5th April 2007:
L had woken up quite surprised that day.
Yes, woken up.
It was when Watari had come into his room and shaken him awake that he remembered and realized what had happened the previous night, that he had actually managed to fall asleep all thanks to the main cause of his immense stress. He had been surprised, whether pleasant or not he wasn't sure, to see himself in a highly comfortable position on the bed with pillows stuffed all around him, the air conditioner set at the perfect temperature, and his body tucked into a soft and fluffy comforter, something Watari had told him that he himself didn't do. It was again, all thanks to Kiyo.
Even though he did not have much time to sit and dwell on any of that since he needed to leave for To-Oh University to make the opening speech as Hideki Ryuga, L found himself going back to his and Kiyo's latest encounter no matter how hard he tried to steer his mind away from it.
In fact (although it may have seemed like an act of concern L thought otherwise) he had received a text message from the girl asking him if he 'slept well?' which only further distracted him from what he had planned for that day and brought him back to the cause of his deep slumber.
L was equally intrigued and embarrassed when he recalled all the things his mind had thought of, and quite out-of-character-ly so too.
He had compared the girl to his favorite wine! Who the fuck does that?! Oh lord, he was so embarrassed, and yet, he found himself thinking that how true the comparison between the two seemed. Both did indeed leave an exceptionally long aftertaste, an aftertaste he wasn't sure if he actually disliked as much as he told himself he did or not.
Watari, on the other hand, was just as excited as he was nervous. He did not know what had exactly gone through in the room, since all he was greeted with when he had pressed his ear to the door was absolute silence, but just as he was beginning to get worried, Kiyo had opened the door and slid out making the least noise possible.
She had seen him looking at her. His face was blank as usual but his eyes held a questioning gaze, and so she walked right up to him to answer the questions he never verbally needed to ask.
"He fell asleep," Kiyo said softly, out of the hearing of all the other task force members in the room that were beginning to get up and pack to leave for their homes.
Watari felt his eyes widen at that. Nothing ever fazed or surprised him anymore, but this? This elicited a reaction out of him.
"What?" He couldn't help but ask, making the young girl in front of him chuckle.
"Ryuzaki fell asleep, Watari," She repeated slowly for him, "He seemed extremely stressed, so I gave him a magic shoulder massage, and voila! He went to sleep in no time."
It wasn't in 'no time'. L and she may not have realized it, but the girl was with him in that room for about fifty minutes. However, seeing as L quite literally never slept, fifty minutes did seem like no time.
And a shoulder massage? Seriously? The number of times Watari had tried to get L to sleep by giving him one himself was ridiculous, yet somehow, Kiyo's shoulder massage was effective and he was not.
Watari was going to have a little chat with L when he woke up the next day.
"I suggest you rest for a little while too. I'll be here for another few hours before leaving, so catch up on some sleep, yeah? I'll wake you up before I leave."
It was then Watari realized just how much he had really underestimated Kiyo's stubbornness. The girl couldn't take no for an answer once she was determined enough and Watari ended up being locked up in his bedroom as Kiyo announced that she will only open the door after a few hours. There were CCTV cameras in the living room so if she messed with anything he would instantly know, which is why he wasn't worried and decided to actually utilize his time for some much-needed rest.
"It is time Watari," L said to him, tapping his shoulder and pulling him out of his memory.
Watari immediately stood up and grabbed the keys to L's quite expensive car, walking out of the hotel behind him.
Kiyo's POV:
'Did L just pull a fucking Kakashi on me?!' I couldn't help but think to myself as I glanced at my watch one more time and sighed in annoyance. I had been waiting outside for L, near the gates of To-Oh University for about an hour now and there was no sign of him anywhere.
'On second thought, would I even be surprised if he transformed into Kakashi? I mean, I got reincarnated in a fucking anime and there's a notebook here that kills people. At this point, I don't think I'd be surprised if I find Kagunes sprouting out of everyone's body.'
Yesterday around noon, Watari had specifically informed me to arrive early to the entrance ceremony today since L had wanted to speak to me about something, and now he's nowhere to be seen!
I sighed once more in annoyance and looked around for L's car.
To be honest..
I wasn't that frustrated.
I only had to act that way to make sure when L arrives, he doesn't think I knew why he was running so late by seeing me calmly stand here.
And oh, I knew. I knew exactly what had happened.
It had taken me almost an hour to get L to fall asleep, which actually wasn't long at all. He was an obvious insomniac and he was in obvious stress - sleep-deprived and tired - an absolutely perfect combination for me to work with.
L may be the best detective in the world, but he didn't know everything and I had tested that myself before too:
It had been a long and tiring day for all the task force members. There was a sudden rise in the number of people killed by Kira that day which resulted in increased work.
Kiyo has subtly placed herself next to L and even though they remained predominantly silent, they occasionally engaged in a quiet conversation.
"Have you tried any therapy for your insomnia?" Kiyo had asked as their conversation had steered from L's extreme and her own mild sweet tooth to weird dreams they had to his sleep.
"Not exactly," L answered after a few moments, "My insomnia is almost a blessing in disguise. I can invest my time in something productive instead of wasting half my life on something so.. trivial.. as sleep."
"So you haven't ever tried acupressure? It's pretty good, you know."
"I do not have any interest in such things. I'd rather go for something that actually works."
Well, sucks for him cause acupressure actually works.
There's a pair of pressure points symmetrically located on either side of the neck, just below where the neck meets the curve of the skull, known as the 'Wind Pool' and another one behind the ear, between the earlobe and the hairline that comes up the back of the neck, known as 'An-mian'. All I did was press them.
While I 'massaged' his shoulders, I pushed his acupressure points causing him to feel dizzy and sleepy since he relaxed, and when he fell into a state of light sleep, I pressed another pressure point, directly in between his eyes, known as the Yin Tang which caused him to further loosen up and fall into a deep sleep.
The reason for this? Letting yourself sleep next to someone or falling asleep with someone is a way of telling them that you trust them and saying 'I feel safe with you', on the flip side, if you fall asleep next to someone, your brain automatically assumes that you trust and feel safe with them, it doesn't matter if you did before that point or not.
As long as you fall asleep naturally, without being drugged that is, and you are aware that you were absolutely conscious before and allowed yourself to go to sleep, you will wake up more attached to the person you remember being with last.
What's even better, is if you begin denying it and trying to erase the 'weird feelings' and 'sudden increase in heart rate' every time you see that person, your brain is just going to smack those emotions back in your face twice as hard.
It's not because your brain is a bitch, it's just because it wants to know where and how it went wrong with its calculations, all while you fall deeper and deeper, getting increasingly confused by the moment till you finally accept whatever your 'heart' says.
L, however, is an extremely smart man that hasn't had much experience with his own emotions. If anyone would be successful with pushing their feelings away, it would be him, but even he can't stop the tiny little spark of emotion from warming his heart.
3rd Person POV:
L sat in his car in his usual position watching the raven-haired girl from afar, as he had been doing for the past 17 minutes and 23 seconds to be exact.
She wore a black sleeveless turtle neck shirt with sepia tan-colored straight pants that reached her ankles and a matching blazer draped over her shoulders. Her short black hair had been curled and well made and her forest-green eyes took up a lighter shade as they glimmered majestically like emeralds under the sunlight. She looked slightly taller and her legs looked longer thanks to her six-inch black stilettoes that she kept clicking on the pavement, frequently glancing at the beige-colored analog watch on her right wrist in annoyance.
L had kept her waiting for too long on the pretext of 'observing the suspect'.
The truth was that he didn't know what he was going to say!
He had actually wanted to discuss something with her, but because of what had happened the previous night and, even though he would never admit it, what she was wearing right now, he had completely forgotten what he wanted to talk about. Not to mention, the rumbling in his tummy and the weird tingling he felt on his shoulders and neck where she had touched him every time he thought back to the massage, that just seemed to make him more conscious and.. shy..?
So, instead of spending 30 awkward minutes with her, not knowing what to speak about, L decided he will sit in his car and 'observe' her (at least that's what he told Watari when he asked) till the very last moment. Then, he will meet her and tell her that they can speak later since it's getting late, after which they will enter the University together in comfortable silence as he goes to the stage to give his speech. L glanced at the little watch placed on the dashboard of his car, it was almost time to go to her, just a minute more. He felt the rumbling return as the clock ticked away, and a certain warm heat spread throughout his body.
However, his moment and perfect little scenario were completely trampled upon. He felt a new and weird heat, extremely unpleasant, the absolute opposite of the one he had felt earlier, spark in the pit of his stomach as it began burning up, hotter and hotter from his stomach - almost like acidity through his wind and food pipes, right up to his throat..
..when he saw none other than Light Yagami notice Kiyo from a distance, call out to her, jog up to her and pull her in for a hug.
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Hello!
So.. I'm not really pleased with this chapter, to be honest. There's a lot of POV changes and flashbacks and I don't think it comes together quite well. I'll try editing it in the future to make the chapter flow more smoothly and just make it cleaner and sharper overall.
I'm really sorry if you don't enjoy it as much, I'll try to do better next time.
Lemme know what you think of this chapter and if you have any suggestions on how I could improve it, feel free to leave them in your comments.