Chapter Summary: In this first chapter, Light and L are living together, but it's really more of a vacation than a serious relationship. Light becomes concerned that L is inexplicably ill all the time, and the situation is complicated by L's uncooperative attitude.

Objectionable Material: This chapter contains no inappropriate language, violence, or sexual content; however, due to its theme it would be rated T.

Disclaimer: Death Note and affiliated characters are owned and created by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata.

I. Sick

Light awoke in early in the morning, while it was still dark out, unsure of why. He looked to his left and saw that L was not there.

"No, not again," he muttered to himself. The bathroom light shone from beneath the door.

It had been going on for more than a week.

Everything had been going so well; Some time during the investigation, Light had recognized his desire to be god of the new world was delusional and misguided. The realization seemed to coincide with a strange development of feelings for the man in charge of the investigation.

He asked that the notebook be taken back to the shinigami world. He never officially gave up ownership, but he was simply not active as Kira anymore. He had outgrown it. The killings stopped, and the investigation wrapped up. When L invited him to come to Paris for a while to help with a new case, he wondered if L also felt there was something between them. His suspicions were confirmed when it turned out there was no case to work on. Clever L.

…But then this had started happening.

"Hey," he tapped on the door lightly. "Ryuzaki." He could hear him getting sick in the bathroom. "Hey, open the door." Light knocked again.

"N-no, I'm fine. Go back to sleep," L's weak voice sounded from inside.

"Come on, Ryuzaki. Open the door!" Why did he have to make everything so difficult?

"Just leave me alone, please."

Fine, we'll do this the hard way. Light went to the closet where he kept a set of tools and retrieved a screw driver. He had prepared for this the first time L locked him out of the bathroom. He knelt down and removed the screws from the door handle, and dislodged it, letting the door swing open.

"It's okay. Just go back to bed," L stammered.

Light's anger immediately turned to pity. He knelt behind L, where he sat huddled in front of the toilet, looking paler than usual and shivering violently.

"No, I'll stay with you," he said, stroking the back of L's head.

L resisted comfort during his weaker moments, but Light noticed that when it was forced on him, he seemed to benefit from it.

They sat together for a few minutes, the silence broken only by L's heavy breathing. "Maybe you're done?" Light proposed.

L shook his head. "I feel really sick, but my body seems to intend to drag this out."

"I'll get you some water," Light said, moving to the sink. He took their toothbrushes out of a glass, filled it with water, and handed it to his suffering companion.

L shuddered as he took a sip. Even his mouth was resisting allowing anything down his throat, but he forced himself to swallow anyway, swiftly gulping down the entire glass. It felt truly awful, but it did the trick, making him finish emptying his stomach almost instantly.

Light helped him clean up and brush his teeth, and took him back to bed. L lay curled in a ball as Light soothingly rubbed his back.

"We need to take you to the doctor," Light said. "This has been going on too long to be a virus. There might be something really wrong with you."

"It's just the food here… or the water… it doesn't agree with me."

"This isn't a third world country!" Light said. "You haven't been able to keep anything down for over a week. You're losing weight." When L didn't respond, Light concluded, "We are going to the doctor tomorrow."