Disclaimer: My name is King, DO NOT TOUCH THINGS THAT HAVE FIRE COMING OUT OF THEM, and I do not own Death Note.
Devil's Trill
II: Things Important
CH13
The Father
Tentatively, L approached the unshaved man with bags under his and offered him one of his sugar donuts.
Soichiro Yagami looked terrible. He was old and weak and he smelled like an old and weak man, he smelled like sweat, coffee, hair and the greasy air of insomnia created a gross aura around him, and if L wasn't feeling responsible he would have stayed a hundred feet back.
Instead, L found himself offering the man a donut.
The humanity.
L excused himself by reasoning he was doing this only to get close enough to the man so that he would tell L about Light's condition.
"Here," he said in an unnecessarily loud tone when the chief of NPA hadn't noticed L creep up behind him. Yagami jumped up and stared at L in shock for a brief moment before rejecting the donut and turning back to the L reports he had read a hundred times over the past thirty hours.
"Yagami-san needs to eat," L reasoned.
Yagami shook his head half-way, but then he grabbed the highlighter, marked something on the page and rampaged through a stack of documents for a few minutes as if something important caught his eye, and then he helplessly sat back down with no miraculous new lead, again.
"Yagami-san needs to sleep."
"Ryuzaki," said the man without turning to him, "I'm fine."
"Yagami-san has been awake for forty hours. He needs to sleep."
"You've been awake for forty hours to see me awake for forty hours, so it's not your place to talk about sleep."
"Yagami-san, there's nothing you can do," L offered, pulling up a chair next to the chief, but half-way though lowering himself into it he fall off because the chief shook the chair and yelled at him.
"But there is nothing," L said from the floor.
"For fuck's sake, have you heard the tape, Ryuzaki?! Have you heard what that bastard did to him?! That's my son! I will personally shoot that son of a bitch myself, he is not touching my son ever again! You hear me, Ryuzaki?!"
L heard him, a little too loudly perhaps, but L heard him.
"Does Yagami-san think L will kill Raito-kun?"
The man took his head into his hands and sucked in air.
"I won't let him, so I have to find him, I have to-"
"Yagami-san needs rest."
The chief refused to go home and L gave up and left the man alone in the main floor of the L HQ, got into the elevator and slammed his head against the elevator's mirror wall.
---
"We've put Misa Amane under protective surveillance."
"And?"
"We moved Raito," muttered Matsuda in his report to Misora Naomi who after deeming the chief of police high on coffee proclaimed herself the new (temporary) leader of the L investigation.
Reye Penber typed up angry e-mails to his wedding guests and pulled up L-related materials when Naomi passed by.
Despite the ridiculous predicament the L-investigation team was in, the investigating got much more serious. In her one day with Japanese L-related data, Naomi managed to link Yotsuba-L with L and suspiciously eyed Mello every time he graced the lower levels of Ryuzaki Rue's building with his presence.
Every time he would come in close range, she would make a show of getting up and then in a whisper loud enough for the room to hear, she would say, "are you absolutely sure that," and she would point to the innocent-looking Ryuzaki Rue, "isn't L?"
It was funny at first, but after fifteen or so attempts at pissing L off, it got annoying.
Mello ran out of hideous things to compare L to, so finally, he said.
"Yes, you know what, that's L."
"Really?" Naomi said and clapped her hands.
"Umm... no."
"Dang it."
It was much more entertaining to watch them.
Mello and Naomi smiled icily at each other and when they thought nobody was looking, they circled each other like sharks. Their pleasantries were as fake as their smiles and when they picked up random objects, they savored slow and painful deaths they imagined these objects would bring to each other.
For them, things were normal.
They weren't unused to the odd sensation of having Yagami Light inaccessible to them.
"I miss Raito-kun," mumbled L to Matsuda when everyone else was too busy to listen to him.
Matsuda sighed and gave up sorting through stacks of papers.
"Yeah, me too."
L knew they took Light somewhere else, but to avoid the temptation of visiting him he hadn't asked Matt where to. The team was more than hesitant in terms of telling him. Matsuda and the chief were the only ones who still thought L wasn't L.
"Does Matsuda-san know how he is?"
"He's... bad."
The air was crisp and the sheets had a pleasant scent of lavender fabric softner; the fabric was soft against his face and the gentle midday light that penetrated the window, curtains and sheets glowed softly against the backs of his eyelids. His eyelashes ticked his cheeks when he blinked and his clean, dry hair fathered against his temples and brow. It was nice.
It was nice behind the bolted doors and bolted windows and curtains and blankets. It was nice. He would not come out.
"Raito, you have to eat."
Light ignored whoever disturbed the fresh scent of his room with the scent of food, and when they approached him, he curled tighter into himself. When they touched his shoulder, he jerked and the paperbag of takeout went flying.
"Raito-"
"Don't touch him, Matsuda," Light heard his father say.
Just great, perfect. His father was here.
"Go away, dad," he told him, but his voice failed him and it came out as a high-pitched whine rather than the demand he wanted it to be.
"Raito, I'm sorry."
Run.
"Dad, go away. This has nothing to do with you. You don't get to make me feel guilty for feeling responsible yourself. You have nothing to do with this."
"Son-"
"Go away."
"Raito, just eat."
"Will you go away if I eat?"
"I will."
Light's tense muscles unclenched and the cold tingling shot though his sleeping limbs. His fingers and hands and legs were numb and his joints were white from the pressure he's applied to them. The side that supported his entire weight for ten-something hours hurt and his shoulder blade gurgled at him when he tried moving the freed arm. He uncoiled slowly, avoiding all unnecessary movement and clenching tightly at the blanket, he poked his head into to the bright and airy hotel room and cringed.
The light was too bright, the air was too fresh and the lavender scent was sickening. He hid back into his shell immediately, already regretting the decision of coming out, even just for a second. As he uncoiled from his ball, his stomach muscles relaxed and now he was aware that he was starving. His stomach made an embarrassing noise.
Then he saw it: a shadow, tall and dark, looming over him, he could see it though the blanket as it blocked the light, and he backed away from it into the other corner of his plush sanctuary.
The shadow drew nearer and Light pressed himself against the headboard. His teeth chatted. The sickening smell of food made him gag and Light screwed his eyes shut until the white circles at the back of his eyelids became so bright that they blinded him.
And then it was over, the figure went away and warm mass radiated heat though the blanket. After waiting it out, Light cautiously stuck his hand out and felt for whatever it was, grabbed it and stuffed it back under the blankets.
A brown paperbag was warm and delicious hot vapor steamed from the top. Inside his cocoon, food didn't smell disgusting at all, and Light was sure he could manage a few bites.
"Eat," he heard his father say quietly.
Slowly, allowing his fingers trace the dull edges and folds of the bag, Light unwrapped the top and extracted one of at least five triangular packages. He took his time, delicately unwrapping the food and then sniffing it cautiously. It smelled delicious and his stomach growled again. Ignoring the crumbs, Light opened his lips and sunk his teeth into the grilled sandwich.
Turkey.
Delicious.
He chewed slowly and carefully even though the bite he took was miserable and swallowed after making sure the sandwich bit turned into perfect goo.
Then he took another small bite.
"Good, he's eating," his father said quietly and Light realized his own father has lied to him.
He felt numb.
"You promised you would go away!"
"Only if you eat, son, are you eating?"
Light backtracked the conversation and realized that that was in fact the deal. He took another bite and chewed thoroughly.
"Yes, I'm eating," he said with his mouth full. The crumbs fell to his clean sheets and some got into his shirt, and his back began to itch.
"Good. It will make you feel better, but eat."
"I feel fine, how are you feeling, dad?"
"I'm alright. The team is good, too. They're working really hard to keep you safe, so you don't need to worry."
"What about Ryuzaki?"
"Ryuzaki?'
"How is Ryuzaki?"
"He's good."
"Does he miss me?"
"What?"
"Does he miss me?"
"Yeah, he misses you, Raito, he told me this morning," Light heard Matsuda say.
"Tell him I miss him too."
Light swallowed and considered what else he wanted to know.
"Can he come here?"
"No."
"Instead of Matsuda?"
"No Raito, he can't come here."
"Tell him I miss him."
"We will."
Light ate the rest of the sandwich in silence while he heard whispers he could not make out coming from somewhere outside. He heard someone say 'L' something.
L.
L won.
There was nothing Light could do but stay put and wait for him. He half-heartedly tried again, knowing his poor attempt would fail.
"Can I talk to Misa yet?"
"Not yet Raito, she's safe though. We have put her under surveillance, she's safe from L. She doesn't even need to know she was ever in danger. It's alright. She's safe."
"Can I please talk to her? I miss her too."
"I'm sorry Raito, we can't risk either one of you contacting each other."
"Please?"
"No, I'm sorry. She misses you too, if it helps. She called you twenty eight times today, can you believe it? Maybe you were right about her."
So Misa already knew, and she didn't know what to do.
Without Light, she would do the only logical thing.
He was trapped.
L won.
Light wanted Ryuzaki, Light wanted to say goodbye to him. The idea of Ryuzaki being in the same room with him was safe. Selfishly, Light wanted Ryuzaki to die with him so that he wouldn't have to die alone.
"Can I talk to Ryuzaki?"
"No."
Light absently opened another sandwich and took a bite, and felt evidence of hopelessness stream down his face freely.
Chicken.
--
"He's scared."
Though a small monitor, L watched the pathetic outline of Light under the blankets twitch slightly and curl up tighter, as if trying to shrink out of existence altogether.
L's lips were numb and lack of sugar in his diet lately had taken a toll on his mood. Sugar kept the adrenaline and the hyper twitches shooting though his body; caffeine kept him exited and awake and alive.
L loved drugs, and two overdoses were two overdoses too many. He kicked cocaine and sugar, in large quantities became its replacement.
But what could he do when the pleasant rush and ADD-type distraction weren't welcome in his state of mind? He didn't want it, he didn't want anything cheery, and so a grim flown has taken residence on his face. His eyes were narrow and both Mello and Matt kept their safe distance with guns ready should L decide to go psycho on them.
L supposed it was because Light was gone.
Soon, he found himself telling his unsettled mind, he'll be yours, and no one will ever take him away from you.
His gut told him that wasn't the problem, and he couldn't figure out what the hell it was for the life of it.
And so he came to this point, lazily slumped in Matt's chair, his legs touching ground and a whiskey at hand, staring at the monitor where a tiny person was terrified of the cracking sounds the furniture made.
It didn't settle. L was watching Light, watching him, and without a single exception, every person he'd watched in such a manner ended up in raw pieces of flesh by morning.
Light was warm, and his skin was warm, and if L touched his lips to the right places, he could hear the lively heartbeat though the warm, tender flesh. Light was a living, breathing person.
L didn't want to imagine him otherwise.
"When is he going to find the damn phone?" he barked, and from somewhere ten safe feet away, Matt told him that they packed six sandwiches in there and Light had to get though most of them before he found it.
L poured himself another glass, but it was too shallow, or the bottle was too empty, or something, but clear butterscotch-colored liquid flew smoothly over the edges of the glass.
L half-emptied it in one swig, and it burned his throat and made him feel warm, though the odd numbness in his joints remained. His cavity-ridden teeth and tender gums felt on fire, but it didn't burn enough.
"Which one of you idiots had the brilliant idea to dilute this with water?"
Mello assured him he was just imagining things after a shot too many, but L knew what his alcohol was supposed to taste like, and Mello and Matt were known to cover their asses. It didn't matter though, the bottle had a deathsentence anyway, watery or not.
And then the status window in the corner of the monitor blinked a green light next to the little bar of Light's phone.
--
Light held the little flip phone with the tips of his fingers by the antennae, much like Ryuzaki would hold it.
It was white, too big, and it had a little old-English L at the back of it, as if to leave no doubt just who it is was from. Light wanted to scream and toss the filthy thing against the wall, he wanted to throw it out of his safe haven, but he knew another one would come. Nowhere was really safe.
His hands shook and his face cringed, and slowly, touching it as little as he could, he opened the thing and dialed Misa.
Call Failed.
No surprise there. The sound was disabled and the keypad made no beeping when Light pressed the buttons. So L knew Light was hiding under the blankets where surveillance guys couldn't see what he was doing. Somewhere in a cave full of bats and dripping water, L was sitting and watching him too.
And then the phone shamelessly rang.
Every muscle in Light's body twitched and every blood cell went haywire.
He tore the blankets off and without giving it a second thought, he tossed the phone against the wall: it did some damage and bounced off to the carpet, but it did not stop ringing. Instead it lay there, tiny, alive and breathing, and Light glared at it, willing it to blow up and die.
L must be having a blast watching him.
Suddenly conscious of how stupid he must look, Light hopped off gracefully, casually retrieved the phone back to the bed and dropped it to ring away on the blankets. He was wearing pajamas, and suppressing the mental image of himself climbing up on the bed awkwardly, Light climbed up on the bed awkwardly, folded his legs under himself and straightened his back before facing the phone like he would face a person, with the phone sitting a foot away from him with the speaker option on.
"L," he greeted dryly.
"Light," a high-pitched mechanical voice greeted him back, and all Light could do to suppress the odd jolt of electricity down his spine was to stay as still as he could.
"What is it now," Light told the phone. A pause at the other end indicated L wasn't amused.
"Aren't you in the least bit curious how I managed to pull this off?"
"No," Light declared.
"Alright."
It was quiet for a while, and Light debated if L went through all this supposed trouble just to hang up on him.
"I want to apologize," the cold voice scrambler sounded as apologetic as a toaster would be after burning the bread to coal, "for all wrongs I have done to you."
Light said nothing. What could he say? It wasn't his place to speak.
Mentally, Light spat at the notion of accepting the apology.
"So you seek forgiveness before you do away with people? That's a case development," he muttered icily, not flinching or giving in to the need to toss the phone against the wall again.
"I think you know that isn't what I plan on doing."
Light considered. If L wanted to have this conversation...
"Is the surveillance off?"
"Yes."
"All of it?"
"Yes."
He shouldn't have asked; it didn't matter anyway. L might as well lie, and if the voice recorders were on, Light only had hours of freedom left anyway.
"Well then," Light debated a moment more before smiling a humorless smile and declaring in an unnaturally animated tone, "well, you fucking bastard."
"Thank you."
"How did you know?"
"Misa Amane."
"Is she running yet?"
"She is about to."
Light frowned bitterly.
"L, I have a request," Light tried to sound reasonable, and not desperate at all.
"Your request isn't a priority," L shot him down, "I will deal with this once what I have to say is said."
Light frowned again, subconsciously straightening his back even further made his joints ache.
"Right. You want to apologize," Light mimicked cruelly.
"I thought perhaps we will attempt to work things out before you are in my possession."
"Right." Phones were vulnerable to being battered with heavy objects. Light went though the list of everything in the room that would do the job.
"I'd like to know what has upset you most."
"Nothing L, you're perfect."
"I suspect it was the shower incident."
"Good guess."
"It was a whim, Light. I am sorry about that; it was not worth mental anguish it had caused you. I apologize."
"What's my state of mind to you?"
"I can't have you unresponsive."
Light felt his lower lip twitch in disgust and said nothing.
L continued.
"You were quite alright with our arrangement before the incident, were you not?"
"I was fucking glorious, what about you?"
"I am sorry one stupid stunt has made you change your mind so drastically."
"Stop saying you're sorry. You sound like an idiot."
"On the contrary, I regret the consequences. But you're right. Not my actions."
Light sighed.
"Our latest encounter," the voice reminded him, and all self-control Light had over his still figure was lost and a heavy shudder tore though his body. "Did you like that?"
Physically it was fine.
Mentally though, it was far worse than anything. His father looking down at him in the tub, the team gathering around him, looking at him pitifully, everything... it was humiliating, it was the worst, worst next to only knowing that from then on, safety and privacy was an unimaginable luxury he would never have again.
"Sure."
"Was the ice alright?"
"It was fine, now drop it!" Light snapped. "My request!"
L understood not to push the matter further, or the phone will suffer.
"I am listening to your request now."
"Ryuzaki Rue."
"Your boyfriend."
"Ryuzaki Rue," Light reminded, "if you're gonna change your mind and kill me... you know what, even if you won't kill me-"
"You want me to spare your boyfriend's life?" mechanical voice hit a note of amusement.
"No. I want you to kill Ryuzaki no matter what happens to me. I will be in hell whether I live or die. I want Ryuzaki in hell, too."
It was quiet.
The pause was long enough for Light to consider the possibility L hung up on him and went after Ryuzaki right away.
"That's quite selfish," the phone said after a few minutes.
---
"Uh, chief?"
"What's wrong Matsuda?"
"Misa Amane-"
"Good god!"
"No! She's fine, she just..."
"What?"
"She ran away, sir."
L smiled inwardly from his chair; it was too late to change anything, why would he, it was such a brilliant, flawless plan. But it would put Light though hell, and it wasn't a problem before, but suddenly L wanted nothing more than to make Light feel safe.
He felt sick; all the acid and dry sucrose from the whiskey boiled upwards from his stomach and he had to grip onto the arms of his chair not to heave at once.
What had he done?
Naomi noticed this. To hell with her.
"What? Why?"
"Don't know. We're tracking her. She just grabbed a few books and took off."
---
He stormed into the penthouse and startled Mello.
"What the fuck else can I do wrong?!"
"What?" Said Mello, apparently confused.
"The Yagami! How much-"
"What are you yelling at me for? I'm still in trauma! Rape victim here, hello? Be more considerate," said Mello and swirled his hair around his finger. Hair-swirling meant the place was bugged. L rolled his eyes.
"I have generously allowed you to stay on my premises," L recited for whoever was listening, "it's your responsibility to hear me bitch! Now Yagami wouldn't take my donut-"
Mello took the hint and demanded L takes him to four-in-the-morning-breakfast.
"They're on to you," Mello said when they got into the car.
"Mello's observations are impeccable."
"Naomi's pushing for your classified Ryuzaki Rue records."
"How long?"
"Matt's got no clue. Very soon, you'll be one fucked, dead L."
"Thank you Mello, that is exactly what I needed to hear."
"You're welcome."
"I'm sure."
"A warrant for Yagami Light's arrest was issued ten minutes ago, by the way."
A warrant for Light's arrest was out.
Just as planned. L cringed.
"Well you look happy your plan is working," Mello sized up L critically, "I say, you ditch the whole plan thing."
L must have looked very angry, because when he saw Mello's hand inch for his gun, L apologized.
"I will not hurt Mello."
"Mello's not sure about that anymore."
"Mello-"
"Mello really thinks you should ditch this whole thing, it's really getting to you. I'm not sure about anything anymore."
"I can't," L unbuckled the seatbelt and hugged his knees. Mello looked at him pitifully and almost smashed the car against a streetlight pole.
"There's something wrong with you, you know that?"
A phone rang somewhere and abandoning all navigating of the car, Mello produced a very typical of Mello LG Chocolate.
L was sick of phones.
"Matt... - oh for fucks sake! - yes he's here. - no, are you kidding me, I'm not saying- Matt, drop it. - No, if you don't drop it, I'll polish that bike of you with your intestines. - Dude, shut up. - Seriously. – I'm not...- No. - Well fuck you too!"
L did not comment on the conversation or Mello's suddenly degraded mood when Mello sped though two traffic lights.
"I fucking swear, one day he'll wake up with a bullet in his head."
"I assume what he had to say wasn't an intelligence report."
"No, it's a fucking message for you."
"And-?"
"And he's been bugging me all day with it! 'Tell him man, tell him, you gotta tell him'!"
"Tell me what?"
"Matt," Mello flashed his teeth angrily, "would like me to tell you that he has a very bad feeling about your plan."
"A bad feeling?"
"You have no idea how annoying that idiot is!" Mello whipped his long blonde hair around.
L's own phone rang, and when L saw an unlisted number on the caller ID, he blinked to double check. This was the first time Matt has called L himself.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Mello fumed.
"Matt," L answered.
"Uh... hi. I just gotta tell you, about your plan, well… sorry to call you by the way," came the stream of awkwardness from the other line.
"Yes, Matt?"
"I have a really bad feeling."
Light: What? I'm getting arrested? Why? (theories plz).
A/N: …oh, the heavy symbolism of a chicken sandwich!
Light: Oh, your burnt, crispy fingers.
L: Oh, the fast phase of the chapter! Next two chappies are the really cool stuff.
Light: The end is near!
L: Not even close.
A/N: DELAYED UPDATE IS DELAYED! REVIEW PLEASE, I LOVE YOU ALL!!
l
l
l
V