A Year of Jubilee [The Death Note Fanfic]

Chapter 64

The big day had finally arrived.

Technically, it had only just started. The clock in the main room of headquarters told Jubilee it was a quarter past midnight. Before her stood Wedy, proffering a slim black notebook to L.

"You're wearing gloves," Jubilee noted. She was surprised that her voice didn't shake. Though apparently, stating things to people that they obviously already knew was the byproduct of her anxiety instead.

"Ryuzaki and I agreed I should in order to retrieve the notebook," explained Wedy. "Any chance of me giving away that I can see the shinigami would not be in our favor, and to be honest, I'm not exactly keen on seeing one in the flesh anyway."

"Can't blame you for that," muttered Jubilee.

Technically they don't have any flesh, Hellenos offered helpfully from where he stood in the corner. Not that any of us do.

Can you not be a smart aleck at a time like this? she thought, just as L said, "I'm fairly sure that they don't have flesh, technically."

Hellenos pointed at the detective from across the room. Didn't I always say I liked this boy? Jubilee rolled her eyes.

"But," L continued, his hands jammed into his pockets as he eyed the notebook warily, "I understand where you are coming from. Since I've already encountered one myself, though, I suppose another one can't hurt." The air around him seemed to tremble nervously before calming itself, and finally L reached out to slowly take the Death Note from Wedy's grasp. Flipping open the book with bare fingers, he began to inspect its pages. "On second thought, perhaps I should retract that statement—seeing as how the last time I saw one, I died," he quipped mildly.

Both women stared at him in bewildered silence.

Oh dear, began Hellenos slowly. That was rather dark, wasn't it?

Jubilee finally found her voice. "I hope you're not planning to repeat that," she said severely.

The air around him bubbled and she distinctly saw the side of his mouth twitch. She stared, aghast. He actually found that funny. The genius had lost it.

"Not yet, anyway," he replied mildly. Wedy was looking between the two of them, one eyebrow subtly quirked. L laid the notebook down on the desk behind him and addressed the other woman. "Wedy, you may go now. We'll see you and Aiber tomorrow at the meetup point. Have you already touched base with Mello to confirm everything?"

"Yes, sir." The blonde nodded and turned to leave. "Until tomorrow then."

Jubilee waited until she was gone before sinking into a chair and burying her face in her hands. "I think I might have a heart attack," she groaned between her fingers. "From stress."

"That won't do," said L. "You'd be giving Kira exactly what he wants, and I'll be rather cross about all our planning going to waste."

She dropped her hands to give him a look. "How can you be talk so flippantly about all this?"

"It'd be too depressing otherwise."

She measured him for a moment. "Well...I won't die if you won't."

He sobered at that, the usual colors around him dulling. "That sounds like a good deal, J," he said softly. Turning away, he picked up the notebook again. "But you know I can't promise you that...and I don't think I ever will be able to."

Jubilee swallowed, her heart pounding with both dread and something else at the meaning behind his words. "I know," she said quietly.

There was a long moment of silence, punctuated only by the sound of L flipping pages. Shaking her head to clear it, Jubilee finally stood to go and join him. Peering down at the innocuous-looking notebook, she reached out to touch one of its pages. Strangely, she felt nothing; no nausea, no ominous premonition. But it had been that way with Higuchi's notebook too, so that told her nothing. The memory of her writing in the Death Note brought with it the the event which had preceded it—L falling from his chair and to his death. Her fingers tensed over the page at the memory.