Forever and a Week Chapter 6: Do You Want Some Cheese With That Whine?, a death note fanfic

Disclaimer: It is with a heavy heart that I admit that the exclusive rights to Death Note aren't mine, nor will they ever be *wails*

Rating: M

Pairings: L/Light, with hints of Matt/Mello.

Summary: If there was one thing Light Yagami hated more than kids messing with his shampoo, kids nearly chocking on Lego pieces and let's not forget kids exploding the whole TV set, it was nineteen years old sweet-loving kids with a severe case of chicken pox that loved to stare at him while he slept.

A/N: This has to be my quickest update since… ever o.0 I think I might be getting a fever if I've willingly started writing without trying to convince myself to do it for a week beforehand.

Not to mention that I find this chapter half fan-service, half useless to the plot. Well, not completely useless, as it'll make the situation even more awkward, but I shouldn't have wasted a whole chapter on it… I think I just went from 10 total chapters to 11 T_T

Forever and a Week

Chapter 6

Do You Want Some Cheese With That Whine?

Light frowned as he felt consciousness draw upon him. He'd had the strangest dream the previous night. Something about Lawliet locking himself in his room and refrigerators trying to kill him. Not to mention that, at some point, he'd had his hair chopped off.

Vaguely wondering what that could mean, Light opened his eyes and was confused to find himself on the rough, blue carpet of his temporary room.

Did I fall out of bed during the night? That has never happened before!

He braced himself on one elbow and rubbed his eyes with the other hand. As he turned his head to inspect the rest of his room, he came face to face with…

…Lawliet. The man was crouched next to his head, knees to his chest and palms resting on them, studying Light's every move. Surprisingly for the brunet, he was more freaked out by the disturbing resemblance to his dream than the actual fact that Lawliet had gotten into his locked room.

Staring right back at Lawliet with a blank expression, he got up on his knees, just then noticing the dark green blanket that fell off his back. If he had indeed fallen from his bed, he couldn't have taken the blanket with him, could he?

Wait a minute… since when did he have a green blanket?! All his bedclothes were blue themed!

Just then his eyes fell on his garments. Not only was he dressed in his day clothes, but he was also half drenched.

Only then did he start considering that, maybe, his dream was not actually a dream. Seconds later, he had remembered everything. Lawliet actually had locked himself in Light's room. A fridge had skated its way down the stairs and slammed itself in a wall. The last thing he remembered was being hit in the head by a bucket of paint while he was…

…screaming profanities at Lawliet.

Eyes widening in humiliation, Light adverted his eyes from Lawliet's unblinking ones. Had he… had he actually exploded like that? What happened to his controlled calm and intelligent remarks? What happened to his damn pride?!

He looked at his hands and noticed the strains of black paint. He could guess his hair and face didn't look much better. The carpet was also full of it and he realised he'd have to clean it later.

He grabbed the blanket from its place pooling around him, noticing it also bared marks of paint. Eager to break the awkward silence, he addressed Lawliet.

"Is this yours?"

The black haired man nodded, still not taking his eyes off Light. His face was unreadable in its blankness. Light mistook it for anger.

Of course he's angry! I have just openly ridiculed him loud enough for the entire neighbourhood to hear!

"Oh…" he said dumbly, unable to think of a better answer. "Er… I…"

I can't just say 'Thank you'! Even if I have acted immature, he's still an annoying bastard who won't leave me alone! But… then again, he might not have done much, but he did go out of his way to get a blanket to cover me. Why would he, if he's angry with me? Why, Lawliet, you idiot?

"…I'll wash it later," he finished lamely, still not looking at the other man.

Lawliet just stared for a long time, as if contemplating Light's words. Finally, he just nodded again.

Avoiding the staring man at all costs, Light got up completely, trying his best to ignore the uncomfortable feeling of his pants stuck to his ass. He had to change and soon.

Just then he noticed his mattress. Or the lack thereof.

"Lawliet," he said, still staring at the wooden skeleton of his bed, naked without its mattress and sheets, "where is my mattress?"

Lawliet, too, turned his unblinking stare on the rest of Light's bed, thumb pressed to his lips.

"In the bathtub. Don't you remember, Raito-kun?" he answered, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Of course. If they had already found a way to get into his locked room, why not use his goddamed mattress too?! Light mentally rolled his eyes for not realising this sooner.

Light made his way to the wardrobe, wiping his blackened hands on his equally dirty pants, and opened it. He carefully took out a pair of khakis and a blazer, conscious that Lawliet was still watching his every move. After he closed the wardrobe, Light turned to stare awkwardly at Lawliet.

Since when are you awkward about Lawliet, of all people?! his conscience scolded him. It's your room after all; tell him to get the hell out of it!

"I'm going to take a shower," he tried to beat around the bush. He should have guessed such subtleties did not work on Lawliet, as the man simply nodded once again, not at all keen on moving. "I'd rather you left my room," the brunet tried the direct approach.

"Does Raito-kun have something to hide?"

Yes; my privacy.

"Are you searching for something in my room?" Light decided to counter the question with one of his own.

He hadn't expected it to work, but Lawliet just got up, thumb still plastered to his lips, went for the door and exited, Light following him. The raven haired man just went up the stairs without another word.

This guy has to be one of the few unsolvable mysteries of the world, Light decided with a roll of eyes.

Change of clothes kept a fair distance from his dirty self, Light entered the bathroom, keen on checking all toiletries in the room for any suspicious substances.

As he pulled off his filthy blazer, he caught sight of his reflection in the mirror. Sure enough, his face and hair were full of dried black paint, making his once auburn locks stick in random directions. With no little amount of horror, he noticed that a few strands on the crown of his head, shorter than the rest, were erected upwards.

For any normal person, it wouldn't have been that much of a problem. The hairs would have been barely noticeable with the help of appropriate hair products. Someone like Lawliet would have barely even noticed he was missing hair! But Light…

How could I have forgotten about that?! I'll kill them!

Raging, Light shoved his fist in his mouth and bit brutally to stop himself from once again screaming bloody murder.

For the past half of hour Light had been glaring at his half-eaten sandwich.

He didn't even have anything against the poor chunk of cheese, meat and bread, but his current level of displeasure made him want to take it all out on any inanimate object he crossed paths with.

He had just finished taking his shower and decided on a snack before tackling his mountain of untouched homework. He'd been running behind with school in the past few days, due to the unfortunate events with the house's inhabitants.

Just thinking about his charges made Light's blood boil some more.

Only then, while clean and not fearing for his life every second – at least not to the same extent – did he realise the damages that those brats have caused the house. Lawliet's fridge was completely glued to the wall next to the front door; only a repairman could probably undo the damages, and maybe, if they were lucky, actually bring the poor appliance to life again.

The hole in the ceiling of the second floor bathroom was mesmerising. Light could stare at it infinitely, contemplating all the ways in which Masahiro would torture him when he saw it. Fortunately, one of the kids' heads – mostly Mello – would always appear through it eventually and stick his tongue at him.

And, not the least, Light's mattress was completely and utterly soaked. He had had the time of his life pulling it out of the tub and dragging it to the back yard to dry. Any neighbour passing through would deem them crazy if they saw a bed wrapper lying in their lawn, but there was only so much a blow-drier could do.

And if it all wasn't enough for the brunet's delicate nerves, Lawliet's messy mop of hair decided to appear through the kitchen arc, followed by the rest of his hunched body. The raven had both of his hands in his pockets and was staring at Light with his usual blank eyes.

Unable to muster the energy to even tell Lawliet away, Light simply stared back. And stared. And stared some more. Just as he felt he couldn't stop himself from blinking any longer, he decided to break the silence.

"Yes?"

"I believe this belongs to Raito-kun," the man simply answered and extracted a delicate object from his pocket, holding it between his index and thumb in his now typical fashion, and handed it to Light.

"Oh," Light simply muttered, noticing it was his own electric shaver.

"I have found it taped to Matt-kun's car, along with another few electronics."

Figures. I wonder how I didn't recognise it earlier. Maybe because it was threatening to peel my scalp off…

"Okay," Light said simply, grabbing the gadget from Lawliet's fingers.

He'd better not be expecting me to thank him…

Luckily, Lawliet expected no such thing, as he turned around and exited the kitchen without another word.

Light rolled his eyes and placed the shaver on the table, as far away from himself as possible. He wouldn't be using it anytime soon after his last… adventure.

Getting tired of waiting for hunger to kick in again, he got up from the table, leaving his sandwich there for later. He grabbed Lawliet's dark green blanket from where he'd left it on the nearby chair, and headed to the basement to wash it.

In a few minutes he got the washing machine up and going and was staring around the damp, dark room. It would be positively amusing to lock the three devil spawns in there for a couple of days, until they learned some manners. It would be plain hysterical to lock Lawliet along with them. That way, the brunet would actually have some peace and quiet.

Sighing to himself, Light decided to make his way to his room when a discreet spark from the darker side of the room caught his attention. He stepped closer, only to notice it was a hand-made, wooden rack, overstuffed with near identical glass bottles, shining invitingly in the dim light.

Wine, he concluded after one quick glance at the labels. It seems Masahiro likes collecting wine. How… odd, for a middle-class man like him.

Sure, there weren't any actual expensive drinks, the oldest one being only from ten years prior, but there was something special about their appearance, even with the thin layer of dust that covered them, that made them so appealing – similar to old memories, filled with heart-wrenching nostalgia.

Of, course, Light had never been inebriated. He despised people who drunk bottle after bottle, in a vain attempt to forget about their pitiful problems. But now, after all that had happened to him in the past few days, forgetting about everything for a few hours seemed ideal.

Deciding on the spot, he grabbed a bottle from the back, carefully rearranging the others to cover up the missing space. He blew the dust off it and read the label. It was only a semi-cheap red wine from two years prior, but it would have to do.

If Masahiro demands to know what I've dome with it, I'll just tell him it's payback for my hair-stylist bill, Light thought cynically as he made his way up the stairs.

"Do you think we have anything to worry about?" Mello asked between bites of chocolate.

Damn Pretty Boy for sending us up here without dinner! Luckily, I've foreseen a similar problem and packed enough chocolate to last me all week!

The 'similar' problem being, of course, the lack of chocolate on a ray of several miles.

"Given Light Yagami's current state of anger and the bits and pieces of personality I have gathered up to this moment, I am very certain that, yes, we should be worrying," N answered in his usual robotic tone.

The white haired freak had sneaked out of his room half of hour after the final prank had taken place and settled himself into Matt and Mello's attic, asking if they had anything to eat. He was currently gazing in a quite disturbed manner at the mountains of chocolate Mello had placed in the middle of the room. Matt's stupid dog was sitting right next to him, and Mello had a hard time figuring which of the two hand the most pitiful pair of puppy-dog eyes.

"Damn it."

The two boys turned to look at the third inhabitant of the room, who had been searching in his voyage bags for quite some while, muttering obscenities all the while.

"If you're looking for spare batteries, there're a couple on the nightstand," Mello tried guessing, as the redhead hadn't mentioned what he was searching for so feverishly.

"Hmm? Oh, no, I don't need batteries."

"Battery charger?"

"No."

"GameBoy?"

"No."

"Goggles? They're right on your head you know…"

"NO, man!"

"Then what?!"

"This!" Matt suddenly exclaimed, startling both his companions – although N did not even bat an eyelash.

Matt made his way to the mountain of chocolate where N, Mello and the dog were settled, gripping a crumpled paper tightly in his hand. On closer inspection, Mello noticed it was a paper container, half filled with something.

"It's this stuff dad likes. He doesn't let me smoke them, but I've tried anyway. They're awesome!" Matt explained, opening the pack and revealing about a dozen thin, circular objects. A strong, biting smell spread into the entire attic.

"Cigarettes," N said before Mello could.

"You've been smoking?" Mello exclaimed, his tone half admiring, half disgusted.

"Well, not that much, since my dad nearly caught me, but that's why I've taken this when he wasn't looking," the redhead grinned, proud of himself.

Matt then extracted a box of matches from one of his pockets and, fingers slightly trembling, placed a cigarette between his lips and lit it. He took a long, exaggerated drag and quickly released it, eyes slightly watering from the thick smoke. The other two boys had been staring at him all the while as if he had grown an extra head.

"What?" Matt asked, genuinely confused. "Do you want some, too?" he offered the fuming joint to the other two.

Mello immediately shook his head, eyes hypnotized by the waves of dark smoke leaving its end.

"You do realise that smoking is the primary cause for lung cancer and several other serious illnesses, don't you?" N asked in his usual all-knowing tone, but he, too, was looking uncomfortably at the joint.

"Do you want it or not?" Matt asked, ignoring the comment.

Mello was fully expecting N to refuse. Someone like N did not get involved with things as risky as smoking. Possibly just to prove him wrong, the white haired boy extended a small hand and grabbed the cigarette awkwardly. He placed it between his lips and took a short, timid draw…

…only to start couching violently seconds after.

"Hey, are you okay?" Matt asked, looking alarmed.

N coughed one more time and handed the cigarette back, eyes slightly watering. Before Matt could reclaim it, Mello quickly grabbed it and put it between his own lips, before he lost his courage. That was his chance. His chance to show N that he was better than him at something, even if it was only smoking. After all, how hard could it be?!

He took a long, confident drag, fully expecting to feel that light-headed sensation people always talked about. Unfortunately, the only thing he felt was an uncomfortable sting down his throat as his body rejected the smoke. He couldn't contain himself more than one second, before he started coughing violently and tears started pouring from his eyes.

"M-Mello! Hey, man, hang in there!" he vaguely heard Matt in the distance and a hand started patting his back.

Only after a full minute did his coughing finally subside. The first thing he noticed was that the blasted joint was no longer between his fingers, but held by Matt as far away from the blond as possible.

Humiliated, Mello started whipping his tears away, not wanting to meet anyone's eyes. The disgusting taste of tobacco just wouldn't disappear from his taste buds and he felt like he could retch any minute.

"Never again," he finally muttered, when he felt his voice come back to him.

"Agreed," N said from his left.

Mello removed his hands from his now red and puffy eyes, just in time to see Matt shrug and once again place the cigarette in his own mouth.

Outraged by the action, Mello grabbed the damned thing between the redhead's lips, threw it to the ground and extinguished it with his foot.

"And neither will you," he decided, glaring at Matt, who just looked confused.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

L's spidery fingers had been typing at his laptop continuously for the past few hours, save for the occasional snack break, in which he practically vacuumed another piece of the cake Raito-kun had bought him.

His project was nearly finished, but he'd have to pull an all-nighter if he wanted to make it to the deadline.

Which just happened to be the following day…

Not taking his eyes off the screen, L's fingers groped blindly across the bed for the empty plate, once filled with cake, and proceeded to fish every crumb of sugar off it, then lick\ it off his finger.

He was so concentrated on his work that he nearly bit his finger when a loud crashing sound was heard from the floor below. L detached himself from his bed and went to the door, all the while wary of any further noise.

What if his relatives had started cooking up something again? It was now very obvious that he had taken Raito-kun's side, thus they wouldn't show him any mercy.

He creaked the door open and peeked outside, only to be met with complete silence.

Would it be wise to wander on the halls in this type of situation? Then again, his room was much too close to the lion's den for comfort. It would be much safer if he went to Raito-kun's room.

After all, hadn't the noise come from downstairs? He was fairly sure the children had not left their rooms. There was a possibility of forty-five percent that Raito-kun had endangered himself and was in dire need of help!

Deciding it was only in his best interest to check on the brunet, L exited the room and, in a comical overcautious manner, went down the stairs.

Light giggled to himself as he gazed at the remains of what was once a medium sized pot. He'd been trying to hold onto the coffee table to maintain his balance and had only managed to accidentally hit the nearby plant pot and it had smashed to the ground with a small explosion.

Trying to bite back the sudden need to laugh hysterically, he grabbed the bottle of wine, now containing only two fingers' worth of liquid, and took another long gulp.

After he'd grabbed the wine bottle in the basement, he'd come to his room and started doing his homework, taking a sip of the bitter-sweet liquid every now and then. By the time he'd reached the half of the bottle, his vision had gotten hazy and he could barely see what he was writing. After another few attempts at solving mathematical equations – and ending up writing on the desk – he'd given up and fully concentrated on the nearly empty bottle in front of him.

He'd just dropped to his knees and started collecting the shards from the ground, when the door opened and Lawliet's mop of messy hair made its appearance in the room.

Did Lawliet ever cut his hair? Or comb it, for that matter?

Light unconsciously started giggling once again at the mental image of a Lawliet with ankle-length, uncombed hair.

"Is Raito-kun alright?" the raven asked cautiously as he entered the room and closed the door after himself.

"I'm fuckin' perfect!" Light exclaimed and a wide, stupid grin settled on his face. He took another swing of wine and smacked his lips in a very impolite manner.

"Raito-kun is drunk," Lawliet simply stated, a weirdly blank expression on his face.

Not just blank. Weirdly blank.

Light bit back another giggle, as that would imply detaching his mouth from the bottle.

"Why did Raito-kun deem it necessary to get inebriated?" Lawliet asked again, still weirdly blank.

"You want to know why?" Light asked, then proceeded to throw his arm – not the one holding the bottle, of course; he still needed that one – around Lawliet's neck and brought the man's head closer to his lips to whisper in his ear. "Bring me another one of these and I'll tell you…" he took the last swing of alcohol and placed the empty bottle in Lawliet's hand, "Here."

Lawliet just weirdly stared some more, then removed Light's arm from around his shoulders and left the room.

Light just giggled some more, finding the situation deeply amusing, sat down on the floor and proceeded to play with the grains of soil that now dirtied the entire carpet.

By the time Lawliet came back, holding another bottle of cheap wine, Light had settled himself on his bed – or what was left of it, as the mattress would take a few days to dry off – and was staring unblinkingly at the ceiling, still grinning widely.

"Is Raito-kun sure about this? You are already drunk and another bottle certainly –"

"Those are just details! I told you, I feel great!"

The brunet got up in a sitting position, grabbed the bottle from Lawliet and unscrewed the cork with surprising dexterity. Lawliet settled himself at the edge of the bed in his usual crouched position, biting his thumbnail and staring amusedly at Light as the teen took a long first swing from the bottle.

"Raito-kun seems to be very accustomed to alcohol," the black-haired man said after a while.

"Actually, it's the first time I drink more than a glass."

"I wouldn't have guessed."

Light just shrugged and either understand or chose to ignore the double edged comment. They spent another few minutes in complete silence, just staring at one another. The delicate clink of the bottle against the nightstand was the only sound that pierced the air, distracting neither of the men from their staring competition.

Lawliet was a very curious creature, Light decided. Those big, black eyes, hideous at first sight, those eyes that had the power to pierce into one's very soul and remain unforgettable once they've caught your attention; that mop of hair, dark as ebony, with rough, tangled strands that begged for a combing; that thin body, so fascinating in its pointy angles and smooth, morbidly white skin. Yes, Lawliet was so very peculiar.

And he had an equally peculiar alias.

So simple and predictable. So equally complex and dangerous.

L. Yes, it fit him.

Light broke eye contact to roll his eyes, taking another sip of wine. Maybe the alcohol was actually getting to his brain. He was actually starting to consider Law – no, L – attractive, despite all of the man's revolting appearance and horrible manners…

"I think Raito-kun has had enough," L finally broke the silence, extending his hand for the bottle. Light held it away from the other man's reach, a small smirk playing at his lips.

"I'll give it to you on one condition," he said, not noticing the slurred tone his words had taken, "Finish it."

"No," L simply stated, hand still extended.

"Then, at least take one big gulp. I dare you."

"Raito-kun, that is not a –"

"Refusing a direct challenge? My, my, L, I think I may have overestimated you."

The raven opened his mouth to argue, but quickly closed it back and his eyes burned into Light's. Was that a glare? Yep, it was. Still smirking, Light crawled to the foot of the bed and sat next to L, placing the bottle in the man's still extended hand.

Eyes never leaving Light's, L placed the bottle's head between his lips and leaned his head backwards, taking a few long gulps of the blissful red poison. Light was mesmerised by the way L's pronounced Adam's apple bobbed upwards every time he swallowed. L then put the bottle between them and rested his arm next to his other one, on his bent knees.

"See? It wasn't so bad," Light continued to smirk and took the bottle for another sip of his own.

If L ever noticed – and he most probably did – he never said a word.

" – and then Sayu entered my room and caught Mikami searching through my underwear drawer!" Raito-kun finished his story with a hearty laugh. "She never knew he was searching for the glasses Takada had hid from him!"

Truthfully, L hadn't been listening to Raito-kun's narration since the part where Misa, Light's pretend girlfriend, had stepped on a cat… or was it a hat? In any case, during that part, L's hearing and attention span had gotten mysteriously hazy.

It might just have something to do with the fact that he'd been sharing the bottle of wine with Raito-kun for a while now. The bottle barely had a few more drops in it anymore, which Raito-kun was already eyeing hungrily.

Despite his age, L had never drunk more than a few sips of alcohol at a time. He found the substance an incredible way of losing money and brain cells. But, of course, he wasn't about to admit this to Raito-kun , thus he had taken up the challenge.

"And then this guy with the weird haircut, Higuchi, he… ah, what did he do again?" his brunet companion scratched the back of his head, trying to remember. "It's a stupid story, anyway. So stupid I don't even remember it!" he finished with another laugh.

Who would have thought that, out of the entire world, Raito-kun would be a happy drunk?

"What about you, L?" the raven was stirred from his thoughts by the sudden serious tone.

"What about me, Raito-kun?"

His mind's wheels rotated with the velocity of light. Had the boy asked him a question that he did not hear? That would be very humiliating, even if they were both positively drunk.

"Well, you've barely said a thing all night. Tell me something about you."

"I was born on a cold night of October in the United Ki –" L started in his usual monotone voice, hand groping for the bottle once again, before being rudely interrupted by Raito-kun.

"No, no, not that kind of stuff," the teen wagged one finger in front of him to distract L's attention, while his other hand snatched the bottle from the raven's grasp. "Tell me something nobody knows about you. A secret."

"A secret? But if it were a secret then I wouldn't have any reason no tell Raito-kun."

"But I told you my secrets."

"I did not ask for Raito-kun secrets," the raven reached for the bottle once again, but Raito-kun slapped his hand away, drowning the last gulp.

"It's gone," the brunet said with a small grin, once again placing the empty bottle in L's hand. L placed it back between them without another word.

They spent a few moments in silence. L hugged his knees to his chest and rested his chin on them, struggling to keep his eyes open. He wasn't tired per se, but the room's artificial lightening seemed to have upped quite a few dozens of watts in the past hour, to the point where it was nearly blinding him.

"Hey, L?" Raito-kun suddenly asked while playing with the two empty bottles.

"Yes?"

"Do you have a spare mattress? As you can see, I seem to be missing mine," the brunet giggled again and hit the hard wood of the bed underneath them to prove his point.

"I'm afraid not, Raito-kun. We had one spare, but you used it on Mello-kun and Matt-kun's bed."

"Damn it."

L decided not to comment on the brunet's choice of language, as Raito-kun had proved to be capable of much more when properly angered. Still, it was a pity to see a person as well mannered as Raito-kun cussing so easily.

"Raito-kun could sleep in my room for the night," L said. He did not know why he had suggested such, but it had seemed like a good idea at the time.

"And where'll you sleep?" Raito-kun had turned and was staring at him, eyes comically enlarged.

"In my room," L answered, turning to stare himself at his companion. What could Raito-kun find not understandable in that simple statement? "Raito-kun must remember that I have a double bed."

"Oh," the brunet simply said, still looking suspiciously at L for a few seconds, before smiling cheerfully. "Let's go, then!"

The teen crawled on all fours to the edge of the bed and tried getting up. Unfortunately, he doubled over and would have fallen head first onto the ground, if not for L's quick reflexes. The man quickly got up from his crouched position and grabbed the back of Raito-kun's collar, barely balancing the brunet on his feet.

"Stupid gravitation," L heard the teen slur.

L got up from the bed himself, still holding the poor, wrinkled collar, before placing his hands on both of Raito-kun's shoulders, steadying him.

"I think Raito-kun has had a bit too much to drink," he concluded.

"Rubbish, I feel great," came the reply, followed by a humiliating hiccup.

L did not further comment, but simply pushed Raito-kun forward, steadying him every few seconds, until they were out of the room and ready to climb the stairs. Suddenly, Raito-kun stopped mid-step and turned to L, nearly bumping head first into the man.

"The blanket..." he muttered, trying to pass through L to go in the opposite direction.

"What blanket, Raito-kun?"

"Your blanket. I left it in the washing machine –"

"I do not have any need of it at the moment, Raito-kun, let's –"

But the brunet just pushed him away and tried to make his way towards the basement entrance, immediately stumbling on his own feet. L grabbed his mid-section and steadied him once again. After thinking over his options for a moment, he dragged the youth back to the staircase and leaned him against the railing.

"I'll go and get it, Raito-kun. Stay here."

"Okay," the brunet muttered, still scowling, but finally convinced of his inability to stand on his own two feet.

Nodding to himself, L turned and headed for the old, wooden door in the kitchen that led to the basement. As soon as he opened and gazed upon what seemed to be an interminable amount of stairs, he felt glad he had not let Raito-kun go.

Unfortunately, it proved that L himself was having problems descending said stairs. The raven had to plaster his hands against the nearby wall to stop his head – or surroundings; he had yet to figure out which – from spinning. He briefly considered closing his eyes as to not see the horrors, but quickly decided that, even in his deeply inebriated state, it was a very, very bad idea.

After quite a number of pitiful attempts, L's bare feet finally managed to touch the stone basement floor. Sighing in relief, the youth gently let go of the wall and made his way to the washing machine. Luckily, his legs still listened to him pretty well.

His old blanket, although missing the specks of black paint, was soaking wet as he drew it out of the appliance between two bony fingers. It was unusable in its current state.

I guess in can't be helped, L thought as he unceremoniously threw it in the drying machine and turned it on.

He was just about to exit the room, when his eyes fell on the wine rack for the second time that night.

No, that wouldn't be a good idea, Raito-kun is already pretty much inebriated, and he has school tomorrow, his conscience told him.

L stood there for a few long minutes, trying to decide whether he should indulge in his new interest for alcohol or not. Finally, after checking left and right to be sure that, by some divine misfortune, nobody was watching him, he grabbed a third bottle and stumbled back up the stairs while drowning half of its contents.

Yes… yes… oh, yes, you're doing great! Yes, just like that! Faster… faster… fuck, NO! I lost it…

Matt moaned loudly in displeasure. Next to him, Mello stiffened, pulling the sheets away from his face.

"What happened to you this time?" the blond muttered, glaring at Matt.

"Nothing," the redhead answered quickly, hands fumbling under the sheets to cover his tracks. It wouldn't do for Mello to catch him like this again…

"Nothing, my ass! You just moaned! Don't tell me you were –"

"No, of course not!"

"Matt…"

"I swear, Mello, I wasn't –"

"Jeez, Matt, I told you not to do it anymore, at least when I'm in bed with you! How do you want me to sleep when you –"

"But –"

Mello didn't let him continue, as the blond's hand dove under the covers close to Matt's navel, and retreated shortly after, holding a small electronic device.

"There you are! I was sure you were playing video games again!"

Without another word, he threw the GameBoy at the opposite side of the room, ignoring Matt's pained eyes. The dog, which had been sleeping soundly, woke with a startled yelp when the gadget hit the wall above its head. And he was doing such a good job keeping it down, too!

"Oh, don't look at me like that now!" the blond muttered as he lay back down in bed, dragging the covers up to his neck.

"You just threw away my GameBoy."

"Oh, shut up and go to sleep, it's past midnight –"

"Shh!" Matt suddenly silenced his friend's scold. He strained his ears, trying to once again hear the sound that had caught his attention.

There it is. It sounds like something hard fell to the floor. This can mean only one thing…

"There are burglars in the house!" the redhead exclaimed as he got up from bed, eyes wide.

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Mello glared at him, removing the covers from his person and standing uptight. "If this is a plan of yours to get the Game –" the blond stopped rambling as the sound was heard again, this time closer. "What the hell is that?"

By then, Mello looked positively terrified.

"Burglars, I told you." Matt whispered, eyes wide.

"Don't be stupid, L or Pretty Boy would have heard them…"

"What if they already took them down?"

Mello's jaw dropped at that mere idea, before he composed himself. His slightly enlarged blue eyes were the only mirror of his inner horror.

"Should we go check?" the boy finally asked.

"I think we should," Matt answered as he tip-toed to the attic's entrance. "Let's go!"

"Wait!"

As if on fire, Matt turned around at his friend's alarmed tone. To his relief, Mello was not attacked by a band of criminals, but simply brutally kicked the mass of sheets on his other side, a disgruntled expression on his face.

Oh, Matt had nearly forgotten about that guy…

"Oww –" a tiny, high-pitched voice was heard from under the sheets, and a mop of messy white hair appeared.

"Get up, freak, we've got some burglars to hunt!" Mello exclaimed as he got out of bed.

Near blinked owlishly at the blond, still half-asleep.

He was probably debating Mello's lack of sanity after such a comment, Matt decided as he opened the trap door.

Somebody stop spinning the fucking planet, I'm getting dizzy…

Light rubbed the side of his head where it had hit the staircase's railing. Maybe trying to go upstairs hadn't actually been a good idea. He stretched from his half-lying position on the stairs, leaning against the railing, hoping to get rid of his dizziness soon.

Ignoring L's advice – more like, order – the brunet had tried to ascend the stairs on his own, sustaining himself on the railing. Unfortunately, he had barely climbed three stairs, when he lost his balance and fell disgracefully to the floor, hitting his head on the wooden railing.

After a few unsuccessful attempts to get back on his feet, he gave up, deciding to play with his thumbs while waiting for unconsciousness to overwhelm him.

What would happen when he woke up? What if he missed school because he didn't have an alarm clock to wake him up? What if he never woke up? What if, in the morning, Mello wanted to go to the kitchen, tripped over his dead body and fell down the stairs, breaking his neck?

… actually, that was a good thing. But, still, he wasn't willing to sacrifice his life to kill Mello. There were other, more creative ways of getting rid of –

"Raito-kun, are you alright?"

Light turned his eyes to glare at the dark silhouette towering over him from a few feet away.

"Oh, it's you," he muttered monotonously.

"I told Raito-kun not to move because he might hurt himself," L scolded him as he dragged the uncaring teen to his feet.

The other youth threw one of Light's arms over his shoulders, sustaining more than half of his weight. As L encircled Light's waist to be able to carry him easier, the brunet noticed the bottle of blood-red wine in the other's hand.

"L, you brought booze on your own!" Light exclaimed, followed by a demented giggle.

L decided to ignore him, thus Light continued to laugh at his own dysfunctional joke as he was carried all the way upstairs. Just as they reached the corridor of the second floor, mere feet away from L's room, Light decided he couldn't wait any longer for the bottle and made a run for it, only succeeding in once again hitting the ground with a loud thud.

"Oww, that hurts…" he moaned as he tried to free his left arm from its place, twisted under himself.

"I am starting to doubt Raito-kun's chances of survival this week," L simply said and he once again dragged the young man to his feet.

"About time, too."

After a few seconds of stumbling, L managed to open the door to his room, and dragged Light inside, placing him in a sitting position on his bed.

The brunet, grinning, downed himself on his back, arms extended at sides. He knew that he looked very unlike himself at the moment, lying supine on an alien bed, not bothering to take in his surroundings and smiling like he didn't have a care in the world. His clogged mind processed that as a good thing and he smiled even wider, closing his eyes and placing his hands under his head in a makeshift pillow.

He was allowed to get stoned for a night. There wasn't anything worse that could happen after his horrible day…

"Raito-kun should get drunk more often," the prodigy heard L mutter. He opened his eyes and noticed that the odd raven hadn't moved an inch from his place, standing in the middle of the room, and was staring at Light from head to toe, thumb glued to his lips.

Unable to consider L's words too much in his state of mind, Light just smirked, proud of himself.

"Get in bed already, will you?"

"I'm afraid Raito-kun has already claimed the whole bed. It would be very nice of him to make room."

Light gave the man a confused look, before raising his head to take in his immediate surroundings, noticing for the first time that he was lying horizontally across the bed.

Oh, so that's why I was missing a pillow…

Unable to do much else, he crawled to the left side of the bed – making sure he was in the appropriate direction for once – and crashed face first into a pillow, lying prostrate.

"Thank you, Raito-kun," he heard L's slightly sarcastic voice as the raven crawled over his legs to get to the other side. Once there, L crouched in his usual position, thumb never leaving his lips, still staring at Light. Light turned his head to the side, deciding he had little else to do that stare right back at his companion, suddenly dead serious.

L looked even weirder while drunk. His unblinking eyes tended to go in and out of focus, his usually morbidly white cheeks caught the slightest pink tinge, he forgot that he was prohibited to scratch in Light's presence – and the brunet did not even have the energy to tell him so – and his balance was far from being the best.

Then again, Light was hardly one to talk.

"You know, you still haven't told me a secret," the younger youth finally said, turning his eyes onto the white ceiling.

"I have already declared that I will not be telling Raito-kun such."

"Hmph. At least tell me something about you that not many know."

L considered that for a while. His eyes went out of focus once again and his thumb pressed against his lips as he seemed to weigh his options. That, or he was thinking about sweets, Light's mind added and he stiffened another chuckle.

"When I was thirteen years old, I accidentally walked in on Reika-san and Masahiro-san fornicating," the raven muttered after a while, still deep in thought.

Light chocked on the gulp of wine he was taking. L had walked in on his parents having sex?! No wonder he was the way he was!

If Light himself had walked on his parents doing it, he would have gone mental and killed a few thousand people with a ballpoint pen, or something equally impossible!

Needing to confirm such news, the brunet turned to stare into L's pools of blackness. The raven did not say 'Ha ha, April's Fool!' or 'Gotcha!' – or anything, for that matter – just stared right back for a long while.

Tired of those black, endless pools of nothingness that were L's eyes, Light let his own orbs travel to the man's black locks. L's hair was another oddity of nature. It was crisp and tangled, lacking proper care or even proper combing, yet it managed to fall exactly in the right places on L's forehead and neck. He suddenly felt the need to touch those ashy locks, if only to convince himself that they were just as unkempt as they looked.

Without another word, Light rose himself on his hands and knees, and crawled to behind the raven, never breaking eye contact. L stared after him, as much as his long neck permitted him to, but soon lost sight of the brunet and decided to voice his curiosity.

"What is Raito-kun doing?"

"Shush, it doesn't matter," Light's tone was low and husky. The worst – or best? – part was that the brunet didn't even realise it. He was much too preoccupied by the way L's hair felt between his fingers.

Sure enough, it was rough and dry, clearly lacking any relief a balm could offer. But then, why couldn't he pull his hands away from it? Light gazed at the mass of hair, untangling a loose knot every time he encountered it.

L remained silent as Light continued to pet him, bony hands hugging his knees to his chest tighter and usual. Light's knees were starting to go asleep in their position, pressed against the mattress, but he didn't stop running the fingers of both his hands though the man's hair, parting it at the back, revealing a small, delicate mole punctuating the other's pointy neck, just below his hairline, that was just…

…cute, the boy's delusional mind decided.

Light suddenly felt a burning urge to just place his lips over that near invisible beauty mark, to feel the certain warmth of L's white, bony neck.

Not considering any alternative, he placed his hands on L's shoulders, keeping him in place, and brushed his lips gently against the beauty mark in a delicate kiss, surprised at the utter softness of the skin. Like whipped cream on top of a cake, the thought ironically, scolding himself for the cheesiness of his remarks. In the mere second they remained there, he felt an unearthly heat rise from the pits of his stomach and climb to his cheeks, surely reddening them.

Unfortunately, he was rudely interrupted by the sudden moves L made and was forced to retreat. The raven abruptly turned around to stare at Light, eyes wide and suspicious.

"What is Raito-kun doing?" L repeated, this time rougher. His cheeks, too, were red – if due to the alcohol or anything else, it remained to be seen.

"Nothing," Light replied mysteriously, unable to stop a smirk from growing on his lips at L's discomfort. Hell, he himself had no idea what he was doing anymore.

As if to further prove his insanity, Light's eyes, under their own accord, travelled to L's lips, remaining glued there. He knew he was openly staring, but he couldn't bring himself to care in his inebriated state. All he could think about were those two pale lips, slightly opened as if to mock him. If L's skin felt so soft, then his lips must be heaven.

Unwilling to consider any consequences, Light dragged himself on all fours, slowly, almost seductively if not for his horrible balance, until he was between L's now slightly parted legs. His eyes flickered to the raven's for a second, making sure L would not push him away before he even started something. Sure enough, the older youth's eyes were wide, calculated and suspicious, but not disgusted.

Taking advantage of the short-lived confusion in L's eyes, Light went for the kill with nearly bruising speed. The brunet's head lounged forward, his lips crushing against L's.

Once again he was proven wrong when it came to the odd youth. L's lips were not soft and velvety, but rough and crisp, dry from the lack of care. And Light found himself loving this sensation much more than he would have loved it if they would have felt as soft as any nameless girl's that he had kissed in the past.

It lasted only a second. One hard press of lips. So insignificant in its definition, yet so earth shattering in its feeling.

Light opened his eyes, just then realising he had closed them during the kiss. L's face was mere inches away, huge, bug-like eyes staring right into his soul, noses begging to touch each other.

The next actions happened so fast that Light's slow working brain registered them only moments later. L had apparently decided he also liked the brush of their lips, thus rushing for another round. In his haste, he had knocked Light onto his back, climbing over him brutally, straddling his hips.

Mouths crashed painfully, need overshadowing any other emotion in the two youths' minds. Lips pressed each other passionately, teeth bit any bit of delicate flesh they ran across, tongues danced awkwardly, clouded by inexperience and alcohol.

Light fought for dominance with all his might. He wanted L to feel the same pain he felt, the same burning pleasure sprouting from the pits of his stomach. As L placed his hand behind Light's neck, pressing their mouths as close as nature would allow it, the brunet dragged his nails against L's back, trying to pull a moan, groan, or even just a gasp out of the other man.

They explored each other's mouths with bruising passion, trying to provoke as much pain and pleasure out of the other as possible. L's tongue, now fully in control of what it was doing, felt so wrong in Light's mouth, with its ashy taste, tinged with a sweet edge, and rough, almost forceful domination. So wrong, that it felt distinctly and utterly right, in its fiery dedication.

Yes, fire. L was fire. The same fire that burned in the pits of Light's stomach, begging for release, the same fire that made his groin burn, the same fire that gave life and killed with the same indifference.

L was dangerous. And Light loved every second of it.

In an unconscious attempt to take this sensation to a higher level, the brunet raised his hips upwards, meeting L's bony ones just inches above, crashing with a spasm of pain interlaced with sinful pleasure. Light couldn't suppress a humiliated gasp as specks of white clouded his vision. As if from far away, he felt L's breath catch in his throat and his ministrations freeze for a fraction of a second, before resuming their actions.

Seconds after, they broke the kiss, both breathing in much needed oxygen. Light didn't even have time to open his hazy eyes, when he felt those same chapped lips press against the side of his neck, nibbling and licking at his skin.

Unwilling to give up the little control he could still have, the brunet removed one hand from its place, clinging to L's back, and let it travel down the man's chest, feeling every bony rib through the cotton shirt. Soon, it arrived just above L's groin, where it proceeded to awkwardly unbutton and unzip his jeans.

He heard L gasp lowly as his fingers brushed accidentally the tented bump in his pants.

Light permitted himself a small smirk in his drunken pleasure, glad that L was just as affected by it as he was. He was finally starting to have the upper hand in that game.

Because that's what it was. A game. And the winner was the one who could give and receive the most pleasure at the same time.

Just as Light's trembling fingers were searching for the zipper, a discreet vibration in his pocket started, making him finally give in and moan, losing a stage of their unspoken game. For a second he thought that L was the cause of that vibration, trying to once again send Light over the edge, when a low, mechanic ring followed, also from the direction of his pocket.

Even if his pleasure driven state he realised with stupor what it was.

His cell phone.

The bitter-sweet biting at his neck stopped and L's face rose to meet Light's wide eyes as if suddenly aware of what they were doing. Immediately the raven got off of Light as the brunet dragged himself to the very edge of the bed, letting his feet hang down. He extracted the cell phone from his pocket, trying to ignore the painful erection tenting his pants, and looked at the caller ID.

Of course, who else? Maybe if I don't answer…

Unfortunately, that was not a option. He let the phone ring for another few seconds, until it went silent, before it started ringing once again with renewed energy.

Rolling his eyes in annoyance, the brunet decided to take the darn call and get it over with.

"Hello?" he said into the speaker, trying his best to keep the slur out of his voice.

"Light-kun! Where were you just now?! Misa-Misa told you she'd call!"

Light cringed at the high-pitched voice, deciding it was much, much too late for such conversations. Not to mention that it wouldn't do any good to the headache he was sure to have the next day.

"Oh, hi Misa," he muttered into the cell phone, then hung up, shut down the phone and proceeded to slide it under the bed.

He would find it there the next morning, anyway…

Holding his hand to his head to stop it from spinning, Light turned around to climb back to bed, noticing that L had curled into his usual position by the headboard, effectively hiding his certain erection. The raven's wide eyes, once again regaining their usual, calculated look, were staring at Light searchingly and his thumb was pressed to his mouth, hiding away those sinful lips.

In his inebriated state, it took the brunet a few seconds to realise where exactly L was staring; his lips.

So the bastard isn't as unaffected about this as he wants to seem, Light thought as a knowing smirk settled on his features.

As he stared back at that odd person, that man who turned heads on the street with his anomalies, Light wondered if he should back down. Misa's call had come just in time to wake him up and make him weigh his possibilities logically – or as logically as he could while dead drunk and spurting an erection.

Do I want this? 'Yes, of course you do!' his lower region answered him with a painful reminder.

Would it be worth it? Well, there was only one way to find out.

Not wasting another moment, Light dashed to Lawliet with the rapidity of a panther, capturing the other man's lips in another bruising kiss.

Because he knew he wanted L. God, he wanted him so much.

"What was that?" Matt asked as a particularly loud moan made its way to their ears, breathing down Mello's neck.

"Are they fighting?" N asked from behind Matt.

Mello, who had been the first one to get to the source of the noises – L's room – had claimed the keyhole and was peeping through it.

Needless to say, what he could distinguish was not what any of them expected. From his position, he could discern that Light was lying on the bed with L over him, both missing their shirts. He couldn't see what exactly they were doing, but it certainly did not look like fighting.

Were… were they allowed to do that? Wasn't it forbidden… or something? That was what everyone had told Mello all his life and yet, there was L, the most intelligent person in the blond's world, breaking all those rules. Did that mean that –

"Hey, Mello, come on! What are they doing?" Matt urged, pricking him in the ribs.

"Hold it, will you? I'm trying to see –"

"Oh, let me then!"

"Like hell I'll –"

Without waiting for approval, Matt pushed him out of the keyhole's range and neared his head to it, peeping through the small opening. Mello did not know what he had been expecting from the redhead. Surprise, curiosity, confusion, even downright hysterical laughing.

But Matt jumped like burned from the keyhole seconds after he had had time to see anything, eyes wide and mouth twisted into a grimace.

"That's disgusting…" he managed to utter as his cheeks turned paper pale.

"Wha –" Mello squeaked involuntarily. N looked confusedly between the two, the wheels of his brilliant mind rotating constantly.

"I can't believe they… that's so… EW!"

"Hey, Matt, I think there's a misunderstanding. I mean, this is L and –" Mello tried to defend his idol, even if in the back of his mind he couldn't figure why he wanted to do so in front of Matt. Whatever those two were doing, he knew it wasn't disgusting per se. Only the fact that it was Pretty Boy made his stomach churn.

"Who cares of it's L?! They're still a couple of filthy faggots!"

The words pierced through Mello's heart like bullets. He would probably remember that phrase all his life, along with the feeling of utter defeat and speechlessness it brought. Out of the entire planet, he expected that Matt would be the most accepting of something like that. The boy inhaled tobacco like it was chocolate, for heaven's sake!

"And what were you doing staring at them?" Matt's voice, cold as ice, woke him from his state of shock.

"W-what?"

"You heard me! You just stood there staring!"

"I-I was trying to see what they were doing –"

"Like hell!" the voice, although no louder than a whisper, resounded a thousand times louder in Mello's ears. "You didn't need that long to see that they were… they were… GAH!" Matt took a deep breath, breaking eye contact with the blond, "I'm going for a snack," he finally muttered and left down the stairs, still fuming.

N, who had probably figured out already what the whole problem was, looked at Mello curiously, examining him as an archaeologist would examine a particularly ancient fossil.

"You should come downstairs and eat something, M," the white haired boy muttered, waiting for Mello's reaction.

The blond just nodded, eyes still glued to L's door even as he heard N's bare feet paddling down the stairs, leaving him alone. He took a deep breath, trying to contain himself from screaming out loud as he turned around and climbed the ladder to the attic.

They're still a couple of filthy faggots!

Never in his life had he felt such a strange sensation. He felt as if his ribcage was narrowing, mashing his insides with unearthly force, making his heart want to explode in pain. He gasped as he tried to fill his little lungs with air, but no amount of breathing was able to make the pain go away.

Why does he look at them like they're monsters?!

Mello felt as if he would suffocate right there as he hugged his pillow to his chest. The pain was unbearable and the words wouldn't stop running through his head.

I don't want to be a monster…

When the other two came back to bed, they did not notice the strains of tears on the sheets, next to Mello's sleeping form.

A/N: So much for my 'OMG! I'm not hitting 7k with this little plot!' . I don't know why, but this chapter is my most hated until now. There are parts I like, but some of them just scream awkward phrasing and I don't even know how to make them better…

Also, what you've just encountered is my pitiful first attempt at romantic interactions in years, so please excuse the idiocy T_T

Thank you for reviewing to Black-Dranzer-1119, blueberry-90, xkuroxshinobix, Yoru K-Chan, IsobelAnis, Dragonist, anime-fushigi, StandardSpork, Zena Silverwing, boeboebi, Slash Superqueen, bookenworum, 0mohni0, Cross - The Damned Alchemist, Kira (I love your name XD), Nekotsubasa, and countless others who have added FaaW on their alerts and faves. You guys rock XD

If you liked it (or not, I don't mind either way XD) please leave a review. I don't mean to sound like a review whore, but I need comprehensive critique more than ever on this one T_T

Edit: I just noticed there was a big, bolded [DOOOOOOOG!!!] in the middle of the chappie o.0 It was a note for myself when I wrote the first draft and I forgot to cut it when editing. Sorry if it made anyone go 'WTF?!' when seeing it ^^U