Names and numbers

Oh yeah~ T'is getting rather epic now, in my oppinion...

 

For as long as he could remember, Beyond had always seen names and numbers above a person’s head. The names never changed, but the numbers were continuously in flux. The only exception to this rule was B himself and the occasional picture he saw in newspapers.

 

No matter how long B stood in front of the mirror staring pointedly at his reflection, like a holy monk trying to unravel Confucius’ most complex wisdom, and no matter how many pictures he took of himself, B couldn’t make the numbers appear. It frustrated him immensely, and as he had no logical theories or anyone to help him with it, B pushed it firmly to the back of his mind.

He had little idea what the numbers were for, anyway.

 

The younger children in the orphanage always seemed to have a much larger numeral, with the changes in them always very minor. B never looked deliberately at the numbers of course, but his schooling at the orphanage had taught him to absorb a lot of information quickly and to retain it.

 

So naturally, when B saw a rather dramatic change in one of the children that particular Saturday morning, he was intrigued. The young girl, officially named Fleur Windale and codenamed Bella, had lost seven digits seemingly overnight.

B followed her for quite a large portion of the grey, damp morning, until A eventually caught up with him.

 

“Hey, I thought you were going to meet me in the dining room?” He grumbled with an annoyed pout.

“Yeah... I was,”

“What are you doing? It’s not like you to forget...”

“I’m sorry, A... Hey, can we catch up later? I’m in the middle of something...” B said distractedly, eyes swivelling to follow Bella’s sudden departure. The blonde turned to follow his line of sight, smirking once he realised what was distracting B so much.

“You never told me you fancied Bella!” A whispered through a grin, punching B on the shoulder.

“Shut up, you idiot. I’m a little young to be fancying anyone, don’t you think?” He hissed, moving to get up so he could follow Bella from the building, where a car was waiting on the wet driveway.

 

B couldn’t help but feel rather miffed as he realised he wouldn’t be able to follow her anymore. Bella’s number was fast approaching single digits, and he longed to see what would happen once the number ticked over to zero.

 

“I heard Bella got invited to the art gallery to paint a mural,” A said above the thundering sky; Beyond had hardly noticed him there. “Maybe that’s where she’s headed... I wouldn’t fancy going out in this weather, though,” he mused, but turned as B gasped and almost fell over.

 

An absolutely terrifying idea occurred to thin, raven haired boy, slicking together like two very obvious jigsaw pieces he’d previously overlooked, making his stomach churn and head spin. What if, with some twisted coincidence, the numbers above peoples head indicated how long they had to live?

If that was indeed the case, then when the numbers ticked to zero...

 

“Wait! Wait, don’t go yet!” B yelled quite suddenly, sprinting to the waiting car on the soggy driveway. Bella turned at his voice, her eyebrows pulled together curiously.

“Hello, B...” she said warily. He seldom talked to anyone but A and the tutors.

“You can’t go! You have to stay here,” B said breathlessly. Bella’s eyebrows raised suspiciously, letting out an impatient sigh. The sky cracked ominously, sheeting them in freezing cold rain that bounced off the pavement.

“Why not?”

“I don’t know. But you can’t leave right now, okay?” he said lamely, panic lacing his voice as Bella stepped into the car and out of the rain. “You can’t leave just yet.”

“I’m sorry, B. I’ve been invited to the art gallery, and I’m kind of running late,” she said, shutting the door sharply. “I’ll speak to you when I get back, okay?”

“But-”

“Goodbye, B.”

With his hair and clothes sopping wet, the pale and shaking Beyond stared after the shiny black car. He didn’t acknowledge A next to him. He didn’t acknowledge anything. He simply waited for the sound he knew was inevitably coming.

“What in the world was that about, B?” A yelled over the sheeting rain and storming clouds.

 

Terrifying sounds of screeching tires and metal crumpling against metal filled the air. The noise hung in the air like bell chimes, but once gone its absence was even heavier.

B could feel himself starting to run, the back of his throat stinging with the sobs he held back.

 

If he proved his theory correct then...

Well ‘freak’ didn’t even begin to cover it.

 

The scene that met him around the corner finally ripped the waiting cries from B’s throat. A black car, which only moments earlier had been sitting in the orphanage driveway, was now wrapped around an electricity pole like a crushed soda can.

B ran as fast as he could to the steaming heap of metal, sizzling every now and again from the thick rain drops above it.

 

“Bella? Bella?!” he called, trying to find a way into the wreckage.

There was a door hanging off its hinges, popped open on the impact. B wrenched it towards himself, scrambling into the back of the vehicle and towards the blood soaked girl it was holding.

 

“Bella?” he trembled, eyes fixed on the rapidly decreasing numbers. “Can... Can you hear me? Bella!” B kept up his pleads with the broken girl, and as the crimson number got lower, B’s hysterics grew higher.

 

With wide, scared eyes, Beyond Birthday watched as Fleur Windale’s life faded with her name and numbers.

 

Numbers which now held an entirely new meaning.

 

***

 

Beyond didn’t go to the funeral. He didn’t sleep. He didn’t go outside. He barely even left his room. Every time someone knocked on his locked door, he told them firmly to leave him alone. Even A had sat outside his door for hours, and he’d still refused his best and only friend entrance into the small room.

 

B didn’t want to see another human being ever again, and was quite content in staying in his room by himself forever.

He was a freak. He was beyondfreakish. B was an abomination, a repugnance that could see when a person was going to die.

 

And yet, he was never going to know when he would die. Perhaps that was a good thing; only god knew what he was capable of when death was fast approaching.

There was a light knock at his door that caused the dark, changed eyes to swivel towards it.

 

“Beyond?”

His head snapped up at the name. The very same name B saw with every accidental glance in the mirror. It wasn’t supposed to be used in here... It was an unspoken rule he lived with every day.

“Go away,” B said in the same mantra he’d given to every person who’d knocked of late.

“Would you open the door, please?” the vaguely familiar voice asked patiently.

“Why?”

“I wish to speak with you,” the voice said pointedly, firmly, yet still with measured patience.

 

B slowly untangled himself from his sitting position, padding across the heavily shadowed room where he unlocked three deadbolts and a thumb turn lock. He would tell whoever it was what he thought of them speaking withhim, where they could forcefully put their conversation, and where to take a flying jump. What waited for him on the other side, however, made B’s listless and dead eyes grow wide with surprise and all his smart remarks disintegrate into thin air.

 

“L?” he choked, wondering what on earth the remarkable detective would want with him. B’s eyes automatically swivelled upwards to check the name, wincing once the gaze brushed over the numbers and then flicking down to the teenagers face.

B felt unnerved by the intense scrutiny L was giving him, almost like those piercing black eyes could see right through him, scooping up his secrets as they went.

“Hello, B. Can I come in?” he asked pleasantly, with a subtle authority that suggested B shouldn’t deny him that simple wish.

“Uh, if you like...” he mumbled, stepping aside as the lanky detective slouched into his dim bedroom. L was holding a plate of strawberry toast, which he placed carefully on B’s cluttered desk.

 

“Watari mentioned you might be hungry,” L said, gesturing to a chair he wanted B to sit in, before climbing nimbly into one of his own and settling on his haunches.

“Watari sent you here to give me toast,” B stated, sitting as was requested as he stared as L’s bizarre behaviour.

“No. I came here on my own incentive. I merely thought you would enjoy the toast,”

“Oh... Thank you,”

“You’re welcome,” L said evenly, unwrapping a chocolate bar Beyond hadn’t previously noticed. “You no doubt realise why I’m here,”

“You want to know why I’ve become a hermit since Fl- Bella died,” B stumbled with the name that had haunted him for the past weeks, and absently hoped L wouldn’t notice.

“Yes. A is rather concerned, as are Watari and Roger,” the young detective said around a mouthful of chocolate, held with only a forefinger and thumb.

“They shouldn’t be. I’m fine,”

“I don’t believe for one second you are fine, Beyond. Have you looked in a mirror recently?” L asked darkly.

 

“No!” The alarming response was almost screeched, eyes darting up to the crimson numbers and then immediately away before he regained his composure. Most of his energy was spent avoiding mirrors when he went anywhere that could possibly offer a reflection. “Why do you call me Beyond?”

“Because that’s your name,” L said simply, once again scrutinising the hysterical boy in front of him.

“I know, but everyone gets called by codenames here,”

“Would you prefer I call you ‘B’?”

“No, actually...”

 

There was silence for a while, broken by only the occasional snapping noise of L’s chocolate. B watched him devour almost half of the sweet with an unfocused, far away glaze in his eyes. He jumped when L suddenly spoke again.

 

“Is there anything you would like to discuss?” L asked, effectively pulling an uncomfortable reaction from the youth.

“No,”

“Have you done something?”

“...No” B whispered, staring determinedly at his knees.

“If that is true, why are you-?“

“I know things! I’m not supposed to know them... No one is supposed to know them,” B said in a rush, effectively cutting off the teenager in front of him.

“And what is it you know, Beyond?” L asked calmly, but B could tell he was interested. It took him a while to speak again, so long in fact L had gone back to munching on the precariously held chocolate.

 

What would L do? Would he think Beyond had stolen the information, and now had a guilty conscience? In effect, stealing meant taking something without the owner’s permission, and B wasn’t technically meant to know everyone’s names... But he hadn’t done it maliciously, so perhaps it wasn’t so bad?

 

“L Lawliet,” he whispered, noticing with a wince that said person froze.

“Pardon?”

“Your name is ‘L Lawliet’...” B said a little louder, peering up from under his messy fringe to see wide eyes staring at him incredulously.

“How do you..?”

“I know the orphanage is named after Watari, and that Roger doesn’t have a codename, and that A’s name is ‘After Always’, and Bella was actually called Fleur...” B’s mouth closed with and audible snap of his teeth when the image of ‘Fleur Windale’s name and lifeline began running like a movie clip in his photogenic mind.

 

Naturally, L didn’t miss the hesitation to tell the real issue, but instead of pursuing it B saw the uncharacteristically stunned detective unfolded himself from his chintz armchair.

“Beyond, you have done nothing wrong. My name is not on record, and neither is Rogers. However you found out about them is irrelevant for the time being,” L lied. He thought it extremely relevant, and B completely missed the fib.

 

“A is extremely concerned about your wellbeing. I want you to come downstairs and have a proper meal, clean yourself up and stop hiding,” he said firmly, crossing the room and opening the bedroom door. “You are very intelligent, Beyond. Please don’t disappoint Watari, Roger and myself by throwing it away so rashly,” L finished with a small smile, slouching from the room and out of B’s line of vision.

 

It was in that moment the raven-haired boy collected the pieces of himself, placing them back together as he saw fit.

 

Beyond Birthday would never disappoint L again. He would prove just how intelligent he actually was, and maybe even gain his respect. That thought cheered him up immensely, and so he ravenously picked up the cold toast L himself had made for him. As the last puzzle piece was inserted, the paled, raven-haired child decided that strawberry jam was probably the most delicious thing he’d ever had.

 

But little did B realise he’d glued said pieces into the wrong place, always there but never the same...

 

 

-tbc-

By J.M Selleck

 

Author's Note

Only two parts this time, but I saw no need to extend it as it's probably longer than the last one.

Mann~ I love working with L.
Before I ask you to critique how in character I am, please understand that L probably trotted off to have some lengthy conversation with Watari and drink about fifty zillion cups of sugar mush (also known as coffee) as he contemplated how the shiz B knows what he does...

So, without further ado, PLEAAASE review. I need to know if i'm doing it right, and what I need to improve on.

Next chapter;
Umm, I suppose this time we'll try to explore A's bad reaction to failure, because i quite honestly had no room to put it in this one and it is a rather important part of the story... And A and B get given a life changing piece of news which will effect B's life FOREVERRRRR (dun dun duuuun~!)

Beyond Birthday and 'A' (c) NISIOISIN
Death Note (c) Ohba and Obata

Reviews

[Aisu]

I really enjoy this fanfic so far. It's nice to see someone tackle the moment where B discovered the meaning of those numbers - it's not something that I see handled often in fanfic, sadly. You seem fully IC so far, and I can't wait to see you progress.

(By the way, idle curiosity: seeing as I found this fic through it, how did you find/choose the name After Always for A?)