The Ability to Fall (Death Note)

08 ♚ Consolation

♚ : 08

— Consolation —

The nightmare soon faded back into reality. My eyes still closed and blurry with tears, I realized that I’d been screaming into Lawliet’s shirt. I breathed heavily and allowed my head to rest on Lawliet’s chest, my eyes closing once more, which caused more tears to spill out. Lawliet, distraught, softly shushed me while I was sobbing and ran his hand over my head several times.

“It’s okay,” he repeated quietly, not even knowing what was wrong with me.

That’s something I’ve always admired about him, ever since we were little. He knew when to ask what was the matter, but also knew when I just wanted to be consoled for the time being. I would have done the same with him as much as he’d done so for me, although Lawliet never really was a man of much emotion. Sure, he told me he missed me sometimes and showed a completely different side of himself when he knew I’d been hurt, although I’ve never seen him cry. It made me wonder if he kept all of his emotions to himself.

“R-Ryuzaki,” I stammered as I shook.

He continued to console me before making an attempt to communicate normally with me. “Hey,” he began.

He then wiped my tears away as I looked up at him. I sighed, a little peeved at myself for the fact that a small puddle of my tears had seeped into the white fabric that was clothing him. “Sorry for soaking your shirt.”

“It’s alright,” he said, with no tone or expression as usual. “It’ll dry up. Anyways, did you have a bad dream, by any chance?”

I nodded.

“Have some tea,” he said as I got up and sat beside him.

He began to pour excessive amounts of sugar cubes into his own tea cup, now very curious about my nightmare. “What was the dream about, exactly?”

I opened my mouth to say something, but couldn’t find a way to sum it all up briefly. Instead, what caught my eye was the container that was halfway full of sugar cubes, which Lawliet intended to pour into my tea cup. I grabbed a hold of his wrist. “I can do it,” I said, giving a half-hearted nervous laugh.

“Alright,” he replied.

I barely even touched the container of sugar cubes before he began to ask me more questions about the nightmare I had. “Where were you in this dream, exactly?” he queried.

I pictured myself walking down a dark hallway again. “All of it took place here at headquarters, but in the beginning I was walking in a dark hallway in the building.”

“What happened then?” he asked, dropping another sugar cube into his tea. 

“I saw one of the doors cracked open, and light was coming out of it, so I figured I’d have a look. But…” 

My voice trailed off at the memory of what I’d seen in the nightmare next. The clinking of Lawliet’s tea spoon against the inside of the cup had come to a stop after I hesitated for a while. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I gulped. 

“Could you tell me who was in the dream?”

I planted my face in my knees, knowing that I’d have difficulty making the words come out if I was facing Lawliet. “You were there, Ryuzaki.”

“I was?”

I nodded. “So was Light. Misa Amane was there, too; I heard you mention something about her being a suspect earlier.”

He hesitated, and then continued to ask me questions. I was still having a lot of difficulty answering him, but I knew he needed to know what had taken place in my mind. So when he asked me to explain, in detail, what happened in the dream, I had to do so.

“Well,” I began after he told me to take a sip of the hot tea, “I saw you. You were lying on the ground in pain. You were having a heart attack.”

“A heart attack, huh?” he pondered, now intrigued instead of horrified.

I nodded. “I remember Light and Misa being partners in crime.”

“Do you recall the cause of my heart attack?”

I needed to pause. I wasn’t comfortable with talking about Lawliet’s death, even if he was right in front of me, in perfect health. Well, in good health, anyways.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I just don’t like the thought of you dying.”

“Hey, I’m not going anywhere. I’m right here, alright?” he said with ease. “So could you please tell me?”

I nodded. “Alright. Well, I assume it was something that Light did to you internally. You might have eaten something that he put poison or a toxic substance into. That’s the only logical reasoning I can come up with, other than if it may have been a supernatural cause.”

“Let’s stick with the poison theory,” he said, munching on more raw sugar cubes.

It’s quite typical for Lawliet to answer that way. He always liked to take the most logical route, and didn’t believe in spirits or anything of that sort. I wondered what would happen in he was left no choice but to assume that in fact, something supernatural did have something to do with the situation. He’d probably just keep denying it or refuse to solve the case by going through with that theory.

“Is there anything else you’d like to add on?” he asked.

I then remembered one more detail; something that had come out of Light’s mouth. “He kept calling you L.”

Although his long, black hair was almost completely covering his eyes, he couldn’t fool me. He’d just winced, whether he wanted me to see that he did so or not. He decided to change the subject. “A few things have come to my attention recently,” he said.

“What?”

He looked up at me. “There’s a zero percent chance that you’re Kira,” he said.

It was very rare for him to come up with such a drastic percentage, and so I raised an eyebrow at him to see if he’d recalculate his assumption. To my surprise, he didn’t.

“You’re no longer a suspect,” he said.

Those words, although quite relieving, only meant one thing; even if I decided to stay here for university, I had no reason to come and see Lawliet anymore. In fact, I don’t think I’d even be allowed to.