Conceal me what I am, and be my aid
For such disguise as haply shall become
The form of my intent.

"Itachi-kun," L says. "Where were you on August twelfth, four years ago?"

"With the rest of my family, in our house," Itachi deadpans. His face is still expressionless, but he seems about ready to let out an exasperated sigh.

"This is difficult to believe, Itachi-kun, that on the day before the massacre you were doing nothing other than sitting in your house."

"How so?" Itachi asks, and L scoffs. L knows he's beating a dead horse, that in the course of only a day it is extremely unlikely that what he hears from Itachi will differ from what he heard yesterday. Although that hardly discourages him, he's much too confident in his abilities for that, and besides, L lives for challenges.

"I find it unlikely that you weren't... making preparations," L answers.

"Making preparations?" It is Itachi's turn to scoff. The small display of emotion satisfies L greatly. "No," Itachi continues, "I can assure that all preparations had already been made."

"Is that so?" L intones, a tone of disbelief eminent in his voice. "By whom?"

From his cell, Itachi stares into the blinking red light of the camera. His face appears on the monitor, all creamy white skin and dark, pronounced bags under his eyes, capable of challenging even L's decrepit appearance. L zooms the camera until there is nothing visible on the monitor except two towering, red eyes encircling misshapen pupils. L notes his suspect's long, delicate eyelashes and the beginnings of gently arched eyebrows that are still visible on the monitor. Some of Itachi's hair, having long ago fallen into disarray, hangs down distractingly in front of his face. On instinct, L reaches up and pushes his own furious black hair out of his eyes.

L hears Itachi's voice float out like a disembodied ghost from the speaker, but does not move his gaze from the teen's eyes. Eyes, L thinks, are marvelously useful things. They tell the truth most sincerely, despite the lies of their owners.

"Myself," Itachi says seriously. He doesn't blink."How many confessions do you need, Ryuuzaki?"

L pops a candy into his mouth. He rolls it around on his tongue, deliberately considering the flavor before answering.

"Just one honest one, Itachi-kun."

Itachi's eyes narrow minutely for a fraction of a second. L is glad he still has the camera zoomed into Itachi's face, otherwise he would have missed it entirely.

"My honesty is ineffective if you are so set on not believing me in the first place."

L pokes a thumb into his mouth and swirls the candy around with it, waiting for Itachi to continue.

"Your expectations distort your thinking, Ryuuzaki. You simply do not want to believe that I am telling the truth."

L turns this over in his mind, still regarding Itachi's eyes steadily. He is forced to acknowledge that there is logic in what the teen is saying, his practical mind won't allow him not to. But his gut feeling seems convinced that there is something he is not seeing under the surface, the information just doesn't add up. There is no way one child was capable of orchestrating and performing a massacre of such scale in such a short amount of time. (Although L has learned not to underestimate children. Light was a child as well, after all.) Criminals are usually not so ready to take complete responsibility for their crimes; to confess and confess again, knowing they will be judged guilty. As well as the fact that L managed to track down and capture Itachi in the first place. It had been difficult, but something about it had been too easy, too orchestrated. As if Itachi had allowed himself to be caught on purpose.

He is covering up for somebody, or something, L thinks. Being used as the sacrificial lamb, the red herring to distract from the real perpetrators of the crime.

Cutting to the chase is nearly inevitable. L is a man of limited patience, after all, especially when things aren't going his way. L zooms the camera back out so that he can now see Itachi and the entire cell in the monitor. He doesn't need to see the suspect's eyes anymore to determine truth from lies.

"Who are you working for, Itachi-kun?"

The teen smirks, all superiority and smugness, and L is reminded forcibly of Light. He remains silent though.

"I take it then, that you are working under someone else's instructions?"

Itachi shakes his head, the smile fading from his lips as quickly as it came. "I did it because I wanted to see what I was truly capable of. I'm sure, Ryuuzaki, that you can understand. Have you never wished to test your limits, to discover the extent of your own genius?"

L chews his lip, eying the dark haired teen from across the screen. "No," he says. "That would be a frightening thing."

"A true genius is not held back by something as trivial as fear," Itachi sneers.

"That may very well be true, but it is arbitrary, and I believe you have reasons that you are still not sharing with me. Be assured that if I did not think this you would already have been put to death."

"I am afraid that I am not in the least bit threatened," Itachi says.

"It wasn't a threat, Itachi-kun," L intones tiredly. "It was simply the truth, although I understand how you may have misinterpreted it. The truth is, after all, not a familiar subject to you."

Itachi sneers again, and the motion surprises L. The teen does not seem like the type to give way to a facial expression in the midst of an interrogation. Unless...

"Indeed," Itachi agrees.

He's mocking me, L thinks, the realization sending something like shivers down his back. He's enjoying this.

"Ryuuzaki," Itachi's voice floats through the speaker, firm and commanding. L snaps his head up in surprise, redirecting his attention back to the monitor. "This has been fun, but I'm afraid I can no longer afford to be wasting my time."

L stares. "Pardon me?"

Except he is staring at nothing. Itachi is no longer visible anywhere inside the cell. L lets out a low string of curses. He turns on a different speaker, one designed to reach Watari at any given time.

"Watari-" L begins desperately. He is cut short as a large shadow falls over the bright light of the glowing, neon monitors. L turns around in time for a pale, silky hand to wrap its way around his neck.

And you're so beautiful when you're one step away from the edge…

--

A/N: The quote at the top is from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. I wasn't sure which day Itachi massacred his clan, so I took the liberty to make one up. Admitedly, this fic isn't going to have much of a point. Itachi/L has been a guilty pleasure I've been thinking about for quite some time, so I just decided to write a little something up.