(This story begins just after when Light forgets everything, including that he is Kira, and the Death Note. He's already joined the investigation. This is written in my OC's perspective.)

Life and I are not on the greatest of terms right now.

Actually, now that I think about it, Life and me have never been on great terms. It started when I was born premature, causing me not only to be legally blind without my glasses, but to also be a skinny little shrimp who promptly stopped growing at age twelve. It didn't get any better when my selfish parents found out they were both having affairs, and started a five-year-long custody battle over me. By the time both had worked out an agreement, I had turned eighteen, and ran for it. Using most of the money I had saved up over the years, I bought a one-way ticket to Japan and didn't think twice.

For a little while, my luck changed. I leaned Japanese much faster than I thought possible, rented out a cute lil' apartment from this amazingly nice grandma, and found my dream job; working in a bakery. My boss, and owner of the bakery, Ryoko Sohma, is the most amazing person ever; she not only let me apprentice under her as a pastry chef, but also "adopted" me as her surrogate little sister. She loves to tease me, but she's violently protective of me, and I do mean violent. Her father was in the Yakuza, and if Ryoko wanted to, she could be the head of the mafia, I swear.

For a year and a half, I had a fresh start, my own place, a job I loved, and a boss who was more like family to me than my own family was.

Then Life snuck up and sucker punched me in the face.

It started off with a crush. I'm pretty sure that most horrible things that happen can be traced back to a crush. This one was on a certain customer who began frequenting the bakery.

He was a lot different from the other customers. Heck, he was a lot different from other men, or even other human beings.

His jet-black hair stuck out in loose spikes all over his head, not in a I spent three hours and two tubs of hair gel kind of way, but more like I woke up like this and just decided to go with it kind of way. Said hair covered up the top portion of his face, and his large, wide eyes peered out from under it. His eyes were dark, beautiful, and mysteriously captivating. For reasons unknown, he had no eyebrows. Not that you could tell right away under all that black hair.

He always wore the same thing: a baggy white t-shirt, and even baggier navy blue jeans. He kept his hands firmly rooted in his pockets, and had the kind of shockingly bad posture that would make Chiropractors have nervous breakdowns.

Nearly every late afternoon, when things were at their slowest, he'd wander in, chew lightly on his thumb, and stare longingly into the display cases at each and every item we sold. And he'd usually leave with at least one of everything, holding the bags of pastries as cautiously as humanly possible, as if they would turn around and try to bite him.

Most reading the above description would deem this guy certifiable, not swoon-worthy. And when he first lumbered into the bakery, I did think he was a little…unnerving. But after I had packaged all his goodies and rang him up, he said "Thank you," in a soft, articulate purr of a voice, and gave me the most adorable little smile I'd ever seen in my life. And my heart just melted.

After the third time he visited, I fell for him. And I fell hard.

Ryoko-chan picked up on it pretty quickly. We were in the kitchen, working on some chocolate ganache for the éclairs, and she suddenly turned towards me, a devilish grin on her face, and said, "Sooooooo…who is he?"

I blinked.

"Who?"

"The guy you're daydreaming about."

I didn't get the chance to lie. The blush that sprang to my cheeks betrayed me.

"I-I…it's not…!" I managed to sputter before one of the other employees, Sakura, cut me off.

"Shortcake's got a crush on a customer," she giggled, squirting some pastry cream into the éclair shells.

Shortcake. Ugh. My dreaded nickname. It had taken only one week for everyone to come up with it. Ryoko insisted it had nothing to do with my small stature, and everything to do with my talent for making the best shortcake in the bakery. But I, along with everyone else who worked there, knew better. For the record, my real name is Noel. Though no one ever calls me that, regardless of my preference.

The news I had fallen for a customer didn't upset Ryoko. Rather, her grin just widened.

"Really? Which one?"

Before I could say anything, the other girl, Miki, chimed in.

"The freaky one!"

"He is not freaky!" I cried out, blushing harder. "He's unique!"

Both Miki and Sakura cracked up.

Why is it when you really need a good defense, you can only come up with lame ones?

"I'll be the judge of that," Ryoko-chan announced, picking up a tray of finished pastries, staring at me hard, "Next time he comes in, you point him out. I'll decide if he's good enough for you or not."

I swallowed nervously and looked down at myself.

It isn't as if I'm any real catch. I'm a five-foot-one munchkin who keeps her long brown hair in a braid eighty percent of the time. My scrawny figure leaves much to be desired, and I rarely wear makeup, mostly out of necessity. Bakeries are hot. You wear makeup, you get hot, you sweat, and you end up with mascara smears down your face and eye-shadow on the cupcakes.

The only thing I really have going for me is my green-blue eyes, which I've received a few compliments on. Personally, I don't see the appeal, and maybe that's because they're hidden behind my glasses. No, they aren't huge, dorky, Coke-bottle glasses, but to me, they might as well be. They'd probably fit the rest of my appearance better.

But, as I've said, Ryoko is fiercely protective of me. And that means, unless he was the hottest guy on the face of the planet, he wasn't going to be good enough. Even though I found my raven-haired, posture-challenged crush irresistible, there was a snowflake's chance in hell Ryoko would think the same.

So I poured an overly generous amount of chocolate ganache over the éclairs, and held on to the slim chance that she'd forget all about it.

No such luck.

The next day, right around three o'clock, in he slumped, this time, with someone else. His companion was about the same height as he was (or would've been, if he ever straightened up), with perfectly coifed brown hair, and smartly dressed. He was definitely good-looking enough to be a male model, and the amorous female stares he was drawing only seconded that opinion. But to me, the black-haired man beside him, who was hunched over and gawking into the pastry case, was twice as gorgeous as he was.

Did I say I had fallen hard? I did? Yeah.

Apparently, I was blushing a little, because suddenly, Ryoko was beside me. She stared at the perfect brunette male and began to grin like a madwoman.

"Atta' girl, Shortcake-chan!" she whispered into my ear, slapping me hard on the back, "What a hottie!"

"Not him!" I squeaked, my cheeks reddening. My eyes trailed to the floor, before darting back up shyly towards the object of my affections, "Him."

My boss glanced towards the awkward, raven-haired specimen beside the brown-haired Adonis. Then she looked at me like I had just stripped naked and done the Can-Can.

"You hit your head or somethin'?" she asked incredulously.

"No!" I exploded, before quieting my voice, and twirling the end of my braid nervously, "It's just…he has really beautiful eyes…and he has such an adorable smile…and his soft voice…"

I ended with a dreamy sigh.

Ryoko-chan blinked, shot another look at my crush, and looked back at me.

"I don't see it," she announced, shaking her head, "But…guess it's just like my mom always said…"

"Love is blind?" I offered hopefully.

"Actually, my mom always said 'Love hits you with a stupid stick'," she clarified, before raising an eyebrow, "You sure that's the guy you want to get down an' dirty with?"

"R-Ryoko-chan!" I gasped, blushing wildly.

Another thing about Ryoko. I love her to death, but subtlety? Not her niche.

My boss chuckled.

"Guess that's a 'yes'. Well, then!"

She stood up straight, and nodded towards the raven-haired young man.

"Go ask his name."

"W-What? No!" I exclaimed, backing up a step, "I can't do that!"

"Aw, come on," she urged, "If it's something horrible, then you can nip this romance in the bud. Just ask. What's the worst that can happen?"

"He'll think I'm a stalker and never come back!" I replied.

Ryoko grinned mischievously.

"See? Then we can get you a date with his much hotter friend."

"Ryoko-chan…!"

My boss was not taking 'no' for an answer, and had already steered me towards the counter.

"Oh, come on, Shortcake-chan! Just get him his goodies, and ask!"

With that, she gave me one final shove, sending me reeling into their line of sight.

Both looked up. I was blushing something fiercely, but did my best to recover myself. I tried my hardest to smile.

"Uh…um…hi! W-What can I get you today?" I stammered.

My beautiful, raven-haired crush, who had obviously been pondering his order for some time, pulled the thumb he had been nibbling thoughtfully out of his mouth.

"I'd like two Melon Breads, a glazed donut, a powdered sugar donut, a chocolate donut, a chocolate covered sprinkle donut, a Strawberry Daifuku cake, two Mont Blancs, an éclair, an Anko Bread, a cream puff, and three shortcakes."

He turned to his brown-haired companion.

"Would you like anything, Light-kun?"

"Uh, no thanks," he replied, smiling at me pleasantly, then turned back to his friend, frowning, and lowered his voice.

"Are you sure this is safe, coming here every day?"

The black-haired man looked up at him with his wide eyes, looking slightly confused.

"This is my favorite bakery. If I didn't come, how could I get my pastries?"

"Couldn't you send Watari instead?"

"I could," he mused quietly, turning his attention once more to the full cases, "But their offerings very. Some days they have cupcakes and cookies. Perhaps they might start carrying a new sweet that I want to try. There are too many variables for Watari to accurately guess what I'd like to eat every day. Besides…I like to look."

I didn't have time to fully listen or understand the conversation. I was too busy running around collecting and bagging his orders, and condensing them neatly into one large sack. I rang him up.

"Um…your total today will be 3300 yen."

My raven-haired crush fished a credit card out of his pocket and offered it to me, holding it by its corner in between his thumb and forefinger.

I took it, and swiped his card. As it was printing his receipt, I bit my lip. What Ryoko had said was repeating inside my head. And the truth was, I really, REALLY wanted to know his name. Just having something to call him made a romance seem more…attainable, somehow.

Should I…? No. No! I'm too nervous. I'd sound like a moron.

I handed back his credit card and smiled my most warm, charming smile.

"I hope you have a wonderful day!"

His pale lips parted into the cutest little smile in the world.

"Thank you," he said softly, and they turned to leave.

And then I did an incredibly corny thing.

"Uh…um…w-wait!" I yelped.

They turned. And suddenly I was hit full-on with his captivating, mysterious eyes, starring at me curiously from underneath his mass of jet black hair.

"I-I…um…was wondering…if…um…uh…" I stammered helplessly, my cheeks growing redder by the second. I was so not good around guys, especially ones I found attractive.

He kept staring at me, and the worst possible way of asking him ripped itself out of my dry throat.

"I've-been-watching-you-for-a-while-and-I-really-want-to-know-could-you-tell-me-your-name-please?"

He blinked. I wanted to go bang my head against a brick wall, but I was so humiliated all I could do was stand there stupidly and blush.

After a few moments that felt like hours, his lips parted.

"1.8%"

It was my turn to blink. Huh?

Then suddenly, in one fluid motion, he reached over the counter and gently seized my wrist, pulling it towards him. I was so stunned I didn't even respond until I heard two soft metallic clicks. I looked down.

He had just handcuffed me to him.

Then, he began to walk towards the door, with me, shocked into senseless oblivion, being dragged behind him.

His brown-haired friend gaped at him.

Suddenly, the upset, bewildered voice of Ryoko rang out from behind us.

"W-W-What the hell? Hey! S-Stop! Let her go!"

"This is a police matter now. Don't worry, I only want to ask her a few questions. If she is innocent, she will be returned to you unharmed."

His model friend appeared beside us. The surprise had worn off his face, and now he looked frustrated and irate.

"Damn it, Ryuuzaki!" he hissed, "What the hell are you doing?"

"Bringing in a Kira suspect for questioning, obviously," my crush replied, "Light-kun, would you go and get my sweets? You'll have to carry them for me."