Light closed his eyes, feeling the soft breeze move past him. His mind was filled with conflict. Light understood now why L came up to the roof to think. He had always known what he must do. He had planned everything perfectly, right down to the last detail, that was until L joined the investigation. What began as a game of cat and mouse between the two had now become something else entirely for Light.
Something had changed, Light found himself spending his evenings with L at the taskforce building working on the Kira case. L often sent the others on various jobs, requesting Light stay behind to watch the monitors. Their conversations rarely dealt with their work and the younger man found himself smiling and enjoying L's past adventures.
"You did not." Light challenged, shaking his head in amusement.
"I did. Watari was very angry with me. It takes a lot to make him that angry and I've only ever done it once."
"I didn't think it was possible for him to be angry at you, the way he interacts with you and-"
"It's very rare. It's not often that I'm foolish enough to test his patience." L replied.
"It's funny, I never would've thought you would be capable of doing something like that."
"There are many things that you don't know about me, Light. There are also things that Watari doesn't know. Things I will never be able to say to him."
"He seems like he'd be pretty understanding, why couldn't you?"
"I cannot give away all my information, I have said far too much already." The two sat in silence for a long moment before the brown haired man spoke again, smiling.
"You know those tags on the pillows, the ones that say not to remove them?" L turned to Light in his chair.
"What about them?"
"When I was little, I accidently ripped one off and hid the pillow and the tag because I thought my dad was going to take me to jail. I hid in my room the rest of the night."Light could have sworn that he saw a faint smile briefly as the older man turned back to his work.
"You started your life of crime early. To think, it all started with tag, that will make for an interesting start years from now when someone writes about this case. Kira, from tag remover to serial killer. "
Light chuckled softly to himself. It was in the moments alone with the detective, away from Misa and the others that Light allowed himself to engage in these conversations, knowing perhaps L was setting him up somehow, and yet enjoying the break. Moments such as that that Light Yagami realized how much he would regret what had to happen. There had been times that he would almost call L a friend, perhaps something more.
"Enjoying the weather up here?" L asked from behind. Light turned, opening his eyes to greet the older man.
"Yeah, just clearing my head. What are you doing up here, didn't Watari ask you to-"
"Watari isn't here at the moment. I wanted to talk to you."
"Sure, what is it?"
"I'm sure you know. You and I have been playing games for long enough. We both know who you are and-" Light frowned.
"Ryuzaki, I know you have a job to do, and we're on the same-"
"Stop. Let's not waste time insulting each other's intelligence. I know that you are in fact Kira, you know that I know, so let's talk." Light stared at the detective in silence.
"I assure you, I'm not wearing any wires or cameras. It's just the two of us up here. Would you like to check?"
"No. I don't know why, but I believe you. If you're so sure that I'm Kira, and you came up here to 'talk' why-"
"We don't have a lot of time to ourselves. I would like to get this out of the way. I see that something has been on your mind lately, guilt perhaps. Also, I'm well aware of the fact that you're not working alone. " Light scoffed.
"We're just going to keep going around in circles with this, aren't we?"
"I had hoped to end this today. If you-"
"What do you want me to say, you want me to say I'm Kira, will it make you happy?"
"Not particularly, no. You may have noticed that over the last several weeks, I have shifted our conversations from Kira to other things, exchanging stories, finding out more about who Light Yagami truly is."
"I thought you already figured that out." Light said calmly.
"I know who KIra is. The problem is, The Light I've seen when we're alone is actually different than who you are around others. I noticed you've been more relaxed when we're alone. Until recently, I have been unable to tell you what I'm about to. "
"That you're going to sentence me to death, like you said before, I'm not afraid. Yes, you've been right all this time. I'm Kira. You can try to-"
"Thank you for finally being honest. Now, please, sit, as I said, we don't have much time." L said.
"Stalling for time,by the time anyone gets up here, I could have killed you and-"
"Lovell." L said with a sigh.
"What?" Light tilted his head slightly in confusion.
"My name is Lovell Lawliet, I can spell it for you, it's not quite how it sounds."light sighed heavily.
"Why the hell would you tell me that, you're crazy." Light countered.
"This leaves you two choices. Either you and I can talk, or you can simply kill me, take the short lived victory and take your chances with my successor." Light shook his head.
"Okay, fine. Let's talk."
"Interesting choice" The two men sat down facing each other.
"I would like to start by telling you despite everything, I did enjoy getting to know you. What I'm about to say may surprise you, but I have a proposition for you. One that I hope you will consider carefully. No one else knows that I am offering this, not even Watari so please, keep it between us. I want you to stop. Give up the others, promise me that Kira will disappear, let it end with them, Light. In return, I'll offer you a certain amount of protection from suspicion. At this point I cannot completely remove you from the list, but I can shift most of the focus off of you. In order to do that, I need you to cooperate fully." Light was stunned at the offer. He crossed his arms, looking away from the older man.
"Why?" He asked quietly.
"Sometimes people do the wrong things for the right reasons. You wanted to fix the world, but went about it in the wrong way, then you got lost in all the power it gave you. If you truly want to make a difference, there are better ways to do it. Join your father, you can't go back in time to fix the mistakes, so I suggest learning from them."
"If I'm such an evil person-"
"I never said you were evil, I said what you are doing is evil and I stand by that. You are the only one that can change that. The Light Yagami I've seen lately has many good qualities, you can achieve great things but Kira must go."
"You're serious about this?"
"Very. I don't often give second chances, the fact is, and please understand that I don't say this in situations like this, however, I want you to have the opportunity to be the person you are meant to be, be the son your father thinks you are. Make your family proud, the path you're on now can only end badly and I would rather you didn't continue to follow it."
"I-"Light began before being interrupted by L's ringtone.
"Watari is probably wondering where I am." L said, standing up. "Give it some thought." He turned and began to walk away.
Light forced himself to his feet.
"Hey," Light called, causing L to turn back. "You're going to need help taking down Misa. Let me come up with something." L nodded.
"Ryuzaki?"
"Yes, Light?"
"You didn't give me your real-"
"Yes. All I ask is that you leave Watari out of it. We'll call it repayment for our deal."
"I won't...I'm not going to kill you. If things had been different, We could've been good friends."
"Yes. You'll be happy to know that if all goes well, Watari and I will be leaving after the investigation. It doesn't take long after we get the information to close the case."
"What happens then, you're just out of our lives?"
"Yes. I leave you to live your life, as long as you don't betray my trust." L replied. "I'm not a social person. I don't often keep in contact. Just hope that you never see me again. Should that happen, it's because I'm working and you had better not be involved. Things never happen the same way twice."
"What if I wanted to see you, outside of this I mean. What If I want to spend more time hearing about the cases you've had and places you've been?"
"Will you be staying late tonight?" L asked.
"I probably should, the sooner we get the evidence the sooner we catch Kira. Who knows, we might need a few more late nights to pull everything together."
"Yes, these things take time, but with you and I working closely together, I have no doubt that we will be successful. I will see you later tonight then."
"Yeah, I'll be there." Light promised. He watched L disappear into the building.
"Maybe at some point between now and the end, I'll be able to tell you my other secret." He thought out loud to himself. "By the end of the night, I'll be one step closer to telling you, I love you."