This one is a bit poor and a bit weird, so I'm sorry for that. But this morsel should tide you over until next time.
"Ryuzaki, hand me that bag of sugar will you?" said Light, adjusting the weighing scales so that the dial pointed to zero. "We need to weigh it out." Light straightened and tugged the strings of his apron looser around his waist.
They were in the expansive and gleaming kitchen (one of many) of L's residency; utensils and ingredients were cluttering the counter-tops as if someone had simply overturned and emptied the contents of all the drawers all at once. And that was because someone had.
That someone had black hair. And a tendency to act childish when planted in a situation they didn't want to be in.
"Ryuzaki?" Light turned, waiting. L paused, a handful of sugar sifting between his fingers, its progress suddenly halting on its one-way journey to his mouth.
"Oh, for heaven's sake." Light snapped at him, "Gimme it." And he snatched the bag from L's two-fingered grip before any more could disappear. L wilted, looking grumpy.
"Light-kun's mean when he cooks," Ryuzaki snapped gloomily, "Another trait that I'm sure he shares with Kira..."
Light glowered at him. "I'm only being mean because you keep eating the ingredients. We haven't even started baking yet."
"Only the sugar."
"And the strawberries. And the caramel." Light reminded him sternly, rolling his eyes. (He'd moved the caramel curls back to the fridge - he'd had to hide the strawberries). He measured out the dry ingredients, mixed them and then moved onto locating the other missing recipe items. They were probably buried under the mess of measuring spoons, tins and saucepans.
Ah, cake tins...
Light found them and put Ryuzaki to work, handing him the butter and greaseproof paper. He couldn't move too far away from him because of the blasted infernal chain, but he eventually found everything he was looking for. He glanced back at Ryuzaki; thick chunks of butter were clinging to each finger as he clumsily spread paper within the tins. He wasn't wearing an apron, nor did he seem concerned with protecting his clothes from getting mucky - Light however, knew how much his shirt cost and wasn't intent on losing it to strawberry juices or melted butter.
Ryuzaki's attitude to Light was bothering him. He'd been like it since yesterday but Light still couldn't figure out what he'd done wrong. Though it wasn't all bad...It was amusing to watch him pout.
"Done, Light-kun." Ryuzaki announced, butter smeared all over his palms. Light looked at the cake tins, haphazardly stuffed with greaseproof paper. L hadn't used scissors, he'd just ripped everything.
"O..kay. Just please wash your hands. Alright, oven's pre-heated...That's done, and that. I just need to whisk the mixture and then that can go in... And then I'll do the syrup." And before Ryuzaki could open his mouth to ask, he added "Not that kind of syrup, Ryuzaki."
L scowled. Light ignored him and plugged in an electric whisk. He had to whisk the mixture until it was well aerated; it had to be extremely light, and thick. Lots of bubbles. Light could do lots of bubbles. Easy.
After half an hour of furious whisking, murmured, muttered and shouted inflections of various curses and still no bubbles, Light began to see pretty white lights fluttering about his vision.
"Damn. It. All." he said witheringly. The whisk flung venomously from his grip; Light dropped it onto the counter as if it were a poisonous spider.
And the next ten minutes were spent swearing.
Watching Light-kun work was fascinating. For such an intelligent and innovative seventeen year old boy, with such highly impressive deducting skills for an individual of his age, he was positively terrible at baking. He had absolutely no clue. That much was clear. Obviously the idea that witnessing his own mother bake gave him enough skill to do it himself was wilting just ever so slightly. And Light-kun seemed to know it himself; he was constantly frowning, muttering under his breath as he adjusted the scales, cursing the creamy mixture that just wasn't mixing well enough to his standards. Light-kun had a small crinkle blemishing his forehead that furrowed between his brow, creasing his sunny skin, and it niggled at L. Niggled relentlessly. He wanted to press a fingertip to the spot and smooth it out again. But L kept his hands to himself, and kept his distance. L wasn't taking any chances. He lended a clumsy helping hand when needed, but otherwise he let Light work... If that was an appropriate word for what he was doing. It was terribly fascinating. Light-kun was bad at something. Really bad. And it was a vulnerability, a weakness that L just craved to prod and push over the edge. Just to see what happened...
"Right." Light-kun sounded considerably exhausted. "I think that's the best I can do, it's not going to change its consistency no matter how fiercely I threaten it. This is as good as it's going to get." It sounded like a question. Light-kun raised his caramel head to look at L for some kind of confirmation. L nodded in what was hopefully an encouraging manner. He wasn't entirely sure what Light had just said, but thankfully he apparently looked like he was paying rapt attention. L was paying rapt attention to Light-kun but not to his speech - it was to that annoying little fissure, winking out of Light's forehead. Also slightly distracting; tufts of Light-kun's hair were stuck to his skin from where he'd perspired (probably from the effort of beating a slop together in the vain hope that it would soon resemble cake after being heated at one hundred and eighty degrees Celsius). It was distracting because Light-kun was usually somewhat infatuated with perfecting his honeyed tresses, but now the mess of keratin on his head was anything but perfect. And L found he liked that a little too much to be appropriate.
"Ryuzaki!"
L jumped. Light was glaring at him from the open door of the fridge, his hand lost in the snowy lights within. L looked down and realized he already had two fingers in the cake mixture. Ah. L blanched guiltily but nevertheless stole his fingers away and sucked the sweet moisture from his skin. His eyes widened in surprise. It tasted good. Surprisingly good.
"If you do that again, I'll chop those fingers off." Light-kun jabbed a butter knife in his direction and then whisked the mixing bowl away to stand for five minutes. "No touching."
"Threatening a detective, Light-kun? Interesting." L did his best to scowl whilst licking his fingers. He sort of managed it. Hopefully.
"Shut up."
"A criminal offense you kn-"
"-Ryuzaki."
"92%."
Light shot daggers at L. L suspected that if he had a physical one, he probably would have thrown that as well.
"Keep talking and I will be a criminal." Light-kun growled, brandishing the butter knife once more.
Light-kun was busy doing something at the cooker involving a saucepan. L didn't ask questions. L didn't need any answered. But the important thing was that he was busy, and the mixture hadn't yet gone in the oven. It was probably L's last chance to strike. He didn't know why he was feeling so desperate to have another taste - it hadn't tasted that good. Nothing on the cocoa-vanilla bears from Watari yesterday. But perhaps it was simply because Light-kun had put it together himself. It was all him. In those cake tins. L felt like squirming as soon as that thought entered his head and so he shook it straight out again. Thankfully Light didn't peer around to see L shaking his head like a dog trying to rid his body of water. That was good. He was still busy. Something with that saucepan. Steam. Water vapour rising in delicate whirls above the metal casing, making Light-kun look mystical. L carefully inched backwards. The difficult thing was keeping his manacled hand still so the chain didn't dance and pull Light-kun's wrist with it. Another tiny step. Almost there...
Success! Two fat cake tins, bursting with pools of creamy-white. L suppressed a grin and quickly whipped a finger paler than the cream into the cool depths. He made sure it was a big scoop, and then started nonchalantly back to his previous position, his finger to his mouth as he did so.
But Light was sneakier than L had expected. He flung himself around to face L and snatched his wrist before the raw cake could disappear past his lips. L's mouth was already open to eat. Light's grip was a vice. Part of L was thinking that if Light had been able, he'd probably be spitting venom.
"Don't. You. Dare."
L paused, his mouth gaping, his eyes moved from his dripping index to Light-kun's blazing eyes. Eyes that were expressing just how much injury L would experience if he proceeded with his current course of action.
"If you even think about it..." You're dead. L heard the whisper even though Light-kun didn't say it aloud. He glanced to his hand again, back to Light. He'd already made his decision. Bring it.
L jerked his head forward, mouth already closing to seal the deal but Light had instead yanked L's arm away from him. And L's index vanished into Light's mouth. L started entirely at the sudden warmth and wet. Light-kun's eyes locked with his, the epitome of smug spreading over his features as his cheeks pulled in, sucking the flavour from L's skin. L's eyes widened and he suddenly made a noise similar to a whimper; he felt Light's tongue brush against his finger. Horridly he felt the pallor in his cheeks glow red. He felt the blush shiver up from his stomach lining all the way to the bridge of his nose, it burned over his cheeks and horrified L to the extent that he screamed curses in his head. Something he hadn't done in a long while. It wasn't productive.
And unfortunately, Light-kun noticed. He released L's finger from his tastebuds and stared, caught off guard. (Light had definitely not expected this reaction. He'd never even seen Ryuzaki blush before. And here it was; a blazing rouge, shining from cheekbone, over nose, to cheekbone. Light swore for an entirely different reason in his head). Light-kun was still holding L's wrist, so L gently but quickly pulled his hand back, his index still crooked over the rest of his fingers. Wet with Light's saliva. L was still blushing. It made him furious but he couldn't stop the heat from rising to his face. He couldn't erase the feeling of Light's tongue from his skin. He felt his heartbeat racing. He felt he'd just finished a very exhausting and close game of tennis. Felt the familiar ache in his arms. He felt a lot. And he wasn't sure about what to do about the wetness of his finger - did he wipe it on his shirt? Just leave it so Light-kun's DNA dried on him? Sink into his own skin...
"Uhh.." L had so many thoughts buzzing around his skull, he hadn't even noticed Light drawing closer. Even though their gazes were locked together intently. He was so close, L almost yelped again. "..It.. It needs a bit more..ah..vanilla." Light-kun's voice was unbearably soft. L almost begged him to speak up, to scowl at him again. To berate him - anything. He didn't like where this was heading! They were too close! Light's mouth... On his hand. L was much too hot... And they were much too close to be comfortable. But Light still inched forwards, barely aware he was moving himself. His head started to tilt down to L's beckoning blush... To meet L's hunched posture. L raised not a familiar thumb, but instead pressed a slightly sticky index to his lip. He could almost taste Li-
Static.
The world was flickering. Disappearing, and then re-materializing. Nothing was
the same
All
never. Don't
stop
Gentle. Gentle be gentle be gentle be gentle
Static.
The world was flickering. Disappearing, and then re-materializing. Nothing was
the same
All
never. Don't
stop
Gentle. Gentle be gentle be gentle be gentle
A whisper as loud as the roaring rush of a waterfall cascaded down the walls of L's mind. Please. Be gentle with me, but please
don't hesitate.
I'm sorry for the lateness and also shortness of this chapter - I am hoping to get a nice stodgy meal of a chapter out around Christmas/New Year that is Christmas/New Year themed so please look forward to that! Thank you for reading, as always & please review!
Let me know your thoughts.
(If you're confused, it'll clear up next time.) Ja ne!