an: This is a spin-off of my story ash (which is a sequel to my story ink), branching after "chapter xviii: uncertainty" and then going in a different direction from there. I'm reposting that chapter at the beginning of this one as a reference point. If you haven't read the first seventeen chapters of ash that come before this, then this story probably won't make much sense.

In summary, though: In ink Light is locked in solitary confinement, goes insane and dies; and then in ash Light and Lawliet, both dead, wander aimlessly around somewhere that may or may not be the Shinigami Realm, talk to each other without ever actually saying much of anything, and eventually come to a kind of understanding/reconciliation.

In this AU of that, though, they're definitely in the Shinigami Realm, and they run across some of the Death Gods that dwell there.

This changes things.

uncertainty

There was a large, jagged rock jutting out of the ground.

Light picked up a skull, tossed it once into the air, and then threw it at the rock as hard as he could.

Shards of bone flew in every direction.

Lawliet dropped down into a crouch, watching the ivory slivers pass over his head. 'What was that for, Kira?'

'We're not actually dead,' said Light, quietly, pulling a splinter of bone out of his cheek and glancing at it dismissively. 'Are we?'

'We're not alive,' said Lawliet, watching Light drop the bloodless shard to the ground.

Light touched a hand to his cheek, checking for a wound that wasn't there. 'But we still exist.'

'Our bodies are rotting in the ground,' pointed out Lawliet.

'But not our minds,' said Light. He gestured between them. 'Not whatever these are.'

Hands shifting from his knees, Lawliet stood. 'We're not lost, Kira.' He slipped his hands into his pockets. 'There's no path that leads back.'

Light tilted his head. 'Who said anything about needing a path?'

Lawliet looked at him, eyes dark. 'There's nobody to bargain with.'

Light's bangs hid his eyes. 'There are Shinigami, aren't there?'

'Shinigami take lives,' said Lawliet. 'They don't return them.'

'No,' said Light, turning to meet his gaze, bangs brushing aside and eyes glinting. 'They steal lives and redistribute them.' Light clasped his hands behind his head, turning his gaze upwards. 'They would be concerned, then, if too many human lives were being taken by other humans, would they not? They need a steady supply to keep on existing, after all. It would be concerning if anything were to threaten that.'

A hand slipped from its pocket, thumb resting against Lawliet's lip. 'That would require an awful lot of killing.' His eyes were black and unblinking.

'It would,' agreed Light, blandly, watching the ash fall.

'I cannot allow Kira to steal a Death Note and continue killing people,' said Lawliet.

Light closed his eyes and let out a breathless sigh, dropping his arms to his sides. 'It really is boring here, isn't it?' He turned away, hands sliding into his pockets, eyes slipping open and staring at nothing. 'I wonder how the Shinigami stand it.'

Lawliet watched him, biting at his thumb.

What are you planning, Kira?