Y'all, don't come at me for this. This is totally self-indulgent crack. Let me have this.
You know it's a true rarepair when you have to be the one to create their relationship tag on A03. (Though, if anyone happens to know any more stories... please hit me up with a rec).
I like to think that had L and Mikami ever interacted in canon, it would be a giant squabble over Light, pretty much. (But since this is shippy, they're each other's next best thing, after Light, of course). We all know what happens after this fic is over...
Please R&R!
"So," L says dryly, "you're X-Kira."
Mikami shoots back a haughty look and pushes his glasses further up his nose. He doesn't respond.
"You're not necessarily what I was expecting," L continues, worrying his thumbnail between his teeth. "I was expecting more of a God-complex, versus blind devotion."
Mikami flushes in embarrassment and annoyance. "I could say the same for you," he says quietly. "You are nothing compared to my God, after all."
L raises an eyebrow at that, resting his chin on the top of his knees. "Your God?" he says scornfully. "Light Yagami is nothing but a childish murderer with a disturbed sense of justice."
"Take that back," Mikami says, offended.
"You are blinded by your adulation," L says. He turns his wide-eyed stare to Mikami and simply stares at him. "Your own corrupt sense of justice aligns just as his does."
"It's why he chose me," Mikami says proudly. "He selected me out of the masses. He had faith in me that he never gave to you. You, who tried to bring Kira down. Remember, God hated you. He beat you."
"And yet, in the end, my successors defeated both you and him," L points out, "Your mistake is what led to his downfall. I can't imagine he had very positive feelings for you after that."
"Regardless," Mikami says. "I helped Kira enact justice."
"No, you sought for retribution," L says. "There's a difference."
"Only taking cases that you were interested in is not justice, either. It's childish. You were lazy, and lazy people are a blight upon this earth."
L looks at Mikami closely after this, examining him under new eyes. Mikami stares back evenly. "Well, I suppose you're the next best thing to Light," he says disappointedly.
"I don't in any way compare to God," Mikami agrees wholeheartedly. "But to be acknowledged by God's greatest rival..."
"... Want to get out of here?"
"... Yes."