(A/N: another Death Note drabble. Remember that this is from the world of Death Note that was in a roleplay! The events of the actual Death Note series didn't happen and there are lots of OC's and genetic experimentation and stuff, but you don't really need to know about the RP to get this little one-shot of L's birthday- which if I remember correctly from volume 13, its on Halloween.)

Happy Birthday L!

L sighed, his soft onyx eyes flickering only slightly as he looked at the date once more that day. It was the 31st of October. Halloween. And also, his birthday. Not that anyone knew or even remembered that little detail. Usually his girlfriend, Chris, remembering it but the past couple years she had been caught up trying to keep their candy-obsessed daughter Thorn under control on the Halloween nights and attempting to stop her from stealing candy from all the other little kids.

Things had changed so much. It seemed like only yesterday that he'd been a 14 year old getting befriended by that jackass traitor Light Yagami and getting thrown into a cell at a Laboratory that specialized in the experimentations on humans, had is own DNA altered and met Chris. Now it was 7 years later, he was once again leading the Task Force(which had grown considerably as they met more experiments who could help), and he and Chris had their own children- who had unfortunately been further altered by the Lab so that they aged at a rapid pace and were far older than they should be. Thorn, for example, was born only 2 years ago but she will be turning 7 in the coming April. The twins, Ember and Zephyr, were born nearly a year ago but they looked as though they were nearing 3 years instead.

L was lost in thought, his mind deep in the past as he mused over the workings of the past few years. Battling Kira and BB, dying on more than one occasion and miraculously coming back, dealing with Mello's traitorous ways and the vicious, ruthless dealings of Envy (Chris's long lost sister desperate to be free from the Lab), as she tried to annihilate her family in exchange for her freedom. He rubbed his temples. Would they ever have peace? Or would it always be constant battle, bloodshed and death?

There was a knocking on his door that shattered his thoughts and brought him back to the presence. "Hey L! Are you coming downstairs? The kids are about ready to go out trick or treating and want you to see their costumes!" Chris called in.

"Yeah, I'll be down in just a minute!" Trick or treating…that out to be interesting this year. He really hoped Thorn wouldn't do anything stupid like putting another fairy princess in a headlock and telling her to fork over all her Starbursts, Kit Kats and Sour Path Kids or else Thorn would tear out her hair. The poor little girl's mother had definitely NOT been happy.

He stood up from his chair and made his way downstairs to find everyone in the main room. Long ago, Matt, Mello, Near and himself had been the only ones there. But after his escape from the Lab Rachel joined them and soon entered a relationship with Mello. Then they met Danika who became Near's girlfriend. Chris and Rachel soon found they had siblings: Chris found her sister Jade while Rachel found her twin brother Nova. Matt met a girl named Lexi and they became very close but…she had been killed by Envy last summer. And of course, they all just had to go out and have kids that would be kidnapped by the Lab and such so that they aged at freakishly fast rates. L found it ironic that so many parents complained how their kids grew up too fast, while theirs really did grow up too fast.

"Why can't I take them trick or treating?" L overheard Mello argue.

"Because last time you did, you attacked that poor old lady that was handing out chocolate bars AND stole all the chocolate from the kids- including your own!" Rachel snapped back. Mello grumped something unintelligible as a reply.

L passed by, glancing at the other kids costumes. Lithium, Mello's oldest daughter, was dressed as a devil. Go figure. He wondered if she and Thorn had argued over who got to wear that costume. Luther, Mello's toddler son, was dressed a pirate while his twin sister was a black cat. Not literally of course but she would probably be able to morph into one some day like her mother. Andrew, Near's son, was a vampire this year while Ace and Dawn, Matt's twin children, were dressed as a race-car driver and a tiger, respectively.

He walked up to Chris, who was dressed in a sleek black velvet medieval dress, with pale blue-green on the corset and petticoat. A black witches hat was resting on top of her head. "I take it you're on duty tonight then?" he asked. Each year at least two of them had to watch the kids. The parents that didn't go stayed to watch horror movies that the kids weren't supposed to watch(but usually did because Thorn would steal them all, copy them, and watch them herself.) Usually it fell to Rachel and Chris to take the kids as they were the only ones who could control the most obnoxious and mean-spirited of the bunch: Lithium and Thorn.

"Yeah, its me and Rachel this year. Again."

"And you're dressed a witch…why?"

"Because it rhymes with bitch," she grinned wickedly. She was well-known for being the bitchiest person in Headquarters with one of the worst attitudes and tempers, rivaled only by Mello and Thorn. Everyone knew very, very well NOT to piss her off(except Mello seemed to forget that quite a bit…)"That and its fun to get into the spirit of Halloween and be festive. Besides, Rachel's dressed up too. Didn't you see her costume? She's some Egyptian queen or something."

"Yeah well. Have fun with that. Are Jade and Nova coming over too?"

"Yup. They'll be here any minute I think. And if they do, then one of them is going to have to come with us because I am NOT going to handle like, 12 kids with only one other person!!"

The doors opened that moment as Jade and Nova walked in, their twins Star and Jace in tow. Star was dressed as a rockstar- guitar and all- while Jace was dressed as an executioner…L decided to say nothing since he didn't want Jade's daggers piercing into his flesh.

"OK one of you is coming with us."

"I nominate Nova!" Jade cried.

"Why me?!"

"Because I said so and I want to watch latest Friday the 13th movie!"

"Ugh, fine."

Star and Jace scampered off, joining the other kids as they waited to go out and fill their bags with enormous amounts of candy. L turned back to Chris. "So?"

"So what?"

"Where are our kids. You know: Thorn, Zephyr and Ember? You happened to give birth to them? You wanted me to come out and see their costumes?"

"Oh, right. I have no idea."

"You have no idea?! What do you mean you have no I-gah!" It was at that moment that L was tackled by a 6 year old and two toddlers.

Chris smirked. "Oh what do you know? They were behind you the whole time. I can't believe I didn't notice them," she drawled sarcastically.

L gave her a mock glare as he sat up to get a look at his children's costumes. Quiet Zephyr, with is messy brown hair and the same black eyes as his father, was dressed as a werewolf. How fitting, seeing as the family had been infused with wolf DNA from the Lab. Ember, with her dark blond hair and silver eyes, was a dark fairy. And Thorn…Thorn had cut her waist-length layered black hair so that is was around her chin. It was still layered and was shaggy and messy. Her bangs fell across her blue-green eyes, which were heavily underlined with black eyeliner and she wore a white long-sleeved shirt and blue jeans while her bare feet were crammed into a beat-up pair of sneakers. In other words, she was dressed as L. He couldn't help but smile. Thorn may have inherited her mother's bad attitude, but she also had ambition and brains, and had convinced herself that she would become the next L when he was gone.

After admiring their costumes and listening to the children's boasts and arguments of who would get more candy, the group left to actually go and get the candy(hopefully avoiding and brawls over Hershey bars and Sour Patch Kids). The remaining adults went to go watch a number of gory horror flicks. L watched them as well, but at the same time, he really wasn't watching. More like staring at the big screen TV and pretending to be paying attention to what was playing. Really he was trying to remember when was the last time he had celebrated his birthday- or at least had someone remember it and tell him "Happy Birthday".

It was probably the year when he had escaped the Lab with Chris and Light, who at the time they believed to be named Ryu and didn't realize he was Kira. Chris had hacked into the systems(which made him question just HOW secure Matt had made the it all since he swore that no one would ever be able to hack in), and discovered his birthday. No one really celebrated their birthdays. He definitely never did when he was a child growing up at Whammy's as a genius, detective prodigy who was getting all work and no play. Few people ever even knew his birthday and all records of the date were carefully hidden so that nobody could discover it and use that information to narrow down the possibilities of his identity. He didn't think that he'd ever even received a birthday present before…

Finally, at around midnight, everyone had returned home. All the kids sat around dumping the candy out and trading what they didn't like with the others, and arguing over it as well while comparing who got more…except for his own children. Thorn, Zeph and Ember were no where to be found. "Um…Chris?" he asked.

"Yeah?"

"Where are our kids?" This sounded a little repetitive..

"I don't know. They ran off as soon as they got home. Something about something or other. Why don't you go and find them. I'm tired of chasing them around all night."

L sighed, "Fine." He stood up and went out to look for them. He went to the kitchen first and turned on the light, finding nothing. He went through the entire Headquarters without finding them. After searching in every room, there was only one left. His own room. He thought that they surely wouldn't have gone in there but…Ember looked up to Thorn, who had no regard whatsoever to rules and didn't seem to know the meaning of the letters "n" and "o" when they were put together as a word and used in a sentence and Zephyr would do whatever Ember did. So maybe they did break into his room. He opened the room to find it pitch black, but before he could flicker on the lights, they turned on by themselves.

His children were in the center of the room, standing around their Halloween candy, which had been arranged in the shape of a cake. Before he could say anything, the three had run towards him as he knelt down to meet them in the hug as heard a phrase that he had not heard in a while.

"Happy Birthday, L!" they cried in unison.

"How did you find out?"

"I broke into the database!" Thorn grinned with pride, the expression in his gaze hoping that he would be pleased. "And I found your birthday and so we made you a candy cake!" The three smiled up at him with wide innocent eyes and he couldn't help but smile back as he hugged them again.

"Thank you very much," he said softly.

It turned out to have been a very happy birthday indeed.

(Happy Halloween everybody!)