xXx The Meeting xXx
And when she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad she was horrid.
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Light Yagami settled back into the stiff chair, warming his right palm with the mug of coffee as he read the paper. The clear windows of the cafe allowed the sunlight to filter through and supply him with the perfect amount of light to illuminate the morning newspaper, which was open at a perfect angle and displayed the headline, "New Killer At Large".
The waitress came to him for the third time that fifteen minutes, which was starting to annoy the young man thoroughly. Mia, the waitress, took her time getting to him, attempting to sway her hips as she took in the college student's appearance.
Light Yagami looked about twenty-three years old, when in reality he was only nineteen. He was tall, but not too much so; his limbs were long and attractive. His hair was a gorgeous chestnut color, which gleamed auburn in the sunlight, and his face was slightly angular but had a touch of almost feminine beauty in it. His shoulders were slightly broadened and it led into the athletically trim waist, causing any female to want to trail her eyes down his body.
"Can I help you with... anything else?" She said, making sure to lean over and expose a small bit of cleavage. Light felt like wrinkling his nose at her.
"Umm... no thanks, I'm just trying to read the paper," Light said in a polite tone, hoping to dismiss her immediately. She brightened, however, causing a subtle frown to grace Light's features.
"Oh? Anything interesting going on?"
Light reshuffled the paper so it went back to being between him and the waitress.
"No, not really."
The waitress looked crestfallen and walked away when Light did not volunteer any other information. Light put a foot up on one of the chair in front of him and crossed the other over it, shifting his hips in his seat so that he was more comfortable.
After another half-hour, he folded his paper, downed the rest of his black coffee, and walked out of the cafe, ignoring the girls who were staring at him with wide eyes.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
"Yagami, can you please tell me the answer to this case: a man has apparently caused suicide by jumping from his apartment balcony. The neighbor across his room in the hallway claims that she heard someone yelling. The first police officer walks in on the scene to investigate. There is no sign of struggle in the apartment or outside. He opens the sliding door to the balcony--"
"The man was thrown from his apartment by someone else," Light interrupted.
The professer blinked, but regained her composure. "And how did you deduce that?" she asked.
Light looked up. "Easily, actually. You obviously can't shut your sliding door once you've jumped off of your balcony, can you? The police officer had to open the door, so it was shut--unless there is some other way onto the balcony."
The professor smiled. "Correct, as usual."
The rest of the class murmured in amazement, and Light smiled politely, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. Honestly, when were they going to get past such easy cases? The law school for detectives was really getting on his nerves. However, as he roved his eyes about the classroom, one other student caught his eye.
The student was hunched over, completely oblivious to the rest of the goings-on in the classroom. He wore a simple long-sleeved white tee and a pair of loose jeans, and the flimsy flip-flops he must have been wearing before were empty, their respective feet bare and rubbing at one another. He had wild, unkempt black tresses that had decided to sweep over to the man's left, and wide, black eyes that were accentuated by the dark circles under them. The student held a pencil in one spider-like white hand in an odd fashion--with only the fingertips gripping it at the eraser-end. He seemed to be sketching something. The young man looked up and caught Light's eye immediately, as if knowing that Light was staring at him, before looking down at the sketch again, seemingly disinterested.
This annoyed Light for some reason, being uninteresting enough to this man to have been ignored. Light turned back to the front of the classroom and watched the teacher pace back and forth in the classroom, continuing her lecture.
When they were dismissed, Light took his time to pack his things, attempting to wait for the strange man to walk out of the door. The man was quick to leave, however; Light had to stuff his notes inside his book bag hastily to catch up with him.
Light walked behind him, noting that the raven-haired man tended to slouch terribly. Light tapped him on the shoulder.
The man stopped abruptly and turned his face towards Light.
Light paused a moment, suddenly at a loss for words. Why had he acted on the impulse to follow this man...?
"Ah... I'm sorry, I don't think I've ever seen you around the school..." Light said, his normal mask of politeness covering for his brief embarassment.
"Why are you following me?" the man asked immediately. Light noted that the man's deep voice sounded bored, and that he had brought a thumb to his mouth after asking.
"Well... you seemed like an... interesting person, I guess," Light said, taken aback by the raven's paranoia. The raven's eyes seemed to widen, if it were possible.
"Um... I'm Light Yagami," Light said eventually.
"I am L," the man said eventually, and extended a hand. Light didn't take it. The man, "L", was not Japanese, apparently.
"L? Just... L?" Light asked.
"Affirmative," L said, his tone slightly clipped. L dropped his hand.
"All right, L," Light said, trying out the name, "Where are you from?"
"...Hm. I'm from Britain."
"I'm from around here... Okinawa." Light noticed that the man almost never blinked. It gave him the appearance of a wide-eyed panda. "My family lives there."
"I have no family," L said, and Light would have been apologetic if it weren't for the flat, bored way L had said it. "I never knew my parents. I live with my caretaker."
"I'm sorry," Light said, only halfway meaning it.
"You're not." L's face didn't change when he said all these things, his thumb still firmly pressed to his mouth. Light didn't get a chance to answer before L asked, "Do you like tennis?"
"..." Light was speechless for a moment--speechless at the man's behavior and speechless because nobody had ever made Light Yagami speechless before. "...Yes..."
"Meet me this afternoon at the tennis court. I play often but never have a partner. About one o'clock, then?" And without waiting for an answer, L turned and continued walking.
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A few hours later, Light was out on the tennis court, bouncing the green ball at the fence repeatedly. His perfectly situated auburn hair and the matching tennis outfit never showed any sign of wear as he continued with his vigorous self-training.
Pock. Clang. Pock. Clang.
Pock.
L was late. It was exactly one-thirty PM.
Clang.
Freakish bastard--was this some way of 'standing him up' or something?
Pock.
Light hated being stood up.
Clang.
One forty-five. Dammit.
pockclangpockclangpock--
"Hello, Light," said a voice, and Light turned to see the raven-haired man walk in. L was wearing the same plain white long-sleeve and the same pair of jeans, except this time he had on flimsy white sneakers.
Light scowled. "Why are you late? It's rude to set up an appointment and not show up to it," he said.
L tilted his head slightly. "I was watching you play."
"For forty-five minutes?!" Light sputtered incredulously.
L shook his head. "No, actually... I came early, so I've been watching for approximately an hour. You're very good, Light."
Light's lips parted slightly, and he stared at the man, utterly flabbergasted. "You're so weird," he said after a long pause.
L tilted his head. The action was often performed by this man, Light noted. "I've been called worse, I suppose." And with that, he pulled a tennis ball out of his pocket and bounced it once, twice, before hitting with merciless force.
Clang.
The ball zipped past Light's head and hit the fence hard enough that the ball became stuck between the metal.
"Y-you could have broken something like that!" Light yelled, now pulling out a ball of his own. He smashed it across the court, not quite as hard as L had, but hard enough to make a point. L easily dodged it and hit it with his own racquet, again sending it sailing into the fence.
"That's two for me, Light-kun," L drawled. Light growled.
"If that's how you want to play, fine," Light muttered under his breath. He pulled out the second tennis ball from his pocket, raised his racquet, and slammed the tennis ball across the court.
L reared back and sent it back easily, and this time, Light was ready. Light backhanded the ball back into L's court, and L sent it back--the turns didn't end for a very long time.
About thirty-two minutes in, their back-and-forth actions still hadn't ceased--the longest in To-Oh College history--they began to draw a crowd. Most cheered for Light.
Another two minutes went by. Sweat trickled down Light's neck and onto his back, causing the white shirt to stick to his body. His breathing was quickening a bit, and his right bicep began to warm uncomfortably. L showed no signs of fatigue as of yet, however.
"Yeah! Go Light!" A girl with blonde hair and an obnoxiously high-pitched voice jumped up and down, breasts bouncing. Probably intentional.
Another girl, with classic Japanese raven hair this time, elbowed the blonde with vicious force before screaming, "Go Light-kun! He's the best!"
Light tore his attention away from the silly girls when the tennis ball sailed into his court. Light hit it with full force, jaw clenched. L reached out, lanky arm extended to its fullest, and--missed. Light smirked.
"It seems you have formidable skill, Light-kun," L said in that flat tone. "Two-one, Light-kun."
Light's eyes narrowed. L had mentioned the score just to say, 'I'm still winning'. Bastard.
L bounced the ball and reared back, once again hitting it roughly. Light bounced it back again, and the crowd was now intensely silent.
Pock.
The raven's eyes never left Light's.
Pock.
This guy is really starting to creep me out a bit, Light thought.
Clang. Damn.
"Three-one, Light-kun."
Light stood with his feet apart, back hunched and racquet between his legs in the standard tennis pose, panting.
Light served the ball again. The heads of all the crowd members jerked back and forth, and would have been comical if it weren't for the intense 'battle' before them.
Clang.
"Three-two, L." Light smirked triumphantly.
L's expression did not change. He served the ball.
Pock.
Pock.
Pock.
Pock.
Clang.
"Ha! Three-three, L." Across the net, the corner of L's mouth twitched for a moment before he served once more.
Another thirty minutes in, and Light's muscles were screaming, burning. L only showed minimal signs of exhaustion--and it annoyed Light to no end.
The green blur became faster and faster each time it passed over the net. Light's face was set, and sweat beaded at his brow. L's was still as wide-eyed and monotonous as the beginning of the match.
Then--
Clang.
"Ah... Four-three, Light-kun... I believe I win this round."
Light wanted nothing more than to throttle the bastard.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Thanks to Torah S. Kitsune, Shai-san, BonneNuit, and orange sheep of the flock for their wonderful reviews for the prologue.
Yeah... I hope they're in character...