It's the thought that makes it all worthwhile

Disclaimer: This is a little treat for my loving Death Note readers. Some of you may be familiar with my story Disturbia, and I would have liked to have had a new chapter of that up today as well, but plot bunnies for that are taking a little break for a hot chocolate and cookies. Thankfully, some fluffy little bunnies just came on board and would like to see this one done up!

This one is for all the Matsuda and L fans out there...the yaoi fans shall be disappointed, but I hope you enjoy it anyway!

Happy Holidays!

L could only stare at the mess before him.

Matsuda could only blush and hold out the basket in his hands, a red blush lighting his face up like a Christmas light.

The task force ignored the two and dug into their own baskets of treats Matsuda had given them.

"M- merry Christmas, Ryuzaki!" Matsuda stammered, looking at the stone faced detective in front of him.

The detective just stared at the usually clean officer in front of him. Matsuda had a festive holiday hat on, but that had to be the cleanest thing on him. Flour was splashed across his body, and under the hat, the young man's dark hair was nearly white with the substance. what appeared to be a spot of dried cookie dough was stuck on his cheek and Matsuda would occasionally raise a hand and rub it. His hands were covered in some mild burns and it appeared he had a large mess of sprinkles stuck to him.

But, he was smiling.

L couldn't reason why on earth the man had gone through so much trouble to bake cookies for Christmas. To L, it was nothing but a cheap government excuse for a holiday to scam people out of money and make children even more spoiled and annoying. Although...somehow, the sight of how hard Matsuda had worked to make the little cut-out and sugary Christmas trees, reindeers and stars...well, it seemed nice.

"Thank you, Matsuda-san." L replied softly, and gently took the little basket from the man's hands. He noted the little blue bow that was neatly tied to the handle and the green and red plaid napkin that made a cushion for the neatly arranged cookies. Then, he looked Matsuda in the eyes, smiled, and said something he never thought he'd say.

"Merry Christmas to you, too."

The way Matsuda's face lit up like the big tree they set up in the middle of the city made L feel like he'd just solved the Kira case, had justice brought to the world and had single-handedly made world peace.

It was a good feeling.

Matsuda giggled, and scratched the back of his head gently. "I hope you like them! I tried to find a recipe that everyone would like..."

"Um...Matsuda?" Aizawa asked horsely from his spot on the couch. "Would you go to the coffee room? I think I left my keys there, and I'm rather buried in work right now, so I can't go myself..."

"Sure." Matsuda replied, smiling at his senior. "Hope you like the cookies!"

"Ye-yeah!" Aizawa coughed, holding his chest gently as Matsuda ran out of the room. As if they were waiting for him to leave, Aizawa and everyone else except L started coughing and hacking the cookies back up.

"Jeez..." Aizawa gasped. "He can't bake at all!"

Soichiro chuckled dryly, drowning a bottle of water quickly before answering, "Yes, but he tried. Other then the burns, I think they wouldn't have been to bad."

"Just imagine if he tried to get a date like that though!" Ide gasped. "He'd be single for the rest of his life!"

"Like you?" Aizawa gasped.

Mogi couldn't even speak, he was to busy drowning himself in his coffee.

L looked at them, then lifted one of the cookies.

"No, Ryuzaki!" Light gasped, as he noticed the detective taking a bite out of the little tree.

The other task members watched in horror as L ate the cookie quietly, a thoughtful look on his face. After a moment, he swallowed (Mogi nearly passed out in shock) before announcing calmly. "I like them."

As the other task members stared, L turned around and smiled softly while eating another one. No way he was going to share.

Nor was he going to tell them that his had the burnt parts scraped off.

/Fin/

A/n: Aww! That was cute, wasn't it? I like the idea of a Matsuda who tries to hard, To inform you, the cookies were not burnt on purpose. Matsuda worked all night and just didn't notice.

In fact, he fell asleep in the coffee room looking for Aizawa's keys...which are in Afro's pocket. I also know that L was not introduce until after Christmas the first year, and died two months before in the next one.

In loving memory of a sugar eating, socially deprived and downright awesome Detective, L.