Chapter Text
Naomi Misora was an unexpectedly hard woman to find. Not that Beyond was exactly surprised, he did have fun working with her on the LABB murder case, even if a big part of that was toying with her and seeing in what new completely wrong direction he could nudge her to look into.
Even with his efforts, she had still managed to figure it all out, granted with a bit of assistance from L (the original not the copy he pretended to be) and Beyond had to admit that she was wicked smart and, he thought, someone Watari would have loved to recruit in his little genius army of orphans. Except she wasn't an orphan and had spent her entire childhood in Japan, somewhere old man Quillish didn't have much influence over in his starting years. He supposed that reduced the possibility of her neck hanging by a rope in the bell tower on Whammy's grounds by quite a lot…A always did have to stand out in some way or another, be it his intelligence, his kindness, the fragility of his mind, or….his unshakable sense of justice.
“Beyond…You know breaking and entering is a crime, right?” A's firm voice whispered in his ear, and even without looking Beyond knew his thin blond-white eyebrows would be furrowed, light blue eyes turned an icy shade, the sort of gaze that seemed as if it could cut through steel.
Beyond sighed, running a hand through his wild hair and wiping at the sweat beading on his forehead. “So is murder, A. I'm not exactly a saint, you know” he murmured, grinning as the window lock finally gave under his efforts with a quiet click.
“Well yes, but at least they asked for it themselves. You saved them from further agonizing pain B, don't try selling the “I'm a monster” act to me. You know it won't work.”
Beyond didn't answer, preoccupying himself with opening up the window and stepping onto the ledge. He risked a glance down to the far off ground and whistled at the 12 story distance.
“Thanks for the ride up, Ari.” He whispered, offering his friend a rare, true smile that lit up his entire face, crimson eyes glowing faintly in the darkness.
A huffed, crossing his arms and floating over to the ledge.
“It's not like it was that big of an effort. You're far too thin for your own good.” He nudged Beyond further into the hotel room and sat down, feet dangling in the air, looking over the glowing city. His delicate brows furrowed in thought.
“B, are you sure you'll find what you're looking for here? You've been trying to find this woman for weeks now.”
“You've heard what those nice ghosts from the FBI said, Ari. She's got herself a fiance now, and he's been called here by L to investigate something Kira related. There has to be more info on Kira around here somewhere.” Beyond explained as he looked around for a light switch.
“...And is crawling on the ground somehow helping you find it faster?” A asked, eyes glinting in amusement as he observed the dark silhouette of his friend do his best imitation of a spider crawl on the floor.
Beyond felt his face heat up slightly and scrambled to sit up, clearing his throat. “Um…force of habit?” He did use to crawl around on the ground as a way to freak out the prison guards. Entertainment was in scarce supply in that prison, he had to fix that somehow.
“Right. Sooo, you haven't answered till now. Any particular reason why you're so interested in Kira? Are you afraid he'll kill you? Or are you just bored?”
Beyond snorted, rising to his feet. “Neither. I'm not afraid to die, Ari. I've got you to tell me all ‘bout that experience. And I'm bored, yes, but not that bored. It's…well, you remember that bigshot serial killer? The one who loved to rape his victims, dismember them and then send a part of their body to their relatives?”
A's eyes turned stormy as he recalled the ugly mug of that revolting man. He clenched his fists, promising himself to find that man in his next visit back to Mu and beat the shit out of him. “Yeah, I remember. He was in the cell right across yours.”
Beyond hummed, grinning back at A. “Yup, that's the one. He died of a Kira heart attack with years left to his lifespan. I want to know how that's possible. I want to know…if it has anything to do with my abilities.” He admitted in a quiet whisper, fingers grasping at the solid arm of his friend, remembering all the times he'd witnessed others passing right through him, A's form dissipating as if made of smoke.
“Beyond…”
“Anyway, let's see what we find” Beyond pushed a cheerful voice out of his throat and sauntered over to the opposite wall, flicking on the lights.
“What the…What happened?” A asked, shock clear in his voice as he stared at the absolute mess that was Naomi's hotel room. There were papers strewn everywhere, on the bed, the floor, some even taped to the wall, seemingly without any particular logic or order. The writing was messy and all over the place, in multiple colours as if Naomi (Beyond could recognize her writing anywhere) had used whatever pen marker or pencil she had available at the time without caring about aspect or consistency. It was so unlike her, rushed, spelling out a sense of panic as clear as day and Beyond was already across the room and ripping at the papers taped to the wall before A could even process it all.
He read through several nonsensical ramblings that would only be made clear with context before he finally found it. The source of all the panic and desperation. “Her finance's missing. She thinks he was taken by Kira.” Beyond murmured and ignored A's surprised exclamation of “What?” as he grabbed the framed photo left on the nightstand- that Beyond suspected Naomi always brought with her since she took it all the way over to Japan for the trip- and stared at the man happily holding Naomi by the waist and kissing her cheek with an empty beach in the background.
“Is he alive?” A asked tentatively as Beyond's fierce expression softened somewhat, the lines around his blood red eyes easing.
“Yes. For now.”
“For now?? What do you mean?”
“His lifespan keeps flickering. I figure that means it depends on outside forces, if he survives or not.” Beyond answered, putting the frame down and going over to a spot he'd noted earlier while crawling on the floor.
“Beyond what in the world–” A started, words dying in his throat as Beyond pulled out a loose floorboard to reveal official looking case files, the FBI stamp all over them.
“Bingo! Naomi was wondering where Raye Penber had hidden all the official documents for his case. She missed this spot though.”
“Do you think Kira has truly taken him? He doesn't seem the kidnapping type.” A remarked as they both settled cross-legged on the floor. “Also, there's no way she won't notice someone was here. You weren't exactly subtle.” he gestured to the ripped papers Beyond had thrown on the bed, the loose floorboard and the picture frame which was now in a completely different place.
Beyond wiggled his triple layered gloved fingers at A. “Oh I know she will. I just don't care. She'll probably blame it all on Kira, she has no reason to suspect it was me. And even if she did, she can't do anything about it. It's not like I'm planning to return here. And I don't know if Kira took him or not, but these files were exactly what I was looking for anyway.”
A hummed and watched as Beyond methodically scanned through all the files, tilting his head at the way he suddenly froze, staring wide-eyed at a photo.
“Beyond? What is it, what happened?” He asked, worriedly poking at his arm.
“He doesn't have a lifespan.” Beyond finally answered, back still rigid and gaze not moving from the photo of what A could see was a young, handsome man, probably not even 20 yet, with amber eyes and honey colored hair. He frowned.
“You mean he's dead?”
“No, when someone is dead and I look at their picture, I just see their name and a big 0 over their head. But he doesn't have a lifespan at all.”
Beyond suddenly moved, shoving the picture in A's face, grinning maniacally. “I think I've finally found Kira, Ari! And his name is Tsuki Yagami.”
****
Shinigamis, technically, didn't have to sleep but Ryuk found it was actually a pretty decent way to pass the time. Tsuki napped occasionally and Light needed to sleep every single night for some reason, so he'd just fallen into habit.
Ryuk quite enjoyed dreaming and was very invested in a dream where he had uncovered the largest, most juiciest apple in the entire universe, when he was woken up by Tsuki sharply shaking his shoulder.
“Whaa?”
“Wake up!” Tsuki hissed, “We need to leave. NOW!”
Ryuk opened his bulbous eyes, curious at what had gotten Tsuki so worked up. And what were those moany noises?
“Why's Light moaning like that?” Ryuk scratched his head.
“I am not discussing that right now, Ryuk, come on. Out!”
Tsuki frogmarched out of the room, his face burning. The unfortunate thing of always being with Light was that, sadly, he was party to Light's embarrassing moments and ‘needs’. He'd thought they'd gotten past this phase but apparently not. He knew what a dirty dream sounded like (even though, being dead, he'd not experienced one) and even if he didn't the low moans of ‘L’ made it pretty obvious who Light was dreaming about.
“Is Light having a stroke?” Ryuk piped up beside him as they headed downstairs.
Tsuki turned his head and stared at the Shinigami for a few seconds before closing his eyes, “Yes, Ryuk, yes he is”
Ryuk blinked, wings flicking in confusion. “Shouldn't we try to help him then?” He was promptly cuffed over the head by a horrified Tsuki, pure terror in his amber eyes.
“NO. ABSOLUTELY NOT!”
Ryuk tilted his head. Human emotions were complex things, he'd already learnt that, but Tsuki and Light loved one another. It didn't make sense that Tsuki wouldn't want to help his brother when he was unwell? But, Light's numbers had been just fine so maybe he wasn't unwell at all!
“Aaahhh I get it! You're angry because Light is faking being sick” Ryuk nodded.
Tsuki let out a long sigh. If this was the way Light was going to be until he got with L then he supposed he was just going to have to get used to spending his nights downstairs.
Light, meanwhile, was now awake and utterly mortified. His sheets were a mess, his breath was still shakey and he couldn't get that very explicit dream out of his head at all. It was going to be awkward enough facing his brother and Ryuk (both who had tellingly left his bedroom) but facing L? Looking him in the eyes after that dream?
Light sunk back onto his pillows, irritated at himself. He'd have to change his sheets now as well. He thought he was past this embarrassing (but entirely natural, his brain piped up) phase but apparently not. Now he had seen L, he wanted him desperately.
So desperately his brain, which apparently was home to a plethora of subconscious kinks, had decided to torment him in his sleep.
How was he supposed to face L tomorrow when images of him bent over his desk, back arched and hole stretched open on his cock were plastered all over his brain in vivid, highlighted colours?
Trying to ignore the shame burning in his cheeks, Light got up with a grimace at the sticky mess in his pants and started stripping the sheets off the bed, bundling them up and shoving them in the dirty laundry basket to be washed in the morning. Because he just couldn't bother with them now.
He put on new sheets and new pants as his mind tried to come up with scenarios of what could have happened to Raye Penber, ignoring all the downright filthy fantasies trying to sneak in every few minutes.
Needless to say, he wasn't very successful. Irritated with himself, Light eyed the clock on the wall. He only had one hour left to sleep before he had to wake up and since experiencing another wet dream wasn't a risk Light wanted to take, he had no choice but to stay awake.
He glanced at his laptop, resting innocently on his desk. He still had a few cases pending so he was going to use the hour he had left productively.
Light smirked. Perhaps he could even leave L a nice little surprise…