I'd like to take a moment to give a big thank you to everyone, who reviewed/followed/fav'd and read this story, each and every one of you made me so happy throughout the week; you guys are seriously the best! The beginning of the chapter from this point on shall henceforth be dedicated to replying to my reviews, because for the life of me…I can't figure out how to work the PM part of this site lol.
RainaSage – I'm glad you liked it so much, I agree that it was cute; I had so much fun writing it. :)
I'm not going to answer your question; you'll just have to keep reading ;)
tafietta – Unfortunately, or fortunately; depending on your POV, this story will have both multiple pairings with L and Light involved and just plain multiple pairings. When it comes to L and Light, 95% of the story is told from Light's point of view so he's the one you'll actually see with other people, most of the L/others pairing are mentioned as more of a past thing than anything else. Don't fret, the end pairing of this is going to be L/Light, the majority of the story is going to be as well.
The other pairings in the story will be Matt/Mello and Stephen/Near, more on that later on.
Reellisce – Thanks so much :D
L/Light in general is adorkable IMHO
fanonymous – I absolutely love that you absolutely love this story ;)
Actually, a lot of my reviews on this and other sites have called this story a plot twist, tbh I didn't really think of it as such…but maybe I should change the summary…something to think about, I suppose lol. I really tried to keep everyone in character, or as much as is possible in this story, so I'm really glad you pointed that out.
Ryuk liked to think that he knew Light Yagami better than anyone else in the human world, probably because he was the only one amongst them who had ever seen Light's true face. And because he felt knew Light better than anyone else, he also thought he'd gotten a pretty good grasp at being able to tell what Light was truly feeling at any given time. But at that moment, he had no clue; he couldn't even begin to guess.
Logically, he knew that the emotion that Light was most likely to be feeling at the moment was anger. Given what had just occurred in the café, it would make sense if he was feeling a mix of something in between furious and insulted. But Light was definitely not angry, he could tell that much at least, anger was the easiest emotion to read off the boy. Light was a human with a very large amount of pride and was also deceptively easy to infuriate. No, Light seemed almost as though he were…lost in thought.
"I don't understand" Ryuk finally felt the need to voice his uncertainty out loud.
"I imagine there's many things you don't understand, Ryuk, I'm afraid you'll have to be more specific." When they were out in public, Light spoke lowly and out of the corner of his mouth like he always did when they needed to talk.
Ryuk ignored the jibe; at this point he was more than used to Light's strange lack of fear in speaking on equal terms with a god of death.
"Well, I was just thinking-"
That seemed to get Light's attention enough to snap him out of his thoughts; "Now I'm the one who doesn't understand." he said with raised eyebrows.
Ryuk growled; a little vexed "I was just thinking that, for a moment there, you seemed as if you were actually considering taking L up on his offer."
Light sighed, apparently realizing that Ryuk was not going to drop the subject, and that their talk was not going to be as brief as he'd hoped. He immediately crossed over to the other side of the street, taking the longer, less populated route home to give them a bit of privacy.
As soon as they entered a nearly empty part of the park, Light raised an eyebrow at him. "Why shouldn't I consider it Ryuk, it's an offer with many advantages."
"What advantages?"
"You heard what he said…didn't you Ryuk? The clientele are people who, for whatever reason, are seeking out geniuses specifically."
"Why is that an advantage?"
"It's an advantage because you can assume that if a person is seeking out a genius in particular as a bed partner, then that the person is probably of relatively high intelligence themselves. And not just intelligent, they're probably pretty wealthy as well. Wealthy, intelligent people always do really well for themselves, no matter what field they choose to go into. Just like how L is the world's greatest detective, the other clients probably range from the world's greatest CEOs and politicians to the world's greatest surgeons and programmers, it may even include world's greatest musicians and artists, since those are also forms of genius. Basically, being the highest up people in their given field also guarantees that they'll be the most influential people in their various fields. In other words, they are cumulatively the most powerful people in the world. They're the people who are currently ruling the world. "
"Ah, I see" Ryuk was beginning to see why Light liked the idea, particularly because of the 'ruling the world' bit at the end, still…"But I don't understand how it helps to be a prostitute if the clients are the ones with the power."
"Ryuk, do you remember how am I always telling you how the world works?"
"The world is a place run by injustice and unfairness; it's a place where the people who are in power rule the world with a grip that at first glance seems loose but is actually iron clad. The world is run through its social structure, which mainly consists of two things: money and popularity. The social structure is forged through connections, connections that can only be made through power. Having a lot of money or influence is one way to attain power; the other is through popularity or likeability. Once in a position of power people have the ability to alter the rules in their own favor just enough so that they stay in power, doing so in a way that's just subtle enough that the common people never catch on." Ryuk recited automatically, having memorized the entire spiel by now.
"Yes…but there is one phrase that basically sums all of that up into two words, it's called 'social networking'."
"Okay…" Ryuk was getting confused again.
"Social networking is basically developing contacts that will provide you with information and any services you may require."
"I…see?" Yup, he was definitely getting confused.
Light rolled his eyes at him "The world is run by people with power, power is made through connections, and there are two main ways to get connections: the first is to be born into them, also called money, and the second is to be likeable enough to gain them, also called popularity. People only want connections with other people with connections, that's how people stay in power."
Light continued on, seeing that Ryuk still didn't understand completely "I'll give you a couple of examples; my father is the chief of police, he's basically as high up in the NPA as you can get. He's exactly the type of person that the other, lower ranking, members of the NPA would want to make connections with. They'd want to do so because he's so high up in his field that he has plenty of contacts that can help him out should he ever need it. People could make him one of their contacts in one of two ways: either by offering themselves as a contact if they themselves are useful for anything, or they could do it by becoming his friend, by being consistently friendly and polite towards him. However, because he can be a little soft, he'd probably exert his influence just because someone needed it, but the point is he could do either of those things if he wanted to."
"Another example of this would be myself" Light continued to ramble on, just so the message really stuck. "I'm always kind and polite to everyone which results in me having a lot of friends, friends who will do things for me when I ask them to. Like when I needed a date for that bus ride, I could just call someone up and I knew they'd be there for me. Remember that popularity is also a form of power, so people who have other advantages, but don't have a lot of friends, would want to be make connections with me so I could give that to them. And I'd have access to whatever other advantages they had to offer me in return. That's what social networking is, do you understand now?"
"I do understand, Light…kukuku, so you think you can make connections with all these important people by becoming a prostitute and…giving them what they need." Ryuk totally cracked up, rolling through the air with laughter at the thought of where this was all heading. But he had to hand it to Light, the boy really was always plotting, whenever something new came his way he seemed to always know how to turn it around and make it something that worked in his favor.
"Laugh if you want to, prostitution is just another form of social networking. If I can seduce girls to give me what I want, I should be able to do the same with boys. Even if I've never been with another male, it seems like the school aspect of L's business would teach me everything I'd need to know to be able to succeed. Having all those important contacts at my fingertips could be huge for my aspirations as Kira."
It sounded as if Light had basically already made up his mind, but there was one other thing Ryuk was still curious about. "It sounds to me as if you've already decided to do this, but haven't you forgotten that sex for money is illegal?" Surely, Light hadn't forgotten that he was supposed to be punishing criminals, not becoming one.
"It is and it isn't Ryuk" Light sounded vaguely thoughtful again "What you have to consider is that there's a difference between something that's illegal because it's truly bad, and will therefore be illegal forever, and something that is illegal for now because society isn't evolved enough to accept it yet."
"Women used to not have equal rights, it used to be legal to own slaves, aboriginals were sent to white schools to be stripped of their culture, in certain part of the world it became legal to capture Jewish people and send them to concentration camps, gays and lesbians used to be beaten to death if they were found with another person of the same gender. In many places all over the world these things still occur, but aren't as prominent in more populated and socially evolved places."
"Women couldn't have equal rights because it was believed that women were too emotional to handle tough work. Having slaves was justified by certain research 'apparently' proving that people who weren't Caucasian weren't as intelligent. Aboriginal children were sent to white schools in order to force them to become productive members in white society. The Jewish were sent to concentration camps because a ruthless dictator who didn't like them was given more power than he ever should have had. People who liked the same gender were beaten because religious beliefs told them it was evil to do so."
"The point is that all these things occurred not because today's people are any better than they were, they occurred because when society tells you to do something, you have a tendency to do it, without even considering for yourself whether or not it's wrong."
"Justice is difficult to pinpoint in the sense that there's some things that are illegal, like prostitution and gay marriage, which should be legalized, and there are things like bullying and stalking, that aren't morally right; but aren't illegal either and should be made to be so. The justice that follows the letter of the law is exactly the justice I'm trying to overthrow for my own sense of justice. For Kira's justice."
"When I first became Kira, my goal wasn't just to kill criminals in order to punish them for their crimes, it was also to protect the lives of all the world's innocent people. In fact, I'd say it was even more about protecting innocents than anything else. The point of killing all those criminals was because they were interfering with people's right to live their lives freely and without fear. The reason I would consider bullying and stalking to be crimes is because they're things that ruin people's lives, and make them live in a way that they can't feel like they're safe. By that same logic, the reason I wouldn't consider prostitution and gay marriage a crime is that they 're things that don't really hurt anyone."
"And no, prostitution doesn't hurt anyone; it's a victimless crime. Prostitutes are actually more likely to be the victims of rape and murder than anything, and legalizing it could help protect them from it. What's actually ridiculous is that in the majority of countries in which prostitution is legal; it's illegal for places like brothels to exist. Brothels are the places that could protect the prostitutes, and the clients for that matter. Making it a legal business institution could lead to laws being made about everyone getting tested regularly for STD's, and about getting security cameras and bodyguards installed into the damn places. That's not even to mention that it's considered to be an international multi-billion dollar industry and would be great for the economy."
"So to answer your question Ryuk, yes I do realize it's illegal, and no, I don't really care. I don't have issues with everyone who does illegal things, what I have a problem with is people who act in a way that interferes with people just trying to live their own lives." Light finished with a huff, which Ryuk guessed meant he was finally done with his rant.
'Light sure does have a way of making long, passionate speeches about things that are probably really important, but are too freaking wordy for anyone to actually pay attention to.' Ryuk thought, feeling somewhat exasperated.
"There's just one other thing bothering me in that case."
"Which is?" Light sounded somewhat annoyed too, and Ryuk supposed that speech had taken a lot out of him as well. They'd finally arrived at Light's house, and Ryuk thought that probably all he wanted at that moment was to go in and unwind.
"How are you going to fake being attracted to other men? It's not as though you'd just be kissing and fooling around with them a bit like you do with all those girls. You'll actually be having sex with these people you know? I think they'll notice when you're not turned on, and I don't think you'll be able to fake it as many times as you'd have to."
"Oh…that won't be a problem, Ryuk." Light said unconcernedly as he made his way to the front door.
"Why not?"
Light stopped and turned around slightly when he arrived at the front door, throwing Ryuk a sly smile over his right shoulder.
"Because I am gay."
Light entered the house, leaving Ryuk outside in a state of shock.
Then, suddenly the death god seemed to regain his bearings.
"WHAT?!"
Light was seven years old when he'd felt sexual attraction for the first time. He hadn't realized it for what it was at the time, of course not, he'd been seven years old.
He'd been out to see the cherry blossoms that year with his mother, which Light hated because she'd been going through an odd phase at the time, and at least if his father was there he would have prevented it.
From the day he turned four up until the day in question, his mother had had a thing about dressing him in girl's clothing…then taking multiple pictures of him going about his day in whatever she'd dressed him in that morning. He'd thought he'd gotten a bit of relief when his baby sister Sayu had been born, figuring his mother would have more fun dressing her up instead. But that hadn't worked, because his mother had been of the opinion that his sister wasn't old enough for that quite yet. And so his suffering had continued.
Anyway, it had just been a regular day at the park for him with his mom; taking pictures of him wandering about the park in the blue yukata she'd dressed him in. He'd been grateful when she'd run off in search of a new roll of film, glad he could finally take a break and loosening his rigid posture.
When he turned around, that's when he'd spotted him for the first time. A boy he couldn't really remember much of, save for a big pair of dark eyes. Damn, what those eyes had done to him, what they still did to him now. The boys' eyes had looked at him as though they could see right through him. It was the first time in Light's life that he'd felt like he'd really been seen; it was the first time that-.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOUR GAY!? SINCE WHEN?!" stupid Ryuk, he'd been right in the middle of a flashback, now it was going to take him forever to regain his train of thought…especially if the death god continued to interrupt him.
"Ryuk, would you rather have your explanation now, or would you prefer me to go downstairs and get you an apple first?" there, that should give him a bit more time to finish his backstory.
Ryuk looked as though he were seriously contemplating it, making Light aware, in a vaguely amused sort of way, that the god of death must have seriously wanted his answer. But in the end, of course Ryuk chose his apples. Light headed downstairs to grab them from the fridge.
Anyway, what had he been thinking- oh yes, it was the first time Light had felt like someone had really seen him, and it was the first time he'd felt that someone really wanted him. Years later, and those eyes still left him with a thirst for attention and recognition that he just couldn't seem to get anywhere else.
It had taken him a few moment of feeling breathless from the initial impact of the eyes for him to realize that the stranger had just called him a girl, and that had not been okay, so Light had punched the boy in the face for the "insult". As one would say, an eye for an eye. But the other boy apparently hadn't seen it that way, because the next second found him with a foot in his face, which had prompted Light to hit the boy again, and so on and so forth.
The fight had been pretty stupid, and they'd both ended up in the hospital for that stupidity. Then he'd found out the strange boy really had really thought he'd been a girl. This left him with the uncomfortable feeling that came with knowing that the first person Light had felt had seen the real him, hadn't really seen him at all, and hadn't that just been a bummer. At least the entire experience had got him out of ever having to don female clothing for his mother ever again.
Still, it was years later when he recognized the attraction he'd felt then for what it was. At the time though, Light had felt confused by the rush of heat he'd feel through his body when he thought about the eyes. He remembered how for months after the fact, he'd had trouble sleeping; tossing around and sweating through his clothing. It seemed as though every time he closed his own eyes, he'd see pitch black eyes looking back.
He'd had his first wet dream to those eyes, and subsequently, the first time he'd jacked off, he just kept thinking about those cursed eyes. All he could picture as he lay sweating on the sheets; pumping himself off quickly with his hand, was dark eyes watching him as he did so, feeling the boys' ghost hands roving all around his body, teasing it with promises before they finally-.
-But he digressed, that wasn't the point of his story, and it was starting to make him feel a little hot under the collar.
He'd battled with the attraction for ages, and had only admitted the truth to himself about a year ago. Since then, he'd dated a ton of girls to cover up his true sexuality, going as far as having multiple girlfriends at once, not even trying to hide the fact that he was doing so. Better to be thought of as a player rather than have anyone guess the truth.
He explained as much to Ryuk when he'd finally retrieved his apple, it wasn't as if he'd been hiding it from him, he was just so used to hiding it from everyone else that he'd accidentally done so. Light would never admit it out loud, but it was nice having someone like the death god around to talk to. It could sometimes be exhausting pretending to be something he wasn't. Exhilarating yes, he definitely got off on fooling everyone around him, but he wanted a break every once in a while too.
Light laid back onto the bed, staring at his socks as he contemplated his life; memories of the past, complications of the present, and new possibilities of the future. Truth is, all he wanted at the moment was to head over to L's hotel to tell him he'd do it, but he knew he should think it over a bit more first. The last time he'd done something without thinking it over; he'd ended up with a pet death god…who ate apples…constantly.
He'd thought about all the pro's in L's offer, now what about the con's?
First con, he'd probably have to give up his death note. People in the investigation, no matter what lies L was planning to tell them, would probably notice if the second he disappeared, the deaths stopped as well. And he couldn't bring it with him either, who knew what kind of security cameras L had stashed around the school. First con would mean giving up Ryuk too, which Light reluctantly counted as the second con.
The third con he could think of was leaving his family, whom he really did love, albeit in a somewhat detached sort of way. He loved his mother's quiet acceptance of him, having long gotten over her old habits. He loved his annoying little sister, and her mischievous demeanor that somewhat reminded him of his own. And most of all, he loved his father, his father who he respected, his father who he always tried so hard to emulate, his father who was the reason he was interested in justice, his father-.
"Light! LIGHT! Your father's just had a heart attack; we're heading over to the hospital right now to see him." His mother cried as she ran into the room.
-His father who apparently had almost died that day in a similar fashion to the way Kira usually killed his victims.
Light's expression automatically turned serious as he got up off the bed.
"Let's go."
When he got to the hospital, he hadn't been expecting to run into L so soon. He'd told himself he needed more time to decide, but in his heart, he already knew his answer. Seeing L again certainly wasn't helping him be rational though.
He swore he could still feel his lips tingling from their brief kiss earlier on.
He found him sitting beside his father's bedside when he'd entered with his mother; he was in his usual odd crouching position. He'd figured that he and L would leave in order to discuss matters, leaving his mother and father with some alone time…when his father decided to address L.
"Ryuuzaki, I need to know, has my son been cleared of all suspicion regarding the Kira case?"
"Soichiro" Light's mother interrupted worriedly "surely you can discuss this with Mr. Ryuuzaki at a later date? Your heart doesn't need the extra stress at the moment."
"Sachiko, at the moment my heart will only rest easy when Light is no longer a suspect."
L, meanwhile, was looking thoughtfully over towards him, obviously trying to work out how to answer. If Light was going to say yes, it would be both a good time to clear his name and to lay the ground work for getting him out of there. If Light was going to say no, he'd have to say that his suspicions had been raised in order to put extra pressure on Light, and make it harder for him to move around. In the end, L presumably decided to go with a happy medium kind of answer.
"It is still unclear at this time Yagami-san" L stated in a monotonous tone which contrasted with his penetrating stare at Light with his next statement "Light-kun and I have a few details we still need to iron out between us before I can give you a proper answer."
"Actually things are clear to me Ryuuzaki; nothing needs to be ironed out. I've already decided to go along with your suggestion." There was no way Light was just going to sit there while L gave his father another heart attack, not when he knew how to respond.
L eyes were still locked with Light's when Light gave his answer. The air grew thick with tension between them, and Light could feel himself shiver; L's eyes were very dark. L seemed to contemplate his words for a full thirty seconds before he finally gave a little satisfied smirk and turned to Yagami senior.
"Yagami-san, I'm sorry to have worried you, it appears as though the matter has resolved itself."
Light could tell that his father wanted to ask what was going on, he and his mother were obviously quite worried. But L, having already turned back around to look at Light, didn't notice.
"Shall we speak in the hallway Light-kun?" L asked innocently.
"Of course"
The last thing Light heard as he walked out the door into the crowded hallway was L telling his father not to worry about it and that he should get some rest.
And Light's father believed him, why shouldn't he doubt it when the information came from the world's greatest detective.
It suddenly occurred to Light that he had missed the best example he could have given Ryuk on the power of social networking.
"So is this for real? Have you truly made your decision? I'm surprised Light, I would have thought you had a bit more pride than that."
'Really? How annoying…L must be feeling pretty smug right now to have gone from threatening me into going along with all of this to taunting me about my answer.' Light thought resignedly.
He decided to reply with something passive aggressive: "There wasn't much need to give it a lot of thought, Ryuuzaki, your offer had certain…perks to it that I couldn't ignore."
There, let L decide what to make of that. Light knew his answer gave away his purpose behind accepting L's offer, but he didn't care; he was getting tired of being mocked, first Ryuk, now L, he endured quite enough for the day thank you very much!
He began to regret his decision to do so almost immediately, however, because for some reason L looked smugger than ever at his response.
"That's unfortunate Light-kun" he said with a tone of regret in his voice.
He didn't look like he thought it was unfortunate at all! Instead he was suddenly eyeing him with an almost predatory look which was sending jolts of electricity up and down Light's spine. With a great amount of trepidation, since he had a feeling he was walking straight into the lion's mouth, Light asked; "What's unfortunate?"
"Well," he spoke as he slowly advanced on Light, who refused to back away like he wanted to "as the owner of the establishment in which Light-kun wishes to take part, it is my duty to make sure my clientele is getting what they paid for."
"Okay…" Light narrowed his eyes, he didn't like where this was going.
"What I mean by that is if Light-kun is only joining in order for a chance at social networking with my clients, it is my duty as the owner of Wammy's to test him to make sure said clients get a body that is just as interested in them as a mind." L had gotten very close by now, whispering his words to him in a way that was causing hot air to ghost over his lips.
Damn him to hell! He'd planned this trap for him from the very beginning when he'd first insulted Light's pride, knowing he wouldn't be able to resist playing it cool!
It wasn't that he didn't want to sleep with L; he just hated the fact that it was occurring because he'd been manipulated into it.
He ignored the unpleasant shock he got when he realized that he wanted to sleep with L, when had that happened.
When he replied however, Light made sure to keep the nervousness out of his voice by disguising it with his usual cockiness:
"Alright, I suppose I can understand the logic there, when were you thinking we'd do this?"
"Right now would work best, actually. There are still a few things I will need to get done in the next couple days before our departure."
L had backed off after Light had responded and had begun walking away as he spoke his own words.
He followed L for a short while in silence, soon he noticed a limo parked off to the side of the parking lot that L seemed to be heading towards.
L really did have this all planned out.
Knowing what was going to happen next, and partly wishing he didn't, Light got into the car; L holding the door to car open for him like the gentleman he wasn't.
Whether he'd made the right decision, Light didn't know; he just hoped he wouldn't come to regret it.
A/N : So a couple things I need to say here:
1) No matter how many times I re-wrote this, I couldn't be satisfied with the result, so I'm feeling kind of blargh at the moment.
2) This story is rated M(ature)for a reason, not just for the smut and the bits of kink later on, but also because of potentially controversial messages and themes that are within the story. Like this chapter, for instance, that contains a message which supports the legalization of prostitution.
3) I'm sorry to anyone that wanted Light to give a different answer but I chose the one I did for a number of reasons:
- I thought about it, and decided that in the end, it would be more in character for Light to go along with L's suggestion, for reasons listed in the story.
- This story is already going to be long enough as it is…which is anywhere from 50-75 chapters, all about 5000 words.
- The point of this story takes place at Wammy's, so anything that happens before that is (unfortunately) needed backstory.
4) I do have other stories on the way, but I won't start posting them until I've gotten to about chapter 10 here.
5) Next chapter is all smut, just an fyi.
6) Argh, I wrote too much…I apologize; I'll try not to do so again.