A/N:
This is the alternate ending to my 30-day challenge fic, Fool's Gambit. It is not entirely necessary to read that story first, but there will be references to events in that story littered throughout. I'm planning on trying to update everyday once more, but since this isn't my summer challenge fic, I make no promises.
Anywho~Shoutout to ObviouslyADeathNoteFan, who is my lovely beta. You can thank her for how tidy everything looks.
Notes (mostly for you peeps skipping FG): Light looks like the Light from the anime (despite being female). Light, Misa and Mikami all became Kiras. Mikami is dead. Both Light and L have ownership of a Death Note. This is an AU where Japan and much of the world is ruled by a corrupt government called the Oligarchy, which is a system of rule that involved a group of people. The eight members of the Oligarchy have all recently been killed by Kiras. Light's mother and sister are missing. Watari, Aiber and Wedy are dead. And Light's father was a member of the Oligarchy, but his family believed him dead since Light was four. Let's continue.
Summary: Their love was like building a house of cards in a hurricane. Dystopia AU. LxFem!Light.
House of Cards
By Catsitta
Part One: Fool's Gambit
He always hated hospitals.
White asylum walls and little sterile prison cells were the makings of many a nightmare. The only break in white were the blue scrubs of flitting nurses as they pushed white carts with little white pill bottles. So much white .It blinded. He was a man used to the dark, his life lived in unfurnished concrete rooms akin to bomb shelters, silent save for the constant hum of machinery. Nothing could hide in this pristine hell.
Black eyes fluttered shut for the first time in what felt like hours. His aching head reminded him that his last meal was almost 24 hours ago. He did not have the motivation to leave the hospital and find proper nourishment, like strawberry cheesecake.
"Mister...Ryuuzaki?"
He peeled open heavy lids with a groan. A doctor stood by the chair he was perched in, knees tucked to his chest, bare feet touching. If it was not for his vast influence, the hospital staff would have chased him away from this hallway hours ago. Instead, they brought him a chair and allowed him to wait by the doors of the Intensive Care Unit. Had circumstances been different, he might have quirked a slight smile at the situation.
Here he was, a bedraggled insomniac with a false name, wearing blood-soaked clothes, sitting in a hospital, waiting for the inevitable news.
Not that he wanted anyone to know he was actually L, the infamous assassin and threefold best detectives in the world. Posing as an envoy or employee worked best.
"Yes?" L did not bother with worry. His monotone manner was how he felt. After everything, he felt numb. Stark, hollow, lifeless. A person could only take so many betrayals...lose so many people.
The doctor seemed slightly taken aback by L's tone, but continued nonetheless.
"We lost her," L's heart clenched in his chest, "but we managed to bring her back. Twice. It is a miracle she survived her injuries."
After all, she arrived dead at the hospital. L wanted laugh a crazed little chortle, pretend this whole situation was just one, big, terrible joke. But he couldn't. Because for all intents and purposes, Light Yagami, should be dead. L nibbled on his thumb, eyes rolled towards the ceiling as he lost himself in the morbid events of the day prior.
He could still hear the gunshots, see Light's eyes widen with horror. L held the smoking gun. Hands trembling. Kira had to die. He tried to give Light a chance to relinquish the Death Note, but she held onto the black book with her final breaths. L bit deeply into his knuckle as he relived that fateful moment, watched as the life faded from brilliant, tawny eyes. She tried to kill him. She wielded his name like a deadly knife and tried to kill him. The stark white pages of the Death Note gleamed the same sterile color of the hospital. Names written in blood upon paper like bone.
"Sir, you're bleeding."
L snapped back to reality and pulled his thumb from his mouth, the bitter tang of blood a nauseating reminder. He grit his teeth and stared pointedly at the floor. The doctor said no more on his injury.
"If nothing else, you should shower and change clothes," he said. L could hear him adjusting the wire-framed glasses perched on his beaky nose. "She won't wake for another day at least, likely longer. It would be best if you were in proper condition to see her instead of...in this state."
"Hm. Yes. It would be shocking, wouldn't it? Is there anything else?"
The doctor shifted, his black shoes echoing on the linoleum floor. L could see the opaque reflection of him mingling with his shadow. Such a flawless, clean floor. It was reflective...
"If I may enquire, who is this young woman to you? There is nothing written in her files and all I know of you is who your employer is." There was distrust in his voice. Not that L blamed him. The number one detective in the world was a shady character, known to make people of high profile disappear. No criminal escaped him...Not even Kira. "Why would a teenage girl be of any interest to him?"
"That is confidential information, doctor," L said. "But I guess there is no harm in telling you..." His mind was racing. Light had betrayed him, took his deal to give up the Death Note and be taken to safe place to start her life anew and threw it in the dirt. She tried to kill him with it instead. His first friend. His last companion. His wicked lover. She never loved him, Light made that clear too many times, but his traitorous heart still loved her. It lost itself a long time ago to that brilliant mind and youthful innocence. She was dangerous, delusional and dear to his damned heart. How he wished he could rip the organ from his chest! He peered through bangs up at the doctor, who was watching him expectantly. This was selfish, childish and vengeful, but he could not find it in him to care. Light refused his mercy, and he realized that he could not bear to see her incarcerated or dead, so he would have to be cruel to be kind. She would hate him for this..."She is my wife. Her name and mine are confidential so as to protect ourselves from those who wish us and my employer harm. Please respect that."
The doctor frowned behind those gleaming glasses. He either did not believe that anyone would marry him or he was attempt to figure out how irresponsible a man had to be for his wife to get shot repeatedly. At least no one told the man it was L who put three of those bullets into her. L bit his lip as he thought about Wedy; by shooting Light in the back, she saved L's life when he froze, helpless to react to his maddened lover broke her own wrists to free herself from the chains that held her and then used her own blood to write down his name. It was an absolute waste. Wedy did not deserve to die in that room in such a way. Light never should have even known her name.
"I see. Then for your wife's continued health, I would suggest taking care of yourself. She will need you greatly once she wakes. Recovery will not be easy. Oh, and one more thing...I would advise not allowing your wife to masquerade as a boy anymore. Women should be kept safe a home, not allowed to run amok getting in men's affairs."
L held his tongue as he watched the doctor walk away. This was why he hated the Oligarchy. The eight who ruled the country may be dead due to Kira's rampage, but this country was still saturated with decade's worth of oppression. Women were expected to keep house and home, denied education after their they turned twelve. To obtain men's work or seek education above what was deemed proper was considered an offense worthy of imprisonment or even death.
Light was an amazing woman. She pretended to be a male since she was four, after her father disappeared and was presumed dead, and took care of her mother and sister by becoming the man of the house. As a prodigy, the government took special interest in the 'boy' and provided aid to help raise 'him' and 'his' family. She was quite convincing as a male too. L never realized it until he...well, stuck a hand down the front of her pants. But that was a different story.
If not for the Death Note, Light likely would have lived her life as a perpetual businessman and bachelor, providing for her family with a degree in Criminal Law. After all, she was the top scoring student on the To-Oh entrance exams, L figured that foretold many more great things in her future. But she threw it all away for a little black book. L's fingers twitched.
Both Light's Death Note, and L's own, were locked away for safe keeping.
He wondered if the shinigami Rem was still around. She followed him, as was her duty as its keeper, but after Light was shot and things spiralled out of control, the shinigami seemed to have disappeared. He suspected her vanishing had something to do with Misa's escape. The damned second Kira somehow managed to run off from her planned execution despite being in one of the highest security facilities in the country. Just what he needed; one more problem to think about.
When did his life fall so utterly out of control?
Watari was dead. Aiber and Wedy were dead. The second Kira was missing. And the first Kira was in intensive care, hanging on by a spider's thread. This was not how this case was supposed to happen. If he'd never fallen for Light, then she and Misa would be six feet under now, and he would be back to his job, Watari serving him tea and cake as he searched reports for an interesting case to pursue.
He felt himself smile, an unwilling, manic smile. An uneasy chuckle escaped his lips.
How far this man had fallen.
L raked a hand through his hair and tied to suppress the anguish that threatened to bubble up in his chest in the form of laughter. God, it hurt!
Trying to save Light from Kira had been a fool's gambit. He fumbled with dreams instead of logic, hoping that there was love enough in her heart to overcome the evil of the Death Note and that she would throw away the book and throw herself into his arms. Instead she chose power and death over his affection.
Yet here he was, waiting for her to wake up.
They would never be the same.
They broke each other like precious glass vases and now he was foolishly trying to glue them back together with his bare hands.
His wife...L stood and tried to catch his breath. He would not let anyone else get hurt. He would regain his life. Light, his damned, precious Light, would join him in this hell. They were poison to each other, but he was an addict who thirsted for her acid in his veins. His hands shook.
A shower. Yes, that was a good start. He would take a shower.
Her blood was dried to his skin.
-tbc-
A/N: (I thrive off feedback! Reviews are love. See y'all tomorrow.)