CHAPTER 39 - BEFORE I SLEEP

Matt's legs were once again carrying him towards the infirmary. It was late evening, lights-out time was nearing, but he felt a strong urge to make sure Mello was alright before he went to sleep.

Earlier in the afternoon, Matt left the infirmary early, because Mello was unconscious and Misa was there, playing the nurse. She was running all around, discussing some herbs and medicines with the school doctor, and she made sure to touch Mello's forehead every other minute. Matt's blood was boiling when seeing it, so he rather left before he would snap at the blonde girl. Now he was hoping for a few minutes alone with Mello, however when he was nearing the place, he suddenly heard voices. One was definitely Mello's and the second one, was again, no other, than Misa.

Matt clenched his fists.

Why the hell did she come back? He asked himself. He was sure he saw her in the great hall with Light Yagami.

Matt came quietly closer and decided to stay hidden behind the infirmary door. Mello's bed was the first behind the corner anyway, so it was a good place from where he could hear everything. Not that he knew why he was doing that.

"So you are saying that this culprit's style is the same as the murderer of your parents?" Mello asked, with a rough voice and coughed.

"I know that it sounds ridiculous. The murderer of my parents is in Azkaban. Professor Lawliet got him there. But I can't help myself… I have this… gut feeling that something is off."

"It can be someone copying him, Misa…" Mello said without a hesitation.

The blonde girl let out a long sigh: "I know that… but what if… what if professor Lawliet didn't get the right person. What if the murderer of my parents is still out there?"

Matt could literally hear Mello turning his head from side to side: "Misa, L is the best Auror in the past century, if he said the murderer of your parents is the one he got, it is the law."

"I know but…" The girl wasn't easy to persuade so Mello cut her off: "Misa, stop worrying, I know this is hard on you, but if you have any doubts, you can always ask L."

There was a moment of silence before she spoke up again: "You think he would tell me something? This case is classified."

"But the one of your parents isn't, right?" Mello asked and Matt was impressed with how fast Mello was in his deductions.

Misa smiled a bit: "Yeah… you are right…" There was a moment of pause before she continued: "You know, you can be really marvellous when you want to."

"Pff… of course I can. Why else would you choose me?"

At that moment, Mello meant why she chose to confide in him, but Matt couldn't know that. He thought that she chose Mello to be with her. Matt felt an urge to vomit once again. He had to lean his back against the door, to support himself. Suddenly he heard Mello and Misa saying goodbye and he knew he had to move or he'd be discovered. He quickly ran to hide behind the corner of another corridor. It was a ridiculous thing to do, but for some reason, he didn't want anyone to know he was there in the first place. He turned around the corner and when he heard the steps coming in his direction, he climbed out of the window on the courtyard and hid himself on the other side of the window frame.

Misa went past him without noticing anything suspicious and he let out a long sigh of relief. He didn't even notice that her steps disappeared a little too quickly. Then suddenly he heard a high voice right next to the window where he stood:

"Why don't you just go to him?"

Matt jerked in surprise and froze. Then he forced himself to stay in the place, hoping she wasn't actually talking to him.

"Matt Jeevas!" The voice suddenly squeaked right next to his ear and a strong arm pulled him back into the interior of the court yard. That's how he ended up sitting on the floor in front of Misa.

"Why are you hiding in here?!" She asked and looked mad.

Matt panicked for a moment: "What?! I am not hiding, I was… searching for something…"

"Yeah, sure…" she folded her arms on her chest and looked at him with a hard expression: "... just get your ass to the infirmary, he is waiting for you anyway."

Matt finally made the effort to stand up from the floor and tried to act totally casual: "What?! Why?! I wasn't heading there at all."

"Stop lying." She spat at him, with a voice full of venom. That startled Matt a bit.

"I am not lying. I was just searching for some … moss … to finish the homework to… herbology." Matt stuttered and pointed out of the window.

Misa laughed ironically: "Moss is a topic taken in the 3rd grade, stupid. Just move your ass and go to see him. Why the hell are you acting like it's a big deal?"

"It's not a big deal!"

"Then just go!" Misa wailed and pointed in the direction of the infirmary.

"Why would I? He's got you, he doesn't need me anyway!" Matt said without thinking, surprising himself with what fell out of his mouth. And with how it sounded. He looked up at Misa. She was looking at him with her mouth slightly opened:

"Wait… are you jealous?!"

Matt shrieked: "What?! No!"

Misa laughed in amusement: "You are jealous…"

"I am not!" Matt insisted and his discomfort in this situation was growing with each second. He didn't like conflicts at all. Plus Misa wasn't right. He was not jealous.

The blonde rolled her eyes and looked at him saying: "Oh come on, Matt, you can as well admit it to yourself… you have feelings for Mello."

Matt could feel the wave of panic going through his whole body. He swallowed hard:

"I… I don't…"

"Just move your ass and go tell him! I am sure he'll be happy to hear that…" Misa started with a wide smile when a loud yell suddenly cut her off:

"I DON'T HAVE ANY FEELINGS FOR MELLO!" Matt screamed and Misa stopped in a movement.

For a moment they were just staring at each other. Matt was red in the face, he was breathing heavily and there was some kind of strange smell coming out of him. When their eyes met, Misa could have sworn she saw his eyes turning red for a moment. But before she could really focus on that, his eyes went back to his normal green and he quickly looked to the floor:

"I don't… have any feelings… for Mello." He repeated in a whisper then abruptly turned around and left.

Misa was left alone in the corridor, her eyes widened in shock. Then she suddenly clapped both her hands over her mouth thinking: I think I screwed up.

L was practically out of his mind of all the things he went through during the past 4 days. At first, preparing the Halloween's tourney, then soothing Light Yagami in the cloak of the night. After that the mysterious note, hours of work, Light bursting into his office and being bursted out of there. Meeting A, leaving to talk to the Animagi league, being left out somewhere in the magically protected wilderness, meeting madame Yagami, being accused of fucking Light, getting 'friendly' with both of his parents, discovering there was another murder case, getting a permission to actually fuck Light… and as it still wasn't enough, it turned out that Yagami senior secretly possessed a flying car.

Flying fucking car.

Of course it made sense, when the magical transportation didn't work in Yagami's home village and commuting to London with a normal car would take four hours a day. But you simply wouldn't expect the honoured and reputable chief of the department of Law enforcements to possess a forbidden wizard/muggle hybrid technology. And moreover, being so smug about it. The chief obviously secretly enjoyed speedy cars and the ride through the clouds made L uncomfortable almost to the point of vomiting. He could almost swear the older man drove as a devil on purpose. To make his point about Light. But L was able to survive all the way to London, say goodbye to the man in a friendly manner and then he was finally able to portkey himself to Hogwarts.

The meeting with the task force was planned for the early morning. L needed to check on the new case files, which, as he was assured by Naomi in a brief 10 minutes meeting in London, would be already on his desk when he comes back to his office. But most of all, L needed a few hours of sleep. His afternoon nap at Yagamis' mansion made him even more tired and he was now very aware that he might have pushed his body a little too far this time. But with all the protective magic spells he had on, it was sometimes easy to forget that he was only human.

"Shit, what a pain…" L mumbled to himself when he finally climbed the stairs to the DADA tower. It took him quite a long time when he was walking with a stick. His leg started aching again and all he wanted at this point was his bed.

L stopped in his tracks when he noticed the door to DADA classroom was half opened and dim light was coming from there. He frowned. It was after midnight. No one should have been there at this hour. He took light steps, as light as his walking stick allowed and peeked inside, sure he would find some intruder. But he was surprised to see only a certain omega boy sleeping on a desk between piles of books.

L's heart immediately clenched at the sight. Light must have been exhausted and fell asleep when preparing next classes for his students. He made a mental note to make sure the boy had enough time to relax in his schedule. Just because L was able to push himself into inhuman performances didn't mean others had to do it too.

Maybe I'm pushing him into things after all… he thought and silently opened the door and made a few steps forward to examine the scene in front of him. He was right in his theory. The books Light had opened on the desk were textbooks of DADA teaching methodology and there were scrolls with notes all around. Light's fingers were black from ink and unfortunately, also half of his face. The boy must have overturned the flask with ink while moving in his sleep. It was making a big black stain over the scrolls, the desk and ending under Light's sleeping face. The boy was sleeping soundly, his breathing even and he looked completely relaxed. He even had a small smile on his lips. It was quite a change from the expression Light wore the last time when L saw him. Desperate and pissed off. Like this, Light looked even younger than he was. Maybe fifteen, definitely, not seventeen.

I wonder when his eighteenth birthday is… L thought and his inner alpha reacted immediately to that:

"February. Yagami-san mentioned that."

That was enough of a wake up call for L. He tore his sight away from Light and headed to the basin, to prepare something the boy could wash his face with when he woke up. He absolutely, totally had to forget about what Yagami-san said to him. It was weird and no matter what she meant with it, he couldn't act on it.

But the alpha inside of his head wanted to be heard this time: "Don't be stupid. You want him and you can actually have him. No matter how much you are trying to deny it, even Light's mother could see there is no keeping you apart."

L gripped the edges of the basin and looked into the mirror that was hanging above it. He looked terrible. The dark bags under his eyes doubled its normal size and his hair was a sticky mess.

I don't care what madame Yagami thinks. He spat at his inner wolf.

I will not succumb to this just because we are alpha and omega. I won't endanger him like that. He is seventeen years old for Merlin's sake! He needs someone to walk him hand in hand and shower him with compliments. I can't give him that! So shut the fuck up!

Light had a pleasant dream. He knew he was dreaming and yet, it felt real.

He was somewhere out in nature, surrounded by the large green meadows and brown fields. The weather wasn't the best. Wind ruffled hair on his head and he was sure it was going to rain soon. Moreover there was the smell of salt in the air. He was not far from the ocean.

He breathed in the cold air and let it out of his lungs again. It felt strangely harmonious. He felt as calm as he hadn't for a long time. And the landscape was so vast, so soothing, so…

"You like it so much?" The voice behind him asked.

Light turned around abruptly to look into the face of his professor. He was in his typical white shirt/blue jeans attire and had an open green coat over it. He was smirking at Light and he looked exactly the same way as normal. And yet, he didn't. He looked better. Somehow more healthy and rested. There were no dark bags under his eyes. Light thought he looked stunning.

Suddenly Lawliet was stretching out a hand towards him: "Come on, we are almost there…" he said and Light took the offered hand. Their fingers intertwined and Light felt the heat radiating from the older man.

He was used to having Lawliet in his dreams at this point, but he was always surprised with how real everything around this man felt. How warm and calming. How beautiful and how… his.

L was leading Light by his hand for a few minutes. In this close proximity, Light could smell the scent of his alpha. Spicy-sweet scent that usually made his blood boil and freeze at the same time, was now radiating excitement with a bit of nervousness. Light couldn't help but wonder what the man was up to.

At one moment L stopped and looked at Light. Light could hear the waves from the ocean nearby and he knew they arrived at their destination. L nervously nudged Light to go forward and Light took a few more steps, leaving L behind.

The view that opened in front of him was breathtaking. From where he stood, he could see more green meadows, but they suddenly ended, like if someone cut them off with a hammer and all that was left were white cliffs falling down into the deep blue ocean. The cliffs were high, maybe even 100 metres and ran far along the ocean coast.

Light gasped at the beauty in front of him and suddenly felt waves of energy running through him. It was like some kind of old and powerful magic was floating in his veins and filling him with energy. At that moment droplets of rain started falling from the sky and landed on his face. Light let his head fall back, closed his eyes and outstretched his hands to his sides. He was standing there, like a statue, rain was falling to his eyes and into his mouth, but he felt great. He felt free and powerful. Almost like some kind of a God.

Then suddenly, hands appeared around his waist and he felt the warmth of another body behind him. L buried his cold nose into Light's neck and Light leaned his back into L's body. The alpha gripped him harder, but didn't attempt to break Light out of his trance. Moreover, he acted like a support, so Light could stay that way for a longer moment.

With L as his anchor, Light felt like the power inside of him doubled, no, tripled. But this was not his usual magical power. It felt like nothing else he felt before. Something much older and primar. Something unexplored and yet essential.

Light knew he was radiating some kind of scent, because L had his nose buried in his scent glands and refused to move. He knew that he could ask anything from this alpha and he would get it. But strangely, Light didn't feel like using it to his advantage. He was somehow aware that he would give this alpha anything he asked as well. Scent or not.

Light knew he loved L to the end of the world and back.

And he knew L loved him the same way.

Light was so fully immersed in his thoughts that he didn't even realise that L moved one of his hands from his waist. Suddenly he felt L touching his outstretched hand, his wrist and then something slid on his finger. Light abruptly opened his eyes and shifted his head to the side. He could hardly see through the rain but as L brought both their hands closer, he realised what it was.

He felt a wave of ecstasy going through his body when he heard L whispering in his ear:

"Marry me, Light, be mine forever."

Light woke up to the sound of falling water. He didn't open his eyes immediately, because his sleepy brain was not working enough to put together that what he was hearing was a stream of water, not rain droplets. Moreover, he wanted to go back to the dream and give his alpha the answer. He wanted to say his… yes.

He breathed in and felt the familiar spicy-sweet scent. But something felt different about it, it was very mild and had a very opposite energy from the scent he smelled in his dream. Or it was better to say that it had no energy at all.

Light opened his eyes and his head shot up. He looked around, following the smell in the air.

There he was.

The slouched figure in blue jeans and…. black shirt?! Doing something in a basin.

For a moment, Light wanted just to hurtle forward and scream: "Yes, yes I will marry you!"

But then Lawliet suddenly turned around and Light was able to tell dream from reality. The man looked awful. Tired to the point of exhaustion, his skin greenish and he was leaning against a walking stick. Plus his eyes were puffed, red and his sight looked empty.

"Professor Lawliet…" Light breathed out and it sounded half like a prayer: "... are you alright?!"

They simply stared at one another for a moment, Lawliet didn't react anyhow. But the turn in the man's scent revealed that he was deeply conflicted about something. Then, as if Lawliet woke up, the scent completely disappeared and the expression in his face changed into his regular arrogant smirk.

"You have ink everywhere." He said.

Light frowned: "I… what?!"

Lawliet only gestured for him to come closer, so he could see himself in the mirror that was on the wall above the basin. Light only took two steps to be able to see the disaster on his face. Practically half of his face was black.

"Oh damn it!" He exclaimed and turned around, to search for a handkerchief in his bag.

Lawliet laughed in his usual manner, but his scent was still completely absent. Light was confused by that and looked at Lawliet to search for an explanation in his face. But his expression was back to normal. It was like he put on a mask and without a scent Light was unable to see through it.

"It's just ink, Yagami. There's no need to panic." The man said and Light was now sure something was wrong. Lawliet only called him Yagami when he was mad at him. But now Light hasn't done anything to make him mad. Yet. He just asked him a question. But then, the boy realised that Lawliet had multiple reasons to be angry with him. All of them dated approximately 2 days back.

Light wanted to start the topic immediately and say how sorry he is about what happened in Lawliet's office, but the man suddenly outstretched his hand and he handed Light his own handkerchief, which was already soaked with water.

"Take this." The older man said, but his face was still expressionless.

"Thank you." Light hesitantly took it from him and moved towards the mirror to wipe the ink off his face. Lawliet behind him moved towards Light's desk and started speaking:

"I see that you took your substitute role really responsibly."

Light looked at the teacher through the mirror and saw that he was checking on his notes. So he tried to act casually: "We had some problems in today's class. I needed to prepare in case something like that would happen again."

"Oh I see… were they troublesome?" Lawliet asked with a tired voice and looked towards Light who was aggressively rubbing the ink off his face.

"We can say that…" Light started and then suddenly exclaimed: "Oh damn it!"

The ink really didn't want to leave his face and the skin around the stain was getting red. But Light started rubbing even harder.

"Light, stop! You are going to scratch your face." Lawliet exclaimed and Light stopped in his movement, surprised. He looked at his professor in the mirror. Lawliet just shook his head from side to side and then outstretched his hand: "Give it to me."

Light hesitated. Lawliet was looking at him with that blank expression but his scent was suddenly back. Mild, but it was there. This time it wasn't conflicted, just tired and resigned. Light turned around and made two hesitant steps forward, giving Lawliet the handkerchief back.

"Sit down." Lawliet showed him to the table and Light immediately started protesting: "But what are you going to do?!"

Lawliet rolled his eyes and limped towards one of the cabinets in the room while saying: "A little more trust on your part wouldn't be bad, you know."

Light shut up, bit his lower lip and leaned his butt against the table. He trusted Lawliet, more than he was able to admit. But it was just that things turned complicated around everything the man did. No matter how well he meant it, it always turned bad.

Light watched his professor limping back with pain in his face and he suddenly got really worried. The man didn't look healthy at all. But there was no more time to think about it, because Lawliet was already back with some flask in his hand. He poured its content on the unstained side of the handkerchief and then slowly came closer to Light. He started wiping the ink away from Light's face and the boy's worries were gone in a second, replaced by the sound of his own beating heart. Lawliet's face was only 30 centimetres away from his own and he practically positioned himself between Light's legs. If Light were to straighten up a little bit, his left leg would inevitably touch Lawliet's crotch. He couldn't help but remember the situation a few nights ago, when he was sobbing in the older man's arms.

"Now tell me, what happened with the kids." Lawliet suddenly spoke and tore Light away from his thoughts. His eyes were again on Lawliet's tired face and from this close proximity he could see every pore on his pale skin.

"It's… not so important. I handled the situation."

"Okay…" Lawliet said and continued to gently wipe the ink away.

"You're not going to ask any further?" Light asked with a shaky voice, hyper aware of every touch.

"I think we established earlier that I am not gonna push you into anything." Lawliet said calmly and touched Light's chin, to position his face a bit to the side. Then he continued his work: "Unless you want me to ask further?"

"Mmm… no. There's…. nothing to talk about." Light knew he could probably tell Lawliet what happened, but he was not able to create a coherent sentence. Lawliet moved his hand from Light's chin and rested it on his shoulder, while the second one with the handkerchief was getting dangerously close to his lips.

Lawliet was fully immersed in what he was doing and he didn't seem to notice the state he was getting Light into. Light had to grip the desk's edges not to let out any sound of pleasure. Every single part of his body seemed to be catching fire, which was weird because Lawliet's scent was still very mild. Almost not present. And yet, Light had an urge to move forward and force a kiss on Lawliet's pale lips.

Suddenly Light felt a warm touch on his own lips. His eyes quickly shifted from Lawliet's mouth down and he saw that the handkerchief from Lawliet's hand was gone and his thumb was now slowly rubbing against Light's lower lip. A wave of pleasure and anticipation went through Light's body and he shifted his eyes towards Lawliet's. The older man's sight was completely focused on what he was doing and seemed unaware of their extreme proximity. He rubbed his lower lip a few more times before withdrawing his hand and saying softly: "See.. that's much better…"

Their eyes suddenly met.

Light saw a flash of tenderness in the older man's eyes before it quickly turned back into blankness. The eye contact only lasted a moment because Lawliet made a step away from Light and continued like nothing happened at all: "You need to be a little more gentle with yourself. I wouldn't want to see any scratches on your pretty face. It would be a pity." He said, but there was no sign of mockery in his voice.

Light was not sure what just happened. Lawliet seemed unaffected by what passed between them and he was oblivious about the impact it had on Light. But surely he must have seen the lust in Light's eyes.

That's why he moved away so quickly, right? Light thought and watched the man wiping away the ink that came on his fingers. He was not looking at Light at all. The omega felt a sting of disappointment and could feel the tears behind his eyes. It came to him again that he was probably just imagining things and projecting what he wanted to see in Lawliet's actions. But he felt the sting of disappointment nevertheless.

Then the man suddenly spoke up: "Light, I have some more meetings tomorrow, would you be so kind and be my substitute for one more day?"

Their eyes met for a longer moment and Light finally understood what was really going on: Lawliet was barely keeping his eyes opened! He was far beyond the point of exhaustion and yet he was still awake, taking care of him!

"Yes! Of course!" Light exclaimed quickly, all his disappointment changed into worry.

"Good…thank you." Lawliet said and leaned against his walking stick: "I would really love to stay longer for a talk but I have to…" he started but Light quickly cut him off:

"Don't worry about me! Just go to bed!" Light suddenly felt stupid about being horny and needy, when his professor was in such a bad state.

Lawliet didn't protest: "Allright, but please return to your dorm as well."

"Ofcourse, professor." Light said and watched the man leaping towards his door. For some reason, he felt like he shouldn't leave yet.

It turned out to be true. The older man suddenly stopped in front of the staircase that led into his office and was looking at it as if it was a barrier of sharp stones.

"Light…" he started and seemed to have a problem explaining himself: "... can I ask you…"

But he didn't even need to finish because Light was next to him in a second and he took his professor under his arm.

"Thank you…" Lawliet whispered and leaned his free hand against the wall, while the other was leaning on the boy's shoulder. Without any other word they moved together to the man's office.

Light was quite surprised that Lawliet was really light weight. He didn't look like that. The older man let out an exclamation of pain a few times and Light made a mental note to get Professor Wammy as soon as he puts Lawliet to bed. But that meant one more staircase, because the living quarters were on the second floor of the little apartment behind the DADA classroom.

Lawliet's wand was flying around them in panic, opening the door and removing all the obstacles from their way. The man himself seemed to be far too tired to protest that Light was supporting him all the way up to his private quarters.

They slowly climbed the second staircase and found themselves in Lawliet's bedroom. The torches in the room illuminated themselves and the wand conjured up fresh sheets on the bed, fresh white t-shirt and a glass of water on the night table.

Light helped the man to the bed and sat him down there. He expected Lawliet to immediately lay down, but the man stayed in a sitting position, took his head in his hands and let out a painful growl.

Light started to panic. Healing medicine was not his strong suit.

"Hold on, I'll get professor Wammy, I'll be back in five minutes!" He said and started fastly moving towards the exit when Lawliet suddenly yelled: "NO!"

Light stopped abruptly and looked back at the man.

"Don't… I wouldn't hear the end of it if he saw me like this…" Lawliet whispered.

Light was full of worries, he didn't like the situation at all: "But professor you are wounded and…"

"I just need to sleep, don't worry, Light. Thank you, you can go." He said and slowly laid down on the bed. He immediately closed his eyes, but opened them again, when he realised that Light didn't budge. He was glued to the top of the staircase, looking worriedly at the man in the bed.

Lawliet smiled at him and whispered: "I only slept for a few hours in the past four days. It's just fatigue, I've been through much worse. Don't worry, you can go back to your dorm." When the man finished that sentence he closed his eyes again and added: "And don't forget to put some cream on your face, I don't want to see it reddened tomorrow."

Light's mouth opened slightly in disbelief.

You… you are barely holding on consciousness and you are still trying to make sure I am alright?! Light thought in puzzlement and his decision was made on the instant:

He was not going anywhere.

Ooopss… :D :P So many things happened in this chap. :D I hope you enjoyed the reunion. :P Let me know what you think. ;)

I want to thank Zack for posting so many encouraging comments! It really made my day that you took the time to comment on almost every chapter and you are so invested in this story. I hope you will continue liking it in the future as well. ;) Thank you so much. 3