CHAPTER THREE

An Odd Behaviour

"I don't know about this," Elaine bit her lip, "it seems too risky."

"It would throw him off his game," L muttered exasperatedly. The younger girl always felt the need to protect him from the outside world which he found completely unnecessary. But looking at her as she stared at him with large, grey eyes, he sighed. "All a part of the investigation, Elaine."

It had been several weeks since her initial approach at Light, but then she drew herself back into the world of investigatory work at her desk. Lawliet did not want her too close to Light, in apprehension of putting the suspect on edge at the sudden new character in his life. But now here he was, putting himself on the front and going to meet the possible Kira in person.

"I guess," she mumbled and passed him a pair of shoes. "Good look with your speech, I'll be waiting outside." L didn't respond, he simply slipped on the shoes - without socks - and walked towards the back of the auditorium in his usual, odd manner. She crossed her arms and watched until L disappeared behind the door before she let out a breath. A tedious amount of time passed by until the ceremony was over, and she was still waiting impatiently as people began to pour out before she made the move that they agreed upon. She made sure to wait several minutes until L's Mercedes until she walked into Light.

The nervous, passive expression was gone and quickly, she donned on a bright expression.

"Hey, Light!" She waved enthusiastically. He looked at her, blinking as if he had woken out of a dream. She jogged up to him, keeping the ever-present smile on her face.

"Emi," he said and found himself smiling. Deceiving. His false calm cover was cracking by the second as he considered the possibilities of his next move. It was suspicious that the same day L had revealed himself…that this girl would pop back into perspective. "What are you doing here?"

She handed him a gift. "Your father asked me to send you this. Congratulations on the acceptance." She tilted her head, noticing his distress. "Is there something wrong?" she asked, playing innocent. She touched his arm and his eyes widen a fraction in surprise at the contact.

"No, not at all," he said and she almost believed him. He didn't pull his arm back.

She stared at him carefully and then smiled. "Well, we should go celebrate! If I remember correctly, you promised me lunch."

"Oh." Light had to remind himself to lose the tension in his voice. Most young men did not act cold on the day of his entrance ceremony, presented with a gift, and in front of a young woman. But people who could be convicted of murdering dozens would. "And here I was thinking you just forgot."

She smiled shyly at him, as if she suddenly realized that her invitation was sudden. "So?"

He looked away and she noticed that he really was handsome. How could someone with such a good life – being not only relatively wealthy, attractive and a genius – decide to be a mass murder? Decide to play God? Then again, it made all too much sense. He was probably bored…after all, he was stuck with high schoolers that were nowhere near his level. Once someone was held so high, it was no wonder why he would feel alienated. No wonder why he, and Kira, felt like a god among his group. She felt a pang of pity. Maybe he just needed a –

"Sure," he shrugged, "I don't see why not." For the first time in a while, he was making a move that wasn't related to the Kira case and it felt oddly…refreshing. That was unless she was working against him, in which he would only have to further his case and profile as a typical recent graduate.

Twenty minutes later, Light stopped at a café. "Let's go in –"

"Oh come on, you just made top marks into your university and you want to celebrate with sweets? I think this calls for a four-star restaurant, at least." She tugged at his wrist and kept him walking until they reached a rather fancy restaurant. It felt odd for him to not be the one calling shots, to not be controlling the situation. He looked down in the dimly lit foyer of the restaurant, watching as Emi spoke to the hostess, her pale grey eyes bright, and taking the lead. He frowned. In fact, it really bothered him how he didn't get a say but the moment he opened his mouth to say something, Emi looked up and smiled. The waitress guided them to their private booths almost immediately and set down the menu.

"Don't you have to go work?" he asked as he sat down. She laughed but didn't miss the edge to his tone.

"No, not really. All I do is wait around at headquarters until they need something."

He didn't comment, his eyes on the menu. She stared. He seemed…not quite cold, but detached. Quickly she analyzed his profile: was he a psychopath? He had the charm, the ego. She could easily see his ability to manipulate others, and she didn't miss the tic in his face when she took the lead. But that could be any male. Did he feel no remorse or empathy over those he murdered?

But he also lived a very easy, contained life. When reading his report, there was no mention of stupid actions that would hint at a psychopath who was eager to live on the edge. But he was still highly intelligent and cunning - but that didn't mean he was Kira. .

The waitress was at their table immediately, pouring water. "I'll have the medium rare filet mignon with a side of baked potato," he said in a clipped manner as he handed the leather bound menu back to her. Elaine narrowed her eyes. Everything about him screamed out a superiority complex, an "I have the world at the tips of my fingers" sort of demeanor. She didn't even glance at the menu and absent-mindedly murmured, "I'll just have the green salad."

"Right away."

"Did you eat earlier?" he asked, not very curious but he felt the need to have a conversation going. Maybe she was simply a girl trying to meet L…and after meeting the strange man today, he needed all the information he could gather. Maybe Emi would be useful.

"No," she said and she sounded distracted as well.

"A salad will hardly fill you up," he commented. A part of her mind wanted to comment that given his lean, fit physique, she was surprised that he would oppose a salad but her pale grey eyes sharpened and she beamed at him.

"I'm a vegetarian," her smile widened, "I just want to minimize the amount of deaths I cause."

I wonder how you feel about that, Kira?

He stilled momentarily but it was nothing too suspicious. "Minimize? How many deaths do you usually cause?" She laughed genuinely at the sincerity in it caused him to look up at her. He felt his mouth tug at a smile.

"Only those who deserve it," she said sort of wistfully, with yet another smile. He raised his eyebrow. That was an odd thing to say and he decided to use it against her. "That's the sort of thing Kira would say, isn't it?"

"But I'm not Kira so it's fine," she said in such a casual manner to brush off his accusation. The waitress returned and laid the food on the table, asking if they wanted anything else and they both said "No" quickly. Elaine stabbed her fork into the salad before declaring it unappetizing and pushing it aside. She really should have asked for the dessert menu, but it was needless now. She leaned in towards him. "So how exactly is everything going?"

"If you're referring to entering college…I'm not worried."

"Of course not," her grin widened, "it's very easy."

Which brought up another question. "Exactly how old are you, Emi?" he asked. Their plates were both against the wall, neither of them eating. She raised an eyebrow. Thankfully Kira didn't exactly need an age to kill and she didn't seem the harm in telling him the truth. "Eighteen." So she was only a year or several months older than him…he could work with that.

"So I'm assuming that you scored perfect on your entrance exams?" she asked.

He shrugged for a modest answer, but everything about his body language screamed out a god complex. "High school must have been a breeze," she guessed.

"It was boring…not quite everything I thought it would be when I was a kid," he admitted. She grinned.

"It was a horrible experience for me," she said honestly, "I got so bored that I would just think about ways to kill myself in the midst of class just for the sake of doing something. I don't know how I survived a term of it, let alone you – who endured years of it," she said with a sort of wise but bitter tone. He was surprised. She had summed up his thoughts about the entire experience: painfully boring.

"A term?" he echoed. "You must have been pretty smart."

"I wasn't," she laughed and she honestly wasn't. When Watari had taken care of her at the orphanage, it wasn't because she was a genius like L. She simply saw relationships between people, events and numbers very clearly. It was a skill incredibly useful when solving cases. And like L and nearly everyone else at the Wammy Orphanage, they did not have the years to spare spending it seated in a desk for hours, days and months at a time so they had raced to obtain strictly the information necessary in getting a high school diploma before working on their university degrees. She knew several people who, at nineteen, had finished their graduate studies.

She wasn't one of them.

Light looked at the woman in front of him. He had a feeling she would answer any question she had. After all, that was normal in dates, right? Being curious? "So where are you from anyway? You aren't Japanese, I can tell that much."

"No," she laughed, "I'm not. I just had a very good teacher." It made no difference if Light – or Kira – knew where she was from. He won't be able to track her back. "I was raised in England but I've travelled a lot."

"Wealthy parents?" he assumed. Her lips twitched as she fought back a smile.

"Oh no," she said cheerfully, "they're dead. Been dead for a while, actually." And she said this so in such an entertained tone that it caught him off guard. "Relying on trust funds."

"Oh," he said thoughtfully, "sorry, I didn't know." There was an absence of sincerity in his tone.

"Of course you wouldn't," she shrugged. She barely knew her parents and it was hard to mourn over something she never cared for. She was realistic in that sense. She knew that she had a fulfilling life, she had priorities and things to accomplish - and she did not have time to try to learn about the lives of two people who had died during the early years before her brain was even fully developed. "How about you, being the son of Chief Officer? Must be easy…what with being a genius and all."

He laughed and leaned back. How many times had he been called that? Had proved that he was more than just intelligent? But yet the way she said it sounded so sarcastic that it surprised him. "The pressure isn't anything I can't handle," he simply commented, amused.

"Are you planning to join the police later?"

"I was thinking about it," he said. Something sparked in her eyes.

"What are you studying?" she continued to ask, looking genuinely interested. "Criminology, psychology? Both are fascinating -" She stopped. Her phone rung and she frowned, irritated, as she murmured an apology to him as she held it up to her ear. After several seconds of a buzzing noise, she nodded and said, "Yeah sure" before turning off her phone.

"I'm sorry but I have to leave," she said with an apologetic smile. She got up and left money on the table. "I'll catch you later, Light." He got up as well and for some reason, he held out his hand. She raised an eyebrow but shook it, that same amused smile on her face. He was fairly sure her hand lingered longer than necessarily.

It wasn't until he was left looking after her that he realized that this had been a completely normal lunch. She hadn't gathered information on him. He didn't have to use his head…just a casual event. It wasn't calculated or planned. And with the entire revelation of L's identity…he realized that he needed more moments like this just to clear his mind.

xxx-xx-xxx

"And where have you been?" L asked as Elaine walked by the room and threw herself on the couch. She didn't ask for permission and dug into the sweets. She was starving. Icing sugar all over her mouth, she said in a muffled tone, "I caught up with Light after your ceremony."

"And did you find anything out?"

"You were right," she swallowed and licked her lips, "he did seem shaken up a bit. But he seemed to relax after we ordered food." She informed him, proceeding finishing off the sugar on her fingertips. L didn't react.

"You had lunch?" he simply asked.

"Mhm."

"That could be quite dangerous, Ellie."

She didn't miss his use of her nickname. "I don't think Light is very dangerous actually," she said, her eyes down and placed the dish back on the table. "Maybe he just feels set apart from everyone. From what I've gathered, he seems too smart and I'm sure that being a genius is not only boring but quite lonely as well."

"You are aware that Kira is perhaps someone very childish and playing God, right?" There was disbelief in his flat tone and his black eyes were looking at her without amusement. Deflated.

"We play God all the time, Lawliet," she said breezily since there was no one else in the room. "We've sent people to their deaths plenty of time, how is that any different than Kira?"

There was silence between them. "You're behaving strangely," he murmured at last, his dark eyes studying her. He took a step closer to her - too close - and she knew that he was trying to throw her off. Her lips twitched and for a moment, she simply did nothing. Then she groaned and abruptly fell back on the couch, curling up away from him. "I'm just tired of all this…thinking."

"Then don't think," he advised, "just befriend Light and get him to admit that he is Kira and this would all be over." She laughed.

"Maybe he isn't Kira, maybe he's just a smart individual who happens to be on the manipulative side. There are thousands of people like that." She turned, facing him with a sleepy, shy smile. His eyebrows pulled together. Was Elaine defending Light? Strange. Very, very strange.

"Maybe you're right," he nodded, "or maybe Light is a mass murderer who you are beginning to sympathize with because you two happen to share common traits."

Her eyebrows shot up.

"Common traits?" She sat up. "I'm manipulative?"

"You are having lunch with him to gather more information," he reminded her in a serious tone and the surprise left her face to be replaced with a glare. All of her emotions were bizarre and he couldn't quite figure out why she was being so moody all of a sudden. He had known her while she was at the awkward stage of fifteen but never once had she displayed such emotions. The Elaine of the past three years had been bright and eager to help, an asset. Now she was…

Strange.

"You don't call a friend manipulative, L," she said dryly and stood up as well. In one quick stride, she left the room. Yet another man was left staring after her, wondering if maybe she was on her time of the month.

A bit of a longer chapter, but hopefully, Light's and L's character is still believable considering the longer dialogues they're having. Alsooo I just want to thank

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Valerie Michaelis
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for all the review(s) and support! I'm glad people are actually reading this! Reviews are golden. :)