The fight that ensues is a parody of an earlier one. The force of Light's blow sends L sprawling across the bed and onto the floor, taking the comforters and Light with him as he goes. Misa screams as the extent of their sins is revealed in the form of her naked flesh, and immediately goes to rectify the situation by finding her clothes. As she scurries around the room, searching for her undergarments, Light struggles with the blankets he's become hopelessly entangled within. In the chaos that follows, L scuttles about, crab-like, looking for his boxers before he finds them wadded up under the bed. He pulls them on over his slender legs just as Light rips free of the comforters and lurches forward to punch him again.

This time, however, L is ready - as Light moves to throw himself upon him, the detective falls onto his back, legs coiled up against his chest, and lets them explode away from in a fury. His feet strike Light in the stomach with the force of a ballistic missile and the two of them go tumbling into the edge of the bedpost. There is a resounding 'thud!' as Light's head makes contact with the wooden frame, and for a few moments he simply lays there, evidently trying to regain his breath. When Light grimaces and peels himself away from the furniture, he seems significantly less blood-thirsty, perhaps due to the concussion he's just received. However, the blow to the head has done little to curb his anger. Misa has never seen Light so furious, and the state of him frightens her.

"I can't believe... you... I would have never..." he sputters unintelligibly in his rage. "... In the same bed as me?"

"Relax, Light-kun," L says with borderline cheeriness. "Or you shall give yourself a brain aneurysm."

"I'm going to kill you," Light snarls at him hatefully. "With my bare hands."

"The probability of you being Kira has just now risen to twelve percent."

Misa covers her mouth in horror, as her gaze flicks between the two nervously. L looks almost smug, but Misa knows one thing for certain: if Light had been looking at her that way, she would not be half-simpering; she would be running in the opposite direction as fast as she possibly could. Light looks positively murderous, beyond reason and rationale. She actually fears for L's safety. (Please, Light, you can't kill him yet, otherwise you're really going to be in big trouble.)

Light's fists clench and unclench at his sides. He seems to be mentally counting to ten. "No," he says finally, through gritted teeth. "You're not worth the effort. You're just..." he closes his eyes and hisses out the last word: "Scum."

When he opens them again, his focus is on Misa. "And you. Aren't you supposed to be my self-proclaimed girlfriend?"

"Light..." she begins hesitantly, "It's... it's not what it looks like..."

"No," L says mildly, with that same shadow of a smile. "I'd say it's exactly what it looks like, actually." Both Misa and Light shoot him a look, before the latter quickly looks away. He is literally trembling in his rage. L cocks his head at Misa as she glares at him, and adds, with a little shrug: "I just don't see a reason in deceiving him, Misa-san. Light-kun has excellent observational skills, and impressive deductive reasoning to match. It would not be hard for him to come to a correct conclusion regarding the matter. To think he couldn't put two and two together would be insulting to his intelligence."

"Ryuuzaki," Misa groans miserably. "Just shut up."

"Misa," when Light speaks his voice sounds different. There is still underlying rage there, but it is different somehow: anguished, almost. "I thought you loved me?"

Misa is shocked, and secretly pleased, that Light is visibly shaken by their copulation; clearly, he is harboring some feelings for Misa she wasn't sure he possessed in her current state. His inquiry of her affection towards him only further proves this, and suddenly seeing him such a state of distress almost sends her spiraling into a confession. "Light, you don't understand, I only did it because..." she drifts off into silence, as it would dangerous to reveal her true intention regarding the affair in front of an audience, and to a Kira-who-is-not-yet-Kira. Light wouldn't understand anyway.

So instead, L brings it upon himself to fill in the blanks for her: "...Because you are Kira, Light-kun, and you would only encourage the emotional destruction of your enemy." His vague smirk turns into a full-fledged, satisfied grin: the knowing smile of someone who's plainly aware that they're right.

"...Misa was going to say: 'I was seized by a fit of passion and loneliness', but okay," Misa says quickly, hoping her shock doesn't give her away. (I will admit nothing, he has no idea that he's really right until I make an affirmation. He's a clever little bastard, but I will never slip-up, not when we're so close.) The fact that L has reached this conclusion all on his own is unnerving, to say the least, and for the first time Misa wonders if he was playing her as much as she was playing him.

"Oh, well, that makes everything better then," Light snorts sarcastically. "So she was using you to cure her loneliness, or her boredom, or whatever," he rolls his eyes as he turns between the two of them in disgust, "and you were using her in hopes of somehow finding evidence to support your Light-Yagami-is-the-first-Kira theory. Meanwhile, no one thinks twice about the fact that, oh, I don't know, my feelings are at stake here."

He rounds on Misa suddenly. "I don't fault you," he says, surprising her. "Not entirely, anyway. I didn't reciprocate in the beginning. I get it, fine, you found someone else to pass the time with. But... him? Really?" Then he turns to L in a fury. "But you, you're despicable. I told you. You encouraged me." Misa blinks at Light's words in confusion; she has absolutely no idea what he's talking about. "You're the one who even helped me pick it out! You were the one who suggested lavender! You came with me to deliver it! And then you go and backstab me, sleep with her on the side? That's really rich, Ryuuzaki."

"Wait, what?" She asks, astonished. "That rose was from you?"

"I told you I didn't send it," L reminds her.

Light ignores both of them. "So that's why you did it, huh? Was it worth it to betray me? All of this, just to weed her of information, to get an insider's perspective, just on the off-chance she would slip up and reveal some information to pin me as Kira?"

"Partially," L admits with a shrug. "But mostly I did it because I wanted to."

Light's face contorts up in rage and his fists come up, but still he does not swing. "I thought we were friends," he continues, with great difficulty. "I guess I was wrong. Misa, I can't even stand to look at you. Please leave," he instructs, deliberately not meeting her now watery gaze. "I don't want to see your face, either, Ryuuzaki, but I don't have much choice until the case is resolved tomorrow."

"Light -" she begins, but the brunette simply sees her out with a dismissive wave of his hand. Uncertain, humiliated, and ashamed, she gathers up the rest of her belongings and flees the room entirely. Halfway down the hall, deserted and aggrieved, she bursts into tears.

--

Of course, when Light becomes Kira again on the eve of Higuichi's capture, he begins to more fully appreciate what Misa has brought upon herself to accomplish. He is pleased, charmed even, that she would go to such lengths in hopes of destroying a common enemy, even if L managed to see right through it. Still, the detective has no solid proof against him, only a half-baked idea about what he thought Misa was up to. Regardless of the results, Light secretly acknowledges it as a noble pursuit, and is sated.