Time waits for no man, beast, or Shinigami, and Raito was most certainly one of the above. As life went on, he became closer to L, and closer to achieving his ultimate goal. But as he inched ever nearer to what he'd wanted for so long, he began to wonder whether or not that was what he was truly after anymore.

L had told him, time and time again, that they could not be together. But when Misa was safe in bed and Raito was up minding the computers, and cradling the young detective like he had never held his fiancee (and probably never would,) she didn't seem to mind.

He saw turmoil in the woman's lightless eyes, turmoil that ate him alive. He had no idea how much longer he could continue that was, plotting her death as he kissed her. Imagining his takeover as he whispered that everything would be alright.

On their last evening together, she disappeared to the top of the building, and he found her later, standing in the rain. Her hair was slicked against her head and the back of her neck, and her baggy clothes clung to her malnourished-looking frame like layers and layers of loose skin. When she looked at him, her essense was melancholy, but what he first thought tears proved to be only raindrops leaving trails down her sickly-pale face.

"Do you hear the bells?" she inquired. Raito barely heard her. "It's a church. A wedding, maybe...I bet it's nice."

Raito watched her, noting a tone of longing in her quiet voice. He didn't hear the bells. "Let's go back, Ryuuzaki."

L looked off into the distance once more. "Alright," she said after a pause.

Once inside, Raito sat down on the steps and began to dry his drenched hair. L sat in front of him and proceeded, despite Raito's protests, to massage his feet.

"I wasn't lying when I said you were my best friend, you know."

"I know."

The duo lapsed into comfotable silence for a moment, L working on Raito's feet, Raito watching her move. Deciding he'd had enough, Raito leaned forward, pulling L to him at the same time, and pressed their lips together. Just as L was responding for what could easily be the first time, a catchy jingle drew her away.

"Yes?" she answered somewhat breathlessly, and waited, face growing more grim all the while. "Understood." She closed the phone, only to be hurriedly interrogated by Raito.

She waited for him to cease spazzing before reaching up and pecking him, so gently it was like the softest touch of a butterfly's wing, on the lips. This threw him a bit.

"...L?"

"It's almost time to say goodbye," she mumbled, and turned back toward he main stairs.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The next several minutes passed in a bur. L was speaking very quickly to Watari on the other end of their connection, and occassionally barking orders to the Task Force. Suddenly, all the screens in the room turned bleach white. A single line of bold text ran across the center of every one of them

All data deletion.

It looked so...final.

L sucked in a shaky breath, explained to the Task Froce what she believed had just happened, and fought back the tears only she and Raito knew were there.

The last sentence Raito heard her utter was broken, incomplete, shouted...afraid.

"Everyone! The Shiniga-"

Raito watched, wide-eyed, as she tumbled from the chair she'd sat in the whole time he'd known her. When his sense finally returned to him, he cried out and dove after her.

"Ryuuzaki??!" The voices sounded all at once, shattering his sanity in a thousand places. He had wanted this. he had always wanted this.

"Ryuuzaki! Ryuuzaki!!"

And now he had what he wanted.

"Ryuuzaki!!!"

Raito Yagami had won, but at what cost?