=== YOUR POV ===

          I woke up back in the medical center at HQ and tried to blink away the blurriness that crowded my vision, but it wouldn't leave. I look to my right and see a piece of paper leaning against... Something. I can't quite see it, but I grab the paper and bring it to my face. 'Alex, these are for you. Your vision got a bit messed up in the wreck, but it'll be ok. We'll take care of you.' I turn back to the thing and try to grab it, but bang my hand on the wall. "Ow. Frickin'..." I tentatively reach out, grab the glasses by the bridge of the nose, and slide them onto my face.

          Lawliet walks in, a sucker in his mouth, and his usually emotionless face morphs into an expression of shock, then anger, guilt, joy, and, finally, excitement. He rushes to the bed and grabs my right hand. "Good morning." "What's so good about it?" I grumble. "You're awake." "I never said I wanted to be." He sighs and tucks a loose strand of hair behind my ear. I reach for his face and quickly grab the lollipop and shove it in my mouth. He chuckles and pulls another one out of his pocket, unwraps it, and puts it in his mouth. We stay in silence for a little and then Lawliet says; "You look cute with glasses. I mean, you looked good before, too, and you still do, but--" "I get it. You don't have to explain yourself. Now, how long until I can get out of this bed?" "Well... by the time you can get up, your leg and arm will be completely healed."

          I look out the window. "Let me rephrase. How long until I can move normally WITHOUT tearing open my back again?" "That's a lot sooner, but-" "Good. We're going to go with that day. Go grab that," I say, pointing at a wheelchair in the corner. He shakes his head. "Would you rather I stood up and grabbed it?" He jumps up and grabs the chair handles, pushing it toward my bed. I hold out my arms to him and he lifts me off the bed, setting me down in the chair. I reach for the wheels and he grabs my hands. "Nope. The wound is still too fresh, you'll tear it open."

          I roll my eyes and pull the empty lollipop stick out of my mouth as Lawliet pushed me toward the door. I toss it in the trash can on my way out into the hallway, where Aizawa is coming out of the janitors closet, having just put away a vacuum. He sees me and freezes, shocked, as I have at him on my way by. We get into the main room, where there are many different screens. The ones I'm most interested in, however, are the ones connected to the cameras that are trained in on Light Yamagi, his father, and Misa Amane.

          As Lawliet pushes me toward them, I notice that Light is saying something. "...useless pride. I guess I'll just have to get rid of it." Ryuk looks at Light and leaves the cell; almost immediately, Light's eyes widen and he starts yelling at the camera; "Ryuzaki, I know that I asked to be confined, but I just realized that this is completely pointless. WE'RE WASTING TIME!!!" I stare at the screen, shocked, and hear Ryuk's voice behind me. "Well, that was fun." I turn my head to face him as best as I can. "What was?" "Light told me not to tell you." I narrow my eyes at him. "Did he? Or did he tell you not to tell Ryuzaki?" Ryuk laughs. "You always manage to find a loophole. 'Oh, stabbed in the stomach? As long as it didn't hit anything vital, I'll be fine. Oh, back sliced open?'" I wince. "'As long as it didn't break my spine, I'll be fine.' See what I mean? In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if--"

          A small metal ball rolled into the room and I recognized it as a smoke grenade. I pulled my shirt up over my mouth, trying to filter out the smoke at least a little, already feeling lightheaded as the gas started to fill the room. Ryuk glanced at it, flew over to me, and pushed me out of the room and into the vented hallway, where I was able to reach the control panel for the vents in the main room. I quickly turned them on high, waited a minute for the smoke to clear, and then Ryuk pushed minute back in to find everyone just waking up except Lawliet, who was waiting for me by the door. "Thanks." I just shrug and look back at the screens, where Light is still yelling about how this is a waste of time and Misa is yelling to a 'Mr. Stalker' about how 'this is illegal'. I sigh and turn back to Lawliet. "I-I'm actually kinda tired. do I have a room here?" "Of course." He pushes me into the lift and hits a button.

          The doors close and it starts to rise. The silence is cold; I start to freeze. I am made of ice. Ice and snow. It's so cold. The longer the silence goes on, the colder it gets, and then I hear a familiar voice start humming 'bury a friend' by Billie Eilish and start to thaw out. Lawliet joins me and soon we've hummed through the entire song and have arrived at my floor. There's a rather pointless hallway with one door on either side of it; he opens the door on the left and pushes me into the room. He wheels me over to the bed and gently moves me onto it, then turns to go. I grab his hand. "I never said you could leave." He chuckles and changes his course to go to the other side of the bed. He crouches on it and I grab his hand and pull him down so he's laying on his back. He pulls me toward him, turning toward me, and puts an arm around me. I bury my face in his collarbone and he lays his cheek on the top of my head.

          I wake up five minutes later, the bed beside me cold, to hear Beyond and Lawliet talking in the main room of my quarters. "--love her, Birthday." "So do I." "Then stop hurting her. Y-you kidnap her and rip her to shreds, then walk away and aren't there when she needs you to help her through the pain. If you love her, stay this time." "...I can't do that." "Why not?" "'Cause you'll arrest me and then I'll never see her again." "If I was going to arrest you, I would have done it by now. But I haven't. And you know why? Because I've seen how much she loves you. I know exactly where you're hiding and right now, I'm saying stop it. Come live here and help us catch Kira, and I'll make sure you're granted a full pardon." Beyond must've nodded, because I hear "Good." Footsteps. Then; "Alex. Sorry we woke you up." I rub the sleep out of my eyes. "No, it's fine. Hi, Beyond." Lawliet climbs back into bed beside me and Beyond follows his lead on the other side. I close my eyes, at peace knowing that these two sweet men were mine. My little Birthday boy and my strawberry Lawlipop.

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Wow, I never would've guessed I'd reach 50 views so quickly. Anyways, on to chapter 13!!! Don't forget to vote, comment, and suggest to your friends, please!!!

Love, Crystal 💖