L- Baggy Eyes and Comfy Clothes

Dec 30, 2006 00:06

Title: Baggy Eyes and Comfy Clothes
Author: Sky_Melody
Claim: L (Character)
Rating: PG, PG-13 if you squint
Notes: My version of the orphanage is from all the fanfiction I've read, so it's much different. Probably major exaggeration of the effects of caffeine. Minimal editing. Spoilers for volume seven, I believe. *Edited*


20_Notes
L

1. When he was little, he was a happy child. Smart, but happy. He never knew where his dad went, but didn’t care. His mom loved him enough for two parents, and he loved her as much as he could.

2. His mother’s cookies were the best. Once a month she would get the ingredients from the grocers. Flour (self rising), butter, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and chocolate chips were all she needed, though she told her son that she added in love as well. L went along with it, even though he didn’t see how you could add something intangible to cookie mix. Either way, they were better than the bakery’s.

3. He had a babysitter named Cassie. She was an American exchange student who needed the cash. But she didn’t plop down on the couch and watch TV like his previous babysitters. She played and joked with him, treating him like he was smart, instead of using baby talk. It was from her that he started learning English.

4. His mother died when he was five. He had come into the kitchen, and found her sprawled across the floor. He called 911 and the ambulance came to get her. They didn’t tell him, but he knew she was dead. It took three days for one of the doctors to pluck up the courage to tell him that his mother died of a heart attack.

5. A week after the announcement of his mother’s death, L was moved into the eighth grade. The principal had been against the idea, keeping him in kindergarten. However, when he was taken to the counselor, he evaded questions so thoroughly that the counselor demanded that he see a proper psychiatrist. He was found to be thinking on a ninth grade level, and reading on a tenth. Obviously the principal couldn’t keep him down.

6. He lived with a foster family for a month. They were new to the program, and didn’t know how to interact with L. His “mother” was Elena, a willowy, sugar sweet lady. His “father” was Aoi, an immigrant from Japan. L was showered with affection and given anything he wanted, everything he needed, and a flood of things that fit into neither category. Everywhere he turned, he found sweets. He ate them, but ignored the cookies.

7. After a month, L was called to the counselor’s office. His English teacher handed him a note, telling him to leave his spelling worksheet where it was. He walked to the office, where a representative was waiting. They were in the room for a half hour. When L left, the representative told the counselor to contact the boy’s foster parents. L was worthy of going to Whammy’s house.

8. The rep sent a report to Whammy’s House. In it, he said that he “found L to be a highly intelligent boy. However, he is cold and unresponsive. Therapy may be needed.”

9. When the counselor came to talk about L’s options, L was surprised that Aoi and Elena didn’t want him to leave. He didn’t have any qualms himself, except that they spent so much money on him, and he didn’t have anyway to pay them back. He didn’t know that the government paid foster parents so much a month for their services.

10. The plane ride to Whammy’s House was his first. He was amazed by the puffy white clouds, and the fact that they could fly above them. However, the experience was bittersweet. Elena had talked of heaven, and he had clung to the idea in hopes that he’d see his mother again. But there was no people walking on top of these clouds. It was illogical anyways. L lost his belief in an afterlife on the six-hour plane ride.

11. L mentally thrived in his new home. He was constantly challenged and forced to grow. The teachers set things up for competition so the orphans would push themselves to their full potential. They were always told the rankings. L was always in the lead, but since the actual scores were never announced, he never knew how much he passed the teacher’s expectations.

12. However, his emotional condition never improved. He read many, many books on the human mind, watching and observing, but never copying. He read enough that he could see what his psychologist wanted, and outsmart him. But his knowledge didn’t help him. You can’t analyze yourself without bias.

13. The teachers constantly manipulated L to be Amuro-sama’s successor. They manipulated everyone of course, but mostly L. From the whispered rumors, though he never took part, and the curriculum, he was easy to conclude the teacher’s goals. That was the origin of his baggy eyes and comfy clothes. In his mind, if he wanted to be chosen, he had to learn as much as he could. If he tried to learn as much as he could, he would have to stay awake as long as possible. If he tried to stay awake as long as possible, then he needed comfy clothes for when he dropped off. A to B to C.

14. He started drinking coffee when one of the older kids found him asleep on top of his Algebra 2 book. The older kid gave L his cup of coffee, telling him that it would help him stay awake to study more and move up. Apparently the kid didn’t know that L was the one the younger kids spoke of with awe and hate. His first caffeine buzz lasted twelve hours.

15. He started drinking it religiously after the first cup. The other kids had thought L was permanently switched on fast. After caffeine, it was clear that he had been “normal”, and only now on hyper-mode. He was alert and could stay up to study for days. However, he was only seven, and couldn’t function on caffeine forever. After two or three days, he crashed, and crashed hard. Once he was down, he slept a full day, then got up and got a cup of coffee. During the examination period, however, he pushed his schedule to five days on caffeine, and ended up in bed for a week.

16. L was not content. He pushed himself through highs and lows to learn. Although he enjoyed learning, he had no rivals, no one to push him. Only the faint promise of being the chosen one. He turned to sweets. Although he still didn’t touch cookies, he used his weekly allowance to buy glistening peppermints and lollipops, and a wide assortment of other sugar filled edibles. He soon realized that they were useful to stay awake between doses of caffeine.

17. When he was ten, he was short for his age, had no sleeping pattern except the inevitable crash, had more emotional luggage than many twenty year olds, and knew much more than most thirty year olds. A few months after his third weeklong crash, he was finally informed that he was to be Amuro-san’s successor. The teachers let the idea sink in, then started feeding him real-life problems until he was fifteen. He was then allowed to rest a week; most of it spent sleeping, before moving into an apartment to start his real career. Amuro-san had died two days before L’s fifteenth birthday, leaving a case that had a time limit on it.

18. Considering the oddness of his childhood, his life was not as odd as one would think. He covered all traces of his identity, then lived quite comfortably in his little apartment. He solved cases, drank coffee, wore his comfy clothes, spoke directly with one person, and became a legend. The orphan’s in Whammy’s House all aspired to become the next L, not Amuro-san.

19. The Kira case forced him to change. Certainly all of his habits stayed the same. But he talked with people, seeing minds outside of books and his own. He talked with people, getting to know them, making connections when he wasn’t studying the Kira case. It was during this rushed, mad time that he first tasted the fear of death, and also love.

20. The day he was buried, it was not raining, though clouds covered the sky. Four people watched as the remains were buried. Four people visited the grave the first year, three the fourth year, and one for the rest of his life.

l

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