I know I'd told myself to stop wigging out, but that was a lot easier said than done.

"Do you have any books?"

"Books?" I repeated. L's question at least distracted me a little.

"Yes," replied L. "As you know, I don't sleep all that much. And we agreed that we can't carry out any work from here in case your family discovers anything, so I'd like to have something else to occupy my time with whilst you're asleep."

I wished he'd said something sooner. I could have brought some books with me that would be more suited to his tastes. As it was, I didn't have any books here anymore since they were all at my own home now and the only ones that I'd brought with me were the Georgina Kincaid ones. He definitely wouldn't be interested in those.

"Err, I have a couple in my suitcase, but I really don't think you'd like them," I said apologetically.

"That's fine. Anything will do," said L.

Oh, crap. I hadn't expected that response. "But they're later ones in a series," I pointed out. "You wouldn't know what's going on."

"I'm sure my imagination will be able to fill in enough of the blanks," answered L. "I doubt I'll get invested in them anyway – it'll just be something to do."

What kind of stupid way to read books was that? I'd never pick up the third book in a series and think 'oh that's okay; I can probably guess what's happened up until now'. How was that supposed to be fun?

"But..." I cast around for another excuse. The more I thought about it, the more I really didn't want L to read these books.

I'd originally thought that Kay had gotten them for me simply because of the relevance of Georgina's name. But after reading more, I'd strongly felt that he'd had another motive in mind – one purely to embarrass me. I genuinely did love the characters and the plotline, but I had to admit that the books had one too many detailed sex scenes for my liking. That was not something I wanted L to think I enjoyed reading.

"But they're urban fantasy," I decided to go with. "Somehow I get the feeling that fantasy's not really your thing..."

"That's not a problem. It's still better than nothing," L insisted.

Crap. I wished I'd just lied and said straightaway that I didn't have any books with me. L was so insistent that I couldn't really refuse now, especially since I knew that he wouldn't have anything else to do all night. Well, if he ended up eternally disturbed by the graphic birds and the bees scenes, then it was his own fault for being so damn persistent.

"Err, okay. If you say so," I said reluctantly, retrieving the books from my suitcase. "Here."

"Thank you."

And that was it. We were officially out of conversation now. The word 'bedtime' had never seemed so foreboding. "So, err..." I inclined my head awkwardly towards the bed. "How, um, do you wanna do this?"

"Well, I'll be more likely to get up during the night than you will, so if you sleep on the side closest to the wall, then I shouldn't disturb you," said L, as toneless as ever.

Made sense. Saved him having to climb over me if he wanted to move. I tried not to blush at the idea. "Err, okay. Right then..."

I switched off the light switch on the wall, leaving only the duller glow from the bedside lamp. I had no choice now but to climb into bed. I was glad I'd already stuffed Jerry in between the covers - poor Blue had had to remain in my suitcase since I hadn't expected to be bed sharing. There just wasn't enough room for all of us. I slid under the duvet quickly, scooching over as close to the wall as I could.

L climbed up onto the other side of the bed, making me aware just how small it really was. He'd taken the hoody off, but was otherwise still fully dressed. Did he ever change clothes? To his credit, he did actually sit normally this time. Even he probably knew it was better to keep his quirky habits at bay whilst we were staying here. I hadn't even had to tell him. He could have a brownie point for that.

"So you don't mind if I leave the lamp on?" asked L, the Georgina Kincaid books still in his hands.

"No, that's fine," I said. From where he was sitting, he'd block most of the light from the lamp. Not to mention I was indefinitely planning on facing the wall all night.

"Alright. Goodnight then."

"Err, yeah. Night..."

I rolled over to face the other way, clutching Jerry to my chest with both hands and determinedly shutting my eyes tight. Somehow, I had a feeling that it wasn't going to help much. It was going to be a long night.

XXX

Unsurprisingly, I didn't sleep at all well. When I woke up the following morning, I felt groggy and even more tired than I had before. Stupid L. I was just going to blame him for it. Without telling him, of course.

Speaking of L... Where was he? I sat up in bed. He'd disappeared. The stripy hoody had also gone from where it had been left on my old desk chair. Great. He couldn't have even waited till I'd woken up. I sure hoped he was still trying to be normal, wherever he'd wandered off to.

I scrambled out of bed and hastily made my way downstairs. I wasn't sure what I was more worried about - L's impression on my family or my family's impression on L. I probably shouldn't have worried for L's sake though. It may have been early, but I knew that Auntie Maggie would have already left for work. Mom and Grandpa were harmless in comparison to her.

I was surprised to find L in the kitchen, still fully dressed - though minus his shoes, like usual. Well, I guessed people wouldn't find it that odd seeing as he was indoors - even if the house was more Westernised. And at least he was sitting normally again. Maybe I needn't have worried after all. I guessed that when it came down to it, the detective side of him still outweighed the habitual side.

"Morning," I greeted in what I hoped was an offhand way as I sat down in the seat opposite. "You in here by yourself?"

"Actually, I was just talking to your mother. She was in here a few minutes ago," replied L.

Eek. "Oh." I didn't know what else to say to that. I dreaded to think what they could have possibly been talking about.

"I wasn't originally intending to come downstairs, but she asked me if I wanted tea once I'd gotten out of the shower," L added.

Huh. He'd showered already? No wonder he seemed a lot more fresh than I felt right now. I kinda forgot that he still did human things like showering. But then it was fairly easy to do seeing as he never seemed to actually change clothes. Though I could hardly talk when I was now very aware that I was unwashed and still in my pyjamas.

"Oh, Gee, I thought I heard you." Mom stuck her head around the kitchen door. "I was just coming back in to make some toast. Do you guys want any?"

"No, thank you." L was the first to respond.

"Are you sure?" Mom scrutinised him with a concerned look, no doubt worrying about his skinny figure. L just nodded, so she then turned to me. "Gee?"

"No, thanks; I'm just about to go shower," I replied, smothering a yawn. "We'll get something to eat when we're out."

"Oh, so where are the two of you off to today then?" she asked interestedly.

"Just downtown to do some shopping," I said casually. I always felt I deserved extra kudos for telling lies that were actually partly true. Sadly, I hadn't gotten a 'well done' for it yet.

"That sounds nice. But make sure you do have something to eat. Remember, breakfast is the most important meal of the day."

"Okay, okay, I will," I promised as another yawn crept up on me.

Mom frowned. "Are you alright? You look really tired."

"I'm fine; I just didn't sleep great," I said with a shrug. It wasn't really that unusual.

"You know, you should take some sleeping pills if you're having trouble sleeping again," Mom suggested. "They're still in the cabinet from the last time you were using them."

"Mom, it's fine. Really. It's just a one-off thing," I insisted. Geez, why were moms always so... mom-ish? I really didn't want to admit that I only hadn't been able to sleep properly because L had made me feel nervous as hell.

Thankfully, she let me off the hook after that and I was able to escape to go and shower. "I'll be five minutes," I told L, who conceded that it was fine with an unconcerned expression.

I didn't think I'd ever showered so quickly. Which was probably just as well, because I remembered afterwards that Emiiya had told me I needed to blow dry my hair after washing it if I wanted it to fall back into the new style she'd created for me. Damn. It was so much quicker to let it dry naturally rather than having to faff with the blow dryer, but detectives in disguise couldn't really be choosers.

After sorting my hair, I snuck through to my bedroom, still wrapped in my towel, and quickly rifled through my suitcase. I looked longingly at my favourite red top with the attached mesh vest, before reminding myself that it was the same one I'd worn when we'd broken into Jin Tanaka's office. Yeah, probably better to avoid that one.

Instead, I grabbed an Apple Jacks t-shirt, my leather grey skirt and my trusty black boots. I fixed my gun holster into place and covered it with an old wolf hoody that Kay had given me. It was cute and had long sleeves that reached down over my hands, complete with thumb holes and paw prints where my palms were. It was maybe a little childish at my age, but at least less conspicuous than my trench coat.

I put on my glasses, stuffed my iPhone and wallet into the pockets of the hoody, then gave myself a quick and completely innocent - I swear - douse with my NYC perfume. I was now good to go. It may have taken me closer to fifteen minutes than five, but it was still pretty good by most girls' standards.

Luckily for me, I think L was far too apathetic to suffer from impatience. He probably hadn't even noticed how long I'd been. Not that I was complaining. If I was going to be the one slowing us down, then I'd prefer it if he didn't realise.

He was still waiting in the kitchen for me, though he now had a pair of beaten-up old sneakers on his feet. "Ready?" I asked

"Yes," replied L, getting up. "Let's go."

The walk down to the convenience store was awkwardly silent, yet again, but this time I was too busy planning inside my head to really care. We'd already agreed that today we'd actually go inside the store under the pretence of browsing so that we could snoop around and try to find some clues.

We had to be extra careful now on the off-chance that our identity thief was still around, in case we scared them away - or worse, got ourselves knee-deep into trouble. And considering my track record on this case so far, that wasn't altogether unlikely.

I decided that if we didn't have any luck today and had to come back tomorrow, then I'd have to find a substitute for the hoody I'd given to L. Though it was less conspicuous than his usual look, it would probably start to look obvious if he wore it three days in a row around here. I'd possibly have to try and nab something of Grandpa's. Or even Auntie Maggie's if push came to shove. She had a very tomboyish fashion style at least.

I was happy to note that it wasn't just me who was taking the situation so seriously. L actually looked like he'd attempted to tame his hair himself this morning. It still wasn't exactly... err, neat, but it was a little less noticeable than usual. I was a bit tempted to lick my hand and try to smooth it down more, but somehow I didn't think he'd appreciate it. Plus I didn't think his hair was actually going to cause any problems - it was just me going all perfectionist.

"How long do you think we have?" I asked L once we were nearing the Nisa store.

"Judging by the size of the store, I'd say roughly about fifteen to twenty minutes at the most," replied L. "We don't want to linger too long in case it raises any suspicions, but then we want to make the most of the situation too."

"Right," I agreed. I couldn't fault any of that logic. "Do you think we should split up once we're inside so we can cover more of the store between us?"

"No," said L. "After all the trouble you've gotten into so far, I think it's imperative that we stick together."

I frowned. I didn't like the fact that he was putting all the blame on me. Not to mention I could spot a rather large hole in his plan. "But surely we'll be more conspicuous with the two of us wandering around?"

L just fixed me with what was a rather pointed look for him. "We agreed that we were doing this together, so we're going to do it together."

Geez, he was tetchy today. What was up with that? This only furthered my theory that guys suffered from PMS too. I guessed he didn't trust me not to run off and play vigilante detective by myself again. He'd already made it crystal clear that he hadn't forgotten about me doing so in the past.

"Fine then," I agreed with a shrug.

Personally, I thought that if we had to frequent this store all week, then we were going to start looking a bit obvious - and like L had said, it wasn't a big building. But then he was supposedly the world's best detective, so I guessed I had to trust his judgement on this. Hey, maybe now I was the paranoid one.

I casually grabbed a green basket from the stack just inside as we walked through the doors. I noticed L shoot me another look. "What?"

"You do realise we're not actually here to shop, don't you?" he said quietly.

"Actually, yes, we are," I corrected him in an undertone. "Do you think it's normal for people to come into a store like this, walk round the whole shop floor and then leave without buying anything? We can't do that if we want to blend in."

It was called a convenience store for a reason, after all - it was a quick and easy place for people to pick up their necessities; not just wander around and browse. Had L never been in a store like this before? Hang on, why was I even asking that? Of course he hadn't. He didn't even seem to like venturing outside for the most part.

But he at least conceded with me on this one and allowed me to take the reins with the basket. So now we were apparently just your everyday shopping couple. Oh, yay.

I was going to work this one to my advantage though. After the poor night's sleep I'd had, I was dying for an energy drink. Plus going through the actual buying process would give me a better opportunity to try and check out the area behind the checkout. Short of getting into the staff room, which was obviously unlikely seeing as we'd have no reason to be in there, it was going to be the best place to try and pick up something useful.

So when we found our way onto the drinks aisle, I neatly swiped several cans of the cheap energy drink variety into the basket. Mom would not have been impressed if she'd been here (I may have told her that I'd kicked the habit ages ago). And as it went, it didn't go unnoticed by L either. "You drink a lot of those."

I raised my eyebrows - I couldn't help it - this was going to be a serious case of the pot calling the kettle black if he started chastising me for it. My energy drink addiction was nothing compared to his sweet tooth. "And?"

And apparently nothing. L simply shrugged. "I was just making an observation."

My eyebrows rose even further. "I'm not sure if that's an observation worthy of your title."

L actually had the nerve to roll his eyes at me. He'd clearly picked up on the sarcasm this time. Bully for him. "Actually, I was simply trying to make conversation so we look more natural."

He was trying to make conversation? Whether it was work related or not, the world must have been ending. "Could have fooled me," I muttered to myself. Stating that I drank a lot of energy drinks - something that even a child could have picked up on - didn't seem like much of a conversation to me.

He did have a point though and I was glad that he was looking at it from that aspect too. He certainly hadn't seemed to have cared when we'd been doing stakeout the day before. But we did need something to mask the fact that we were walking around and paying close attention to literally everything. That's the thing when you don't know what it is exactly that you're looking for. You have to take in everything that you can to compensate for it.

The locations of any surveillance cameras and if they looked like they may have been rearranged at all recently in order to possibly cover up something. The behaviour of each and every member of staff - were they suspicious? Too casual? New to the team? Old time workers? Was there anything else about them that could suggest possible swindler, identity thief or serial killer?

I made sure I paid my utmost attention to absolutely everything that my eyes and mind could comprehend. Beside me, I knew that L would be doing the same. A few sneaky sideway glances at him confirmed that. Behind his bangs, his eyes never rested - darting from side to side and taking in every single thing around him. Yet his face gave nothing away other than the fact that he looked like a mildly bored shopper.

I still didn't understand why he rarely worked out in the field and chose instead to act on everything from behind a computer screen. He was so good at this. And it was instances like these that reminded me that I was actually working alongside the greatest detective in the world. When he was just being his usual neurotic, eccentric self, it was quite easy to forget that.

As we'd been doing the whole walking and observing deal, I'd grabbed a few more random things off the shelves and added them to the basket. One: it hid my obvious taurine addiction a little. Two: the more that was in there, the longer we'd be at the checkout. And the more time we'd have to spy on anything that could possibly be hiding behind it.

I unhelpfully tipped the contents of the basket onto the counter. I felt a little bad for the checkout girl that I was forcing to sort through it, but that little trick meant that she was going to take even longer. Which, in turn, gave us more of a chance to try and have a peek behind her.

I scanned the wall opposite and the desk in front of her, hoping there might be some kind of rota or employee list on display. We weren't that lucky. The only notices that were stuck up were two stating that you had to be over the age of twenty-one to buy alcohol and one advertising lottery tickets.

The girl serving us was only in her late teens. She was mildly pretty and dressed in fairly average clothing. Nothing suggesting that she either needed money or had suddenly commandeered a small fortune. She was friendly enough, but not overly friendly - just the right level of warmth you'd expect from a checkout assistant. Not in the slightest bit suspicious.

The only other person serving was a guy who was probably about a good three or four years older than the girl. He wasn't quite as friendly as she was, but not exactly grumpy either. He seemed a little restless and I watched him check his watch twice in the space of several minutes. He was clearly due to go on break soon.

Neither of them seemed particularly suspicious. But we had more time to come back and decide on that further - not to mention hopefully check out some other staff too. I hadn't really expected to have much success on our first excursion inside the store.

I thanked the checkout girl as she helped to stuff everything into a plastic bag, more enthusiastically than I probably would have done normally. But hey, I still felt bad for making things more awkward for her. Personally, I wouldn't be able to stand working in a place like this. At least with my job, I could generally get away with talking back to people if they were ever rude or annoying.

My eyes followed everything that went into the bag. I hadn't really been paying that much attention to what I'd been shoving into the basket. I could remember grabbing some bread and a pack of ramen noodles, in an attempt to make it look like an everyday shop for general necessities, but that was about all I could recall.

Several bags of sweets and cakes seemed to have also made it in there as well. I could accept the cakes, but I wasn't a huge fan of the hard-boiled sweets that had joined the shopping list. Had I really just subconsciously picked those up for a certain detective who did like such sweets? Maybe I'd just choose to believe that L had slipped them in when I hadn't been looking.

"Let's go and get some coffee," L decided as soon as we left the store.

"Yeah, okay," I agreed. "Good idea."

It was the best plan we had right now. At least watching the front of the store from across the street was better than just giving up and going home for the day. If we went back into the store on the same day, then it was definitely going to look odd.

L went to get some coffee whilst I grabbed a free table with the best view of the Nisa store. He clearly hadn't been put off enough by how terrible the coffee had apparently been yesterday. Personally, I still wasn't ready to resign myself to the god-awful hot chocolate just yet. Plus I had several energy drinks in the plastic bag that were just calling my name right now.

I waited till L came back though before cracking the first one open. I didn't want to be one of those people that sat in cafés without buying anything. I felt that having L with his coffee let me off the hook. I noted that he'd picked up what had to be a double figure amount of sugar sachets. Huh. Maybe he wasn't over the taste of the coffee after all.

"What exactly do those taste like?"

I glanced up over the rim of the can, surprised that L had been the first one to try and start conversation again. "You've never tried a Red Bull or anything before?" He shook his head. "Erm... It kind of has its own taste really - I wouldn't know how to describe it. Sweet, I guess?"

How was I supposed to answer that? It was like asking what a pineapple tasted like. Pineapple flavour. Simple. And energy drinks were just... energy drink flavour?

"I see."

I hesitantly held the can out. "You wanna try?"

He just looked at me. He probably didn't expect me to be so forthcoming about sharing my main vice (well, who could blame him - he should be grateful I was even offering). And I guessed that with his level of OCD and numerous weird quirks, it wouldn't exactly be surprising for him to come over all germaphobic over the idea of drinking from the same can.

But then he actually outstretched his hand. "Alright."

Wow. Okay then. Hadn't seen that one coming. I passed the cold can over, actually a little reluctant to part with it. But at the same time, I was interested to see what would happen. Would his first little bit of energy drink be enough to make the world famous L bounce off the walls?

I watched as he lightly put the can to his lips and took a sip. He then noticed me looking and lowered it. "Are you waiting for something to happen?"

"Hey, you never know. Supposedly, Red Bull gives you wings," I joked.

He just looked at me blankly. He clearly had no idea what I was talking about. I suppose it didn't really help that the can wasn't actually Red Bull. He passed it back to me. "It's not bad," he said lightly.

What a boring opinion. Oh. well, more for me. I guessed I shouldn't have been surprised that it wouldn't have any effect on him. With the amount of caffeine and sugar he already consumed from his endless intake of sweets and coffee, L clearly wasn't a stranger to the sugar rush phenomenon.

I pressed the can to my own lips, trying not to think about the fact that L's had touched it only moments before. I really, really didn't need to be thinking about the idea of indirect kissing right now.

"Do you have them because you need them?"

I looked up, confused. It took me a few moments to realise that he was talking about the energy drinks. "Oh. Well, generally, I crave the taste more than the actual effects. But I guess it works both ways." On this occasion, most definitely.

L could clearly tell that part too. "Like today, for instance," he added. Damn, did I really look that tired?

"Yeah. Maybe I'll take my mom's advice and have half a sleeping pill or something tonight," I mused aloud. I'd rather not have to resort to that, but I would if it was going to continue being a problem. I didn't want my observational abilities to start suffering from it.

"I never realised you struggled with insomnia as well," said L. He didn't exactly look sympathetic, but I had a feeling that the intention was there. Maybe.

"Well, I don't really..." I said awkwardly. This was going to get into uncomfortable territory if I had to explain that my only problem right now was just that sharing a bed with him made me super tense. "It just takes me a little while to adjust to sleeping somewhere else, that's all."

"Your mother seemed to suggest that you had worse problems with it in the past," L pointed out.

"Oh. That was after I quit the police force," I explained. "I kinda lost heart in the job after Teddy Harper was killed. I came back here to live with my family again for a while. Before I decided to still try and make it as a detective."

"It must have been rough."

I gave an awkward half shrug. I wasn't trying to get the sympathy vote here or anything. "That's just the kind of thing you have to accept in lines of work like this."

"That is true," L agreed, now stirring what looked like a tonne of sugar into his coffee. Okay, slight exaggeration maybe, but still. How did the guy not have a mouth full of cavities?

With that, the conversation then petered out again and we were left in one of our infamous awkward silences. What a surprise. This was beginning to feel like a routine. You'd have thought we'd have made at least some progress on the conversation front by now. Not to mention this also felt like an agonising repeat of how the stakeout had gone down yesterday.

I just had to hope I didn't have another ex show up this time. Knowing my luck as of late, that was a definite possibility.

"It's been more than five years now," L suddenly piped up. I looked at him, confused, and he added, "Since I've been a detective."

I had no idea what that was supposed to have to do with anything. "Err, what?"

"You asked me yesterday how long I'd been a detective for and I was reluctant to answer," L reminded me blankly. "So now I'm narrowing it down for you."

I stared at him, bemused. My first thought was that he wasn't really narrowing it down that much, but that was swiftly overwhelmed by the fact that he was actually offering me information about himself, however vague it was. How often did that happen?

"Well, no wonder you're so much better than me," I teased. "I've only been doing this for two years."

"It's not really a question of time," L pointed out.

"Oh, thanks," I said sarcastically. Way to beat me down. But then I realised that he looked like he was actually trying not to smile. "Okay, very funny. For all you know, I could have a raging complex about being second fiddle."

"And do you?"

"Hey, you never know," I said lightly. "Why don't you ask me again after we see who can solve this case first."

"Alright. It's a deal."

XXX

Despite considering it as a possibility earlier on, I didn't take even half a sleeping pill that night. I really did want it to be a final resort. Hell, L was a full-on insomniac and he never had to use them. Though the permanent shadows underlining his eyes suggested that maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea. As the day had gone on, I'd noticed that he too had looked even more tired than usual. If that was actually possible.

I soon learnt that I'd made the wrong decision. I slept even more fitfully than I had the night before and every time I did eventually manage to get to sleep, I then woke up not long after feeling more disorientated than before. Not to mention I was fed up of having to sleep facing one way. But I refused to roll over. God forbid I'd start drooling in my sleep or something embarrassing like that.

But when I woke again after dozing off for the fifth time, I felt so stiff and cramped up that I had to risk turning to face the other way, even if only for a few minutes. I'd apparently been worrying for nothing, because I rolled over to an empty bed again.

Confused and still feeling half asleep, I groped under my pillow for where I'd been keeping my iPhone. The bright display stung my eyes, but when I squinted, I was just able to make out the time. It was coming up to two o'clock. Morning, of course. So where had L gotten to now? He must have gone to the bathroom. I guessed he was human after all.

I sat up, scratching my head. Now that I was awake again, I could do with a drink. And at least this was my perfect opportunity to get up without having to disturb L from his night-time reading. I glanced at the Georgina Kincaid books on the nightstand as I clambered out of bed. I hadn't actually asked L what he'd thought of them so far. I wasn't sure I really wanted to know.

I quietly made my way downstairs, stopping only to push my feet into a plush pair of slippers that Auntie Maggie always left out in the hallway for when she woke up. The bare kitchen floor was usually freezing on a morning. I flicked the lights on, then almost had a heart attack when I realised that L was sat at the table.

"Jesus... Don't do that!" I protested, feeling my heart thumping in my chest.

"I didn't do anything," said L, completely oblivious to the aneurysm he'd just nearly given me.

Good grief, give me strength... "What on earth are you doing sitting here in the dark?"

"I came down for a glass of water," replied L, indicating the half-empty tumbler that was sat on the table in front of him. He didn't bother to enlighten me on the 'in the dark' half of the question.

"Oh. Right." Maybe I needed to stop worrying so much about him roaming around the house. It wasn't that unusual for someone to want a drink in the middle of the night. Though it was still a bit weird for them to sit alone in the dark. Come on, we had electricity for a reason.

"What about you?" asked L. "Are you still having trouble sleeping?"

"Err... No. Not really," I lied. "I just came to get a drink too."

Partly to prove my point, I padded over to the sink and reached up to grab a glass from the overhanging shelf above. I'd only just lifted it down when it slipped completely through my fingers. It bounced off the edge of the sink, smashing on impact and slicing my finger as I'd tried to catch it.

"Shit!" I cursed louder than I would have liked, as glass shattered across the floor. My attempts to play catch had clearly made things worse. A thin line of blood started to trickle down my hand. Dammit.

I was just glancing round for something to try and stop the bleeding when L abruptly joined my side, catching my hand lightly but firmly and inspecting my finger up close. "Hmm, it doesn't look too deep... You should be able to get away with not having stitches." His voice was lacking any emotion, like always.

"Good or I think I'd have to pass," I said casually, still looking for some kind of tourniquet. I wasn't a big fan of needles. Or hospitals, for that matter.

"Afraid of needles?" asked L, picking the thought straight out of my head. He looked almost amused. He then produced a tea towel seemingly out of nowhere and wrapped it deftly around my hand. How the hell did he always manage to do things without me noticing? He really must have been a vampire in another life. Or a stage magician.

And I didn't really want to answer his question. Only little kids were supposed to be scared of needles; not me. I looked down at the floor, away from L's never-blinking gaze, and frowned. As always, he was barefoot. "You should put something on your feet," I scolded, meeting his gaze again. "There's glass everywhere!"

"I'll be fine," L assured me swiftly, bypassing the rebuke. "And more importantly, I really do think you should try and get some sleep."

I sighed. I couldn't possibly disagree with him now. I really wasn't one to needlessly drop things. I'd told myself that I'd only resort to sleeping pills if the lack of sleep issue started to hinder my abilities. If it was making me this careless, then that was a pretty big sign that I was close enough to that point.

I wasn't the only one having problems. With L this close to me - still holding the towel tight around my hand - I could see that the dark circles beneath his eyes were even more pronounced than ever. He may have been fairly used to insomnia, but there was only so long the body could handle a lifestyle without sleep.

"I think you should too," I said, more softly. How much weight did the world's greatest detective actually bear on those hunched-over shoulders, if he never got to enjoy a simple luxury like sleep?

He actually looked surprised. "Me?"

I didn't get to elaborate further, because a gruff voice suddenly cut into the room, "Hey, is everything alright?"

I turned to find Grandpa standing in the doorway, wearing his rather horrible maroon robe - tied the wrong way round as usual. I was relieved to see that his worn-out old slippers were covering his feet. "Sorry, Gramps, I just broke a glass. Don't worry - I'll clean it up."

Grandpa just scoffed at me and shuffled into the room. "I don't know what you kids have been doing today, Gee, but you look bushed. I'll clean this mess up. You go back upstairs."

"Oh. No, it's fine really," I tried to insist, but the old man cut me off again.

"No buts, girl. Don't be silly - I can take care of it," he assured me, taking in the tea towel that I was still wearing like an odd boxing glove. "You go clean up that hand and then get some sleep." He gave L a pointed look. "You too, laddie. Start getting some more shut-eye if you don't want those black bags to become permanent."

"Err, yes, sir," said L, looking a little taken aback. I had to stop myself from giggling. I was betting that Watari had never put him in his place like that before.

Grandpa looked pleased that at least someone wasn't going to argue back. "Then scoot. Both of you."

We both did as we were told and scuttled out of the kitchen. I was glad to see that L did take care not to step on any glass. It would be even worse if I had a duff hand and he had a duff foot. As it was, I was sure I'd only need a band-aid for my minor injury. But even so, I was still glad that it wasn't my shooting hand.

I told L I was just going to grab the medical kit from the bathroom, but he followed me in anyway. I thought that was a little awkward until I realised that he actually just wanted to help. "Here," he offered, as I awkwardly tried to peel open a band-aid with one hand. "Let me do it."

"Oh, um, thanks..."

I unwrapped the towel from around my hand and tossed it into the wash basket in the corner. I washed my finger under the tap first before L fixed the band-aid into place. It still stung quite a bit, but I knew it was just like a paper cut - i.e. it felt worse than it actually was.

"I still think that you should take your mother's advice from this morning too," L told me, as I stuffed the medical kit back under the sink. Wow, since when had he become the bossy one here?

"Don't worry; I'm way ahead of you," I agreed, opening the mirrored cabinet by the door and pulling out the small bottle of sleeping pills. I tipped one out into my hand. "I'm only gonna take half of one though. It should be enough - I don't want to be feeling lethargic still tomorrow."

"That sounds fair," replied L, watching as I forced my fingernail into the groove that ran across the round white pill, breaking it into two.

Thankfully, he'd been smart enough to bring his half a glass of water with him, which he obligingly handed to me. At least now I didn't have to ungracefully drink straight from the tap. I took a grateful swig of water to help me swallow the pill, before passing it back to L.

"Thanks," I said. Then, making a decision and steeling myself for what was sure to be an argumentative response, I held out the other half of the sleeping pill. "But I think you should take half too."

L glanced down at the pill in my hand, then back up at me with an unreadable expression on his face. "I don't take sleeping medication."

"Really? I never would have guessed," I said sarcastically, before reminding myself that sarcasm probably wasn't the best route to take. "But I'm serious. I don't like taking these things either, but I'm willing to do it because I don't want to risk the possibility that my abilities could suffer for it and that I could be holding us back. So I think you should do the same. Plus half a pill really isn't going to kill you."

I knew it was a bit of a low blow, but somehow, I had a feeling that L wouldn't consent to it if I asked him to do it simply for my benefit. Plus he really did look exhausted right now. And if it was because he'd been thrown into the deep end of a completely strange environment, then that made it my fault, seeing as it had been my idea in the first place.

He continued to stare at me with that same unfathomable look for so long that I didn't think he was even going to bother responding. But then he eventually conceded with a brusque, "Fine." He took the pill from my hand and downed it with the remainder of the tumbler's contents.

"Thank you," I said appreciatively.

At least he hadn't made too big a deal out of it. Though I realised then that that probably wasn't the hardest part. Now I'd have to convince him that he'd need to actually lie down this time if he didn't want to wake up tomorrow with a stiff neck. And how was I going to do that without getting embarrassed about the idea myself?

Something was telling me that, sleeping pills or not, this was still going to be another long night.

XXX

Author's Note!

Sorry for how long this chapter took. Call it a mix of writer's block, busy life and having to catch up on toooo many stories! ...Pah, who am I kidding? There's no such thing as too many stories!

For anyone who's interested I wrote another one-shot based loosely on this story. It's set on another timeline but based around Gee and L's awkward relationship as you know it ;) It's called "100 Clues" if anyone wants to check it out!

In conjunction with that I also made a Twitter account just for Gee! I guess it's a roleplay account of sorts. But I'm hoping it can give you all more of an insight into her character and maybe (if I'm feeling generous) some sneaky previews for later story stuff too. Her screenname is geeniuspen - feel free to follow her! If you drop a message saying you're a fan of the story she might even follow you back! ;D