AN: Sorry it's been a while, but school's really sucked. My school has 8 classes, and I'm taking 3 AP(college credit) classes and 2 Honors classes. It's slightly ridiculous, but whatever. So I've got a few notes - When I first started this story I wasn't aware of either L's age or his birthday, so they aren't the same in this story. For whatever reason, I thought that L was the same age as Light, but whatever. 'Tis all good:) Please enjoy!
Warning: Slightly offensive language.
Sweets
kagomes-wanna-be
Chapter Seven:
Justice
There was no talking that evening. There was no laughing, and no small skip in each of her steps. There was emptiness... there was nothing.
The city street was quiet around the two lone figures, and frost framed the windows. It was almost mid December, and it was getting too cold for people to be out this late. But Elizabeth had work, and if she had missed another day she was sure to lose her job. Despite L insisting that she stay at the orphanage, she had gone to work, forcing him to do the gentlemanly thing to do.
"It's cold." His voice was flat and very unhappy.
A soft laugh tore itself from her throat, and she couldn't help but smile. "I know, I'm sorry. You didn't have to meet me, though."
There was a soft clang from the alleyway behind them and she jumped visibly. "Yes I did."
The smile softened on her face and they continued in silence. Everything had been making her jump lately - she just couldn't help it. Even when she didn't want to think of what had happened she did. Any movement brought back a memory of that night, brought back the sound of his voice. The bits she could remember of his face appeared in shadows in her room when she lay awake at night, and then invaded her dreams once she finally slept.
No one knew of her continuing problems - L was the only one that even knew of the event - but the bags under her eyes were becoming darker and darker. The trembling of her hands was getting worse, and eventually someone would want to question why she had become so quiet lately. It couldn't be kept a secret forever.
Unless someone did something to stunt her fears.
They reached the orphanage, but L did not follow as Elizabeth stepped onto the landing. She turned around and looked at him curiously, though raised no questions. "I think I'll stay out here a little longer."
Her face darkened in realization, and for a moment there was nothing for her to say. "But you were just complaining about how cold it is." She tried to hide the urgency in her voice, but it came through anyway.
"I wasn't complaining. I was merely stating that it was cold."
She had to convince him to come inside, to stay off of the streets. "You'll get sick if you stay out here."
"Then I'm a masochist who hasn't gotten his flu shot." There was a glint in his eyes that signified a joke, but she wasn't laughing.
Her mind was blank. He was joking as she tried to convince him to not do something terribly stupid. She stepped off the landing and wrapped her arms around him, holding his tight as she whispered, "You don't have to do this."
The porch light flicked on and she flinched against him. "Yes, I do," he told her quietly. He placed his hands on her shoulders and pressed back, removing her from his body.
Ms. Wellington appeared in the doorway behind them, and L stared at Elizabeth. "I'll see you in the morning."
He glanced up at the house-lady once before turning and walking back out to the street. He would be back there in the morning. He would see her again.
This would not be his end.
--
Watari had called him crazy, and he was starting to agree. He did not do good in cold weather, yet he was sitting in the middle of an alley, crouched between a dumpster and a trashcan, in the middle of the night. There was no reason for him to really be there. He didn't have a plan, he didn't have anything. He had a description, an accent, and a growing hatred deep down in his heart.
This wasn't where he should be. He should be behind a desk in a warm room with his toes curled around the edge of a computer chair. It wasn't his place to be catching the bad guy, only figuring out who they were. He would have become a cop had this been his calling.
A crash came from down the alleyway and he pressed back against the brick wall harder. His breathing stopped as he listened, hearing footsteps near. A shadowed figure passed in front of him, taking no notice of the teenage boy. The man was mumbling something about getting a drink, but even in his slurred state, L recognized the way the man was speaking.
This was him. It had to be.
L's lungs finally forced him to suck in a breath, but he couldn't move. He was as frozen as the water puddles along the alleyway. The footsteps got further and further away. He had to do something. He had to move. He had to.
"'Ey!" he called out, jumping from his spot against the wall out to where the man could see him.
The man swung around, looking L up and down, rubbing at his nose. "Wha' choo wan' boy?" he asked.
L couldn't think of anything. He just stood there for a moment.
"Well?"
"Ya know where I could ge' a drink 'round 'ere?" he asked, masking his voice in a harder accent.
The man turned to look over him a little more, his eyebrow raising. "Ain' you a li'l young to be drin'in'?" he asked, spitting on the ground.
L was already frustrated. He just needed to take the bait. He knew this was why he didn't do field work. He just wasn't cut out for it. "Come on! Ya can' blame a bloke for wan'in' some poison." L mustered the best shit-eating grin he could, walking towards the man.
For a second, the man seemed cautious, but deciding the boy was too scrawny to do anything, he nodded his head. "Alrigh'. Le's go find some spirits."
L smiled and walked over to the man, who turned to walk as well. "Where ya from?" the man asked, rubbing his hands together.
"'Round 'ere," L responded with a shrug as they walked.
The man grunted in response, nodding his head. "'Ey, you go' a smoke?"
"Uh... yeah, I think," L said. He watched the man from the corner of his eye as he reached into his pocket, acting like he was digging for a cigarette carton. The man turned towards him as he looked.
"Come on, come on," he said, eager. L clenched his jaw gently, not sure what to do. He realized that he shouldn't have lied, having nothing to back up what he just said.
"I know they're 'round 'ere somewhere," L said, looking through his other pockets.
"Le' me know when you go' 'em," the man said disgruntled, looking away. "Man, I go' an itchin' tonight."
"Oh yeah? For wha'?"
"Man, I don't know," he said before smiling. "Pussy, man."
L froze, staring at the ground. "'Scuse me?"
"You 'eard me," he laughed, hitting his arm. "I wan' some pussy. Some youn' pussy, too."
L was disgusted. This man was vile. He was a pig, and yet didn't care who seemed to know it. His blood rushed through his veins. He was getting angry. It was all the man thought of her as. That vile word. "Say tha' one more time."
"Come on man, you know wha' I'm talkin' 'bout," the man laughed, the smell of vodka wafting on his breath. "You're youn'. You must be ge'in' that some ho' pussy all the-"
In a second, L knew that he really wasn't cut out for field work, but he didn't care. His arm slammed into his face. He stumbled back, catching himself on the wall. "'Ey! Wha' the fuck you think you doi-"
He was cut off again as L grabbed his head slamming it against the wall. The man grunted, sliding down to the ground. L reached down and grabbed him by his collar, pulling him back up. He wasn't thinking. He reached over and pulled the lid off a metal trashcan, lifting it over his head. He was going to kill him.
'If you truly began exhibiting the same characteristics then you would be becoming the person.'
His arms froze. Her voice played through his head, recounting the conversation they had that one morning.
'You wouldn't be studying, you would be exemplifying. And that, good sir, are how cults are made.'
"Kira." L whispered the name, his grip on the trashcan lid loosening. This is what Kira did. That bastard killed criminals, no better than one himself, and called it 'justice.'
That was not justice.
L was justice.
The lid clanked against the floor of the alleyway. He would not kill this man, no matter how much he wanted to. He was not Kira. He could not be Kira. He would fight Kira.
The man looked up at him, fear in his eyes. He knew that L could have done, and he was afraid that he still would. But there was nothing he could do as the sore on the back of his head continued to bleed. His eyes fell shut and his body lay limply against the brick wall of the alley.
L turned and walked away from the man, out of the alley and to the phone booth. He picked up the phone and dialed the police.
"Hello, police department, what is your emergency?"
L dropped the receiver and walked away.
"Hello? Hello?"
If no one responded, they would send men just to make sure everything was alright. The police would find the man, he would be arrested, and locked away the allotted amount of time. Depending on what else he'd done, he might be put away for life. Justice would prevail - in England, in Japan, and in the world.
L would make sure of it.
AN:
Happy Valentine's Day:)