NOTE: This is a sequel to my completed story "Asylum." While you don't have to read that one first, it will make much more sense if you do.
Story: Illumination
Author: MikoAkako
Beta: ElizabellaLight (Read everything by her. Seriously. I don't think this would have gotten done without her.)
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Suggestive language.
Pairing(s): Light/L ; Mello/Matt
Word count: 3,651
Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize.
Summary: Light decides to solve the case of L's parents. Can anyone anticipate what he will find?
A/N: Just want to thank everyone for being so patient. I originally intended to complete this story before I posted it, but decided that wouldn't work, since I relied so much on your comments for "Asylum" to make adjustments as I went. This will be my first full length story done in the third person, so please let me know what you think of that.
A/N-2: This story takes place in the middle of November, assuming L burned the note at the end of October and "Asylum" spanned approximately three months (I may be wrong on this). Which means that "Asylum" ended approximately at the end of January.
A/N-3: I adjusted Light and Sayu's age(I aged them both two years so they are 20 and 18 respectively). Mello, Matt, and Near are also 18, just to keep everything equal. L will also be aged two years(so he is 27 and not 25). Just pretend the events of Death Note took place in 05/06 instead of 03/04. Therefore this story will take place in November of 2007(just shy of 1 year after the end of Asylum).
Sometimes, Light was still surprised with where his life had taken him. Two years ago he'd been a normal boy in university; if it was normal to have memorized the text books before classes even started, plus a few read on the side for 'fun'. Then he'd picked up a notebook off the ground and everything had started to spiral out of control. One seemingly insignificant notebook had destroyed his life. Except…
Except; if his life hadn't been destroyed, then his life wouldn't be where it was at now. He would be in school, close to graduating or just graduated if he managed the accelerated course load he had intended to take. A job would have been waiting for him with the Japanese Police, and he would follow his father's footsteps and become an Investigator in the darker crimes. He would have succumbed to Kiyomi Takada and gone out with her, likely marrying her simply because it would have been expected of him, and he wouldn't have had a reason to say no. His life would have been unbearably boring, and would have continued to be unbearably boring until his death.
He glanced sideways under his bangs at the man beside him, a soft smile playing on his lips. The man seemed oblivious to him, hunched over and scratching the ground with one tennis-shoe clad foot. Light took advantage of the moment to admire the other man. He was tall, two inches taller than Light's 5'8; when he wasn't slouched over. His black hair was disheveled, giving him a distinctly boyish appearance. He was dressed casually, dark wash jeans snug but not skin tight and a white long sleeve shirt to guard against the biting cold. Looking at him, no one would guess he was actually the world's three most famous detectives.
"What is Light-kun looking at me for?" He asked, lifting his gaze to meet Light's honey colored eyes, startling the younger man.
L's life had fallen into a boring pattern since he'd become a detective at the tender age of 16. Boring and isolated. He had no companion save the old man who had raised him. The only other people who knew of his identity were not friends. Two of them were vultures waiting for him to die so they could fill his role and the other resented his very existence. His name was known around the world, he had access to every government, millions of pounds – dollars – yen – euros – were wired to his various bank accounts every year. He wanted for nothing materialistic. He wasn't even aware he wanted for anything until he'd met Light.
He looked over at the boy beside him, taking advantage of catching Light off guard to study him. Light's soft auburn hair obscured his eyes slightly only to be brushed aside absentmindedly. Light's features were decidedly more feminine, with his open, expressive eyes and soft lips that were no longer constantly pulled tight. Light was always dressed well, and today was no exception. He wore a charcoal dress pants, paired with a white silk shirt. Light had insisted on dressing nicely for their meeting, though L insisted what the agent thought of them would have no impact on the price they would pay.
"Are you sure you still want to do this?" Light asked, tearing his eyes away from the detective and scanning the street. Wammy had dropped them off, since Light hadn't had time to get a driver's license, and L stubbornly refused to get his.
"Of course," L said easily. It had been almost ten months since they'd returned from Japan; since they had officially announced their relationship. "Is Light-kun having doubts?"
"No," he said, shaking his head. "Can't get rid of me that easily." Before any more could be said, they spotted a woman in a pinstripe suit and skirt walking towards them. She was short and on the plump side. Her hair was done up in a bun, but there were pieces of hair sticking out at odd angles. She carried a notebook with papers sticking out.
"I'm sorry I'm late, Light!" She said, stopping to catch her breath. "You must be Ryuzaki! Light talks about you all the time." She offered a hand and L took it briefly, awkwardly.
"Don't worry about it, Brianne," Light said, catching the folder as it slid from her grip. "Are you sure you have time today?" Despite her disheveled appearance, Light knew Brianne was brilliant. She was a single mother, attending University with Light. She was a literary genius, pursuing her dream of becoming a literary critic. Until then, she worked to support herself and her five year old daughter.
They had met when, after the second class, Light saw a notebook left lying under a desk. Deciding the likelihood of a repeat of the last time he'd picked up a notebook to be slightly less than zero – not to mention this one was bright pink with the words "Lit. Crit." written in careful cursive on the front – he snagged it and asked the few class mates left if it belonged to them. No one claimed it so he stuck it in his bag and resolved to return it the next class. He'd almost forgotten about it when L found it in his stack of books. He normally wouldn't read something that belonged to someone else, but he opened it to try and find a clue of who it belonged to. The name "Brianne Davies" was written in permanent marker on the inside cover, along with a phone number and a request to call if it should be found.
He'd called immediately, and been greeted with a screaming child in the background and a woman's voice he could barely hear. It took several minutes to get her to hear why he was calling, but when he did, she sounded relieved. They'd met up the next day and wound up spending an hour discussing Ihab Hassan, the literary critic they were studying. It was a shock to Light, who normally wouldn't have even considered speaking to someone like Brianne. That is – unorganized and unkempt. He'd found himself changing a lot since moving to England; since falling in love with L.
"I was leaving when my contact emailed me about this new place that just came on the market. I think it'll be perfect for the two of you. I had to pull the file and print it, and call to get the access code to the key," She started walking, grabbing her notebook back from Light, and the two men followed her.
"Is there a reason we have to go so quickly?" L asked, glancing over at Light who shrugged at his friends eccentricities.
"It's priced well under its value. If you want to make an offer, you'll have to get the paperwork done quickly," She turned down another street, slowing slightly. "I saw you weren't preapproved so if you…"
"I've inherited money," L said, cutting her off. "We will be paying with a check." She did a double take, slowing even further and narrowing her eyes at him.
"Well that's a horse of a different color," She said, smiling. "To be honest, my rival in the company is showing the house in two hours – her client is out of the city until tonight – and if it sells, I'd like to be the one to sell it."
"How much is it listed for?" Light asked. He was willing to accept L's offer to buy the house, grudgingly, but L was persuasive.
"It's up for £200,000, but it's easily worth £150,000 more," They stopped in front of a beige townhouse, a white picket fence surrounding it, and Light jerked to a stop while the other two moved on ahead of him. L realized he had stopped and glance back at him.
"Something wrong, Light-kun?" He asked. Brianne had stopped as well, watching their interaction with a smile on her lips. She had seen expressions like the one on Light's face many times.
"It's so…domestic," Light said. His look of horror turned into one of delight. "It looks perfect, Brianne." L watched the younger man, amused though he wasn't showing it.
"Would you like to see the inside before you decide if it's perfect or not?" She asked, opening the gate and letting L and Light go ahead of her. She opened the door and ushered them inside.
The ground floor consisted of a living room, kitchen, dining area, and a conservatory. The first was two bedrooms, a bathroom and a study. The top floor was the master suite. The whole place had been painted a generic off white, and the floors needed to be redone along with the kitchen. It would be a project, but the structure was sound so they could be living in it while the upgrades were made.
"So I'll let you guys think about it, and you can let me know what you decide," Brianne said as they walked back outside. She shook their hands and left them to discuss what they wanted to do.
"Are you planning on doing any of the packing?" Light called from where he was currently buried in boxes and newspaper. The check had cleared a week before, and Light had picked up the key from Brianne at their Wednesday night class two days previously. All that was left was to pack up their belongings from the house they had been living in.
"Light-kun seems to be doing just fine without me," L said, perched on the bed with a piece of cake in one hand and a fork in another.
"Whatever, L," Light said, sighing and wrapping the alarm clock in a few layers of newspaper and placing it in a box. "The movers are coming in three hours and if we're not finished they'll just leave. I suppose you're in no hurry to leave this place?" For his part, Light couldn't get out of this place soon enough. There were many good memories, but most of them were tainted with residue of the bad.
"I do not understand Light-kun's hurry," L said, ignoring Light's eye roll in favor of taking another bite of cake.
"I just…I want to leave the past in the past," Light said, taping up the box he was working on and standing up. "Plus, driving an hour to get to class isn't convenient." When they had returned to England Light had enrolled in Cambridge University to finish his undergraduate degree in psychology then go on to Law school. At first he had been hesitant about bringing the subject up, knowing that there was every chance for L to say it was too dangerous. To his surprise, L had agreed immediately, even driving with Light to visit the campus and meeting with the admissions councilor.
Now he was in his second semester with two left until he finished his degree. L's house was just north of London, and Light was commuting three days a week. The house was in the suburbs of Cambridge, so it would be a short walk to the school. On the rare occasions when L was needed in London, Wammy had agreed to pick him up. That was another reason Light had been worried about asking L to move. L lived with Wammy since he was a child and Wammy needed to stay close to his school. But again, L didn't seem to have any reservations about it. Light even went so far as to ask him if he realized Wammy wouldn't be coming with them.
"Does it have anything to do with the fact that Mello and Matt are at Cambridge?" Light chuckled at L's observation, putting together another box.
"I may have told Matt I'd have lunch with him tomorrow," Light admitted. When they'd turned eighteen, Mello and Matt had applied to the University and been accepted – Matt as a Computer Programming and Math double major and Mello doing pre-Law. Matt and Light had become fast friends, spending time together when L consulted with Mello and Near on several cases. Matt and Light had been invited to join the detectives, but neither were interested enough to deal with Mello and Near's constant bickering.
"You seem to be spending a lot of time with Matt lately," L said, biting his thumb after setting the empty plate on a stack of boxes. Light hummed in agreement, stacking sheets and towels in the box. L frowned slightly, trying to get Light's attention. "Does Light-kun enjoy spending time with Matt?"
"Yeah," Light said, trying to shove the last sheet into the already full box. "Matt's great." He kept his weight on the box with one elbow and managed to get the tape across, using two layers just in case. He rocked back on his heels in triumph. Realizing what L had just asked him, he looked up, smirking at L's ill hidden distress. Deciding he could afford to be distracted, he closed the distance between himself and L, leaning over the bed and kissing L deeply, pushing him back against the headboard and twining his fingers through L's hair.
"Are you jealous, koibito?" He asked, not giving L a chance to answer as he captured the detective's lips again. He pulled away, smirk still in place.
"No," L said. Light chuckled, pulling away.
"Sure you're not," Light agreed, leaving L alone in the bedroom and heading to double check the other rooms. "You could help, you know." He called from the kitchen. The boxes were stacked in the center of the room, labeled in his neat handwriting. Several of the boxes on the bottom were labeled in L's chicken scratch. Light had instantly grabbed the marker from L and declared it off limits to the left-handed detective.
"When do the movers arrive?" L asked, walking out of the bedroom and leaning against the doorframe to watch Light stalk aimlessly around the house. Light looked at his watch, then back at L.
"Two hours," Light said, moving a box from one pile to another for no reason L could see. Deciding Light needed a distraction, and they had plenty of time, L put his hand on another box Light was trying to move.
"Plenty of time then," L said, kissing Light soundly and leading him in the direction of the bedroom. Light resisted halfheartedly, but let L herd him away from the boxes.
"Sorry I'm late," Light slid into the chair across from the red head, his cheeks bright from walking quickly. They met at a café just off campus that they had found a few weeks ago, but hadn't had a chance to try. It was a French style café called 'Le Cafe du Coeur', with a few tables outside along the side walk under a navy blue and white striped overhang and separated from the people walking by with an ornate iron fence.
"L kept you busy?" Matt asked, raising an eyebrow as he set his game boy on the side of the table. Light was glad his cheeks were bright from his walk, because they would have turned red from embarrassment.
"No," He said a little too quickly. "I was unpacking boxes and didn't check the time." He regained his composure and opened his menu. What he said was mostly true – he had been unpacking boxes when L had suddenly decided he was bored. Frustrated with trying to find a home for everything in their new house, Light had suggested a different activity. He'd only checked the clock in time to shower and hurry out to meet Matt for their one o clock lunch date.
"Mmmhmm," Matt said, looking at his own menu, and then glancing up at Light. "Do you speak French?"
"Oh. Yeah, I do," Light said. The menu was two-sided – one in English and one in French. Light had been reading the French side without realizing it. "English isn't my first language. I'm still not used to speaking it all the time." He didn't bother turning the menu over.
"Impressive," Matt said. "I took French once. Mello sat in front of me, though. Certainly wasn't paying attention to the teacher." Light rolled his eyes at that. He'd never met anyone like Matt and Mello. The two seemed to be made for each other, and yet complete opposites. "What other languages do you know?"
"Japanese, English, French, Spanish, German, Russian, Chinese and Korean fluently," He said. "I'm decent at Portuguese and Arabic, but I have to think about them more." Languages were like breathing to Light. He wanted to learn everything, and something as insignificant as language wasn't going to stop him. So he'd spent his allowance on books to teach himself, practicing on tourists he'd met.
"Wow," Matt whistled in appreciation. "You really are a genius, aren't you?" He laughed. "If you'd been an orphan you would've wound up in Wammy's with me and Mel." He put his menu down, examining Light as if for the first time. Light set his menu down shortly after.
"Yeah, yeah," Light said, waving it off. He'd found himself envying his Wammy House friends a few times, until he remembered that to go there, his parents would have to be dead. And while he was ambitious and not entirely satisfied with his own life, he couldn't wish his mother or father dead, let alone his baby sister. "But it all worked out in the end."
"If you call ending up in an insane asylum and nearly killing the man you love 'worked out,' then I agree with you." It had taken Light a while to get used to Matt's bluntness, but now he found it refreshing. His parents still ignored what had happened, and Mello looked at him like he was crazy sometimes.
Thankfully a waitress arrived, sparing Light the need to reply, and took their order, responding in French to Light's order and looking distinctly pleased when Light responded in kind. When asked if he'd ever been to France, Light had to admit he hadn't. The woman – Sophie – complimented him on his pronunciation, flirting outrageously. After a few minutes, Light turned to Matt, apologizing for ignoring him. Catching the hint, she excused herself to put the order in.
"Do people always like you on first impression?" Matt asked. He had watched the exchange with something akin to awe. Being raised in an orphanage, he hadn't spent much time interacting with people he didn't know. While distinctly more social than the rest of the geniuses from Wammy's, Matt still didn't have Light's social graces.
"What can I say? I guess I'm just that charming," Light grinned, leaning back in his chair. They caught up – talking about everything from Matt's classes to Matt and Mello's sex life, the latter was much to Light's horror – and before they realized it their food was finished and the check had come.
"I'm paying," Light said, grabbing the check and pulling out two bills just as the waitress came by and took it. When she'd gone out of earshot again, Light decided to broach the real reason he'd asked Matt to lunch. Before he could say anything, Matt beat him to it.
"Not that I don't love spending time with you, but you sounded like you had something to ask when you called the other day," As always, Matt's intuitiveness took Light by surprise. Rather than deny what they both knew was true, Light decided to come right out and say it.
"Our one year anniversary is coming up soon," Light said. Matt knew better than the interrupt to congratulate Light when he clearly wasn't done speaking. "And I wanted to do something big for him." Light had to pause, wondering how much he could tell Matt about his plans. Deciding it would be easier with two people, he told him everything. "The only case L never solved was the one of his parent's disappearance." Saying murder sounded too violent, and Light noticed how L avoided that word the few times he'd brought it up.
"You want my help?" Matt asked. "What makes you think we can solve a case that even L couldn't solve?" It was a fair point. Intelligent though they were, Matt and Light didn't have the experience L did.
"I think he was afraid of the answer," Light admitted. "And it's entirely likely we won't get anywhere, or it might not be something he'll want to know, but I want to try. And if you're up to it, it'll be something you can hold over Near and Mello." Matt didn't need any more reason than that.
"I'm in," He said, standing as Light did when the waitress brought back their change. Light thanked her in French and said goodbye, promising he would return again. "Any idea where to start?"
"L mentioned his dad was an English Professor at Cambridge. Maybe someone will remember him there? And his mother was a Physics doctorate student." He hadn't given much thought to the idea beyond getting Matt to agree to help. Now that the red head was in, they would have to sit down and discuss a game plan.
"I assume you want to keep this a secret from L?" Matt asked. "I'd better not tell Mel, then. He can't keep a secret to save his life."
"Thanks, Matt," Light said. "I'll call you tomorrow and let you know the plan." He glanced at his watch. "I've gotta go. The decorator's supposed to come over at four." He smiled fondly, still amazed at the turn his life had taken.
"God, you're so domestic," Matt said with a groan. "Thankfully Mello's the one who deals with stuff like that. I think I'd go out of my mind with boredom. Have fun!" With a last hug, they parted ways, both thinking a mile a minute about the impromptu case they'd just agreed to.