Chapter Text
Handcuffed.
That’s how it starts.
Light is a considerable actor, he always has been, and that capacity to act in a crisis, to lie in the face of people who trust him, is something that concerns him the moment those handcuffs snap on. He says one thing, fiercely maintains he’s not Kira, but he’s not an idiot. He can put on a face and that will reassure his father, the investigation team, but…
He and L know what’s happening here.
“It’s late,” Light announces to the almost empty room.
L grunts beside him.
Light sighs.
“You might as well say what you really mean,” L replies levelly.
“I assume from those bags under your eyes you don’t sleep,” Light counters tartly. “But my ability to reason is effected by exhaustion.”
“That seems like a personal failing you should strive against,” L grunts.
Light’s eyes flash over him sharply.
“I’m joking,” L replies. “But it’s nice for you to make an expression I recognize. You’ve been playing so nice today.”
“Yeah, well…” Light sighs, sagging in the chair. “You understand already, don’t you?”
“I suspect,” L nods.
“The highest remaining probability says that I am Kira,” Light voices what they’re both thinking. Honesty isn’t something that comes easily to him but now that they’re alone it’s strategic to be straightforward.
L glances towards him but doesn’t prompt him further.
Light rarely needs encouragement once he gets going.
“Somehow I transferred the power of Kira, whatever it was,” Light continues. “We know that but presumably I can’t act right now, with us tethered like this, and the power likely elsewhere, so we need to continue to work together. Still, for the morale of the other investigators it will soothe them if I at least maintain the stance I’m innocent, however unlikely that is.”
“Do you honestly care about their morale?” L supposes.
“Do you?” Light snaps.
“They’ll be hard to work with if they’re depressed,” L answers.
“Agreed,” Light nods curtly.
“That said, do you think it matters what stance I take on the issue?” L asks.
“You’re asking me for advice?”
“I’m asking you for strategy.” L replies. “And right now, how we handle this benefits us both. Besides, Kira or not, you’re still the smartest person in the building next to me.”
It’s kind of a relief to be honest after today.
“Right,” Light agrees. “As for the team… I don’t think your stance matters. I think they would only be suspicious if you became too convinced of my innocence. But, by all means, do that. It’ll give them more sway to argue you should uncuff us.”
“And then you’d be able to act independently,” L snorts. “Which I obviously can’t allow given how dangerous you, or Kira, has proven to be.”
Light nods again.
On one level, however stupid, he feels like a kid at a sleep over.
He and L, despite their obvious differences, work on the exact same wavelength and that, being able to talk to someone who understands, is soothing. Even if that person wants to see him executed.
“I have to ask,” L hums, “because right now I’m debating two possible theories.”
“Oh?” Light invites.
“You’re different right now,” L appreciates. “So either you were controlled by the real Kira or you found some way to effectively wipe you memory of your time as Kira.”
“Well you’re clever,” Light teases, “what do you think is most likely?”
“Judging by Misa’s reaction and what I know of you, I suspect you’ve lost some chunk of your memory.” L reveals simply. “You’re not the kind of person to roll over and that would imagine there was someone smarter than you and me which I find unlikely. It seems much more likely to me you disposed of the power to shake suspicion until conditions change.”
“Yeah, that does sound like me,” Light sighs. “But you know what that means don’t you?”
“You don’t know what the power is anymore, how it works or who has it now.” L nods.
“Exactly,” Light replies. “Presumably I had some plan to reclaim it but for that to happen it’s likely both of us and our intellects are necessary. To find whatever it is, get it back from some lunatic, all without being killed? It’ll take us both.”
“There is a chance,” L hums, “that even if we find the power, I still might not have enough evidence to convict you. What you say now is one thing, but 'I might be Kira' is hardly a confession with any weight.”
“That’s true,” Light agrees. “But you’d buckle down in that eventuality because my first move, whatever happens, has to be to kill you as soon as possible.”
“So stalemate.” L snorts.
“Annoyingly.”
“Well, the good thing about life is it presents endless variables.” L smirks. “You no doubt had a brilliant plan, one I look forward to untangling, but you can’t predict everything, especially not people, so…”
“So anything could happen,” Light concludes. “And where the chips land will determine which one of us has the upper hand in the final round.”
“I shouldn’t say this,” L admits, “but isn’t this the most fun you’ve ever had?”
Light laughs, weak and dark like stale coffee. “Honestly? Yeah. The world’s so dull out there. No one keeps up. At least this way we’re having fun.”
“We might both be bad people,” L sighs.
“Very bad,” Light agrees, “but I think I’ve got a higher kill count so…”
“Maybe, but I’ve never tallied mine up.”
“Well, you can keep stewing if you like,” Light yawns, rubbing his face absently. “But now we’re on the same page I really do need to sleep. So how are we going to do this?”
“I’ve got a floor, there’s a bedroom,” L shrugs. “Think you can sleep through me typing on the laptop?”
“Just don’t jerk my arm too aggressively,” Light consents lazily. “Come on then.”
L gathers up his things, untangling off the chair, and yawning into his hand Light follows him up the elevator. L’s taken the thirteenth floor which—
“Are we superstitious?” Light asks, rubbing his neck with his free hand.
“Well, I don’t like the basement from the perspective I don’t want a building collapsing on top of me. And while the top floor makes aerial escape easier it also makes infiltration easier.”
“So you’re doing this to be a nuisance?” Light concludes.
“Isn’t that why you do everything?” L smirks.
Light grins. “I’ll never tell.”
L isn’t interested in brushing his teeth or getting changed but he dutifully trails after Light as he ambles through his routine. Looks like Watari or one of the guys, maybe Souichirou, have brought his things from the house so Light can be comfortable here indefinitely. L has the laptop in one hand, scrolling, and Light finds it easy to all but ignore him.
Maybe ignore is the wrong word?
L’s presence just isn’t uncomfortable somehow.
Maybe it’s that wavelength thing again.
They’re cut from the same cloth.
“Don’t strain your eyes,” Light orders, collapsing into the bed as L climbs in after him. He turns off the lighting in the suite, leaving nothing but the glow of the laptop screen, and rolls onto his other side as best as the tether between them will allow.
It’s true that Light will kill L if presented with the opportunity. Who wouldn’t? Survival instinct is a powerful force and Light wants to live. L threatens that and if he has proof of what they both suspect then Light will absolutely be put to death.
What if they’re wrong…?
Light can’t imagine that. Two people, as smart as them, both coming to the same conclusion and being wrong? No, it’s not possible. That said, if it was, what kind of life could Light have? Would he and L work together to solve more impossible cases? It doesn’t sound safe or responsible but it definitely sounds exciting. L seems more concerned with entertainment than justice, but Light could probably direct him towards cases Light morally agreed with. That…
That might be nice.
In another life, in another world.
Light rolls over in the middle of the night and stirs just so.
Just long enough to realize L isn’t typing anymore.
Eyes flickering open groggily Light takes in the dark room and the city scape beyond the uncovered windows.
L might be an insomniac, but he is human and all humans needs to sleep eventually.
Light appreciates his features in the darkness and the nasally quality of his snoring. The laptop has cycled to sleep or maybe the battery ran out. Either way the screen is dull and the whole thing is limp at a funny angle in L’s slumped limbs.
Moving very, very, delicately Light shifts up onto his elbows.
He doesn’t suspect it’ll take much to stir L and he doubts there’s anything on the computer he can’t see so there’s no point snooping. So….
Light tries a trick his mother used to use, mainly on Sayu, when they were children. Leaning over L the older man starts to grumble and—
Light strokes, slow and patient, down the bridge of his nose.
Once, twice, thrice….
Coaxing, slow, until L eases again.
Then picking up the computer Light folds It shut between them on the sheets. Back to the bridge of L’s nose, once, twice, thrice…
And then Light careful lays back down and closes his eyes.
L keeps snoring.
On some level he is just a man, isn’t he?
Can Light use that to his advantage?
Something to think on.
For now? Sleep.
“Misa,” L posits the following night. “Do you like her?”
“No,” Light answers from his screen. “Why?”
“Could you pretend to return her feelings?”
“No,” Light replies.
“Too much of a gentleman for that?” L tuts.
“No,” Light smirks.
“Then why not?” L presses. “It’ll help the case.”
“It’ll help you, not me.” Light counters.
“Misa could tell us something useful.” L argues.
“Misa had her memory wiped also,” Light replies, “and while she was likely useful to me as a pawn at some point she no longer has that power. The only benefit of getting her on side is giving you more information to use against me.”
L sighs heavily. “Sometimes you’re frustrating.”
“Let’s focus on catching the current Kira, alright?”
“I also need to build a case against you, you know; so you don’t kill me first.” L tuts, scooping up a strawberry from his swimming pool of cream.
“That’s your problem,” Light counters.
L huffs stubbornly.
“Don’t look so glum,” Light twists his screen L’s way, “look at this and be useful instead.”
“Sometimes I think you’re only my friend because of my stunning deductive reasoning.” L rolls his chair over.
“Oh yeah, it’s all about that juicy brain,” Light snorts. “Here.”
“Heart attacks,” L supposes.
“Some of them,” Light corrects, “but not all of them.”
“Kira seems to only be able to kill with heart attacks.” L counters.
“I suspect he can do more,” Light argues.
“Interesting,” L digests, “why?”
“These men aren’t criminals.” Light counters. “The last Kira was idealistic, an arbiter. But we both know it’s likely the powers found its way to an adult and what do adults care about?”
“Money.” L murmurs sharply. “So then—”
“Thirteen deaths in the business world across the last three months.” Light scrolls. “Not all of them heart attacks but—”
“Who does it--?” L leans forward, grabbing the mouse to click through his data.
“Yotsuba Group.” Light supplies readily.
“How’d you put all this together?” L glances, curious.
“A little instinct, a hunch or two, a lot of research and exploiting Matsuda.” Light shrugs.
“Well, to be fair, I wasn’t using him for anything useful.” L agrees.
“It’s what he’s good for,” Light snorts.
L chuckles, grin wicked.
“So what to do next….?” L taps his chin. “Yotsuba is a large group. We need to narrow down the pool of suspects.”
“Well,” Light switches off the screen, “why don’t we brainstorm in the comfort of a warm bed?”
“Maybe you don’t just want me for my juicy brain,” L deadpans.
“You sleep, I’ve seen it.” Light counters, batting away L’s fingers as he tries to turn the screen back on.
L sighs, unconvinced.
“Shower first,” he negotiates. “I think well in the shower.”
“Now who’s trying to seduce who?” Light teases.
L just shrugs, impersonating an innocent goblin.
They wait until they’re on the thirteenth floor to truly unravel the topics for discussion. L uncuffs them, very briefly, to get their clothes off properly and Light checks the temperature in the shower while L cuffs their opposing wrists back together.
“The NPA.” Light starts. “We should—”
“They don’t matter,” L dismisses. “We don’t need them to continue operating.”
“I’m aware of that,” Light acknowledges, “if anything this gives us more freedom to act without oversight but do we need the other detectives in this scenario?”
“They’re useful,” L counters, “besides; they’ll make great witnesses if you kill me.”
“That’s rude.” Light huffs lamely, letting L pull him under the water.
“You don’t have to budge on Misa to help me and I don’t have to budge on the detectives to help you.” L shrugs. “Consider it a level playing field.”
Light sighs heavily. “Alright, fine.”
“You sound so disappointed.”
“Well this is life or death for me.”
“And it’s not for me?” L snorts.
“Your life is less important to me than my own.”
“Fair,” L consents.
“Back to business.” Light grunts dunking his head under the water. “Yotsuba Group.”
L hums, shaking his slick hair and sending water everywhere. L is an attractive man in some ways, Light would argue he’s more conventionally handsome, but he sees the appeal of L’s intensity and—
“You’re well maintained, despite all those sweets,” Light prods his tight navel lazily.
L snorts. “Your pants really don’t do your ass justice.”
“Rude,” Light cackles.
This shouldn’t be so easy.
Honestly, Light doubts he would feel awkward with most men in a situation like this but some people would certainly irritate or disgust him. L is easy, comfortable. He’s not the kind to feel embarrassed about his body but there is a certain level of intimacy inherent in this kind of ease he’s experiencing.
It’s strange.
“We’ll need to get intel on all the Yotsuba staff, home and abroad,” L starts to calculate handing Light the shampoo. “But that’s a very large pool. We need more information to narrow it down.”
“Well, consider,” Light begins, “how did I pass on the power of Kira?”
“Right…” L murmurs. “So perhaps the current Kira was someone within Japan during the period before and during your imprisonment?”
“Seems likely they’d need to be within my reach,” Light nods, “that said if it’s something you can pass through an email—”
“I doubt that,” L grunts.
“Me too, but it would be interesting,” Light shrugs. “So a Yotstuba staff member, within Japan, and how would I select my replacement?”
“Someone vile enough to use the power,” L theorises, “but also stupid enough that you could outwit them and reclaim the power with your memory erased. Someone who won’t add much complication with their own thoughts, predictable.”
“Well so far that holds true,” Light rinses his hair absently. “They’re a simple minded adult focused on money and afraid of enraging the real Kira. They likely don’t appreciate the full extent of the power.”
“Or they’re a coward,” L counters.
“Most people are,” Light pushes his wet hair back, mindful of the tether between them.
“Were you a brave child?” L asks suddenly.
“What kind of question is that?” Light scoffs.
“A personal one,” L shrugs, scratching his armpit indelicately. “If we’re stuck like this for months we can’t talk business all the time.”
“We’ll work quicker than that.” Light maintains.
“Is that how you’re going to dodge the question?” L smirks.
“I— ugh.” Light huffs. “I was a stubborn child. I didn’t like being told what to do and I took matters into my own hands.”
“I was always getting into trouble,” L murmurs. “I’d come up with an idea and drag everyone into it. Wilful, argumentative. Other choice words.”
“We would’ve gotten along then.” Light hums, wondering—
“I don’t think you can kill me with that,” L states suddenly. “You need a name, not a backstory, right?”
“Yeah, exactly,” Light slackens, amused despite himself.
He knows he’s playing this game to win, of course, but sometimes even he needs to switch off for a few hours and play dumb. Talking about things unrelated to the case, not talking at all, that sounds tempting when he’s tired.
“I’ll start gathering the baseline data on the Yotsuba employees while you sleep,” L declares as they climb out of the shower and pat down on the tiles.
“Why don’t you sleep?” Light counters.
“I don’t sleep.” L grunts.
“I bet I can make you sleep.” Light smirks.
“I don’t think your wicked, borderline supernatural, powers extend that far.” L maintains.
“What if they do?”
“Then we might need to try you for witchcraft as well as murder,” L jokes levelly.
“Well let’s collect some evidence,” Light tempts, yanking L by the tether.
L stumbles but catches himself quickly and jerks back. “You’re not supposed to do that. This is my tether. I am restraining you.”
“Less talk more sleep.” Light yanks again, unapologetic.
L considers the tether and Light has the cord between his fingers, threatening to yank again. L weighs the options and—
“I’m not afraid to pull you right off your feet.” L warns.
Light escalates.
Light always escalates.
Yank.
L doesn’t even budge but—
Light makes a totally indelicate, unattractive, sound as L ducks down and manhandles him over one shoulder. Lift- oomph- Light is being carried.
“Put me—!”
“You started it.” L counters heedlessly.
Light considers punching him along the spine but he’s all flipped around and that seems like a sure-fire way to crash onto the tiles.
L dumps him on the bed and as the blood rushes back down from his brain to his extremities Light takes a deep, frustrated, breath.
Alright, so he’s stronger than he looks.
“You’re sleeping.” Light declares.
“I’d like to see you pull that off.” L snorts, tossing Light his boxers to sleep in.
L tethers his cuff to the bedframe while he pulls his shirt on.
“You know,” Light argues, “we could just keep it like that while we sleep?”
“You can saw the bedframe into pieces. I don’t trust it to restrain you in the middle of the night.” L maintains. “I trust you won’t sneak off if you’re cuffed to me though.”
“Maybe you’re just clingy?” Light scoffs.
“Oh, total cuddle slut.” L deadpans, refusing to back down.
They are a little childish, aren’t they?
Ugh, regardless—
“Get in the bed.” Light tuts.
“I need my laptop.”
“Give me one chance to put you to sleep,” Light reasons. “If it doesn’t work you can use your phone. Thing’s practically its own think tank.”
L hesitates but, sighing, leaves his phone on the bedside table and puts the cuff back on his wrist as he climbs into the bed. Light, smirking to himself, twists to the other side to turn off the lights in the suite with the control panel.
“Alright come here,” Light orders, arranging himself just so.
“That’s not fair.” L grumbles.
“I never said it was fair, I said it would work,” Light grunts. “Get down here.”
L mumbles something, maybe a cuss? It passes under his breath and slumping down the AHDH gremlin slumps on Light. Light arranges his head on his clavicle, untethered arm around his broader shoulders, and drawing up his tethered hand—
“Oh that’s not fair,” L repeats in a hiss.
“Shut up.” Light hushes, half mocking half genuinely amused, and runs his finger down the bridge of L’s nose. Once, twice, thrice…
“You will be burnt at the stake,” L murmurs, voice already softer.
“Shhh,” Light whispers.
Once, twice, thrice…
Nice and slow.
“Don’t sound so smug,” L mumbles.
Light doesn’t reply.
Once, twice, thrice…