Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

“You understand it will be a lot of hard work, don’t you?”

The woman, the social worker, glowered down at him from over her desk. It was very neat and organized—quite unlike the natural state of his uncle’s workspace.

According to the plaque on her desk her name was Mrs. Stevens, but that hardly seemed relevant. She seemed no different from all the others—the boy knew she wanted to send him back. Like they all did—everyone but his new parents.

But he wouldn’t let them! He refused to let her intimidate him.

He took his cues from his new father and merely stared back at her impassively.

“I don’t care!” the small child asserted. “I’m staying with Dad!”

He refused to return to that house—he would run away if it came to that. But given a choice he would much rather stay with his new guardian, or rather guardians—guardians who actually took care of him.

It was a nice change.

The boy formerly known as “Freak” was still in awe of his new guardians—they were perfect in every way. When his aunt and uncle had signed over custody (just like that!) he had been a bit nervous—nothing Vernon liked ever boded well for him. In fact the boy got the sense that when his aunt and uncle signed him over to the tall, handsome Japanese man that they were hoping the man would do something bad to him but to his immense relief the man wasn’t bad at all.

In fact Light Yagami was by far the nicest person the boy had ever met.

True, sometimes Light could be a bit... off, a bit scary, but it was hardly noticeable unless you were really looking and Light was so nice to him (he got him pizza! And ice cream!) So it hardly seemed important.

Not to mention the monster that always accompanied him...

The only time he’d ever seen that many jagged teeth before was on one of Dudley’s cartoons! Still the boy was a bit new to the concept of not being struck every time he opened his mouth so it took a while for him to rouse his courage to ask about it. So it was that shortly after they had first met him, Light had been very confused when Harry Potter asked him about his pet dinosaur.

It seemed a perfectly logical conclusion to the boy—the creature was huge, towering over Light who was no shorty either, standing nearly two meters tall, but the creature stood at least a half meter taller still and though he wasn’t exactly reptilian he did have feathers—weren’t dinosaurs supposed to have feathers? Despite what all Dudley’s toys looked like? Dudley punched him the one time he read that and then went on to oh-so-sagely declare that “feathers are gay and so are books,” whatever that meant. Gay or not Ryuk cut an impressively intimidating figure with his skull-like face with bulging yellow eyes (that somewhat resembled overly large olives), a smashed in nose, and slicked back, spiky black hair. He was dressed all in black with chains and leather—like one of those teenagers that his aunt and her tea ladies were always tutting against. In short, Ryuk looked far scarier than his uncle but the boy soon found he was far nicer though. (He would find they both were—at least to him.)

Light seemed alarmed to see them interacting. That’s when the boy learned that apparently few people could see the creature. “Freak” was worried he’d done something freakish again and was about to be punished for it. Light only chided him not to speak to the creature in public and if he forgot and did it anyway to just pretend Ryuk was his imaginary friend.

The boy nodded and smiled. He could do that!

He learned his father’s friend(?) was something called a Shinigami whose name was Ryuk. He came from another world but was rather fond of Earth apples (and so the boy decided he was more like an alien than a dinosaur.)

He was cool.

Ryuk would even carry him around and let him play with his fluffy black feathers… but never out in public.

Light reminded them of that. No one else could see Ryuk and it would be strange if he started floating around, that there were plenty of people who didn’t like things that were different, people like his relatives, people who would hurt him because of it and that they could both get in trouble for that.

At the boy’s look of fear and brief explanation of why “freakiness” was bad Light assured him it was okay to be different—that that just meant that they were both Kami, extraordinary in their own ways—but the trick was not to rub it in the faces of those poor, deprived average people.

For the first time the boy understood—the Dursleys and everyone like them… they were trying to make him be normal because they were jealous and petty and stupid. At first the boy had imagined trying to be “as freaky as possible,” whatever that meant, just to spite them but Light had insisted it was far better to take the high road—work their system, play their game, and then utterly destroy them in a way that was completely just and fair.

Fairness. Justice. That was something the boy could get behind. There wasn’t a lot of it in Little Whinging—that was for sure. It was really nice to finally find someone as passionate about justice as he was and who could see how awful things truly were. He wasn’t sure how he knew, but just… something in Light’s eyes told him—all the people who hurt him—they would get what was coming to them.

That made him smile.

Yes, the boy already loved and adored Light and Ryuk and had taken to calling them “father” and “dad,” respectively. Light just looked like a “father”—he held a certain air of power that was not to be trifled with—which the child found to be quite awesome when watching how he relentlessly pushed his way through the bureaucratic hurdles and the many people telling him “no.”

The boy was shocked and amazed that anyone would go to that much trouble just to keep him.

Wasn’t he only a useless burden? The Dursleys had always told him so. And yet Light not only wanted him, he was willing to fight for him.

The boy decided that Light was everything a father should be and that he would be honored to be the man’s son. And he could already tell that Ryuk would be a fun and awesome dad—when the boy had first admitted he thought his name was Freak, Ryuk had started calling him “Bocchan.” The boy was about to get mad—he wasn’t a “Bocchan,” whatever that was—when his father translated, and told him it meant “Little Master.” The boy decided that was okay if a bit strange—no one had ever addressed him like that before! No one had ever called him anything nice before! He was always Freak-Worthless-Burden so he decided he rather liked being a “Little Master.”

His father seemed a bit irritated about it for some reason—it was almost like he was jealous?

That seemed to be the case because he seemed somewhat appeased when Ryuk told him not to worry, Light was still the most worthy of the Shinigami—which earned him a laugh—it seemed to be some sort of inside joke between them.

The boy interrupted their weird staring contest to inform them he liked “Bocchan” better than “Freak” and asked if they could call him that from now on.

Light then reminded him that that “Bocchan” was a title, like “Prince” or “King,” not a name, and when they properly adopted him he would have a new name of his choosing and yes, it could be a cool one.

Ryuk would still call him “Bocchan” though.

The boy smiled at the memory and felt a largely unfamiliar warm, happy feeling in his chest.

He didn’t care what the stupid social worker said—he had already found his home.

He said as much to Mrs. Stevens, though carefully left out the “stupid” part—Light had warned him against antagonizing the social workers, after all.

Mrs. Stevens was shocked by his proclamation. Sure the man that accompanied the small child was polite and pleasant enough but he also seemed rather cold and aloof—that is, he didn’t exactly seem like a very child-friendly personality so it was nothing short of shocking that they bonded so quickly.

Well, that was her initial impression, along with the fact that the man was very handsome—he was tall, but slender and lithe, almost a swimmer’s body, and moved with a grace that seemed almost divine. He also had the most beautiful eyes she’d ever seen—they were brown but with hints of gold, and a most stunning shade of red that boiled just beneath the surface. Pretty, silky auburn brown hair fell into his eyes. Mrs. Stevens thought that to be a strange colour on a Japanese man—maybe he was mixed?

In the smaller chair beside him, the boy in question tried not to fidget or play with the buttons on his dress shirt. He’d never had a shirt with buttons before or a shirt of his own that fit him for that matter. Light had insisted on buying him a whole new wardrobe. The boy, having never gone shopping before, took his cues from his new guardians—patterning himself off Light for formal clothes and Ryuk for casual clothes. They both seemed pleased with his selections and he ended up with a lot of tight black t-shirts and khaki pants. It was odd; after wearing Dudley’s hand-me-downs for so long it felt weird and good, having clothes that actually fit.

Afterwards Light and Ryuk took him to an abandoned lot and allowed him to practice his powers (something his Aunt and Uncle would never do), Ryuk shouting encouragements that he should set Dudley’s old clothes on fire with his mind.

Which he shockingly, somehow managed to accomplish—the dirty rags going up in an impressive ball of flame.

So, in the boy’s opinion, they were the best dads ever.

Light had insisted on his respectable clothes for these meetings, which was fine—unlike other boys his age he wasn't about to complain. The boy reasoned that Light giving him such clothes meant he saw him as a potential equal, as another person , not a Freak. The Dursleys would never have let a “Freak” like him dress like an actual person. Light had even given him advice on how to get people to like him better just by dressing differently for different situations, about human perception and how it was important to look “respectable” if you wanted people to take you seriously.

The boy gaped at his new guardian—he was so smart! He had an answer for everything! And Ryuk was a lot of fun to hang out with and he actually liked playing with him! And Light... Light was just so amazing, and smart, and always so… in control. The boy decided right then, that even if Light had ulterior motives for helping him it was still better than the Dursleys.

Also when he grew up he wanted to be just like him.

The social worker turned a page in the boy’s file, making note that he was looking much better than he did in the dossier picture—for one he had put on a healthy amount of weight while in Mr. Yagami’s care and no longer resembled a child skeleton. His normally messy black hair had been gelled up into a series of neat, manageable spikes (unbeknownst to her, patterned after a certain Shinigami—they had found it was the only way to tame the bird’s nest that was the cursed Potter hair) and his glasses were brand new and no longer held together with tape. Green eyes stared up at her from behind them with an intensity that was disturbing to see on a child so young.

She didn’t quite know what to make of them. The man who accompanied the child was well-dressed and looked respectable but he was a foreigner and therein lay the problem—not only did the adoption have to be finalized when the child had living family in Britain but he needed a passport to Japan. He would have to apply for residency and eventually citizenship. Further complicating things, the man wanted “his son” to have dual citizenship “in case he wanted to return to England one day.” It was a mess of paperwork and yet the man was nothing but persistent, plowing through every other department until he’d somehow landed at her desk.

She didn’t know quite what to do with them. Mrs. Stevens couldn’t quite put a finger on it but something felt… off about the situation but she had no idea why. Things looked okay on paper and she had discovered as she spoke to him, to her bemusement, that despite his cold demeanor Light was also quite the charmer and he held an air of maturity and grace despite his young age.

“Mr. Yagami…”

“Light, please. Mr. Yagami is my father. That’s a lovely dress, ma’am. I like the colour...”

She wondered if he was single.

Though he was a little young for her and she doubted her husband would approve... Maybe she could set her daughter up?

Mrs. Stevens glanced down at the dossier and noted that he had his fiancée listed as a secondary guardian for the boy.

Dammit.

“You’ll have to learn Japanese—” Mrs. Stevens spoke down to the child, tearing her gaze away from that angel-faced man before her to actually do her job. She still found Light’s presence to be very distracting despite being thirty years his senior and kept sending him heated gazes that he seemed not to notice at all.

That was when the black-haired pipsqueak spoke up, interrupting her perfect fantasies…

The boy barely refrained from rolling his eyes. As if they didn’t already know all this already. Of course he would be learning Japanese. He was moving to Japan! Shouldn’t have all those forms they filled out counted for something?

“Hai! I know! I’ve already started studying! Father is teaching me!” the boy nodded curtly and the social worker scowled.

“I think she’s just concerned that it will be a lot of hard work. It requires dedication and careful study… that is, you’ll have to keep at it, even when it’s frustrating for you,” Light interjected in an attempt to smooth over the situation.

The boy tried to unobtrusively adjust his new glasses in his agitation. He was still not quite used to them because it was the first time he ever owned a pair of glasses that fit properly. The boy frowned slightly. None of his new guardians had glasses. They had already discussed the possibility of getting laser surgery when he was older if the adoption went through and the doctors in Japan said it was safe. He couldn’t wait until he was older and living in Japan.

“But I’m used to doing a lot of work! Every day I did all the chores for my relatives. No breaks!”

Both adults seemed alarmed by that statement. It was one thing to know that the boy had been abused and neglected and another to know just to what extent his previous guardians went to hurt their own flesh and blood.

Mrs. Stevens noted the young man’s eyes flashed with righteous anger but quickly reigned in his emotions to place a comforting hand on the boy’s shoulder.

“H-how old are you, young man?” Mrs. Stevens asked the child, dreading the answer. She was sure she had read it in his file but for some reason that information seemed nebulous in her mind...

“I’m five years old… ma’am,” belatedly remembering how Light had coaxed him that it would make a better impression if he was polite to the social workers.

They all knew it was a lot for a five year old to remember but apparently he was what Ryuk had called a “smart cookie” and the boy reasoned it couldn’t be any harder than doing the cooking and cleaning for his relatives—chores which he’d already been doing for the last year and a half.

Mrs. Stevens bright, blue eyes widened upon hearing the boy’s age. He was older than she thought he was, but in a way, that just made it worse. The boy was much too small for his age and clearly malnourished. She had seen his relatives! Well, their photographs accompanied his file and they clearly weren’t wanting in funds or food. No, they knowingly and purposefully starved this child and if given the chance they would gleefully do it again.

Mrs. Stevens wasn’t a vengeful person by nature but…

But…

Kira take them all.

“No breaks?” Light prompted, brows lined with clear concern.

“Well sometimes if I was good and nothing weird or freaky happened my aunt would give me some burnt toast or an apple. I like apples.”

There was a brief but poignant pause and then the man, almost too swiftly, interjected “I like apples too,” with a charming smile.

“Really?”

“Yeah. Do you have any favorite kinds?”

The boy’s face fell. “I wasn’t good very often,” he admitted softly.

“Haru…” Light spoke gently, addressing the boy with the name he’d chosen for himself, “What your aunt and uncle did… It wasn’t your fault. You understand that, right? You didn’t do anything wrong. They were the bad ones. Not you.”

If he was a normal child, Haru would probably be clinging to Light right now. However while in his relative’s care the boy had learned to be adverse to touch. He’d also learned to read people very well and he could tell that this seemed to be something he and his new father had in common… though perhaps for different reasons.

Haru squeezed his expressive green eyes shut against the sudden surge of emotion.

“I’ll cook for you and clean your house every day,” he rasped to the concern of all.

“Haru… while I appreciate the sentiment… you will not have to do that for us.”

“But…”

“Haru… you’re five. You do understand what you’re relatives did was not normal?”

“Er… Yes…?”

Haru had thought Light was just going easy on him because he was sick. He fully expected to be working for him like he did at the Dursleys as soon as he got better.

In fact he wanted to. Because in Haru’s mind, after the Dursleys, that was the only way he was permitted to show love and affection and his new guardians, unlike the Dursleys, actually deserved it…

Light frowned at the boy’s questioning inflection. It looked like he had his work cut out for him. “Besides,” Light blithely continued, deciding to leave any more uncomfortable questions for later “Misa likes to do the cooking. Did you know she has her own cooking show in Japan?”

“Really? Wow!”

Misa sounded amazing!

The more he heard of her the more in awe Haru was of the woman he had yet to meet—not only was she rich but she had gotten that way by herself! She was an actress AND a rockstar?! AND she had her own TV shows, and made clothes, and commercials, and ran companies, and a bunch of other stuff! AND she had her own cooking show?!

Haru pouted to himself. How could he hope to compete with all that? He wanted to be useful to him too! He didn’t want to be the obvious burden to Light that he had been to the Dursleys.

“But maybe when you’re older you can give her some tips,” Light stage-whispered and Haru giggled nervously.

Maybe Misa could give him some tips...She clearly knew how to get stuff done.

“I will give you chores from time to time but nothing like that, okay?”

“Er… Okay?”

Again it came out as more of a question and though he forced a smile, Light could tell the boy had just frozen in fear. So he felt it rather important to elaborate on just how things would be. “You will be allowed breaks. In fact, I insist. If you get hungry you will eat. If you get too tired you will rest. I will expect you to study hard, to do your best in school, to learn Japanese, and to keep your room clean but Misa, that is your new mom, and I are the adults. It’s our job to take care of you. If you have difficulties we will help you. I know it’s a new concept and it may be difficult at first but… I do hope that in time you will know its okay to come to us for help.”

“I get a room?” the boy asked with enthusiasm and they both noted how the social worker paled.

Light beamed with pride—that was masterfully done. He couldn’t have done it better himself. He was sure that she would come around to their point of view sooner rather than later.

“Of course! In fact, Misa got a townhouse apartment just for you.”

“What?!”

“Naturally your, uh… mother and I will move in to keep you company but you can have it or another one of your choosing when you come of age.”

Haru was floored. Someone he didn’t even know was willing to do that? For him?

But… he was just a freak! He didn’t deserve all that! He was still getting used to sharing a hotel room! He didn’t know what he would do with a whole apartment!

It seemed like far too much space for the boy who grew up in a boot cupboard. He was still not used to sleeping in a bed of his own and he didn’t trust it. His Uncle had always suggested that bad things happened to Freaks who slept in beds.

When Haru gave voice to some of his concerns when Light caught him sleeping on the floor, rather than punish him or force him back into the bed as Haru was half-expecting, Light got him a futon and a child’s portable tent to put over it.

That was far more comfortable to him than the bed but then he felt bad when he later learned from one of the other exchange students that Light had gotten a room with an extra bed just for him but he didn’t use it.

It seemed a waste that no one used it. Haru had offered it to Ryuk but the Shinigami declined, saying he was much too used to sharing a bed with Light. Light looked embarrassed about that for some reason though Haru had no idea why. Though… his aunt and uncle shared a bed... maybe it was like that?

Haru noticed that the Shinigami often lounged on Light’s bed even during the day, snacking on apples. Haru thought him very brave. Ryuk was definitely what the Dursleys would class as “a Freak” and yet he had such an air of nonchalance. Wasn’t he afraid? Ryuk had just laughed when asked and declared the bed was “comfy” and “much better than sleeping in a dust pile.” Haru could relate to that—his cupboard had been very dusty and full of spiders. Haru eventually moved his futon and child’s tent onto the bed after that, reasoning that if Ryuk could do it, why couldn’t he?

(For some reason Light got Ryuk an extra bag of apples the following day.)

Haru was feeling overwhelmed. He knew Ryuk was cool and Light was cool and now here was another person who might be cool as well? Someone he hadn’t even met properly? Light had mentioned Misa to him before and they’d even spoken briefly over the phone but he had yet to actually meet her. Light’s explanation had pretty much went over his head but basically Misa was a friend of Light’s and was going to be his secondary guardian and share custody of him. When he asked why Ryuk couldn’t be his second guardian Light had patiently explained that as far as Social Services was concerned Ryuk didn’t exist and they wouldn’t allow him guardianship because Ryuk wasn’t human and they were picky about things like that and that, for whatever reason, Child Services liked seeing a child set up with a mom and a dad. Basically that meant that Misa was going to be his new mom, even though Light and Misa weren’t actually married.

He was still nervous about meeting Misa. He wasn’t sure if she’d like him or not. Or if he’d like her, for that matter… But then in Haru’s limited experience people generally didn’t give things like that to people they didn’t like… So while he was anxious… he still couldn’t wait to meet her.

“That won’t be troublesome for her? Or you?”

“Haru, she has six… just in Japan.”

“Oh.”

“And it’s no trouble. You’ll never be a burden to us," Light assured with seeming sincerity. "We can take care of you.”

“O-okay.”

The social worker obnoxiously cleared her throat.

“However, Mrs. Stevens does have a point,” Light allowed. “It will be hard work to learn another language—though some would argue that now really is the best time for you to learn it.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Your brain is still growing and developing so it can make connections easier than if you tried to learn as an adult…”

“Cool!”

“But again, we would have a lot of ground to cover. I don’t want to discourage you but it may be challenging… how do I put this… in your school did you learn the alphabet?”

“Just last week! I already knew it though.”

“That’s very good, Haru.”

The boy beamed at the praise until his new father dropped the next bombshell.

“Japanese has three. And it’s… more complicated than the Romanji, that is, the English system.”

“Woah!”

“So you see it is quite a lot of work.”

“I already said I’ll do it. I know it will be hard, okay! I’ll try not to whine about it. I promise! And… and you’ll help me, right?”

“Of course,” his father said easily.

“Okay.”

The social worker cleared her throat again as if she had a particularly bad cold. “That may be true but we must proceed with the child’s best interests in mind. I still think it would be better if he were to remain with a nice British family…”

Light suppressed a sigh and idly tapped his fingers on the desktop. They’d already been down this route many times before. True, adoption was never an easy process but the Dursleys had already signed over custody, even with the matter of citizenship this was supposed to be just a formality—it should have been pretty cut and dry. Neither he nor Haru had anything against Britain per se… except for the fact that they kept sending him back to that house.

It was nothing short of criminal.

Back in the smaller chair next to Light, the young boy tried not to bounce in his seat. The last thing he wanted was for this to fall through because he was naughty or something and he could only hope and pray that nothing “freakish” happened that would ruin this for him but as the clocked ticked by and the social worker remained stone-faced Haru was getting more and more distressed.

Why couldn’t they see?

It was Light who took him to the hospital, and made sure what his relatives did was documented with the police so they shouldn’t be sending him to that house! To continue to try and send him back to the Dursleys as they had been doing was, as Light put it, not only illegal but evil.

It was Light who fed him and bought him clothes that actually fit and glasses he could actually see out of. It was Light that taught him things, who listened to what he had to say, who let him watch TV. He even took him out swimming with the other college students from Japan.

Light was not even ashamed to be seen with him by his friends or in public!

And the best part? Light never hit him and rarely ever raised his voice and even when he did... it was never without good reason. If Light shouted at him that meant that Haru was doing something immediately dangerous; not because he broke a dish or tracked mud in the house in his rush to complete his impossible list of tasks that not even an adult could finish in four hours. And Light promised that punishments would be at most a restriction of privileges but never food. (Naturally Haru was confused when Light first threatened Ryuk with “no apples” until Light explained that Ryuk was a Shinigami and, unlike a growing boy, didn’t actually need to eat to live. Ryuk’s apples were a purely recreational activity, more akin to smoking a cigarette than actually eating and while such a restriction made him a bit dramatic and irritable it truly did him no harm.)

Haru’s life had really turned around this summer with no Dursleys and his cool new dads taking care of him. He even looked healthier, which was no coincidence—according to the doctors living with the Dursleys had been slowly killing him—he overheard something about septic shock, severe malnutrition, and thallium poisoning. Haru had no idea what those were but they sounded bad. In fact the doctors seemed to be under the impression he shouldn’t be alive. Light had looked very scary angry at the time. Not at him, he would learn, but for some reason Light seemed to think Kira would be making his Aunt and Uncle go away soon.

Haru wasn’t real sure he knew what was going on but he did know about Kira—everyone knew about Kira (or at least everyone on the playground and as far as the five-year old was concerned, that was everyone)—Kira made bad people go away. Haru himself had often been threatened with Kira multiple times… by the bullies, by his neighbors, by his teacher, and by his relatives because he was clearly a rotten child and everyone knows rotten children get taken by the boogeyman. And while his aunt and uncle were awful to him they were still the only family he’d ever known so… surely they weren’t that bad?

That was when Light translated for the doctors—that along with the starvation and the beatings, his relatives had been feeding him rat poison. Haru had been shocked into silence and didn’t have a proper objection after that. Not that it would have mattered anyway. They said Kira was like a God and he was sure Kira would do what Kira would do regardless of his wishes on the matter.

For some reason the incident made him like Light even more. True, Light could be a bit scary but no one had ever gotten mad for him before, no one had ever looked out for him before, so even though his new father might have a bit of a scary side (and sometimes his eyes would glow an ominous red that no one else but Ryuk seemed to notice) he still felt safe with Light.

Haru’s recovery was nothing short of miraculous. In the past three months since he began staying at the hotel with Light and Ryuk and the exchange students … he felt so much better now, happier, alive...

Couldn’t they just see that Light was his father now?

Haru squirmed in his seat and, in his agitation, he started to change.

The boy watched in awe as he saw his reflection in the polished surface of the desk subtly mutate and rearrange itself, gaining high cheek bones and pointed chin, and his pale skin changed to a golden brown similar to his father’s. His eyes were still green but they gained epicanthic folds and his hair was still black but it was no longer the crow’s nest that it once was—silky locks fell into his eyes (again, in a manner similar to his father’s) covering his lightning bolt-shaped scar.

Haru glanced between his reflection and that of the handsome Japanese man who was adopting him.

He could now pass for the man’s own son.

The social worker blinked and abruptly ceased her adamant arguments that he should be put with a British family despite him still being a British citizen.

Was skin colour really the only issue?

That was so stupid!

Light also looked a bit startled by the sudden change but unlike Vernon did not start screaming at him for doing freakish things. No, if anything he looked intrigued and perhaps even, dare he say, proud of him? Haru belatedly realized that even when they first met and he’d done the freakish thing of saving himself, somehow, after Vernon had pushed him into traffic (one minute the truck was rushing towards him the next he was across the street, shaking, and nearly collapsing into Light’s coffee table. Light didn’t yell at him for it though. If it had been Vernon he no doubt he would have been thrown, bloody and broken into the cupboard by now and Vernon would still be screaming at him.)

And whenever he did weird things after… Light never screamed at him. In fact both he and Ryuk had even encouraged him to try and do freakish things… or as they put it, “use his power.” Haru decided that was a better way to put it.

The boy gave a shy, tentative smile which only brightened when Light beamed back at him.

Mrs. Stevens blinked in confusion, glanced down at the dossiers in front of her and then back at them, and then focused on her empty glass for some reason before swiftly rifling through the paperwork. When she asked, Haru reluctantly gave her the number of Arabella Figg, the only person in Little Whinging who didn’t refer to him as a delinquent, as a reference to verify some information...

“Is Mr. Potter a Half-blood?” Mrs. Stevens had asked. He must have always been. The light was playing tricks on her eyes. One didn’t suddenly “Turn Japanese,” regardless of what the eighties pop song said. “I assume he is half but I have an irregularity here in some official documentation...”

“Oh? Oh! Of course! I thought everyone knew that!” declared Mrs. Figg, assuming the person on the other end of the line to be one of the muggleborn Order Members, probably one of the few who had infiltrated low level offices in the Ministry. Who else would try to contact her like this asking about Harry Potter’s blood status? Though it was still slightly puzzling that they used the phone rather than the Floo... Before Mrs. Figg could further ponder the conundrum her mind, which had been Obliviated one too many times, wandered on to other, more important things—such as where Tom, Fluffy, Tiger, Orion, Mouser, Oreo, Queenie, and Mr. Tibbles could possibly be sleeping this fine afternoon…

“Thank you for your time, ma’am,” Mrs. Stevens said and disconnected the call.

Well the boy was half-Japanese… that simplified things.

It must have been the father then—she at least had some information on the boy’s mother but absolutely nothing on the father—he must have been Japanese. She marked it down on his file and then considered both the boy and the man with a critical eye. Perhaps Mr. Yagami was the father… the social worker squinted again. Other than the hair and the eyes they looked near identical—yes, she was almost sure that Yagami was the father. She had an eye for this sort of thing… although he would have been awfully young.

How scandalous!

That could be the reason he didn’t come forward until now. Mrs. Stevens idly marked that down on the file too but then frowned as she realized there were problems with this theory. And then, despite everything saying the boy would be better off away from the Dursleys, there was still that odd grandfatherly voice in her head insisting “The boy should remain with his family” but that shouldn’t be something she was even considering! The boy should be nowhere near those animals after…

The best way to reconcile with the odd voice in her head was if she assumed the boy to be the man’s biological son. That way he would still “remain with his family” without returning to the Dursleys.

But then she noticed there were inconsistencies with her assumption—Mrs. Stevens frowned at the obvious genetic impossibilities— the boy had improbably green eyes given Light was Asian and had brown eyes... but perhaps those were colour contacts? And hadn’t the child’s mother been a red-head? If the child had black hair shouldn’t the father?

“Do you dye your hair?” the social worker blurted to a scandalized Light.

The college freshmen suppressed another sigh, long used to this line of inquiry.

“No, I don’t dye my hair. Yes, this is my natural hair colour. Yes, I am full Japanese—it’s a mutation.” He was about to snark that no, he wasn’t a kitsune, a fox demon, either but then he remembered he was dealing with a Westerner who might not get the reference. “Why do you ask?”

“Well, the child’s mother, Lily Evans, was a red-head and you have reddish hair shouldn’t the child have reddish hair too?

Wait… She thinks I’m his biological father? We look… a moment ago we looked nothing alike?! I guess this says something about the human ability to rationalize, thought Light.

He wasn’t too surprised by Haru’s spontaneous change—he already knew Haru had special powers. In fact, he’d already begun working with Haru to test what sort of things he could do and under what circumstances in order to learn to control them—to that end Light began with teaching Haru how to meditate to help him control his emotions (and whenever Light needed a moment of respite from the rambunctious five year old. Haru was proud to say he was getting quite good at meditation.)

Light soon discovered that accessing Haru’s abilities wasn’t nearly as simple as learning how to use the Death Note. Worse, the magical child came with no helpful instruction manual and he had no idea what the rules actually were. So Light generally chose to err on the side of caution, limiting Haru’s practices to a couple times a day and made him stop if it looked like it was tiring him. Haru would whine about that on more than one occasion. Light was sure he could have kept going—thanks to his relatives the child had learned to ignore pain, hunger, and exhaustion to just keep working but that wasn’t exactly healthy, especially with Haru still recovering from what his relatives did to him—his body was still healing and Light didn’t want to push him too hard. He didn’t want to be too ruthless either—this was a child who was recovering from severe psychological trauma. The problem, they soon learned, was that quite often it was trauma that caused him to display his powers in the first place.

But while Light might on occasion gently suggest Haru think about how certain events made him feel to try and get him to reproduce a certain effect he would not go so far as to recreate the circumstances in which he was traumatized. (Though… he didn’t discount the idea entirely—perhaps when he was older… if he didn’t get a hang of it by then, if Haru agreed, and if they were both desperate enough to try it…)

Ryuk was also uncharacteristically helpful with this endeavor and gave them several helpful suggestions on how Haru might control his powers. It was odd—the Shinigami had become almost reverential of the child ever since he noticed the odd birthmark on the boy’s hip while they were waiting around at the doctor’s office. It was oddly intricate for a birthmark—a triangle enclosing a circle that was bisected by a line in the middle, and at first even the doctor had mistaken it for a tattoo. Light didn’t think it quite merited calling him “Bocchan” but then Light figured that after the damage done by his relatives, the boy could use an ego boost. Light had no idea what such a birthmark could possibly mean but he intended to find out. He added it to the long list of things he intended to research ever since adopting Haru.

Light marveled at that.

He hadn’t intended to adopt a child during his trip to England. This wasn’t what he planned, and at times it could be frustrating, but he didn’t regret it—it was never a dull moment with Haru around.

Light was startled out of his musings by the excited piping of Haru’s voice. “Oh? Right! Okay!”

And just like that, in response to the social worker’s inquiries, the boy’s hair spontaneously changed to an identical shade of red-brown as his new father’s.

Light’s eyes widened in intrigue at the child who, aside from the striking eyes of jade, now looked like a chibi version of him. Light wasn’t sure why but he was inordinately pleased with this development. At the same time he hoped this didn’t cause problems with Misa. Light (ever so discreetly) gulped. He could almost hear her shrill complaining and his hurried explanation “No, Misa sweetie, I didn’t sleep with another girl! (I have no interest in girls at all though you don’t seem to want to believe that.) Put the Notebook away…”

Maybe Haru could change back once they were done with the adoption process because it could only benefit them now if she thought they were actually related…

Light kind of liked the look though. He wondered what Haru thought about it. Maybe they could work on him changing back and forth…

Light wondered if Haru could use that power to perfectly mimic the forms of specific people…

Light wondered if Misa were to look at him while he was impersonating someone else if she would see Haru’s birth name or the name of the person he was mimicking…

Light wondered if Haru might be able to help him to find L’s true name…

He was getting ahead of himself.

Meanwhile Mrs. Stevens was still gawking at the two of them—unable to believe what she was seeing. (It was a Hell of a week to give up drinking.)

Haru glanced over at Light, his new father, his hero and savior, and made note of exactly how he was leaning back in his chair, legs crossed at the knee. The boy tried to imitate it and nearly fell out of his seat before getting the hang of it. Light tried not to smirk—it wouldn’t do to have the kid thinking he was making fun of him. Apparently the boy adored and worshipped him over the basic care and courtesies he’d shown him. While useful to him, Light determined to teach Haru to be more careful in the future. At this rate some disreputable individual might take advantage of him.

Mrs. Stevens shook her head again—why was it not obvious earlier that they were father and son? It was more tricks of the light. (She definitely needed a drink after this.)

This case should have been fairly straightforward then. Light Yagami was a respectable figure in his home country—son of Chief Souichiro Yagami, the head of Japan’s National Police Agency which, as she understood it that was a pretty big deal—something like the equivalent to heading up MI5. But then Light himself was fresh out of high school… though with some of the highest scores ever recorded and he was already working for the NPA as a part-time consultant while attending college. So despite his young age he was also very mature and already held an air of intelligence, respectability, and power. They weren’t lacking money either. Light himself was fairly well off and the boy’s secondary guardian and the man’s fiancée, one Misa Amane, was a multi-millionaire.

So on paper this appeared cut and dry. There shouldn’t be a problem with the adoption now….

Except for the strange, grandfatherly voice was back in her head again screaming “Harry Potter must not leave Britain!”

“I still think it would be better if he were to remain with a nice British family…

“That’s what you always say! Then you send me back with the Dursleys! Every time!” the little boy finally snapped.

The social worker sniffed, affronted by the child’s rude manners. “Excuse me, young man. I’ve never ‘sent you back’ there. I don’t think we’ve ever met…”

“I beg your pardon, ma’am, but he’s correct. We met with you, Mrs. Stevens, on 3:15 last Tuesday and with your assistant, Ms. Davis, on the Friday before that.”

“And for that matter why are you involved at all?” Mrs. Steven’s demanded, her voice oddly becoming rougher, older, and more masculine.

Light narrowed his eyes.

True, Light would have been content to let the system handle it… had they not kept sending the boy back to his abusive relatives. Even Ryuk was thoroughly disgusted when they learned what horrors went on in that house. Light got the feeling that Ryuk was about ready to kill them off, despite the possibility of him dying, had Light not done it first—Shinigami like Ryuk were not supposed to kill in order to save human lives but Light, as a human, could use the notebook for humans and so did just that.

Ryuk’s reaction surprised Light the most—his Shinigami seemed so apathetic towards humans most of the time that Light never thought he might do something like that. Light was even more surprised to realize he didn’t want him to—that he had actually grown quite fond of the monster’s company. Besides if Ryuk crumbled to dust he’d have no one to brag to, no one to properly share his accomplishments or appreciate his cunning plans. Sure, Misa would be more than willing to stroke his ego (among other things) and tell him how awesome he was most any time he asked but in her case such compliments were so freely given that they became more or less meaningless. It wasn’t quite the same as impressing an actual God. Besides, he was just… accustomed to having his… roommate cuddle up with him at night. He would miss him if he died. Light hadn’t expected that. He doubted Ryuk would either. He would probably laugh at him if he mentioned it. So Light didn’t. They were just each other’s entertainment, after all, and Shinigami weren’t supposed to love any more than aspiring Gods.

Light sighed, momentarily distracted as, unseen by the social worker, Ryuk moved protectively in front of Haru to stand at his side. This was all completely unseen by the (obviously insane) social worker of course, and so was completely pointless, but it was the thought that counted and it seemed to brighten Haru’s mood. Ryuk smiled at him then and Light felt an odd tightness in his chest. For a moment nothing existed but the heavy pounding of his heart and for the first time Light wondered if Ryuk could interfere with his heart without the Death Note.

Dammit, he would take teasing out a genuine smile from the demon over Misa’s swooning at him any day of the week. (He had told her as much or at least the relevant bits several times before but it hadn’t deterred her attempts to woo him.) Somehow, Light could always tell when Ryuk was actually smiling despite the fact the Shinigami’s face was almost frozen in that demented, fangy grin. Perhaps it was because they were so alike in that regard—Ryuk always seemed to know too, when he was in a bad mood despite his own smiling mask that Light had perfected for the world. As for Misa, despite being obnoxious and grating on his nerves, she was… something like a friend and she was very useful to him and so he tolerated her presence. Just the same he wouldn’t object if she found someone else to fixate on—in fact, as long as she remained loyal to Kira and his cause, he openly encouraged it. Contrary to what L or Rem might think, he wasn’t a complete bastard. He wouldn’t mind if Misa found happiness—he just knew she wouldn’t be finding it with him because he was literally incapable of being the Prince Charming she wanted. Yes, despite the image he projected for the world, Light knew he was far from perfect but, once again, he was obviously the only one who could do it...

All of his musings took less than an instant and Light snapped his full attention back to the deranged social worker who did indeed want to send his son back to that house. “The boy should stay with a nice British family… no, the boy should be with his family.”

“You would really send the boy back to live with his attempted murderers.” Light demanded, genuinely surprised at how the social worker had backpedaled on the Dursley issue.

“I wouldn’t go that far…”

“I would. Ma’am, you are aware that they pushed him into traffic? And they beat him to an inch of his life? They starved him. They poisoned him. What exactly is your definition of attempted murder? Just curious.”

“But they’re his family.”

“This isn’t even up for debate. What they attempted to do was murder!”

“None of that was proven…”

“Oh yes it was! I have copies of the official police report if you’re interested. Furthermore Mr. and Mrs. Dursley have shown no remorse and show every indication of attempting it again. That this child keeps getting sent back to those people is nothing short of criminal. The Dursleys have even said, on record, that they will kill him if he returns to their house. What you are proposing is criminally negligent and if you send him back there you will be culpable in this child’s murder.”

Haru whimpered.

“Don’t worry, Haru. You will not be going back there.”

“That remains to be seen…”

“If they try to send you back we will just have to appeal to a higher authority,” Light assured him, an odd crimson glint in his eyes. Ryuk cackled behind them.

“You can try…” she sneered.

Mr. Yagami might be well-connected in Japan but that meant next to nothing here.

“Justice always comes for those pure of heart…”

Mrs. Stevens paled. “Are you… are you threatening me with Kira? But I… I haven’t done anything!”

“‘Haven’t done anything?’ Look at what you are proposing! Have you actually read the file?” Light hissed, lowering his voice so as not to further disturb the already quivering child and better disturb the social worker as he slapped a copy of the police file down on the desk in front of her. “You are condemning an innocent child to torture and death!”

“Oh my…”

Mrs. Stevens looked dazed, as if a spell had just lifted.

“I don’t know… how could I have missed that?!” she cried in anguish.

“You’re not the only one,” Haru added in a near whisper. “My aunt and uncle always somehow convinced the police that nothing was wrong. They said… they said I was…” The boy’s nose scrunched up adorably as he tried to remember his aunt’s exact words ‘an attention-seeking troublemaker?’”

“Well, they aren’t wrong,” the social worker huffed and Light’s mood instantly darkened.

“Ma’am, far be it from me to do your job but it’s a common tactic of abusers to blame the victim. Surely you know this?”

Just as Mrs. Stevens held her head, groaning, a haunted look on her face, a strange man came bursting through the door in a flurry of black robes, waving a stick at them and shouting words in mangled Latin.

“Obliviate!”

Ryuk laughed as the spell struck Light in the face.

Of all the spells to use!

Unknown by all the humans involved, Light just happened to be immune to that particular spell—because Light was the owner of a Death Note and possessed by a Shinigami his memories and life were tied to both the Shinigami and the notebook. That meant that by the very nature of their pact they couldn’t be tampered with by other magical sources.

Also by happy accident the Shinigami’s mere presence on Earth and being in the vicinity of a certain wizarding child was playing havoc with certain tracking spells. That was why it took so long for anyone from The Order to respond to Harry Potter’s removal from Privet Drive—until Light and Haru began to regularly visit Child Services to finalize their paperwork and tripped Dumbledore’s monitoring spell they had no idea where he was.

Severus Snape blinked in confusion in the split-second he had to realize that his shouted Obliviate failed to produce the usual effect before Light punched him in the face.

Light was a strategist, not a fighter. He generally didn’t like to get physical and (despite the alarming number of people he’d killed) he wasn’t actually very fond of violence. That didn’t mean he wasn’t prepared for such a scenario—Light knew what his own father did for a living was dangerous and that there were plenty of evil people out there that might want to hurt him because of it so he had learned some self-defense lessons from a young age and, having a near eidetic memory, the words of Light’s martial arts instructor immediately sprang to mind:

“If you ever get into a fight, remember—the faster you finish it the better your chances of survival will be. If you let it drag on that means you’re in trouble. If you can, put your opponent down with one strike.”

Light took that lesson to heart… in life as well as in the context of fighting.

So when the strange, stick-wielding man attacked him, Light erupted out of his seat, throwing all his weight behind the punch that solidly connected with his attacker’s face, breaking the man’s enormous nose in the process. Even Light was surprised by the force of his punch when the greasy man went sailing across the room, through the open door, and collided hard with the opposite wall before he collapsed in a heap on the floor.

Light cautiously approached the downed man to make sure he stayed that way.

“Stay put,” Light ordered when Haru attempted to follow him and Mrs. Stevens called security.

“Filthy muggle,” the man wheezed out before Light hit him again, knocking him out or, as would later be written up in the official police report, “he helped escort the suspect to the floor.”

He would have to use the duct tape Mrs. Stevens so graciously provided to restrain him, seeing as he was sadly lacking in handcuffs.

“Wow…” Ryuk whistled beside him. “That human has very hairy wrists. That’s gonna hurt when they take it off.”

Light smirked sadistically. How unfortunate for him. Light’s first impression of the greasy-haired man was that he was some sort of pervert because he appeared to be wearing some sort of bathrobe and nothing else and had been waving a stick at them—a pervert that Light had noted had eyes for his son...

Light casually snapped a picture of the man’s ugly face with his cellphone. Misa would take care of it later—a nice suicide might be appropriate.

“Is he wearing… robes?” Mrs. Steven asked haltingly, her finely manicured hand covering her mouth in alarm.

“Some sort of cult?” Light mused aloud.

Mrs. Stevens paled. “Perhaps it would be for the best if he left the country.”

She seemed almost frightfully helpful after that. Light noted that she no longer had that glassy look in her eyes she had gained when insulting him and Haru. Light frowned—it was almost as if she had been controlled by the Notebook… but that couldn’t be right—she wasn’t dead… unless she was still being controlled but to what end? No, it appeared she’d broken whatever control she was under. Perhaps there were other people with the same power as Haru and they could use their powers to control people? A power that controlled people that didn’t kill them… but wasn’t as effective in controlling the subjects as the Death Note?

Light shook his head—he could ponder that later. Right now, they just needed to get out of here, the sooner they were away from here the better, and to do that… they needed to complete all the paperwork.

“So I just sign here?” the young man asked with an affable smile to conceal the nerves he felt whenever he had to sign his own name (owning a Death Note would do that to you—he only had to write a name in his notebook and that person dies—such power shouldn’t be taken lightly). That and the reality was setting in on what he was about to do—these were the last of the forms they had to fill out. After this it would be official.

He was going to be a father.

Frankly, Light was terrified.

He wasn’t ready for this. Hell, he didn’t think he’d ever be ready. Or qualified. Though Light much preferred to think of himself as a good person deep down and in his saner moments… beneath delusions of martyrdom and perhaps a slight God complex… Light knew exactly what he was. He was Kira—a mass murderer (even if Light firmly believed that they all had it coming); a murderer that the masses worshipped as a vengeful God.

In short, he was well aware that he wasn’t exactly good babysitting material.

It wasn’t the act itself that had him worried—sure he could play the part. When called upon he could be a perfect son to his parents, the doting brother to his sister, and the intellectual rival and tennis buddy to the Great Detective L. So really, what was one more mask? He could be whatever, and whoever, he needed to be to advance his agenda.

…Except for the fact that that much personal responsibility petrified him.

It was one thing to play God from the comfort of his bedroom—that was anonymous and any… mishaps didn’t affect him personally… not unless he got caught which he didn’t intend to do.

Also there was the small matter that this wasn’t exactly a part of his agenda. He had not, in his wildest dreams, planned for something like this, but he could improvise, his plans were mutable and adaptable and so was he.

Hell, this wasn’t why he came to England. No, naturally he was here, using a class-sponsored summer trip as an excuse, to search for leads on L’s real name. Though as far as the world was concerned he was just “improving his English and studying English culture.” So far he had learned that it rained all the time, the food was too greasy and heavy, and he missed proper Japanese green tea. He certainly hadn’t expected to return to Japan as a father—not that he hadn’t made any headway into his original purpose before he ended up on this particular tangent.

He even had a possible name.

After intensive searching of English orphanages Light had found records of a child born “Leo Charlus Potter” who could have conceivably been a young L—the photos he’d found showed a young boy with messy black hair, clear, pale skin, and large dark eyes. He even had the bad posture, insomnia, and horrible eating habits even then! How L survived even this long Light had no clue—it was like magic.

Though of course after Light learned all this Ryuk had ever helpfully informed him that this information was probably useless now, since the boy was adopted out quite young (by a man who Light decided could have been a young Watari, though Light was having trouble imagining him without the grey hair, trench coat, and fedora.) He probably considered his new name to be his true name and that would be the name he needed to kill him with the notebook. Knowing his luck L probably moved to France and changed it to L Le’douche or something like that.

And of course Ryuk waited to tell him that after Light had wasted a month researching.

Ugh! The damn Shinigami could be so… infuriating.

Light suppressed a disappointed sigh and reasoned it was far too early to kill L anyway. It would be too suspicious if he dropped dead not two months after meeting Chief Yagami’s son who he declared a Kira suspect, after all.

Still it was almost enough to want to exile the Shinigami to the couch if he didn’t think he’d get into more trouble there (such as that one time he'd pranked Light's sister, Sayu, while she was watching the Hideki Ryuuga marathon). He would have restricted his apples had Haru not taken to giving Ryuk his. (This was bad. If he couldn’t properly discipline his Death God what hope did he possibly have of reigning in his five year old son? He couldn’t in good conscience apply his usual punishments. He just hoped that the “I’m very disappointed” speech he had prepared would be enough.)

After that failed attempt at learning his nemesis’s name Light had spent most of his summer break fighting the bureaucracy in order to take custody of his son. While aggravating it wasn’t nearly to the level of being constantly accused of mass murder so Light still viewed it as a vacation. Light wanted to make sure everything was nice and legal so there would be no custody issues later. Only after he started the process did he realize it might have been easier if they had just taken the next flight to Japan—the Dursleys had already signed over custody so legally, the child was already his son and this was just a formality. The only problem was it turned out there were no records of this child existing in the system to begin with.

No birth certificate. No hospital records.

Nothing.

Apparently when the child had started school the Dursleys had bribed school administrators to look the other way. They only knew his name because of the forms and the Dursleys signed over the custody of “Harry Potter.” The boy seemed to be under the impression that his name was “Freak” which made Light want to punish the Dursleys all over again. Alas, Vernon Dursley and Petunia Evans Dursley were already dead—they just didn’t know it yet. Their names were already written in the Death Note set up to die in two weeks time. By that time Light and Ryuk would be back in Japan with their new son.

Though Kira’s usual signature cause of death, a heart attack, didn’t seem out of the realm of possibility for either Vernon with his morbid obesity nor even Petunia who seemed to think starvation was a sound diet plan for herself (as well as her nephew) but Light didn’t want anyone potentially linking their deaths to Kira when he was in the country and there was no mass media coverage of the event.

So Light had set them up to die in a car crash—that just seemed fitting somehow. His only regret after this new information had come to light was that he hadn’t been more creative with their deaths.

His research into L wasn’t a total loss though. In his spare moments between mountains of paperwork (killer and otherwise) Light learned a bit more about his investigative findings and of what could possibly be the detective’s birth name—Leo, Latin for lion, was also a star constellation and Charlus was apparently another way to spell “Charles.” There was also a rumor at the orphanage that Leo had had a twin brother (a Jim or James or a Jamie or something like that) and that the Potters only put Leo up for adoption and kept James. It was quite a scandal—that they just abandoned their, at the time, perfectly healthy baby. A perfectly healthy baby who was so very smart—but apparently he still wasn’t special enough for the Potters… Light violently shook his head—he couldn’t believe he was actually starting to feel sorry for L. If he kept that up the detective would be sending him to the gallows for sure. Soft smiles and shared strawberry cakes aside the detective wasn’t his friend. It certainly was all just a ploy to get him to lower his guard. Honestly, who tries to befriend a mass murderer?

In any case all that was pretty irrelevant—he still didn’t have what L would consider his true name and it seemed he’d come to an investigative dead end. Besides, Potter was a rather common surname in the English-speaking world—it was like Suzuki or Satō—apparently even his new charge had originally had the surname of Potter.

Now wouldn’t that be ironic if they were actually related?

Perhaps the boy was L’s long forgotten nephew or something that the oh-so-Great Detective was too much of an asshole to take care of.

Though that hardly mattered now even if that was true…

The boy was his. His and Ryuk’s... and Misa’s… well, mostly Ryuk’s. (He’d be Ryuk’s son if he got in trouble.) He wasn’t about to get mad at the child just because he might be related to L. Hell, he was probably related to L—genius of their level was so rarely found in all of humanity, it only made sense. And according to that one scientific journal he’d read at the bus stop everyone in the world was related to everyone… at least twice and if you want genetic diversity you should go for a “tall, dark, exotic stranger.”

Well, no wonder he was attracted to Ryuk. Not that it mattered anyway since he very much doubted either of them could get pregnant.

Which brought him back to the issue at hand—Light had never expected to become a father but that had been alright by him—he was content to be something of a father-figure, a God, for the entire world.

He hadn’t expected to want to be a father either.

And not just a father but a good father.

The Dursleys had set a low bar but Light wanted, no needed to be so much better than that because what would it say about him if he did no better than common child abusers?

And for that matter, this wasn’t about him, not really.

Light was aware he could be… a bit full of himself.

Well, he was a genius, handsome, God of the New World, and obviously Chosen to rid the world of evil.

How could he not be?

Still, Light was aware that Haru deserved better than that.

He couldn’t very well change who he was but he would at least try to reign in his… eccentricities of genius just a bit for the sake of his son—at the very least he’d close and lock the door before kissing any mirrors. He wouldn’t be telling Haru about Kira anytime soon either. That was much too big a secret for a five year old to handle. Nor was Light concerned about Haru finding out that he’d been keeping secrets from him. Light kept secrets from everyone even before finding the Death Note. It was just his nature. His parents and sister weren’t in on his secrets either. Haru already knew more than any of them, having met Ryuk, and had not reacted negatively. And if one day Haru did find out about Kira… Light was confident that Haru would only find out under Light’s own terms and only if he thought his son would be accepting of Kira.

Of course Light let none of his doubts show upon his face as he signed his name.

Not even when, unseen by the social worker, Ryuk chuckled and clapped him on the back.

“Happy Father’s Day. I’m sure Misa will be thrilled.”

Light concealed a wince—in order to authenticate all this he was going to have to propose to and probably one day marry Misa. At the very least he was going to have to move in with her so that they could play house together properly. And while moving out of his parents’ house would give him more freedom to act as Kira well… there was Misa herself. Misa was very helpful to him—she had bargained for the Shinigami eyes and assisted him in killing evil-doers. It’s just she could be a bit… overly-attached and he wasn’t at all interested in women. Light thought they had come to an understanding now but he was still worried that his becoming engaged to her would create unrealistic expectations regarding their relationship.

Misa was an actress—surely she should be able to get the concept that there was a big difference between acting and being. He had explained it was just for Haru’s sake. And as far as he was concerned if they went through with it, it would be a fairly open marriage—if she wanted to devote herself to him as she had been doing that was fine. If she wanted to see other people, that was fine too. But if they had children of their own it would definitely be through a test tube because while she was a very attractive girl he was not, nor would he ever be, interested in girls.

Light massaged his temples in between retrieving the next document. He knew Haru deserved better than this… better than him and it would seriously cramp his style as an aspiring God to be shackled with a kid but... but apparently there was no one else and the system kept sending the child back to his abusers. It was up to him… even though he knew that Haru needed and deserved far more love and care than he was probably capable of giving him. Personal issues and homicidal hobbies aside Light had college, social obligations, and of course his part-time job with the police hunting himself—his attention would always be divided. Light supposed Haru would also have Misa but she too would be busy. Misa had her businesses—her band, her acting and modeling career, TV shows, and fashion line. Not to mention acting as the Second Kira, so she was pretty busy too… but Ryuk and Rem… the Shinigami had no such obligations and could devote their full attention to raising Haru.

Well, Ryuk anyway. Ryuk might not be on his side but Light was pretty sure he’d have his help for this—Ryuk absolutely adored the kid and was already showering the boy with fatherly affection that Light thought himself incapable of giving. And then there was Misa... surely Misa would know what to do—she was an orphan too! (Though, naturally, when he did eventually broach the subject with her he would find a more tactful way of putting it.) And maybe Rem… Assuming Haru could see Rem like he could inexplicably see Ryuk. Though Light wasn’t so sure about Rem; when they first met she threatened to kill him so that didn’t leave a very favorable impression. Light wasn’t sure if he could count on her for this or not. Well Rem seemed the protective type but so far only towards Misa. He supposed if Misa was on board with this Rem would help too in order to please Misa but Light still didn’t trust her very much, especially with his son. And Light wasn’t sure if leaving the kid to be raised by Shinigami was the best parenting option either.

Well they say it takes a village…

He’d make sure to have more… normal people over often to visit and to babysit. Normal people like Yamamoto, Matsuda, Sayu, Nori, his parents, Misa’s friends…

Just… normal people who were not… damaged like Misa (or like him.)

Hopefully that would balance things out. He wasn’t about to raise his son to be a killer if he could help it. He would much rather his son got the chance to be an upright member of society… the person he should have, no would have been… had fate not chosen him for another purpose.

Boasting to Ryuk and declarations of Godhood aside, privately—in the horrible place that was his head—Light wasn’t actually proud of all he had done… but still felt it had to be done for the sake of the world… or for the sake of his sanity and to Light that was really one and the same—he had to believe he acted in the name of the greater good or he was lost. Light particularly wasn’t proud of his clashes with the police—especially his own father. In a perfect world he wouldn’t be condemned by the very people he was trying to help.

His perfect world was a work in progress.

In short Light wanted his son to be one of the good people who lived good lives… and not like him. When he was older if Haru wanted to carry on his legacy and Kira’s justice… if that was his choice he wouldn’t stop him but it was not Light’s intention to bring an innocent into his war with L. Had there been anyone more qualified he would have gone along with the social worker’s suggestion that he leave Haru with a “nice British family…” but there wasn’t. They kept trying to send him back to the Dursleys. Clearly this was the only option. He could not leave the child at the mercy of a system that failed the boy again and again. Besides Ryuk, and more importantly Haru had chosen him, needed him, and Light just couldn’t let that go.

So Light resolved to be the best father to Haru that he could possibly be.

That was particularly worrying for Light… he had actually grown attached. Attached to what in the beginning had just been another potential pawn and means of controlling a security risk.

And the boy was a security risk—a security risk he was already thinking of as “his son.”

Light frowned to himself. His normal response to such a risk would be to get rid of it. He had considered it but ultimately decided that he couldn’t justify it to himself. It would be easy… too easy and all too simple. He had the child’s name—a name the boy hadn’t even known because of his beastly caretakers—beastly caretakers who had tried to shove the boy into traffic. No, he would rather not have that in common with those scumbags. Who does that to a child? Such filth had no place in Kira’s perfect world. Light could justify many things in the name of justice but there were lines that not even he would willingly cross. Seriously, what kind of monster went around killing children?

It had been Ryuk’s idea to adopt him and any slip ups about his secrets could just be attributed to a child’s wild imagination. The answer seemed so simple when the Shinigami proposed it that it made him feel stupid that he hadn’t thought of it first. Light wasn’t sure when exactly it happened but at some point “kill it” had become his first response whenever he encountered a problem. Come to think of it, that was probably another reason he shouldn’t be a father. Well, at least he had Ryuk to keep him in check.

For some reason Ryuk had taken an instant liking to the child, who he’d taken to calling “the little Master” and “little King” much to Light’s annoyance. (Despite what the stupid Shinigami might say, he was not jealous! It’s just… Ryuk was his Shinigami. He should be his Master! Though, admittedly, the boy probably needed the self-esteem boost more than he did—after all, not everyone could be The God of a New World—and Ryuk was quick to reassure him that he was his most interesting human so he could learn to live with Ryuk’s kid… And that is essentially what happened. Ryuk adopted Harry Potter. It was just that the Shinigami, obviously, couldn’t take legal custody so it fell on his bondmate, Light, to adopt him for him. Light had long ago realized it was better to just give Ryuk what he wanted then have to listen to his constant whining (and more often than not receiving that worshipful look from the Shinigami was well worth it anyway. Dammit, a Shinigami had no right to be so damned cute!) Hell, he was sure Ryuk would make a better father than he would, despite his name being the one on the paper. Light, admittedly, didn’t have much of a role model in this regard. Light’s own father, Souichiro Yagami, was a good man but he wasn’t really a good father. Sure, his heart was in the right place but… it was hard to be a good father when you were never there. Light didn’t want to repeat those same mistakes with his own son. Even though he’d already decided Ryuk was more of the kid’s father than he was… he would make time for Haru. He would be the best father he could possibly be. This kid had had a horrible home life and needed all the care and attention he could get.

Speaking of which… another failing that Light, privately, found about his own father was that he was regularly and needlessly foolish and reckless with his own life… Light couldn’t help resent him a bit for that—that he seemed to care more about his job and the adventure than the family he would potentially be leaving behind.

Light frowned again. Before he had felt his life was his to sacrifice for the good of the world but now… now there were others who looked to him for protection. Light determined he would need to make a will and arranged for Haru (and he supposed Misa as well) to be taken care of in case either he or Misa or both of them were captured or killed. It wasn’t something he liked to think about but, dammit, despite his best judgment he did care about the kid, he was an innocent, and Light wanted to make sure he wasn’t punished for his, Kira’s, actions. And though Ryuk liked the kid he couldn’t look out for him alone.

Light decided Matsuda would be a good choice if something happened to them and made the appropriate arrangements, getting an agreement with the man over the phone. (This would also serve to inform the taskforce to his change in status because his coworker was an insufferable gossip.)

Matsuda though often teased as being “an idiot” by his coworkers was actually reliable enough. He had a steady job, taskforce connections, and was sympathetic to Kira. If not for the fact that he and Ryuk had both grown attached, and that the excited five year old might (without his coaxing) blab about Ryuk he might have considered handing over guardianship to Matsuda in the beginning.

“Okay, Haru,” Light addressed the impatient looking child who had been pouting and, impressively, trying not to fidget as he filled out forms.

“You need to sign your old name and sign your new name, just like we practiced.”

Which he did with enthusiasm.

As promised, Light let him pick a cool name:

夜神 陽

Yagami Haru.

Or, as written in the English way—Haru Yagami.

He’d chosen that name for a number of reasons. For one “Haru” sounded close to Harry. While the boy wasn’t particularly attached to his English name seeing as he thought his name was “Freak” for most of his life so far but it had been nice to learn that he had an actual name other than “Freak” or “Boy” or “Abo-mah-na-shon” whatever that was (it sounded bad). However, he was moving to Japan now to live with Light and Ryuk, something he was quite excited about, but he’d learned that “Hari” meant “needle” in Japanese and he didn’t want to be a needle. But the name Haru—he had just felt almost magically drawn to it, it was perfect, and it also allowed him to honor both his birthparents, because it sounded kind of like “Harry” and his new fathers—the boy had learned that Haru written with the kanji character 陽 meant “sun” or “sunlight.” Similar but different from his father’s name, whose name literally was the English word “Light” which Haru had learned to his amusement was, for whatever reason, written with the kanji for moon 月. They were the sun and moon—that just seemed nice somehow.

Light had informed him that the character he was studying 陽 also meant Yang or positive energy of the Taoist Yin and Yang symbol or Taijitu (which Light had helpfully drew for him on a restaurant paper napkin and later gifted to him as a necklace for his birthday when Haru took an interest in it and kept drawing it in the margins of his notebook):

☯

Simplistically, it was a symbol of good and evil but unlike the Western concept that good and evil were always diametrically opposed to each other (which Light actually, for the most part, found more appealing) the Taoist symbol recognized the concepts as interconnected and both sides relied on the other.

Light (echoing his own father) thought it complacent to just accept Evil as part of the natural order but indulged Haru when he decided the symbol was “cool” and further explained the symbolism of his name.

The Yang symbol, or the character that made up his name 陽, was the white section of the Taijitu with the black dot in it and apparently was associated with the sun, strength, power, and masculinity and represented good (but with just a little bit of evil in it.)

The other side, the black section with the white dot, Yin was associated with the moon, femininity, the underworld, and treachery. It was evil with a little bit of good in it.

Light told him it fit him because Haru was a good boy.

Haru would later learn that the moon kanji 月that spelled Light’s name sometimes was associated with Yin but he decided not to mention it. He didn’t think it quite fit. Associated with the underworld? Sure, Light was best friends with a Shinigami but Light couldn’t possibly be evil! Nor was he a girl and Haru didn’t want to hurt his father’s feelings by bringing it up.

However, at the time, most of this information went right over the five-year-old Haru’s head but he did remember seeing that symbol on the window of a martial arts school. (Haru decided he wanted to learn martial arts. He’d seen the way his father had handled the man who attacked them and he wanted to be able to do that too—that way he could protect himself and wouldn’t get beat up by kids like Dudley and Piers ever again.)

And then there was the third reason he picked the name Haru—he found it honored Ryuk as well as Light. Because while his name was Japanese it was pronounced the same as another Haru (Light explained that in languages this concept was known as “false friends”) —it was also another name for Hor or Horus, the Egyptian Sky God.

A two-page spread of the mythology book Light had bought him when he learned the Dursleys deprived him of learning anything about magic or fairy tales showed him Haru the God—the artwork depicted a dark-skinned man with a falcon’s head, a huge crown upon his head, a scepter in his grasp, and dark feathered shoulder pads that kind of reminded him of Ryuk.

The newly-named Haru decided Gods were cool. Ryuk was glad he thought so—apparently he was one. That’s when Haru first learned that “Shinigami” was Japanese for “God of Death.”

That sounded scary but then, as his book explained, Death was a necessary function and just because he was a God of Death didn’t mean he was evil. Ryuk was very nice to him. And then there was his book—it mentioned Anubis who judged the wicked but allowed good people to rest in peace. He seemed like a pretty nice guy too.

Haru pondered this as he watched his new guardians.

Ryuk was a God so maybe Light was one too? He just seemed to give that impression… And why else would a God like Ryuk do what he said?

Haru’s pen strokes were clumsy as he signed his name, nowhere near as pretty or elegant as Light’s careful script, but apparently it did the job. Still Haru resolved to improve his handwriting… in both languages.

***

Light attempted to quietly open a package of potato chips, trying not to wake the adorable young boy (who once again sporting black hair but still retaining that eerie familial resemblance) that was currently sleeping in the seat next to him. He slept, hugging Ryuu, the black dragon plushie that Light and Ryuk got him for his birthday.

Ryuk idly floated over both of them, looking out the window (and holding onto the back of Light’s seat so he didn’t space out and forget to travel with the plane like last time). He could’ve just flown back but where was the fun in that? He did that all the time and this was only the second time he’d ever been on a human aircraft and the bored Shinigami found the whole experience to be quite nifty.

Light cringed at the unexpectedly loud rustling of his chip bag but breathed a sigh of relief when the noise failed to rouse the sleeping child. Haru just yawned most cutely and snuggled into his side, using him as a pillow. It looked like he wouldn’t be moving for several hours.

Ryuk cackled at his misfortune.

Light glared and idly pocketed the apple that came with the in-flight meal—Ryuk wouldn’t be getting it until they had safely landed in Japan.

In the meantime, the young boy dreamed of dragons and death gods while the plane rushed them towards the next new chapter in their lives.