Note: If you have not read the first volume of the death note manga or the episode that pertains to a certain part in this chapter then you will most likely not understand
Note 2: This Chapter was written while listening to a song called " Reason" by Hoobastank. It is my suggestion that you listen to it afterwards or while you read. It may help to better assimilate your thought process to the ending of this fanfic. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or its characters and all quotes recited ( noted in Italics) in this chapter and used in previous chapters belong to William Shakespeare.
Star-Crossed Lovers
Legacy of Samsara
L spent the remaining hours of night's darkness warily awake. His wide onyx eyes settled an accusing gaze upon the sleeping form next to him. It was hard enough for him to sleep when he was alone, but sleep was impossible when his bed partner was a megalomaniacal mass murderer. Light Yagami was Kira. Therefore, Light Yagami was his enemy and any love that once existed between them was now nothing more than a festering wound.
What man in his right mind would spare an enemy? L had no other choice but to proceed his investigation and gather evidence to convict the criminal. Because that's truly what lay beneath Light's handsome exterior, a murderer. It didn't matter that the victims were all atrocious criminals. Murder was murder, and not one single person held the right to be absolute judge over the fate of so many immoral souls. Light was not a god. He was only a human, and L would make him come to terms with his mortality by making sure he got the death sentence. Justice held no mercy for ruthless killers and Light Yagami was a killer.
When dawned streamed her first rays in through a nearby window, Light stirred into wakefulness. His honey brown orbs flickered open and met with his lover's dark, unwavering gaze. Light could sense something cold and different in the younger man's demeanor, but he assumed Ryuga was merely not a morning person and moved closer to the dark-haired man.
" Ryu, your awake?" Light murmured as he reached over and ran his fingers through the youth's unruly black locks.
L wanted to shy away from that doting touch. Kira shouldn't be touching him like that. However, he resisted the urge and didn't even flinch as Light pulled him into a chaste kiss. The brunettes plush lips were warm against his own, but L's responsiveness for the most part was strained. The act he found himself ensnared in was tearing him to shreds inside. Nevertheless, Light was oblivious to his pain and to his thoughts. When the insidious displays of affection ended, Light rose from the bed and flashed a mischievous smile toward the raven.
" Ryu, I'm going to take a shower and clean up. Would you care to join me?" he offered.
" No, Light, I'm still tired." he lied.
Light smiled knowingly and nodded as he disappeared into the bathroom and shut the door.
L lay there in the bed and listened intently for the sound of Light turning the shower on. A few moments passed before he discerned the unmistakable sound he had been waiting for. The raven rose from the bed and launched his inspection. He tossed the mattress from the bed, looked under the bed, turned his nightstand inside out, but found nothing. Then, L turned his attention upon Light's dresser. He shuffled through the bottom drawers and worked his way to the top. When he came across Light's underwear drawer he momentarily lost his professionalism and dazzled at the checkered and striped pattern of Light's boxers. However, he was truly mesmerized when he discovered that Light was the owner of two male thongs. One was cheetah patterned and the other had zebra stripes. He picked the questionable items up in his germophobic manner and gawked at them. He hadn't expected Light to own something like this and it sent dirty images into his mind. Realizing his distraction, L quickly tossed the male thongs aside and banished the nonsensical image of Light parading around in the curious undergarment as a stupid fantasy and continued his hunt for evidence against Kira. For, nothing would keep him from his duty to justice. Not even Light in his sexy male thongs!
L glanced anxiously about the room looking for any nooks and crannies he may have perhaps missed. When, his questioned gaze landed on Light's mahogany, computer desk., he dashed toward it and immediately began riffling through the contents. Inside its only drawer he found nothing of any apparent interest. There was an empty journal, pens , pencils, paper, and other scholastic supplies, but nothing suspicious.
However, just as L was sliding the drawer shut something caught his eye. The texture of the wood on the bottom of the drawer slightly differentiated from the rest . Now, that was odd. There was no plausible reason for such a well made desk to be mixed matched in its woodwork. Especially since it was only in this drawer. Thus, L came to one conclusion. There was a false bottom in the drawer.
L immediately went to work prying out the piece of wood, but the moment the board came loose a scalding flame shot up. L fell backwards in stared in horror as the fire consumed the desk , spread to the nearby blue curtains, and turned into a violent conflagration. L realized that whatever had burned up beneath that false bottom had been the only evidence against Light as Kira. He knew that in his hurried inspection he had carelessly destroyed the only proof to Kira's identity. Nothing else could have been so meticulously hidden and there was no other reason why Light would have said a fire trap in that drawer.
L dazedly recognized the sound of the fire alarm going off somewhere in Light apartment, but its boisterous pronouncement meant nothing to him. He remained transfixed as he stared at the conflagration that would soon claim the entire apartment complex.
L heard the bathroom door burst open and from his peripheral he saw Light dash toward. Nevertheless, L remained glued to his spot on the floor as he glowered at the red flames that had set Kira free.
" Ryu! What are you doing? You've got to get up the apartment's on fire!" Light shouted worriedly.
L discerned Light's genuine expression and he knew that Light was truly concerned for his safety and his well being. Yet, what did it matter. If Light knew who he really was, that he was L, then he would most likely pour gasoline all over him and push him into the flame. The raven felt nothing but contempt at the evil man before him, but he didn't allow any of his disgust show. He beset the auburn-haired man with a indifferent gaze and remained defiantly unmoving.
Light moves forward and grabs the pale man's arm. He yanks the younger man up and onto his feet so that they are now standing face to face.
L flashes Light a weary smile before he mumbles.
" Light, did you know Romeo and Juliet was a tragedy?"
" Ryu, enough with that silly play! Lets go!"
" It would be a silly tale only to a man who didn't have a heart." L interjected.
" Stop being ridiculous! Now is no time for a lover's spat!" Light hissed as he tugged at the raven's sleeve.
L jerked his arm free of Lights hold and his dark orbs narrowed scornfully.
" No! Light-kun, there is something you don't understand for once." L remarked.
Light met the others heavy unblinking gaze and realized that his lover was trying to inform him of something important. However, Light really wished his Ryu would have picked a better time to confide him. Like, when his apartment was not going up in flames.
" There's no time, Ryu!" Light exclaimed as he grabbed at the raven's arm once again.
L pushed him away, which caused Light to bump into his bed and topple backwards onto the sheets. L leaned over him with a determined look etched across his features. The raven opened his mouth to speak , but the words were not his own.
" ' My only love sprung from my only hate.
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to me,
That I must love a loathed enemy.' ." L recited.
" Shakespeare?" Light asked puzzledly. He was beginning to tire of the raven's references to the English playwright. However, the next words out of his lovers mouth were far more vexing than his recitations of the Shakespearian tragedy.
" I am L." the raven stated.
Light was taken aback by this sudden revelation. His golden orbs interlocked with the dark, onyx gaze that settled guardedly over him. The brunette was uncertain of how to react in the presence of his lover turned enemy and he suddenly knew what L had been implying by bringing up Romeo and Juliet. The twofold truth of it all stabbed him like a double edged blade. L had only confessed his identity because he knew he was Kira and this fire was because L had meddled with the false bottom in his computer desk. Which meant L had been looking for evidence to convict him. He hadn't known Ryuga was L and L hadn't known he was Kira until recently. However, now the horrible truth lay before them both.
Light felt an ache in his heart, because he didn't want Ryuga to be L. He didn't want his eccentric, pale lover to be his enemy. No, he would not accept that Ryuga was his enemy. He just wouldn't and couldn't accept it. L was just another name, just another word to define his beloved. The fact that Ryuga was L meant nothing to him, even if he was Kira. Ryuga could never be his enemy.
Light wrenched his fingers into that mane of unruly black locks and brought L's face against his own so that their lips met in a fleeting kiss that would express his immense love for the raven. L immediately pulled away from the kiss and glowered at Light. There was undeniable hatred in his obsidians.
" 'I will kiss thy lips,
Haply some poison yet doth hang on them
To make me die' ." L uttered with a bitter smile that sent chills down Light's spine.
The brunette knew what L had meant by those words. He presumed their entire relationship had been a scam to lure him in and destroy him. He thought Light had made a fool of him, but it was Light who had truly been the fool. L had brushed the kiss aside and thought Light was attempting to seduce and trick him into his own demise. Yet, the last thing Light wanted was for the man to die. Suddenly, Light found his inspiration and uttered his profession of love in the words of the tragic heroine named Juliet.
" What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other word would smell just as sweet." Light recited with a weak smile.
Those words. Those famous words echoed in the raven's ears and breeched his cold demeanor. His heart ached as he heard the proclamation behind those words. Light would give up his dreams, his place as Kira, for him. Could it be possible that Light loved him, even if he was Kira. Did it truly not matter that he was L?
Light's hand rose to cup L's wan cheek and he looked up into those questioning eyes. He refused to look away from the younger man's gaze. Something flickered in those dark eyes and Light felt awed by the raw, unhidden emotion he could detect in the stoic man. Light's coaxing touch made the raven yearn to be closer the embodiment of all his love and all his hate. L slowly clambered onto the bed and hovered over Light. His gaze was no longer condemning , but was brimming with tears.
" Light?" he murmured uncertainly.
" Hm?"
" I won't turn you in. Please, leave its dangerous here."
" Ryu, won't you go with me." Light asked earnestly.
A sad smile splayed across the dark-haired man's features and he shook his head.
" No, Light-kun, I can't do that and I don't deserve to be L any more either." he explained.
" If you plan on staying here then I could never leave." Light admonished.
" Why's that, Light-kun?" he asked curiously. Light's gaze met with L's and the raven noticed something akin to tears those golden orbs.
" Ryu, don't you remember? " Light asked.
L looked at him with questioning eyes and Light wrapped his arms around the raven to hold him in a desperate embrace. He didn't want anything to come between them. In that moment it was merely Light and Ryuga, two men who loved each other dearly. He wanted to eradicate any gap between them, including Kira. Yet, truthfully, Kira could never be banished, because Kira was the plague that had infested their world and taken so many lives.
L's sadness was so immense that Light's arms around him felt like a milestone weighing him down and if the flames surrounding them had been water he would most surely drown.
" They both die." Light explained and L knew he was referring to the death of the two lover 's in the old play.
L smiled even though there was nothing happy in that nostalgic statement
It was there in the blazing heat of those surmounting flames, that the raven trembled with the recollected of a child who had once said the same words to his lover on the night they joined their bodies for the first time. Yet, his truest love had been his mortal enemy and a simple kiss had been the path to destruction. The movements of their forms united in carnal bliss had been the rhythm to the danse macabre.
Surely, on the night L had lost his innocence, two stars must have crossed paths in the sky foretelling disaster. For, theirs was a constellation formed and burnt out light years before them. Their celestial union and the implosion of their stars, had left a grotesque black hole, which would eventually suck them entirely into the abyss.
The flames grew higher around them, but neither pulled away from the other. They both remained there on that bed each staring into the eyes of the man he loved.
" Light, I love you." he muttered as he burrowed his face into the crook of Light neck.
" I love you too, Ryu." Light replied.
" Light, my name is L Lawliet." he whispered.
" Lawliet?" Light murmured.
" Yes, Light."
" I love you, Lawliet." Light sighed.
Suddenly, Light felt his heart quake within his chest and he clutched at it frantically. His eyes widened and he began to convulse. Meanwhile, L watched in terror as Light Yagami died of a heart attack in his arms. Tears slipped from the corners of his opalescent orbs.
" LIIIIGHHHT!!" he cried, but no one was there to hear his agony. Well no one he was aware of, but there was a Shinigami, who happily munched on an apple in amusement. He tucked away his death note and laughed. Kira had just died like all the criminals he had previously judged.
" Human's are fun."
With that said he flew away and L remained alone in Light's apartment to die amongst the flames.
For these star-crossed lovers, there was no happy ending.
Just the passage of their death marked love
And tragedy.
A / N
Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed the journey alongside this lovely couple and their sad story. I would immensely appreciate some final reviews for this final chapter.
Thanks so much for last chapters reviews!!
However, I'm sad to report that while I had some very good ideas thrown my way, no one was able to guess the ending to this chapter in detail. A lot of you were certain they would both die, which gives me hope that not too many readers were surprised and depressed by the sad ending.
Yet, if anyone is fretting over this story being over. Then, by all means don't trouble yourselves I am still posting "Obey Thy Master". Also, soon I will be posting a new fanfic called " Inner Sanctum" you can read its main details on my page and there is even a poll to vote on rather your interested in it or not!
Sends you Love