Disclaimer: The characters within this story all belong to writer Tsugumi Ohba and artist Takeshi Obata.
Warnings: Cursing.
Summary: Although Light's makes it as far as his kidnapper's room, L puts him right back to square one. (Stolen!Light)
Completed: January 24, 2010

Thoroughly Trapped
by: Kagome-reincarnation

This time, when Light woke, he was relieved to find the abysmal migraine had been reduced to a slight pain at the back of his head as opposed to the pounding pain that had so impaired him earlier. At the thought of his previous attempt to discover his location, Light glanced around, quickly confirming that he'd been returned to the room he'd woken in.

He vaguely remembered someone carrying him.

The artist scowled as he looked down at his hands, feeling terribly helpless. He'd been forced to allow someone to carry him – carry him of all people! Now that his thought process was no longer being ravaged by that damnable headache, Light found that he was able to focus much more.

Another quick examination of the room proved that nothing had changed since his attempted departure and fateful return.

With a sigh, he slid out of the bed once more. He wondered if the door would be locked – he'd obviously gotten up and moved about without the kidnapper's – for he'd realized he'd been kidnapped – knowledge. Unless the kidnapper was the man that had carried him. Frowning at the thought, Light continued moving slowly towards the door. His speed was purposely halved. He feared that a quick moment might give him vertigo which could quickly lead to another migraine. Having only just recovered from the first, he had no intention of falling to a second.

The artisan was surprised to find that the door was still unlocked. Cautiously exiting the room, he'd quickly discovered why – there was only one other door connected to the corridor, and that door was far along down the hall.

This led Light to a single, unavoidable conclusion. Whoever it was that had returned him to the bed he'd been replaced in obviously had some connection to the room at the other end of the hallway. Since the only rooms that typically had extensions like this were bedrooms, it was reasonable to think that the person who'd carried him was also the kidnapper.

A thought struck him and Light glanced down at the floorboards. Irked – and satisfied – by his findings, he realized that the letter "L" was stamped onto some of the floorboards in a rather incomprehensible pattern. Randomized, Light decided after a moment.

When he arrived at the far door, he was annoyed to realize that there was no doorknob. He spent several long moments glaring at the hapless door before giving a soft sigh and looking about for any possible clues.

It was unlikely that an expanded corridor such as the one he stood in had no method of returning to the room. Not only did it break several of the unspoken rules of privacy that lords owning such styles of rooms held, it also denied quite a bit of common sense.

And that meant that there was a way out. Glancing around the hall, Light was puzzled to find only the dull stone of the walls and the incomprehensible floorboards.

After a moment, Light began to grin. Perhaps "L" was a clue.

Several minutes later, L, on the other side of the door, looked up from his book. The music box that he'd customized to act as a key had opened, playing the eerie tune he'd keyed for the secret passageway. A few quick glances around the room informed him that he hadn't been imagining it. The candlestick beside the desk had been turned sideways and one of the stone floor tiles in his room had been forced aside.

His bookcase was moving.

L closed the book he'd been reading, the page number memorized and filed away for later reference.

When the smirking brown-haired artisan was fully visible, L nodded towards him. "Hello," he greeted him. Then, almost inquisitively – he wanted to redirect his guest as quickly as possible – he asked, "Are you hungry?"

Light, for his part, managed a rather irritable, "No, thank you," before attempting to process the other man's appearance. Black, ridiculously messy hair, a rather awkward looking posture, and thick circles around the eyes. He didn't know who the man before him was, but a cursory look around the room informed him that his kidnapper was no pushover.

The man was obviously wealthy. Of course, he'd known this because of the fact that he'd been sequestered away in a hidden room, but it hadn't really struck him that his kidnapper was so odd.

Then again, he amended, you'd have to be rather odd to kidnap an artist, of all people.

Outwardly, he did his best to appear confident. "Where am I?" he directed the demand towards the man before him. "Who are you?"

"Yagami-san is standing in my bedchambers," L said stoically as he stood, "And may address me as Ryuuzaki."

Light frowned slightly at the roundabout answer that the other man – Ryuuzaki, he supposed – had given him. To his first question, he'd stated the obvious, giving him a reply without answering his question. To his second, he'd told him what he could call him – not his name.

"Fine," Light said, discreetly looking about the room. Were the man before him anyone but for L, they might not have noticed his attentions, but Light wasn't so lucky.

"Yagami-san will find that he will not be able to get to the door before I get to him," Ryuuzaki said blandly. His expression was equally bored, but Light couldn't help but grit his teeth at the man's words.

"Then will you be telling me why you've kidnapped me any time soon?" he grit out, his expression quickly taking on the semblance of fury.

"Of course," L said, his voice too patronizing for Light's tastes. "Although Yagami-san has not been kidnapped; simply taken. Yaga—"

"Simply taken?" Light couldn't help himself from cutting in, his voice incredulous. "You hit me over the head, took me away from the palace, stuck me in a hidden room, and you're saying I wasn't kidnapped?!"

L simply looked at him, his expression carefully blank. Light quickly curtailed his fury, not wanting to share himself – any part of himself – with the man before him. Weaknesses were all too easily revealed in the throes of anger and he had no intention of adding his name to the number that had fallen to it before him.

"Yagami-san was only taken," L repeated, a glint of steel entering his eyes. "And Yagami-san will paint for me now."

Light froze at the man's words, his burning fury quickly bleeding away to shock. Unable to properly express himself, a single, inadequate word escaped him.

"What?"

His kidnapper spoke again, this time with a bit of humor entering his eyes – and what Light identified to be some sort of annoyance. "I said that Yagami-san will now paint for me."

There was a long pause as Light allowed the words to filter through his mind.

"You're out of your mind."

"Yagami-san will find that I am quite sane," L said, his expression one of scrutiny.

"No, Yagami-san does not." Light said firmly. He took two steps towards L. "Yagami-san would very much like to leave."

L changed his position as Light advanced, moving between Light and the door. "Then it is too bad," L said monotonously. "Because Light-kun cannot leave."

Light scowled at L. "You can't keep me here," he challenged, conveniently forgetting the measures that L had taken to get him there in the first place.

The kidnapper only raised an eyebrow at his victim. With a frustrated sound, Light darted forward and tackled the man to the ground. He moved to get off of him – to get to the door – but found that his captor had taken hold of his clothes, keeping him in place.

"Dammit, you can't do this!" Light cried out, struggling as L gained a better purchase on him and righted them both.

L didn't respond to him, simply digging his fingers into Light's arm as he dragged him towards the passageway.

Light struggled, forcing L to fight for every step of the way. Once he'd gotten to the bookcase, though, L lost his patience and simply threw Light over his shoulder, hefting the younger man like he would a sack of grain.

Of course, a sack of grain wouldn't struggle quite as much as Light did. The brunette pounded against L's back with his fists and his legs flailed until L took a hold of them, pinning them down.

Light began to scream, and only stopped when he'd paused for oxygen to hear L informing him that his rooms were soundproof.

Disheartened, Light stopped struggling, falling limp against L's body. Although, to his credit, he was already planning his next move.

As soon as they reached the pentagonal room that L had placed Light in, the older man set the boy down and thrust him into the chamber, looking down on him from the doorframe.

"You will paint here," he informed the other male coolly. Light struggled to his feet, glaring at him. "Your meals will be delivered and your supplies should be arriving within the next twenty-four hours."

He returned Light's glare with a cool gaze designed to break through defenses. "There's a room for bathing and the necessaries attached to this room." He gestured to a door – one that Light was startled to realize he hadn't noticed before. Not that it was his fault. The texture was the same as the walls beside it and the woozy state he'd woken in certainly hadn't helped.

Light returned his glare towards L. "You can't keep me here forever," he said to him.

His captor only looked at him coolly from the door. "Yes," he said to him cruelly, "I can."

With those last words, he backed out of the room and slammed the door shut, locking it this time, knowing the loud click it gave would only serve to further break his captive's spirit.