Chapter Six: Confrontations

L turned at the sound of the familiar voice. "Yes, I suppose we do need to talk. Don't we, Matsuda?"

Touta Matsuda looked at L with an out of character seriousness on his face. "I suppose you already know what about."

L silently made his way across the room to his coffee pot, ignoring Matsuda's presence; he poured himself a cup and slowly made his way back over to his chair. "What are your conditions?" He asked as he slowly added more sugar to the cup than the laws of saturation allowed. "You must want something for your silence. What is it, money, cars, girls, a limited edition manga that you need for your collection, Task Force to stop treating you like an idiot? What is it, Matsuda? Name your price."

Matsuda looked at him in silence, his usual carefree demeanor hidden behind his stoic expression. "None of that, Ryuuzaki," He replied. "I simply want you to end whatever this you have with Light. I don't believe Chief Yagami would care to know that you've been too busy seducing his son to make any progress on the case."

L chuckled lightly. "Simply. You simply want me to end my relationship with Light? Wouldn't that be nice? Of course there's nothing simple about what's going on between us." He stared into his coffee cup, sadness carrying itself in everything about him, his eyes, his figure, and his voice. "If only it could be so simple." That came out a little over a whisper, barely loud enough for L himself to hear, better yet Matsuda. "Tell me," L said turning to face the other detective, "What all do you know about me and my relationship with Light Yagami? Have you seen all our meetings from beginning to end?"

"I've seen all of your little meetings," Matsuda replied sullenly. "I caught the beginning of most; except by time I got back here tonight, the two of you had already moved past the talking phase."

"So," L said, once again looking into his still full coffee cup, unable to bring himself to take a sip. "You know nothing." He stated with an air of assurance he'd being missing in his previous words—when had this thing with Light moved L to doubting himself so much? "For all you know, it could have been Light who seduced me tonight, not the other way around. You know nothing of the mind games we played with each other until we were both roped into believing that there was no way around what was coming next. " He paused and brought the coffee cup to his lips before lowering it again without taking a sip. "You almost had me going there for a moment, Matsuda. Almost had me worried. Telling Chief Yagami and the rest of Task Force, is that your only plan? What if they don't do anything about it? There goes your ultimatum right out the window." L almost laughed at the situation he was being placed in. It would have been terribly funny if he hadn't already been tragically sad.

The night's visit hadn't healed his broken hard, it had only ground the broken pieces down to dust, leaving his with an even bigger mess to clean. He knew things would never be the same between him and Light again. Like a fool he had tried to hold the Yagami boy to him with his body, offering him nothing but carnal pleasures and one-sided love. He knew his actions were wrong when he was doing them, but he didn't stop. He could only think about having Light touch him, and the off chance that sex would make Light stay with him. What a fool he was.

And now here was Touta Matsuda, the idiot of the Task Force, offering him an ultimatum. Oh how the mighty has fallen. L was ready to curl up and cry, but he couldn't do that. Not yet. First he had to get rid of Matsuda.

"I don't care if they don't do anything about it," Matsuda said in a shaky voice. "I don't care about them. I don't care about you. I don't care about anything. I just want you to leave Light alone. Is that too much to ask?"

L looked at Matsuda, understanding coloring his face. "Matsuda," He said carefully, "What fools we are, you and I. Both of us are fools. Cause both of us has made the same mistake. We've both fallen in love with the one person that would never love us back." He turned away from Matsuda, and stared at the monitor showing the young Yagami boy. Light was curled up asleep on his cot, looking as if none of that night had ever happened. And maybe to him it hadn't. "Don't worry, Matsuda," He assured the detective looking over his shoulder, "Tonight was just a one time fling. It most likely will never happen again."

"Ryuuzaki?" Matsuda whispered softly.

The supposed World Greatest Detective looked up at Matsuda, for the first time allowing someone else to see the tears that have been threatening to fall from his eyes every since is previous visit to the prisoner. "Don't make the mistake I did, Matsuda," He said. "Don't delude yourself. Light Yagami is incapable of loving anyone but himself. You'd have to be an idiot to think you could make him love you back." He set the coffee cup in his hand down on the table in front of him and wrapped his arms around his legs, hugging them to his chest. "But we are both idiots, aren't we Matsuda. Cause we'll never stop loving him."

The detective curled into himself, hiding the few tears that managed to escape his eyes. Matsuda stood there staring at the monitor showing the boy that they both loved.

Light Yagami was sleeping peacefully in his cot.

.:~:.

It was hard to believe that only a week had passed since his incarceration had started, and what an eventful week it had been. Light had enjoyed these little games he played with L. They were the highlight of his day. And since they were memories that had nothing to do with the Death Note, he didn't have to worry about forgetting them.

"This stubborn pride of yours is just getting in the way, Light," L was saying over the speaker.

"You're right Ryuuzaki. I guess I'll just have to get rid of it."

L watched shocked as Light's whole attitude changed. He was contradicting himself. Such things were out of character for him. For some reason the words, Everything will end today and begin anew, drifted into the front of his mind. Day seven of incarceration, the day after L had given himself over to him, Light's attitude changed in prison.

L watched in wonder as everything changed after that.

End of Arc One.