L sat in the workroom, munching on some cream puffs that Watari had bought from a pastry shop nearby. It wasn't too bad, he could now see how it was well-liked with the custard and fresh cream filling. Too bad for the company that the goods isn't as popular here as they are overseas, mostly due to the fact that Japanese generally aren't a fan of snacks like these.

Well, L is, as long as the puff came along with a generous topping of chilled chocolate cream, caramel sauce, honey and strawberries. Those are added by Watari because L was genuinely after the authentic Hokkaido milk taste that these puffs had to offer but had found them too plain.

Now, this is perfect.

The detective took a huge bite out of the coconut-sized puff and hummed happily in appreciation, flecks of cream sticking to his nose but he didn't seem to notice.

Light was the only one in the room with him, ignoring the loud smacking noises that L seemed to make deliberately just to annoy everyone else around him as he went through the statistics of various large corporations.

Today, he left his coffee mug on the right of his computer instead of the left, lest the sugar incident happens again. It's a little inconvenient for him as he had reached for the mug several times out of habit, only for it to come back empty as it had been moved to the other side of the machine.

But god, anything but the sugar prank.

Also, Light didn't appreciate being left alone with the detective any longer because that just opened more opportunities for the sugar fiend to torment him since there's nobody else around to stop him. Maybe except for Watari, but Light figured that the old man would be on L's side anyway so that doesn't really count.

Speak of the devil, here he comes, pushing the metal cart into the room.

"Your tea, sir," Watari said, as he set a fresh pot of tea, along with a cup and a heaping bowl of sugar.

"Thank you, Watari," L said, his voice muffled with a mouth full of pastry.

"I see you are enjoying the cream puff, Ryuuzaki," Watari said in amusement.

"Mmhfnph," L replied, busy with his food.

The old man chuckled and Light raised an eyebrow as he observed the interaction between the two.

When he left, the detective swallowed his food loudly and reached for another one. Before he could stuff that into his mouth, Light asked, "Has Watari been working for you long?"

"Work for me?" L turned to him, puzzled.

"Doesn't he?"

"Nope," L said, biting into the puff with a huge 'nom'.

"So you work for him, then?" Light questioned, curious now.

"Nuh," L took a while before swallowing, smacking his lips, "It's more like a mutual partnership."

"What kind of partnership?"

"That's classified information," L said, grabbing another piece of cream puff, letting out a soft sound of despair when a strawberry slid off the top. He picked the fruit up, tossing it into his mouth and continued, licking his fingers, "Let's just say he's my caretaker."

"That doesn't make sense."

"Mm-hm."

L didn't say anymore after that, preoccupied with his midnight buffet.

Light sighed and turned back to his work, glancing at the clock that stated one in the morning. Maybe he can keep this up until two, it doesn't look like L is too bothered to care about the time just yet, seeing how many pieces of puffs he still had left.

Light didn't think he would want to dream again… tonight.

The teen shook his head and focused on the task before him, ignoring the eating noises coming from his left.

"Hey, Ryuuzaki."

"Hmm?"

L turned to the brunette, licking on the remnants of the chocolate cream on his fingers. It's now half past one and he's craving for a bit of ice-cream. Too bad Watari won't let him have any more, it wasn't like he was working on anything anyway. He just doesn't feel like it when he was so sure that Light is, or was Kira.

"I think I've found something."

L bit the pad of his thumb and pushed off the desk with one of his foot, sliding right next to Light to look over his shoulder, The chain let out a loud clinking as it rattled against the chairs. L didn't miss the teen flinching when he got too close. Light shifted away slightly, casting a glare that was tamer than all of those sent towards L, before moving back to the screen.

"Look at this."

L studied the screen, finding graphs on company shares over the past month.

Almost all of the companies showed a fall, while the only corporation that saw a sharp rise in capital…

"Yotsuba Corporation?"

"You find it strange?"

"Indeed…"

Light did some typing into his computer and more windows are pulled up while he explained, "So I did some digging into this and found that businessmen who had association with rival companies had been dying, some by illnesses and others from accidents, except for these three."

The last three windows that popped up are the death details of another three leading businessmen.

"Heart attacks?"

"I've looked into their medical history and found that two of them didn't have any heart issues or illnesses relating to their hearts in the past, neither do their family history held any records of heart attacks," Light said, "The third one did have a heart attack two months ago but survived and had to undergo bypass operation. The medical files showed that there was only one clogged artery, the others are all clean so there shouldn't by a relapse this soon, this had to be-"

"Kira's doing," L said, "And the other deaths that are not heart attacks revealed that Kira can kill others in more ways other than a heart attack. Great job, Light-kun. Send the files over to me and I'll give the others a briefing tomorrow."

A little smile slipped onto Light's face at the compliment before it was immediately chased away by a yawn.

"Tea?"

"No, thanks," Light said, waving his hand before turning to glare at him, "And when are you going to return to your side?"

"I have to watch you, Light-kun," he said, "So I have to be close."

"You're a little bit too close!"

With that, he shoved L's chair, causing it to slide back into his spot. He'd pushed a little too hard, though and the detective was almost squashed into the desk.

"It seems like your focus is a little bit off," L muttered, pushing himself back into the correct spot, "So, tea?"

Light turned to glower at him.

L sat wriggling his toes victoriously when Light was annoyed enough to accept his offer of tea. Light wasn't in as a good mood while he sat next to him and brooded. Watari came in with another teacup and filled it with the pot of tea that he had brought in earlier, setting next to Light.

The teen warily shifted it to the other side of his computer, he really didn't want a repeat of the sugar episode.

L didn't seem to notice a thing.

Light tentatively took a sip of the tea that L usually drank and found that it wasn't too bad.

Ten minutes later, the teen found that he couldn't keep his eyes open no matter how hard he fought against the sudden surge of weariness. Light yawned, lying his head on the table, his head facing L's side of the desk.

Next thing he saw was L leaning into his field of vision, nibbling on his thumb.

Then, he smirked.

You goddamn filthy bastard, Light thought, the last thing he did before he slipped into oblivion.

Light stirred awake, disturbed by the sun shinning into his face.

He groaned, his hand coming up to rub his face. The teen found himself lying on the bed that he and L shared, the duvet covering him until his chest, it looked like he had barely moved throughout the night, which is an anomaly these days. He didn't remember coming back to bed, he did remember that he found Yotsuba, though.

Light lifted his head, turning to glance at the clock and was mildly puzzled to find his chair by the side of the bed.

He stared, wondering what it's doing here.

Then it all came back to him.

Light turned to the other side of the bed, finding L sitting in a crouch, a laptop placed in front of his legs. His arms reached to either side of his folded legs, his fingers busy at work. He looked as if he had worked all night. L didn't turn to him but Light knew he was watching.

The teen sat up, "Why did you do that?"

L slowly turned towards him, "What, Light-kun?"

There was a flash of anger in his eyes and he demanded once again, "Why, did you do that, L?"

"I thought I told you to call me 'Ryuuzaki'."

"Fine, Ryuuzaki," Light growled, "Now why the hell did you do that?"

"Light-kun is tired," L said, returning to his work, "But he refuses to go to bed."

"You didn't ask."

"I did," L grumbled, "A number of times and you refused so I stopped asking."

"Mind your own damn business," Light said, glaring at him as he tossed the duvet aside.

L recognized that as a cue to go to the bathroom to for his morning routine, so he left the laptop and crawled across the bed, hopping off before he gets pulled off by his arm.

"It is a factor that might affect the case," L said, stuffing his hands into his pockets, "So I took precautions."

"It is not," Light tossed back, walking into the bathroom, "I found our suspects perfectly fine, thank you very much."

"Precautions, Light-kun."

He started when the other stabbed a toothbrush in his direction, missing his face by an inch, "That. Does not warrant you to give me your spiked tea."

"For your information the drugs are in the teacup, not the tea," L mentioned and Light emitted a low growl. The detective ignored that and said, "Besides, your health is at risk if you do not have adequate sleep."

Light gave him a deadpan stare, "Look who's talking."

The teen proceeded to brush his teeth while L stood off the to side, waiting for him to be done.

When he did, Light seemed to have calmed down slightly and asked, giving him a sidelong glance, "Now why did you do that?"

"What?"

"You didn't give me an answer, Ryuuzaki."

L stared at him, his hands deep inside his pocket and Light waited.

"That's classified information," the detective said eventually.

Light's expression steeled.

"Out." He pointed at the door but there was no bite in his voice.

L gave him a quizzical look.

"Out," he gritted his teeth, "I'm taking a shower."

The detective complied, unlocking the handcuff and leaving to stand outside the door while he waited.

He wasn't particularly bothered by Light's anger.

He'll get over it, eventually.

What L didn't expect is the fact that 'eventually' proved to be exceedingly boring.

It was two days after the tea incident and the Taskforce is hard at work, delving into the Yotsuba case with renewed energy, trying to find who exactly is Kira within the corporation. Light is as usual, absorbed in his work and ignoring L, who's munching on cookies and twirling in half-circles in his chair.

What's unusual is that they have not spoken for two days.

L had nothing to say to the others other than work and he wasn't looking forward to be acquainted with any of them, so that just left Light.

Who refused to talk to him for two. Full. Days.

Annoyed, L gave an aggressive crunch to the cookies and they disintegrated, crumbs flying everywhere onto him, the chair and the floor.

Light wasn't even bothered to send him a disgusted stare at that.

L brushed cookie crumbs off of himself, picked up a stray chocolate chip on his shirt and tossed that into his mouth. He turned to the boy, "Light-kun."

It was as if Light hadn't heard a single thing, L knew he wasn't deaf so he tried again with the same result.

"Can I have my report please?"

Light's fingers came to a stop, before he started typing something into the keyboard.

A few minutes later, there's a beep coming from L's computer. The detective opened up his e-mail and found the report in the inbox. The subject read, 'Here's your report, asshole.'

He clicked on it and more words popped up, along with the attachment.

'Go fuck yourself' and 'L's stupid, useless report'.

L huffed at the childishness and left that alone, taking a sip of his tea.

He then proceeded to unhappily chew on his thumb. L didn't think that dealing with grudge-bearing, inconsequential idiots is part of his job requirements.

Two full days, for god's sake.

L let out a loud sigh.

Unfortunately for him, that was when Matsuda had chose to walk past the both of them. The bachelor heard that and took a few steps backwards.

"Ryuuzaki, are you okay?"

The detective turned to him slowly, giving him the image of a very bored and depressed wind-up toy, "I am fine, what is it?"

"Ah, it's uh, nothing," Matsuda gave an awkward laugh, "It's just… you seem a bit blue, there."

Light stumbled in his typing and had to backspace a few times to get rid of the senseless words. L noticed that immediately and an idea formed in his head along with a wicked, internal smile.

"Oh, is that so?" L played with his lip, "Then perhaps I might be a little… depressed."

Light's typing sped up marginally, though nothing is showing on his face… yet.

"Why? What happened?"

L gave another sigh, this time softer than the first, he didn't need the others in on it at the moment. His gaze crept onto the ceiling, as if thinking, "It appears that I might've angered Light-kun again, now he's ignoring me."

Matsuda turned to Light curiously, where the other is currently performing the art of 'nothing is happening right now' quite perfectly, "What did you do?"

"I think I might've," L's thumb froze in place on his lip and his eyes flickered to Matsuda, "Went a little too far… that night."

Light stumbled over his typing again. This time, he'd stopped completely, staring at the screen in shock.

Matsuda's eyes widened comically. While he had leaned in to listen to L at first, he now stood up straight suddenly, backing away, "Oh, wow, um. I didn't know you guys were in that kind of relationship."

Soichiro's ears would've pricked up at that moment if they could as they latched on to those words immediately.

He spun to face them, "What relationship?!"

At the same time, Light had spun to face Matsuda, "We're not in that kind of relationship!"

All other eyes in the room turned to them immediately, startled by the commotion.

Matsuda was stunned, frozen in place like a statue as both Yagamis set their intense gaze onto him.

L was guffawing internally at the ridiculous scene. He didn't quite keep his cool as a little chuckle slipped out. That was a bad move, as both Soichiro and Light set their glares onto him.

"Explain this!"

"You scumbag!"

"Light!"

Light glumly kept quiet but his livid gaze is still set onto L, while the detective looked back and forth between the father and son pair, slightly unnerved by the identical looks they were both sending him.

Everyone else kept staring and Matsuda took the opportunity to slip away and join the crowd.

"Now, perhaps we should keep calm and-"

"You're in a relationship with my son?!"

"-listen…" L turned to stare pointedly at Soichiro, who returned that with a glare.

"Dad!" Light protested, "We're not in a relationship!"

"That isn't what I'm hearing from Ryuuzaki!"

"He's being stupid."

"I'm not-"

"You're saying Ryuuzaki has a sense of humor?"

"-being stupid…" This time, L turned to stare pointedly at Aizawa, along with the two Yagamis.

"Uh," the man cleared his throat, "I apologize."

"Can you people stop interrupting me?" L questioned, visibly irritated.

"Not before you explain to me what the hell is going on around here?" Soichiro demanded, "What's with all this, 'Light is mad at me' and 'went a little too far that night'? What on earth did you do?"

"It is not what Yagami-san is alluding to," L said boredly, as if the older man is the lewd one here.

"He spiked my drink," Light accused immediately, pointing at L.

"That was for a good reason," L shot back.

"And what the hell is the fucking reason?"

"Language, Light!"

The teen deflated but he kept his glare leveled at L.

"What did you spike my son with?" Soichiro demanded, looking ready to pounce on the detective.

"Drugs that induce sleeping."

"He has trouble sleeping?"

"According to my observations, he'd been sleeping less."

Soichiro glanced at his son in confusion, while Light was glaring at L for informing his father about it.

"You didn't tell me anything about that," Soichiro said, a stern look beginning to form on his features. Then he glanced at L and awkwardly asked, "Does he have anything to do with-"

"God, no, Dad," Light uttered, paling at the very thought of it.

"How flattering," L said as he pouted.

There was the sound of someone clearing the throat and the skirmish stopped immediately. Everyone in the room turned to look at the doorway, where Watari stood with his silver cart.

"Tea?"

Light turned to his father, "Dad, can we talk about this later?"

"Fine, alright," Soichiro said, returning to his seat. He gave one last accusatory look at L as he said, "Later."

Thus, the workroom retained its boring silence once again, mostly.

While they were returning to their room that night, Light didn't expect to be pulled off in a direction that is not the bedroom.

"Ryuuzaki," he stumbled after the other, "Where the hell are you taking me?"

"I've decided, we'll talk."

"I don't want to talk to you!"

L ignored his childish outburst and tugged harder on the chain, "Too bad, you're coming with me."

"Ryuuzaki!"

Against his will, Light was dragged to the elevator, taken to the highest floor that it could go and taken to the staircase. L made him climb up four flights of stairs. Light turned to read the sign and it wrote 'Roof Access'.

"Why're we going to the roof?" He asked.

"To stargaze," L said with a little smile.

Light shot him a look, "What? Are you fucking serious?"

"No," L deadpanned, the smile melting off his face as he continues to drag Light, "Besides, Tokyo is too brightly lit for us to see anything but satellites."

"I knew that," Light grumbled.

"Also," L said as he pushed the door open, "Be rest assured that I won't push you off the roof."

"Somehow that made me less sure of it," the teen argued, tugging the chain towards himself.

"Stop being so stubborn," L managed to pull him out the door, "You want to know why I gave you sleep-inducing drugs, don't you?"

Light gave him a calculating look, then silently let the other pull him towards the middle.

The roof was… well, the roof. Other than the gray-walled stairwell that they just came from, the roof was empty except for a couple of satellite dishes and an antenna behind and above the stairway. In front of them was an empty helipad, the outlines painted in white. The floor of the roof looked and felt like it was made of concrete. Around the border of the roof is a line of metal railings and near that is a angled grid that was the roof drain.

Beyond the railing, Light could see the Tokyo nightscape below him.

Intrigued, Light made his way towards the edge, sending L a look that dared him to try pushing him off. L merely raised his cuffed hand and seemed to have raised a brow though Light can't really tell because off all that hair (frankly, he didn't think he'd seen L's eyebrows before).

The brunette then settled by the railing, staring down at the city below him.

They were so high up that the people below looked like mere ants to him, their features entirely distinguishable except for the general color of their tops. That applies to the vehicles as well, the busy streets making them look like multi-colored insects while the buildings looked like toys made out of building blocks. The glow of the lights made the city look fictional.

Light felt a sense of satisfaction looking at life below, as well as a sense of insignificance. It was strange and he liked it. He also liked the cool night breeze that blew across the roof, unobstructed by anything since they were so high up.

He could feel L's gaze behind him and cast a glance backwards.

L slowly came over to stand beside him, his hands deep inside his pockets. While Light was leaning over the railing, the detective did not touch it.

"There was this person I once knew," L said, looking straight ahead of himself, "I suppose I could call him a friend but truthfully I never knew him that well."

"An acquaintance, then?"

He nodded, "There was only a handful of people on this world that have ever seen me, so this relation was as close as he could get."

The detective was silent for a while before he uttered, "I suppose that for this to make sense, that person was considered my student."

"Student?" Light questioned, "So he was learning to do the things you do?"

"To be a detective, yes," L said, "He aspired to be like me, L, and I shall not disclose his name so I'll call him 'A'."

"Very generic."

"Right, so A wanted to be like me. He was young and ambitious, he was intelligent as well, exceedingly so, almost on par with you and me. He was also a hardworking individual and there was a high possibility that he might succeed in his dreams."

"However," L said solemnly as he stared at the dark sky, "As he grew older, more were demanded of him. A's ambition was still the same but the pressure on him kept growing more and more, much more than he could handle. Eventually, he committed suicide."

Light stared at him as he continued, "He sliced himself in the arms, once across his wrist and another along his entire forearm, on both of them. By the time he was found, his body was already cold."

L kept staring straight ahead as he said, "The signs were right under my nose, the way he carried himself yet I have done nothing to prevent it. It was a terrible loss."

At that, L turned to face Light and with a serious look in his eyes, he uttered the words like an oath, "I will not allow something like that to happen ever again."

Light gaped at him while the detective turned away, "And that is my answer."

The teen took a breath and turned back to face the cityscape, floored by what L had just told him. He figured that suicide is a topic too serious for L to even lie or joke about and decided to believe his story, mostly.

The two stood in silence for a while, before Light asked, "Hey, Ryuuzaki."

"Hm?"

L's tone made Light dismiss the tiny percentage of his brain that said L was lying while he mentioned, "You said that person 'A' is an acquaintance and you were concerned enough about him to regret his death. If being an acquaintance was enough to make you try to intervene, that means that I am one as well?"

L stared at him in silence for a while, before muttering, "Yes, Light-kun is an acquaintance of mine… and more."

The detective gave a tiny smile and said, "Light-kun is a friend, or rather, my first ever friend."

"Wait, so you weren't kidding?"

"No."

"It wasn't a tactic to make me, as someone you suspected is Kira, to lower my guard so you could catch me or something?"

"No, Light-kun," L reiterated, "Am I really such a distrustful person?"

"I don't know, ask yourself that," Light rolled his eyes. "Also, did I exhibit suicidal tendencies or something to make you go that far?"

"Well, it was very similar to what A was doing before he died."

That made Light go silent and the two simply stared at the city below for a while.

"Hey Ryuuzaki."

"Yes?"

"You're a friend too."

Light flashed him a false smile as he added, "If only you weren't such an asshole."

"How nice," L said blandly, "So I suppose I am an almost-friend?"

"Probably."

"Wait, what does Light-kun mean?"

Light pushed off the railing and started to walk back towards the stairwell, "Let's go back inside, it's getting cold."

L stared at him, perplexed. He quickly followed the teen to avoid getting dragged off, "Light-kun, I demand to know your answer."

Light didn't reply him and made no mention of the almost-friend thing as a petty little payback over the next few weeks, resulting in a happy Light and an extremely frustrated L.

Edited: 21/12/2017