Lawliet
Yagami Light is asleep on the bed next to him, and for the first time in the few weeks they've been chained together, L is beginning to question the wisdom of his decisions. The bruise from their fight a few days ago is subsiding, but his face is still tender. He can also see Light flinch when he moves too quickly. They have not come to blows since, but there have been arguments.
He has his laptop flat on his knees, back uncomfortably straight, rather than reclining against the pillows and resting it higher up, on his lap and the bottom of his ribs. In his usual position, the edge cuts into a still-fading bruise, and he can't abide the pain.
L doubts Light. How could he not? Until a short while ago, he would have been prepared to stake his life on the fact that Yagami Light was Kira. He was staking his life on it; he had the teen on the investigation team for a reason. It was a dangerous mood, but also far more likely to yield results than playing it safe would.
All the same, he didn't want to die.
More than that, he didn't want to be wrong. And he did, at the same time, because Light was the first person he'd ever...
Something.
Never mind.
It's not that he's never known people like himself. When he was a boy at Wammy's... well, there was never any competition. Not really. But there was conversation, and plenty of it. The children around him were bright and sharp, and he talked and played with them infrequently, but gladly.
When he goes back there now, the little ones stare at him with awe, and something in their eyes he cannot name.
He thinks of Near, solemnly frowning at the chess board and looking up at him tentatively, nearly too shy to meet his eyes. Then ripping a hole through his defence and ruthlessly taking his queen and bishop before L has a chance to block.
If he dies, at least there will be someone to take over. Although a seventy percent likelihood exists that his death will be caused by Yagami Light, who will proceed to take over his position as L.
He programmed a message to be sent automatically just yesterday, barring his interference. In case things go the way he thinks they might.
Light murmurs gently in his sleep, and rolls over. The noise, and the tug at his wrist, startle L out of his reverie, and he looks down at Light as though just noticing him now. As though he hasn't been here constantly for days and days.
It feels like it's been forever.
"Are you still Kira in your dreams, I wonder?" L asks quietly, looking down at his friend and rival with something approaching affection. It is easy to forget, especially since Light seems to have forgotten it too, that this person has killed many people. That this person has polluted the name, the very nature of his justice.
If Light knows the answer to the quiet question, he isn't telling.
Realizing fully that it is a poor decision he is making, and a risk he should not take, L reaches over and smothes the hair from Light's forehead.
Then, turning away, he goes back to his computer, as Light slumbers on.