Interlude

L stood frozen for a space of three seconds before reacting to the sudden kiss. Light had expected to be violently kicked across the room, but instead found the detective kissing him in return. This lasted for several long moments, before L pulled away, escaping Light's hold to wrap his own arms around himself a safe distance away.

"Light-kun…"

It took about three more seconds for it to occur to Light exactly what he had done, and he immediately backpedaled, holding up his hands and saying quickly, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-!"

"We… were friends?" L said, stopping Light almost mid-word, though it sounded more like a question. "Best friends…" Dark eyes lifted to focus on the panicking teenager's face, searching for answers in his expression. "I locked you up as Kira, but I had to let you out. There wasn't any evidence…" He took a step forward. "We fought, but you were my friend…" Touching the fingers of one hand to his lips, he asked quietly, "Is this something else that I do not remember?"

"No, no, I…!" Light tried to think of something to say, but drew a complete and utter blank. His mind locked as a lie tried to force itself past his lips, No, it doesn't mean anything, I'm just stressed, but was held back by the truth that he couldn't say either. Yes, it does. I love you. I fell in love with you and then all-but killed you. Forgive me…

"If it is not a missing piece of my memory…" L mused, biting on the tip of one finger, "Perhaps it is something that Light-kun didn't wish to tell me?"

Light sighed, defeated by L's profiling skills once again. He nodded sullenly, and the detective walked over. "Something terrible had to happen to cause you to admit something so personal. What was that last challenge?"

Light immediately sank to the floor, the nauseous feeling returning as he thought about what he had just gone through. L dropped down beside him, looking extremely confused. The brunet teen took a deep breath, trying to settle his stomach, and began to explain in a voice barely above a whisper what had happened to him.

It almost seemed to take longer to tell it than to experience it, and Light didn't realize that he was shaking again until L put a hand on his shoulder to still him. "It's okay, Light-kun. Don't say anymore. I understand."

Light's resolve broke, and he was just enough aware of himself to be embarrassed about the fact that he began crying like a child. L didn't say anything, just moved to embrace him. Light had been forced to face his own death, and surely there was no one on earth who could do such a thing without some sort of emotional or psychological impact on them. He wrapped his arms around the detective, tears still falling, and began muttering into his shirt almost inaudibly.

L leaned close to listen, and faintly heard the muffled voice saying, "…you and it's my fault you're like this I'm so sorry it's all my fault…" Light seemed to catch himself, the babble stopping, and L pretended that he hadn't heard anything. He wasn't sure what made this situation Light's fault, but now was not the time to find out, not when the teen was so obviously hurting.

Light finally looked up, his eyes wide, and said breathlessly, "I love you."

L opened his mouth to reply and hesitated. Light seemed to sense his shock, and explained quickly, "I don't know what the next challenge is going to be, and I had to tell you, because if I fail I'll never see you again…" He took a deep breath. "I love you, L."

"I believe you." L replied in a whisper, leaning his head on Light's. It was the best thing Light could have heard, because coming from L it meant so much more than simply repeating the sentiment back. L never believed anything that he said, from the moment the detective had met him. So for L to tell Light that he believed him… It was the deepest form of trust L could place in him.

"Thank you…" Light whispered back, reaching up and pulling the detective down to kiss him again. L yielded, kissing back warmly, and Light mentally smiled at the fact that even though their pretend 'relationship' from before had been forgotten, the time he had taken to teach L how to kiss hadn't been lost.

When he pulled away he felt inexplicably tired, the fatigue from all the challenges finally catching up to him. In the end, both the semi-reformed murderer and detective ended up asleep, just like they used to sleep before everything had gone wrong. L curled up against Light's side, and the teen was finally able to get a good night's sleep, for the first time since this nightmare had begun.

...Well.

This is an... embarrassingly short chapter. NaNoWriMo ate my writing muse and spit it back out in a mangled mess. (I didn't even win. 12,834 words. Dammit.) When my muse finally bothered to come back to life, it returned with a Kingdom Hearts idea and would not leave me alone about it. (I've been in Kingdom Hearts fangirl mode for months now. Since Days came out.) So this was the best that I could do in a NaNo-dead state. Next chapter will be much better, I promise, since there's only two challenges and a finale left. So I'm going to sincerely apologize for the general suck of this chapter and leave it at that. (I'll probably go work on that Kingdom Hearts thing. Ugh.)

HUGS!
Li