Ah, good evening, my dears, and welcome to the second chapter of my little LxLight extravaganza. I apologise for the late update, I know I said it would be posted sooner but.. I am unreliable like that. So, without further ado..


Light peacefully woke in the dimly lit early morning hours. He looked sleepily at the clock. 05:13.

Rolling over, his heart jumped with fright to see L seated close to him on the unslept in side of the bed.

"Ryuzaki!"

"Good morning, Light-kun." L said pleasantly.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"I am sitting here on the bed. I would have thought it obvious."

"Yes, but why are you sitting so close? You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

L's eyes gleamed. "Interesting you should mention heart attacks."

Light groaned. "Ryuzaki, it's way too early for this."

"Ah, but you can not deny that it is a coincidence, Light-kun."

"I'm not Kira! And you didn't answer me, why were you staring at me?"

"That's just what you would say if you were Kira, now isn't it?"

"Stop avoiding the question!"

"I was watching you sleep, Light-kun. I find you interesting."

"Ryuzaki that's just.. weird."

"I do apologize if I made you uncomfortable, Light-kun, it will not happen again. Now, would you care for some breakfast?"

"It's only 05:00 am!"

"Yes, I am aware of that."

"So, no, I don't want breakfast, I want to go to sleep!" Light turned over (not the easiest task when chained by the wrist to an irritating, uncooperative detective) and pulled the duvet over his head.

L sighed and lay back on the pillows. "I do not understand why you insist on sleeping so much. There is not much I can do around here whilst you sleep. I am chained to you, you know."

"I'm not the one who put the handcuffs on." Light retorted grumpily from beneath the duvet. "Seriously, it's unhealthy to stay awake for as long as you do. Why can't you just sleep? You freak.." he added under his breath, forgetting L's bat-like hearing.

"That is most unkind of you.."

"Yeah, right, sorry."

After several minutes silence, L's voice came "Light-kun?"

Light spoke reluctantly. "Yes?"

"May I ask you a question?"

He sighed. "Shoot."

"Do you love Misa Amane?"

Lights eyes snapped open. "And why do you ask that?"

Twisting the chain between his fingers, L said "I was simply wondering if you believed in love, if you had ever experienced it."

"Well.. I don't know. Can't we sleep now, Ryuzaki?" the teenager was uncomfortable with this questioning, not sure what was fuelling it.

"You know I do not sleep, Light-kun."

"Well.. Could you let me, then?"

There was several moments silence. "I find myself rather sceptical of the notion myself. Of love, I mean. I must say, I do not approve."

"What, so you've never like.. had a crush on a girl or anything? Not even when you were a teenager?"

The detective threw him a scathing look. "No. Not even as a teenager. And even if I had, why would you presume it would be a female?"

Light sat up. "Woah, wait. So you mean.. You're gay?"

"Light-kun, I must insist on your getting a good nights sleep. We have plenty of work to do that will require an early start. Kira will not catch himself, you know."

"But wait-"

"Goodnight, sleep well."

L turned away from Light, effectively ending the conversation. He fidgeted some more and was silent. When the boy was asleep once again, the detective sat up and gazed down at him. Sighing, he gently stroked his cheek, turned away and began work.


The next morning, Light was particularly crabby. After being pulled out of bed at seven thirty by a hungry and fidgety L, Light was weighed down by a cloud of fatigue which he was unable to shake off. He mooched moodily around the kitchen, spooning instant coffee into a large mug and waiting for the kettle to boil. L was seated in his usual position around the table, daintily eating cherries. Meticulously coating each one in sugar, licking it off with his pink pointed tongue and then popping the fruit into his mouth.

Light ignored his companion more or less completely, overwhelmed with grumpiness and a thumping headache. He reached into the cupboard and found a small cardboard box of painkillers. Pouring his coffee, he carried it and the box over the table and sat down. L watched him with those dark eyes of his.

"Light-kun is feeling unwell?" he inquired, gesturing towards the pills. He plucked a cherry stalk from his mouth, which, Light noticed, was tied in a neat knot.

"Just a headache." Light grumbled, unwrapping two tablets from their foil tray.

"Ah.. I myself do not believe in taking medication. There is far too many possible side effects."

"Great.." the younger boy muttered, not really listening. He was getting thoroughly fed up of L's ridiculous quirks.

"I am speaking the truth, Light-kun. I believe medication clouds the brain and takes a considerable toll on ones deductive ability."

"Yeah, just as sitting like a normal person would.."

More cherries. Light noticed he was now tying each stalk in a neat knot and was lining them up on his plate. It was oddly fascinating to watch.

Tearing his gaze away from L's mouth, he concentrated on taking the painkillers, washing them down with gulps of hot, strong coffee. He could already feel the caffeine reviving him a little. He narrowed his eyes at the detective.

"Now, this morning I have a question for you."

He looked up. "Yes?"

"What was the point in that conversation last night?"

"Forgive me, I allowed my chattiness get the better of me last night, which I know effected your sleeping. I will try to be silent at night in the future." As he spoke, he hopped lightly from his seat and began roaming round the kitchen, the chain clinking.

Light snorted. L was the last person he would have described as 'chatty.' "You know that's not what I'm talking about!"

L turned to face him. "Indeed. Yes, I admit, I was avoiding the matter. However, Light-kun. You must understand, things I wish to discuss in the dark, I may not want to revisit, come the morning." And he exited the room, dragging the boy from his seat and into the bedroom.

"I wasn't finished!"

"I have work to do."

"But I'm hungry!"

"I have work to do."

"You're annoying, you know that?"

L smiled one of his rare, icy smiles. "Yes, Light-kun. I know that."


Light started blankly at his laptop screen. He was still pondering the brief discussion he had had with L the night before. They had hardly spoken all day apart from the can-you-please-pass-the-stapler? stuff. The hunched figure of his companion was seemingly transfixed by the numbers and graphs on the screen. The rest of the Task Force were silent also, working diligently. Occasionally, Matsuda dropped things or made general clatter, but was, to the most part, ignored by everyone.

Light, although his headache and original tiredness had subsided, was finding it difficult to concentrate. He jumped as his mobile phone began to jingle out a little ringtone. Checking the number, he answered.

"Hi, Misa."

"Light! I'm bored. Can we have a date now?"

"Misa, I'm working."

"Can you not just come up? Pleeeeeeease?"

L took the phone, holding it delicately between two fingers. "Yes, Misa-san. Light-kun and I shall be up to your room in several minutes." Snapping the phone shut, he returned it to the table.

Light stared at him as they walked from the room. "Uh.. Wanna explain that, Ryuzaki?"

He blinked innocently. "I would have thought you would jump at the chance to pay her a visit." he lowered his voice. "After all, you do love her.."

The teenager was infuriated. Ryuzaki could be so childish. "I never said I loved her."

"Well then, is it not perhaps wrong to call her your girlfriend if you do not feel some emotional attachment to her?"

Unsure of how to reply, Light stuttered. "I- I do like Misa-"

"But you do not love her?" Those black, inquisitive eyes bore through him, as though they could see right into his thoughts.

Before Light could speak, the elevator arrived at the correct floor, and they got out. Misa flew across the room to greet them.

"Light! I missed you so much!" she threw herself at him, the force of her over enthusiastic hug almost toppling him right over. He patted the blonde hair in slight discomfort, ruffled by the inquisition in the lift.

L wandered in behind him, hands in pockets, not acknowledging Misas presence.

The awkward threesome sat in silence for several minutes. When Misa began babbling in earnest about her new line of lipstick, or whatever it was, the detective rolled his eyes expressively. Pulling a bar of chocolate from his pocket, L began gnawing at the corner of it, licking his lips in obvious enjoyment. He never took his eyes from Light, staring accusingly at him.

Trying to avoid eye contact with the stony faced detective and also appear interested in the girls mindless noise proved exceedingly difficult.

"Sorry, Misa, I have to go. I just remembered I have to be somewhere." he heard himself say, getting up and bolting from the room as fast as he could, yanking the surprised L off of his chair.

"But waaaaaaaait!" he could hear her calling after him. "You only just got here!"

"Interesting." whispered L as he trailed down the corridor. "Very interesting."


Light couldn't understand it. What was happening? True, he wasn't exactly 'in love' with Misa, but it had never bothered him this much before. Damn L. Why did he have to try and talk about love, of all things? It looked like it would be another sleepless night. Between the weird feeling after her found out L had been watching him sleep and this new strangled, suppressed discomfort which baffled him greatly, Light foresaw a night of lying awake, simply thinking.

He attempted to regulate his breathing, make it deeper and slower so that L would believe he was asleep and not begin any more ridiculous conversations about love.


L watched from the other side of the room. He could not help it. Feeling drawn towards the bed, he approached it. Standing over the boy, he thought, not for the first time, how beautiful he was. Then, as though it was the most natural thing in the world L lay down do they were side by side. Picking up Lights slender arm, he nestled in close to him, arranging the same arm around his waist. For once, he felt tired. Tired of fighting what he had been reluctantly feeling the past weeks. Tired of the anger at himself for feeling it. And for now, L, the insomniac, top detective, fell asleep, curled up with his only suspect.


Continuing to fake sleep, Light felt the mattress sink a little beneath L's weight. Nothing could have prepared him for what he next felt. Forcing himself to remain unresponsive, his chest contracted slightly as he felt his own arm hugging the skinny frame of his friend and enemy. A warm feeling spread through him, not a feeling that was welcome. But there, with L neatly tucked next to him.. he hated to admit. It felt nice. Better than nice. It felt right.

x x x


N'awh, aren't they cute? :3 Anyway, thank you so much for reading, leave a review and let me know what you thought of this chapter! Until next time..

Dee. x