A Year of Jubilee [The Death Note Fanfic]

Chapter 19

Hellenos appeared by her shoulder. Must you scare the poor man so?

She turned on him warily. "Why? You gonna try to set me up with him, too?"

Hellenos' eyes narrowed ever so slightly. I? I have done no such thing. Matchmaking is a purely human sport; not the business of angels. Please be accountable for your own thoughts, feelings and actions.

"Accountable? This isn't my fault!" She looked sidelong at him. "Fine, it's not your fault either," she acquiesced crossly.

Hellenos' tone remained stern. Who are you blaming then? God?

Jubilee stubbornly refused to answer for a minute. I didn't ask for this, she thought at last.

You asked to see what the Father sees.

This is not what I meant! Jubilee seethed.

Regardless, you asked, and He answered. You are now capable of seeing everyone the way that He sees them. Your resulting feelings, however, are your own.

This stopped Jubilee short. Up until this point, despite acknowledging her feelings, she had not been willing to be held accountable for them. She had been unwilling to treat them as feelings of her own; but rather labeled them as being somehow forced on her. To be stripped of the excuse of being victim to some kind of heavenly brainwashing left her feeling bare, vulnerable, and disoriented.

"Miss Amachi," spoke a smooth voice by her ear.

Jubilee jumped and nearly fell out of her chair, whirling about in wide-eyed fear to face L, who had returned along with Light, Chief Yagami, and Watari. He eyed her panicked response with a measured look.

"A word, please," he said, beckoning with one pale finger.

Reason fled her brain. She could do nothing but rise to her feet in a daze and follow him like a sheep being led to slaughter. He led her to a corner of the room, where a green chaise lounge was positioned in front of a glass coffee table.

"Sit," he offered politely, gesturing to the chaise lounge.

She sat.

He perched himself in a crouch at an appropriate distance beside her. For a moment he simply stared at her in silence. Jubilee stared down at the green velvety material beneath her fingers, unable to meet his gaze. She couldn't sense Hellenos anywhere.

At last he spoke. "There is a matter that has risen to my attention, which has become necessary for us to discuss."

Jubilee said nothing. Her palms were sweaty against the velvet cushions, but her brain was too numb to even feel dread at the moment. Somehow she knew what was coming, without knowing what was coming.

"The matter of which I speak," continued L quietly, "Is the attraction that you have developed towards me."

Time felt like it had stopped. Slowly Jubilee raised her eyes to glance at the other members of the task force. They had heard nothing and were paying no attention to her, which should have given her relief, except that she was too paralyzed with shock to feel it. Surreally she watched as the other task force members all seemed to move and talk in slow motion from their workstations, as if they were worlds away, and she was watching them through a television set. On a couch. Next to L. Who had just called her out.

She turned to him, still numb. "Excuse me?"

His eyes held a thoroughly neutral and detached expression. "Naturally you will feel the need to put on a charade, Miss Amachi; but allow me to save you the time and discomfort of having to lie. Earlier I observed the increased rate of the number of breaths you took per minute while in physical contact with me, as well as the dilation of your pupils whenever we were in close proximity. This, in conjunction with your inability to focus lately, are all physiological factors pointing to a developed infatuation; and is the only logical explanation for your recent erratic behavior, as opposed to a spike in hormones due to premenstrual syndrome as you claim, which—due to the current date not matching up with the previous time frames that you have displayed the usual characteristics of a female undergoing her cycle—I can only conclude to have been a false statement."

Jubilee's brain whirled to keep up and she stared, frozen with mortification. There was probably not a single sentence he had just uttered that wasn't completely and utterly humiliating.

"As such," the pale man went on without missing a beat, "I find it necessary to discourage you from further allowance of such a disposition, as it is severely hindering your work on the case."

And that sentence took the cake.

Slowly, Jubilee began to regain control of her slack facial muscles as the cognitive processes in her brain recovered from their shock and caught up to what had just happened. She set her jaw firmly and her eyes hardened.

"Understood, boss," she said coldly. She turned to look the other way and waited for him to leave. He didn't, which only made her feel angrier.

"Your comfort and wellbeing are important to the case, Miss Amachi," he said softly. "As such, you can be assured of my utmost discretion on the subject. We need not speak of this again."

"And you can be assured that I have no desire to, nor any intention to let it get in the way of work." Jubilee's voice sounded harsh in her own ears. When he still didn't leave, she added, in a frigid tone, "Will that be all?"

L gazed at her a moment longer. "Yes, Miss Amachi," he said at last, then got up and quietly padded off.

Jubilee sat alone on the couch. Around her the sound of quiet voices came back into her awareness as the pounding rush of blood faded in her ears. She took a deep breath and cursed to herself.

The L word truly was a four-letter word.