Began: 22nd June 2009 18:47

Death note: Taboo

Chapter 1: The Mystery Light's Wagashi and Mochi Obsession

Standing under the jet of water Light leaned against the wall and picked up the razor that had been at his feet. Gently he ran his index finger along the razor sharp edge, as it reached the tip of his finger he put pressure on the blade and watched with satisfaction as it sliced smoothly through the skin on his finger. It stung slightly, like a paper cut, at least it was sharp. He changed the position of the blade and gently brushed it along his arm, as he reached the tops of his arm he moved with a quickly slicing through the skin. The cut was deep and the pain excruciating as he gasped for air. He repeated the motion over again and again, till he had nine cuts on his arm, before changing over the hand. He left hand wasn't as steady as his right, but it didn't matter as he guided the razor over his skin and forced the blade to cut through the flesh. The water pattered against the fresh wounds washing away the blood which ran down his arms. Taking the razor back in his right hand Light ran the blade across his chest, in one quick movement he dug the blade through the flesh. A deep gash had formed, but Light wasn't finished there. Pausing allowing the pain to fill him he breathed heavily. Then he slashed at his chest again, retracing the path of the original cut. He made the wound deeper and more blood trickled down his chest.

"Yagami-kun, you have now been fifteen minutes in the shower. Are you alright?" Light's breath caught at the sound of L's voice from the other side of the door. He had forgotten about him, too caught up in the moment. Washing the bloody stains from the razor till it was sparkling clean Light placed it on the floor before stopping the jet of water. Stepping out of the shower into the misty room Light quickly dried himself not looking up from the floor. On the other side of the wall was a full length mirror, one which Light always avoided ever since the day… He had come out of the shower to catch a glance at his blue and purple bruised body, fragile and fresh with bloody cuts staring back at him. He had thrown up and had to apologize to L saying he had eaten something dodgy. Never again. Once Light had dried his body and whipped away the remaining congealed blood which hadn't been washed by the shower he pulled on a shirt and jeans, wincing slightly as he tugged at the shirt, it stuck to his fresh cuts. Glancing at his appearance in the mirror he pushed up the sleeves of his shirt, he had learnt that lesson. When this had first began his feather had noticed the cuts on the arm one morning, Light quickly made up some excuse about a tennis match or something but after that Light had always been careful.

"Yagami-kun, are you quite…" Light unlocked the door to have L onto the floor at his feet, had L been sat outside the door all this time. Pulling himself up off the floor he held out the cuff towards Light, obeying instruction without a word Light held out his wrist for the detective. Flinching as the Detective's hands brushed against his wrist, L expertly clicked the cuff into place and with a quick flick of the key had it locked. Light hated that sound, the finality of his freedom ends. "You took your time."

"I wouldn't have had to shower if you hadn't spilt cake and coffee on me." Light's tone however seemed to be better now that he'd had his shower.

"Yes, that reminds me. Next time Misa-san plans on attacking you, please would you ask her to check that there is reasonable slack between our chain first so that I don't get propelled into you from the force." L smirked to himself. "I don't think that's too difficult to ask."

"Tell her yourself." Light had been in a reasonably good mood after his shower, but that was seeming to disappear now

"Shall we?" The chain clinked as L slouched off leaving Light no choice but to follow behind him. The investigation room was lacking its normal enthusiasm as progression with the Kira case was slow, Misa's arrival had acted as a kind of entertainment. Matsuda was spinning in his chair at the end of the room watching one of the old videos aimlessly. Mogi and Light's father, Soichiro Yagami, were discussing the percentages in victims of Kira's wrath and seemed to have a pile of graphs between them. Everyone else in the room was hidden behind a computer typing up a report of something or other. There was no sign of Misa. Upon their entry into the room everyone looked up from what they were doing obviously happy to have an excuse to stop.

"Have a nice shower Light-kun?" Matsuda asked a grin spreading across his face, he had stopped spinning his chair to make that remark.

"Yes, thank you." Light replied, his lips were tight and his words short. "Where's Misa?"

"She went back to work. Why did you want to play with her?" His tone was teasing, and playful but Light felt like smacking him hard. L Dragged him away to their desks though before he could do anything. Settling down in is customary fetus position L opened his laptop to the familiar gothic L and wriggled his toes, like one would crack their knuckles, before beginning to type. Light settled in his chair next to L's and began sifting through old reports. There had been no new leads and at the moment it just seemed as if they were waiting for Kira to give them a clue, they were stuck, Stalemate.

After a couple of hours of boredom and sifting pointlessly through file upon files, the silence was broken by Watari's entry. Light looked up from his current file, which he had been looking at for over an half an hour now and hadn't taken in any of the information written down.

"Break." Watari stated, he put the tray he was carrying down on the coffee table in the centre of the room. On the tray were countless cups of coffee and a selection of sweet things, which L would undoubtedly enjoy. Murmurs of approval and thanks filled the room as people got up to go and fetch themselves a cup and slice of cake but L didn't move. Watari came over and stood behind L placing a hand on his shoulder as a father would to a son.

"Have a break Ryuuzaki, you need to keep up you strength." L turned around in the chair to face Watari's gentle smile, he sighed and nodded. Getting up from the chair without a warning to Light, who was dragged from his chair stumbling after him, he walked over to the coffee table. He stood with his thumb in his mouth for a second considering which cake to have, Light had no idea why he did this though as he always had strawberry cake. On cue L reached down to get a slice of strawberry cake and a coffee which he immediately began to saturate with sugar cubes, Light on the other hand avoided the sugary confectionary with a barge pole and simply took a black coffee. Once L was satisfied that he had enough sugar in his coffee, he pulled Light back to their desks; there he carefully placed the coffee and cake, so that he could position himself. Once satisfied L reached out he picked up his cake before looking up at Light, his eyes falling to the coffee in his hand.

"No cake?" He asked, his voice claiming innocence. Soichiro laughed,

"Light has never been one for sweet things, I haven't seen him eat anything like that since he was a child." That was the first time Light had seen L show any obvious emotion, his mouth had fallen open in shock.

"Never?"

"Well, the thing is," Soichiro began, "when Light was little he used to eat Wagashi and Mochi by the tons, he ate it practically every for every meal."

"What was Yagami-kun's favorite?" L inquired.

"Ichigo daifuku." Light couldn't stop himself from answering. Clearing his throat he quickly turned away and took a sip of his coffee, he had no interest in this conversation or where it was headed.

"What happened?" L asked lovingly taking a bite from his own strawberry cake, ignoring the fork on his plate but using his hands instead.

"We don't really know, slowly he ate less and less and then about three year ago…" Soichiro paused for dramatic effect. "he just stopped all together. He wouldn't eat it any more, and that's the mystery."

"Don't be so dramatic, I still eat it." Light contadicted his father, however Soichiro didn't appear convinced.

"When?" L asked, he seemed to be way too interested in Light's eating habits.

"What do you mean when? When I feel like it." Light said throwing his free hand in the air. "Anyway this isn't a 'Light's food habit investigation'. Please can we get back to the Kira case and try and find a new lead." Closure. L turned sulkily back to his screen and cake, the others following his example, L had been rather enjoying himself learning about Light's past. Yet another mystery of Yagami Light to be investigated, once the Kira case was finished, if he wasn't Kira.

The room went back to its normal state of silence, apart from the whispered conversations between members of the Task force as they discussed possible leads, and the gentle clicking sound of L typing away. Light was able to concentrate now that he'd had this coffee on the data in front of him, scanning page after page of victims, he saw no pattern or new lead. He didn't notice but subconciously Light had picked up L's unused fork and was running the spikes repeatedly into his finger, however L had noticed. He caught the repetative moment in his periferal vision, he was going to say something about irritation and how he was lowering his Kira catching ability by 7% when he realised what Light was doing. He carried on typing but his pace had slowered, his attention was focused on the Light and the movements his hands made. Light looked away from the files on the computer screen at the cease in L's rythemic typing, to meet L's gaze staring straight back at him.

"What?" Light seemed slightly irritated by the fact that the detective had been watching him, for how long?

"What are you doing, Yagami-kun?" L tone was soft, no one in the room noticed the quiet conversation which was passing between them. He stared pointedly at the fork in Light's hand. Light following his gaze looked down at his hands to find there a fork, to be more precise L's fork. The detective carefully watched Light's expression, initially it was shock, then he seemed to blush slightly, then he was irritated. Slamming the fork on the desk Light pulled his hands away from the view of the detective, which was difficult seen as there were attatched to his with a two metre chain, but it was too late, he had already seen the red marks Light had imprinted upon himself. L made no inclination to move his gaze as Light moved as far away from the detective's gaze as the chain would allow him, and began to start typing up a new report for the file he was holding. Although he was already sure that he had written one for this particular case, he needed to keep his hands busy.

As the hours ticked by nothing much happened in the investigation room. L and Light did not communicate, although L regularly sneaked glances at Light to check on him and Light in return did the same. Slowly, one by one, members of the Task Force began to leave, heading home for the night. As the clock struck eleven it seemed that the only ones left in the building were L, Light and Soichiro. L looked up to see Soichiro stood behind Light, his hand touched his shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. Light flinched at the contact.

"I'm going to head home now Ryuuzaki." Soichiro nodded respectfully towards L, "Please look after Light for me." He headed out of the door to the hallway humming tunelessly. L and Light waited, listening for the familiar ping as the elevator arrived, and the swish of the doors as they closed.

"Shall we move this upstairs then Yagami-kun." L stretched out his legs from his normal feutal position and got to his feet, closing his laptop he glanced at Light. He hadn't moved from that same position for a while now. "Yagami-kun?" L raised his voice slightly, which seemed to stir Light from his daze. "Shall we move upstairs."

"Right, sorry." Saving his work Light quickly shut down the computer he had been working on, all while being under L's watchful gaze. Once he was done L waited for him to stand and stretch before dragging him off like he would normally have done. The two of them were silent as they headed upstairs. The silence in the lift had felt uncomfortable, even by L's standards. At the door L pulled the small swipe card, identical to the one which Light kept in his pocket, and slid it along the card reader, the light flashed green and permitted their entry. The room was simply furnished, in neutral colours with no personal items, it looked as if no one lived there. However this was not the case, L and Light had been using this room during the evening from convenience for the past week. A coffee table was in the centre of the room, littered with Kira files and coffee cups. Two cream sofas sat on either side of the table and along one wall was a desk with computer and telephone which connected directly to Watari. There were two doors from this room, one which lead to the bathroom, the other to L and Light's bedroom. Origionally Light had refused to share a bed with the detective, even though he never sleeps anyway. However this had caused problems as Light fell from his bed countless times in the night due to L's shift of movement on this own bed as he typed. Due to Light's lack of sleep and the foul atmosphere that this created, L had a double bed replace the two singles in the room. L replaced the card into his pocket and padded into the room, settling in his favourite position on the sofa L plugged in his laptop and began to type. Light had no choice but to follow L and same as every night ended up going over more files from victim's of Kira. He was looking at a chart of the television programmes which the recent victims had been posted on, almost 89% could be found on Sakuya Television.

When Light's brain could no longer function properly, his eyes unable to focus on the files in front on him, Light glanced at his watch. The hands of the clock seemed to move for a moment before his eyes would finally focus, it was eleven minutes past two in the morning. Putting down the file he was holding Light lifted his gaze to L on the sofa, he hadn't moved since they had entered that room over four hours ago now, typing away on his laptop. Feeling eyes on him L looked up from the screen to meet Light's gaze.

"Yes, Yagami-kun." The detective's monotone voice filled the quiet room.

"Ryuuzaki, unlike you normal human beings need sleep." A smirk spread across L's face as Light said this. Light was weak, this was his weakness. Without sleep Light was unable to function properly and this was where L had the upper hand as every night Light admitted defeat to the detective. However every night L had to give in and allow him sleep. He learnt his lesson having deprived Light from sleep the first few nights of their detainment, it had resulted in his favourite cake being thrown on the floor.

"Is Yagami-kun saying he is tired?" Light knew what was coming next, the little game L liked to play with him every night. "Would you like to sleep?"

"Yes, I am tired. Yes, I would like to sleep." Light responded, trying to avoid what he knew was coming. The corner of L's mouth curved slightly.

"Is Yagami-kun asks nicely, then he may sleep."

"For god sake Ryuuzaki let me sleep." Light said, his patience was low and his eye sight was beginning to blur as his eyelids drooped, but the detective would not move. Due to the chain which connected the two of them this created a problem, and Light was not willing to get up from his chair wasting energy untill he was quite sure the detective would follow.

"Yagami-kun, do you think Kira sleeps?"

"Not this again." Light sighed gently massaging his forehead. "How many times must I tell you, I am not Kira."

"That's not what I asked." L spoke in a monotone voice but his mouth seemed to be hiding a slight smile. "Kira does not sleep according to these charts and so neither do we." With that L turned back to his computer and began typing away at a speed abnormal for human hands. So Light turned back to the Kira files and carried on reading through the files repeatedly. However he was no longer absorbing infomration, he was barely reading the individual words.

Light felt a hand on his shoulder, it ran down his arm shaking him. Light jolted upright gasping for air. The eyes staring back at his were large with deep black rims, the iris were an endless black pit.

"Yagami-kun. You can't sleep here." L mouth was a perfect smirk, however he seemed to be thinking about something as when he turned the thumb returned to his mouth. Damn. Sighing Light got up from the chair, he tried to ignore the cramp that shot through this leg as he stood up, however L noticed as they headed towards the bedroom. Light visibly shivered as L's fingers brushed across his skin, unlocking the clasp from his wrist, L turned away so that Light could changed his clothes. While he waited he began to pick at a loose thread on his sweater. Light kept his gaze on L the entire time that he got changed checking that he wasn't watching him. His changed of clothes was quick, fearing L would turn around at any moment, he ripped the shirt off this raw skin making the fresh cuts burn but he ignored the sensation, grabbing a clean long sleeved t-shirt from the bottom of the drawer and pulling it over his head. Next he pulled at the trousers and had them off in lightening speed and had replaced them with joggers in seconds. Checking that his felsh was fully covered he reached out a hand and gently touched L on the shoulder.

"That was quick for someone so tired." L said reattaching the clasp as Light squirmed and locking it into place, the chain gave a satisfied click as they both moved to the bed. Light got into bed first, slidding under the covers, while L simply perched on top. Light turned away from the detective wrapping himself in a cucoon of covers and tried to ignore his obvious gaze which was boaring a hole through his back.

"Yagami-kun, are you alright?" L's monotone voice was soft ringing thorugh the silence.

"Yes, why do you ask?" Light mumbled in reply, however his body tensed and L felt it.

"You seem out of sorts." L simply replied. Sleep came quickly for Light that night, too quickly it seemed. L was able to watch his gentle breathing and the gentle rise and fall of his chest, it was these moment that L felt most happy. The soothing sound of Light's gentle snore was in effect the only reason that over the past few weeks that they had been joined, L had been able to sleep more than he would usually do in a year.