Chapter Summary: Light notices a grungy girl in the library and wonders how she manages her marathon study sessions. She exhibits some very specific mannerisms, and Light begins to suspect she and L have the same secret weapon.

Objectionable Material: Prescription drug abuse. Language. Rated T.

Disclaimer: Death Note and affiliated characters are owned and created by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata.

**Note: Someone sent me LITERALLY the cutest thing I have ever seen. It's a picture of L based on this story. I set it as the image for this story, but I don't think you can really see it because it's kind of small. I'm trying to figure out a way to post it somewhere so everyone can see it because I think its really adorable and funny. (If anyone has suggestions, let me know!)

1.

Light was sitting in the library past two in the morning. He had been doing so every night that week. This was why L was always one step ahead of him; Light had three identities, and unlike L's alter egos, they were all active at the moment. There was Light Yagami, straight A student, Light Yagami, police investigator, and or course, Kira. L on the other hand only had to be L. His technical enrollment at To-oh was not treated as a real obligation.

But Light couldn't blame all his short-comings on his studies. Even if he were free to spend all him time on the Kira case- or for that matter, on being Kira- L would probably still be beating him in both respects. L was so focused, so efficient. He noticed absolutely everything, and did so faster than anyone else. He never stopped working, never got tired. Light had to find a way to keep up with him.

The student next to Light began packing up his books, preparing to leave. Light didn't have that luxury.

He looked around the library. At this hour it was almost empty. There were a few other people at the end of the room, and nearby, a girl he recognized from other late nights. Today her head was buried in a book she held in her lap, further obscured by a fortress of empty coffee cups.

"Hey," Light said to the student next to him. "Who is that girl over there?"

He stopped packing his things and glanced in the direction Light was pointing. "I don't know. Some exchange student from the U.S."

"She's always here," Light noted.

"Yes. She must be competing with you for 'most time spent in the library.'"

Light gave a polite chuckle, but mentally rolled his eyes.

He got up and went over to the girl. She was sort of huddled in a large chair with her legs crossed up on the seat. Her books and coffee cups were piled on a small table in front of her. She had two half empty water bottles on the floor. As Light neared, he noticed she was hiding a bag of mini oreos in her lap. She was skinny and had long, stringy light brown hair that looked slightly dirty on top. The zip up sweatshirt she wore over a tank top had slid off her shoulders, so as she shifted in her contorted, hunched position, he could see the protruding bones in her bare shoulders and arms gliding beneath her skin.

"Excuse me," he said.

She looked up from her book and stared at him intensely.

"I notice that you're here every night, working non-stop."

"Oh… yeah," she said. She seemed polite but guarded.

"You never seem tired. How do you have the energy to stay so focused?"

"Umm…" She kind of smirked, as though he had missed something obvious. She glanced around, then said, "Honestly?"

Light nodded.

She waved him closer, then said in a quiet voice, "I have Adderall. It's common in the U.S. I just like to get a lot done, you know?" She paused. "Do you want any?"

"Oh… Uh, what does it do?"

"Well it… here, sit," she said motioning to the chair next to her. Light sat down and pulled the chair in close, and she continued, "It basically… it gives you a lot of energy and makes you really focused. It's kind of like watered down speed- I don't want to scare you, its not speed, it's a prescription drug."

He looked her over. The margins of her book were scrawled with frantic looking notes, and she had pages and pages of work in front of her. She certainly was efficient… Then he noticed the half bitten mini oreo sitting on the table in front of her… and the crumbs gathered in the binding of the book… all the cups of coffee. She was touching her mouth, sort of licking her fingernails as if she desperately wanted to bite them but wouldn't let herself. And she had dark circles under her eyes from this drug that allowed her to never sleep.

All these familiar mannerisms! On first glance, nothing about her resembled L, but after a closer look, it was all there. There was something distinctively L-ish about her.

Suddenly, Light was desperately interested in this Adderall. "I think I would like some," Light said. "But can I ask you something about it? Please don't take offense, but is this the reason you have so many cups of coffee in front of you?"

"Sort of. It makes you lose your appetite, so I drink coffee instead of eating."

"It makes you want coffee?"

"Yeah, and maybe some sweet foods. I always get nauseous and feel like I can only manage to eat sweet things. You know how meth addicts always want sugar? It's pretty much the same thing- except its not meth, I swear."

So this girl only ate sweets but was still unusually skinny? Everything was lining up.

"What about the way you're sitting?" He asked. She wasn't crouching on her feet like L, but she was certainly hunched over, as though she couldn't bring herself to settle down and sit comfortably.

"Yeah, it makes you feel really… intense, so its like all your muscles tighten up. You can sit in a stiff position for hours and not even notice it."

Light nodded. "Do you feel 'intense' in other ways? Mentally, perhaps?"

She laughed. "If it makes any sense, you feel intense in every way possible. You feel like… everything you think is… the fucking best idea in the world."


The next night, in the privacy of his bedroom, Light took out the two pills the girl had given him. He set them on his desk and examined them. They were both powders in capsules, but one, she had explained, could be snorted if he so desired. It would work faster that way. The other apparently had to be swallowed because it would only be metabolized once the acids in the stomach broke it down.

"Are you going to used those to help you study?" Ryuk asked.

"No Ryuk," Light said. "I'm going to test them. I suspect this is the secret to how L is so productive."

Light emptied one of the capsules onto the cover of one of his textbooks. He took a straw out of his pocket and cut off a portion about three inches long. He held it to his nose and used it to suck up the small mound of powder.

"How do you feel?" Ryuk asked several minutes later.

"I. Feel. AMAZING."

Light spent the night doing his homework. All of his homework. He fucking loved his homework. Every problem was a little adventure that made him smile when he got the answer right. Problem after problem, they filled the page in neat columns. He loved the sound of the paper crinkling as he flipped to a fresh sheet. He loved the scratching of his pencil on the paper.

He worked on his computer, his fingers tapping across the keys so quickly he could swear it sounded more like vibration than typing. His fingers were dancing. His face was smiling. And he just knew he was writing the best fucking paper of his life.

When he had done all the school work he could justify, he started rearranging his bookshelves, and by five in the morning, he was completely satisfied with the way he had arranged everything in his room. He knew where every one of his possessions was. That aspect of his life was completely in order.

He lay on his bed, finally beginning to feel achy and tired.

"Hmph," he grinned smugly to himself. "What L is able to do doesn't seem nearly as impressive with this," he said, holding up the remaining capsule.