EDIT: Yo. ;)

"What's this?" L asked, looking down at the young boy in front of him. The boy was about ten, wearing a white shirt and jeans, had dark smudges under his eyes, and he had fixed his black hair into a messy style.

"I wanted to look like you." The boy said happily, looking up at his mentor.

"He's been dressing like this since you left last time," an old man said to L in explanation.

L shook his head slowly, as if in disbelief. "Well then…" He hadn't expected this at all. There were few students currently at Wammy House, all orphans that were in training to become L's successor. The first in line was A, but B was also being trained, in case of A's death, and so on, but only A and B were being mentored by L personally. He had never expected one of them to attempt to be this much like him, and a smile crept across his normally expressionless face. "Well then, this will be interesting, won't it, B?"

Beyond nodded and ran over to a table set with two chairs. He sat down in one, pulling his knees up to his chest.

"You're sitting like me too?" L was honestly surprised; not an emotion he felt often. Beyond nodded proudly, and L mused. "Okay, time to start. Let's say… You've cornered your suspect," L said, jumping into a role play, "And he is clever. More clever than anyone you've ever met before. He has left behind no evidence, but you know he is guilty. What do you do?"

B thought for just a second, before replying, "Try to get him to say something only the one guilty of the crime would know?"

L smiled rewardingly. "Yes! But what if he doesn't say anything of use?"

At that, B actually needed to think. "Hm… I don't know… Maybe you could make up some fake evidence and show it to him. Maybe he'll respond with something like 'I never did that!'?"

"Hm. Possibly, but there's a chance that this person has thought that kind of thing through. He knows you'll be trying to get him to say something that would incriminate him. What then?"

"Well… what if you revealed yourself? Like, if you said something like "I'm L", but-"

"But what if he killed you right there and then?"

"Well… Then you'd be dead." B frowned. Seemingly from out of nowhere he pulled a jar of strawberry jam, and popped off the lid, scooping the jam out with his hands. L smiled; it was humorous, watching Beyond eat his jam, but he really needed to work on being less messy. But for the moment, he would ignore Beyond's sticky hands.

"Well, the object is to not be dead."

B frowned again, licking the jam off his fingers. "So… what if you put him in a situation where he had to kill someone or die? Only, you wouldn't actually kill him. You could have, say, someone put a gun to his head or something. Only it would be a blank. You could make up a real-sounding story depending on the situation, and if he didn't kill the person, he's innocent. If he does, he's guilty."

"But what about the person that would be killed?"

"Well, maybe he could be a criminal? Someone already on death row? And if he didn't die, you'd let him go?"

L smiled. "That's better. Yes, that could work in some situations, maybe sixty-percent. Let's try another one. Let's say…"

And so the lesson continued. It seemed that the first situation had only been a warm up, and that they got harder as the teachings went on. L never just gave him the answer, only guided or steered B toward it. By the end of it, Beyond's brain hurt, and he had gone through several jars of jam. B had also been careful not to stare at what was above L's head; a number- 11052007, and a name- L Lawliet. If he ever told anyone that he could see these things, he'd be called crazy. Which he had. Apparently, only he could see these things. He had used to read off the names and numbers of the people he passed on the streets when he was with his parents. At times, they would laugh and mess up his hair. At others, his father told him to stop it, that it was unnatural. Occasionally his mother would talk to him about it, telling him it would go away eventually, that she had seen them too, before she had him. But all that was before the accident. Until then, he hadn't known what those numbers were. He had known what the names were, and since both his mother and father had the same numbers, he just figured it was something that ran in the family. But on that day, when he was still just five, he had found out. The doctor at the hospital had said something about a train, and that it had been too late. He had been there, when they had died, when the numbers had vanished. He had cried and cried, not paying any attention to anything that happened afterward, except for one detail that he had managed to pick up on. As someone was leading him away from his dead parents, he saw the doctor writing on a piece of paper; 'Date of Death: 05-12-1992'. He recognized it; the numbers that had been floating above his mother and father's heads.

Since then, he had gotten used to knowing when people were going to die. It became just another part of life, same as eating and sleeping. He had made himself feel no emotion when he saw someone with just a year left, or a month, or a day. Half the time he didn't even care to let the numbers register as dates in his head. Five years later, he was at Wammy's House, which was interesting and boring at the same time. At any rate, it was tiring.

. . .

After his lesson, Beyond ran to go get 'A', who had had her lesson just before his. Knocking on the door to her room, he called out. "Aislinn? Come on out, Ash!"

A girl opened the door. She was about the same age as B, maybe a year younger, with stick straight black hair. She was wearing jeans with the knees worn out from use, and a red hoodie, looking much like Little Red Riding Hood. As Beyond looked into her happy brown eyes, he couldn't help but see the name and date. Ashley Kehr. 03131998. He couldn't help but wonder why everyone at Wammy House didn't use their real names as he and L did. Or rather, he knew why one might do that- to keep one's identity hidden, which was a good safety precaution in the case of those at Wammy's, but even L himself was on first-name basis with the entire world. Of course, L and Beyond aren't your average names... But that wasn't what mattered; what mattered was that Ash only had a year to live.

This one date saddened B though no others did. He hadn't given thought to the dates hanging over anyone else's heads; either they were many years from now or he didn't care enough about that person to think it mattered. But that one date, March 13, 1998, bothered him deeply. He couldn't tell anyone about it, not even Ash herself, or L, or Watari; the owner of the orphanage. So Beyond had vowed that he would be there when it happened. That if possible, he would stop her death. Could he change the dates? By simply being there, could he change the day that Ash met with Death? Or would her death be caused by him?

Perhaps these thoughts were far too aged for someone of just ten years, but B had lived with death around him his entire life. He was decided; he would protect Ash, if it was literally the last thing he did.

Ash's voice interrupted his train of thought. "B? Stop staring like that; it's creepy," she giggled.

B smiled, stepping out of the doorway to let A through. Together they ran down the stairs, racing, to see L one last time before he left again. L's visits were far too short and far too in between, and both Beyond and Ash enjoyed seeing their 'father', as he had become to them. It may have been just another of L's identities, but it was one he enjoyed.

"I should be able to come back next weekend," L said, crouching to Beyond and Ash's level.

"So soon?" Ash's face lit up. L nodded, smiling, and ruffled B's hair.

"You need to grow it out some to look like me," he joked, though it was true; Beyond's hair wasn't long enough to match L's hairstyle.

And with that, L left, if only for the time being. He had cases to get back to; a job that wouldn't, couldn't, let him rest. Justice never slept.