A short (barely) Christmas fic on my part. Merry Christmas to one and all! (title reads: Merry Christmas, my friend)

Summary: Perhaps, just once, he could acknowledge this one tradition, in respect for those who didn't live to see it. A tribute to those no longer with us, on one lonely Christmas Eve.

Spoilers: Chapter 58, Episode 25, L's real name

--- Joyeux Noël Mon Ami

Light didn't realise it until one rainy night, just over a month after L's death. A month in which he had successfully led the Kira case into a completely different direction, lying, tricking and deceiving to ensure his own security.

He looked at the black notebook in his hand, plain and uninteresting except for the foreign characters on the front that no man on earth could hope to read. Rem's Death Note.

The rain outside his and Misa's apartment drummed rhythmically against the window. It blanketed the whole city in a veil of calmness, and was strangely reminiscent of that night, so long ago, in which the world's greatest detective's heart had stopped beating, the night in which Kira had finally triumphed over his greatest obstacle.

- The bells are really loud today.-

But even now, on the eve of a foreign holiday that he never bothered to celebrate, he realised that he never took the time to uncover the secret he had been seeking for so long. He never found out L's true name.

Perhaps it was out of reverence for the lanky detective; he didn't deny the fact that it had been an interesting game between the two of them, and yes, he did believe that they perhaps could have been allies, maybe even friends, once upon a time.

Or perhaps the duty of Kira, the new god, had overcome him in such that he only continued scribbling down names in the notebook, not even sparing a glance at the last name that Rem had written down.

Well, it's time to find out what I've been looking for all this time.

And Light opened the Death Note.

Lines upon lines of neat, orderly handwriting stared up at him. If L's name had been Japanese, which he was pretty sure it wasn't, it would have been near impossible to distinguish it from the mass of other characters. Instead, Light flicked carefully through the pages, backtracking a whole month of criminal's names.

It took him a while to find it -- he had been working hard after L's absence -- but eventually he stopped at a page where the handwriting was noticeably different from his own, and English letters stood out starkly against the Japanese characters, proclaiming the only name that could be L's.

Light never celebrated Christmas, but he suspected that his once nemesis would have grown up with its tales and cheers. Perhaps, just once, he could acknowledge this one tradition, as homage to the deceased.

As the rain continued to fall outside, the bells that Light couldn't hear rang, loudly and clearly through the night sky for the world to hear, mourning the death of its saviour. The clock struck twelve, and Light smiled bitterly for the only one he could really call a friend.

"Merry Christmas, L Lawliet." My friend.