The room disappeared from Raito's vision momentarily as his eyes slipped shut for the umpteenth time. He was tired, more tired than he could ever remember being, and keeping his eyes open for longer than a few seconds proved to be a very difficult task.

This was not ideal.

If he'd have known he wouldn't be able to focus, he wouldn't have offered to spend the night working on the Kira case in the Ryuga's room—or his office… whatever he called this place; Raito was honestly too exhausted to remember—the only the sounds to keep him awake his own breathing, Ryuga's quick-but-rarely-occurring typing, and the occasional humfrom Watari as he ironed one of Ryuga's many matching shirts or read the newspaper.

Raito was not fit to stay awake for the entire night like Ryuga. It didn't matter how many cups of coffee he drank or how many times he shook his head. He simply couldn't do it. His movements were sluggish, his brain was mush, and he needed to find some way to wake up before Ryuga got back from his shower. What he didn't need right now was Ryuga's smart-ass comments. That was for sure.

Standing up, Raito stretched and let out a quiet yawn as he slumped over to the area of the room where Ryuga's desk was. He'd only been in here a handful of times, each time being summoned by Ryuga himself, so it felt weird being there alone.

Watari had long since gone to bed, bidding both the boys goodnight and retreating to the inconspicuous white door near the spiral staircase situated in the corner of Ryuga's side of the room.

A few meters away from Watari's door, there was another next to the refrigerator containing Ryuga's Lucky Charge soda and energy bars that presumably led into the bathroom, as the detective had entered there after he announced he was going to go take a shower.

The refrigerator was bright in the dim light of the room, and Raito rubbed at his arm as he opened it. There wasn't much to choose from, as Ryuga only had one flavor of soda—apple—so he picked it up and grabbed an energy bar for good measure, too.

When he turned around, he dropped the items onto the ground.

"Wh—Whoa!"

Ryuga was standing close behind him, shirtless, his shaggy hair still damp, looking at him questionably. There was something different about him.

Raito coughed awkwardly as he bent down to pick everything up. He expected Ryuga to have the decency to bend down as well, since he had caused Raito to drop them in the first place, but he didn't. Why was Raito surprised?

"You scared me," Raito said as he stood back up, regarding Ryuga who was still looking at him like he had just sprouted a tail. He paid no attention to Ryuga's shirtlessness. None at all. "What?"

"What are you doing?"

Raito pursed his lips, raising his eyebrows. Obviously Ryuga could see what he was doing. Why question him on it? Did he just want to hear him say it for himself? And if he did, why was it such a big deal? It was just soda and an energy bar. "What do you mean?"

Ryuga pointed to the items in Raito's hands. "Those. What are you doing with those?"

"… Um, I'm going to eat them?"

"You can't eat soda, Raito-kun."

Raito seethed. "Obviously not. I'm going to drink it."

"Then why not say so?"

Raito pinched the bridge of his nose. "I don't know, Ryuga."

Ryuga was quiet for a moment, then the side of his mouth twitched. "Are you falling asleep?"

"No," Raito lied. He studied Ryuga for a moment, and then said, "Your eyes."

Ryuga's amusement disappeared. "What?"

"Your eyes… There's something different about them."

"I'm not wearing eyeliner right now," Ryuga replied, turning away to walk to the rack with some of his shirts on it. "You've never seen me without eyeliner, as I always wear it when the task force is here."

"You wear eyeliner?"

Ryuga turned around to look at Raito. "You didn't notice?"

Raito hummed. "No. Was I supposed to?"

"Well, no," Ryuga said, looking at Raito weirdly, like Raito had offended him somehow.

"Doesn't it… hurt?"

Ryuga looked shocked for a moment, eyebrows furrowing as he watched Raito. "Hurt?"

Raito looked down at his feet, scratching the back of his neck. "Like, when you put it on."

"You mean the eyeliner?"

"Never mind," Raito said sharply. He attempted to walk past Ryuga back to the task force's table where his laptop lay idly, but was stopped when Ryuga wrapped a hand around his wrist.

"Raito-kun, wait. I didn't mean to offend you," he said. "It doesn't hurt unless you slip up and poke your eye, but I'm very good at it so such a thing happens infrequently. You've never seen your sister put on eyeliner?"

"No, I'm not sure if she wears it."

Ryuga nodded, and then after a couple beats, he said, "I could show you…?"

Raito opened his mouth to protest, but couldn't find any words. So he set the soda and energy bar on Ryuga's desk, and realized that ever since Ryuga had scared him and began talking to him, he hadn't felt his eyes droop shut. He was wide awake now.

"Okay."

So Ryuga tugged him over to the door behind the spiral staircase, letting him walk in first after reaching in and turning on the light, and shut the door behind them.

The room was starkly white. It almost made Raito dizzy. There was absolutely no color except for the light blue towels on the rack beside the large bathtub and separate shower. There weren't any decorations either, and Raito felt it was odd, knowing how homely his own bathroom was. He briefly wondered if Watari's room was as bland as everything else, then wondered if Ryuga had his own room or if he slept in that godforsaken tepee of his—honestly, why? Did Ryuga actually use it, or was it just for show?

"Go sit on the counter," Ryuga said, breaking him from his train of thought. He nodded over at the counter to the left where two porcelain sinks were built-in to the white marble.

Raito's eyes flickered over to the counter and back to Ryuga. He narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

"It'll be easier for me to put the eyeliner on you if you're sitting on the counter. You'll stay still that way."

"Okay…" That sounded fake to Raito, but whatever.

He walked over to the counter and hoisted himself up, hyper-aware of Ryuga's eyes locked onto him. It was awkward and the edge of the marble was digging into his lower thighs, but for some reason he complied.

"Which color do you prefer?" Ryuga asked, meeting Raito at the counter and giving him a fleeting look before opening a drawer. Raito peeked over and saw that Ryuga had three different colors, all dark, consisting of red, brown, and black. The thought of Ryuga with dark red eyeliner flashed into his mind and he tried hard to suppress his snicker, but failed when Ryuga looked up from the drawer, regarding him with an odd look. "What's funny?"

"You use these colors?" He motioned to the dark pencils.

"I've experimented before. Brown looks better on me," he replied, taking the black pencil out of the drawer and holding it up for Raito to see. "I think black might compliment you more, though."

"I'm not so sure about that, Ryuga."

Without any warning, the older boy gripped Raito's knees in his hands and pushed them apart. Raito didn't even have time to clench his legs shut before Ryuga had already inserted himself in the space between Raito's thighs.

"R-Ryuga!" he gasped, blinking up at the detective who was staring intently at him. He felt Ryuga's grip on his knees tighten, then travel upwards just enough to make Raito shiver from the touch.

"Have you no self-esteem, Raito-kun? I think it would look striking on you."

Raito's eyes almost popped out of their sockets. What the hell was Ryuga doing?! What was he saying?!

Ryuga wasn't looking at him, though—instead he was looking down at where his hands were on Raito's thighs and when Raito looked harder, he saw the beginning of a smile on Ryuga's face.

It was then that Ryuga looked up, and Raito was speechless for a moment, his breath stolen by Ryuga's expression. He looked… in awe. Much like Raito himself was in the moment. As if Raito was an angel or something.

Raito felt a gentle touch at his cheek, and he couldn't help but lean into it, letting his eyes fluttering shut and break contact with Ryuga's gaze. There was something warm pooling in his stomach, maybe it was the foreboding feeling that came along with nervousness, or maybe it was an ache for Ryuga's touch—he wasn't sure.

Ryuga's other hand slid away from his thigh, his other moving further back on Raito's head to steady him. "I'm going to put it on now, okay? Open your eyes."

When he did, he saw Ryuga's eyes flicker across his own gaze and just barely down to his lips, and he really, really wasn't sure what he was feeling.

Raito preened for Ryuga automatically, allowing the detective to press a finger under his eye and pull down gently. He tried his hardest not to close his eyes as Ryuga pressed the pencil down so close to his eyeball, but failed.

Ryuga let out a huff of breath that sounded somewhat like a laugh to Raito, and Raito turned pink, smiling sheepishly. "Sorry,"

"It's no problem, Raito-kun. We'll try again."

Ryuga reached out his hand again and pulled down Raito's skin to have better access to his lash line. He drew on the line gently, careful not to stray too close to Raito's eye. He repeated the process on Raito's right eye, and Raito was marveling at the feeling of Ryuga's skin on his.

Raito blinked his eyes quickly when Ryuga pulled away from him. "Is it done?"

Ryuga leaned back a little bit, probably too see Raito in full, and he smiled softly. It was scaring Raito how much Ryuga was smiling. Why was he amused by this? Surely he wouldn't be smiling like that if it actually looked good, surely he'd be doing something else, not just standing there… staring at Raito. Right?

"What? It looks bad, doesn't it?"

Ryuga shushed Raito, tugging his neck forward so that their faces were inches away. Raito almost lost his balance because of the abruptness of the pull, instinctively steadying himself with an iron-clad grip on Ryuga's hip bones. He blushed deeply as he realized that Ryuga was still not wearing a shirt.

Turning his face up a little so that he was staring straight into Ryuga's eyes, he took a deep breath and tugged Ryuga even closer, so close that their noses were touching, so close that they couldn't focus on each other's eyes anymore.

He heard Ryuga let out a harsh breath, his other hand not cradling Raito's neck reaching out to seize his shoulder. He hesitated in case Raito didn't want to go further, but Raito hummed in approval, running his thumbs across Ryuga's ribs as a response.

It was mere milliseconds before Ryuga captured Raito's lips in his. The first thought Raito had was that it wasn't books or movies painted it out to be. It was so good—incredible, even—but there weren't any sparks. There wasn't anything particularly life-altering about the kiss, except perhaps the short, breathy moan that Ryuga let out when Raito slid his hands down Ryuga's sides, back to his hips, back around to his lower back, and pulled him forward, flush against Raito.

It was so out of character for Ryuga that Raito couldn't help but laugh at the noise. Ryuga ended up kissing his teeth due to Raito's open mouth, which just made him even laugh harder.

He attempted to open his eyes to see Ryuga's reaction and was blinded for a second when Ryuga moved up to kiss him softly on the nose.

"I think it suits you, the eyeliner,"

Raito smiled bashfully as Ryuga ran his fingers over Raito's cheekbone, the touch feather light, like he was afraid Raito might break.

"L!"

The moment was effectively broken with Watari's exclamation. Raito's head snapped over to the door, Ryuga's hand falling from his cheek. What time was it anyway? Wasn't Watari supposed to be asleep?

Ryuga looked down at his hand where it lay on Raito's thigh yet again, an infinitesimal grin on his face. "I should be going, Watari will worry. You can take a shower if you wish—though all I've got here are white shirts and slacks, so… and my bedroom is just above should you still feel the need to sleep. Use the staircase. Or the ladder if you're feeling adventurous. I'll be in there later."

And then he was gone.