October
Raito had never enjoyed pulling all nighters, but he would take being a little tired to having to accept a below exceptional grade any day. At least, that was what he was mentally repeating as he dragged his tired self out of the library at six in the morning. He was only going back to his room so that he could change his clothes and hopefully drag his roommate out to get coffee with him. He needed as much caffeine as he could take right now.
Loudly he pushed their door open, and flung his book bag onto the ground. He didn't glance in L's direction, for he was expecting some sort of sparky comment about being to feebly to handle one night's sleep lost. To Raito's surprise L was silent. Quirking and eyebrow, he glanced in the boy's direction. His jaw nearly dropped when his eyes met his roommate.
L was currently curled into a sideways ball on his bed, fast asleep. Never in months of knowing he had Raito ever witnessed L sleeping. He had to cover his mouth with his hands to prevent laughing out loud at the sight. The fact that L's thumb was resting between his lips was the cherry on top of the adorable cake.
And, yes, he had no issue admitting to himself that he found the scene utterly adorable. There was a large possibility that this was the most adorable thing that Raito had ever witnessed.
Moving quietly so as not to wake L, Raito crept closer. He pulled his camera phone out of his pocket and snapped a quick picture. Wether he ever had the need to use it or not, he was sure that this would make brilliant blackmail material.
He then considering gently rousing L, but quickly decided against it. L hardly slept in private, and Raito didn't want his friend's rest to be disrupted. His want for company while he got coffee was not nearly as important.
Doubting that L would wake up with in the next few minutes, Raito didn't leave the room to change his clothes. Once he deemed his appearance presentable, he slipped out of the room making as little noise as he could. He waited until he was out in the hallway to let the wide smile break across his lips.
Raito had made a habit of stopping at L and Misa's Literature class at the end of the day. If Misa decided to force the two of them into a social event, it was easier if they were all in the same place. If not, they would walk her to where every she was going, pick up some sort of cheap take out for dinner, and spend the rest of their night studying in their room (or at least trying to study, L had made it his goal to be Raito's ultimate distraction).
On a normal day, Misa met him outside of the classroom. They both would then have to wait a few minutes for L to wrap up whatever friendly debate he was having with their teacher about the book the class was currently reading. Only twice had Raito actually resorted to physically pulling L out of the classroom. He was fairly sure that after those incidents their teacher had realized it was better for everyone if L was allowed to have the last word.
He made to to the classroom only a few minutes after the period ended, expecting Misa to be waiting for him and L alone. Yet, when he turned the corner of the hallway he was surprised to see her talking to someone, and even more shocked when his eyes focused on the person and he realized who it was.
Raito was unsure if it was better for him to stay back and wait until it was clear their conversation was over before approaching, or if it was better for him to rudely walk up to Misa and pretend that he didn't notice that they were talking in the first place. He was saved the decision when Misa happened to glance in his direction. Raito watched her say something he assumed dismissive before walking toward him.
"What did Mikami want?" Raito asked up front.
"Nothing," Misa brushed him off. "L's still talking about the motif of blindness, do you want to pull him out?"
"What do you mean nothing," he ignored her question. "Have you ever directly spoken to Mikami before?"
"I don't think so," he watched Misa pretend to ponder this. "Maybe I talked to him in high school…"
"That doesn't matter," Raito interrupted her musing. "Why were you talking to him now?"
"Good morning, Light-kun."
Neither had noticed L walk up to them.
"What?"
"I didn't see you this morning, so I'm saying good morning now," L explained.
Raito nodded as if this made perfect sense.
"The polite response would be for you to say good morning back," L told him.
"But I did see you this morning, you just didn't see me," Raito smirked.
"That's creepy," Misa muttered.
"You were asleep," Raito clarified to L's puzzled expression.
"And that makes it even creepier," Misa continued to make commentary.
"I stopped by to change before my first class," Raito said to L.
"That's too bad," L sounded disappointed. "I was hoping to get through the year without you seeing me sleeping."
"It sort of shattered an illusion," Raito agreed, he turned to Misa to add: "He sleeps curled up like a cat."
"Really?" Misa giggled.
"This was the first reason I wanted to stay unwatched," L murmured.
"You're cute and you know it," Raito rolled his eyes. They both ignored Misa's second giggle.
"You're getting bags under your eyes," L told Raito with a smirk.
"I am not!" Raito felt the sudden need to look in a mirror. "I didn't sleep for one night, that's not enough to show."
"You sound so worried," Misa let him know.
"We both knew how conceited he was," L said to her.
"Caring about my appearance does not make me conceited," Raito crossed his arms. "Besides, Misa cares more about how she looks than I do about myself."
"Yeah, but I'm a girl," Misa dismissed.
"That's kind of sexist," Raito remarked.
"Now you sound like your sister," she replied. "I'm also a model, if I don't look nice it will hurt my career."
"That excuse I will take," Raito accepted.
"I'm pretty sure you listened to the sexist one as well," L drawled.
"I don't remember asking your opinion," Raito told him.
"Light-kun, please don't ever feel that my opinion is something that you have to ask for," L snarked in mock sincerity.
"You guys are so cute," Misa said.
"What as that?" L had clearly heard her the first time.
"Nothing," she told him with a grin.
"I'm going to crash," Raito complained once they were back in their room.
"You crash every night," L said dryly.
"I do not," Raito dismissed.
"You do," L needed to have the last word, no matter how childish said words were.
"Goodnight," Raito said as he let himself fall onto his bed.
"You have homework," L reminded him.
Raito sighed dramatically before covering his face with his pillow.
"Light-kun, what is this?" L's voice was a mixture of humor and confusion.
Raito looked up to see L holding his cell phone between two of his fingers. The screen displayed the picture that Raito had taken that morning. Never is his life had Raito felt more 'caught in the act.' He let out a nervous laugh, unable to think of a way to explain himself without sounding like a pervert.
"You sleeping," he sheepishly tried.
Yup, he thought. Complete pervert.
"I can see that much," L deadpanned.
"Why did you open my phone in the first place?" Raito meant this more out of curiosity than accusation.
"You dropped it," L stated.
"So you decided to look through my pictures?" Raito raised an eyebrow.
L merely shrugged. He pressed a few more buttons that Raito couldn't see from his angle, before tossing the phone back to it's owner. Raito turned the screen on, expecting that L had deleted the picture. Instead he found that his roommate had made the image of himself sleeping Raito's screen saver.
"Why?" Raito had to ask.
"If you can't beat them, join them," L stated.
"Like you would ever live buy that," Raito scoffed.
"You're right," L admitted. "Maybe I'm trying to be less self-conscious. You may change the picture if you want."
"No," Raito chuckled. "I think I'll keep it, it's cute."
"Why does everyone love using that word?" L muttered more to himself than to Raito.
"Because you're cute," Raito answered him anyway.
"Whatever you say, Light-kun." L shrugged, but Raito noticed him turn his face away. Possibly to conceal a blush, but Raito wasn't entirely sure.
Thank you to Guest, Corliss Kat, HisokaxTheMagician, and Callicanios for the reviews!