It had been raining steadily for the past two days, limiting the amount of contact Light had with the outside. The forests that surrounded the compound attracted vicious rainstorms that lasted for days on end, it drove Light near insanity. He never could stand the rain, it brought forth mud and dirt, messing the landscape with disorder and stains of dirt. The constant pounding against the windows gave him a dull, lingering headache that no amount of beer or painkillers could numb completely. He could endure this though, it was only because Light had come to enjoy jogging along the paths around the forests that it bothered him so much, for the first time in his life he felt something other than revulsion at being in the open landscape. Yet with the pouring rain refusing to yield for even an hour he was stuck inside feeling groggy and cotton headed.
"Is this normal?" Light gestured towards the window. It had been three days since Light had come to know that he was being played like a fool. He had suppressed his anger then, finishing dinner with a plastic smile hoping Aiber didn't notice he had caught on to every little slip he had made in the past week. But Light wasn't going to kid himself, he knew Aiber knew that he knew that everything was off. After Light's outburst, he had tried to subtly back pedal his way through the conversation. Conceding that Aiber's story was plausible but not convincing. Aiber had continued speaking with his same flamboyance, energetically speaking of his time in Luxembourg.
Light had nodded and tried his best to change the subject without rousing any suspicion. He was sure he had failed, he could see the gleam in Aiber's eyes as he had left the room. He could no longer tell if that look was drunk curiosity or paranoia. The ambiguity made Light's skin raise.
They had spoken frequently in those three days, Light made sure to steer away from Aiber's anecdotes in that time, when he could get away with it. He had kept a mental checklist of all the inconsistencies that Aiber had let slip and it was only growing the more he spoke to the man. Light was still trying to piece together any truths in his stories. He could tell that Aiber wasn't too concerned with sticking to one story, the man had only kept basic themes within each tale. Someone was after him in a foreign country far from here that kept him at bay. It was Aiber's lame attempts at explaining why he was hiding in the middle of nowhere with a sum of cash and some robots sitting in the dweller.
Light had also ogled at a map for a minute or two, trying to path a route from Sweden to Luxembourg. It didn't make sense why Aiber would throw out all these different countries, these new dangers that didn't mix in with his past endeavors. Where was this Swedish mafia? Where were the drug dealers in Luxembourg? Aiber was a smart man, he wouldn't be this stupid, would he? Every time Light tried to explain the inconsistencies he always had the faint suspicion that they were planned, planted there to fuck with him.
If he was really trying to keep up some facade then Light was sure he would have memorized a backstory and stuck to it, not keep slipping up and changing the details every ten seconds. Was he really going to keep acting like a mindless drunk?
"It's always been like that. It rains for a few weeks and then it's nothing but sun." Aiber answered passively, gazing into a tablet flipping through some benign online news source. Light couldn't tell the aim of the current article he was reading but it had something to do with the UK.
He lazily stirred his oatmeal, looking out at the rain again. "Is the storm going to get any worse? I don't think I can stay inside much longer, I need some air." Aiber laughed and waved his hand.
"If it means so much to your sanity, kid, just go out there, a little rain won't kill ya." Light scoffed, crossing his arms and turning back to his breakfast, which sat cold and unappetizing in front of him. "I'd rather not catch my death out there."
"I can assure you that a cold will not cause your death, get that stick out of your ass and go do something productive. Why not test my firewalls, actually, that is why you're officially here, ain't it?" Light shrugged, standing and placing his bowl into the sink, giving an apologetic smile to Wedy as she cleaned the pans in front of her. She didn't seem to notice him at all, waving nonchalantly as he left, he excused himself and made his way to L's room.
If Light was going to be honest he wouldn't call it a room but a cell. He still couldn't get over the fact that the poor thing was caged like an animal, no matter how much basis Aiber had for these precautions. Poking his head after a few rhythmic knocks, Light swung the door open and stepped inside. L seemed to be in a state of meditation, legs crossed as he sat in the middle of the room. The lights were dimmed and the green glow from the window gave the room a calming, tranquil feel. Perfect conditions for solidic meditation.
"Enjoying your morning?" L opened his eyes, gazing up as the man entered the room. He hummed his agreement and went back to concentrating on who knows what. Did robots need to meditate? Light had never been one for 'finding inner peace', he always found it to be a new age way of wasting time. He wondered if L felt stress, it would explain the meditation.
"How are you?" L hummed once again, giving Light no real answer.
"That's not exactly what I was looking for." Light said, seating himself in his usual spot, setting his cup down and relaxing into his seat. L sighed heavily, opening his eyes and pulling his legs forwards against his chest. He had begun wearing a grey sweatshirt and some jeans, claiming they made him feel more human. The fabric moved with the artificial muscles, creating the illusion of real muscles underneath.
"I am doing fine, as for yourself?" Light smiled, that was better.
"I can gladly say the same, it's raining though, a huge storm is supposed to be in the forecast which is disappointing because I wanted to spend some time jogging." L seemed to ponder this, biting his lip before speaking.
"You are telling the truth, but you have told me you dislike the outdoors." Light nodded, remembering the conversation and sighing. "Yeah, I've started to go jogging, it helps me clear my head. I get a little stuffy in the mind if I'm stuck inside for too long."
L smiled that one sided unusual smile. "So you know how I feel then."
Light frowned at this, shaking his head and gazing up apologetically. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to phrase it like that. I should've thought before I spoke, I'm sorry." This wiped the smile from L's face, he also looked up.
"You do not need to make excuses, I am not dull, I understand that we are not in equal standing, you have more freedom than me because you have what I lack."
"A human body?"
"No, a sense of humanity."
Silence dragged on for a few moments, Light staring forward but trying to avoid eye contact. He wasn't sure why L doubted his moral compass? From the interviews it seemed that L had a fully functioning empathy system. He commonly sympathized with the disasters that wrought humanity, lamenting the cruelty of famous serial killers and leaders. Even when L seemed to excuse the actions of those who supported the death penalty and murders taking place in prisons of gangs, Light still felt that this didn't inhibit L's moral compass. L seemed to have a complex moral standing that mimicked a real person to a T.
"Why do you think you don't have a sense of humanity?" Light retorted, finally making eye contact, seeing nothing in the android's eyes.
"Because how can I understand what I have never experienced?" Light lunged at this, answering without thinking it through.
"Easily! I can understand another person's pain without ever going through it! Of course you can understand and feel humanity without ever going through it. I understand the pain of giving birth even though I will never experience it, does that make sense?" L nodded at this, obviously not convinced but willing to listen.
"That is not the same though, you understand that the logic is flawed, correct? I cannot have humanity as I am not human. You do not understand the thought process of an animal because you are not one, as I am not human I cannot understand the sense of compassion latent to humans." Light scoffed at this before taking ahold of his cup of coffee and upending it onto this lap in a swift motion. The burning liquid immediately soaked through his pants and burned his thighs, but he got the reaction from L that he wanted. The AI immediately gasped, standing up and fumbling with his hands unsure of what to do.
"You foolish human, what the hell are you doing!?" L yelled, the blue hue under his eyes bright and icy. Light smirked, wincing at the burning on his legs.
"You see! You're concerned, you know I'm in pain so you're worried! You feel the same compassion that any other human does!" Light let out a quick laugh that ended in a low hiss as he stood, trying to get the soaked fabric off his skin. In hindsight that may not have been his best idea, but it had worked.
And with that brilliant point made, Light exited the room leaving L to wonder why he agreed to be interviewed at all.