A/N: For the sake of this story, let's pretend L is twenty-one, agreed? Hopefully, this won't be a huge turn off! Enjoy :) Oh, and things to keep in mind: Elaine and L are English, so they would speak English towards each other. However, they are both capable of speaking Japanese - as seen between L and the Task Force (early clarification that, when I wrote this story, I forgot to mention).

CHAPTER ONE

A Set Up

A tall, rather slim man looked around the well-furnished room. His black eyes quickly move and he made a sound of approval. "Come on in, Elaine," he called out once he settled in the hotel room. After a while of discussing the entire case with the Japanese police force, he had finally set out headquarters stationed out there. He was taking the first move.

They called him L, and he was a genius. Easily taking the role of three of the world's best detective, for years, he had spent his life solving cases in a matter of days, three or four a time. Day in and out, this was his life - and it was a life that had been accompanied by a particular girl for the last three years. Said girl with dark brown hair leaned in through the door frame and she looked around with childish curiosity. She blinked and shrugged before throwing her luggage into the side of the room. "Nothing very spectacular about it," she stated and flitted down to the couch in front of the young man.

"I am trying to stay undercover," he acknowledged. "We'll be transferring after several days anyway." After the live broadcast confrontation with Kira, not only had he gathered much more information but he gained even more insight about the nature of the case. It may be dangerous, after all. But incredibly interesting to him.

He was sure he had most of it figured out by now. Almost too easily.

Not that Elaine agreed. "Are you sure about this? Being so…on the front lines?" She asked him, the side of her face against her knuckles lazily. Her grey eyes skimmed through the room and all the files before flickering back up to Lawliet.

"Quite sure," he said. "I'm counting on the fact that Kira would face me here."

"Don't forget to be charming," she smiled and then blinked. "Well, I suppose it's time for alias."

"How about…Emiko - Emi," he suggested, his eyes wandering.

"That sounds fine," she smiled to which he shrugged casually about. But his eyes were still moving around the room distractedly. "What are you thinking about?"

"Oh just the entire case," he admitted, "and if whether you should just pretend to be me."

She rolled her eyes but honestly considered it. Whereas Watari had always been his link to the investigations and its handlers, it was always Elaine that carried out any crucial roles that required a physical presence. He preferred to stay behind the screen, giving out nothing – barely his own name. "I could very well die out here like this." He murmured. Scratching his head, he walked out towards the glass window. The hotel overlooked the sprawling city with dizzying lights and black skies behind it. A knock on the door brought both their attention to their visitors: the task force. Her eyes brightened.

"It's unlocked. Please," they exchanged a small smile and Elaine uncrossed her leg to go into another room, "let yourselves in."

As much as she wanted to see their reaction at seeing L for the first time – all 5'8 of his pale, sleep deprived and rather odd looking self – they had already agreed for her role in the investigation to be kept a secret until a better use of her contribution can be determined. She leaned against the door to hear their conversation.

"Bang."

Oh, L.

"What the hell was that?!"

"If I were Kira, you'd be dead, Mister Soichiro Yagami of the NPA," L said lazily as he shuffled around. Elaine suppressed a giggle. She could imagine him talking to them with their patronizing tone and expressionless eyes. She sighed and rested back comfortably, waiting for them to be done.

But it was incredibly boring. All her life – from the very beginning where she was brought into the Wammy's House orphanage – had been far from it. There was always that one child who would get into trouble and smile their way through it – and that was Elaine. When L arrived, she thought he was…weird. Yet as soon as he left, she found herself missing the odd dark haired kid that she used to share her desserts with.

Nonetheless, after having her fair share of exciting cases and missions as an SIS agent, she was finally reunited with Watari and soon after, L. But that was three years ago, when she was fifteen and Lawliet was eighteen. Since then, they had worked together on every single investigation. She pulled the stunts, the risky move, the reckless one. And L was all brain.

Hours passed. She yawned, staring out the window opposite to her, her eyelids falling.

And even after days of looking through files, only one named lingered in her mind; one person she suspected over everyone else: Light Yagami.

xxx-xx-xxx

Days, perhaps weeks had passed since the initial meeting, and she had no company but Watari, occasionally coming into the separate suite to bring her food. She carried out her own investigation until –

A knock on the door startled her.

She peeked through the door and L appeared, hands in his pocket and eyes down. A familiar tightening in her chest made her remember that she hadn't seen her partner in crime for several days now. They had to work separately, just in case she needed to play a role that had no affiliation to the police. "Do you remember Naomi Misora?" he asked quietly. Her eyebrows knit together. The name brought up memories of black skies, but street lights that lit up the night - of running, of gasping, of heaving for air as she chased down a man that looked exactly like -

Yes, she remembered Naomi Misora.

"From the LA case two years ago?" Elaine asked hesitantly.

"She died."

She had done this so many times before: shoving deaths to the back of her head. She refused to feel sad over a former partner. She wouldn't. Instead, her mind clicked instantly, using the technical side of her brain to outdo the emotional. Naomi Misora was the fiancée of Raye Penber, an agent who was tailing the Yagami family.

And yet again, the name Light Yagami popped up. She highly doubt it was a coincidence. "Light Yagami," she whispered, her fingers flexing into a fist, "I want to watch him."

"I've allowed them to wire his home."

L already acted? At the news, she grinned excitedly. "I guess I know what I'm going to do now." She got up and stretched. Her long hair was a mess, and she wore something that closely slightly resembled L's dishevelled attire: pajama shorts and a white long sleeve shirt. Lawliet looked her up and down, and then at the files she had been overlooking.

"Perhaps you should…clean yourself up," he recommended lightly. They had an unspoken communication: their plans were nearly parallel. Little discussions were needed among the two after so long of working closely together. "After all, Light Yagami isn't that much younger than you."

She felt a smile pull on her lips. "You are horrible, Ryuzaki."

The corners of his mouth turned. "Well I suppose it's time for you to meet his father." His dark eyes met her pale grey ones. "You'll be on show for a couple days, after all."