost as if the sentence she had just uttered had only confirmed his thoughts. It was when another moment passed in silence that Scarlett's heart started to sink.

"I... I know that was a weird thing to say. I'm sorry. I meant- I meant I cared- no, care!- for you in a good friend way. You know? Y-yeah, that. And while you really shouldn't have come yourself, it was- it was generally your own choice, right?" Seeing L's face return to blankness, Scarlett felt her cheeks flush heavily. "I... I should stop talking now, right?"

Taking one last, fleeting glance at the black eyes that felt like they were stabbing her heart out, the agent turned on her heel and ran down the hall.

The rustling of the papers he was shifting through didn't allow Light to hear the detective approach until he was almost beside him. Feeling equally disconcerted and euphoric, he could hardly get his mind to pay the needed attention to L and the still-dangerous threat he posed.

"Yagami-kun."

"Yes?" he murmured, internally wincing at how detached his own voice sounded.

"Did you..." as Light looked around in amazement at the detective's loss of words, L worked on finishing his sentence. "Did you happen to see where Scarlett went?"

Scarlett? "No." He returned to searching for papers on the massive Headquarters desk, hoping that not giving L his full attention wouldn't get him further labelled as Kira. "The last time I saw her was when she ran out of the helicopter. Wasn't she running in your direction?"

"I believe she ran either to her room, or out of the building after we conversed. I was wondering if you had any evidence to further support any of those theories."

There's Ryuzaki, back again. "Well, I did not. Why would you think she ran out of the building?"

Only silence was heard- not even the rustle of baggy jeans or a plain white tee reached the ears of Light Yagami. He turned around, expecting the detective to be gone, but he was still staring unnervingly at the back of the younger teen's head. Slightly puzzled, he repeated his question to L's face.

This time, he answered. "Something quite abnormal just happened. She approached me, and after some lead up which involved shouting and accusations, told me that she has feelings for me. I know that these situations happen quite often in movies, but I have never experienced one in real life, and I am not quite sure what to do."

If Light was honest with himself, he was partially stunned, but it took only a few seconds to recover his voice. "Scarlett told you that she... loved you?" For once, he didn't monitor his tone of voice and let the true emotion flow forth- genuine surprise.

"That is what I said, yes." While his face remained blank, the downward cast to his gaze gave away just how uncomfortable he felt.

While Light's mind was suddenly engrossed in the extremely detrimental effects that this could have on his many schemes, his mouth was moving of its own accord. "Well, what do you want to do about it? Whatever her emotional problems are, as long as they aren't too big she's a great asset to us. You've-""I've got to bring her back, haven't I?"

Light nodded. For the time being, it was in his own best interests as well. "Yes, you do. So what are you planning on-"

But the famous detective was already across the room and heading towards the lobby. In the far distance, the huge sliding glass doors reflected the set face of L and were slicked with torrential rain.

While her first plans had been to run as far away as possible, the unfamiliarity of a new city soon got the best of her and Scarlett stopped running in front of a small, marble fountain just across the street from Headquarters. She had only just dried from her extremely wet motorcycle ride but the last thing occupying the agent's mind was the state of her hair and clothing. The very first time she had ever worked up the courage to express how she truly felt to the opposite gender, and where had it gotten her? To a street corner in an alien city, running away from the first person who she knew she really loved... and who she thought had loved her in return. Not bothering to protect herself from the chilling downpour, she wrapped her soaked jacket around her and closed her eyes, seeing Kane's letter as clearly as if it was painted on her eyelids. Scarlett lifted one hand and touched her face, knowing that it was not just raindrops that slicked her olive skin.

When she opened her eyes once more, a pale figure was almost halfway across the street and running towards her. His attire, and the slightly awkward way that he ran, was as familiar to her as her own face.

She turned on her heel and was about to take off again when a single word held her in place. Just a word that, spoken by any other, would have been utterly meaningless. A word as familiar to her as the sun.

Her name.

"Scarlett!" L came to a splashing halt in front of her. She watched detachedly as his breath came in short, visible puffs that soon melded with the cold evening air.

"You were not- planning on leaving, where you?"

Suddenly the world was still and the only things audible were the man's voice from where he stood in front of her and the deafening beating of her own heart.

Her voice was so quiet, it was a wonder the detective could even hear it at all. "I don't know what I was planning on doing. Not that you would care."

The next words that flew out of L's mouth so fast that Scarlett was positive she imagined them. "I would care, actually."

"Why?" The anger that she thought had disappeared was floating to the surface once more, fiery and dangerous. Fighting to keep her voice level was like trying to hold two extremely powerful magnets apart. "Why would you care? Because you need my area of expertise for catching Kira?"

"No. Scarlett-chan..." and then he was only a few inches away from her, dark eyes boring into her's with intensity to rival every emotion she had felt throughout the past few weeks. "I don't know why I care."

And then his lips were suddenly on her own.

It was a great thing, almost impossible to fathom, Scarlett thought as she took the first steps out of the rain and onto the polished floor of the Task Force's headquarters. How there was no hard proof that her life had changed with just one kiss but nonetheless, she was certain of it. The SIS agent didn't know if they were going to catch Kira, or even if they were close to it. She didn't even know what it would cost their team if they were able to. The only thing Scarlett knew for sure, as she flipped her dripping hair behind her and flashed a grin to her right, was that she was completely and utterly confident that she could face whatever was coming with the detective that stood beside her.

Fin.