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"I don't like it either, Raito-kun, but until these handcuffs come off, you're stuck with me."

"Don't you mean, 'I'm stuck with you,' Ryuuzaki?" Raito asked, smiling. L pretended not to hear him.

"Watari, what have you gathered on the Yotsuba Company?"

"Nothing much, but it seems your friend was right." L grimaced a bit while Raito busied himself with one of his shoelaces. There's been a lot of suspicious activity. It would definitely be worth looking into."

"Thank you."

The large W vanished from the csreen, and L began going through some files on the computer. For what seemed to be the umpteenth time that evening, Raito and L were alone in the darkened computer room.

Finding himself bored and without outlet, Raito glanced over at L, who appeared to be abnormally tense. Thinking it through no further than the first move-and-a-half, he crept up behind the young detective, a thin smirk plastered to his handsome face.

"Eeee-ruuu," he purred, wrapping his arms around her waist and pressing his mouth into the crook of her neck. She flinched, made a noise of flustered distaste, and shoved him away from her.

"What are you doing?!"

Raito responded with a question of his own. "What is Watari to you, Ryuuzaki?" It seemed to be nothing more than curiosity.

L hadn't been expecting it. "Watari...?" She tugged at the edge of of a loose, snow-white sleeve and swallowed, heart thundering against her ribcage. She was watching Raito closely, ready to fight (or flee) should he step toward her again.

Raito nodded and settled himself in another chair, crossing his legs and waiting patiently, expression gentle and serene as though he hadn't just attempted intimacy with her.

"Watari is...very important...to me," L began, sitting against the desk and becoming very quiet. "He's important to me," she reiterated, eyes darting up to Raito then back to the floor. "He's the one who found me after my parents..."

Raito looked at L, and for once saw something other than an ingenius enemy. For once, he didn't stop at one of the many masks L wore. For once, he saw her as what she truly was; a bereaved young woman with the weight of the world on her shoulders.

And he felt sick.

"...After my parents died. He looked after me, and I'd be nothing without him," the bereaved young genius finished with a sigh.

In a flash of mindless instinct, Raito Yagami had scooped L up in his arms and held her tightly to him. She gasped and tensed at first, but slowly relaxed into the touch. She couldn't remember the last time she had allowed someone to hold her like that.

She had forgotten how good it felt to be close to someone, to share all her problems with a good friend...

"I feel...happy," L murmured suddenly, voice muffled by Raito's shirt. The man leaned back slightly to peer down at her.

"Why is that?" he asked. L smiled a soft, genuine smile, and wrapped her arms around him in a warm hug.

"Because Raito-kun is my best friend."

Raito started, taken aback by the sudden change of pace. She looked so vulnerable then, limp and jelly-like in his arms. Was that even possible for someone like L? He supposed so...At that moment, Raito had no evil, impure thoughts or emotions.

Heart full of good intentions, he rested his cheek against the surprisingly soft spikes of hair, and breathed their sweet human scent.

"From now on," he murmured, "I'll help Watari. I'll look after you, too." Against his slightly heaving chest, L nodded.

"Okay."

But partnerships of that sort always dissipate eventually, without fail.

Always.