Last chapter, finally!
For once, L managed to drag Light out of bed relatively early. He'd been rather weirded-out by Light's behavior the past day or two. He'd had such a triumphant smirk on his face that one morning, a smirk that he didn't bother to hide, that L was immediately on his guard.
He was mostly convinced that Light was Kira. So maybe Light had gained the ability to only need a face. In that case, L was dead meat. But Light didn't have the notebook. Then again, you didn't need the whole thing to kill. So he kept a wary eye on Light, and if it looked like he was turning away to do something without being seen, he'd always interrupt.
Light was looking increasingly irritated. And he was. Every attempt he made to turn away and use the scrap of paper in his watch, L was there looking over his shoulder.
But now, L had decided to confront his erstwhile captive. "Light," He began, tugging on the chain to ensure Light's attention. The young man blinked sleepily at him, with more than a touch of irritation. "What?"
"Please, I'd like to end this. Nothing you've done these past few days has decreased my suspicion, and a lot of how you've been acting has increased it. I really don't want you to be Kira, but all the evidence remains pointing to you and I can't ignore it any longer. Make it easier on both of us."
Light frowned irritably at L, hiding his desire to go into a semi-sane rant. "What are you talking about, Ryuzaki? How many times do I have to tell you, I'm not Kira!"
"I know you well enough now to know when you're lying. You're better than most at masking your emotions, but I can still see through it." The older man kept his face carefully passive, though he wanted to pin Light to the wall and demand why, or to break into tears, or to pull the impossible young man into his arms and make it all go away. He wanted to do something, but he only sat there facing Light, his murky gaze studiously impassive.
This time I know I'm right, but I'd rather be wrong. There's none of the usual rush of elation when I know I've solved the case. It was stupid to let myself fall for my prime suspect, but the fact remains that this is going to be hard.
Light closed his eyes slowly, heaving a heavy sigh. "If you're that good at reading me, then you'd have figured out by now that I only need a face. It was foolish of me to let you figure that much out, but I can't really change that now, can I?"
"Of course. Why do you think I've been looking over your shoulder all the time?" He chuckled nervously.
They looked up as a few of the task-force trickled into the room. Light leaned back in his chair, propping one elbow on the chair arm and resting his brown in his fingers, a screen of auburn hair obscuring his eyes. L looked up with a sad expression at the others.
"I have news, everyone. It depends on your point of view whether it's good or bad." At this comment their curiosity was aroused, and they gave him their full attention. "We have Kira."
They all broke into relieved grins and cheered, though Soichiro sobered quickly and asked L with a slightly worried tone, "That's wonderful news, why would you say that it's bad?"
At the same time, Matsuda turned to L, grinning from ear to ear. "So who's Kira?"
L took a deep breath, his shaggy mop of black hair falling into his eyes as he looked dejectedly at his folded hands. He nerved himself up to speak, trying to force himself to admit that his lover was Kira.
"What's up, Ryuzaki?" Matsuda said, his face falling. "Did you hear me?" He looked over as Soichiro put a hand on his shoulder. "Ryuzaki, tell us who Kira is." The man almost growled.
"One would think that you bright sparks would have figured it out by now." Light commented with a half-sneer.
Soichiro's face looked stormy. Matsuda backed up a pace, switching an alarmed gaze between the former police chief and the two men sitting in swivel chairs.
Suddenly, Soichiro stepped forward, standing before Light's chair. "Light, please tell me this isn't true." The young man looked mildly into his father's distressed features. "If I did that I'd be lying, and at this point lying will get me nowhere."
Mogi and Aizawa stepped forward with stony expressions, making sure Soichiro didn't collapse. They led him to the couch and gently set him down.
"Rem-san," L said, glancing over at the shinigami.
'Yes?'
"We already know that Light is Kira and the thirteen-day rule is fake, but perhaps you can clear up some details for us."
'… since you've already figured most of it out, I don't see why you need to ask me.'
"True, but just humor me this time please."
'Fine.'
"The other rule on the back page, the one about everyone who touched the notebook dying if it is destroyed, is that one fake?"
'Yes.'
"Who wrote them there?"
Rem glanced at Light, who was scowling openly at her. 'A shinigami did. Not me, the first shinigami to own that notebook.'
"I see. Would that shinigami be attached to Amane's notebook?"
Rem hesitated. '… Yes.'
"So Amane is the second Kira."
Light snorted. "You didn't really need to question Rem to figure that out, Ryuzaki."
"I just want to be sure. Accusing someone of being Kira is a serious charge, I don't want to find out too late that I made a mistake. I already have as good as a straight-out confession from you, and I want a conclusive verdict from someone else to be sure that the other person I convict is the right one." The other task-force members who had managed to keep their composure nodded in assent.
"So, can someone please go bring Amane in?" L looked to Mogi, who nodded and got up to fetch the young woman. She was ushered in, and immediately sensed the tension.
"Misa Amane, are you the second Kira?" L said impassively.
"What, this again? I've told you a million times, I'm not Kira!"
"Oh, piss off, Ryuzaki." Light snapped. "You just said you had all the evidence you needed. Why the hell are you asking when you know the answer?"
Misa blinked, her eyes wide. "Light, what's going on?"
"It's up, Misa. He caught us." Light growled, scowling at L's emotionless face.
"I am sorry, but getting a straight confession will make everything easier." L said, stoically ignoring Light's hate-filled eyes boring holes into the side of his head. At first he'd been hurt, but he'd quickly realized that the one glaring as if he wanted to strangle him wasn't Light. Well, not the one he knew. This was, L thought, the real Kira. Kira was glaring at him, not Light.
Misa looked between L's passive face, Light's evil scowl, and a resigned-looking Rem. "… Yes. I am the second Kira."
"And Light is Kira, yes?"
She nodded wordlessly.
"So you are possessed by a different shinigami. May I see it?" L inclined his head slightly, ignoring Misa's surprise. She blinked and gestured to the rooms she'd been housed in. "I have a few pages from my notebook in there, none on me."
Light looked up sharply. "You brought pieces of it with you into confinement?" He growled.
"I couldn't help it! I kept the pages on me like you told me, and I had them when these guys took me back in here." She cringed slightly, fixing her wide eyes on Light with a hurt expression.
L waved at Light. "Please settle down, Light. Mogi, will you accompany Amane to her rooms to get the pages?"
She brought them back and handed one to L. He gingerly held the page, then looked up at Ryuk. "Hello. Nice to meet you."
Ryuk chuckled. 'Same here. I'm Ryuk.'
"And you can just call me L, Ryuk." He looked up at the other members of the task-force. "I suggest the rest of you come touch this page so you all can see him."
L offered Light the page, but he waved it away. "I can see him, Ryuzaki."
'Hyuk hyuk, and now everyone else can. Quite the mess you've gotten yourself into now, Light.' Ryuk chuckled.
"Shut up." Light snapped, glaring irritably at the shinigami.
'Hey, your life-span is shorter. I thought you didn't want to make the eye trade?'
"Didn't really do me any good," Light remarked bitterly. "I can see this bastard's name but I can't write it down! I'm headed for death row anyway, so the point is pretty much moot."
L blinked, puzzled. "This eye trade, Higuchi mentioned it in the car."
'Yes. Half the human's life-span for a shinigami's ability to see their name and life-span when you look at a human's face.' Ryuk commented, tilting his head so that light flashed off his eyes eerily, his ghoulish fixed grin broadening slightly as he chuckled.
"Ah, so that's how it's done. I can assume you have this ability, Amane?" L looked at Misa, who nodded.
"Well. I'm glad neither of you are capable of writing into the notebook at the moment," He said with a nervous smile. "Or else I'd be dead."
'Just so we have everything clear, these two are going to be executed, right?' Ryuk asked.
"Yes." L said, wincing ruefully.
'How soon?'
Light snorted. "Bored already, Ryuk?"
'That, and remember that when you first picked up that note, I said that when you died I'd be the one writing your name into my notebook.' Ryuk chuckled.
"Well, it depends on how quickly we can set up the trial and get it over with." L said, ignoring Ryuk's cryptic reply.
"Wait a minute." Soichiro said, his voice hoarse. "Didn't you mention passing the power on and losing memory of it?"
'If a human gives up possession of a notebook, all their memories of it are removed. They get them back as long as they're touching a notebook they once owned, but if they don't own that notebook right then the memories only last while they keep the contact.' Rem said from the corner.
Soichiro stood shakily, his eyes wide. L held up a hand to forestall the comment. "You're saying that Light and Amane could give up the notebooks and lose their memories. I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong, Light, that they both gave up their notebooks sometime during their confinement and recently got possession back."
Misa nodded when L turned a mildly inquisitive gaze on her. He looked over at Light, who was still glaring daggers at him. His glare was slightly weaker, though, and laced with desperation as he twitched his head once, in a movement that resembled a nod enough to confirm L's statement.
"While it's true that even though I swore to put Kira to death, having my two friends being Kira changes my opinion. Knowing that they could give up the ability and memories, part of me wants to say that they can do this and let them off,"
"So do it!" Soichiro staggered a pace forward, and had to be supported by the stolid Mogi.
"However," L said with a heavy sigh. "since they both got their memories back, it tells me that if they give it up now it could be set up in a way that the notebooks would come back to them. I know how clever and sly Light is, and if he's done it once I have no doubt that he could do the same thing again."
Light snorted caustically. "At this point, I'm backed up into a corner. I can't say what either of those two," he pointed at Rem and Ryuk, "would do if they got the notebooks back, but the chances are absurdly slim that either one of the notebooks would make its way back to either myself or Misa. As trapped as we are at the moment, it's close enough to impossible to set it up to get the back that I'd rather not waste my energy trying." He shook his head. "If I wasn't smart enough to know that vehemently denying the fact and going into a rant would get me nowhere, that's exactly what I'd be doing. But by now, I know I've been caught." He looked up, his brown eyes filled with such a look of defeat and hopelessness that L almost fell for the trap.
"That's probably the biggest lie I've ever heard you tell." L remarked. "I know you, Light. You're too stubborn and determined to give up."
Light scowled. "Fine, but you obviously realize that I can't move to save my own ass at this point."
L inclined his head slightly, fixing his mild murky gaze on Light. "This is true. I can't think of anything you could do that would take you far, and several things that would just make it worse."
"So since they can't do anything, let them lose their memories and be done with it!" Soichiro said, looking about ready to collapsed onto his knees and beg.
L winced. He was torn between his sense of justice which demanded that they be put to death, and his desire to not be responsible for the deaths of his lover and friends.
Misa looked pleadingly at L. "Please, Ryuzaki? You said yourself that I'm your friend, and that Light is your friend. If we give up our notebooks we lose our memories, and by then we stop being Kiras."
L sighed heavily. "If we decide to do that, it begs the question of what in the world do we tell the public?"
"Don't tell them anything. Just let Kira and the second Kira disappear, and close the case." Soichiro said, sounding less on the verge of a break-down.
L looked at the other members of the task-force. "What do the rest of you think?"
Matsuda wore a strained expression. "I think that's what you should do."
Mogi agreed. Aizawa hesitated, staring at the floor as he debated with himself. "Well… I don't know. Something in me still thinks that no matter what these two are responsible for all those deaths, even if they don't remember them."
He looked up, wincing slightly at the desperate look Soichiro gave him. "Just call me neutral." He said.
L pondered, then looked from Misa to Light. "My desire to hold on to my two friends, and to keep Yagami-san from giving me that look anymore, is winning out." He said, trying to ignore Soichiro's pleading stare. "If I offered you the option, would you give up your notebooks?"
Misa looked to Light. "I will if Light will." She said. "If he's willing to give it up, Misa will follow him. But if he goes to death row, I'll go too." She bit her lip.
L too turned his gaze to the auburn-haired young man. "So it's all to you then, Light."
The brown eyes glared hotly at L. But behind the burning hatred, L saw a gleam of desperation. He could tell that Kira would drag him to the death sentence gladly, but the Light that he knew longed to be rid of Kira.
Several tense minutes dragged on, the silence cloying and as it weighed down on them all like a heavy hand. Something in Light's eyes finally seemed to snap and he snarled. "Rem, once it's unlocked take your stupid notebook back."
L took the notebook from its hiding place, holding onto it until Misa and Mogi got back from digging up her notebook. L kept a wary eye as Light took the notebook and just barely stopped himself from throwing it at Rem. Misa handed her notebook back to Ryuk with a sunny smile and a wave.
"So… I really was Kira?" Light said with a perplexed look.
"You think I'd make that up?" L blinked with a slightly scathing expression.
"I wouldn't put it past you." Light immediately regretted that comment. The look of hurt that briefly flashed in L's eyes told the young man in no uncertain terms that that had been the wrong thing to say.
"No, I didn't make it up." L said, returning his face and eyes to their usual opaque state. "And the rest of the task force can back me up."
Light glanced at his father, who still looked shaky as he nodded slowly. "I really don't know what to say… not much you can say to that." He remarked, rubbing a hand across the back of his neck.
Misa scooted closer, cuddling up against Light. "So don't say anything! At least now we're clear of suspicion and we can go on proper dates, Light."
The young man suppressed a grimace. Looked like it was now or never. "Look, Misa. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I don't like you that way."
Misa pulled back, tears beading in the corners of her eyes. "B-but, Light…"
Light looked about as contrite as anyone had ever seen him. "I'm really sorry, Misa. You never really had a chance."
Disbelief was written across her face. "Wh-what? What do you mean, Light?" She tried unsuccessfully to stifle the tears now rolling down her cheeks. "I never had a chance…" She noticed the slight, embarrassed blush that colored Light's face and balked further. "You… you mean, you're…"
He nodded wordlessly, head tilted down so that his bangs obscured his face. L just stopped himself from pulling Light into his arms. That would ruin it.
"Light, what are you saying?" Soichiro said softly, inclining his head. Light tried not to wince, and failed. "I'm saying that I'm gay."
Misa choked back a sob and dashed from the room. L waved a hand at the task-force members who had started to go after her. "Let her go, the poor girl."
Light tilted his head slightly until Misa had disappeared from sight and sighed heavily. "Aw, man. I hope she doesn't do anything drastic… I wish I hadn't had to let her down like that."
"But you can't really help it," Soichiro said, putting a hand on Light's shoulder. "and I'm sorry that you had to do that. It's probably better that she knows the truth." Light nodded.
Matsuda blinked, still trying to process the new discovery. "So… okay." He looked about to ask a question, but didn't.
L looked around, pitching his voice to wake everyone up from their private reveries as he spoke. "Well, since Kira is technically no more, we can say the case is closed. Thank you all for your help."
The task force who were living in the building all packed up their things within the next day, and they moved back to their homes. They all said good-bye to L, and went back to their normal lives.
"So Light, are you going to live with your family again, or get your own apartment?" Matsuda asked with a smile.
"Actually," Light said, glancing at his father. "I think I'd like to rent an apartment."
Soichiro pondered the comment and shrugged. "I see no reason why I can't get my son an apartment. Being a college student, it makes sense."
No one asked where L would go, they assumed that he'd go back to whatever he did between cases. No one, but Light.
"I don't know, really." L said with a thoughtful frown.
Light leaned close, whispering in the older man's ear, "Want to share my apartment?" L's eyebrows raised slightly in a silent query.
"A one-bedroom is more than enough room for two people." Light grinned. "My father doesn't have to be the wiser if we care not to tell him."
L smiled slightly. "Works for me."
And here's where I stop before my Muse goes nuts. A bit fluffier than I intended the ending to be, but oh well.
Hope you liked it! –bow-
And if this 'fic seems a bit more OOC than my others, I wrote the bulk of the first two chapters before I'd re-read the volumes of manga, and the personalities sorta stick throughout the story. So yeah.
Now that I'm finished, please review it if you haven't! All comments and constructive criticism help me write better.