Exercise is Good

He barely saw it coming. His heart leapt to his throat as instinct took over. In an instant, he threw up his hands in an attempt to block the bare foot that had been flying straight towards his head. His breathing hitched as the foot stopped barely an inch from his nose.

Raito angrily pushed the offending foot away from his face, before lashing out at its owner with a furious, "What the fuck is wrong with you, Ryuuzaki?!"

The detective in question dropped his leg to the marbled floor, ignoring the look of outrage in the other youth.

"Nice block, Raito-kun," L commented calmly as he stood rather straighter than he usually did. The blank, wide-eyed stare of the detective narrowed a fraction, this time alerting the young Yagami of L's next move.

As expected, it came at the blink of an eye, with L turning to give him a roundhouse kick only to have Raito duck the incoming attack. However, Raito didn't see the subsequent punch. L's fist made Raito's face snap to the other side, his thumb's uneven fingernail catching a corner of Raito's upper lip, drawing blood. Raito wiped the forming blood with the back of his wrist before swiftly diving at the unprepared detective, making them both sprawl in the marbled floor with a thud.

Quickly scrambling to his feet, Raito caught L in an arm lock, trapping the dark-haired youth's arms and latching on to his legs like a snake to prevent him from moving. Both of them were sweating profusely and were panting heavily.

"What the hell is that for, Ryuuzaki?" snarled Raito.

L tried to kick his way out of Raito's grip, but the larger form of the other man made it almost impossible. Wide, dark eyes still betraying nothing, L simply cocked his head. "It appears that I can't move my arms and legs."

"That was the point," said Raito scathingly. He would have rolled his eyes, if it weren't such a childish move for his perfect image. "I won't let go unless you answer my question. Why the hell are you attacking me?"

"Hm. It seems that Raito-kun enjoys hugging me. I didn't thinkf I was that huggable. I wonder what this would look like in the surveillance "

Raito snorted. "Nice try, but I won't let go just because I'm worried for my masculinity."

The sugar-addicted youth gave a semblance of a shrug through their tangled limbs. "It's worth a try. But I'm sure *this* will."

Without warning, L smashed his forehead into Raito's, making the brown-haired youth loosen his grasp on the detective's frame with a gasp of pain. L leapt to his feet and flexed his aching shoulders, fixing his dark eyes to the man he considered primary suspect, who was clutching his forehead.

"That was dirty, Ryuuzaki."

A thin stream of blood dripped down his nose. L reached out an index finger to wipe it off daintily. He studied the bloodstained finger carefully. "Kira kills people in cold blood, without leaving fingerprints. *That* is dirtier, Raito-kun."

"So this is still about me being Kira? If it is, then it's completely useless because I'm NOT a murderer!"

L didn't have a chance to retort as Raito chargfed at him, hitting L's jaw squarely with his fist. L stumbled backwards from the force, but the detective quickly pulled on the chain linking them so Raito was dragged after him. L spun on his heel to deliver another kick, aiming at Raito's head.

Seeing an opening at the detective's side, the young Yagami smirked as he threw in his own attack, letting his fist fly towards the unguarded side. But with a jarring halt, the chain that connected Raito and L snapped taut, stopping his fist mere inches away from the master detective's wiry side. Glancing above, he saw Ryuuzaki giving him a guarded look, with his foot hovering dangerously close to the left side of Raito's head.

It was pure luck that saved them both from severe injuries, as Raito's punch would have probably caused the detective several fractured ribs, while Ryuuzaki's kick would have probably left Raito with a concussion.

Raito let his fist drop, still glaring at the detective. "What can you gain in doing this, Ryuuzaki? This is another ploy to get me admit that I'm Kira, right?" growled Raito. "Surely you can't blame me for defending myself and fighting back, when you attacked me for no apparent reason!"

L didn't lose the guarded look on his face, his dark, tired-looking eyes studying Raito intently. "Oh, I have my reasons, Raito-kun," he finally answered. "Three, as a matter of fact."

Still peeved, Raito sank to the floor and snapped. "Yeah, like what?"

L carefully crouched down in his usual fashion, careful not to trip with all the chain that tangled themselves to his limbs during the combat. "You are correct in your first deduction, of course, Raito-kun. I was testing how much violence there is in you, and apparently, you have a large tendency towards violence. And judging by the way you hate losing, which is a very Kira-like trait, the added percentage to my suspicion is now seven percent."

Ignoring the indignant sputtering Raito made, L went on.

"Second, I was curious as to how fast your reflexes and your knowledge in combat are. It would seem that Raito-kun's reflexes are slightly higher than mine, while my fighting ability bests you only by about ten percent, which technically puts us into equal footing. And third "

"What?"

L stared at him with his eerie wide eyes and offered a shrug. "I was bored and out of exercise. Aren't you?"

Raito stared at him incredulously. "You do realize your boredom created a lot of complications, don't you?"

Unperturbed, L tilted his head his head. "Like what?"

"First, we are hopelessly entangled by this damn chain you insist on putting. And second, the team isn't bound to arrive until three, which is technically five hours from now." Honestly, for being such a genius, L has a very shallow approach in solving problems. "We should try to untangle these chains."

L shook his head. "By the way the chains are wrapped about us, we could only injure ourselves more if we try to stand, and there is no way to disentangle this without standing up. Besides, if you are Kira, you might kill off people while I'm busy with this chain so I wouldn't be able to see how you did it."

Raito stared at L with open exasperation. Being chained to the eccentric, impossibly irritating detective 24/7 was making him lose his sanity with every passing hour. "We can't possibly stay like this for five hours!"

"That's quite fine. Watari could come any minute to free us."

Raito would have slapped his injured forehead if the chains weren't restraining him. "You sent him out for more sweets."

"Oh... Then we should wait."

With that said, the detective fell silent. Raito would have pounded his head repeatedly on the floor in frustration, if he could at that time. A minute passed in that uncomfortable position, Raito opened his mouth to try to talk sense to the detective again. Surprisingly, L beat him to it.

"Then again, Raito-kun--"

Raito noticed L's gazed was locked on his desk. Following the other man's stare, he found a slice of strawberry and cream cake sitting on the desk, just beyond the reach of the salivating, sugar-obsessed detective.

"...We should try to get untangled now."

A/N:
Waaah! My first Death Note fic I hope I didn't do too bad. (-,-;)

I'm not a very big supporter of L/Raito romance, as like them better a friends and/or rivals... I respect other readers/writers preferences of course, but I really do wish that there might be more L/Raito friendship or rivalry fics than yaoi ones (-,-)

Thank you for reading! Please drop me a line or two on what you think of this story thanks!

EDITED.