Disclaimer: My name is King, I eat my Ikea hotdogs with Ikea ice-cream on them, and I do not own Death Note.
Devil's Trill
IV: Tartini
CH28
The Last Supper
Light was caught.
Red-handed. And it only took Ryuzaki, what, eight weeks to catch him?
"I was checking to see if your keyhole was clogged," he said. "It seems to be a problem in the hospital lately. I volunteered to help out. But yours seems fine, I better go."
And with poise, Light turned on his heels and proceeded crouch over the keyhole of the broom closet adjacent to Ryuzaki's room. He inspected it thoroughly for added effect.
"You are Raito-san, correct?"
And Ryuzaki was L.
"'Raito'? I've heard of him. He's in the trauma wing, isn't he? No, I'm Haruka from the psych ward. But don't tell anyone that, I'm not supposed to be out without a nightpass."
From his position on the floor with his back to L, Light could hear the rustle of L's paper dress as the man shifted his weight from one foot to another in an awkward pause.
"I have been trying to talk to Raito-kun for months, but he would not see me."
"That's too bad, huh? What is he to you, your sweetheart or something?"
"I know you are Raito-san," said L in that even baritone voice of his Light always found to be the first thing to get on his nerves about the man. "I have seen your picture."
Light wasn't sure how much his current state matched any picture L could have seen of him.
The last of his casts was a left arm cast, slung like a great white purse over his shoulder, so stark-clean and white that anyone with a pen handy had always offered to sign it, somehow seeing it an achievement to be the first to sign a fresh cast.
In truth, the cast was to be removed later this afternoon. He had it for nine or so weeks, and hadn't let a single person touch it with a pen.
His hair had grown out a few times, black roots peeking from auburn hair treatment, and Light easily convinced police floaters (that came to visit him in impressive numbers) to take him to a hair salon in exchange for pieces of new information he suddenly remembered, all of which turned out to be useless in the end, but only after his hair was fixed.
He heard the rustling of L's paper dress again and soft pattering of bare feet against the hospital linoleum reached the distance of three or so feet away from him, then stopped in their tracks.
L was standing there, behind him, looking silly in his paper dress, slouching, with wide eyes and tight fists.
Did he want to fight or what?
Without using his hands to help him up, partially because of the cast, partially because if he was to use the only hand he had for leverage he would have had nothing to defend himself with, Light and sized L up for whatever the stupid man had in mind-
L took two quick steps back, short and soft.
Light raised an eyebrow.
"I am not very comfortable with this," L cleared his throat through his stone-dead poker face, and Light had no idea what he was on about.
He was too busy looking L over. The poker face. Light never counted L's large eyes a part of the man's poker face, never. L's eyes, not narrowed into black liquid slits when L was seriously pissed off, were as cute as a baby bird's, and plenty innocent. All a lie, of course, but L's eyes were never the ones to tell the stories. It was the slightest twitch of his lips and nose, the tiniest of wrinkles between the eyebrows Light imagined were in there somewhere.
Still, without thinking too much about it, L looked awkward, valuable and adorable.
Like he normally did.
It was hard to believe that-
"How comfortable should you be when there is a man checking your keyhole at five in the morning when you had two crazies trying to assassinate you with a plastic ruler and fireworks?"
-that this man, virtually identical to the man Light knew, was not the same.
For one, L had no idea who the hell he bloody was.
"On the note of assassinations," short, sweet and straight to the point, "I was surprised at how easily I disarmed them. Is... is Raito-san sure I am not-"
"You're not L. Yes, I'm sure. Ask me again though and I just might say something the surveillance cameras they got on you don't really need to know at all."
L had been trying to talk to Light for eight weeks to ask this exact question.
He nodded in satisfaction.
This was why after making bail of thirty-five million dollars and being guard-free but still confined to the hospital with severe head injuries, L heard (through rumors of course because Light wouldn't see or speak to him) that Light Yagami refused to check out of the hospital after he was deemed healthy enough to go home.
So L paid off the hospital to let Light stay, thinking the gesture of kindness would be repaid with a conversation privilege.
Light, of course, happily stayed.
And still refused to see L.
Though he had made a habit of sneaking around L's room in the middle of the night, hoping to hear L mutter something in his sleep, something that would convince Light the whole amnesia scenario was a scam.
Nothing of this sort happened, other than L looking and acting exactly the way he did when he remembered himself.
For one, in these eight weeks sneaking around, Light never caught L sleep. The gravity of this made their first meeting back in Tsuwano after four months of L's coma when Light caught L passed out on the bed that wasn't his after a nervous breakdown... it made catching L asleep kind of special.
"I will not ask again," L assured him hastily.
"Good."
"…" L stared at him.
"I better go. Keyholes and everything." Light turned to leave, and half-way down the hall the soft pattering of the bare feet fallowed him in a mild jog.
"Raito-san!"
L caught up but kept his distance good three feet away.
"What?"
"Raito-san has mentioned he likes truffles, would he perhaps care to-"
"I did mention any truffles."
L didn't miss a beat.
"Oh? My bad, but it is ill-mannered to withdraw an invitation. I realized last night I have more truffles than I can possibly eat mys- "
"I hate truffles, Ryuzaki."
L looked at him then, in a long, pointed and wondrous stare. Slowly, as if recovering from a mighty blow to the groin, Ryuzaki tired again.
"I also have English Tort-"
"I hate sweets."
L blinked and his mouth fell open slightly, but he found himself speechless. Carefully, he took a cautious step back.
When words came to him, he said the only thing on his mind,
"Raito-san... are you positive that you and… you and I actually… dated?"
The question was so serious and absurd at once that Light couldn't help but let out a short laugh, otherwise he would have choked on it.
"No Ryuzaki. We never dated. We just," fucked, "fooled around."
"…ah."
"Is this all?"
"No," said L firmly despite the defensive distance between them he had created. "I... also have... coffee?"
He paused, to see if Light would defile another vital food item such as coffee. When no 'I hate coffee' comment came and Light just patiently stood there, waiting for L to finish, L proceeded to test the waters further.
"I also have coffee," he said, firmly this time. "It has no sugar so it is not sweet. It is… black coffee? Yes. Black coffee, no sugar. No cream, either. It is the most awfu- ah, pardon me. It is the most… bitter coffee in the whole hospital."
"And?"
"And it is not decaffeinated," said L definitively.
"And where is this wonderful coffee, Ryuzaki?"
"It is in my room. Would Raito-san join me for some early-morning coffee?"
"I would love to join you for some early-morning coffee," said Light and smiled the sweetest of the smiles he had in his disposal.
L gave a short, curt nod and turned on the balls of his feet and pattered back where he came from, expecting Light to follow him.
Light did.
L's private room was a bit more spacious than Light's, but that was about it. White, sterile, except the hundreds of candy packets and boxes and wrappers littering the room like crumbs on the tabletop. Light had no idea how L managed to sneak this stuff in there, but knowing L who apparently had all his habits in tact, L bribed the nurses.
"I apologize for the mess," said L, not sounding apologetic in the least. He stopped then and tasted his own words, as if suddenly realizing that he didn't sound sorry just as much as he wasn't sorry.
Light took the opportunity to sit very casually on L's bed as if it was his own while L was figuring out his own lying patterns.
He had to admit, this was amusing; L was already staring at him disapprovingly for taking a place that was not his. Light pretended he noticed no such stare and folded his legs under himself, still in slippers.
L said nothing on the subject, though he did not sit down next to Light, and Light never bothered fooling himself into thinking it was because L was afraid of people now as nearly all 'people' who came to visit him must have been interrogation officers. No, L would not sit next to Light.
Instead, L slouched a few feet away from the bed.
"I apologize for the mess," he repeated, as indifferent to his own apology as he was before. "I was given hospital jello and I realized I loved sweets. But perhaps I went a little overboard with... this. I am not sure. It certainly does not look normal, does it?"
Light didn't hear any uncertainty or dread or an actual need for answer in that question, but he liked to think he had the basics of L's speech patterns down. The only reason L would ask a pointed rhetorical question was to hint that he was in fact feeling these things and needing an answer.
So naturally, Light considered leaving L hanging and saying nothing. Instead, he humored him.
"No, the candy thing is not normal for any regular human being, but then again you were always quite a bit special."
"Hmm, I see. I take it Raito-san is very angry at me. I would like to find out why."
"No, not really," Light said offhandedly and patted a spot on the bed next to him. "You can come closer, you know. I am not an interrogation officer," he hinted, just enough to let L know Light knew interrogation officers had nothing to do with L keeping his distance.
L did nothing.
"Than I would like to find out why Raito-san keeps insulting me. And no, thank you. I prefer standing where I am."
"I scare you, don't I?" Light smiled slyly and even more so when he realized L absolutely hated his smiles. Every single one of them.
"Yes."
"Is it because you were waiting so long for the only person who would take your side, the only person who had answers – real answers about just who the hell Ryuzaki Rue is, and then you realized somebody like me has them?"
"You disturb me, I confess but-"
"Ah, so I should just cut to the chase since you seem to have a very subdued impression of me. You see, Ryuzaki, I can tell you lies and lies only, about yourself and about everything that you are, and you won't even know it. Not something you wanted to hear this early into our meeting, is it?"
The words spilled from Light's mouth like honey, the alluring and poisonous kind. It was way over the line of any cool teasing he would usually do, he knew this. But this was not 'usually', and he savored it to the last syllable.
L pursed his lips together and stared, and L's wide and black eyes were slowly narrowing into alarming liquid-black slits he thought of earlier.
"Oh don't do that," Light sighed in mock surrender, covering up fake concern on his face with a fake reassuring half-smile. "It's fine. Come here."
He stretched out a hand for L to take.
"That expression Raito-san has," L said, "it disturbs me more than anything so far."
"Hah, you could always tell, I guess," Light shrugged and fanned the fingers of his hand.
After a little more hesitation, L took it, firmly.
What if Light had been that way?
So clueless, so vulnerable, so utterly out of options?
When things had a miniscule chance, however small, to still go well, for both of them, when the whole world didn't know L was L, when Light still had strands of sanity to hang on to, when their world was easy and had so few penalties compared to what they had to face now, at that point L was the one stretching out his hand for Light to grab.
Back at the construction site, four floors above ground, when SWAT teams were on their tails and Light had tricked L to take off his bulletproof west so that he could shoot him. Back then, L offered a way to stop this, to stop all of it; "just take my hand, don't jump, something cheesy, something else," were about the exact words L was saying.
It had never occurred to Light then to actually take L's hand.
The idea of it was just so ridiculous at the time, with his scam going so ridiculously perfect that he just had one last detail left to do, a detail that had to do with putting a bullet in L's heart, and he had done it with a glee.
Hell, even if he could somehow place himself as he was now to that scene, he would not have taken L's hand. There would have been nothing in it for him.
Now that he knew what was ahead, now that they were holding hands much like they could have back then, Light wondered what would have happened if he had taken L's hand and stepped away from the edge, away from the fall and back into L's greedy arms.
If he never pulled out the gun, never aimed it, never squeezed the trigger hard enough... the trigger was so hard to squeeze, though now it sounded completely stupid and could not have lasted more than a fraction of a second, he had struggled with that trigger. The thing wouldn't budge, or maybe his fingers weren't strong enough, or maybe it got stuck, but a thought crossed Light's mind that maybe, just maybe, the gun was broken and would not fire.
He felt something then. In that fraction of a fraction of a second, he felt something.
And then it was gone.
And then the gun went off.
And it was the last real thing Light had felt.
Ever since then, everything was black and white. Satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Boredom. A strive for satisfaction.
What if?
What if he dropped the gun, hesitated a little and grabbed L's hand. L would have pulled him in, and Light would have been still and pale for a minute or so and then he would have screamed. Screamed and cried, cried hysterically for his own sanity and his own identity that he had almost lost.
And Mello would have sprinted in, and ran right out because Reye Penber and his SWAT team would have been right behind him. There would have been no explosion, a lot of people would have been still alive.
Because as Light had found out later L had somehow managed to scramble his own confession on Misora's recording, FBI would have eventually fucked off.
And because of the way Light was, shattered into pieces but healing, because he would have still had the ability to heal, he would have healed around L and somehow convinced himself that L's confession was something L had said just to get Light to calm down.
And then he would have trusted L again. And things would have been peaceful and happy and light, and one day when Light had least suspected it, L would have gotten bored of being a sitting duck and grabbed him and kidnapped him, and took him away, and forced him to confront the reality, and betrayed him on so many levels –
At this point, Light was holding onto L's hand for a little too long, and L's paper dress began to rustle awkwardly again.
They were back at the hospital.
L's cold and smooth hand warmed up a little in Light's, or maybe it was just Light's skin getting used to the cool contact. Suddenly, it felt like a metal rod and Light had been just electrocuted. It was like the sharp, tingling sensation washing over his limp limbs when he tried to move a leg that had fallen asleep, except that it was his hand, and his fingers curved around L's soft palm and his thumb was brushing his knuckles.
Suddenly, he wanted to drop it.
To take back ever offering it.
But then…
As suddenly as images of what could have been flooded his mind, new pictures of what 'could be' started flashing though his head.
This moment, right then and there... it was a blank page, he realized. A fresh, clean roll of long fax paper he could let Ryuzaki – his gullible (and a little adorable, even) Ryuzaki to fill in with purple crayon scribbles.
It was a chance to start completely over.
They could work this out. L could be Ryuzaki Rue, and Light could be Light, and they could be okay. Together even, quite possibly happy.
And all it would take is something that Light did best: a few sweet lies, here and there. Nobody would ever know, and he sure as hell won't feel any empathy or guilt over telling them…
L's knuckles gave a light spasm when his fingers twitched lightly.
They were frozen in the moment.
Light met L's eyes, L's black and round eyes, staring right back into Light's. L's eyes mimicked pitch-black empty sockets quite well, except that at times like this, when L was vulnerable and childish and completely in love with candy, his eyes looked very soft around the edges. When L was like this – and the last time he was like this was a very long time ago – Light knew that nothing in the world was wrong, other than perhaps Light slipping up and losing L's trust.
A chance.
Light allowed his fingertips trace a fold across L's palm one last time before suddenly clutching L's wrist and yanking him down to his own eyelevel across four feet of space.
When L stumbled forward and was about to fall onto Light, Light caught the collar of his paper dress. It twisted around L's neck and Light ended up holding him up from the back, like holding a cat by its skin. The dress ripped but Light jerked him away so that his ear grazed Light's bottom lip and hot breath bounced off of it.
"You have no choice but to trust me, my love. So trust me; when the lights are off and cameras are not looking, you never know if I may be right there behind you, watching 'over' you. Or even with the cameras on, you never know what I might be saying. Distrust is, oh... so dangerous, isn't it?"
And then he bit L's ear and slid out from under him and walked out of the room, slowly and casually, like nothing had happened, leaving L to stare after him with narrowed liquid-black stare, pressing a palm to his bleeding ear.
"Let it come to you, son. Is that really what happened?" said yet another man whose son Light wasn't. Instead, the man was a bulky street cop Light was supposedly friendly with that one time. Perhaps friendly enough to give an accurate account of events that would settle things once and for all..?
That was the general hope, anyway. Eight weeks of telling them the exact same thing were apparently not enough, it seemed.
But this time Light said, "I'm not sure. Maybe I missed some details, I don't know. I'm feeling a little lightheaded."
"Would you like something to eat?"
A few minutes later, Light was handed a bag of potato chips which was quickly becoming a remedy for his spontaneous lightheadedness. Because officers who came to interview him had all the time in the world to make the trip across the hall and buy him some, Light took full advantage of them.
"You know, now that I thought about it," said Light as he popped the bag of junkfood open, "yep, I'm pretty sure I told you everything. Exactly how it happened. Thanks for the chips though."
Light's hospital room was becoming a sort of place where random people were short of setting up camping tents and living in, because as soon as Light chose to be difficult, some unhappy officer always said something unhappy.
"I say screw this, guys. We can get a court order for a lie detector test, let's see how the little shit weasels out of that one."
Little shit?
How hurtful and unprofessional, Light wasn't aware that his story of 'L made me do it and then Ryuzaki came and saved me' was that unbelievable.
Well maybe he was completely aware, but nobody could do anything about it, and so with amusement in his face rather than fear of the almighty lie detector test, Light looked at the man, than at another man, than at another man who happened to be his lawyer.
His lawyer said, "of course. Yagami-san's testimony on lie detector test would be completely valid in court, considering Yagami-san did a student lecture in ToOh on How to Fool a Lie Detector Test. The judge would love it!"
Thing was, Light's 'lawyer' was Aiber, and Light saw Aiber with Wedy at the train station when L first took Light to Tsuwano, and Wedy was with Matt when Matt decided to beat Light up on his birthday, and Matt was with Mello, and Mello was with L.
But Light humored Aiber and pretended he had no idea.
As soon as the uninvited people left, Light went up to the nineteenth floor of the hospital where L was kept.
Well, not kept exactly.
Ryuzaki made bail, so technically he was there out of his own free will and a doctor's strong advice.
Right.
Light passed at least a dozen hidden cameras in the first five feet of the hallway of the empty hospital floor, save the hospital staff.
"Good afternoon, officer!" Light said cheerfully to a butch male 'nurse'. The man just grunted and went on with his business.
But they let him pass, even unblocked L's floor on the elevator for him every time Light took a trip there. The guards weren't too happy with Light's imaginary VIP pass, but were under the orders to encourage him to come; an accidental conversation slip, a cryptic plan to escape, anything that would help the police revoke L's bail or get a clue to just what the hell was going on was badly needed, and so in high hopes they let him through.
So naturally, Light took full advantage of it and spied on L like a ten-year old boy with a crush on the neighbor's daughter.
Now though, having outgrown his spying phase, he spitefully invited himself into L's room without as much as knocking.
"Hello you!" he said brightly again with a slight dance-like spring in his step, "stop sulking, we have to talk."
From his spot of half-sitting up in his bed and watching cartoons on TV, L followed Light across the room with his eyes.
He was still wearing the same paper dress he wore at five in the morning, and with his legs drawn up to his chest with a jar of gummy worms delicately balanced on his knee, L would flash Light something quite inappropriate if Light was to come around his bed.
Which Light was doing, so modestly but swiftly L swiped the jar from his kneecap and pulled a blanket over his legs.
It was a demonstration that no, he was not intimidated with Light circling him like a scavenger.
"Oh, don't be shy now. I've seen it already; better yet I know where it's supposed to go."
"I suggest Raito-san tells me what he came to tell me quickly."
"Okay. Do you realize," Light quipped; he was in a great mood, about this mostly, "that there is a war going on over you?"
"A war?"
"Yeah, a war. There is an army of lawyers petitioning UN to release you into the custody of the States. There is a battalion of Japanese lawyers trying to keep you in Japan. Their weapons are their hurtful words, but their resources are drying up quickly. There is not enough paper in the world to support the amount of paperwork they're throwing at each other," Light finished dramatically, "it's hilarious."
It was pretty obvious L holed up in his room and watched cartoons for weeks.
"Who is winning?"
"I don't know, who cares about that? There's good stuff in it. America is convinced your judge and the investigating police have received enormous bribes and will declare you Ryuzaki Rue and innocent despite all the imaginary evidence USA thinks we are hiding from the world."
"That sounds like a petty conspiracy theory I would certainly dream of coming true, Raito-san."
"Not quite. Apparently, there's a papertrail so long that nobody has ever found it. And there's more. It's even better!" Light purposely lowered his voice into a loud, mocking whisper, "and don't tell the people that are watching us through that camera over there," he pointed, exaggerating his movements, "but apparently the FBI thinks you will be transferred from this hospital soon, and you will be mysteriously 'lost' during this transfer."
"'Lost'… as in, murdered?"
"No. Set free."
"'Set free'?"
"Given to aliens. The psychotic variety; the ones that need your skill and knowledge to exterminate the good Christian world."
"America thinks this?"
"Yup."
"Who told you this?"
"A zebra."
L nodded.
"Raito-san is bipolar."
Both of these were actual legitimate conspiracy theories. They have been floating around the internet for weeks and the media was getting tired of reporting the days in L's case on which absolutely nothing happened but another lawyerly spat. L's face as all over the news for far too long for anyone not to know at least one or two ridiculous theories.
None of it mattered, anyway, the only ones who was getting anything out of this were the people who started these rumors for nothing but their own personal amusement.
Still though, listening to cops theorize about it for days on end was the most there was to do at the hospital.
L however, still looking completely unfazed with Light's imposing presence in his room was expecting more than a few old conspiracy theories from a country that had a talent for making them.
"There is more!"
"Yes?" L said pointedly.
"Apparently America isn't the only one with conspiracy theories floating around. We got our very own one. Here, in this land of Tokyo General Hospital."
"Raito-san really is bipolar!"
"Right, so apparently, the hospital is expecting a heist. Like a siege."
"They have been expecting one for a while," L droned, suddenly bored.
"This one they caught on the mafia whispers, or terrorist whispers. Apparently it's the real thing. Someone's coming."
"Hmm," L thought outland, "Yes, it would explain the sudden increase of the rather large male nurses stationed on my floor."
"Haha!" Light laughed cheerfully. "Oh, don't look at me like that! It's the most exciting thing to happen here in weeks..! I don't know about you, but I'm bored out of my mind. Anyway. L, or that other L in case you're the real L, is coming to get you. Either to rescue you, or to kill you. Not sure."
"Wonderful," L said grimly. "Should I beware of people who look like me? I am still very confused on the whole matter, and nobody would explain it to me with proper sense in it."
"No, beware of the people in SWAT uniforms."
"Persons wearing SWAT uniforms are usually friendly."
"Not really. Fake SWAT teams are L's favorite. Disorients people for long enough to shoot them, you know? Oh wait. You don't know. You don't remember. I completely forgot," said Light and suddenly his quipping tone didn't sound so light and carefree at all.
L did not look like he particularly cared about the risk of being killed or broken out, but he still asked for the dates the supposed 'heist' was supposed to happen.
"Tomorrow, I think."
As far as the joke went, the police actually believed it and were expecting the heist very seriously. So seriously in fact that Light himself had taken the joke out of the context of a joke and into the realm of a serious possibility, and came to L to warn him.
But perhaps he made it sound too light and silly for L's own good, because L either knew about the possible heist, or didn't care.
The later was rather unnerving.
"Well?"
"Raito-san means now that he told me this, he will be 'well' on his way?"
"I mean, 'well, let me see you cry and hide under that table.' Aren't you worried?"
"No."
"You don't believe it then?"
"It is a realistic possibility. And," and Ryuzaki chewed down a gummy worm until there was nothing left of its elongated pink body, "I am not worried about it."
Light wondered why the hell not the man did not appear to be confident that the heist would be successful, he just… completely did not care about it at all. His interests lay in the cartoon channel Light was blocking with his body. The idea of L getting killed or moved or arrested or put in danger did not disturb L; the prospect of the future-
"Ryuzaki. Can you imagine the future?"
L thought.
"Yes. And unfortunately enough, Raito-san is in it."
Oh.
Oh, well then.
That certainly changed things.
Light marched to the edge of L's too-small bed and plopped onto it, and L crawled away from him when Light used his blanketed knees as a support for his shoulder to lean in.
"That was an insult," L droned dryly, "not an invitation into my bed."
"I'm always invited into your bed," Light noted and pulled his feet off the ground to fold them under himself on L's bed and against L's leg, if only to demonstrate to L that Light was the one wearing pants, figuratively and literally.
Light wore gray sweatpants that were rolled up around the middle of his calf.
Something told L Light did not normally dress this sloppily.
His hair and skin were too flawless to allow for such a thing.
"Then I shall be rather impolite and withdraw this invitation. I do not appreciate Raito-san's presence anywhere near me, and I do not care if he really is bipolar or just acting apologetic for being rude earlier."
"Still sulking?"
"Very much." L said and ignored his presence and watched Patrick Star do something stupid on the TV.
"Try daytime soaps," Light suggested. "It's something you should realize you really like before you end up getting killed tomorrow."
Finally, that hit the spot and L huffed his anger out, turned off the cartoons and threw the remote against the wall.
And glared without being too pissed off, and it ended up quite adorable.
"Listen, you. What do you want from me. There is nothing you can possibly gain from being excessively vulgar, but there are privileges you lost for being this way; coming into my room and bothering me at will is one of the privileges I could have otherwise tolerated, but I refuse to now. So what do you want? Go away."
If Light was trying to act special among everybody else who were either afraid of him or sucked up to him so he could give them money, talking to L like he was dirt was overplaying it. It was ridiculously stupid, too, and L doubted Light was stupid enough to try this.
"Leave it to Ryuzaki to make 'you' sound like a curse word."
"Do not stray. Either tell or leave."
"Tell... tell you why I'm so mean to poor amnesiac Ryuzaki?" Light made a very sad face, and L grimaced at it. "I'm 'mean' to you because that's exactly the way I was before you rammed us into a concrete wall, and I don't feel like being considerate; your amnesia will not change our relationship into a sweet love thing, just like it won't remove the L charges. Fair enough?"
L meant 'absolutely not, I shall remain childish and ignorant about this' with the way he refused to move at all.
Then he realized Light read that silent reply and replied with his own. And much to his dismay, L could understand that Light meant 'well then. I'll remain stubborn and childish as well, just to spite you.'
Which left them at a very dense impasse at which Light was willing to give in as much as L was willing to give in, which was not at all, ever.
But then Light saw something and nearly jumped, and L turned to see if some unholy thing crawled from under his bed. There was nothing.
It left L confused.
"What the hell is that!"
L followed Light's stare and realized that Light was looking at the violin on the lower shelf of L's bedside table.
"It is a violin. It is the only personal item they found at the crash-"
"No, Ryuzaki. I know what it is. What the hell are you doing with it! Don't you know what this thing is?"
"As a matter of fact I do not, Raito-san," said L coolly, and then added, "…is this yours?"
"No, no it's-... No," Light said without any further explanation, without dropping his gaze from the violin.
"So Raito-san knows about this violin. Raito-san can tell me why I was carrying it around, then."
Impasse forgotten or put off until a much more suitable time, L pushed for the information. The violin was important to him. It was a piece of information he deserved to find out, or else he would have endured the rain of insults for nothing.
"It... it was your violin," Light said and finally looked away from it and slumped onto L's pillows next to him, folding his arms across his chest.
His auburn hair scattered on the pillow and L looked at him from above. Light looked up at him in return and they watched each other for a short while. Some hairs got caught on Light's pink lips and his lashes were long and he blinked them slowly, lazily.
Light Yagami was beautiful, L decided, and they looked at each other upside-down for a short moment it took L to realize Light was battering his eyelashes purposely to look especially appealing.
So L looked away.
"Yes, I got that far without you, Raito-san. Do I play violin?"
"How should I know."
"Raito-san seems to know much about it, but he would not tell me."
"Fine," Light sighed. "I gave the violin to you. I sent it… in mail. I don't know what you did with it. Right after you got it, I- I went away with L."
"Ah," said L and after he gave it a polite pause, he continued, "why did you give it to me?"
"Because I hated you. Just drop it. I didn't even know you still had it."
"So Raito-san gave it to me, but what?"
"But I expected you to throw it away. It was a bad thing, it means something bad. Just toss it out."
"Raito-kun," L said firmly and coolly, suddenly looking at him from above again, "I have been to my own house here in Kanto. It was a castle. I was told I had many more like it. There was absolutely nothing personal in that house. I have some white furniture. And a lot of carpet. Nothing else, nothing at all. Not even a single book. I tried to access the only computer in there; it verified my fingerprints but would not let me in without the password. I do not know the password. Twenty seconds after I verified my identity by could not enter the password, the computer exploded, and I wish I was exaggerating. That violin is the only shred that proves to me I existed beyond the white furniture and the carpet. I am not throwing my violin away."
A few moments have passed in awkward silence, until Light broke it with a soft chuckle. Suddenly, he did not look as appealing anymore, and L, who had attempted to ignore the insults and the attitude Light was giving him, wanted to ask Light to go away.
"I always knew your cowardly paranoia would backfire."
"This is not funny."
"No, it's not." Light agreed. "And the irony is, I can tell you 'I told you so' for the rest of your life, and it wouldn't antagonize you in the least because you just wouldn't know if I ever actually 'told you so' or not."
"Alright, Raito-san. This is enough. Please leave."
From his lazy stretch across L's pillows, Light reached a hand up at him and touched L's face absently. His cheek was cool and smooth as porcelain, and just as pale. He let his fingertip trail to L's mouth and brush against the lips pressed together in a thin line.
"Please leave," L repeated cruelly.
Instead, Light tucked a few strands behind L's ear only to have them fall again.
"Get out."
A few black hairs got caught up in Light's fingernails, so he gently pulled them out with his thumb and left them to fall freely and join the rest of L's messy head. The bags under L's eyes were impossibly dark and Light wondered how many nights L had spend awake, staring at that violin.
L didn't say anything else, he nearly crushed Light's wrist when he grabbed it and dragged him out of his bed, hurled his body across the room, opened the door and threw him out of his room.
Friday is the scheduled update 'till the end. Rewritten and done. My God, kinda almost there (chapter number edited out, if you've seen it, you came early XD;) chapters to go if I decide to skip the prologue.
Light: Do not trust her.
L: Quite a warning, coming from Raito-san.
Light: No, seriously. Don't trust her. In the middle of cheering for Canada in the Olympics, our dearest Miss King--
A/N: Oh no you wouldn't dare..!
L: You tell on her!
Light: --our dearest Miss King switched, and started to cheer for Russia for absolutely no reason. None at all. She just clicked, changed her mind, and betrayed her own country for an absolutely random country.
Matsuda: It like, came outta nowhere.
Fink: And when Canada kicked some Russian ass in hockey, she started cheering for every country that wasn't Canada...
Light: Who the hell are you?
Fink: ...and I watched the hockey game with her, and let me tell you, blah you're not Russian you wannabe, blah Canada hockey blah hockey blah, blah blaah Canada blah, bla blaaaaah, traaaaiiiiitooooor blah!!
Light: ...
Matsuda: ...
L: ...just write his name, Raito-kun.
Review shoutouts and HUGE THANKS: terracannon876, Sovoyita, Jetta, Huehuetecti, Black-Dranzer-1119, ArtistOfLight, iRotelveOnurArms, Cakeat, Vulpex velox, Midori Heiwa, s3v3n-d34d1135, Anemone Kurosaki, merichuel, Warratah, Your Alien, MockeryMash, Keyinei, ellan54, axel138, Poruchik, Altair718,My Favorite Crooked Smile, rexascape, SugarCoatedGenius, fouloldron, Aliniatte, ., Behan, Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog, PaperMasque, Hime, monki, fan-fan31, YourBestFriend4, Myself and The Other Voices, Dragonfly and Invader Oceana!!!
Love, appreciation and ice-cream.
CH29: The Helen of Sparta
Tell me what you think DT will end with.
I still love hearing theories, too.
Review please, and tell me how much I suck for holding the chapter for like, five weeks. D:
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