Light stood in the middle of the strange city square, staring silently at the pale hand in front of him. His own hand hung in the air, frozen along with his indecision.

While they stood, world continued to revolve around them. Light could hear the humming and honking of vehicles on the road behind him. The path in front of him is still jam-packed with people, their figures flashing by in a blur, footsteps echoing off the concrete along with the rustling of clothes. Above him, the sun is still absent from the scene, the faint darkness igniting a chill in the air. Enveloped in the shadows of the clouds the large screens seemed to flare, switching between the news, the entertainment channel and advertisements.

"Well, what is your answer, Light?"

He raised his head, looking into the still-smiling face of the red-eyed man.

Light lowered his hand slowly.

"Let me think about it," he said.

Kira seemed surprised, then laughed, eyes gleaming in mirth, "Why the hesitation? The Light we know isn't a coward."

"Why 'we'?" Light noticed, "It doesn't make sense because what you said earlier is 'I am you', 'you are me' and 'we're the same'. What you're saying make it seem like we're not."

Kira let his hand drop and spoke with an air of nonchalance, "It's just a matter of speech."

"You know me," Light mentioned, "For some reason you resemble me and you know my habits and everything else about me." He set his eyes onto Kira and concluded, "You act like me, so that must mean I know you too."

"That certainly sounds like a possibility."

Caution found its way onto Light's features, "You're trying to trick me."

"Nonsense," Kira smiled and the brunette caught a subtle glow in his eyes. "What makes you think that?"

"Because I know myself," Light stated, continuing to study the other at the same time, "You try to soften me with words and spur me with what would set me off. It's basic manipulation."

"And what if what I said were to be true?"

Light went silent for a bit, considering that factor before saying flatly, "I don't trust you."

"Then what shall I do to gain your trust?"

Light noticed the attempt to steer away from the main issue and demanded, "What are you?"

"Whatever do you mean, Light?"

"Shut up," He growled, "If you're trying to trick me, then you're not me and if I were you, there would not be any gaps in my memories!"

"So you've noticed," Kira smiled as he tilted his head.

"Kira."

"I don't know, perhaps I might be your other self," he challenged, "You learnt that in psychology, didn't you?"

"I do not have dissociative personality disorder," Light emphasized almost angrily, "If I do, I won't be talking to you like this and if I do, we would not have the exact same behaviors."

"You wouldn't know," Kira said with a shrug, "Perhaps you belong to the category called 'the insane' and I am just a vision you have conjured up." He gave Light a serious look, "Or I am making you believe that we're the same."

Light's eyes narrowed, scrutinizing him for a moment before he pointed out, "You speak in circles."

"Not unlike what you do when you're pulling the strings, huh," Kira stated, realizing that Light had indeed caught onto him.

"What are you?" Light demanded, "If you're not a personality split off from me then what the hell are you?"

"Light-kun."

The teen started, looking about as he looked for the source of the annoyingly familiar voice but not seeing anyone around him other than Kira and the throng of unidentifiable people in front of him that began to look really strange.

"W-what the hell?" Light blurted, taking a step back as the scene began to twist and melt before his very eyes, the edges of his vision dissipating into the darkness while he stared in alarm. The buildings looked like they were physically bent and warped as they dissolved into black along with the sky, the cars, the road and even the people.

"Light-kun," the call was a little more insistent and Light looked around for the detective while the world began to crumble before him.

The darkness squeezed ever closer and Light stared in horror Kira's body began to twist into an unrecognizable shape. He silently hoped that it was merely due to his vision and not actually happening to the other, as undesirable as he is.

Even in the distortion, Light could still sense the other's grin as Kira gleefully stated, "Until next time, Light."

And he disappeared, swallowed up by the darkness along with everything else.

"Light-kun."

Light wearily cracked open an eye, strangely unsurprised to find the pale detective leaning over him, his large black eyes boring into his skull. The white image of the detective burned even more into his brain as his face was illuminated by the moonlight, causing him to look even more ghostlike than usual.

As a deterrence to that 'ghost', Light reached out and shoved his hand in L's face to push him away.

The 'ghost' gave a muffled protest while the teen rubbed his own face, trying to regain his bearings. He felt as if his mind is trapped in his body that seemed too sluggish. His dream was much too vivid and much too real that it took Light a few moments to absorb the fact that he is in the Taskforce building, trapped in L's bedroom.

"I see Light-kun is awake," L said cheerfully, as though he's unaware that Light had abused his face just a second ago.

"What time is it?" He asked, reality taking a while to sink in.

"Three-fifty," L answered, "I woke you up so that I could acquire some cake."

The teen silently sat up and rubbed his eyes.

While he did that, L shuffled over to perch beside him, shifting his face an inch away from the other's to study him.

"Light-kun seemed uncharacteristically calm," he commented as he tilted his head.

SMACK!

The detective was sprawled across the bed in the blink of an eye. Light stared down at him, his arm stretched out and his hand clenched into a fist. As expressionless as he looked, it wasn't hard to miss the twitch in his eye.

"You happy now?"

"That was uncalled for," L said as he sat up, ignoring the throb in his cheek.

"You were way too close," Light growled, "And why the hell did you wake me up in the middle of the night for such a stupid thing!"

A faint glare took hold of the detective's face.

WHAM!


The next day found Light sitting sullenly at his desk, nursing the bruise on his cheek.

Looking back at it, he did come to the realization that he pretty much asked for it by punching L in the face and not expecting the other to return the favor. That, and calling his snacks a 'stupid thing' because as chilled and ridiculous as L always seemed to be, Light had momentarily forgotten that the only things that L had ever been seriously dedicated to are his sugar and sugar cravings.

On one hand, he could use the excuse that he was really tired from the lack of sleep such that his normal brain function has been impeded (as L had annoyingly pointed out as a warning once). On the other, he happened to be very concerned about his latest dream.

So that worry had found him in the workroom the next few days, hooked up to his machine not for the purpose of finding more information about the Yotsuba Corporation but something else.

Anyone who looked at the tabs on his screen would be seriously concerned about the names of the websites and articles he has up.

'Demonic possessions', 'Exorcism', 'Serious cases of personality disorders', 'Recurring nightmare', these combination of titles made the horror of the Kira Case pale in comparison. Although if anyone were to look at his screen, they would probably think that he'd finally gone off his rocker.

That might be reasonable enough, seeing that he have a sugar demon accompanying him all day and all night such that the incurable crazy has rubbed off onto him.

While Light skimmed through a site that talks about various type of demons and what they want from the beings in the mortal realm, he had apparently missed the chair beside him slowly rolling closer without a sound and a certain annoying person had leaned over his shoulder, staring intently at his screen.

He'd realized that too late when a really loud, obnoxious voice rang by his ear.

"Is that PORN?"

The shock was so great that Light almost had a non-Kira related heart attack.

He shut off the monitor immediately as a reflex and realized that it was an extremely bad idea as it gave L's words more credibility, the stupid oaf had been loud enough to alert the whole room, evident from the four pairs of eyes now staring at the both of them.

Light stared back at them, especially the one he calls 'Dad', who's looking back at him in complete shock and the beginnings of disappointment.

"It wasn't-"

"Then would Light-kun care to explain why you turned that off?" L, the incarnation of devil himself challenged.

It was safe to say that Light experienced the most awkward silence of all awkward silences in his life. He wasn't too happy to find that Matsuda's face had turned bright red.

"Wow, Light," the bachelor commented, sounding perturbed and mildly impressed. "I didn't know you had that in you."

Soichiro turned to glare at him.

Light lowered his head.

"Oh, is Light-kun ashamed?" L questioned 'sympathetically', fiddling with his lip, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that out loud."

"You…"

"Hm?"

"YOU FUCKING BASTARD!"

The others were startled at the sudden yell, staring agape as the teen bodily attacked the detective, sending the both of them crashing to the ground in a flurry of fervent growls and punches.

"Godammit," Aizawa groaned in exasperation.

Light managed to gain the upper hand as he pinned L to the ground, throwing punches in his face with unbridled fury. His attacks are only halted when L's foot slammed into chest, sending the brunette tumbling off of him.

That was when Soichiro and Matsuda had thought to intervene, when Light scrambled towards the other with a frightful snarl.

"Stop it this instance!"

Unexpectedly, the teen ignored the command of his father and pounced upon the detective, looking like he was determined to strangle the hell out of him once and for all.

At that moment, the door hissed open, revealing the figures of Watari and Misa.

The blonde had looked bubbly and thrilled upon the prospect of finally seeing her boyfriend again, right until the moment she set her eyes upon the ruckus in the middle of the room.

"What is Ryuuzaki doing to Misa's Light!" She exclaimed, her shrill voice distracted Light from slamming his fist into the detective's nose, where L used that opportunity to plough both his feet into the teen's face.

"Light!"

It took a while but they finally managed to extract the two off of each other, now covered in fresh bruises and bumps from their latest scuffle. Soichiro stood over them with a stern look that would make a lion cower in fear, while Light and L looked anywhere but at each other and the man himself.

Misa looked on at them (well, just Light) in worry and turned to Matsuda who stood beside her.

"Um, what happened?" She asked.

Matsuda gaped at her anxiously and muttered, "W-well, I think Ryuuzaki was kind of mad at Light."

The model looked confused, "Huh?"

Matsuda glanced at the two and cupped a hand to whisper, "Ryuuzaki was mad because he was looking at- um, uh…"

"Looking at what? What was he looking at?"

His next word was barely audible, Matsuda was blushing as he uttered, "P-P-Porn…?"

"WHAT?!"

That attracted Light's attention, he turned to glance at them, immediately put two and two together and leveled a glare at tattletale.

The bachelor felt it and turned to him timidly, shivering under the intense wave of anger like a rabbit in the headlights.

L was silently chewing on his thumb for the longest moment before pointing the other one at the brunette, "He started it."

"Ryuuzaki…" Light's head snapped back to L as he gritted his teeth, looking ready to have another go at him.

"Light!" Soichiro barked and he shrunk back in what seems to be shame.

Meanwhile out of earshot of the three, Misa emitted a gasp of disbelief, "Light looks at those- those dirty things?"

"Uh…"

She ignored Matsuda's attempt to intervene and sobbed, "But- but, isn't Misa enough? He doesn't need to look at those, Misa is ready if he wants to see…"

The bachelor turned beet red.

"…to touch…"

He choked.

She set her tear-filled gaze upon Light as if in appeal, "Misa belongs to Light, he can do anything to Misa!"

Aizawa stared at her and cleared his throat, "Um, I think you should leave."

"Light can only look at Misa alone!" The model suddenly gasped, as if coming to a realization, "Wait, Misa thinks she figured it out!"

She pointed angrily at L, "This must be Ryuuzaki's fault, he's after Misa's Light and is trying to turn Light away from Misa by using such dirty tricks!"

The detective looked at her in utter boredom but didn't bother to contradict her statement while Light stared at her in confusion.

"Misa-"

"Stinky-zaki! You think that Misa won't be able to tell, it was because no one wants your ugly mug," Misa accused, "Misa's Light is trapped with him day and night who knows what he's thinking of doing!"

"Misa-"

"Maybe he did it already, because Misa isn't here to protect her Light!"

"Misa-"

"His innocence!" She cried dramatically.

Mogi spluttered, his stoic image beginning to crack as a hint of amusement began to crept onto his features. Not wanting to attract anyone's attention, he lowered his head and covered his mouth, hiding the slight smile with his hand.

However, it wasn't difficult to miss the faint trembling of his shoulders and luckily for him, they were preoccupied with the main spectacle in the middle of the room.

"Misa!"

Misa gaped at Light for shouting and sobbed, "Now Light's mad at Misa!"

"What the hell is going on," Aizawa grumbled, looking like he's done with it all.

"Misa, don't being ridiculous," Light exclaimed, looking disturbed, "Nothing of that sort happened!"

"Then why is Light looking at the dirty things?"

"I was not!"

Soichiro turned to L with a dark scowl. He noticed and looked up for a long moment before finally relenting, "He was not."

"See," Light soothed, "I didn't look at any of those, I only have eyes for you."

L gave him a sidelong glance at that moment, taking the opportunity to observe him.

"R-really?" She blurted.

"Yes, really," he said.

"Light-kun says that but he has not moved from the couch at all."

There was a pause, before Light turned to glare at him, "That's because of the stupid chain, you moron."

The detective gave him a scrutinizing gaze, "Hm, really?"

Light glared at him and was about to utter something particularly nasty at L when there was a shrill ringing.

They turned to the source of it, where Misa jumped as if suddenly realizing, "Oh, that's Misa's!"

She fished out her pink cellphone, decorated with all sorts of trinkets hanging from it and answered in a high-pitched cutesy voice, "Hello, Misa Misa here!"

They watched as she talk on the phone for a brief moment. Misa hung up with a loud 'bye' and replaced the phone in her pocket, "Misa has a rehearsal in thirty minutes, so Misa will be leaving."

She looked over at Light with a solemn expression and pounced on him suddenly, settling in his lap while the teen emitted a painful sounding 'oof'. He tentatively hugged her back.

"Misa will miss Light."

"I'll miss you too," he mumbled.

Aizawa rolled his eyes at the display, while L was the only one who blatantly stared at them.

"Bye, Light." She kissed him on the cheek once and left the room with Watari.

L studied at the unfortunate soul chained to him, "That was very unenthusiastic on your part."

"Shut up," Light snapped, "What do you know?"

A crooked half-smile appeared on his face, "More than you think, Light-kun."

Soichiro glared down at the both of them, "We'll have a talk."

"Yag-"

"Now, Ryuuzaki."

"Right," he mumbled.

"With my son."

"Alright."

"Alone."

"Fine," L said, "We'll move to another room."

"Alone, Ryuuzaki," Soichiro stressed, "My word is final."

"Fine," The detective peered up at him, "I'm only doing this out of respect for you, Yagami-san."

L stood up, dug inside his pocket for the key and unlocked the cuff on Light's end. The teen rubbed his wrist, the skin beginning to bear marks from being trapped in the confines of the metal for so long.

"You can use the interrogation room, it's just down the hall to the left," he added, "The cameras and microphone will be left on, however."

Soichiro glowered at him.

"It's for security reasons, of course." L explained, "Your son is still under suspicion therefore I have to continue to watch him even when he is not by my side."

"Fine," he said huffily, "I'll just accept that."

Soichiro then proceeded to leave with his son to the designated room.


Light followed his father into the room, where he closes the door behind him.

They were in a room with white walls and a gray floor, it was bare except for a metal table, chairs and a single lamp that was turned off. The two father and son chose not to sit and instead stood by the door, where Light resisted the urge to fidget.

"Son," Soichiro grumbled, "I want you to answer me honestly."

Light felt like escaping the room, he'd never been caught in this sort of situation ever since that time he'd pulled Sayu's hair when he was six. He steeled his nerves, preparing for whatever lecture/scolding his father is going to give him next.

"What exactly is your relationship with Ryuuzaki?"

Light blinked, "What?"

Soichiro looked troubled, "I mean, are you in any sort of, um, uh, indecent relationship with him?"

All of Light's brain activities came to an abrupt standstill, "Indecent?"

"You need to tell me, son," he continued, "Is he forcing you? What exactly is he doing to you? You're still a minor, we can press charges-"

"Dad, no," Light said in a hurry, "That's not it, it's all a misunderstanding!"

Soichiro gave him a skeptical look, "But you've been strange, lately."

"It has nothing to do with him," Light said, trailing off to give his father the image of shame and sincerity, "I was just tired, that's all and there's the confinement. I was also stuck in the buildings since July so I just felt a little cooped up. I'm sorry if my behavior has been disruptive lately."

"Okay…" Soichiro didn't look convinced, "So you don't have feelings for him?"

"I already have Misa, Dad," Light said firmly, feeling nauseous at the thought.

Soichiro gave him a long look and finally accepted that, "Then what about Ryuuzaki?"

"Oh, no, he hasn't done anything weird," Light confirmed. 'Other than annoying the hell out of me,' he silently added.

"So what he has been doing, there's no meaning behind it?"

"I don't think so…" Light uttered, "Ryuuzaki is a recluse after all, so he probably doesn't behave normally like other people."

Soichiro nodded, "That's a relief, from how it looks it seems like he's flirting with you."

"Flirting?" Light looked puzzled, "I don't understand."

"Teasing you," Soichiro explained, "Playing harmless pranks and he was only targeting you alone, he wasn't interested in anyone else so that made me worry."

"Maybe that's Ryuuzaki's way of socializing," Light reasoned, "He did say that I was his first and only friend before."

On the contrary, Light began to think otherwise.

Soichiro nodded, "Yes, that sounds reasonable. That's much better."


At the same moment, L sat nibbling on his thumb in frustration.

"The audio isn't on," he muttered irritably as he watched the footage from the interrogation room.

Light's face was just out of sight as well, his father is covering it so he can't read the teen's lips or see his expression, just Soichiro's, which doesn't give him much regarding Light's replies.

The detective sat twirling about in his chair while he waited for the two to return, his wrist is still trapped within the cuff, so the chain is dragging about on the floor and making clacking noises.

It wasn't long before Matsuda approached him.

L stopped and peered up at him, "Yes?"

"Uh, are you two okay?"

"Certainly," the detective answered, "Why did you ask?"

"You guys just seem to quarrel a lot," Matsuda said, "And Light-kun does have Misa-chan as his official girlfriend."

L stared at him in mild confusion (that means he's very confused) but waited for him to continue.

"It doesn't seem like a healthy relationship."

Oh.

"We're not in a relationship," L answered blandly.

Matsuda looked surprised, "Wait, huh, what? Oh, I know! You guys are only doing it!"

Aizawa glanced over at the shout, saw what was going on, rolled his eyes and went back to work. Unlike him, Mogi continued to watch.

"Doing what?" The detective asked seriously.

"Doing- uh, um…" Matsuda looked flustered, then whispered, "Well… being fuck buddies."

"What is a fuck buddy?"

As a response to that, Matsuda gave a shriek and frantically shushed him, while L kept staring at him in confusion.

"Like, uh, having s-s-sex with him but just remaining friends."

L then gave him a look as if he's being a nuisance, "I did not have sex with Light-kun nor am I in a relationship with him."

Matsuda stared at him, "Wait, are you serious? You guys aren't dating?"

L shot him the blankest stare he could muster and said in a weary voice to make it as clear as possible, "No, Matsuda-san, we're not dating nor are we fuck buddies of any sort."

The detective swore Matsuda actually looked disappointed at that and said in an equally flat tone, "Now please get back to work."

The bachelor turned and obediently made his way back to the desk in silence, passed Mogi who pretended he hadn't been listening in to the conversation.

It wasn't too long before the door to the workroom opened, revealing the father and son pair who returned to their seats in silence.

Light glared at L once and held out his left hand.

L replaced the cuff in silence and it was like nothing ever happened that afternoon, save for a couple of bruises on both of them.


"Bye, guys!" Matsuda said happily as he grabbed his coat and left.

The two genii who are now left alone again did not acknowledge him, absorbed in both of their screens.

Well, not really.

Ever since Light had returned from the interrogation room, his mind had been plagued with thoughts, strange thoughts that involved the possibility of L flirting with him. He had never thought of it that way and only dismissed it as the detective being out to torment him with his lunacy until his father had pointed it out.

It can't possibly be but there's no other explanation for it other than the fact that he's a recluse who sucks at being friendly or he's just playing around and thoroughly enjoying it.

Light can't wrap his mind around the thought that L might even like anyone romantically, as he seemed way too blunt and emotionally obtuse for that.

He glanced over at L who's been staring at the same screen for five minutes and definitely not registering what he's seeing, which could most likely mean that he's busy thinking about cake and all that horrendously sweet stuff.

Light told himself again that there's no way but he needs something to back it up.

He psyched himself up for this one, which is appearing as friendly and harmless to the sugar fiend, "Hey, Ryuuzaki."

L blinked and turned to him, "Yes?"

"Hold out your hand."

L simply stared at him, Light caught a hint of suspicion in his features, "What is it?"

"Shut up and give me your hand."

"I see no beneficial reason in doing that."

Light glared, "Just do it."

L gave him a skeptical look and eventually obliged.

Light took it in hand, noting that L's hand is cool and dry and not disgusting and sticky like he'd expected it to be. The teen let it hang for a while, focusing on the detective's reaction and not the fact that's he's holding a dude's hand like he would a girl.

L stared back at him for a long moment, "What is Light-kun doing?"

"Observing."

Light noted that the detective sounded awkward, like he wasn't too happy and was perplexed with what they're doing.

"If you're done observing…"

He nodded in satisfaction, releasing L's hand and concluding that there's no way that the detective had ever had a crush on him.

"Thanks," he said and calmly went back to work.

There was a long pause where he was stared at.

"What was Light-kun observing?" L asked curiously.

"It's nothing, don't worry about it."

"It sounds like something I should be worried about."

Light ignored him as he was too busy feeling thrilled that L isn't in any way infatuated in him. And neither was he, so all was fine. Now all he has to do is to figure out how to get rid of the thing in his dreams and solve the murders that is still happening out there.

Now he wasn't feeling too thrilled about that.


After Light went to bed that night, L sat beside him in the dark, staring at his hand.

He studied his palm, then turned to look at the back, wondering what it was that Light was trying to do. No one has held his hand before, other than Watari when he was younger. Somehow, it didn't feel the same. With Watari's it had been warm but having Light hold his hand, it was warm and fuzzy.

He couldn't figure out the fuzzy.

The detective turned to look at Light.

He'd never felt so confused in his life.