So! I'm finally writing a generic after-death story for Death Note. Honestly, I'm not sure where this is going to go, but there will be eventual L/light, so heed that warning, ye shounen-ai haters. As a note, no lemons, I'm way too awkward to venture into that field, and plus, I'm sure you'll be able to find many other sources of your daily dose of yaoi, so depend on the rest of the internet for that. Also, probably some rather bold language, because I do that….. SO, now for chapter one!

Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue.

"I must say, that it is unpleasant to see you here, Raito-kun."

That was the first thing his postmortem ears processed.

And it was not the first thing his postmortem ears wanted to process.

Not.

At.

All.

It wasn't that he was hearing something while dead that bothered him. It wasn't even the fact that he knew who was speaking to him that bothered him. It wasn't what was said, or the situation he was in. It wasn't the cold ground under him, the stiffness in his legs, or the dull pain in his chest and arm. It wasn't even his indignant position, sprawled out like a fish thrown upon a rock by a fisherman dissatisfied by his size.

It was because that voice was still the same.

Even in death, L would never be anything more than L.

Nothing more than a cold letter.

He didn't open his eyes, didn't want to see an unchanged man.

"I see you're still great with greeting people, L." He felt the air shift as the ex-detective shuffled his undoubtedly still bare feet closer to Light's prone body. He could tell he was being knelt over. He knew he was being examined, scrutinized, measured by the other man. He dimly wondered if L was aware that it'd been five years since they last met. He was now only two years younger than his former almost friend.

"Yes well, I have not changed much. I have consciously tried not to." Light felt his eyebrows knit together in mild confusion, and in a good bit of aggravation. In death, there was no reason to keep up appearances, and Light had sincerely hoped that L would once again remember how to be a person. How to feel and how to have a real soul and open up. Light had a feeling they would end up meeting in death, and when they did, Light wanted to actually know the man who had so drastically changed his life. He wanted to see the detective for who he was. But more than anything….

He wanted to know that he had won.

He wanted to see how pathetic L was in his loss.

His defeat.

Yes, Light may be dead now too, but Light got to his rival first.

He had the first kill.

Under that, there may be a potential eternity of hating each other, or befriending each other, depending on lingering grudges. It was a side thing, a sort of after thought. Right now though, all he wanted was to witness proof that Kira had beat L. However, since none was visible, he decided to simply continue the conversation.

"Why?" A brief silence, but not a particularly cold one. Just one of consideration.

"I just wanted you to recognize me when you got here." Amber eyes slowly slid open, struggled to focus in the bright light, but finally grappled L's face into a clear image. The horizontal boy was more puzzled than before, but he let his silence broadcast that for him. He waited for some sort of explanation, examining the familiar contours of the two toned man above him.

Exactly the same.

All of it.

How infuriating.

"Raito-kun, I have waited for a very long time for you to arrive here. I wanted to remain the same so that not only would your potentially clouded memory of me be refreshed, but I also wanted to pick up our association where it left off." Light looked away. He said "association". Not "friendship" or "rivalry", or even something as vague as "relationship".

It was a cold, distant, false "association".

That's what they were.

"Associates".

Somewhere inside of Kira, Light Yagami felt something.

Something sitting on his chest.

Something cold.

Something…

A little sad.

He ignored it.

A tanned hand finally pressed down against the smooth surface of the apparent floor under it, pushed a twenty-three year old body upwards, caused it to finally assume a sitting posture. He wouldn't meet those black eyes again for now. He had locked onto them when he first unveiled his irises, and he was sorely disappointed with what he saw. He could only see L, the detective.

So, he wouldn't look again.

"If you've waited for so long, why is it unpleasant for you to see me here?" It was a serious question, but it was laced with so much sarcasm and concealed malice that it should have been tangible. It should have snaked up L's crooked body to constrict and bite and hiss to make him crumble into something more similar to what Light was so hoping for. Something ready to tell him that he had won.

L however, was as immune as ever.

"What I meant by my greeting was that I was hoping to see Raito-kun in a much more distant time." Now, that was confusing. The entire time that he had known his defeated senior, all the man wanted to do was kill him. Well, he wanted to kill Kira, but since L had always suspected him, it meant that he had always wanted to kill Light.

"L, what do you me-"

"Who do you think I am, Raito-kun?" Light blinked, but still continued staring out into oblivion. However, there wasn't anything to stare at except for a never ending white room. Linoleum floors and a ceiling covered in row after row of fluorescent lights, the horizon being where man made land and sky met, in all directions, there was only that.

"I don't know L. The only thing I've ever known about you is that you were the world's greatest detective, you had backups from Whammy's, and that you had a lot of… quirks." He felt the weight of dark eyes on him, but he still refused to look.

"I am disappointed farther Raito-kun. I had hoped that you were the one person that saw me." Light did turn at this, but he only meet kneecaps as L was now standing. What was he getting at? What did this have to do with him staying the same, or his greeting? Why was he even talking about it?

"L, I thought I did know you. I hung around you enough."

"Ah yes, Raito-kun. You spent much time with L." He was speaking in the third person about himself. Light hadn't witnessed this before, unless Deneuve or Erald Coil were involved. It was peculiar, even for L. Still, he felt that there was more that was waiting to be said, so he didn't give a response.

After a few minutes of silence, L turned away.

"You knew L very well, and L did want to have you be here far before him, Kira." Light internally twitched at the name. He'd avoided mentioning his alter ego, just in case L never did figure him out. He wanted to savor L's obliviousness and then rub his true identity in his pale little face.

Well, that was one joy spoiled for his after life.

"However," His still spiked head turned, eyes swiveling onto his seated companion, forcing the other to finally meet his eyes again.

"I didn't."

He started walking away.

"And that is why you lived for as long as you did."

And Light was unable to do anything.

He wasn't able to process that sentence.

He couldn't ask any questions.

And he couldn't stop L from suddenly sinking through the floor.

Completely calm in his swift departure.

Leaving Light alone in a world of buzzing lights and shining floors.

So! Chapter one guys, hope it was interesting. This should have an interesting take on their afterlife together, though right now it's not too exciting. If you have a bit of patience and love in you heart, surely a good fic will come of this! Hope everyone enjoyed, please drop me a review to let me know what you think. This should be a continued fic.