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.

The room was so silent you could hear a pin drop.

Raito knew this, because after a few seconds a pin actually dropped. And suddenly, Angel's tank top wasn't as tight as it had been before.

"Oh my god, Esther, we made me fat!" Angel waved his hands around for a bit, before bending down to pick up the fallen safety pin. Handing it to L's mother, he turned his back towards her. "Be a darling and put it back, will ya?"

Esther, trying to keep herself from laughing, managed to pin Angel's shirt back to its previous tightness and patted him on the back to let him know she was done.

"Thanks love." Angel breathed a sigh of relief. Not too much relief, though, or the pin might pop again.

L must have completely missed the whole pin-business, because while the others were chuckling, he was staring intensely at Raito. In fact, his face hadn't changed at all from the seconds after Raito had uttered the words 'she is divorcing me' until now. His mouth was slightly agape and his hands were gripping tight on his jeans. Yes, this was power shock deluxe 2000.

"So divorced, huh? I thought you said you were married." Keith was the first one to mention it.

"Well I am still married. Technically. But, yeah, getting divorced."

"…Why?" L managed to finally speak, his grip around his trousers loosening slightly.

Raito shrugged. "Because she told me she wanted to divorce me…?"

"What my son means…" Esther leaned forward across the table, resting her elbows on it. "… is why did she say she wanted to divorce you?"

"Mum, that wasn't what I m-"

"Well, it doesn't matter because that is what I mean."

Raito looked back and forth between the two before chuckling to himself. "You know the movie Requiem for a dream?"

The other four looked at each other in confusion. Angel put his hand over his heart. "So sad."

"Yeah, totally." Raito played with his spoon. "Anyway, I was watching it and she got angry and one thing lead to another."

L looked confused, but relieved in a strange way. "She doesn't like it?"

"I don't think she's seen it, actually. She just saw me watching it."

Angel's eyes suddenly widened, his mouth fell open and his hands flew up in the air. It was almost like jazz hands, if he'd shaken them a little. "Oh my god!!!"

Three pairs of eyes looked at him in confusion. Raito's simply said 'we've got a winner'.

"Well, what?" Esther pushed the very camp man.

Angel clapped his hands. "Ok. A quiz. You've seen it, right?"

Three nods.

"Who is in that movie?"

No answer.

"Ok. Who is very sexy in that movie?"

Still no answer.

Angel sighed. "Who is the very sexy man in that movie that everyone wants to totally oil up and fuck him all night long non stop?"

All eyes fell on Raito and three voices uttered the same name at the same time: "Jared Leto!"

Raito blushed.

"She thought you fancied Jared Leto and that you were gay." Esther stated the obvious.

Raito nodded.

"How could she think that, though? Did you go commando or something?"

"No! God, no."

"Then what?"

"She was… talking to me and I didn't hear here because I was watching it."

"Well, it is an intense movie."

"It wasn't playing."

"So you were too busy staring at Jared Leto's semi-naked body, which you had paused to movie to see, to listen to your wife?"

"You make it sound so gay."

"Damn." Esther chuckled and leaned back.

She looked over at Angel and the two shared a 'that boy is so gay' look. It didn't go unnoticed by Raito. He didn't know how to feel about that, but he had no right to complain as he was the one who had brought it up in the first place. L, however, did not look as amused. The man looked torn between pleasant surprise and complete and utter heartbreak. Raito felt like he had to take control of this situation before people made assumptions. Not like they already hadn't.

"Look." He said. "I don't fancy him. That's just what she thought. It wasn't a sexual thing, I was just fascinated, I guess. Maybe I wanted to look like that, I don't know."

"Mhmm…" Same sound as Esther had made when Raito first told her he was straight. It was a sound of disbelief.

Raito sighed. "I shouldn't have said anything."

Silence.

"Fine. I work a lot. She works a lot. It's more like we're roommates than a married couple. We don't even, you know, do it that often."

"But married people never have sex!" Esther exclaimed.

Keith coughed. "Excuse me?"

"But you're gay."

"Well, so is he!"

Wow, he'd really dug his own grave here, Raito thought. It wasn't like he could blame the others for their assumptions, but it annoyed him. He hadn't chosen to function this way. He didn't want to function this way. So he'd made the decision to live like a normal, married, hard-working man and it had suited him just fine. At least he could pretend that it did.

"Can you just stop!?"

It wasn't Raito who had raised his voice at the others, but L. The man got up from his chair and sighed. "Please. Raito is my guest and he's clearly uncomfortable with you insulting him all the time." He turned to the man in question. "Raito, can I please speak to you in the kitchen."

Raito nodded and followed the other man into the next room. "I'm fine, Lawliet. I kind of deserved that one anyway."

L turned around, leaning on the counter. "You think this is about you?"

"It's not?"

"Raito… Why didn't you tell me?"

"About what?"

"About Misa. About everything."

Raito sighed, leaning on the opposite wall. "Because I failed. Is that what you wanted to hear? I used to be the best at everything and now I'm failing. What kind of a man am I if I can't even keep up a marriage?"

"Raito-kun is not failing, I'm sure."

"But I am. My head and I don't get along but with this marriage, we did, and now it's over and I'll be alone and failed and it just sucks!"

"Raito… I'm a single gay man in his thirties. Try that for a change."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"That I'm old."

"You're not old."

"Well, in this world, I am."

"Oh."

"Did you love her?"

Raito looked down, studying his shoes. "…No."

"Then why is this such a big deal to you?"

"Because it was the only thing I had going for me, that marriage."

L nodded and pulled Raito into a brief hug.

"I'm going to bed now, Raito. See you in the morning."

And then L was off. Raito could here him saying his goodbyes in the living room before walking upstairs. It took a good five minutes for Raito to relax enough to walk back to the others. It was quite late, he noticed, but he didn't want to go to bed before L had fallen asleep.

Being with the others without L was strange. It wasn't unpleasant, not at all, but Raito was just used to the other man being there. Like a protection of sorts.

After a while, Esther and Angel disappeared into the kitchen to do the washing up, and Keith made a quick phone call to his husband. Raito couldn't help but watch him. It was unfair how this guy could have a proper, functional marriage, make it work practically and still be happy. The times Raito had managed to make his marriage work the best were the times he'd felt the worst. It just took so much effort. But Keith was chatting and laughing with his significant other, murmuring sweet little nothings before he finally said goodbye and hung up. He walked back to where Raito was sitting, looking much happier than before. A man in love. It was as simple as that.

"You're still not used to it, huh?"

Raito blinked. "Used to what?"

"Seeing us homo's act like normal people."

"Hey, I wasn't judging you. I was only asking."

Keith smiled and sat down. "Yeah. Sorry about that. You just get a bit fed up with people not taking you seriously."

Raito could only smile.

"So you and Lawliet are pretty good friends yeah?" Keith asked.

"Yeah. We've been friends for a long time now."

"You seem pretty close."

"Yes."

"And you know he wants you."

"…yes."

"Yeah, he looks at you like he wants to jump your bones."

Raito paused, thinking about how he should phrase this. "It was him that you were talking about, wasn't it?"

"When?"

"When you said I had seen a man in love with another man, you were talking about Lawliet, weren't you?"

To Raito's surprise, Keith laughed in confusion and shook his head. "Him? No. I mean, I can see that he has the hots for you but you can never know with that guy and proper emotion. He's pretty hard to read."

"Oh."

Keith stood up. "Come on. I want to show you something."

Raito nodded, and followed the other man up the stairs. He thought maybe Keith would take him to the guest room, but the man did a sharp turn, dragging Raito into the bathroom. He put his hands on Raito's shoulders and stood behind him.

"I've seen this bathroom before, Keith."

"Idiot." Keith murmured and patted Raito's shoulder before walking away. "Take a look. I mean a really good look."

And then Keith was gone and the door was closed behind him. Raito found himself standing in the middle of the bathroom, facing the sink. Looking straight ahead, all he could see was his reflection in the cabinet door. He looked tired, he thought. This weekend had been stressful. Actually, everything before this weekend had been stressful as well. The only thing that hadn't been was work. He liked work. L and him had worked well together on the Kira case, and after that, they had developed an excellent partnership. Of course, they were still bickering, but there was no more physical abuse. Raito was glad. L had a mean kick going on there.

He sighed and brushed some of his hair from his forehead, only to stop mid-action.

Oh my god. He stared, walking closer to the mirror slowly. It couldn't be. Pausing, he bent his head down and took a deep breath before looking up again. No, it was clearly there, all over his face.

As he walked out of the bathroom, he could barely walk properly. Today had been a very confusing day, but right now he was far from confused. He didn't know if it was a good or a bad thing. When he was finally lying down between cool sheets in the bed, he still hadn't decided. All he knew was what he'd seen right there and then, and what everybody else seemed to already know.

I'm in love with L.

Hurrah, next chapter will be the final chapter in this little series.
Besides the fact that Jared Leto is kinda sexy in Requiem, he also has a few L features haha. small detail there.
and no, this story has no logic but i like it that way.