He was turning into a Shinigami, at least according to Ryuk, yet he didn't feel any different. Well, not true. He had felt awful once he had penned down a name into the seemingly innocent White Note, like he was full of energy, tired and going to be sick all at once. That he had immediately felt better once Raito had touched him had not gone unnoticed. Neither was the fact that he could see Raito's name and lifespan floating above the teen's head. The counter, though it had increased by precisely two and a half years, was still steadily ticking down.
He recalled well enough Raito's and Ryuk's comments that his own was not, and hadn't been since he had picked up the Note. Now it had in fact increased, also by two and a half years, and thus Ryuk had come to the conclusion that he was turning into a Shinigami. "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth," he mused aloud.
Raito frowned and leaned in to place the back of a hand against L's forehead. The unexpected action had the detective drawing back, but he had nowhere to go with Raito blocking him into his seat. This made the teen's frown deepen into a scowl and his eyes flash with that shining shade of crimson. "Hold still, Lawliet," he hissed out.
At that very instant L could see Raito's true form and it had him stilling, his eyes widened in shock and wonder. That Raito had used his name, while it hadn't gone unnoticed, the quip to rebuke the teen died on his tongue immediately. He wasn't certain as to what his own expression was at that point, as Raito's demeanor softened and the Shinigami sighed faintly.
"You feel fine," Raito declared and stood back, hand withdrawn from the detective's forehead. "I don't know how this is supposed to go, or if what Ryuk said is even the truth. Maybe you are becoming a Shinigami, I simply don't know." He moved back several paces and turned enough that L had a profile view of him.
He looked defeated with the way his shoulders sagged ever so slightly, and how his head was tilted down just a little while his arms hung at his sides. A glance around the sparsely furnished room that was given to the teen put an even darker inflection upon how he looked. Like a prisoner. L frowned to himself while Raito fully turned away from him and the detective absently gnawed at the inside of his lower lip.
The only personal touch to the room seemed to be Raito's messenger bag left on top of the desk that L happened to be seated at. He turned the chair on its swivel to face the desk and observed the bag. It had been the only thing Raito had brought with him, apart from the clothes on his back, and he'd had no reason to check it then. He had no reason to check it now. He left the bag alone and stood up from the chair, casting another glance at Raito's back. "Come with me."
Raito's shoulders stiffened just enough that he noticed it before the teen turned to give him a questioning look, his brows faintly furrowed. He looked uncertain, but there wasn't any distrust in his gaze.
"Bring your bag," L added, and made a mental note to have Quillsh move Raito's clothes from this cell of a room to his own personal suite. He hardly ever used the room, and it would suit Raito far better in terms of space and lighting. His current room hadn't even come with a window. With that in mind he strode out of the room.
-KotDG-
He blinked and stared after L as the man left the room after his rather sudden demand for Raito to accompany him. There was little else to do than to go along with him, and with the White Note being held hostage he saw no other options for himself. He grabbed his messenger bag on the way out of the room, the regular Death Note he still had possession of carefully tucked away in it with the school books that had been in there. He found L's request that he bring it an odd one and secretly worried that the detective had discovered its existence.
As he followed L through the halls and up a flight of steps his worry about the Death Note having been discovered all but vanished and instead he was wondering just what L was up to. The detective was leading him up to where the personal rooms for himself, Roger, Wammy and the more promising individuals of Wammy's stayed. He had been expressly forbidden by Wammy from going up there when he'd been given a tour of the first floor.
"I'm not supposed to be up here," he hissed out as he quickened his steps to catch up to L.
"I am well aware that you are not allowed up here. Simply put, I don't care." The detective barely spared him a glance as he reached the second floor landing. He breezed past a waif-ish blond boy dressed in dark leather leaning against the rail.
"L! What are you-" Mihael Keehl's question faltered as Raito reached the landing and went past him as well. The blond stared after him, mouth agape in a manner that almost resembled a fish's.
The sight of the blond would have enraged his past self, and even now he wasn't immune to the feeling of anger that welled up in him. Still, the blond hadn't done anything, yet, to earn his ire, and being a petulant brat with an inferiority complex simply didn't warrant any of Raito's attention. "It's rude to stare, Keehl," Raito intoned nonchalantly in perfect English, purposefully using Mello's surname instead of his appointed codename. "I think I heard your boyfriend calling for you."
Mello went bright red and started to sputter indignantly as they turned a corner, leaving him there on the landing. They didn't get too far before they heard a heavy stomping heading down the stairs.
"You are aware that Mello is not romantically involved with Matt?" L asked as he brought them to a stop at a set of double doors at the end of the hall. The doors opened into a spacious room with a lavish décor, and at a first glance there wasn't much to think of.
"Give the walking inferiority complex a few years," Raito answered offhandedly as he gave the room a more thorough examination. He followed L in a few steps and then stopped, a frown marring his face. "This is your room."
"And you have no business up here." Wammy appeared in the doorway, and he wasn't alone. Mello was there too, peeking at them from the hallway. "L, you know-"
"Better? Yes, yes I do, which is why I am having Light moved into my room. It will benefit the both of us." L hadn't bothered to turn and address the old man, instead he went over to his desk, much more ornate than the one in Raito's former room, and hit a sequence of keys on his keyboard. "Please move his clothes up here."
"What has gotten into you, L?" To his credit, Wammy did sound concerned for L.
"Light is not a prisoner here, and he will not be treated as such," L stated rather pointedly. He hadn't been the one to initially arrange Raito's accommodations, having left that all to Wammy. While L had trusted the old man almost implicitly, he hadn't shared anything about the White Note or Death Notes in general, and he hadn't let the old Englishman handle it at any point. Wammy knew nothing beyond the fact that it was a book that had come into L's possession and whatever he had gleaned from the conversations he'd held with Raito. Naturally the old man was missing a lot of the important context.
Wammy stared hard at L, who had finally turned to face him, his expression hardening with resolve. "I see that there will be no reasoning with you, L, so I will give you one condition under which I will allow this."
One hour, twenty-four minutes and thirty-seven seconds later saw them chained together in those handcuffs. Raito was, in fact, amused by this turn of events while L took a turn towards sullen. Wammy kept the key to them, of course, and forbade the both of them from picking the locks. Now they were left alone, Mello having long since been dragged off by his ear by a very unimpressed brunet and Ryuk having never bothered to follow them upstairs to begin with.
"At least we have to keep this on for only two weeks," Raito commented as he examined the cuff on his right wrist. It looked the same as he remembered, even if Wammy had gone out to procure it for this specific instance. "Ne, L, would you have ever considered cuffing yourself to me?"
L tugged at the cuff adorning his left wrist with a scowl before he trudged over to his bed and threw himself on it face first. He left Raito's question unanswered in favor of burying his face into the coverlet in only what could be described as a tantrum. It was completely out of character for the detective.
Raito rolled his eyes and joined L by sitting on the edge of the bed, thankful that there weren't any posts for the chain to get caught around. "Instead of having a fit, like I did when you forced this upon me on suspicion of being Kira in my past life, you could maybe—oh, I don't know—make the best of the situation? It never bothered you then, so why is it bothering you now?"
An unintelligible muffle met his query, at which Raito rolled his eyes again. Instead of letting L carry on with his highly unusual tantrum he forcefully shoved at the detective and pushed him onto his side. This action was met with a furious glare, and before he knew it L had wrapped a good deal of the chain around his forearm and pulled hard at the remainder. The end result left L on his back with Raito half sprawled over him. Not that he found himself caring about the sudden change in position, or that he was currently sharing a much more personal space than he would have cared for in his past life, but this was going a bit too far.
Raito propped himself up enough so that he wasn't restricting L's ability to breathe, as he'd been pulled nearly headlong over the detective's chest. In fact he adjust himself so that he was more pinning L down, at which the supposedly adult man began to thrash. Raito outright scowled and leaned down so that they were nearly nose to nose, and hissed out, "Stop this now, Lawliet!"
The thrashing did not cease. Not at all. L head butted him instead, making Raito recoil slightly, but not enough that he let up the detective. He gave a low, almost hissing growl and did the first thing that came to mind. He bit L in return. More specifically his lips. Hard enough that he drew blood. Suffice to say, L's thrashing did stop.
It only took Raito several seconds after he pulled back, just enough so that they were nose to nose again, to process what he'd done. In that very same instant L retaliated in the same manner. Raito yelped and pushed off of L frantically, the taste of his own blood mixed with L's already on his tongue.
"You bit me!" L sat up and gently prodded at his lower lip, which had bore the brunt of Raito's reckless decision, the sent the teen an accusatory glare.
Raito shifted to sit seiza on the bed alongside L and gave the man a glare of his own. "Like you didn't just do the same? And on top of head butting me while you were acting like a toddler?"
L settled for a scowl and petulantly crossed his arms over his chest, even though the chain connecting them was still wound around his forearm. "I told you to not call me Lawliet," he stated loftily, and turned his nose up at Raito.
Raito went slack-jawed and stared at L, his mind very nearly short circuiting as he tried to process the entire situation. Since when was L so childish? Nothing should have been different, but… Oh shit. The White Note. Was this a side effect from using it? From the supposed fact that L was turning into a Shinigami. His gaze narrowed and he quickly made another decision that was likely reckless.
In one quick motion he yanked on the chain, which forced L's arms apart and simultaneously pushed him down. Raito quickly straddled the detective, which should neutralize his legs, and forced the man's arms above his head where he wrapped the remain length of chain around L's wrists then held them down with his own cuffed hand. L was in a prime position to head butt him again, since this left them nose to nose yet again. In fact he saw the idea pass through L's eyes and on reflex he let all of his Shinigami nature show. "L Lawliet, I command you to stop right now."
The effect was immediate. L went perfectly still, eyes wide and his mouth parted just slightly. His breathing became shallow and his heart seemed to flutter nervously in his chest.
Raito's face screwed into a frown and he stopped pressing down on L's bound wrists. The detective didn't move, not at all. He appeared to be in some sort of thrall. Had Raito done that to him with that single command? "Relax," he murmured soothingly, and to his fascination L did just that.
He went from looking nearly petrified to comfortable in the span of a second, his eyelids lowering slightly to give him a hooded gaze while his heartbeat slowed. There was a brief flicker of confusion, as whatever control Raito wielded over was not absolute, his lips pursed into a very faint frown.
"I…release you from my commands?" Nothing seemed to change, much to Raito's confusion. Maybe his tone had to be sure, more assertive. "I release you from my commands."
L blinked, and then again before he shifted under Raito. He blinked a third time as he took in Raito's appearance, never mind the position they were in. "You…look different. What just happened?"
-KotDG-
While everyone else seemed to be abuzz with the news that their King was troubled, Gelus had secluded himself by his favorite viewing pool to watch over the female human he had come to love. As her image came up his excitement turned to worry, because she was crying. He expanded the view on the pool to include her surroundings and frowned.
She was seated at a desk with a woman standing next to her, in what he understood to be a courtroom. Judgements were made here, and at first he was worried for her life! He got out his Death Note, prepared to start writing down any and all of the names he could when he realized that he had misinterpreted the situation. Judgement was not being cast down upon her, but the man seated at the other desk. Gelus narrowed his eyes and scrutinized the man.
"He killed her parents in front of her," Rem stated flatly as she drifted up behind Gelus.
The smaller Shinigami was momentarily startled and he clutched his Note close to his body as he whirled to face the much larger Rem. "Rem!" He nervously glanced at the viewing pool to see that his human's head was lowered, tears streaming down her cheeks. "He killed Misa-Misa's parents?" Understanding dawned on him and now he knew why she was crying. "They're letting him go?"
Rem nodded and moved closer to the viewing pool, curious as to why Gelus was so infatuated with the mortal girl. "Humans do not see as we do. They are flawed, and often make mistakes."
Gelus frowned at Rem's answer and glanced at Misa one more time. He had made his decision, and leaned his book away from his body to start scribbling in it. His concise instructions took effect as soon as he finished writing, and he snapped his book shut to watch as what he wrote down unfolded.
The man that had murdered Misa's parents went still for a few seconds, then he burst up from his seat, interrupting the court proceedings, and began to confess to all of his crimes. Despite the fact that there was no sound to the viewing pool, Gelus smiled as the Judge called for order, only for the defendant to continue on with his confession.
"What did you do, Gelus?" Rem asked with a touch of worry in her tone.
"I made Misa-Misa happy again," he whispered, holding on to his Note tightly. And he was right, because Misa had stopped crying, more out of shock at first. Now she was smiling.
Rem blinked and studied the smiling girl, and maybe she could see why Gelus liked her. Maybe.
