Right Hand Man

By: Kaytee Kudo

Category: Death Note (but it's inspired by Midori no Hibi)

Genre: Humor, Crack, very subtle hints of LightxL

Rating: T

Summary: Light is a genius, but boredom causes him to become a delinquent, heart broken teenager, recently shot down by his 20th girl, and now wreaks havoc in the campus. Due to a curse by one of his schoolmates, he ends up one morning having a guy for a right hand…literally.

Other Notes: : Midori no Hibi inspired; AU (definitely); a little bit of shounen-ai, LxLight mostly, but it won't be that explicit, only the sweet stuff. I tweaked up L's character here because like the shy Midori becoming an outgoing, expressive right hand, L must follow suit and get with the story, the same with Raito becoming a delinquent. Besides, it would be too predictable if he stays like that. Beware of OOCness. You have been warned.

Disclaimer: No, no, no, you got it all wrong. Takeshi Obata and Tsugumi Ohba owns Death Note, not me. I also don;t own Midori no Hibi.

A/N: (For people who are not familiar with Midori no Hibi) Majority of the people who read this, I guess is not familiar with the series, Midori no Hibi, and I guess it would really be hard to imagine how a person would be stuck on another person's right hand without reading the series beforehand (I've been puzzled too, when I first read it), and seeing that ffnet does not allow pictures at all, I could not easily give a pic that would have cleared all questions. Googling it would probably be the best way to understand what's going on (it's also called Midori Days). Basically, L is stuck in Raito's right hand, like a puppet. I hope this helps

Chapter Two

The Detective's Secret

L Lawliet has been solving difficult cases as far as he could remember. The day he met Watari, he had already solved tough cases with the police. His very first case involved his family, and he caused his entire family to be imprisoned in jail for an indefinite time. Although he never thought much about it, such case made him live by himself for the first time.

When Watari came, he forgot everything about his family and concentrated on just solving tough and impossible cases for the Interpol. For the longest time, he thought that it was the best thing to do, and that Watari was doing a good job as his guardian.

That was until he took this one case, that involved massive amounts of violent attacks in Central America and in Europe. He was expecting to finish the case in as late as a month, planning only to use the task force Watari provided for him as back up in case he messed up, which he never did.

But on that particular day, when he was complacent that he could solve the case quickly, he fell upon the files of the policemen Watari provided for him to chose the members of his task force, which contained detailed information not only on the policeman itself, but also on his family, friends and other relatives. As expected of Watari, the file contained pictures.

He took the topmost file, a relatively thin package compared to the rest of the files, and opened it. He discovered it to be the file of one Japanese policeman, Yagami Souichiro, an excellent police chief and a responsible father. He has two kids.

Casually, he browsed through the pictures Watari provided on Souichiro and his family, Sachiko, Sayu, Raito. It took him a longer time to look at the son's picture. Yagami Raito. The boy looked interesting enough.

Soon, he found himself browsing through the information collected by Watari about the boy alone, and he kept on looking back at the boy's picture. Within moments, he fell in love, even when he didn't realize it at that time.

That was when everything started to change.

"Is Raito-kun really sure about this?"

"We're already here, so we might as well do it. Now shut up."

Raito covered his right arm more properly for good measure. Just an hour ago, he found his right hand occupied with a miniature man, who claimed himself to be L. It was something out of the ordinary, and he was at a loss for answers. He couldn't possibly live like that for long. People will make fun of him, and his whole bad boy image will be shattered with all the weirdness that was his right hand. He has to find an answer, and the only thing he could think of which could be the key to all of this was to go to the police station.

He went quickly inside the station, not greeting anyone but heading straight to his destination. The police in this area already recognize him because of his father, and no one ever questioned why the hell he would go to the police station anyway, most of their kids go there too. It was just basic privileges as a police chief's son, or rather, police-chief's son when his dad was still working there. He found Matsuda sitting seriously on his desk, looking focused on the computer screen.

"I thought you weren't allowed to play games in the computer, Matsuda", he greeted, to which the man jumped tensely before relaxing again as he recognized the teen.

"Raito! Good to see you, man. So how's the double date?" he winked.

"They were the girlfriends of those idiots I sent to the hospital the other day. But thanks for the effort"

"Oh, man. That's too bad. No wonder they looked a little suspicious. But hey, I don't need to file a report if it's not that serious right? And don't worry about those thugs. I already got it cleaned up. No evidence against you, that's for sure."

"I am so thankful I have you, Matsuda", he said sarcastically.

"So anyway, while you're here, did you read the files I sent you this…"

"It was obviously the step mother's fault. Go check her cabinet. There has to be a secret trap there where you'll find the evidence", he replied nonchalantly.

Matsuda processed the information for a second, before his eyes lit up.

"Hey, wow! I never thought about that. I'll go check on that tomorrow." He said as he took a pen and jotted the tip he received on his organizer. "Thanks a lot, Raito. You're an awful lot of help."

"When will you stop depending me on those cases you get stuck with, Matsuda? You should at least try to put up an effort on your investigations more, so you can do it by yourself."

"No way! If they discover me to be a good detective, they'll give me tougher cases, and I'll almost always cry for your help. Just look at Aizawa."

'Matsuda's right', Raito thought. Aizawa used to be his dad's subordinate before he left overseas, like Matsuda. When his dad left, Aizawa worked very hard while Matsuda just slacked off, and now, although Aizawa currently was the new police-chief, it was very evident to Raito that he got at least ten years older, and it was barely even six years after his dad left. Aizawa always looked tired, the way his father looked like when he was still in Japan, while Matsuda looked like he didn't age at all. He was still the carefree junior police he met back when he was eleven, even when his rank said otherwise.

"And you also need me to hide up all those charges you have from those fights, and your dad always checks up on you from me. Oh, is that why you're here?", asked the very talkative Matsuda.

"Yeah", Raito answered, a little relieved that he got the hint quickly.

"Didn't wait for me to remind you now, huh? I'll go set this up quickly", he said as he arranged the computer for Raito.

For six years now, Raito's father, Souichiro left Japan to go overseas, constantly leaving country after country. He used to be a police-chief on this region, but then he got called off to a difficult case, which he vowed to finish before going back to Japan. He didn't say any details, but from the hacking Raito did, he was sure that it was related to the case L was having a hard time on, not that he cared too much about his father's affairs.

His dad invested a lot on the States, and a year after that, he took his family with him, with the exception of Raito, who insisted that he stay there to finish his education. He hated American kids anyway, or rather, he just didn't want to leave Japan, period. And for Raito, it was reason enough.

He was already used to living alone in his big house, and after five years of freedom, he seemed to gain a reputation of having the best fist around. But then, his father was still clueless about this, thanks to the cover-up made by Matsuda all these years. His dad loves checking up on him, and every week, he was required to call them through video call for them to see how he's doing.

"There, all done!" Matsuda piped up eagerly as he offered his chair to Raito. "Say hi to the chief for me, will ya?"

"Sure," Raito answered as he took a seat and dialed the number. Soon, he was already seeing the blurry image of his father on the screen.

"Dad," he greeted. "How are you?"

"As usual, Raito." His dad answered automatically. "How is school?"

"Just fine, the same as always, I guess."

"Don't try to slack off on you studies, son. I know it's hard balancing your life there alone, but you have to keep it under control", he lectured. "Anyway, Matsuda's been assuring me you're doing fine, so I'll believe him."

"Of course, dad."

"I'm a little busy now, I'm sorry. But some things just came up, and I…"

"What happened, dad?"

"You know I can't tell you, but it just means I won't be able to talk to you for more than I would have liked. Be a good boy now, okay?"

Click!

It only took a few seconds for Raito to view the static image showing on Matsuda's PC.

"Sounds like the chief's busy", Matsuda commented. "But anyway, now that it's done, how about we go for a drink?"

Raito looked at him reprovingly.

"You know I'm just seventeen right?"

"Well, but I know you're already drinking, and it's just for this one time", Matsuda reasoned, scratching the back of his head. He always did that, and it annoyed Raito.

"You are such a good role model." Raito sighed as he went along. He had nothing else to do, anyway.

Raito knew even then that Matsuda was a light drinker, but this was ridiculous. It was only light beer, for God's sakes, and he only had half a bottle. Raito got another drink in frustration.

"Just so you know, Raito. I'm not doing this because I'm depressed, no sir." Matsuda slurred and Raito tried his best to inch away from the swaying man. "So don't worry about it, and just drink with me. We're buddies, right?"

"I'm starting to doubt it…"

"C'mon, don't be like that, Raito. We cover each other's backs, right?"

"Matsuda, don't tell me you went ahead and tried to confess to that girl you were telling me earlier." Raito said irritatingly, though he already knew the answer. "So what happened?"

"She said she didn't like idiots", he said bitterly. "I mean, do I even look like an idiot to you?"

"When you do these kinds of things, I can hardly imagine you becoming one", Raito said sarcastically.

"Heh, see? That's why I like you so much."

Raito inched a clear way away from Matsuda.

"But I'm not gay, obviously. We're just buddies", Matsuda said defensively.

Raito remained suspicious of him.

"But man, Aizawa can be such a pain sometimes. I mean, we might have been together more than those other detectives, but he's grown so stuck up, I can't imagine that we used to hangout together." Matsuda sipped on his bottle. "Can you believe just where he's planning to send me?"

"The institute for the mentally retarded?", Raito guessed.

"No, silly", Matsuda hiccupped. "He's forcing me to be part of this team who will be L's correspondents in Japan."

He carelessly said that out loud, before realizing what he said. "Oops", he said with no hint of regret. Luckily, there was hardly anyone in the bar anymore.

"You mean they need additional men to work on his case apart from my dad's group?" Raito asked curiously.

"I'm not supposed to tell you, man." Matsuda giggled.

"Here, have another drink", Raito offered casually. By now, he was already an expert on getting information from Matsuda.

"Yeah, keep 'em comin, man," Matsuda said as he took another swig of beer. "But man, it's not as if it's our fault that we have to do those additional tasks for L. I mean, if L decides to run away from a case, then it's not Japan's fault at all. They should blame the people guarding the man, for God's sakes. But noooo, I get assigned to the L taskforce just because I have prior background on it. I don't want to be reassigned to the case I so obviously ran away from before."

"What're you saying man? L running away? That's bullshit", Raito contested.

"Hey, hey, you don't believe me? Man, you're just like Aizawa sometimes. He told me that too….but that's because you don't know the whole story…"

"Coz' you didn't tell me"

"I'm not supposed to tell you", Matsuda hiccupped, and grabbed another bottle.

"We're buddies, right?" Raito looked at him straight in the eye, with only enough hint of persuasion for Matsuda to give in. The man can't resist giving in to the 'friends card'.

"Oh, well. You're right. We're buddies. I guess it's okay if it's just you. But don't tell anyone, okay?" he hiccupped again. "Nah, I know you won't tell, what am I thinking? That's silly of me."

Raito smiled. It will only take a matter of seconds now before he knew everything.

"Well, the Interpol has gone crazy just recently, and they've got 'nough reason to, anyway. They're in panic, to tell you the truth, and that's because a few hours ago, they received news that L is in a coma."

Raito's eyes widened at that, and Matsuda smirked.

"Heh, see, you're shocked too, huh?", Matsuda giggled. "But you know what? I think that whole thing's just bullshit. I should know. The chief always tell stories about L not being himself nowadays. I think he ran away from the case."

Matsuda took another swig of beer, which Raito was sure he would vomit off soon enough.

"Just think about it, I should know, too, since I did the same before. It already took him more than six years on that one single case, and before that, he was known to solve extremely complicated cases in less than a day." Matsuda burped horribly at that point, and Raito was a little thankful that he inched away from Matsuda just moments before, else he would have received the full blast of stench it gave. "And the chief's been telling me that he made frequent attempts to run away just the other year, it was only Watari that manages to stop him. I think that whatever he did now was effective, take what I did before with my right leg. The handicap was enough for me to be free from those stressful activities."

Matsuda patted his right leg fondly, reminiscing his brilliant escape from the L taskforce he was on years ago. Originally, since he was part of the group Raito's dad was in, Matsuda was also assigned to go overseas to become assistants to L's case. However, one week before they were set to leave, his right leg got shot in an encounter, which immediately gave him a honorary award for bravery.

He used this handicap as an excuse to refuse the case. His leg was back to normal now, as Raito noted, but Matsuda would almost always use that excuse to get him out of cases he wasn't particularly fond of, like hostage taking cases or situations where shoot outs were bound to happen. The guy really values his life more, something unusual for a policeman.

"But damn it, Aizawa said that my handicap won't be a problem since it will only involve investigations on our part anyway, dangerous encounters will be highly unlikely, and I'm not even required to go overseas."

Raito smirked at the man. Matsuda was not the type of guy who would enjoy going to other countries, much like himself. It was one of the few things they have in common, another thing would be their horrible luck with women.

"You'd help me out, right man? Nah, I'm sure you would. We're buddies", Matsuda slurred, looking for support. "Of course I'll also help you when you're in a tight spot, but man, I think you're getting better at getting out of it yourself, I gotta hand it to ya."

"Of course, I only learned it from you", Raito said playfully.

"Makes you feel sorry for L, huh? I mean, the way they treat him like a work horse, not having freedom. I bet they don't even allow him to have friends. The chief even admits to not even seeing his face even after all these years." Matsuda confided. "If it was me, I would have ran away years ago. Lasting for God knows what years is already an accomplishment, in my opinion."

"Yeah, you always run away", Raito seconded.

"It's just my principle not to do what I hate, man. You also agree with me, right? We're buddies."

"Sure", Raito answered. The man was obviously smashed at this point, and was prone to making pointless rants.

Raito was sure that when morning comes, the only thing Matsuda will remember was the stinging hangover on his head, completely forgetting the things he said from the time he drank that second swig of beer. It was just Matsuda to get irresponsibly drunk, then count on Raito to take care of the mess Matsuda made. Raito even took him home and deposited him on his bed. He already had the duplicate keys to this man's house, due to the countless times the man got drunk. When he was about to leave, he heard the groggy voice of Matsuda.

"Th-thanks….man…"

"Just don't do it again", Raito replied, though he doubted it if the man would ever listen to anything he said. He closed the door and left quickly.

This was the only time Raito talked to his right hand again, who at this point looked like a mixture of depression, guilt and loneliness. His complete silence made Raito unsure if he should talk to the man for a second, but he decided that he should get this over with quickly. He was about to strike up a conversation when L beat him up to it.

"I didn't know it would end this badly", he admitted, guilt evident on his face.

"You should have", Raito reprimanded him casually. "You should have at least assessed what would happen before you do anything."

"Your friend was right. I ran away from all of that. I was just so tired, and I'm sick of that case. I told them that I need a break, I wanted to go to Japan to see you, but Watari told me to just concentrate on the case. I spend all my time solving cases, I don't have friends", L continued. "I admit, the last few days I was only thinking of a plan to get away from all of that, because I was growing lonely, and I was always thinking what would happen if I go here and confess my feelings to you."

Raito wanted to scold him off some more, but the detective's face was already full of regret that he couldn't just heartlessly tell him he's wrong, even with everything he did.

"Now the national police force is in chaos, and I haven't solved that case yet. I think they might even use this as a chance to attack more people. It's all my fault. I made a wrong move." L looked like he was about to cry. "I've been completely irresponsible."

Tears were already threatening to fall in L's face when Raito suddenly pinched the small man's face with his two fingers.

"Oww…that hurt, Raito-kun!" L said in an annoyed voice.

"Heh, that's more like it. It's not cool for guys to cry", he said playfully. "You messed up, that's normal. But you're still alive to fix your mistakes, right? Real men don't cry from their mistakes."

"Raito-kun…" L looked at the boy with awe.

"And besides, even if you did run away, you're still feeling sorry about what you did, and that's what matters. You're not like some idiot I know who ran away and was proud of it. At least you're more responsible than Matsuda."

L rubbed his eyes a little roughly, trying to stop his tears. He looked at Raito with admiration.

"What?" Raito asked consciously.

"I think I love Raito-kun more than ever", came the innocent answer.

Trying to stop his face from turning red, the boy glared at the miniature man angrily.

"Will you stop saying shit like that already!"

End of chapter

A/N: Okay, nothing really much to say at the moment, but I hope everyone likes this chapter enough to review it. It helps a lot. On another note, I just want to inform readers of my other fanfic, Nine Months Due, that they can expect an update probably next week or earlier, depending on the free time I have, to edit and stuff. I'm working on it right now. Expect good things, but for now, review!