* * * July 28 * * *

Bambi and Matt had only been back in Japan for a few days, but L made sure to get them back up to speed with the case. Apparently they had no leads whatsoever, only the confusion that came with criminals being killed again while their prime suspects were locked up in cells. Soon after arriving at headquarters, Bambi was assigned to write a new program to find Kira's victims and patterns in hopes of leading to a new profile. Thankfully, Watari had all her belongings shipped to her new suite, including her computer – which was far more powerful than her laptop or anything else they had at headquarters.

Over the past several days, the brunette had also learned that Matsuda was acting as Misa's manager to keep an eye on her while she wasn't at headquarters – and L made sure to keep her away as often as possible. After the blonde learned that Bambi was just spying on Light at To-Oh as a part of the Kira investigation, she became very friendly with her. Although the hacker only really saw her in the hallway between their suites, Misa would often stop to converse. While Bambi was unable to place the reason, the blonde reminded her of Melinda quite a bit – and she took solace in that.

Amy was currently down on the investigation floor with the rest of the task force, sitting next to L and Light as she explained how her latest program analyzed heart attack deaths. As she explained what made this program more automated than the last one the elevator doors opened, revealing Misa and Matsuda.

The blonde jovially bounced to the center of the room as she announced, "Guess what? I just got the lead role in a movie! We're going to start working on it next week."

Bambi smiled as she turned around. "Wow! Congratulations, Misa! What kind of movie is it?"

"It's a romantic comedy!" the budding actress told her.

Misa received words of congratulations from Matt, Soichiro, L, and Light before pecking her boyfriend on the cheek and retreating to her room. After Bambi finished up her explanation, she noticed Soichiro approach his son and sit down beside him.

"What's wrong, Light? You don't seem happy about Misa's success," he began with a concerned tone in his voice.

Bambi and L watched the brunet as he sighed and confessed, "I am happy for her, but lately I've noticed that I don't really like her anymore. Yes, she's nice, but she's not on my mental level and it drives me crazy just to talk to her."

As Soichiro nodded understandingly, L chimed in. "You should keep dating her anyway, Light. She's pretty, and we need her under control."

The hacker furrowed her eyebrows. "What?! That's a terrible basis for a relationship. Don't listen to him, Light."

Soichiro put a hand on his son's shoulder, making the teen turn to face him. "Just do what you think is right."

The brunet nodded and pursed his lips for a few moments before dragging L to the elevator, presumably to talk to Misa.

Amelia frowned as she watched them disappear, hoping that Light wouldn't listen to L's horrible advice. A few minutes passed before she gave up on seeing either of them anytime soon, so she stood and approached the rest of the Wammy Teams to start going through the evidence with them.

It took quite some time for the pair of geniuses to return, but the hacker was so focused on her task that she didn't bother to speak to either of them. Late into the night, long after the Japanese detectives returned to their homes, Bambi finally decided to retire to her quarters. After bidding goodnight to her remaining coworkers, she entered the elevator and let it take he to the floor she shared with Misa.

The doors opened and she traversed the hallway to her door, but as the young woman paused to reach for the handle faraway sobs tackled her eardrums. She paused for a moment as she glanced to the door behind her, the only place they could be coming from. A slight frown tugged at the corners of the teen's lips as she recalled the earlier conversation Soichiro had with Light, knowing that he had most likely broken up with the blonde.

Bambi furrowed her eyebrows for a moment, pouting as she tried to convince herself out of it. As much as she wanted sleep, she couldn't just leave Misa like that. With an exasperated sigh, she turned and approached the blonde's door.

She hesitated before knocking and calling out, "Misa? You okay in there?"

After a few more minutes of trying to at least somewhat politely get her attention, the blonde had still not responded – either ignoring Bambi's pleas or being too upset to hear them. With a sigh, the brunette opened the door and let herself in.

Similar to her room there was a large open space with a few places to sit, eat, and watch television, but that wasn't what Amy was looking for. She followed the sound of sobs into a back room and opened the door, revealing a large bedroom. Misa was curled into a ball on her bed, her face shoved into a pillow as she cried.

The brunette furrowed her eyebrows as she approached the model, leaning over and placing a comforting hand on her back as she quietly asked, "Hey, what's wrong?"

Misa took in a shaky breath through the pillow before telling her, "L-Light broke up with me!"

Unable to keep herself together, the blonde burst into tears again.

Bambi frowned as she looked over the blonde. I know it's better that they don't stay together if they're not both into each other, but she clearly still cares for him. It must be hard...

It was awkwardly silent for a while except for Misa's hysteria. What was Bambi supposed to do in this situation anyway? Misa was clearly jealous of her just for being around Light when she first saw the hacker at To-Oh, but this past week she had been much nicer. Besides, was it really her place to say anything? What would she even say?

Still, she was already there, so she should probably try to help somehow.

Amy sighed and looked down. "I would be lying if I said that I knew what you're going through right now. I've had crushes that didn't work out, but never anything like this." She paused for a moment as she took a seat next to the blonde. "What I do know is that it's going to hurt for a while, and that's okay. And don't hold back – cry your eyes out if you have to." She gently held onto Misa's hand. "You don't have to go through this alone. I'm here for you, and so is Matsui."

Misa pushed herself up and wrapped her arms around Bambi, pushing her face into the brunette's abdomen as she continued to cry. Amy gently stroked her hair in silence until she fell asleep.

* * * August 3 * * *

Nearly a week had passed since Light broke up with Misa, and as much as she didn't want to get out of bed, Matsui made sure that she did. Her manager reminded her of the reading that was scheduled for her movie and convinced her to come to it. The blonde was wearing more plain clothes than her usual style, but it was presentable enough.

She followed Matsui into the large conference room filled with the other actors for the movie she would be starring in. While a part of Misa was excited for her big break, she still struggled to hold a smile as various producers and actors approached her in greetings.

Soon the director approached her with a tall man in tow behind him. "Misa, it's great to see you! This is Hideki Ryuga, your costar."

With that said the tall man smiled and stepped forward. "It's nice to meet you." He furrowed his eyebrows for a moment. "Are you alright?"

The blonde pursed her lips and looked down. "My boyfriend broke up with me last week."

Hideki frowned. "I'm sorry to hear that." He then placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her an encouraging smile. "If this gets too hard for you today, just let me or Mr. Nishinaka know. I'm sure they'll let us break for a bit if you need it."

She furrowed her eyebrows as she looked up at him curiously. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, they're pretty lenient about it as long as we get things done today," he explained.

Misa was silent as she stared at him with a slightly raised eyebrow. Now that she took the time to actually take in his appearance, she noticed that he had shoulder-length brown hair in a cut that reminded her of Ryuzaki. She couldn't help but find him attractive. As she opened her mouth to speak, the director called out to have everyone sit in their spots around the table to go through the first reading of the script.

The actors, writers, producers, and director all had labeled seats directly at the large circle with a copy of the script waiting for them. The managers all sat behind their respective actors as they kept an eye on things. Being one of the main characters, Misa was given a seat near the director along with her costar, Hideki. Once everyone was settled the reading commenced.

It began with a narration by Hideki's character, vaguely going on about how he didn't expect such a set of mundane events to lead him to the woman he would marry. Then the action began with a dialogue between his character and some others. It wasn't until a few scenes later when Misa's character would be introduced.

As the reading went on, she found herself smiling more and thinking less of Light. Misa's character and Hideki's character continually met in unplanned accidents with a recurring theme of the red string of fate. Finally, after hours of work, they made it to the confession scene. The characters were meant to be in a park as they held hands and faced each other.

Hideki read his lines with such genuine emotion that Misa felt her heart soar. She knew it was just a script, but she truly felt like he was confessing his love to her. A blush had settled on her cheeks by the time he stopped and it was time for her part of the confession. While she hesitated and stuttered a bit, the director loved it, commenting on how real that whole exchange felt and how glad he was to have these two actors.

The reading ended shortly after the confession scene and the participants all stayed to mingle a bit before the director announced when shooting would begin. Misa's mood had improved tremendously by that point, smiling as she laughed along with the other actors.

Hideki was one of the last to come up to her with a smile. "You sounded amazing, Misa. I had to keep reminding myself that this was your first acting job."

The blonde blushed again as she smiled up at him. "Thank you! You did great too."

"Thank you. I really like to get to know my costars when I do movies," he began. "So, I was thinking we could meet for lunch this weekend to discuss how we're going to do our scenes."

"I would love to!"

Hideki's manager tapped on his shoulder and gestured for the door.

The brunet nodded and took out a small piece of paper before writing on it and handing it to Misa. "Sorry, I have another meeting, so I have to go. Here's my number. Just give me a call and we'll set up that date."

"O-Okay."

Misa waved as she watched Hideki walk off, her heart fluttering as he gave her one last smile.

* * * August 7 * * *

The moon was high on that stormy summer's eve, droplets of rain pattering against the windows, but Bambi was neither sleeping nor working on the case. Misa had a rare day off from her usual busy schedule, and L decided to send the brunette to distract her all day to keep her away from the investigation. As the blonde put it, they were simply having a girl's night in her room.

Amelia was currently sitting across from the model on the carpeted floor in her bedroom, nail care products scattered around them. It was Misa's idea to paint each other's nails in a sort of bonding exercise between the two of them. A part of Bambi wondered which of the investigators was bored out of their minds right now as they watched her and Misa's activities.

The hacker kept finding herself distracted by the conversation, so it took three times longer than it should have for her to finish painting the blonde's nails. With Misa's nails now painted and dried, it was now her turn to paint Bambi's nails. Content with taking some time to relax, she decided to let the model do as she pleased.

The blonde gestured to the large collection of nail polish around them both. "Pick a color. I can do designs too, if you want."

Bambi pursed her lips before picking out a bright red. "How about this one?"

"Sure!"

The blonde shook the bottle before uncapping it and taking Amy's hand. The brunette felt her body start to relax as Misa painted. Whether she would outwardly admit it or not, she was enjoying being pampered like this – at least a little. The model turned out to be very skilled in nail-painting, even able to keep the brush aligned as she looked up at Bambi during their conversations – though, now it was mostly the hacker listening to Misa talk about how the movie was going so far. As she excitedly went on and on, Amelia noted that she appeared much happier than she had been last week.

Bambi smiled softly at her. "It's good to see you back to normal, Misa. Did anything happen?"

Misa smiled and looked down sheepishly as her cheeks were dusted a light pink. "Well, there's this guy... His name is Hideki, and he's my costar in the movie. He's so handsome and sweet. We met for lunch to work out our characters the other day, and I really like him." Misa looked up at her with a sly grin as she added, "Now that I've told you who I like, you have to tell me who you like! And don't deny it. I see how you get with everyone downstairs."

The hacker couldn't help but blush as she rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. "Oh, come on Misa. You know they're all listening."

The blonde pouted. "Oh, fine. But he is on the task force?"

Amy ignored the question and looked away slightly, though Misa easily read through this. She dropped the topic with a sly grin and continued painting the brunette's nails.

They sat there in comfortable silence before the model asked, "So, how's the case going?"

Bambi huffed a sigh. "Frankly, we're not getting anywhere. All our past leads led to you and Light, and since that's clearly not the case, we're completely lost."

Misa pursed her lips and nodded. "You know, my mom always said that when you get stuck on a problem, you should take a break and do something fun. The solution always comes when you're not thinking about it."

The brunette pursed her lips for a moment before shrugging. "Maybe. I don't know if we'd be allowed to, though. Ryuzaki gets really stubborn sometimes."

* * * August 8 * * *

Thanks to the lack of progress, tensions had been high within the Task Force. The Wammy Teams were sitting at a table as they manually went through the murders that the young woman's program had picked out as significant. Aizawa, Soichiro, and Matsuda were sitting in another corner of the room as they kept an eye on the surveillance cameras while sorting through another set of paperwork. L and Light were sitting together at the main computers as they went through a set of murders that the newest program had previously identified as likely Kira murders, though from what Bambi was overhearing, they weren't exactly focusing on the case.

"...but you don't seem to have any motivation," Light pointed out.

"Motivation?" L repeated, more monotone than usual. "I don't have any. I'm actually depressed."

Amy looked up to see Light wide-eyed as he repeated, "Depressed?"

"Yes. It's because I kept thinking you were Kira," L explained as he took a bite of his cake. "It's just a shock if that theory is wrong." He paused for a moment before looking down at the long handcuffs that chained them together. "No, I still have suspicions about you. That's why we're doing this. However, Kira was able to control peoples' actions. So, Kira controlled you and Misa in a way that I'd suspect you. If I think of it that way, then the ends meet. But, why you two are still alive is the part that doesn't make sense."

Light folded his arms as he eyed the detective warily. "Ryuzaki, with that theory, wouldn't Misa and I, although controlled, have been Kira?"

"Yes, there'd be no question about that. You are both Kira," L accused.

Light furrowed his eyebrows as he stared down the raven-haired detective. With a glance around, Bambi noticed that everyone had paused to listen in on the conversation.

"The way I see it," L began, "when you were detained, you were Kira. And when you were detained, the criminals stopped dying. Until that point, you being Kira makes sense. However, after two weeks, the criminals started dying again. From that, this next assumption is a possibility. Kira's power passes on from person to person. The second Kira's video also mentioned something about sharing Kira's power."

Light was silent for a moment as he looked forward. "It's an interesting thought, but if Kira was able to do that, then there is no way to catch him."

"Yes, that's why I'm stuck," L admitted. "Controlling someone to kill criminals... If that person gets caught, then the powers transfer to someone else and their memories disappear. There would be no closure just by catching them."

There was another short silence before Light spoke up. "But that hasn't been officially decided yet. We still don't know enough about Kira." He smiled and put an encouraging hand on L's shoulder. "Bring out some motivation."

"Motivation?" L repeated. "I can't bring out much. No, it's not a good idea to try too hard. By trying too hard to chase we put our lives at greater risk, don't you think? To think how many times I thought I was going to die... and my successors too..."

Light's back was to the rest of the task force as he stood and looked down at the great detective. "Ryuzaki..."

L looked up only to be met with Light's fist, throwing him across the room.

Light managed to catch himself as he narrowed his eyes at the older man. "Don't be ridiculous. Because I'm not the real Kira – because your theory was wrong – you have no motivation?"

L rubbed his cheek. "I may have said it badly. Let's not make a move because the situation might just get worse."

"What are you talking about? If we don't move then there's no way to catch him. Who's the one that told Kira that he'd have him executed on TV?" Light argued before grabbing L by his shirt collar. "How many policemen, FBI agents, announcers and other innocent people do you think got involved? And aren't you the one who detained me and Misa?"

"I know," L told him. "But, no matter what..." He kicked Light in the face. "One time is one time!"

As both men crouched on the ground, Light called him out on being unsatisfied with any result other than Light being Kira. Much to Bambi's surprise, L admitted that he was correct. Still, the physical fight continued between words.

The brunette found herself gritting her teeth. She wasn't bothered by their argument, but exchanging blows was more than enough to test her patience.

She heard Matsuda in a slight panic off to the side as he said, "We- We have to go and stop them!"

Soichiro sounded more disappointed than anything as he told him, "Matsuda, leave them."

The fight continued as L and Light knocked each other around the computer station. The longer this went on, the more it got on Amy's already-heightened nerves. Her whole body began to shake as she glared at the pair.

Near glanced over to his partner and warned, "Bambi, you should stay out of it."

L kicked Light in the chest before the brunet retaliated with another punch to his face. Something snapped within the hacker as she jumped up from her seat.

"That's it!" she growled.

Before anyone could stop her, she rushed to the fighting geniuses to stop this nonsense and threw herself into the fray. She was quick to use Light's own punch against him as she redirected it and twisted his arm, pinning him against the table. Meanwhile she had grabbed a nearby chair with her other hand and used it to hold L back.

There was an audible gasp from behind the geniuses, prompting Bambi to briefly glance to the other occupants of the room. Matsuda was standing there, dumbstruck at her abilities. Soichiro and Aizawa had matching expressions of widened eyes and mouths partially agape. Mello had a hand over his mouth, appearing to try to stifle his laughter. Matt wore the same expression that the Japanese detectives had, and Near simply looked on with a frown.

She whipped around to face the two men she had just subdued. Light gave her a more apologetic smile, but L was clearly furious, glaring daggers at the hacker as he frowned.

The brunette narrowed her eyes as she looked between the pair of men. "Look, I get that you're frustrated, and arguing is just fine, but fighting like that won't get you anywhere."

L scoffed. "You're such a hypocrite, Bambi. You and Mello fought each other when you first met, so what does that say about you?"

She narrowed her eyes in a ferocious glare as she released Light and stared down the detective.

"You think I don't know that?" she seethed. "I am very intimately aware of that, and of what consequences it had for both of us."

Amelia dropped the chair as she got even closer to the tall man, blood boiling as her body shook in a mixture of rage and other hidden emotions.

"Thanks to our stupid fight Beyond Birthday got the upper hand and nearly killed both of us!" she snapped. "And Kira is a much bigger threat than Beyond, so we all need to keep our guards up and stay at the top of our games if we want even a chance at catching him."

L's expression softened slightly as he tightly shut his mouth, though he sent a short glare to Light. The brunet ignored the great detective, his eyes still wide from what she had just confirmed.

Bambi frowned as she backed away, a heavy sigh passing through her lips. "Look, I get that you're both frustrated, but fighting like this will just make things worse – believe me, I understand more than anyone."

Still unable to quell her mixed feelings of frustration and anger, she turned around. Without meeting anyone's eyes, she entered the elevator and left.

Bambi stood there on the roof, hands in her pockets as she watched the skies begin to bathe the city in a cool rain. For a moment, she considered returning indoors, but the tears of the clouds reached her faster than she could decide. Accepting her wet fate and not wanting to face the investigators again so soon, the teen opted to remain where she stood, passively observing the world around her as she tried to ignore her own racing thoughts – images of Beyond Birthday flashing across her mind's eye, though she was still fully aware of her reality.

Not much time had passed before the door creaked, alerting the young woman to a newcomer. As she turned to see who it was, she was greeted by a sudden lack of rain directly overhead. Matt smiled at the brunette as he stepped closer, joining her under the umbrella he was holding over her head. Amy wearily smiled up at him, not minding the intimate closeness between their bodies.

"They're all arguing about whether L and Light should be chained together," he explained. "I thought you could use the company anyway."

She wrapped her hand around his as she helped him hold the umbrella. "Thank you."

His smile faltered as he glanced away. "So, do you want to talk about it?"

The hacker breathed a heavy sigh before admitting, "Honestly, I'm kinda frustrated that we're not getting anywhere, and obviously about their stupid fight, but since we're so stuck and now there's more to think about, I keep thinking about what happened last winter." She hesitated to find the words. "I know that it's not normal for it to go away this fast, but it still gets to me every now and then. I haven't had a true flashback in a while, but I still keep thinking about it and how helpless everything felt. Maybe it's because I felt this frustrated with the case before he did what he did..."

Bambi trailed off as she frowned, unable to make herself meet his gaze. Matt hesitated before carefully wrapping his free arm around her. A warm feeling encompassed her entire being, instincts taking over as she released the umbrella and wrapped her arms around his waist, gently pressing herself against him.

Miles sighed before resting his head against hers. "I wish I had the magic words to make it all better, but I don't know what to do. All I can say is that from my own experiences, you need to take advantage of your support system. Everyone here wants to help you, so don't feel bad if you have to ask for help." There was a paused before he confessed, "I still feel guilty about everything that happened. I often find myself wondering if I could have done anything differently to stop Beyond from taking you."

The corners of her lips curved into a frown as she looked up at him with pleading eyes. "It's not your fault, Miles. It never was your fault and it will never be your fault. It was just a string of badly-timed events."

The redhead gave her a sad smile. "As much as you tell me that and as much as I try to tell myself that, I might never believe it, but that's what I'm getting at. You can never change the past – I know that more than anyone – but you can change the way you view it. In a messed up kind of way, we never would have really been able to get to know each other if he didn't take you because L probably wouldn't have brought us all to the Kira case otherwise."

Amy couldn't help the soft smile that rose to her lips as she whispered, "I guess you're right."

Matt returned the smile, standing there in silence for a few moments before he faked a cough and pulled out of the embrace. "You should probably try to get some sleep. Come on."

He gestured for her to follow and she complied, staying under the umbrella with him. The pair took the elevator down to the floor Bambi lived before the brunette bid him goodnight. She stood there for a few moments gazing at the closed doors before retreating into her room. The hacker took a quick shower and changed into dry pajamas before plopping down on her bed.

Although her prior worries had melted away with their embrace, her mind was racing in a different direction – one that sent her heart fluttering and her stomach churning. Miles had never hugged her before, let alone for so long. Did it mean something? The only other people she had ever really hugged were her caretaker, Carol, and her close friends, Kato and Melinda. Maybe that's all it was? A friendship thing. After all, he always had her back like best friends do. Not to mention that she clearly had a history of misreading people's feelings as romantic.

Yes, that had to be it. There was no way that he reciprocated her feelings.

Bambi couldn't help but laugh when she looked down and discovered that she had been absentmindedly holding the plush panda that Matt had won her at the festival. Her lips curved into a soft smile. Well... whatever it is, I don't mind it.