Ryan Lawliet looked contemplatively at the kindly old man. His gaze was piercing for a twelve year old, and his eyes managed to detract somewhat from his hair- someone had given him a cropped cut with short bangs in an attempt to tame the fourteen cowlicks covering his head. The end result was rather horrifying- it stuck straight up in every direction. He looked thoughtfully into the air, considering what Mr. Wammy had said.
"Well? Have you chosen your alias?"
"Yes." He nodded once, beginning to slouch.
"And that would be?"
"Ryuzaki Ryuga."
The old man said nothing, but wrote the name down in the boy's file.
"L.L." he remarked, once finished. Ryuzaki now in full slouch mode, tilted his head to the side, and stared intently at the ceiling.
"So it would seem…"
---[Before]---
---[ A ]---
L was a very interesting person. Contrary to popular belief, there was not L, then the Wammy house. No. The Wammy house was created to cultivate genius. Genius of any sort. L came to the orphanage six months after myself. We were both the same age. It was not until L was sixteen, and bought out the Wammy house, that it became singularly driven to create successors to L. But I pride myself in being the sole one who truly knew L, until he left the house at the age of fifteen and ten months. He was my first and final friend, and I his. I will never forget the day I met L.
---[memories]---
It was a Thursday. I was alone in one of the hidden corridors in the attic, when I heard voices yelling. I crouched low behind a dusty wooden desk, peering out into the room. The hatch in the floor opened, briefly flooding the room with light. A scrawny boy, about my age, is shoved into the room, followed by one of the older students and one of his friends. The first kicked the boy in the back of his knee, causing him to fall to the floor, where the second kicked him in the stomach. I narrowed my eyes. Just because he was new didn't mean they had to prove their superiority. They did the same thing to me on my first day…time for a little payback, ne? I take advantage of their lack of awareness, and don't even bother to be stealthy as I walk up to the first thug from behind. The other is too preoccupied to notice, so I (being tall for my age) catch the first with a carotid choke. He goes limp within seconds, and the second, hearing him crumple, turns to face me. Before he can say a word, I get him behind the knees, like his friend had done to the kid on the floor, and kick him in the stomach.
"Once…is once!" I yell, and kick him in the groin. They'll be down for a while. I help the kid up, and lead him back down the hatch, into the main hall.
"Thank you." He smiled, scratching the back of his head. I smiled back.
"No problem. Wanna go get some lunch? The cooks made really brilliant cake." He brightens immediately, straightening up by a fraction of an inch.
"Cake?"
L and his cake. From that moment onward, he was never seen without a piece of cake.
"I'm A. Well, that's my letter, anyway. My alias is Alex. They're training me to be a forensic anthropologist. What about you?" I wipe a stray blob of icing from my plate and lick it off my finger.
" L. That's my letter. It stands for Ryuzaki. They say I'm going to be the world's best detective. I hope they teach us some form of martial arts. I like kick boxing somewhat."
"So you're Japanese? I should have guessed. So because in Japanese there's no letter L, you had to use 'r'."
"I don't see why we have to use aliases. If we are going to be famous, why not let people know we exist?" L complained, taking a bite of strawberry. I smile again.
"Hey, I'll tell you my name if you tell me yours." His eyes immediately snap up from his cake, and he looks me directly in the eyes. I meet his gaze, trying to seem friendly, even though the hairs on the back of my neck are prickling. He…doesn't blink…. Can he see through me? It's like he can see into my soul…freaky…. Finally, he seems satisfied with his inspection. His eyes twinkle mischievously, and he smiles.
"Sure." He lowers his voice to a whisper. "I'm Ryan Lawliet."
"Adrian. Adrian Goodman."
The L you know is not the L I knew. As we grew older, pressure made L flatten. His personality grew dull and he became obsessed with facts and puzzles and numbers. He became paranoid, and would hardly ever come out of his room, save for the times he ran out of cake. Occasionally, on rainy nights he would sit in the bell tower, and come back soaked and dripping. He could never sleep. One night, three years after I met him the first time, I waited up for him, and it was three thirty am before he returned.
"Ryan!" I hissed, hidden in a closet so Wammy wouldn't find me. "Where were you? I've been waiting for hours!"
He whips around, his intense gaze, now ringed by dark black circles, caught me off guard. My breath catches in my throat. "Don't call me that, Adrian." He spits at me, wrenching his door open, nearly catching me in the face. He snatches a suitcase from under the bed and begins haphazardly shoving jeans and t-shirts and books into it. So many books- who knew he had so many books? Abnormal psychology, Freud, Jung, Paramilitary Interrogation Techniques, even Sherlock Holmes!
"I'm not Ryan, I'm L! We're not people we're just a letter, that's all we are and nothing more!" he mutters.
"R-Ryuzaki, what-?" he zips the suitcase and heads for the door. I block the exit.
"What're you doing, L? Where are you going? I'm your best friend, you cant just go someplace and not tell me." His eyes unfocused, and he stares vacantly out the window and into the relentless torrent. It is silent, spare the steady drip from his hair onto the floor.
"I'm leaving. There's nothing left for me here anymore."
"What? L? J-just sit down. You're tired. You should get some rest and think this over in the morning. Now, go get a towel. You'll catch cold if you just stand there dripping." His eyes re-focus and narrow, slicing me with a look. My resolve falters.
"No. Get out of the way, A."
I do as he says, and I follow him outside into the rain. He doesn't look back once. I stop him just as he reaches the front gate.
"L."
He turns back to me, as if daring me to try and stop him. I smile weakly at him, tears stinging my eyes, though I try to hold them back.
"Goodbye."
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
sigh. That was pretty awful, wasn't it? I'm horrible with friendly situations. I chose Ryan as L's real first name because: Take 'Ryuzaki' and add a top to the u. you get Rya. Then, flip the z on its side: N. So, it's RyaN aki. Aki, in Japanese, means 'vacancy'…sort of like the vacant, thoughtful expression usually worn by L.
Still, L's leaving was a bit too…Mello-ish for my liking. Maybe Mello's more like L than we thought??? (sweatdrop) lame excuse. I'll just say L had a mental breakdown from lack of sleep. I might edit this and make it be Matt's pov, about Mello. Who knows…