Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note.

A/N: Here's the second part, as promised. :) I hope you enjoy it!

Warnings: This part contains the implication of slash of the L/Light variety, more so than Part One did. It also mentions L's real name. If you don't like please don't read.

Part Two: Selfish

~.o.0.o.~

Lawliet is an inherently selfish person; he knows it, denies it and ultimately lives it.

He likes to pretend that he isn't; likes to tell Watari, the Kira investigation team and most especially Light that he is hunting Kira for the betterment of the world. But he isn't.

If he had such noble desires as the happiness of society he would probably let Kira go; the egotistical megalomaniac has certainly cut crime rates down more in the last couple of months than what he has achieved in the previous few years. He knows it won't last of course; soon Kira's reign will end, one way or the other, and the seedier aspects of society will again bloom. Sometimes, when he looks into Light's guileless eyes, he thinks that Kira knows this too.

No; he isn't fighting for such a selfless reason. He didn't become the world's top three private detectives to improve the world or fight for justice or anything else so trivial.

He became L because he was bored.

He has always been far too smart; in some of his more illogical, fanciful moments he often thinks that something had gone wrong at his conception, that his soul was too dark, too intelligent for this world. He knows that he far surpasses any of the lowly, frightfully dim organisms that co-inhabit the Earth with him, and quite frankly it's a miracle he hasn't turned out more warped than he already is.

He created the L persona out of boredom; out of a need to be challenged.

He hadn't been, of course; not in any life-altering, astoundingly impactful way – not until Kira, anyhow.

Kira – now there is a person who is cut from the same cloth as him; that belongs in the same world that had spawned him and spat him into this one. Kira lights a fire in his blood that he has never felt before; the mass-murderer raises his hackles and sends delicious tingles rushing down his spine in an excitement that is alien in his dull and colourless world.

And when he had met Light Yagami for the first time, he knew, with an absolute certainty; this is his equal, his counterpart, his one-and-only. This young man with shadowed, bottomless eyes is Kira, and he is his.

If he was a more selfless person he would take Light; chain him to him in a more irrevocable way than the metal links that connected them ever could. He would convince Light to forego his pointless, homicidal plan, to give up the martyr that Kira is and to stay with him in this unsalvageable world, let it rot in its ignorance, let it be happy in its desire for flawed and meaningless justice. He would save the lives of hundreds, thousands, only to be rewarded by something brighter and sweeter than he could ever have thought to expect.

But he isn't selfless; he can't bear to give up the challenge now that it has finally been answered, even if it would mean that countless lives would live to see another day, that he would have the precious, fleeting chance to be happy. He can't give up now; the love of the game is rushing through his blood and he wants, more than anything, to see it to its grand finale, its dramatic and inevitable conclusion. There can only be one winner and L wants to beat Light, to best him – hisequal,hisbetter,hisallimportantperson – to prove himself worthy of him.

Sometimes, when he looks at Light in those moments where no one else exists but them, he thinks that Light can read him as clear as day; that he knows him for the selfish monster that he really is.

~.o.0.o.~

A/N2: There you go! I hope you enjoyed it. :)

Authors Request: Please leave a review! I would love to hear from you. ^.^