Golden eyes stared dully at the shower wall while Light's mind was occupied with racing thoughts. Steaming water beating against his back while holding his own arms. 'That happened. That actually happened. I…' A gentle knock landed on the door. "Uh, yes?"

The door creaked open, slightly startling Light towards the back of the shower. "I realized I didn't have any clean towels in the cabinet… I'll set a clean one for you on the sink." Beyond lingered a little before speaking again. "I'm sorry if last night was too much."

"No!" Light shouted a little louder than he had intended, covering his mouth briefly before continuing quieter. "It wasn't too much. I'd love it, if it happened more often."

Beyond gave a lopsided smirk towards his own reflection in the foggy mirror. "You got it. Ah, I'm going to head to the store and pick up some groceries, if you're going to be staying here, I'm going to need to stock my cupboards better."

Turning the water off, but staying in the shower. "You don't want me to come?"

Turning to step out of the bathroom, Beyond chuckled with his hand on the handle. "All good, the store is just down the street, do you need me to pick anything else up?"

"Uh, no." Light heard the door shut once again. Peeking out of the shower and sighing in minor disappointment to see the raven had left the room already. Light daintily set his foot down on the plush rug that laid on the tiled floor and dried himself with the fresh towel while glaring into the foggy mirror reflection. "Stupid. You sound so clingy right now." His eyes flashed over towards the door when he heard knocking on the front door. "Hang on!" Throwing his clothes on haphazardly and running to the door, the brunette sighed seeing Beyond had also already left the apartment.

Opening the door, Light couldn't help but feel a little disappointed to see Maddy, who was excitedly nibbling her bottom lip while raising her eyebrows. "Weeeellllllll?" Light shook his head sullenly. "Whaaat!? Seriously!? I'm going to sneak Viagra into his coffee." Light snickered and opened the door the rest of the way for her to come in. "Little shit. On a silver platter! The fuck is wrong with him?"

Light rolled his eyes and leaned against the wall. "He didn't want to," Light lifted his hands and motioned them in air quotes, "take advantage of me."

Maddy bit her thumb knuckle. "Damn. Even I underestimated his nice guy strength. Well, did anything happen?"

"He made me cry." Maddog's eyes shot up full of fury, causing Light to wave his hands in front of his body. "No! Not in a bad way. We cuddled and I didn't realize that, that was exactly what I actually needed." Light's golden eyes made it to the floor. "I fell asleep and woke up in his arms." Chuckling a little at the memory of the morning. "He even had a leg over me."

Maddy rubbed her chin and knit her eyebrows in thought. "Hmm. We may need reinforcements." She snapped her fingers and her face lit up. "We'll ask Gio. He's Beyond's best friend. He'll know what's up. He at least broke it to you nicely, right?"

Light nodded. "I think he thought it was because I was drunk. But after last night. Now I really want him."

Maddy wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Ew. Spare me the details." A door across the hall shut causing Maddy to lean forward to look out the open apartment door. "Shit. Well. Hopefully Gio doesn't rat us out." She chuckled as she stepped out the door herself. "Pace yourself tiger, we'll talk to Gio later, don't scare him off just yet." Maddy winked while shutting the door before darting towards her door as the entrance to the hall opened and closed.

Beyond stared at his keys, sorting through them as he walked past Gio's door. He startled and hopped away from the entrance when it whipped open and a red rose was handed to him. "The fuck?" Hesitantly taking the flower from his friend, Beyond cocked his head to the side.

The heavily tattooed man held his finger over his lips and pointed at Beyond's door before quietly shutting his apartment door. His own door opened and Light smiled while leaning into the hall and inquiring, "You alright?"

Sanguine eyes shifted from Light to Gio's door, then back to the brunette. "Yeah. I guess I got this for you." He shakily handed Light the rose.

Light took the flower with an appreciative smile. "Thank you. I've never gotten flowers before." Smelling the flower while smiling, Light closed his eyes as he stepped out of the way.

Raising an eyebrow at the reaction, Beyond shifted an uneasy stare back to Gio's door before heading into the apartment. Setting the multitude of bags down on the counter the raven smiled and handed Light a tiny plastic pine tree. "And this!"

Light stared at it for a moment before chuckling and setting the tree and the flower on the bar. "A plastic tree?"

Rummaging through the bags more, Beyond sighed. "Well, not just that." He set a couple smaller bags next to it and beamed proudly. "I thought maybe we could decorate it…Together… Uh… my apartment isn't exactly big enough for a big tree."

Light could feel a sting of tears welling up in his eyes. "You, you want to decorate it together?"

"It wouldn't be much fun alone I think, but, if you'd rather do it alone…" Beyond bashfully casted his eyes towards the floor. "It isn't much, so I get it if you want to do it alone."

"No!" Light's sudden outburst surprised Beyond into looking back up at him. "I want to! I really do…" Stepping closer to the raven. "I just haven't decorated anything in such a long time, I guess I almost forgot those get decorated." Not being able to fight the urge any longer, Light hugged Beyond tightly while whispering. "Thank you."

Jerking back slightly, Beyond shot a panicked glance around the room, before gently resting his arms around Light and hugging him back. "Yeah. No problem. I saw it and remembered what you'd said."

Light frowned slightly, feeling the mild jerk back from his embrace. 'Maybe I'm misreading him. Maybe it's one sided.' Light shut his eyes tighter. 'Oh god, what if this whole time he's just been being nice to me and tolerating everything?' Pulling himself away from the hug Light bowed slightly to hide his tears. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. I was just so happy."

Beyond weakly clasped Light's hand into his. "I liked it. I'm just not used to it. I'm sorry." He leaned down to see Light's hidden face, though his hair kept his features obscured. Light turned his head slightly to further hide his expression. "Light… Can I tell you something? You've told me a lot. I think it's my turn. But this is hard to talk about, can you please look at me?"

Slowly, Light looked up while wiping his tears away with his free hand and nodded while avoiding eye contact. "Sorry, I don't know where that came from."

Without saying anything further Beyond led Light to the bed in the living room and sat down. "My last relationship would weaponize intimacy, if I didn't do or say exactly what she wanted, she would completely ignore me, she would even act as if I wasn't in the room. It isn't you. I'm afraid of getting comfortable and doing or saying the wrong thing and having intimacy ripped away from me again. I need some adjustment time. I went from a loving home, if not a little overbearing, to zero physical contact. Then from low contact to hot and cold, I later learned that it's called love bombing. We broke up because I couldn't take it. Then a couple months of nothing except clients when I'd be working on them, to my ex who would withhold any forms of physical touch if I did something she disapproved of."

Light sat next to Beyond and squeezed his hand softly. "That's awful."

Interlacing their fingers together, Beyond pieced together a broken smile. "It is what it is… Please believe me when I say, it isn't you. And, it honestly pisses me off that L got so lucky to have what I would have died for… and he didn't even cherish it."

Light scooted a little closer to Beyond and sighed. "I wouldn't do that. I know those are just words, but, every time you touch me, it feels like a deep warmth and I don't want to let it go. Like when you're snuggled up in a warm bed and you know the air outside the blanket is cold… you try a couple times to get out of bed, only to retreat back into the warmth. You're that second wind of warmth to me, the one that puts you back to sleep and you end up being late for work."

Sharing a quiet laugh, Beyond pulled Light into a tight hug. "You're the same for me."

Light finished cashing out Maddy's customer. He glanced his eyes up to Beyond who diligently worked on the piece of art that seemed to pull all of his attention. Maddy waved Light over to Gio's booth. Glancing his golden eyes over to Beyond one last time only to make eye contact with the raven, forcing a deepening blush from the brunette as he hurried over towards Maddy and Gio.

Gio snickered at Maddy and Light. "You guys tried the drunk dash on him? No, no, no. That won't work on Beyond, that guy doesn't have a manipulative bone in his body, he's not going to "take advantage" of any situation. Weirdly enough he's the type that needs to be romanced. He's…" Gio's sad blue eyes drifted towards Beyond and then back to the eager duo. "He hasn't had a good life, if I were him? I'd have gone batshit. Light, if you really mean it, if you really are wanting to have any form of relationship with him, don't hurt him. He's been through enough."

Maddy leaned in with wide eyes and whispered in a hushed tone. "Like what?"

Gio frowned at her and whispered back. "I'm sworn to absolute secrecy. I cannot breathe a word of it to anyone. But, if it's anything, I met him in juvie, I was there for destruction of property and arson, he was there for murder. He was my only friend on that side of the bars, I'm not spilling another word further."

Beyond smirked at the trio whispering and shouted. "Secrets don't make friends!"

Maddy flipped him the middle finger while Gio chuckled. "But friends make secrets!"

Rolling his ruby eyes and pointing over his shoulder with his thumb while talking to his client. "See what I put up with?" The customer laughed and shook his head.

Maddy pondered the information for a moment. "Damn, if I didn't know he's an absolute push over, I'd be worried for Light… who…" She nudged Light and flicked her eyes towards Beyond's direction while smirking. "Seems to have, at the very least, distracted our buddy over there."

Gio craned his neck to look at Beyond. "What do you mean? He's just working."

Rolling her emerald eyes while shaking her head in disappointment. "His back is always towards the east, his back is to the north today. He hasn't deviated the entire time since I started working here, he's always faced towards the west, used to say he did it because he liked to watch the sunset while he worked, so, why would he face south today?" Maddy folded her arms and sighed. "Which is unsettling, I don't like him facing my booth suddenly, like, I get it, there's an empty space between us, but it's weird to look over there and see his stupid face head on instead of the side of it."

Julie smirked and leaned into the small circle and whispered. "What are we scheming?"

Gio jumped back yelping while holding his heart. "Jesus, Julie!"

Maddy placed her hands on her hips and leaned close to Julie's ear. "Light really likes Beyond, we're trying to help him get a little closer to him."

Julie nodded her head while placing her semi closed fist over her chin. "Hmm. Light, darling? Can you draw?" Light nodded happily, not following her trail of thought. "Good. Want to learn how to tattoo? Beyond is more than qualified to teach." She winked at Maddy. "Just something to think about. You keep all your tips and it could prove to be more entertaining than just standing at the counter… speaking of, young man, you still haven't brought me any banking information."

Light chuckled nervously. "Sorry Julie, next time I go to my house I'll be sure to grab it." Rubbing his bicep timidly while scanning the shop. "You think I'd be any good at it?" His eyes drifted towards Beyond who seemed to be engrossed in a small detail on the patrons skin.

She gave a thumbs up. "Draw me some sketches so we can start building an on paper portfolio. Think simple though, simple and clean lines. We'll build from there. I'll let you shadow any of the artists. Beyond is the only one with a client left on the books today, so maybe after his current appointment, we can ask him if he'd be okay with it."

As the customer left, Julie approached Beyond. "Hey tough guy, how do you feel about teaching?"

Beyond wiped his station down while staring at the blonde with a raised eyebrow. "Teaching? Like an apprentice? I think Gio would probably be the most experienced here."

Nodding her head at the information. "Have you seen Gio's traditional?"

Beyond silently chuckled while exhaling through his nose. "Yeah, it's bad."

"Right, so it falls between you and Maddy, and I don't think Maddy is confident enough to be shadowed. She already noticed you're facing her booth today and is nervous about it." Julie rested her elbow on the half wall of the booth. "I'm not forcing anything on you, if you don't want to, it's fine. That just means I get to pick the pen back up."

Beyond rolled his eyes as he meticulously filled his inks for the next customer. "You know you can't sit in one spot for too long before your nerves start hurting. Yeah, it's fine, when do they start?"

Julie winked and pulled Light by the shirt collar as he tried to walk past her to sweep the floor, causing the brunette to gasp and drop the broom. "Right now."

Light fidgeted with his own fingers then nervously waved at Beyond. The raven smirked in return. "Seriously? You want to learn?" The brunette nodded enthusiastically causing Beyond to chuckle again. "Well, shit, grab a chair, you can shadow my last client for the day." Light beamed excitedly and grabbed the chair from the empty booth, pulling it up to Beyond's.

They shared a small smile as Beyond started explaining what all the different items in the area were for, Julie nodded proudly and excused herself from the booth and walked towards the back shooting a sly wink at Maddy. "That's how you do it, sweetheart, it's all about common interests."

Maddy watched Julie push the black cloth out of the back room entrance and disappear behind it. She then shifted a dumbfounded stare at Light and Beyond. She chuckled at the brunette taking notes. "What a nerd."

Maddy gently knocked on the door and let herself in to smile quietly at Light diligently drawing in what looked like a new sketchbook, his legs off the side of the bed and over Beyond's shoulders. The raven who was seated on the floor clumsily attempting to pronounce vocab words in Japanese, his arms around Light's calves as he held up a book. Her emerald eyes drifted to a small decorated plastic tree perched on the bar, keeping her from being in direct line of sight.

"No. Like, 'Me-zoo', don't let the 'i' fool you into a long sound." Light quietly corrected as he drew long lines along his pad with a charcoal pencil. "Just because it's spelled, m-i-z-u, it does not have a 'my' sound." Light leaned forward and showed Beyond the picture he was working on.

Glancing scarlet eyes up to the pad, the raven smiled. "Yeah, it looks good, but that curve would be really hard on sharper spots of the body, so it'd be best if you kept that on a larger palate of the skin, like a back piece or a thigh."

Placing her hand over her heart, she slipped back out of the apartment just as silently as she had entered, careful to shut and lock the door behind her. Gio smirked at her before speaking. "They still at it?" Maddy jumped slightly and breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of Gio as she nodded. He laughed quietly. "I checked on them about two hours ago and they were decorating what has to be the world's smallest Christmas tree."

Maddy quietly stepped away from the door while laughing quietly. "Nah, Light is doing what Julie asked and it looks like Beyond is trying to learn a new language."

He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, "It's nice not seeing him at the bottom of a bottle and actually working to improve himself again. Him and his brother didn't get along, but you remember what he was like… ugh, or the following silent treatment."

Stepping closer to Gio, Maddy sighed. "Yeah. It was hard getting him to even get out of bed that first week, he'd wake up still drunk." Netting her hands behind her head as she shuffled one foot on the floor. "Gio, is there anything you could tell me about his brother?"

Gio jerked his head towards the interior of his apartment. Maddy followed the motion into his home. Her eyes landed on warm neutral colors, a white piano, a black decorated pull out couch, a simple dining set with a cork board filled with polaroid photos, mostly of him and Beyond at various locations. "I never met the guy, but, from my understanding he was wicked fucking smart, the more Beyond talked about him, the more I started doing some digging. I found him, they clearly take after their mother. Both of them are wickedly talented, the older one was an academic all star, Beyond was the artistic one." Gio pulled a folder out of one of his kitchen cabinets. "Please don't think this is weird, Beyond's a real secretive person. So compiling evidence was the only way for me to get him to open up about anything."

Maddy hesitantly took the file and opened it. "Oh shit! I've heard of this guy! He's that detective that never left his house and no one knew his exact location. So, Beyond knew the whole time? Bro, the amount of conspiracy theory around that guy is nuts! So, Beyond's brother is THAT L?"

Brewing some coffee Gio nodded grimly. "Of course, L never left his home unless it was in the dead of night, only to depart the country. He was some high ranking official in Interpol. Once I pieced that together, I understood Beyond's desire for secrecy." He watched the liquid pour from the brewer down to the pot. "He can never know, you know. But that wasn't what he was hiding… what Beyond hides is deeper than his brother's identity, or his family's shady dealings, or even the fact that he's only L's half brother."

Maddy nervously looked up from the file. "There's worse?"

Gio grabbed a coffee cup from his cupboard. "Why did you think Beyond was in jail?"

Shrugging her shoulders as she looked back down to the file. "I don't know, I figured it couldn't have been that bad considering he's only 26. But, you said he was in juvie with you for murder?"

"Maddog, he killed his dad, and to this day, I don't know why. But, it tore a huge rift between him and L." His sapphire eyes landed on Maddy. "Kids don't just snap and kill their parents. I don't know the exact circumstances, but whatever the reason, it was Hell for him. When he first arrived at juvie some of the bigger kids couldn't wait to get their hands on him, skinny little guy like him? But, for the first six months, he was in solitary. Then we all heard why he was there. Most people avoided him, hell, I wanted to, but he was my roommate." Gio poured himself some coffee. "He would scream in his sleep when we were bunked together. I was terrified of him. A cold hearted killer that screams in his sleep? Thanks, next roommate, please."

Maddy shot her eyes up to Gio while gasping. "How'd you become friends?"

"He's a hell of an artist, god, his drawings, I went to juvie for tagging a building, of course I was interested. So, I asked him how he learned to draw so well. His answer still haunts me. He said: 'it's all I was allowed to do. I wasn't allowed to go to school, have friends, or leave my room.' His answer fucked me up, but not more than the scars that he had on his back, arms and legs. I can imagine some of the motives for offing his dad. But, when I asked about them, he just sighed and said he didn't do it. His mom did." Gio set a cup of coffee in front of Maddy. "That's why I worry about him. God, he made me realize how much I fucked up, I have folks that love me, strict, but damn at least they were normal."

"One kid got sharpies smuggled in, so I bought a pack and started drawing, mostly on myself at first, but then I remember, I tried to replicate one of his drawings, and he took the sharpie from me… 'Skin isn't like paper or any hard surface, you have to anticipate its movement with the instrument, if you learn how your canvas moves, you can replicate anything.' We bonded over a mutual love for art."

Gio stared sadly into his coffee. "You know. I ran into him by accident, after Julie hired me. He was trying to skip town, but didn't have any money and he was begging. I told him I had started an apprenticeship at a tattoo shop and he should come check it out, it'd be great to have the person who inspired me to be there learning as well." Gio chuckled in nostalgia. "So, he'd draw and I'd practice, when I was finally confident enough with a design, I practiced on him."

Sighing sadly while closing the folder, setting it down and picking the coffee cup up. "Jesus, I need to quit calling him moody. So, did he even graduate? Ah, man, I've been calling him a shitshow to his face."

"In prison. He got out for good behavior and completed his schooling and the therapy course they forced him to do." Gio leaned back onto the counters behind him. "I know you want to help Light, I do too, I like him. But, please understand, I'm not going to be pushing anything on Beyond's side. I'm not going to push him into anything he isn't ready for, I don't even know the full story, and you can't tell a soul either."

Maddy took a small sip of the coffee while knitting her eyebrows. "Why did you tell me then?"

Gio set the cup in the sink next to him. "I wanted you to understand why Beyond isn't an easy person to love. Sure, he's lovable, but he's hard to get close to. And, I don't want you or Light to give up on him." His eyes drifted up to Maddy. "Once you've survived something, it's hard to trust completely normal things. We both know better than anyone."

Maddy averted her eyes from the scar on the back of Gio's neck. "You never told me what happened to you."

The slender man froze momentarily before continuing to put his dinner leftovers into his refrigerator. "You didn't either. My ex tried to kill me. Well, once it finally escalated. It didn't start that way… it got worse over time. She always accused me of cheating on her or hiding shit from her, to "pranking" me, slowly turning to hitting me. Turns out, it was mostly projection. So, when I stumbled on the truth, it escalated. I'm only here because Beyond doesn't understand personal boundaries. I had texted him that I wasn't having a good night and couldn't hang out because I was fighting with my girlfriend. Him being the dumbass that he was, thinking he could help, stopped by our place and found me blacking in and out from blood loss."

Maddy gasped and gently set her hand on Gio's back. "I'm so sorry, I never knew."

Glancing back to the distraught woman, Gio smiled. "You had enough shit on your plate. Julie told us that you got kicked out of your folks home and had gotten into some trouble. I didn't want to weigh you down any further."