"You're cold." L whined.
"So you've told me." Light had tried everything he could, and although he could will fire to rise from his pores and dance over his skin, he could not make himself warmer. He couldn't make himself cooler, either, and was instead trapped with the temperature of dead flesh left sitting out.
"Please fix it." Light rolled his eyes at L.
"As much as I want to encourage your discovery of the word 'please', I don't know how to make myself warmer."
"You were warm when I woke up next to you the day you arrived. Had I known you could not repeat this effect, I would not have asked you to stay tonight." Light concentrated as hard as he could.
"Better?"
"No, but you turned red." Light returned to his normal color as well as he could without looking at a mirror, and when he looked back at L, it was with resignation.
"I can leave, if it's too cold."
L's invitation to share his bed had been such a victory for Light, it felt like cheating that it would be taken away.
"No," demanded L, stubbornly. "I don't want you to leave, I want you to fix it."
"I don't know how!" Insisted a slightly frustrated Light.
"You were warm when I held your hand, too. I know you can do it, so learn how, so I can sleep."
"I was? I don't know why, though!"
"Think warm thoughts, Light-kun." Light glared.
"Easy for you to say, your blood naturally keeps you warm." Light grabbed L and pinned him down underneath him, pressing himself up against him as much as he could.
"What are you doing?"
"I had an idea!" Light said, excitedly, seemingly oblivious to the effect the closeness was having on L.
"What idea?" L asked. Light ignored his irritated tone and answered,
"The reason living things are warm is not because of anything as profound as life. Temperature follows rules."
"So?"
"So using magic to warm myself up is stupid when I can just follow those same rules. Like body heat. When I touch you for long enough, my body reflects your heat back to you." Understanding, L allowed Light to press himself against the detective a little more.
"Light-kun claimed to be magical." L accused, more than slightly amused.
"Would God powers of death have been a little more scientific for you?" L snorted.
"In the future, take a bath before we go to bed. I do not like this transition period while I wait for you to warm up."
"You're completely spoiled." L sniffed delicately.
"Appreciating comfort does not define me as a person, Light-kun." Light snorted.
"But it does make you spoiled."
"Then since I am so spoiled, Light-kun will humor me by going to take a shower. It's like lying with a corpse, and you've only warmed up the slightest bit since you've insisted on pressing your body all over me."
"It's only been a couple of minutes!" Light protested, but he was already up and on his way to the bathroom.
"Thank you!" L called after him, and Light snorted again, because L didn't thank people, not really, so he was only being facetious with this uncharacteristic display of gratitude. After taking the hottest shower he could, one that would have undoubtedly burned him if he'd still had nerve endings proper, Light deemed himself at least room temperature, and vowed to strangle L if he complained about him being too hot. Instead, L actually snuggled into him, a rarity even when they had both been human, and both of them took comfort in the long neglected feel of sleeping with another.
Therefore, when, less than ten minutes later, L got a phone call, Light actually growled in frustration.
L looked at him reprovingly, and replied to an unheard question,
"What sound? No, I'm sure it was just a glitch in the phone line." L frowned. "But you might." There was another pause, and Light wondered how many world leaders he'd have to write down to get whoever was calling his L off the phone. But then L would go investigate too, and he'd be angry. "I see." The caller spoke for a little longer, and L's eyes lit up, even as his voice remained solemn for another "I see." And after a final pause, L said, "I see. Thank you for contacting me. I will inform you of my decision in the next 48 hours." And hung up.
"Who was it?" Then L's phone rang again. It was a different cell, and L opened the drawer next to his bed to reveal about fifteen phones. He crouched properly on the bed, utterly abandoning Light, and started to dig through the mess before plucking up the proper cell and speaking into it.
"Hello?" His voice was a little higher, and had a slight French accent, though he answered in English. Barely noticeable, but there. "Yes, I had heard something like that. Hmmm?" Light listened to an almost identical phone conversation. As he was finishing up, a third phone rang, and Light recognized the phone L always kept on him.
"Hello?...yes, I have already been informed, thank you….I believe I will…Excellent, can you please bring some cake down to the room?...I did." Smirking, L hung up.
"I have a case!"
"Oh? I thought we already had cases? Or were the 312 that I've helped you solve thus far just for fun?"
"Those were cases from my alter egos."
"Deneuve and Eraldo Coil?"
"Silly God," Why do I feel like he's always wanted to say that? "those are only the famous ones. In reality, I have more than 43 names I work under."
"Why 43?" L tilted his head.
"Coincidence. It's how many I've picked up, so far. Are you going to continue lying there?"
"I was hoping you'd lie down with me?"
"There is not time to sleep." L said, as if it were obvious that he would discard his body's basic necessities. "I have a case. And Watari is bringing cake."
"I thought he wasn't your butler."
"Yes, but he indulges me when I am working on an L case."
"Why?"
"I tend to forget to eat, otherwise."
"What is this case, that you would neglect yourself over?"
"7 dead bodies. Heart attacks." Light's breath caught.
"But-"
"It could be coincidence at this point. It is likely to be coincidence." Light gave up and sat up, brushing aside the habit of yawning or stretching.
"And if it's not?"
"Then either another notebook has been dropped, or you are being less than honest with me."
"This again?"
"If you'll recall, last time I suspected you, I was correct." Light started pulling clothes on.
"So where are we going?"
"I am sending two assistants to France, to oversee the case."
"Wedy and Aiber?"
"No."
"One of your successors?"
"No."
"Who, then?"
"Lucien and…you will have to pick a name. Obviously Asian, since there's no hiding that. I want you to look like yourself, mostly, it's what we are both most familiar with. Darken your hair a little, and make your nationality more ambiguous. A little closer to Korean, maybe?" As Light willed each strand of hair individually to darken, he thought maybe L was a little too flippant about his supernatural powers, considering what a fuss he'd made earlier.
"I need a mirror to change my features." One of the first things L had done after Light's death was take down the unnecessary mirrors. He waved him towards the bathroom.
"Spend the time thinking of a name."
"Tsuki."
"Too obvious."
"And L isn't?"
"You can be Tsuki, but your last name cannot lead back to Light Yagami in any way."
"Then you pick the name. I don't really care."
"Li Moon Suk?"
"Mine was obvious?"
"Li Jae"
"Fine. Why Li?"
"It's common."
"Fine." Light headed off into the bathroom to change his features. L was waiting for his laptop to start when a light tapping came from the door. Excellent. He thought, and went to get his cake.
"We will be there to observe, until faced with complete proof that there is, indeed, a new Kira. You will not say or do anything unless prompted by me, even if you perceive an…injustice." Light did his best to look innocent, but realized he didn't know how his expressions looked on his new face and resolved to spend some more time with the mirror later, while grudgingly accepting that L was correct to allow him as much familiarity as possible. "View it as another vacation, if you'd like. I will only be taking simple cases while we are observing, and there will be time to practice my social skills. I trust you can handle that maturely?" Asked L, his thoughts clearly on a certain involuntary dip into a German fountain.
"I thought you handled everything from hotels?" L grimaced.
"I would, but an assistant of mine would be expected to be more cooperative. Marginally. Anyways, you will need practice before you can afford distance. Pack whatever you need. We could be gone anywhere from a week to a year, if it is another Kira." Light started packing L's suitcases instead, worried the man would neglect hygiene in his rush to do something real.
"Pack things for yourself."
"I don't need anything."
"Clothes? Toiletries? That shampoo you use?" Light folded and packed the shirt in his hand and without breaking eye contact with L, melted until he was the obsidian skeleton once more. Then he reformed, wearing new clothes.
"New clothes. New flesh. I don't need to clean, or dress." L seemed unimpressed.
"Pack a few things anyways. There may be a situation where you have to change in front of people."
"Alright." Surprisingly reasonable.
"Also, you are cold once again."