"A demon glided past my face, and the hair on my body stood on end" 

"You dropped this" 

Your eyes flicked upwards from the paper you were writing on and narrowed slightly as you met the eyes of a very familiar classmate: Light Yagami. Your gaze focused on his own steady one, not moving as you left him to leave his hand extended towards you, the pencil in between his right index finger and thumb. Your lips had pressed into a thin line as you starred into his own eyes. His expression wore that of a kindly, friendly, face. However, there was that somewhat sinister glint in his eyes that warned you otherwise. But you didn't think too much on it; everybody had ulterior motives. You were no different.

". . . my pencil?" You hummed. You were pretty positive you didn't remember hearing your pencil drop. In fact, you were fairly confident that that pencil wasn't the type of pencil you wrote with. In fact, you normally preferred mechanical pencils - not a wooden one. However, you let that thought drop from your head pretty quickly. You must be over-analyzing things, you thought to yourself. There was a good possibility that you had simply just picked it up off the ground when you were desperate for a pencil (like you normally were) and rushed into class. There was no reason to look too far into this incident.

"Yes, you seem to drop things a lot" He responded smoothly, voice almost like silk and eyes like thin slits that surveyed every aspect of you.

"Ah." You took the pencil, not bothering to say thank you.

There was a beat.

"No thank you?" He jested.

"No, thank you" You retorted dryly, your eyes focused on his own narrowly.

"You're clever, aren't you?" 

"What's your game?" You asked outright, biting your bottom lip as you sat down in your desk, looking upwards at him with a steely gaze; you were never one for witty banter.

"Game?" 

"What do you want from me?" 

"What makes you ask that? All I did was return a pencil" Light responded a bit jovially, coming off as a playful tease as opposed to an offended comrade. He was calm, cool, and collected - so normal that it was a bit unsettling. You could feel the hairs on your arm stand on their edge - something in the pits of your soul telling you to turn on your heels and run... to not even give him the time of day because something deep inside of him was dangerous. 

However, you ignored that innate feeling - not because you didn't believe that he was dangerous; you always trusted your gut. You ignored that feeling because you welcomed danger with open arms - you embraced fear and terror and even got an adrenaline high from feeling the rush of an imminent threat coursing through your blood. 

Like father like daughter, your mother would say - and even if you and your mother couldn't always see eye to eye on things, you couldn't bring yourself to disagree with that; some traits were simply hereditary. 

Your eyes narrowed at Light Yagami. Sure, he was the golden boy of the school - every girl loved him and every guy wanted to be him, even if they loathed him. He was the local boy-genius set to go to an Ivy League college - probably somewhere like Harvard or Yale, you thought - on a full ride despite the fact that his parents could probably pay for the whole thing. 

"You've never spoken a word to me before now" You said, setting (what you assumed to be) your pencil on your desk and folded your arms against the surface. Leaning forward, you shifted your weight onto your arms. "So why are you so eager to talk to me now?" 

"Am I not allowed to introduce myself to the foreign exchange student without having ulterior motives?" He teased.

"If you were interested in talking to the American student, you would have lined up behind every Curious George when I first came to class instead of picking up a sudden interest halfway through the semester or struck up a conversation the last time I dropped a pencil" You pointed out sharply.

"Curious... George?" Light wasn't sure that he understood the reference but deemed it unimportant to the conversation. "Why would I try to get to know you when everyone else is rushing to figure out the new student? It seems counterproductive. After all, there's no point in rushing alongside everyone else to satiate my curiosity. It's better to let everyone else get their fill on surface-level niceties beforehand because it makes approaching you later much easier" 

Damn, you thought, He really knows what to say and when to say it, doesn't he? Even so, something about this boy - the Chief of Police's son - just didn't feel right. It felt like he was up to something devious but was hiding it behind a sweet smile and charming tactics; you didn't think you knew him well enough to truly call him out on that, though, so settled for an unamused silence.

"Well, there's not really much to me - so you can be on your way" You responded shortly, trying to dismiss him. Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to address the son of your father's boss so liberally... but then again, you had never been one for social norms despite the fact you tried to hard to adhere to them for the sake of your father.

A few classmates whispered at your comment - some of the girls stunned that you had the audacity to speak to him that way. Instead of pride washing over your shoulders, you felt a bit more insecure as judgmental eyes gazed your way.

I'm supposed to be keeping a low profile. It's hard enough as it is being an foreign exchange student. Now I've gone and run my mouth... ah, mom's going to have a tantrum if this ever gets to her. 

"That's true - there doesn't seem to be much to you" Light Yagami conceded; you couldn't help but feel mildly annoyed with how easily he agreed with you. Wasn't he supposed to be a charming ladies man? If so, he wasn't doing it very well - or his mask was down; you couldn't really tell. "Though I must admit, that really wasn't your pencil. I just wanted a reason to greet you and I wasn't sure how to" 

"I didn't take your for the shy type"

"Oh, I'm not" Was Light's quick response, "I just figured it would be a good way to meet you. After all, you and your family are supposed to be coming home for dinner tonight - are you not? I felt like it might be rude if we didn't have some kind of formal conversation before you came over; it might have made things more awkward than they had to be.

Your body tensed.

"Dinner?" 

"Yes... dinner. Didn't you know this already?" 

"Oh, yeah - I knew" You lied. "I just forgot that it was today" 

It was pretty obvious to Light that you were lying, but he simply played into your small fib - finding it fairly amusing that you were trying to keep yourself composed despite this small revelation. You didn't strike him as the type to be a good liar - and that, he thought, may come in very useful. Of course, that was only a given if you turned out to be very useful. If not, you might just be another disposable pawn in his game. He wasn't sure yet - but he wasn't anxious about knowing at the moment, either. It would come together all in due time - he simply reminded himself that he had to be patient.

"Well, good thing I could remind you" Light said, a small smile coming to his face, "I really look forward to making better acquaintance with your family. I think your father and my father can really become good business partners, provided that things go well. I am looking forward to seeing how tonight unravels" 

For the first time in a long time, a tidal wave of anxiety wash over your stomach - your heart beating at a million miles per minute. You weren't sure what it was - but you were certain that this was going to be the beginning of something very exciting... and you simply couldn't wait to unravel whatever it was.

"Likewise." 

__________

A/N: I know it's been quite some time since I've updated but I felt a kind of surge of inspiration wash over me. I've had half of this written in my drafts for like a year now - I just kind of felt compelled to finish the rest of the chapter. Being in college and all makes me a slow updater and I tend to lose the desire to write often, as I constantly write essays. That said, I hope this chapter was enjoyable. I'm always a big fan of buildups, thrillers, and psychological dramas.