Authors Note: Thank you so much everyone who reviewed! And of course to everyone else who has taken the time to read this! :)

L is pretty much protagonising this part obsessively like the last although I do manage to get a bit from Light's point of view later. As L is the one leading the story forward I guess that is quite natural...any who we all love L anyways don't we?

The events in this chapter take place on Tuesday afternoon/evening, October 19th

Misa has been released but has not recovered the remaining Death Note which Light burried or made any acts as Kira on the outside. The handcuffs are off and Light only spends the days at Task Force Headquarters.


Isolation

It was always dark within the main complex of the building that formed the centre of the Kira investigation, always the dull half light of a modern design functional workspace. The only light that presided there was artificial electric lighting, and usually there was very little of that. Mainly it was the computers, the many monitors and the large screen that was fitted into the far wall, which provided the pale blue-white illumination of an artificial environment. This type of lighting, this type of unnatural environment was one which L was very used to. His skin was bleached by that artificial light to a freakish white; it spoke of his unnatural life, unnourished by the sun and thriving world of colour and heavy substance. He was used to living in this manor; he lived in city buildings, behind smoked glass and amidst powerful enabling and isolating technology.

He regarded Light from a distance, from the corner furthest from the young man, the best vantage point in his latest domain where paranoia and obsession solidified into architecture. Light contrasted with him vastly in terms of appearance; his skin was lightly tanned, his hair soft and neat, his features naturally clear and attractive. However there was something unnatural about him still, L could see that, probably only him, the surface impression satisfied everyone else's shallow eyes. The excessively meticulous nature of Light's actions prickled at his brain when he observed him, his behaviour so sharp and focussed. Light appeared to the world as a sophisticated and social young man but L had observed how calculated Lights behaviour was, how exact, how precise.

L had noticed immediately in just his initial investigations into Light Yagami. The teenager's own domain and his private space had set his teeth on edge. had His room was completely and utterly neat, he kept all of his books organised tight on the bookcase, his clothes all hung on hooks in his wardrobe neatly and folded in his drawers, every single item that Light owned had its own place and was filed away. That feat was not hard though because it seamed that Light Yagami had no personal items whatsoever. The only things he seamed to own that filled the spaces within furniture was books and papers. There were no ornaments or items cluttering up the surfaces, no unnecessary or decorative items of any kind. Light was only seventeen at the time L had been studying him and it seamed that Light had never been a child judging from the contents of his room. There were no remnants of any toys or construction kits or childhood drawings or anything of that nature. L had wondered whether all those items been removed long ago, completely eradicated the moment Light felt he had outgrown them. A colder theory in L's mind suggested that there had never been anything like that to begin with. Light possessed nothing remotely recreational let alone sentimental.

Light was not normal, he was not normal in the way that he moved, in the way that he walked, and sat, never naturally, never in a sprawling unreserved way. L had spent the best part of three months chained to him and had watched him in every unnatural motion. He saw every element of Light that scraped and jarred with normality. He kept his hair so very neat, every strand in place. He had watched Light grooming in the mirror. He had watched him take his time buttoning up his shirt, straightening the cuffs. He knew Light was wrong, down to his smooth clean fingernails that all ended in identical perfect curves. (1)

The isolation was far too familiar.

L bit his thumb and cast his eyes around the rest of the room. The other members of the investigation team were generally employed in something but there was not the level of intent and activity that there had been just a few days ago. L let his eyes fall on the black notebook that lay upon the table in front of him. The notebook was under a great deal of security, it was locked away for a large portion of the time, but L had it brought out every day and laid out in view as it had been since the first day they had obtained it. He liked to look through it, inspecting every page. L had spent hours going over the notebook to be absolutely sure of all possibilities. He had examined each page for imperfections, to see if any were uneven, a slightly different colour or texture. He ran his nails down the edges, down the centre and the binding. He had picked at the cover, at the corners and at the lettering. He had experimented going through and trying to count the pages. He had numbered each one in grey pencil in the bottom right corner, the marks remained but the pages went on further than he could count in the course of three hours.

He stared at the notebook now; the one essential piece of evidence, the key which had unlocked the case for him in his mind. The answer to all his questions about Kira, sealing up all those irritating gaps in understanding. He ran his fingers up and down its cover thoughtfully. Every other man on the team was frightened of the book; they didn't want to look at it, to go near it, to touch it. They looked at him nervously whenever he sat running his fingers over it, picking at it. They had all touched the notebook and were bound to it; they were frightened what would happen if it was damaged. Matsuda had moaned that he wished he had not touched it when they had read the rules and L wished that the others had not touched it too. Then he could do anything to it without them glancing at him tensely when he just ever so slightly tore a dull white sheet.

L needed to touch it, to look at it directly, to stare into it unflinchingly. His eyes flickered up towards Light again. Light had his back to him but L was sure that he was watching him from the corner of his eye.

He straightened up, at least to as straight as he ever did stand which at best was always a hunched slouching, and began to make his way towards the former police chief Soichiro Yagami. The man was sorting through some files but turned to give L his complete attention when he drew close.

"Yagami san," L said quietly and in a very soft, formal tone, "Would it mean any kind of inconvenience to Light or your family if I were to request that he stay here for tonight?" Soichiro's face was set, tired and cold, and he was evidently displeased and anxious about this request and what the purposes of it was.

"I was under the impression that given the recent evidence Light had finally been cleared of all suspicion," he replied roughly and evenly. He sounded a little desperate underneath the gruff force of his tone, there was always an element of pleading when it came to discussing his son with the detective. He was completely frustrated with the man for refusing to completely absolve his son from suspicion and deperately distressed by the fact that his son was so keenly considered. L moved his head to one side slightly, nibbling his thumb whilst looking up at the man owlishly.

"I have acknoledged that in the light of recent evidence I can no longer consider Light a suspect," L said, choosing his words carefully but keeping a confident reasuring tone that he knew would move the older man more easily, it was best if he was reasured, "that is why I requested this rather than demanded it."

"Why do you request his time then?" Soichiro asked cautiously.

"I require his assistance with the case," L said simply. This reassured the man a great deal and he visibly relaxed. The fact that Light was valued for his abilities by the detective was another commonly known fact and one which made him very proud of his son.

"Have you asked him then?" He replied.

"I will," L said, "but I wanted to make sure that it would not be a problem. I have put Light under a lot of pressure during the course of this case. I know that if I ask him he will of course agree, he is eager to solve this case entirely, as dedicated as I am, but he will do so regardless of other obligations or circumstances. He is very," he paused for a moment, "careless in that respect. I want to consider his family and his well-being." Soichiro considered this dully, without suspicion.

"Right," he said quietly with a sigh, "if it is necessary to the investigation then I cannot think of any great objections, but please don't put him through too much." L nodded silently.

He had turned immediately to make these arrangements with Light, crossing the room to where he sat, his handsome young face illuminated by the artificial light from the computer in front of him. Light did not turn around and acknowledge him when he approached. He only watched him in the reflection upon his monitor with a slight smile taking his lips as L drew closer.

"Yes, Ryuzaki?" He murmured in a soft almost seductive tone. Light was like thick dark poison that tated like black chocolate, L thought. His hand rested on the back of Light's chair, his knuckles just pressing against Light's back. In the past, at times like this, he had always wanted to take a fistful of Light's auburn hair and pull and twist so that Light's expression was wiped away by a grimace of pain. He realised now that this was little more than a surface fix, when he felt he needed to grasp deep inside Light and pull at the core.

'You deserve to die,' he had whispered to him once, when the chain between them had been removed, as they stood in the dark of the corridor with Light preparing to leave what had been his home and prison. Silence had reigned preceding his statement as Light buttoned up his coat, sliding the buttons carefully through the material cuts, looping his fingers. The expression that Light had directed towards L was a narrow-eyed look of cold anger, disgust, loathing. He hadn't heard the pain in L's voice, it was too subtle, like the pain in Lights own eyes. L had wondered if he had imagined it. It had felt like he had imagined Light when the man had stepped out of the door. The hallway was empty. The building was empty. It was as if Light Yagami and the time he had spent with him chained to his wrist had never existed.

L looked at his own and Light's reflection. He was behind Light's eyes. His own eyes were deep black hollows of somber depths, pure and smooth like black glass, like mirrors. He let a significant silence pass between them before speaking. Light's smile fell away as if it was only half-real and his eyes became uncertain, drawn by the unusual look in his companion's eyes.

"I want you to stay behind tonight when the rest of the investigation has left," L told him and then he left him before Light could reply or argue with the command. He saw Light watching him in the screen as he walked away but he didn't turn around. L knew that he wouldn't acknowledge him, he would not have followed L and demanded more of an explanation. Light's eyes had stayed upon the screen for the remaining hours of that working day while L had sat down in one corner and worked his way through a banoffee pie.

As the day drew to a close one by one the members of the team left. They came up to L awkardly before leaving, giving him a respectful nod which served as a goodbye. L just looked at them sullenly and muttered whatever comments or polite words were needed. Soichiro Yagami was the last to leave, saying an uncertain goodbye to his son as L rose from his seat and came to stand beside them. Soichiro glanced at L who stood with his fingers at his lips, playing with his bottom lip, his large owl-like eyes staring up at the man innocently from beneath his black hair.

"I will see you tomorrow Light," Soichiro said. It was addressed to Light but his eyes stayed upon L and it seamed almost like a question.

"Probably yes," L murmured quietly. Soichiro still seamed very uncomfortable with this arrangement. There was still a glimmer of unease and suspicion in his eyes but Light smiled confidently at his father and wished him a safe journey and good night's rest. His father nodded and turned and left Light and L standing side by side, neither moving as they watched Soichiro Yagami disappear through the secure steel doors.

L was left now with just Light in the dull, eerily lit main complex of investigation headquarters. It seamed very empty, only papers and empty chairs remained. This technological cavern held the two men in silence and uncertainty. Light stood silently with his eyes fixed on L expectantly. L slowly crossed the room and turned off the last computers which were still on; his and Lights. The eerie blue-white lights flitted away into darkness with a barely audable whirring and click deep within the machines. Light watched this curiously, his arms folded sullenly.

"You do not want me for working down here on the investigation then?" He comented, a sharpness to his voice.

"No," said L fixing his eyes upon Light for just a moment, the glassy black pupils catching the low electric lighting briefly, before turning away. Light followed him as L left the room. He lead them through the corridors to the elevator and after the doors closed behind the pair of them Light saw him press all of the buttons so each was lit. They got off at the third floor but the elevator kept ascending in accordance with L's indiscriminate selection. It was not much, Light knew, but it was clear that L was trying to dull the trail. He had stared at the camera in the elevator after he had seen how L had selected every possible destination. The detective had caught him looking at the dull black lens and his slight smile had indicated to Light that his suspicions were correct; L had disabled the camera within the elevator. He had not commented but had smiled back at his companion, a challenging smile. There was nothing L could do to him now, he knew he had him in the palm of his hands. In a couple of days, definitely less than a week, the man would be dead. He was certain that his plan would progress accordingly. When the killing began again L would have to try investigating Misa and then he knew that his actions, jeopardising the young woman's freedom and indeed life, would move Rem to act. L would be dead soon. L would be dead. He would win. It thrilled him whenever he thought of it, it was a hard, actually painful excitement. It was strangely intense, as if mixed of a thousand throbbing emotions. In any case though Light would have had to said, if he were at liberty to confess breathlessly to it, that it was the greatest most real sensation of his life. Truly this would be his first murder, his first true murder. He had dwelt on it a little, reflecting upon his past actions, the path he had taken, drawing surely and perfectly now to a close. He had killed from a distance previously, it was true that that distance had at times been narrowed, he had witnessed some deaths, but it was still a distance. He had never closed the distance between himself and his victim as he had with L, so completely and entirely, mentally and emotionally. He knew L. This would be his first true murder, a murder where he knew he was taking a human being, taking a soul. He was going to taste it all, he was going to feel the warmth drain from L's flesh, he was going to see the light go out of his eyes. His death was all his blood flowed for, all his heart beat and pumped for with that furious compulsion holding all of his faculties. The death, the end was what he was walking towards, the terrifying thrill thundering through him with every step.

They proceeded down the third floor corridor until they came to a room toward the end. It had a keypad which L punched a code into with Light watching sullenly over L's shoulder.

"There are a total of twenty codes set for this door," L informed him, "they are set in rotation, therefore the code changes is everytime it is entered until, that is, it comes back to the initial code." It was clearly an answer to a question that Light hadn't been considering.

"You don't want me to know how to access this door," Light concluded in a dull, bored voice.

"That is correct," L replied as they both stepped inside. The room was a relatively plain one, Light observed upon entering, it was bare apart from a bed, a desk and a small table. The furniture itself was all it contained apart from a digital clock upon the wall. There was no windows, light was provided by electric lights set into the ceiling. L turned and punched another code into the door and then turned to face Light. He stared at him intently and Light felt himself become a little uneasy under that gaze.

"I have locked the door and the code will now have changed again," L told him slowly and carefully, "we are locked in here and there is no way you can leave unless I let you." Light narrowed his eyes at L angrily but kept his lips tight while L continued. "There are absolutely no cameras or bugs or devices within this room. It is the only one within this building which is completely closed off. I checked it over a couple of hours ago to make sure that it had been definitely stripped of all equipment as I had requested for Watari to do." Light's eyes narrowed further, he was confused and felt far more uneasy. It was very strange that L would check on Watari's actions, he after all trusted the man completely and had never felt the need for such a thing before. He could only conclude that he had to take precautions so extreme because of the severity of whatever he had planned. He could not think of what would cause L to act in this way. L was simply staring at him with his deep black eyes, that penetrating stare that found his own eyes and locked them.

"Why have you brought me here?" Light said eventually when L continued to say nothing. L tilted his head to one side slightly and paused while he considered his reply.

"To talk to you," he said eventually


Behold my cliffhanger! I hope it makes you eager for the next part.

And look I have a footnote:

(1) L had informed Light of his impression too, he was not one who kept his opinions to himself, especially in terms of comments on Lights behaviour. His assessment had earned an incredulous sneer from the younger man coupled with a disgusted look thrown so carefully over L's form that the comment on his own appearance and manners was quite unnecessary. Although Light had, of course, proceeded to make it anyway.

I was gonna put that in but then it ruined the point I was trying to make and even writing it made me lose my train of thought a little...

Please do review everyone! Reviews make me so happy happy!!