Three

After his spontaneous confession of being L, my relationship with Raiden – whom I would probably always call Raiden simply because, to me, that was his name – became surprisingly better. And not just surprising because it was better. Surprising in that he offered to let me live with him, wherever he might live at any given time. Often, he went from hotel room to hotel room every few nights, spanning from city to city in Japan. One night Tokyo, another night Sendai, the next Kyoto. He could be miles and miles away from his previous night's stay in a matter of hours, and remained a bit mysterious because of it. I wondered if, due to his status, he was allowed to break traffic laws in order to get to places faster. I never asked, though. I knew he probably wouldn't tell me, or he'd tell me and then smile so I wouldn't know whether he was being honest.

Of course, he himself didn't drive. He had a chauffer to do that for him, an old man named only Watari, who he said had been with him since he was a child. And that was all he'd say about him. Even though our relationship became better as we started living together, there were still many things about him I didn't know about. He was just a quiet person, probably with a past he didn't enjoy speaking of, let alone think about. I learned to stop asking, and just wait for the times when he actually felt like talking. Often those times were late at night as we lay there, me feeling sleepy and ready for a night's rest, and he simply lying in wait for me to fall asleep so that he could rise from the bed and go back to the computer. He suffered from insomnia, which explained the shadows beneath his eyes. Every time he actually did sleep, I made sure to be quiet as a mouse, and if he was lying beside me, I didn't dare move, and barely breathed. He slept so little it seemed a crime to wake him when his body finally exhausted itself. And when he was asleep… it was the only time he really looked peaceful. His face would relax and I would find myself staring at him as a sudden smile would grace his lips, and he would sigh with contentment and relax into the bed. I think it was just because his body was so happy to have fallen asleep.

I learned that he was good at cooking – and not just sweets, which is what I would have thought. Apparently, cooking soothed him, and helped him think – or stop thinking, if that's what he wished. And he was good at making all kinds of dishes. We stopped going out to eat once I found this out, as I would start begging him to cook something. Anything. Seafood, Chinese, or even just a burger. He was good. He taste-tested all of his food, and anything that wasn't sweet would cause a bit of a grimace, and then he would add something or not, and some time later, come into "dining room" (the couch with a table nearby because hotel rooms don't have dining rooms), plop a plate into my lap, hand me a fork and a napkin and wait. He'd sit down with his own tray full of sweets (he almost never actually ate anything he cooked unless it was dessert) and wait. He would wait for me to take the first bite, accompanied by a pleasant Mmm sound in appreciation, and only then would he begin to eat. As he waited for my first bite, he'd stare at me, and that took some getting used to. Finally I asked him one night why he stared that way and he kind of blinked, and then shrugged, and said, "Your food eating noises are quite arousing. I find I have to listen to them for a moment before I can enjoy my food."

His answer, of course, caused a blush like you wouldn't believe, and it was that night – the night he admitted that my "food eating noises" were sexy – that he offered his virginity to me. Yes. If you can believe that, Raiden, L, the most famous detective in the world, was a virgin until I met him. I suppose this makes sense. After all, when does the most famous detective have time to date? I mean, I can't really say that, because we were dating, but you understand. It was the first time I had ever seen him visibly nervous, or excited, about anything. His facial expressions actually changed. It was amazing. The sex was, at first, a bit awkward, as any first-time sex is. After a while, though, he got totally into it. Asked me what I liked. Did… pretty much anything I asked. After getting over the initial embarrassment, he seemed only to want to do his best. I had to tell him we didn't have to do anything weird. He wanted to. It was funny, actually. He had no qualms about anything. And by the end of that night, I was exhausted, and completely, utterly satisfied. When we were done, I could do nothing but pant and stare at him until I passed out.

It's amazing the things that can hide so perfectly behind masks that people make for themselves. But enough about my sex life, as that was not the point of this whole thing. This part of my relationship with Raiden was only the calm before the storm. I would have never imagined what could have come next, to try and destroy us. What's also amazing about people is there ability to become so focused on one thing that they sometimes forget what's important to them.