A Shinigami's Scent

Disclaimer: We do not own Death Note... or the perfume mentioned.

All the streetlights began to take effect as the sun set over the horizon. No place in Tokyo was more packed with neon signs and flashing lights than the red-light district. All along the streets were groups of all kinds of people, even ones that shouldn't be there. One club in particular drew a large crowd that extended down to 3 shops over. Above the entrance hung a brightly lit sign in red with the words "Death Note." Though its purpose was hidden by its name, this place served as a host club, harboring more than 15 beautiful women and one pretty-faced male.

Light Yagami adjusted his black tie in front of the mirror, loosening the knot only to tighten it once again. He tousled his fine brown hair and put on a charming smile before heading out of the changing room for his waiting customers. He ventured out into the main room where many of the girls had already begun the night's work. His eyes focused onto the waiting area where he expected to see a blond girl waiting excitedly for him. Surprisingly though, rather than his usual giddy customer, the pair of eyes that watched him approach were that of a man hunched over slightly with wide, dull eyes. Light conjured up his smile once more and stopped before the customer.

"Hello, I'm currently the only host available, so if it's not a problem, I will be spending the evening with you tonight." Light smiled gently toward the man as he bowed respectfully. He wasn't really into having male customers, but if they paid him well, then he was willing to sacrifice a few hours to play with them.

"That's fine." The other man replied with a gruff tone. Perhaps it was his first time and that was why he observed every action made in the large room, taking note of every little detail. Only when Light ushered him to a small isolated booth did he focus his attention on his host.

"Are you alone tonight?" Light asked casually as he took a seat on the booth. He watched the other man take a seat at the far end of the booth, as far as he could get from Light. He brought his feet up onto the leather covering and hunched himself over, almost as if he were at a computer desk. When Light received no answer, he continued to speak cheerfully as if the question had not been asked. "I apologize for not having one of the female hosts entertain you tonight. If I am truly not to your liking, I can get one of them." Light faintly hoped that he would agree with his proposal, but at the same time, he was a bit curious as to what this kind of person was doing at a host club. He's had some strange ones before, but this one was strange to the point that he seemed completely out of place. Then again, with a person like this, where did he fit in?

"Why are you the only male here... ah..." The other man paused before tilting his head a bit, waiting for Light to give his name.

"Light Yagami. You can call me Light." He replied with a gentle smile, though disappointed that his question had been avoided. "Why? Well, the owner wanted this to have a feeling of Hell. He had a vision of a 'beautiful death.' It's a bit odd, I have to admit, but all of us agree that death should be something beautiful."

"If this is Hell, then that would make you the devil, isn't that right Yagami-kun?" The older man concluded as he turned his attention once more to the other parties surrounding him.

Light chuckled a bit before pulling out a bottle of champagne from who knows where. "I suppose I am... Ah, I don't believe I've gotten your name yet."

Wide eyes stared Light down immediately after the question had been asked. "L." L watched silently as Light poured two glasses of champagne, taking one toward L and used that chance to take the seat directly beside him. He refused the glass, only to respond with, "Do you have anything sweet?"

"Like... what?" Light asked at a bit of a loss. He set the two glasses down.

"Tea... and sugar?" L asked in all seriousness.

"Ah... I'll get some for you then." The confused host stood up and passed by L, sending a gust of air toward him. "Is there anything in particular you want?" Light stopped as he got past the table in front.

L lifted his head off his knees and faced Light with a bit of a childlike look to his face. "What cologne are you wearing Yagami-kun?"

Caught off guard once again, Light hesitated. He has never met anyone that had ignored him to this extent and still continued on at their own pace. If they weren't going to cooperate with him, then there's no use in even going to a host club. This kind of treatment was just like being in a real relationship! That was exactly what he didn't want; it was utterly annoying.

"I don't wear any, but many of the girls wear the same perfume, so it probably stuck onto my clothes." Brown eyes searched the ceiling of the building as he tried to recall the name of the perfume. "I believe it was Victoria's Secret 'Pink' or something of the sort. Do you not like the smell?"

L returned back to his former position while saying, "No, it smells nice." The light, fragrant scent reached his senses once more as Light retrieved the drinks he had previously poured for them. As Light began to leave the table, L managed to call him right before he was out of hearing distance. "Yagami-kun, thank you."

Light smiled again toward his oddball of a customer. "Nothing to it." He made his way into the kitchen, where he asked for a pot of tea to be made for L. Not wanting to bore his customer, the good host headed toward the booth he had left L in. As he neared it, he had begun to wonder if he had gone in the right direction. Light turned left and right and everything seemed to be as they were when he left, all except his customer. He cocked his head to the side wondering where he'd gone, but it didn't matter as long as he was paid.

"Hey Light, your number one customer is here," one of the female hosts joked as she nudged him on his shoulder.

Light turned his head toward the waiting area once more, finally seeing his long awaited, high-tipping customer, Misa, who jumped up and down excitedly for him. Ah yes, this was why he was a host.

The night waged on as L received a call amidst his sleepless night, informing him of yet another related death. The call regarded his latest case: a simple murder that had transformed into a war. It was L against "Shinigami," a title given to the nameless killer. Whether or not this killer wanted to be known, L wasn't sure, but he did know the common strand between the many deaths that occurred: Death Note Host Club.

L arrived at the crime scene, the stench of blood and chemicals mixed with polluted air filling his nostrils. He approached the yellow boundaries and ducked beneath them, coming face to face with a middle-aged man that had come to his death just moments ago. The man had died by a clean cut to his throat about 5 hours ago, at exactly 11 P.M. and then was left on the side of the road, completely obscuring one's view of a beautiful nightlife scenery.

The awkward detective squatted down and examined the body closely. As he did so, he filtered through the dead man's pockets, pulling out his wallet with ease. With his fore fingers, he opened the leather wallet and extracted a single card from it. On the card was the name "Death Note" and in subtext directly beneath it read, "Where death is a beautiful sin." Other than the address and the phone number of the club, nothing more was added to it except the faint smell of feminine perfume and champagne.

Dropping the wallet along with the card, the busy detective returned to his car and left the crime scene without another word, a lingering thought floating in the back of his mind.

"Ah, he's here again." Light mumbled as he came face to face once again with his weirdest customer. He smiled at L brightly, taking the other man toward the same booth as before. "You disappeared on me yesterday. Did something come up?" No response.

L took his seat in his usual manner, this time situating himself in the seat beside Light. His eyes searched the room once again for suspicious activity, but he didn't expect much. If he had to be called in, this was no common murderer wandering about the streets. "Yagami-kun, have you heard of 'Shinigami?'"

"Hm... I believe so," Light paused as he thought about it a bit more. "He's the one that kills in the name of Death Note, right?" He chuckled as L completely focused his attention on him. "I think it might just be a jealous customer, who's perhaps a little psychotic. None of the girls here seem like they'd do such a thing." The boy poured some freshly made tea into two cups that had been prepared beforehand.

L eyed the pot as well as Light, wondering how he knew that he would come back.

"A good host always expects a customer to return," Light responded, understanding what L's suspicious glances meant. "I wasn't really sure if you'd be back actually. It was just a guess." He handed a cup to L, then held out a bowl of sugar cubes for him.

The wide-eyed man took the cup and picked out sugar cube after sugar cube, taking about half of the content within the bowl, not really surprising Light with his odd preferences. "Do you have some cookies to go along with the tea?" L tilted his head to the side in a questioning manner, practically insisting that Light leave to get him some cookies.

"I... can go check." Light replied nervously as he left the booth.

"Yagami-kun," L called again as he did the before. "Thank you."

Light smiled as he gave the man a small nod and headed for the kitchen. He couldn't help but feel that when he returned to the bustling room that his stranger would be gone yet again. Shrugging the feeling away, Light took a box of cookies hidden away in the pantry and took off to accompany his partner. "...I suspected as much," Light sighed when he saw his empty booth. He looked at the box of cookies in his hand and smirked, "Perhaps he'll be here again tomorrow."

Day after day, for many days, L came back and in every visit, the routine would be the same: a question would be asked and Light would answer, a request would be presented and Light would act upon it; as Light left, he would be called and thanked; when he returned, he would be alone to wait for his visitor until the next evening. Truthfully, Light had become fond of the strange detective, though he would never admit to it. As the days passed, Light came to understand what kind of person L was and vice versa. Without ever truly saying who they were, the two understood each other.

Everything was revealed on a single day when Light left to retrieve another box of cookies, yet received no thanks. He was puzzled; it wasn't like L to just forget to thank him... or perhaps was it because today, he would be the one to thank L? Light shook his head; there was nothing he would have to thank him for.

"Yagami-kun," a low voice called to him, instantly snapping him away from his thoughts.

"Ah, you can't be here," Light said gently, grabbing the box of cookies and making his way toward L. He reached his hand toward L's shoulder, trying to turn him around. The moment his hand made contact with the detective's shoulder, cold metal cuffs were clasped onto his wrist, the other one connected to L's own thin wrist. "...Sorry, I don't do S&M. Go to the other club down the street. They charge a little less too."

L didn't reply as he pulled Light out of the kitchen and through the back door where L's sleek black car waited for them. "Ride with me a bit, Yagami-kun."

"I don't really have a choice do I?" Light asked, his smiling face nonexistent now. The once warm face of Death Note's finest host was replaced with a cold, calculating gaze that aimed daggers at his cuffed partner. "Are you going to arrest me?"

L paused before entering the car. He glanced at Light, his expression as blank as ever. "It's my job."

L spun around in his chair nonchalantly, a cherry-flavored lollipop occupying his mouth. On his third swing, he took a quick glance at the red lighting of his alarm clock, though why he ever needed one was beyond him. Now that Shinigami was put behind bars in a maximum prison in who-knows-where, there was nothing else to do... except spin. Just as L began to think of the many things that bothered him about potato chips, his phone suddenly began to ring ominously as if terrible news would arrive. Taking the phone into his hand cautiously, L answered the phone in a low, gruff voice.

"L! Shinigami! He-He... He's escaped! We don't know how, but-!" The man continued on, thinking that L was still listening to him on the other line.

"...Yagami-kun?" L froze as a light crash sounded behind him, knowing that only a stranger would make such a ruckus in his computer-lit room. With the light of the LCD screens behind him, L left the phone on the desk, still on, and swiveled in his chair, facing the direction in which the sound came from.

"I was really beginning to wonder what a man like you was doing at Death Note." Light's amused voice echoed into the dark room. "Turns out, you were that L. I had my doubts at first."

"How did you find me?"

"I'm Shinigami. I will always know where you are."

"Where will you go now?"

"More people want to die beautifully."

"Will you kill me?"

"...No. I'm only here to thank you."

"For what?"

"...For nearly making me believe that I wanted to live beautifully with another person." A shuffling of clothes was heard near the largest window of the house, and as L turned his head, Light's dark shadow appeared before him. The window behind this dark figure was slightly ajar, just enough for a thin guy like Light to fit through.

Just as the boy headed out, L called to him as he did many times before. "Yagami-kun!"

As routine forced him to stop, Light smiled and beat L to it, "Thank you, L."

L sat silently on his computer chair as the fragrant and fleeting scent of Light Yagami cascaded down onto him with the help of the evening's breeze. This was what gave him away. Every death, no matter what gender or age, had this scent. It was generally feminine, making it seem like a woman's doing, but there was a distinctly male scent along with it, Light's scent. After being beside the boy for many days, L had come to memorize this smell; even with his eyes closed, just as long as Light was there, he could sniff him out.

This was Shinigami's scent.

All the streetlights began to take effect as the sun set over the horizon. No place was more packed with neon signs and flashing lights than the red-light district. All along the streets were groups of all kinds of people, even ones that shouldn't be there. One club in particular drew a large crowd that extended down to 5 shops over. Above the entrance hung a brightly lit sign in red with the words "Fragrant Love." Though its purpose was hidden by its name, this place is a host club, harboring more than 15 beautiful women and 10 handsome men.

In one particular booth sat a lone, strange man. His eyes were wide like a panda's and he sat in the most awkward of positions. He waited for somebody, and if it wasn't the right person, he ignored them altogether.

"I hear you're waiting for someone. What is it that you want from them?" A tall man asked as he gave L a gentle smile.

"A bit of their time."

The man towered over L inconspicuously, his face mere inches from away from the other man's. The gentle smile faded as an arrogant smirk replaced it, shifting his head so that only this one man could see his expression. "I charge $150 an hour now. Still want a bit of my time?"

L closed his eyes as he inhaled a familiar, beautiful scent. His eyes gazed at the other man's face as his eyes glazed over in an ecstatic haze. Everything he had done was to keep this person close to him. He betrayed his honor, his pride and his identity as the world's greatest detective just to keep this person his. Death had a funny way of changing a person, but even worse was the way Shinigami liked to play with their prey.

"Hai, Yagami-kun."

Cookee: So... This was kinda boring I'll admit. I wrote this in two days without much heart put into it, so I don't mind taking flames. I did it only because Monkey's computer is out for repair and she asked me to write something. There are some things I probably made confusing right? So to clear things up...

In the end, L did help Light escape, yes. The whole conversation at L's house was just to assure the other person on the line that L didn't help Light escape... Althought he did. XD I accidentally made Light a really greedy, money-loving guy. I think that fits his character though, if he's working as a host, right? In the end, Light doesn't actually love L. That stuff about making him want to "live beautifully" was just a bunch of BS; he just wants L's money and L knows it (Light wouldn't be a "beautiful" Shinigami if he didn't capture the heart of his prey right?). In that scene, he was actually saying, "Thanks for helping me escape. HAH!" Take note of his hesitation there... His last "thank you" was really meant for the escape thing if you didn't catch the hesitation. XD

Ahhh... this sucked. T.T OH, his motive for killing? Actually, when he replied to L about why the manager made it so that he was the only guy, he was actually replying with his own opinion. That wasn't obvious though. So his motive was just to make those who hated their lives die beautifully... that, and if they didn't pay the club right, they would get a nice visit. XD