Hope you enjoy my stupid Death Note after-the-end fic. Warning: probably spoilers for the end of the series. Probably. (BTW, this is based on the anime, not the manga.)

Welcome to Nothingness

(L/Light, Light/Mikami, Mello/Matt, L/Mello)

By Lord Nocato

His chest suddenly felt worse than before. Along with the excessive bleeding from the gunshot, Light's heart felt like it was about to burst out of his chest. "A… a heart attack?!" he gasped with his last breath—and his body went limp.

And there was L. Standing there, before Light's eyes, was a dead man, with his thumbnail in his mouth as usual. Just… staring at him. "Are you going to keep lying there all day, Light, or do you plan to get up sometime?" he asked.

Light gawked. "You're dead!"

"So are you."

Light sat up. All around was eerie whiteness, boundless as far as the eye could see, and empty, at that, except for a sign a few yards from the two. Light squinted at it. As he read it, L narrated out loud, "Welcome to Nothingness".

Light stared. "Nothingness?" he said, stupidly.

"That's right," said L. "Nothingness. Your brilliance never ceases to amaze me, Light." Light, sensing sarcasm, frowned at L. So this is where people went when they died. Nothingness. He stood up, and as he did, he noticed the floor was soft. "…clouds?" he pondered aloud. But no, he knew clouds were made of hydrogen—they were not solid enough to walk upon. L continued to stare at him with his blank, unblinking eyes. Once Light got himself straightened up, a puff of the same material as the ground hovered over to him, with a sheet of pale yellow paper on it. He stared at it, confused.

"Take it," urged L. Light frowned, and took the sheet of paper from it. He read it.

It read:
To: Yagami Light
Welcome to Nothingness. We hope you enjoy your eternal stay. You have just found yourself at the main entrance, we presume, with a person you know. This person is educated in the way of Nothingness, and will assist you in learning how to use it if you choose to do so. Let us explain a few things, beforehand. Our name is The Voice. If ever you feel the need to tell things, The Voice will listen to you. Also, the material you now stand upon is known as White Matter. It is the power of Nothingness, and forms everything and everyone in Nothingness. Again, we wish you to have a terrific eternal stay, and remind you that if you have any questions, the one who met you at the entrance will answer them swiftly and accurately.
-The Voice

Light stared, mouth open, for a few moments, and looked up at L, who was still emotionlessly watching him. "Why… why you?" he asked, flustered.

L frowned. "Am I not good enough?"

"It's not that… but, er," Light put his hand through his hair and sighed. "You… you should absolutely despise me. I am—I was Kira… I was your enemy… I'm the reason you're dead!" Light looked desperately at L.

L blinked. "You were also my friend," he said, and smiled. Light blushed. He was startled that L could possibly still think of him in a positive manner after all he had gone through to deal with him. L shifted his feet. "Why should I worry about things that happened in life?" He looked down at his toes. "I'd rather spend an eternity with a friend than an eternity with an enemy." Light gaped. He was still bewildered, but all the same, he glanced at the piece of paper again, and back up at L.

"So would I."

After folding and pocketing the sheet of paper, Light looked around at his surroundings, white as far as the eye could see. "So… what exactly do you do here?" he inquired. L peered around at the whiteness.

"Whatever you want," he stated simply, shrugging. Light frowned, not quite getting it. "For me," started L, but before he decided to finish his sentence, a cloud of White Matter floated towards him, a silver plate under a piece of angelic-looking white cake, frosted and topped with a strawberry upon it. Next to it was a petite silver fork. L took the objects and began to eat the cake.

"Did you will that to happen?!" Light gasped.

L nodded. In-between bites of the heavenly cake, he said, "As I told you, Light, whatever you want." He put the fork and empty plate back upon the cloud and it floated back away to nowhere. Licking his lips, L smiled. "You can eat all you want and never get full, unless you want to," he said. "A lot of things are like that here. You can stay up for days and never get tired, but you can sleep whenever you want."

Light pondered this for a while. "So, besides eating unhealthy snack foods, what have you been doing for the past… years?"

L tilted his head. "When I wasn't in the world of the living, watching my forces continue to be tricked by you, I was here, talking to other dead people…"

Light had a sudden thought, "My father!"

L stared. "Yes, I talked to him as well. He is rather disappointed in you."

Light's mood dropped. "It figures."

"Would you like to go see him?" asked L.

Light looked at the eternal whiteness again and asked, "How would we find him?"

L smiled. "Do you want to find him?"

Suddenly, Light and L were in a hallway of white walls, a white ceiling, and a white floor, going straight forever on either side of them. Every few feet or so was a grey door labeled with a name. Directly in front of Light was a grey door with a name in golden scripted kanji, Yagami Soichiro. Light looked over at L. "Why are you here, too?"

L ignored the question. "You must knock." Light scowled at the avoidance of his question, and knocked lightly on the door. Absolute silence, for a moment, and a peephole appeared in the door. It disappeared half a second later, and the door opened slowly.

Soichiro stared out at his son, a mix of anger, sadness, and love on his face. Light didn't know what to say. Soichiro, at a loss of what to do, tears in his eyes, finally decided, and embraced his son. L stared at the scene intently, obviously not getting the feeling that it may be unwanted for him to do so.

"Light, my son, oh…" sobbed Soichiro into Light's shoulder.

Light took a breath before saying, "I know that 'sorry' will never be enough to apologize for my actions, father, but I truly hope you can someday forgive me."

Soichiro paused, still holding Light to him. He sniffed.

"Light," he said in a quavering voice. "I've talked to L a lot since I got here, and he's helped me to realize this—you don't need to be forgiven. You already are." Soichiro squeezed Light a little harder, making Light realize with a grimace that one still feels pain—like having your breath hugged out of you—in Nothingness.

"What a pussy," said a voice out of nowhere. "Of course he isn't forgiven—no matter what, I'll always despise Kira." Soichiro released Light and the two looked over to where the voice was coming from—beside L. There stood Mello, sporting his usual girly black attire, a chocolate bar, and Matt by his side. Matt removed the burning cigarette from his mouth and flicked off the ashes. Light glared in disgust.

Matt smirked. "There's no lung cancer in Nothingness," he laughed, sticking the rolled tobacco back in his grinning orifice. Mello continued to pierce Light hatefully with his grey eyes.

Light frowned, but before he could say anything, L had tapped Mello atop the head gently, saying "You shouldn't say such things, Mihael." Mello glowered at L, but said nothing.

Light sighed. "Any other interesting additions to this group I should be warned about?" he asked. Soichiro looked around. L looked around. Light looked around. Matt flicked his cigarette, and Mello took a bite of his chocolate. A spontaneous "no" sounded.

"Yes," said a calm voice.

Light turned around quickly. "M-mikami!" he gasped. And there he was, Teru Mikami, arms folded, unhappy sneer upon his face, a tiny bit of tears in his eyes.

"Forget about me already, God?" Mikami asked, with a hint of abhorrence in his voice. "You are the reason I am dead—you got me into deep shit, Kira." Mikami strode forward, grabbed Light by the front of the shirt, and pulled him towards himself, his face but a half an inch away from Light's.

Light gulped. "Mi-"

"Shut up." Light shut up. L, Soichiro, Mello, and Matt all watched, unmoving. Mikami was staring Light straight in the eyes, trying to figure out how to put his feelings into words. Finally, he came up with "You owe me." Light glanced over at the others. His father was wringing his hands, glaring hatefully at Teru. L, as usual, seemed to have no emotion showing, but was watching attentively, with his head cocked to the side. Mello was leaning against the white wall, munching chocolate, having decided he didn't care. Matt was absentmindedly smoking and reading names on doors. Light fixed his eyes back on Mikami's.

"I… I'm sorry. I deceived you," he said, somewhat anxious. He saw tears well up in Mikami's eyes, and was thrown backwards, where he hit a soft wall, and fell to the floor, trembling.

Soichiro jumped to the fore, yelling "Bastard! Don't touch my son!" Mikami turned and barely avoided a fist to the face. He looked stricken and baffled at the attack, and in the moment where Soichiro was regaining his balance and turning to attempt a hit on Mikami, Light shouted "Father, please don't!"

Soichiro paused. Everyone, including Mello and Matt, looked down at Light with curiosity.

"He's right, he's so right; I destroyed so many lives while I lived. I deserve to be in Hell—no, somewhere far worse than even that. Mikami has every right to beat the dead shit out of me," said Light, somewhere between crying and talking.

Soichiro looked at him, desperately. "Don't say such thin-" but he was interrupted by Mello, who broke in saying "You owe him? I guess that would make you his bitch, now, then," with a snicker. Light stared at Mello, wide-eyed. L stared at Mello, wider-eyed. Soichiro stared at Mello, eyes so wide, they looked as if they would pop right out of his head. Matt laughed. Mikami scowled at Mello, but when Light glanced towards him to see his reaction to this, he could swear it was forced.

"I'm afraid I cannot allow that," said L, after he finished staring at Mello. He walked over to Light, crouched down, and hugged him. "Light here is already my bitch."

Lawl. More to come. I told too many people about this and they all wanted to read it, so I'm cutting it off here. It's gonna get better next chapter. And by better I mean gayer. Ohyes.