Chapter Twenty-Eight

Interlude


"And I say also this. I do not think the forest would be so bright, nor the water so warm, nor love so sweet, if there were no danger in the lakes." ― C.S. Lewis


"You're learning quickly."

Naomi's heel had missed Light's chin by an inch, maybe two; he'd spun out of the way a moment sooner than he would have the day before. The timer chimed just as he was about to turn into his next kick but he stopped himself, pleased when his muscles obeyed him instantly despite his fatigue.

The progress had been irritatingly slowly in the beginning, but now he could see himself growing stronger and more precise. The line of his hips was becoming more pronounced, his arms and legs returning to and even surpassing their previous muscle tone.

"Thank you," He nodded, straightening up and flexing his hands.

"Are your arms mostly back to normal?" Naomi regarded him with equal parts curiousity and concern.

She'd watched his development over the week with bright eyes, which had flashed with surprise whenever he'd made an unexpected advancement. Light enjoyed showing off his inevitable aptitude for anything he decided to put his mind to, but it was hardly the reason he'd decided to train with Naomi.

"Yes, almost entirely," Light answered, though he couldn't help but notice he was more out of breath than Naomi was. How annoying. She's better at this than I anticipated.

The fighting style was more intense than it looked, and he was throwing around more weight than she was. He stretched his arms across his chest and the muscles there burned pleasantly.

"Meeting with you in the morning to train has been helping quite," he continued graciously.

"I'm glad I could help. I don't approve of what was done to you, and I don't take it lightly. It's true that Amane ended up being guilty of the crimes in question, but L's actions were…well, I didn't agree with him." Naomi told him, and then paused, her brow furrowing.

For a moment, she looked like she wanted to say more – as if that didn't really sum up the extent of her disapproval – but she appeared to decide against it, then turned to grab both of their towels and water bottles.

Her hair was pulled back into a high, elegant ponytail and she was dressed entirely in sleek, fitting workout clothes. When she turned her back to Light, he saw the lines of a tattoo peeking out from beneath her tank top, creeping elegantly along her shoulders. He couldn't make out what it was, and he wasn't interested or blunt enough to ask.

"It's in the past," Light replied casually, stepping closer to her and accepting his water bottle gratefully. He took a few long sips, feeling noticeably cooler once he'd downed half of it. "I'm feeling like myself again."

"I'm glad," Naomi looked him over, hesitating for only a moment. "It must be difficult to move on from a false imprisonment when you're still physically recovering from the effects of it."

"That's true," Light commented, taking another sip of his water, cutting her prompting statement short as politely as possible.

"But then, you seem to have healed rather quickly." Light thought he saw her lip quirk, and her dark eyes seemed to shine yet again, but not with fascination this time. "Emotionally, that is."

Light wiped the back of his neck and frowned at the words. The phrasing was loaded, and the subtext didn't make itself clear to him immediately. He was enjoying the routine of working out with Noami in the mornings– the martial arts style wasn't entirely to his tastes, too much like dancing, buthe figured that learning a unique fighting style like capoeira couldn't hurt. It might even be useful one day.

L used this style to kick me, so if Naomi ends up getting too boring, I can always spar him instead. It can't be a coincidence that they both know this style – did she learn it with L? I know they go way back, but surely they aren't that close.

She did so like to chit chat with him, though generally only after they were done working out. First thing in the morning, she acted grumpier than Light felt. Delaying his morning shower always left him feeling vaguely foul, and it was rather therapeutic to get to hit someone who knew how to fight and was just as agitated as he was. She'd come in, grunting and sighing rather than actually forming words like a human being, her eyes not even fully open until they were finished with the warm up stretches.

"It's easier to be emotionally and mentally healthy through something like that when you know you're innocent," Light responded, rolling his aching shoulders back and regarding her carefully.

"Oh, of course," She agreed, as she sat on one of the low, padded tables meant for stretching and proceeded to do just that. She extended her slim, powerful legs straight out in front of her and then leaned forward to touch her toes. "But I meant more about - well, Ryuzaki."

Light blinked pointedly to let her know he hadn't the faintest idea what she was taking about. He reeled in a twinge of anger. L's known her for years, but surely he wouldn't divulge our relationship purely based on that?

"What about Ryuzaki?"

"Well, you know," She blinked back at him, almost challengingly. "You two. You, and Ryuzaki."

The familiar irritation started to creep back, and Light felt his jaw tighten slightly. For a moment, he considered denying it, but the certainty on her features made him sure she wasn't just taking a lucky guess. She was present that night at the beach, so she may have just inferred that the tension had been acted upon. Even so, to be confident enough to bring it up like this – what exactly is her angle?

"…I see."

"I'm sorry, I know it's sort of supposed to be a secret." Naomi paused, and then glanced him over. "You should really stretch. Capoeira is really hard on your legs and core if you don't."

I'm well aware of that! You're the one that brought that up and threw me off.

Light grudgingly seated himself on a nearby table and started following Naomi's stretching routine. He extended his long legs in the same way and curled his fingers around the balls of his feet until his heels lifted off the mat and his calves burned.

It was different than the physical therapy he'd done with Watari during confinement and afterwards on his own. Even now, when he was irritated with her for bringing up his relationship with L so flippantly, he was aware that she knew best when it came to this. He had no interest in pulling a muscle or being physically out of commission in any way, after he'd finally gotten his body back on track.

Part of him wanted to send his glower in L's direction, and for a moment his eyes flickered to his left, as if he expected L to be there. He quickly set his glare on his toes instead.

"If it makes you feel better, it's not that obvious," Naomi told him with a deliberate tone to her voice, soft and careful, as if she realized that she'd upset him. I'm not upset, I'm annoyed. I'm trying to figure out where she's going with this, and what she intends to do with the information.

"Did Ryuzaki tell you?" He inquired with as much nonchalance as he could muster, grabbing the toes of his sneakers and gingerly pulling until his heels lifted off the mat.

She isn't a threat, and I'm sure she can keep it to herself if she so chooses. But what does she think of it? That it's a conflict of interest, that I have Stockholm syndrome after the confinement, that I've been sleeping my way to privileges on the task force – that our relationship is the entire reason L decided to keep me around?

"No, of course not," Naomi scoffed, spreading her legs and then curling over toward the center. Light's brow furrowed as he followed suit. "Ryuzaki confides some things to me, but never anything truly personal. I don't think he likes that I know as much as I do know. Which…isn't much."

A weird spasm of pride snuck up on Light and he quickly shoved it down.

"Then how did you know exactly?" He demanded mildly.

It didn't help his mood that this stretch was his least favorite. His legs were limber enough, but when it came to shifting his hips for this stretch, he'd barely made any progress. Naomi could almost touch he nose to the mat when she leaned forward, while Light struggled to put his elbows on the surface. While he'd made excellent progress in the last week or so working with Naomi (as he had expected he would) he still had yet to beat her consistently. There had been a few times here and there where he managed it, and once even twice in a row. He was gaining on her in all areas, as was his way, and he projected that he'd outmatch her within the month.

He held back the huff he wanted to release and pulled out of the stretch early, reminding himself to practice it on his own – worse than failing was having a witness to the failure.

"Matsuda told me," She sighed, shaking her head in fond admonishment of his actions. "Sometimes he won't shut up about it. I'd already suspected a bit of course, after L got drunk and wouldn't shut up about you."

Matsuda knows? I know he was betting on it happening, but he couldn't possibly know that we've actually – did he smell me one day? If that's the case, then Aizawa might know too.

The thought of anyone being aware of their relationship before Light was ready to reveal it did not bode well with him. Matsuda was harmless. Naomi and Aizawa were trustworthy (they had nothing to get out of betraying his trust, rather) but this was already a tumultuous coupling –

"He won't stop talking about Ryuzaki and I?" Light grit his teeth momentarily, then pried them apart again. "In what capacity?"

She's been associating with Matsuda outside work, in her free time. He didn't like the idea. Not that he cared about Matsuda's love life (though part of him did wonder if Naomi was out of his league), but it meant that two of the people that knew of his second gender were now socializing to an extent that allowed them to have conversations about it.

"Not to anyone but me, of course," Noami assured him, sitting up and trying to smooth over her words. She seemed to understand she'd touched an unexpectedly raw nerve. "He's just – he was really rooting for you two."

The prospect was so sweet and stupid, Light was momentarily nauseated. Rooting for us? Matsuda is even cheesier than L, which isn't that surprising. Have we really been that transparent?

Have I?

The worst part was that he thought he'd been completely professional when in view of the others, and so if he'd been slipping up, it wasn't consciously. Even looking back on it now, he couldn't figure out where he'd gone wrong. Had he touched his wrist without thinking again, had his eyes lingered too long, had people known just looking at him somehow-?

"How did he figure it out?" Light inquired, pulling his legs back together. He let them fall off the side of the table, his feet pressing to the gym floor.

"Oh, I don't think he knows knows," Naomi laughed in an attempt to ease his nerves. "But he'll always talk about how you to look when you're together, scheming or deducing or arguing. Sometimes you two will bicker, or just share a look and it's just – I don't know. Special, somehow. Like you've known each other longer than I know you have."

Light bristled and turned away, scowling as heat creeped up his neck.

"We're together, in a way, but there's nothing special about it. We're adults." Light pulled his fingers through his hair, which was damp with sweat at the roots. "Was there a reason you brought this up, Naomi-san?"

Naomi was smiling at him pleasantly when he chanced a glance back at her. "Not really. I just wanted to tell you I'm happy for you – both of you."

Light sighed and shook his head, "I appreciate the gesture, but there's nothing to celebrate."

Naomi snorted, eyes glittering. "You should tell that to your face."

Light turned away again to conceal the nasty look he wanted to shoot her way, snatching up his water bottle from where he'd set it on the table.

"You've been spending too much time with Matsuda."

"Just enough time, I think," She corrected, then chuckled at herself as she stood up. "That did sound like him. Doesn't make it any less true though."

"I don't know what you're talking about," muttered Light, starting toward the exit that led to the hall. Is she trying to tease me? Is she really joking about my relationship with L as if we're friends – or is she trying to embarrass me?

Naomi caught up to him and they rode the elevator together, pressing the buttons for their respective floors. "You've been – well, you two become more engaged with the world in general when you're together. You really bring something out in each other."

Light glanced down the papercut, which was now a barely noticeable pink line. I found a way to tell you, he'd said to L, but neither of them had found a way to tell anyone else. It was currently useless information, which would end up divulging more truth about Light than about Kira. For now, like many aspects of one another, the cut belonged to L and Light alone.

"Matsuda said something along those lines too. Your blessing is appreciated, but hardly necessary. It's really not that big of a deal." Light told her with a guarded, neutral expression, though the idea that other people could see whatever magnetism there was between them was a stressful one.

The elevator chimed again, and the door opened to his floor. Light stepped off quickly, on the floor that was technically his own but which he never actually slept in, then granted Naomi a curt farewell nod.

"I'll see you upstairs in an hour or so, Naomi-san."

"See you then." Naomi agreed genially. She gave a little bob of a bow, her eyes still smiling at him even though she kept a straight face until the doors shut and hid her from view.


A/N: I'm sorry for the wait, guys. I decided to post this shorter chapter to get some momentum back and so that you would all know that I do intend to continue. I've had a lot going on in real life - nothing bad, I've just been busy and stressed and annoyed without time to recharge.

Anyway - I hope you enjoyed the chapter, however short. I liked writing some Light/Naomi bonding, even if Light was tense the whole time. I like depicting Light's slow descent into admitting that he and L are a thing. I also like the idea of him and Naomi sort of being friends.

Next chapter will be some Matt and Near stuff, as well as a message from your friendly neighborhood murderous vigilante.

As always, I appreciate your feedback! Favorite moments, lines, dialogue - all that good stuff! It means a lot. :)

-Nilah