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L had never spent much time around omegas. Even if they had been more commonplace in his line of work, his reclusive- borderline agoraphobic- behavior sufficiently smothered any opportunity to spend real time in their company.
This never bothered him. As far as the fairer gender went, it's not as if he considered himself wholly uninterested. He was still a human and an alpha male. Just one of... supreme restraint. Or, perhaps, very specific tastes?
It was only that there always seemed to be so many more interesting things occupying his thoughts. Things like triple homicides and trying new cheesecake flavors. Something that's becoming increasingly difficult as time goes on- only so many flavors of cheesecake in the world.
That said, ever since a certain narcissistic, manipulative, serial killing omega officially joined the task force under the guise of helping the investigation its felt like a constant itch he couldn't scratch. An itch he couldn't even locate and thus had zero hope of soothing. The most frustrating, intolerable, entirely unacceptable itch because to him it made little sense and anything that didn't make sense to the worlds greatest detective (technically the world's three greatest detectives) was something that needed to be thoroughly dissected until every individual facet could be cataloged with mathematical precision.
Unfortunately, the thought of Yagami Light on a dissection table was an increasingly distressing image.
He'd been around other omegas on cases and in public before and never had an issue. Granted, never for this much time per day and never over such an extensive period- If you could call one week with Light on the task force an 'extensive' period. It's just that whenever he'd imagined being in close proximity with an omega as admittedly gorgeous as Yagami Light it went only one of two ways. One, he would feel absolutely nothing as he normally does. Or, two, he would feel arousal and he would crush it between thumb and finger like he'd learned to do at Wammys with all his other unhelpful emotions.
He did not expect a secret third option.
Because ever since the that golden-eyed, golden-haired, golden-skinned psychopath started hanging around his nerves were frayed in twenty different directions. L found himself posturing, watching the omega out of the corner of his eye, he'd even had to hide a growl behind a red velvet cupcake the other day when Matsuda leaned in close and picked some lint off Lights sweater.
L tried to mentally take inventory of all the omegas he'd ever been in contact with before. There was Near, of course. The alpha pulled on a lock of ebony hair and rubbed the bottom of one foot rhythmically across the top of theother, thinking of his white haired protege fondly. Near was more like a little brother to him...so did he count? L didn't think so.
Then there was that omega who assisted in the LA BB case… she'd said he smelled like sour wine and that his pheromones were quote "oppressive" once when she'd forgotten she was wearing a wire. The poor girl had came back to their modest hotel room HQ mortified and stumbling over several unnecessary apologies. He hadn't been remotely offended at the thought of that omega finding his scent unattractive, but catching the gaze of the boy next to him made him wonder if Light felt the same way. The thought made his shoulders sink forward further than was comfortable even for him before he caught himself and straightened up- effectively making himself look more unnatural than ever. Since when did he sit up straight?
L took a subtle deep breath and fought the need to pinch at the bridge of his nose.
It was getting to the point where he was almost certain the other investigators were catching on to his... issue. Lights father in particular seemed very perturbed and was continuously shooting suspicious glares in L's direction. Curse alpha's intuition. Especially when it came to their omega children. L wondered if Cheif Yagami would feel the same way if he knew his son was a megalomaniacal serial killer. Admittedly, the instincts of parents had always been something that flew over his head but he could tell that Soichiro Yagami was feeling protective of his son. Is that what was happening to him? Light-kun was younger and he was perhaps the only person he'd met who could match him in wit and deductive capability so it would make sense for him to want to nurture that... right? In the (very unlikely) event that Light was not Kira, he would have made a decent candidate for L's successor. Yes, that did make sense when the detective thought it through.
In the theater of L's mind, a tiny version of himself was standing far in the distance and screaming profanity over a candy-cane mountain top. He tried not to let that bother him.
When Light saunters in that Monday morning with his hair perfectly combed and his prissy shirt tucked into his immaculate leather belt L has to make a fist in the plush black pleather of his rolling chair. If the cheap stitching tears a little he pays it no mind. Watari can do anything. Reupholstering included.
The smell. He could hardly describe it. Or, more accurately, he shouldn't be able to describe it. There was candy, of course. Pure melted sugar on the stove- bubbling, caramelizing, crystalline along the edges but molten in the middle. Then something rounder, something baking and almost almost almost ready to come out of the oven. Something he wanted to burn his tongue on. Then, inexplicably, even further beneath that was something that shouldn't have belonged at all. Something that had no business in a room made from steel and concrete halfway across the world from his home.
Light smelled like wild blueberries. The ones that used to grow in England outside of the orphanage. The little ones he would sneak outside for in the middle of the night to pluck from the branch and nibble on. He used to take them inside in handfuls and sprinkle fistfuls of sugar over them at the tea table. He'd take them upstairs and eat them in bed and get in trouble for staining his sheets sticky-purple in the morning. Quillish made him brush his teeth twice for the trouble but fortunately his toothpaste had been bubblegum flavor.
Yagami Light had no right to smell like home. He was a killer and liar and L had just placed an online order for a half dozen individual blueberry mousse cakes to be delivered within the hour. He thought for a moment and ordered some fresh organic blueberries as well. Do omegas tend to have a preference for the things their scents mimicked? He would test this hypothesis.
Light was coming to sit next to him. L could feel his bare toes twitch against the seat of his chair.
"How did you sleep Ryuzaki?" Light asked. L attempted to hum noncommittally in response. Light couldn't possibly know the answer was 'not at all, actually. I was up thinking about that spot on the back of your neck between where your hair ends and your shirt collar starts.'
He frantically opened a random windows tab and looked at it like he was connecting something imperative. It was the fucking blueberry cake order receipt, because of course it was.
*
"How did you sleep Ryuzaki?" Light asked, all the while knowing the answer was almost certainly that he hadn't at all. The words Light chose were innocuous enough but the small burst of pheromones he pumped out as he sat himself down at his desk chair was anything but. Light was testing a theory today.
See, in his time since joining the task force, he'd noticed something. L is awkward around him. Impossibly more awkward than he is normally. And Light is sure he knows why. It's pretty damn obvious- and it's not because L knows he's Kira. It's because he's an omega.
L didn't strike him as a sexist. He didn't think L was uncomfortable working with him because he was against omegas in the police force- somehow that just didn't fit him. L was caustic and sarcastic on a good day and frigid on a bad one but he wasn't that kind of asshole. At least, Light didn't think so.
No worries, he thought to himself, turning his head ever so slightly to the left so the alpha sitting next to him couldn't catch sight of his upturned mouth. If everything goes accordingly he would have an answer to this particular mystery by the end of the week and if he happens to discover any particular weaknesses of L's he could exploit along the way then all the better. Omegas had to look out for these things and Light was not above using his designation to his advantage when it was, on almost all occasions except for dealing with alphas he wanted to bend to his will, a complete nuisance.
"Does Light-kun like blueberries?" L asked him, snapping Light out of his trance in exactly the same moment that Watari decided to appear like a slavish Victorian spector with a silver bowl of said berries in hand.
Light simply could not contain the small yelp that escaped him. Ridiculous. He brought a sweatshirt covered hand to his mouth and cursed the old man for being so cat-like.
Choking down an irritated sigh he forced a smile and gritted out "As much as the next guy, Ryuzaki. Maybe focus on finding Kira instead of satisfying your sweet tooth for once, okay?" Light felt no small amount of satisfaction when L's curious expression twisted strangely and his wide owl-like eyes dulled momentarily.
He certainly did find that reaction intriguing. One would think it more typical to simply assault an Alpha with flirtation and pheromones to see if they're interested and compatible but Light had decided to go in the other direction. How would L react if he rejected him? Light was certain that L could conceal his desires. He was an expert at that. However, disappointment always rang so true in his expression that it was almost impossible to miss.
Having said that, Light did eat the stupid blueberries. And if he sprinkled a little sugar on them when no one was looking, what did that matter? If he rubbed his fingertip against his scent gland and then discreetly smeared the oil across the lip of L's soda can while the man took a rare bathroom break, who could possibly tell him no? He was God, after all.
*
The task force had noticed something. Touta Matsuda specifically. L was acting very strange.
He'd made it blatantly clear that he suspected Light-kun of being Kira even before the boy had been brought on to the task force, but it seems L's suspicions were only rising with the days. He spent an inordinate amount of time just staring at him, always snapping his gaze away right before the younger man caught him. The detective always twitched away and then immediately closer when Light leaned into his space to share whatever hypothetical about Kira had struck him. It's Almost as if he had to convince him self not to be afraid! Of Light-kun! It was all so silly Matsuda had to wonder if L was as smart as he claims to be. After all, there was no way such a sweet and pretty omega was capable of being Kira. What kind of idiot could miss something so obvious?
It was clear to Matsuda that L was not looking at any documents even remotely related to the case most of the time! He was just finding new ways to torment from the poor omega. He'd even had the strange fortune to witness what must have been some convoluted test to determine Light's innocence via...flavor?
L placed two- frankly outrageously ornate- slices of cake in front of the omega and sat back with his bone white hands clasped over his knees in anticipation.
"L."
"Yes, Light-kun."
"What is this?" The omega said with that particular twitch in his left eyebrow. Oh no, Matsuda thought. Light-kun only twitched his left eyebrow when something was seriously pissing him off. Like when his sister called during the work day to pester him, or when L was... being L.
"Cake. I have speculations about correlation between flavor preference and tendency for homicidal urges. Correlation doesn't inherently mean causation, of course, but this information could still prove relevant." The world's best detective said all this with the monotone gravity of a doctor telling a patient about a cancer diagnosis. Could a preference for chocolate ganache over blueberry tart really provide relevant insight?
Such a strange man to be so afraid of such a kind and pretty omega, Matsuda thought and turned back to his computer. Those two were a mystery to him.
Across the room, Yagami Light was sucking blueberry-lemon frosting off his index finger with the calculated innocence of an angel playing God.
Unbeknownst to all, the amber eyed omega shared a mirthful gaze with his cackling shinigami as the gangly creature danged from the ceiling.
“Hehehe, everything going to plan like always, huh, Light-o!” Ryuk swug from the rafters, ‘accidentally’ wafting a large cloud of dust towards Aizawas desk and sending the man into a sneezing fit.
“I just wish you smelled like apples at this point.” The god of death complained.
"I'm sure you do." Light mumbled around a mouthful of cake and blueberry compote, letting a soft moan ring out as he did and looking directly into saucer-wide black eyes.
A tower of Hello Panda cookie snacks toppled and spilled over the detectives lap over which he had his hands conspicuously clasped.
"You're s-sure I what, Light-kun?"
Oh yeah, Kira was going to have lots of fun with this one.