L x Light

Light says nothing. His eyes dart to the corner of the room, where they
remain fixed on nothing in particular, but L can see his lips tightening
in pain at the feel of ethanol against the cut.

“I’m sorry,” L says, “I’m almost finished.”

Almost automatically, Light presents his wrists to L, turning them supine
that L may place the binds in place, and L Locks them together with a quiet
word of thanks.

He gazes at Light from under his thick, dark hair, at the slender neck
and long eyelashes, and then reaches for a vial which he unscrews with
one quick motion. He dabs the cotton end of a sterile swab into the liquid
and then reaches for Light’s face.

Light allows it, but his eyes dart toward L immediately, and his silence
is telling enough.

He knows.

Let’s see how long until you talk, L thinks, screwing the cap
back on the vial and inserting it back into the kit.

Light allows him to place a small bandage over the cut, and he knows
that the scratch isn’t very bad at all and that it isn’t bleeding anymore,
but that he placed it there to keep the solution from leaking out.

Just what are you trying to do, L?

“You must be bored, Light-kun,” L says as he leads the younger boy back
into the bedroom and sits down at the desk, “I’m sorry. But you understand
why we can’t have you speaking with anyone on the outside just yet.”

Light nods.

“Is Light-Kun hungry?”

“No, thank you.”

“You should eat something. You’re getting very thin.”

“Okay.”

L asks Watari to bring them sandwiches for lunch, and, because he knows
L’s eyes are on him, Light begins eating very slowly, and L joins him on
the bed.

 

“Do you like it? It’s salmon.”

“Yeah.”

“Here,” L says quietly and reaches for his pocket. He pulls out the
keys to the cuffs and motions for Light to present his hands to him. He
then unlocks the cuff from one hand, allowing the second to dangle from
Light’s wrist.

“Is that better?”

Light nods.

“Thank you.”

L reaches with his thumb and brushes a smudge of cream cheese away from
Light’s lip.

“I wish this were over too,” he says quietly, “so that we could eat
lunch like this without worrying.”

Light says nothing as he watches L withdraw his hand and then put his
thumb to his lips and lick at it.

Does Light remember anything new? Is there any kind of change? Either
way, he says nothing and reveals nothing, and L begins to wonder whether
Light’s frame of mind has reverted back from duality to—

To Kira?

It’s heartbreaking.

L watches Light take another bite of his sandwich and stare off into
some fixed point on the wall as he chews, and then he puts his sandwich
down and stares at the younger boy.

Light notices this as well and turns to look at L, silent and unmoving.

Very slowly, L puts his sandwich down on the tray and turns toward Light,
and then thin, white fingers reach toward him and brush the hair away from
his neck, and, very gently, L kisses the skin behind his ear.

Light’s eyelashes flutter and while he remains silent, L can feel the
muscles go rigid under his skin and he can hear the very soft intake of
breath, and he lowers Light backward onto the mattress and reaches delicately
for the buttons on his shirt.

“Ryuzaki…” Light says very quietly and his hands slide across the bony
shoulders and on to L’s back, the heavy metal cuff trailing after.

“Here,” L says and moves backward, finally unlocking and removing the
cuffs, and then he leans down to place them on the floor beside the bed
and returns to Light. The younger boy watches as L finishes unbuttoning
his shirt and then draws the folds away from his chest.

It’s covered with little scratch marks from the night before, and L
leans down to kiss the marks, but still Light says nothing.

“Does it hurt?” L asks, and Light replies,

“Yes…”

But he doesn’t ask him to stop, and he actually presses L to him ever
so gently, and L understands that this is something Light actually wants.

He gazes up at Light from his chest and asks whether he would like
him to go on, and Light nods, his eyes glistening with strange desperation.

It really has been a very long time for them.

“Okay,” L replies, and they both understand that it is up to Light to
tell him when it becomes too much.

Out in the office, Mello’s long fingers close around the glass
vial, and he lifts it up to eye level.

“L’s gonna know that you’re messing with that,” comes Near’s quiet voice,
and Mello is somehow glad that he doesn’t have the gun on him, because
he doesn’t know if he could hold back from using it right then.

He ignores Near and continues inspecting the vial; the liquid inside
isn’t really a solution but rather some kind of mixture of water and something
else, and Mello thinks  he knows what. He unscrews the cap and watches
as stray liquid drips from the cover and into the glass, and, like the
annoying little brat he is, Near lowers his eyelids and says something
about how Mello should really put it down.

“Yeah?” Mello replies, and then stares at the cap for a few moments
before, quite deliberately, he takes the thing to his lips. Staring directly
at Near, he reaches out with his tongue and runs it slowly against the
underside of the cap and then licks his lips.

“You fool. You don’t even know what’s in there.”

“Oh, I think I know, all right,” comes the reply, and, smiling wickedly,
he closes the vial again.

 

To be continued...