A/N: Here's the L-shot (finally). Enjoy! x


L is for... - 13. Labour

n. work

"Here you go." D placed on the table a large stack of papers and waited for some sort of appreciative reply, but there was none.

"Can you get me the second stack?" L sipped on his cup of tea, his little finger sticking outwards. His eyes stared up at her over the rim.

"You said you only wanted the information concerning all the crime scenes." She glared at him. "I could've gotten the second stack full of suspects along with the first one, but you didn't ask for it."

He purposely looked away from her, a slight amused expression on his features. "I changed my mind. I also want the second stack. Get it for me." He didn't bother asking it as a question this time and ordered her instead.

"Don't expect me to be your slave. I'm only doing this one more time!"

The reason that D was against grabbing the high stack of papers was because instead of them being in his bedroom, which would be the most logical place for them, they were in her laboratory. L requested that all important information be kept there, apparently keeping it all on his hard drive or keeping his bedroom door securely locked like it always was anyway, was too risky. She didn't believe in any of these excuses. D came to the conclusion that L was a sadist and he enjoys tormenting her as a pastime. It wasn't as if she'd suffered enough in the years she has live so far as it was.

It took a while for the elevator to get to the laboratory. She had to wait for a few other people to get off on their stops before she could go below ground. Inside she saw the second pile of papers as well as a third. It took her some time to think that maybe she should bring up the third pile. It would be just her luck that he would order her to come back down and get them after returning with only the second.

D looked around the laboratory for something that could help her. As if it started to glow when her eyes went on it, she saw a metal trolley which would be perfect for carrying the papers. Why hadn't she thought of it to begin with? That's right. She didn't think she was going to be making a second trip. With the stacks of papers successfully moved to the trolley she pushed it towards the elevator, ready for the ascending trip. She couldn't wait to see the look on L's face when she went back into his hotel suite. Bet you didn't think I was so smart, huh, Mr Genius Detective?

The look she was expecting from him wasn't what she saw. L was wearing a bored expression with the stick of a half sucked lollipop poking out of his mouth. He pointed to the stack of papers left on the trolley as she placed the second lot on the table. "What… are… those?" He spoke the words while munching on the rest of the sweet in his mouth.

"I brought them up as well just in case you also needed them." D said smugly, knowing that he obviously knew why she did it. There wasn't much which could be unthought-of by him.

"Well that was unnecessary. Put them back." He didn't seem fazed when she came up to him and hit the lollipop out of his mouth. "If you really want to get violent, the bedroom is over there." He lifted a finger, pointing to the bedroom door without looking up from the paper in this other hand.

"I do so much for you L and I get nothing in return!" She yelled at him and stomped off to his room forgetting what he had said. The only thing in her mind at that moment was if he wanted her to do some work, she was going to push his computer off the small table and onto the ground. Let's see how much work he would get done without me and his computer. She was positive that it was some sort of life line for him and losing it would be harmful. Of course when reaching the door she found it locked. There was no way she could get inside unless L opened it. "Dammit L!" D cursed under her breath.

The wrapper of another sweet could be heard getting opened. This time it was one without a stick, that way she couldn't easily get it out of his mouth. "You do as much as you get paid for, you know."

"It's not about the money. I owe you my life and could work for free without complaining. I just want some appreciation and some results from everything we're doing." She sat next to him on the couch and lifted up the top piece of paper on the pile closest to her.

"I can't think clearly. We need to move this couch around so it is facing north." L grabbed another lolly to put in his mouth.

D without realising it, got off the couch and was readying to push it when she finally noticed he was still crouching on it. "What are you doing? You said we were moving the couch. The sooner you can think clearly, the sooner all of this should be over and I can stop working for you."

"Did I say we? My bad, I meant you. I suppose being a female makes you weaker than I am and you would find it very troubling moving such a heavy piece of furniture." He went to take a sip of tea but the cup was empty and frowned. "When you're done moving the couch you can make me another cup of tea."

"Urgh!" She shouted while throwing her arms in the air and kicking the side of the couch. "Ouch! That hurt…" Not wanting him to get the best of her, even though he already had, she started pushing at the couch but it didn't budge at all. "The teapot is on the table. You can pour yourself another cup. Why… won't… this… move!"

L started chuckling which was an irritating sound to listen to. "I might've forgotten to mention that this couch is bolted to the floor. Well actually I did forget for a second… but watching you has really made my day."

There were so many words that could describe how she was feeling at that moment. Anger, frustration, irritation… they were all similar in meaning. He really knew exactly what to say to get under her skin and he practiced it regularly, this day being no exception. Having given up with pushing the couch and not wanting to be with near him, D did something which would hopefully make him feel as she was, without being too detrimental to what he was working on. Papers went flying all over the place as she pushed them off of the table. She wanted to flip the table but the teapot would likely smash and ruin all evidence and useful material to help solving this case.

"You can clean up that mess. Don't expect any help from me." She walked toward the door, planning on going into her own hotel room, when L calling out to her stopped her steps. "I'm not helping you!"

"I don't care about that." He was holding up a piece of paper, waving it at her. "I want you to tell me if there is anything familiar about this photo."

D cringed when first seeing it. The scene was gruesome. Words were centred on the top of the paper which read: Beyond Birthday's Third Victim - Backyard Bottomslash. The second time she cringed was due to the name of the victim. Apparently her parents weren't the only ones to give their child such a weird name but it made her appreciate her own name a lot more. She didn't know what was supposed to be familiar about this photo. The victim was unknown to her. While missing an arm and a leg, the remaining body looked like the hands of a clock and adjusted as such.

The knocking was loud enough to rouse her from sleep. Looking at the alarm clock it told her that midnight had just passed. She went to the door when the knocking didn't stop, readying to tell whoever was on the other side where to go. Needing to wake up early that morning, she wanted to get the rest of her sleep. The person at the door surprised her and her mouth was kept opened like the door, no sound coming out of it.

"Rue, what are you doing here?" D didn't see what he was holding but stepped aside to let him in. He dragged a heavy looking bag across the floor and in his other hand had a bloody arm dragging along as well, a red substance trailing behind. Was it some sort of realistic prop? "W-what is that Rue? Where are you going?"

She followed him into the bathroom and he threw the arm in the bath. Her eyes widened in fear when slowly her still sleeping mind put together each piece of this puzzle before her. It all connected and only there was one word getting repeated in her mind. Run. She needed to get away from there, away from him. Why didn't she take his advice when he told her to stay with someone else while her flatmates were elsewhere? Had he planned this all out from the very beginning? She tried to get to the exit of the condo but something held her back.

"Where do you think you're going? We're going to have some fun now."

What happened to his voice? Why did he sound so different? Even his laughter changed, sounding like some demented being. This wasn't the Rue Ryuuzaki she knew, this was a monster, one which lost its mind. Before she had time to scream he had a cloth to her nose and mouth just when she took a deep breath in. She felt herself going under and knew that what ever happened to her after, there was going to be nothing she could do about it.

"The DNA from the arm found in the bath of your condo matched that of Backyard Bottomslash." L took the piece of paper from her and returned it to the pile he had created from the mess.

"Why?" D asked him as tears started falling down her cheeks when her legs gave way and she hit the floor. "Why did you show me that, knowing that I would remember?"

"There is a fifty-three percent chance that you knew Beyond Birthday better than anyone from Wammy's House." He stood up and walked over to her in his hunched stature.

"Wam's-what what?"

"That's not important." L crouched back down so he was face-to-face with her. Wiping away her tears with both his thumbs, he continued. "It's likely that your link with BB might help us catch the BB-copycat killer. I am going to use you for that purpose."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Just when I thought you were going to start being nice to me."