Please note that the following fan fiction is based off of my previous Death Note fan fiction entitled "Friend or Foe." Much of this story is based off of that foundation. If you haven't read it, I suggest you do before proceeding. You may become confused or lost without the background.

Author's Note: Ok, so lied. So I am going to do a sequel right away. I tried to resist it, but I just kept getting all of these ideas. And after a few weeks of trying to write my novel, and having L and Light pop into my head interrupting me, I decided it might be best to get them out of the way entirely. I've learned that I can never resist writing something, if it truly wants to be written.

With that said, I will still be working on my novel. Here's how it goes: I'm going to write whatever demands to be written that day. I cannot say which story will win out over the course of time. As such, the updates on this will not be nearly as speedy as they were in Friend or Foe, (unless Light and L take over my life and I ditch my novel entirely, which is a sad possibility.) So you have been warned.

Also, this is another important note: this story will be yaoi. I promise that it will be tasteful. It will NOT contain things of a graphic nature. I just can't see Light and L acting like that. Ever. They're both far too respectable to be doing half the things I see in other fan fictions. So if you're looking for smut, please look elsewhere. This story will be much more focused on their conflicted feelings and all of the new problems they will be facing in America. There will still be a level of high intelligence and scheming, but I don't know to what degree now that the two are less enemies and more friends. Maybe they'll end up scheming things together to trick someone else. We'll see where they want to take the story.

Also, I cannot say where this story will go. Eventually, down the line, I may have to change the rating to M for mature. Right now it's seated at T for teen. There will be adult language and there will be suggestive content. How suggestive is still unknown to me.

So that's the gist of it. This is mostly for fun, so have a good time!

Spotofpaint

P.S- Also please note that since they're in America, they will always be speaking English. If they're speaking Japanese, it will be in bold letters. The exact opposite of the last fan fiction I wrote.

--------------------------

"…not everything I did in the investigation room was an act."

That statement, made by L, one week prior, on the airplane to America, had been the most occupying thought on Light's mind since it had been uttered. Having more respect and dignity then perhaps L had previously thought, Light had not responded. He knew that L had been seeking a response. Whether it had been a joke or not was still a question. But what wasn't a question was that L had said it to get some sort of rise out of Light. Light certainly would have never given him one. As such, that inexplicable phrase had been ignored by both ever since.

The two acted as they usually would have after landing in America. Finding themselves in the city of Atlanta Georgia had opened the door to all sorts of new stresses and problems. The pair of friends hardly had time to do anything other then set up their new lives and to worry.

Finding an apartment hadn't been hard. They were literally all over the place in the city. Tall glass buildings housed usually only one of two things: offices or apartments. And seeing as they were surrounded by such towering structures, they had little to do but some pricing.

They'd discovered one that was to their liking on the seventeenth floor of a moderate sized building that overlooked the Centennial Olympic Park. The apartment was also of a moderate size. Just large enough to house two young men who would kill each other if it was any smaller.

The place had two bedrooms, a living area, a small kitchen, a smaller dining room a laundry room and one bathroom. They would have to share the bathroom. That would be a major problem.

"Especially since Raito-kun is so vain and spends so much time in front of the mirror." L had said when they had first moved in.

After finding a place to live, which they had achieved on the first day, the rest was more difficult. They ended up staying in a hotel for a few days until their lease and contract could be solidified and the apartment building could get their apartment cleaned and ready for new tenants. Once moved in, they had to fill the place. Furniture, Light discovered, was a difficult thing to get in and out of a seventeen-story apartment. After twenty or more trips up and down the elevator, he was exhausted and more then angry. Fortunately for Light, there was a small, skinny man to unleash his anger out on. But as always, L didn't appreciate it, and lashed out with a few retorts of his own.

They'd been shopping and fighting the entire week. They needed utilities, clothes, dressers, beds, couches, chairs, food of all kinds, sweets, ice-cream, cake, pots, pans, utensils, chopsticks, and a manner of other necessities.

The strain was almost too much to bear. L was more then irritable. Light knew it was because the spindly man was not used to providing for himself. Watari had done everything for him in the past so that he needn't be bothered with such trifles. So that he could concentrate solely on his work. But now, L was forced to venture outside at all hours of everyday. He was being forced to do the things that he found too tiresome to do himself for the first portion of his life. The stress of all the newness and the fighting and the dwindling money supply was grating on his nerves.

Light wasn't holding up well either. And that was why they fought so frequently. It seemed almost as if every word that came out of the others mouth was barbed.

But finally, after that first hellish week in America, they had acquired every necessity that they needed. They were settled and set. All that was left now was to find jobs before the money Watari gave them ran dry.

"After we calculate the down payment for the apartment, the first months rent, and all of the furniture and food we bought we have…three thousand left." L said in his usual stoic voice. Light frowned.

"That's not much…"

"No…it isn't. We'll need to find work immediately. This won't last us very long when we have monthly bills, rent, and food to be anxious about…" Light took that moment to absorb this unique scene before him. L was worrying about bills. That was somehow very unusual. Perhaps it was because bills were such a normal everyday thing. And L was certainly not normal, or everyday.

In fact, Light was certain that he'd gotten used to L being some sort of being from another world. He was part of the Kira portion of his life. He was part of that crazy time when nothing at all had seemed real. L had been as unreal as any ghost or fable. After all, how could a man like L be real in the first place? His past was certainly ludicrous enough to convince any person that this legendary L didn't really exist. A born genius who never ventured outside? But here he was, in an apartment, counting digital pennies and contemplating bills and groceries. It seemed somehow, more ludicrous then half of the crazy things that had happened in Japan. Surely plotting to kill one another had been saner. Or at least more normal.

"I've never had a problem getting jobs before. I've had a few. I'll find one tomorrow." Light offered. He stood in the open doorway that lead from the kitchen into the dining room. Or…what would have been the dinging room. However, L had set it up as an office instead. Against the far wall was a long desk that took up that entire length of the sheetrock. It was enough space for just two computers and two chairs. L had insisted on getting them even though it had cost them much of their depleting money. It was yet another thing they had argued over.

"I suppose we'll need two incomes…" L muttered. He didn't sound happy. Light scoffed, glancing away from the back of the ex-detective who sat, as always, crouched in his swivel chair.

"Well yeah! What did you think? That I would just support you? That you could sit there all day doing nothing?" L visibly twitched, but did not bother himself with turning around to retort.

"What, if anything at all, gave you the idea that I would enjoy doing absolutely nothing with myself Yagami-kun? Did you not stop to contemplate that perhaps, even with how busy we've been as of late, that I've been bored to the point of near insanity? Did you not fathom that maybe a genius, such as myself, who is used to spending every second of every waking moment contemplating intricate puzzles and unsolvable crimes to all who attempted it before, would find buying furniture and food just a bit too dull? Did you not realize this Yagami-kun? If you have realized this, which I'm ninety-six percent certain you have, then you're simply provoking me for the thirteenth time this morning! And if you indeed did not realize this, then you have lost your brain in one of the dozens of public places I have been dragged through these past seven days!"

Light stared, brown eyes wide. He'd almost forgotten. L didn't bother to hide his feelings anymore. After all that had happened between them, he was no longer the same stoic detective he once was. In fact, he was much more open. He let his once secretive emotions show whenever he felt like it. It was a testament to how much he truly trusted Light and how much their friendship had really grown.

Having realized this yet again for what must have been the tenth time that week, Light became torn between a retort, which he had already formed, and a kinder answer, which might smooth over the ruffled feathers he had created. He sighed, glanced at the box of pocky that sat open on the computer desk, and decided on neither. Instead, he reached out and grabbed one of the chocolate covered sticks.

"Have some pocky and shut up," Light said in a cool way. Before L could respond, Light had shoved the stick in between the skinny man's lips. L let out a noise of displeasure and agitation as he shrunk away from Light. But the moment he tasted the chocolate, he seemed to calm. Instead of verbally tearing into Light a second time as planned, he lifted his thin, spindly fingers to the end of the chocolate covered biscuit. He pinched it between thumb and forefinger, and seemed quite content not to say another word as he twirled it. Light grinned slyly.

It's like an off button. But then his sly grin slowly melted away when he remembered the precise reason why L enjoyed his sweets so much. That day in the hospital L had written down just a bit of his past onto a notepad for Light to understand. And that one page of description had been enough. He gives a new meaning to the term "food is love." Light knew that as long as L had this affliction, he was still giving in to the ghosts of his past. Maybe it was wrong to use sweets as a way of shutting him up. After all…that was exactly what it was used for in all of the orphanages he'd grown up in. It was a means of shutting him up.

"Hey Lawliet," It had taken some getting used too, but Light had finally gotten a handle on calling L by his full name. "Ever think of weaning yourself off of sweets?"

L froze. He froze so suddenly that it appeared almost as if he had been in a movie and someone had hit pause. He sat, curled in his chair, toes gripping its edge. One hand was poised lightly on the tip of his pocky stick, his mouth frozen I the middle of its workings.

Slowly and with a look on his face that made Light want to turn into ice, he turned in his swivel chair. The glowing computer screen now being neglected, L's complete and terrible dark gaze was on Light. He slowly removed the stick on pocky from his mouth.

"And…what brought on such a question?" Light actually found a lump forming in his throat. He quickly tried to stomp it down.

There's no reason to ever be scared of L! He's just as small, weak and easily manipulative as he was back in Japan. No icy look will change that! Quickly, Light's usual arrogant, self-assertive smile came back to his face. He lifted his hands and shrugged in jest as if his question had been nothing more then whimsy.

"Oh I dunno. Some of the stuff you wrote down in the hospital. It seems to me your addiction isn't exactly healthy." L blinked up at Light, pocky being placed back into his mouth. He could hear the response Light would have given no shit. But that simply wasn't L's style. He removed his snack to speak a second time.

"As I recall, also on that notepad, I had written the reason why I continue to eat my desires. I'm too old Raito-kun. I'm twenty-five and I'm afraid that this affliction has been engraved in my psyche. If I were younger, perhaps it would be possible. The psyche and the mind have more room to grow and expand. It's easy to change and bend when young. But I'm afraid that despite my brilliance, my mind has stopped growing. In fact, from this age onward, my brain cells are slowly dying off. I am set in my ways."

"God you're wordy today. Besides, all I heard out of you was a bunch of bull. There are plenty of people out there who are addicted to one thing or another because it makes them feel good. Drugs, alcohol and even other people addicted to foods like you. There have been more then enough cases of people much older then you who've overcome their addictions despite the pain and agony of withdrawal symptoms and other such horrors." L's black eyes were narrowing, their usual large size becoming smaller as he squeezed Light between his steely gaze.

"I don't want to. There. Is that more to your liking? I enjoy my sweets. So I suggest you drop this subject now."

"Testy testy! You still jostled by the weeks events?" L sighed with seeming frustration. His eyes rolled to the ceiling in the way they used to when he was thinking very hard about something. But this time, Light knew, was simply because of his agitation.

"Must we fight again? Is it really essential? Is it necessary to suffer like this every hour or so? You must be as sick of it as I am. Either that…or you enjoy it." Light tried to stop himself. He really did. But the comebacks were almost programmed into him!

"Not as much as you enjoy sweets." It just shot out of his mouth against his will! Light gave a start as if his own barbed tongue had bit him. L's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"I'm going to get to work searching for a job on my new MAC. Why don't you take the opportunity to search for jobs outside Yagami-kun? I think you'll find the fresh air and space refreshing." It was said with such viciousness that Light hardly could have argued. L was practically trembling in his seat with rage.

As Light turned and headed through the kitchen and toward the front door, he couldn't help but feel a bittersweet taste rise into his mouth.

It was strangely refreshing to see L so open. His anger was almost like a breath of fresh air in comparison to how stuffy he used to be. But at the same time, anger was the only emotion Light had been privileged to see the past week. And L's anger was startlingly bright and hot. Light had been burned several times due to his own inability to shut his mouth. Still, the sting was somehow…enjoyable. Maybe that was why he kept baiting the hook.