The following morning was quite unpleasant. Neither Light nor L enjoyed the daily routines a slightest bit. Light washed himself and got dressed as quickly as possible. He didn't spend much time in front of the mirror like he usually did. He didn't talk anything to L. He didn't even look him into the eyes. He didn't want to be chained to that pervert. It was more unpleasant than ever before. He didn't remember much of last night. But he did remember the kiss. What had he been thinking?

No… I didn't do anything... He provoked me. Yes, that damn pervert tried to…

To what…? What had L been trying…?

Perhaps it had something do with his suspicion toward me… But Light had no idea how kissing him would increase or decrease L's suspicions. Even so, the case was pretty clear. Light had been a victim. Yes, L was older than him so the only way to see the situation was that L had provoked himand tried to take advantage of him… And Light didn't know what to think of that.

But he decided to forget about it. He had told L to forget about it. So why was he thinking of it now then…?

Matsuda was whining about the small size of the announcement of his death that was on today's paper. L ignored that idiot but Light tried to cheer him up. He said that Matsuda was safe now since Yotsuba thought he was dead. But thanks to Matsuda's stupidity, L was now having only eight suspects, the eight Yotsuba employers. And he had come up with a plan how to investigate them closely.

The three of them were with Soichiro Yagami and Mogi in the monitoring room.

"I will have Watari break through the security of the Yotsuba building", L told them. "The eight of them will have their next meeting on Friday. If everything goes well, we should be able to monitor the meeting."

Everyone was in a better mood. Uncovering Kira's identity and catching him was only a matter of time. The difficult case would soon be solved. But L and Light knew – better than anyone – that the case wouldn't be solved with just that. They both believed that this was a new Kira, different from the first one. And the original Kira should be caught as well.

Matsuda seemed to be very proud of himself – thus he seemed to be the only one who was. L wasn't in a good mood at all. It was true that Matsuda had, for once, been helpful. But he didn't want to admit that. Matsuda had a right to be proud of himself but it somehow still irritated L. He was glaring at Light from the corner of his eye. The brunette's behavior was bothering him…

Light acted like nothing had ever happened between the two of them. But something had, and it clearly bothered Light too since he was completely ignoring L today. L didn't know what had actually happened between him and Light. He didn't know what the feeling was that he felt toward Light. But L missed him. He longed for the proximity of Light's – in mentally and physically. He wanted to know what Light was thinking at this exact moment. He wanted to be held by Light's strong, caring arms... He wanted to feel Light's soft lips against his own again…

No-one had ever been that close to L before. L was very suspicious of Light but he had never let his guard down like he had done with Light yesterday. No-one had ever made him feel like Light had... Having Light close to him… Just a thought of it made him feel thrills.

If only Light had glanced at him with those beautiful, enchanting eyes of his again… And his smile… There were no words to describe it.

But Light wasn't smiling. He was avoiding L's gaze and talking to his father. Soichiro Yagami was praising his dearly beloved son. Matsuda went along with that but Mogi remained silent, as usual. And so did L.

"Eraldo Coil will accept Yotsuba's offer", he said after being quiet for a moment. "He will take the job that they hired him for: uncover L's identity. That is how we will get closer to Yotsuba. And if Watari succeeds, we will be able to monitor their next meeting on Friday."

"And then we'll definitely catch Kira!" Matsuda said confidently.

"That's right", said Light. After catching Kira he wouldn't have to be handcuffed to L anymore… But that didn't mean that he wouldn't help to catch the original Kira as well. Kira had to pay for the things he had made Light and his family go through. That was certain.

"What is the matter with you, Light-kun?" L asked as they were sitting on a couch in the monitoring room, having coffee together.

Light hadn't said a single word to L during this time. He sipped his tea, remaining silent. L was eating chocolate cookies next to him. Light tried to sit as far from him as possible – which wasn't that far since they were handcuffed together.

What is the matter with me, huh? Light glared at L from the corner of his eye. As if you didn't know… Ryuzaki... You're good at playing stupid. But I know what you're up to.

"You haven't said anything to me today and it's already half past three", L remarked, sipping his coffee and adding one more sugar cube in it.

"I know what the time is", Light replied dryly. "And did you happen to consider the fact that I might have nothing to say?"

L seemed to ignore Light's cheeky way of speaking. "That's odd…" he said, biting the nail of his thumb. "…since Light-kun usually talks a lot."

"Well, perhaps I'm not in the talking mood today", Light stated briefly.

"That's quite odd too", L said, looking closer at the cookie that he was holding in between his fingers at the moment, "since Light-kun has talked to everyone else here excluding me."

Smart thinking, Ryuzaki… I'm impressed. Light sipped his coffee again, wanting to spend some time alone. He watched carefully what he said so that he wouldn't blurt out anything that would have insulted Ryuzaki. He didn't want to fight with him. He just wanted him to be quiet. He still considered Ryuzaki as his friend. But at the moment he was mad at him.

"You haven't talked to me since yesterday", L kept on talking, cramming a couple of chocolate cookies into his mouth.

Light became tense. He didn't want to talk about this issue. "This isn't the right place to discuss about that", he said, lowering the volume of his voice and leering at Soichiro Yagami, Matsuda and Mogi who were in the opposite corner of the large room. He would never be able to face his father's gaze again if his father knew about the events of last night – what his dearly beloved son had been doing with L who was actually Soichiro Yagami's colleague just like Matsuda or Mogi…

Light winced. No… that was a completely different thing! He would have never done anything like that with Matsuda or Mogi! Light wasn't that kind of guy…

But about L… there was just something different…

L looked at the same direction as Light did. "I see", he said. He didn't want to embarrass or humiliate Light in front of everyone. He knew that it would be wise to keep this thing a secret.

"Then let's go somewhere else to talk", he said and plucked Light with him, leaving his coffee there on the table and grabbing a few cookies with him.

"How about a cookie?" the detective suggested, handing one towards Light as they were in their own room.

"No thank you", Light replied tensely. L could keep his cookies. He wouldn't feel happy to give one to Light anyway…

L shrugged and ate the rest of the cookies that he was carrying with him. "So…" he mumbled with his mouth full of them. "If you're mad at me because of what happened yesterday – "

"Ryuzaki", Light interrupted him and put his hand on L's shoulder.

L fell silent. He stared at Light's serious face with his wide eyes.

"About what happened yesterday…" the brunette said, trying to avoid L's distracting gaze. "It was nothing. Really, why can't we just forget about that already? I was just…"Light bit his lip, not knowing what to say. "I don't know", he admitted. "Perhaps I was just tired and too stressed out … But it meant nothing, really. I want to be your friend, Ryuzaki. So let's forget about this already, ok?"

"Very well, Light-kun", L replied. "The priority is to catch Kira. And I could use your help – assuming that you are still willing to help me…"

"Of course I am", Light said, shaking L casually from the shoulder. An enthusiastic smile had appeared on the brunette's face again. "We'll catch Kira – together. That's a promise."

L didn't know if he should have smiled back at Light. He seemed to be a bit unsure. He was still looking at the brunette's face.

"By the way, Ryuzaki…" Light suddenly said and his smile faded a little. He faced L's gaze. "You're having some chocolate on your face."

This time Light didn't wipe it away. But he still couldn't help himself pointing it out. L wiped his face with his hand and glanced at Light briefly.

"That's better", the brunette said to him, patting his shoulder. "Are we cool now then?"

L gave Light a strange look. Light didn't understand the meaning of it. But L seemed to be hesitating for a second.

"Yes, I think we are", the detective then replied and lightly touched the brunette's hand with his fingers.

Light startled. L noticed that and decided to let Light's hand be.

"Let's go back to the others, shall we, Light-kun?" he asked with his perfectly monotonic tone.

Light suddenly had a strange hollow feeling. But he nodded. "Right."

Boring chapter, isn't it...? Yet again... I apologize. ^^' But YET AGAIN these things needed to happen at this point... Light and L needed to make up so that they could continue working with each other.

I started to think that maybe these chapters are a bit too short... Or... perhaps it just feels like it since there didn't happen anything particular in this chapter - yet again... ;D
I can write longer chapters if that's necessary... But what do you think? I just started to think that if someone waits for the update to this fic for a pretty long time and then I finally update and the chapter turns out to be extremely short and boring... ;DD And how terrible is that...
So if these chapters are too short (or too long - I doubt that ;D ) then please tell me. Let's see if I can do something about it...

And I apologize for not updating for a while. I've been really busy (huh, such a lame excuse...) with school and stuff like that... But thanks for the awesome reviews! (: I'm always glad to read them. Looking forward to the next chapter. ;3

~ CherrySugarCube