For The Rest Of Your Life - Friend! Rem X Reader [AU]
(Requested by @IamIochi)
"(F/N), are you spying on that detective again?"
Your best friend's voice at your ear startled you - you had been purely focused on the work you were doing on your laptop in front of you. "I might be," you replied, your eyes remaining glued to the computer screen.
Your friend - who's name was Rem - sighed audibly. "You do realise there is no need for you to do that? I could understand your persistence to know what was happening during the Kira case, but that's over now. The killer was brought to justice, just as you wished. You do not need to spy any more."
You shrugged. "It's a hobby," you answered. "Besides, I like to know everything that's going on - when there's new cases, how much progress has been made on them, that sort of thing."
"(F/N)."
You stopped what you were doing, turning to look at Rem and meeting her yellow, one-eyed gaze. She blinked back at you. "What?" you questioned.
"You're making sure that he doesn't reappear, aren't you? And if he does, then you want to be one of the first to know about it."
So she knew what you were thinking. You nodded slowly. "I don't want him to come back, Rem," you said, your voice trembling a little on the word 'him'. You could hardly bear to think about him - Kira, that monstrous killer who had called himself the god of the new world he had been desperately trying to create. You were constantly checking the police force database to make sure no news of a reappearance had come up, and recently, you had finally been able to hack into the great detective L's computer software, allowing you to see everything - something that, as a professional hacker, had pretty much been your life's ambition.
You could vividly remember the case of Kira; the strange, anonymous character who had managed to kill people he deemed unworthy without even being present. You had been terrified of him, as had your school friend Misa Amane.
Then came that fateful day, when Misa had run into your arms at school and cried that he had found her. You had been confused, and convinced her to explain what she meant - somehow, she had stumbled across something called a Death Note; a notebook with the power to kill people with only their faces and real names. She had told you that a boy had come to visit her and explained that she had been given a great power; that he was Kira and she was going to help him cleanse the world of sin using her Death Note, along with one he owned himself. Upset and confused, Misa had refused to go along with what he was telling her to do, so he gave her a choice: either she willingly agreed to help him, or he would have to force her to. He offered her two days to make her decision before he returned.
She had admitted to you that she knew the boy called Kira - his real name was Light Yagami, and he attended a school not far from yours, where he was a high-achieving student intending to join the police like his father. She told you that she had talked to him before, and even has a crush on him, but there was no way she could ever agree to kill people like he did. You were scared for her, but she said that she had to refuse him, that there was nothing else she could do.
You had persuaded Misa to give up ownership of the Death Note to you, meaning that she wouldn't be able to go along with Light. But when Kira had returned to her, and she had revealed to him that she had given up ownership of the notebook, he had killed her. She hadn't told him who she gave the Death Note to, so you had been safe...but Misa Amane was dead, and you blamed yourself.
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."
You nodded slowly. "I know, but I still can't help but blame myself."
"You shouldn't."
You sighed. "You know, I'm glad you're here, Rem, but...why did you never force me to use the Death Note? Or take it away and return to your own realm when I decided never to use it?"
Rem's eye closed for a moment, then opened again. "Misa Amane requested of me that when she gave up ownership of the Death Note to you, I would look out for you. She knew that nothing good could ever come of her refusing Light, and she was right. She asked me to stay with you and to make sure you didn't do anything stupid. She never specified how long I had to stay, but I could understand that she believed she was going to die, and she wanted to know that you would be safe for the rest of your life."
"But...you didn't have to stay. Especially if she never said how long you should. You could have taken the Death Note away - isn't that the only reason you;re still here? Because the notebook is? I can give up ownership back to you."
Rem shook her head. "Misa made me promise. I was fond of her, and could never have betrayed her trust in me, nor ever broken my promise. Besides...I owed it to someone else to look out for her and I failed. I could not stop her giving up ownership of the Death Note, and I did not know Light Yagami's intention to kill her, or I would have sacrificed my life for Misa and killed him. I can never forget how I failed her, and Gelus...I owe it to both of them to see my promise to Misa through, no matter how long I must remain in this world."
"So you'll be here..."
"For the rest of your life."
Your eyes widened a little as that information sunk in. "And I don't have to use the Death Note if I don't want to?"
Rem shook her head. "I will never force you to use it, nor threaten you. I can promise you this."
"Does this mean that you won't get to return to the Shinigami Realm?"
"Not until you die, no."
"I'm sorry," you said. "That you don't get to go home. You know I would release you from your promise if you wanted...but you'll just say you owe it to Misa, won't you?"
She nodded. "Correct. And you have no reason to be sorry, (F/N). I could almost say I like it here with you, and it's certainly less dreary than my own realm."
You hesitated. "Will you be here for long?" you asked tentatively.
Her one visible eye narrowed. "I cannot tell you that."
"But-"
She interrupted, "I will leave when you die, and I cannot disclose to you the day of your death, nor however much time you may have left. It is against the rules to inform you of your lifespan, and therefore you may not know when I can return to the Shinigami Realm."
You sighed. "All right then. But can I ask you something?"
"Yes."
"Do you...do you think there's any chance of Kira coming back?"
She stared at you. "He really does frighten you, doesn't he?" When you nodded slightly, she added, "The only notebook left in the human world currently is yours. I don't believe any others will be appearing for a long time."
You nodded. "But Light Yagami used the Death Note an awful lot, and since he can't go to Heaven or Hell...isn't there a chance that he became a shinigami?"
Rem laughed softly. "It doesn't work like that, (F/N). Light Yagami is not a shinigami, I can assure you. He is dead. He will never return to your world or ever even see mine."
You sighed. "Thank you - I needed to hear that." You turned back to your computer, frowning at it. "Wait a second...what the hell is that?"
You computer was simply showing the desktop, when previously it had been open on a window displaying L's security cameras that we currently installed in his headquarters. There was a small symbol in the corner of your screen, and when you bent to look closer at it, the whole screen went white. A black letter 'L' appeared in the centre, in a fancy font, and a robotic sounding voice announced, "Greetings, Miss (Alias Name)."
Too shocked for words, you slammed the lid of your laptop down and thrust the computer away from you, scrambling off the sofa as if you'd been bitten. Glancing at Rem, you breathed, "Is that who I think it is?"
"L, I believe I am most often referred to," came the voice from the laptop, even though you had closed it. "I must admit I had wondered for a while who the mysterious hacker must be. I noticed as soon as you broke through my security, and my only reason for allowing you to carry on was so that I could learn more about you. For you see, Miss (L/N), you may have hacked my system...but I, in return, have also hacked yours."
Taking a small step away from the sofa where you'd been sitting, and where your computer lay, you breathed a single word as plans of escape ran through your mind.
"Crap."
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So...I'm not really sure what the story-line of that was, but I will admit it was difficult to think of what to write for this one-shot. It wasn't romantic, just a sort of friendship one, as requested. My apologies it wasn't really what you were hoping for...it was hard to come up with ideas. Also, my apologies for it taking so long for me to upload this :/