Light Yagami had it good, if you looked at it one way. He had gained immortality and no longer felt or needed corpeal needs.
On the other hand, he was also dead. That was, to put it mildly, a bit of a downer. He wished for some kind of change...Being some sort of ecoplasmic being didn't seem to have any perks. None that he could find, anyway. As the former Kira, he was doomed to a state of nothingness forever. Floating between Heaven and Hell...To make things worse, he had once again been stripped of his memories. He no longer even had his sucesses in the human world to comfort him occasionally.
Mainly, he just drifted around. Sometimes he followed people who were still living, or he met other spirits. He found communication with either of them difficult.
Living beings lacked the ability to see beyond one dimension naturally and the other spirits never talked to one another. Would talking once again fill them with loneliness for the things they could no longer do?
Light Yagami didn't know, but he would've liked something to break the same monotony of eternity.
Light noticed something different one day. He couldn't put his finger on it, but it was something he hadn't felt in a long, long time. This went on for about a week. He would be lazing along and suddenly, the air would feel heavier. If he still had skin, goosebumps would have appeared. He would look around, and he could see nothing.
He placed the feeling after another bout of heavy air. It was the sensation of being watched. Of some other presence other than his own being the the same area...Yet, this other being was hidden. Or maybe it was just his imagination. He had been dead too long.
Once upon a time, he enjoyed sneaking around houses and watching the reactions he could bring forth.
It faded quickly.
He had never felt like this before. Being a ghost was a quiet job, and he noticed disturbances in the natural balance quickly, but this...was something entirely different. It was almost something delibrate, made to set him on edge. Something from his own kind, it felt like...but what would be the point in that?
It was a claustrophobic feeling, of being pressed in. After being used to feeling like air, the feeling was intensified ten-fold.
"Who's there?" He voice echoed around him, he floated in the middle of the sidewalk motionless. No one could hear him except those on the same wave-length, so people passed by him as if he didn't exist.
Which he didn't, for them.
Light's only answer was a low disembodied laugh that faded away into nothing...right after saying, "You are not alone."
Light began to look forward to the feeling of heaviness. It would come the most often when he had just finished watching the living enoying themsleves, or faling to have a conversation with a fellow spirit.
It was like a physical touch. It was, in it's own queer way, reassuring.
The feeling would come when he was least expecting it. Going through a park, or watching the sun set on another day in Japan. Floating in just a dreamy, relaxed state or when he was depressed about the futility of being dead.
Occasionally, the feeling would become overwhelming, like it was consuming him. It happened only once, and when he had cried out in fear, it had vanished instantly.
Light had been afraid the he had scared off his only friend and had a lengthy spell lethargic depression.
The feeling had come back in gentle waves, and Light could feel a happy mood returning.
"Please!" he spoke on again to the sensation. "Let me see you! You're the only thing that keeps me sane."
Light could feel a shift in the force of life (death?) and something began to take shape. It was hazy, and it reminded him of the old TV sets that had to be adjusted manually. It started to come into focus and suddenly..."It's a zombie!?"
The shape sighed and materelized the rest of the way.
"You're...a guy."
"Yes. Yes I am." The same low voice as the laugh. It brought back the feeling Light had the first time he heard it. He shivered unconcsiously.
The shadow shifted nervously. "Shall I leave? I must be making you uncomfortable..."
"No!" Light cried out. "You cannot possibly know...I've been so lonely. The other spirits don't talk...or when they do, it's only about what they can't do. Nothing about now...Don't leave. Even if you don't speak anymore...Just let me see that you're here."
The spirit glided over to Light and stroked his cheek. "I'm always here."
Light pulled back, surprised at the touch. "You--you can touch me!"
He smiled. "Of course."
"But...when I try to touch my own face, I go right through!"
"That's because you are made of the same stuff all the way through. Like water. Except, instead joining to yourself, you pass through. I, on the other hand, am made of something different. On a different wavelength, if you please. So, touching you," he stroked Light's hair. "Gives an entirely different result."
Light Yagami pulled away, now unaccustomed to tactile sensation.
"What is your name? I-I stil don't know who you are...why you're here...with me."
The other man smiled again. The smile was at once comforting and terrifiying.
"L. I'm here because spending eternity alone...is not something I plan to do."
Light Yagami felt something akin to joy for the first time in years. "What would you like to do?" he asked the even-voiced man.
"Whatever you would like to do will make me happy."
Light smiled.
By the end of the day, (not that time had much meaning for either of them anymore) Light realized that he hadn't really done any different.
They had floated through the same places, looked at the same people and objects, had watched the same people. But, to have someone there as well, to know that it was not just him looking at the sun, at the flowers, at the throngs of masses he was no longer a part of...It made Light feel not quite as empty. As if it was all real, and not his imagination. If it was his imagination, he could hope to wake up someday, but that day never came. He was stuck in a world gray and fleeting substance.
Something had thrown a monkey wrench into the works. Actually, someone. Light didn't know why L followed him, but he was thankful for it. It was almost like being alive again. He didn't say much, though he would sometimes touch him on the arm in a very still moment. He never made contact for long, but it was a fleeting gesture that reminded him, "You are not alone."
In the evening, Light had finally mustered up the courage to ask L. "Why did you start following me? There are many lonely ghosts."
A breeze blew in the mortal dimension. and Light willed himself to remember how wind felt on his skin. He was amazed at the power of his imaginiation, until he realized that it was L, stroking small circles on his shoulder absently. The silence stretched on, but Light found himself begining to not care, as long as the contact was prolonged. Suddenly, L noticed what he was doing and stopped. He pulled away.
"You...looked like someone I knew. " He finally said. "Someone who was my rival..and the only person I've ever loved or respected. Then he killed me" Light gasped in surprise.
"W-what?! He killed you? And I remind you of him? Then why--" Light was silenced by a finger on his lips.
"The man I knew changed..And killed me...and that's why I picked you," L whispered. "You are like the one I loved...Before."
Light would have cried if he was still capable. "L," he gulped. "L...will you stay with me? If you left again...I don't think I'd be able to stand the emptiness again!"
L looked long at Light, and then suddenly snaked behind him, wrapping his arms around Light and nuzzling his neck.
"If I stay...it will be forever...On my terms." He slowly kissed Light from the bottom of his jaw down to the end of his bare shoulder. "Can you agree to that?"
Light flushed. "I've--I've never done this before."
L smiled again in a frightening way, that somehow made him look less zombie-like and more attractive. He began to unbotton Light's shirt the rest of the way.
"Let me show you what you've missed," he whispered. He licked Light's neck in a manner seductive and pleasurable to them both. "Better..than...cake..." He muttered to himself. His fingers traced liquid fire over Light's naked chest, and into a night neither would forget or regret. They would never be lonely again.