A/N- Well, has anyone ever seen The Pretender? Excellent show and it kinda reminded of Death Note, well, L reminded me of Jared. Thought I'd make it so. I won't be following either story to the T, its just Pretender was the inspiration for the fic. I think this chapter needs editing and I'm in desperate need for a beta. Constructive reviews would be appreciated! I'm a feedback whore and I'm usually more motivated to put a new chapter out the more feedback I get, but, yeah. I will finish this! Yay! The chapters should get longer after this too.

Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note or its characters. Seriously, I don't even own its manga or anime. I had to borrow all of that. I don't own The Pretender either. Not even the DVD box set.

The Pretender

Trapped. L was trapped in a little black room. He took all his meals there, slept in corner in a bed that felt like the floor, and he cleaned himself in the opposite corner that acted as his bathroom. There was a single door with no handle and above it was the only decoration L was allowed: a miniature camera.

There were only two other places L had ever visited. The long hallway was one of them, it led out of L's box and to the only other place he went. The Emersion Room. L was in that place more than the box they put him in to sleep.

They were going to come and fetch him soon. L couldn't even remember a time clearly where he slept as he knew normal people did. Four in the morning was when he was woken unless someone had added in a little extra to the standard fee for using L. L nearly allowed a smear to be shown on his face at that thought, but decided against it. The taunting and antagonism he would receive later weren't worth it later. Weariness tugged at his bones today.

He settled for glowering internally.

What he really wanted to do was scream. There was never a moment when L was allowed privacy. Never a moment that he could let his guard down.

His very existence was empty. Everyday in the Emersion Room L dealt with other people, sometimes even normal people, if he was studying a victim. All of them were free.

Or were until L caught up with them.

That was his job. Figuring out why people did the things they did or when they would do things. Usually, the people he tracked and Merged with were criminals, the worst of the worst, the ones the government could not understand, the ones no one could find. For a fee he would never receive L heard their twisted thoughts, knew the reasons they used to justify murder, felt the poison of their emotions flow and burn within him. It warped him a little more each time.

The worst jobs were the ones the government didn't pay for. The private organizations that wanted to bump off an innocent for no more than financial security. When L was forced to take trips like that, and he was always forced to in the end, he couldn't be made to function for days afterwards. Others, less talented than he (L knew quite well he was the best there ever was), took over on those days when the grief and guilt and emptiness of it all swallowed him whole.

L wanted it all to end. The loneliness, the pain, the longing were all going to stop. He would simply escape.

---

Raito Yagami was nearly home when he noticed a moving van pulled up to the house beside his. He rolled his eyes heavenward and continued down the cracked sidewalk.

Yet another victim.

People were always moving in and out of that house within a period of at least a few months. Sayu and his mother were always betting about how long the new owner would last. The house either fell apart or was a target for vandalism for each new family.

Plus, it was ugly. And purple. Raito was ashamed to live next to it.

Raito opened the door to his house, setting his school bag down in the entrance. He removed his shoes yelling an obligatory "I'm home!" into the house. As always, his mother and sister came to greet him and both gave him their own style of hug.

His mother wrapped her arms around her son firmly, pressing him to her as she smiled. "Welcome home, Raito. A lot of homework tonight?" Raito allowed himself to smile in her embrace. The calming effect her scent had over him was always surprising.

"Yes, Mom. I'm lucky I don't have night school, tonight. Teacher called in sick." Raito hated lying to her but it had to be done.

His mother nodded and stepped back, beaming in pride at her son. As she back off Sayu threw herself at Raito. "Brother! Remember that math homework you helped me on last night? Well, the teacher thought I did such a great job on it that she gave me extra homework tonight because she said she thought I wasn't being challenged enough! So…will you help me on that to?" She had been yelling up at him but the last bit came out as a murmur when she hid her flushed face in his chest. Raito chuckled.

"Of course, but later, okay? And only if you make me some more of your cookies. I need to get some homework done now. Hopefully, I won't be distracted by all the noise they're making next door." Raito reached for his bag but caught the mischievous gleam in his mother's and sister's eyes.

"What kind of people do you think they'll be, brother?" Raito sighed inwardly. He couldn't care less.

"I have no idea. Probably stupid if they bought that house." Sayu giggled and Raito climbed the stairs to get to his room. He entered it quietly and closed the door silently behind him. Everything inside was in perfect condition; everything put away properly. Not the room of the average teenage boy but Raito was far above average. He was as perfect as his room was.

As with all perfect people, however, he had a secret he was hiding.

The computer hummed as Raito flicked it on and within moment he was online, typing in coded wording. Before doing his usual rounds he would check out the latest stories the media was writing about him.

He went to Sakura TV's website and smiled in surprise. He didn't even need to type anything into their search engine. There he was; the top story of tonight's newscast.

The headline blared, "Hikari: What We Really Know about the One They're Calling 'Savior!'"

Triumph swept over him.

He hadn't dreamed that he would gain this much recognition in only four short months. It was working; soon criminals everywhere would fear the name 'Hikari.' He would be known as the greatest detective in the history of the world. In the beginning he had planned on revealing himself after a few years so that his mother would see that being a detective would not put him harm's way. He'd been planning on telling her that he had yet to be harmed and so pursuing the career would be safe. Any fool could tell that was not a good idea and Raito soon resolved, before he began, to work in secret for the rest of life. He had no doubt that the greatest detective in the world would make many enemies. He was all too aware of that fact. Revealing himself would be a stupid mistake.

Raito, however, was an egotistical creature and desired to take at least some credit for his work. Hikari as a pseudo-name was perfect. It had the ringing of his true name and showed the world what he wanted bring to it. Truth. Purity. Righteousness.

Raito had never let anyone in on his dreams. In the future he would take a simple job doing simple things so that he would never be distracted from his true pursuit. He would be the greatest force of Justice in the world. And no one would ever know. Raito allowed a smirk to form on his lips, marring his handsome face. Yes, the only disappointing part of this was how easy it all was. He sighed dramatically. It was hard being the best. He stretched and began his work.

Raito was able put together a file of thorough evidence against an accused-murdered before Sayu came up to visit him with his math homework. Making her understand it was like pulling teeth but he'd always had a soft spot for his sister. It took them until dinner to finish. Raito then had to go downstairs and eat with his family. He kept the news on in the background, despite his mother's protests that suicides, murders, and rapes weren't proper for dinner conversation. Raito knew how much his interest in those things disturbed her but he wouldn't completely hide it from her. Starting to do that now would only make her suspicious after years of him showing the same behavior.

Immediately after dinner he had gone back into his room, claiming that he had more homework to do, Raito returned to his bedroom and began work on a new case after forwarding the file to an old co-worker of his father's named Matsuda. He'd been the easiest to manipulate into being errand-boy.

The work lasted late into the night and at one in the morning Raito forced himself to stop. He had school to get up for the next morning. Sighing, Raito shut his computer down, spinning the chair around and stretching-

He stopped.

Wide, black, empty eyes stared at him through the window in the house across from his. They were studying him, taking him in. Watching him. Raito's immediate reaction was panic. How long had this guy been watching him?

The man-creature was hunched over, perched atop of his desk, openly staring at him. He hadn't even flinched when Raito turned around and caught him! He brazenly just stared back like some autistic child!

It didn't help that he was positively revolting. His hair was matted, looking, like his baggy, simple clothes, like it had never been watched and he was chewing on the tip of his thumb, watching him. What bothered Raito most, however, was the eyes that he had at first dismissed as empty. They were thoughtful. Calculating. What did this guy know?

This guy would have never been able to have seen the screen on his own, he was too far away. It would have looked to anyone like a teenage boy scrambling to finish homework. Then, what was this guy's problem? Raito growled at the outrage of it all, his hands curled into fists and he stomped forward to draw the blinds over his window. All the time screaming in his mind, 'How dare he?!'

He flipped the light switch off threw himself down into bed, clothes still on, and nearly clawed his sheets. Just his luck to have some retarded voyeur move in next door! Nothing would come between him and his dream! Nothing! He looked over to the picture of him and his father, glowing in the moonlight filtered from the blinds. It was taken the week before he had died. Raito was sitting beside his father at the kitchen table, grinning at the camera after receiving an award for the highest ever grades in the school by those who had taken the fifth grade standardized tests. His father, however, was beaming at Raito, the joy, the pride, and love he had for his son etched onto his face.

The fury within Raito calmed and coolness overtook him in its stead. There was little to be gained in overreacting. He could not avenge his father's death if anger blinded him.

Within the hour Raito had forced himself to sleep, he had mastered control over himself years ago after all. Raito was sure he could do anything if he found the proper strings to pull.