Want it. Take it. Love it. Keep it.

A/N: In which L does what he does best, and we find out a lot more about Roger than we ever wanted to know.

chelzi: don't worry, poor little Mello will get better.

Evermist: I couldn't help but give Matt a little loving too. It makes me sad when he's sad...He just looks like such a pathetic little puppy dog. So, we'll give the puppy a rabbitt to play with!

THANK YOU!


CHAPTER 18

IS THAT CLEAR ENOUGH FOR YOU?

Watari raised one bushy grey eyebrow as he scanned the file in front of him, occasionally glancing up at his colleague. He had to admit that this was rather...impressive. Roger had been quite the delingquent in his younger years if the (surprisingly lengthy) case file L had prepared over the last forty-eight hours said anything. When he got to the end of the page, he actually had to stifle a laugh and cover his mouth with his hand to hide his smile. He took a moment to pull himself together, then laid the folder out in front of him, hands clasped over the cover and looked to his friend who was staring at him in bewilderment.

"Well? What is it?" The other man asked impatiently, and Watari nearly lost it again but managed to mask it by clearing his throat.

"It is your entire criminal record, starting with your first offense at the age of thirteen. It says here that you were caught shoplifting a candy bar from a shop in London. Tell me, my dear friend, did you really get arrested for swimming in the park fountain in the nude?"

The look on Roger's face was absolutely priceless. In any other situation, Watari thought he might have enjoyed this. It always gave him a sick sort of pleasure to see his best and oldest friend become so easily flustered. Dear lord, he'd been spending too much time in L's company again...

Watari handed over the folder and Roger's eyes widened as he skimmed over the pages. "You must be joking," The man finally sputtered. Watari shook his head.

"As you can see, I am quite serious Roger. It seems that L has spent the last two days holed up in his bedroom building a case against you. What he hopes to achieve, I'm not sure but, if I know the boy as well as I think I do, he'll be in shortly to explain himself. In great detail, I imagine."

Roger threw up his hands in sheer exasperation. "What is /wrong/ with that man?!" Watari began to reply but before he could get out so much as a single syllable, the man in question shuffled into the room unanounced. He was standing straighter, looking more tired and disheveled than the old man had ever seen him and the sight nearly broke Watari's heart. "What are /you/ doing here? And don't you /ever/ knock?" Roger huffed.

L raised an eyebrow but was otherwise unaffected.

"I have never knocked before, what makes you think I would knock now?" he replied. "And considering that I own this building, single-handedly finance this orphanage, as well as pay your salary, I don't see why I should have to."

"You arrogant little - " Roger began to get to his feet but L held up a hand to stop him.

"No need to get up, Mr. Ruvie. I wont be staying long." Roger settled back into his chair, not liking being ordered around by a twenty-three year old /child/ one bit but he wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. L looked between the two old men. "I assume you read the file?" he asked. Watari nodded.

"Yes, it was quite...throrough, L." If one were listening closely enough, they could have almost detected just a tiny hint of pride in the old man's voice. No one could ever accuse L of not being good as what he does. Roger, on the other hand was not amused.

"Yes, L. Quite thorough indeed! Just where the hell did you get all of that anyway?"

"There is no need to curse, Roger. And I'm afraid I can not reveal my sources. That information is classified. Now, I suppose the two of you are wondering what I'm getting at with all of this, Yes?" He didn't bother to wait for a response. "I thought you might be. Roger, Mello is currently in your legal custody, is he not?"

"I don't see what that has to do with - "

"Mr. Ruvie, please answer the question. Mello is under your care. You are his legal guardian, correct?"

Roger sighed. Might as well humor the little brat until he could get him out of his sight for good. "Yes, Mello is my charge. Along with all of the other children here at Whammy's." L nodded.

"I see. And have you read over the case file that I've prepared. I'm confident that it is quite accurate, would you not agree?"

"I'll admit that it is true but it was a very long time ago and - "

"That's enough," L said, silencing the man with a wave of his hand. "The list of your previous offenses include, public intoxication, breaking and entering, shoplifting, resisting arrest, grand theft auto, as well as..." The detective paused, allowing himself a tiny smile. "Indecent exposure. And that's just the short list. I could go on but I fear we might be here all night. Quite the trouble-maker in your time, weren't you, Roger?"

"You know damn well that the circumstances in all of those situations were explained thoroughly, and - "

"Ah, yes. But do you think a judge will see the difference, especially when the case is being presented by L, the greatest detective in the world? Come now, Roger. I think we both know they'll believe every word I say, no matter how ridiculous. Whether it is the truth or not, makes absolutely no difference. For example, I could tell them today that it was really you who murdered John F. Kennedy, and they'd take it 'for the gospel truth', as Mello would say."

Roger's jaw dropped open, eyes wide. "Are you actually threatening me?"

L nibbled on the pad of his thumb for a moment, seemingly thinking it over, then smiled. "Yes, I believe I am."

Watari took one look at Roger and decided it was probably a good time to intervene. "And just what will you be charging Roger with, L?"

"Neglect. Chlid endangerment, defamation of character, etc, etc, etc... As well as a few other things but, the point is that by this time next week, Mello will no longer under your care, and released into my custody on the grounds that you are unfit to remain his guardian."

"Neglect? Child endangerment? On /what/ grounds? You try to bring this to court and I'll expose you for the pervert you are!"

"Prove it."

"W-what?!"

"You heard me. You are old, Mr. Ruvie, but not deaf. Every case needs evidence, and so shall you if you wish to prove that I molested the boy, keeping in mind that it will be your word against mine, and that it is also highly unlikely that Mello will testify to your story. After that, you can explain where you were when this alleged abuse was taking place. What exactly were you doing when a child under your care was being attacked? We have been romantically involved since the second of November. It is now the seventeeth of April. Where have you been?! Tell me Roger, what do you think your blood alcohol content is at this very moment? You've been under quite a bit of stress...Do you think you'd be able to pass a breathalizer test were I to administer one? The fact of the matter is that you neglected to pay more attention to your charge than to your whiskey, and therefore put him in danger. There. Neglect and child endangerment. I will charge you on /those/ grounds, Mr. Ruvie. As for defamation of character, I'll bring that up when I'm undoubtablly proven innocent. Honestly, accusing the world's three top detectives of such a vicious crime? Preposterous."

"L, don't you think this is all just a bit - "

"Mr. Whammy, please refrain from speaking at this time."

The silence in the room was deafening. Both Roger and Watari just stared at him, completely, and utterly shocked. Watari knew the boy was angry, and he did have a tendancy to over react when he didn't get his way but this...this was taking it to a whole new level. And did he actually just tell him, the closest thing to a father he'd ever had, to /shut up/?

"Well, now. I see I have your complete, undivided attention, yes? Good. Because I'm only going to say this once so you'd better pay attention. This could all get very messy, very quickly, and for Mello's sake, I hope you will both agree to stop this foolishness immediately. You can either accept my terms, or decline and Mello and I will be on the next flight to the nearest country without an extradition treaty, if only on the /slim/ chance that the courts decide to take the words of a senile old man and an angry, neglectful drunk over mine. Unlikely. Then, the next time Interpol has a crisis, you two fine gentlemen can handle it yourselves. With your history of being so incredibly perceptive, I think you'll both make eccellent detectives." L placed his palms flat on the desk and leaned closer, dropping his voice just a bit into a more threatening tone. This was the most emotion either man had seen the detective display in years. "Mello and I are deeply in love. Whether you choose to aknowledge that fact or not, our feelings will remain. I'm warning you /both/ that I intend to see this through to the very end, and by the time we're done, I /will/ get what I want, one way or another, by /any/ means necessary. It is up to you to decide my methods, and just how much Mello's emotional stability has to suffer - if he isn't already scarred enough. Honestly, Roger. I had not seen Mello's files until a few days ago but I'm certain you have known of his past for a very long time. What in your right mind told you it was a good idea to allow several men to forcibly restrain a very confused, very frightened boy with a history of sexual abuse to his bed?" The longer he went, the angrier he got.

Roger looked away, unable to think of a way to explain. Now that he thought about it, it did seem rather...stupid. "I - "

That did it...

"You screwed up! And I /refuse/ to stand here and let you get away with it! I don't give a damn what you think of me, I know we haven't exactly seen eye-to-eye over the years, but you've brought Mello into this and that I can not allow." He narrowed his eyes and leaned just a bit closer to the old man. "I'm warning you here and now that if there is so much as a /scratch/ anywhere on my lover's body, I wont need to bring you to court because I'll kill you right here with my bare hands. If you are wondering whether or not I am threatening you this time, I assure you, I am not. I am making you a promise. Do I make myself perfectly clear, Mr. Ruvie?"

"L..." Watari tried but trailed off when the detective fixed him with a fierce glare.

"Didn't I just tell /you/ to be quiet, Mr. Whammy? As of this moment, you and I are no longer on pleasant speaking terms." L sighed, his features softening slightly. He looked...sad. "Watari...I thought that as the man who raised me, you, of all people, would know me better than this. You honestly think so little of me as to suggest that I would..." L trailed of, replacing the sadness with his usual blank expression. "Never mind." L righted himself and turned to go, stopping momentarily at the door to get in the final word. "I am very diappointed in the both of you. When you decide you are ready to apologize, not only to myself but to Mello as well, I will be in my bedroom, and he will be with me. Where he /belongs/. Good day to you, gentlemen."

Watari and Roger stared at eachother for a very long time after L had left, not knowing what to say and feeling just a tiny bit foolish. Well, more /ashamed/ than foolish on Watari's part.

L was right. He'd raised the boy himself from the age of three, treated him like he was his own son. He'd watched him grow into a fine - if a little eccentric - young man.When it came to his work, L was ruthless, methodical, stopping at nothing to bring criminals to justice where they could recieve the maximum punishment they deserved. But when they were alone, and he could just be Lawliet, not the great L - either respected or feared world wide, depending on which side of the law you ran - he was really quite gentle. He had always been wonderful with the children, playing with them, teaching them. Now that he sat back and gave it some thought, Watari couldn't believe he'd considered for even a moment that his child was capable of committing such a disgusting act. He was about to speak when he noticed a sheet of paper on Roger's desk.

This week's test scores...

Mello was seven points ahead of Near.

Watari shuffled through more papers, found the scores from the previous weeks. In October, Mello had been 3 points behind which meant that since the beginning of his relationship with L, he'd been far more successful in his studies. He was showing his true potential. Roger leaned over to look at the papers too.

"Roger, have you seen these test scores? Mello is ahead." Roger nodded.

"Yes, well it does happen occasionally when he works hard enough."

"I know that but, if you look back into the records, you'll see his grades have been steadily rising since the first week on November. And now that I think of it, Mello has seemed so much calmer. Less destructive than usual." Roger pondered this for a moment.

"Last week, Ms. Stanley mentioned something unusual. When she was making her rounds, she saw one of the younger boys running down the hall. Before she could ask him to stop, he'd run into Mello, knocking them both to the ground. Initially, she assumed that she'd have to break up a fight and turned to go ask another teacher for assistance but Mello did something very strange. Instead of screaming profanities and hitting the other boy like he normally would, he asked him if he was okay, and helped him gather up his things..."

After a long moment of consideration, Watari turned to his friend. "Roger, I believe we may have made a grave error. Wouldn't you agree?" Roger nodded once. "Well, then, I suppose we'd better get started on that apology, shall we? I suspect that L will want it in writing as well."

"Indeed." As the two men settled down to write, something was still bothering Roger. "Quillish, do you really think that L would have gone through with all of that legal nonsense he was talking about?"

Watari laughed. "Oh, yes. Most certainly," he said. "He would have taken you to court and argued his case until they agreed to bring back burning someone at the stake as capital punishment. You would not have stood a chance, my dear friend."

Roger nodded, dipped his pen into its inkwell, and began to write the /sincerest/ apology he'd ever given.