(A/N: mandatory disclaimers abound...

An Amusing Twist

Neither dead nor alive, Shinigami were creatures caught between a two-pronged road bearing the labels: Hell here, Heaven over there. They lacked purpose, and, thus, the gods of death were defenseless against falling headfirst into a godforsaken pit of ennui and slow decay. Invincibility against the ire of nature’s laws made a Shinigami’s existence undeniably, unbelievably…

Boring.

Centuries of playing with the fragile and precious thread of life had given them a sense of assurance and control, and a controlled current wasn’t nearly as exciting as raging, chaotic one.

The problem was, in Ryuk’s dry opinion, that Shinigami lacked a deadline. Years spawned ahead of them, no end in sight. And since they had all the time in the world, all things pleasurable tasted like ash.

Except for human world apples. The entire planes of existence could crumble down for all Ryuk cared, but human world apples would still remain – what was that word again?

Juicy.

Oh, there it was again. Cheeky little temptress. The rosy apple winked at him, glowing indecently under the silvery moonlight. Who was he to resist? Ryuk stretched out his bony, pallid limbs and snatching the lonely apple from Raito’s desk.

He bit into the fruit carefully, one eye trained upon his human pet.

Raito mumbled something, wrinkling his faultlessly deceiving cherubic face, and turned to his side, fast asleep.

As it was, Ryuk never understood the lack of interest that the other Shinigami had for humans and their lives. Sure, humans were silly, repetitive - inclined to believe that they always deserved more than their sad, little lives, but at least they lived. Like all desperate creatures, they tried to squeeze out as much as they could from life, like constricting an overused toothpaste bottle for its last drops. At the same time, humans limited themselves, unable to employ their own capacities and venture out of their self-made boundaries with the very intent of staying safe. There was nothing more amusing in Ryuk’s eyes than these irrational creatures that feared both being truly alive and losing the life they very nearly wasted. In fact, Ryuk realized, it was the fear of life and the fear of death that separated mortals from the lifeless gods.

But Raito was nothing like the merry-go-round of pitiful creatures that woke up, ate, worked, and gradually exhausted their boring, boring lives.

Raito was entertaining.

And Ryuk liked him because Raito kept Ryuk from rotting at the same pace as the Shinigami world.

Arrogant and self-martyring, naïve and tainted, convicted and innocent, Raito was the icy depths of the ocean calm and the fiery tremors of volcanic crests. He was smart enough to have most of the world bow at his feet, either in reverence, fear, or defeat, yet completely ignorant of the human fact that Ryuk himself discovered from centuries of observation: It was the basic knowledge that, as survival drove the heart of mankind’s existence, pure good and evil did not exist, only purely desperate people. And still Raito clung unto his harshly black and white beliefs, the core of justice as justice: Justice itself as an entity.

(Still, Ryuk found it ironic that it was Raito’s severely austere conviction that kept human morals from getting muddied up with the imperfect executions of an almost-laughable ideal. What did one call it? A stalemate, L.)

Ryuk knew he was being biased, but Raito had provided him with so much entertainment that he found himself wishing for Raito to become a Shinigami himself. Then he could keep on watching the young man follow all the rules while breaking them.

He could keep marveling how Raito stubbornly ignored the reality of his bloodstained hands, since the only actual stains that touched his skin came from his fountain pen.

He could keep chuckling at how Raito loved his family so much, or at the very least the idea of his family, that he would not hesitate on sacrificing them in order to create a new world that would surely be dedicated to memory.

He could keep wondering how Raito tricked everyone, dodging the legal guillotine even though he was the only plausible suspect for the first Kira.

Ryuk had watched Raito smile as bright as the first rays of the break sun, golden-pink in his radiance, as he talked about his future reign as god of the new world.

And as Ryuk watched him, he let nothing escape his eyes.

How, even when Raito later laughed at L’s grave, maniacal in its release of pent up frustrations from a cat and mouse game gone too far, Ryuk remembered the boy staring numbly at L’s corpse, squeezing the cold hand, barely whispering a single goodbye.

How, when L was gone, Raito’s cheeks would grow damp in his sleep, as the Death Note deeply embedded its destructive being into his very soul when night eventually overcame his consciousness.

How Raito never realized that Ryuk wiped every tear while smiling widely and pulled up his blankets in order to lull him back to his peaceful guise of an innocent’s sleep.

How Raito stopped shaking as soon as the Shinigami’s twiggy fingers played with the softness of his hair.

How Raito would never know that, while Ryuk mourned the death of his pet’s remaining grasp unto innocence the Shinigami laughed – cackled – at the fun that was soon to come.

And there was none as fascinating and funny to Ryuk as Raito was.

How someone so wicked could be so incorruptible.

How someone so perfect could be so flawed.

How someone so flawed could be so perfect.

Indeed, the young man deserved wings. Then he could fly away with Ryuk, and Ryuk would be able to remain with his human pet, forever cured from boredom. The future held a shining promise that Ryuk would stay predictably entertained with Raito in his future.

Writing Raito’s name in his Death Note at the end almost wasn’t worth the loss.

Almost.

(A/N: There it is - my first attempt at a Death Note fic. I've always been fascinated with Ryuk's relationship with Raito. I’m trying to keep Ryuk’s character ambiguous, because that’s what he is. I see him growing a fondness for Raito, but I wanted the reason for him killing Raito to stay unknown – maybe he was getting bored, maybe Raito’s time was up, maybe in death both Kira and Raito could belong to him, maybe he was showing Raito mercy from falling into the law’s hands. Who knows? It’s Ryuk.

Special thanks to Serria for being my beta.

Reviews are greatly appreciated, and I hoped you enjoyed reading.