Key (L x OC)

Twenty Eight

Kaori became paralyzed, not even the sound of plastic crashing onto the tiled floor disrupted her shock.

She stared into empty space for what seemed like an eternity, but was really only a few minutes. Finally, she regained her composure and picked the cell-phone up off of the ground. With shaky hands, she continued to look at the saved messages.

Each and every one of them was a message from her, addressed to Lawliet. Each one contained something deeply personal, and they dated back to two years ago.

It didn't take an intelligent, analytical detective for Kaori to understand:

Ryuuzaki is Lawliet.

The pain a betrayal she felt couldn't be described. But most of all, she was burdened with overwhelming loneliness.

She had felt such a depressing emotion only once before upon the loss of her mother, but soon after that, Lawliet reached out to her and quelled that feeling. Lawliet became her family and her most precious loved one. Although she had never seen his face, nor did she know if the name he gave was his real one, Lawliet nurtured her with his kind, supportive words.

And then two years later, Ryuuzaki sought her out and employed her. Slowly, he became someone that the girl could rely on and someone that she could trust. Her hope wasn't just a few encouraging words on the screen of a cell-phone anymore; her hope was in a young man, although strange, who had a face, body, and emotions he portrayed.

However, both images and relationships she had created completely dissolved upon the discovery of such a secret. Both people she had grown to trust had lied to her, and it was more than a little white lie that Ryuuzaki often told.

Kaori felt as though her entire life no longer had meaning as her understanding of the way it worked was twisted amongst lies and false realities.

She wasn't angry or mad, but confused, upset, and deeply hurt.

Stiffly, she closed the black phone and set it on the edge of the bed that the hotel cleaning service had made earlier that day.

Then, she began to collect her belongings.

--+--

Ryuuzaki knew that getting a few sweets shouldn't take as long as it was, but on the way back to the hotel from the event the previous evening, he spotted a particular restaurant that had delicious looking large cupcakes. He wanted to bring back something for Kaori as well because he knew that she was struggling with all the information they discovered and wanted to do something nice in order to ease her troubled mind.

But the restaurant was a lot farther by foot than by car, and overall, it took him three hours before he returned to the hotel.

He walked through the door and slid the box from the restaurant onto the coffee table. "I'm back." He informed in a monotonous tone. When he received no response, he began to speculate as to what was going on. "Kaori...?"

The majority of the items in the room were missing, all of which belonged to her. It wasn't until then that he noticed his cell-phone lying on the edge of the mattress, and sitting beside it was a cubic velvet box.

He knew the box previously contained the earrings that he had given to her, but he didn't know why it was where it was set.

Using his thumb and index finger, he lifted the small container and pried the top open. The two diamond earrings were inside.

The night before they gave the backs of the earrings to the FBI so that they could analyze the information gained from their use, but Kaori had insisted she kept the diamond studs.