Author's note: (Gasp) Dialogue chapter! Yayz! I am so pleased! I managed to write myself into a dialogue chapter! Clap for me.
Thanks to you reviewers, readers, and other people. I hope you weren't hit by a bus. XD
Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or any of the movies I randomly quote
Raito swore; he looked from Light to L. Light looked more pissed than he'd have expected, perhaps it was the whole deal of burning the death note. Not that it wasn't expected, he hated it when people messed with his schemes. He could relate. Well of course he could, it was him they were talking about.
No, what he hadn't wanted, or expected for that matter; was L being his usual nosey self and showing up in Light's room. Since when did L just walk into Light's (and his) life and just get away with it. That bastard!
Raito pretended to ignore L's wry smile and stood up from his embarrassing position on the floor. Why did he always have to crash into stuff? Ever since he got his physical body back he hadn't been able to keep on his feet. Then again being two thousand years out of practice can take a toll on someone's coordination.
"Well hello Light-san, Ryuga." Raito growled out the last words with all the menace he could muster. But nope L just kept on grinning like an idiot.
"And you can wipe that grin off your face right now. It's pissing me off." L ignored his words and placed a thumb in between his lips.
It was a peculiar habit that the detective never intended to break, and it drove Raito mad. Every moment L's thumb was stuck between his teeth whether he was nervous, happy, angry, sad, or any emotion the man had where was the thumb? That's right; stuck in his mouth. It almost made it seem like he was mocking Raito, he still had some pride left.
Well no point hanging around now, he could always come back later.
"Why did you crawl through my window?" Light's words contained the amount of love as a vat full of fiery hot battery acid, he sounded downright pissed.
"Hello Nathanial-kun, I've been meaning to talk to you." L's face was priceless; he looked a hell of a lot like that cracked up cat in Alice in Wonderland.
Deal with angry Light and drugged up L in the same room, or slide back out the window and steal some coffee? Hmmmm, decisions, decisions… that coffee was starting to sound damn good.
"Well I've been meaning to get a restraining order against you. But hey we all have our problems." Raito made his face make it clear that he meant business.
Light's fist was curled, obviously he must still have his memories or else he wouldn't have looked so mad. Besides even after the death note was destroyed Mikami hadn't lost his memories, the same rules must have applied.
That or someone was screwing with his life again, not that he would put it past any of them up there. Pick one; they're all guilty as far as he was concerned.
"Get out of my room, now." Light's eyes started to get to that scary crimson color, which was Raito's cue to get the hell out before Light blew.
"Oh I am so hurt, you don't like me. I'm so hurt that I'll crawl back out that window and never come back, I hope you're happy." Raito sniffed and made to leave the room, until the world's greatest detective interrupted him.
"I have to ask Nathanial-kun some questions." And here was L blabbing away about something when it was clear Light was going through some nervous breakdown. And he was surprised at his lack of girlfriends.
"Ryuzaki, this man just broke into my house. I want him out." Why weren't any of them concerned with the fact that he somehow managed to climb through the window?
"Oh Light-kun you're no fun." L pouted at the teen.
"No." Said the briefly ignored Raito, if he was going to make a point he'd make it now before he was interrupted again.
"No?" L looked amused at his refusal.
"I am not discussing politics here, especially in front of him." Raito pointed to the defeated murderer.
"He looks like he's been raped; do you have something you want to confess?" L looked outraged at this comment and Light looked even more pissed than L, but again he didn't really give a damn what they thought. They needed their egos taken down a notch.
"I'm going to ignore that last statement." Muttered the detective sourly.
"Well if you're just going to ignore me…" Raito backed slowly towards the open window.
"No, Nathanial-kun just broke and entered into a home. I think he has something to explain himself." The pale man stopped and glared at the detective. Most people would get the hint that Raito was not a people person, in fact how could you not?! But L, oh no; he just kept on pushing and asking until the end of time!
"Doors are for boring people. I prefer to be original." The detective did not look in the least amused.
"I still need to discuss something of great importance with Nathanial kun." That was it, there was no way in hell that Raito was going to talk to L. Sure it was great talking to him when he was stuck with Misa, but right now he had other things to deal with. And none of those included the insomniac detective interrogating him till midnight.
"I can't stand being near you two. Alone your insufferable, together you're… even more insufferable!" He'd have to get the rest of the death note away from Light later. Now he'd have to escape a paranoid detective.
He turned around and dashed towards the open window. Once outside he turned and slammed the window in the detective's face, winking at his angered expression.
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
"Damn!" L swore. And where was his suspect now? Out the window, again!
"Light-kun you don't mind if I use your window, do you?" L didn't wait for an answer and slid open the window crouching on the sill to find his suspect. In the corner of his eye he caught the blur of obsidian move on the roof. Well no one said he wasn't dedicated.
Pulling up his skinny body onto the gutters, he scrabbled onto the roof with less grace than he had hoped for. He muttered a curse towards the suspect and inspected his scraped hands, nothing too serious. And when he looked up from his crouched state on the roof he saw the young man facing away from him.
Nathanial's dark hair drifted about in a slight breeze that seemed conjured from thin air itself, his pale hands were clasped behind his back grasping his jacket lightly. L blinked to regain his concentration.
"Nathanial-kun…" whispered the detective more to himself than to the younger man. Nathanial still had his back turned to him, seeming unwilling to move.
"Don't you people know when to leave someone alone?! Generally, when someone climbs onto the roof; you don't follow them." The man didn't even turn to face him as he spoke. L was surprised that he had responded, he was almost certain he had not heard.
"I needed to talk with Nathanial-kun." L trotted carefully closer to the suspect.
"Well, that makes everything better doesn't it?" Nathanial gave an eerie laugh then lapsed into silence.
"How did you know my name?" L let the question suspend in the air for a few moments. Nathanial finally turned round to face him, the dark eyes showing conflict.
"I told you, I'm good with names and faces." Nathanial didn't sound very convincing only leading to further L's suspicion. Something wasn't right, L could feel the warning signals going off in his brain; but still… Something about Nathanial just drew him.
"That didn't answer my question."
There was a moment of silence before Nathanial turned back around and began to climb down the other side of the roof.
"Sorry Ryuga, I really am not much of a conversationalist. I suggest you bottle up that annoying curiosity of yours and never look for me again. " The suspect's eyes and face darkened, his eyes twin points of flame, burning themselves into L's memory. Where had he felt that fire before? The memory was at the tip of his finger tips, like a wisp of wind brushing through his unkempt hair.
Before the man was all the way down the roof L blurted the only response he could think of, "I'll get Nathanial-kun coffee!" Nathanial stopped instantly, his descent downwards halted by the mention of caffeine.
"What kind of coffee are we talking about? That crap on the corner or…" Nathanial lifted his body back onto the roof with a little more effort than needed. And for the first time L really looked at him, his eyes weren't sharp so much now just… deep.
"No, I have a place where we can go." L looked down towards the ground distastefully; it would be much harder getting down.
"It looks like we have a deal Ryuga." Nathanial clasped his pale hands together and laughed at L's dumbstruck expression.
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
It was unbelievable, here he had vowed never to see the detective ever again and now he was in a humble little café drinking coffee. Unfortunately it happened to be the same café as earlier. The one he had conveniently stolen from, talk about coincidences. Too much of a coincidence for normal circumstances…
"Um Ryuga, I'd prefer if you go in and get the coffee. I'll just wait out here." Raito shifted out of view from the window, he had a feeling that stealing coffee wasn't a good thing; and that you definitely didn't go back to the coffee shop you stole from.
"If I did that then Nathanial-kun would only take the opportunity to leave before I interrogate him." Stated the detective dragging Raito into the coffee shop. Feeling slightly trapped by the insomniac he began to struggle to get back outside.
"I swear do you read minds or something? Besides, I wouldn't run off before I got the coffee." Raito continued his desperate attempt to get back outside of the building; L just ignored him and dragged him to a corner booth in the back.
Finally giving up Raito sat in the booth, trying to quell the bout claustrophobia rising up within him. He didn't even have to look at the midnight eyes to know they were taking in his every move.
"How did Nathanial-kun know my name?" Well he was persistant, then again he did lock three people up for fifty days in order to prove a point. He hadn't changed at all.
"That's highly classified information." Raito wasn't going to get into super-natural crap with L. You didn't even go into normal crap with L without getting your hands dirty.
"Then how did you know Light-kun's name?" This guy didn't give up!
"Well that one's pretty easy, he's an arrogant asshole. I know of only three people that arrogant, and he fit the description of Light Yagami; it was mostly a guess anyways." Raito grinned at the expression of disappointment on L's face, if he wanted real facts they weren't going to be from him.
"What happened to Nathanial-kun's hand?" L pointed to Raito's injured right hand, well not that it looked injured. Being dead, injuries tended not to show or bother him as much as normal people.
"You saw it, no need to talk about that." Raito lifted the hand to inspect it, he probably should clean it.
"Hands don't explode on a normal basis, this borders on supernatural." Raito nearly groaned, borders wasn't half of it.
"If you were some sort of a… demon, would you tell the witch burners you had magical powers?" asked Raito watching the detective's reaction.
"Yes." Pouted L his eyes growing larger with an attempt to fake a pleading look, over all he looked like Misa.
"No, because personally I don't want to end up lying face down in a gutter. Anything else to ask?"
The detective sighed bringing out some index cards out of his pocket. He spread them out on the table facing towards the spirit in bold letters.
"This information has been shown to police only; it contains suicide letters of prisoners killed by Kira." Oh great, he was going to have to go through this gig again.
"Then why am I seeing it?" L didn't look like he wanted to discuss the reasoning behind his actions; he simply sat and glared at Raito.
"I believe Nathanial-kun's deductive reasoning is better than the average person's." Raito winced; it was because he gave away Light's name. That was a mistake.
"Fine I'll look at your little suicide notes here." Dragging them to himself with a bored expression he checked over the notes and placed them in the order he had originally meant.
"At the top it says, 'L do you know shinigami love apples?' Frankly I think it's a load of BS used to distract you, but hey that's just my opinion. Or there's the numbers you placed on the back of the index cards, but clearly you were drunk when you put those in that order. So we either have the bull shit version or the drunk druggie version, I think its all crap." L pulled out his fake fourth index card.
"No, there were actually four cards. Your reasoning is incorrect." L seemed triumphant in his little victory.
"Unless I knew there were four cards and just didn't tell you. If I told you then your suspicion of me being a murderer would increase greatly. But then again maybe we're both reading it wrong… and Kira is just dyslexic." Raito lifted his hands in surrender, "Could be anything really, but mainly I think he's just BSing you." L stared at Raito in shock; Raito folded his hands in his lap while L continued his calculative gaze.
"I highly doubt Kira is dyslexic, but another opinion is appreciated." Raito smirked at L's puzzled expression; he had obviously expected a similar answer to Light's. Well if he had expected the obvious answers from him he was going to be in for a shock.
"You weren't expecting me were you?" Raito's patience with the detective was wearing thin, not that it had been exactly plentiful before. L just always brought up painful memories, a past he tried to deny or ignore all together.
"I'm sorry?" L's dark eyes revealed nothing, but Raito could feel his confusion in the way he bit his thumb.
"You were expecting someone intelligent and charming; I could see it in the way you kept asking stupid questions. Well I hate to disappoint you but my charming façade has run its course, I won't be changing just to please you." The world's greatest detective sat in silence; the two stared at each other, trying to evaluate each other's response.
The waiter came bringing the coffee breaking the tense silence. L muttered a quiet thank-you then went back to the staring match.
"I wasn't expecting anyone but Nathanial-kun." L dropped a sugar cube into his coffee.
Raito sighed, L was missing the point. He kept on darting around what he was really after.
"Why did you ask me to come here? You would have had more of a reason than to ask me a few questions, questions I most likely would not answer. What do you really want Ryuga?" Raito felt hallow and empty inside, no one truly cared. They still wore their Venetian masks, acting their pain, their joy, their friendship. And Raito's face was bare, showing every tear, every scar, and every smile. He was so sick of masks, he had seen too many for one life time.
"I believe Nathanial-kun is Kira." L's eyes flicked up from the cup of coffee to stare at the suspect.
"Oh I already knew that Ryuga, no need to tell me. But I mean why have you asked me here, why did you even bother?"
"Because I need to stop Kira at all costs, I will even sacrifice my own life." L's words brought up the distant memory, the roof top, the bells…
Raito stiffened at his old enemy's words, it was too much. The reminders, the pain, all flooding back at him.
"I wouldn't be too hasty to say that." Raito turned away from the detective. His eyes hardened at the memory of the detective's death, he hadn't deserved that…
"Are you all right, your face has lost several degrees of its original pigment." L stood and shifted around to see Raito's face. He seemed curious about Raito's grim expression and his sudden lack of words.
"I have only one more question to ask, then Nathanial may go where ever he pleases." L spoke in a quiet voice so as not to scare the specter off. Raito wasn't in the mood to talk but if the detective would just leave him alone for a few moments, that's all he would need.
Raito nodded absently convinced that L would not break his promise.
"What did you mean in the hospital, when you said you were a liar?"
Raito immediately stopped moving, his breath catching in his throat, it was the exact same as before; these were the same mind games that he had played back when he considered himself human. L could still manage to squeeze into his head with only a few words; and that frightened Raito more than anything. The detective still had some power over him, he still had some control.
Enough, all he'd have to do is answer. It didn't matter what he said as long as he could leave straight after.
"I was just answering a question a friend of mine asked, you reminded me of him… It seemed like a good time to answer it." Raito shoved his pale hands into his coat pockets.
"Who was your friend?" asked L.
"It doesn't matter, he's dead. Like I said it was just a spur of the moment I suppose." Dark mahogany eyes looked out the window, sifting through the distant memories. He didn't notice the detective's eyes surveying his stained jacket.
"I'm sorry…" L actually meant it for once, he could tell it caused the man pain to remember it.
"Don't be, he knew perfectly well what he was doing. He wouldn't want pity, especially from you." Raito's eyes flicked back to the detective, a small frown on his face.
"What was the question?" L spoke the words softly so as not to force an answer out of him.
Raito's eyes became glazed and his voice was almost inaudible among the bustle of the coffee shop, "Have you ever, once in your life told the truth?"
L raised an eyebrow at the younger man; Raito simply shook his head and walked away from L. Halfway through the door he turned back towards the detective, his dark eyes full of pain; and then he was gone without a word of parting.
Author's note: Holy crap! Ten pages of dialogue. That and Raito is so confusing that you have to explain every thing he says!
Ha.
If you review then, wonderful things will happen.
Speaking of which, should I have pairings or not? (I'm terrible at all romance and fluff just to warn you)
Review please.