Author's Note: AU where Kira is the victor. LightxMikami. Lyrics belongs to Coronatus.

Hiding in the Darkness

Tables full of promises
Promised for a tale
So we told for our lives
Obeyed to his will, his will

Mikami had figured it out, even though in the end he had failed his Kami by taking out the note even though he was told not to touch it until this very day. He'd noticed the switch in the notebooks and had used pages he'd torn out in case of an emergency to replace the false pages. Near's team would never know, and now...now he saw his Kami. Mikami had never imagined Kami to be so handsome, so...beautiful.

The man furiously scratched everyone's names in the Death Note, even Kami's. Yes. Mikami had come up with his OWN plan. At first, he would try and prove Kami's innocence by writing down EVERYONE'S name on the fake pages, and then, when no one was looking, or later, since he had their names already, write them down on the real pages. It is something Kami himself would have done. Something Kami would be proud of Mikami for discovering and doing on his own.

A voice, Kami's, from inside the warehouse. "Have you finished writing down the names?"

Mikami answered his god swiftly and almost couldn't keep the squeal of glee from his voice. "Yes, I am."

He heard the young boy, Nate River, bantering about something. That didn't matter. Kami's will did.

Kami's voice: "Maybe your plot has been seen through."

Yes, yes it has! By Kami's most loyal of followers! Oh, Kami, you will love me after this, at last, won't you? Mikami had been in love Kami for as long as he'd known of Kira's existence. It didn't matter what gender he was, or even what he looked like. He was his Kami. All Mikami desired was to be loved by his Kami.

Nate's voice, asking him to come inside. Mikami stood at the door, refusing to move, until he heard Kami agree with Nate, also telling Mikami to come inside. With a gleeful shout, Mikami flung open the door and ran inside. He skidded to a halt before the two groups facing each other. Nate's group and Kami's group.

He was about to say something to Kami, when he noticed Kami glaring at him. He turned his gaze away from his beloved Kami and looked back at the Nate boy. Sure, he wouldn't die now. None of them would, but just the fact that he also wrote down Kami's name should prove his innocence to this little boy.

Kami did the unthinkable after thirty something seconds. He...agreed to his guild!

"Near, victory is mine!"

Mikami almost gasped. In fact, he DID gasp once the forty seconds were up and they were all still alive, keeping up his act. Mikami pretended to be shocked and terrified.

"Kami! Kami! What! Why didn't they die, Kami?" Mikami was looking at no one, just ranting at the open warehouse in general. He felt handcuffs encircle his wrists. All in good time. They would die. Mikami almost smiled. He felt Kami's angry gaze upon him. But Kami! You don't understand! I figured it out, Kami! They'll HAVE to find you innocent! The notebook, Kami! Make them look at it!

Mikami fidgeted a bit under the pressure of the heavy men holding him and the tight handcuffs, but said nothing, merely looked at the group with a feigned expression of despair. The boy, Nate, daintily picked the notebook out of Mikami's hands.

The boy was looking over the names with mounting shock and loss, loss of a game perhaps, or perhaps despair over the fact that he was wrong. Had to be wrong. Kira's most loyal of followers wouldn't write his own god's name in the book!

Kami's voice spoke up again. "Well, Near?" Kami smirked. "Are the names all there?"

Nate seemed beyond words and just held the book up with a defeated look on his face. "I was sure. I was so sure, but...there has to be an explanation. Mikami somehow found out..." Nate went back to trying to solve some unknown puzzle in his own head that seeing Kira's name, Light Yagami, also written in the notebook.

The stupid one, one of Kami's group, Touta Matsuda, spoke up. "You see! You were wrong, Near! Light isn't Kira! If he were, well, would his name have been in the death book too? Mikami, you ARE loyal to Kira, right? If Kira were here, you wouldn't write his own name down for him to die, would you?"

Mikami glanced up, a little difficultly, since the men holding him were doing their best to keep his head down. "N-no...I would never...I server Kira! Kami-sama is my life! I delete for him! I purge the world of evil for Kami-sama! I would never write his name in the notebook, I would write my own before I would write Kami's!"

Matsuda once again turned to Nate. "There! You were wrong, can't you just admit that and let us go now? Light isn't Kira! None of here are! For once you are wrong about something and it just hurts that you can't solve THIS puzzle, right?"

The young boy fiddled with his white hair, nibbling on an edge of one wayward curl. "But...there's..." Nate's eyes seemed to light up as if he had figured it out. "Mikami knew. Mikami KNEW the notebook was fake. That's why he wrote Kira's name in the notebook. He knew Kira wouldn't die, so he wrote the name. Isn't that right, Mikami?"

Mikami shook his head vehemently. "F-fake? Why would the notebook be fake? Does Kira-sama no longer trust my judgements?" Mikami fell to his knees and started mock-crying.

Kami's eyes were on Mikami. He felt it. He risked a glance upward. His eyes locked with Kami's. A very small, almost unnoticeable, smile crossed Kami's face. Relief swept Mikami. Kami knew what he'd done! What he'd realized. And how it now meant Kami's freedom. Mikami slumped to the floor in relief. His captors likely thought it was out of fear of failing his god.

"Near, Mikami has just admitted that he had no idea the notebook was fake. Look at his face! He's crying! He thinks he failed his god! Is that someone who would lie to you right now?" This was from Kami. Oh, Kami, how brilliant! His god was always so brilliant!

Nate glanced around, at his squad...his protectors. Two of them had Mikami detained. He HAD been wrong...Light wasn't Kira...but who was...this case was still unresolved. He gave a defeated sigh. "Forgive me, then, Light Yagami. Halle and Anthony...will you please take Mikami back to the car to be transported-"

Light interrupted. "I think not, Near. Mikami is obviously Kira, or carrying out his judgements. He is also Japanese, giving you no clearance to take him away. Mikami belongs to the Japanese police." Light nodded to Matsuda and Aizawa. "You two, get Mikami away from the Americans. The Japanese police force will take care of Mikami. Near...L...N...whatever name you're wanting to go by now...you'd best get back on tracking Kira."

Light turned away from the group so they wouldn't see his smile. "I know we have a lot of work we need to do involving Kira."

Near made no further complaints. His plan had failed miserably and he had no backup plan. His plan had simply been for Mikami to think he had the real notebook and write everyone but Kira's name into it. He had failed. He wasn't fit to be L's successor. Near curled up in a little ball, totally ignoring everything else.

Mikami was shaking with glee as he was handed over to the Japanese taskforce. His shivering increased even further when Kami told them that he would personally take Mikami to prison, since it had been Kira who killed the former L, Kami's "best friend" and that he took it personally. Only Aizawa had objections, but Light, Kira, put those to rest with a few well-chosen words. His Kami really did have a silver tongue.

Once they were alone in the car, Kami immediately removed Mikami's handcuffs and passed him a small slip of paper that he'd had wadded up in his watch.

"Mikami. You did well. Very well. Even I didn't see that coming. Your acting skill almost rivals mine...Hehehehe."

"Th-thank you, Kami! Your praise means the world to me! We did it, didn't we? We won, Kami-sama!" Mikami's head was bowed.

Kami patted the man on the head like a dog. "Yes. We did win. Now we can start the creation of our new world. The paper. You know what to do." Kami handed Mikami a pen. "Write their names down. All of them. The taskforce, the SPK...do that, and the world is ours."

Light suddenly pulled Mikami into a kiss, long and deep. "Add 'Misa Amane' to that list, if you can. I never wanted a 'Goddess' for my new world."

Mikami gazed at Light in adoration and began writing the names.

Behind them both, Ryuk cackled. For awhile there, he thought he was going to have to write Light's name down. Not yet, then. A new world, ruled by Light and Mikami...Humans were indeed...quite a riot!