Work Text:
Misa lies on her bed with her hands over her chest, half-smiling.
'I hope Kira answers soon...' she says.
'He has to,' says Rem. 'You outsmarted him.'
Misa's smile widens. 'Yes, I did. Rem? Do you know what Misa thinks? Love is sort of the same as death.'
For us it is, thinks Rem. She is not the one to tell Misa it's not true. For a shinigami, everything is death.
(everything turns grey, turns to sand)
'Like that stalker who tried to kill me. He didn't love me enough to die unless I died too. Isn't that selfish?' She is quiet for a while, breathing slowly. 'I love him so much, Rem,' she says at last. 'Light, I mean. I - Misa didn't realise that stalker was so pathetic! Misa would never, ever hurt Light, ever! Misa would rather die right now!' She sits up in a passion. 'Rem, when you really, really love someone, I think you have to die. You just have to, that's all, nothing else counts, because death is always true and it doesn't change - it's the only thing you can do that lasts forever.'
Rem could tell her how true it is; death is everything, and life is just a brittle thing in a desert. Only death is eternal. Shinigami are immortal because they are not alive, because they pile up death around them, just like Misa is doing now she has the Death Note. Rem could tell her all that.
'I think,' she says, 'that you should live and help Kira instead.'
'Hmm.' Misa sighs and leans carelessly against Rem's side, a child to a mother (these alien human thoughts creeping in like sand through a door left open). 'Well, if someone died for Misa, like Gelus did, it would be the most beautiful thing in the world. Misa would never forget it.'
Hesitatingly Rem runs her hand (no, a claw, a bone, not a human hand) down the length of Misa's hair, shoulder, to her waist. She half-imagines that Misa shivers a little. The girl is so small that Rem could fold her up in two hands and protect her from anything, from anything.
Death is all, the rest is dust.
'Perhaps,' she says, 'but you should try to live.'