A/N: I gotta stop falling asleep when I come home from work. Nh.
Shoutout to NATARYA for your review! Hope to keep you on the edge of your seat for a little while longer.
Fool's Gambit
By Catsitta
21.
"What are you?"
Bulging yellow eyes peered down from a gaping, bandaged wrapped face. It was a hulking, malformed beast, with white flesh and an aura of pure death.
"I. Am Rem. A shinigami."
They were real? Gods of death were real? L shivered and clutched the stained book to his chest, face bloodless, hands aching. Had it come to reap his mortal soul?
"You are the new owner of the Death Note."
"Death...Note?"
He peered down at the slim book.
"Write down any mortal's true name with their face in mind, and they shall die."
This was it. Kira's power.
"Who will you kill first, human?"
He gasped and tossed the foul weapon to the floor, "No one. I am not Kira."
The shinigami tilted its head, "All you humans can become Kira. This is their animal nature, primitive, dark and beastly. They use power for their own ends, thus a shinigami's Death Note is a potent tool. It would be foolish to claim there is no darkness in your soul, human. I can smell it."
"I won't. I'm not."
L shook his head.
"If you give up the Death Note, everything related to it will be stripped from your memory."
No. He couldn't have that happen. He needed these memories. He needed that Death Note to stop Kira...to save Light. Slowly, L approached the note. He could feel a sickly energy emanating from it, whispering in his ear how easy it would be to end the madness. With a database with most of humanity on record, L could end this war and protect his life from those whom wished his death.
He gritted his teeth.
Those were Kira thoughts. He wouldn't stoop to that level.
Why not? His conscious whispered. Or perhaps it was the Death Note. You're an assassin. You've killed before in the name of justice. This is simply a tool. It is in your hands now, the power to make good of this evil weapon.
"Rem," he said.
The shinigami was silent.
"Do you know who Kira is?"
"I know many things. It is not my duty to betray the former keepers of the Death Note."
"I see."
L shoved the Death Note up his shirt for safe keeping, shivering in revulsion as the cover rested against his vital organs. How could anyone write in this thing? It was pure wickedness. Quickly, knowing that his minute with the monster was a minute of escape wasted, he fled. He was creeping down the side of the building when the door of the office burst open and Mikami was found dead on the floor.
.
Light smiled when L returned. Such an innocent smile for a mass murderer. The teen bound up to him, primly smoothed into his usual sense of order despite the lateness of the hour. Normal folks had yet to answer the morning's coy beckon, choosing sleep in the the wake of the predawn. His lover was no less beautiful with these violently reopened eyes. He still desired nothing more than to lose himself in the quiet space between reality and dreams and forget this nightmare. Maybe, just maybe they could pretend for a little while longer.
"Is something wrong, Ryuuzaki?"
L swiped a hand through his hair. That name. It didn't suit him right now. Because he was L and Light was Kira. Yes, he could see it in those tawny eyes. There was coldness and calculation where only hours before there'd been warmth. Trust. To falter now would be a dangerous game of knives.
But pain made the pleasure so much sweeter.
"I wish to bathe, tonight's events were...not as planned."
"What happened?"
A loaded question. Light knew. L could see the way the teen's gaze sparked with tense anticipation, begging for L to take the bait, to lash out. "In the morning, Light."
He didn't expect the hand on his shoulder or the lips on his ear. Light was kissing his neck, fingers pulling at his collar. It hurt. His lover was tainted by Kira. By the Death Note. Which meant that that it was near. L inhaled sharply at the thought. Both rivals held death in their company. One knew the other's name but could not pull the trigger. The other held a smoking gun and only needed to reload the bullets.
L shivered.
"Did Light miss me?" he said, pretending for a moment. "Is that why he isn't sleeping?"
"How could I sleep when my lover left me cold."
"I can resolve that mistake easily enough."
"Oh?"
Their kiss tasted of ashes of future fires and blood unspilled. This wasn't Light and Ryuuzaki, no, this was Kira and L. They were both play acting, aware of how the seconds trickled by before the end of the world.
L pushed Kira onto the bed and covered that razor stare with one of Light's silk ties. Piece by piece, he shed his clothes and stripped his lover bare. He took care to ignore the small scrap of paper that peeked from Kira's slacks. No doubt it would have Mikami's name scrawled upon it in a neat script.
"Ryuuzaki!"
"L...call me L," he murmured.
This was unnatural seduction and he was coolly seduced. Neither believed the other was partaking this act in the same manner as before. But that did not stop L from lavishing the broken creature in his arms with loving kisses. He was a fool The greatest of all fools.
"I'm sorry."
He wasn't sure if he even said the words out loud.
Though he meant them.
It was time to enact his emergency plan.
Light never saw the knockout blow coming.
-tbc-
A/N: (I have how this story ends figured out...Just a few more chapters to go...)