AN: If I had rights to the characters, the universe would implode and Matsuda would be blonde. That is all. Oh, and thankies to The Serial Typist for pointing out an error in my logic back in chapter 1. It's been kinda fixed, and you win awesome points.

Holy inferiority complex, Batman! It starts in L's section!

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Everything
3: Games

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The unasked question hung in the air, like the 800 pound gorilla nobody wanted to really mention. Or perhaps something more awkward. L considered things more awkward, and decided on a dead body, hung from the ceiling from a noose, full of maggots. That would be considerably more awkward, yes.

He watched, frankly intrigued, as Light's hand tightened infinitesimally around his chopsticks and for two whole seconds, his jaw was still. Filled with sushi. Euch, sushi was salty. Remembering that this was meant to seem like a casual conversation, he leaned forward and strained his neck slightly, noting that the teen's eyes were a lighter shade of brown around the pupils, and that there was a dark ring of coffee brown closer to the whites.

Slowly, too slowly, Light chewed the sushi, and then swallowed, taking far too many moments to drink about half of his water bottle. L's toes curled around the edge of his seat impatiently; he wanted this dead body's rope to be cut and the corpse to be dragged out of the room already, to know how Light would react. Infuriatingly slowly, he dabbed his upper lip with a napkin and took a small breath.

It probably took twenty whole seconds for the question to even begin to be answered. Much, much too long. He commanded his twitching toes to still, lest he let his impatience show in more obvious ways. But, finally, Light's voice started forming words.

"Well, who wouldn't be? Kira is something new, someone who is affecting life as we know it right now. Their methods may be harsh, but it does seem like they are working for the better." He took another bite of sushi, and L's toes curled around the edge of his seat. Stalling. However, he noted that Light purposely did not refer to Kira as a he or a she, keeping pronoun simplicity somewhat out of the equation.

He needed to pry more out of Light. "But Kira is a simple murderer, is he not? Why should a simple murderer be idolized, particularly in a class about religion and ethics? Clearly Kira has no sense of ethics, and he is most certainly not an idol. If anything, he is a terrorist." He plucked the top of his temple off and swallowed the marshmallow whole, eyes darting back to Light in a fraction of a second. He could not afford to miss a single reaction.

Annoyingly casually, Light swallowed. "What makes him a terrorist? He only kills those who have been deemed criminals by the general public. It's more of a form of perfect justice." L glanced down at his plate. No sushi left. No more distractions. He grinned to himself, twisting Light's words in his mind already.

L blinked, leaning forward even more, needing to know his suspect's every reaction, every slight movement, what his body language meant...how to tell if it was fake, how to tell if it was real..."Humanity does not deserve perfect justice, though. Humanity is flawed, therefore the punishment exacted on those incarcerated should also be flawed. Otherwise there is no balance."

Light frowned, and leaned back. "You're really close, it's bothering me." He looked distinctly uncomfortable. Close...what exactly did me mean by that? Were his words too close to insinuating the truth, or was he physically too close? It may have been both. Then again, it may have been neither, he could have been referring to something completely different.

"I'm sorry, am I making you uncomfortable?" he asked blankly, leaning back onto his heels and gazing unfocusedly at the temple. He pulled out the bottom of a pillar, and the whole thing crumpled. Light visibly relaxed, and crossed his legs. L took this to mean as an indication that he was comfortable, and filed it away for later use.

"Yeah. Sorry." He downed more of his water, and L watched his distorted features through the plastic.

"You could have said something sooner, you know. I would have been willing to stop." Light had tried to change the topic, but this simple move told L more about Light Yagami's sense of justice than he probably would have learned if the conversation actually had continued. Light leaned back, and L heard something in his neck pop. He mirrored the movement curiously, and several loud cracks sounded in his ears. That kind of hurt...but it felt good. He returned his gaze to Light, who blinked, eyes slightly wide.

"Ah...yes, but it would have been impolite." There was more to it than that, L could tell from the tone. However, pressing for more information could make Light even more of a closed book, and prying him open again would take precious time.

The warning bell rang. L wished a pox on Father Time and all of his spawn accordingly. Firstly because it cut his conversation with Light short, secondly because his pockets would only hold about half of the marshmallows, and he didn't get to start eating his candy bar. Rather effortlessly, he scooped the half of the marshmallows that would not fit into his hands and put them in his mouth. Light watched, mildly bug-eyed. "You have a study period next, do you not?" he asked, voice horribly thick through the white fluff.

"Pardon?" Light asked. L swallowed, feeling the half-chewed mush slide down his esophagus, and repeated himself. Light nodded, softly. "Yes, how did you guess?"

L shrugged, filling his pockets. "I assume that if you had a class next, you would be in a much greater hurry to get out of this area and to said class." It was a much better response than "I purposely set up my schedule to coincide perfectly with yours so I could watch you and attempt to determine whether or not you are Kira."

Light nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, I suppose that would be true. So is it safe to assume the same for you, seeing as you too seem perfectly relaxed?" L grinned slightly, a perfectly calculated gesture that he left open to Light's interpretation, and nodded.

"Considering that it seems todays classes serve no acual purpose and there has been no actual work assigned, would Light-kun like to play a game?" L paused tactfully, gnawing on his thumbnail. "Tennis, perhaps?" That was the one sport they had a good chance of being evenly matched at, other than chess or checkers or Go or any card game, games which were almost garaunteed to last longer than an hour when played between two people of exceptional intelligence.

Light bit his lip and ran his hand through his hair as the next bell rang, signaling that all students should be in their respective classes. Then a competitive cheshire grin spread across his features.

"Sure, Ryuuga."

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It was the farthest Light had gotten from Ryuuga with the strange man's focus still directly on him, but Light found no relief in it. Then again, he was darting back and forth across the tennis court, diving and swinging for the ball in ways he hadn't been forced to do since perhaps the final round of that tournament so long ago.

At least he was putting up a damn good fight. Ryuuga, too, was running back and forth on the balls of his large feet, having discarded his shoes after the first round, mentioning that they impaired his movement. Each shot was a calculated shot, either ridiculously far away from Light or so close he had to fight his reflexes to dodge the bright green projectile. However, a single good shot from Ryuuga sent Light crashing to the ground, ball feebly scraping the tip of his racket and hitting the ground once...twice.

"Best two out of three!" Light called as he picked himself off the ground, and Ryuuga nodded almost absently. Nobody could deny that Light was a sore loser. Not even Light himself. He absolutely hated losing, hated it like Kira hated L, like he hated criminals and stupid people...he hated it so, so much. Behind him, Ryuk chuckled.

Light threw the green ball into the air, pulled his arm back, and struck, aiming for the far left corner. Ryuuga was moving before he actually struck, running close to the ground with his shoulders hunched and racket out. It bounced off the tip of the racket and barely made it over the net, and Light lurched forward to knock it back over to his opponent's side. Ryuuga didn't make it.

"Competitive, Light-kun," he commented, examining the ball he had pinched between his index finger and thumb. Even with the odd grip, he served perfectly well, and Light managed to return in full force straight towards his competition's wrist...but Ryuuga ducked and returned the ball with just as much, if not more, brute force than Light did. His racket vibrated as he hit it square on, and the round lasted probably five minutes before Light missed by maybe an inch and the ball hit the fence before bouncing to the ground.

"Dammit," he muttered to himself as he picked up the ball. He rotated his shoulder, and was just about to serve, when Ryuuga bent backwards. In the interest of not seeming like a cheater, he waited for the resulting cracks (his spine had to be in horrible condition) to fade out of the court before launching the ball with all his strength as far away from Ryuuga as he could. Again, Ryuuga started moving before the ball even started falling back towards Light for the serve, and also again, he barely caught it and sent it just over the net again.

Light missed. He swore under his breath, glanced around, and noticed for the first time that their game had an audience. His name and Ryuuga's were being tossed around, and someone mentioned that Middle School Champion title he had earned. Ryuuga simply smirked, a move that both threw Light off with its foriegn nature on the man's face and made him nervous because again it was obvious that the movement was faked.

He served, and L returned it with more than brute force, but also with considerable skill, as Light could have sworn on the Death Note that he was aiming to Light's immediate right, but...the ball went to the left. Light felt like a fool, but then he tried to mimic the movement to an extent, and got a point. He could still win this...

"40-30," Ryuuga called, before tossing the ball lightly and slamming it to Light's far right. He moved quickly, returned the serve, and sent it just under the competition's racket. It practically stuck between the racket and the ground for a moment before rolling towards the fence. "Hm. Deuce."

Another serve, another return, six more hits and...Ryuuga had stumbled, it looked like, but Light was still going to take that point. "Advantage," he called, and a smile spread Ryuuga's features. This one certainly didn't look faked, at least not as obviously as the smirk did. Light was so caught up in analyzing Ryuuga's expression, he didn't notice the man's arm moving until it was too late. Despite his admittedly sluggish efforts, the ball sailed past him, and Ryuuga rocked back onto his heels, the satisfied smile looking honestly genuice.

"Duece," he said again, the grin painting his features.

Light frowned, served to the other man's immediate left, barely caught the return, and sent the other man diving towards the net. He missed. At this point, their match was basically cat-and-mouse, and Light was currently winning. "Advantage," he said smugly, this time keeping a close eye on the other man as his arm rose and he sent a powerful serve to the other side of the court. It was returned with now practiced difficulty, and this volley lasted maybe seven minutes until the black-haired man's return skimmed the top of the net. Barely. And hell, Light wasn't giving up the game out of the goodness of his heart.

"Game," he announced picking up the ball where it had rolled to a stop.

"Whoever wins the next game wins the match, Light-kun," Ryuuga said around his thumbnail. In the corner of the court, Ryuk chuckled. Most of the crowd seemed to be cheering for Light, shouting his name excitedly. A short-haired girl near the fence, however, was practically wailing for Ryuuga, and Light made a mental note to ask Sayu if she knew her.

However, the number of people started to diwndle when the game yet again reached a duece, each player gaining an advantage and then losing it, until all that really remained of the crowd was the girl who wanted Ryuuga to win, and a small group of people that were hardly paying attention. Pity, he thought, because finally--finally--he saw an opening. And he took it.

"Game, set, and match," Light said smugly, as Ryuuga's head turned towards the fence, a brief moment of bewilderment flashing across his face. Light reveled in the sincerity of it, because there was no way that emotion of shock and slight dismay was fake, and it was one of the only real expression of emotion Light had coaxed out of the abnormality.

Then a conspiratorial grin spread Ryuuga's features, and Light felt as if he was missing something very obvious. He practically hated himself for missing it, and hated himself for vaguely hoping the other man would explain what was missing. However, the only words the man uttered were short and relatively meaningless.

"Good game, Light-kun."

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AN: Somewhere around here is the time Light's daddy goes poot. Hrmm. Yes, that is Kyouko. Yes, I remember her name. No, I do not need a life. Rawr.

-Pepper