Investigative Techniques (Death Note/Another Note fic)

[dove]

Title: Investigative Techniques

Author: Dove

Fandom/Orginal: Death Note/Another Note inspired

Disclaimer: I don’t own Death Note or Another Note. Written for entertainment only.

Rating: PG

Summmary: A is ill and B feels the need to investigate in his own, special way.

Authors Notes: -SPOILERS FOR DEATH NOTE/ANOTHER NOTE- For those unfamiliar with the concept of Death Note, there is a detective named L who is referred to as “the greatest deductive mind” of his time. He has a group of children who are being trained to take over in the event of his death. A and B (Alternate and Backup) are in this first generation of children. Unfortunately, B grows up to become a serial killer and A kills himself at a young age. The two are assumed to be about 16 in this fic. Dedicated to Natto for encouraging me to write while I was sick at home in bed and was feeling pretty worthless. Enjoy!

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B glanced over at his clock. 2:02AM. Only 3 minutes later than the last time he had looked, and in those three minutes his roommate A had coughed fifteen times. Fifteen divided by three was five, so approximately five coughs per-

Then A coughed again, throwing off B’s entire calculation in a single lung convulsion. Why couldn’t he have waited another 20 seconds until the LED clock on their bedside table had flipped to the next number? The dark haired boy groaned and threw his pillow across the room to hit the younger boy directly in the face. “Will you please just stop already? It’s late, and I would like to sleep at some point this evening!” He left out the part about A messing up his random calculations. The sick boy probably wouldn’t appreciate knowing that B was doing math while he was suffering.

“You think I can help it?” the boy yelled from his side of the room, his voice far more congested than it had been at dinner time. “I’m sick, B. Have some compassion.”

“Compassion? Why don’t you have some compassion for me? Thanks to you, I’ll probably catch this too. You should be quarantined, A. You’ll infect us all!”

A opened his mouth to speak, but nothing but a string of coughing came out, his hand moving quickly to cover his mouth and mute the sharp sounds. The coughing fit spilled from him so fast that B quickly lost count, unable to differentiate between them any longer. He grabbed his other pillow from the bed, but refrained from throwing it. He needed something to sleep on.

When A finally managed to take in a deep breath, he twisted himself in bed to face away from his provocateur. “B, leave me to suffer in peace, please,” he muttered, sniffling and wiping at his nose.

B groaned and threw his pillow against the wall. Fuck comfort, he was frustrated. “Oh, poor, poor A is suffering? Shall we call an ambulance for him? Or the morgue? I’ll arrange a spot for you, I hear they have a waiting list fifteen miles long.”

“Shut up, B!” he screamed, upsetting his throat into another long fit of coughing. “Please, for one evening, I’m begging you to just leave me alone. I feel wretched, and not much like speaking with you right now.”

At this bizarre, misplaced admittance of weakness, B frowned. It wasn’t like the top successor to admit that he was struggling with anything; schoolwork or health. The boy kept his feelings inside, hidden from any of the other students, and most certainly from his roommate. Either A was trying to use this tactic to trick him into something, or he really was as sick as he looked. Curiously, B slinked out of his bed and silently walked across the room to his rival. This required some investigating.

Before the smaller boy could respond, B grabbed his shoulders and flipped him over onto his back. Ignoring his protests, B slapped his flailing hands away and put his own hand on the boy’s forehead. It felt warm enough to make him frown further and grunt under his breath. “Alternate, are you aware that you have a fever?” B asked the angry boy lying beneath him.

“I had an inkling,” he replied, twisting his body away. “Are you quite done?”

B jumped up on his rival’s bed and straddled his companion’s body, holding him in place with his knees. “Of course not. I’m investigating, A, now hold still.”

“You’re what?” A exclaimed, pushing away the sticky hands that threatened to dirty his sheets. “B, I have a head cold, case closed. Now stop being such a bloody idiot and remove yourself!”

“Alternate, this is no mere head cold, this could be something much worse! Someone could have poisoned you! No, a crime might have been committed here, I need to rule out suspects.” Before A could say anything else, B grabbed his face and forced his mouth open, holding on tightly to his jaw so that the boy couldn’t retaliate and bite down on his fingers.

“Oh, your throat is very red,” he muttered, biting his lip as though he were in serious thought. “It’s no wonder that you’re coughing so much, it looks very irritated.”

He let go of the blonde’s face just in time for him to fall victim to another coughing fit. “Fuck you, B,” he sputtered, wheezing heavily.

“Language, A! L wouldn’t approve of you uttering such words.”

“I don’t care! Just get the bloody hell ah-away f-from me!” A gasped out, his breath hitching and nostrils flaring slightly. B watched closely as the boy’s eyes closed halfway and his jaw hung partly open, his shoulders shaking. A raised his hands to his face, but B grabbed him firmly by his wrists and held them down at his sides. The blond boy’s eyes opened wide in shock for only a split second before his head pitched to the left. “ah-choo! huh-huh…ah-CHO!” he sneezed uncovered across his sheets. As soon as he had seemingly recovered, B released one of his hands and poked at his runny nose with his right index finger.

“Ah-ha! A new symptom! See, we’re already well on our way to solving this case,” B said happily. Finally able to untuck his blankets from the foot of the bed, A kicked upwards, his knee coming into contact with B’s stomach. While the youth was distracted, the top successor grabbed his shoulders with both hands and pushed him off of the side of the bed where he collapsed with a thud and a loud yelp.

A could do nothing but cough as the second place heir stood up and straightened his long white t-shirt as he regained his balance. “That was dirty, Alternate,” he gasped, forcing air back into his lungs. “I’m trying to help you, and this is how you thank me?” B held up his hands dismissively as his roommate continued to cough harshly. “No wait, don’t answer that, I have to question you now.”

“Qu-question?” A asked. “What do you-ah-CHH! KCH!” He stifled another two sneezes against his wrist and coughed several more times as B grabbed his computer chair and rolled it to his bedside, jumping up into a crouching position.

“Now, we’re going to have to go over your schedule from the last few days to discover exactly who poisoned you. Start at the beginning and don’t leave out any detail.” B leaned forward, his toes wrapping around the seat of the chair in the same manner that their predecessor often displayed.

“Ugh, I’m sick of this game, Backup. Just let me sleep,” A muttered, turning his burning forehead onto the cooler section of his pillow and sighing at the contact.

“A, don’t you want to catch the bastard that did this to you? C’mon, I’ll bet I can solve this before the sun rises. Now, take me back through your day.”

The top successor clutched his blankets in between his fingers and attempted to breathe through his nose to calm himself. The extra effort only caused his throat and sinuses to become irritated further. He rubbed a hand against his forehead, wiped the sweat on his blanket and turned to the anxious boy at his bedside. “If I answer your questions, will you please let me sleep afterwards?”

“Are you kidding? A, when you know who did this to you, you’ll sleep much better! Don’t you agree?” B answered easily, spinning the chair from side to side. A only responded with another cough and a nod of his head as he shoved his blankets off of himself, shivering slightly as the cold air from the open window hit him.

“Fine, where do I begin?” A muttered monotonously. “Yesterday was Monday. I went to class. You know, you were there.” He paused to cough and clear his throat, his hand coming away from his mouth wet with saliva and sweat. Moaning, he wiped it off on his shirt, reminding himself to do his laundry as soon as he recovered. “Afterwards I went to the library. I ran into Y, he was checking out a book on infectious disease-“

“Infectious disease!?” B screamed. “And this didn’t occur to you as being a little odd?”

“It’s his specialty, B! He’s researching a case regarding it right now!” A shot back, shifting against his pillow. “So no, it wa-wasn’t weird.” A sniffed and rubbed at his itching nose. “Now, if I may continue?”

“Yes, continue, but Y is going at the top of the suspect list,” B replied concisely. A rolled his eyes, cleared his throat and thought back to the day before.

“After I saw Y, I went to take a walk.”

Again, B cut him off. “You took a walk? It was raining yesterday, did you take a jacket and umbrella?”

The blond sniffled and pinched his nose to relieve the tickle before answering. “I don’t remember B, I needed to clear my head—“

“What do you mean you don’t remember? You’re L’s top successor, you remember everything that you read and see. Your mind is always turned on and absorbing, surely you remember something as simple as whether or not you were wearing a jacket yesterday.”

A gritted his teeth and turned to the annoying child. “Okay, I was wearing my jacket, but I couldn’t find an umbrella.”

B clapped his hands together over A’s face and smiled widely. “Well there is your answer! You obviously caught a cold because you were out in the rain with no umbrella!”

“No! B, the human body doesn’t work like one of your bloody shoujo mangas!”

“I’m not insinuating that it does! But there is a sliver of truth that when the human body’s temperature is lowered significantly it is left open to disease. And even a sliver can infect the skin if it punctures a certain way. You left yourself open for this, A! Perhaps I should put you on my list of suspects.”

A bit down on his lip and squeezed his eyes shut. Would this asshole ever shut up? “B, why would I infect myself?” he asked as calmly as he could manage.

“I don’t know, why would you leave the house to go out into the rain with no umbrella? I can’t read your mind, A.”

The British boy let out a weak groan and reached forward to grab his blankets and pull them back up. He had been too hot before, but now his body was shivering with chills. He coughed quietly as he sat up, and as he laid back down, the tickle that had been pestering his nose before returned. He froze midway back as his breath hitched, his body propped up on one elbow. He barely had time to raise his hand to cover his face before the tickle in his nostrils evolved into a sneezing fit. “ah-ahCHO! HuhCHOO! Ugh…ah-ahh-CHH! chh!” When the fit finally passed, he allowed his body to collapse the rest of the way onto the bed. He wiped his nose against his wrist again and turned to his companion.

“B, can you please hand me some tissues,” he seemed to say through his congestion. B did so without complaint, much to A’s surprise. He had been expecting another lecture before B would do anything helpful. The light blue box in hand, A grabbed two out of the top and blew his nose, the loud sound echoing through the quiet room. They were soaked through almost instantly, and he was forced to toss them to the side and grab another three just in time to catch another fit of two sneezes in them. B got back into his chair, watching his rival’s every move as he continued to drain his stuffy nose.

“Can we continue, Alternate?” he asked after a moment, almost politely. A sniffled and tossed the used Kleenex into the pile with its predecessor. “I suppose,” he said with another short cough.

“Well, after I got back, I went to study. I stayed in my room until 6:30 when I went to the dining hall to eat.”

“And who did you see there?” B asked, raising a finger to hand on his bottom lip.

“I saw you there! B, the majority of my day is spent with you, as sad as that sounds. You already know everything that I do in the course of my day. Class, study, eat, study, sleep! That’s all!” A paused to cough again, rubbing at his throat with one hand while the other remained secured around his mouth to contain his germs. “Please, let’s stop now, okay? Question me in the morning, I need rest.”

B chewed down on his finger, but didn’t remove himself from the chair. Instead he remained seated as he surveyed his roommate, taking in his appearance and going through the all possible outcomes, statistics and probabilities in his head as L had taught him to do. The answer to any situation was always obvious, one only needed to open themselves up to see it. ‘What am I missing? The answer has to be more obvious than this.’

“A, who else did you come in contact with yesterday morning besides our teachers and classmates?” B asked, refusing to give up without his answer. The blond groaned and turned himself over in bed to face his roommate. “No one. I saw no one.” The boy blinked suddenly, his eyes widening less than half a centimeter, but B noticed the slight change in expression.

“What, what is it? What did you remember?” he asked excitedly. A turned his face downwards, averting his eyes in an almost embarrassed manner.

“I…I spoke to L,” he murmured. “We spoke right after I got back from my walk. He was on his way to the cafeteria and I was on my way back to the room. It was brief, we only exchanged pleasantries, really.”

B jumped off of the chair, letting it roll backwards in his wake and stood over his rival with a frenzied expression. “You spoke with L? What did you talk about?”

“It’s none of your business, B! But I told you, we only said hello. He asked how my schoolwork was going, I asked how his cases were going, and that’s it. Nothing suspicious.”

B frowned and scratched at the base of his neck. “And did he shake your hand?”

The blond blinked at the question and gave B a frown of his own. “Shake my hand? Well, yes, he did, to congratulate me for ranking number one again.”

“Well that’s your answer!” B yelled, jumping back onto the bed. “You shook L’s hand while you were still wet and cold from your walk, he must have infected you!” B paused a moment as he felt A’s forehead again. “I’m 85 percent certain that it wasn’t on purpose, but who knows? Maybe he did it on purpose! In any case, that is your answer.”

A stared at his fellow heir incredulously, his nose twitching again. “So because of the fact that I saw L for five minutes and shook his hand yesterday, you’ve deduced that he is the reason for my illness?”

B gestured to the window, his hands randomly flailing about as he worked out his reasoning. “Think about it, A. None of our teachers are sick, none of the student, save for yourself is sick. So this bug was obviously brought in by an outside source. L just got back from China, right? So he probably caught a cold there and brought it back with him. You have to admit that it makes perfect sense.”

Slapping his face in annoyance, A couldn’t help but feel that B could have been correct. L had seemed a bit despondent and tired, he may have been just getting over a cold or at least on heavy medication for one. It wasn’t a completely asinine observation, and A was almost angry at himself for it not occurring to him sooner.

He didn’t let his disappointment show in his face, however. He looked back up at his rival, his eyes tired and watery and rubbed at the underside of his nose. “Okay, you solved your case. Excellent j-job, Backup. Can…can we -huh…ah-AH-CHOO! ahh-CHI! Can …huhCHH! Ah, can we please sleep now?”

“Of course, Alternate, I never go back on my promises.” B jumped back over to his bed and slid under his blankets like a snake. “Sweet dreams!” he yelled to his companion before twisting himself over in bed to face the wall with a sinister smirk. Several minutes passed, and with it another fifteen coughs from A, this time within a two minute period instead of three. B was uncomfortable with no pillows, but he didn’t want to bother with going to fetch them. No, he could easily get them back without having to get out of bed.

“You know, you sound like a strangled cat when you cough like that,” he remarked snidely, counting down the seconds before A would undoubtedly throw a pillow in his direction out of anger.

[wishiwassneezy]

Investigating a cold, very creative, nice story

[Cerulean Flower]

I agree. I love Death Note fics and this one was very creative indeed! Thanks for this treat. Keep up the good work.

[W.I.N.]

This was very sweet. I don't know Death Note at all, but I like the characterization you employed. B is both intelligent *and* completely lacking in empathy, and it was a lot of fun to read. I can see how he became a serial killer later on.

~W.I.N.

[dove]

wishiwassneezy - Thank you! I'm glad that you enjoyed it despite the storyline not being familiar.

Cerulean Flower - Yay! I'm so glad you enjoyed it! I really need to branch off into other DN characters (which I do often for regular fanfic, just not for forum-worthy stuff), but B is my favorite character to write at the moment. Thank you so much!

whatsinaname - Aw, thank you so much! I'm glad that my characterization made sense! I was very drugged on cold medication when I wrote this, so re-reading it was pretty hilarious.

[lalaland~]

hehe awesome :3

i love A and B and Death Note and L and.....