Here's the second chapter. I hope I get more reviews/faves/alerts. Enjoyed writing this a lot, by the way.

Chapter Two

Option

It was a beautiful day in Japan. The sky was blue, the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and people were walking around lazily on this wonderful weekend. Only the occasional beeping of cars and high-pitched crying of babies would disturb the rhythm of the hustle and bustle of the city. However, in one part of the town, there seemed to be no peace at all.

"Why are you watching us on our date?" Misa shrieked furiously at Ryuzaki, her blond hair tied in pigtails and her eyes blazing with absolute annoyance. Her outburst was loud and shrill enough to scare away any animals lounging around outside.

Ryuzaki looked up, a hint of irritation showing on his face. "I can't leave you two alone. Besides, I'll still be watching on surveillance cameras," he said casually, "Oh, and are you eating that cake?"

"No. Cake makes you fat!"

"Actually, I discovered that large intake of sugar won't make you fat if you burn the calories by using your brain."

"Oh, so now you're calling me stupid?" Misa screamed angrily, "Why don't you leave me and Light alone?"

"I can't do that."

Light groaned, understanding the true meaning behind the simple statement. "For the last time, Ryuzaki, I am NOT Kira!"

Ryuzaki shifted his deep gaze from Misa to Light. An intense staring contest ensued.

"UGH! What is it with you and your weird hobby, you pervert?" Misa said loudly, disrupting the two and craving the spotlight.

"Call me whatever you want; I'm still taking your cake."

It was a week after Misa Amane, Light Yagami, and Soichiro Yagami had been released from imprisonment. L had figured that they were innocent, proven by his watchful surveillance. The little act he had Soichiro do with Light and Misa in the car further decreased their likeliness to be Kira by approximately twenty-five point five percent.

L also considered being handcuffed to Light but changed his mind. However, since he had found the Death Note manga, he was absolutely positive that Light was Kira but needed concrete evidence to prove it. Something was terribly wrong with Light's and Misa's attitudes, but he knew that letting his guard down could cost him a lot. If it wasn't for the Death Note manga he had found a few nights before, he most probably still would have been on the stage of wondering whether Light really was Kira or not.

Now, he was absolutely sure- ninety-nine point nine nine percent sure, to be precise.

As Misa and Light conversed lightly, L contemplated on the Death Note manga he had just read. They definitely confirmed that Light was Kira, and that the whole series somehow covered the complete story of the fight between L and Kira. The only problem the detective was worrying about was that the volumes found were only 1st to 4th. The fourth ended with Light's imprisonment, therefore clearing away the thought of it being the last installment.

"Um, Ryuzaki? Your cake fell on the floor."

L looked up, mildly surprised. "Oh. I apologize. I wasn't paying attention."

Light stared at his friend suspiciously. Suddenly, Misa pulled at his arm, flashing him a sweet smile that would have made normal guys faint. He looked at her shrewdly, just to acknowledge her presence. "LIGHT! Let's go to the movies together! Can we do that?"

"Well..."

"PLEEEAASE?"

"...I guess so."

"Do remember that I will be installing bugs on you two, hearing whatever is exchanged between you during the date," L reminded them as he went for the other cake that didn't fall on the ground. He cut a slice and gulped it down hungrily, the fork daintily clutched in between his index finger and thumb.

Misa glared, turning her attention from Light to Ryuzaki. "WHAAATT?"

"What do you mean by what?" the dark-haired man replied quizzically.

Light sighed.

Matt had no idea what was going on. It all started a week ago, when his best friend Mello and his best friend's rival Near came inside the orphanage together. They were carrying a few books and seemed not to mind accompanying each other. This struck Matt as extremely odd since Mello and Near had always been rivals. Mello's hair was a bit windswept because of the slight breeze outside and he looked a little flustered. Near seemed absolutely calm but also looked as if he was thinking about something, like an equation to solve an extremely difficult mathematical problem.

He approached them, of course. His red hair was slightly messy and his goggles were covering his eyes, which were most probably narrowed in curiosity.

"Mello," he called out. His best friend turned and waved.

"Yo Matt."

"What's going on?" he asked lightly, trying not to sound too suspicious.

Mello grinned. "Oh nothing. Near's just reading some interesting stuff and I wanted to check them out. Selfish little bastard's being a prick and won't show me, though."

Matt smirked. If his ears weren't deceiving him, then his best friend most certainly told him a downright lie. However, he decided to play along with it and nodded. Near stared. He seemed to notice Matt's intentions.

"If you asked nicely, I would have considered lending you at least one," replied Near tonelessly to match Mello's lie, "But you are, as always, being rude and impolite."

"Shut up, idiot." was the answer.

The two best friends then left the white-haired albino with the three books and went up to their room.

A few days later, Matt noticed that Mello was reading one of the books- probably he managed to convince Near to lend him one. Or perhaps they both managed to plan something involving those books without telling Matt. Whatever it was, he decided to leave the two geniuses to it.

Days had passed until Mello was completely hanging out with Near, talking to him whenever he could. Their conversations seemed important, and Matt always watched them. He never eavesdropped. He knew it was wrong, but he couldn't understand what the two had to hide from him. The only thing he could come up with was that it must have had something to do with L.

Being able to come up to that conclusion was easy enough for the gamer. One thing Near and Mello had in common is that they're the top two in the orphanage and another is that they're in line to be L's successors. Following this train of thought, Matt decided that they were planning on something about the latter. It was odd, though, considering how L hadn't even died and the two weren't even of age to succeed yet.

Matt had no idea how close he was to guessing the real reason.

But one day, Near and Mello completely disappeared- like poof. The night before, Mello had spoken to him strangely.

"Hey Matt. You do know that we're good friends, right?" he had said. Matt nodded, wondering what it was all about. "Well, if we're far from each other, remember that we'll sometimes be able to keep in touch or something. If anything happens to me, remember that there's still my memory to go on with. And my permission to take my place as Wammy's number one delinquent." And he just grinned mischievously.

"What exactly are you trying to say, Mello?"

The blond simply waved him off and shook his head, promptly retrieving a chocolate bar from his pocket and taking a huge bite out of it.

The following morning, Matt had a really good idea what exactly his best friend was trying to say. Near and Mello must have been planning to go to L about something and it all started with the three books they brought with them when they walked in that windy day. They both left on some sort of secret help-L-mission thing, being the top two successors- and Matt didn't like it. He was third. He deserved to know; he deserved to at least be let in on the plan! But neither Near nor Mello told him anything about it.

Matt was both worried and resentful at the same time.

Mello was absolutely furious. About three things, to be precise.

First of all, he had to choose between two options that Near had very bluntly proposed: First, to escape England with Near to travel to Japan in order to save L, capture Kira, and prevent the world from doom. Second, to stay with his best friend Matt in the orphanage, leave Near to fail in the mission of saving L, and let the world have Kira as god. He chose the former, and the second option was now taunting him in its grave.

Second, some of the chocolate in his bag melted. To top it all off, Near launched into some boring Science lesson about temperatures and the process of melting and the composition of chocolate, which gave Mello a headache. He almost punched the albino's lights out.

Finally, when they tried to get a cab, the driver thought he was a girl and called him a "pretty, young lady". Mello almost thought he saw the corners of Near's mouth turn up into a half-smile and he yelled his lungs out, losing his short temper. The driver got frightened and drove off, which ended in them standing on the sidewalk for two hours, trying to hail another cab. The new driver, this time, didn't speak much, which did them good.

Add the facts that he desperately wants Near to burn in hell, idolizes and looks up to L, loves Matt as a brother, is infatuated with chocolate, and despises being mistaken for a girl, then you'll probably be able to deduce that he's the most pissed person in the world right now. Oh- and don't forget the part about him wanting Near to burn in hell.

Near, meanwhile, twirled a strand of his white hair yet again, watching Mello from the corner of his eye. He was pleased. The older boy was fuming, but wasn't saying or doing anything that could get them kicked out of the cab, so everything was going to go well.

The twelve-year old albino watched as the world outside the vehicle blurred as they sped off towards the airport, and contemplated on the Death Note manga. It would have been clearer and more informative if they had gotten the first four volumes instead of five, six, and seven. Not that they were complaining, it was better than letting L be unaware of his death. Volume 7 ended with a new arc about him and Mello, and Near didn't like it. It was about Kira- no, Light Yagami working against two new opponents, of course, Mello and Near, who weren't together in capturing him.

The cab driver honked loudly as traffic ensued due to a truck accident on the road up ahead. Mello groaned. Near looked at him for a moment, thinking that everything was going to be fine as long as their little mission to Japan wouldn't fail. If they were to save L now, then things were to go better.

Mello wasn't going to need a reason to rebel and fight. Kira was most certainly going to be stopped. L was no longer fated to die.

L sneezed.

"Ryuzaki, did you know that if you sneeze, someone's thinking about you this very moment?"

The dark-haired, sugar-loving detective shifted his deep gaze from the computer screen to Touta Matsuda's cheerful face. "I don't believe that," he answered bluntly.

"Hey, there's a possibility!" the man cheerfully replied, "I'll give you a random number, and whoever you know whose name starts with the letter of the alphabet corresponding to that number, shall be the one who was supposedly thinking about you!"

"Matsuda-"

"How about number... twelve?"

L tried not to roll his eyes. "The twelfth letter of the alphabet is L."

Matsuda's mouth fell open. "W-what? Really? Cool! I didn't do that on purpose, honestly!"

"Your superstitious belief is quite astounding. I was thinking about myself," the detective said flatly.

"For all you know, Ryuzaki, I could have been the one thinking about you," Light, who was beside him, muttered lazily, "This just proves that you're arrogant and conceited. You're not the only person in the world whose name starts with an L."

The older man stared amusedly. "My most famous fake name is L. Besides, my real name could start with another letter, like X or Y or Z."

"If that's the case, then why L?"

"Because I believe it is a powerful letter that leaves much impact when said."

"Wait!" Matsuda yelled loudly, interrupting the two, "Does this mean that my superstitious belief is true now that you're arguing about it?"

"We were arguing because of it, not about it. We were arguing about my name. Anyway, your belief about a person sneezing because another might be thinking about them is very unlikely to be true. A one point zero one percent possibility," L calculated tonelessly. "I'm not relying on that."

"You just made those numbers up!" Matsuda cried indignantly.

L did not reply, knowing that he had better things to think about than false beliefs involving a simple sneeze. Besides, who in the world would even bother to think about me now? Wait, that was a stupid question. Many people in this world must be thinking about the great detective L. If, for some miraculous reason, Matsuda's belief is true, then he'd be comically sneezing all day.

But then again, anything is possible with the existence of Death Notes, Shinigami, and manga books appearing out of thin air.

Soichiro Yagami entered the room. "Light, look at these reports; don't they look suspicious?"

Light moved from the seat beside him. "Oh yes, dad, it does... What about the others you showed me a while ago?"

"They turned out to be false. Mogi and Aizawa found a few more files about them."

"Shame. It seemed like a good lead at first."

"Well, it turned out to be a small group of teenagers pretending to be Kira."

L wasn't listening to the conversation. He was pondering about being more careful around Light now that it was clear he was Kira. At one point in the manga, Ryuk had mentioned that relinquishing ownership of the Death Note would mean erasure of all memories of it. That's what Light must have done while he was imprisoned. He knew that L would soon have no other option but to release him. He must have planned something in order for him to regain his memories after his release. The detective took a sip from his coffee full of sugar cubes.

"This new lead seems like a practical joke to me," came Light's voice.

"I see. Well, there's nothing else, so I thought that anything would do..."

"It's understandable. At least you take things by looking for a solution instead of stubbornly insisting on something that isn't true."

"Light, don't pick a fight with him now!"

L continued with his thoughts, ignoring the world around him. The only way Light could regain his memories was by touching a Death Note again. He must have told Ryuk to give him back the Death Note after his imprisonment- but no, Ryuk had stated in the first volume that he wasn't taking sides; therefore he wouldn't have done that to help. Misa Amane also gave up her memories, so her Shinigami Rem was gone as well.

Light scoffed, noticing the dark-haired man's absence of mind. "Well, obviously, it seems like he doesn't care."

"Yeah, he's just staring at you weirdly," Matsuda observed.

"Ryuzaki? Ryuzaki. Oi, Ryuzaki!" Light yelled. "Great. He's oblivious to everything that's happening right now."

Soichiro sighed. "He's thinking deeply... again."

"Lost in his thoughts, most probably too brilliant for any of us to comprehend," Matsuda added sadly.

"Ryuzaki, what is wrong with you? Stop that!"

L didn't hear anything that was said to him, his thoughts incessantly whirring around his brain. Light must have instructed Ryuk to give the Death Note to someone else who would be able to return it to him after his release... but who? And where could L even get evidence of Light being Kira if the man couldn't remember anything about it? There was no end to the continuous questioning.

"RYUZAKI!"

L snapped out of his thoughts, realizing that Light was yelling at him.

"I can hear you perfectly well, thank you," L retorted offhandedly, giving the younger man a simple glare. He then retreated back to contemplating deeply.

It was clear then that he only had two options: Either he would find the person currently in possession of one of the Death Notes, or he would find the other Death Note that Light hid somewhere safe. L could try looking for both, but he decided to focus on finding the hidden notebook, knowing that it could end up in the wrong hands somehow. His thoughts involuntarily poured into his brain ceaselessly. If Light could get back his memories but not be able to find his own Death Note ever again, then it would be better.

At that moment, L concluded that the Death Note should be retrieved and discarded immediately. He would just have to find it and it would be a piece of cake.

"RYUZAKI!" Light was yelling again. "You're getting on my nerves! Stop staring at me like that or I'll-"

"A piece of cake..." L mumbled absentmindedly, getting out of his seat and exiting the room.

Everyone stared incredulously at the detective, who simply shuffled away.

"What the hell could that guy be thinking about?" Light mumbled, rolling his eyes.

Soichiro reminded him softly, "Well, Light, nobody, no matter how close, can read L's thoughts."

Matsuda added, being the unhelpful idiot he is, "Yeah, I bet even Watari can't do it."

Light snorted, mentally cursing the unreasonable, biased, stubborn, and exceedingly weird sugar-loving detective out of annoyance.

I hope you all liked it. Don't worry; you'll get more answers to your questions in the next chapter, which has more action. :D