Author's Note: I'd like to thank all of yous who reviewed! You are all made of awesome and super special sauce! An imaginary cookie goes to Barranca for stupendous plot-guessing skills. I'm happy to announce now that this story is indeed made of some excellent child-yoinking mad skills...


Chapter 3: Care

Upon the floor of the expensive hotel room sat Sakuya Yanaihara. He was surrounded by small Lego bricks with which he was carefully constructing a vast urban landscape. He was assisted in this endevour by the young man sitting behind him, one arm still tightly wound round the boy while the other guided his activities. L's head, from his position so hunched, almost rested upon the eight-year-old's shoulder, his black hair brushing the boy's cheek when he moved forward to select some more distant pieces.

The scene was an unexpected one and not just to the two others that were directly observing it. Ryuk was thoroughly surprised by this turn of events however he had been well instructed upon protocol so sat well-behaved with his huge, inhuman grin, plastered over his face. He knew that he would be given ample time to devour his apples later so long as he observed the rules of quiet observance now.

The other occupant of the room, Light Yagami, also watched the scene with a quiet gaze, his mind meditating upon this surreal turn of events. The members of the investigation had been thoroughly surprised to find the boy they had been searching for alive and well. The fact of a survivor in this string of murders was in itself an astounding revelation. When, later in the evening, L calmly stated that he would be taking the boy into his own custody for the duration of the investigation the other men could not conceal their consternation. And indeed Light was among them, even he, in fact possibly especially he, had not expected that development. He was impressed however how L's careful phrasing made his own decision sound so logical, so clear, almost as if it were formed from the very matter of facts and reason.

Light was sat upon the sofa with his laptop open and the small coffee table beside him covered in papers. He wasn't working particularly hard however, merely going over things while he watched his lover and the small boy play.

The two huge boxes of lego that were on the floor beside L and Sakuya had been purchased by a personal shopper which the hotel had sent up at L's request. They had also had her go out and purchase a great number of other items to fulfil the young boy's needs.

There was a pile of fresh neat clothes upon the other chair, all designer; the type of clothes that only the rich and indulgent type of parents pampered their small children with. There was also a vast amount of toys; in addition to the Lego there was also various other large quantities of contraction kit toys as well as a wide range of large medium and small soft cuddly toys. An absolute mountain of teddy bears and a variety of other stuffed animals formed a fortress around L and the child, the two ones which Sakuya had taken a particular liking to, a soft white bunny and a cream bear, were at his side, within easy each. To anyone's taste, Light was sure; the situation would be described as ridiculous.

L's bare toes curled around the boy as he played and Sakuya sat quite comfortably against the detective. Light felt unsure how to intrude upon their 'playtime.' It was unusual to be upon the edge. He was beginning to feel a little impatient.

"I would say we seem to have a firm link now," he said, irritated by how his warm, melodic voice still caught on this comfortable silence, "It is not one that is immediately apparent, the victims were after all in different areas, different situations, different professions, however as we remarked earlier they were all of a seemingly high social class and intelligence."

L nodded silently, taking a yellow block and adding it to the tower he and Sakuya were building.

"However with this new victim I would say the link becomes very clear; all the male victims, who were after all the main victims we can safely assume, as head of the households, were once students at Ryokuan University, graduating in the same year. In fact they were all members of the elite student council, a typical prestigious hierarchy which served for networking in later life as well as great recognition and academic, social and indeed financial rewards at the time. Based on this information we can assume that there may indeed be further intended victims and those will probably be other council members."

"Quite a simple investigation then really," L commented, "it's easy to know where to go from here…" He dropped his head down to bring his attention back to the small boy in his arms who had become slightly rigid and distracted. He stroked the boy's cheek gently and said,

"We can start investigating the university and this council tomorrow, I think this little boy needs a bath and then to go to bed." This was a fair assessment in terms of the bath suggestion, Sakuya was still quite dirty and dusty from hiding in a wall for a considerable period of time.

Light nodded and setting aside his things he rose to follow L as the other man picked up the small boy and carried him into the large bathroom that came with the suite. Sakuya had become slightly distressed but L just crouched down to undress him while Light ran the bath, lifting the little boy into the tub once it was full ignoring his protests.

"You wash him," L told Light, "you'll do a better job." Light wasn't sure if that was a compliment or a snipe against his obsessive neatness and cleanliness. Regardless he carefully scrubbed all the dirt off the boy's skin and washed all of the plaster out of his hair. Sakuya had grown quiet again and simply watched the plaster and grit swirling in the water with a sullen expression.

Once Light had finished this careful operation L dried Sakuya and dressed him in new blue pyjamas before carrying him into his room. They had changed to a different suite once they checked in so that they would have an extra room for the boy and L carefully tucked him into his own bed, wrapping the covers tightly around him. The room was already filled with large and medium stuffed toys, L had 'decorated' it in such a manor when the personal shopper had return with these purchases. There was also a small stack of storybooks beside the bed and a nightlight plugged into the free socket on the wall.

"You can have one short story," L told Sakuya, offering him the stack of books. The small boy picked one out and handed it to L. L smiled and put it to one side upon the bedside table and proceeded to crunch a small tablet into a glass of water before handing it to Sakuya. "Drink this up first," he told him and Sakuya obeyed.

L then settled himself upon the bed, his arm around Sakuya as he held the book open and began to read, now and again stroking the boy's hair. Slowly Sakuya's eyes began to droop as the sleeping pill took effect until finally L could feel the full weight of his head against his arm. He put the book down then gently lowered Sakuya's head to the pillow and tidied up the sheets around him. He rose to join Light who had been standing in the doorway observing the whole procedure with a silent gaze and slowly shut the door upon the sleeping child.


Author's Note: It's quite a short chapter I know, it's hard for me to write at the moment...I've been working one some 'one shots' to present to you but even them I'm only writing a little bit at a time…

Anywho when I started writing this I thought it would be good to actually write L and Light a child that didn't suck. The only style of those kind of fics is usually mpregs anyway. I loathe mpregs…

In case you're wondering the reason why L felt it necessary to slip Sakuya a sleeping pill is because the boy is an eight year old whose parents have just been brutally murdered and as we all know traumatized kids can be a bitch to get down.

Also curious to know what book L read Sakuya? Why it was a predatory child-hunter story with eroticised cannibalism and a naïve and curious young boy as the hero! XD