Death Note Oneshot #4
Anime: Death Note
Characters: Misa Amane (with L, Aizawa and Soichiro Yagami)
RATED: G
Warning: This story is intertwined with the incidents in "Humble" (Light/Misa) and "Preoccupied" (Naomi/Misa)
Summary: There are things we can keep even when they no longer resemble lives we hold dear.
XXX
Second pair
Two department stores already told Misa that they don’t have her size. It was absurd because she remembered putting on her first pair in that very same store and how it fit her so perfectly. She also used to work in one of those department stores and she saw the very same pair from the other store and she put it on and it fits. Admittedly it has been almost three years and perhaps they did run out of stock but those red stilettos are always in style. So she reserved an order and in one week, she finally got her second pair. It was just the right timing too because she was meeting Kira this week, a young man named Light Yagami, and she dreamt of being on a date with him while wearing her favorite red stilettos.
It was such a darn shame, though, that she couldn’t wash off the stains of blood in her old ones. A big darn shame. So she felt inclined to buy a new one.
--
Third pair
This time her new stilettos got lost somewhere inside the headquarters. She only had it for a month and she takes good care of her shoes. It’s very frustrating indeed. She blamed that perverse detective Ryuuzaki. She knew he had such a crush on Misa and he might’ve taken it for keepsake because that’s what gross people like him do. Whenever the said detective didn’t allow Misa to spend time alone with Light, she would accuse him of stealing her stilettos. He remained indifferent to her allegations but Misa knows he doesn’t appreciate being called a thief.
Freak. She hates that guy.
Fortunately, he surprised her when he came to her room one night with her boyfriend Light still handcuffed to him. Freak!
Ryuuzaki dropped a box wrapped in a yellow ribbon on top of the table. Misa glanced at him suspiciously and then she pulled out the ribbon and opened the box. There it was.
New red stilettos.
“Does this mean Ryuuzaki-san admits he did take Misa’s pair?”
He bit on his thumb and he looked behind him where Light was just standing patiently and was glancing at the door once in a while.
Ryuuzaki looked back at Misa blankly. “No. However, this does make Misa-san pleased now, doesn’t it?”
“Yes.” Misa narrowed her eyes, still annoyed that he’s talking to her. “Misa didn’t know that it’s in Ryuuzaki-san’s interest to make Misa pleased.”
“And why wouldn’t it be, Misa-san?” Ryuuzaki edged closer to the sofa where she sat and she winced, pulling away.
“How much does Misa-san love Light-kun?” he asked, one knee on the sofa and he was gazing at her with those large, insomniac eyes. Misa grimaced.
“Misa loves Light very much!”
“Then Light-kun has a favor to ask you.”
Misa looked at Light who just exhaled and crossed his arms. She beamed at Ryuuzaki as she answered. “Anything for Light!”
Maybe it’s because Ryuuzaki arranged the perfect way that Misa could show how much she would do anything to win Light’s affections. Perhaps it’s because Ryuuzaki saved her trouble with money and went on his way to buy new stilettos. Whatever it is, Misa was grateful to him and she took back all those horrible things she said to his face. She kissed his cheek and only giggled when Ryuuzaki announced that he could fall in love. Such a cutie.
As she put on the stilettos and Ryuuzaki stood there, watching, Misa wondered about the kind of boyfriend Ryuuzaki would be and the kind of girl who would like him. Crossing her legs, she smiled faintly at Light and secretly, she was smiling at Ryuuzaki as well.
--
Fourth pair
Misa, out of whim, asked Aizawa to brush her hair. The cop was very shocked to hear this kind of request from the girl and it took him a few minutes to pick up the brush from the corner.
Misa was in front of the mirror and she waited for Aizawa to run the brush through her silky blonde hair. She noticed that he did this very carefully like she was fragile glass and she found it endearing. He kept quiet as he combed her hair with gentle, long strokes. She remembered that Rem used to brush her hair. That idiot shinigami. Why did she have to get herself killed for Misa? As if one shinigami isn’t enough to die for her. How ridiculous.
“Why did Aizawa-san shave his hair?”
Aizawa paused before he answered. “I need to.”
“Eh? You don’t look the same funky Aizawa Misa knows.”
“Funky?” She could see the frown in his face reflected by the mirror. She giggled.
Misa turned around, grinned and took the brush from him. Her hand grazed his skin and she noticed him gave a faint shiver. Their eyes met. Aizawa watched her, still frowning. She asked him. “How’s Soichiro-san doing?”
“His daughter is definitely unable to recover from the stress and trauma of what happened to her.” Aizawa said sadly. Misa nodded and faced the mirror once more.
The door opened and she expected it to be Light but it was her future father-in-law instead. He asked Aizawa to have a few minutes with Misa alone.
Misa sat there for a while and Soichiro was looking down at the floor, holding a shoebox. Misa was about to ask what he brought when he took out the pair of red stilettos (to her amazement) and laid it on the floor. She was barefooted and it seems as if Soichiro was looking at her feet intently for no reason.
“Soichiro-san.” Misa stood up and tenderly wrapped her arms around the old man. She detected the strange way his shoulders seemed to collapse slightly and the curve in his spine that seemed oddly brittle for some reason. His hand held her nape and she felt how coarse his palm and fingers are but the contact was brief because he gently pushed her away and smiled at her.
“I’m fine, Misa-chan. Thank you.” Soichiro glanced down and saw that Misa was stepping on the stilettos.
“Soichiro-san?” Misa noticed his eyes suddenly watered.
“Sayu wouldn’t wear them. I remember she likes the color red. And shoes and bags and all those girly stuff. I used to dislike how she dresses.” He muttered, his lips trembling. “How foolish of me. She was just being young.”
Misa placed both her hands on his shoulders because for a moment she thought he was going to fall down. But he didn’t. He just stood there, gazing at the stilettos. Misa decided to stop stepping on them, feeling rather ashamed. Soichiro bent down and took them.
“Sayu can barely walk, let alone wear something so...” he fondled the stilettos gently as if it was her daughter’s head he was cradling. Misa couldn’t take her eyes off his hands caressing the stilettos.
“Do you want them, Misa-chan?”
She looked at his face and then through the kind eyes moist with tears and she said yes, she wanted them. She would wear them for Sayu.
“I’m glad.” Soichiro simply said.
When the old man left, Misa hurriedly put on the stilettos and then she walked to her closet and took the one she owned, the pair that the late Ryuuzaki bought for her. She placed it inside the plastic. And then she took a lollipop from her secret storage of sweets and placed it inside the plastic as well. She went outside and dumped the plastic inside the garbage can for the truck to pick up later.
--
When Misa broke the heel of one of the stilettos, she thought she’s going to have to buy a new one. Again. Because things that get lost, undesired or broken must be replaced.
But Light didn’t think so. He fixed it for her. Misa was overcome with the sweetest kind of grief as she watched Light kneeling in front of her and she received an apology she wasn’t certain she earned. Didn’t matter, maybe, because Light saw it fit in this scenario and she can’t complain about that. She gave him no response because he wanted nothing from her. Misa knew this too well even when he thought she didn’t understand. However, he didn’t have to know that there is a powerful, almost cosmic, connection between them.
One of these days, he’ll know it.
In the meantime, Misa will take care of this particular pair of red stilettos because sometimes, she began to see at last, there are things that remain irreplaceable; even if said things can no longer be restored in their old form.
When Light left for work the same day, she took out her first pair of stilettos (still dipped in blood from that night’s massacre). It was a birthday gift from her parents. Come to think of it, the blood was barely distinguishable because of the same color of the stilettos but nonetheless, Misa could never wear them anymore. But she can’t throw them away either.
She remembered. That year she dropped out of college and found work as a part-time saleslady but her parents still saw it fit to buy her something nice, something she wasn’t certain she earned. And just like when Ryuuzaki bought her a pair or whenever Rem would brush her hair, she felt grateful.
And it mattered.
It really did.
