Ficlet Six: One Hundred
Author's Note: Well, it's another random fifty-sentence challenge! Surprise! (And YES, Kokoro-kun, I AM doing the story I promised you, namely the logical follow-up from 'Echo'—you can't do a meeting-Near story without doing Mello's side as well. And I'm doing Mello and Near's first meeting too.) But I felt like doing fifty more sentences, thus the chapter title.
Rant: Oh! Did I say? I got to go see the first Death Note live action movie when it made the rounds of the US last month. So…much…fun! I went with a couple of friends and spent an entertaining hour or so watching Kokoro dress up as L. Hilarious. Once you got past the whole dubbed live action film thing—advice: don't watch the mouths—it was great. Best line of the movie? Ryuk: "You're in deep sh(t, Light." If he said anything after that, no one noticed. The whole theater CRACKED UP. Myself included. Oh, and they got L perfectly. I ended up declaring "That man is ALL BRASS!" He even managed to redeem the very concept of potato chips. (Now they need to do Fullmetal Alchemist.)
Warning: Obvious but not obscene Matt/Mello and L/Raito slash. Also may contain references to Another Note.
Disclaimer: I own nobody. Nothing. I don't even own the idea of the fifty-sentence challenge.
ON WITH THE SHOW!
1: Incomprehensible: "L, child, is there a reason there are five billion sticky notes all over the house, or is this just one of those things that nobody else is meant to understand?"
2: Retaliation: "Hm?" L asked, looking up from his book only when Matt tugged on his sleeve and demanded to know whether or not he was going to interfere in the fight; "No, probably not, as there's no actual blood being shed—and Near appears to be giving as good as he gets."
3: Math: "E equals cm squared," corrected L whimsically, "because chaos times Matt times Mello produces an emergency."
4: Reversed: L didn't understand friendship, and Raito thought nothing of it, so although they were both lying, they were lying on the same wavelength, and that almost made it a twisted, broken truth.
5: Childish: "If anyone asks," Mello hissed frantically from under the bed, "we're not here, you haven't seen us, and there's no such thing as bubble bath or pools, ok, L?"
6: Consequences: "I suppose I should ask where you two found twenty gallons of bubble bath in the first place, but because not a single girl on campus is speaking to you, I don't think I need to, do I?"
7: Illusion: From time to time, Raito would almost believe the façades built up between them, and then, just out of the corner of his eye, Ryuzaki would flicker, and vanish, to be ever-so-briefly replaced by L, who stood forever removed, and the teen would be reminded that no matter what he did, it was L—not Ryuzaki—who was playing this game, and L was dangerous.
8: Collapse: Mello came back one day filthy, and quite possibly drunk, and emerged from the bathroom with his hair soaking wet, wearing one of Matt's enormous shirts and not much else, wanting only to be held as the effects wore off.
9: Feel: L never set great stock in emotion, but he would gamble everything on the strength of a feeling—his instincts convinced him of things that he had no logical proof for, and never played him wrong.
10: Raw: "Don't call me that, don't call me that, don't!" the new young L shrieked one day, and Roger fled the room, bemused, as L-who-had-been-Near wept at last for the man who had been parent and brother and beloved to him, and now was lost, and who he could never replace.
11: Afterthought: "L," Raito growled, stopping short, "you had better tell me that there are no cameras in this room!"
12: Authority: Matt watched his blond friend pace helplessly until he got sick of it, and in an uncommon flare of temper told him to stop it and calm down, or would he have to take matters into his own hands?
13: Truce: Whenever L showed up at Wammy's House, it was usually after the conclusion of an exhausting case, and Mello and Near wordlessly shelved their rivalry to sneak upstairs and join him in sleep; he never minded their presence.
14: Poison: Every word and touch of it was false, and they both knew it, but the kisses were sweeter still for that.
15: Reason: "Why?" Matt asked, touching the cross that hung around Mello's neck (because his hands were so close anyway); "To remember," Mello answered—"Remember what?" Matt asked, and Mello answered, "That I forget."
16: Hypocrisy: By day, he swore fervently that he would never manipulate the emotions of another for his own gain; by night he played at seducing L, only to discover, to his great surprise, that the little detective was two steps ahead of him in the same game.
17: Ice: Matt had died because of his loyalty to his lover, he knew; Mello because his grief had made him careless; L because fascination had stayed his hand; never me, Near swore silently, left behind and lonely, never me.
18: Copy: L hated mirrors; they reminded him of the days when the reflection stared back with its own malice, and didn't vanish when he turned away.
19: Always: "Like me?" the child asked innocently, taking his hand in friendship; "Love me?" the teenager asked teasingly, catching him in an affectionate embrace; "Want me?" the adult asked mockingly, smirking over his shoulder at him; yes, Matt answered freely, always.
20: Cheating: Kira dreamed, over and over again, that he was sitting at a table, playing poker with Mello, and Near, and another who was dealing the cards, and as he dreamed, he never remembered to look at the dealer, or realized that the man (who was he?) was stacking the deck against him…and time and again he awoke furious, the answer just evading him, all three faces lost.
21: Sense: "Don't be silly, L, give me that; you'll never get anything done holding it that way," Raito scolded him, snatching the brush from his companion's loose grip, and L's protest was cut off in a surprised but pleased purr.
22: Sugar: Matt and Mello snuck downstairs one night to raid the fridge, exerting every bit of stealth they could, and they still got caught—the fact that it was by L, who was doing the exact same thing, made it a bit irrelevant, though.
23: Sludge: "Ryuzaki," Raito said firmly as L balanced a spoon in the middle of his coffee and delightedly watched it stand on its own, supported by the former liquid, "that's disgusting."
24: Ruthless: It wasn't until a ten-year-old L fed the courts information that gave a man a death sentence that he realized that his guardian was somewhat afraid of him; he considered this as he considered all other information, and decided that it was not important.
25: Experience: "I find it extremely ironic," Raito smirked at L, "that you should be so innocent"—"I'm learning, Raito-kun," L replied breathlessly… "And I'm really, really not."
26: Woken: The first time the child woke from dreams into hysterics, Quillsh Wammy was fool enough to open the door abruptly, the light from the corridor assaulting the boy's eyes; the child shrieked all the louder and threw the first thing that came to hand.
27: Possible: I could shoot him, Mello thought furiously, closer to his rival than he had been in years, I could; No, you really can't, another voice pointed out logically, sounding an awful lot like L.
28: Far: The plan had always been to befriend L, but Raito took it a few steps further than Kira had ever expected or intended to go.
29: Awakening: They thought that every trace of their innocence had been lost, that they had long since been turned from children into weapons, but it was for the one they loved, so they did it willingly, and would have done so much more; and then he died, and they found that they had been far more protected than they thought.
30: Fan: There was a sound to the main room of headquarters at night—the few noises that penetrated from outside, the fan whirring steadily, the hum of computers, the irregular tap of computer keys, fabric against skin as Ryuzaki shifted—and Raito was all too familiar with it, as L regularly forgot that his companion needed sleep.
31: Puzzle: No one understands me, the child thought bitterly, curled into himself defensively, and if I have any power, no one ever will!
32: Interference: If the task force had just let them fight, there ironically would have been a lot fewer brawls.
33: Suicide: L worked himself to exhaustion, over and over again, and more than once collapsed in a dead faint from lack of sleep and proper nutrition; for a very long time, Watari believed that L would inadvertently kill himself before any enemy got near enough to do it.
34: Fear: "I've been ready to die since I had the oh-so-bright idea to blow up a building I was standing in, so, no, I guess I'm not afraid to do this…but Matt…I'm scared for you," Mello admitted, hiding his face in his lover's shoulder, and Matt held him close and hoped that things would go their way for once.
35: Obvious: The boy could have been wearing a shirt that said Kira, it was so clear; L found it infuriating that he was prevented from proving it at every turn, and that Kira himself seemed unaware of it.
36: Secret: "No one can get into the Lair except L; he's done something clever to it," Mello glumly told a newcomer who'd tried to open That Door and failed, "but go ahead and try—everyone else has."
37: Persistent: Meeting his enemy's eyes with a smile, Kira was suddenly struck with the absolute conviction that he knows! and he was walking into an intricate trap; the feeling did not die with L.
38: Futile: No matter what you do, Kira, I remain Justice, and you are nothing but Destruction; kill me, and my children will become Vengeance in my name.
39: Belated: "L, child," Watari exclaimed in horror as the child touched spindly fingers to his own hollow cheek in obvious bemusement, "are you crying?"
40: Sequence: Kira wondered, later, how much of what had happened L had known, how much he had improvised, and how much he had orchestrated himself, but it was too late to ask.
41: Substitute: Matt took up smoking, in those years they were separated, because Mello was gone; after all, something had to kill him, and he tried to tell himself that one poison would do the job as well as another.
42: Deep: Raito couldn't shake the feeling that those eyes could look into his heart and soul, and wondered what they saw there that he didn't even know about himself.
43: Ludicrous: Mello tried to tell himself he had hated the place, and that he was glad to leave, but one of the memories he associated with 'home' was sprawling around on the floor back at Wammy's House, having a perfectly reasonable conversation with L about zombies, and cookies, and the relative pros and cons of socialism, and what he was going to do to Matt for putting black hair dye in his shampoo when he hadn't been paying attention.
44: Pale: The child had never been the picture of health, but as case followed case and L spent an increasing amount of time behind a computer screen, he acquired that peculiar shade of pallor common to computer programmers and vampires.
45: Gratitude: "Here," Raito grumbled, shoving a complicated assortment of sweets across the table between them, "it was a gift but I don't want it," and L mentally translated it into this is for you, but I can't say so in public and reminded himself to thank him properly later.
46: Silence: Near looked away, and spoke harshly, and stayed still, and wondered if anyone else could hear his heart breaking, only to find that no one could.
47: Shower: For someone who didn't like to be touched, L was remarkably sensual, putting some time into staying clean if not neat, Raito observed, and then mentally chastised himself for putting so much thought into it.
48: Useful: Quillsh Wammy saw no reason to stop inventing things just because he was working for a precocious little child-detective, but it was a while before he realized almost everything he'd come up with recently was essentially a toy for the little one to use.
49: Gone: L didn't want to accept the existence of Shinigami, but the concept of the eyes and their powers evoked unwelcome memories, and he wondered…
50: Truth: When they were alone, Raito always called him L; Ryuzaki was a construct, a façade for other people, but L was who he really was—a creature of secrets, hidden.