The death of her father should have caused her upset, it should have been a shock but to Elise she didn’t appear phased by it one bit. In fact, the first words she had thought was I told you so. It was seemingly cruel but again she had spent years living with him, watching her father deteriorate into worse behaviour and it sickened her. How someone could go from having a good life to throwing it all down the drain from his addiction to alcohol. To her it was not her father she had lived with, he had died years ago when he first started changing. The now upheaval of her life however was a different story, to say she wasn’t at least concerned or scared would be a lie. With little personal possessions she was now one of the few students who needed to be placed into some sort of care.

The school had arranged with various parents to take in the few orphaned students, at least until something more permanent could be arranged. It was a temporary measure whilst the town regained its feet from the destruction the tsunami had caused. Crime had been on the rise as the police force was stretched thin with the clean up of the town, some force members had been on duty and injured when the tsunami had hit. Chaos was ensuing and order needed to be restored but there was very little authority to be able to do that, it was becoming quite the issue as of late. Everyone was seemingly in some sort of panic and no one wanted to admit that nothing was going right, to them putting on fake smiles and covering things up was going to be far easier with keeping the peace than telling the truth.

Sighing softly to herself holding a bag of her personal things she stood outside the Yagami’s door, they had arranged her to stay with them for now until further notice and a part of her was anxious. She felt like she was intruding into someone else’s life, but it couldn’t be helped. Gripping the handles of he bag tighter she bit her lip as ice blue eyes stared at the door in front of her, she had yet to knock to disturb the family. Glancing back into the street towards the sky she could see the sun setting, it was coming up to teatime and she knew she couldn’t waste anymore time. Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the Yagamis door waiting for an answer. She could hear the shuffling behind it and faint voices, she could feel the butterflies in her stomach rising and she couldn’t help but shuffle her feet as for a split second the thought of running crossed her mind.

Stop that, you are overthinking things, it will be fine. Shaking her head as she brushed the thought of being nervous aside, she put a smile on her face as she waited at the door.

The Death Note was gone.

In the early morning, when Sachiko was out at the refugee center, when Sayu and Soichiro were fast asleep, Light Yagami had gone to retrieve the book from its now-unusable hiding chamber. As he'd stepped into the taped-off part of his home, what met him was smashed lumber, torn pieces of cotton, and with a couple more hours of searching he realized: the Death Note is gone.

Light cursed inwardly. Clearly he put too much trust in the daily forecast.

"Light?" His sister's voice interrupted his train of thought. When Light blinked down at her, her head was tilted in concern. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, I..." he answered sheepishly, quickly allowing his own expression to mirror Sayu's troubled one. I let my guard down. "I'm just worried about Dad. He's growing old, you know. I'm not sure if his injuries will heal in the most ideal way."

Sayu's brow furrowed. "Yeah, I'm- I'm really worried too. What if..." She drew in a breath. "What if he..."

"Don't worry, he'll survive. What's concerning is if he'll ever be able to work again."

Sayu nodded silently. She looked slightly relieved at the reassurance, but lines of worry still marked her young face.

Light offered her a consoling smile. "Cheer up, Sayu. We're almost home, and we got medicine."

The smile he just showed his sister, however, all but disappeared in a couple seconds. Who was that at their front doorstep? Light's eyes narrowed. A friend of Sayu's? No, that girl isn't from around here. I need to keep her from—

Too late. Light's sister had already approached the blonde stranger. "Hey, are you looking for somewhere to stay?" Sympathy tinged her voice.

Light pursed his lips, about to protest when Sayu spoke again.

"Come on, Light," She turned to look at her brother with a self-assured, yet pleading, expression. Could she read his mind? "We have an extra room. And Mom would totally agree with me."

"Why don't you actually ask her why she's here first?" He approached the stranger, carefully positioning himself between her and the door. Light's height would initially tower over the blonde girl's, but he made an effort to bend down to meet her eye-level, giving her a reassuring smile. "I'm Light, and that's my sister. We live here. Do you need something?"

“Well your sister Has it right.” Elise smiled as she bowed to the both of them out of respect, looking towards Light who appeared to be more guarded around her. She couldn’t blame him of course, not with the current state of the town. “The school mentioned that it would be okay to stay here for the time being. I don’t want to impose of course so if it’s a problem I’ll find somewhere else.”

“Oh nonsense, I said it would be fine with the school already.” The door had been opened and Sachiko their mother stood smiling welcoming them all home. “I’ve already set up the spare room for you dear, it will be nice to have another pair of hands to help around the house. I forgot to mention it to you both, with everything as of late it completely slipped my mind until the school phoned to remind me this morning.”

“Oh of course! I’d be happy to help.” There was no question about it, she would help out in any way possible especially as they were opening up their home to her.

“Right come in, come in. Light would you show Elise around. Sayu help me with dinner and your father. Did you bring the medicine?” Sachiko ushered them all inside, eyes glanced down the road more for any sort of criminals lurking around. Crime had significantly risen as of late and with her husband in a bad way her nerves had increased, she even hated the idea of Sayu going out to get the medicine but thankfully Light usually accompanied her.

Glancing around the home as she walked inside it was vastly different to her own, you could tell this was the typical family home and it was hard not to feel envious towards it. Her own home and been bare, empty liquor bottles had decorated the floor. The kitchen was always a mess no matter how hard she tried to keep it clean, her father had always messed it up whilst she was at school.

“You have a lovely home.” Without even thinking before she spoke, she couldn’t help but voice her opinion. She couldn’t help but look round fascinated by the difference to what she had lived in before. Comparing even the tiniest of details like how her own home had peeling wallpaper but everything here looked so clean and well kept. “Thank you again, for allowing me to stay for a while. I won’t cause any trouble.”

You better fucking not. Light glanced behind him a split second, where Ryuk would normally be hovering. Instead silence replaced the leathery flapping noise. Who knew there would be a time that he would miss such a sound?

And I'll hear it again, because I'll find the Death Note. The world is waiting. He filed behind Elise, stepping just behind her and Sayu.

Though he was Kira, Light Yagami was still Light Yagami. He couldn't ignore his smile when he saw his mother and sister happy for once. The bags underneath his mother's eyes attested to her stress and lack of sleep following her husband's injury, and he knew the isolation had taken its toll on his sister. As much as the Yagami family would take care of Elise, Elise's existence seemed to take care of them too.

He met his mother's expectant gaze. "Sure, mom," he replied with a nod of acknowledgement. Then Light turned to Elise. "This way. Some places aren't stable to walk on, so I'll just show you the important points of the house and how to get there safely."