I'm back, and here's chapter three! I was staying with a friend, and I wrote most of it on the train there and back, typing it up when I got home. Trains suck, by the way.

Thanks again for all the reviews/favourites/alerts; it warms my heart when I open my emails to see a whole load from you guys. I baked a cake today and you may all have a virtual slice.

Oh yeah, I'm supposed to be posting a story.

Allusions to sex are made in this chapter, again nothing too detailed, but read at your own risk. Slight dubious consent issues here, too… it's a bit of a grey area whether L says it's ok or not.

Anyway, read on, if you so wish.

Play the Game

The next morning, Light awoke with L in his arms. He chuckled – finally, he'd found something to make the man sleep.

Truly, Light had never intended to actually have sex with the detective, but having L writhe and shiver and make such dirty sounds because of him had been more of a turn-on than he had expected.

It was like a game: to see just how loudly and passionately he could get L to scream without freaking him out.

In fact, either L was a lot more attracted to Light than he had realised, or had had no previous experience, as he had been so lost in carnal pleasure that he had only protested once during the whole event, and even then Light had forced down the hands that were scratching painfully at him and swept L away once more with a few well-placed kisses and touches.

However, Light wasn't entirely sure L was a 'morning after' person, so he disentangled himself and turned to face the wall until the detective woke up.

He must have fallen asleep, because the next thing he knew he was being dragged out of bed by an absolutely furious – and fully clothed – L. L had the slack of the chain wrapped tightly around his wrist and was using it to pull Light out of the bed and onto the carpet. His face burned with rage and embarrassment as he realised Light was still naked, and he roughly threw a pair of boxers and some trousers at the younger man.

"Put those on. Now."

Light raised a challenging eyebrow. He knew it was stupid, but he couldn't resist goading L. "You have a problem with my body? Because you seemed fine last night…"

He'd expected the punch; even managed to dodge the brunt of it. What he hadn't expected was for L to turn away and smack his own head into the wall. Repeatedly.

"What – why do you keep hurting yourself?! Stop it, you idiot! Do you want to destroy one of the world's finest minds by dashing your brains out against a wall?"

L turned to look darkly at Light. "Get dressed," he spat. "Then you're going to come with me to the kitchen and get breakfast. And then we are going to continue the investigation and never speak of this again."

This time, Light wisely chose to keep his thoughts to himself.

-x-

Light was surprised to see Watari waiting for them, sat on a chair with a tray of cakes and tea in front of him. The man did not look happy.

Of course, Light realised. The cameras. Did you watch, you pervert? Did you get off on it?

As soon as they came in, Watari went over to L, putting his arm protectively around the man's shoulders and leaning in to speak quietly and hurriedly in English. Light was fairly competent in the language, but he could barely make out what was being said. From the tone, though, he could discern that Watari was likely warning the detective.

"I'm fine, Watari," L snapped. "Just fine. Please do not trouble yourself."

Switching back to Japanese, Watari turned to Light, his fake smile laced with malice. "Very well. I shall leave you two to your meal. Remember that I am only in the observation room, should you need me."

Should you try anything, you mean.

-x-

The rest of the day had been tense and awkward. L's hair hadn't quite covered the purple bruise across his forehead, and Light's cheek had swollen considerably, so the team had assumed that the two must have fought again.

L had thrown himself into the investigation, coming up with theories at the speed of sound. But his every action seemed forced, filled with tension, which finally reached breaking point when Light bumped into the detective accidentally as they were walking across the room.

Light suddenly found himself on the ground, L staring down at him with a strange expression. Light wasn't sure if the detective was going to kill him or mercilessly pound him into the floor, team or no team.

But L just stood there until Light picked himself up.

In the evening, they were shadowed by Watari. Clearly, the man didn't trust Light to be left alone with the detective.

It was L who took offence, quietly informing Watari that he could perfectly well take care of himself, thank you, and that there was no need for some paternal bodyguard to follow him around all evening like he was a schoolgirl on a date.

Watari left, his face dark, shooting one last warning glare at Light as he closed the door behind him.

L turned to see Light looking at him with an amused expression, one eyebrow raised and a cocky smile playing across his face.

"Is there a particular reason you are grinning like that, Light, or are you just generally amused?"

Light's only response was to raise his eyebrow higher and fold his arms across his chest.

"If Light is insinuating that I dismissed Watari so hastily in order to continue with the… activities of last night, then he is quite mistaken. I can assure you that I have no intention of repeating such things."

Light slowly advanced as L spoke, the detective walking backwards until his back met the wall. With no obvious route of escape, Light pressed himself against L, his smile now predatory.

"If you could just take a step back, please, Light," L whispered, avoiding the younger man's smouldering gaze.

Light ignored him, instead lightly stroking L's cheek before kissing him, deep and forceful. L brought an arm up to hit Light, but there was little force behind the blow and Light easily caught it, twisting it round so that the detective's hand rested at his waist. L had already stopped resisting, his other hand entwined in auburn hair as Light carefully walked them to the bedroom.

The chain clanked as Light pushed the detective down on the bed, rousing L from his lust-induced stupor. He started to pull away again, struggling, but Light had removed most of their clothing by this point, and he knew exactly what to do to make L give in.

L's eyes widened and he arched back as Light took him into his mouth. "Maybe… uhn… maybe just this once… but it's… ah… it's not happening again…this is the… hah… the last time…"

He was wrong, of course.

-x-

It was like this for some time; during the day, L would concentrate only on the investigation, seemingly as determined to act as if nothing was happening between him and Light as he was to catch Higuchi. He would continue this pretence well into the night, until Light could wear his defences down enough to make L surrender and give in to the base part of himself he tried so hard to ignore. In the morning, L would silently extricate himself from Light's arms, and the charade would begin again.

But the detective was slipping.

Each day, L would give in just a little bit sooner, respond just a little bit more eagerly. He would sometimes stare at Light with such hungry intensity that even Matsuda got suspicious. And whilst L was still very much engrossed in the investigation, he seemed distracted, like he was worrying about something else.

He rarely accused Light of being Kira any more.

Light loved this, loved the power he had over L, loved the way the detective was completely at his mercy.

He loved it even more when his fingers brushed the notebook.

Suspense! Finally, this story lives up to the category I put it in.

It starts getting dark from here on. Next chapter will be up quicker; probably by Monday at the latest.

Thanks for reading! Reviews are loved.