Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note, or any of its characters.

I wrote this today, it's a one-shot/scene from a story I will write at some point, I just need to work out the details first. This is after Light dies, in the live action films, and the story is a kind of alternative to L Change The World, cause I'm not a fan of the virus story. Irving is from Wammy's House or something; as I said, still need to work out the details. The mass murderer doesn't have a death note - L still has them. And I'm not sure about Akira's name, but I don't know what to change it to, so if you have any ideas, please let me know xD Thanks for reading, hope you like it.

...............

I looked briefly up at the screen. The mass murder suspect rolled over in his sleep, pulling the duvet with him and revealing his nudity. I returned my attention to the pile of sugar cubes balanced on the edge of my tea cup, and frowned: There were seven of them.

"I always take eight out." I mumbled.

"What? Oh, right. Can't you just go get another?" Matsuda glanced nervously at the tower of sugar cubes, thinking it would fall over. It wouldn't.

"It's my last one." I pushed myself out of the armchair and onto my knees to search the floor around the coffee table. "Akira got the munchies in her sleep yesterday. I need to order some more to be brought up."

"Why can't you just have seven?"

"It's more about the fact that I had eight, and now I don't."

A half stifled laugh came from the other side end of the room. I backed out from under the table. "You're awake," I noted with a quick smile and got to my feet, putting my hands in my pockets. My frown returned. "Have you seen my sugar cube?"

Akira smiled and raised her left hand, rotating the cube between her thumb and forefinger.

"Can I have it back?"

Akira's eyes moved from the white cube to mine. "You'll have to fight me for it."

I raised an eyebrow. "I'm stronger than I look, you know." I stepped once towards her.

"Um... I'm gunna go get some, uh... noodles." Matsuda hurried out of the hotel room.

"What were you and Matsuda doing?"

"We were observing the suspect. There's been nothing suspicious so far."

"You may wanna check the papers between his pillows." She nodded to one of the screens.

I turned to the screen, narrowed my eyes, and as the sleeping murderer shifted I saw it too. "Oh. I hadn't noticed that."

"It's probably nothing major, but it'll most likely lead us to something that is." She tilted her head back and dropped the sugar cube into her mouth.

"That's not fair." I frowned, stopping two and half feet away from her. She just smiled, her eyes lowered momentarily from mine and I knew what she wanted me to do. I froze for a second; I was already too close to her than was ideal. I had seven days left to live, and even with our sleeping patterns that was long enough for it to hurt when I died. But already we were close enough for that: Closer than I had been with Light.

No. It didn't matter how close we were, we had to prove the suspect guilty in under a week – I would not die half way through a case. Little slip ups and distractions would break our concentration. Or it would spur us on and open our minds to different ways of looking at things.

I stepped forward again, the space between us now only a few inches. Damn it. Damn it, damn it, damn it. I barely knew who I was anymore; Light had been fine, he'd been my only friend, but then two days after his death there's someone else, another person in my limited life. I'd never allowed myself to live like that before, why now? Did I want to live that much, that I would distract myself in this way? Urgh, who cares? Maybe it was nature calling; normality and the majority claiming my last few weeks. And they'd been doing it slowly. I almost didn't notice.

I don't have much experience in people, but I'm pretty sure that just about everyone had fallen for one of their best friends at some point. I guess that proves I'm a part of 'everyone', that no matter how much I keep away from humanity, how many times I speak through Watari, or how many goddamn hotel rooms I shut myself up in, things like this will still find me.

Her grey eyes moved over my face as she moved slowly forward. I realised it was too late to back out without upsetting her, not that I'd planned to anyway. Kissing was probably some rite of passage or something, a thing I needed to do before I died, or at least should do. Besides, I needed that sugar cube...

A smile crept onto her face and she pushed out her tongue, showing me the liquid remnants of the little white square.

"Oh," I said, frowning disappointedly.

"Aw," with a grin she reached up and ruffled my hair. "Relax. There's another box of cubes in the cupboard that you guys keep locked. I asked Irving to put some in there in case I ate them all in my sleep. I know you like your sugar cubes."

I put on a smile. "Thank you," I turned and climbed quickly over the furniture, pulling the key from my pocket. I opened the cupboard and saw a single box of sugar balanced between two bottles of wine.

"So when are we gunna look at those papers? Better do it soon, he might move it when he wakes up." She sat on the sofa, reaching forward for the evidence photos.

"I can ask Irving to take you when he gets back."

She sighed. "We'd probably get further if you came. You notice things about people; you could analyse his house or something."

I transferred the pile of cubes into the cooling tea and sat back in the armchair. I raised the cup to my mouth and watched Akira sift through the photos. I smiled. There was about a seventeen per cent chance she knew the real cause of my disappointment.