Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note, the characters, the plot, or the rights to say I do. Tsugumi Ohba owns it all.

Note: most of this story is told by Watari, also known as Quillish Wammy. Also, L's name at the beginning of the story is Noel. Of course, you will find out why.

A History of L: a look into the life and times of L. Lawliet, world class detective.

It has been many years since I founded the Wammy's house for gifted orphans, and over the years I have dealt with the world's most remarkable children. And even so, I always thought of L to be one that stood out among the many faces that greeted me on their way to class in the mornings. Truly, L was of a genre completely of a different kind. He was not like most children, but I loved him like I would one of my own children, and he along with all of the others, were my children. The orphanage was founded around the time my wife, Marilynn discovered that she was barren, and that we could never have children. Out of our desire to have children, we formed Wammy's house.

Years after we had established the orphanage and Marilynn had passed, L was brought to us. He was eight years old, and quite peculiar for such a young boy. Most of the readers know of L's later years and the Kira case, but I have come to shed some light on the part of L's life that was previously unknown. And so begins our story...

(third person POV/ observer POV)

It was Halloween, 1979. An English/ French eighteen year old girl was now suffering the consequences of a night with a Japanese/ Russian boy that she met on her school trip to Tokyo nine months previously, was now lying tiredly in a bed in a London hospital. Noelle Lawliet had done some foolish things in her life, but this by far was the most foolish, but it had already happened, her baby boy with out a father had just been born, and now there was no turning back.

Her mother stood outside of the room where all of the newborns were kept, and watched her grandchild stare at her back with wide eyes of confusion. He was a small baby, weighing exactly six pounds, and already had deep black hair and pale white skin like his father. A small bracelet had been attached to the baby's wrist that read: Noel Lawliet, six pounds, born: 12:00 am, 10/31/79 gender: male.

He was named for his mother, since Noelle's mother didn't want him named for his father, Ryuuzaki Rue. A nurse scooped Noel up out of the plastic basket that just like him, the other babies were lying in, and walked with his grandmother to his mother's room. The baby did not cry much, but instead would moan if he was held a bit too tightly or loosely. Holding him in her arms, Noelle cradled the unusually quiet baby into a gentle sleep.

He did not resemble his mother at all, save her eyes. Both Noelle and Noel had particularly large eyes, blueish gray in color, and every other physical trait had come from Ryuuzaki. Noel's face flushed pink as he became warm from being close to his mother. His delicate hands were close to his mouth, and he began to suck his thumb softly as Noelle rocked him back and forth, saying, "I love you, 'el." After that, he was always called 'El as his nickname.

Eight years after Noel's birth, his mother dated a man named George Pennington. Together in a small London apartment, he, his mother, and his grandmother lived quietly. George did not like children, and especially not Noel. He found Noel to be creepy because of his large eyes, and the way he used them to stare at people. He found it to be even more disturbing that Noel could read well written books on high levels, and was very advanced for a boy of only eight years old. He could point out when George was not adding the right amount to pay his bills, to make change, and it annoyed George to no end.

When Noel's mother and grandmother were away, and George babysat Noel, he would become violent when angry. Soon, little Noel was covered in bruises from George beating him with the broom, and hitting him whenever he spoke or cried from the pain. Whenever Noel stayed with George, he was too afraid to ask for anything, so he sat in the corner, sucking his thumb, knees clutched to his chest. His mother did notice the bruises, but George explained that Noel would fall down the stairs sometimes, or he would bump into tables, or trip.

It was never addressed how this sort of thing could happen, but when Noel's mother and grandmother died in a car accident, he was left to live with George. One day, Noel saw George's guitar mounted on the wall, and being a curious thinker, Noel took it apart to see how it functioned. George did not say a word all day, and that night he stepped outside of the house and tossed lit fire logs at it and locked all of the doors, and drove off to never come back.

Noel hid in the washing machine, fearful of the fire that was burning down the house all around him. It wasn't until morning that a fire man found the suprisingly unharmed washing machine with Noel hidden safely inside. The young boy was covered head to toe in ashy, but soggy, laundry, and numerous bruises and cuts from George's abuse for the last two months. A fire man helped him out of the washer and wrapped the boy, shivering from the winter air, in a blanket and carried a very scared and shocked Noel to the truck, to be taken to the police station.

While riding in the big fire truck, the fireman, a Japanese looking man, told Noel not to be afraid, and that he would be safe for now. Still frightened, Noel stared with his big eyes at the man. "Oh, forgive me, the fire man said in his broken English, "I didn't tell you my name. I am fire chief Ryuuzaki, Rue." Noel made a note to remember his name forever as the man who saved his life, neither men knowing that they were father and son, and that Ryuuzaki had moved to England, only to find that his lover, Noelle, was dead.

As a police officer with a first aid kit bandaged Noel's arms and legs from infection, he was questioned. The first, out of all of these, was: "what is your name?"Because Noel had always been called "'el", when authorities asked him what his name was, all he knew to reply was, "L. Lawliet." From that moment on in his life, Noel's birth name would forever be L.