A/N: For the 50scenes challenge on livejournal, table 1. Each chapter will be named after its prompt, and they're all done in order. Since they're unconnected drabbles, it doesn't really matter. :D
50.00
1. Sleep
There were few moments on a lying earth within which the truth was indisputable, and L was a master in taking advantage of that fact. He was also a master in concealing himself in the same sorts of situations… so it went without saying that little of what he said could be taken as the truth, unless one had an inordinate amount of trust in him.
So when he spouted off percentages to Light, they were nothing more than a test. A subtle and sneaky test, but a test nonetheless. Because Light Yagami did not have an infallible amount of trust in him. In fact, L approximated that the percentage of trust Light had door him would be 27% - excluding the Kira factor.
L could not say he blamed Light; indeed, he trusted the other even less, and not all of that was a consequence of Light being his prime suspect. No, he had to grudgingly admit, the main factor was respect. Respect for his intellect, and – daresay – an uncomfortable feeling of competitiveness. Because, had Light been raised in the same manner as he, had had the same experience, L did not doubt his comfortable seat as the world's three best detectives would be so comfortable. And L didn't think, overall, he was too fond of the idea of an equal.
Oh, he didn't mind a little competition, but he was a sore loser and had to win. And he did win… except with Light, to whom he had to give up the victory seat more times than he could be content with. Quite frankly, one loss was one too many for him, and so it became a new favourite pastime to observe this usurper's faults.
But Light, like L, was well versed in hiding the truth in innocuous lies, but L had one advantage. So when experience lead Light to succumb to the realms of sleep, L watched and learnt and wrote.
But while sleep was a world in which the truth could not be veiled, the waking still bore witness with clouded eyes. And so L did not see the way Light's body curled subtly away, back unguarded, nor the way the slackened chain never tightened as the other shifted away. Instead he saw the guarded sleep that only a man who had something to hide could enjoy, and he both revelled and lamented that fact.
L had no equals, and it was a shame because he may have had more peace in the end if he had.
