Disclaimer: I do not in any way own Death Note.

----Chapter 8----

----To Keep an Eye----

Lira huffed in her chair as she kept watch over a row of students taking their exams. She was bored with the way things are going. Light Yagami, who incidentally sat along with the other pupils in the row she was watching over, seems to be the one least likely to play the bad guy role of Kira. He seems like your goody-two shoes type of honor student who is just so full of himself and his admirable intelligence. Heck, she even heard that the guy topped the national mock exams. She huffed again at the thought. Smart-ass guys were never her type though it was a little contradicting to her since she got herself attached to the world's smartest detective. Yet, she knows that L doesn't know everything. It took her almost the whole of her teenage life just to show him how to love. And she knows that this certain boy, Yagami Light, is fully aware of his handsome features that he has been gifted and that he knows how to use those to his advantage to seduce anyone for him to get what he wants. The tone in his voice when he spoke to her earlier that morning tells her that he's been an expert on that dark art for so long and he's not going to hold back his abilities if ever a situation presents itself to him where he needs it.

"You there! Sit properly!" a proctor barked a few rows behind Lira and she sat up straight with a start, looking at the direction of the erring examinee. She smirked inwardly when she saw L pay no attention to the irate proctor and continued to stare intently at the Yagami kid's direction, which Lira was delighted to see, was uneasy with L's penetrating glare.

Moments later, the proctor gave up L as a bad job and left him to continue with his exam in peace. However, peace is something that is out of L's little world. L is someone who is always thinking. Maybe it's the only thing that L knows aside from eating too much sweets and bossing Lira and Watari around. L was still not lifting his pencil from the little dent on the table and stared intently at the Yagami boy's back as if intending to make a large hole that would go through the boy's back and out. Lira was getting nervous for L. How could their investigation carry on when he's not even answering his exam?

The proctor who was up front announced that there was only five minutes left for the exam. Lira turned her head discreetly to L. The detective turned his gaze into his paper for the first time that morning and picked up his untouched pencil from the dent on the desk and started shading the corresponding circles of his answers, pausing every now and then to write down neatly a solution to a given problem. At exactly one minute before the exam ends, L shaded the last circle of his answer and laid down his pencil back to the dent on the table and returned his gaze to the Yagami boy who was now sitting in a relaxed manner on his chair. He is already finished with the exam.

The exam was finally over and the students filed out of the hall, looks of relief eminent on their faces. Lira and the other proctors then scrambled to collect the test papers on the desks. As Lira was collecting the papers from L's row, she paused for a bit and looked at the detective's paper. It was so clean, without any erasures meaning that he's sure of his answers and the solutions are scribbled neatly and followed a straight line as if written on ruled paper which makes it really easy for anyone to understand. She just hopes the answers are correct. She breathed a sigh of relief and continued to collect the remaining papers on that row. It would be at least a month for them to find out how their 'investigation' would progress.

Lira broke into a half-run-half-walk pace as she went to the big boards where they post the entrance exam passers. She was nervous yet excited at the same time. Excited because she knows that L is no dunderhead and she knows he's got what it takes to pass the exams. Nervous because L might have gotten all the answers wrong. He answered the exams in four minutes flat, after all.

She reached the boards finally and halted, gasping for breath. She had become quite dormant ever since she started her teaching stint. She made a mental note to exercise every once in a while so as not to lose her precious stamina. After a few more breaths, she straightened up and slowly faced the board, closing her eyes tightly; afraid of what she might see. She then slowly opened her eyes, squinting from left to right, expecting L to get a low rank, with his little speed exam feat. No, his name – Ryuga Hideki – was not anywhere in the left side of the board. Finally, Lira squinted at the right side, searching for his name. Her eyes widened as she landed on the famous actor's name that her beloved detective used sitting there, smack at the uppermost right corner of the long sheet of paper. L had made it to the number one spot, with a perfect score. Lira made a little celebration dance in her mind but another name caught her attention. Yagami Light. It was there beside L's name, sharing the top spot with her love. Lira smirked a little. So this kid is not just some smart-ass. He truly is smart. Now my suspicions of him being Kira has risen to at least ten percent from 0.6 percent. Lira thought, feeling like the detective she was supposed to be when she is under the namesake of Danuve.

"Lawliet you did it! Top 1 of Tou-oh!" Lira shouted as soon as she arrived at the hotel room where they are staying, throwing her arms around the detective who had his back on her and peering at the monitor of his goddamned computer. L gasped as he was caught of guard again by Lira's hug.

"Don't go shouting my name around so needlessly," L warned. The walls have ears, after all.

"Oops, sorry about that," Lira said sticking out her tongue but not letting go of the detective.

"What are you so ecstatic about, anyway?" L asked, holding the arms that are entwined around his this frame.

"Gosh, you made it at the top spot of the Tou-oh University and you do not show any inclination that you are happy about it. You made it to the top spot of the best university in Japan," Lira exclaimed as if L was out of his mind.

"Yay," L said flatly and resumed his work.

"What was that reaction!" Lira exclaimed. The detective really was out of his mind.

"What? I've got to prepare my speech for the entrance ceremony so could you please leave me to my work?" L said and gazed back at the monitor. Lira let got of him and smiled to herself. The detective really has some issues regarding how he shows his feelings.

The cold air blew as Lira alighted from the limousine that Watari was driving. She turned around then and gave L's outfit a withering look. The detective did not bother dressing up for the entrance ceremony and chose to wear his baggy long-sleeved white shirt with his worn-out jeans matched with torn sneakers that L wore like a slip-on, not even bothering to wear a sock.

"You really should brush up on your fashion sense," Lira exclaimed for the nth time that day. Compared to L, she was starting to look more like a respectable college professor now, with her baby pink blazer and mini-skirt combo she had together with a black undershirt and black stockings with three-inch high stiletto heels.

"I couldn't be bothered with shopping," L said, waving a hand dismissively. "Now go inside the hall before they see you with me," he continued.

The entrance ceremony went in a haze for Lira because the only thing she paid attention to was L's speech. Sure his voice sounded dull and monotonous that anybody would fall asleep within two minutes through his speech if they did not keep their focus. Lira looked sideways to the students and saw a small, chubby girl with thick-rimmed glasses blushing furiously as she watched L deliver his speech. He's mine, fat-ass. Lira thought scathingly as though the girl was stealing away her precious detective. She also felt pride at the same time for being with the man that that particular girl was fawning over and she was in nowhere near letting her strawberry-san go. A few more sleepy minutes – maybe hours – passed by and the entrance ceremony was finally over. And Lira joined the throng of students filing out of the hall to get into the car before L does so as to avoid any suspicion.

"Stupid, idiot, moron, baka, aho, tanga, mangmang, bobo, indio –," Lira unleashed a tirade of synonyms for the word 'stupid' in as many languages as she can as L sat motionless on his sofa, staring meekly at her like a child being scolded by his mother.

"Why in the hell did you not tell me of your plan? Why in the hell did you tell that Yagami bastard that you are L?" Lira exploded, throwing her arms up dramatically as if to emphasize the point.

A/N: Ok, that's it for this chapter. Hmn…Groom, thank you for the support (figuratively and literally) and also for your beautiful Christmas gift. Everyone, please enjoy, andvanced Merry Christmas! (I do not know if I'll be able to update before Christmas so here's my advanced greeting)