Author's Notes: I'm never going to cease to be amazed at the amount of songs that can fit for more than one story as well as they do. This is an example of what I mean by it; I have a fiction for this same song notion for Kyo Kara Maoh AND Tokyo Mew Mew, believe it or not, if I ever can get around to posting them. But I want to make one thing clear about the title of this story: it was NOT inspired by the breaking Benjamin song, but by the one line out of Crazytown's song "Lollipop Porn" where it says the words,"Dancin' with the Devil on the thirteenth floor. . ."
I get ideas from the strangest places, don't I? I'd like to make everyone aware of something before I begin the story, however. I'm tired, it's about 9:30 in the morning, and I've had maybe three hours of sleep. My girlfriend woke me up when she called earlier needing to ask me something, and she must have forgotten about time zone differences or something. And the fact of when I did get to bed. So if this sounds more bland than you're used to reading from me, please do not hesitate to inform me and when I'm more awake than I am at the moment, I'll certainly try to work on it a little more to fix that problem. For now, though, it's as good as it's getting. I think. Like I said, I write these things before the stories; it's just easier for me to focus if I have something else above the story when I'm writing it..This story is mostly L-centric, but displays both his and Raito's thoughts on their situations.
I need to get myself a damned DeviantArt account...
Dancing With the Devil
It was dangerous business, sleeping with the enemy. Your heart can get in the way of your true goals and intentions, leading you away from the whole reason you began in the first place. It only takes a moment of weakness, a moment more than you can safely spare, to fall prey to the charms of the one you're with.
Unless you're Yagami Raito.
You could get burned at any moment, just as soon as you show them any sign of weakness however slight. Lust and love were two of the biggest weaknesses human kind has to offer one another, because it clouds the judgement and makes one blind to the truth.
Unless you're L.
Truth be told, they were both well aware of the risks they were tampering with. It was all a matter of how long it took them to succumb to those risks, however, that made the difference. In the scenario they were facing every day, it was a dangerous game of cat and mouse that threatened to devour either one of them at the slightest slip up. Raito wanted to destroy L, and was willing to use any means necessary to discover his name to do so -- even if it meant getting intimate with the infuriating, awkward detective to do so. He knew he would have to gain his trust before he could learn anything about who the man was as just Ryuuzaki, Deneuve, or whoever the hell he really was, rather than just being the acquaintance of the intelligent twelfth letter of the alphabet.
Likewise, the black-haired man was very aware that his friend was probably out to kill him. He was already almost 100 percent certain Raito was Kira, and the more the charismatic youth tried to show him how romantic he could be to him, the stronger his suspicions grew. It was a dangerous thing to sleep with someone you suspect is a killer (especially when he was your first suspicion, and you are never wrong the first time) but even great detectives get lonely despite their opinions that emotions fog the ability to think clearly and see logic.
Danger was a part of life, they both knew, but there was one very large difference between the detective and the murderer. One thing that separated where they stood in their dangerous dance for victory and defeat; the only thing that really mattered in the two opponents' eyes.
Yagami Raito was certain he would come out the ultimate victor, and the God of a new world.
Ryuuzaki was certain he would meet his downfall at the hands of Yagami Raito.
Well, Raito couldn't be held accountable for L's inability to see the glory and righteousness in his plan. As Kira, he would rid the world of all evil and wickedness and ensure that justice- TRUE justice -would reign surpreme. The criminals of the world would be wiped from existence, and everyone would be able to live peacefully with one another, united under his almighty regime. He was God, and his following was growing with every day. But then, so was L's, and he was only a mere man of no real importance.
Wasn't he? Raito could easily kill the man whenever he wanted, once he learned his name, couldn't he? Well, of course he could; as he knew, and as many others of the world already recognized, he was God! God did not have flaws, he never made mistakes, and he held the power of life and death in his hands. (Ignore that it was because of Ryuk he had that power at all to begin with.) Most importantly, petty emotions never overpowered his sense of what must be done. Ryuuzaki was the symbol of defiance, the symbol of the protector of those who would bring the ultimate destruction of truth and justice, of his vision for a perfect world where criminals no longer existed and evil was a thing of the past.
Truthfully, it was a bit of a shame that L couldn't see eye-to-eye with him. He would have made an admirable right-hand-man in the new world Kira was creating. Certainly, he would've proven useful for entertainment in the perfect world, and he definitely had the appropriate resources to help further the goal. With his resources and Raito's,..Well, let's not be bashful here,...everything else, they would be a force to be reckoned with -- a force that would bring the criminals to their knees in recognition of their power. Perhaps the world would realize its flaws brought on by its crude, evil behavior and would mend its ways without too many more deaths being required to do so! Ahh, the thought always spurred a smile onto the handsome young man's face. A world without crime, without rule-breakers and barbarians..A safer world where, if Ryuuzaki could only see the true good behind Kira's plans rather than insisting he was wrong and that the detective, himself, is the embodiment of justice, could be ruled by the Death Note carrier with the detective at his side.
Now that, he always mused, would be truly marvelous. Rather than fighting the man as an enemy, he could rule with him at his side as his obediant, and fairly useful, right-hand-man.
Too bad he'd made it clear time and time again that he would never be able to work beside Kira.
No matter; Kira-Raito could easily do away with him once he got close enough to learn his name. All it took was a name, after all, and certainly he wasn't far from that now. Once you sleep with someone, it's only a matter of time...
Unless you're Ryuuzaki.
He knew the intentions Raito had for willingly trying to get so close to him. Romance was an important thing for the youth's appearance, yes; he knew that when he first met him. He was such a charismatic, attractive young man that it would be unwise to assume otherwise. However, he had chosen to make L his partner for the time being. What other excuse could there be for this other than the strategical move of getting closer to one's enemy in hopes of disarming his suspicions towards him? There was nothing that could possibly endear him to anyone, nothing at all; he was awkward in public, dearly disliked being touched most of the time (it had taken Raito quite a good deal of patience to even get the man to allow him to press his lips to the back of his palm, much less to match lips with him) and he almost never slept.
He had known, he supposed, from the very beginning that he would end up in this situation. For all his claims that emotions led only to the inability to reason clearly, and for all the precautions he had taken, he knew from the moment he saw the attractive young man that he would lead to his downfall. Perhaps it wouldn't be too bad if he was lucky. Maybe his death could even be enjoyable, much as his life (on the whole, with exceptions for occasional moments) had not.
The time would come when Raito would discover what his real name was, whether by his own doing or by the mere act of outmaneuvering him one time too many. On that day, he knew he'd have no choice but to surrender to the ending of his life's story and accept defeat as gracefully as whatever situation Kira had planned for him would allow. When that time came, perhaps he would at least have brought the case to enough of a finishing point that his two potential heirs would be able to bring Kira to justice, as he would surely be unable to do so from the grave.
It was a shame, really, that he would probably not live to see the shining moment of the two young boys. They were very talented, and rather intelligent in their own rights, and deserved due credit. After all, more than for the criminals Kira was sentencing to death every day, it was for people like them- young and with a possibly bright future ahead of them -that he wished to emerge victorious. Kira was killing criminals, no matter how minor the charge they were accused of, and what would become of them if they suddenly were found under suspicion for even the slightest thing? What was worse, if he failed, they would have to take up the reigns and bring Kira down, themselves. They would be in immediate danger, just as he was. And knowing Raito's abilities to use his charms to his advantage, then they could possibly even meet the same fate he was undoubtedly destined to.
Which reminded him; heirs. He really did need to choose one, but he really didn't believe that choosing would be a justified thing to do in given that both Nia and Mello were equally adequit choices for the role as the next L. Perhaps the best thing to do would simply be not to choose, but to instead have the two boys cooperate with one another no matter the dislike Mello held for Nia to solve the case. What was that saying, again? "Two heads are better than one?" Well it was quite true, after all, and with the talents both boys possessed they could be an almost unbeatable force. The one thing that seemed to stop them from this was Mello's low sense of self-esteem when it came down to it. He was confident outwardly, but seemed to be so used to the notion that he wasn't good enough that he disliked Nia so strongly simply because he was afraid to be second-best again. (Honestly, L didn't have a preference one over the other. And if anything, were he to have to pick who reminded him of himself the most, it would have been the blonde, although Nia did display some remarkably similar traits.)
Cat and mouse was always a dangerous game to play, especially in this sense. Yagami Raito and L were the brightest minds of the day, with all the resources and dangers that came paired with it. In L's line of work, danger was a constant thing if people got too close to you, and especially for those who actually went into the field to do their work. For Raito, the danger was all in living at the same time as the greatest detective the world has ever seen, although that problem could easily be adjusted..
In Raito's mind, all of this was a play nearing its final curtain. The world would be his to rule, and soon, he would be the only major player on the stage as he defeated his sole antagonist.
In L's mind, the pace of this deadly waltz in which he and Raito battled for the lead was increasing at a feverish rate, racing towards the ending point where one of the two dancing partners would be the victor and the loser would have to fall.
Well, at least he could enjoy his dance with the devil while it lasted.
I was impressed; this was actually fairly long. I shall consider this my first true accomplishment for this category, unless you care to tell me otherwise with one of the other two stories I have under it so far. Now the challenge will be to spiff it up in a bit to make it worthy of reviews. I'm not completely proud of it, but I consider it a victory when I think about how short it was going to be at first, before I thought of the comparisons.