One Year Later

During the previous year, what Akira had planned did occur. After about 3 more months of using the Death Note, he just stopped using it, and he hasn't used it since. Light still doesn't remember what happened to him, but he's regained some of the maturity he used to have. (Granted he had some problems with immaturity before and still does, but who doesn't?) Akira, also, has become more mature as time has passed.

The Kira case has gone on hiatus now that Kira hasn't been killing anyone.

During the last few months, Akira's family has been preparing for Naomi's upcoming wedding. (Naomi and Raye had originally planned on marrying sooner, but because of various reasons they postponed it.)

Misa and Takeshi's relationship is still going strong, but as for Akira and Light… well their relationship is still at that strange level where they are more than friends, but less than lovers. They are certainly closer to each other, but it's like they're best friends who like each other but can't just outright say they want to date each other.

L is no longer in Japan as the Kira case has gone completely cold. He's working on other cases now. If new developments occur in the Kira case, he intends to work on it then.

Naomi and Raye's wedding is to occur today.

Everything is prepared. The wedding is to take place at the top of a hill in the countryside. The color scheme is white and black like a traditional western wedding.

Naomi has a long, flowing white gown with a veil while Raye is wearing a sleek black suit.

Takeshi, Misa's boyfriend, is attending the wedding with Misa as his guest. Takeshi is wearing a simple black suit with a white tie while Misa wears a sparkly black cocktail dress with white jewelry.

Akira is attending the wedding with Light as his guest. Akira is wearing a pure white suit; all of his clothes, including his shoes, are white. In contrast, Light is wearing a sensible black suit; all of his clothes, including his shoes, are black.

Naturally, all of Akira's family is at the wedding. Unfortunately, everyone in Akira's family was invited and allowed to bring a guest. This includes Akira's cousin, Vera, who brought her boyfriend, Akira's ex-boyfriend, along with her.

The wedding, itself, goes smoothly. Afterwards, once the cake is cut, the people begin socializing and dancing.

Deciding it to be best to get it out of the way, Akira walks over to his ex-boyfriend (when Vera isn't around), leaving Light, who is in a heated conversation about some topic related to criminal law with Akira's sister, Karman.

"Hey, Jason. It's been a while, hasn't it?" Akira says, awkwardly.

"Uh, yeah. It has." Jason replies. "How've ya been?"

"Good. Good… You?"

"Also good…"

"So I see that you're still dating Vera. How's that going?"

"Fine. You seeing anyone?"

"Ah, no. It's fine though."

"Cool cool…"

"Look, Jason. The reason I came over here was to apologize."

"For what?"

"When I broke up with you, it wasn't out of some, like, kindness or anything like that. I knew you liked Vera and knew that if I broke up with you that you'd try to get with her. I was hoping that she'd reject you coldly or that if she didn't reject you that the relationship wouldn't work out. Obviously neither of those two things happened, but I do feel bad about the intent. So I'm sorry."

"Honestly, it's good that you ended things when you did. Regardless of your intentions, the relationship wasn't going to work out. We didn't really have much in common and I became interested in her while losing interest in you. I was just too chicken to end things. You know? And I could tell that you were starting to get resentful. I didn't really want to lie to you either; not just about liking Vera, but everything else, too. It's just that I couldn't bring myself to tell you the truth, knowing that it'd end things and possibly with a bad end. In the end, it turns out that my dishonesty was the problem and made it so our relationship ended poorly. For that, I apologize."

"It would seem that we both were pretty stupid." Akira laughs.

"It would seem so." Jason chuckles. "Oh, hey, if you want to talk some time, here's my email." He takes out a business card and hands it to Akira.

"Cool. Thanks." Akira says as he pockets the card. "Well, I think I should be heading back to my friend now."

"Sure thing. Who's your friend?"

"He's the guy talking to Karman right now."

"Ah. He's pretty good looking."

"He's intelligent as well."

"Nice. You sure you aren't…?"

"No, no. He and I are just friends."

"Well, alright then."

"I'll be going now."

"Right. Right. Bye."

Akira walks back to the table that Light and Karman are sitting at and takes a seat. Light notices his return. "So, who was that guy you were talking to?"

"Jason, my ex."

"Everything go okay?"

"Yeah. We just apologized to each other for being stupid when we were younger."

"Okay."

"So what have you two been discussing?"

Karman pipes in, "Well, he seems to think the death penalty is necessary to maintain order in a society, while I, personally, think that's a load of garbage. There's so much corruption in the criminal justice system that innocent people are put to death. Even if it's a small number of people, that doesn't sit well with me."

"Well, I guess I'm definitely not getting involved in this conversation then." Akira laughs. A few seconds later, he finds that someone has just splashed dark red wine on his suit. "What?!" He turns sharply and sees his cousin, Vera, looking extremely pissed.

"Vera! What was that for?"

"Why were you talking to MY boyfriend? You have no business talking to him. You two aren't together anymore."

"Vera, I'm not looking to date him. We were just talking."

"Yeah, well, we all know what talking leads to."

Light mutters, "More talking."

Vera glares at him. "And who exactly are you? I've never seen you before."

"I'm Light, a friend of Akira's."

"Akira doesn't have friends. He only has fuck buddies cause he's a disgusting little faggot."

"What? I heard you were crazy, but to find out that you're a bigoted little bitch is surprising. After all, you do know that your boyfriend and he used to date don't you?"

"Oh, he was just confused."

"And how did you determine that? Did he say that?"

"Well, no. I just know."

Misa and Takeshi arrive at the table now. Takeshi sighs. "Vera, what are you doing?"

"Why do you assume I did something wrong? I've done nothing wrong!"

Takeshi points to the stain on Akira's suit. "And I suppose that just magically appeared."

"Yes, exactly."

"Oh cut the crap. We all know you aren't that kind of crazy. You're crazy, just not the type you pretend to be. Own up to your actions."

"Fine. He deserved it though. He was trying to steal my man."

Karman snorts. "Yeah, he totally wants him."

"See? Even Karman agrees!"

"No, you ignorant twat, I was being sarcastic. That ship sailed a long time ago. Akira doesn't want 'your man'. Do you flip out every single time someone talks to Jason?"

"No."

"Then you must be afraid that Jason will leave you for Akira. Now, I'm not saying that Jason won't leave you – in fact, I expect he probably will soon, or at least I hope so – but Akira's not interested in getting back with Jason and I doubt that Jason wants to get back with Akira. And you seriously need to stop with your homophobic bullshit before I cut you."

"It's disgusting and sinful."

"I thought you believed that everything was a figment of your imagination."

"You know damn well that isn't true."

"So you're a liar."

"Everyone lies sometimes."

"That's a pretty big lie though. And if you're going to go with the whole 'being gay is sinful' thing, isn't lying a sin in that sense?"

"I don't have to explain myself."

"Oh Vera, how about you just leave and keep out of everyone's business? Are you capable of that?"

"Hmph!" Vera stomps away.

Misa exclaims, "Well that was something."

Takeshi shakes his head. "That girl seriously needs help. Let's go, Misa."

Misa and Takeshi walk away.

Akira frowns. "Is this suit ruined?"

Karman scrunches up her face. "Since the suit is white it might be okay if you bleach it."

Akira nods.

"So that's Vera, huh?" Light glares in her direction.

Akira and Karman nod.

"Why is it that she's allowed to go around acting like that with no repercussions?" Light continues.

"Her parents think she's this precious angel and they're wealthy. If anyone messes with her, her parents will ensure the person gets into serious trouble." Karman frowns.

"Hm."

A little while later, everyone leaves.

Author's Note:

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