Death Note Fan Fiction ❯ A Scandal in Kanto Academy ❯ The Adventure Known as Day One ( Chapter 2 )

A Scandal in Kanto Academy

 

 

 

Chapter 2: The Adventure Known As Day One

 

 

Looking up at the Antique Bakery, Light scowled as he remembered just what he had gotten himself stuck into. He held a reading list in hand for the class, and he fully intended to stuff every single one of the books on the list down Ryuzaki's throat and force him to read them. It was obvious he had a high reading level - it was impossible to move up a grade, let alone graduate, without being above a certain aptitude level at Kanto, regardless of how rich or prestigious one's family was.

 

He was difficult…that's what he was. He didn't even know the kid, and already he knew he was difficult! The very fact that he had got an email the day before they were scheduled to meet saying that he didn't like the sticky buns they served at the original bakery of choice and so a different spot to meet MUST be chosen was proof enough of that. As if it mattered!

 

Light had already had to deal with two sets of classes today, tennis practice, and now he had to baby-sit an oversized brat who would rather fail high school than read anything other then the exact same book over and over.

 

Entering the shop, Light immediately let the smell of pastries waft into his nose, giving him a sugar sweet taste in the back of his throat that he knew would remain there long after he finished the very tooth rotting meal that would no doubt follow.

 

He saw him as soon as he entered, the odd teenager huddled in the back of the room, raking forkful after forkful into his mouth from what looked to be the entire bakery.

 

“What a pig,” Light heard himself mumble, not even beginning to grasp how the dark haired student was so thin when he ate in such a way.

 

“Ryuzaki!” He called out, coming closer and closer to the teenager, and getting no response whatsoever as he continued to stuff his face with the various cakes and pies laid out before him….and that was when he remembered.

 

“L-san?” He tried, scowling when the boy immediately looked up, and waved him over to the table almost completely occupied with his sugary delights.

 

“How are you today, Light-kun?” he greeted good-naturedly as he cleared room for the brunette, not noticing how the other flinched at the term of endearment that he seemed determined to bestow upon him.

 

Instead of voicing his annoyance, however, Light played along with the act and replied just as cheerfully with, “Very good L-san, how about yourself?”

 

“Did you know that they sell coffee at that other bakery that is excreted by monkeys?” he randomly asked, seemingly ignoring Light's question. “They have these adorable monkeys eat up the coffee beans, and then gather them up once they have passed through their feces, selling an espresso cup for a measly 100 yen. Apparently it's supposed to help with your health.”

 

“No, I didn't...though I must say you are chalk full of completely repulsive and unwanted information,” Light said sarcastically…Ryuzaki didn't seem to notice. “Now on to your studies…” But he was never allowed to go on with it, because he was once more interrupted as the garcon came by, laying a fresh cup of steaming coffee in front of the stubborn student…to which Light couldn't help but raise an eyebrow in amusement at.

 

Seeming to read his thoughts, Ryuzaki quickly interjected cheekily with, “Oh don't worry Light-kun, the coffee in this cup has not passed through anyone's bowels…yet. Not that I would really need such an odd health habit,” he smirked as he gave himself the up and down, knees still firmly tucked underneath him. “I'm in very good shape.”

 

The brunette took in the other's spindly figure, with his pallid skin tone, bony hunched over body, and dark circles around his eyes that looked like he hadn't slept in days and he couldn't help but scoff. “Oh, I'm sure you're tip top,” he said snidely, watching with interest as Ryuzaki seemed to tip the sugar pourer upside down, letting a stream of white crystals flow smoothly into his cup.

 

Light's nose curled in disgust as the spoon Ryuzaki was using to stir coffee got stuck. “Would you like some coffee with that sugar?” He used the cliché line, not caring how dorky it sounded.

 

Ryuzaki looked up, smiling at the other boy and letting the spoon go as it just stood there. “I don't stop until the spoon stands straight up.”

 

Honestly, that was the most disgusting thing he'd ever heard (even in comparison to the `primate poop espresso'). This kid was going to die of a heart attack by the age of 20.

 

The brunette tried not to let the disgust he felt show on his face, and instead simply jumped into the task at hand. No sense delaying the inevitable after all. “So, Ryuzaki, how much of the assigned reading have you done so far?”

 

He was met with complete silence as the strange teenager continued to eat away at his sweets, not once seeing the pissed off death glare that passed over the other's face. “Oh for God's sake I am not calling you L! Your name is Ryuzaki, and I absolutely refuse to feed into this ridiculous paranoia!” Again, he failed to receive anything even resembling a response.

 

Now, Light had always considered himself to be the epitome of calm cool and collected, but this freak just pissed him off! Slamming his fists down on the table, Light effectively alerted everyone in the entire bakery of his ire. “Would you at least listen! Stop acting like a two year old!”

 

Ryuzaki did look up at that. “Well that's just illogical, because if I were acting like a two year old I wouldn't be near as good at speaking as I am now…they're not very articulate you know. Plus their vocabulary is often mundane at best.”

 

Light's eye twitched over and over as he fought everything in him not to jump over the table and strangle him. He wanted to hurt him right now…badly. The worst part of all was that Ryuzaki continued to look at him as if he hadn't even done a thing wrong.

 

“Pissed off another one, eh L?” His murderous plot, which so far involved stuffing every single one of the sweets painfully down the other's throat was interrupted by a voice behind him, and when Light turned around to investigate the interruption he was met by the strangest boy he thought he'd ever seen…not counting Ryuzaki himself of course.

 

The teenager had a thin lanky body, which he chose to clothe in the tightest black pants he had ever encountered and a tight black tank top that rested just above his bellybutton where a piercing could clearly be seen. His hair was a honey blond and cropped just past his chin, the bangs he had almost completely hid that smirking face as he reached over, grabbing a chocolate cupcake from Ryuzaki's enormous tray of sweets.

 

As Light continued to stare, Ryuzaki for the most part ignored the other's presence entirely, going back to eating as he thumbed through that same torn up novel the brunette had seen him with earlier.

 

“What, have you only been with L for an hour?” the stranger asked mockingly, taking a seat next to the hunched boy and wrapping an arm around his shoulders. “Though I suppose you shouldn't feel bad…The lacrosse player hired to tutor L the time before this only lasted five minutes.”

 

The blond motioned to Light to sit down, and, reluctantly, he accepted the offer, staring at the two strange teenagers in masked distaste. “What was it about that sent him running again?” the blond asked. “…Something about his posture making him gay?”

 

Ryuzaki nodded, seeming to remember this incident very well. “Yes, he sat very straight and didn't fidget when he talked…leading me to believe that he was nervously hiding something, and by the amount of coloring on his cheeks it determined that he had obviously been embarrassed about something many times before, and the stress from it all was putting a strain on his body…and if you take into consideration his lifestyle and all the undo stress he was put under to be the very epitome of what a man should be, I could only determine right off that the very thing he was hiding was his sexual attraction towards those other men he seemed to so much like playing lacrosse with.”

 

Light stared…and stared…and stared…too shocked to be able to even respond to such a ludicrous statement. “That makes no sense!” he tried. “There's no way you can tell someone's sexual preference just by the way they sit!”

 

The blond stared at him, raising an eyebrow in question as he looked him over. “I don't know, L, your new tutor seems to sit awfully similar to the lacrosse guy...if I didn't know any better I'd say that Yagami Light,” he said in a mocking tone, “is the very same way.”

 

Forget killing Ryuzaki, or postpone it at least…he wanted to kill this other freak much much more. “Did you just call me ga…” He never got to finish what would have been the beginnings of a very long tirade, because Ryuzaki interrupted his with one of his own.

 

“Light-kun is not gay…” Giving a sigh of relief, Light was almost ready to thank the raven haired teenager for sticking up for him “He's only bisexual.” …The key word there of course was almost. “Plus this guy here kept sending him seductive glances which distracted him from teach me anything. When I called him on it is when he decided to quit.”

 

Gripping the tablecloth, Light took in a deep breath, determined to handle this calm and rationally, though inside he was anything but. “What do you mean I'm bisexual?” he asked in a dead panned voice, and he swore to God if he didn't get an explanation he liked there'd be something else dead as well.

 

Stirring his coffee, which Light wished very badly actually was actually made of monkey poop now; Ryuzaki took a sip, staring thoughtfully at his tutor before biting the edge of his thumb in thought. “Well as everyone knows, Yagami Light is one of the most popular students in school. That combined with your looks and intelligence probably gives you an overly inflamed ego. That ego more than likely makes you think you're too good for everyone around, and so you juggle girl after girl, not really minding them, but at the same time not getting overly attached to any of them.” Ryuzaki gave a half smirk. “After all, since you're such a catch why would you feel harbored to just one person…there's no one too good for you in your mind and you know that everyone else thinks the exact same thing…so it would only be logical, just to test your limits, for you to want to conquer the unknown territories of other men as well.”

 

Light sat there in stunned silence, not believing at all that he had been picked apart so easily. Why the hell was this guy in that class…he seemed so…well…so like him. “Oh and the base of your spine curves a little too much when you sit.” Well at least of course he thought that before he once again opened his mouth.

 

`Thou shall not kill…Thou shall not kill' He kept repeating the mantra over and over in his mind.

 

“Ahh don't worry Light…no matter if you like pussy or dick, God loves you all the same,” the blond chided rudely, eyes growing darker as he grabbed at a chocolate éclair on Ryuzaki's table of sweets. “I'd get used to the fact if I were you, because L is always infuriatingly right,” he hissed, getting a sadistic smirk on his face as he bit into the treat. “He certainly was about the Lacrosse player. It wasn't a day later that I had him tied up in my basement begging for me to ride him harder.” That smirk turned into a full blow grin as Light resisted the urge not to puke.

 

Turning hatred filled eyes up to the blond who had started all of this, Light asked the one question he had been dying to know since the beginning. “Just who exactly are you anyways?”

 

The blond glared for a moment before raising his arms above his head in a rather smug stretch, leaning in even closer to Ryuzaki who didn't seem to take notice and instead handed the other teenager another chocolate sweet. “I'm Mello…me and L go way back.”

 

“…Mello?” Light echoed. “Please don't tell me you also believe the government is out to get you.”

 

Mello grinned. “Just try to find a photo of me anywhere in existence.”

 

Light mentally groaned. The last thing he wanted was a second loony on his hands. “So what's you're real name?”

 

Instantly, the smile one the blonde's face was replaced by a defensive scowl. “Why would you care?”

 

“I'm not out to get you, if that's what you're asking,” the brunette pacified, finding it hard to believe someone would truly take such a conspiracy so closely to heart.

 

“Yeah, right,” Mello muttered, turning his attention to the chocolate pastry in his hand and effectively ending all form of conversation between himself and L's new tutor.

 

Light scoffed, before remembering something Ryuzaki had said the day they met. “I thought you didn't have any friends?” That statement had made him feel a little sorry for him back then, but now it just pissed him off.

 

“I don't,” Ryuzaki replied easily, finally having enough sense to shrug the arm around his shoulder off. “Mello's my protégé.”

 

That. Was. It! He couldn't take anymore of this shit! He swore he was going to lose it soon. Reaching out, he grabbed Ryuzaki's bony wrist, pulling him up out of the chair and forcefully dragging him towards the door.

 

“Light-kun, where are you taking me?”

 

Not even caring about appearances at this point, Light snapped testily back with, “To the goddamn bookstore! Maybe some culture will get the crazy out of you…and if not, well, I can just pick up a really big book and beat it out of you instead!”

 

With that said he slammed some money down on the counter for all the sweets and left the shop, determined to once more somehow get the upper hand in this odd tutoring session that had started.

 

Doodle-eh-doo! Doodle-eh-doo! Doodle-eh-doo!

 

Stepping into the bookstore, Light reached into his back pocket and pulled out the required reading list he had obtained from Ryuzaki's class. “Okay, first on the list is the English Edition of Great Expectations. Hmm, we may have to special order it if they don't…Ryuzaki-san?” Light looked up to see that he was alone and Ryuzaki was with a Sales Attendant.

 

“Excuse me, where might I find the Sherlock Holmes section?”

 

Light could have face vaulted. Really now, a `Sherlock Holmes section'? How lame was…

 

The brunette watched in astonishment as the sales attendant actually began leading Ryuzaki off to some random area in the store. This place didn't seriously have a section dedicated to one fictitious detective, did it? Light moved to follow them.

 

No. No, he couldn't allow himself to get pulled into Ryuzaki's moronic schemes. He came here to get the damn books from the reading list, and that was exactly what he intended to do.

 

Marching over to the foreign section, Light began to scan the walls for Charles Dickens. Luckily, the reading list was relatively short, so hopefully they would be able to get through most of the books before the year was up. He would also have a talk with Ryuzaki's teacher to see if they could come up with a compromise for the summer reading list when it was released, since the `special' (in every sense of the word, Light mentally snorted) student was getting such a late start on the subject.

 

Vaguely, Light began to wonder why Ryuzaki was so far behind in English Lit. in the first place. His reading comprehension skills seemed fine after having unwillingly listened to Monday's demonstration, and his overall understanding of the world didn't seem to be too off, if one were to ignore the whole conspiracy theory paranoia.

 

“Light-kun! Light-kun!”

 

The tutor glanced over his shoulder, only to nearly jump back in shock as he saw a pair of large black eyes staring intently at him from only inches away.

 

“…Did you need something, Ryu-er…L-san?”

 

“I want this book!”

 

Light blinked as an extremely large, hardcover tome was held up, effectively blocking the lower half of the other's face.

 

“The Complete Collection of Sherlock Holmes?” Light read out loud, snorting. “What? You don't already own the complete collection?”

 

“I do, but this one has all the stories in one book!”

 

Light failed to look even remotely impressed.

 

“And it is leather bound! With gold-leafed pages,” Ryuzaki happily continued, momentarily going cross-eyed as he looked down at the book that was hovering before his nose. “Light-kun, this contains every adventure Sherlock Holmes ever went on, right up to his disappearance when fighting his arch nemesis…!”

 

Light stopped listening by this point, trying to tune out as much of Ryuzaki's drivel as possible. His concentration on zoning him out, however, waned when he saw the boy practically light up with excitement as he held the book to his chest as if he had found the Holy Grail.

 

“Never again will I have to feel the aching pain of coming back to reality when one book is finished and I must go hunting for the next - no matter how brief that moment may be. No longer will I have to slowly read each page over, upside-down, and backwards to make the book last until school gets out. With this edition, the book will surely last me the whole day! Light-kun, I must have this collection!”

 

Ooo, impressive speech.

 

The sadistic side of Light gave the other boy a large friendly grin. “No.”

 

Ryuzaki paused as his mind seemed to do a double take at the fact that he was being denied of the one thing he currently wanted most in the world. “…No?” he echoed.

 

“No,” Light confirmed, his attention going back to the bookshelf.

 

“But, Light-kuuun!” Ryuzaki whined as he danced around so that he was between his tutor and the bookshelf. “I need this book! Almost as much as I need strawberry cake!”

 

Light scowled. “You don't need strawberry cake, Ryuzaki. You crave it. There is a difference.”

 

“Then I crave this collection,” Ryuzaki shot back, returning the look tenfold at the fact that his real name had not only been used, but responded to as well.

 

“You don't crave it, you merely want it.”

 

“Very, very badly,” the avid fan confirmed.

 

“No.”

 

Ryuzaki's shoulders slumped and he appeared to think for a moment. “What if I said please?”

 

“Then I would say, `Sorry, but no.' You need to concentrate on your studies,” Light replied as he finally found the book he was searching for and reached up to grab it, causing his slim-fitting shirt to ride up a bit and unintentionally give his pupil a nice view of the lining of his boxers, as well as a bit of skin.

 

Ryuzaki licked his lips as his attention was momentarily diverted. “If you buy this for me, I'll give you a strawberry,” he tried hopefully, his eyes flying back up to Light's face as the English book was successfully retrieved.

 

“L-san, I hardly think one strawberry will cover not only the cost of the book, but the plummet your grade will continue to take if you do not take this seriously.”

 

“My grade can't plummet any further if it's already a zero,” Ryuzaki grumbled. “Fine, Two strawberries, then.”

 

Light frowned. “I'm sorry, L-san, but as your tutor, I am putting my foot down.”

 

“Then I don't want you to be my tutor anymore,” the student concluded logically.

 

“Nice try, but you signed a contract. Our sessions cannot be ended without the consent of both parties, and I have no inclination to do such a thing.”

 

“…If you incline to consent, I'll give you three strawberries.”

 

Light smirked wickedly as he flipped through his book's pages. “Not in a million years.”

 

“What about a whole bushel?”

 

“A whole bushel?” Light exclaimed, snapping the book shut and finally turning his undivided attention to Ryuzaki. “You know, I think that may just be enough to change my mind!”

 

“Really?”

 

“No.”

 

Ryuzaki's face fell into something between a pout and a glare.

 

“Now, we came here to get a few books off the required list, and not indulge you in your childish want for a fictional detective who made a living off of impressing people with his ridiculous assumptions.”

 

“They weren't assumptions! They were logical elementary deductions based on careful observations of his surroundings. Sherlock Holmes is the greatest genius detective there ever was,” Ryuzaki argued.

 

“He was a coke head who believed himself to be above everyone else, just because he was a little smart,” Light replied boredly, not realizing how hypocritical of a statement that was.

 

Ryuzaki's eyes narrowed dangerously. “Have you ever even read any of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes?”

 

“Nope.” Light turned to leave. “Nor do I intend to.”

 

The only warning the brunette received to his pupil's next action as he began to walk away was the widening of a fellow customer's eyes as she just happened to glance their way.

 

Pain.

 

Pain exploded in the back of his head. A pain that could only be caused by a hardcover, leather-bound, gold-leafed tome being hurled though the air by a very pissed off fan whose god had just been insulted in the worst of ways.

 

“Then you should read more and educate yourself,” Ryuzaki huffed as he stormed by, failing to realize how hypocritical his statement was as well.

 

And thus ended Day One of the grand adventure known as a tutoring session.

 

- - -

 

Reyn's Note: The funny thing about this chapter is that Stina actually went to the bookstore to see if the leather-bound Collection and Sherlock Holmes section truly existed. Let me say now, that not everything I type is total BS (grins).

 

Stina's Note: It's true! I did go to that section in Barnes and Noble and it was so funny because I had already read the beginning of Reyn's part so I copied what L said and walked up to a lady and asked where the section was and then I bought the hound of Baskerville and got really happy…which I'll be reading on my plane ride to come visit Reyn! (yay!) and we got to use my favorite line….which was of course `if you do this for me I'll give you a strawberry'