The awkwardness of the silence didn't register. I was still in a state of shock as to how I had got here. Shortly after L chained himself to the mass murderer, we moved to a new building, one L had built purely as a base for the Kira investigation. It was truly an impressive structure, and it had more floors than I cared to count. The technological equipment was state of the art, and I was itching to potter about on the computers.

Unfortunately, it didn't seem as though that was going to happen anytime soon. Instead of getting some proper investigative work done, L had spiralled into a massive sulk at being wrong about the Light/Kira thing, and had dragged me along on his date with Light and Misa.

Literally dragged me.

I had been reading over notes and walking down the same hallway as the trio and gotten trapped between Light and L coming in the opposite direction. In moments I was stuck in the ridiculous chain and being hauled into Misa's room.

I was sitting next to Misa, L and Light were on the opposite couch. Nobody had spoken in over 5 minutes, and the silence was practically painful. I suppose L figured that he and I were supposed to be invisible, and therefore shouldn't talk, yet our inflicted presence only made things more awkward between the reluctant couple.

Misa finally broke the tension with a frustrated sigh.

"Hey, this doesn't feel like much of a date you know."

I privately agreed with her, I'd be mortified if I were in her position. L was far too interested in finishing his cake to look at her when he answered.

"You don't have to mind us. Pretend we're not even here."

Misa gave me a pained look, and I grimaced in an act of feigned sympathy.

"Are you going to eat that cake?"

L was eyeing up Misa's slice. I shook my head to myself – how could it be that I was the diabetic here?

"Fine. I don't eat cakes; they make you fat."

"If you burn the calories by using your brain, you won't get fat."

He was absurd. I rolled my eyes, while Misa bristled. L went on.

"You see, K doesn't eat cake, therefore she has no brain activity as there is no sugar to break down and utilize."

I had gone back to studying my notes, and replied tonelessly. "I hope you wake up fat and get crushed under your own body weight."

Misa was starting to get desperate.

"I'll give you the cake if you leave Light and I alone together."

"Even if I leave you alone, I can still watch on the cameras."

"That's perverted! Will you stop with that fetish?!"

I snickered into my papers.

"Say what you want, however, I will be taking the cake."

L stood up and stole Misa's piece away, before huddling back on the couch. But Misa wasn't done.

"Well, when we're alone, I'll shut all the curtains and turn off all the lights."

"We have infrared cameras."

She winked at Light.

"Then should we cover ourselves with the futon?"

Light wasn't even looking at her, looking thoroughly bored with the whole thing.

"More importantly Ryuzaki,' he said finally, 'we've moved to a headquarters to investigate the Kira investigation, yet you don't seem motivated at all."

I patted Misa on the shoulder at the stinging remark, and looked up at the boys from my notes. Light did have a point; L had never made time to go on a date of his own, yet he was happy to be a voyeur on someone else's. Perhaps he was more of a pervert than I thought.

"Motivation?' L said quietly to himself, 'I don't have any. Actually, I'm depressed."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Depressed?" Said Light.

"Yes…It's because I kept thinking you were Kira. It's quite the shock that I was wrong. But then again…No…I am sure that you were involved at some stage, that's why we're doing this." L jingled the cuff around his wrist.

"However, Kira could control people's actions. I suspect they did the same thing to you and Amane, to make me suspect you. If I think of it in that way, it all makes sense. But you two are still alive, which only weakens my theory…"

I gave him my full attention now, this stuff was all new, I'd never considered that these two were being controlled.

"If they were controlled without any awareness, than you and Amane are mere victims. I'll have to start investigating from the beginning…

"If Kira found and controlled you because he knew that you were capable of stealing police information and made it so I would suspect you, then even I'd be bitter. That's why I'm depressed."

"B-but Ryuzaki, by your logic…Though we were being controlled, both Misa and I were Kira at one time."

L looked at Light sharply, tension was in the air.

"Yes,' he said shortly, 'You and Amane were Kira. I have no doubts about that.

"The way I see it, you were Kira when you were detained as criminals stopped dying. However, after two weeks, the killings started again. This strengthens my theory that Kira's power can change from person to person."

I finally spoke up.

"L-er- Ryuzaki, if that's true, then Kira can't be caught and we're all going to die."

What a jolly date this was.

"That's why I'm stuck,' L answered, staring up at the ceiling. 'If Kira can control someone to kill, then can take away the power and the memories of performing the murders, then there would be no closure to the case by merely catching the person controlled."

"But we don't even know that that's the case yet. Hang in there Ryuzaki." Light said.

L sighed heavily, and I was getting annoyed with this new persona.

"I would try, but it's too hard. No, it's not a good idea. By trying too hard to chase, we put our lives at risk. Too think of all the times I thought I was going to die…"

I barely registered Light standing up. I had never considered that L could die investigating this case. I'd been thinking about the target I had painted on myself by agreeing to work for Akahoshi the entire time, but clearly, L was not as detached as he would prefer all of us to think.

"Ryuzaki…" Light murmured. L looked up surprised.

What happened next shocked all of us. Light punched L as hard as he could in the face, sending the moody detective flying across the room. Light was dragged along by the chain, and knocked over the table. I grabbed the cake before it toppled to its demise; perhaps I could cheer a beaten up L with it later.

L crashed against the door hard, and had now sat up looking dazed.

"That hurt…"

Light was standing over him, furious. I wondered if the NPA were watching this.

"Don't be ridiculous. Because I'm not the real Kira, you have no motivation?! What's the matter with you?"

L wiped his mouth.

"I may have explained it inadequately. Let's not make a move because it could end badly."

"What are you talking about? If we don't make a move then there's no way to catch him! Who's the one that said he'd bring Kira to his execution on TV? How many people, police, FBI, announcers, got involved because of you?! And weren't you the one that detained Misa and Me?!" Light argued.

He grabbed L by the shirt and pulled him towards him. L looked mildly irritated, and I was impressed at his self control. I would have been kicking ass and taking names by now.

"That maybe true,' L muttered, 'But still, an eye for an eye."

He suddenly ducked, and kicked up, hitting Light square in the jaw.

Perhaps I spoke too soon.

Light was flung back against the wall, and this time L was dragged behind.

"Instead of the theory being wrong, its more like Light is Kira and Misa Amane is the second Kira isn't enough to solve the case. That's why I'm a little down; I'm human, is that so wrong?" L said flatly.

"Yes it's wrong,' Light panted, 'and from the way you say it, it's as if you won't be satisfied unless I am Kira."

L looked thoughtful again, still crouched from his last attack.

"Not satisfied until you are Kira…Now I realise….I wanted you to be Kira."

The two lunged at each other at the same time, holding each other by the shirts and raising their fists. I, on the other hand, had had enough of this show of bravado, and had stood up, cake and all to leave. Misa was crouched, scared in the corner.

Then the phone rang. The boys stopped what they were doing, and looked at it in surprise. I guess the NPA finally decided to intervene.

L answered it as if nothing had happened.

"Hello? What is it…Uh-huh…I see…" He abruptly dropped the phone back onto the cradle.

"What's going on?" Light asked.

"Nothing. Matsuda's just acting stupid again."

Harsh. I felt sorry for the young detective, and gave one of the cameras a small smile. L was standing properly now, and had righted the couch to sit. Light sat next to him, the two perfectly happy to continue the date. Misa was shaken, but sat back where she had been. I headed for the door.

"Hey…" I heard L mutter. "Where'd the cake go?" I watched over my shoulder as he looked around for a moment, before turning right around, looking at me.

"K, what are you doing?"

I looked at the plate in my hand, and jumped in feigned shock to see a cake sitting on it.

"Well, you see, I may not have a functioning brain, but at least I didn't just get beaten up for being a wuss. And I have cake, life is looking pretty good."

And with that I turned my back on him and walked out the door. I grinned madly when I knew he couldn't see me; he'd be fuming. The grin faded when I heard the strangled yell from Light and hurried footsteps towards the door. I quickened my pace down the hall, looking over my shoulder.

"Stop!"

I jumped and turned around, and saw L standing in that hall way. He tried to come closer, but the chain tightened and he was pulled back. I laughed at him and sat down on the floor, a few feet from him.

"This cake looks pretty good actually." I picked a bit off and ate it, and groaned dramatically.

"Wow – this is so good!" I grinned at him, and ate a bit more. He was watching me with a mixture of fascination and annoyance, and I couldn't help but enjoy myself.

"Forget it Light! They've gone; we're making the most of this!" I heard Misa say excitedly, and then there was a thud against the hall wall. I watched the chain slacken dramatically, and realised that Misa had pushed Light against the wall, closer to the door. L realised too, and he lurched towards me. Had I been standing, I would have gotten away.

Had I been standing.

I pulled the cake away and lost my balance, toppling onto my side. L was on me in a second; reaching for the platter I was holding past my head. I started laughing as we wrestled for it, and tried to push it away further with my finger tips so he wouldn't reach. I could hear Light yelling, the cuff around his wrist was probably cutting off circulation by how hard L was pulling against it. I was still laughing uncontrollably, while pushing L's hands away from the cake. A low chuckle caused me to freeze, my laugh dying away in my shock.

I stared up at L, who had also stopped groping for the cake. His smile faded slowly, and a look of surprise took its place.

"What?"

I stuttered, still looking at him in shock.

"You laughed."

He raised an eyebrow, the corners of his mouth twitching.

"Yes…and?"

"You never laugh."

He studied me closely, nether of us moving. My stomach started to feel fluttery again, and I swallowed hard. What do I do?

"K…" He murmured. He didn't get to finish however. My phone went off. I lay there, dazed. I wasn't going to answer it, but clearly the moment was gone. L sat up off me and backed away. I reached into my pocket, and checked the screen. Eoin. Sometimes I really hated my fiancé…Shit – my fiancé!

I answered in a rush.

"Hi K! What are you up to?"

"Nothing!" I practically shouted down the phone. I knew L was still looking at me, and I could feel my cheeks heating up. Eoin laughed at me, and started to chatter about business. I interrupted his talk with appropriate: "yes's" and "Oh really's". When I looked up at L, I saw that he had left silently somewhere during the beginning of the conversation.

I bit my lip, not listening to Eoin at all. What had that been about back there?

"K? K, are you there?"

"What? Oh! Yes sorry."

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, just really busy."

"Busy?! K you're supposed to be resting!-."

"- Ok love you too, bye."

I ended the call and sat back against the wall. My heart was still beating so hard. I took a shuddering breath and shut my eyes. Get a grip K.

I realised that Misa was yelling in the room, something about L beating up her boyfriend. It wasn't right to go in there now, I'd go to my room, and do some work. Try to figure some of this out.

Oh, and the Kira case too.

***

"Oh-no…" I stared down at the list of names in my lap. I had been assigned to go through the names of Kira's latest victims to find common ground amongst them, and had just come across Nanako Ito. She had been a partner in an associate company, another of Eoin's friends.

"Something wrong, K?" Light turned away from his computer to give me his full attention.

"No…I sort of knew this person…" I rubbed my forehead tiredly. This wasn't the first of names I knew to show up on one of these lists, but like Nara Tadashi, I had thought that she was one the straight and narrow. Hardly someone that deserved punishment at the hands of Kira, on the contrary, I found her to be highly intelligent and a great business woman. Maybe she was caught up in some bad stuff on the side…

"I imagine you will be seeing more acquaintances on those lists." L muttered bluntly, staring into his crystallised coffee.

"Ryuzaki!" Light said harshly, annoyed at his indifferent display.

"Well it is hardly surprising. K is a criminal; she undoubtedly made a few friends."

Light continued to nag at L, though I stopped listening. These off the shoulder comments had become the usual over the last few days, ever since the date incident. Or rather, each time Eoin called, L became slightly more moody, and more distant. Though I was slightly annoyed at the criminal remark; it wasn't true any more.

"Actually,' I cut in over Light, 'Nanako was not a criminal as far as I know. She was a cut-throat business woman to be sure, but not worthy of a death sentence."

They both remained silent, L sulking again, and Light gazing off into the distance. He suddenly stood up, walked over to another computer, dragging L behind him. I was left alone on the other side of the room, but was slightly relieved to be away from the two.

I threw the papers on the table and sighed, running my hands back through my hair. Everyone else had gone home for the night, and these two would work until the early hours of the morning. I grabbed my pain meds, got up off the couch and left the room. I didn't bother to say goodnight, the boys were far too wrapped up in their work to even hear me. I shuffled down the hall, towards the elevators, rolling my shoulders gingerly. I hadn't been resting as much as the doctors had instructed, and my wounds were extremely slow to heal. I would have to start physiotherapy soon, or suffer shoulder pain even longer.

My room was on the floor above the Kira investigation nerve centre, opposite L and Light's. As I swiped my ID over the laser system to operate the lift, something shifted in my peripheral vision. I looked up as the doors opened, and saw that L had stuck his head out into the hall.

"Everything alright, K?" He asked quietly, surprisingly sincere for someone who had told me all my friends would die mere moments before.

"Yeah."

"Okay."

He disappeared just as quickly as he had come. I stood there, staring at the spot he had been in, before climbing into the elevator.

***

"Yeah, so I'll be back in about two days, do you want to meet me at the house, or shall I pick you up from your friends place."

I was spinning around on a computer chair, swinging my legs back and forth while listening to Eoin talk through the mobile. My heart sunk a little when I realised that I would have to leave soon. I glanced at L, who was sitting near-by ignoring me.

"Um, I guess I can meet you at the house. Just let me know when."

A muscle in L's jaw tensed.

I decided to wrap up the conversation; it wasn't really fair to flaunt my relationship in everyone's faces.

I hung up and continued to spin around.

"Why don't you go out K? You're obviously bored." L muttered, glaring into his coffee. His mood hadn't brightened since the punch-up, and he wasn't making progress in the case.

"Where can I go? All my friends are dead or in hiding." I retorted. It was, in part, supposed to be a cutting remark, but it held a lot of truth too. L remained silent, and I ignored him.

Light, as usual was the one to break the silence.

"Ryuzaki, I know you're probably not up to it, but have a look at this." L wheeled over. I stayed put, I hadn't been invited.

"This is a graph of all the most successful and front running business empires in Japan, and their profits over the last month. As you can see, many of them are in decline, aside from one – a group called Yotsuba."

L made a noise of interest, and nodded at Light to continue.

"So I looked at all of Kira's latest victims, and all of them are linked to the businesses that had suffered financial loss in the last month. Adding that evidence to the graph, I'd say that it is an excellent guess that someone close to or working for Yotsuba is Kira."

I raised my eyebrows, impressed.

"Light, that is a notable find. I suppose our next move is to infiltrate the Yotsuba Corporation for more information."

"Well, I really got the idea from Viola." Light replied, smiling at me.

"Huh?"

"Well,' started Light, 'you mentioned that you knew one of Kira's victims, and that you didn't think that she was involved in any illegal activity, I figured that you of all people would know."

Me of all people? Right, so the 'criminal' status I thought I had rid myself of by agreeing to work with L was back.

"So,' he continued, 'I looked into it, and came back with this. The current Kira is a business person out for personal gain, and we've already managed to narrow down the suspects." He smiled at me again, and I suppressed a shiver.

"Hm. Very observant." I muttered, and started spinning again.

Light went into great detail about his thought process in figuring out the latest while I entertained myself. I looked up every now and then to see if he had finished, and caught L watching me. The memory of him above me in the hallway floated back to me, and I suppressed a blush. He had been so close, I could have – I could have…

I bit my lip and shook the idea out of my head. I did nothing, so there was nothing to talk about.

***

It was 3AM when I woke up hungry. I pattered down to the kitchen, deciding that the perfect snack would be found in the 4 litre tub of ice cream Watari had stashed. However, when I got down there, the light was already on, and the shadow of someone moving around could be seen under the door.

I opened it quietly and poked my head inside. L was leaning against one of the counters with a spoon in his mouth. The ice cream was already set on the bench next to his laptop, which he was staring at intensely.

He seemed to sense my presence and turned around calmly.

"Ice cream?" he offered, nodding in it's direction before holding out a spoon.

"How'd you know I was coming?" I asked, wandering over. However, my question was answered when I saw the video feeds from security cameras around the building set up on the screen of the computer.

I dug into the dessert, and saw that L had poured some sort of sickly chocolate sauce over it. Great, diabetic coma, here I come.

He didn't make any move to talk to me, staring off into space instead. Now was as good a time as any to bring up the fact that I was leaving soon.

"Uh, so as you probably heard, Eoin called me today."

He said nothing.

"He's going to be back in a few days, and wants me to move back to our house…" I avoided L's eyes as I said the last part. I didn't think he would say anything, when –

"Is that what you want?"

"Hm?"

"Do you want to move back in with him?"

I frowned at him.

"Yes, he is my fiancé after all."

L shrugged, as if my answer wasn't the right one.

"What?!" I asked, annoyed. "Why does everyone second guess me about this?"

L shrugged again.

"It's your business. I just want to make sure that you have thought this entire thing through."

"I wouldn't have said yes if I hadn't." I answered back, getting agitated.

"Well, okay then." He said.

No emotion, no interest. He really didn't care if I was around or not. After the other day, I had thought things had changed between us. That maybe there was something more, but maybe not.

And then I realised. I didn't really want to leave him. I didn't want to be away from L, despite his dark moods over the past few days – things were interesting, and I was helping to make a difference. Life with Eoin would be – would be…

I forced myself back to reality; L didn't worry about where I stayed, because he had more important things to think about. And I didn't rank high up on that list.

"Hm, well…I'm going to go back to bed. Where'd you leave Light?"

"He's handcuffed to Watari for the moment."

"Can you do that?" I asked, surprised at how relaxed L was about it.

"Yes. I'm L."

I nodded, before backing out of the room. He is L, one of the most important people in the world, he didn't have time to worry about girlfriends or love or whatever.

Life with L would be lonely.

Life with Eoin would be…easy.

***

L rubbed his eyes tiredly after K left the room. He'd done it again, guarded himself against her, and hurt his friend again. But what did she expect from him? She was engaged, and her fiancé, while half the world away, was ever present in everything they did.

What had happened in the hallway after the date…he had thought that there was something there. But she seemed convinced that Eoin was the man for her, and maybe she was right.

At least with her moving out, she would be safe. Away from Kira suspects and the nerve centre of the world wide investigation. Eoin would protect her. Irritation flared at the thought of the man, but there was little L could do. K's safety came first, and if that was what needed to be done…

He sighed. Those were the right things to say and think. But it couldn't have been further from the truth. He wanted her to stay with him. He could protect her better than anyone.

It was out of his hands; her mind was made up. He would just have to accept it and move on.

He picked up the ice cream and put it away, before closing the laptop and returning to his room.