Death Note One-Shots

For The Rest Of Your Life - Friend! Rem X Reader [AU]

You hadn't known about Shinigami until you had seen Rem after taking the Death Note from Misa. Your friend had never explained to you what Rem was, so the Shinigami had to do it herself. She had told you about the Shinigami Realm, and Death Notes, and how you now had the power to kill people if you wanted to. But you didn't want to abuse power like Kira had, so you had told her that you wouldn't find yourself using it ever. Still, you had wanted to keep it just to prevent any more people similar to Light Yagami from getting their hands on it, and Rem had allowed you to do that. The Shinigami had admitted to you that she felt a sort of fondness for Misa when she'd been with her, and she felt like she owed it to Misa to be nice to you.

Strangely, you and Rem had become friends after having spent so long with each other. L, the greatest detective in the world, had taken on Kira in a fierce battle of the minds, and had won out eventually after years of perseverance. Kira had been imprisoned, and had later been rumoured to have died mysteriously while in prison.

Rem had stayed with you even after the case was over, and had discovered that in truth, you hadn't just been scared of Kira because he was dangerous and killed people...but also because you were a kind of criminal, the very people he despised. You were a hacker - an infamous hacker going by an alias name so that no one knew your true identity. Even L had heard of you, but he had always been confident that you would never break through his security. So it had surprised even you when you had managed it, and you still had no idea whether L even knew yet. It had become a hobby of yours, but not only because you liked being able to see what cases the world's greatest detective was involved in. It allowed you to see if there had been news of a return of Kira.

Kira terrified you. He always had, ever since you had heard about him, and you had feared that one day he would find out your name and kill you. Images of a horrifying, faceless man haunted your sleep. Nightmares had plagued you for months and months, and you had dark shadows underneath your eyes from your terrible sleep. You were permanently paranoid that he would find out who you were and come after you. Even after L had brought him down, you were afraid, because there had been so many supporters of Kira by the end. You worried that some of them might gain his powers and follow in his footsteps, bringing back those haunting days of the killer who called himself a god.

Rem's gentle voice interrupted your thoughts. "Are you all right, (F/N)?"

You nodded. "Of course. I was just thinking."

The Shinigami hesitated. "I can sense your guilt. What have you done?"

"I haven't done anything!" you cried. "That's the problem...or rather, I didn't do anything. I knew his name, Rem. I knew his name and I had Misa's Death Note...I could have killed him. I could have stopped everything much earlier on...I could have prevented so many deaths, but I didn't, because I was too afraid of doing it. I didn't want to kill anyone, to even harm anyone...but indirectly, I did, because I didn't stop him." You choked on a sob as all of your pent up emotions flooded out. You have never yet admitted to Rem just how much you blamed yourself for the deaths of so many people - deaths that could have been prevented by the death of one boy. "I'm a coward, Rem..."

"If you had killed Light Yagami with the notebook you own, you would have signed up your soul for eternal nothingness beyond death," the Shinigami replied. "You may have even caused chaos among the police force and detectives. Even L would not have been able to know why Kira's killings had suddenly stopped, and it would have caused yet another case. If they had discovered his death, they would have needed to search for a killer - you would have been a murderer, despite having killed someone who has murdered many more people. If they had found you, (F/N), you would have been forced to spend your life in prison - or perhaps you would have suffered the penalty of death if they had found out who you really were. It was safer for you that you did not touch that Death Note."