A/N: The scenes aren't supposed to be accurate, because I'm to lazy to go ahead and reference it. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not, in any way, own Death Note.
Warnings: Contains spoilers up to episode 25.
Light in the Darkness
Yagami Raito had always been the light, and L Lawliet had always been darkness. They were opposites in personality, and were physically different as well. They clashed, but they could not exist without the other. Like light and darkness.
L had stood on that rooftop, feeling the rain seep into his clothes and slide against his skin. The sky was grey and heavy, weighed down by thick, dark clouds. He heard the toll of bells in the distance, ringing insistently, and, although he did not tell Raito, he knew that they were funeral bells. It was a good day to die, he decided as he let the rain, tears from the heavens, he'd like to think of them as, dampen his hair pitch dark hair. Raito did not here the bells. Of course he didn't. It wasn't his day to die.
"Let's go inside. We're both soaking wet." L turned, padding softly past Raito, hands in his pockets, back hunched, much like a turtle, seeking to protect itself. He heard Raito's soft, precise footsteps echoing after him. He pulled open the door and let Raito precede him into the building. It seemed the right thing to do. A few acts of kindness before the end.
L ran a fluffy white tower through his dark locks briefly before draping the towel over his head, walking forward through the polished halls. He felt drawn to the foyer, where Raito sat. It seemed that Raito possessed some sort of magnetic field that drew people to him like helpless moths to a flame, and L was not exempt. Unlike Raito, he had a force field surrounding him, keeping everyone away. Loneliness was not new to L, but now that he had tasted companionship, he did not want to let it go.
He stood some ways away from Raito, watching the soft silver sunlight illuminate him like a fallen angel as he lay across the steps, toweling himself dry. Everything about him seemed surreal and beautiful. L's opposite.
But, everyone knows that opposites attract.
L didn't know why he did it, but he felt as if he had committed a terrible crime in getting Raito wet. He padded silently forward, kneeling at the boy's feet, taking one of his wet feet in delicate fingers and proceeded to gently towel it dry.
"What are you doing, Ryuuzaki?" Disbelief and surprise tainted his beautiful, chime-like voice.
"It is my fault that you are wet, Yagami-kun." L murmured, not looking up. "The least I can do is to dry you… I'll throw in a massage, too." He added with a crafty smile. "I'm actually quite good." Raito started at the man holding his feet, incredulous. "At least let me atone for this."
"Do as you please." Raito turned his head away dismissively.
"Hai."
The dark-haired man looked up in shock as he felt a towel gently brush against his sopping hair. "Your still wet, Ryuuzaki."
"Gomen." L whispered as a few crystalline droplets of water hit Raito's ankle with a soft patter.
It was wonderfully quiet, the light soft and gentle, but oddly mournful, as if Mother Nature herself knew what would become of the greatest detective in the world that day. "Sad, isn't it?" L looked up slowly to meet honey-colored eyes with pools of dark ink. For once, they softened sadly as wet hair fell over his right eye. He looked beautiful, the soft light illuminating his face, his flawless mouth curving in a small, sorrowful smile. He looked like a true fallen angel, falsely wronged. And, perhaps that was what he really was.
"It is a shame that it is nearly time to say farewell."
The words fell from his lips like a knife, shattering the peace and sweetness. Raito's eyes widened. Farewell?
In L's pocket, his cell phone chirped. He rocked back on his heals, a hand on his knee as he delicately held the phone with two long fingers, rising. "Yes?" A pause. "I understand. I'll be there right away." He turned to look at the teenager who sat beside him. "Shall we go then, Raito-kun?" He began walking down the hall. "It seems that things are going well." Quietly, Raito followed.
"Ryuuzaki, what is the meaning of this?" Matsuda demanded as the two boys walked in, still wet. The elevator slid shut behind them. "You got permission from a ruined country to use the notebook as an execution?"
L ignored him. He crouched in the chair at the computer, the screen white but for a W written in gothic lettering. "Excellent, Watari."
"No problem." The voice said, electronically scrambled.
"Please begin the arrangements to transport the notebook at once."
"Hai."
"Ryuuzaki, what's going on?" Matsuda cut in angrily. He despised being left in the dark.
"We're going to test the notebook for real." L responded calmly, jabbing the notebook with a tea spoon. Everyone withdrew with a gasp.
"This is absurd! We already know that the power of the notebook is real! Besides, who is going to be the one to write the name?" Matsuda said. "Once you do, you have to write in it every thirteen days for the rest of your life!"
"The person who will write in the notebook will be someone who is already sentenced to die in thirteen days." L said, unfazed. He was no idiot. He had thought of it all. "We'll do a probationary deal, saying that if they're alive after thirteen days, they'll be removed from the death row."
"But…" Soichiro began uncertainly. "People's lives…"
"It's just a little further!" L snapped angrily. "If we manage to clarify this, it'll take us straight to the solution." L didn't care if they approved of his methods or not. He would get them to the finish line. That was all that mattered.
There was a sudden spear of lightning that came crackling down, illuminating the room harshly. The power cut abruptly, the computer screens flashing red.
Watari… He was certain something had happened.
"Watari?" L asked questioningly, cocking his head to one side as he gazed up at the computer screen, his face bathed in red light. "Watari?" Suddenly, white rippled across the screens. Deletion of All Data.
"…I instructed Watari to delete all the data if something were to happen to him." L whispered.
"Don't tell me…"
"Where's the Death God?" L hissed urgently.
"Now that you mention it…"
"I can't see her!"
"She's not here!" L could smell the panic in the air.
"Everyone, the Death God-." L's eyes widened in shock, and the hand that held the spoon wavered. It fell as L tipped to the side. He felt the impact, softened by Raito as he caught the thinner man.
I'll be seeing you soon, Watari…
"Ryuuzaki! What's wrong?" Matsuda yelled, running forward.
L stared up at Raito's face and, for once, he did not see light. He saw darkness, the Devil's clouds blotting out the glow as an evil smirk twisted the teenager's lips. The scarlet light danced in his once-beautiful eyes, and L knew.
He had been right.
Raito was Kira. Raito was no angel. He was the Devil himself.
L felt his eyes slide shut slowly, tiredly. Blissfully. Finally, as he breathed his last breath, he could glow. Finally, as darkness swallowed him, he had found his own light, and had lit the candle in his soul. L had finally learned to glow.