Chapter 7
Try as he might, L couldn't control the tremors that kept rolling through him. He had never hurt like this before, he couldn't control it as well as he had other upsets he had suffered. His mind kept reliving the last 15 minutes over and over, as if it could possibly change the outcome if he kept looking at it. All it did was make the pain harder to swallow down.
He stared at the computer in front of him. Now that he was here he found it difficult to even touch it; it represented all that was wrong with him and all the mistakes he had made with Light. His thumb came to his mouth as he felt his façade begin to crumble, the ache inside so much more than he could easily hide away. He didn't even hear the door to his office open, or the sounds of Watari's trolley wheels made as the rolled across the floor. All he could hear was Light's good-bye
Watari studied L for a moment as he began to pour his coffee. He could see the slight tremors in his body, his back so bent right now he could rest his head on his drawn up knees. He had one arm wrapped around his knees tightly, while the other hand was at his mouth. He was starring in front of him, but it was obvious he really wasn't seeing anything except what was in his mind. He placed the cup onto the desk in front of L, then placed one hand on L's slightly trembling shoulder. L turned slightly and look at Watari, his huge eyes shining with the struggle of trying to contain the tears.
"Perhaps L, this is not the time to try to work. Might I suggest you take some time to rest, you need time to deal with this." L shook his head.
"It doesn't matter how long I try to deal with this, the fact will remain that I have driven Light away. It won't get any better." He took a deep shaking breath and reached for the coffee.
"What happened tonight is a direct result of your not having the experience in these matters and not thinking things through. I am sure that after Light has had time to rethink the situation he will understand that. What you need to do is go over what you could have done differently to avoid this from happening again." L's eyes narrowed a little as he looked at Watari.
"I know what I did wrong, Watari. I couldn't do the one simple thing Light asked me to.."
"Then you must ask yourself why you couldn't comply with that simple request, and what you have to do to fix it. Because, L this can be fixed but you have to understand everything about it before you try. Light's not going to come back only to have it happen again."
"How can I fix what I don't understand? So that would mean that Light's not going to come back." L looked away from Watari and turned back to the computer. "Thank you, Watari I'll call you if I need anything else." He said with his back to him. Watari sighed, this was going to be a little more difficult than he suspected. He had forgotten what he was dealing with L. He turned and left the office, going back to his apartment. He found when he arrived that he'd forgotten to turn off the surveillance and Light was staring at the screen, tears running down his face. He reached over and switched off the main switch so that all screens went dark at once.
"You must not do that, Light. Promise me you will not watch the surveillance screens when I'm not here." Light nodded slowly. He had only wanted to make sure he was alright, but watching L suffer like that almost made him run past Watari to go back to him. He couldn't stand to think about L hurting like that, and that he was the cause.
"Now this may take some time so prepare yourself for staying here for a while. Not that I expect L to ever leave that apartment again until this is straightened out, but I'll make sure the two of you don't meet in the hallway as you go back and forth to work. Now do as I asked and go to bed now, you need the rest." Light nodded again and looked towards the screens again for just a moment and then turned and went into the bedroom. He slowly took his clothes off and climbed into the bed, the vision of L on the screen burning behind his closed eyes. Watari sat at the desk once the door behind him closed and turned the screens on again to watch L. He didn't think L would get much sleep tonight and neither would he.
The sun came up slowly, it's golden rays spreading across L's desk and paperwork, illuminating everything he had been working on throughout the night. He was standing at the window, a chocolate covered donut in one hand, his coffee cup in the other as he watched the big orange glow outside spread across the sky. His mind ran over the cast of characters he had discovered in the museum case and tried to tie them all together. He was sure that the main characters, the Japanese Prime Minister and the curator of the museum in Egypt, seemed fine. Neither had any reason to want to cause any kind of international intrigue. There were two other characters that L was currently running background checks and had called contacts both here in Japan and in the Middle East to follow up on these two. The first, Kazuhiko Akihyama, was an Administrative Officer of the Tokyo National museums. It appeared he had been moving his way up through the hierarchy of the museum rather ruthlessly during his career, which had not been very lengthy. He appeared to be quite power hungry, although L couldn't understand what was so powerful about being a museum curator. There had to be more to it than that. His second questionable character, Amar Ashwaf, the security officer of the museum in Cairo which lent the articles, seemed to have a clouded history. He could follow him from birth to college; after that he seemed to waver in and out. There was very little on him over certain years, as if he had purposefully hidden at certain times of his life. Other years, it was very easy to follow his trail. This was very intriguing, and had managed to keep L's mind occupied during most of the night and early morning.
But now as the sun rose, so did the pain of Light's leaving him. He thought about what Watari had told him, that there was a way to fix this, a way that Light would come back. But not if he didn't fix what was wrong first. He was afraid to allow himself to hope that Light hadn't grown tired of him, but that small glimmer was all that was keeping him sane at the moment.
He emptied the coffee cup and went to the pot sitting on the trolley. He lifted it and realized it was empty and touched the intercom.
"Yes, L?"
"I seem to be out of coffee…"
"I was on my way when you buzzed me." L could hear the smirk in his voice.
"I see. Thank you." He answered and released the button. He walked into the bathroom and ran the cold water, taking handfuls and splashing it on his face. He looked at himself in the mirror as he dried his face with a towel, and he was startled with the reflection he saw. The darkness under his eyes seemed decidedly heavier this morning, his hair even more unruly than usual. His dark eyes reflecting the way he truly felt at the moment as he was not trying to hide it from anyone. He looked lost, and completely devoid of the confidence he was so used to seeing. He dropped the towel and turned away from the reflection, running a shaking hand through his hair. He walked through to the bedroom, the bed still in disarray from Light's suitcase being on it, some of his clothes that he hadn't taken still strewn across the bed.
"Light, " he whispered to the empty room and sat on the bed, taking one of his lover's shirts in his hands, "Please help me find what I have to do to get you back." He heard Watari entering the apartment and he dropped the shirt, stood and walked out of the room, hands in his pockets, as if he were completely in control. He walked into his office and sat down as Watari came in behind him, exchanging a trolley with fresh items for the one had left behind the night before.
"Watari, I need for you to set up communications with the NPA today. I wish to discuss the museum theft case with whomever is in charge of that." Watari nodded as he poured fresh hot coffee into L's cup.
"What time would you like that done?"
"They usually convene around 9:00 to plan the day so that would be the perfect time. Let me know the moment you have connected."
"Ofcourse. May I ask.." L sat straight up and turned to look at him.
"No. No discussion of that right now." He turned away and went back to his line of screens. Watari sighed and pushed the trolley towards the door.
"Perhaps you would allow me to speak to you later on that subject, if that would be agreeable to you." He turned back and the sound of L's voice, and noted that L hadn't turned around, his back was still to him.
"Ofcourse. At a time of your choosing, it would be just fine." He answered and watched as L nodded. He then left the apartment, a plan forming in his mind.
Upon entering his apartment he saw that Light was up and pouring coffee for himself. It was obvious he didn't sleep well at all either, he had circles under his eyes that would rival L's and his face looked anything but rested. He rolled the trolley into the kitchen and came back to Light.
"You are supposed to report to the NPA tomorrow to make final decisions on where you wish to be assigned, am I correct?" Light nodded running a hand through his hair.
"Yes, but…"
"No buts, Light. What I am proposing is that today you go there and personally go over your options. I think you should visit both areas before you make a final decision. It's better than sitting here and moping until we get a plan in motion, don't you agree?" Light sighed and then nodded.
"You take a shower, when you're done have your breakfast and I'll make sure clothes are ready. You'll want to be there before 9:00 I would think." He said and ushered Light towards the bathroom. He got the laptop he also used to connect L to the world and put it into his briefcase. He gathered his disguise, and also put it into the briefcase before Light could return from his shower. He then went into the bedroom and removed a suit and hung it, brushing out the wrinkles. He heard Light leave the bathroom and saw him come into the room. He had him sit down at the table and prepared him breakfast and fresh coffee. Light gradually began to look more like himself, a bit more haggard than usual,l but at least more alive.
"Watari I don't think I'm going to be able to concentrate on anything other than L today, this is a waste of time."
"No, this is what you need to do. You and L will work this out eventually, but right now you have to continue working on your career. You've worked too hard and gone through too much to let it fall now. You know this is true."
"Fine, I'll go. Give me ten minutes."
Twenty minutes later Watari pulled up in front of the building and dropped Light off. He suggested he go to the detective's section first, as they were generally having their meeting about now. Light agreed and headed in that direction. Watari pulled the sleek black car into the driveway and donned his disguise under the cover of the darkened car. He then got out, and made his way into the building.
Light was greeted happily by the members of the police force he knew, all congratulating him on his brilliant grades making it possible for him to decide which career he wanted to embark on. His father made his way from his office to welcome his son to the police force, proud and happy to see him.
"I didn't expect to see you until tomorrow, Light." Soichiro said happily shaking his son's hand.
"Well, I thought it would be a good idea to take one last look into both sections and make a decision that way." Light answered smiling.
"Well you picked a good time to come in. We're having our meeting right now, please sit in and see what's going on." Light nodded with a smile and followed them into the large meeting room.
"Light! Great to see you!" Light inwardly groaned at the overly cheerful greeting when he walked into the room. He looked up to see Matsuda running towards him, a huge childish grin spreading across his face.
"Didn't expect to see you today, I figured after all the pressure of doing school and here for so long you'd take as much time away as possible." Light shrugged.
"Well, circumstances dictated I should take a look a day earlier." He said smiling.
"Come on sit next to me, we can talk during the boring stuff." Matsuda said and then immediately blushed when he realized the Deputy Director had heard him.
"Sorry, Deputy Director Yagami." He mumbled and moved quickly towards his seat, dragging a giggling Light behind him.
Within a few moments of them sitting down, Soichiro came to the front of the room and called them all to order.
"Good morning, gentlemen," he started, "We have several cases in front of us today. First…"
"Excuse me for interrupting gentlemen, but L wishes to address the meeting." Light's heart caught in his throat as he heard the booming voice across the room that he knew was Watari's. He felt Matsuda jab him in his ribs and whisper in his ear.
"Oh this is why you're here, you knew he was going to address the group and you wanted to be here. Just because you live with him…"
"Matsuda stop it before someone hears you!" Light cautioned and stared as Watari arrived, covered from head to toe so his identity was completely concealed. Slowly it began to dawn on him why Watari wanted him here this morning and a small smile found it's way on his face. Deputy Director Yagami welcomed Watari to the front of the room.
"We are honored to have L with us this morning." He said as Watari placed the laptop on the desk at the front of the room. He sat it up and pulled out the microphone.
"L, you are connected." He said and stepped away from the laptop. L, on his side snapped on the microphone and surveyed the room in front of him….and caught his breath. Light was there. Why was Light there today, he wasn't supposed to be there until tomorrow. He felt his hands start to shake and he fought to control it as he gazed at his beautiful Light sitting next to Matsuda. He took a deep breath and steadied his mind.
"Good morning, gentlemen, it is good to speak to all of you again."
Light felt his stomach clench as he heard the voice, distorted as it was, of the person he loved more than anything in the world. He took another deep breath and relaxed his hands that he realized had suddenly clenched.
"There is a case I would like to discuss with you, bring to your attention if you haven't already seen it. The recent museum thefts."
