depravity

The world around them seemed to have gotten darker, and the mists coiled over the skeletons in such a way that the bones almost seemed to stir, but there were no sounds to accompany any perceived movement, the landscaped drenched in silence.

'What did you do to Naomi Misora, Kira?' asked Lawliet.

'Hm?' said Light, tilting his head just enough to glance at him out of the corner of his eye.

Lawliet was watching him with Stygian eyes. 'Raye Penber's fiancée.'

'Oh, her,' said Light, and smiled slightly. 'I tricked her into telling me her real name by pretending I was a member of the Task Force, and had her commit suicide in a way that didn't inconvenience anyone and such that her body would not be found.'

'She would not have trusted you so easily at that,' said Lawliet.

Light turned his gaze upwards, lightless eyes reflecting the absence of moon and stars above them. 'She said that I reminded her of you, L.' He glanced at Lawliet again, and his eyes were gray and limpid. 'She felt that we were similar, and that was why she felt she could trust me.'

It was Lawliet who looked away, hair obscuring his eyes, thumb raising to his lips and lingering there. 'We're that similar, huh?'

'You must have noticed how it unnerved the rest of the Task Force,' said Light, turning more fully toward him. 'You've even noted it yourself.'

'Yes,' agreed Lawliet, the lower half of his face all that was visible, thumb brushing over his lip. He seemed to shrink in on himself, slightly. 'But that's different from hearing that it was because Naomi Misori trusted me that you were able to kill her.'

Light's lips curled. 'Don't act so surprised, L. I used our similarities to kill a lot of people.' His eyes were glinting, even in the darkness. 'I pretended to be you for five years, after all.'

'Yes,' agreed Lawliet, softly, face still obscured and shoulders still hunched as if bearing some great weight.

'Still don't hate me?' asked Light, and laughed, wry.

Lawliet's thumb slowly lowered from his lips, and his voice was subdued. 'If I hated Kira, I'd also have to hate myself.'

'And don't you?' asked Light.

Lawliet met his gaze, then, and held it. His eyes were dark, wide, unflinching. 'No, I don't.'

Light's lips pulled apart, splitting further as he lowered his chin, hair falling over glinting eyes but doing nothing to hide the glint of teeth. 'Finally, L, your true feelings come to light.'

'That was a terrible pun,' said Lawliet, both hands resting casually in his pockets and posture returned more to languid than burdened.

'And that was a terrible attempt at derailing the conversation,' said Light, looking up through his hair with a triumphant curl of his lips. 'It must be difficult to admit that you're as unscrupulous as I am. That our similarities don't stop at your potential to have traveled a similar path.' He grinned, then, and his eyes were alight. 'Though I must admit you had an even more cunning way of hiding it.'

Light's expression became slier, his voice more insinuating. 'Perhaps it wasn't you who ended up in the same place as me, then, L, but I who ended up in the same place as you.'

'Well,' said Lawliet, and looked upwards at the where the moon would likely have been, had they still been alive, 'I did get here first.'