A/N: Hahaha! Wow! I suck balls!

I mean, damn, I'm one of the worst authors in the world for keeping you people waiting so long! Geez, I bet half of you won't even want to bother with this story anymore. Hell, I don't blame you. I have excuses, reasons, writer's block woes etc, but I'll save that bullshit for another time, huh?

This chapter is dedicated to everyone who's been waiting for my slow ass to update, and especially to those who never gave up on me, most specifically Jen -- random reader, LxLight is the best!, and Ileranerak.

Also, special dedication to Kari Kurofai, who sent me a PM with a link to two youtube videos done for AoD and asked me if that would get me updating again. I was like, "Hell yeah!" and then waited another month before I got this up here. Sorry, Kari Kurofai, but thanks man. You rock. And feel free to make as many as you want! Links'll be up on my profile tomorrow!

And even more special dedication to Cameron Kennedy, who has more than once threatened to hold certian things ransom and to kick my ass if she didn't get an update. Thanks, girl!

Okay, okay, enough my blabbering.

Here's the next installment.

The Art of Drowning

That Chapter You've Been Waiting For

The air was crisp, and the cold was particularly biting, but Light did his best to ignore it – until he sneezed.

"Aw, shit," he murmured as he looked for a suitable place to wipe his hand. With no alternative in sight, Light grudgingly swiped his hands across the grass. There was no way in hell he'd lower himself to soiling his trousers, and no matter how juvenile the act he'd just committed was, it was a necessary evil.

"Fucking English weather," he sniffed, trying to clear his slowly conjesting nasal passages. It had been gradual, and Light hadn't even noticed that it was coming on until just a few moments ago, but it was obvious that his lack of sleep had severely compromised his immune system. The stress probably didn't help, and he knew for damn sure that the chilly temperature was only encouraging his declining health.

"Hurry up, Lawli," muttured Light as he let his head thump softly against the high brick walls of the orphanage gate. He had the urge to let his back slide down the wall until he was sitting, but figured he'd fall asleep if he got too comfortable. He needed to be alert if things went south.

Speaking of south, Light sure wouldn't mind being somewhere south of England. Africa, perhaps. Maybe Egypt. He'd love to be in a desert right about now. Seeing the pyramids would be an added bonus. Maybe him and Lawli could go there one day, now that they'd found each other.

He vaguely remembered that they had planned to go looking for lost treasures in Egyptian tombs one day when Light was around five, but then Walter had told them that the mummies would eat them. Light had pictured middle aged women coming at them with forks and knives before Lawli told him what an Egyptian mummy was. Lawli didn't want to go after that, but maybe he would go with Light later, after all this bullshit with Roger was over.

Light shook his head, trying to remove such inane thoughts. They weren't making him any warmer, and they wouldn't do him any good here in the middle of the English countryside. He checked his watch again. Thirty three minutes. Did it honestly take thirty three minutes to retrieve a single laptop? Light blew out his breath, watching as it lazily hung in the air before disappating. Damn, it was cold.

And L was taking too long.

"Holy shit. I think you killed him."

"Psh. He's fine. Just knocked out."

"How do you know?!"

"Look! He's breathing, isn't he? So he's not dead!"

"Oh my God we are going to get in so much trouble for this!"

"Like hell we are!"

"Why did you have to knock him out?! We don't even know who he is! He might've supposed to been in here!"

"Fuck that! He's stealing L's stuff! We'll get a reward if anything, and the best part is that Near wasn't the one -"

"I don't want to hear you whining about Near right now! I want to hear about what we're gonna do with this weirdo before he wakes up!"

"Fine, arsehole. Hmph. . . kinda looks like he's on meth, doesn't he?"

"How do you know what someone on meth looks like?"

"Internet."

"Damn it Mello, I -"

"Shh!"

Matt froze, and looked towards the door in apprehension, his ears straining, but nothing was heard. He turned his glare back to the blonde and opened his mouth.

Mello waved his hand hard in warning, his face snarling, and Matt let his mouth close with a small click. His lips pursed, and his eyes narrowed. Mello was probably just screwing with him. Maybe this was a Mello way of winning the tiff they were in. He wouldn't be surprised if –

Creak.

Matt's head jerked towards the door, and his heart thumped hard against his chest. Shit. Someone was just outside the door, and Matt would bet money that whoever it was had heard them. Well, they had been whispering at least, so maybe not, but Matt figured their luck wasn't that good. They were about to get caught – he just knew it.

The door knob was turning.

"Hide!" hissed Mello as he grabbed Matt's arm and threw them both behind the couch.

The door groaned open.

"Ryuuzaki?" whispered a voice.

Matt and Mello looked at each other. Mello raised an eyebrow in question, but Matt shook his head. He couldn't tell who it was since the person was whispering, and neither of them knew who Ryuuzaki was either.

"La – Ryuuzaki!" exclaimed the voice, louder this time. Matt jumped, recognizing the voice instantly.

Apparently, so had Mello, if the sudden straightening in his back was any indication.

"Oh, thank God," came the man's voice, softer this time, and Matt suddenly got a bad feeling when he heard the relief in that voice. He reached out to Mello, thinking at keeping the idiot out of sight before he alerted the detective to their presence, but the blonde was too fast.

"Light!" exclaimed Mello, popping up from behind the couch, Matt following after a moment's hesitation and a small, practically inaudible groan.

"Ahh!" yelled Light in surprise. He had been crouched beside "Ryuuzaki," but lost his balance and fell back with a dull thump when Mello had appeared from seemingly nowhere in the barely moonlit darkness.

"What the – Mello? Matt?" asked Light in obvious confusion.

"Yeah, it's us!" exclaimed Mello. The blonde was beside himself at meeting L or Light or whatever he wanted to call himself again, and Matt had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. However, he couldn't deny his own excitement at seeing the greatest detective in the world, and he couldn't help but feel grudgingly awed to be in the presence of someone so important, especially since that someone was fairly decent at video games.

But Light, or L, wasn't smiling. In fact, he looked downright angry.

Matt gulped.

The bad feeling was back.

When Light had given up waiting after close to forty five minutes in the cold, he hadn't expected to find the room he had briefly stayed in so quickly, and he sure hadn't expected the door to be unlocked. One thing he had expected though, however much he tried not to, was stumbling over L's dead body somewhere along the way, but he resolutely pushed those fears down as he opened the door.

He hadn't stumbled over any bloody bodies as he traipsed through the halls, so there was a good chance that he wouldn't find any bodies in this room. Right?

Light couldn't have been more upset to have that particular expectation proven false.

Or, at least, that is what he had thought at first. A quick examination proved that L was just unconcious, not dead, and Light couldn't have stopped the sigh of relief.

But when Mello and a hesistant Matt appeared from behind the sofa, it didn't take a genius like Light to put two and two together.

And Light was pissed.

"You knocked him out!" accused Light.

That wiped the smile of Mello's face. "That dickhead was stealing your stuff! We couldn't let him get away! It could have been something important, what with you being L and all! He could have been trying to steal evidence! Or something top secret that could be used to blow up Russia or something!"

Light felt his anger disappate instantly, but carefully kept his face schooled in its previous expression, letting nothing of the shock show. They thought he was L?

Light's mind worked furiously.

"Look, we're sorry. We didn't know that you knew him, and we made a mistake, but look at it from our side, we were only trying to help," tried Matt, holding his arms out imploringly.

Light stopped himself from smirking. He hadn't felt so much like Kira in all the time since that fateful day so many weeks ago when he'd realized L's identity.

He had a plan.

And damned if it wasn't a good plan.

"So you two figured it out, huh?" asked Light, his voice purposefully towing the line between anger and slight respect.

Matt and Mello shared a look.

"Yeah, we did," said Mello, his voice challenging Light.

Light let the smirk he'd been holding back blossom. "Good job. I was wondering if you would."

"You were?" asked Matt, incredulous.

"Of course," said Light smoothly. Now what had L said about coming to Whammy's? "That's the reason I'm here. I'm getting to know the top contenders for the title of L. I would be disappointed if you hadn't realized my true identity."

"But nevertheless," continued Light, "I can't say that I'm altogether pleased that you've knocked my associate unconcious."

Matt and Mello shared another look, this time with a definitely flair of guilt mixed in.

"We were just trying to protect your shit," reasoned Mello, folding his arms and glaring at Light like it was his fault that the boys had knocked out L.

Light let his eyebrow raise in amusement. "And I appreciate that, but I wished you had let my associate retrieve my things like I had sent him to do."

"Why? Are you going somewhere?" asked Matt, his voice laced with curiousity.

If Light could, he would have smiled. Hook, line, and sinker.

"Yes, I am. It's top secret. As of now, not even Watari knows where I'm going, and I want to keep it that way for a bit," said Light, his voice stern.

"We won't tell anyone! Promise!" exclaimed Matt.

"Where are you going?" asked Mello, just as eager.

Light debilitated. He was taking a gamble here, but he couldn't think of anything that would keep the kids off his back and maybe hold off Watari for a bit longer if Watari really was a good guy. Here went nothing.

"I'll tell you, but that depends on if you can find me paper and a pen," said Light.

He had never seen two people move so fast in his life. One second, the boys are standing there, the next they are flying towards the secretarial in the corner that Light had never really noticed before.

"Here!"

"There you go!"

Light took the offered paper from Matt, and that pen from Mello, and composed a quick message on the coffee table. He folded the paper once, twice, and handed it to Mello.

Mello looked like someone had just handed a check for a million pounds.

"There's been a new development with the case I was working on – one I thought had been solved. Watari is at the hospital with Roger, and because I don't know Roger's condition, I won't take Watari away from his side until Roger is well or the funeral's been arranged. I called my associate, Ryuuzaki, to stand as Watari's temporary replacement until such a time as Watari can return to his duties. I must return to the country I was just in."

"That note –" Light pointed at the note in Mello's hand "- is for Watari's eyes only. I have no doubt that you will peak, but I ask that you show no one else. When you give it to Watari, tell him this, and only this. 'Bring scones and earl grey when you come.' He'll know what it means, and don't breathe a word extra, even if he asks. Especially not my name, nor the assumed name you've known my by, and definitely not my associate's. I don't want anyone overhearing and knowing we've had contact. Remember, he'll be looking to see if you'll divulge anything else, and then he'll report to me. Best to keep tight lipped," said Light, tapping the side of his nose for emphasis.

Matt and Mello nodded their heads in solemn agreement. "We promise we'll do exactly as you ask."

"Yeah, we won't say anything else," agreed Mello.

Light smiled. "Good. I knew I can count on you."

Now came the hard part.

"Well, since you knocked out my associate, I suppose I'll have to carry him. One of you grab that case, and then one of you grab the duffle. I'll get Ryuuzaki."

Carrying an unconcious detective was harder than Light thought it would be. L might have looked fairly light, but his dead weight was more than enough to have Light stumbling a few times down the stairs. Thankfully it seemed as if they were the only ones awake at this hour.

Light knew he wouldn't be able to drag the detective all the way back to the bus stop. He'd have to come up with something . . .

His mind flashed to the garage of headquarters. Cars. Light would bet anything that Whammy's had a decent garage somewhere.

Light paused, leaning against the wall in fatigue that wasn't entirely put on for show.

Mello and Matt stopped behind him.

"You two go on. I'll just be a bit slower. Head to the garage," said Light, sending a small prayer up to whoever the hell was nice enough to listen to him that Whammy's did have a garage.

The boys nodded, and took the lead.

Light smirked.

Looks like he hadn't lost his touch afterall.

The seedy looking motel forty minutes out of Winchester left enough to be desired, but Light honestly couldn't drive any farther. He'd almost run off the road twice in his exhaustion. The fact that the greasy looking man behind the counter took cash was an added bonus.

Light was painfully aware how much the car he'd absconced from the Whammy garage stuck out in the pot-holed parking lot behind the motel, but honestly, it had been the least flashy car in the garage. He would have thought that L would have kept Whammy's outfitted with a few undercover cars like Headquarters had been, but apparently not.

It was late enough at night that no one was around to notice him carrying L's prone body up the flight of stairs to the second floor, and Light had a time manuevering the detective and his luggage through the hotel door, let alone opening it, but Light managed, and gratefully threw the other man, albeit gently, onto the single double bed – the feature offered by the only room left available.

Light kicked off his shoes, pants, and shirt, throwing them to the floor. He was too tired to care about propriety, and besides, it was just Lawli. Wasn't like the other man hadn't seen it all before.

Checking one last time to make sure that L was alright – he'd have a nasty bump – Light flicked the lamp off and fell asleep, unconciously snuggling up to the warmth of L's body.

His head was pounding. That was the first thing he noticed as he blinked sleep from his eyes.

L groaned, trying to turn over in whatever bed he was lying in, but something wasn't letting him. His eyes widened and he stared at the water stained ceiling in confusion.

Where was he?

In a sudden rush of panic, L sat up, knocking whatever had been clingling to him onto the ground. The added elevation made L's head pound, and he winced against the pain, clutching his head and moaning low in his throat.

"Oww," groaned a voice. "Fuck, Lawli. Go back to sleep."

L lifted his head, and turned to see Light climb back into bed, his eyes lingering on the other man's chest before snapping up to meet Light's own bleary eyes.

He flushed.

"You don't have a fever, do you?" grumbled Light, squinting his eyes at L and clumsily fumbling his hand against L's cheek. L grabbed the hand, lowering it before Light could accidently cause anymore pain to his head.

"No, Light-kun," L shook his head, but immediately regretted it. He found it not a little ironic that in trying to keep Light from causing him pain, he'd caused it himself. His hands touched gingerly at the back of his head. He could feel a large, painful lump.

"What happened?" asked L. He knew he had been in Whammy's before someone had knocked him out from behind, but who had it been? Watari? Surely it hadn't been. Had it?

"Matt and Mello knocked you out," murmured Light, pulling the covers back up over both of them.

"Matt and Mello?" exclaimed L, his voice strained and not just a little confused. Matt and Mello? His heirs?

"Mmm. I'll explain later, but we're safe now. Just go back to sleep, 'kay?" said Light, his voice getting softer and softer as he went on.

L sighed, letting the issue go for now.

He settled back down, trying to find the best possible position to rest his head on the pillow that didn't immediately cause his headache to spike in pain. Finally giving up, L threw the pillow on the floor in a fit of frustration. Light watched him through heavy-hooded eyes.

"C'mere," mumbled Light, pulling L to him. "I'll be your pillow."

L stiffened in surprise. He didn't think Light would ever offer something like that if he hadn't been mostly asleep, but complied nonetheless, his head resting on Light's chest, the same one he'd been caught staring at just minutes before. He couldn't help the small blush or the soft, coiling pleasure he felt somewhere in his belly. His headache was suddenly much more bearable.

Light made a small noise of contentment in the back of his throat, clearly more asleep than awake, and threw his arm across L's waist, pulling him impossibly closer. Despite his hesitancy, L found the position decidedly more comfortable that the rock hard motel pillow, and he allowed himself to close his eyes and be happy at where he was, here with Light.

Just this once.

A/N: Annnnd there you have if folks! So tell me what you think. SAY SOMETHING, and don't be shy now!

Until next time (which will be considerably sooner that last time), Quiet's signing off and heading to bed.