Ghini(tchi)

…because they’re running out of time.

Misa nervously taps her nails against the table in a steady rhythm as she glances around the room, looking anywhere but the man standing before her. She thought having a barrier between them would put her more at ease, but despite the coffee table between them, the atmosphere is still thick with apprehension and Misa feels like she is going to be sick.

Ryuzaki; no L, his real name is L and he's the one who's who locked you up; stands before her in her living room after just having released her from custody. He invited himself in to her apartment and has barely spoken a word since he entered. A quick glance his way reveals he is just standing there, chewing at his thumb. His usual quirk sees a thumb rubbing at his lips, but no there's something different about it this time. Desperate. She can use that.

"Did you miss little Misa that much that you had to come visit her right away, Ryuzaki?" She bats her eyes at him and pushes her breasts forward. She is certain he is here to throw her off her game, get her to reveal something so that he can capture her again. Well Misa has her own bag of tricks and she won't let the detective get her that easily.

"You could say that." He answers vaguely. He doesn't stop chewing at his thumb. Paying closer attention now that she's finally looking at him, Misa sees he's lacking his usual air of confidence. In fact, he looks almost haunted. He's always had poor posture, but his usual slouch has never looked so pronounced before. The bags under his eyes are even darker. There's a sadness in him that she's never seen before. Has he already realized his defeat?

"Misa... Misa wasn't expecting you," She tries, plucking at the air as if she can pull the words from there, "Ryuzaki... He doesn't look well."

"Yes, I am not well." He whispers.

Any plan she had of toying with the detective to get a leg up on this game vanishes completely. She has never seen Ryuzaki so vulnerable before. She gapes at him, unsure what to say. The smarter part of her wonders if this is some act of manipulation from him, but the bleeding heart in her hurts for him, and falls for it anyway.

"Ryuzaki, you can talk to Misa. We're friends. What's wrong?" She asks emphatically.

"I am dying very soon." He drops his hand from his face. "I do not think Misa can help me, because you're going to be the one who kills me."

Misa goes pale. If she didn't feel sick before, she certainly does now. It kills her to hear those words from him, and she doesn't even understand why. She's killed before and it's never mattered but she didn't know the others. She knows Ryuzaki, even if it was all fake, wasn't he sort of her friend?

"That is... That's not funny, Ryuzaki." She says teary eyed.

"Trust that I do not find any humor in this."

"Why would you say it?" Misa lashes out. "Why did you come here? I don't... Misa doesn't want you here! She doesn't want this!" The blonde curls into herself, as if that will make this whole situation disappear. She realizes now that she doesn't want to kill Ryuzaki, but she knows what she must do for Kira. She doesn't want to feel this way. It's never been this complicated before, she doesn't want to start thinking this way. If she thinks too much about it... About all that she's done... No! Don't go there.

"Does it really distress you so?" Ryuzaki asks, and there's sincerity in his question. Misa looks up from where she's curled into herself on the couch and sees he's gotten closer, leaning towards her as he often does during their conversations.

"I don't want Ryuzaki to die."

"But Kira does." He answers her in turn. He steps closer. "And Misa will do as Kira says."

"Who says I have to?" She shoots back, uncurling herself as she finds renewed energy, a readiness to fight.

"Isn't that your way? You will do whatever you must to please the people you love. You will not question it, you will give and give more and more of yourself until there is nothing left. That is who you are." He says slowly, creeping ever closer, nearly nose to nose with her now as he leans over the coffee table.

"I will do what I want! That's who I am!" She shoots back.

In a burst of impulsivity, she grabs the detective by the front of his shirt and pulls him into a rough kiss. He reaches for her face and at first she thinks he's going to push her away, but instead he pulls her in more. His fingers grip her jaw and cheek and he kisses her like a man starved. Her nails dig into his shirt and she realizes belatedly that she's crying when he stops to brush at her cheeks.

"What are we doing, Misa-san?" He whispers.

"Don't think about it. There isn't any time." She says and then she pulls him in again.

The night goes by in a flash. When she wakes up in the morning, he is already gone, nothing but his scent lingering in her sheets to remind her that he was even there at all. He is already a ghost.

When Light calls her, she answers in her most pathetic voice, "I'm sorry Light." She stares at her sheets, where she and a detective held each other for the first and last time.

Someone else has asked me to do prompt 39, and I felt like it fit as a natural extension to this one, so I'm going to put it here.

…because time’s run out.

Misa sits by his grave in uncharacteristic silence. She wears a simple black gown without any makeup and her hair down and out of their usual pigtails.

She thinks Ryuzaki... L... would have liked her this way. She feels she looks more mature without her typical style, or at least that's what Light told her. He may have had a hand in her change of look just as he did in placing the man they used to call a friend in an early grave.

She knew Light would find a way around her little "slip up." She knew L would die no matter what she did; she just didn't want to have a hand in it. She can tell herself she has nothing to feel guilty for along with all the other lies she tells herself.

It's November once more. A year since his death. Light had Misa write down Wedy and Aiber's names as well. She had Wedy die in a motorcycle accident back in January. Aiber fell to the disease she wrote down for him back in April. She hopes that wherever L may be, in whatever afterlife exists, perhaps he has been reunited with these friends of his, if they were truly his friends.

Misa says her prayers, the ones her mother taught her, and tells herself it's enough, that it makes up for all that she has done. She stands up and plants a kiss on her fingertips, presses them against the unnamed grave.