Driving out to a forest with a crate full of apples was not a feat many could turn into an inconspicuous activity, but (Y/n) made a valiant attempt to act natural to the best of her abilities.

Three days of continuous footage screening had finally led her to the conclusions that both, Misa and Light had relinquished ownership of their Death Notes, and that poor Soichiro Yagami was putting himself through hell for nothing.

It had been a great relief to learn that catching Shinigami on tape was possible if one had touched the Death Note belonging to that particular Shinigami. Seeing Ryuk in Light's cell had enabled her to be privy to both sides of the conversation that her brother couldn't logically participate too much in. It had been the Shinigami's statements that had confirmed it for her-- Light had given up ownership of his Death Note which also meant that he had no recollection of being Kira.

She wondered if false memories had implanted themselves into his brain to fill in the obvious gaps that concerned the Note, but she had bigger concerns to look into at the moment.

Like trying to lure out a certain Shinigami by hiking through the forest until she reached a clearing and dumping the crate of apples onto the grassy ground, rubbing her sore arms immediately afterwards because (Y/n) wasn't in the best of shapes to be lugging around a load of apples.

I should start lifting some more weights. What even is my upper body strength?

Straightening and rolling her shoulders back to bring relief to her joints, (Y/n) grimaced at the clear sky above her, noticing the disappointing lack of Shinigami lurking about.

But her despair had been for naught as not even a moment later, Ryuk came flying through the foliage, eyes immediately landing on his prize before they even registered (Y/n) staring at him, highly unimpressed with his appearance.

"I was facing withdrawal," he defended himself. "It's been weeks since I've had a fresh apple. Weeks!"

She hummed, moving to sit on the crate as she considered the supernatural creature like one might an item on sale. "I'll let you have all the apples you want," she began, much to Ryuk's delight, "but I need you to do me a favor."

Ryuk snorted, amused by the human attempting to bargain with him. "I owe you nothing, kid," he reminded, peering down at her with his permanently derisive grin.

Undeterred, she hummed. "You don't," she agreed, "but you lose nothing in helping me out. It's minimal effort, and you'll get your apples in return for it."

He mulled over it for a moment-- for the effect of it mostly. He had his decision already, but he could enjoy the subtle anxiety in her demeanor while she faced the possibility of a refusal. Finally, he shrugged. "Alright," Ryuk conceded. "What do you want for the apples?"

"The Death Note," she responded without missing a beat. "I want to know where Light hid it before he relinquished ownership."

To his credit, Ryuk didn't look surprised at her demand. He only cackled in amusement before eventually calming down enough to gesture for her to follow him. "And bring the apples!" he called over his shoulder as he drifted away, leaving her to regard the crate of fruit with chagrin.

More weightlifting for me, she supposed with a heavy sigh.

The Shinigami led her to an almost identical clearing a little further into the forest before pointing at a tree. "It's buried there," he informed lazily, eyeing the crate in anticipation.

(Y/n) rolled her eyes as she dropped the crate (eliciting a protest because she probably bruised the precious apples), moving to the aforementioned tree instead and grimacing at the uneven earth before it, realizing grimly that she would have to literally get her hands dirty in order to get to the stupid notebook.

Begrudgingly sucking it up, she rolled up her sleeves, knelt down and got started on digging into the soil, mentally cursing at Light the deeper she had to dig before her fingers finally brushed the plastic covering the notebook was in. Impatiently pulling it out, she grinned at the zip-lock bag which, in that moment of triumph, looked like the most beautiful thing on the planet.

"What are you gonna do with it?" Ryuk asked, coming over to peer over her head at the book as she removed it from the bag using a wrinkly handkerchief from her blazer pocket to keep her fingertips from touching the cover directly. The eldest Yagami child was always interesting, he admitted, and he was curious to see just what she had in mind.

As if sensing his interest (no matter how minimal it was), she smiled conspiratorially. "Play a little game of hide-and-seek with Light," she revealed. "Parents often take their children's favorite plaything to punish them. Let's see if it works on young adults as well."

He chuckled, knowing how displeased Light would be to not only have been called a child, but also viewed as an experiment by his beloved sister. "Where are you gonna hide it?"

In response to his inquiry, she turned to face him slowly, squinting as though trying to decipher if he was being serious or not. "Ryuk, I just bribed you into selling Light out with a bunch of apples," she reminded slowly. "Forgive me, but you're not exactly on my list of great confidants."

Ryuk could only concede to her logic with a shrug. He didn't particularly care since it wasn't really his Death Note, but he could admit to feeling some disappointment because hiding the Note away could possibly result in a reduction of his entertainment. Instead, he turned his attention to his prize-- eyeing the apples with a hungry gleam in his eyes.

It was then that a thought occurred to him, making him straighten up to stare at the young woman who was stowing the Note back into its covering and shoving it into the messenger bag that hung at her side. "You're still going to supply me with apples, right?"

(Y/n) made a face at him, her lip curling slightly even as she stomped at the dirt she'd thrown haphazardly back into the hole she'd dug. "You have a crate full already," she pointed out, taking out a water bottle and using its contents to wash the dirt away from her hands before wiping them down on her jeans.

"But once I'm done with those?" Ryuk prompted, leaning close to her imploringly.

Snorting in his face, she turned her back to him, trekking out of the clearing and beginning to make her way back out of the forest. "That's not really my problem." She shrugged carelessly, tossing him an empty smile over her shoulder as he floated behind her like a lost puppy.

"We're friends, aren't we?" Ryuk whined, deciding to ham it up for the sake of the fruit he was lugging around effortlessly. "You can't let me starve."

Visibly rolling her eyes at him, she scoffed. "We aren't friends, Ryuk," she corrected. "You don't do that sort of thing if I remember correctly. Moreover, Shinigami don't die of starvation, do they? You'll live."

Grumbling to himself, he moved to hover above her head, hoping to annoy her. Annoying Light was always fun. Perhaps she would be the same.

But (Y/n) didn't bother to even look at him as she picked her way through the foliage to where the rented car came into sight. "Maybe one apple per day," she muttered thoughtfully, resulting in her supernatural companion perking up. "But only two weeks from now since I believe those apples ought to last you that long at least," she added, nodding at the crate that floated dangerously close to her face.

Although he was slightly put out by the limiting of his diet, he agreed to the compromise with a quiet mutter in consent. One apple is better than no apples, and he'd take what he got.

When (Y/n) got into the unremarkable black car, he didn't follow after her. He much preferred to spend some time alone with his precious load over tailing the eldest Yagami sibling to satiate his own minor curiosity. So while she drove off into the heart of the city, he made his way back to the Yagami home where he'd been hanging around Light's room as he pleased.

Meanwhile, (Y/n) made quick work of driving out to the bank she had a locker in before proceeding to deposit the Death Note into it, leaving it behind with other documents. She hadn't really expected her plan to work out so conveniently. Ryuk had been surprisingly compliant in giving her the Note's location, and then letting her make off with it without any complaints whatsoever. The most irking thing had only been the wait at the bank, and she'd take that over having an argument with a God of Death any day.

Before three in the afternoon, she was at HQ, arriving just as promised after requesting the morning off for the day. She had expressed concern over leaving her mother alone for so long with no one but Sayu for company and help, and while L had looked about ready to call her out on her bullshit, Aizawa and Mori had sided with her thoughtlessly so the decision had been made before the detective could get a word in edgewise.

And she hadn't been lying entirely anyways. (Y/n) really had spent all morning with her mother, doing all the chores to ease her burden for the day and to keep her company in a genuine display of filial duty. After insisting that Sachiko go out to visit a friend at least until Sayu's time to return from school, she had speedily left the house for herself and gone out to buy as many apples as she could feasibly carry into a forest.

Tracing Light's activity immediately after Misa's arrest hadn't been easy to do. She had enlisted Garcia's help, making an excuse that they needed the footage for the Kira case and L didn't want to involve the Japanese NPD in order to do so. Penelope had been more than happy to help and had sent the footage from the cameras of the time space that (Y/n) had specified as early as she could.

After that, (Y/n) had spent some more time reviewing footage until she managed to trace her brother's activities to the forest and straight to the HQ. Honestly, the whole thing was much more effort than she would have preferred, but she got through it diligently, repeating a mantra that it was for her family in her head to ensure that she didn't just throw the laptop out of the window out of impatience and sleep deprivation.

The bags under her eyes made her look like she was competing with L over who looked more haggard. It was sad, really, if her appearance was beginning to come off as disheveled enough to even be compared to the detective's.

But (Y/n) had been pushing her limits since her arrival back in Japan after the trip to England, and frankly, she really just wanted to take a nice long nap. Cleaning up the mess of the situation that her absence had created for her was much more exhausting than she had anticipated it being, and while things were going as planned, it didn't really ease her fatigue.

Her eyes burned constantly from the excessive staring at a screen for such long periods of time, and there was a strange buzzing in her head that made her wonder if her brain was on vibrate and was ramming itself against her cranium.

Sure, she was used to losing sleep given her line of work, but this was as far as she could go now, and she knew it.

The icing on the metaphorical cake had been the introduction of another Shinigami in her life.

Being the only woman on the Task Force had its perks, especially since her father wasn't around at the moment. Unlike the rest, she actually had the option to head home at night if she so wished to, and on that night, she had decided to do just that. The cab she'd taken had dropped her off a few minutes' walk away from her home, leaving her to walk the rest of the way when she caught the movement of a leathery wing in the corner of eye, whirling around and almost screeching in shock at the face mere inches from hers.

"What the fuck?" (Y/n) swore, stumbling back and putting in some distance between her and the unknown Shinigami who seemed to be scrutinizing her while the woman tried to calm her rapidly beating heart. Once she'd managed to catch her bearings, (Y/n)'s gaze drifted up to meet the Shinigami's apprehensively. "Am I supposed to know you?"

The Shinigami tilted their head. "I am Rem," came the introduction, and from the voice, (Y/n) guessed that 'Rem' was a 'she'. "I was Misa's Shinigami."

Carefully masking the hint of surprise, (Y/n) regarded Rem with a new wave of distrust filling her. "Okay," she pronounced slowly, trying to discern the situation and not particularly liking any of the conclusions her mind drew. "If that's all then I'll just be heading ho--"

"I want you to do something for me," Rem cut her off plainly, staring into the profiler's eyes intensely. When the latter remained silent, she continued, "I want you to protect Misa."

Furrowing her eyebrows, (Y/n) couldn't help the confusion that hit her. "I'm pretty sure you're more capable of doing that than I am."

At first, she had assumed that all Shinigami would be as uncaring or passive as Ryuk. It made sense for a deity of death to be so desensitized after witnessing the demise of so many. But here stood a Shinigami before her now, demanding that (Y/n) look after the safety of Misa Amane, and in all honesty, it threw her off.

Rem's body language gave away her irritation instantly. It was clear that she didn't exactly enjoy having to ask the profiler's help, but she managed to carry on. "I am unable to do so right now," Rem admitted, a little grudgingly. "I want you to do it for me instead. Agree, or face your death."

The blatant threat had (Y/n)'s eyebrows rising, her muscles going a little stiff with a fight or flight instinct. "The answer is obvious, isn't it?" she drawled, crossing her arms as she studied the Shinigami in front of her. "I am curious, however, as to why you bothered approaching me of all people. I am Light's sister, after all, and Misa did tell me that you didn't exactly trust him."

"That is true," Rem admitted easily. "I was hesitant to approach you at first because of your connection to Light Yagami. However, I have been watching your activity and I've concluded that you're the only one I can entrust Misa's safety to."

Rem's reasoning had (Y/n) exhaling slowly to attempt to calm the pounding of her head because this was just another thing she didn't need on her plate. But the Shinigami had made it very clear that dying was the only other option available to her, so she could only nod wearily and tighten her grip around the strap of the bag slung over her shoulder.

"I'll try to the best of my abilities," she promised, hoping not to sound too reluctant. "You have to understand, though, that there will be situations where I'll be helpless. Like Misa's current captivity, for instance, is beyond my control. I can only attempt to avoid any such future occurrences, but I'll have to ask for your cooperation, if need be, as well. I'm aware that you don't trust me, but I do hope we can agree to this much."

Eyeing the crafty human in front of her, Rem considered the woman's words for a moment before nodding once in consent. "You have my word-- I will cooperate if I agree with your plans and intentions. Beware, though, (Y/n) (L/n): the moment I begin to doubt your credibility, I will end your life."

Hearing her birth name from the Shinigami was jarring, leaving her with lingering discomfort coiled around her ribs even after Rem turned and flew off into the night sky. It squeezed the breath out of her lungs and left her with a strange aching in her bones that she could only dismiss as she trudged back home, a lot more tired than she was before.

"I could just about sleep for the rest of my life," (Y/n) muttered to herself.

Instead, she returned home to a mere three hours of sleep filled with dreams of leathery wings and notebooks and lies leaving bleeding lips.