Originally written for the Death Note Fanfiction Contest community at lj.

Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note.

Theme: week #20 - New York City

Characters/Pairings: Sayu, Mikami, Matt. Some vaguely one-sided Sayu/Mikami and Sayu/Matt. Talk about crack…

Summary: Random run-ins with some unusual bookstore patrons leave Sayu Yagami with a newfound appreciation for New York and its people.

Warnings: mild cursing (oh noes.) Oh, and this was born of a ridiculously sleep-deprived and stressed mind as a result of crammed Shakespeare memorization and school-starting woes, so forgive me if it's awful.

A/N: Slight AU alert, as Matt and especially Mikami don't exactly belong in a NYC Barnes and Noble. Still, if this was to be chronologically located in canon, it would take place somewhere during the time skip.

I didn't feel extremely comfortable with Sayu IC-ness throughout this, so… You have been warned.

Matt's role is based on an actual encounter during my first trip to NY. I LOVE that city. :3

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Sayu Yagami didn't get the chance to travel much. The men in her family were always, always busy, and she and her mother would scarce dream of taking a vacation without them. Because of this, Sayu grew up considering even a subway transit to a faraway district in her home city as a holiday. So naturally, when she learned that she was selected to go on a week-long student trip to New York City, the girl could not have been more overwhelmed.

She was excited, to be sure, but understandably nervous, having never left the country before. Sayu couldn't imagine why she would've been chosen for the trip. The other students she was traveling with were all talented and brilliant, while she was painfully average. Still, the school administration claimed her genial personality and social capabilities would make her a good fit, so she of course consented.

And in this way, Sayu had somehow found herself in a two-story mega-franchise bookstore (called "Barnes and Noble", if she read and pronounced it correctly) in NYC, absently perusing the shelves on the second floor. She wasn't entirely pleased with the student sponsors' shopping choice this evening. If it had to be a bookstore, couldn't they have just gone to a Kinokuniya instead? Sayu understood spoken English far better than written. Besides, she'd seen two Kinokuniya in the city already, and they at least sold books in her first language.

While she was silently pouting about this, flipping through an American comic featuring a dark, brooding hero in black spandex, another store patron caught her eye. He stood down the aisle from her, thoroughly engaged in a very heavy textbook. Looking a bit closer, she noted the tiny print that packed the pages, and managed to make out the word "law" on the cover. But it was the man himself that really held her attention. He was tall and well-built, dressed in a fashionable, perfectly pressed suit. A pair of smart-looking glasses adorned his face, which somehow still managed to be unbearably attractive even while he was intensely concentrating.

Sayu watched, mesmerized, as the handsome man flipped through his book. He seemed to be very intent on studying its contents. So intent, in fact, that he wouldn't notice the way a teenage voyeur was blatantly staring at him from barely ten feet away.

At least, not for a minute or two. Without warning, the man jerked his head up from the book and sent a piercing, questioning look in Sayu's direction.

The girl held his gaze for a second, face flushed and briefly paralyzed at being caught in the act. She then fled, abandoning the comic in her hand to drop carelessly to the floor. She ducked into an aisle between bookshelves, hoping that the beautiful man wouldn't pursue her and demand an apology for her rudeness. Was that something that an American would do? Something a New Yorker would do?

Sayu remembered a conversation she'd had before the trip with her friend Michiko. "Oh, watch out for New Yorkers," Michiko had said, eyes wide and deathly serious. "I've heard they're very rude. Not much for manners, and some can be aggressive, even when they're unprovoked!"

Michiko's words hadn't really been proven to be true from what Sayu had already seen, but this didn't alleviate her fears.

Sayu anxiously waited for several minutes, back pressed against a bookcase, but the man did not appear. She heaved a relieved sigh. Perhaps these people weren't so bad, after all.

Still, she came out of the opposite side of the shelves, just as a precaution.

Emerging, Sayu found herself faced with a wall, almost entirely composed of a single window that ran the length of the store's upper level. Despite the building's placement in the heart of the city, it really did offer quite a view. She gazed out on the picturesque night, taking it in. Unlike her brother, it was probably not possible for Sayu's less-than-prodigious mind to commit every detail to memory, but she tried to do so anyway. The chaotic liveliness of the "big city" was something familiar to her—reminded her of home, but even so, this scene possessed a foreign air that somehow made it all new again, exotic and breath-taking.

The vehicles and pedestrians flowed over the pavement outdoors like an unending stream pulled by a brisk current, but in the tranquility of the bookstore, all the dizzying movement passed in silence.

A subtle, occasional beeping noise was what finally drew Sayu's attention from the window. She turned. A young man was stretched along the thin carpet to her right, half-lying, half-sitting against a corner. Shaggy reddish hair covered a good portion of his down-turned face, and a pair of goggles was inexplicably strapped over his eyes. Some peculiar fashion, these Americans had.

But what caught Sayu's attention the most was that he seemed completely unaware that he was placed next to a window. He was totally focused on the handheld videogame in his hands. He took no notice whatsoever of the clear view beside him, his thumbs pounding the buttons of the mechanical device.

The panoramic view of the busy New York City streets cast flickering reflections on the young man's alabaster cheek. The nighttime brilliance of cars, stoplights, and lampposts created a stunning background behind him, framing his oblivious form.

And all the while, he simply went on playing. Sayu found it simply incomprehensible that the boy could wholly ignore the splendor outside the window in favor of a silly game. What a waste.

The teenager stood in stark contrast to the well-dressed man from before. The man was indisputably gorgeous, and almost certainly aware of it. But this boy was made beautiful only by his surroundings, and chose to disregard it. How interesting people's differences made them. How their personalities and concerns caused them to interact differently with the world around them…

The boy looked up at her at that moment. He didn't speak; merely cocked a semi-curious eyebrow from behind a goggle lens. Sayu smiled shyly back before retreating to another aisle.

As she made to leave, the sound of a crisp, business-like voice reached her ears from where she had just been. "Excuse me, but do you mind?" Sayu peered back around the corner. The law-studying man towered above the videogame boy, who held a newly lit cigarette in his mouth and was still tapping away at buttons. "Smoking isn't allowed," the older man admonished with mild, well-checked disdain.

The boy didn't look up. "Whaddyou, work here or something?"

The man looked slightly put out. But only slightly. "…No," he answered. "But it's against the rules of this establishment, and I feel compelled to enforce them. Besides, smoking is unseemly, and a detriment to the health of the general public."

The boy spared him one fleeting glance. When his gaze returned to the game, he chomped down on his cigarette, the speed of his button-pressing increasing frantically for a moment before calming again. "Not today, Blooper, not today…" He continued playing, taking a drag and sending twin wraiths of smoke from his nostrils. "Look man, you were a detriment to Mario's health just now. He almost died 'cause of you. So why don't you just pull the stick out of your ass and show some respect for a plumber who's braving the ocean depths without scuba gear or squid harpoons?"

The man had nothing prepared for that response.

Sayu stifled a giggle and slipped further behind the shelves.

She would have to remember to correct Michiko's misinformation upon returning to Japan. New Yorkers were definitely a sort of people she wouldn't mind growing more acquainted with.