As always, trying to get caught up. Anyway, here we are with more seriousness than the previous day. The song mentioned in the very beginning is "Gaeta's Lament." I found it on YouTube because of the simple fact that it's sung by the same person who does L's voice in English, and when it went nicely with this prompt...I just couldn't resist. I'd strongly recommend looking it up for the prompt. I personally prefer the second version put up by waterwarp88, but the audio is the same on either one.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed!

I'm going to have a massive Death Note marathon on the 27th with my lovely new box set. Best day ever? I do believe so.

I don't own Death Note.

December 23
Roots Day


Light had somehow gotten a decent night's sleep. Really, considering the torture he was put through the previous day, he was almost certain the task would've been a losing battle. He never had it in him to check his closet when he was back at home for the fear of finding it in complete disarray. To put everything back in place…god, if she had done as much damage as she was capable of…he'd be working at it for hours. Even though that was incredibly daunting, he couldn't wait for the month to end so he could go back to his own bedroom. Oh, how he missed sweet, sweet privacy…

However, Light not was not awake. At least, not fully awake. He was caught in that awful realm between sleep and waking, where dreams and what happened in reality would blur together. If someone were to nudge him and hand him a cookie, for instance, he'd eat the thing. But when he'd wake fully, Light would scarcely be able to remember if it had happened or not. Outside sounds and smells would drift into his still-dreaming mind and merge with it in such a way that the dream was completely indistinguishable from fact. Thus, when he heard a voice singing softly, he remained wrapped in blankets and listened so that the voice wouldn't vanish if he did wake. His mind could barely make sense of the words, as if they weren't in his native tongue.

Alone she sleeps in the shirt of man
With my three wishes clutched in her hand…

He clutched the sheets tighter. It wasn't a woman, no…but a man. Their voice was fragile. It bothered him, but he couldn't place why.

The first that she be spared the pain
That comes from a dark and laughing rain…

No, it wasn't Japanese at all. English. Yes, English.

Consciousness was gradually flooding over him. He tried desperately to push it back, wanting to make sense of the song and the singer. The words were so faint and hard to hear, and yet they held such raw human emotion. The loss of the singer felt piercing. Light didn't dare move. A heavy silence passed before he heard the song resume.

When she finds love
May it always stay true
Yes, I beg for the second wish I made too…

He clutched his sheets tighter. He clutched… A wave a realization flooded over him.

He was awake.

Light was not dreaming. Someone was singing in the bedroom, hoping they were doing so quietly enough so they wouldn't wake him. Their voice was distinctly male. He fought to keep his eyes closed and not look around for the source. And yet they sounded so unbearably…alone.

A loneliness caused by too many winters. Winters they had to face without a coat to warm them and a hand to guide them.

Somewhere in the room, L was singing quietly to himself. Keeping his eyes closed, Light continued to listen.

But wish no more
My life you can take

Shakily the man drew in another breath of air, barely sounding even in the silence of the room.

To have her please just one day wake
To have her –

God damn it, he couldn't take it anymore. Light began to move around in the bed, signaling to the detective that he was waking. The song had stopped at once. He could feel those eyes boring into his head. For a moment he wondered that if he opened his own in time he'd catch that hidden shred of humanity that L had taken out for only himself. The light had yet to trickle through the curtains in those wee hours of the morning.

He cracked his eyelids open just barely. Sure enough, black eyes stared from the edge of the mattress. However, the detective's gaze was blank in contemplation. The moment was gone.

"Ryuuzaki…?" he mumbled, still feigning just being roused from sleep.

"Yes?" The monotone was back.

Damn again.

"What's…the holiday for today…?"

L paused, as if unwilling to answer him. "Roots Day."

Light pushed himself up to a sitting position and rubbed his eye. Well, he may have not been actually sleeping for the past couple of minutes, but that didn't mean he was any less groggy. Was there any correlation between the song and…? Frowning, he returned his gaze to the detective.

"Please tell me it doesn't have anything to do with plants."

L shrugged visibly. "Unless Light-kun counts a family tree as a plant…"

The processing power of Light's brain suddenly kicked into gear. Loneliness. Family. L. He had never talked about visiting his own parents for the holidays. Where were they…? Was there any correlation with the song? He'd never known L to sing. Had he done so before, while Light lied in bed asleep?

"So," Light paused to yawn, then continued, "what should I be doing, then?"

"Tell me something about your younger years. Anything will be fine."

"That's it…?"

"Yes."

"Just some boring old story from then I was so-and-so years old?"

"I believe that is what I said."

"Fine, well…" He was too tired to care if the detective was going to use it as a ploy to see how his past could've shaped him into the infamous mass-murderer. Such analyzing was useless, anyway. "When I was in elementary school, my mother would make me sandwiches shaped like hearts every day. There. Is that enough?"

L blinked. Nothing more. "Was Light-kun ever bullied?"

He gave the detective an odd look. "No, not really. Even if others in my schools had wanted to, I'm sure the fact that my father was the chief of police loomed over their heads."

"Fair enough. Did you favor any particular toy as a child?"

These questions seemed far too planned. That, or L was extremely good at procuring personal questions at a moment's notice. Neither settled with the younger man very well. He wasn't leaving any openings for Light to get a word in to ask him about something. Perhaps…that was it. L would dish out question after question to distract Light from himself. A diversion tactic.

Nevertheless, Light answered once more. "I read books more than I played with toys…but…maybe there was one toy. I lost it when I was about five." He'd momentarily forgotten about L's ulterior motives and gazed listlessly down at the comforter, digging through his memory banks. "It was a stuffed bear, there was nothing too special about it…but it was soft. Really soft, actually."

"What about – "

"Ryuuzaki, what was your childhood like?"

L's mouth still remained slightly open, caught off-guard.

"That information is classified."

Light rolled his eyes. "Is that your answer to anything that involves you personally?"

"There are things which I simply cannot share, Light-kun."

"Oh? And what happened to 'we have to follow the rules of the holidays to the T', hm?"

The detective frowned. A tense silence filled the air while both stared each other down. His owl-like eyes Light's for what seemed like an eternity before standing. And, for one fleeting moment, Light could've sworn he saw fear flicker in those depths. But why was it there…?

"Let's get some coffee, Light-kun," L stated. "I've been trapped in the bedroom for hours while you slept." He had already begun walking toward the door, pulling on Light's arm behind him.

Light quickly stumbled off of the bed, following the raven-haired man as he shuffled into the kitchen. He was too perplexed to feel annoyance, really. L went to work at measuring water and coffee grounds the second they arrived. It seemed as though he thought one milliliter of water less would impact the coffee so greatly that he had to make sure the accuracy of each cup rivaled a chemist's own work. Light merely leaned against a counter as L continued to busy himself needlessly.

Once everything was in place and the "on" button was pressed, L turned around to face the younger man.

"Light-kun, please listen carefully because I don't intend on repeating myself…nor do I plan on going into detail. Do you understand?"

The younger man's eyebrows furrowed together. "All right… Go ahead, then." He could feel anticipation rising in his chest. Were L's parents famous? Did they know their son was L, of all people? Where did they live? Did he have any brothers or sisters? Where did he go to school? Pets? Questions swirled around in Light's mind until they threatened to make him dizzy.

It was then he realized that he knew little about L.

L lifted his eyes to stare into Light's once more. They did not stray from there, nor did he blink once.

"My father died when I was five and my mother died when I was eight. I lived in orphanages until I was eleven. I solved my first case at fourteen. That is all I care to disclose with you at the present time."

Light barely could comprehend that he started saying until it was too late.

"Was the song about her?"

L's entire body went rigid at once. His eyes, however, remained fixed on Light and unchanging.

"What song?" the raven-haired man asked. His voice was as calm and collected as always, and yet…

Swallowing, Light spoke again. It was far too late to turn back, and he began to hunger for answers. "The song you were singing in the bedroom while I slept."

L's voice almost cracked. Almost. "You heard…? How much did you hear?"

"Most of it, I think… Was it about your mother?"

It was then that the detective finally tore his gaze from Light's eyes to look at his feet instead. A soft "yes" was mumbled. The younger man took a step forward, but L's voice rang out again, but far more clear.

He still did not meet Light's gaze.

"She slowly died of pancreatic cancer. She was…all I had left."

For a moment, Light thought of growing up without his father…and then losing his own mother? Watching her waste away in a hospital bed, still a kid and unable to do anything. No Sayu to provide support. The thought actually frightened him. Death Note or not, to lose those things that had been constants his entire life…

L had lost everything.

He wasn't a letter on a screen. He wasn't a crime-solving machine. He wasn't an unfeeling robot.

He was a human being who had lost all things that were familiar to him at the tender age of eight.

Suddenly, Light forgot for a few moments that he owned a notebook that could kill. He forgot he was Kira and that L was the world-famous detective out to put him away in prison for the rest of his life. Standing in the kitchen was only Light Yagami and L.

Light found himself taking slow steps toward the detective. The man's pallid fingers tightened slightly on the counter behind him upon noticing Light's advancement. And, just as he began to lift his chin to search for the younger man's face a pair of arms wrapped around his chest. Whatever thought that began to form in his endlessly-processing mind vanished. All he could feel was a warmth around him, the sudden sensation making him release a shiver. His face was pressed against the cotton fabric of Light's sleeping-shirt. He could hear his heart beat softly and –

No…

L finally found himself able to respond, bringing his hands to push against the youth's chest. Light stumbled back, confusion written on his face.

Before he even had a chance to give Light a verbal-lashing, the younger man had beat him to the punch. There was no malice or annoyance…only perhaps a small amount of disappointment. A damper went immediately on his rising anger.

"Ryuuzaki, it seems the reason to me why you still have nothing…is because you are continually pushing people away."

L could find no comeback. No retort. Nothing that could disprove Light's claim. Words tumbled from his open mouth.

"You're right."

The statement said out-loud…by himself, no less…frightened him all he more. It was a truth that he'd put off the side and desperately forgotten while he busied himself day after day. There was no time to feel alone when working a case. There was no time to keep friendships or other frivolous personal bonds.

L quickly filled in the gap that had been created between the two men mere moments before. He buried his face in Light's shirt and clutched tightly. The other man did not struggle against L's desperation but he could feel his heartbeat quicken against his forehead. One hand left its place resting on the detective's hunched back and for a brief second L feared that Light would draw away…until it came back down to rest on top of his head, but not without hesitation. He only allowed his eyes to droop and his muscles to loosen until that hand gently began to stroke his hair, just as his mother had. L released a soft sigh.

The sun finally began to peer over the horizon, its rays slowly filtering into the silent kitchen.