Story warnings-

Some future slash- nothing graphic

Some hetero couples- nothing graphic. (If you want to know pairings before reading, p-message or review and I'll respond.)

Mentions of past drug abuse/addiction.

Mentions of sex.

Language.

The city was nothing but shades of grey; dirty snow lay in piles on the ground, trodden down by hard boots; the streets were littered; the buildings dirty and off white; smog polluted the atmosphere.

One sole character, dressed in a thick white coat and wearing pale blue jeans shuffled down the street. Clearly, it was a person who disliked walking often, and who resented being outside. And one couldn't blame them, as the Scottish winter was as cold and unforgiving as always.

Hastily, almost as if they were doing something illegal or obscene, the pale character put up a small poster on a shop window, before moving on quickly.

xxXXxx

One week later

"What is this?" asked Light. His face held a warm smile but his body had just frozen and his voice was dangerously low.

"It's a selection of condoms, Light," announced Kiyomi, Light's girlfriend, amicably. "Since the start of our relationship I have found the sex unfulfilling. I'm not criticising you," she smiled at him, "I am just giving some constructive criticism and offering help. I would like us to try some of these."

Light held up a chocolate flavoured condom delicately, "really? I would have thought you would have more taste than this Kiyomi."

"What's so distasteful about chocolate?"

"That's not what I- oh, ha-ha. Well done." He lent forward. "I'm not very impressed Miss Takada. I am sorry you are unsatisfied with the sex but are you so surprised? We're not in love. You understood the nature of our relationship when it started."

"Yes but I am still a female," she cut in, "a very attractive one at that. You have done well for yourself, as have I." She batted her eyelashes at him coyly. "Love doesn't need to be involved in this. There is still lust and mutual enjoyment."

They both fell silent as a waiter came up to them and delivered their fancy, high price meals. A piano tinkled delicately in the background as did the occasional chime of champagne glasses being clicked together in a cheer, and the ever present muttering of the quiet conversations of the elite customers.

"I love this restaurant," Kiyomi beamed. "The hasty service and the excellent food...I don't understand why we can't come more often."

"Because I'm not made of money, darling."

"But your parents are."

Light smiled at her, refusing to answer. They ate in silence for a few moments before Kiyomi put down her fork and sighed. "Light I want us to work together; to be happy together."

Light looked at her. She was very beautiful and he had lot of respect for her, after all she was strong and powerful, of good social standing, intelligent and ambitious. Not only was she going to be a good wife but she would also be a great partner in the Law Business. Kiyomi would up hold the Yagami name well. But he just did not find her sexually attractive. And that was no insult to her. He hadn't found anyone sexually attractive in all his life. His teens had been particularly hard. He was an attractive man and many girls (and boys) had sought to date him. In the end he complied, but only because he didn't want to come across as strange or unnatural to anyone. However, by the time he was fifteen, Light had realised that he needed someone he could connect with on an intellectual level as well as an emotional one. Unfortunately Light was extremely intelligent and very emotionally disconnected from the rest of society. He often considered that he may well be a psychopath. But like Kiyomi, if she was to be his wife (and she was) he wanted them to be happy.

He mimicked her in putting down his cutlery. "I agree darling." He pushed the condoms (which he had hidden behind his dinner plate before the waiter had arrived,) towards her. She took them and put them in her purse.

"We will try those tonight." He said and she smiled in response. He felt a little empty inside. Watching her eat, he wondered if maybe he could grow to love her. Though she seemed happy enough with the promise of better sex, he would need more. Maybe he could try to reach out to her, try to get them to have some sort of mutual interests.

"I saw an advert in the local shop the other day," he announced, digging once more in to his fresh pasta. "There is a small book group starting. I think it will be mostly students considering the area. The first book is going to be the play 'Waiting for Godot', what do you think, shall we go?"

"Sure," she replied without much interest, "why not?"

xxXXxx

Whilst Light Yagami and Kiyomi Takada ate their romantic meal, Naomi Misora sat in her car staring at her eyes in the rear-view mirror. They looked anxious and tired. She and Ray were supposed to be going out tonight for a meal themselves only for them it would have been at the local pub. Would he still want her to go? They were supposed to be meeting his friends. Granted, spending an evening with a bunch of drunken, misogynistic policemen wasn't her idea of a fun night out, but she had been honoured and flattered that Ray finally wanted his friends to meet her. It was another way of solidifying their rocky relationship, a sign that they were becoming a proper couple not just a squabbling boyfriend and girlfriend. But as always, something came along and messed things up.

In this case, it was her drug-addict baby-brother.

Well, ex-addict. He was all better now or so he kept insisting, she wasn't so sure herself. The doctors had released him from his expensive rehab at the Priory three months ago. He had immediately gone travelling, complaining to her that he needed space, time to think and room to grow. She had scoffed at him and accepted that he was probably going to return as big a junkie as he was before (if not worse) or in a coffin. Their parents had refused to get involved, having cut off their son emotionally years ago when he had first been diagnosed with his disability. The drug addiction was just the icing on the cake. They were completely ashamed of him, and so fuelled him with money, just to keep him quiet and as far away from them and their posh friends as possible. And that money had fuelled his drug addiction.

That morning, whilst Ray was in the shower, she'd received a text message from him.

'Back in the country.' It had read. 'Will be at Manchester airport in four hours approx.'

She had felt mixed emotions when reading it. Part of her was relieved that he was finally home; he hadn't told anyone how long he was going to be away. But she was also angry with him for leaving in the first place and, by the looks of his text, that he was clearly just expecting her to pick him up from the airport. He didn't even have the decency to ask or to enquire how she had been a those months he'd been missing. He just, in his typical selfish manner, expected her to drop everything to meet up. Maybe he hadn't even considered that she had plans.

This self-centred behaviour of his was ruining her life. But what could she do? He was her brother.

"You should leave him," Ray had complained over breakfast when she mentioned that she might not be able to meet his friends that night because her brother had made a re-appearance. "He probably has enough money to get a taxi and a hotel." He shovelled scrambled eggs into his mouth and spoke before he had swallowed them all. "Your parents are rich enough..."

"You know about our parents, they may send him money but they don't care for him," she sighed and poured him another cup of tea. He slurped it down without thanking her for it.

God, she was surrounded by ill-mannered, ungrateful men...

"They gave him money when knowing he blew it all on that filth he liked to shoot in to his veins," he continued, ignoring her protests, "I'm sure they won't begrudge him a taxi and a roof over his head that is assuming he is clean and is going to spend the money on sensible things."

Naomi wanted to argue against his cynicism, but she knew he was right. More times then she cared to count, her brother had turned up at her door, saying he was clean and begging for help, only to rob her as soon as he could and disappearing for months on end. It was a horrible pattern that had gone on for three years.

"He's my brother," she muttered, sitting opposite her beau. "I have to be there for him."

"And what about me, Naomi? I'm your boyfriend!"

"I know, but you don't need me the way he does!"

"Whatever." Ray said whilst moving away from the table and pulling on his coat. "If he comes here," he continued, without looking at her, "make sure he stays out of our bedroom and hide all the money under the mattress."

With that he had stormed out of the flat, leaving her alone.

She had gotten dressed and made the long journey to Manchester airport. She was sitting outside of it now, waiting patiently for her sibling to turn up.

Sure enough, there he was, slinking out of the main entrance. She beeped the car horn, making him jump and look at her like a frightened deer before recognising her little red Rover and strolling over to her. For some reason he climbed into the back seat instead of the front.

She looked at him and smiled. They were similar in some ways. Both had jet black hair and dark grey, almost black, eyes. But his face was angular and a stark white, abused by years of hunger and drug addiction, whereas hers was still full, coloured and healthy.

"Hey Lawliet," she smiled, "how've you been baby-brother?"

"Alright," ah, seemed he was as reticent as ever.

"Did you meet any nice girls?" She asked, starting up the car and pulling out.

He stared out the window, not looking at her as he replied. "Sure. There were lots of nice girls out there."

"Lawli, where exactly did you go?"

"All over the East," he sighed, "Nepal, China, Vietnam. I even visited Tokyo for a short while. I wanted out of the cities though. I stuck mainly to the small, poor, rural countries."

That was good; maybe it was easier for him to avoid drugs away from the cities.

"And did you find time and space to think?" she pushed.

"I think so."

There was a brief silence. Lawliet had never been a big talker, but she was desperate to find out if he was actually clean or not. Also, Naomi had really missed him and was curious as to what kept him busy for so many months. "What made you decide to come back?"

"Mom and dad have stopped sending me money."

"What?" They had halted at a red light, giving her chance to turn and look at him. He blessed her with one of his rare smiles. "They can't have cut you off Lawli-pop! Oh no, I'm so sorry."

"It's ok...the light's turned green."

A car beeped angrily behind her. She stepped on the gas and tore down the road, feeing angry with her parents. So they had completely given up on him now, had they? Back when he was on drugs they kept sending him money. The moment he was (hopefully) clean, then they choose to stop?! It was ridiculous.

"Seriously," he leant forward, noting her inner rage, "it's ok. It will give me a chance to stand on my own feet. Erm...I'm going to need to stay with you, at least for a little while, though."

She laughed, "of course you can stay with me." She opened up the cabinet and tossed him a lollipop, which he eagerly opened and shoved into his mouth. He looked livelier all of sudden. Had he thought she would refuse him? "I'm always here for you," she emphasised.

"Will Ray be at the flat?"

"Yes."

"Oh."

"Well, don't sound too happy!"

Lawliet didn't respond.

"You just have to prove yourself," she said softly, after a moment's heart beat. "Ray is a police officer. He has a reputation. He can't help but be angry and worried whenever you're around."

"Yes, but you're an officer and you never hurt me..."

"I'm a PCSO," she retorted, her voice more firm. "And you are my brother, so of course I accept you no matter what. Ray on the other hand, owes you nothing."

There was more fraught silence. Neither of them really wanted to go into the last time Lawliet and Ray were together. "I'll pay you back," Lawliet muttered, breaking the silence, "you know...for everything...all the stuff I took and all the time you spend on me. I've been thinking about my past behaviour and have come to the realisation that I have been very...wrong...at times."

"Lawli-pop you were high on drugs and now you have no money. Don't worry, I forgive you. I just want you to get better."

He winced at her response, not because he thought it was cruel, but because she sounded so defeated. It was awful knowing he was a total failure and that he had let someone he loved down so badly. It was in Bengal that he had decided to make up for his past sins and to start becoming a fully functioning adult, but it was hard with the one person he loved most only thought of him as being as hopeless and needy as a child.

"I will pay you back," he insisted. "I'll get a job and everything. I'll make it up to you," he turned and looked back out of the window staring into the Scottish countryside muttering, "somehow..."

xxXXxx

"Good morning sir!"

Light tried not to wince at the ever preppy happiness Matsuda liked to radiate.

"Morning Matsuda, did you get all that filing I needed you to do finished?"

"Yes sir! It was really hard at first, I kept getting muddled up between all the filing cabinets and I ended up staying three hours over time, but got the job finished sir!"

"Good. I would like a coffee please, and a toastie, all from the local cafe, not that dreadful deli you like so much."

"Y-yes sir..." Matsuda looked a little ashamed at the fact that he liked something that Light despised. Light sighed, he was such a softie sometimes...

"Matsuda," he called, his assistant looking back with wide puppy eyes, "you can get something for yourself too, from anywhere you like, ok? It's your reward for working so hard."

Matsuda's eyes lit up and he nodded before bounding out of the office like an excited Retriever puppy.

Light shook his head. His father would laugh at him to see how much of a pansy he was sometimes. Light worked at his father's small, but ever growing, law firm. He had finished his post-graduate half a year ago, whereas his girlfriend, Kiyomi, was still finishing hers. Light wanted to go on to become a fully fledged prosecuting lawyer, but he still had a long way to go yet.

His assistant, Matsuda, was also at university, though he did some entry level work at the office. He had begun as a court runner, but oftentimes he helped out Light, essentially being an assistant to the assistant.

Now that he was (temporarily) alone, Light allowed his defences to fall. He sighed and brushed both his hands through his silky brunet locks. He felt...dissatisfied. For years he had aimed to be a lawyer, to get married, to make his father proud. Here he was, on his way, with a beautiful, vivacious woman by his side, and in a law office, but he didn't feel happy. In fact, he felt empty, as if he were going nowhere, as if he were trapped somehow. His 'vivacious girlfriend' seemed more like a grasping, egotistical bitch, the law office seemed a poky hellhole in a dirty, grimy city he loathed.

He wanted out, but didn't know how to get away.

'What would I even do?' he worried, 'this is what I'm trained for. I'm not the kind of idiot who goes 'following their dreams'. This is real life. I'm in a well-paid job with prospects, which is a far better situation than what most people are in right now, I'm educated, I'm good looking and I'm engaged. I don't understand why I feel like this!'

He took out the small advertisement for the Book Club. Normally he never did things like joining groups or clubs unless there was some sort of prestige involved. He never just did things for 'fun.' He had been quite surprised when Kiyomi had agreed to join him, as it wasn't her sort of thing either. Maybe she felt it was a fair trade off, he had to give her more satisfying sex, and she would submit to his silly whims such as joining a book group, which no doubt she would find very dull and plebeian.

'I only asked her to join with me because I want to get to know her,' he mused, staring down at the rough, cheap paper, 'there has to be some sort of link between us or...or I actually don't think I can go through with this. I don't think I'll want to. How could I explain that to my father? He has so much faith in me... so much hope that I would follow in his footsteps.'

He heard the downstairs door slam shut. Matsuda was back. Light sat back up and straightened himself out, absentmindedly placing the Book Club ad on the desk.

"Thank you Matsuda," he said as the young boy, beaming, placed the coffee down clumsily and spilling some of it. The phone rang and Light walked away, talking quickly to what Matsuda supposed was his father back in the main office.

While dabbing away the spilt coffee, Matsuda spotted the Book Club advertisement and slipped it into his pocket, assuming that someone like Light Yagami wouldn't be interested in something like that, and that perhaps it was just some of the junk mail they often received. His best friend was an English lit student and half way through the second year of her A-Levels. Maybe the Group would help her out?

xxXXxx

Lawliet stepped into the local ASDA and waited at the Enquiries section as he was asked to while pulling at his tie anxiously. He felt stupid getting all dressed up for an interview to be a cashier but Naomi had insisted he look his best. Thanks to the brutal recession, there were hardly any jobs going anywhere and Lawliet needed to be doing something with his days other than avoiding Ray and eating every sweet thing in Naomi's flat.

They had all agreed that when Lawliet got a job that all the money would go to Ray and Naomi. It was their flat after all and there was still a good chance that he would start spending it on drugs again. But then, Naomi had promised to open a savings account for Lawliet so that when they all felt it was safe for him to leave home and live alone, he would have some money. He had also made them promise to buy sweets just for him. Ray had huffed and sighed and moaned about him replacing one addiction for another, but Naomi had just laughed and agreed.

"Mr. Misora?" Lawliet turned around to see a man facing him with his arm outstretched ready to give a handshake. "Hi," the man continued, "I'm the head of this branch. You're here for your interview?"

The two men sat in a small office. Lawliet observed the area while hiding his distaste. On the table were various coffee and tea stains from mugs. On the side was a dirty, dusty kettle. Various mugs were on a lime-scale draining board, they all bore slogans such as 'Dog tired' and 'Best Boss' and 'Life's a bitch...then you marry one!'.

Lawliet shifted in his chair already hating everything he saw, but he had lived in worse than this back in the days of absolute addiction, there was no point getting uppity now.

"This will only be short," the man -who had introduced himself as Ide- said, "I just have one question really. On your CV it says that you graduated from the University of Stirling."

"Yes."

"And that you got a first class degree in Cell Biology."

"That is correct. Sir."

"Well, what are you doing looking for a job here?" Ide gasped.

Lawliet blinked at him before answering, "things have gone awry in my life over the last few years. I would like to have a consistent job and a consistent income. What I wish for is stability, and I believe I can get that here."

"Well, alright. Congratulations Mr. Misora you have a job here. You can start right away, let me show you your uniform."

As expected his day was long and tedious. He had almost felt zombified by the second hour of working on the tills. The customers passed him by, each one a blur. On his break he had called Naomi to tell her he was well,

"I got the job," he had said.

"Oh my gosh, Lawli-pop that's amazing!" He smiled a little at how excited she was. "I'm so proud of you!"

The smile faded from his face. "It's only as a cashier," he muttered insolently.

"But it's still a job. This is great. Have an excellent day at work and I'll see you tonight. I'll have an extra nice cake for you as celebration! Oh, wait till Ray finds out, I'm sure he'll be happy for you."

"Yes," he responded in monotone. "I have to go now. Goodbye. I love you too."

As he walked home after work he reflected on the phone call. At one time he could have been a top biologist, now his sister was happy that he could get a job at a supermarket. How had her expectations of him changed so much?

Oh yeah, of course, the whole addiction thing...

Truth be told, Lawliet didn't even remember that much, but he knew he had been bad. His parents did not communicate with him at all, and since getting clean he had tried to contact them.

He had five pounds in his pocket, (his sister had given him enough money for a taxi home,) but he wanted to walk. Maybe he could buy her and Ray something nice? Something to show that he was grateful for them taking him in and that he could be trusted with money.

He popped into the first local shop he saw and settled on a cheap wine. As far as he had seen so far Ray did not have a discerning palate when it came to alcohol, and Naomi would appreciate the effort. On his way out he stopped to read the advertisements put up by locals. He always read them, especially the 'missing pets' signs in the hope that if he found a pet it would be one other way of realigning his karma.

Hmm, a missing kitten, an old armchair for sale, a house swap proposition and...ah.

Lawliet picked up on sheet of paper. "A book club," he read out loud, "Waiting for Godot, to meet in one month." It was probably only aimed for students, the whole area was student heavy thanks to the local polytechnic-come-university, but maybe he should go? Who cared if they were younger than him? Besides it hadn't specifically asked for students. He had nothing better to do and staying in watching Coronation Street with Ray and Naomi was not Lawliets ideal night in.

Jotting down the address, Lawliet slipped out of the shop feeling much happier than he had entering it.

A.N. Please be aware that I am a slow up-dater. The reason why is because I work full time during the week, I work Saturdays part time and have college twice in the evening. What can I say? I have bills to pay and the recession is kicking my butt. Please, please do not give me loads of grief for being slow, I'm trying my best to get chapters out quickly. For this story so far I have three chapters already written, so updates should be fairly consistent for now. I'm only up-loading at all because my other Death Note fanfic is drawing to an end.

The reason I'm writing this is because I notice that there is a habit in fanfics to get characters and put them in posh schools or make them rich and famous. Well, because I am a contrary person I purposely wanted to put these characters in poverty and in the most un-glamorous roles I could think of. That's interesting, (imo anyway!)

Also, this is extremely loosely based on a tv show called 'The Book Group' that was on channel four a few years ago. It never really went that far, but I liked the premise and so stole it like the shameless hack that I am.

Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter and I hope you like the rest of the story should you decide to commit and continue reading it.

Please leave a review, they do help, and please do not be afraid of sending me some con-crit, I'm an adult and I can handle it. ;)

'till next time folks.