Kira, Sweetheart Ch 5 Busted
A/N: I do not own Death Note.
***
Watari found L waiting in the hospital waiting room. The detective didn't look up from where he crouched atop a rickety folding chair, hugging his knees to his chest, and seemed to barely register his guardian's presence.
"Ryuuzaki?"
"He's still in surgery." L mumbled around his sorely abused thumb.
"How is he?"
The eccentric detective nervously rubbed his bare toes together. "The doctor says it's too soon to tell but… I know they aren't telling me everything. He lost a lot of blood. But even so Light is a healthy young man. Surely he'll recover from..." there was another slight twitch of the toes. L had heard it all through the door. Light had nearly died during surgery.
And that's when security had forced L out into the waiting room when, fearing for Light-kun's life, the eccentric genius had tried to burst in and perform the surgery himself. In retrospect he was glad they did-he obviously hadn't been thinking rationally. "I know Light. He's a fighter. He'll get through this. He has to."
"Ryuuzaki…" Watari was looking stern. Of course L knew there were other things he should be doing. He had their attempted murderer in custody. He knew he should be questioning her. But apparently Misa Amane hadn't said a word since being taken into custody. Perhaps it would be better to leave her to stew in a cell for a while. She might be more talkative then…
"Ryuuzaki…" Watari cleared his throat and tried again, calling L's alias. Watari sighed and finally resorted to just showing L his discovery. L's big black eyes seemed to somehow get even bigger and maybe sparkle a bit upon seeing what Watari had brought with him.
"My-I mean Light-kun's pies?"
L quickly lost his appetite as he realized his slip... and over the fact that the cherry filling resembled blood-perhaps that was blood, considering how Watari snapped at him that it was "Evidence."
L became preoccupied with his toes again until his caretaker cleared his throat.
"Ryuuzaki… did you really think I wouldn't be able to tell what you were doing?"
"Huh? Oh… right." L sighed. He didn't really expect he could get anything past Watari but it was worth a shot. Such concerns, even The Punishment Watari would no doubt inflict upon him, didn't seem to matter much anymore. Not with Light fighting for his life a few rooms away over what should have been a simple procedure.
The last time he saw Light-he looked deathly pale and so weak. There was something unnerving about seeing Light like that-of course L didn't believe Kira to be a God but L found he had subconsciously put his nemesis up on a pedestal. Kira was meant to be his ultimate challenge-though he was not a God he certainly seemed to have the powers, the will, of one but it was looking like Kira, Light, was human after all.
And so was L.
Light… he looked so scared after being stabbed. L might have found Kira's panic to be more amusing except he no doubt looked the same and… it was Light-kun. L hated Kira and everything he stood for but he… liked Light-kun. L was finding that brilliant, upright, prissy, disturbed young man was… very dear to him indeed.
L looked up, alarmed when his guardian put his hand on his shoulder, and L realized that Watari was talking to him.
"…But that's not really what I wanted to take to you about. Honestly, I expected you to sneak sweets. In fact, the doctor said some sweets are okay, but knowing you, this was the only way to limit your intake. No, something else has been troubling me. The way you've been toying with that young man's feelings-and don't try to say it's for the case because Wammy's House is not a brothel and that's not how I trained you to solve cases!"
L flinched. "I'm sorry."
"Unless the sweets were just an excuse?" Watari took L's silence and awkward fidgeting as confirmation. "He's your suspect."
"Yes, I'm well aware."
"I'm afraid I don't understand. Please explain your reasoning on this matter."
L flinched again. He knew that was Wammese for "What the hell were you thinking?"
L was having trouble understanding himself at the moment. Somehow Light had registered as more important to him than his sweets-that was kind of a big deal for him. After all, there were only two things in life that gave the legendary detective any pleasure-solving difficult cases and eating sweets, not necessarily in that order. L was still trying to figure out why that was. Was it because Light was Kira and the Kira case was his most important and difficult case of his career? No, L didn't think that was it because he was concerned about Light's well-being, he was… scared for Light's sake. And not just in the moment either, but still. He wanted him to pull through this. This was a novel experience for L-he was raised to see others of a similar intellect level to his own as nothing more than rivals that he needed to destroy. But for some reason Light was registering as… different. Even though he was in all likelihood Kira; Light was kind to him or at least pretended to be. (In fact he was suspiciously nice, considering L accused him of being a mass murderer every other sentence-ironically, Light would probably look more innocent in L's eyes if he got mad and lost it more often.) That meant Light really was the closest thing L had to a friend, at least as he understood it. No, not just a friend-the socially challenged detective was fairly certain they had moved past that to something… more. Something he most definitely shouldn't be feeling for his Kira suspect!
He's probably Kira. He saved my life. I… like him. Does this mean I'm compromised? What is the just thing to do?
"Watari, when I prove that Light is Kira… I shouldn't turn him over to Interpol. That would no doubt start WWIII."
"Yes, we stopped that once already-it would be unfortunate if this case undid all our efforts."
"So my only real options once I've proven Light to be Kira are to either have him killed or keep him in secret. To kill him myself would make me no different from Kira so it looks like I will be keeping him."
Watari and L began a staring contest, which of course L won when he flashed his cutest smile-it was the same smile he used when he was eight years old and was begging to keep a stray kitten he found out in the rain. Watari made sure the kitten had gone to a good home-he couldn't let L get distracted from his work. L had perfected his smile technique since then. And his arguing skills. Alas Watari could not find a flaw in his logic even if L's motives were completely selfish.
"I'm more than capable of punishing Kira for his crimes by myself," L insisted, his dark eyes silently pleading and again Watari saw eight-year-old L cradling that wet, pathetically mewling bundle of fur. "...And I'll even remember to feed him everyday! Please Mr. Wammy?"
Watari gave a long-suffering sigh. Now he would gladly have let L keep the kitten if he thought it meant he wouldn't want to keep a ruthless mass murderer… "While I can't say I particularly like your choice of company I will support you in this matter whatever you decide to do. And, as counterintuitive as it is… he might actually be good for you…" L looked genuinely surprised by his guardian's change of heart. "You haven't tried to sneak sweets since young Yagami was injured and watching the two of you work-you compliment each other very well… It's a shame really; if we found him when he was younger we could have trained him into doing something more… productive than his current hobby. He could have even been a serious contender to be your successor."
L bit back a rare chuckle at the thought. He couldn't imagine Light growing up at Wammy's house. No, with Light's straight-edge perfectionist personality-it would have destroyed him. The detective grimaced; now that he thought about Light was a lot like A...
L's troubled brooding was interrupted when his cellphone went off in his jeans pocket.
"Yes, Mr. Mogi?"
"Ryuuzaki, I've just been searching Amane's apartment like you asked and we've got something here."
"Show me."
***
The taskforce had actually found a couple of strange things.
The first was the shrine Misa Amane had erected for Light. The girl was clearly, unhealthily obsessed with him. But L didn't need to see the shrine to know that.
L stared at his laptop screen which showed him, in detail, the image of the altar-Misa's tribute to Light. Surrounded by nine still-lit candles was a grand, blown up image of Light's photograph that was framed and sat in the middle of the altar. L found it amusing how the design of the picture frame somehow managed to be very gothic even with all the cutesy hearts and kittens. Girlie, heart-shaped stickers stuck to the glass of the picture proclaiming Light to be a "darling" and a "sweetheart." The picture frame was surrounded on the altar by about a dozen red and black roses (fresh, probably placed on the altar that morning), and also shared space with a very creepy doll-the kind you'd buy from a shop in a horror movie only to have the shop disappear when you go to demand a refund when it starts hacking up your family.
Interspersed with other religious memorabilia and gothic accessories were scrapbooked and taped up newspaper clippings, following Kira's every move. It turned out Misa was quite the Kira supporter as well as a "Light worshipper." L didn't think it was a coincidence. But still it was galling for the great detective to think that this idiot girl had somehow managed to find Kira before he did. But after a thorough investigation it would appear that Light really didn't know the girl and he was merely the victim of an obsessed stalker. L had to explain to the taskforce that that didn't decrease the probability that Light was Kira.
But that wasn't the only thing the Taskforce had found in Misa's room-Mogi had found it when he flipped the mattress.
"Hey, you! Shinigami! Rem, was it? Can you tell me what exactly I am holding?" The detective asked as he held the item between his thumb and index finger-it appeared to be a simple black journal with worn, white hieroglyphics on the cover, the names of many victims of the Kira case were written inside.
The Shinigami stared at him with it's haunting yellow eyes and L stared right back. The detective noticed how the creature seemed to hesitate, as if choosing it's words carefully as it answered.
"It's a Death Note. The human whose name is written in this notebook shall die."
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