ONE HUNDRED F–CKING REVIEWS!!1111!!11!111!!ELEVEN!!1!oNe1!

Sorry. Had to get that out of my system. But OMG! Thankyou!!

Discombobulator – I don't own anything. Yeah. And all that. Right.

Before I start, I'mma answer a question I got in my comment: This is not an LxLight fic. However, there will still be random mentions of Light's possible queerdo-ness. Manymany mentions. Just because I can XD


The investigation team listened to Light's testimony to why he couldn't possibly be Kira. The majority of them listened, rather. At least seventy-five percent of them did. The other twenty-five percent was humming arbitrary classic rock songs under her breath again, for which she received a glare from a different quarter of the team. Katherine glared back, but stopped humming. There was no point of listening to the load of bull that Light was spouting at them. After all, he was in his right mind again. There was no point served in listening to him if he was actually sane. She sighed and listened anyway.

"I know I'm the one who suggested this," Light was saying, "but I know the truth now. I'm not Kira, there's no point to this! Let me out."

L paused for a moment, thinking of an answer that would indicate to the half of the team that didn't know what was going on that he also didn't know. He had of course seen the Shinigami walk through the wall, but only he and Katherine knew that, which meant that they were both going to have to play dumb… not to the point of randomly whistling Queen songs, but it was pointless trying to stop her. After another glare at Aizawa, who had apparently glared at her again, she stopped. For the moment, at least.

"Absolutely not," L said into the microphone leading to Light's cell. "You requested that we didn't let you out until it was proven without a doubt that you weren't Kira. That hasn't happened yet."

"I know what I said," Light said, "but something was wrong with me then, I don't know how. Do you really think it would be possible for anyone to be as brutal of a killer as Kira without even knowing it?? I can't be Kira!"

"I also believe Kira is aware of who he is," L said, "However, saying that you aren't Kira doesn't mean that you're not. The murders stopped the moment you were imprisoned. I believe that you are hiding the fact that you're Kira."

"I'm not lying," Light said, "I'm not Kira. I believe I'm here because I was set up by Kira."

"The only people who know of your imprisonment are on the investigation team, Light-kun."

"Then someone there must be Kira!" he said. "Let me out of here so I can help with the investigation! This is a waste of time, just let me out…"

"Absolutely not," L said. "You cannot be released until it is proven that Kira is someone else."


"Wow," Katherine said, looking at the computer screen. "I think that Shinigami was all that was keeping him sane… well, saner than he is right now. Ya know?"

"Hmm."

It was midnight, and the very start of day ten of Light's confinement. He looked like he was already cracking after only about three days without that Shinigami bugging him about apples.

"Thinking about it," Katherine said slowly, "this means that if you give an insane person sanity, they'll just waste it by going nuts again, you know?"

"I think," L said, obviously not paying much attention, "that we're going to have to keep Light-kun, Misa, and Yagami-san in confinement even after the new Kira makes his first appearance."

"Wh… why…?"

"It's something that L would do if he didn't know what Light Yagami was really up to," L said.

"Ah," she said. "Thinking like yourself. Smart move. I… guess."

"I'll elaborate. If I didn't know what was going on right now, I would probably be just as confused as anyone else on the team. However, no matter what, I would still suspect Light-kun."

"Mm-hmm…"

"So, I would want to keep him from knowing that Kira had returned to see if I could somehow manage to talk him into confessing despite the fact that he is in confinement with no way to kill."

"Oh," she said. "Thinking like you would think in a different situation. That makes a little more sense. But in all honesty," she said, looking over at him, "I think you just like confining random people." She laughed at the look she was getting from him now. "Well, that's what it'll seem like to those two, you know. And there may be some questions raised when you shackle yourself to Light."

He gave an obviously annoyed sigh and continued watching the monitors.

"All I'm saying is that if you handcuff yourself to 'The God of the New World,' then people are going to think that you're supposed to be 'The Goddess of the New World,' you know?"

Another annoyed sigh in response to this.

"Alright," she said, "but don't say I didn't warn you when he decides to try and – stop with the incessant eye rolling, that's annoying!"

"And you don't think that isn't?" he asked irately.

"Are you irritated?" She sounded amused.

"Yes…"

"Awwww…" She tilted her head over onto his shoulder and looked up at him. "I'm sorry."

He glared back down at her in that you're-invading-my-bubble sort of way. She glared back and moved over.

"Well fine…" she said, crossing her arms and staring intently at the wall in her other direction.

She wasn't being serious, but it seemed like it would be fun to make him believe she was to see what he would do. Her peripheral vision worked well enough so she could clearly see his reaction out of the corner of her eye. He looked over curiously, one of those curious looks that a person gets on their face when they're silently debating whether or not to poke something that's stopped moving to make sure it's still alive, the sort of look where the person's head is tilted to the side like a puppy that's just heard a new noise. She managed to refrain from giggling. It was, of course, very detective-like to assess the situation before attempting to take any sort of action whatsoever. However, this curious look was just too cute. Again, just to see his reaction, she sniffled. He looked even more confused, almost a little scared, and very concerned.

"A-are you okay…?" he managed to say. She sniffled again. "I'm sorry."

She sighed and moved back over. "It's okay…" she said. "Besides, I was just testing you."

"Wh… why?"

"For the fun of it."

"… What were you testing exactly?"

"Nothing important. Look, it's Kira!" she said suddenly, pointing at the computer screens. He jerked his head back to the monitors, and then glared at her. She laughed. "That never gets old."

"How many times are you going to do that?"

"Until I find something funnier."

"Why are you trying to get on my nerves?"

"If you'd just stop being so darn cute when you're irritated, then you wouldn't have to worry about it."

He tilted his head to the side a little again as he chewed on his thumbnail. Why did she keep making comments like that? She hadn't started doing that until after she had returned from her two week absence, after they had started talking again. It was just plain weird that she was now. He didn't particularly mind, it was just strange. She obviously found it very entertaining…. How was it a test? Was she just doing these things to see his reaction and taking mental notes to figure something else out? Why would she want to do that?

The only way to get her to stop would be to beat her at her own game. The problem was, he wasn't sure what game she was playing. It was still worth trying, if it would keep him out of the nearly constant state of confusion he had been in lately. He couldn't help but wonder if that's how that idiot Matsuda felt. If it was, L wasn't sure how he could stand it.

"Really?"

"Yes," Katherine said slowly. "There would be no point in lying."

"Oh. Well, then, thank you."

That one caught her off guard. "Thank you?" That didn't sound like L. That didn't sound like L at all. This wasn't good. He had just made her fun backfire horribly. Now she was the confused one, and behind his regular stoic look as he stared at the monitors in front of him, she was sure she saw a glint of smugness. That was completely unacceptable, this was her expertise, not his. It was obvious that he had the IQ and the capacity to learn almost anything in a matter of seconds, but this seemed like something that his mind was completely ignorant to. This wasn't good at all. Then it hit her: the perfect counter.

"You're welcome," she said cheerfully.

She watched with perfectly concealed glee as that momentary glint of arrogance faded quickly from L's eyes. Now that was amusing. He seemed to be fishing around his brain for something else that would catch her off guard. She was so confident that he wouldn't think of anything that she accidentally let her guard down. He spoke again without even blinking, without even a glance over, and absolute calmness.

"You're rather cute when you're confused."

Oh no. Now she was blushing. That was very bad. However, this seemed to be working to her advantage. When L glanced over momentarily, the triumphant expression on his face quickly turned into an anxious, nervous one. That made things a little easier. That meant that she might have still had a chance to win.

"Th-thank you…" Katherine said quietly, also acting nervous.

That hadn't worked right. It had caught her off guard, but it had caught her so off guard that her reaction caught him off guard. That wasn't what he had intended…. There was still a change. A simple 'your welcome' wouldn't do, she had already done that. He couldn't go over the top. Maybe…

"You're quite welcome."

She was done. That was it. She wasn't even going to begin to wonder what he had meant by "quite." Quickly, she stood up. She wouldn't openly admit defeat, but she wouldn't stay and get defeated any worse.

"Starting to get a bit tired, good night," she said quickly.

L watched as she moved quickly over to the other side of the room and sat sideways in her usual chair. He tilted his head sideways on his knees and watched the monitors in front of him without really paying any attention to them. There were more important matters at hand. He couldn't help but grin at the fact that he had finally gotten a point against her. Of course, there was still the problem that he still wasn't entirely sure what game it was he had gotten that point against her in. It was some sort of strange battle of compliments, so it seemed. She was still winning by a long shot, but he was sure he could catch up after a while. He didn't like loosing at all, so just one point against her was a single battle won for him. That was something, at least.

Of course, it wasn't entirely a game. The fact that she actually was attractive had made winning quite a bit easier. It was definitely a lot easier than he'd expected it to be, at least. It hadn't even taken five minutes after his first move for her to forfeit out of fear of loosing even worse.


Day fifteen of Light's confinement was an interesting one for the investigation team. The hotel room was beginning to run out of random assortments of cake and candy and other sweets, as well as coffee. L had attempted to send Matsuda and Aizawa out to the store, but Aizawa claimed that he had refused to let Matsuda within ten feet of his car after what he referred to as the "Cheeseburger Incident," to which Matsuda responded by laughing his head off. Five minutes later, after hearing the story, Katherine agreed to let him within ten feet of her car under the condition that he wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything within twenty feet of it, and they headed off to the store.

Naturally, when they returned, they were discussing something completely nonsensical that neither L nor Aizawa fully understood. Katherine dropped her bags next to L, who immediately checked to make sure the cake was the right kind.

"No, no no no," Katherine said as she was sitting on the couch. "Gibson bought out Epiphone, you have it completely wrong, Fender isn't even a part of the equation. If you want to be the guitarist, you have to know these things."

"You don't know anything about drums."

"I know, but the guitarist has to know about guitars."

"Why?"

"Just… because. It's required."

"Then you be the guitarist."

"I play drums. You can ask anyone in any of the music shops Misa and I used to go in durring our senior year of high school. I don't know jack about them, but I play them."

"Why'd you learn about guitars, then??"

"Because they're neato. What other reason could there possibly be?"

"Are you still on about that weird band thing?" Aizawa asked them from by L's monitoring station.

"It's not weird," Katherine said. "You're lucky. You're the bass guitarist, you don't have to know about bass guitars, either, just how to play them."

"I'm not in the band."

"Well, screw you! Oh, almost forgot something… which is bad because this bit's actually really important," she said. "Where'd you put that newspaper?" she asked Matsuda.

"Hmm… bag…" He looked in the bags on the coffee table and pulled a newspaper out of one of them. He took it over to Aizawa and L. "Two weeks of murderers died yesterday of heart attacks."

"We already knew," L said.

"Does Chief know yet?"

"Not yet, no – what are you–?"

Matsuda was already speaking into the microphone connected to Yagami's room.

"Chief, Kira's murderers have started again despite the fact that Light-kun is still in confinement!"

"R… really, Matsuda?" Yagami said, standing from his chair. "Then that means suspicion of my son is… no, Ryuzaki won't sat it's white."

"Well then," L said slowly, "Twenty-five percent."

"Did you hear that?? Twenty-five percent!"

"Yes," Yagami replied. "That's good, considering it was ninety-nine…."

"Now for Light-kun, too –"

L put his hand over the button on the microphone that led to Light's room. "Don't let Light-kun know yet," he said.

"Wh… what…"

L spoke into the microphone. "Light-kun."

Light was sitting on the floor with his back against the bench. His head was bent low, and he looked simply miserable. Even L might have felt bad for him if he weren't a cold-blooded murderer.

"What is it?" he asked gloomily.

"It has been two weeks since Kira last punished a criminal. Will you admit you're Kira already?"

"Don't be ridiculous…" he said. He managed to pick his head up and look up. "You are wrong, Ryuzaki. I understand how you can come to the conclusion that I'm Kira, but I swear I'm not! This is a set-up, I know it is. Hurry up and let me out so I can help find Kira!"

L switched over to the microphone leading to Misa's confinement. "Amane, you truly don't know who Kira is, do you?"

"Eh…?" she said, sounding as confused as ever. "That again? I want to. He punished the man who killed my parents. He's my hero."


"You definitely did a good job making Aizawa and Matsuda like you even less earlier today."

L glanced over as Katherine was sitting next to him at around eleven the same night. He smelled coffee, and glanced down after a few seconds to see that a cup was being held under his nose. He took it with a quick thanks, and continued staring at the computer screens. He had expected that Aizawa and Matsuda would lose faith in his investigative abilities because of his actions. However, had he done anything different, they would have suspected that he knew something that they didn't, and started questioning him about it. It was better this way.

"The next step of Kira's plan is finished," she said. "It'll only be a matter of time before Light's on the investigation team."

"I'm aware. I'm trying to think of a plan that would make it seem as though I still suspected him even if I didn't know about Death Notes and Shinigami. Obviously, L wouldn't let the lead Kira suspect onto the investigation team unless he was one hundred percent sure that the suspect wasn't Kira."

"Anything ideas so far?"

"Yes. I have to devise a plan that would put Kira in a situation of, say, 'kill or be killed.' I'm not entirely sure how to go about the plan, but I would definitely have to use another person for it."

"I'll–"

"Someone with a name, to be more specific."

"Ah. Right. No one on the investigation team is in any danger of being killed, but you know that. Since you already know Light is Kira and you're just doing this to keep the team from knowing that you know, then that doesn't really matter."

"Correct. I just need to find someone who is willing to put their life at risk, despite the fact that their life isn't really at risk, which no one else knows. There isn't even a fraction of a chance that Light-kun won't be on the investigation team after he has been proven innocent now, however."

Considering L was in one of his overly contemplative moods, Katherine decided it probably wasn't the best time in the world to spout out any unnecessary "Kira's gay" jokes, despite the fact that she had spent much of the day coming up with an abundance of brand new ones. This was slightly disappointing, but she didn't want to make him overly angry. And even more, despite the regular Kira-angst vibes that generally accompanied this particular mood of his, there was something else. It was something that she wasn't about to poke fun at, seeing as she wasn't entirely sure what it was. She glanced at one of the computers in front of him, and down at the taskbar at the bottom.

"Research…?"

An open file at the bottom of the screen on the taskbar was titled as such. So that was the other half of the atmosphere: apprehension. For one reason or another, he hadn't wanted her to see that.

"What sort of research?" she asked curiously.

"Has to do with… things…" he said evasively.

She laughed. "Obviously. What sorts of things?"

"Nothing important."

"If you say so," she said sarcastically. She wasn't going to argue. "Anyway. Staying up for the past five days is threatening to break the last few strings of sanity I have left. I'm going to get some sleep tonight. Good night"

She turned enough to give L the same hug that she normally did before going over to her favorite chair in the room. He didn't jump nervously as he usually did. He must have been growing used to this; he actually hugged her back. And said good night. This surprised her. It was strange. It wasn't a bad strange, though. She wasn't sure what way it was strange in, it was just abnormal of him. It was the sort of strange that almost seemed to make her stomach weightless. But then that would mean…. Her eyes widened.

Katherine headed quickly over to her chair after they both let go. She sat in her regular sideways manner. Before she knew what she was doing, she was chewing her fingernail as she thought, in a very L-like way. She quickly took her hand away from her mouth when she realized this. This was just weird. She didn't think of him like that, they were just friends. Just friends. She did think he was cute in a puppy-like sort of way, but she only ever said so to confuse him. That didn't mean anything, right? Ugh. Sleep was overrated. She was going to have to spend the rest of the night up wondering what in the world was going on.

L took a mental note of her confusion, and also how it was another victory on his side of that strange game she had started. He then looked at his research file, taking a sip of coffee. According to the many web pages he had read on "friendship" and other related subjects, and then copied onto that document, there was a ninety-nine percent chance that he had a "crush" on her. Her reaction proved undoubtedly that although she had previously believed them to be only friends, she was now unsure of that belief. There was a seventy-five percent chance that, within the next twenty-four hours, she would come to the conclusion that she might possibly have looked at him as more than a friend.

From this, he could quite easily conclude that friends were more confusing than any case he had ever worked on in the past.


Total of another 13 comments on the last chapter, and it's up over 7,000 views now.

To my readers: Thank you for being so awesome.

Also, I will probably update Justice Never Dies next, as I'm half-way through with its next chapter.

And today's random word is still cactus. Heck, that might be the random word of the week. Who knows.