This chapter is dedicated to Miss Doll, who brings out my submissive side with her sweet threats of horror-fic mayhem. Actually, MD, I'm terminally curious about the one you said you'd write if I didn't do a good job of this... not enough to do it wrong, but still...

This is the LAST chapter. It's been going a while but now it's over. Hope you all enjoy the satisfying conclusion :)

Thanks to badmoon for the suggestions about the birthday gifts XD

PLEASE NOTE – this chapter is M rated for a reason. It's pretty down and dirty, so you read on at your own risk. It's also quite long so you might want to make sure you have a few minutes spare. I thought about dividing it but there wasn't anywhere to do it that made sense and didn't ruin the pace. So eat it all at once! And put some damn cream on it, it tastes better that way!

Yeah, brain strain XD

ART ALERT: I made a picture of L as he appears in this chapter, which you can find in my DA gallery. I'll put a link to it in my profile here :)

SPOILERS: Up to episode 25 anime/58 manga.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Death Note or its characters. I own part of a new story which I'm in two minds whether to post before I finish the rest of the older ones...

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"Good morning, birthday boy."

L turned from the kitchen counter, where he was making some coffee to take back into the bedroom where he'd been working. He saw Raito standing in the doorway, holding a large box, with an amused expression on his face.

"Thank you, Raito-kun," he said. "I have to say, I'm never quite sure why the accident of birth is celebrated so assiduously by so many cultures."

"I bet yours isn't," Raito said. "I can't imagine you and Watari making a big fuss about it."

"No, we don't," L agreed. "Although I have a cake."

"Nothing out of the ordinary there, Ryuuzaki," Raito smiled.

"It has candles on," L said, a little defensively. "Not the full amount of course – "

"Or you wouldn't need frosting," Raito said. "Not with all the wax dripping on it."

"I'm not that old, Raito-kun!" L said. "I'm only twenty-five."

"And don't look a day older than I do," Raito said. "Or behave a day over – "

"Raito – " L said, warningly.

"I'm just teasing you, Ryuuzaki," Raito said. "I brought you a gift." he held out the box.

L took it and eagerly unfastened it, finding that the box was one Raito had scavenged somewhere to fit his gift, L not surprised, seeing the awkward shape of the thing as he drew it carefully from its packaging then laughed as he saw what it was.

"A chocolate cauldron, Raito?"

"The most frivolous and useless thing I could think of," Raito said with a smile, looking like his old self for once. "Happy birthday. And happy Halloween."

"Amazing," L said, setting the gold-foil wrapped, three-legged container down on the counter and admiring it. The cauldron was filled to the brim with various jelly sweets, spiders and skulls, gummy worms creeping over the edge of it. "Thank you, Raito-kun," the detective smiled. "It's not like me to say this, but it almost seems a shame to eat it." He turned to his lover, wrapping his arms round the other man's waist.

"My L," Raito muttered, pulling L against him, his face buried in the mass of dark hair.

"Raito-kun is kind to me," L said, peering up at his lover from under his bangs.

"Didn't you think I'd give you something on your birthday, Ryuuzaki?" Raito's tone was light but his eyes appraised the detective coldly.

"I didn't know," L said.

"Don't you think I care about you?" Raito demanded. "I thought I proved that to you the other night. I came to visit you, didn't I?"

"Yes, Raito," L said, dutifully, then realised something must have shown in his face, Raito's head going to one side, an eyebrow raised questioningly.

"You didn't like it," the boy said.

"Raito-kun was very rough with me," L said, daringly, hoping he wasn't precipitating the argument Raito had seemed to want during their last intimate encounter. "He knows such behaviour reminds me of unhappy memories."

"You'll forgive me," Raito said, making it sound like an order.

"Of course I do," L said, smiling up at his lover. "But Raito-kun cannot expect me to like it when he does something so disturbing."

"Hm," Raito scowled. Then shrugged. "I'm sorry L. I'll make it up to you. Tonight. You can have your revenge, ne?"

"I don't want revenge, Raito," L sighed. "I just want you."

Raito gave a laugh that sounded like nails on a blackboard. "But you already have me, Ryuuzaki. I'm right here."

"I also have a gift for Raito-kun," L said. "Although it is something practical to help him with the case."

He wandered through to the bedroom, opening his closet. "It's in here," he muttered. "I noticed that Raito does not have a laptop of his own – "

Raito stared as L brought out the box and handed it to him.

"You bought me a Notebook?" the boy smiled, looking more like the old Raito than he had for some time.

"I thought Raito must be tired of sitting on those chairs in the main room all the time," L said as the boy divested its gift of its packaging. "I'm sure by now he must despise them as much as I do. Now he can save his files onto this and work somewhere comfortable."

"It's black," Raito said, staring at his new possession.

"It's a Compaq," L said. "I've always found them to be very reliable."

"You bought me a black Notebook," Raito looked up at L, his face shadowed with suspicion.

"I thought it would suit you," L said with a smile.

"Uh – " Raito's eyes widened, his expression almost fearful.

"Black is always stylish and goes with anything," L said.

"Hm," Raito seemed at a loss for words. "Uh – thank you, Ryuuzaki."

"You're welcome, Raito-kun," L said. "Now we should get to work."

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The day went by much the same as usual, since L hadn't informed anyone else that it was his birthday and Raito didn't mention it either. L would have liked to think it was that the boy realised it would be a breach of the detective's security to let others know when his birthday was, but he admitted to himself rather sadly that it probably just wasn't that important to Raito at the moment. Well, that might change. He devoted himself to getting through the day, apparently working on deciphering the Death Note's mysteries, secretly putting the last touches to various preparations he'd had planned for some time.

He breathed a sigh of relief when the time finally came to send the team home for the day. A little earlier than usual but not enough to make them wonder. Raito went with them, giving L a conspiratorial look as he left, which L took to mean he was returning later. He hoped so. If Raito reneged on his promise, L was going to have to think of a whole new way to deal with their unpleasant situation. Which he didn't want to as for once in his life he was tired of thinking and had an uncomfortable sense of time running out. All he really wanted to – what did he want? Just Raito, back the way he was. To take him home, back to England and spend some time with him doing nothing in particular or at least, nothing that didn't involve the potential death of either or both of them. A honeymoon of sorts, perhaps.

He sighed and made his way to the rooms he planned to use for the evening's entertainment, if that was the right word for it. Although – why not? He wasn't dealing with Raito here, or at least only minimally. Kira was his intended partner for the night and Kira was fair game, wasn't he? So why not enjoy the proceedings... a devilish smile lit up the detective's face as he flung his clothes onto the floor of the suite's bathroom and stepped into the shower.

Some time later, L sank into a large chair positioned in an alcove of the main room and looked around him. The room was in traditional Japanese style, paper lanterns and low furniture. The alcove where L had seated himself was decorated with a large and ancient scroll that hung behind him, giving the illusion that he sat in front of a window showing a rustic scene. He reached down to a nearby table and picked up the nearest thing, a black spanking paddle, turning it in his hands nervously. So much tonight depended on – well, smoke and mirrors, really. Trickery and deception. Still, the easiest person to lie to is a liar and L knew that Raito excelled in that regard, Kira or not.

L twiddled his toes together and wondered what Raito would make of his bondage games. Actually, he knew what Raito would make of it. He'd blush, torn between embarrassment and enthusiasm, wanting it but not wanting to say he wanted – the boy had some issues about his masculinity and didn't like to appear too comfortable in the submissive role. The detective presumed he'd get over that with time. And practise. Lots and lots of practise if L had anything to say about it. After all, Raito liked sex whatever kind of sex it was, but on the occasions when L had wrapped the chain around him and controlled him, his lover had practically melted into a hot, whimpering puddle of desire.

L smiled at the thought, having no objection at all to fantasies of dominating Raito, binding him and making him beg and plead. He enjoyed being technically Raito's seme, it was physically satisfying and less emotionally troubling than the reverse. When all was said and done, it was what Raito wanted, whether he admitted it or not. And L had discovered, rather surprisingly after a lifetime of considering nobody but himself, that what Raito wanted was what he would do. No matter how difficult or dangerous it might be for either of them.

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L looked over at the opening door, taking a deep breath, banishing stagefright. He heard Watari's voice, then Raito's, as the older man showed his lover into the room.

Raito stopped in the doorway, looking at L, then a smile dawned on his face, making him seem much more like L's eager lover than the unpleasant Kira face he'd worn for several days now.

"You look like someone's dirty dream, Ryuuzaki!" he exclaimed.

"Yours, I hope, Raito," L said, taking in the glow in the young man's eyes. Raito was pleased. Kira – probably wouldn't be, when he caught up with events.

"Mhm, yes!" Raito said, obviously admiring L's costume, which he'd especially bought for the night. Black leather vest and red pants the color of bloodstains. Black straps around his wrists.

"Let me show you to the bedroom, Raito," L suggested, stepping out of the antique Chinese chair, picking up some coils of rope from the table and crossing the room to open a door on the far side.

"You're in a hurry, Ryuuzaki?" Raito's voice changed slightly, an edge on it that L recognised. Kira was back and he wasn't thrilled about the prospective activities.

"Yes, Raito, I've been looking forward to this," L said. "Please sit down." He indicated the bed, an elaborate affair draped with diaphonous black net curtains.

"Pretty," Raito commented, seating himself rather gingerly on the edge of the mattress and eying the bedside table with some trepidation when he noticed the array of sex toys and lube that had been placed there.

"Let me undress you," L suggested, coming closer to his lover, slipping the jacket off his shoulders and placing it neatly on a hanger. He might get away with inflicting bondage on Kira-sama, humiliating the man who thought of himself as a god, but no god would help him if he got a crease in Raito's pristine clothing.

He removed the rest of Raito's clothes in silence; pants, socks and underwear neatly folded onto a chair, shirt hung over the back. How Raito liked them.

"Raito-kun needs to kneel on the bed," L said when his lover was naked. "I will start with his chest."

"Start?" Raito questioned. "Aren't you going to use the chain, Ryuuzaki? And what are those ropes for?"

"Tonight I thought I would introduce Raito-kun to an aspect of his own culture he probably has had no chance to study," L said, taking one of the loops of thin, red silk rope and uncoiling it. "Japanese bondage is performed with ropes, tied in intricate patterns. It is supposed to be very pleasurable for the wearer."

"Pleasurable?" Raito looked dubious.

"I am sure it will feel better than the clanking chain and chafing handcuffs," L reassured him.

"I suppose..." Raito said, kneeling on the bad and flinching slightly as L joined him, hands snaking around the boy's shoulders to begin the bindings that would press on the sensitive flesh around his nipples.

"I've made quite a study of Nawakesho and Kinbaku," L said, conversationally as he expertly bound his lover. "Using ropes for decorative purposes or sexual pleasure through pain – for you I have to apply the techniques for pechapai... the person with small breasts..."

"I don't have breasts!" Raito exclaimed.

"Everyone has breasts, Raito-kun," L remarked. "Of course in the case of a male juujun, they're minimal and the tying requires a different approach to exert pleasurable contact with the erogenous zones."

"Juujun? Submissive?" Raito said. "Is that what I am?"

"My obedient one," L murmured. "Now I add the tomei nawa – this goes under your armpits, to stop everything sliding upward and choking you."

"Good idea!" Raito said fervently.

"This tie is known as the ushiro takatekote," L explained. "Having bound the breast – I mean chest area, we add in the hands and arms." He pulled Raito's unresisting hands behind his back and proceeded to tie them together.

"The overall pattern I'm going to use is called ebizeme," L continued. "The position of the prawn or shrimp. Useful if you require access to the more intimate regions of the body."

"Urgh," Raito seemed to have lost his curiosity as he was fastened more tightly. At last, L decided he'd finished, giving his work a final critical examination, pulling a piece tighter here and there.

Raito lay on the bed, arms bent at the elbows, wrists bound together behind his back and connected to a network of ropes that ran over his shoulders and chest. His legs spread open then bent at the knee, almost as if he was sitting in a lotus position, shins pressed together and bound to each other. His thighs were circled by further bands of rope which were connected to one that ran around his waist, his legs being held up and open. Strands of silken rope ran down into his groin, parting around his genitals then coming together to pass between his buttocks, creating, L surmised, a pleasant chafing sensation much like a thong.

"I don't like this much," Raito said.

L sat back and regarded his trussed lover thoughtfully. Back to Kira again. Raito would have enjoyed this and been making much of his own helplessness, leading L on to act the dominant and play-victimise his all too willing lover.

"I think I have you where I want you," the detective murmured.

"Really," Raito sounded bored. "So what are you going to do with me, Ryuuzaki?"

"Listen to your confession," L said.

"Huh?" Raito's eyes widened comically. "What?"

"I'm going to listen to you confess to me that you're Kira, Raito-kun," L repeated. "I have turned the cameras and sound on in this room so that it may be recorded."

"Are you mad!" Raito exclaimed. "I'm not going to confess any such thing to you! You know I'm not Kira – the thirteen-day rule – "

"False," L said.

"What!" Raito repeated. "You can't possibly know that, Ryuuzaki! You'd have to test it – you'd have to – "

"I did," L said.

Raito stared in amazement. "But – Ryuuzaki, it hasn't been thirteen days since we got the notebook."

"Yes, I know, Raito-kun," L said. "That was why I tested the other potentially fake rule. The one that says the Death Note cannot be destroyed without killing everyone that has touched it."

Raito's face slowly drained of all color. "You – you – you destroyed the Death Note?"

"Burned it in the incinerator down in the basement, after I had finished making notes on it and photographing it," L said. "As you see, nobody is dead. Or even mildly out of sorts."

"This isn't fucking funny, L!" Raito said, mouth twisting as if he wanted to say more but couldn't think what it was or express what was in his mind. "You might have killed all of us!"

"I decided the chance of that was so small as to make it a risk worth taking, Raito-kun," L said. "After all, none of us have passed through this experience, investigating this case, without facing the possibility of our own deaths. When we were chained together, didn't you say to me that we would die together? If my supposition that the rules were false had been incorrect, it would merely have happened as you predicted."

"How can you be so cold?" Raito spluttered. "You sit there, talking about us dying and you don't care about it?"

"On the contrary, I care very much about it," L said. "I don't want either of us to die. Unlike yourself."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Raito shifted, obviously starting to feel cramped by the constricting binding around him.

"You want me dead, Kira," L said, tonelessly. "You want to watch me die. That is not an acceptable conclusion to this case from my point of view."

"You're raving," Raito said, angrily. "Anyway, you said you were prepared to die. It seemed you almost expected to."

"Yes, Raito-kun, I was and I did," L said, reaching out to put a hand on the boy's knee, watching him flinch away from the touch. "But that was before I realised that I had something to live for that was more important to me than my work or even than the Kira case."

"Don't get fucking sentimental with me now!" Raito sneered. "You tie me up and trick me and tell me I'm Kira and put everyone's life at risk – including my father, I might add – and then you say it's because you – what? Because you love me? Bullshit!"

"Then perhaps Raito would like to explain my reasoning to me?" L said, gently stroking his angry lover's thigh. "Since he seems to know what I am thinking so much better than I do."

"Sarcastic bitch!" Raito practically yelled. "You want me to be Kira! You told me that, right at the beginning, when I was first chained to you. You want me to be Kira so you can solve the case, so you can have me put to death, so you can win!"

"I'm sorry, but Raito is wrong," L said quietly. "I do not want Raito to die. However, if it becomes necessary – " he reached down and slid his hand under the mattress. "I am prepared to take personal responsibility for that outcome." He brought up his hand, his Glock pistol pointing unwaveringly at Raito's forehead.

"Gah!" Raito cried out. "No, L, what!"

"I plan to kill Raito-kun if he does not confess to being Kira and – and do whatever he did before, to stop being Kira," L said, quite calmly he thought, considering that calm was not at all the way he was feeling inside.

"You're mad!" Raito shouted. "Mad! I'm tied up with a madman about to kill me! You know I don't like guns pointing at me! Have you no consideration – after what happened with my father when you had him pretend to kill me – "

"Don't play the sympathy card with me, Raito, it doesn't work," L said.

"Fuck you," Raito said. "Shoot me if you want, I don't care. I'd love to see how you explain it to everyone else."

"I will if Raito-kun will not confess," L said, laying the gun down on the bedside table. He noticed Raito's eyes following it, the boy making an involuntary movement as if to fight against his restraints, but L had tied them well and they refused to give. "As for how to explain my actions to the rest of the team, I suggest Raito-kun thinks long and hard about how difficult that would really not be for me."

"You'd have to tell them something!" Raito said, pulling pointlessly at his restraints. "You can't just say, oh, I decided he was Kira after all so I shot him without benefit of a trial!"

"Raito-kun seems to forget who he is speaking to," L resumed his stroking of Raito's thigh, fingers straying to the sensitive inner area. "I am L. To put it crudely, I can do what the hell I like and nobody can tell me not to. Apart from which, I plan to kill you in our normal bedroom."

"What?" Raito's eyes were wild, his movements becoming almost frenzied. "What has which bedroom you use got to do with it?"

"Calm down, Raito, you can't remove these ropes," L petted the boy soothingly. "I hired a prostitute last night who is twice the size of you and tried them out on him."

"You had – a prostitute?" Raito's eyes bugged out unattractively.

"I didn't have sex with him!" L said sharply. "I merely tested the ropes to be sure nobody could escape from them."

"Eeeew!" Raito exclaimed. "These same ropes?"

"That is the least of your worries, Raito," L said, cursing his partner's intense obsession with personal hygiene.

"And what about the bedroom?" Raito demanded. "What difference does that make?"

"I have a tape from a couple of nights ago," L explained, "showing our activities in that bedroom. With a little careful editing, I will be able to show that Raito came into my room, having obviously resumed his insane Kira personality, chained me to my bed and raped me. After which, presumably, somehow I escaped and shot him, being in fear for my own life."

"Nobody would believe that!" Raito said, trying to shuffle away from L's caressing hand. "Nobody! They'd examine it. Find out it was fake!"

"Raito-kun is once again, overlooking the L-factor."

"What?" Raito's face adopted a look of horror as he seemed to come to a conclusion he didn't very much like. "No! Yes – damn! Fuck! They'd believe you, wouldn't they. Because you're L – they'd believe you. All of them. Even my father."

"I think they would, Raito-kun," L agreed.

"Because we're – friends!" Raito spat out bitterly. "Because you said you didn't want me to be Kira. Because you let me go and said I wasn't under suspicion any more. They'd believe you."

"Because we're friends," L said, rather sadly.

"Did you plan this all along?" Raito asked.

"Something like it," L said. "I didn't finalise the details until recently."

"So everything – " Raito's breath caught in his throat and he shook his head before going on. "Everything you said to me – everything we've done together – all lies, Ryuuzaki?"

"Not all," L said, treading carefully now, measuring his words. "I still want Raito-kun to come with me and work with me. His incredible intellect will be a great asset to me and his attractive person is extremely desirable to me also."

"You want me – as your lover?" Raito stared in disbelief. "Still?"

"Where would I find another?" L said. "I don't get out much, as Raito knows. Besides, he is more beautiful than other people and I like his sexy, submissive ways."

"I'm not submissive!" Raito ground out.

L let his gaze wander over the boy's bound figure. "My eyes tell me otherwise, Raito-kun."

Raito just growled, seemingly at a loss for words. L took the opportunity to pick up a vibrator from the bedside table.

"What's that for?" Raito found his voice.

"For you, of course," L said, opening a jar of lube. "Surely Raito-kun does not imagine I would put this up my own backside? I haven't yet recovered from Kira's ministrations in that area the other night."

"But – I thought you meant to shoot me?" Raito said.

"If you refuse to confess and rid yourself of this inconvenient Kira madness, yes," L said. "I don't intend to pursue that course yet though, since I have no interest in necrophilia."

"You – you what?" Raito stared in horror at the detective. "You still plan to have sex with me? Even though you think, for whatever insane reason, that I'm Kira? Even though you think you might kill me?"

"Why would I waste such an opportunity?" L raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Raito-kun knows I find him most attractive when he is bound and helpless and begging and pleading – "

"Yes, okay, I know what I do," Raito's face clouded with anger.

"Having Kira-sama bound and helpless and begging and pleading is just, pardon the expression, icing on the cake," L added, unable to resist the temptation to tease his nemesis. "The ultimate high, don't you think? Binding and subduing and humiliating a god – penetrating him forcibly – "

"Shut up!" Raito burst out, his eyes wrathful as he gazed at the detective, mouth half open as he seemed to struggle for breath. He gritted his teeth, closed his eyes and said, sulkily, "I'm not Kira."

"Is that what's making you angry, Raito-kun?" L enquired sweetly. "Or is it that you are Kira and infuriated at the idea of being my plaything? L's plaything."

Raito looked up at L, lips folded tightly together.

"Raito is silent," L commented. "Let us see if we can persuade him to become a little more vocal."

He placed the vibrator carefully on the table, then slid down onto the floor, rummaging under the bed for the bags of sex toys that had been abandoned there until Raito's or rather, Kira's recent visit.

"These look as if they would persuade anyone to make some kind of sound or other," L said, reappearing with a pair of what looked like tiny woodworker's vices in his hand. "They certainly worked on me, remember that, Kira?"

"No!" Raito exclaimed. "I don't want those!"

"But you bought them, Raito?" L said gently. "Surely you must have had it in mind that we would use them someday? Or did you intend me to be the only recipient of their attention?"

"I don't know why I bought them," Raito said in some agitation. "It was the shop – that shop! I got carried away!"

"Be quiet, Kira!" L said, his voice no longer amused. "Or you may find yourself carried away from here in quite a different fashion."

Raito paled even further, watching in horrified fascination as L applied the clamps to his nipples. His breath drew in sharply at the first, but he couldn't repress a cry of pain when the second was pinched tightly around the pink bud.

"Too tight," L said, adjusting the clamps until Raito's protests had muted into low groans. L smiled an evil smile into his victim's face, watching Raito's eyes widen in shock.

"Pleasure," the detective murmured. "Pain. Where does one end and the other begin? We seem to have an unrivalled opportunity to discover that tonight, Raito."

"Bastard!" Raito moaned. "Evil bastard!"

"Yes, I do believe I am," L agreed, picking up the vibrator again.

"Lube!" Raito squeaked.

"I have already applied some, Raito-kun," L said, waving the slippery cylinder in the boy's face.

"For me, baka!" Raito said. "You haven't put any on me!"

"I don't intend to," L said, pulling the ropes to one side and thrusting the slick vibrator deep into Raito without further explanation, causing the boy to howl in pain. "Does Raito not imagine I would want revenge for his recent treatment of me? One for one, Raito... you hurt me and I will hurt you back again."

"I hate you!" Raito hissed.

"No, Kira hates me," L said, keeping an impassive face somehow, not letting Raito know how the words distressed him. "Raito does not."

The boy just moaned, then squealed as L turned the vibrator on, shifting it inside his lover's body until Raito started to shudder as it contacted his prostate. L grinned and bent to pick up a roll of thick silver tape he'd slipped beneath the edge of the bed earlier. He cut some strips and fastened the vibrator securely in place, then cut another and left it stuck to the side of the table.

"Kira seems a little overexcited there," L commented, earning himself a glare of hatred which contrasted oddly with the boy's sex-flushed face and half-open panting mouth. "Perhaps we should make sure this won't be over too soon for him."

He reached out to the table and took a black rubber ring, sliding it over the head of the boy's cock, despite Raito's objections and attempts to roll away from it. Pulling it down to the base, he regarded Raito's heated, angry face in interest.

"Kira does not like to prolong his sexual pleasure?" he asked.

"Kira – I mean Raito – does not want sexual pleasure with L!" Raito said. "Not now he has found out how he's been lied to and manipulated!"

"We've lied to each other all along, Kira-sama, have we not?" L said.

"Take that thing out of me!" Raito demanded.

"I don't think so," L said, slicking his fingers with lube and lifting the rope binding over the boy's perinium. He let his fingers skate lightly over the sensitive area, not pressing down. The extra stimulation, combined with the vibrator inside, might be too much even for the cock ring to hold back.

"Nhnn!" Raito cried. "Ryuuzaki – stop!"

L just laughed, and went on stroking, listening to the other man's moans and gasps, watching his member carefully for signs of impending orgasm, admiring his lover's beautiful, restrained body, skin slick with sweat, nipples reddening and swelling inside the harsh grip of the clamps. Perhaps he should take those off before too long.

"I'm hungry," the detective decided, ripping the tape unceremoniously from Raito's butt, causing the boy to give a shriek of dismay. L removed the vibrator, turned it off and discarded it, then took off the nipple clamps. Raito groaned piteously as the blood started to flow back into them, making them ache and burn.

L ignored the whimpers and headed for the other room where he'd left some emergency provisions. Brought them back in.

"Not cream," Raito caught sight of the can.

"Kira-sama knows I like cream," L said. "So shut up and take it."

Raito opened his mouth and eyes wide, looking more shocked than L had ever seen him. Then again, L had never spoken to him so rudely before.

The detective bent over the boy's constricted, helpless body, squirting the cream down the length of his erection. Regarded his handiwork critically, then added a drizzle of chocolate sauce.

"Now Kira-sama looks good enough to eat," he said, mockingly. "Not that he doesn't always."

"Bastard!" Raito muttered.

L laughed and leaned down, licking along the length of Raito's stiff cock, slowly and lovingly, tasting the heady combination of cream, chocolate and male sex. It was exotic and delicious and he decided he was definitely enjoying himself. Sugar and Raito, his two favorite tastes combined, they'd done this before but the fact that Raito was now bound and helpless made it even more exciting.

Raito moaned as L began to lap the stickiness off the head of his cock, the sweet flavor mixed with the tangier one of the boy's precum, the cream melting and running due to the heat of the flesh it surrounded. Some of the cream and chocolate had dripped onto Raito's abdomen, smeared through his pubic hair and L bent to lick at it, grasping the rope that ran either side of Raito's member and lifting it, letting the thick silken strands rub along the boy's length.

"N – no, Ryuuzaki!" Raito mewled, arching his back despite his restraints.

"Mhm, yes, Kira," L murmured through a mouthful of cream. Then returned his attention to his lover's cock, now once again streaming with precum. He gently pressed his lips to the weeping slit, kissing it like a tiny mouth, his tongue penetrating the small orifice, swirling inside it, rewarded by the deep groan of satisfaction from the boy's throat.

L muttered around the swollen glans, Raito's whimpers of pleasure intensifying at the vibrations this caused. The boy continued to moan, rocking his body from side to side for want of being able to make any other movement, as L's tongue licked down his length, up and down like he'd lick a lollipop. Up again, then sliding the slippery shaft into his mouth, deep into his throat, Raito giving a loud cry and tossing his head back, attempting to raise his hips toward the detective's mouth but unable to find any leverage.

"You like it," Raito whispered. "You like it that I can't do anything. That I have to wait for you to do it for me."

"Mhmnh," L agreed.

"Bastard," Raito said, once more.

"Fhmh."

"Hnnh!" Raito's back arched again as L's tongue flicked over the sensitive area at the base of his glans, teasing, tormenting him. "Hahhh, Ryuuzaki, yes! More!"

L smiled around his lover's cock, continuing to torture the sweet spot, hearing Raito's cries become louder, more unrestrained. He fought not to give into the almost unbearable temptation to reach his hand down and caress himself. He had to wait, although the pressure of his overaroused erection straining against the material of his pants was almost too much for him. How he wanted Raito to confess, then they could both achieve release, in more ways than one.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Raito litanized, his body shuddering, cock throbbing in L's mouth and the detective decided it was time. He pulled his head away from the boy, looking down at him as Raito's face descended from ecstasy into surprise and frustration.

"Let me come!" Raito muttered brokenly.

"Not until you confess, Kira," L said.

"I won't!"

"Yes, you will," L said firmly. "I can keep going at this all night. How much more can you stand?"

"Take the ropes off," Raito begged. "Please, Ryuuzaki, they're hurting me."

"Tell me what you did," L said. "Tell me all of it. Then I'll take them off."

"I don't – want to."

"Raito, can't you see what you're doing is pointless?" L leaned up, looking down at his lover. "You can never stop crime or criminals from existing. It's human nature – you're like that king that tried to stop the tide coming in. It's nonsensical. The only reason for doing it is self-aggrandizement and I know you're a better person than to do that. You're just damning yourself for no reason."

"What do you know about it?" Raito gave a choking laugh. "I'm damned anyway. If you use the Death Note – anyone that uses the Death Note. Can neither go to Heaven nor Hell. Damned."

"So where do you go?" L asked, genuinely curious.

"What?" Raito raised his head, looked up at the detective. "I don't – I mean, I took it to mean that you went nowhere. Became nothing."

"Could just mean you go somewhere else," L speculated. "Some other plane of existence. A kind of Limbo, perhaps."

"I suppose – " Raito's eyes lit up hopefully. "Perhaps – I mean, if it's not Hell, it can't be so bad, can it?"

"I don't know, Raito-kun," L said. "Maybe not. So are you going to tell me the rest now?"

"Swear to me that you won't arrest me," Raito said, gazing intently into the detective's eyes. "I can't believe anything you say, but say it anyway."

"I promise you, Raito," L said. "All I want is for us to put this behind us and get on with our life together. We can never do that while you are Kira. It's too much trouble and it doesn't work anyway. You would be much better occupied solving cases with me and ridding the world of criminals that way."

"But what – I mean, you want to solve this case," Raito said. "How will you explain it?"

"Don't worry about that," L said. "I'm good at explaining things. I can put together enough Kiras out of the available suspects and known ones that will explain all the killings."

"Not Misa!" Raito exclaimed. "You can't do anything to Misa. Rem loves Misa and will kill you if you threaten her, that's what was meant to happen when you tested the thirteen... day – " he fell silent under the detective's glare.

"That's how you meant to kill me, Kira?" L said coldly. "You didn't even plan to do it yourself? Instead you thought to manipulate some lovesick supernatural entity into making away with me?"

"Uh... yes," Raito said, shamefaced.

"That's disgusting," L said.

"I'm sorry," Raito looked up pleadingly at the detective. "I had to – I mean, I planned it ages ago, Ryuuzaki. Before we were – before all of this."

"Tell me the rest," L said, ignoring Raito's apology.

"Now? Tied up like this?" Raito's voice was plaintive.

"I'm not letting you go until you do." L said with finality.

"If you insist – I'm getting cramp, you know!"

"Then I suggest you get on with it."

"Okay, okay. It was last year. The end of last year. I was still at school. I was sitting in the classroom, bored to tears as usual, when I looked out of the window..."

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"So that's it?" L finally asked when Raito seemed to have run out of words.

"That's it," Raito sounded tired. Defeated.

"You just need to say you give up your Death Note and it's done?"

"Yes. Then it's over."

"You will call Misa tomorrow and tell her to give up her Death Note as well," L said. "Then she will be out of the picture. She can go back to her life as a model and forget about all this. And about you."

"You know I never wanted to be her boyfriend anyway," Raito said, sulkily.

"Yes, you merely used her," L said. "That poor woman. That was one of the things that convinced me you were Kira, you know. Your attitude when you forgot your memories was that you only let her be around you so that she wouldn't compromise the case in any way. But as soon as you were Kira again, you met up with her, despite the fact that she had been released and you no longer had to."

"Mistake," Raito admitted. "But I needed her. So – you want me to give up the Death Note now? Because if I don't get out of these ropes soon, I think I'm going to suffer an embolism or some parts never working again."

"In a moment," L took the spare strip of silver tape he'd cut earlier and leaned over the boy, rapidly sticking it over his mouth before Raito could protest. "Wasn't there something you wanted me to do for you, Kira-chan?"

"Wfkfk!" Raito mumbled through the tape, eyes glaring wildly.

"Surely Kira-chan does not think I would give up this opportunity to enjoy the fact that I have beaten him?" L smirked. "I cannot reveal to anyone else what I have discovered here, but at least I can have the pleasure of fucking Kira raw."

"Mfkkk!"

"The tape will stop Kira from saying he gives up his Death Note and becoming Raito again," L said, unfastening his pants. "So – shall we get to it? I do seem to have been waiting rather a long time for this, so I hope in my eagerness I don't hurt you too much, Kira-chan."

"Nnnfffmh!"

"I see Kira-chan is looking forward to it," L said, moving into position between the boy's thighs and untying the portion of the rope that passed around his groin.

"Uuuu!"

"What, lube?" L guessed. "There should be some left in you from the vibrator session. I don't think we need any more than that."

Raito's eyes widened comically as he stared at the detective, then screwed shut, a muffled shriek coming from behind the tape gag as L leaned forward and drove himself hard into the boy. He winced. It was tight. Quite painful. But he comforted himself with the fact that if it was uncomfortable for him, it must be almost agonising for Kira.

He kept his eyes on Raito's as he pulled out again, noting the tears start to leak from the sides of them. Definitely excrutiating. Rammed himself back in, hearing a low whining sound from the boy.

"Kira is – very tight," L gasped, withdrawing nearly his whole length, then thrusting back. "He must be in considerable – pain. I wish he could truly appreciate... how much I am enjoying this."

Raito just moaned, a long sound of distress and despair, eyes half-open now, looking up at the detective.

L gave him an evil smile, startled at how much he actually was enjoying this. Well, why not. He never got to be the bad guy normally, it was a pleasant change. He set up a rhythm, pumping hard into Raito's tight passage, pulling out until only the head of his cock was inside then pushing back in forcibly. It felt better now, the unbearable friction lessened as the muscles stretched under the onslaught. It felt good. Almost too good. He shifted, changing the angle of his attack, saw Raito's eyes fly open, his back arch upward as L's cock slammed into his prostate. L grinned again, he wanted not only to rape Kira but to make him come, to humiliate him thoroughly.

"Mmmff!" Raito mumbled, writhing on the bed as L continued to fuck him hard, his glans stimulating his lover's pleasure centre with every stroke. The boy's eyes were half-closed now, pleasure having overtaken pain, only lust in them as they gazed up at L's sweat-streaked, flushed face.

"Yes, Raito," L muttered, feeling his climax approaching, the movement between them easy now, faultless, Raito pushing back against him as he entered, wanting more of him. L reached down, slid the ring off Raito's member, freeing him. "Come for me, my Raito, my angel... let me see you..."

"Uuuuhhh!" Raito's cry was muffled by the tape but the expression on his face told L all he needed to know and he let himself go, thrusting hard into his lover, letting his long overdue orgasm claim him, his juices exploding out of him as he watched Raito come, tossing his head from side to side, moaning as he spattered them with a seemingly endless stream of hot, white fluid.

L groaned, still coming, but aware that he had to – he reached out to the boy's face, ripped away the tape.

"Uhhn, Ryuu – " Raito mewled, hips still twitching, the last vestiges of thick, creamy liquid pumping slowly from his dick.

"Say it, Raito," L urged him. "Do it now."

"Wha – "

"The Death Note, Raito. Give it up."

"Oh. Yes, Ryuu. I give up my Death Note." Raito said and closed his eyes, sighing as he began to come down from his ecstatic high.

L looked down at him. It was over. Just like that – he let himself slip out of his lover and curled around the bound form possessively, holding the boy tight, aware that he'd nearly lost him for ever.

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"Ryuu-chan," Raito's voice was rather plaintive.

"Hm?"

"I've got cramp in several places. I'm really, really sore. And this is getting kind of embarrassing. Could you untie me please?"

"Of course, Raito," L pushed himself to his knees and began to untie the ropes. "I hope you enjoyed it?"

"Well – it's kind of a blur," Raito said. "But, yeah, I think so."

"Raito-kun knows I would never make him do anything he didn't really want to," L said, disentangling a leg.

Raito laughed. "If I didn't want to, you'd just talk me into it, you manipulative bitch."

"But I'm your manipulative bitch," L said with a smile.

"Damn straight," said Raito, sitting up as his legs were freed. "You should give me a massage, I feel as if I've been curled up like that – is that the time?" He glanced over at the clock. "I didn't think we were doing that for so long!"

"You know how time flies when you're enjoying yourself, Raito."

"Mm, I suppose so," Raito looked doubtful, but shrugged dismissively. "Are we going to sleep now?"

"Not yet, I'm afraid," L said, sadly. "I have something to show Raito first."

He passed Raito his clothes, then led the curious boy through the building to the surveillance room. Rewound the tape that had been recorded that night and set it to play, adjusting the volume on the audio so that it was loud enough for Raito to hear every word.

Raito gave one gasp at the point where L brought out his pistol, then he was silent, watching the whole thing through without comment. L took the opportunity to retrieve some of his birthday gummy worms from his pants pocket and chew on them as he watched Raito's face grow paler and grimmer as he took in what he'd said. What he'd done.

"I can't believe I did all that," Raito said, flatly, turning to L as the tape ran out.

"You can see yourself here, admitting it," L said.

"But – " Raito began. Then sighed. "Yes."

"It's not the end of the world, Raito," L said, putting his arm round the boy. "You gave it up."

"You had to force me to," Raito said. "I didn't want to."

"Why would you?" L said. "You enjoyed it."

"Thanks, Ryuuzaki, that makes me feel a lot better," Raito said bitterly.

"Don't start being angry with me, Raito-kun," L said. "I'm not the one who was Kira. You brought this on yourself."

"You think I don't know that?" Raito pulled away, with a dark look at his lover. "Leaving aside the fact that I've killed hundreds – no, thousands of people, I have to wonder now what made me do it. What is it inside of me that was so happy to accept this, so ready to go along with it. Surely it's not something that affects everyone this way? It must be me – I must be an evil person somewhere inside."

"Yes," L said. "But who isn't, really? Take away the ways we're taught to behave, the social constructs we live by and what's left? Something very much like Kira, I would imagine."

"I don't agree with you, Ryuuzaki." Raito said angrily. "Some people are good! Not me, obviously, but – somebody must be."

"No doubt, Raito-kun," L said. "But the only way to find out would be to expose everyone to the kind of influence they would receive from the Death Note and see what they do with it."

"That sounds a little extreme," Raito said. "So, uh, you were prepared to kill me if I wouldn't go along with what you wanted?"

L opened his mouth to say yes.

"No," he said, blinking with surprise as he heard himself.

"What?" Raito's eyes widened. "You mean all that was just a bluff? You sounded very sincere about it!"

"I was," L floundered for words, in the unfamiliar situation of having to explain something he didn't understand himself. "I thought I would... but on second thoughts, I think I wouldn't have. Not if it came to it."

"You'd have had me arrested?"

"No," L said again.

"So what the hell would you have done?" Raito demanded.

"Um, learned to live with it, Raito-kun," L murmured. "Unless you decided to kill me, which was, of course, what you originally had in mind."

"I would never kill you!" Raito protested. "But – I meant to, didn't I? Ryuuzaki – " he shook his head rather hopelessly. "What the fuck was wrong with me?"

"You were possessed, I think," L said, comfortingly. "I know my Raito would never normally harbor such murderous thoughts."

"How do you know?" Raito said, staring down at the floor. "I wanted to kill you – I planned it. I planned it really, really well. What kind of a boyfriend am I?"

"You killed a lot of other people as well," L said, trying to get the conversation back on track.

"Oh – yes," Raito said, dismissively. "Criminals. I shouldn't have done it that way. But, Ryuuzaki, I can't believe I was going to kill you. I must have been out of my mind!"

"You killed FBI agents as well," L made a last-ditch attempt for normality.

"Hmh, yes, I shouldn't have done that either," Raito admitted. "But that's not important – Ryuuzaki, I'm sorry. I'll make it up to you, I promise. You should never have had to hear all of that. You must be mortified, knowing that I was plotting against you that way!"

"Yes, it was rather distressing," L agreed, giving up on any hope of making his sociopathic lover realise the extent of his wrongdoing. "But I understand that Raito is sorry for it now. And I forgive him."

"Honestly, L, you fucked me dry, no wonder I'm so sore!"

"Kira deserved it," L said. "I would never have treated Raito in such a way."

"I hope not," Raito said, reaching out to run his fingers through sweat-soaked ebony locks. "I love you, Ryuuzaki. You're my angel. You saved me."

"Thank you, Raito," L said, smiling. Now didn't that make it all worth while?

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"Are you coming to bed, Ryuu?"

They had returned to their own suite to sleep, Raito having decided to stay the night and explain to his family tomorrow the truth of his relationship with L.

"After all," he'd said, "if I'm moving to England with you, they'll have to know why."

L had smiled and agreed and told Raito to go get into bed as he looked exhausted.

"I'll be there in a moment," he now called through. "I'm just sorting out some travel plans with Watari."

"Don't know why you can't do that in the morning," Raito grumbled, then L heard the sound of him going into the bathroom. The shower turning on. He nodded, having relied on the fact that the hygiene-obsessed boy would have to get clean after such an intense session of sex and bondage. Especially using ropes that someone else had been tied up in first.

L listened to the shower run for a couple of minutes, time enough to be sure Raito was in it, then went to the safe that was hidden behind a reproduction of Breugel's Two Small Monkeys. He opened it and took out the notebook that he'd told Raito was already destroyed.

About to leave the room with it, he thought again, remembering what Raito had told him. Heaven or Hell. Or somewhere else... L sat down at his desk and picked up his phone.

"Watari, send me details of any prisoners about to be executed."

He turned to his laptop, opened up the files as Watari transferred them. Sato Atsushi, a likely candidate. Due to be put to death in the morning. Looking through the police reports and evidence, L was sure there was no doubt that the man was guilty of the rape and murder he was accused of.

"This will do," he murmured to himself. Studied the man's photo. Opened the Death Note. Wrote.

Sato Atsushi.

Then the world's greatest detective reached for a piece of cake and watched the clock counting down seconds.

Presently, he sighed. Got up and went out of the room, taking the book with him. Downstairs, then further down, to the basement. To the incinerator.

About to open it he wondered. Was it really a bad idea? Was it perhaps possible to –

No. That was the kind of thinking that had got them into this mess in the first place. Raito hadn't had the benefit of hindsight when he found the Death Note, but L did. He didn't want it anyway. He just wanted Raito. And to be L.

He opened the incinerator door and flung the notebook into the heat, closed it and went back up the stairs.

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"Ryuuzaki!" Raito turned as the detective came through the door, his face pale, expression anxious.

"I'm back, Raito," L said. "And it's Lawliet."

"What?"

"My name. First name L, second name Lawliet."

"You're telling me your name?" Raito took a step toward the detective, a half smile on his face.

"If we're going to live together, I thought you should know it," L said.

"I thought maybe you changed your mind," Raito said. "That you decided you didn't want to be with me."

"No," L said. "Whatever you've done, Raito, whatever you are, it doesn't matter to me."

He went across to where Raito stood, took the boy's face in his hands and kissed him.

"Don't worry any more, Rai-chan," he murmured. "I love you. And wherever you go, I will always be with you."

THE END