Yes, it took this long to come out, and it is filler. Hopefully everyone will enjoy the angsty, fluffy goodness though. And I will definitely finish this fic in time for Christmas, I've just been horribly busy this term, unsurprisingly. And I've been watching Hetalia (spot the reference) which is a bit of a time-eater whenever I'm not stuck in the Library.
"Why am I not surprised that despite your inability to travel anywhere further than the bathroom without Watari as your chauffer, you still know the locations of all the sweet shops in Winchester?" Light asked with a sigh as he and L entered the largest confectionary store Light had ever seen. L's face was appropriate to that of a very religious man entering a place of worship.
"I am very thorough in my research, Light-kun," L replied seriously. "Besides, for someone with insomnia as acute as mine, procrastination does tend to take on a new meaning. I have memorised the locations of over nine hundred cake and sweet shops of particular quality all over Europe and Asia."
"That's so extreme I'm not entirely sure how I should respond," Light replied, looking stunned. L gave him a crafty smile.
"It's all in the name of exercising my abilities for extensive recall," he explained.
"I suppose it's nice to be prepared for every eventuality?" Light said weakly. Privately, he resolved never to let L know how much his good sense of direction depended on his iPhone.
"So what are we looking for?" Light said out loud after a few moments, in which it looked like L was being successfully distracted by a large display of reindeer-shaped lollipops.
"Light-kun, why do candy stores persist in creating anatomically incorrect images for consumption by small children? It will give them a false impression," L frowned, examining the cheery caricature of a reindeer head with mild concern.
"Something like this has more aesthetic appeal for children," Light explained. "See, it's cute."
"Take the man out of Japan…" L mused softly, stifling a smile. "I am glad to see that your soft side is still in existence, Light-kun."
"Well, I might love you for your mind, Ryuuzaki, but, uh, you know." Light broke off, blushing, and cursed himself for ever starting such a foolish sentence.
"Light-kun thinks I'm cute?" L asked point-blank.
"Er – ah – I mean-" Light floundered.
"Then buy me this." L held out the lolly, his face uncompromisingly mercenary and clinical.
Light sighed.
"Taking advantage of someone's cultural weaknesses is not cute at all," he muttered, but he automatically reached for his wallet. L's eyes gleamed with amusement.
"It is generous of Light-kun to offer to fund our expedition; to take a reasonable survey of CFC's products, we will need to buy at least two samples of each type, including special Christmas brands and variety packs…"
Light's face grew darker and darker as L listed enough types of chocolate to poison a small nation. Once again he had been utterly manipulated into believing in L's favourite airheaded chibi deception. After so long, he should really have known better than to believe that L's mind was ever less than 100% focused on his goals.
"He wasn't distracted even for a second, was he?" he muttered bitterly.
On their way back, there was a little more distance between them as they struggled with heavy bags of Christmas chocolate. This masked the fact that Light was sulking. Sometimes, he felt utterly used. Since he had given up on being Kira, he seemed to be the only one of the couple who ever did anything just for the sake of doing it, and this irked him. With L, it seemed that the only time he would ever show any affection towards him was when he wanted something. How was it that the proud God of the World had turned into a lovestruck, much abused errand boy? It somehow didn't seem fair. Had L been born without emotions or something?
And, to make it even worse, there was nothing Light could do about it because, despite how angry it made him, he fell for it every single time L apologised with wide puppy-dog eyes. But it was difficult to tell whether L truly cared about him, or whether he was simply manipulating him to keep him happy and tame. It was true that L needed him; if it had not been for him, they would not get through have the workload that was required, and his deductions had been vital in many cases they had solved. But whilst Light was able to be occasionally weakened into doing little things to please L, like baking him chocolate chip cookies, it seemed that L never did anything like this in return. If they went on a 'romantic trip' somewhere, it was because L wanted to investigate something in that place. If Light's favourite snack ever turned up in the shopping, it was because Watari had had the foresight to buy it. Even when Light had swallowed his pride and showed L the matching scarves his mother had knitted for them, L's had never so much as been touched.
Light sighed heavily, and cast a quick glance at his companion. L, oblivious, was sucking thoughtfully on a sugared almond, humming the theme tune for Hetalia under his breath as he walked.
Well, so much for L's procrastination always being productive.
Back at Wammy's, they were confronted with the problem of how best to enter unassaulted with large quantities of chocolate in their hands. Fortunately, Mello had pre-empted this issue and, well-used to keeping other children's grubby fingers away from his stash, propelled them expertly into the playroom, which Near obligingly barricaded with his hoard of building-blocks.
"Mission success?" Matt asked eagerly, lowering his Gameboy for a few moments to examine the bulging shopping bags.
"Indeed," L replied cheerily. "Now comes the difficult part. I trust I can rely on your assistance?"
"Yeah," Matt and Mello said eagerly, whilst Near hung back looking suspicious; the prospect of eating mounds of chocolate for a case seemed slightly too good to be true.
"Firstly, I will need K-kun to confirm the presence of the mysterious ingredient in each of these products. Thereafter I would like to test the effects of the products on the three of you. I am 94.3% sure that there will be no lasting adverse effects, and the reward is, of course, that you get to eat a lot of chocolate and not be told off by Roger. Are these terms acceptable?"
Three furiously nodding heads followed this query, and L gave them a rare smile. "Excellent; can I trust the three of you to deliver these bags to K-kun, then?"
Once the boys had tripped over their own feet to get their hands on the chocolate as soon as possible, Light was once again left alone with L, this time with a frown on his face.
"L, you do realise that Mello probably already has a high tolerance for whatever this thing is," he began.
"So?" L asked, face blank.
"Well, it might be better if he didn't skew the results of the observation; using clean subjects who have for certain not ingested any CFC products before might be a better idea from a scientific perspective."
"I have considered this, Light," L replied. "However, there is only one person who fulfils this criteria, and I would prefer not to risk him as a test subject."
Light's mouth felt dry as he disciplined his lips into a response.
"Why is that?" he asked.
"Because he is far too precious to risk. Besides, I shudder to think what such a sudden consumption of sugar might do to his lovely skin."
Light was torn between exasperation and amusement. When it came to L, the most genuine compliments he received were always the backhanded ones.
"However, I did not want Light-kun to feel left out," L carried on. "Therefore I took the liberty of procuring for him a product which was not made by CFC. Happy Christmas."
With a lopsided and very endearing smile, L removed from one baggy pocket a slightly melted reindeer lolly, which he handed to his rather surprised partner.
Light could not bring himself to tell L that it did not count as a present if the person you gave it to was the one who had paid for it in the first place. The moment was too good to lose.