I will update the name for this chapter later, I just couldn't think of anything without having an outline for the next chapter (what with the titles being supposed to rhyme and all).

So, the incident in November affected me more than I had expected, and I was on sick leave from school for several weeks. Only last week was I in court and delivered my statement against the guy, and I nearly had a breakdown because he was sitting RIGHT FUCKING THERE. And then had the audacity to message me on facebook (I thought I had blocked him, but apparently not…), and ask me if I was OK. Norway has an open court system, so a friend of mine who is studying law was watching the entire thing, and said that he confessed at the very end, which is good. I will know in a few days if/how he will be punished, and will keep you all up to date on my profile if you are interested. Meanwhile I have made the tough decision of putting this story on a break until summer. The reason is that being away from school so much has me lagging behind in nearly all of my subjects at school, and I need all my focus to keep up. As it is, I can't handle the pressure of having to write this story as well. I really do love writing however, and I promise you I will be back and continuing my writing.

Thank you for all your concern and support, it means very much to me. c:

Proofread by: Morcuen

Word count: 4895

Chapter 14:

"Will you bring me some more tea Watari?" L asked into his phone while he typed rapidly at the keyboard with his free hand. He was currently sitting in the large cosy chair in the Livingroom in his and Light's apartment. He'd been working on smaller cases all night long to keep the reputation of his other aliases from falling. It was widely known that "L" was working on the Kira case, and therefore "L" didn't receive many job requests, but for all the world knew Eraldo Coil, Deneuve and all the other personas he'd taken on over the years weren't doing anything special, so constantly refusing to take on cases for them would seem strange.

"Do you want anything to eat as well?" Watari's voice came through the phone. L considered the question for a few moments before he decided that he wasn't particularly hungry.

"No thank you. I am just finishing up a case for Deneuve. Could you send a new batch of requests to that Mail account, and then I'll pick another one that looks interesting later." L asked. At the beginning of his career as a detective, all the job requests had been sent to him, and then he'd filed through them and chosen the ones that looked the most interesting to solve. Back then he'd only had one alias to keep track of; L, and there hadn't been nearly as many requests as he received now.

When he'd begun to become more well-known he'd experienced his first assassination attempt. It had been on one of his first trips abroad. Someone had somehow managed to track his IP address through his contact mail and with the help of that information, they had found out which hotel he stayed in. Luckily, Watari had been with him, and had apprehended the man after mercilessly shooting him in the leg. That was when L decided that he wanted to learn how to use firearms, so that he would be able to defend himself in case of similar occurrences in the future. He knew that Watari wouldn't always be around to help him, and the next time he might be less lucky.

That was also when he'd realised that he needed higher security when he travelled around. He'd set up a server back at Wammy's House, which was used to receive his mails and nothing else. From there L could download the mails no matter where he was in the world, although it took longer the further away he was. It was a bit tedious, but it made it harder to track them, and even if the server at Wammy's was tracked down, the orphanage was too well protected; no one would be able to get in unless they knew all of the security systems in and out, which very few people who were alive did at that point. After he'd taken Eraldo Coil and Deneuve's aliases he'd opened separate accounts and means of contact for each of the personas. This was partially because that made it easier for him to keep track of which one he was working as at any given time, but mostly because it would seem strange for others if they noticed that L, Coil and Deneuve had the same means of being contacted.

After this, sorting through the mail had become too tedious for L, so he decided to have Watari do it for him, and then forward only some of the cases to L. Watari had worked with L for long enough to know more or less what interested the detective and what didn't. He also took the payments into account when he picked out which cases he would forward to L. He knew L didn't care much about the money in itself, but the detective also loved having the freedom to do whatever he wanted at any given time no matter the price, so having the means to do so was definitely something the raven preferred.

"I will do so right after delivering your tea." Watari said through the phone and L nodded, more to himself than anything else, since Watari couldn't see him, and then he hung up, not seeing any point in continuing the conversation.

Now then, it's about time I start thinking about how to solve the Kira case. L thought as he leaned back in the chair and sat down. He did this to take his weight off his legs so that the muscles could have a break and also to increase the blood flow there a bit. When he sat crouched down as he usually did his legs would eventually begin to go numb because his veins and arteries would be folded and pushed together under his knees, which hindered a lot of the blood circulation. It had gotten better over the years; it seemed his body had adapted quite well to the position, which he absolutely refused to give up on no matter how many horror stories Watari told him about what could happen. Apparently, the tissue in his legs could die if it didn't receive enough oxygen, and then he'd have to amputate. It wasn't a pleasant thought at all, but L firmly believed that since his body was able to stay in that position by itself without any prior training the likes of what ventriloquists did then it couldn't be that dangerous. Also, he assumed it would hurt a bit if his tissue started dying, so he'd be able to give his legs a rest if it ever became an issue.

First I need to go over everything I've told the taskforce about what Kira is like as a person… The most obvious is that he's a genius. Anyone with half their brain functioning could figure that out. I've also told them that he's childish and that he's got a god complex of sorts. Other than my open suspicion of Light, I've never actually given them any other reasons to believe that Light specifically is Kira other than that Kira is a student and has police connections, thus the reason all of them refused to believe me whenever I accused him. I believe they would be less surprised if someone like me turned out to be Kira, in their minds he is a wicked lunatic, who has live isolated from the rest of the world, who lacks the ability to distinguish between right and wrong.

L unfolded his right leg and stretched it out completely, then he tucked it back against his chest and repeated the motion with his left leg without really paying any attention to what he was doing.

The taskforce will never let it go if we tell them that Light is Kira, even if we tell them that he has lost his memories they all have such strong morals it will ruin them. They trust and adore Light, so that is definitely not an option. That means that to solve the case we will have to put the blame on someone else… Blaming an innocent person is out of the question, Light became Kira to save innocent people, to make the world safe for them; he'd never let an innocent person take his punishment for him, and then there is me, I wouldn't really do that either… I may care less for justice, but my sense of justice is far less twisted than his… I could never allow that. For me it's a matter of principle. So innocent people are out of the question.

Using a death row inmate wouldn't make much sense either, why would a mass murderer or child molester want to kill off criminals all over the world? If anything, I imagine they would condone all the heinous crimes being committed out there. At least some of them would…

L barely noticed it when Watari entered the apartment with a large tray with tea and a bowl of sugar cubes on it. The old man walked quietly over to L and put the cup of tea and bowl down next to where his laptop was standing on the table.

If we can't put the blame on an innocent person, and neither on a criminal, that only leaves us with one option; we need to blame a dead person. But who though… we can't pick just anyone; they have to be recently deceased for starters… And the taskforce would want to know everything about them. This is going to be troublesome…

"Is that all?" Watari asked, pulling L out of his thoughts.

"Yes, thank you. You may return to your office now." L said dismissively.

"I'll have a new list of requests sent to Deneuve within the hour." Watari said, and then he left L to his thoughts.

When Watari had left the room L turned his attention towards the tea he'd been left. He leaned forwards and perched himself into his usual crouch as he reached for the teacup and bowl of sugar, and just as he wrapped his fingers around the handle of the teacup his stomach let out a loud growl.

L looked perplexed down at his stomach.

Perhaps I am hungry after all. He thought.

"Oh well, there's no hurry. It's not like I'm going to keel over anytime soon." He muttered as he proceeded to drop sugar cubes into his tea, remembering how Ryuk had told him that he had several years left to live. As he did, he heard the distinct sound of a door opening towards his right where the bedroom was.

It seems our sleeping beauty is finally awake. L thought humorously as he glanced at his laptop. It was 8 am in the morning, which meant the Light had slept for quite some time. The taskforce left around 9 pm in the evening, and it hadn't been long after that that Light had gone to sleep, an hour at most, which meant that he had slept for roughly ten hours.

"I heard voices…?" Light said after he had closed the door behind himself.

"Good morning to you too, Light-kun." L said flatly. He was still dropping sugar cubes into his tea, watching the colour intently to make sure that he got the perfect balance between the sugar and the herbal-y substance, which frankly didn't taste very good by itself.

"… Good morning." Light said blandly.

"Watari was just here delivering me tea, you probably heard us talking together." L explained.

"I see. Well then… I'll just wash up and then I'll go eat." Light said before he began walking towards the bathroom.

"I think I'll join you for breakfast, if you don't mind." L called after Light. As he did, he tore his gaze away from the teacup to gauge Light's reaction to his words.

"Sure, suit yourself." Light said with a shrug. L almost felt disappointed by the lack of reaction to his words; Light seemed to be reining in his emotions more and more.

He seem to be putting his masks back on, one by one… I'm not sure I like it; it will make it harder to monitor his mental state this way. I will have to pay more attention to the smaller details if I want to ensure his continued well-being… L thought and then he turned back towards his tea, which had overflowed while he'd looked away.

Oh. I added too much sugar… This isn't drinkable…

-x-

"How can you eat cake first thing in the morning? It can't possibly be good for you." Light asked as he critically eyed the triple layer chocolate cake that L was eating. After he had finished up with his morning routine, they had walked together down to the kitchen, where each had prepared their own breakfast. Light had made himself bread with ham, cheese and cucumber on. L had grumbled about how his perfectly good tea that Watari had brought him had been spoiled, somehow managing to place the blame on Light, until he opened the fridge and pulled out the largest, most delicious-looking cake he was able to find, and then proceeded to cut himself a humongous slice. When he was finally sitting by the table and eating his cake happily, he had stopped complaining about the tea.

"My body is still young and strong Light-kun, it can withstand the unhealthy diet I am putting it through. Besides; it tastes good, and my brain needs the sugar. Eating sweets is the most efficient way of obtaining the calories I need to be able to work at my best." L said through his spoonful's of cake.

"Well you won't be 'young and strong' forever." Light said pointedly. "When you become older you risk getting diabetes and heart diseases. You already do actually, you just refuse to realise it."

"And thank god for that. I would hate to have to grow old." L said with a playful smile as he bit into another spoonful of cake. The moment the sweet pastry hit his tongue he hummed appreciatively in response; he absolutely loved sweet things.

"I really, really want to hit you right now." Light said, his voice soft but tense, as if he was straining to keep himself under control. L looked up from his cake to take in Light's appearance. Although Light's face appeared blank, the brunette's shoulders were also tense like his voice, and L was willing to bet that his hands were clenched into fists in his lap.

"Why would you want that? Did I offend you?" L asked perplexed. Not at all having expected Light to react much to his words; to him, it had been a simple offhanded comment about how he would loathe to grow old, and he couldn't really see how that affected Light.

"You are so selfish, you know that?" Light said, and tilted his head forwards so that his bangs hid his face from L's view.

"I apologise, but I do not think I follow you… What do you mean?" L asked with a frown.

"Of course you don't, you don't ever think about anyone but yourself. I had to attempt to kill myself before you payed any attention to me besides your constant suspicion and accusations." Light said shakily.

"Is there something I have missed? You know I want to help you Light. I'm not good with… emotions." L said hesitantly. He knew he was faring dangerous waters that he knew nothing about. He had no idea how Light was going to react if he said or did anything wrong.

"Well no fucking shit detective. What was your first clue?" Light spat back at L, poorly concealed anger flashing in his eyes as he lifted his head and glared at the detective.

"The sarcasm is really uncalled for Light." L commented before he could stop himself; it was such a natural response for him. He knew he should think his replies through but it was hard to think anything at all when Light was staring him down like he was.

"It's your own fault you're stuck with me, so blame yourself." Light sneered.

"I don't dislike the idea of 'being stuck with you' as you so nicely put it... I sincerely apologise for whatever mistakes I've made. I will attempt to be more considerate in the future." L said slowly, hoping that Light would accept the apology. It would be troublesome if they ended up in another fistfight; especially since the wounds on Light's throat were still healing.

"Sure you will..." Light acquiesced grudgingly; his tone clearly stated that he didn't believe what L said at all, but for some reason he seemed to have found a reason to back down a bit.

"You know things would be far easier for me if you talked to me? I honestly do want to help, but it is hard for me when you refuse to open up to me." L said, hoping his words wouldn't offend Light in any way.

"Sigh, I know, I know, you're an incompetent hermit when it comes to anything related to communication and being social." Light said resignedly, all the anger dissipating as he spoke.

"I suppose I deserved that." L said.

"No, no you didn't. I'm just a bit on edge, It's not fair of me to call you names. Sorry." Light said in reply.

"I forgive you." L said in lack of anything better to say. In response Light looked at L for a long moment, clearly contemplating how to respond, before he rolled his eyes almost imperceptibly.

Something is causing Light to hold back. Why is he locking himself off now? I thought we were finally getting somewhere when he admitted that he is Kira. At this point that seems like a small step forwards, and then the last two days have been two gigantic steps backwards… L thought as he ate the final piece of his cake. He looked down at his plate in, contemplating whether he should eat more or not. After a few seconds, he'd made up his mind.

L stood from his seat, grabbed his plate and walked over to the fridge. He opened the door and cut himself another large piece of the delicious chocolate cake before he returned to his seat again.

"Light-kun?" L said at the same time as Light spoke L's name; "L?"

"You go first L." Light said hurriedly.

"I was thinking about what you said last night."

"What? I said a lot of stupid stuff, I was really tired."

"About how you want me to keep you busy. I am under the understanding that it will help you… deal with all that you have to deal with, and was thinking that you could have one of my high profile aliases. They are well-supplied with cases, and they earn a lot of money, and it would definitely keep you busy." L explained.

"Really?" Light said in surprise.

"Yes. I was thinking that you could have Deneuve if you'd like to? I'd prefer to keep Eraldo Coil, but if Deneuve's cases aren't enough you could have more of the low profile aliases as well. I have over a hundred."

"Seriously? You'll give me Deneuve?" Light asked incredulously. He'd expected L to want to regulate the cases he worked on, something he'd be unable to do if he gave Light full jurisdiction of one of his personas.

"I don't see why not. I trust you know what the consequences would be if anyone hired you to find information on 'L', and you actually give them crucial information. Worst case scenario: I die." L said with a shrug.

"Yes, of course, I'd never do that." Light said hastily in response, hardly believing what L was saying.

"Good. Here is all the information you will need. You just log onto this mail address and all the case requests will be there. When you want a new batch sent you just talk to me or Watari." L explained as he pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and slid it over to Light. Light stared at it with wide eyes before he took it and put it into his own pocket.

"Thank you." Light said sincerely.

"Not at all." L said with a shrug, appearing not to mind giving away something he'd put so much work an effort into at all. "So. What was it you wanted to say, Light-kun?"

"Oh, that. It wasn't really anything important." Light said.

"Humour me." L countered, curious as to what Light had wanted to ask. Anything that could give him more information on the brunette was valuable.

"Well, I was just wondering about the bookcase in our Livingroom. The books in the middle shelf don't seem to be sorted, while the books on the other shelves in the same bookcase are sorted alphabetically, as is normal. Knowing you and how particular you are about everything, it just seemed strange to me. I was wondering if there was any reason why they were like that?"

"I was wondering how long it would take for you to notice." L said with a smirk, knowing immediately what Light was referring to.

"You were?" Light raised an eyebrow questioningly at the strange remark; it wasn't really normal to mess up a couple of books and then walk around waiting for someone to notice.

"Yes. Did you take note of how many books there was?" L said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

"26." Light answered immediately.

"Correct. And their titles?" L prodded, as if it was significant.

"Well translated to English they were named; 1. The history of Japan, 2. The world around us, 3. My Fight, 4. How to write a good speech, 5. Greek Mythology, 6. Information technology, 7. How cars work, 8. Lord of the Rings, 9. Human anatomy, 10. Music theory, 11. Grimms' fairy tales, 12. Cosmetology, 13. Scientific methods and theories, 14. The Oxford English dictionary, 15. Outdated inventions, 16. The mind of the psychopath, 17. Architecture, 18. How to make you plants grow anywhere, 19. Chemistry, 20. What makes people tick, 21. All about HTML-coding, 22. Norse mythology, 23. Criminology, 24. A summary of the last 4.5 bill years, 25. Law and justice, 26. Quantum Mechanics." Light recited, naming the books by the order they were standing in the shelf.

"Did you look up the translations?" L asked, impressed that Light knew the Japanese titles for all the books, especially the ones that had been titled in languages that had a different alphabet than the standard Latin one.

"Yeah, last night. It was bothering me." Light tried to sound casual about it, but it was obvious to L that he felt a certain degree of pride at his own accomplishment.

"Of course it was." L said, somewhat knowingly. "In their original languages the titles are as following; 1. Nipponshi, 2. Na iontais na Bitheolaíochta, 3. Mein Kampf, 4. Cum de a scrie un discurs bun, 5. ellinikí mythología, 6. Jōhō gijutsu, 7. wie Autos funktionieren, 8. Lord of the Rings, 9. inche haebuhag, 10. Musikteori, 11. Kinder- und Hausmärchen, 12. Měiróng, 13. Videnskabelige metoder og teorier, 14. The Oxford English Dictionary, 15. zastarili vynakhody, 16. de geest van de psychopaat, 17. Arquitectura, 18. comment faire pousser vos plantes partout, 19. Chimica, 20. hvað gerir fólk merkið, 21. allt om HTML-kodning, 22. Norrøn mytologi, 23. Criminologia, 24. A summa 4.5 sescenti annis in novissimo, 25. Law and justice, 26. kvantová mechanika."

"Yes, and there is nothing that make their order logical. They aren't sorted by language, author, category, title, title translated to English, colour, size… Unless the titles are sorted alphabetically in some language I don't know they are just a completely jumbled mess." Light held up his fingers as he listed all the possible ways to sort books until he couldn't think of any more, then he laid his hands down onto the table, his palms turned upwards in a slightly exasperated gesture.

"They are, as you so nicely put it, a completely jumbled mess." L said, again he was smirking that infuriating smirk of his that occasionally appeared when he knew something everyone else didn't.

"They are?" Light repeated with a frown. He couldn't understand why L would want the books to be unsorted like they were, was it just to bother Light?

"Yes." L deadpanned.

"There is really no logic behind how they are sorted?" Light asked again, knowing he was just repeating himself.

"None at all."

"Why?" Light said with narrowed eyes; there had to be a reason. L would never just accept something like that without any reason behind it; it just didn't fit the detective's personality at all.

"What makes you think there is a reason?" L asked innocently.

"Beside the fact that all the other books in the bookcase are sorted alphabetically? I doesn't fit your personality." Light said, already knowing he was right.

"Good point, Light-kun." L said, pretending to just have realised that. "All the children at the orphanage I grew up in have this same set of books in their bookcase. They are not to be tampered with, because those are the rules. It's to teach the children a series of things, first and foremost to not look for order and reason where there is none, that greatly decreases one's ability to solve puzzles because you waste time and energy on a hopeless pursuit. You need to recognise when there is a pattern and when there isn't. It also teaches children to follow rules, although it doesn't work on all of them… Also, they are really good books, not only could you learn a lot by reading them, they are entertaining and interesting."

"No wonder you are messed up in the head… This orphanage doesn't sound like a healthy place to grow up." Light said when L was done explaining.

"Quite the contrary Light-kun, for people like you and me it's the only place to grow up. Only exceptionally intelligent children are taken in. The orphanage is also a school, and the main focus is to challenge every single student and push them to achieve their best. It really does keep you entertained." L said.

"Hm." Light found it hard to believe that L would have been more messed up than he already was if he had grown up somewhere other than this special orphanage for exceptionally gifted children.

"Let's just say there had been far more genius mass-murderers in the world without this orphanage." L commented.

"Very funny." Light said with a snort, now that was definitely not something he believed.

"I am serious." L said, not a trace of the smirk he usually sported whenever he was messing around with Light.

"Really?" Light asked hesitantly.

Could there really be a place full of geniuses just like L and I? He thought, his gaze firmly fixated upon L's face, ready to catch any trace of that playful smirk he always showed whenever he was making things up.

"Really." L confirmed, his face completely stoic.

"Huh… Interesting." Light said, and then after processing what he'd just learnt for a moment, he added; "Can we visit it sometime?"

"Actually, I was going to talk to you about that. I think I have found a method of wrapping up the case." L said. As soon as the words left his mouth, Light felt a painful knot begin to form in his stomach. He still couldn't imagine how they were supposed to end the case without revealing that he was Kira to anyone.

"How?" Light asked tensely, not sure he wanted to hear what L had to say.

"The taskforce is already convinced that Higuchi couldn't have been the first Kira. The longer we stay with them the greater the chance of them figuring out that something is going on; therefore, we need to 'solve' the case as soon as possible. Putting the blame on someone really does seem to be the only option. They won't be satisfied until they are presented with an actual body."

"We can't put the blame on someone else. They'll never believe it if we put the blame on a criminal and I absolutely refuse to have an innocent person involved in this." Light said immediately.

"I know, I've already ruled out those two options. Since the taskforce consider Kira a bit of a social recluse, I was thinking of someone who are dead, and have no family. That way we won't defile the memory of some poor dead person and bring their family misery." L explained.

"How on earth are we supposed to find someone like that." Light asked. What L said did make sense, but it was rather hard to track down deceased geniuses.

"Well, it just so happens that I know of just the right orphanage." L said dramatically.

"Oh. You're a genius." Light said as he realised what L was referring to.

"I know. The taskforce will have no trouble believing that someone raised in the same environment as me would become a murder. I am fairly certain Aizawa has already considered the possibility of me being Kira."

"Do you have anyone particular in mind then?"

"Ah. Well here's where things become a bit difficult. Not even I am allowed much information on the children for the sake of their safety, so we will have to go to England so that I can dig through the archives there…" L said, his words dying out as he stared intently at Light, gauging his reaction as the brunette inevitably figured out what L was hinting at.

"And I have to come with you because you won't feel safe leaving me here." Light finished.

"I like to think that it's mostly because I enjoy your company." L rectified quickly, although without completely denying what Light said either.

"My father will never let us go without him." Light commented.

"He'll have to." L said with a shrug.

"Yeah, have fun convincing him." Light said with a snort.

"… Watari can do that." L said after a short pause, clearly not finding the idea appealing.

"Moron." Light said with a playful smirk.

"I thought we just agreed that I am a genius." L said, his tone making it clear that he wasn't actually offended.

"I must have been delirious." Light commented, tossing his head in a haughty manner.

-x-

I am so sorry if I butchered any languages, I obviously google-translated most of them. If anyone are curious, here is the list of the 'books' (most of which I made up), both in English and the language that is supposed to be 'the original' language, and then the language in parenthesis. Feel free to correct anything that might be wrong.

1. The History of Japan/Nipponshi (Japanese)

2. The Wonders of Biology/Na iontais na Bitheolaíochta (Irish)

3. My Fight/Mein Kampf (German)

4. How to Write a Good Speech/Cum de a scrie un discurs bun (Romanian)

5. Greek Mythology/Ellinikí mythología (Greek)

6. Information technology/Jōhō gijutsu (Japanese)

7. How cars work/Wie Autos funktionieren (German)

8. Lord of the rings/- (English)

9. Human anatomy/inche haebuhag (Korean)

10. Music theory/musikteori (Swedish)

11. Grimms' Fairy Tales/Kinder- und Hausmärchen (German)

12. Cosmetology/Měiróng (Chinese)

13. Scientific methods and theories/videnskabelige metoder og teorier (Danish)

14. The Oxford English Dictionary/- (English)

15. Outdated inventions/zastarili vynakhody (Ukrainian)

16. The Mind of the Psychopath/de geest van de psychopaat (Dutch)

17. Architecture/arquitectura (Spanish)

18. How to make your plants grow anywhere/comment faire pousser vos plantes partout (French)

19. Chemistry/chimica (Italian)

20. What makes people tick/hvað gerir fólk merkið (Icelandic)

21. All about HTML-coding/allt om HTML-kodning (Swedish)

22. Norse mythology/Norrøn mytologi (Norwegian)

23. Criminology/criminologia (Portuguese)

24. A summary of the last 4.5 bill years/A summa 4.5 sescenti annis in novissimo (Latin)

25. Law and justice/- (English)

26. Quantum Mechanics/kvantová mechanika (Czech)

So only three of these are real (as far as I know): Kinder- und Hausmärchen (I actually read this one quite often to practice my german), Mein Kampf (never read, but I hear it's interesting), and The Oxford English Dictionary (obviously).