In The Spaces Between Words

---Sleepless Beauty---

Click. Tap-tap.

Tap-tap-tap, tap-tap.

Tap, click, tap-tap-tap.

Tap-tap, tap-tap-tap-tap, tap, tap-tap-tap-tap-tap.

Tap-tap-tap-tap, click.

Yagami Light cracked an eye open blearily at the repetitive sounds of fingers tapping keys and quickly shut it again against the glare of the laptop’s artificial light in the gloom of the bedroom. He groaned softly. The tapping stopped as fingers stilled.

“E—Ryuuzaki. What are you doing?” he near-demanded. Only the realization that he didn’t actually know what time it was with the thick curtains over the windows kept him from adding the words, ‘at this Godforsaken hour.’ “What time is it anyway?”

L blinked wide eyes at the half-awake form of the genius beside him before obligingly glancing at the clock on his laptop’s taskbar. It took barely a moment for him to do the time zone math required to convert the figures to Japanese time. “3:37am,” he replied.

“Jesus,” the brunet swore, rolling over to face away from the garish glow, although he wasn’t quite sure he believed in the person whose name he was using so lightly.

“And back to your original question, I’m looking over the facts we have on Kira again.”

“Hmm…”

“I apologize, Light-kun. Did I wake you?”

“No, I had a bad dream,” he bit out the sarcastic retort.

The fingers returned to what they were doing moments ago, and the tapping resumed much to Light’s annoyance.

“What was the dream about?”

The brunet took a deep breath to fight back the sudden urge he had to reach over and strangle the eccentric detective. Not only had the oddball completely missed the undertone of sarcasm, he was also asking not because he was sincerely concerned or curious, but because he was looking for a subconscious sign that Yagami Light was Kira. Yes, oh yes, he knew perfectly how that twisted brilliant mind worked. He forced a smile even though he was aware the other couldn’t see him from that angle and had no surveillance camera monitors to help. It almost made him feel better, and that was what counted.

“Tapping keys,” he answered evenly.

Those slender fingers stilled again as their owner finally picked up on the sarcasm in his words. “I… I’m sorry, Yagami-kun… I couldn’t sleep.”

Well, it was a teeny bit of consolation that the P.I. really did sound apologetic this time. “It might help if you quit consuming so much sugar and caffeine,” he suggested without turning, somehow managing to keep the irritation out of his voice.

“Those are good for the brain,” the other argued as predicted.

And Light’s patience snapped so sharply it proverbially resounded in the room. He sat up abruptly, turning to the raven-haired man, and in one lightning-quick motion, shut the laptop with one hand while coiling the chain between them around the detective’s arms and torso. Then he moved the computer out of the way and tugged the effectively restrained insomniac down to the bed beside him. L blinked. He hadn’t even been given a chance to protest. Lack of sleep seemed like quite a motivator.

“Light-ku—”

“If you can’t sleep, think. Or daydream. Or something, anything quiet. Just don’t wake me up before the sun rises, goddammit,” the brunet interjected crossly before he could even begin, settling back into sleep.



L wisely said nothing to that, and it wasn’t long before the other’s breaths slowed as he sunk back into slumber. Midnight eyes eventually came to rest on the visage nearby after minutes spent traveling the darkened room. His companion’s face looked serene and innocent in sleep, and the older man wondered how Yagami Light could possibly be Kira.

L, L… That would be precisely what he’d want you to think… That line of thought will get you killed, he told himself firmly.

Because Light was brilliant, insanely brilliant, and that was what made him dangerous. Despite being seven years his junior, Light was easily his match in intelligence, if not more. He also had the kind of charisma and knowledge of the innate workings of people that L believed could charm the birds out of the sky to eat from his palm if he truly put his will to it. Yagami Light was the perfect Kira. Yet he couldn’t help thinking that mad mass murderers couldn’t look so at peace, so… beautiful. The detective caught himself the instant the thought finished. That should be the last thing he should associate with his prime suspect. He shook his head slightly. Lack of sleep was probably doing strange things to his mind.


He could feel the body heat emanating off the lean form beside him, and it was pleasantly warm, especially since coiling the chain around him securely meant that the other had to almost hug him with the arm the chain was connected to. Light would most probably be horrified at the thought had he been awake enough to notice, although it mattered little to L. He struggled a little against the chains, hoping to free an arm, to no avail. The eccentric P.I. sighed somewhat mournfully. He couldn’t even nibble on his thumb while thinking. It would probably be approximately another one hour and seventeen minutes before the sugar and caffeine in his bloodstream wore off enough for him to fall asleep. He sighed again. Those were going to be a long four thousand six hundred and twenty seconds.

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Please REVIEW! I need to know if stuff is consistent and all... No sense continuing something crappy and all, you know? Thanks for reading though!


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, minna!