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lawlight-week · 8 years ago

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Lawlight Week Exchange

Title: Cavalier Youth

Name of Creator: @ruindunburnit

Created For: @abillionsecrets-literally

Prompt: L and Light try to make each other jealous by dating other people.

Characters: Light Yagami, L Lawliet

Rating: Teen and up

Warning: references to (in-story) stalking and psychological torture prior, incomplete fic - to be completed/hosted at @ruindunburnit

No. of Words: 5,851

Part 1:

The case had hit a dead end.

The Kira known as Kyosuke Higuchi had been dead for over two days. His notebook had been in their possession for exactly that long. With nothing else to do, the task force was still filling out paperwork at midday when Soichiro Yagami clasped his son’s shoulder. “I know we’re not quite done here,” he said, “but have you thought about going back to To-Oh University?”

L had been working through the glass dessert bowl of gummi bears set in front of him. Footage from Higuchi’s momentary arrest played on mute on his computer. Reviewing the tapes was his newest obsession, but he turned at the sound of the chief’s voice. Light rubbed his left wrist reflexively. “What do you mean, ‘not quite done’?” he asked, gesturing to the paperwork over on the coffee table. “We’re far from done. Kira’s still out there. All we have is his notebook and his mess to clean up.”

“The notebook is almost irrelevant unless it lives up to its reputation,” L drawled.

Matsuda and Aizawa looked up from the sofas. “Come on, Ryuuzaki,” Matsuda groaned, “not this again!”

“I agree,” Aizawa said. “There’s no point to debating this crap again. If we don’t test it, we never find out if it’s the murder weapon, we’re not doing our jobs as investigators and the notebook is just a notebook. If we test it as Ryuuzaki suggests and a criminal dies, we’re no better than Kira, and if no one dies, then Kira gets the best of us. We stand to lose either way, so unless someone finds a loophole to work out if Schrodinger’s Notebook is the murder weapon, let’s drop it and get back to work.”

Both L and the chief glared at him, and yet Aizawa stood his ground. Surviving the arrest and re-joining the task force had made him brazen. Seeing a shinigami may have made him at least a little bit mad. It did, however, save them about ten minutes of an argument they’d already had.

“As I was saying,” Soichiro said to Light, “as long as you have your freedom and we don’t have a solution concerning the notebook, there’s nothing wrong with you re-enrolling and helping out at headquarters part time. Watari and Ryuuzaki both agree there’s no risk to the investigation if you do.”

“Well, as long as Ryuuzaki thinks so,” Light said. Of course, the detective wouldn’t allow a risk no matter where he was, but it didn’t stop the bristle of irritation he felt that his father brought it up. Ever since he’d regained his memories during the arrest, it had taken a little time for his mind to recover and reintegrate. As much as he knew he was Kira now, even gloated inwardly at the brilliance of his gambit, months of constant prodding and taunting had given him a bit of a complex for proving his innocence. He still saw doubts in all their eyes and he couldn’t blame them; he was only under suspicion to begin with because L knew Kira was utilizing a leak to the NPA’s investigation. As much as he knew his father would expect him to be defensive since he’d seen the constant accusations first hand, he didn’t like how it made him feel – like a child rebuked.

“No one will doubt your innocence if you take up your studies again,” L chimed in. “You’ll need a degree if you intend to be a detective for the NPA.”

At least I only missed one semester,” Light said. He could only guess at what they’d said to excuse his absence.

“You could stay at headquarters,” his father pressed, “if it helps you balance your school work and the case.”

Light nodded and looked over to L. He was back to watching the arrest footage, the screen displaying the cockpit of the helicopter. Only Light’s face remained unblurred in the film. “Sure,” Light said, “but only if Ryuuzaki can spare an afternoon for another tennis match. Right?”

“Mm.” The detective wasn’t paying attention, apparently.

“Another tennis match?”

“Yeah, Dad. It was just a friendly game on campus in April and—” he paused, remembering what had also happened that day.

“Yagami-san was very stressed,” L said. “I did mention it to him, but then, he was on strict bedrest before the–”

“You said yourself,” Light said. The last thing he needed was to be reminded of his responsibility for his father’s health. “College can be fun when no one’s trying to kill you. What would you say?”

“Work comes first,” he said, “but I’ll see what I can do. We can’t all afford to take reduced hours on full time pay.”

“Funny, I wasn’t aware you were paying me anything.”

“That’s not true. We set aside a sum under your life insurance. Of course, that money is for your family, but it covers every eventuality.”

For a moment, Light blanched. “You’re lying.”

“I wouldn’t lie about something like that,” L said around another mouthful of gummi bears. “If you want, Watari can show you – it’s under the folder marked ‘Compensation’.”

“Or,” Soichiro said, shuffling the documents in his hands, “if you want, you could move in with Miss Amane. You’re eighteen years old, and your mother and sister believe we had a disagreement about your relationship with her, so it wouldn’t be unexpected. I… spared the details.”

Light looked to L, to the expression on his face. It was entirely too interested. “I couldn’t do that,” Light said. “I know I’ve said it before, but I was only pretending to go along with Misa’s delusion for the sake of Ryuuzaki’s investigation. Her feelings towards me are completely one-sided, but he suggested I get close to her anyway. Now that the suspicions have been dropped, there’s no point to continuing that charade. It would be cruel.”

“Ouch, Light,” Matsuda said. “I’m glad she’s not around to hear that.”

“Matsuda’s right,” L said, with a tone of ‘for once’, “that’s a little cold.” The others were too busy looking at Light to notice the smirk on the detective’s face.

“Those were your orders,” Light said. From the corner of his eye, he spotted the shinigami Rem floating in through an inner wall. Although everyone in the room could see her, acknowledging it didn’t exactly make them feel at ease with the situation. “Continuing any sort of relationship with her would be wrong because, to be honest, she’s a stalker.”

Within moments, the mood of the room had shifted. “What?” Matsuda stood up from the sofa. “Misa-Misa wouldn’t do that.”

Aizawa rolled his eyes. “So a pretty girl throws herself at you. That doesn’t make her a stalker.”

L considered it. “That’s why she claimed to fall in love with you the day she saw you in Aoyama. Stalkers develop intense feelings for their victims extremely fast. If that’s the case, why didn’t you call the police?”

Light exhaled. “When we first met, it was because she followed me home. I thought she was just a lost Goth Lolita until she threatened my life on the porch step, so I invited her in and told my mother and sister that she was my girlfriend. I didn’t want them to worry or feel unsafe, and Misa seemed appeased when I played along.” He paused, taking in the concern on his father’s face, wondering just for a moment if he was actually concerned or doubtful. “I thought if I kept up the act until she left again, I could phone the police later and, if necessary, keep calling whenever she came back. I didn’t know until she was in my room that she knew who my father was, or that she had anything to do with those occult tapes, and by then she was insisting on making me her boyfriend, demanding constant contact, threatening to kill any girl she saw me with…” he shuddered, appropriately. “Naturally, I feared she might be the type to turn on my sister, so I complied and got her to go home again. I thought I could wait until the morning to file for a restraining order…”

L picked a few gummi bears out of the bowl. “Which was when you found out she was an up-and-coming idol, correct?”

“Right. And whether she was physically capable of committing murder, I realised she didn’t have to. Idols like her aren’t allowed to publically have boyfriends, and if I upset her, all she would have to do is hold a conference, tell a few lies about a boyfriend and drop his distinctive name to the press. It wouldn’t matter to a girl like her if it ruined her career, because if I survived the media storm, the NPA would find it in a background check. I’d be lucky if I got away with moving to Sapporo, changing my name and joining a tech company.”

“That’s specific,” Aizawa muttered.

“So,” Light said. “I asked my mother and sister to keep her a secret from Dad, even though her involvement in the tapes could have been a lead to the real Kira. She knew I was interested in the Kira case, and if it was a lie, the last thing I wanted to do was mislead you. I would have broken it up with her, probably received a few odd parcels in the mail and requested a restraining order, but she had to find me at school and mislead the whole case as a result.” He focused his gaze just above L’s right ear, where he watched as Rem fixed him with her yellow eye, listening almost unseen.

“Light,” his father said. “Why didn’t you say anything about this before? We could have taken measures, moved house.”

“And disrupt everything for Mom and Sayu? Besides, it would have only sounded like a convenient excuse to Ryuuzaki. He doesn’t need to investigate his way out of a paper bag – he’d assign blame until it ripped itself.”

“But Light, I thought I taught you what to do in situations like these. I thought I told you to tell me if a stranger followed you home.”

Light sighed, meeting his father’s eyes. “You were already falling ill over the case. You were already stressed because of all of L’s suspects, I alone fit both Kira’s profile and his movements. If I was Ryuuzaki, and I knew my prime suspect had been spontaneously contacted by a dangerous individual who fit the Second Kira’s profile, I wouldn’t have waited on a cover story or for my prime suspect to confess; I would have brought them in for questioning immediately.”

When he looked back at the detective, he was stuffing a dainty handful of gummi bears in his mouth. He stared at him chewing. “I agree,” L finally said. “Light-kun’s involvement with Miss Amane was the piece that was always the most suspicious. If Light-kun were Kira,” if L noticed the way Soichiro stiffened, he ignored it completely, “and he decided to find an assistant, he would have also known he was being followed from class to class. He would also know that, thanks to the sheer number of young women he was seen with, his signature ‘type’ had been noted and the least suspicious option would be to choose a woman who fit the type. Maybe what they say is true about the rules of attraction being unfathomable, and maybe it’s not unusual for an attractive man like Light-kun to simply date an attractive woman like Miss Amane, but…”

“But what, Ryuuzaki?” Light asked. He picked a couple of gummi bears from the bowl; not to eat, just to let them sit in his closed hand.

“But, Light-kun,” he pushed the bowl slightly closer to himself, “there wasn’t any chemistry, was there?”

“Absolutely none.”

“If Light-kun were Kira, he would never allow himself to be saddled with such a dangerous woman, not unless the pros of keeping her around outweighed the cons and, if you don’t mind me asking, you weren’t interested in intercourse with her, were you?”

“Not even given the circumstances,” Light said. “She would be much happier with someone else.”

“As I thought,” L said. “I’m glad you could be honest with me.”

Light set the gummi bears back on the desk and wiped his hand on a tissue from a box by his computer. L’s sweet tooth had its risks, which tended to triple when handcuffs were involved. “Thank you,” he said, “but tell me – if I was still under suspicion of being Kira, would confessing this have confirmed your suspicions, or contradicted them?”

The glass bowl was still half full, but L smiled and picked up the discarded candy. Light hid his revulsion under his current expression – concerned conviction – as L proceeded to eat them. Light’s face felt warmer at the sight, waiting. “I might have reconsidered allowing her association with you to continue,” the detective said. “But it would have been a pity to lose such a lifeline.”

So it didn’t matter after all.

“If that’s how you feel,” his father said, “then you shouldn’t continue to let her think she’s dating you. You should break up with her soon, as quickly – and gently – as possible.”

“I don’t think that’s an option,” L said. “Anything too subtle and she could convince herself it never happened.” He swivelled the chair round to find Watari wheeling in a large white cake with a pile of marzipan strawberries arranged on top. He just caught the panicked expression beginning to cloud the shinigami’s eye, willing her not to act. “If I were Light-kun, I would rip the plaster off immediately.”

“That’ll work!” Aizawa scoffed, “‘I’m breaking up with you, Misa. I just need some space from you – a hundred square feet of it, to be exact, and if I never see your face again, it couldn’t be too soon.’” He huffed again. “The Chief would fit what’s left of him in a matchbox.”

Matsuda sighed. He’d looked so uncomfortable hearing all this talk about Misa, but he knew where his loyalties lay. “Sorry, Light. At least you’ll save money. Or, you won’t, you’ll be dead, but that won’t be so bad.”

“Don’t be an idiot,” Aizawa said. “This isn’t what he had in mind when he said he was willing to give his life for the case. It isn’t noble – it’s pathetic.”

“Both of you,” his father admonished, “think about what you’re saying.”

“I’m just saying,” Matsuda said, “there’s no Misa-Misa in the afterlife, right?”

Light sighed. He already knew what was in ‘the afterlife’, and by the look on Rem’s face, he was going to have it confirmed sooner than he had in mind.

Part 2:

Light had been too distracted by the gaps in his memories, by the question of why L would suspect him so strongly without evidence nor knowledge of committing murder, to notice it before. It had taken until that morning of the 31st, watching from the corner of his eye as the crouching detective replayed the footage from the helicopter cockpit, as he requested for the seventh time in two days permission to prove that the killer notebook did exactly as its rule-page suggested, for Light to realise that the way he felt towards him was a little more strong than ‘admiration’.

He told himself it only took so long because his mind was healing, in its own way. It would often throw out thoughts that would make sense once and then never again, and that was just the process. Having traumatic memories ripped from your brain and replaced months later alongside new traumas could do that to you. Which was why his brain had decided to reframe their months handcuffed to one another in such an absurd light.

Well, we were sleeping in the same bed – still sleeping in the same bed actually. We showered together sometimes, ate together always, fought each other. Accidents happened. It’s not like a conclusion like that was completely impossible.

He tried blaming his hormones at first. He was eighteen – still an adolescent. Superior intellect didn’t make things less intense, didn’t make the thoughts flitting through his head at the sight of the detective less confusing, but then it didn’t ebb once he sat down with a clear head to think it through. Even when he told himself that it was just the psychological effect of L’s brand of investigation that made him think of the detective as ‘desirable’ and himself as dependent on it (just that and his curiosity hanging onto the memory of stolen looks in the shower, accidental touches in bed, wondering with a quickened breath how it would feel to have him so close and have him wanting to be so close in turn) it didn’t change the fact that the detective was the closest thing to compatible he’d ever known in a human being.

In other words, he tried telling himself, it was just the relief of finding someone who could properly challenge him. It was an almost classical dilemma. He imagined numerous superheroes and villains had felt that for each other at one point or another. “It’s for more than the fight between good and evil that Professor X and Magneto stay in touch!” He’d laughed it off when Yamamoto exclaimed it back in high school – if Magneto got all hot and bothered for Professor X, he’d have the sense to take it in hand at the end of the day and not let it get in the way of his work – but that was before he experienced it first-hand.

It wouldn’t matter in the end, he knew, not for much longer. It would fade once the challenge was over and Kira won. His perfect victory was so close he could almost taste the soil they’d be throwing on L’s coffin.

That thought had made him shiver visibly. His father had asked him what was wrong, to which he had simply said that he was a little cold. He continued to work, as though he’d forgotten for the moment that if he wanted to go up to the bedroom and find a sweater, there was nothing to stop him. As though he didn’t actually have a hard time remembering that he was no longer limited by a six foot long chain with a human pivot on one end. This was not the moment to let him out of his sight.

It was worse than he thought. It was one thing to find someone – and a deadly opposition to all his plans at that – who was both compatible on a personal level and attractive in a way he’d never felt for anyone else. It was one thing to want someone so badly he’d found himself about to Gentle search ‘Stockholm syndrome’ before he remembered who would be looking through the browser histories, and on more than five occasions. It was quite another to react so strongly to the thought of that same deadly rival no longer being alive.

He thought he knew the risks going in. He was willing to sacrifice his soul, his sanity, even his family if there was no other option, and although he proceeded with his mission holding onto to all of those pieces so close-fisted, he accepted that accomplishing noble goals came with accepting a certain degree of self-sacrifice. He was ready to give up everything if it meant a better world for everyone else.

So it wasn’t exactly welcome news when he realised where exactly he was willing to draw the line. His conscience? His family? Yes, if it came down to the wire. Any hypothetical threat to his ability to act as Kira is a threat to the good of the world and the many come before the few. The obsessed investigator/warden who just wouldn’t get off his back no matter how little evidence he had? The actual, quantifiable threat to his ability to act as Kira? And give up the chance to fuck the world’s three greatest detectives all at once? No, that would be too much! He would lose his mind first.

He probably had. To think, after all he’d done, after everything he’d sacrificed already, he was still exactly as cowardly as he used to fear he was. That had to be why his priorities were so irrevocably screwed.

Light watched as L’s screen displayed the Kira known as Kyosuke Higuchi’s last moments. He saw the man seize up in the officers’ arms and drop, again, again, again. Light knew, ever since he held the notebook in his hands, his memories fully restored, ever since he caused the Straw Man Kira to drop that he could have turned his back on his duties as the First Kira. If he’d allowed L to take the notebook from him, allowed himself to lose his memories again without writing a single name, he could have stepped out of his responsibility as God in a flash. If he’d just done that and let L’s investigation peter out, he could have eventually returned to his normal life. He could have simply joined the NPA with an impressive ‘worked on the task force against Kira’ note on his resume and the Great Detective L’s representative acting as his reference, risen through the ranks. Knowing his own fate – and he’d learned a thing or two about fate in the last year – he would be back to working with L on another great case. (Maybe as the very head honcho of the NPA, he thought).

And there would be another great case, he countered; whenever Kira paused in his judgements, the crime rate only hesitated a moment before rising right back up again. He initially thought his judgements would only make potential criminals think twice before committing crimes, but in reality it didn’t make them think hard enough and it definitely didn’t eliminate crimes of passion. The crime rate would always lower by 70% while Kira was active, but that margin didn’t completely cover the spontaneous. The criminals that continued in Kira’s world were altogether worse than the ones he’d already judged; their lives meant nothing to them and they simply had nothing left to lose. He used to think it was the failings of the criminal justice system that rendered the threat of state-administered execution useless.

In reality, that was only a portion of the truth; capital punishment was never an effective threat to begin with. Now that Higuchi was gone and Misa still lacked her powers and memories, Light was currently the only Kira left – or would be, once he could get himself access to a notebook. Even if he could, the only thing that kept him in this holy justice business was knowing that, without Kira, the crime rate would be higher. Not ‘present’ – ‘higher’. If he stopped, everything he’d done as Kira would be pointless. If he stopped, every person he’d disposed of for the crime of posing a threat to his spotless record would have been killed for nothing. Since the actions of every dead or dormant Kira stemmed from him, that put the deaths of innocent police officers and detectives, scandalous celebrities, numerous businessmen at Light’s feet alone.

If he stopped what he was doing now, his dream of a crime-free tomorrow would not only have been inefficiently executed, it would remain incomplete and completely useless. Since he didn’t stop to take the easy way out while he could still lose his memories, he would know it for the rest of his life. It wasn’t a fate he was looking forward to.

–

He picked up the thread of this thought later. When he retired to the break room to eat a timely dinner alone at a table laden at one end with slices of Victoria sponge cake slices on bone-white china plates, the question rested on what he was going to do about it all.

It wasn’t all bad news. For the first time in almost a full year, he wasn’t under any formal investigation. He was still at the task force headquarters, this time under his volition, where he could keep an eye on the threats of L’s investigation. Now that the task force had possession of Kira’s ‘killing power’, the investigation had just hit a significant standstill caused by their own lack of conviction to ‘do what it takes’ to capture Kira. Taking into account that they’d lost the one person they had in connection to the original Kira, and this original Kira was apparently taking a break to let the heat die down, the standstill would remain as long as they remained paralysed by the thought of testing the notebook.

Just as Light expected, this was already driving L to boredom, and the detective had exactly two ways of dealing with boredom. If he couldn’t sate it quickly enough, he hit the ground and stayed there. If he didn’t hit the ground, he found his own fun and refused to let go. It was the detective’s worst quality, the one that could halt dangerous investigations or drive them in their own circles.

In other words, re-establishing regular judgements wasn’t at the top of Light’s to-do list. Now that it was no longer part of the plan to dispose of L either, Misa no longer had a use to him. Without her eyes, without even a notebook, she was just a walking reminder of how close L had come to winning, how close he had come to executing the both of them. She was a complete liability, and the sooner he got it squared away, the better.

It wasn’t all bad news, but the situation was a precarious one; L’s restlessness would only last so long, so if there was a time to give him something to latch onto before he found it for himself, this was it.

Light let out a deep breath he hadn’t realised he was holding, and looked up to see Matsuda resetting up the coffee machine. He was filling the top with the bitter French coffee that Light knew the detective would only have immediately after waking up and never in the middle of a work day and smiled to himself. He would have thought a man whose only quantifiable job was fetching coffee would remember a little detail like that, but neither did he get up to show him the milder, inexplicably fruitier blend that could have saved his job. As much as his claims of innocence as well as the investigation were preserved by keeping L happy, as much as he actually wanted to keep the detective happy, he’d done nothing but cause the tension to rise all day.

That settled it. L’s very presence in his life was integral to Kira’s success. Whatever he did from now on, it would be in the interest of pursuing his feelings for him. As much as L would destroy Kira at the first opportunity he had, Light knew that he’d only come as far as he had because he’d had a rival in the Great Detective L. It was a fated part of his rise to Godhood – yes, fated, not conditioned, not at all humiliating – that, if it hadn’t been for those intrusive investigative methods, he wouldn’t have grown into his role as Kira quite so well. So, it wasn’t just about his stupid desires: getting rid of the detective now while he had the upper hand would only ruin him. If he wasn’t under his watch, working closely with him just as much as he was working against him, he’d grow complacent and his progress now would mean nothing. He could already see the writing on the wall: the role of Kira uninterrupted, society eventually moulding to his vision, with no one to try to stop him but a task force he could already lead by the nose… he’d make mistakes, ridiculous ones, and for those he would pay with his life.

That didn’t mean he was necessarily going to wait until they were both in the bedroom they still shared and jump him – as things stood, that would be a suicidal move. That wasn’t to say he thought L would be against his attentions if he did; the detective just needed to learn new ways of dealing with his obsession with Light first, outside of calling him Kira and slapping handcuffs on him. The way he showed affection needed a little work.

No, more finesse was required. Unless he was careful now, L could still find him out and destroy him, and that could not be allowed to happen. If he was to remain free and have L too, it was a matter of neutralising him completely. He had to make him care for Light more than he hated Kira.

It would have to be a lot. He still wondered how he managed to rationalise the same dilemma, even wishing in the back of his mind that the man he wanted was simply ‘this man Ryuuzaki’ rather than the world’s three greatest detectives who wanted him dead most of all. He even considered that it would have made these choices easier to make if he was just his father’s boss; he knew he couldn’t help that this was how he was fated to meet the only person he could ever truly stand for more than an hour, but it was still, well, scandalous. (In which case, it was a good thing this was L rather than someone with a face to show the public – at least it couldn’t reach the media).

If Light was still having these thoughts, how was L going to rationalise being with a former suspect on a major investigation? Light didn’t think he had any illusions of integrity to abandon first, but with Watari looking out for him and the task force (including his own father, of course) who would have something to say no matter how many times Light had them wrapped around his little finger, L would have to believe that Light was worth more than losing a little face with his employees.

Matsuda picked up a slice of the cake and one of the forks left on a little tray on the counter, taking the confection back to the coffee table in the main room while he waited for the coffee machine to brew. He only paused to smile at light quickly, apologetically, as if his sweet tooth was something he ought to apologise for as a man of the law. . Light refrained from rolling his eyes, for the sake of being polite; the older man’s hang ups about performing his own masculinity were not his problem.

As to his own problem, it wasn’t quite as big as he was making it out to be. He would be making his calls to To-Oh starting tomorrow morning, beginning the process of getting re-enrolled. From as soon as next week, his time at headquarters would suddenly become limited. Just as Light knew he was used to finally working alongside someone on his own level, he knew L would begin to rue his absences when he only had the task force for company in an idling investigation. Since the suspicion on him was only dropped so recently, since his innocence depended on a circumstance not a one of them had the balls to disprove, Light was about ninety percent certain he’d put a tail on him just to have something to occupy himself with. ‘It’s just to make sure Light-kun isn’t using his new freedom to set up some Kira business – it’s best to be safe than sorry’, as the detective would tell himself.

And that is when Light will use the detective’s one truly fatal flaw: L’s desire for anything positively quadrupled when he thought he might not be able to have it. It was why he took on the most challenging cases. It was why the idea that Light couldn’t be Kira only made him hold on all the harder to the conclusion. And it was why, once Light got back to university, he’d use the oldest play in the book.

Dating other people, right where L’s tail could see him do it, acting intimately, even romantically, with anyone but L himself… it would be just the right incentive to have the detective act on his feelings. And since Kira wasn’t doing anything, the question of his feelings toward his former suspect, his want for him, would consume him above even the investigation. He’d truly regret letting Light scale back his hours. He’d have no choice but to come back to university and watch him personally. Whatever plan he might have to use the notebook against the task force’s wishes would simply have to wait until Light could stop even that.

That left Misa, the Littlest Liability herself. He’d already set up the reasons with the task force why he might want to drop her in the near future – hell, he even had their permission to dump her as soon as he could. It would help, but it wouldn’t be enough. From the moment she’d found him, she’d latched on to a near abusive, definitely dangerous degree; if she wasn’t putting his life at risk with her reckless behaviour, he was risking his life just to clean up her messes. That her very proximity to him was suspicious, it was a waste of his time and effort to say the least. When he thought he could exploit her superior power to kill L, she was just worth keeping around, but now that he’d made his decision to keep him alive…

Obviously, he couldn’t kill her. Rem would never allow it. The shinigami might consider L’s existence in perpetuity to be a threat to Misa’s life, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t extricate himself from her clutches completely either. It would just require something a tad more effective than a harsh break-up: Light wasn’t fool enough to brush off her death threats, and while she knew where he went to university, where he worked, where his family lived, she was a threat to his current plans. If she found out about his plans to seduce L, the detective would definitely wind up dead.

He meant it when he told the task force that Misa would be better off with someone who could return her feelings. But as long as Rem refused to see it that way, he could complain as much as he wanted: he was going to be stuck with her regardless. Which, obviously, was a problem.

Light sighed and lifted his head to see Matsuda heading out with L’s coffee. Setting his empty plate in the sink, he followed behind the rookie with the full pot of sugar cubes he’d forgotten. He knew it was petty, but after months of being accused of murders most foul, after two days of the black cloud of rebuilding his plans and working around L’s restlessness, watching the great detective accuse the rookie of trying to poison him seemed righteous somehow.

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