Give us this day our daily bread…
L nudged the blond awake before they arrived in England. Mihael opened his eyes to see his new "brother" leaning over the armrest with the stick of a lollipop hanging out of his mouth. "Do you like sweets?" L asked.
Mihael shrugged, rubbing his eyes groggily. "I don't know. My parents never let me have them."
L seemed rather taken aback at this, but offered up another lollipop, the stick dangling from between two fingers, to the boy next to him. Mihael took it cautiously.
"Are you sure it's okay? Mama and Papa said sweets were bad for me."
L smiled and closed Mihael's tiny fingers around the candy. The blond's eyes went from the sucker in his hands, to L's nodding, practically glowing face, and then went wide when the sugar touched his tongue.
"You like it?"
Mihael nodded, biting down on the lollipop, finishing it off almost as quickly as he'd started.
"Want more? Here, I'll let you pick something out." L held out a tray of sweets the stewardess had brought earlier.
Mihael looked at the tray with wonder, scanning over the various types of candy, entranced. "How many pieces can I have?"
"As many as you want. Mr. Wammy can always have the stewardess bring us more."
The child pored over the tray, marveling at the colorful foil and the array of shapes set out before him. Each of these was a new wonder, just waiting to be tasted, and Mihael couldn't help but to be a little excited and a little daunted at the same time. Everything was so new, and wonderful--too good to be true!
He held his hand over the tray, unsure of what to try next. L looked at him, and then at the candies, and then held one up to him. "These are some of my favorites."
When Mihael didn't take it, the older boy nudged it toward him. Mihael shook his head quickly. L prodded toward him again.
"I don't wanna take your favorite ones!" the blond cried back, pushing L's hand back down.
"Here, try them all," the teen reassured. "If you're worried about me, just take one of those. There are more."
The older could tell that the blond was trying to hold back a grin. L crouched a little closer, trying to get him to crack. Mihael's mouth turned upward slowly, and then there was that smile from the picture; the one that L had seen a piece of himself in, in the way it seemed shy and afraid to exist.
Sweets were all L really understood of childhood indulgences, and he wanted this boy to understand, too. He held the piece of candy that he loved back up, and nudged it once again toward the child, but the blond looked past his hand at a flat, squared piece in a plain, silver foil wrapper that had caught his eye for its simplicity amongst the more daring packaging of the others.
"What's this one?" Mihael held it up.
"Oh, you can have all of those. I prefer the strawberry over the chocolate."
Tiny hands picked out all of the chocolate pieces from the tray and piled them in their owner's lap, happy to have found something that wouldn't make him feel as if he were stealing from L. He unwrapped one and put it in his mouth. It melted on his tongue and sent his senses reeling. As good as the lollipop had been, there was no way it could ever have compared to this.
If his parents could have seen his face, they probably would have banned him from ever touching chocolate again, telling him it was the devil's sweet temptation. But it wasn't Mama and Papa who were with him, but L, and he was encouraging Mihael to continue eating.
At first, the boy considered whether this were a test from God to see how well he could hold up if Satan tried to pull him off the path of righteousness, but with each bite, Mihael was more able to convince himself that this was all God's will. Yes, if he were never meant to have chocolate, he would not be sitting here in the jet. He would be with his parents. The chocolate, like L himself, was there to comfort him, and he would take any comfort he could get.
Mihael was an addict from the moment the chocolate first touched his lips.