Author's Note: It's been a while since I revisited this fandom, and when I finally did, almost five years after publishing my first Death Note fanfiction here, I was horrified at how bad my writing had been. Therefore, I decided to experiment a little and rewrite my old story, Bloodthirsty, using proper language and punctuation, and dedicating more time to developing the plot. Basically what I am doing is rewriting that story with new scenes, alterations to the plot etc. You do not need to read the first one for it, it is honestly ghastly. Hope you like this one, though.

"Hmm?"

"And a wonderful morning to you too, Raito-kun."

Light glanced up at the detective from the flurry of pillows he had previously been buried in. L was sitting on the sofa in his usual 40-percent-cognitive-skill-increase position, his hair being the only thing that suck out from behind his laptop. It was clear that the detective never got any shut eye this night, just like all the previous nights Light remembered, and despite the fact that he loathed the very ground L walked on, it did touch a chord of concern within him. Regardless, Light sat up in bed and shrugged off the warm blankets before stretching. The mattress at the Headquarters was too damn comfortable: it seemed that L was used to spoiling his suspects or something.

"Working so early? Ryuuzaki, you're obsessed," Light panted out, feeling the joints in his back crack under the pressure of having been cooped up in the Headquarters for longer than was healthy.

L's dark eyes followed Light's movements as he bit into the tip of his finger with a thoughtful expression schooled firmly over his features. He tried and failed to not inhale when Light extended his long limbs and let out a loud groan. The air was thick with Light's scent, a unique combination of sugar and spice and something completely unique to Light alone, and L's eyes drifted to the pulse point on the younger man's long neck as he stretched it out. The smooth skin was taut over the thrumming blood vessels, and if L concentrated enough, he could hear the quiet whoosh of blood coursing through the young veins.

His rational mind snapped back into control when he felt his gums prickle and he immediately lunged for a piece of cake that lay on the plate beside him. This was not good at all.

L felt like the biggest hypocrite in the universe as he watched Light finish his torturous stretching routine and slip into the bathroom. As the door closed behind him, the detective let out a long exhalation of breath. Damn it, the entire room smelled light Light. Despite the fact that he'd been able to resist tackling the younger male and forcibly taking his blood from him all this time, L could feel his control slipping. It had gotten worse as their relationship progressed from tentative camaraderie (mixed in with a dash of suspicion) to a strange form of friendship based on mutual understanding. In his heart of hearts, L knew that Light was Kira, that much was obvious to the detective, however two problems stood in the way of his impending arrest: one, there was still not enough evidence, by far, to have Light even accused of killing all those criminals and two, parting with Light for even a couple of hours seemed unthinkable.

Famed detective and closeted bloodsucker L was addicted to the presence of one Light Yagami, and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it except give into the pleasure of having Light beside him. Of course, it played in well with the investigation, however, he was sure that if Light new his real intentions, he would not be so keen to give in to L's demands. As much as Light would want absolution from his detective, there was no way he would ever…

L shook himself just as Light existed the bathroom, rubbing a towel over his still-damp hair. The smell was a bit dulled now, and L made a mental note to himself to thank Watari for replacing the soap with something so disgustingly potent and flowery.

"Hey, Ryuuzaki?"

L looked up at Light, his eyes never leaving the other young man's form as he rifled through the closet in search for appropriate clothing. L could see Light grimacing as the only thing he found in there were jeans: there was little L could cater to in terms of fashion.

"Do you still think I'm Kira?"

The question never changed; L was beginning to think that Light only posed it every day just to irritate him (which was impossible), or as a way of establishing some sort of routine under the circumstances where the situation was not so much under Light's control as he would have wanted to. That thought made L feel slightly more cheerful.

Taking care not to inhale too much of that delicious smell – the smell of a potential serial killer, that is, – L simply shrugged.

"Yes, Raito-kun. I still do."

The answer didn't seem to upset Light that much, in fact, he just looked at L and then gave him a soft smile. With that, he tugged on his shirt and left the room to go downstairs to talk to the rest of the team, and L was left nursing his aching gums.

He knew that one day the craving would get too much and he would have to remove himself from Light's presence before he gave in and did the unthinkable.

The only problem was that with all of his great powers of deduction, L had no idea when that day would come.

"What are you doing out here, Ryuuzaki?"

Trying to wash off your scent.

Despite himself, L decided to taunt Light, or perhaps himself, even more, and cupped a hand to his ear with a small smirk on his face. At least then Light would get wet and maybe stop smelling so good for a while. Just for an hour. That would be enough for L to regain the control that had been steadily but exponentially slipping down ever since Light became a permanent fixture in his life.

Light made his way towards L frustratedly. What the hell was he doing anyway, standing out here in the pouring rain? It was freezing, and Light would hate to have a sneezy, sick, sugar-addicted detective to take care of. He already felt like the older man's damn nursemaid. The other day he even managed to force L to eat an orange (the man refused to eat apples due to ethical reasons), and the clinginess the other man displayed seemed to grow with every damn day.

He blinked when the distance between them became shorter and his eyes focused on the dark-haired man. Light had to admit that the entire set-up, the dwindling daylight and the rain, suited the detective. For a moment there, he looked like a hero of his own tragic story. The story that Light was to finish in the shortest time possible.

The thought did not sit as well with Light as much as it did with Kira. If he were honest with himself, the rift between Light Yagami the university student and investigator under L and Kira the God was growing daily, so much more so with L by his side. He couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of dread when he realized that one day he would be the one to put an end to their… whatever this relationship they had, was. There would be no more chess, no more fighting, no more rolling his eyes over L's sugar addiction. There would be no more battle of wits, and that was the thought that made Light feel ridiculously alone. There was nobody else in the world that matched him in intelligence, there was nobody who understood the burden of being smart better than the older detective, and that… That almost made Light regret his plan. Then again, why would a God like Kira need companionship? The very thought made his divine wings bristle in irritation. He would be fine. He always was.

He didn't notice how close he was to L before the other man's quiet voice startled him out of his thoughts.

"Raito-kun?"

At this point, their faces were almost touching. Light realized his mistake when he was forced to look into the other man's ridiculously large eyes, and it was as if some magnetic force kept his face glued to them. They really were extraordinary eyes. Suitable eyes for someone like L, Light had once thought: deep, dark, secretive, unrevealing. L was a blank slate with those eyes, until one got to knew the man behind them.

L tried to stop breathing as soon as Light's scent drifted close enough to him so that he could feel its entire sweetness again. He hated this. It was a strange addiction he'd developed, and it was so much more detrimental to him than his bad posture or his love for sugar. A hunched back and diabetes could not kill an immortal being like himself, but Kira… L did not want to test the extent of the power Kira had over death. Despite the fact that he'd lived on this Earth for several hundred years, the thought of death was… disagreeable at this point in time.

He found himself looking directly into Light's amber-colored eyes. They really were extraordinary. Everyone went on and on about how strange L's eyes were, with their huge pupils and dark irises, but L found Light's eyes to be much more fascinating than his. They were the color of cinnamon, of weak coffee and caramel. Sometimes, when Light was angry, and he was usually only angry at L, his eyes would be almost tea-colored. Their almond shape made L think of foxes for some reason, which was ridiculous, because foxes didn't have almond-shaped eyes.

This one did.

"Ryuu… Let's get back. It's cold out here," Light said quietly, his lips barely moving; unsure of why he was so caught up in looking at the detective's face which he saw every day. For some reason, the moment seemed somehow significant.

"Ryuu?" L was startled by the diminutive, but he did not find he hated it that much. After all, it wasn't his name to begin with, so it was malleable to whatever Light wanted it to be.

"Just something I'm trying out," comes Light's quiet response. "Come on, you must be cold."

L wasn't. It wasn't in the nature of someone like him to be cold. The last time he had felt any kind of temperature shift was when he had first seen Light. The heat had been unbearable, and had left him panting and then pondering over it for nights on end.

"I'd like to stay up here for a while longer, Raito-kun, if you don't mind," he answered. Light's scent seemed to have done the contrary to what L had wished and augmented with the rain spreading it all around them. The entire roof seemed perfumed with the smell of Light's blood, and the sooner the other man left him to his own devices, the easier it would be for L to ignore the urges that coiled within his very being.

"Don't be ridiculous. Come on." Without thinking, Light grasped L's wrist in his and tugged at it. A split second later, he found himself lying on the soaking roof, his back pressed against the freezing metal, L sitting on top of him, his legs at either side of Light's waist.

It took L a moment to comprehend what he'd just done. He realized that his teeth were moving and he covered his mouth, hoping that Light would see it was an act of mortification instead of masking.

"I apologize, I don't know what came over me–,"

"What the hell do you think you are doing? Have you gone completely insane?" Light cut him off sharply, all the playfulness gone from his voice. "Get the hell off me, you… you freak!"

Freak.

I hate you, L thought, as his canines sank into Light's tender neck. I hate you so much, he thought, as the first taste of that sweet, sweet blood his his tongue and exploded in his mouth, setting his nervous system on fire. I hate you so, so much, L thought as he felt Light struggling underneath him futilely, as his instincts took over and he pinned the other man beneath him with a fraction of the strength he possessed.

He sucked on the side of Light's neck like it was the sweetest thing on Earth – and to him, it was. The smell that had haunted him since the first moment was finally a taste, and it was so much better than what he had imagined. For the first time in years, decades, centuries even, L felt strong like he was supposed to be. Sugar could only sustain him that much. Human blood, Light's blood was what made him the monster that he was and he reveled in the power it gave him, in the wonderful, tangy quality of it.

When he felt like he could no longer take anymore, he withdrew. He pressed his nose to the crook of Light's neck and licked the wound clean to seal it. As he pushed himself up to look down at his victim, the realization dawned on him.

He had defiled Light Yagami. He had taken what he had been lusting for since the moment they met. And he did not regret it one little bit.

With new strength L had never thought he could possess, he hoisted Light's barely breathing form into his arms and carried him off the roof and downstairs, to their room. He had no idea what he was going to do when the younger man awoke.

The only thing he knew for sure was that he would never let him go.