A/N: All right, so. This fic. I don't know what the hell it even is. Basically, it's a no-holds barred crossover set in a panfandom university called Apeiron Academy. One step up from high school AU... but not really a step of any significance. It was spawned by an icon-pairing meme on my LiveJournal and the promptings of moko-moko. It will contain almost as many illicit relationships as any given CLAMP series, including rather a lot of boyslash, so consider yourself warned.

Well then. Have fun? 8D

Fandoms: D Gray-man, Death Note

Prompt: Lavi/L, 'level up'

Note: The apeiron is a cosmological theory created by Anaximander in the 6th century BC.

Anaximander's work is mostly lost. From the few extant fragments, we learn that he believed the beginning or first principle (arche, a word first found in his writings, and which he probably invented) is an endless, unlimited mass (apeiron), subject to neither old age nor decay, which perpetually yields fresh materials from which everything which we can perceive is derived.

The apeiron was never defined precisely, and it has generally (e.g. by Aristotle and Augustine) been understood as a sort of primal chaos. It embraced the opposites of hot and cold, wet and dry, and directed the movement of things, by which there grew up all of the host of shapes and differences which are found in the world.

(...)

But as the measureless and endless had been the prime cause of the motion into separate existences and individual forms, so also, according to the just award of destiny, these forms would at an appointed season suffer the vengeance due to their earlier act of separation, and return into the vague immensity whence they had issued. Thus the world, and all definite existences contained in it, would lose their independence and disappear in the "indeterminate."

Yay for completely overthinking things and giving things pretentious names. Anyway, that boundless and indeterminate world is this Academy, where all worlds coexist. XD

Edit: Now with fabulous illustrations by Suriyel, linked on my profile page. Seriously, they're awesome, go look.

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I: pipe dream

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There has always been a Bookman, as long as there has been history.

L had read about them in the library of the Whammy House as a child, but they had been listed under 'Legends' and he had never believed they had ever really existed. His mind was very sharp, one of the sharpest in the world, and logic told him that a memory like the Bookmen were written to possess was physically not possible. The legend had always fascinated him, however. What would it be like to remember every detail of a crime scene, to be able to recall the entirety of a past case with no effort, to memorize the minutae of someone's facial expression so as to be able to tell instantly if they were lying? He would be the best detective in the world. They would pay him in truckloads of cake.

He wasn't, however, stupid enough to fantasize about something so impossible to attain while conscious and awake... but his subconscious was another matter. Not every night, but many nights since he was a child have been filled with visions of such absolute observation and the insights it would bring. Over time he'd learned to ignore them as the silly pipe dreams they were.

That all changed the day he met his new downstairs neighbour in the dormitory hallway, though he didn't know it at the time.

At first all L could see was red hair. The colour was ridiculous, completely unrealistic, and yet he couldn't detect the slightest hint of darkening at the roots to indicate that it was fake. After he managed to tear himself away from that, he found one startlingly green eye and one eyepatch, and a very broad grin. The man introduced himself as 'Lavi,' which was also ridiculous but wasn't said with any hint of deception.

Bemused, L introduced himself, noticing as he did so that his own name was hardly less ridiculous.

Then 'Lavi' invited him in for pizza and video games, and L abandoned the day as a bad-- or at least, very strange-- job.

The strangeness abated quickly. The pizza was delicious, the cinnamon sticks with sugar frosting even more so, and the video game was simple but challenging. L was naturally good at them, of course, being naturally good at anything that involved using one's brain, but Lavi was phenomenal. He seemed to see patterns long before they could logically be confirmed, and any time L invented a new move Lavi copied it without difficulty moments later. He remembered the layouts of mazes in perfect detail while blithely whizzing through them.

Eventually L asked him if he had an eidetic memory, very impressed in any case.

Lavi went strangely quiet. "Something like that," he answered softly, then suddenly grinned with almost manic enthusiasm. "Oh, look, I leveled up! Ahaha, you're going idown./i"

The attempt to change the topic didn't fool L, but he could see that for some reason it wasn't a topic his new acquaintance felt comfortable discussing, at least not yet. Instead of pressing now and possibly losing his chance to learn the truth later, L held his tongue and decided to be patient. Interrogation wasn't his favourite part of the job, but he was still good at it, and knew when to push and when to wait.

"So, what do you do for a living?" he asked eventually, deeming it an acceptably vague question.

"I'm a historian," answered Lavi. "I'm working on my master's degree in world history. My thesis is about the effect of the internet on the recording of historical events."

"Fascinating," said L honestly. "World history? So you have a moderate knowledge of all cultures rather than an in-depth knowledge of just one or two?"

Lavi grimaced. "Not exactly. I'm kind of a schoolaholic-- I have an in-depth knowledge of pretty much everything, actually."

L raised an eyebrow, careful not to lose concentration on the game. If he blinked at the wrong time Lavi had a habit of either killing his character outright or getting so far ahead in the level L could only hope for a miracle to catch up. He wasn't accustomed to being embarrassed this way, but it was intellectually interesting so he didn't particularly mind. "Everything? That's impressive."

"From the Aztecs to the Ainu," replied Lavi ruefully without taking his eyes off the television. "It's... kind of the family business."

Despite the caution his intuition begged him to use, L couldn't resist the temptation of that. "Remarkable. I'm reminded of the legendary Bookmen. Your memory, your historical inclinations... perhaps you're a sort of modern incarnation of their myth?"

Lavi stiffened, then sighed and let the controller fall onto his lap with a wry grin. "You've been dying to ask that, haven't you?"

That was not the reaction L had been expecting. He wasn't certain exactly what that expectation was, but it had gone something along the lines of iBookmen? what are those?/i "So you know of the Bookmen? I admit I've been fascinated with them for some time. Forgive me."

Then Lavi answered his implicit question explicitly, and L began to wonder if he were perhaps dreaming again.

"This is the best university in the country... probably the world," Lavi explained, scratching his head sheepishly. "All the Bookmen have studied here. I'm kind of a slacker compared to most of my predecessors, but I have the memory so I don't really have to try all that hard to learn everything."

"Remarkable," L said again, robbed of most of his vocabulary by the manifestation of his favourite daydream material in what appeared to be the real world; sweatpants, bed hair, unfairly attractive devilish smile and all. Somehow, in all those dreams he had never considered the idea of someone else being the Bookman. Only himself. And yet, here was this boy with insane hair who had stolen his dream from him and made it real, and somehow there was no resentment in him because of it.

Lavi shrugged self-consciously. "To tell the truth, I'd rather not be a Bookman. You're supposed to give up all bias and never take sides according to their rules, but I'm... I've always been easily swayed. I can't stay impartial even if my life depends on it. I do my best to keep neutral records, but honestly... I'm not suited for it at all. I don't know why I was born with the ability when I don't have the temperament. I don't even like writing essays."

It was patently unfair, thought L, that such a gift should be given to someone who did not want it. He wished he could resent Lavi for it, but he was too logical for that. He knew it wasn't Lavi's fault. Genetics decided on this, not his new friend, and they couldn't be effectively blamed because they didn't care.

"I envy you," said L honestly, surprising himself. He wasn't usually one to admit to such emotions.

Lavi grinned. "Let me guess: you want to be a detective, right?"

Astonished, L gave a guarded nod. "How did you know that?"

"I read," replied Lavi mischievously. "Mysteries. Noir. I can tell when I'm being interrogated. You've been searching for clues to support your hypothesis this whole time. Don't think I missed that. Also, I've seen you around school, and all your classes are either law, forensics, or anthropology."

L stared. "If I didn't know about your memory, I would wonder if you were stalking me."

An alarmingly wide smile spread across Lavi's face. "How do you know I'm not? Maybe I've been admiring you from afar all term and you just haven't noticed."

"Have you?" counters L, determined not to be thrown off balance by the strange turn of the conversation. If his new friend wanted to see how far he could be pushed, he would push back. It wasn't a one-way conversation. There were two sharp minds present, not just one.

Lavi laughed. "Maybe. You're an interesting person, well worth stalking."

It was mildly disturbing to L that he was flattered by that, but he was. The Academy was full of interesting people, but this was an actual Bookman, straight out of his fantasies. Admittedly not quite in the way he'd wished, but still a real Bookman, with all the talents and abilities the legends had attributed him and all his predecessors. He wondered for a moment if Lavi could be convinced to partner with him in the detective agency he planned to start after getting his degrees, then wrote it off as a ridiculous fantasy. L didn't need a partner. In fact, he preferred to work alone whenever possible. It reduced distraction and made for clearer thinking. People just complicated things.

The problem was that he wasn't entirely against this particular potential complication.

"So, are you going to start your own agency?" asked Lavi casually.

L began to hear destiny calling and felt helpless for the first time in a very long time. "Yes, I'd like to do that."

Lavi picked up the controller again and set about systematically destroying L. "Could you use a partner? I don't really fancy traveling the world recording wars and genocide and death, selfish as that sounds."

"I don't blame you," said L, distantly aware of the fact that he had no control over what he was saying whatsoever. "And... certainly, I'm sure I could find a place in the agency for you."

"Awesome," said Lavi, and killed L's avatar again for the fifth time in a row. "I'll hold you to that."

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A/N: Buddy!detectives ftw! XD