Summary: Raito never regained his memory of the death note and 8 years later, L and him are still working together. But as Light finds out that even though L was raised at an orphanage, he's not an orphan. And when he is introduced to L's mother, everything is thrown for a loop.

Disclaimer: I do not own death note. Neither do I own the cities of London and Manchester, though that goes without saying.

Even after spending most of ten years in England, Raito still hadn't gotten used to the fact that here, people did not take their shoes off indoors. He still did it. And whenever they went somewhere and L could see Raito on his way to doing so, he would give him a friendly warning in the shape of a slap on the back of his head. Like now.

His mother looked horrified.

Served her right, Raito thought, for thinking he was L's boyfriend. But then again, now he was not only L's boyfriend, but L's abused boyfriend. He decided that, before things got out of hand, he should probably tell L's mother that…

"Raito is not my boyfriend, mum." L was first to declare this.

"No?" Eyebrow up. Smirk. Clearly, she didn't believe him.

Raito smiled as politely as he could. "I'm L's friend. I'm… not gay."

"Mhmm…" Her eyebrows rose further as she took a good look at Raito; her face saying that Raito looked as flaming as a rising phoenix.

"I'm married!"

Good, Raito. That didn't sound desperate or anything.

"So Raito, yes?" She continued after a moment of awkward silence. "I'm Lawliet's mother as you probably know. Call me Esther. And I don't mean that like my son means it, it's actually my real name, now follow me!"

They walked into the living room and it took a good five minutes for Raito to take it all in. Colourful fabrics hung from the walls, and everywhere you looked, there were carved wooden figurines and crap from all over the world. Clearly, this woman had her son bring her things from when he was travelling.

She motioned for them to sit down on a green tartan sofa as she left the room in favour of the kitchen, shouting something Raito couldn't understand. Apparently L did, though, as he answered her with a 'yes' before turning to Raito.

"I'm sorry about my mother." He blushed. "She just assumed, I guess."

Raito, who had been looking at the sofa fabric in awe and disgust, looked up and tried to give L an assuring smile even though he felt nervous. This was a subject they didn't touch. No one did. Well, of course people had commented on it before, but noticing how uncomfortable it made Raito, L had never brought it up.

"It's ok. I don't blame her. She probably got it now."

L just shot him a bland look.

A few minutes later, Esther came back into the room. In her hands was a big silver tray and on top of that, five small glasses with beautiful decorations in gold and green.

"Tea." She smiled and put the tray down, before seating herself on the opposite, matching sofa.

Why there were five glasses, Raito didn't know, but that question was soon answered as he heard the door open and close and two male voices travelled from the hallway to approach them. Looking up, he saw a young, blonde man with spiky hair, dressed in a white belly top and trousers that were just a bit too tight. Following him was a man with a shaved head, dressed in a suit. A pink suit.

"Esther, darling!!! How a-" Belly-top man stopped mid-sentence as he turned over and caught a glimpse of Raito. "Well helloooo mama!" He looked Raito up and down, quite obviously checking him out. "Who is this young man and why haven't I met him before?"

Esther laughed. "That is Raito. He's Lawliet's friend."

Looking past L, the man in the belly-top leaned forward, his hand reaching forward as if he expected Raito to kiss it. "Hello Raito. I'm Angel."

Raito just looked at him, not moving an inch. "Uhm… Hello."

"Bless!" Angel leaned back again, putting his hand on the suit-man's shoulder. "He's shy!"

Esther moved and patted the seat next to her. The two men sat down, each grabbing a glass of what was apparently tea. L was already sipping on his, while Raito simply inspected his cup, not really knowing what to do with it, or the people in front of him.

Esther broke the silence. "Oh, by the way Raito, Angel and Keith are my friends."

"Friends?!" Angel exclaimed, putting a hand on his chest. "Darling, more like sisters, I'd say."

Raito didn't think his eyes could grow any bigger. This man was insane. L's mother was insane. There was no way L could have come out of this woman. He busied himself with the tea instead. It was very strong and sweet, but not disgustingly so. Raito found himself enjoying it very much.

Esther was chatting away with Angel and soon Raito found himself not only enjoying the tea, but the whole situation. He found out that Esther was much younger than he thought she would be, and doing some quick calculations in his head, she would have given birth to L at sixteen. He also found that even though Angel was quite intimidating at first, the man was like an open book and told anecdotes like no other person he'd ever met. Even L seemed to enjoy himself, chatting away with Keith. And suddenly it was three hours later, and Raito noticed that the tea they had been drinking definitely wasn't just tea.

"What tea… was this?" He found himself asking and Esther chuckled.

"African green tea with mint. Tea for Bedouins and kings!"

"Aaaand…?" Angel smirked.

"Some of my baby woodrose."

Angel kissed her on the cheek. "You are too kind."

Seeing Raito's confused and alarmed look, she leaned forward, putting her hand on his. "Don't worry. It's not that much. You won't start hallucinating or anything. Just to loosen you up a bit."

Raito simply nodded, not sure what she was talking about.

Angel jumped off the couch, struggling to get something out of the pocket of his extremely tight trousers. Raito was surprised to see he actually succeeded. The flamboyant man skipped over to a stereo, plugging a cable into what was apparently an ipod.

"Let's dance!" He exclaimed, jumping up and down before starting to sway to the music.

Downtown's been caught by the hysteria. People scream and shout. A generation's on the move.

Diso?

When disco spreads like a bacteria. These lonely days are right. Welcome the passion of the groove

Ok, this was just a bit gay.

Esther and Angel were now dancing around all over the living room, singing along to the song. Hey, apparently it was a popular one.

I wanna get down. You spin me around. Crying at the discothèque!

And for the first time in a long time, Raito laughed.

The madness begins :)

1. Hawaiian Baby Woodrose is a flower, related to the very pretty Morning Glory. The seeds contain LSA and is hallucinogenic, but in small doses this will just provide you with a giddy, happy feeling. This is all legal and is my personal drug of choice :)

2. Keith's apperance is based on Ivan from Fatals Picards, who is a fabulous man indeed.

3. That's some good disco right there.