A/N: Sorry it took me so long to update, I got side-tracked with other things until I completely forgot I even had this story. Thankfully a friend of mine who shall remain unnamed reintroduced it to me and I couldn't help but pick it back up. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! :)
It was early morning, perhaps a little after 7 am, and Light had just stirred, his slender body twitching slightly as it was brought out of a long slumber. It had been nearly a week since Ryuzaki's seemingly heartfelt confession and things had become, well, awkward between the two men. Light was confused as to the the motive behind the detective's sudden declaration of emotion; Was Ryuzaki being sincere? Or was this just another ploy to reel the vulnerable teen in just so that he could be humiliated once more? He was unsure, and it would be illogical for him to make a decision without further evidence supporting the former rather than the latter.
Ryuzaki, however, felt the tension for very different reasons. Essentially he had made the only emotionally evocative statement of his lifetime, and as opposed to having it met with a mutual fondness, it was merely pushed aside and ignored, as though he had never said it in the first place. The detective was now in an equally uncomfortable spot, somewhere between shame and frustration. The nervous calm enveloping the luxury apartment had become the quiet before the storm, and sooner or later the hurricane would have to roll in.
"Six." Ryuzaki stated offhandedly, hunched over as he blatantly watched Light change out of his pajamas, apathetic to the fact that it bothered the teen. Light childishly rolled his eyes and stopped midway through putting on his sweater, his arms in the sleeves but his torso still bare. Ryuzaki always loved riddles, especially since he was much better at solving them than virtually anyone around, he bathed in the feelings of superiority...
Light wasn't about to give up without a fight though, he continued to think hard, cutely chewing on his bottom lip until he finally came to a conclusion: Ryuzaki had made a new development in the Kira case. His eyebrows raised and his eyes had widened, overcome with sudden excitement, "You've narrowed it down to six candidates?" A small smile began to tug at the corner of his lips until the detective had came down on him with a harsh, unforgiving "No."
Light winced slightly after being brought up only to be let down so quickly, shifting his weight between his feet he finally asked "Fine, then what is it? Six what?" Curiosity often got the best of the young genius. The detective merely deadpanned though, examining his fingernails as he calmly answered, "Oh, it's nothing. I was just counting your ribs. I can six of them from here."
It was then that the teen noticed that he hadn't pulled his sweater over his head yet and did so immediately, shielding himself with fabric from Ryuzaki's scrutinizing eye. He wasn't sure whether he should be ecstatic or disappointed, up until this point he had thought it was repulsive when another person's rib cage was visible through his skin. If anything it meant that the individual was malnourished, generally due to disease or poverty, two things Light had never associated with attractiveness. However, if the detective was noticing that Light's ribs were showing then perhaps that meant his efforts were finally paying off, that he was no longer and blimp and was thin again, once more a valuable member of society.
Hm, this was all very interesting, especially considering the fact that Light didn't feel much thinner. Even as he lifted up his pants easily and buttoned them without thought, he could still feel that his thighs were too plump, almost touching even, and that his ass was too flabby. His arms seemed to lack definition and his middle was far too pudgy... none of this added up, that is until suddenly an idea had dawned on to him, Ryuzaki must be lying. How had this not occurred to him earlier? How could a supposed genius be so stupid? It was clear now that Ryuzaki had an elaborate plan to brainwash Light into believing that he was too thin so that he could become even more obese, ultimately becoming weak and vulnerable so that the detective could force him into a confession, ultimately ruining all the young man had worked for as he would be both fat and outed as Kira. What a conniving bastard!
Still, Light wouldn't let Ryuzaki know that he was on to him. Instead he would shrug and head toward the kitchen as if nothing was unusual. He would prepare himself a cup of coffee and read the daily newspaper, smiling to himself as he now had his own little secret.
Just as planned, Light took a seat at the table next to Ryuzaki, sipping his untainted black coffee as he flipped through black and white pages of the local newspaper, not finding anything of interest. Ryuzaki stuffed his face was a variety of sweets as per usual, a few donuts here, some strawberry shortcake there, a handful of sugar laden strawberries... Light couldn't help but be somewhat envious of the fact that the older man could fill himself with the most fattening of foods and still maintain such a slight frame. As much as he was becoming accustomed to eating very little, the teen still felt constant urges to eat, craving virtually anything that would fill the ever-growing void in his stomach. The boy calmed himself though, attempting to lose sight of reality in the uninteresting newspaper until he suddenly felt the rounded edge of a small ceramic plate being pushed into his forearm.
He abruptly put the paper down and raised an eyebrow quizzically at Ryuzaki, not even having to ask what the man was doing as his facial expression was enough of a question. "Eat." the dark haired man urged, continuing to push a seemingly harmless plain bagel into Light's slender arm, as if the food itself was convincing enough. The brunette simply grinned with his lips shut tightly, a smug expression beginning to settle as he lowered his head and looked over at Ryuzaki, responding rather casually, "Thank you but I'm not hungry." Oh this was such a fun game to play, there was nothing Light enjoyed more than watching the detective beg.
It was clear that Ryuzaki wasn't amused as he countered both sharply and condescendingly, "Don't lie to me, Light-kun. Not only do I know that you're Kira, but I also know that you haven't eaten in approximately 36 hours, so it is obvious that you are hungry." Suddenly Light's demeanor had changed, as opposed to appearing complacent and poised he looked as though he was a fourteen year-old girl whose diary had just been stolen by a pesky younger sibling. "First of all, I am not Kira. Secondly, I had a spoonful of your lemon-cake before I went to sleep last night so perhaps you should make an attempt at being more precise with your calculations."
Ryuzaki deadpanned, refusing to allow Light to get a rise out of him. Instead he responded even more coolly than before, chomping on a slice of cake as he spoke only to amplify his apathy, "My apologies Light-chan, what I meant to say is that it has been approximately 36 hours since you've consumed anything that even resembles a meal." He then finished his cake and put his fork down in the center of the plate, eliminating all distractions as he stared at the boy, waiting to see what he had to say now.
Light didn't take long to come up with a response though, in fact he almost instantly retorted, "Please enlighten me on what you would consider a real meal, Ryuzaki. I'm very interested in the highly-esteemed opinions of man who nourishes himself with a diet based entirely on cakes and candies." However, as opposed to feeling corned Ryuzaki sighed and simply looked unimpressed, he barely took a moment before he began to lecture calmly, "Well, you see Light, the key word in your answer was 'nourish'. A word, which I thought you were familiar with, that means to sustain oneself with food or nutrients. I sustain myself with sugar, or glucose, which is what the human brain requires to function. You, in contrast, make the decision to not eat anything, therefore depriving your body of any nutrients, disallowing your brain to have the fuel it requires to function, finally causing it to short-circuit so that you come up with pathetic excuses and lose in arguments such as this one."
The teen's eyes widened in disbelief, how was it that Ryuzaki always managed to tie Light up in his own arguments? It just wasn't fair that the detective had to win all the time. Even when the brunette was sure he had the man in a corner, he would always turn the tables and ultimately come out on top. I was just so... frustrating. He sighed, looking down at the bagel which was still in front of him, lonely in the center of a white ceramic plate. Light scoffed at it, lifting his nose and looking away from the baked good. Even if Ryuzaki had a valid point, he still couldn't force the boy to eat anything. He began to grin again, realizing that he had the power in this relationship, he had all of the control. "I'm still not hungry."
Ryuzaki was obviously still irritated by the way the conversation earlier and he refused to acquiesce into Light's childish behavior. The boy was obviously still oblivious to the fact that he wasn't fat anymore, not that he was even fat to begin with, and the detective felt responsible to at least provide the teen with some clarity. Therefore, as the two were seated side-by-side on the living room couch, each typing away on his respective laptop, there was suddenly a polite knock on the door. Ryuzaki responded instantly, without never removing his eyes from the screen of his laptop, "Come in."
Quickly Watari had entered the room, placing two large covered plates on the coffee table before exiting just as quickly as he had entered. Ryuzaki still remained concentrated on his work but Light couldn't help but the think that he had just witnessed something that was nothing short of bizarre. He waited for the detective to react, but there was nothing, it was almost as if the old man had never waltzed into the room in the first place. A few minutes had passed in silence until suddenly the boy couldn't take it anymore, turning toward Ryuzaki he inquired, "What's on those plates?" The detective shrugged, still not breaking eye contact with the computer screen as he retorted, "Why don't you find out for yourself?"
Light shrugged as well, it couldn't hurt. Thus he closed his laptop and placed it on the floor beneath him before bending forward, lifting the cover from each of the plates. The teen dropped the tin covers on the floor almost immediately and scrunched his nose in disgust; what sick purpose could Ryuzaki possibly have for these two items? On one plate there was a large serving of chicken teriyaki on top of a generous mound of white rice and on the other was a scale. "What type of stunt are you attempting to pull?" Light questioned assertively, less than amused.
The detective then closed his laptop and placed it beside Light's, now giving the teen his full attention as he ignored his last inquiry and threw his own question at the boy instead, "Were you overweight growing up, Light-kun? Or do you just perceive yourself as such now?" He then folded his hands in his lap and cocked his head to the side, a mannerism which Light wasn't sure if he found cute or creepy. Surprisingly though, as opposed to being his normally defiant self Light was unusually direct with his answer, almost as if he was shocked the question had been posed in the first place, "Light Yagami? An overweight kid? Please, up until the point that I was chained to you, I had the perfect body."
Ryuzaki nodded in casual agreement, stifling any reaction as he proceeded with his questions; it was always so fun to corner Light, especially when the teen didn't see it coming. "Hm, is that so?" he began before continuing, "And you were 130 lbs upon arrival, correct?" Light furrowed his eyebrows, obviously the man was up to something, but as opposed to taking on the impossible task of deciphering what Ryuzaki was thinking he simply nodded and responded curiously, "Yes... and your point is?"
"My point is that..." Ryuzaki began, adjusting himself so that he could come closer to Light as he spoke, "that I have a proposition to make. If you step on this scale and the number displayed is below 130, then you have to eat this meal Watari has so kindly prepared for you." Immediately the good looking teen's jaw dropped, but before he could say anything in response Ryuzaki lifted a slender finger to his lips and silenced him, explaining carefully, "I know, I know. Why should you bother? Oh my little Light-kun, you are too predictable." The brunette pouted and folded his arms, allowing Ryuzaki to finish considering the man did just successfully read his mind. "And if I'm wrong I will never harass you about food or your weight again. Deal?"
Light pressed his lips together tightly, shutting his eyes in concentration as he evaluated the current situation; this whole deal was far too good to be true. Obviously he wasn't under 130 pounds, he still felt like a complete blimp and that there was no conceivable way that he had weighed less than he did a few months ago. It was simply impossible. Still, there was the possibility that Ryuzaki had tampered with the scale just so that he could prolong Light's torture, forcing him to eat the meal and gain even more weight. Hm, but that was an obstacle which could be easily avoided, he would just simply ask for Ryuzaki to weigh himself first. Perfect. Thus, Light cleared his voice before speaking rather calmly to the other man, "I'll follow through with your request, but under one condition— you have to weigh yourself first."
The raven haired man began to smirk, disrobing rather confidently as his blue jeans were now around his ankles and his white tee shirt had been quickly abandoned, now resting on the couch. Wearing only a pair of boxer-briefs and standing in all of his pale, slender glory Ryuzaki placed the scale just below him and now prepared to step on it, "I'm merely hoping I weigh more than 130 pounds just to quell your insatiable paranoia." He then got on top of the scale with ease and stood still for a few moments as Light lurked over his shoulder, waiting impatiently for the numbers to appear. "Would you look at that," Ryuzaki began, pointing toward the numbers displayed just above his toes, "131."
The teen could feel a lump begin to form in his throat, as confident as he was in the fact that he was larger than Ryuzaki, he knew for sure now that the scale wasn't fake and it had been quite some time since he had the pleasure of stepping on one. Rather slowly he peeled off his sweater, revealing his unusually thin torso before painfully removing his pants as well, letting them sink to the floor as his scrawny legs slipped out of them. He then crossed his arms over his abdomen, a sad attempt to cover himself as he approached the scale, goosebumps popping up as his nude body was suddenly so cold in the large room. Playfully Ryuzaki grabbed his hips and pushed him toward the scale, "Oh Light-kun, you have nothing to worry about."
Much like pulling off a band-aid, Light quickly hopped on, looking toward the ceiling as he was afraid to see what would appear before him: which would be worse, having to eat that whole plate of food as well as his words or weighing over 130 lbs? He swallowed before looking down and what he read sent him into state of total disbelief. "126?" he repeated out loud, turning toward Ryuzaki for affirmation but noticing instead that he looked awfully smug, almost as though he knew this was exactly how everything would play out. Light frowned, noticing once more the steaming plate of fattening food that was still waiting for him on the coffee table. This was so unfortunate.
Ryuzaki still seemed awfully pleased, redressing himself as he once again took a seat on the couch, watching on as Light scrambled for his clothes before cowering away from the plate of food. It was then that his expression changed, as opposed to being content, the detective appeared disappointed, most likely because he expected Light to have a realization of his dwindling size, not because of the boy having the realization that he would have to eat some chicken. He sighed, reaching for Light and motioning for the teen to sit next to him on the sofa; he had to get the bottom of this. "Do you understand now why I'm always urging you to eat?" Ryuzaki asked directly, placing a hand innocently on the boy's knee. Light looked away though, unable to respond, nothing was making sense anymore.
The raven haired man waited for a few moments before continuing, "It's obvious that you're losing a lot weight, but for some unknown reason you're also under the impression that you're grossly overweight. Now— " But before Ryuzaki could continue he was interrupted by Light's quiet, trembling voice, "Some unknown reason?"
"Some unknown reason?" the teen repeated, this time louder and with a steadier voice. He was in disbelief that this man could possibly believe that his rapidly declining self-esteem was completely unfounded in any evidence, as thought it appeared out of thin air... This man was a detective for Christ sake! "How about the countless times you've implied I was fat, accused me of gaining weight, ridiculed my body, humiliated me and made me feel absolutely repulsive? Now I can't even feel comfortable being looked at or even touched by another human being and the moment I actually start listening to you and your god damned advice, you have a problem with it? I don't care anymore, I'm going to do what I have to do to feel good about myself again, to feel strong and attractive the way I used to be and I'm not going to let your mind games fuck me with me any longer. You really have a knack for takings things too far, Ryuzaki."
The teen then began to stand before Ryuzaki grabbed his wrist forcefully and pulled him back down and into his lap, staring into his eyes as he spoke firmly, "I apologize about what I may have said in the past, but I can't allow you to do this to yourself. You're behaving like a mindless child and I know that you're capable of so much more than this. Frankly, it's hard for me to understand how a person such as yourself can so blatantly disregard reality and push it aside as if it doesn't exist." Light took a sharp inhale, tilting his head back slightly to stop the tears from running down his cheeks, but alas his efforts were useless as the salty droplets ultimately rolled downward, streaking his face and dripping off of his chin. Ryuzaki looked at the boy sympathetically, opening his arms so that he could enter his embrace, his hand lightly patting Light's upper back in an attempt to calm him down. When the handsome brunette had finally stopped sniveling, the detective held him even closer before leaning into his ear and whispering, "I still expect you to eat that."
A/N: Wow, that got a lot heavier at the end then I expected. Please make some suggestions for the direction of the story, I'm not entirely sure where to take it yet. Thanks for reading!