𝘼 𝘿𝙚𝙩𝙖𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙙 𝙍𝙚𝙨𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 | 𝘭 𝘭𝘢𝘸𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘵

𝕻𝖗𝖊𝖑𝖚𝖉𝖊

"Nee-san," the six-year-old began, tilting his head slightly as he watched his older sister flip through the pages of a thick textbook that he knew wasn't really a part of her coursework, "what are you doing?"

The girl in question glanced at the brown-haired boy standing in her doorway inquisitively, beckoning him over with small smile. "I'm just doing a little extra research," the twelve-year-old answered, pushing her chair away from the desk so she could face her younger brother.

Peering at the cover of the book, Light frowned. "You don't have to know all that for middle school," he stated, looking at her almost accusingly, but she only nodded, not denying it.

"You're right," she agreed. "I don't have to know all that for the sixth grade, but I find it interesting, so I figured I'd do a little extra reading."

(Y/N) Yagami was an impeccably good daughter. Her grades were always at their steady level of near perfection, she was respectful and intelligent, and she had an irreplaceable bond with both her siblings-- her younger brother and their newborn baby sister. She was quiet and never caused her parents much trouble, but what concerned Soichiro and Sachiko Yagami was her passive nature.

The preteen seemed to do her best to hang in the balance of always being in the middle. Her observational skills and intelligence were remarkable, but she never showed off her knowledge and almost never spoke of what she noticed or her opinions on matters unless asked. Nor did she seem to hold any sort of motivation or goal of what to do with her high intellect, and her adoptive parents seemed concerned of what their brilliant, but impossibly passive daughter would end up doing.

It could almost be considered surprising how even with Light's open display of intelligence and having an affinity for the spotlight being in stark contrast to (Y/N)'s more laid-back and unbothered persona the two siblings still got along very well. They almost never argued and, despite their different age groups, were always happy to spend time together.

To Light, his older sister was someone he looked up to very much. She never treated him like a child despite him being a good six years younger than her; always speaking to him as an equal and willingly listening to what he had to say. (Y/N), in turn, was always blunt about her thoughts around her brother. She didn't mind revealing her opinions to him because Light was at a stage where he was more open to differences in beliefs than adults, which was why she preferred to pass off as unassuming around those older than her.

Presently, as the first grader read through the lines that had held his sister's attention for the past hour or so, his eyebrows shot up in surprise before he frowned. "I thought you didn't care about catching criminals like Oto-san," he voiced, and in response she shrugged, getting up to sit on her bed instead where she was soon joined by Light.

"I couldn't care less about all the 'bad' people in the world, Light," she said, using finger quotes for when she said 'bad'. "As long as our family isn't directly targeted, I don't care about what they do because it's not like I can get them to stop, and I don't really want to put in that much effort for a fruitless result. When one criminal is caught, two more pop up elsewhere in the world. It's almost like the balance of nature."

Although he disagreed with this mentality, Light accepted that it was his sister's way of viewing the world, and since she never tried to change his way of seeing good and bad, he wouldn't try to change her way of only seeing various shades of gray instead of the black and white either. "But you're reading about catching criminals," he pointed out instead. "That's what criminology is, right? I heard Oto-san say it once."

Throwing a glance over her shoulder at where the book was sat on her desk, her lips tilted upwards in a small smile. "No," she corrected, "I'm reading about criminal profiling."

"What's that?" Light wrinkled his nose at the term. For a first grader, his vocabulary was already quite advanced, and it created a sort of disdain in him for having to ask what he didn't know, but his sister never treated him like a dumb kid for it, so he was more open to asking her.

"Well, it's basically trying to understand how the criminal thinks to understand their motive and narrow down the suspects until you catch the one you're looking for. It has its downsides with not always being accurate, but it sounds awfully interesting," she explained, biting her lip.

The small boy studied her thoughtfully before drawing up his conclusion. "Is that what you want to be when you grow up, Nee-san?" he asked, genuinely curious since his sister had been notoriously indecisive about what she wanted to commit to doing for the rest of her life.

"Maybe," she admitted, smiling secretively. "What about you, Light? Do you know what you want to be when you grow up?"

He didn't even have to think about his answer. Light had known ever since he had asked his father to explain what exactly he did for a living, and his already strong sense of justice drove him to wanting to do the same thing and put all the bad guys in jail. "I want to be a detective in the police," he revealed, proudly puffing out his chest.

Humming, she nodded. "I expected that," (Y/N) said easily, but Light frowned at the thought of seeming predictable and boring to the sister he admired very much.

"How?" he demanded childishly, pouting without meaning to and thus resulting in (Y/N)'s amusement.

"Well, you're insanely clever," she began, "and your moral compass is too strong for your own good, so you'd either be a policeman or a serial killer."

The initial pleasure at being called clever evaporated as soon as his sister finished her sentence, and Light gasped indignantly. "That's not something you can just say, Nee-san!" he protested while (Y/N) laughed at his flustered reaction.

"I was only joking, dear Otouto," she assured amidst her laughter. "You can relax."

Albeit with a put out huff, Light settled down, crossing his arms. Smiling bemusedly, the older girl ruffled his hair affectionately before suggesting they go to the local library together, effectively improving the younger's mood as he voiced his agreement.

Outside the preteen's doorway, Sachiko Yagami smiled to herself as she listened to her children's interaction. Both, her and Soichiro had been skeptical about how their adopted daughter would react to having a little brother, but the girl had wholeheartedly accepted her new role as an older sister, and it didn't strain their relationship at all when Light began showing signs of being a prodigy, too.

It brought the Yagami matriarch some comfort to know that both her eldest children always looked out for each other, and she only hoped that wouldn't change once they'd grown up.