A/N: This was just a drabble idea that has been bouncing around in my head for a few weeks, and since I had so much time to kill while waiting at the airport, I thought I'd write it out. I honestly don't know how much of this I'd support in actual canon, but it's cute to speculate.
x-x-x-x-x
It's done.
Light breathes a sigh of relief. He clicks the last key, successfully retrieving the last bit of the data that he wanted from Watari's system. The rest of it is promptly and permanently deleted, making certain that no one could ever find the material that L gathered in order to attempt to prove that Light was Kira.
He's finally gone.
Now that Light is alone- properly alone, for the first time in several months, it feels… off. He hates to admit that he had grown accustomed to considering "alone" time as time where only he and L occupied the room. He hated the bastard for it, but at the same time… it wasn't always bad. When they weren't arguing about Light being Kira, though that was often, they got along well.
Things may have been different had Light had his memories of being Kira. Their friendship would have continued the pretense that it started as during that first tennis game. But, as loath as Light is to accept it, memory-less Light had genuinely felt something more than the simple bonds between peers.
L had been his friend.
I killed my friend.
A tumultuous storm rages through Light, but in typical Light-fashion, he forces it to his subconscious. Out of sight, out of mind. Never mind that by giving up his memories for a period, he tricked himself into something so punishing and damaging for anyone. His hatred of Kira wasn't forgotten the second he touched the Death Note again. He screamed not from the suddenly unlocked portion of his brain, but because he remembered he was the one person he was hunting… the one person he hated. And to find out that it was something he had denied that whole time, well, he just had to scream.
The same conflicted feelings filled him as he watched L fall from his chair. As Kira, he was overjoyed, though perhaps slightly disappointed that the entertainment of the game wouldn't continue, but overjoyed nonetheless. As Light Yagami… he watched the only person that interested him enough to get invested in fall to the floor.
Maybe he hadn't fully comprehended the concept of death previously, but as he watched L close his eyes, nothing had seemed more permanent than that. After all, death is the most permanent thing known to the human race. Everything else is fleeting.
So why think about any of this? It only causes more problems. So Light doesn't. He doesn't clock in his emotions because why should he? Does it help him enter into the police force? Does it help him become God of the New World? If the answer is no to any question asked, then the thoughts are buried with no consideration as to what it may do to his psyche.
Light shuts down the large computer system of the Task Force Headquarters. He won't be in this room ever again. It seems only fitting that Light, the new "L", would be the last one in here. The rest of the force had already gone home hours ago, unable to assist with anything. He returns his drive to his bag and slings it over his shoulder. He crosses the large floor to the door.
He turns to give the room one last, long look.
Goodbye, L.
~X~
Light approaches the entrance to the building, but his eye catches movement off to the side, and Misa stands from the spot where she was sitting on the stairs.
"Hi, Light."
"What are you doing here?"
She closes the distances between the two of them and wraps her arms around his abdomen.
"I'm sorry."
"Why? The plan went perfectly."
"I know. And I'm glad. Kira can continue his mission. But..." she releases her arms from around him and looks up into his eyes. "I'm sorry for you."
Thoughts already compartmentalized, Light doesn't understand.
"I didn't care about Rem, Misa. She served her purpose to me."
"I didn't mean Rem."
He turns on her. "Are you implying I cared about L?"
She takes a step back. "Well… I know you'll be bored without him."
She's digging too close.
A small voice in his subconscious whispers to him. Light isn't sure what it is about Misa's understanding of this that bothers him immensely, but he needs to put a stop to it. Now.
"Well, of course I won't have any more challenges to face because of him, but this next phase will be far from boring. Kira can now usher in a new era, and we will have to shape that. You'll be my eyes."
Misa swoons. "Oh Light, I'll always be your eyes."
He ushers her out of the building, ignoring that nagging feeling that from now on, the challenges will be simple and far and few between. As annoying as he was, L brought a thrill to Light's life that he had never had before.
He also reminded Light that he was a murderer.
Light wasn't sure which option he preferred.