Futatsu no Tsuki

Futatsu no Tsuki

Chapter 6

Light froze as Yue approached. The bustling of campus faded into the background like a television buzzing indeterminately. Years long past returned in a flash, colliding with the emotions threatening to burst through his shield of self-control. Images of an empty bedroom, a made, unused bed and a desk gathering dust flickered before his brown irises. All thought about the death note and L and the investigation cowered before his recollection of that first year after Yue ran away.

He vividly remembered the night his parents received the call about Yue's 'accident' - remembered how pale his father's face grew, the abundance of tears his mother cried. He remembered how quickly he realized it wasn't an accident after being told the details; unbeknownst to his parents he'd seen the scars on Yue's wrist. The week before the accident he'd emptied Yue's false-bottom drawer of the razors his twin had hidden.

For the first week of Yue's hospitalization he'd regretted removing those blades, believing that to be the reason for his brother's drastic attempt at suicide. Until he realized Yue hadn't even noticed the loss. His brother's violent, second suicide attempt came two days after Yue recovered from his first attempt - an attempt his parents failed to mention to Sayu or him.

"Aniki…."

"What are you doing here?" Light heard Ryuk chuckling behind him, the Shinigami glancing at him and then at his brother. Anger threatened to burst out from within him, it raged against his self-control by instilling an urge to punch his brother. He bit his inner cheek to still that violent desire.

"Didn't Sayu email your cellphone? I…."

"She did, but that doesn't explain why you decided to return, or why you're here in front of me…." 'Or why you left in the first place….' Light kept the last bitter thought as a thought, refraining his lips from voicing any word of it. He felt it stab at his heart as a sliver of memory flashed before him - this memory soaked with feelings of guilt and anger.

"Yagami-kun, may I inquire as to who your…friend, is?" L placed an index finger on his bottom lip, trailing it along the thin layer of skin as he visually consumed Yue's appearance. He chewed on the nail as he noted the physical similarities between Light and Yue. 'This must be Yue….Yagami-san will be thrilled once he learns of his son's returned….but…I swear I met him somewhere….'

"The prodigal son returns, huh?" Light ignored L, his chocolate eyes narrowed even as the detective's ash gray ones memorized the expression. "After five years you finally decide to return. What happened? Did you get into so much trouble abroad that you had to come running home? With how you're dressed I wouldn't have been surprised if you dropped out of school." Light narrowed his eyes at the deep blue uniform jacket Yue wore tied around his waist. "You still have no respect for my things. Give me back my spare uniform jacket if you're not going to wear it right."

Yue bristled under the onslaught of his brother's words, he suppressed the brief urge to give into Light's demand for his uniform jacket. Instead he stared directly into his brother's eyes.

"Don't act so high and mighty, aniki. I'm no longer the younger brother lost in the shadow of the older. And I did not come back to cause trouble. Though if you wish to make trouble, you explain to mom why I decided to stay at a hotel rather than move back home."

"…." Light glared at Yue, the younger's last sentence silencing his planned argument. His rational brain screaming that if he'd pushed Yue to leave for a hotel rather than returning home not a single member of his family would understand or appreciate it.

"…I did not come back for trouble, and I don't expect everything to be fixed overnight, but…."

"Don't expect things to be fixed even after a year, there is nothing you can do to make up for what you caused. It took months before things returned to any semblance of normal after you left. And that was when you merely ran away to our aunt and uncle's place…it took nearly twice as long for mom to not fall asleep crying when you disappeared from our aunt's."

"….I…I apologize….I was going through such….I couldn't deal with staying…."

"You think an 'I apologize' will suffice? You've been gone five fricking years! And right before you ran away you tried slitting your wrists, and when that failed, tried running into traffic! Excuse me for dreading everyday afterwards that mom and dad would receive news about you being dead!" Light realized the attention he was attracting the same moment he realized he was breathing heavy. He'd barely breathed through the course of his yelling, and it revealed itself in his resulting gasps for air.

"…ha! You, worried about me? Who was the one who wanted me out of his life? The one who said not too long before I left that it'd be better if I had never been born?" Yue's voice turned harsh, the cut of it made worse by the sudden lack of yelling. "Just because I was expelled and failed my high school entrance exams…."

"I…I…." Light swallowed, all thought about L standing nearby or Ryuk hovering above them vanished as the brunette felt a rare sliver of genuine guilt creep up. "I hadn't meant that….I was just angry…everyone at school was talking about you assaulting the homeroom teacher and then about you skipping entrance exams….it was shameful…."

"…shameful, huh? Did you happen to keep track of the News lately? That conviction regarding that teacher I punched?"

"…Yeah, he was convicted of…." Light faltered as he recalled what he'd read in the papers, at first not remembering the crime - the next second sickened to silence as he recalled the charge. His chocolate eyes widened as he looked into his brother's caramel ones. "…convicted of coercing….coercing students into performing sexual acts…."

"Yes. I wasn't able to come forward myself, but…."

'Ok, what was the name of that teacher again? It's going into the death note the moment I get home….' Suddenly Light remembered about L and the investigation, the word death note prying his attention away from his brother's issues.

L caught onto his suspect's sudden change in demeanor, and found it amusing how Yue could spark such engrossing obliviousness in Light. The detective had a feeling Light hadn't lost track of his surroundings like that for over 5 years, and that it only happened because it was Yue he was arguing with.

'Perhaps I can use Yue to prove Light is Kira by making him blunder. Of course if this teacher they talked about dies of a heart attack over the next few days, I can increase my pile of reasons why Light is Kira.'

"Now that you seem to have remembered I'm here, Yagami-kun, perhaps you'll introduce me?" L broke the awkward moment of silence, his coal-black eyes flitting from Light's face to Yue's and back, his suspect's sudden stoic demeanor intriguing.

"Oh, I'm Yue Yagami. Light's younger twin." Yue held out his hand, his caramel eyes drinking in the black haired detective's appearance. The wild, black hair surrounding the pale face, the large black eyes and thin lips - he felt his spine tingle in the few seconds it took for the detective to shake his hand.

"Ryuga Hideki. A fellow first year student starting today." L introduce himself under his alias, eyebrows slightly scrunching, lips forming a miniscule frown - there seemed to be an excited glint in Yue's caramel eyes. The next second it vanished as Yue turned back toward Light.

"Aniki, are you going directly home? If so could you mention to mom that I have something to do and I will be late coming home?"

"…." Light silently stared at his brother as the request left the thin lips, the older Yagami twin's chocolate brown eyes narrowed slightly. "No. Do you want to make mom worry? You've just returned after 5 years….You will come home on time today, and the rest of this school week."

"I can't. There's something I need to look into, the reason I came back to Japan…."

"So the reason wasn't to return home? Why am I not surprised by that? Seems you're still the selfish, irresponsible younger brother…." Light stood steadfast next to Yue, expression composed and his awareness of L and the Kira investigation no longer eclipsed by his brother's arrival. "What reason other than returning home could you possibly have for returning to Japan?"

"That…." Yue's lips and cheeks tightened, his teeth clenched as he swallowed. Taeku's obituary entry flashed through his thoughts as strands of his dyed black hair covered his halfway narrowed eyes. "Someone I knew was murdered. I came to Japan to discover who his murderer is."

"Hm? Why not leave it to the police to handle?" Light replied disinterestedly, turning toward the school gate as a hint for Yue that they should head home. His brown eyes noticed L watching them, the detective's dark pupil eyes unblinking.

"I suppose I could leave the investigation alone, since the world renowned detective L is working on the case. But I find it impossible to do nothing while someone like Kira is acting the vigilante and killing criminals." Yue's words lassoed Light's attention back to the younger twin and brought L's millimeter-widened eyes to drink in the younger Yagami's appearance with the words.

"This…this person you knew….was killed by Kira?" Light asked in an even tone, voice unstrained though inside his heart beat rapidly and pounded his blood throughout his veins. His chocolate eyes settled on Yue's downcast ones while Ryuk's laughter echoed on his eardrums; it took 2.5 seconds longer for his lips to form his next question, during which time Ryuk hovered closer to his brother. "Then….this person you knew….was a criminal?"

Yue felt a chill pass along his spine briefly before raising his caramel eyes to meet his brother's; he swallowed at the calculating gleam he glimpsed in Light's eyes and suddenly felt as though the air itself was crowding around him. It felt suffocating. The silence stretched, with the stillness chilling his spine more, until he forced a response from his lips.

"Let's talk about this some other time. I need to talk to the school advisor about what classes I should take….I shouldn't be that long." Yue felt the lie barely spill forth from his lips before he hurried away, the chill faded by the time he turned the corner of one of the smaller buildings on campus. His knees shook as he braced himself against the wall before walking further onto the campus - he swallowed once more and touched the back of his neck. 'That was strange…it felt like something was there, watching me….yet….'

'Ghost? Yeah, like that's possible…things like ghosts don't exist….at least there's no unexplainable evidence to prove they exist.'

"Geez…." He shook his head, legs bringing him aimlessly towards a medium-large storage building; as he dismissed the thought he closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, then calmly exhaled. The image of the man with his older brother floated to the forefront of his thoughts, and tingled his spine for a different reason. "That man….that….Ryuga, was it? I…he….that man in the States…."

- The straggly black hair felt soft between his fingers, his left hand holding the older man's head as hungry lips nibbled his collarbone. His other hand roamed down the man's back, exploring the curves and soft skin - gasps escaping his parted lips, and sweat beginning to glisten on his forehead. Cool hands ghosted over his sides as the warm mouth moved lower, to his chest…

He licked his lips, eyes glued on the man's mass of black hair, as he felt the man's other hand….-

Yue blushed and bit on the side of his finger as the images rushed back to him, the vividness of his recollection filling him with heat.

"After two years…." He mumbled, pursing his lips as he heard footsteps approach, his cheeks fading to a soft pink as the person stepped into his view.