A/N: Yes, in this chapter I am referring to the image in the opening credits of the anime.
#7 Rose
"L!! L!!" Misa's high-pitched cry bounced into the room, almost spreading a trail of pink light and flowers behind it over the cold steel that lined the computer hub of L's building.
L turned slightly from his computer screen, ebony eyes fixing on her as she skipped into the room, her pigtails and frilly skirt bouncing behind her.
Misa giggled and blew him a kiss, every movement a perfect pose for a magazine's front page. With a giggle she finished skipping over the cold tiles to her beloved L-kun and waved a photograph under his nose.
L blinked, and turned his steady gaze down.
There she was, beautiful as ever, lips red and pouting, hair trailing down her back like molten gold, eyes staring into the camera and at the same time into his soul. Clad in one of the more revealing dresses she owned, tempting the viewer of the photo to believe that she might show them more than just her stocking-tops, if only for the briefest of seconds.
And she was laying on a bed of red roses, her hands clasped around a bouquet of them like a pillow.
L raised one eyebrow.
"It is a photo of Misa-chan."
Misa's cheerful smile faded instantly. She'd been hoping this rather racy and suggestive photograph from one of her recent shoots, not to be released to the public, might get a rise of out of L.
Not that she was bored with him, but she wanted him to be a little more… romantic. No, not so much romantic… more… well, masculine.
Misa was used to men noticing how attractive she was, and showing it with stares and occasional light touches to her arm or waist. And while L told her regularly that she was attractive, he never seemed to stare at her in the way she was used to. The way she really wanted him to. Oh, she adored him and the way he treated her with respect that she had never known, but once in a while she wanted to know that he found her as attractive as all the other men in her life found her.
"Misa-chan is aware that laying on roses like that is highly hazardous?" L inquired, biting on his thumbnail as his other hand took hold of one corner of the photo, as though it was diseased.
Misa's expression of mild disappointment rapidly turned into a scowl that marred her pretty features.
"That's all you have to say!?" she snapped. "L! Look at it!"
"I am."
Misa groaned. "You don't think you should have any other comments?"
L shrugged. "What would Misa-chan like me to say?"
Misa clenched her fists, "Urgh! How can you be so dense?! How about something like 'Wow! Misa, you're so sexy!' or 'Misa-chan looks irresistible!'"
L lowered the photo slowly, blinking his endless black eyes slowly at her pouting face.
"Misa-chan appears to be under some misunderstanding as to what L finds attractive about her." He stated calmly. "L cares for Misa because of her intelligence and her compassion towards others, for the life she has inside her, for the way she can find a reason to smile even when everything is going wrong."
He let out a low sigh and glanced at the photograph again. "Certainly L's feelings are not purely based on the fact that Misa is quite possibly the sexiest thing on two legs." His raven eyes fixed on her over the top of the picture, flickering mischievously for just a second.