In the midst of everything that could possibly be going wrong, the one thing that was preoccupying the detective's mind was how fast his heart was beating.
He hadn't had many opportunities for true fear, being an orphan raised within four walls and then an adult who had every one of his wishes catered to by Watari, but right now Watari was miles away, waiting for a car that would never come, and he was here in this horror show and his heart was thumping away to glory.
L was, for once in his life, completely and truly afraid.
He had so much more to lose now than when he was a child. He had escape within his grasp, a ship waiting for them to board only minutes away. It was not the imaginary embrace of his mother he was losing, it was Whammy's House. It was the idea of living in the rolling plains of Winchester with a brilliant, beautiful man on the porch of the grand English manor as the clouds gathered over the blue sky and soaked the grass, the smell of fresh mud overwhelming them as they laced fingers.
There were four people hiding under this table. Four people who were completely and undeniably fucked, and only one person whose fault it all was. L was supposed to be the prodigy, the future greatest detective in the world, but he hadn't bothered to check into the background of the contact who had hooked him up with the greatest advantage he had gotten since Shingata.
The traitor had been one of his contacts from England, one of his most trusted men. Oh, when he got back home, Aizawa would get it. He would realise what it meant to cross L…
He felt a warm hand enclose his and looked up to see Yagami Raito smiling ruefully up at him.
The light was muted, turning the boy's hair coppery brown and throwing shadows over his high cheekbones. There were times his Raito-kun simply took his breath away with how beautiful he was, and now was one of those times. "Hey. Don't obsess over it now. We need to focus on getting out, you can punish yourself later."
They were in an abandoned warehouse, underneath a rickety metal table that shielded them from potential snipers. Quite plainly, they were surrounded. Aizawa had ratted out on them, the cavalry had appeared with full intentions of capturing a troupe of alleged anarchists. There was no way out, they were completely surrounded.
The only way out was if one of them distracted the soldiers, somehow got their attention off of one of the windows so that they could slip into the nearby alley and escape detection that way. However, if they did that, the distraction would be captured for sure. There was no way to escape a police force that huge.
Evidently, all three of his companions had thought of this as well.
"L, look, one of us has to surrender and lie about being alone." Mello, Mihael Keehl, his second ranked successor said, pulling out the gun from his holster. "There isn't any other way. They have us surrounded."
As if on cue, one of the police officers outside the warehouse procured a loudspeaker from somewhere. "We know you're in there, you bloody anarchists! The sooner you come out, the more mercy you'll be shown!"
The first ranker, Near, twirled a finger in his dense white hair. "Let's look at this logically. Who is the best sacrifice out of us four?"
L felt a burning in his gut, as if his lunch was going to propel to his throat. "We aren't sacrificing anybody." If they were looking at it logically, there was only one conclusion they could come to. Only one of them was guaranteed survival upon being captured, but L wasn't going to lose him. He wasn't going to allow this.
And by the looks of it, that person knew it just as well.
"It can't be Mello." Near continued, unperturbed. "He's already on their radar with all the shit he does, there isn't any way the police will miss that when they arrest him."
"Near." L growled, but his successor ignored him completely.
"It can't be you, because even if you manage to convince them you're not the Detective L, they'll still connect you to Beyond and send you off to an asylum."
Anger boiled his blood. "If you say one more damn word-"
Near pursed his lips, having reached the conclusion L and Light had come to from the very beginning.
"And it can't be Near." Mello completed firmly. "He was the one seen tampering with BB's crime scenes. If they bring that up, they can put a tracker inside him for the rest of his life. We only have one option."
There was a brief silence, punctuated only by the loudspeaker from outside. "Come outside immediately! If you don't, we have been given permission to open fire!"
L curled his hands into fists as Light sat up straight, his Adam's apple moving as he gulped. "I understand."
"What the fuck do you understand? Sit down, Raito-kun, we're going to come up with another plan." L hissed.
Light closed his eyes. "There's no other plan. You know that as well as I do."
"Besides, we don't have time for this." Mello blurted. "Didn't you hear them? They're going to open fire!"
L felt his face heat up. "I don't fucking care, Mello! He is not going to sacrifice himself! I will not let you go, Raito, there's nothing you can do to make me leave you. I will surrender with you."
Near's words were softly spoken. "They will harm you, L. They will not harm Light, he is one of them."
"He's not one of them!" L bellowed. "You are a naïve idiot if you think they will leave him unharmed! Things will become worse than when he escaped in the first place! His father, his suitor, I made him a promise that I would never let them take him again, and I will honour that promise-"
"Lawliet."
A smooth voice, made of silk and velvet, a voice that could become bitter as a pickle, sharp as a thorn-bush and sweet as syrup all in the space of milliseconds. A voice he had never imagined being separated permanently from, a voice that was now fiery as a pepper and hard as a stone wall.
Light's eyes filled his vision, a dark gold that reminded him of cinnamon and honey, somehow triumphant, somewhere in there. "Lawliet. That promise isn't just some sentimental romantic crap, I made you make that promise as insurance against being left behind when you escape. How can you escape if you're captured and executed?"
"Yes, but how can I escape if you're captured, Raito-kun? I'm not stepping a foot off this goddamn island without you-"
"And I'm not asking you to!" Light's tone was wheedling, the echo of a salesman on a porch, but there was a smug quality to it that no salesman should adopt. "I'm not going to stay captured, idiot. Do you have no faith in me? I've escaped once, I can escape again." He winked cheekily, and L could just forget everything that was happening, he could just put his faith in the self-assured teenager and stay where he was.
"No, Raito-kun, I won't let you return to them, I've seen what they've done to you-"
Mello groaned. "L, we don't have the time for this! Come on, Light!" And the blonde had the nerve to grab him by the arm, yanking him up to his feet. "Let's go!"
The rage inside L reached a peak, and he clambered forward. "Don't you dare touch him, Mihael Keehl, you second-rate tool-"
"Lawliet." Light snapped. He strode forward, grasping the detective by the collar and pulling him up to eye-level from his slouch. With barely a moment of hesitation, the teenager pressed his lips to his, kissing him hard, his cold hands wrapped around L's waist and holding him close.
He pulled away, unsmiling, his eyes serious and sober. "It's my turn to make a promise, L. I promise I will return to you. I promise." He grinned crookedly. "Besides, you're not going to sit on your ass, are you? You're going to rescue me, and we're going to elope to England to eat scones and crumpets."
L's lips quirked up for a fraction of a millisecond, before the loudspeaker from outside blared, shattering the moment. "We're going to count to five before we open fire! I repeat, we have you surrounded! One!"
"That's my cue." Light shrugged, getting to his feet. To anyone else, he might have looked confident and in control, even bored. "Get ready to go."
"Raito-kun, you shouldn't-" L started, but Light cut him off with a fierce look.
"I'm not going to hear another word from you. You better make this worth it."
Near came up next to L and nodded. "We will, Yagami. Thank you."
Light nodded once, hooding his eyes. When he looked back at L, his face was open, and the detective could see every emotion he was feeling clear as day. Fear, panic, grief, stubbornness. The teenager squeezed his eyes shut, blanking his expression, and gave him a slight smile. "I love you, Lawliet. I'll see you soon."
L tried to get the words out, he had to say it, but before he could the loudspeaker drowned his words out. "Two!"
Mello hauled him along towards the south window as Light marched to the doorway. The brunet pushed the double-doors open and put his hands up. "I surrender!" He screamed out into the air, and Mello made his move, vaulting out of the abandoned window just as the forces moved away from it.
The detective complied for a time, until he heard Light's voice pipe up again, this time shriller and more panicked. "I surrender! I said I surrender!"
L whipped his head back to catch a glimpse of Light through the reflection of a window, behind the police who were closing in around him. The officer with the loudspeaker, a burly man twice the size of the teenager in front of him, ripped a weapon from his belt, a slim black Taser. Light pleaded again, I surrender, before he shrieked. He clutched his gut, where the policeman had shocked him, and crumpled to his knees.
L shrieked in turn, just managing to keep his mouth shut. You better make this worth it.
He looked back once more as he ran, and he could just make out the silhouette of the policemen picking up a slender young man in a collared shirt and dragging him into a closed van.
He looked so small, so vulnerable, and obviously still conscious, shivering with pain. Make this worth it. They tossed his body inside like a sack of potatoes.
It wasn't worth it.
He remembered the stories he had heard that one night, when they were both a tangled mess of limbs, the moonlight a sliver over their bodies as Light rested his head on L's chest and told him exactly why he could never return home.
"L, get back here!" Near hissed, making a grab for his sweatshirt as he turned on his heel and sped back towards the swarm of policemen, his heart pounding in his ears, thump, thump, thump.
"L!" He heard the white-haired boy shout as he scurried after him. He had always known Near was the more loyal one. "Don't do it, L!"
His feet slapped against the ground, his vision tunnelled, his breath came out in bursts.
"L!"
The policemen grew closer and closer, the doors of the van slammed shut, the driver started the engine.
"L, wake up!"
Something slammed into his head, smacking his forehead into his keyboard and typing gibberish into the newly awakened screen. L opened his eyes to a warm room, a rough carpet under his knees, his laptop's screen lit up a harsh white, a page of recent criminal trials displayed on it.
The white noise in his head dulled, the silence of the room sinking in.
He raised his head to meet a pair of honey-brown eyes, the teenager's tanned face washed pale, long brown eyelashes glowing silver in the light of the laptop. "L? Are you okay?"
The detective's words stuck in his throat. "I must've…" He swallowed. "I must've fallen asleep. While I was working." He noticed the battered pillow lying at his side. "Did you throw that at me?"
Yagami Raito blushed red, and he almost forgot what his face looked like drawn in fear, what it looked like when they had carted him off... "You were having a bad dream and you woke me. I…got a little mad at you."
He couldn't help it. L found himself grinning. "Well, I apologise for waking you. I don't think I shall be sleeping again, so you don't have to worry." He turned to face his computer once more, deleting the string of nonsense he had typed in his sleep.
"Um. L." Light started hesitantly, and L looked up at him. He looked so much like him. "Listen, I don't feel okay about this arrangement. I…I can sleep on the floor-"
"Shut up." L blurted out. The brunet frowned doubtfully.
"I'm sorry?"
L ducked his head, keeping his eyes fixed on the screen. "I don't have the time for your politeness. I know you are not actually offering to sleep on the floor. Just say what you want."
The brunet shrugged dismissively. "Alright. Everything considered, I've been brought up to be considerate, so I don't mind you sleeping in bed with me. As long as you stay on your side."
L bit his fingernail hesitantly. The last thing he wanted after that dream was to be close to this Light, but he couldn't turn him down. This was too much a step in the right direction. "If you say so." He closed his laptop resolutely, plunging the room into darkness as he climbed under the covers, jostling him out of the way to make space.
He felt the mattress tilt as the teenager settled into his side, adjusting the chain of the handcuff so it didn't dig into their skin.
They were silent for a time, but the detective could tell Light was awake by his breathing. Shallow and rough, as if he was prepping himself to say something.
And finally, it did come. "L?"
L blinked awake. "Yes?"
"Are you sure you're okay? You…were making strange noises in your sleep. I think you were crying."
Crying? L swiped his hand over his cheeks, finding them perfectly dry. "I am fine, Raito-kun. Thank you for the concern."
The brunet's voice was halting, careful. "I'm sorry for what I said back in the other room. I…I don't quite understand what's going on, but I'm convinced you don't mean for anything bad to happen to me. I was out of line."
A smile curled the detective's lips. "You don't have to explain. I know what you're like when you're tired and irritable. I forgive you."
"I'm not asking for your forgiveness." Light shot out. "You're still a criminal. Your good intentions don't mean shit. Still, I shouldn't behave any which way just because I'm in bad company."
L turned to his side with a sigh. After a second, he felt Light turn the opposite way.
A final thought struck him as he began to nod off. "Um, goodnight, Raito-kun."
"Goodnight, L." The teenager whispered under his breath, already mostly asleep.
"Not Lawliet?" L gazed at the lump of bedclothes beside him as it seemed to shrug.
"Is that your name?" Light mumbled.
L sighed. It was worth a shot. "Yes, but I don't want you to call me that. Not yet, at least. L will do."
"I'll keep that in mind." The brunet snuggled into his sheets as he dropped easily off to sleep.
Light had always been able to do that, fall asleep anywhere and anytime like someone had flicked off a switch. L had always admired that in him, it was a convenient skill to have.
As he waited for dawn to break, L Lawliet closed his eyes and gripped the chain links of the handcuffs in his fist.
.
.
A/N: Gimme those reviews and encourage me pls :(