Apartment 221 B was quite for once. Sherlock was busy playing with his microscope and John had his nose in the daily paper. The silence was broken when a small knock came at the always open door. Mrs. Hudson stood there with an unfamiliar girl. "Sorry but we are not taking any clients today," Sherlock said from his spot in the kitchen not even bothering to look up at his guest.

"Sherlock dear she's not a client; she's the person wanting to rent the flat upstairs. I figured it was only fair to bring her here to meet you boys so she knows what she's getting into." Watson being the gentleman that he is laid the paper down on the coffee table and stood to greet their guest, he offered his hand, "John Watson." Timidly she took his hand and gave it a small shake.

"Lea Amell. It's a pleasure to meet you Doctor Watson. I do enjoy your blog about the world's second best consulting detective. It seems like you and Sherlock have a lot of excitement in your lives." Watson was thoroughly confused.

"Second best? You mean there's another one besides Sherlock?" She nodded but didn't say anything more on the subject. She looked over at Sherlock and said,

"To examine a specimen of that quantity and mass you need to use a carbon based solution not a lead one." She waved a small goodbye to John as she headed upstairs.

"Now boys behave yourselves. And Sherlock dear try not to shoot up anymore of my walls," Mrs. Hudson said as she turned to leave. Watson plopped back down on the couch and picked up his paper again but he couldn't hold focus on it. What Lea had said was nagging at him. "What did she mean second best consulting detective? You told me you were the only one," Watson finally asked.

"I am the only one. That girl is clearly crazy, carbon solution, pah," he scoffed

"Well she'd have to be. I don't know who in their right mind would want to live in a flat above you."

"Now think about that John, What does that say about you?" John chuckled and finally was able to go back to reading.

A Few days passed Sherlock and Watson had just gotten word about a new murder case that they were supposed to go look at in about an hour. John wondered if Lea had decided against moving into the flat. He hadn't seen her or even heard any sounds coming from overhead. What she had said had really been nagging at him so he decided while they wait for Lestrade to call he'd do some research. What he found was fascinating. "Sherlock look at this, it seems Miss Amell wasn't crazy after all. Apparently there is another consulting detective that goes by the name of L. He's world renowned and it says he's even solved over 100 cases worldwide. Hmm no picture available, this guy must be pretty good."

"Girl, L is a girl. And Dr. Watson if you really wanted to know more about me I only live upstairs. You mustn't stoop so low as to looking me up on the internet silly." Watson looked up from his computer and was baffled by what he saw. The timid, shy girl he had met a few days ago seemed long gone and in her place stood the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She was dressed only in a purple button down shirt, her long blonde hair was loosely braided to the side, she wore no makeup but she certainly didn't need it. Watson collected himself and tried to look anywhere but at her.

"Now hold on a second. You said The L is a girl how would you know? No pictures are available of him."

"Honestly Watson if you spent more time trying not to stare at her chest, and failing miserably I might add, and listen she just told you that she herself is this detective L," Sherlock said. He finally looked up from his microscope, and studied the woman standing half naked in his apartment. "Is that my shirt?" she looked down as if she had forgotten what she was wearing.

"It could be. I found it in the dryer the other day."

"I've been looking all over for that shirt and I'd like it back now," he held out his hand and then peered back into his microscope.

"Sherlock you can't simple ask someone to remove their clothes even if they are yours to begin with," John said. Lea giggles and began unbuttoning the shirt; she stripped it off to reveal silky white skin and a perfect ten body. Underneath she wore only mini shorts and a purple lacey bra. John couldn't help but wonder if it was a matching set. At the thought his faced turned bright red as he watched her walk over to Sherlock and gently drape the shirt over his arm.

"Dr. Watson It's fine. The Shirt wasn't mine and it's only right that I give it back."

"Please call me John," he stammered trying even harder not to stare.

"John it is then," she smiled then walked over and planted herself on the couch next to him. Her silky thighs pressed up against his. "And to answer your early question, yes I am the Detective known as L."

"So does that mean you're here on a case?"

"Sadly no, I've been told to stay under the radar due to the fact that my identity was compromised and my life at stake in my last case. But it's simply far too boring not working. I figured living upstairs from the great Sherlock Holmes would surely be more fun but it seems you two are just as boring as the rest of the people on this planet," she hung her head and sighed John laughed,

"I do believe that's the first time I've heard someone call you boring," he said turning his attention to the man at the microscope. Sherlock didn't seem to be phased by the insult not did he even seem to hear it. Lea stood up and walked over to the darker haired man. She carefully draped one arm over his shoulder and the other on his wrist. Her chest was pressed firmly against his back and John couldn't help but feel jealous of Holmes. To be touched by something so lovely and not even notice. John watched as she moved her lips up to his ear. He could see her whispering something to him. She smirked then walked backed back over to John with a satisfied look on her face.

"John I'm utterly bored. You're about to start a new case right now correct? Please let me go," she pleaded. John couldn't say no to that face.

"I don't see why not."

"John the reason why not is because I'm the detective they are my cases. Why do you get to decide who tags along with us?" Sherlock had turned and now had his full attention on John. Before John could respond Lea piped up,

"Sherlock it might interest you to know that if I cannot sedate my boredom I'll just have to use you to have fun; for instance when I whispered that into your ear earlier I noticed your pulsed increased and you breathing staggered a bit. One of your turn on spots I'm guessing?" John swore he saw Sherlock's cheeks turn a lite color of pink.

"Fine we leaving in 15, with or without you," he said through gritted teeth. She smirked then kissed john on the cheek before exiting the flat.

As the trio arrived at the crime scene Lea smiled at Lestrade, "So good to see you again Greg."

"The pleasure is all mine Lady Amell."

"I told you last time call me Lea. See I told you I could get Sherlock to work with me."

"I'm quite impressed. I didn't think anyone could get Holmes to do something he didn't want to."

"Well you should know by now Greg I'm not just anyone."

"Would you two stop your mindless banter and tell me what we're dealing with Lestrade," Holmes interjected his voiced laced with annoyance. Clearly the fact that he was basically being blackmailed wore at his nerves. John chuckled quietly to himself.

When the trio arrived back at the flat Sherlock was clearly disappointed that the case had been a complete bore as he put it. Lea followed them back to their flat and was now making tea in the kitchen humming a quiet tune to herself. She smiled as she opened the fridge to look for something. John had never seen someone smile while looking into their fridge. Last time John had looked in there, there had been a severed head and a bag of toes. She came from the kitchen and leaned over to place his tea and biscuit in front of him and John couldn't help but look down her shirt, he was a man after all. She looked at him and smiled then walked over to where Sherlock had perched himself in the chair. She tried handing him the tea but Sherlock wasn't paying attention John was about to say something about how rude he was being but he watched as Lea took Sherlock's hands and formed them around the cup and saucer. She was purely brilliant, the only person he'd seen to get Sherlock to do anything she willed. She walked over to the window and opened it stepping out onto the balcony. John was hoping he would get more of a chance to talk to her but when he looked out the window he saw she was clearly in thought. She had scared him for a moment when he looked around the corner he saw her sitting on the railing her legs dangling over the edge. He opened his laptop and began writing about the "case" tonight. Before he was about to post he reread through it and realized most of it was about the woman sitting out on his balcony and not the case. He had talked about how her skin was the color of ivory and how he wished he could touch it to see if it felt like it. He shook his head and deleted the whole thing. He looked down at the clock on the screen; it read 12:01 am. John had forgotten he had to work tomorrow and needed at least some rest so he closed the computer down and headed towards his bedroom.

When Sherlock finally came out of his mind palace he realized he had a half empty cup of tea in his hand. He didn't remember drinking it or how he had come to have it but he finished it never the less. He heard a rustling out of the balcony and turned to see the source of the noise. He saw his new neighbor sitting there gazing up at the stairs a lost yet sad look on her face. Sherlock looked around the room for John but noticed his bedroom door was closed. He stood up and walked over to the window, "Don't you have your own place?" She seemed too deep in thought to have heard him but Sherlock was not one to be ignored when he was talking. He stepped out onto the balcony and stood in beside her, "I said don't you have a place of your own?" It took her a moment to realize he was talking to her but she responded,

"Yes I do. But being here feels more warm plus," she looked up, "I don't have a place like this to come and think. I'm sorry Sherlock." Sherlock looked at her again her eyes were slightly red and bloodshot like she had been crying out here. An ache pulled at Sherlock's heart, he had been in there this whole time and she had been out here crying all alone. He now felt bad about his earlier harsh words.

"It's perfectly alright you have nothing to be sorry for," he mumbled.

"I just like being here, with you and John. I've never had friends before I don't know if we're there yet but you're the closest I've ever come," she turned her gaze from Sherlock and looked back up at the stars. Sherlock looked up at them to and slide down onto the floor beside her. The two of them sat there like that, staring up at the stars. No words were said but none needed to be spoken. Finally she flung her legs back over the ledge and onto the balcony. She offered her hand to Sherlock to help him up, "Come on we can't stay out here all night we'll catch our death." Sherlock took hold of her hand and pulled himself up. Sherlock helped her back into the flat and lead her to the door. "Thank you for a wonderful night Mr. Holmes, you sure know how to show a girl a good time," she giggled and lifted herself up to kissed his cheek. Sherlock felt his cheek grow warm at her kiss. He watched as she silently exited the flat and went upstairs. Sherlock stood there in the door way in shock. Why was he behaving this way, what was this woman doing to him? It was with a racing mind he headed towards his bedroom for the night. He lay in bed listening to see if he could hear her footsteps on the floor above him but the flat was quiet, except for the light snores coming from John's room. Sherlock closed his eyes and willed himself to sleep.

When Sherlock woke up the apartment was quiet again no sound was heard. He sat up and slid his feet to rest on the floor. He looked across the room to the clock on the wall. It was 8:37am. Wow Sherlock couldn't remember a time when he'd slept that long. He grabbed his robe from the foot of the bed and headed towards the kitchen to work on his experiment.

What had seemed like only minutes had turned into hours. When he looked up he saw John perched on the couch his attention directed towards his computer, Sherlock turned his attention to outside where the street lights were just coming on. He heard footsteps coming down the stairs and turned to look to see If Lea was on her way down.

"Sherlock, John I need your help," she said. She looked frazzled. John jumped up, "Lea what's wrong?"

"No time to explain will you help me or not?" John looked over at Sherlock who nodded then rushed towards his bedroom to put some clothes on. The three of them hailed a cab to wherever it was they were going. Lea said nothing more as to why she needed their help but she looked whiter than normal and scared half to death. She fidgeted with the loose string on her jacket. She didn't strike John as the type to be nervous so where ever they were going something big must be going down. When the cab stopped he saw a familiar scene, cop cars and a tapped off crime scene. Lestrade stood there waiting for them. Why had he not called Sherlock for this case why had he called Lea?

"I didn't expect you to bring those two," he said as the trio exited the cab.

"Lestrade If this is him again I'm too close. I need a second opinion because I can't trust myself. Now show me what we talked about on the phone," Lea said.

"Right I guess I see your point. Follow me," he led them inside the building up to the fourth floor. There was a dead man leaned up against the wall and on the wall was written a message in blood. Nevermore L Nevermore can you hide from me; I will always find you- Kira.

Sherlock was quite for once assessing everything in the room. John was looking at Lea who was now white as a sheet, her face drained of any color and life. John realized this was the longest he had seen Sherlock go without telling everyone what they didn't know.

"Thank you Lestrade for showing me this. You already know who your killer is, I mean he left his name but I don't think finding him will be so easy," Lea turned to leave. But John grabbed her arm,

"You're just walking away from this case because you think this Kira will be hard to find? I thought you were a better detective than that."

"John I know he'll be hard to find I spent two years in Japan trying to track him down. You don't know anything about him while I know almost everything so trust me when I say yes he will be hard to find," her words came out more harsh than she had meant. "I'm sorry John, but you have no idea what he's capable of," she turned her attention to Lestrade, "I will be looking for him Greg so don't give up on me." She walked out of the apartment. John looked at Sherlock, "So what can you tell us?"

"Well from the way the wounds were made they were all self-inflicted, so my question is how did the killer get this man to cut himself up and write a message in blood then stab himself. Couldn't have been at gun point seeing as how most humans would rather just dye that way than bleed to death at their own hands. Lestrade you clearly know something about this and that is why you called Detective L instead of me but she's not here anymore so tell me what you know," Sherlock deduced.

"Well the Kira case is top secret information all I know is he was mostly based in Japan but it seems he's come here. I don't know any more than that." Sherlock turned to leave.

"Well it looks like I'll have to ask someone who might know. Lestrade we'll be in touch," then Sherlock turned to leave. John followed after him after waving a goodbye to Greg. John knew there were two people that would possibly know about this Kira, Lea and Mycroft and based on the direction their cab was headed he knew they were going to see the later. John knew that Sherlock had to be very interested in this case or he would not be turning to his brother for help. But then again Mycroft was pretty high up in the British government and could probably get classified Japanese information. The two of them walked into Mycroft's office John beat Sherlock to the punch, "We need a favor Mycroft. We need you to get all the files you can on something called the Kira case." Mycroft looked puzzled.

"And what makes you think I can get these files for you? Or that I would even want to. The Kira investigation is Japan's problem not ours so why would I bother myself with it?"

"Because he's killing people here in London now. One victim so far but he made them write a note and we know it's him now give us the damn files Mycroft," Sherlock answered. His voice was no longer cool and calm like it normally was. If John didn't know better he'd think that Sherlock's motives were the same as his own. Not to solve the murder but to protect Lea at all costs. Mycroft looked down at his desk and sighed.

"Fine give me twenty-four hours to see what I can do." Sherlock and John turned to walk out of the door but Mycroft had one more tad-bit of information, "But if you want to know faster I'd ask your new flat mate if I were you."

Sherlock and John entered their flat and heard a lot of loud banging noises coming from their new upstairs neighbor. John found this odd seeing as how he had never heard her moving up there once in the two weeks she'd lived there. John and Sherlock both looked at each other and apparently had been thinking the same thing. They bolted up the stairs and saw Lea sitting there shoving clothes into suitcases.

"Lea what are you doing?" John asked as he kneeled down beside her.

"I have to leave don't you see. I won't risk everything again, I can't lose you two," her eyes began to well up with tears.

"And what makes you think you will lose us Lea? What is it about this Kira that has you so scared?" Lea let out a big sigh

"Fine I'll tell you everything that happened. Two and a half years ago I was called to a case in Japan. A bunch of prisoners were dying, some might not see that as very big but they were all dying of heart attacks. Twenty prisons all based in the Kanto region dead of heart attacks. Eventually we found out that this Kira character needed a name and a face to kill his victims so we simply stopped posting criminals pictures online or on the telly but that didn't seem to work either low rate criminals started dying people who had unpaid parking tickets and so on. The F.B.I. was called in to help with the investigation there was a team of twelve that came to help and they all wound up dead within the week. Things came down to the wire my last week on the case but when an enveloped arrived that had all my team and my pictures in them with all their names written beside them but mine we panicked. My whole team collapsed on the floor. They all died of heart attacks, except me. I ran after the person who had left the note and came face to face with the man known as Kira. But he broke his pattern then he pulled out a gun and aimed it for me. He shot me clear through the shoulder then ran. After that they figured that I was a danger to people around me and to myself and moved me here but it seems that Kira has found me once again and no one around me is safe. He won't stop until I'm dead and his identity is safe at last. He's heartless and will hurt anyone that gets in his way and right now the two of you are what's standing in his way. So I'm leaving, I won't let any harm come to you two. I'm going back to Japan to finish what he started," She stood up and slung her back over her shoulder. "Thank you two for being such great friends. I promise if I live through this I'll come back," She hugged John and kissed his cheek then turned to Sherlock and did the same. Then she walked out of the flat leaving the two boys to watch her go.