Author's note: Took me quite a bit of time to write this, kept writing it and then changing my mind and erasing it all.

Disclaimer: I do not own death note and I do not own lyrics (but I did change them xD ).

Another Detective

Chapter 14

Flicking over the buttons, L changed the screen on the cell phone several times to ensure the last ten minutes of texts had been more than a hallucination. The black haired detective pressed the edge if his thumb against his lip, dragging the dry formation until the entire bottom lip was parallel to his eye. Contemplatively, L looked towards the computer in front of him.

The screen had disappeared without a word, as had the other investigators in the room. Smile had done this too, left not only the realm of communication with L but the state of quintessence. It would be an unwarranted theory to state that he was merely lonely, instead he was cut off from the illusion of social interaction he had come to cherish.

There was, of course, the slight chance that Beyond had been lying, creating a trickery of words and a puzzle. L contemplated this possibility. Beyond never directly made the statement that Smile was dead, he only stated that Kira had killed masses of virtuous people and that he was implying Smile could be dead.

Did Beyond not know Smile's condition? It was unlikely; in such a situation he would have given L a more straightforward answer instead of being maddening. L whispered the words to the phone in an attempt of grieving and coming to terms with the truth of the matter. "Smile is dead; he is truly a victim at the hands of the sickest criminal ever to come into existence."

The screech of the worn springs in one of the seats filled L's mind with the comprehension that he at the moment was not completely alone. He had a suspect, a striking teen, chained to his arm. Peering at the boy beside him, L was surprised to find a look of utter shock which indirectly meant he had heard L's spoken words. Raito was now aware that the greatest detective ever to live, since in his death L could not argue for the title, had been killed by a mastermind of natural death dealing.

Raito met the eyes of L when he turned. He knew if L found out that Beyond was the one sending the text messages then a lie would have to be made but this was unexpected. It made sense though; L would not ask any more questions and leave Beyond as is. If, by chance, Beyond had instead given the excuse of disease or sickness of any kind than L would have wanted to go see Smile to wish him a 'get well soon'. L, on the other hand, would not request entry to a funeral for a man he only knew from the sentence responses on a phone or over the computer.

"L, are you feeling well?" Raito knew the question was stupid, of course he was not. The antisocial man had just realized his first friend was dead!

"Raito-kun, I will be chaining you to the cabinet for a moment. There is something I need to speak with Watari regarding" L said but his tone did not seem emotionless, it seemed strained.

Since there was no objections from Raito, L left the one specimen of company he had acquired in the room and left to the kitchen. The kitchen, like the rest of this magnificent hotel was made relatively new looking. All the utensils and equipment was stainless steel and shining from their lack of use.

Watari stood in front of the of oven with a cake in his left hand and his eyes searching few laptops set up along the counter displaying information for the case, as well as camera images of different parts of the hotel.

"Watari?" L said in a voice that once again showed some type of strain.

"Yes sir, what do you need?"

"Smile is dead." Unnoticed by L, Watari glanced at one of the computer screens that displayed an image of Raito trying unsuccessfully to do a handstand while chained to a cabinet. Watari recognized that Smile was very much alive. Waiting for L to continue, Watari's eyes watched Smile fall into the cabinet and get tangled between the chain and the wall. "Beyond contacted me on the matter. Why is this funny Watari?" A feeble finger pointed to the screen of the laptop that was watching Raito.

The laptop showed Raito flip over from the handstand and fall face first onto the floor. A curse sounded through the laptop as Raito successfully sat up.

"His Kira percentages just dropped significantly" L said. His voice had returned to monotone after being amused by the suspect but there was still sadness although the only one that would have noticed the trait was Watari. The conversation then was quickly shifted back to Smile's death.

There had been far more clientele at the law office since the striking new building was added to the offices on this street but it was rather obvious the current guest was not among the clients. Embracing the chances this displaced appearance brought, the guest of the law office acted like an idiotic fool in order to generate lax tongues on the members of the firm and be provided open explanation.

The visitor searched for something or someone they could not find. Several lawyers and attorneys in the building thought the person have come to the wrong address but still worked to fulfill the person's wishes. One of the men in the building had a brilliant idea as to what the person had come for. The intern, Mikami Teru, had left all of his things at his desk.

Nodding to the statement, the visitor acknowledged the information regarding Mikami. The guest of the law office was led off into a small office that Mikami had used to work.

For the most part the room was empty. Filling the spacey room, a tatter swivel chair stared at the desk and invited the visitor to sit and peer at the contents of the previous worker's desk. The mahogany wood desk was decorated with only a collection of two notebooks: one was black and one was blue. Over the next few minutes, the members of the law office departed and left the guest to sort through Mikami's stuff.

The black notebook had two English words on it but unfortunately the guest was not very fluent in the language. One of the words meant 'note' but the other had never been discussed in English classes that the guest had participated in. It probably only meant 'book', the guest decided, as they flipped open to a page that contained the words 'strawberry jam'. Was this a grocery list?

Turning to the other notebook, the visitor's interest was galvanized. Inside the blue notebook, the words of a diary had been neatly written. Deciding to bring only the blue book with them, the guest of the law offices left without saying a farewell to the workers of the offices.

In honesty, the person had gone to the wrong location since they had been trying to find the office of the great detective Smile not the office of the great criminal Kira. For the time being the guest would know they had been at the wrong place but would not realize the dramatic irony present in their choice of destination.

"It is possible L that Beyond provided you with such information in order to hinder you from discovering Smile's true situation" Watari stated. L sat in his traditional way on the chair located near Watari and then stared at the ceiling.

"I have considered that. But I do not want to delude myself, it is best to embrace the most likely possibility."

"The world always viewed L and Smile as a team. L the pessimistic bad cop and Smile the optimistic good cop would always solve the world's problems." Watari brought out a bowl and filled it with ice-cream for L. "If what you say is true you need to fill the place of optimism and hope that things are not the probable result."

"Probabilities are closer to facts than hopes are" L stated as the bowl of ice-cream was finally shoved in front of him. "Thank you."

Watari was surprised; L must have been really depressed to actually honor the decency of saying thank you. It was best to leave the situation alone. If Beyond had actually lied to L about Smile's existence there was some reason behind it that Watari needed to find out directly from Raito. "I am going to check on Yagami-kun to ensure he has not harmed himself with the chain, try not to eat any sugar directly from the container". Watari pressed a button in his pocket before he left the room.

It had been a while since L had left and Raito had decided to do something to alleviate his boredom. He regretted it now; he had damaged his ankle and bruised part of his arm after his pathetic fall. It was only worsened when Watari came in and asked him about his well being. There had been cameras in the room watching him the entire time, why had he done something so stupid?

A vague nod followed Watari's questioning and Raito stood up painfully and looked around for L. Where was he? Watari had came by himself which most likely meant L had told him about 'Smile's death' and Watari needed an explanation. Raito could not provide him with information regarding Rem and death note without Watari telling L. Then, of course, if Watari told L then Misa would be convicted and Rem would kill Raito and his family. Would she kill L too? Raito frowned at the thought.

"I am sure you know what I want to know" Watari said to Raito who appeared to be looking around to make sure someone or something wasn't watching.

"There are innocent lives at stake if certain information gets out, my side of the investigation has the first Kira but there is much more to this case then who the criminal is. I would appreciate it if you did not ask questions, Wammy-san" Raito said in a voice that reminded Watari of someone else. The voice was stern, emotionless and full of conviction. Watari knew this was not the voice of a seventeen year old; it was the voice of one of the world's great detectives, L often spoke this way.

"L thought of Smile as his only friend, I hope you know that." Watari said before pressing a button that he had earlier pressed and leaving the room. Hopefully, no one would notice the missing camera footage during the time in which he had spoken to Raito.

Raito pondered Watari's statement. For most of his life Raito had regarded L in the same way, his only true friend and his best friend. The thought of L dying upset Raito although he saw the death of everyone he knew plastered above their heads. In a way Raito knew he was causing far worse than an 'upset at future death possibility' in L's emotions. Through the use of Beyond, Raito had killed himself or at least his alias and caused L the pain of losing his best friend.

Watari had implicitly requested that Raito should comfort L, even if he did not give him the truth of the matter. A smile filled Raito's face; the mustached man was as wise as his old age held him out to be. Staring at the ceiling, Raito thought up plans of consoling the disheartened detective.

It would be hours later when L finally returned to the room and Raito had yet to come up with an epiphany as far as comforting him.

Staring at the teen chained to the cabinet, L felt a sudden rush of hatred. If Raito was Kira he had killed Smile. Smile, Kira, and Ratio, Ratio is Kira? Kira killed Smile? Raito killed Smile? Raito is Smile? Smile is alive. Kira will be killed. That thought could almost make L smile despite his distraught condition. Smile had started acting distant around the same time Raito was confined but Kira's killings had also temporarily stopped during the beginning of Raito's confinement.

"L? What time is it?" Raito asked, interrupting L's thoughts.

"Around twelve."

"Twelve? Midnight! Sleep deprivation will not make me confess anything!"

Normal people needed a certain amount of sleep, L had forgotten that fact. Didn't Smile usually go to sleep around the Japanese time of midnight? It was best to push such thoughts aside for the moment, Smile might be dead and L realized he had to accept that fact and not theorize random intelligent individuals into his place. There was no response given to Raito's outburst but L attached the cuff on the cabinet onto his own wrist and began to walk towards his bedroom.

When the two arrived at the room, Raito was stricken with a bolt of shock. There was only one bed, one bed and two people meant that he would have to sleep with L. This fact did not bother Raito as much as the fact that L did not seem concerned with the sleeping arrangement. Raito knew how L handled his cases, sleeping with a suspect even in the most innocent of ways was something that the black haired detective did not do!

"Will Raito-kun be retiring to sleep?" L, through this simple question, started a new game. Who would lay down first? Raito did not like to lose, neither did L.

L and Raito managed to position themselves on opposite sides of the bed regardless of the chain that dangled in the bed that neither of them would enter. The two detectives stared into each others' eyes. This meant war, who would fall first?

Simultaneously, the two placed one hand on the comforter and then watched to see the other's reaction. To whoever lost the game, the actions would be simplistic coincidences but to the winner it would be the ending to a silent war. And if they by chance they would reach a tie then the game would show equality, complexity, how perfectly their thoughts worked as one. Limb by limb, the later result occurred. The game was won with a tie.

Before nodding off to a night of slumber, Raito noticed a smile on L's face. At least Raito was not dreadfully terrible at comforting him.

Hearing the sleep stricken breaths of his only accompanying person, L was panged with loneliness. He brought out his cell phone to once again gaze as the troublesome messages. It was probably time to make a reply to Beyond and decide on several matters regarding what was to occur after Smile's death. Beyond was, after all, a criminal that still held homicidal intentions occasionally and he needed to be watched in order to monitor his murderous activities.

Message sent 2:23a.m. Number unknown.

'How do you foresee the handling of your situation after Smile's death?'

L was unsure of how Beyond would reply to this, hopefully he had not already 'handled the situation' the same way he had 'handled' the situation a few years back in horrific blooded artworks of the deceased human body. If Beyond started to murder again then all the effort Smile had exhorted would go to waste.

Now was not the time to dwell on this, now was the time to contemplate the being known as Kira. Natural deaths, so unthought-of prior to this case but now they were the norm of murders.

Over time, L's thoughts clouded and he felt the need to rest in sleep for a few moments. He would have done so peacefully if not for the image of Raito's eyes flashing open to reveal two glowing rubies of red pigmentation. Was it a nightmare or a dream? L could only wonder as his vision slipped away from the redness.

Sayu and Sachiko Yagami sat quietly on opposite sides of the table, both maneuvering the fork's fingers through the food without ever lifting the substance to their mouths. It had been this quiet and lonesome since Soichiro Yagami dies from Kira's evil attack.

Both of them were bothered by Raito working in such close contact with a deadly murder that had so easily killed their father and husband already. Each of them had a personal reason to worry.

Sayu knew the details of the entire situation. By knowing about Rem, Smile, Misa, Kira, Mikami, and L, Sayu had an advantage to almost everyone except possibly Smile's assistant, Beyond. She knew that if something went wrong she had a civic obligation to help the general public and the Kira investigation despite her intelligence, which was vastly inferior to Smile and L.

Sachiko's son was working with the same people that had allowed her husband to be killed. How could Raito handle such interaction? No one noticed it except her but until now Raito was always in his room with the door locked, it was as if his only friends existed in school acquaintances and that person he was always on the phone with. Concern was an indistinct if not completely irrelevant word to use for how she felt, it was far more then concern for her son. It was fear, fear of losing what was left of her life's joy.

Piercing the gloomy silence, a knock sounded at the door. Sayu followed the noise to its source and opened the door cautiously. Behind the door stood a man with black, shoulder length, hair and another man with black and red streaked hair. Neither of the two looked too old but the one had a certain sadistically playful smile that made him seem younger.

"Hello Sayu-san, my name is B. I am a friend of Light-san's."

"I know who you are" Sayu said in a sorrowful way, how she hoped this was not the notice of Raito's death.

Interrupting the conversation between the two, the man with the longer black hair spoke up. "Light? Is that not the teen we met in the hospital?" After an expanse of time with no response Sayu said a comment unrelated to the situation at hand.

"I am sorry, please come in both of you. My name is Sayu and I know who B is, who might you be?"

"Mikami Teru, it is a pleasure to meet you" Mikami said in a way that somehow did not sound at all 'pleasured'.

Mikami Teru? Sayu had an idea, maybe she could help Smile, L, and Beyond fight against Kira.

(Micro-Song fic based on Hannah Montana's "If we were a movie", which I DO NOT OWN)

If we were a movie you'd be the detective
And I'd be the prime suspect that you fall in love with
In the end we'd be dying, watching the last breath
Fade to black, show the names, play the sadistic song

Wish I could tell you there's a twist, some kind of investigator in disguise
And we're together, it's for real, now playing
Wish I could tell you there's a kiss like something more than in my mind
I see it could be tramatizing