I realise now, I dressed Light in some of my clothes... whatever that says about my state of mind XD
Not the jewellery though. Mine is much more subtle. And I have to reach up to the highest shelf to actually display skin. You know, in certain circumstances, it's surprising how many useful things turn out to be on that top shelf... XD
SPOILERS: there aren't any.
DISCLAIMER: Death Note and its characters are not mine.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Raito's further horror was left unexpressed as the suite door opened, to reveal an elderly man wearing a long coat and holding several bakery boxes.
"Watari!" Ryuuzaki's tone was gleeful. "Did you bring cake?"
"Yes, Ryuuzaki," Watari took in the scene with an air of mild surprise. "Excuse me if I'm interrupting anything –"
"I'm just conducting a rather leisurely interrogation," Ryuuzaki said, oozing innocence.
"It's not what you think!" Raito assured the old man. "I'm an intruder. Not a – not a –"
"He broke in forcibly and took photos of me," Raito noticed with a feeling of foreboding that Ryuuzaki didn't seem too perturbed by this any more. "I'm attempting to ascertain his reasons for doing so."
"Very good, Ryuuzaki," Watari gave a small sigh. "I thought you'd finally – well, never mind. Would you care for some tea, ah -"
"Yagami Raito," Raito said, wondering why the name Watari was nudging him in the back of his subconscious. "Thank you, I'd love a cup of tea."
"Pleased to meet you, Yagami-san," Watari said, disappearing through a door which Raito presumed led to some kind of kitchen area.
"You're very well-mannered when you're not scared out of your wits," Ryuuzaki commented, getting to his feet.
"Ryuuzaki, I can assure you that at no time during our encounter have I been 'scared out of my wits!'" Raito declared.
"I'm sorry that you and your face don't agree," Ryuuzaki said. "Please excuse me for a moment, I need to discuss our impending move with Watari."
Raito didn't waste a second. As soon as the ill-dressed man had left the room, he swung his legs around to sit on the edge of the couch. Stood and looked around him. The room was clean but full of folders similar to the ones his father brought home from work, scattered everywhere apparently haphazardly. Raito shuddered at the mess, then shuffled toward the nearest pile. They were heaped on a table not far from him, where a laptop also rested.
He bent and opened the topmost folder with his teeth, hoping for any clue as to his mysterious captor's identity. His eyes widened as he found the contents of the folder were also much like the ones his father brought home. Case notes... he dropped to the floor, rolling backwards and managed to pass his legs through the loop of his arms caused by the handcuffs. Pulling himself up on the table, he started to page through the notes, hoping to find something addressed to Ryuuzaki or whatever his real name was. Then something caught his eye and he stopped skimming and began to read.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Raito turned to see Ryuuzaki staring at him from the kitchen door.
"I'm reading these case notes," he replied.
"Well – don't! I've hardly had chance to look at them myself yet."
"When you do, I suggest you check out the mistress more closely. The wife seems more obvious at first glance, but the mistress has no alibi."
"I thought she was at a concert?"
"Uh huh. The Red Hot Chili Peppers cancelled that date. The singer was ill. They actually came to Tokyo about three months later."
"Are you sure about that?" Ryuuzaki put his head on one side, raising a finger to his bottom lip, a habit Raito had noticed he had when thinking.
"I saw them," Raito said. "At the Tokyo Dome."
"I'm jealous." Ryuuzaki smiled. "Was the earlier date the time when Anthony Kiedis had pneumonia?"
"Yes, so there's no way she could have been at a concert that never happened."
"Thank you, Raito-kun," Ryuuzaki said, coming across the room toward Raito. "It's a cold case someone asked me to take a look at. You've probably saved me a lot of time."
"You're welcome, Ryuuzaki," Raito said with a feeling of relief. It was better to be thanked for his inquisitiveness than zapped with a taser.
"I'm going to unfasten your wrists now," Ryuuzaki informed the young man. "So that you can drink your tea in a civilised manner rather than have to lap it like a kitten. Oh, but I see your arms are not where I left them."
"I needed to turn the pages," Raito explained. "I didn't think you'd appreciate it if I did that with my tongue."
"It sounds intriguing, Raito-kun, but I suppose it would have wet them too much." Ryuuzaki came up to Raito and brought out a key, unfastening the boy's handcuffs. "Your legs will remain bound, so that you cannot run away."
"This is really getting ridiculous," Raito protested. "I don't know who you are, so why can't you just let me go?"
"You have seen my face, Raito-kun."
Raito stared at the man in disbelief. What's going on? I've seen his face? So what? "I don't know whose face it is, though."
"Maybe not." Ryuuzaki didn't seem convinced.
"Listen to me, you can't just keep me –" Raito fell silent as realization dawned. Case notes. Isolation and paranoia. To the point where he doesn't want anybody to see his face. And – Watari. Dad and that idiot Matsuda, talking about someone called Watari. Who works for –
"You're L." Raito said.
"Now you do know whose face it is," L agreed. "Well done, Raito-kun."
"Does this mean you'll never let me go?" Raito asked, plaintively.
"Seventy-two per cent chance of that being the outcome," L said, opening his laptop.
"Fine!" Raito found himself a chair and threw himself into it rather dramatically. Then smiled and thanked Watari as the man brought tea.
"Cake, Yagami-san?" the elderly gentleman enquired.
"No, thank you," Raito said, busily plotting how he could escape from the asylum.
"We shall have to take the cake with us, Raito-kun," L muttered, still staring at his screen. "Some clothes... a few cases to work on... Watari will clear up the rest and find me a new room somewhere. I'm not sure exactly where we will go in the meantime, perhaps a love hotel?" He looked up at Raito, his eyes sparkling.
"Certainly not!" Raito said, shocked at the idea.
"You'd fit in perfectly, dressed like that."
"The only way you'll get me in one of those places, is as a corpse," Raito declared.
"Pity." L sighed. "Does Raito-kun have any suggestion as to where we might remove ourselves?"
"You can stay at my place," Raito said, then paused, eyes widening, as brain finally caught up with mouth, shrieked loudly and ran away to hide. The troubled young man looked around frantically for a mirror. He wanted to see exactly who he'd been replaced with.
"That's very kind of you, Raito-kun," L accepted. "We should leave as soon as possible. Finish your tea and we'll be off."
"Uh – duh –" Raito was aware that he wasn't living up to his perfect genius role at all just now. What did I say? I asked him to stay with me! Asked him to – I need to stop speaking. Permanently. Everything I say just makes it worse!
"I see Raito-kun got a perfect score on his entrance examination to Todai University," L said conversationally.
"What?" Raito leaned toward the man, appalled to see a photo of himself on the laptop screen. "What are you –"
"In fact, he attained perfect scores during the whole course of his university career," L went on. "School history also exemplary – oh, you play tennis?"
"I used to."
"Why did you stop?"
"I couldn't find anyone to play with me," Raito said, modestly. And, as he realised a moment later, suggestively.
"I would be happy to play with Raito-kun, if he would consider me as a partner?" L offered.
"Are you any good?" Raito asked. I'm blushing. I know I am. I can feel it. What the hell? Mikami never makes me blush!
"I was the English Junior Champion at one point," L said.
"In that case, I'd be happy to," Raito accepted.
"What do you want me to do about the terrorist case, Ryuuzaki?" Watari broke in, having apparently finished packing what L needed to take with him. "I've had the American Embassy on the phone asking me about it. It's causing trouble, someone trying to blow them up. They're having, um, diplomatic discussions with the Japanese government."
"He's not a terrorist," L said. "He's a professional killer. He was after a specific target, I told them that already."
"They say you can't have it both ways, Ryuuzaki," the older man shrugged. "If he's a professional assassin, they say he wouldn't have been stupid enough to set the timer on the bomb wrong by an hour."
"Maybe he had an accomplice," Raito speculated. "Possibly someone who lives in a different time zone and got confused adding on the hours. Maybe somewhere where they have daylight saving, that would account for the hour's difference."
"The wife!" L said. "I'm afraid I didn't consider her closely enough – she seemed so mousy."
"Sometimes the quiet ones are the worst," Raito offered.
"On the contrary, Raito-kun." L's face lit up in a wide and creepily attractive smile. "I think the loud and beautiful ones who turn heads in the street are definitely the worst."
"Are we going soon?" Raito changed the subject. What am I doing? Now I sound eager to be alone with him! Maybe I can overpower him when we get back to my place and escape – escape from my own apartment? What good is that going to do me?
"Soon – Yagami Soichiro is your father," L noted, glancing back at his laptop. "I have heard him speak of you on several occasions. He seems very proud of you. I must say, you really aren't what I expected."
"I'm not?" Raito wondered what exactly that meant.
"I didn't expect you to be so – gay," L explained.
"Is that a problem for you?" Raito said aggressively.
"On the contrary," L closed his laptop and smiled at the younger man. "Time to go, I think, Raito-kun."
Raito was annoyed to find the handcuffs being reapplied for the journey. He was even more annoyed when, after a shuffling journey to the elevator, he arrived at the hotel's main doors to find it was still raining and he'd forgotten his umbrella. Which he couldn't hold with cuffed hands anyway.
"I'm going to be soaked by the time I get to the car," he grumbled, looking wistfully at the large black Bentley that Watari had unfortunately had to park some distance down the street.
"Then let us make haste, Raito-kun," L said, bending down suddenly. Before he could utter a word of protest, Raito found himself swept up into the other man's arms and carried rapidly through the street to the car.
"What –" he began as he was deposited into the back seat, then fell silent. What would I say? Going on the rest of my performance tonight, saying anything would be a big mistake! And at least I'm dry... Hell, he's strong, isn't he? To say he doesn't look like much – I must weigh more than him but he carried me all that way and isn't even breathing hard. I wonder what he looks like under all those baggy clothes – no. I don't. I really don't.
They were silent during the drive to Raito's apartment, then the younger man waited as L and Watari removed the packing from the car.
"I could help if you took these cuffs off," Raito hissed in annoyance. "What do you think I'm going to do, Ryuuzaki, scurry off down the street with my feet tied together and leave you to do whatever you want to do in my apartment?"
"I do not believe in taking chances," was the detective's reply. "Raito-kun is a resourceful and highly intelligent man and now that I have secured him, I do not intend to risk losing him again."
"..."
"Where is your key?" L enquired, after they had walked, or in Raito's case, shuffled, over to his door.
"In my pants' pocket, as you know, since you searched me!" Raito said huffily.
"Then Raito-kun will excuse me." L put down the case he was holding and slid his hand into Raito's front pocket, feeling around for his keys.
"Uhnn!" Raito gasped involuntarily as L's questing fingers wandered into areas they had no right to be in. What is he doing? It doesn't take this length of time to find keys in a pocket when there's nothing else in there to confuse the issue!
"It's alarmed," he muttered as the detective's hand was finally withdrawn.
"I'm sorry, Raito-kun," L glanced down at the younger man's groin. "I didn't mean to frighten it."
"My apartment, baka!" Raito glared at the detective. "You need the code to switch off the alarm!"
"Whisper it to me," L leaned toward the auburn-haired man.
Raito bent to mutter the code into the mess of black hair presented to him. He smells good – what is that? Smells fruity. Mmm... his hair's really soft. Imagine that hair – no! Don't imagine that at all!
Raito sighed with relief when they were finally inside, Watari having left after a few muttered words with L and a cheery goodnight to the detective's auburn-haired host.
"If you take the cuffs off, I'll make some tea," the younger man offered, then huffed in exasperation as his phone rang.
"Quick, take them off!" he told L, waiting for the other man to unfasten his wrists, then grabbing for his phone.
"Hai."
"Raito?"
"Oh. Mikami."
"I finished early at the benefit, so I thought I'd come over –"
"No! You can't come over!" Raito frowned as L mouthed something at him, and shook his head in incomprehension. L pulled a marker out of his pocket and scribbled on the back of one of his files of case notes. Raito stared at what the man had written. Break up with him.
"I can make you soup," Mikami was saying when Raito turned his attention back to his call. "Soothe your headache away –"
"No!" Raito repeated. What does he mean, break up with him? Does he think I'm going to break up with my boyfriend just because – because what?
"Why not, Raito?" Mikami whined.
"Because – I don't know – I can't – Mikami, I have something to tell you."
"What is it, Raito, my sweet?"
"You – you can't come over because I have somebody here!"
"..."
"..."
"WHAT! What do you mean, somebody?"
"My headache got better, so I went out," Raito improvised. "Clubbing. And I met somebody."
"No! No, Raito!"
"Mikami, really, I'm sorry. But it wouldn't have worked out between us. I didn't even want to sleep with you."
"Do you want to sleep with – him?"
"No, of course not!" Raito paused, realising he was making a tactical error. "I mean, yes. Yes, I do. In fact, I'm lying in bed with him right now, stark naked."
"NO!" Mikami yelled so loud that even L winced and Raito had to hold the phone away from his ear.
"In fact, we were just about to do the deed when you called," Raito went on, spurred by some manic impulse that seemed to cause words to pour out of his mouth with nothing but the most minimal input from his brain. "He only took off the handcuffs so I could answer my phone."
"Handcuffs?" Mikami sounded as if he was about to collapse. "Handcuffs? What kind of pervert is this man who has you in his clutches?"
"Oh, he's the most perverse pervert you could ever wish to meet," Raito said, with a malicious glance at his smiling companion. "He has, uh, ropes and – and chains and things."
"What – things?" Mikami mumbled, brokenly.
"Uh, what kind of things, uh –" Raito rolled his eyes at L, who was scribbling frantically.
"Whips," Raito read, squinting to make out the hastily written words. "Vibrators. Anal – what? Oh. Anal beads. Spanking, uh, paddles. Leatherwear. And he wants me to, he wants me to, uh, wear a collar. A black one. And – ewww, suck his toes? No, that's okay, he wants to suck my toes."
"Raito, I can't believe –" the distraught journalist meeped.
"Mikami, I know it's difficult, but I simply need someone in my life who's more – more dominant than you are. Somebody who won't take no for an answer." Raito shook his head, appalled at the rubbish he seemed to be powerless to stop saying. He glared at the detective, who was now curled into a shaking ball on the floor, laughing wildly.
"I think -" Mikami sniffed, then began again. "I think you've been subjected to drugs or – or mind control, Raito! This isn't right! And – and I'm going to do something about it!"
Raito took his phone away from his ear and stared at it. It wasn't like Mikami to hang up on him. Perhaps that was a good sign. Then he turned his attention to the giggling detective.
"I can't believe I just had that conversation."
"I think you did very well, Raito-kun, to say you were working from cue cards," L spluttered.
"I need a shower," Raito said, weakly. "Please untie my legs, Ryuuzaki. I promise I won't attempt to flee my own apartment."
"Very well, Raito-kun," L struggled to his knees and complied with Raito's request, still chuckling to himself. "You know, I've never had so much fun in my life as I have tonight."
"Glad you think it's fun," Raito said, dourly. "How am I going to explain to him, when all this is over?"
"You're thinking of going back to him?"
"He is my boyfriend."
"But you don't have sex with him."
"Sex isn't everything, Ryuuzaki."
"But it's something, Raito-kun," L said, serious now, his finger sneaking up toward his mouth and Raito's eyes unable not to follow it. "I'd be the last person to say I'm an expert on what couples do together, but even I know that, without sex, a relationship is a friendship rather than a – a boyfriendship."
"Maybe," Raito admitted. "But he's the best I've been able to find."
"Raito-kun should not accept second-best," L declared, getting to his feet. "He deserves better than that. He should wait until Mr Right occurs and sweeps him off his feet."
"That's – romantic," Raito stared at the shaggy-haired detective in surprise. "Well, if he's coming, he's certainly taking his time."
"I'm sure he's on his way, Raito-kun!" L put his head on one side, giving Raito one of his wide, startling smiles.
"Yes," Raito said, not quite sure for the moment what he was agreeing to. He looks so cute when he smiles like that... he's quite attractive really. He has a great sense of humor... what the fuck am I thinking?
"Why don't you and your cakes make yourselves at home," the cinnamon-haired man suggested, giving up on making sense out of his own motivation for now. "Have some tea. I'm going to shower. And maybe wash my mouth out with soap."