"Althea"
by Acey
Disclaimer: The only copyright rights I'd ever really like are the ones to the Twilight Zone.
"A facial?"
Light's eyebrows quirked upward, and he stopped stirring his tea.
"Yes," L said simply. "Misa would like something like that, don't you think?"
"Well, yes, I suppose…" Light fidgeted. "I wouldn't have ever thought about something like that, to be honest…"
L forced his concentration onto balancing the extra sugar cubes from his tea into a fragile white tower.
"But now that you mention it, Ryuuzaki… you've got a point. She really deserves it. Putting up with me… I haven't been very thoughtful of her."
Was there remorse in his eyes?
"This case—I haven't been good to Misa at all."
L shrugged. He removed one of the cubes from the tower and stuck it in its mouth as Light watched. He let it dissolve in his mouth and swallowed the sweet mix of sugar and saliva.
"It was only an idea."
"A good one, though." Light muttered, poked his free hand in his pocket though he knew he didn't have any money. "How much do those things cost?"
At this L grinned, adding the last cube to the tower as he gave an inflated estimate of the price range.
"… You're joking, right?"
L shook his head.
"Well, there's no way that I—"
"I would be willing to pay for it, Yagami."
Light gave him an odd look.
"You? Really? That's… that's very thoughtful of you. You don't have to—"
L toppled the sugar cube tower with his thumb, turned and tilted his face up to look Light in the eye.
"She did save Matsuda. You can make this your apology for not being able to go out with her alone."
--
Misa was ecstatic.
"Oh, Light," and she kissed him on tiptoe. "Misa has not had a facial in… Misa's not sure when!"
Light stepped back awkwardly, embarrassed.
"Thank L. He paid for it."
Misa blinked.
"L?"
He nodded gravely. "As a thank-you," he would have said, but Misa's response came too fast for him to get the words out.
"Thank you, L." Misa's replying nod was solemn. "Misa will think of you when she is getting the massages!" She bobbed her head back to the other man. "Of course, Misa thinks about Light always, but—"
L almost smiled.
"Enjoy yourself, Misa."
--
Light was Misa's light, that was the simplest way L could find to put it. It was an all-consuming, honest adoration; it filled in the blanks for every questionnaire.
Light always shrugged off the attention, bewildered at her grasp on his arm, her mouth shyly on his lips. He said nothing to L in complaint about any of it, but L recorded what he saw in his mind and on the cameras, analyzed it on the computers, envied it in his heart.
She was a stray model from the runway with a head full of storybook romances. She was the second Kira, merciless, regretless—just and righteous in her love for Light alone.
She was Misa, Gothic Lolita extraordinaire, fingernails painted black, arms in fishnets, short skirt fringed in lace knitted in the shape of skull-and-crossbones. Misa, enjoying her facial indeed, prattling to the masseuse as she set cucumbers on her eyes. Endlessly chattering about her boyfriend that stood head and shoulders above everyone else in the world.
But L did not doubt her sincerity.
Perhaps she would remember him during the massages.
finis