Burn

by xLion'sRoarx

When BB, a dangerous criminal, escapes from jail and sets his eyes on Light, the entire investigation is thrown into chaos. The Kira case flies off the metaphorical tracks, and as Light's world comes apart at the seams, his own emotions bar him at every turn, turning calculations into reckless actions and throwing into danger everything that he has fought to protect. LxLight

6. A Dangerous Path

Have you ever stared at a picture you drew for so long that you found literally every single flaw, but were unable to find a way to fix any of them? Yeah… that's pretty much what I did to this chapter. But all things considered, it turned out a hell of a lot better than it was before I edited it.

I hope you enjoy this chapter, and be sure to drop me a review if you do!

Chapter 6: A Dangerous Path

The next morning I awoke warm and comfortable, more relaxed than I'd been in a very, very long time. The reason for this feeling of contentment was the scrawny, black-haired detective curled up on top of me, his body acting as my personal heater. L looked adorable when he slept—his thumb was still at his lips, making him look like a toddler, his hair was mussed, and his clothing was twisted about haphazardly. Remembering the events of the previous night, a smile was brought to my lips, despite my realization that no matter how good this was, it wouldn't last. But despite that, it felt… liberating, to say the least. I could barely believe that rivalry had turned into care and devotion so easily, so simply. It was like someone had flipped a switch, and it had drawn back the floodgates that I'd built up so carefully. And if that were true for me, I couldn't imagine what L would be feeling once he awoke. L, someone who had hidden his feelings from the world ever since he was a boy. It would probably wreck him. I drew him closer mindlessly, lost in thought.

L shifted at the movement with a groan. His eyes fluttered open, obsidian orbs melting into happiness when they were met with the sight of my face so close to his. "Ah," he muttered, leaning back. "I appear to have been using you as a pillow. Am I to take it, then, that the events of last night were not a figment of my imagination? A dream?"

"No, L." Doubt rose in my chest for a split-second, reminding me of the hell that was to come, but I choked it back. No, I thought. I won't think about that. For now, I will pretend that everything is okay. "It was all real."

For a heartbeat he looked terror-stricken, and I was almost worried that he was going to take everything back—but my fears were alleviated when he suddenly smiled. "Good," he announced. "I'm glad it was."

I gently extracted myself from the tangle of limbs and stood, pulling him up with me. "Come on," I said. "We need to get ready. Matsuda will be waiting."

†††

When we got to the investigation room, Matsuda in tow, the task force was humming with nervous energy. Upon seeing us, Soichiro immediately rushed over, hair disheveled and a stained coffee mug in one hand.

"Ryuzaki!" he snapped. "What's this I hear about you calling in outside help on this case without consulting us? You should have at least run it by us before deciding to make the call!"

Both of us blanched. "Ah… what?" L said flatly, at a loss for words.

"Don't play dumb!" Aizawa shot from his seat. "Watari came in here this morning and used your computer to contact some people from England. He told them that you had asked for their assistance, and for them to fly out here immediately."

L stared blankly. "I assure you, I did not ask Watari to make that call." He seated himself at his computer and reached for the intercom. "Watari," he demanded.

"Yes, Ryuzaki?"

"Why did you call for my successors?"

A pause. "Because you said you were going to call them first thing this morning, and I wished to save you the trouble."

"But how did you—" His expression dropped.

"You do remember, Ryuzaki, that we placed cameras in your room that I was instructed to monitor around the clock?"

My heart skipped a beat as my eyes met L's. We shared a brief look of horror before returning to our emotionless masks, knowing we couldn't let the team know something was up.

"Actually, I had… forgotten," L muttered. "I don't suppose you were watching when—?"

"I was watching at every moment, as instructed," Watari said evenly. "Oh, and Ryuzaki, there is something that I must discuss with both you and Light as soon as possible." There it was. His voice had dropped slightly, portraying subtle anger. He knew.

"Of… of course," L responded. His fingers pried at the seat of his chair restlessly. I knew how he felt; at the moment I was forcing myself not to begin tugging at my hair in frustration. Such a simple oversight that neither of us should have made. It was infuriating.

"Getting back to the topic of conversation," Watari went on, "Your successors have informed me that they will be here by tonight. They took a private jet as not to be delayed."

"Right, of course they did," L seethed. "Those kids…" He dropped off, seemingly lost in thought. "I apologize for all of this, Watari. If you wait in my office, I will gladly come to speak with you after I have explained the situation to the task force."

"Of course, Ryuzaki. I will be waiting." The intercom clicked off, and L leaned back in his chair with a deep sigh. His hands rose to tug at the hair shadowing his eyes.

"Ryuzaki," Soichiro prompted. "Please, explain yourself.

"Very well. I shall." He spun his chair to face them. "I will give you the shortened version, as not to reveal too much. This so called "outside help" comes from three of my closest friends, calling themselves Near, Mello, and Matt—the successors. They are incredibly intelligent, and working together, they are at my level, if not beyond. It is for that reason that I made the decision to call them for help with the Kira case. They are almost familiar with his tactics as myself, so they will be a great asset to us." He broke off just long enough to bring his thumb to his lips, an action that made him look somewhat like a toddler. "I realize that I have been hasty in contacting them; it has been a mere four days since Beyond's threat. However, with Light's life at stake, I would rather end this sooner than later—thus the inclusion of my successors."

"And you weren't going to consult us first?" Mogi demanded.

"I was going to pretend to consult you and call them anyways," L murmured.

Aizawa rolled his eyes. "Great. So you think they can actually help us?"

"I have no doubt." The detective plucked a sweet from the always-present bowl on his desk and popped it into his mouth, humming contentedly. "I do apologize for this hasty decision, Chief Yagami. But I feel it is necessary to ensure that this case is closed before Beyond gets to Light."

That shut them up. Of course it did, L knew exactly how to twist his words so they'd strike at the hearts of those beneath him. I almost rolled my eyes at his use of my father's emotions to string him along.

"Right," Soichiro said at last. "If that is what it takes, I will allow anything so long as it will keep my son safe."

L got to his feet. I followed. "Now," he said. "In case you weren't paying attention, Watari has requested our presence in my office. I will be taking my leave now, and so shall Light. I will see you as soon as is convenient, or when my successors arrive."

"Hey, wait!" Matsuda protested. "Aren't you bringing me?"

"No," L shot back at him. "This is a private matter between Watari, Light, and myself. Please do not interfere." He murmured to me, "Watari watching the cameras will provide enough security for such a short trip."

"Well… okay!" Matsuda called out as we entered the elevator. The doors slid shut, and the instant I was sure we couldn't be heard I immediately broke out into a sly grin.

"That was clever, using me as an excuse to allow your friends to come here."

He lowered his gaze. "While it is true that I was manipulating your father's emotions, it is also true that I wish for this case to be closed so that no further harm will come to you. I've already stated that I would be… upset, to say the least, if Beyond managed to obtain you. I've already been forced to watch you on your deathbed once, I don't wish to see it again."

"You won't," I assured him, once again fighting against a tidal wave of doubt. "I have faith in you to protect me from your crazy stalker."

"You shouldn't," he snapped, startling me. Then his gaze softened, realizing how harsh he'd sounded. "Ah… Light, I'm sorry." He reached out and clasped a hand to my shoulder. The handcuff chain brushed against my chest as he moved. "But please, be on your guard. Just because I'm here doesn't mean that Beyond can't get to you. Remember, he could easily have taken you away from me in the hospital, and we don't know why he didn't. He could even be watching right now." He pointed to the camera glaring down at us. I had no doubt Watari was watching.

"I know that my safety isn't guaranteed," I said carefully, knowing full well that what I said had great weight in this situation. "But you can't deny that I'm in the safest place I can be. If Beyond manages to capture me, it won't be your fault."

"You say that," he murmured, "But I can't seem to believe you." He moved his other hand to my other shoulder, moving me back against the elevator wall gently. I stared up into those flecked obsidian eyes, waiting for—something. "Why do I feel like you're hiding something?" he asked softly.

Like what? I thought. My complete and utter disbelief that you'll keep your promise to stay here after the case ends? Or maybe my vow to keep you from getting hurt over this, no matter what it takes. "Anything you want to know, just ask," I lied. And even then I could tell, looking up at him, that he wasn't entirely convinced.

"I'm concerned," he said slowly, "that you'll lie."

"Lie?" I echoed. "You think that I'd lie to you?"

"If you thought your lie would do more good than harm, then yes, I think you would lie. After all, at the beginning of this case you lied to me plenty."

I was reminded, for the first time in over a week, that L believed I was the original Kira. A flash of irritation passed through me, and I immediately pushed L's hands from my shoulders. "Don't," I hissed, "bring that up."

An expression of hurt flickered across L's features. The expression only served to heighten my irritation. What the hell did L think was going to happen? Did he think the fact that I felt something for him made it okay to keep accusing me of being a mass murderer? Or perhaps, did he think that we would confess our feelings and run into the sunset, hair flapping in the breeze? This was real life, not some ridiculous shoujo manga. And in real life, you didn't get to accuse the person you were romantically interested in of being Kira without repercussions.

L opened his mouth to respond, hopefully with an apology, but before he could, the elevator dinged. The doors slid open. L slowly stepped away from me, a deep frown spread across his face. "We'll discuss this later," he decided, turning and exiting the elevator without another word.

I followed silently.

†††

When L entered his office, the first thing he sensed was frustration. And a lot of it. Although, he figured, some of that frustration may have been emanating from himself. L wasn't an idiot. He knew when someone was lying to him, or hiding something. And Light was definitely doing both. L had seen the conflict in his eyes, had seen the distrust when he'd promised not to leave. The teen was troubled over his predicament, troubled over the overwhelming events of the past few weeks. And most of all, L figured, Light was troubled over what was happening between them. Does he really care for me as he claims to? L wondered. It's true that he allowed me to kiss him, and kissed me back, but he seems less than pleased with our situation. The argument in the elevator had only swirled up more doubt in the detective's mind. Perhaps… perhaps he thinks he's made a mistake in allowing this to happen. Perhaps he thinks it was too much too quickly. After all, my feelings for him grew over a mere week, but he had but a few days to realize and accept my sentiment. I may have pushed him too hard, expected him to return a feeling he didn't share. Or maybe, just maybe, he doesn't yet understand how he feels. L moved further into the room, traversing the short hallway that led into Watari's office. If that's the case, he went on, then I will help him understand. I will ease this conflict and gain his trust.

L winced, thinking to himself that it would take quite a grand gesture to earn Light's trust, and more immediately, his forgiveness. The teen hadn't exactly looked thrilled when he'd locked him up in the adjacent room so he couldn't overhear what was sure to be a heated conversation between genius and father figure. He'd called for Matsuda at the last second, sending him into the room with Light just in case something happened. In addition, he'd called ahead to Watari just to make sure he had an eye on the camera in Light's temporary room at all times. He was taking no chances, after all. Even in the few minutes L was speaking with his caretaker, Beyond could strike—and Watari, the stubborn man that he was, wanted to speak to them one at a time, which meant that L wouldn't be able to stay with Light constantly.

Watari looked up as L finally passed from the hallway to the room. "L," he greeted, seated at his desk.

"Watari," he responded. "I suppose you wanted to talk to me about what transpired last night between Light and myself."

He tilted his chin down disapprovingly. "Yes, L, you're right. Would you like to tell me exactly what it was that I saw?"

He shifted uncomfortably. "You saw a kiss. More than one, actually."

"And you initiated the first."

"Yes, I did."

"Why?"

"Because…" L drifted off. Why had he done it? There was no good answer. Light had just looked so appealing, and he'd been so glad that he wasn't dead, and there was no fighting the swell of affection in his chest, and— "Because I wanted to," he said, cutting off his babbling stream of consciousness.

One eyebrow was raised. "And do you have feelings for the younger Yagami?"

"Yes." This time the answer was definite. Because if there was one thing he was sure of now, it was that there was something there between Light and him. Something wrong, perhaps, but something that he wasn't willing to give up. "I feel for him in ways I have never felt for anyone before."

"L…" he shook his head sadly. "I'm sure I don't need to remind you that you know he's Kira."

"Yes, I know," he responded slowly. "But everything about this case has led me to believe that Kira's power and consciousness leaps between people. If that were the case, then it was Kira we were dealing with in the beginning, but it is Light currently."

"And what is to happen if Kira jumps back to Light? What will you do if you lose the boy you know to a murderer?"

L bit his lip thoughtfully. He had considered this, of course. "Then I will prove him guilty and turn him in."

"Are you sure you will be able to do that? After growing attached, would you be able to condemn him to death?"

"Of course I would. He would be a murderer."

Watari's eyes glinted angrily. "But it wouldn't matter to you, would it? Yes, he would be possessed by Kira, but he would still be Light to you. I hope you realize that by being with him you are leaving him wide open to possession."

"I am aware of the risks. If Kira believes that I will not kill Light, no matter what, then he will do everything in his power to possess him once again. However, I am not going to let that happen."

"You don't have any control over it, and you know it! You have to end this, now!"

"I am sorry, Watari," L responded evenly. "But I cannot end it now. This means too much to me. Please, try to understand. Never have I met someone so invigorating, intelligent, caring! He is the one person that I have ever been interested in, and now I find out that he shares my sentiment, or at least, is beginning to! I can't just leave it alone."

The old inventor sighed, leaning back in defeat. "I can't change your mind, then? You'll stay with him no matter what?"

"I will."

"And… you realize that not only are you leaving him open to Kira, but to Beyond as well? You realize that by caring for that boy, you are dooming him?"

"I have considered everything, and I have concluded that my affections are no good for his health. However, I seem to have no say in the matter, so I will do everything in my power to protect him."

He shook his head. "That is the same thing you once said about Beyond."

L's head shot up, his eyes narrowed in anger. "I cared for Beyond as a close friend, and nothing more! And I dropped such sentiments when he decided to go on a murdering spree in Los Angeles!"

"Beyond killed three people in Los Angeles," Watari responded evenly. "Light has killed hundreds."

"Kira has killed hundreds."

"No, L. You cannot pretend that Light and Kira are two different people, for they are not. The actions of one translate to the actions of the other." His voice softened considerably. "I understand what you feel at this moment—but you have already let it affect you too much. You have been irresponsible, and I fear that you have grown increasingly negligent of your duties as L. I fear for the future. I don't want this little tirade to turn into what happened last time."

"It will not turn into last time," L assured him. "This is entirely different."

Watari let out a deep sigh, taking a step back. "Very well. But be warned—if you fail, and if you revert back to the way you were after Beyond left Wammy's House, then I will not hesitate to relieve you of your title as L. I created that name, and I can just as easily transfer it to one of your successors."

L didn't believe it for a moment. But still, he responded, "Okay. If such a time comes when I am unable to perform as L, relieve me of duty."

There was a long moment of silence in which two pairs of eyes, one obsidian, one brown, stared each other down. Watari was the one to break it. The old inventor looked even older than usual as he finally said, "And there is really nothing I can do?"

"Nothing. I am sorry."

"In that case, I wish you luck, L. And I pray that this doesn't end the way it did in Los Angeles, nor the way it did so long ago, on the morning Beyond fled Wammy's House."

†††

I slipped into Watari's office only to be met by somebody slamming me into the wall. I cried out as the air was forced from my lungs, barely regaining my composure before the person flung me to the ground. For just a moment I was convinced that Beyond was here, that he'd found me—but then I got a good look at the person, and my eyes went wide.

"Watari!" I choked, recognizing him. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Putting you in your place," he responded simply, all traces of violence suddenly gone. "Forgive me for the brutality I have displayed, but it was necessary." He cleared his throat. "You see, Light, I tried to convince L to leave you well enough alone. But he is dead set on staying by your side, for whatever reason, and so I will step back and allow it to happen. But this is your one and only warning, Light—Kira. If you break him, he won't be the only one being shattered. The only difference is that there will be someone there to glue L back together." Suddenly the anger had returned, and I was being pushed against the wall threateningly. "I promise you, if I am the one who gets my hands on you after you shatter him, you won't be getting put back together. I will scatter you to the wind so that no one will ever find even a single molecule of you, Light Yagami." He shook me roughly. "Do we understand each other?"

I struggled, stunned at the amount of strength concealed within his frail-looking form. "Yes…" I managed to choke out. And immediately the pressure was gone, and the innocent butler had returned.

"Good." His gaze softened, and suddenly there was something like pity in his gaze. I marveled at his ability to go from furious to calm at the drop of a hat. "You would be good for him, you know," he told me. "Good if you never regained your power, if you'd never had it in the first place. But we both know that's not going to happen. You'll regain that cursed power, and you'll have a choice to make. I just hope you choose correctly."

I wanted to say that if I Kira's power ever fell into my hands, I would never use it. But I was still struggling for breath, so all I managed was a short nod.

"L has been through much, you understand. It would be quite bad if the one person he cares for turned out to be a mass murderer. It would be too much like last time."

"Last time?" I echoed. Was he in love with someone?

Watari started, as if he'd realized what he said was wrong. "Forgive me, I shouldn't have spoken so freely."

"No, please…" I pleaded. "Did L love someone? Someone before all this?"

The old inventor let out a long sigh. "I cannot say what L felt back in his younger days. If you wish to know, then you should ask him yourself."

My throat constricted at the thought of speaking to L again. I felt painfully conflicted—I knew that I'd hurt him when I brushed him off in the elevator, the one thing I swore not to do, but I was still upset. He'd frustrated me, offended me with his accusatory words, and I felt as if I needed to clear my head before I could think about it. If I attempted to speak to him now, the conversation would probably end badly.

Watari, seeming to understand my dreary train of thought, spoke again. "He'll tell you, you know. If you really want to know, then I think he'd tell you nearly anything." He raised two fingers to the bridge of his nose, pressing lightly in what appeared to be an attempt to ward off headache. "Falling for you has seemingly robbed him of his reasoning skills. I haven't seen him this way since he was young. Even though his… feelings for you developed so quickly, and are in no way complete, I can tell from experience that he really does care. Far more than he should."

That knowledge formed a painful lump in my throat. "Then…" I responded, pausing to compose myself. "Then I will do what I can to make sure he doesn't get hurt when this whole thing ends."

"I fear it's too late for that," Watari murmured in a low tone. "Now, I believe you should return to L. He will no doubt be worried." The inventor reached for what I assumed was an intercom control panel, pressing one of the buttons and announcing, "You can come in now, L."

The door opened, and L emerged from the short hallway. "Ah, Watari," he greeted, his eyes flitting back and forth between him and me. "I see that Light is still alive. Should I take that to mean that you find him at least a somewhat acceptable companion?"

"Somewhat," he responded, back to his cool, composed self. "I advise you caution."

"Noted." He took my arm, snapping the cuffs back on and beginning to make his way to the door. I noticed how quick he was to draw his hand away from mine, and I wondered with a start if I had really upset him. "Now, Light, we will return to the investigation room. My successors will be arriving around one in the morning, according to their current flight path and speed, and so in the meantime, we will work. It is still early, after all.

I nodded silently and followed after L, fearful of the damage that I may have just caused, and hoping I would be able to fix it.

†††

My first impression of Near, Mello, and Matt was something along the lines of, there's no way these guys are geniuses. The three successors stood near L's desk, completely ignoring the eyes of the task force in favor of staring at L. They certainly didn't look like geniuses—they couldn't be more than sixteen!

The first ranked successor was a short, odd-looking male that wore a white set of pajamas and no shoes. His skin was even paler than L's, his eyes an ashy grey that still managed to look crystalline. Even his hair was white, adding to his overall sense of purity. At the moment he was fiddling with a few finger puppets, all of which appeared to be modeled after his friends and L. As I watched, he shoved them all in his pockets and pulled out a blank puppet, focusing on stitching caramel brown hair to its head. Only when he pulled out a pen and began to draw a handcuff around its wrist did I realize that it was supposed to be me.

The second ranked successor had girly, long, blonde hair. His eyes were narrowed, though I could just make out a strip of chocolate brown. His clothing was made almost entirely of leather, from his black shoes to skin-tight sleeveless shirt. I had the vague thought that no straight male could possibly be wearing what appeared to be skin-tight leather pants. But the way he was leaning into the third male had already pretty much shattered any thought I had of him being straight anyways. He eyed everyone on the task force like a lion eyes its prey as he bit off a hunk of the chocolate bar he was holding, chewing it violently. I noted the assortment of chains and spikes that made up the bracelets he wore up one arm. He didn't seem like someone I wanted to get involved with.

The last male, the one being so heavily leaned on, was the only one that didn't seem interested in the situation. I couldn't make out his eye color due to the orange goggles that he wore. His hair was a light, almost colorless brown, and there was a cigarette clenched between his teeth. It was unlit. His clothing was completely covered in stripes, as if he couldn't stand the thought of anything else. Over his striped long sleeved shirt he wore a white vest that looked like something you would only wear in winter. His eyes weren't focused on any of us—instead he was glaring with great concentration at the handheld video game in his hand. His thumbs mashed over the buttons with great speed, telling me that he was no doubt very good at what he was doing. He had to have been the youngest of the pair, probably only fifteen, while the others looked sixteen or close to it.

"So," The blonde said, mouth still partway full. "Are you guys gonna introduce yourself, or what?"

I could tell Soichiro was bristling with anger at being addressed so informally. But he held it back, no doubt reminding himself that he was speaking to a genius. "I am Soichiro Yagami," he said shortly.

"Kanzo Mogi."

"Shuichi Aizawa."

"Touta Matsuda!"

"Light Yagami."

The white-haired boy raised a brow at me curiously, attaching the brown eyes to his finger puppet of me. "You are the Kira suspect."

I gritted my teeth. "I prefer to be called by my name, but yes. I am the suspect."

He eyed me curiously. I noted that there was no anger or distrust behind his grey eyes. Only innocent wonder and curiosity. "I see," he said lightly. "Yes, I can see you being Kira. You certainly have the charismatic charm going for you." He pulled out a scrap of red fabric and began to manipulate it into a dress shirt.

I didn't respond to that, too surprised to do anything but stare quizzically.

The boy with the puppets paused. "I suppose we should introduce ourselves. Forgive us if we don't use our real names, you can understand why we wouldn't want them anywhere but our own heads. Everyone at Wammy's House goes by an alias anyways." He lowered his finger puppet just long enough to proclaim, "I am Near. The first ranked."

"Mello," the blonde spat arrogantly. "The second ranked who should be first."

Near shot him a hard glance as the boy with brown hair said, "Just call me Matt. Third ranked."

L rolled his eyes at the glares Near and Mello were exchanging. "Behave yourselves, children." He turned to the team. "I realize that they don't look like much, but they're some of the brightest minds of their generation. Much like Light, actually."

Just like that, three pairs of eyes were locked on me. I shifted uncomfortably. "You make it sound much grander than it actually is," I said in an attempt to lift the attention away from me.

The corner of L's lips twitched, and I knew he was fighting a smile. "Don't be modest. It isn't like you."

I blushed in a sort of embarrassed anger, and immediately hated myself for allowing it. The physical reaction instantly had Near tilting his head to one side curiously. Mello snorted, exasperated.

L continued, "Did Watari fill you in one what's happening here?"

Near nodded immediately. "He said you wanted our help with stopping Beyond, who has acquired the powers of Kira. He did not ask for our assistance in catching Kira, but I believe we will be offering it anyways."

"Yeah," Mello chimed in. "You act all tough, L, but the three of us know that you're completely stumped on this one. I mean, look at you! You've chained a second-rate detective to your arm! What is he, your pet?"

I snarled, ready to lash out, but L's hand against my chest stopped me. I realized too late that it must have made me look like a tamed dog—that is, if Mello's not-so-subtle snicker had anything to say about it. "Light is just as skilled as I am," L shot angrily. "Do not insult him by calling him my pet."

Mello laughed, snapping off another bite of chocolate. "Ooh, defensive, are we?"

L glared. I'd never seen him show so much negative emotion in such a short amount of time. "Task force," he shot over his shoulder. "It is now almost two in the morning. Now that my successors have arrived safely, you may leave. We will continue working in the morning."

"Shouldn't we be a part of this conversation?" Soichiro protested. "We're all working on this case together!"

L shook his head. "We will discuss nothing that you do not already know, and if you stay then you will be incapable of working tomorrow. Do you want to be a hindrance to the team?"

Soichiro's face twisted into a sour expression, and I knew he wasn't pleased. But still, he ground out, "No… you're right."

"Yes, I am." L motioned to the door rudely. "Now, please depart at once. I must discuss the case with my successors."

The members of the task force were gone within the next few minutes, the last of which being my father, who shot me a wistful look. I knew that my family missed me, and couldn't help but feel a pang of remorse. Sayu's birthday was in a few days, and I was beginning to wonder if L would even let me see her to wish her a happy birthday.

"Now," L said, leading us to the sitting area. "Let us discuss this case without the presence of the task force. We all sat, L and I on one sofa, Matt and Mello on the one across from us (nearly in each other's laps) and Near on the floor, leaning against a chair. I noticed that he had used a small piece of ribbon to connect my puppet's wrist to L's. Now he was halfway through creating a tiny pair of glasses for what appeared to be the mini Soichiro.

"What about him?" Mello shot, jabbing a thumb in my direction.

"Believe it or not, I'm intelligent enough to be of some help to you," I snapped angrily. "It's my head Beyond's after at the moment, after all."

The successors froze.

"What?" Mello demanded sharply, eyes wide. "He's after you?"

L shot me a stern look. "Allow me to explain. Before we knew that Beyond was back, Light fell extremely ill. I believed I could take care of him, and continued to do so for several days before eventually being forced to take him to a hospital. At the time, unbeknownst to us, Beyond was watching. He saw me taking care of Light out of necessity and took it for a sort of romance. He now believes that I have feelings for Light." I was impressed by his complete lack of emotion. I would never have guessed he was hiding anything—namely the fact that Beyond was right.

Mello cackled. Oh, I didn't like him… not at all. "How ridiculous!" he crowed. "You and the Kira suspect? Priceless!"

L shot him an annoyed look. "Because of this belief, he now wants to capture Light in order to cause me pain. He sent me a message by murdering a security guard in Light's hospital room, leaving a note detailing his intentions. He had the perfect opportunity to kidnap Light, and he didn't take it. I want to know why. In addition, we know that he has somehow been watching us, but the cameras haven't been hacked into and there are no wire taps anywhere that we've found. Because of this we have placed Light under constant surveillance, and he is not permitted to leave the building. However, you all know Beyond's true nature. If he really wants to get to Light, then we'll be hard pressed to stop him. This is why I called you here—to take him down before he has the chance to get to Light."

"So you just want to protect your suspect?" Near asked curiously. "You don't seem to have any regard for Beyond's victims or wrongdoings, or any desire to stop him for that purpose. It's very unlike you."

"No, that's not it," L insisted. "It is true that my main motivation calling you here was to avoid Light's capture. Had this not arisen, I would never have asked you for help. However, I still feel for Beyond's victims. I still wish to stop the killings. I merely think that saving Light is of higher priority."

Matt put down his video game. Sometime in the last few minutes his unlit cigarette had vanished. "So he had the perfect opportunity to strike, and he just left? Curious… I wonder why that is…"

Near poked at a loose string on mini-Soichiro's head. "You said that Beyond wants to take Light to cause you pain, correct?"

"Yes."

"Well, he thought your relationship was one-sided, yes? That Light didn't care for you in return?"

"Yes."

"Well then, that would make sense, wouldn't it? That he's waiting to see if Light returns the sentiment he thought he saw. If Light feels the same way, and he tells you, then that would make his abduction and death that much more agonizing."

L's eyes widened. Of course… that was it! "You're right," he whispered. "That's it."

A jolt of panic ran through me. We both knew that we'd confessed our shared sentiment to each other the previous night—and even though whatever we had was less than concrete, less than stable, Beyond wouldn't care. A confession was a confession. That meant that I was wide open for abduction. "L…" I said nervously.

"I know," he murmured, hand twitching as if he wanted to reach for mine, but was resisting. He shook his head, looking exceedingly troubled. "What do you suggest we do to up the security on Light?" His fingers were digging further and further into the flesh of his legs—a trail of red was beginning to carve its way down his pale flesh. I reached out and pulled his hands away gently, ignoring the odd looks I was getting from the successors.

"There's not much else you can do," Near said thoughtfully. "You're already doing everything you can. The only other option would be to lock him away entirely."

"You could move him," Matt pointed out. His eyes were locked on the screen of his game, the reflection of which shone brightly off his goggles. "Beyond knows you're here. So why don't you move Light away from here?"

Mello snorted, "No good. Beyond has always had an aptitude for tracking down his victims. It would be more trouble than it's worth, and it would take away time you could be spending trying to track him down."

Near picked up another blank puppet and held it up in front of his eyes, twirling it this way and that experimentally, as if trying to find the best angle to attack it from. "What I don't understand is why Beyond made his intentions so obvious. He's always been cryptic and guarded with the identities of his next victims. So why do this now? Why come right out and announce what he wants? It is distinctly unlike Beyond."

"The guy's a psychopath," Mello pointed out. "Who knows what's going on in that head of his?"

I felt L shift beside me. I glanced over at him subtly, and realized how nervous he was. It was as if he were waiting for Beyond to burst into the room at that exact moment. "L," I murmured, nudging him gently. He jumped as if he'd been struck, head whipping up to stare at me with wide, conflicted eyes.

"L?" Mello echoed, his eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What's with you? You look like you're about to pass out."

"Do I really? I apologize." He was still fidgeting. "I feel quite nervous."

"It's logical that you would feel such a way," Near agreed evenly. "However, it is most unlike you to show your nervousness." He finally put down his finger puppets, turning his full attention to the restless detective. "When we arrived I noticed that you seemed quite different from the last time we spoke. I thought that perhaps you were putting on an act in front of the task force. But now they are gone, and you continue to act in this strange way. Is it because of the Kira suspect? Is the act for him?"

I felt L tense, and fearing conflict, I broke in. "Even if it were an act, pointing it out in front of the Kira suspect wouldn't do L much good, would it?"

Near blinked, surprised, as if he'd just noticed I were there. "No, I suppose that was quite foolish of me. Forgive me, L. However, that doesn't change the fact that you have changed greatly. I wish to know what has triggered this change."

L's eyes flitted to the ground. "There has been no change. I am just the same as I was before I left England to take on the Kira case."

"Bullshit," Mello grumbled. "It's like night and day."

L clenched his fists, seemingly steeling himself against the successors. "Have I changed so much?"

Mello responded, "We've known you for our entire lives. And we do know you, better than anyone else." He shot me a meaningful glance. "And yeah, you've pulled off quite a transformation in the past several months."

"I… I suppose I have." He smiled, but it was a sad smile. "But if you wish to seek out someone to blame for this change, then I can assure you that there is no such person."

That was a lie. If L had changed, and I knew that he had, then it was because of me. Because of whatever had possessed him last night, whatever had possessed him to develop feelings for me. I kept my eyes firmly upon my knees, but I knew that should I glance up at L, he would be shaking. I thought, perhaps, that I knew what was happening. He's been so careful to lock away his emotions his whole life, I thought. But when he saw me fall ill, he showed just a little bit of compassion—and that compassion cracked his emotionless mask, even just by a little. If he'd stopped right there, it would have been fine. It would have mended. But he refused to stop, and he kept showing that damning compassion, and that crack just kept growing, and growing. Even then, if may have been fixable. But when he thought that I was going to die, his sadness formed another hairline fracture in that already damaged mask. Fear formed another. And when I survived, elation formed yet another. All that emotion kept pushing its way through the cracks, widening them, branching them out across the mask likes spider webs. They widened and spread, widened and spread, until they grew too large to contain the most dangerous emotion of all—affection. And once that emotion escaped, the metaphorical Hope at the bottom of Pandora's Box, it was too late to mend the cracks. That affection surged through his mask and shattered it completely. And with that precious mask shattered and abandoned, L no longer has anything with which to protect himself. That is what the successors mean when they speak of his change. For he has changed, yes. He shows more emotion now than ever. And what's worse—L hasn't realized it. He hasn't realized what's happened, where his control has gone. How long before he understands? How long before he can put the mask back together? I clenched my teeth, watching L cautiously. He could say that it was no one's fault all he wanted, but I knew. I knew that I was the one who had broken his mask. My previous anger melted away slightly at the thought.

L was still talking. "I suppose that the stress is most likely to blame for my change… perhaps that and my… my fear." He spoke the word as if it were a terrible curse.

"I'm not surprised you're afraid," Near said.

"Yeah," Mello agreed. "Especially after… you know…"

I looked to L. What was Mello talking about?

"Don't bring that up!" Matt hissed, picking his head up from his game.

L had stopped shaking. In fact, he had stopped moving altogether; unless you were very close you wouldn't have been able to see his chest moving.

A light blush spread across Mello's cheeks as he said, "Ah, right. Sorry."

"L?" I asked slowly. "What does he mean?"

L didn't respond. He was determinedly staring straight ahead, not meeting my gaze.

"Just forget about it," Matt advised.

I waited for L to say something, but he remained completely detached.

Near was quick to change the subject. "We've gotten off topic. I believe we were discussing how to better protect Light, correct?"

"We already said that's he's as protected as he's going to get," Mello said dismissively. "Nothing else to talk about there. Personally I think it's useless, but if you really want us to try, we can attempt to track Beyond down."

"Hey, no trying involved!" Matt broke in. "We'll find him, L. Easy."

"I don't know about that," L murmured, finally speaking. "You all know that I have… dealt with Beyond before. If he wishes for investigators to know something, then he leaves a clue at the scene of his crime. But if he does not wish for investigators to know something, then they are hard pressed in gaining such knowledge." He carefully aimed his eyes to the successors, avoiding my gaze. "I fear that Beyond does not want us to know where he is, and that he will have left no clues."

"There's always a clue," Mello assured him. "And with three more geniuses on the case, we'll find it. Come on, no worries, L! We'll save your little pet."

L glared. "I believe I instructed you not to call him that."

Mello grumbled, "Fine, fine. Whatever."

There were a few moments of silence, in which I fiercely attempted to meet L's gaze. He seemed determined to avoid me. Finally, L spoke. "Forgive me for showing fear. I just—" he broke off momentarily. "I just wish very much for this to end differently than last time."

There was that phrase again. Last time. Just what was he talking about?

Even Mello seemed to soften as L spoke. "We'll do what we can," he assured him. "We'll do everything in our power to keep it from coming to that."

"Agreed." Near rose from the ground and moved to L, patting him on the head, a gesture that looked very strange when coming from such a short, young boy. "It won't be like last time. Because this time you will have our aid."

Matt agreed, "Yeah. We'll get this guy, no questions asked."

L bowed his head to them in gratitude. "You have my thanks." His voice shook slightly.

Near backed away slowly. "Now, it is late, and I believe that we should all rest. Even you. L, would you care to show us to our rooms?"

"Yes, that would be best… it is time that Light and I return to our room as well." He gestured for me to rise, still not meeting my gaze.

Near frowned, stooping to scoop up his abandoned finger puppets. "Fascinating. You share a room because of the handcuffs. Do you also share a bed? Is this one of the reasons that Light was suspected to be a romantic interest for you?"

"Yes," L responded softly. "We share a bed."

"And a shower?"

"Yes."

Mello laughed, throwing his head back. "Honestly, L, with a situation like that, did you expect that Beyond wouldn't think you had feelings for Light? You're practically living like a married couple!"

"It had not crossed my mind what our relationship would look like from the outside," L murmured in response. "I have never cared what anyone thought of me until now, when Light's life depends on it."

"Well, either way, it's too late to change Beyond's mind," Matt broke in, yawning. His thumbs were back on his video game again. "We might as well just ride this out." He paused. "Hey, are we all in separate rooms?"

"Of course. The three rooms are beside ours."

"Hmm." Matt looked slightly annoyed at that, and I knew instantly that he would be in Mello's room the instant we couldn't see him. The thought made me smile, and I wondered briefly what it was like to be in a relationship without knowing that your partner was most likely going to leave some day—or alternatively, that you might be killed and leave him.

We managed to settle the three successors into their rooms before the next hour had passed. L assigned Near the room to the right of us, and Mello the one to the right. He'd attempted to get Matt to go into the room beside Mello's, but he'd refused to set foot in the place, instead opting to crash on Mello's bed (luckily, it was a king). L and I then retired to our room in silence, standing together a few feet from the door and just staring.

"Well?" I asked finally. "I think we have a few things we should talk about."

L nodded, eyes cast downwards, and opened the door.

†††

Mello tossed his suitcase into the closet, not bothering to unpack. He tossed the wrapper of the chocolate bar he'd finished into the trash before turning to locate Matt. The teen was lying on the bed, one leg crossed over the other as he held his video game over his eyes. His goggles had slipped down to rest on his chest as he focused, honey-brown eyes glittering with excitement.

"Mello," he called when he noticed the older boy reach for the door to the hall. "Aren't you coming to bed?"

He shrugged. "I need to take a walk. Back in a few minutes. And get into some pajamas, would ya? At least take off the boots!"

Matt snickered, tossing his hair away from his eyes. "You're lucky I took off the goggles! Or did you just want to see more of my heart-wrenchingly attractive body?"

"In your dreams, kid!" Mello shot back, though his tone was playful.

"You'd better be back soon if you want to have any fun!" Matt called as the door shut behind him.

"Yeah, yeah!" Mello found himself in the hall. He glanced around, then headed to the next door over. He still wanted to ask L about Beyond—the more info he got, the sooner he could start developing a theory. Right now, his best theory was that Light was a douche that was unworthy of L's attention. A stuck up, arrogant bastard with a silver tongue. That was the only reason he'd lasted this long with L—he must have the ability to weave words like a tapestry. As he reached for the door handle, he paused—L's voice was spilling faintly from beneath the door, punctuated by questions and responses from another, more muffled voice, who Mello assumed must be Light. He paused for a moment—should he, or should he not? It's rude, he reasoned. I shouldn't. He leaned his head in towards the door and listened hard. Oh well, too late now.

†††

"You wanted to talk." L seated himself on the side of the bed, legs pulled up in his signature crouch.

I sat beside him heavily, letting out a large sigh. "Yeah, I think we should." L still refused to look at me. I reached out slowly, hesitantly, and clasped one hand to his jawline. I pushed aside my anger, telling myself that in this moment, whatever was wrong with L was more important. "L," I urged. "Look at me."

"I cannot."

"And just why is that?"

"If I do so, I fear that I may be unable to stop myself from telling you everything."

I immediately removed my hand, placing it instead on his knee. "Then tell me everything, and then you will be able to look at me again."

"Tell you… everything?" His hands twisted in his lap nervously. "I—"

"If you can't tell me everything, then just tell me the important things," I offered. "If you're serious about whatever this is, then you'll have to tell me eventually anyways. And besides, if you claim to care so much for me, then it only seems right that I know as much as the successors know… don't you think?"

My overly gentle tone seemed to work—he gave a small nod.

"Now then—tell me about Beyond."

"What do you wish to know?"

"Tell me… tell me what happened last time."

"Ah… that."

For just a moment I feared that he would refuse. But then he sighed, deeply, and accepted my words with a dip of his head. "Very well then. I will tell you everything that I can recall." There was another brief silence in which I thought that he might have been biting his tongue. Then, slowly, he began to speak once more.

"When I was five years old, my parents were killed in a fire."

Nothing compared to the pang of anguish that shot through me upon hearing those words. I tightened my grip on his thigh in what I hoped was a comforting manner, encouraging him to continue.

"Having no next of kin, I ended up in an orphanage in the US. I drifted from place to place for what felt like years. Potential foster parents claimed me too strange, too intelligent for their tastes. They wanted a child that would be silent and obey, and I was not that child. I wanted to invent, to think, to observe. I began to check out novels from the local library and teach myself about the world. It was there, in a small town called Manteca in California, that I discovered mystery novels. I read all of them, far and wide, but it wasn't long before I was able to solve every case before the end of the book. I became bored with books, bored with theory. So I decided to move my knowledge into practice. I used to show up at police scenes and use my age to get the officers to tell me things. They thought I was a harmless child; they had no idea that I was the one sending in tips and solving cases based on the information they gave me. For many months I was a sort of masked avenger, much as Kira believes himself to be. I took down countless criminals of high and low caliber, and found myself wanting more. So I did something foolish." Once again he paused. One hand darted up to his chest, clutching there as if he were enduring a phantom pain.

"I… I thought that I could do more than just observe and send in tips. I thought that if I made myself known, if I turned in a criminal myself, that I would gain enough attention to pull myself out of the shadows of the orphanage. And so the next case that arose, I, a six year old child, vowed to catch the criminal myself. Perhaps it would have worked, too. But I overestimated myself and underestimated my target. I waited weeks for the next case to appear. And then it did. Someone just outside of that small town was caught up in human trafficking, and the police were trying to figure out who. I found out who it was, and I went after him alone."

My stomach clenched. I feared where this was going.

"It didn't end the way you're thinking, I assure you. When I snuck into the establishment, it was after hours. The only person there was the man in charge of the whole operation, and he was locking away the last of his victims. I'd managed to get a knife from the kitchen—I planned to threaten him and force him to turn himself in." He smiled ruefully. "I was naïve. For all my intelligence, I hadn't figured out that the man would have a gun. When I found him he was in the back room, just about to lock away a male child the same age as me. The child had strikingly blonde hair and blue eyes, and was far shorter than myself. I saw the man locking the child up, and I thought, now's my chance. And so I snuck up on him. I thought that I would be able to surprise him—but he heard me coming. The man whirled around and grabbed me by the throat. I was so surprised that I dropped the knife, and it skittered over to the child the man had been about to lock up. The child looked at that knife with wide eyes, but he wasn't afraid. He almost seemed…eager. As if life had handed him a golden opportunity in the blade of that knife.

"The man was going to kill me—I knew it. He said something, but his words have long since left the reaches of my memory. He was holding my neck, and it was getting harder and harder to draw breath. But then, just as I thought that it would end, the man went limp and fell to the ground. Behind him stood the child, a bloody knife in his hands. He'd killed that man to save me." L shook his head bitterly. "If I'd known what would become of that child, I would have fought him for the knife and killed him."

"Is that when Watari found you?" I asked gently, urging him past the painful memory.

"Yes. The police found the child and I at the establishment minutes later. It turns out, they hadn't needed my help at all—they were planning a raid that night after lockup. They arrested the child and me for the murder of the man, and a few weeks later, Watari arrived. He never told me how he heard of our existence, but he claimed to be building a special school for geniuses, and we were first two children he wanted to recruit, along with one other who would be arriving around the same time. There wasn't much of a choice for the two of us, facing the consequences of our crime. So we went with him. Imagine our surprise when we ended up in England of all places, living in a mansion. It was there that we were introduced to the third recruit—a boy that Watari named A. He decided to call the other child B, and he gave me the name L. Together, we worked to become detectives and better the world through our efforts. The three of us became good friends over the following months. I became especially close to A. He was a gentle, quiet soul, but he had a sharp wit and a sharper tongue when provoked. We might have been friends… but I am sorely lacking in the knowledge of telling whether someone is my friend or not. For a few, precious months, we were happy. But… things were quick to change.

"As time went on, B became discontent. He was jealous of A, jealous of my friendship with him. He began to lash out—in small amounts at first, and only with his words. And when that failed to serve his purpose of gaining my attention, he began to change his appearance. First it was the eyes—he always had yellowish red eyes, and he hated them immensely. So he bought obsidian contacts, the same color as my eyes. Then he began to slouch like I did, talk like I did, eat like I did. And finally, he sheared off his blonde hair and donned a wig. All the while, he continued to assault A with his words. And steadily, A became more and more tense, more and more stressed. He confided in me, telling me that he felt that there was too much pressure, and that he was going to crack. And I, being young and naïve, brushed it off. I told him that he would be okay, that things would get better. He tried to tell me that B was growing volatile and dangerous, but I didn't listen. I couldn't see B as dangerous, even after seeing him murder someone before my very eyes. I couldn't see him as anything but the boy who had saved my life.

"I don't know when it was, but B began to hurt A with more than his words. A would show up to our meeting place with strange bruises. Whenever I asked, he was slow to tell me, and he always ended up making an excuse. He fell, bumped into a door, he stumbled into a desk. I should have known then, what was going to happen. I should have seen the signs. But I was blind. I thought that A and B would get over it, that they would be friends like they'd been during that first month at the special school. Needless to say, they did not. One day A came to me, shaking, and told me everything. He told me what Beyond had been doing, what he had been saying, the threats he had been making. He begged me for my protection, and I swore to him that no matter what, I would stop anything from happening to him. But I was negligent in my duties. I didn't really believe that Beyond would hurt him. And then it happened. Three days after that fateful promise, A was found dead in his study, his throat slit. On the wall, a message was written in blood: A does not equal B. It was deemed suicide by investigators, suicide due to A's ever growing stress, but I knew better. I'd seen that kind of knife technique before, on the man that B had killed to save me. I knew it was him, and he knew that I knew. He never told me. He never said a word about it, except to offer his condolences that someone close to me had passed, but I knew what he had done. And even then, even after he murdered someone close to me, I couldn't see him as a murderer. And how could I? Without A, he was the only one left that I could talk to, that I could confide in. I told B that I would protect him. I told him that if he stopped hurting people, I would never tell anyone what he had done. But that wasn't enough for him.

"B kept trying to approach me, kept trying to become what A had been to me. But while I wanted desperately to protect him and keep him at the orphanage, I could not become as close to him as I had been to A. He was too different, too harsh for me to befriend in quite the same way. B stayed for only a few months more. Then he became enraged, demanding to know why I refused to accept him as a friend. When I had no good answer, he drew his knife, the same knife that he'd used to kill A. He pinned me down there, in that so rarely traversed section of the forested yard, and he c-cut…"

Here he stuttered uneasily, one hand flying up to his shoulder.

"He cut you?" I finished gently.

L nodded silently. "T-there… on the back of my shoulder." He stared at the ground nervously, as if waiting for me to push him away in horror. But I simply nodded for him to continue. And after a long, uncertain moment, he did.

"B ran away after he hurt me. Now I was the only child left of the original three. Watari never found out about B's actions—I bandaged my own wounds and made sure he never knew. Watari decided that the initial group of geniuses, the control group, had been ineffective. He abolished the one-letter naming code and allowed the next wave of children to choose their own names, believing that A's suicide had been due to his name—a name that meant he had to be the best, that he had to be first. Similarly, he believed that B had left because of his name—a name that forever marked him as second best, as a backup. And, of course, the most drastic change took place—Watari began to teach the children of the orphanage to hide their true feelings. In this way, no friendships were to be developed like A's and mine. No one would hate each other like A and B. No one would commit suicide, for they would lack the emotion necessary to go through with such an act. And so I built up my mask, and forgot about B. Or, I tried to forget. The next time I saw him was in Los Angeles, seventeen years later. He murdered three people, and attempted to commit suicide. He wanted to create the one case that not even I could solve, presumably as punishment for not accepting him after A's murder. He ended up badly burned and in the hospital, having failed to claim his own life. I visited him there, just to tell him that I knew what he had done. But in response he just laughed, and told me that he had done no such thing. It was there that I learned his real name—Beyond Birthday—and it was also there that I believed I had seen the last of him, for he was shipped off to jail. But… he must have escaped and wiped all record of himself from the system, for Kira did not manage to kill him."

L finally paused, clenching and unclenching his fists repeatedly. "It would have been easier if Kira would have killed him," he finished slowly. "It would have been better if he would have perished before he had a chance to do this. This case… what he's doing… it reminds me too much of A. I fear that if he gets his hands on you, you will meet the same fate." And then, finally, he looked up at me—and his eyes were shimmering with some strange emotion, and I felt my heart melting.

"Oh, L," I murmured, pulling him in for a fierce hug. "That's… horrible. That's truly, truly horrible." I placed one palm gently over his left shoulder, the shoulder Beyond had cut. "Can I…?"

"No one has ever seen it before," he responded, voice muffled in my shirt. "But if anyone were to lay eyes upon it, I would want it to be you."

I felt a tidal wave of sympathy for the man as I pulled back slowly, staring once more into those flecked obsidian eyes. I reached both hands to the hem of his shirt. He watched me, looking defeated, as if by telling me the story he had bared the deepest workings of his soul, and he was now numb because of it. There was no resistance as I slid his shirt upwards, exposing inch after inch of pale skin. He raised his arms for just a moment to help me, and the instant the garment was off I placed it beside me on the bed.

"You'll be disgusted by it," L warned in a soft tone.

"I've seen worse than a scar," I reassured him. "Now, turn around." I reached out with gentle hands, pushing his shoulders to turn him to the side. I pulled myself completely up onto the bed as he turned, his back now to me.

There was silence for several seconds. "Let me guess," L murmured when I said nothing. "You're disgusted."

I didn't respond. Instead, I reached out and placed my fingers on the slightly raised ridges that lined a large section of his back and the back of his left shoulder. I recognized this font, this style. "BB," I read, tracing each individual letter with the tips of my fingers. The letters stretched from the top of his shoulder all the way to mid-back, the letters long and narrow. "He carved his name into your back…"

"I suppose he meant to show ownership," L affirmed. "He wanted to tell whoever I chose to share myself with that I was his, no matter what."

"L…" I murmured. I continued to trace the letters over and over, again and again. L shivered slightly beneath my cool fingers, clearly uncertain as to my intentions.

"Light?" he asked nervously.

My fingers halted. I leaned in. And before I could question myself, I placed a feather-light kiss directly in the center of the sprawling scar. I felt L tense immediately, could practically see the surprise on his face, which was still angled away from me. But when he didn't move to stop me, I kissed him again, just as softly.

"Light…" he sighed, the doubt gone from his voice, replaced with relief.

"I already told you," I reminded him, brushing my lips against his shoulder as I spoke. "Nothing about you disgusts me. A scar isn't going to change that. And no matter what you think, this isn't like last time. Do you know why?"

L shook his head, seemingly dazed.

"It's different because you have friends this time—friends, not just A. You have your successors, and you have me. And your friends are going to watch your back, are going to watch each other's backs. That way, this—" I touched his scar with one fingertip. "—Will never happen again."

"Will it be enough?" he asked in a muffled voice. "Can we stop it from repeating itself? I don't want it to be you that ends up scarred, Light."

"L," I responded softly, "no matter what, we will end this. No matter how long it takes, this time things will not end like they did the first time. It will be enough. We will stop the cycle from repeating."

He tugged himself out of my grasp, turning back around to face me. For a long while he just stared, just watched me, as if he were memorizing every detail of my face. Then he gave me a small smile, and he spoke. "Light… thank you."

I acknowledged his words with a nod, smiling lightly as he pulled away and stared me in the eyes. He raised one hand and slid it along my jawline, just as he had the previous night. "Are you…" he began. "Are you really okay with this?"

I swallowed hard, and spoke the truth. "Yes, L. I swear to you that I am."

"You hardly seemed pleased," he went on, "and I feared that you were merely consenting because I forced you into it. And then you pushed me away in the elevator, and I thought—well, I'm sure you can surmise what I thought."

"You didn't force me into anything," I assured him calmly. "And I was upset with you in the elevator because you accused me of being Kira again."

"I didn't—"

"You didn't say it in those words exactly, but don't even try to tell me that it's not what you meant," I chastised.

"Am I supposed to apologize?" L asked, his voice low. "You know that I believe you were the original Kira. But it doesn't change the amount to which I care for you."

I wanted very much for L to apologize, to tell me that there was no way I was a mass murderer—because I wasn't. I wasn't Kira. But I knew how selfish that sounded, so I responded, "No. Don't apologize. Just… let's put my past identity—Kira or not—out of our minds. No matter who I may have been, it's not who I am now. Do you understand?"

He nodded. "Funny… I said much the same thing to Watari. But that's not all, is it? There's more to it." He leaned in closer. "You doubt me." It wasn't a question.

"How can I not? You are L. L needs to travel the world, solve cases, protect the innocent. You can't do that if I stay here, weighing you down. I can't tie you here, not forever. You'll have to leave eventually."

"Then I will have to prove myself to you. I will have to prove that I will stay. I will have to prove that you can trust me."

"Yes," I said softly. His face was still inches from mine, his hands raised to press along my jawline. And as I remained motionless, L closed the remaining few inches. I closed my eyes, chin tilted upwards, expecting him to kiss me as he had the previous night. But instead I felt his lips on the crown of my head, and I frowned in confusion. "L?"

He didn't respond. Instead, he moved his lips to the bridge of my nose, to my cheeks, to my temples, to my eyelids. Each kiss was feather-light, mimicking the way I'd kissed his scars. It was soft, gentle. A far cry from the way he'd attacked me the night before. He spoke to me in each one of those kisses. Not with his words, but with the way his fingers grasped my face without pressure, in the way he kept his lips firmly closed. I won't leave you, he told me silently. I care for you. I will never let anything happen to you. He repeated the promises with every brush of his lips to my skin, with every motion, until he had covered my face with the ghosts of his words. Then, for just a moment he paused—and I opened my eyes to find him watching me with an unreadable expression, still grasping my face, his lips still inches from mine. "Light…"

He spoke my name with the same reverence he'd shown the night before. But unlike the night before, when his lips finally settled upon mine, he was gentle. He kissed me with a soft press of his lips to mine, never daring to part his lips for so much as a second. It was as if he were making up for the ferocity of the previous night with his gentleness, treating me like an irreplaceable relic, a priceless glasswork. He repeated the action. Then he did it again.

"L," I murmured against his lips, and he pulled back for just a moment. I realized with a start that I'd been lowered onto my back without noticing. He drew circles on my chest with his fingers, and I noticed abruptly that he had never put his shirt back on. "Your shirt," I attempted, sure I was beet red.

L frowned as if he didn't know what I was talking about. "It is normal for males to sleep shirtless, yes?"

"Ah, yes, but—" L cut me off with another kiss. "Why?" I managed. "Why are you being so… gentle?"

"I have to start to gain your trust somewhere," he responded.

His answer made a barely-known emotion swell in my chest. An emotion that I was beginning to recognize as affection. Perhaps… I thought as L grasped me tighter, kissed me harder, flicked his tongue teasingly against mine. Perhaps my mask has begun to crack as well.

†††

Mello drew his ear back from the door, his expression one of shock. L… had really told all that to Light? The Kira suspect? The one that was supposedly trying to kill him? And… and they sounded close. Very close.

"Hey!"

Mello whirled around, startled. Matt stood in the doorway to their room, wearing only his boxers, glaring. "Aren't you coming?" he demanded. "You've been there forever!"

"Impatient!" Mello scolded, moving away from the door, but not after one last listen to make sure the conversation was over. "Come on, Matt, you can't wait ten minutes?"

"Nope!"

Mello rolled his eyes. "You know, it serves you right for all the times you've left me waiting because you're playing your games! The next time you beg me to finish a level, I might just say no!"

"Awww, Mello, but you can't save in a dungeon!" The teen protested. And you KNOW how I hate replaying what I've already done!"

Mello rolled his eyes. He could pretend to be angry all he wanted, one look at Matt's soft brown eyes had him melting in his arms. "Fine, fine! I'm coming, just keep your shorts on!"

He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. "Are you sure you want me to do that? We could have so much more fun if I took them off!"

Mello, having reached the younger boy, punched him lightly on the shoulder. "You're an idiot."

"You're the one about to climb into bed wearing all leather!"

"Then you'll just have to take it all off!" Mello snapped, feigning irritation.

Matt's eyes lit up, fingers going to the blonde's shirt as he drug him into their room and slammed the door behind them.

†††

The next morning was calm between L and me, as if laying everything out on the table had made us much more relaxed around each other. L had no more secrets—or at least, no more secrets that he needed to tell me. We rose at our usual, early hour (that is, I rose at the usual hour. L had been up the whole night, which was relatively usual), and showered briefly, changing into clean clothing and preparing for the coming day.

The only words we exchanged that morning were in argument over my slightly swollen lips—mainly over my irritation that the detective hadn't known when to stop the previous night so that I wouldn't show the signs of our actions the following morning. We'd ended up awake for much of the night, despite L's promise to let me get at least seven hours of sleep. Most of the night was punctuated with kisses, alternating between chaste and heated, mindless and meaningful, until the kisses grew fewer and far between, and all that remained were light, unperceivably soft brushes of lips on skin. It was all that had occurred—though in every kiss, heated or not, I could sense the restraint L was putting forth as to not jump me right then and there. In every touch I felt the heat of his skin, and knew what state of mind he was in.

L, of course, seemed completely unconcerned with my poor, abused lips. Much to my irritation, his only response to my complaints was to draw me in for a lingering kiss, which didn't do anything to help my pathetic state. But I couldn't keep up the act of being irritated, and it was mere minutes after the conversation that I was whirling L around and getting him back for the previous night, reducing him to a blushing, shivering mess. I'd pulled away from him with a devious grin, whispering, "Now your lips are just as bad as mine."

I'd headed for the door without looking back, chuckling to myself when the chain reached the end of its length, and L was suddenly pulled off balance.

Everything had seemed fine. Everything was quiet, and after hearing L bare his soul to me the previous night, I found myself leaning away from some of my doubt. Perhaps, I thought, he meant it when he said he wouldn't leave. Could he really have meant it? Would he tell me such things if he planned to leave after this case ends? But that train of thought led nowhere pleasant and had no definite answers, so I forced myself to push it to the back of my mind in favor of leaning into L, who shot me a surprised but pleased look.

As I'd stated—everything seemed fine. That is, until we entered the investigation room, and Soichiro greeted us with a question that was so stupid that I wanted to faint.

"Can you let Light go to Sayu's birthday party?"

I could tell L was about three seconds from punching my father's lights out, so I swiftly jumped in between them, raising both hands in a placating gesture. "If I leave," I reminded Soichiro, "Then I'll most likely be taken."

He glared at the ground. "Surely there's something. Sayu's one wish was to see you on her birthday!"

My heart softened at that, a pang of guilt running through me. "Dad, I just can't… I want to, but I can't. What's the point in me going if I never come back?"

He flinched at that. "I'm sorry," he said. "Sayu begged me to ask you. She hasn't seen you in months!"

Damn it. The heartstrings weren't just being pulled; they were being flat out wrenched out of my chest! "I could video chat with her…?"

"Aw, come on," Mello shot from his seat. His legs were kicked up on the desk, arms behind his head as he chewed on a bite of chocolate. "Go to the damn party, Light. We'll go with you as bodyguards if you want."

"Unacceptable," L said immediately. "I won't take such a risk."

Mello muttered, "Not your decision."

L gritted his teeth. "Leaving this establishment would put Light in danger. As long as he is here, he is protected not just by us, but also by the extensive security system."

"Don't give me that bullshit about your security system!" Mello protested. "You know as well as I do that it'll be nothing against Beyond. It wouldn't even stand up against Wedy, were she here."

"It is more than enough to stop Beyond," L corrected.

"L…" Mello sighed irritably. "If you were trying to break into this building, would you be stopped by the damn security system?"

"It… it would offer some resistance!"

Mello rolled his eyes. "Sure it would."

"Either way, Light is safest here," L growled. "He will not leave."

"L…" I started. I leaned in close, making sure he was the only one who could hear me. "Is it true that the security system is useless?"

He flinched. "It… it is state of the art equipment."

"L. Will it stop him?"

He fidgeted. "It will offer at least some resistance. But… if Beyond wishes to enter the building, then the security system alone isn't going to stop him. The most important part of the system are the cameras—they are what would warn us should he find a way in."

"And cameras can be set up in and around my house… correct?"

"Are you really trying to talk me into this?" L hissed.

"I'm being logical. Look, I agree it's not the best idea, what with Beyond being after me, but… L, you know that there's a possibility he'll get to me. And if he does, wouldn't it be good for me to see my sister before… before whatever comes next?"

L looked up at me sharply, and though he remained whispering, his voice had risen slightly in anger. "I have already been irresponsible with your life once, Light. I will not repeat the same mistake. And I will not let you risk your life over a party!"

"L," I murmured, leaning in closer, wanting be certain that no others heard us. "If I don't go, I may never see my sister again."

He recoiled harshly, a sour expression on his face. "I—you—!" he tried.

"Please," I whispered.

I had him. L was shifting nervously, not wanting to let me go, but knowing that he had to. Then he raised his voice, and proclaimed, "There will be conditions."

A wave of happiness filled me at the thought of being able to see Sayu. A wave so strong that it almost, almost offset the knowledge that it was entirely possible that Beyond would make an attempt at capturing me.

"I will have a team of officers positioned in hidden positions around your house," L went on. "I will have cameras installed everywhere in a two mile radius, all of which will be monitored by Watari at all times. Officers will be positioned in all rooms of the Yagami household until the party is at its conclusion. The successors and I will accompany Light to the party, and we will be heavily armed. Should anything—and I mean anything—go wrong, then I will have a helicopter on standby. The successors, all officers, and I will carry transmitters that are to be left on at all times. And most importantly, Light, you will not leave my side." He looked around the room, eyes narrowed in a bold challenge. "Any objections?"

There was a general shake of the head, though I thought I saw my father clutch at his forehead tiredly.

"Very well. The conditions are set."

Soichiro sighed, but seemingly accepted that he wasn't going to get a better deal. "Fine. Tomorrow is the party. Light, I've already gotten your present for her. It's wrapped and waiting in your room for you to take to her. The party starts at two. Don't be late. And don't make it obvious that the successors are armed; I don't want a complete freak-out on my hands."

"Deal. I will send someone to set up surveillance now." L sat back, running his thumb over his bottom lip. He looked worried. But worried or not, this was something that was going to happen. I was going to get to see my sister one last time before I was quite possibly kidnapped, or less favorably, killed.

I wondered if Beyond would dare to make a move during the party.

Either way, tomorrow would be a deciding factor in how the Beyond case went down.

And once again, L makes a foolish, foolish decision.

Leave a review if you enjoyed, and I'll be back on Tuesday with another chapter!