Light stared at the computer screen with bleak disinterest.
It was the same thing he did everyday and staring at the same information for ten hours in one sitting was really starting to get old. "Oi, Ryuuzaki-san," he had slapped the '-san' back onto his name whenever they were around anyone but alone, in their room late at night, it didn't exist.
It had been three weeks since that night when Ryuuzaki had first fallen asleep next to Light and nothing eventful had happened since then. Light's life had become very dull and it was starting to get on his nerves.
"Nani Yagami-kun?" Ryuuzaki didn't even look away from the screen which kind of pissed Light off; he knew the genius had memorized every word about Kira in that computer.
Light stood from his chair and stomped over to Ryuuzaki's computer, the rest of the investigation looking up from whatever they were doing to watch in shock at Light's sudden movement. Light grabbed Ryuuzaki's jaw and turned his face to his, "Look at me when I'm talking to you."
As shocking as this aggressive behavior was from the slightly timid Light the rest of the group was shocked when Ryuuzaki did…nothing. He just sat there, his eyes watching Light carefully, no insults falling from his pale lips, no physical reaction at all except to wince when Light's grip tightened at his lack of response.
"This is unlike you, Raito-kun."
The investigation team was floored.
Light dropped Ryuuzaki's chin quickly, backing away and apologizing as he did so. "I don't know what came over me…"
"That is quite all right," Ryuuzaki dismissed the behavior as nothing and Light became curios.
"Why aren't you spouting Kira percentages at me? Something like that should make you go all nuts about it."
Ryuuzaki paused in his random typing and glanced at Light, "You are restless, you haven't been sleeping well lately and you are extremely bored. Under these circumstances most people like Raito-kun would crack and lash out for no particular reason if only for the slightest bit of release from boredom and with no thought to the consequences."
Matsuda stood up and was about to say something when Soichiro stopped him with a hand to his shoulder and a shake of his head.
Light sat down in the chair beside Ryuuzaki's and stared at the young adult intensely. "You have been acting very weird lately."
"Yes I have, Raito-kun. Good observational skills." The detective looked at Light with a blank face as he popped a sugar cube into his mouth and waited for a rebuttal. Instead the two went into a staring contest, one where the first to blink loses.
"Misa-Misa is here!" cried a high-pitched voice as a blonde haired beauty bounced into the room. Matsuda looked elated at the sight of the girl. "Misa-Misa is very sorry that she hasn't been here for the past few weeks. She's been very bus with her job." The girl flew at Light and clung to him, kissing his cheek and blushing like he had been the one to kiss her. "Misa-Misa missed Raito-kun, did Raito-kun miss Misa?"
Light forced a smile as he tore his gaze away from Ryuuzaki, "Yes," he said simply though it was a lie. Misa pretended not to notice.
"Oi, Misa would like to go on a date with her Raito-kun!"
Light normally would have found someway, anyway, to get out of dating Misa but he actually agreed, glaring when Ryuuzaki opened his mouth to protest. "We haven't done anything useful in so long I doubt anything will happen while we are out."
Ryuuzaki slumped even farther and Light winced at his poor posture and at the fact that Misa squealed in delight right next to his ear. "I guess it wouldn't be such a bad idea…" he grumbled for a moment monotonously before noticing that everyone was looking at him, "Nani?"
"You agreed without fighting." Soichiro walked up to Ryuuzaki and placed the back of his hand against the man's pale forehead. "Ryuuzaki-san, you're burning up!"
"It's nothing," Ryuuzaki slapped the man's hand away and stared at him impassively though he knew the damage was done.
Watari burst into the room moments later, shotgun in hand and aimed at Light. "Ryuuzaki-sama, why didn't you tell me you were sick?"
Light mentally groaned at his horrid luck. The one and only time Ryuuzaki wants to go out is when he is sick. Could he be any less lucky?
"Because I am not," he turned his gaze to Watari but the old man didn't miss how his black eyes had jittered to Light for a moment and Watari became very angry.
"What have you done to Ryuuzaki-sama?" he glared hatefully at Light and the teen jumped back in surprise.
"Nothing, I swear." He looked at Ryuuzaki for him to back him up and the young man sighed.
That sigh turned into a horrid coughing fit.
Ryuuzaki gasped in pain, grasping at his chest with one hand while the other was in front of his mouth. He whimpered slightly when he pulled his hand away from his mouth and a chunk of something black and gooey sat there covered in blood. His eyes widened impossibly and he looked at Watari with a hopeless glint in his huge eyes before he fell out of his chair. Light rushed forward, instinct making him catch Ryuuzaki before he hit the harsh floor and hurt himself even more than he already was.
"Ryuuzaki!" Light yelled in shock, brushing a strand of hair from the man's face with the tenderness of a lover without realizing it. "Ehru, are you ok?" the group behind the two were in shock.
Today had turned out to be very interesting indeed.
Light stared at Ryuuzaki as the man slept in the hospital bed. For some unknown reason his left lung had been punctured and Light still had no idea as to why he had coughed up chunks of his own lung. He knew the results from the x-rays should have come back by now but they were either keeping him in the dark or there was something horridly wrong.
Light was a mess in any case.
He didn't understand how this could have happened, and so suddenly. It didn't make any sense and Light was getting more irritable everyday that he didn't know anything. He clenched his fists, wanting so desperately for Ryuuzaki to open his eyes that it almost hurt. He couldn't finish this case without Ryuuzaki; he couldn't catch Kira without Ryuuzaki.
The anger slid from his body and he slumped into the uncomfortable chair he had dragged up to Ryuuzaki's hospital bed hours earlier—maybe even days, he wasn't sure anymore. Light had been unhand-cuffed from Ryuuzaki when he was admitted because the hospital didn't allow it and they most certainly didn't allow Watari to hold a shotgun in his face so Light was free while Ryuuzaki was in the hospital.
He wasn't happy though.
Sure he liked not having the detective cling to him twenty-four-seven but the price for his freedom was too high.
He dropped his head into his hands, feeling completely useless. He hadn't slept in four days (ever since Ryuuzaki had been admitted) and the nurses had given up on kicking him out after visiting hours. When they had used burly men against him he had gone psycho and knocked one of them out with a single blow to the head and had incapacitated the other by kicking him so hard in the balls that the man had puked. And that was within three seconds of seeing the men enter the room. They could have been anyone but Light hadn't risked getting caught off guard and dragged out of the room to figure out their intentions.
The others had gone without much fight, Watari tried to stay but he had been dragged out, incapable of forcing the fools that carried him into letting him stay like Light had.
And Light just sat there, head in his hands, trying his best not to nod off: What if something happened to Ryuuzaki while he was asleep? The thought horrified him.
"R-Raito-kun?" Light jumped to his feet when he heard Ryuuzaki's voice. "What a-are you doing here?"
Light calmed himself before he responded, "I was just…" and then he realized that he had no idea why he had wasted all his free time just sitting in that stupid chair or standing on the floor while watching Ryuuzaki, hoping he would get better. Ryuuzaki raised an eyebrow, his usually emotionless face twisted slightly with pain. It was barely there, just the smallest tightness to his lips, his eyes a tiny bit too moist, his cheeks even held more color than usual.
"You were w-what?" Ryuuzaki took a shallow breath and wheezed as a frown formed on his pale face, "I cannot inhale very much."
Light sat back down in the whicker chair and sighed to himself. "I can't believe it!" he exclaimed and laughed at Ryuuzaki's confused expression. "I was given freedom while you were out. Four days. I could have done whatever I wanted yet I stayed here and watched you sleep. I must be really stupid…" he sighed, a bitter smile on his face and Ryuuzaki returned to his usual façade of blankness.
"What d-do you mean you…" he gasped for a moment, clutching his chest with a hand that had a heart-monitoring device attached to his bony finger. Light stood helplessly but the moment of pain passed and Ryuuzaki continued as if that moment of agony had never happened. "You were given f-freedom? Why?" he seemed angry at the thought.
"The hospital didn't allow the handcuffs." He shrugged his shoulders and sat down, determined to stay there no matter what happened because jumping up so much would make him look like a fool.
The door burst open and a nurse walked in, shock on her pretty face. "You shouldn't be awake yet, Ryuuzaki-san."
Ryuuzaki just stared at her blankly as she walked up and did a quick examination of his lungs. She pulled the scope from her ears for a moment, "Have you talked much since you woke up?"
"Was he not supposed to?" Light asked, a worried look on his face despite him trying to hide it.
"No! If he uses his lungs more than necessary then his left lung could collapse again." She looked mortified at the idea of something like that happening. She was young and pretty, the cruelty of this business had yet to reach her.
"D-do you know why they collapsed in-in the first place?"
The nurse scolded Ryuuzaki for a moment before she answered his question. "We believe it was a mixture of bronchitis and tuberculosis. Though it was so sudden and violent that we want to keep you here for a while longer. The doctors did an x-ray of your chest cavity while you were out: we found a hole in your left lung though we have no idea how it could have opened up on its own. It's small so don't worry, it will heal itself on its own as long as you don't strain it too much." She smiled at Light, blushing slightly.
"You could have told me that sooner, rather than making me worry over him for no reason." Light muttered angrily and pouted slightly and very uncharacteristically.
Her blush grew darker, "Well, I thought it was cute how worried you were about your lover."
Light spluttered and stood up (completely forgetting about his pledge to himself) and got into her face, "He is not my lover," he seethed angrily, trying to play off his blush for a flush of anger.
"Oh!" she gasped, "I'm so sorry, I just assumed when you knocked the guard guys out…"
Light growled in annoyance, "He was trying to drag me out of the hospital."
"Why w-w-would you do that?" Light's eyes widened when he remembered that Ryuuzaki was awake now.
"Uh, um…" he stumbled, trying to think of a plausible excuse. He sighed, knowing it was too late to try to fool Ryuuzaki, "I did it because I wanted to stay with you," his lips were tight with anger and he glared at the nurse for making him have to tell Ryuuzaki that embarrassing truth. When Light looked at Ryuuzaki though the young man had the barest hint of a smile.
"Arigatou, Raito-kun."
Ryuuzaki had to spend three more days in the hospital as his left lung healed itself. Watari had brought Ryuuzaki and Light laptops and the newest files of the Kira killings to give them something to pass the time with but the two were restless the entire time they were there.
The moment Ryuuzaki stepped out of the hospital he demanded that Light be re-handcuffed to him. Light had complied, ignoring how he felt when the cold steel squeezed the flesh on his wrist: his freedom was gone once more. But, to Light's utter despair, he felt better then he had the entire week not attached to Ryuuzaki's wrist via the six foot chain. He pressed the palms of his hands to his closed eyelids and rubbed them, putting pressure enough on them to make his head hurt with the sensation and caused random shapes of different color to flash in his mind that were mostly deep shades of purple and navy blue.
Ryuuzaki climbed into the back of the rather sleek black car that Watari would be driving. Light slid in behind the man, thinking of hateful things to try and stop the feelings that were being revealed to him that he didn't want to believe. They were random for god's sake! He had never felt any type of romantic feelings for anyone before and the first person he lusts after is someone who wants to convict him of a horrible crime that Light could never possibly commit? Sure the freak had an intellect that matched his own, and he had a personality that automatically made them rivals but these feelings were taking it too far! Light casually glanced over at Ryuuzaki and found the man staring intently at him.
"What?" he snapped, his honey brown eyes alight with anger.
"What is Yagami-kun thinking of?" Light was a little surprised at the sudden name change.
"Nothing you need to worry about."
Ryuuzaki tilted his head to the side, "But why would Yagami-kun be thinking of something that is obviously making him frustrated?"
"You just don't quit, do you?" Light gave Ryuuzaki an annoyed look. The detective just stared at him, waiting for a reply to what he said as he blinked once or twice owlishly. "Well?"
"Yagami-kun should know how relentless I am by now." Ryuuzaki pointed out and waited to be told the truth. The moon shown through the window of the car and illuminated Light in the just-so way only found in sappy romance novels Ryuuzaki had once delved into for the sheer purpose of learning. Light's skin was a creamy mixture that looked impossibly soft to the touch and Ryuuzaki found himself wondering if he would taste as good as sugar.
"Just this and that…" Light ran a hand through his hair and sighed, a look of worry on his face when he noticed a strange glint flash into Ryuuzaki's eyes for a moment. "It's no big deal; I have already planned a course of action." He didn't care if that made him sound like Kira right now, all he wanted to do was crawl into a little ball and go to sleep. He had been running on about two hours of sleep since Ryuuzaki had been put into the hospital and he was paying for it now.
Ryuuzaki didn't say anything as he pulled his knees up to his chest and continued to criticize Light in the dim light from the crescent moon. "Watari said that he would kill Raito-kun if he was threatening me."
Light gave Ryuuzaki a shocked look; where had that come from? He glanced nervously at the driver of the car but he was pretending not to listen. "Does he really think that you would be intimidated by me? You think I'm Kira so much that you hand cuffed yourself to me; if you were intimidated you would have put this burden on someone else."
"Ah but Raito-kun does not take in the fact that I have been acting strangely. Watari has no idea what is wrong with me so he blames it on the bane of my existence."
Light snorted, "Glad to know I mean so much to you, Ryuuzaki."
Both men stared at each other for a long time, a staring contest that Light actually lost when he finally tore away from that all knowing stare. "There has never been a bane to my existence before, Raito-kun."
And they rode the rest of the way back to the large hotel (that Ryuuzaki was the sole owner of) in a comfortable silence. The geniuses weren't really sure how to react to the other. Light had dropped Ryuuzaki's honorific and Ryuuzaki had said that Light meant something to him. Both things could turn very dangerous if looked at the right way. Light knew he wasn't Kira but Ryuuzaki was seven percent sure that he was and giving away that his only suspect meant something to him could give the potential Kira control over him.
Light stepped out of the car and stretched, getting shoved to the side as Ryuuzaki crawled out, a small smile on the young man's face. Light ignored the him and walked into the building, knowing that no one would be there at two thirty in the morning. Watari waltzed off to the place he always went and Light made his move.
"Oi, Ryuuzaki, why don't we just call it a night, a celebration for finally getting out of the hospital, ne?" I never said that his move would be sexual.
"The only one that would find sleeping a celebration would be Raito-kun," muttered Ryuuzaki as he shuffled over to the area of computers.
Light grabbed a firm hold on the chain links and yanked, pulling Ryuuzaki back to him. He had been expecting the young man to stumble, or at least fall onto the floor, not do both and land in his arms. Light blushed and helped Ryuuzaki to stand.
"Might I remind Raito-kun that I am still weak from my stay in the hospital?"
"Then you should go to sleep!" Light gave him a determined look and Ryuuzaki sighed.
"I am being abnormally submissive to Kira…"
Light looked around them, searching for someone, "I don't see Kira here. Just Ryuuzaki and Ratio."
And Ryuuzaki found himself wanting to believe it so badly. He bowed his head in defeat and let Light lead them up the stairs once more. Ryuuzaki briefly wondered why he had become so submissive at the same time that Light was. It didn't make sense to him, allowing the potential Kira to boss him around… Potential? When had he changed his suspicions from "Light is Kira" to "Light might be Kira"? His face scrunched in annoyance and he stopped walking for a moment. He was weak from the effort of walking up those carpeted steps, with a barely healed lung constricting how much air he could inhale at any one time it would constrict his energy dramatically in result: no oxygen to your muscles=no energy for your body.
"Is something wrong?" Light turned around, raising an arched eyebrow at the raven haired teen.
He shook his head, messy locks covering his face slightly as he pushed past Light and shuffled into their room. Like the night four weeks ago Ryuuzaki nervously chewed on the pad of his thumb, looking anywhere but at Light as he mentally debated something with himself.
And just like that night Ryuuzaki ignored Light's question and opted for paging Watari.
The man arrived and they did their nightly ritual of removing the cuffs and Light pulling on a white t-shirt tonight and a pair of loose slacks that hung low on his hips, showing his plaid boxers slightly. Ryuuzaki thanked Watari after tossing the old man the key and the caretaker locked the door to their room with a completely different key from the one for the cuffs.
"Oi, Ryuuzaki," Light crawled into the bed, the fluffy blankets hugging his body lovely, "Isn't this one of the nights you sleep?"
"No," Ryuuzaki laid down on the bed, "But I am tired."
Light smirked at him, "So you really are human, incredible."
"That hurts, Raito-kun."
Light gave a soft smile of apology and turned his back to the detective for sleep. He felt his eyes drift shut and he slipped off slightly but by remaining awake for so long he did not leave consciousness completely.
L waited two hours before he scooted his body closer to Light's, bringing his head level with the boy's back. He let his cool fingers slide slowly up the white garment, tentative in their actions. L wasn't sure what it was that he was doing but he was curious enough not to stop. He leaned forward, wanting to taste that soft looking skin. His tongue ran up Light's spine and the boy bucked his hips slightly, the move lethargic due to Light being deep into sleep. L paused, waiting to see if Light would awaken, and, when he did not, L let his hand explore, slowly running up and down Light's spine, feeling the ridges underneath the pads of his fingers. His ghosting touch made Light shiver in his sleep and goose bumps formed on his tan flesh that tasted so unique it couldn't be placed even with L's vast knowledge.
L became braver, bolder with his movements when Light didn't wake up and let his hand slide over the teen's side. L noticed that there was a very slight dip in his sides, like a girls only it was so subtle that you couldn't tell by looking, only by feel could you know that it was there and he felt it was oddly attractive. He paused there, not planning to find the sensation of his palm resting on that soft warm skin, his fingers curled over the side of the slender hip and lightly brushing the tone stomach, to be so exciting. L glanced down and was a little shocked to find himself aroused. His left hand twitched from its' limp position underneath his pale body with the want of release but he ignored it stubbornly: it would have been too awkward if Light woke up while L was touching himself. L brought his body almost flush with Light's as his right hand continued to explore the teen's upper body. The cool fingers gently caressed the toned muscles hidden beneath smooth skin. He felt the thin patch of hair that would lead his wandering fingers to a much more intimate part of Light's body if he had allowed them to go there. Instead he moved his hand upward, his fingers finding a soft nipple. L played with it for a moment, his erection twitching when he heard Light give a soft groan, his body arching slightly into L's hand. L gulped, his left hand inching to his pants, playing with the hem in a teasing manner as his fingers traced back down to Light's stomach. He groaned quietly when his hand slipped inside his pants and teased his own head, gently letting his fingers play across the sensitive area expertly as he tried to keep composed. L's face was oddly blank as he slid his hand deeper into his own pants, the fingers of his other hand still caressing the soft flesh that belonged to Light: but his breathing gave him away, panting against Light's neck as he tried to keep from moaning too loudly. L's hand began to pump his erection, and he did not bother to make it last too long. He dug his fingernails into Light's stomach as he came a few minutes later, moaning Light's name quietly against the boy's neck. He let his body loosen up with his orgasm and pulled slowly away from Light, never once looking at the teen's absolutely mortified face.
Light had heard everything.