All For Love: Romance/Thriller (Death Note)
It's a well-known fact that no one ever forgets their first love, nor will they let them slip away so easily. When L falls in love for the first time, what lengths will he go to to keep his object of affection safe from harm? Would he dare to step out of his alias as "L" and maybe even step into the new alias of . . . "Kira"?

XxXxXxXxX

The Stranger I Live With

Raito had begun to notice that recently something had quietly yet drastically changed in his working partner. He wasn't sure what it was, but there was definitely something other than the case that had been occupying L's mind. Sometimes it seemed quite troubling because his dark rimmed eyes would fill with distress and his hands would shake, but other times it seemed to bring happiness as that odd little smile would tug at his lips.

Again Raito had been left alone with L to stare at security videotape after videotape, searching for some kind of clue to Kira's identity. They'd found nothing, absolutely nothing. After Raito had been cleared of virtually all suspicion of being Kira the investigation had to be completely restarted and the last few days had been, more or less, utterly boring. Who could blame L for daydreaming?

"Have you found anything yet?" He asked for the sole sake of breaking this dreadfully dull silence.

"Not that seems worth noting." Came the dull reply. "Kira seems to be very good at staying hidden."

Raito sighed heavily. "Sometimes I wonder if we'll ever catch him."

"I wonder too . . . "

Raito eyes widened slightly at the answer. "You're not supposed to agree with me." He said quickly, turning in his chair to see L popping another marshmallow in his mouth. "What happened to 'justice will prevail'? You've never failed to solve a case before."

"I've never been wrong before either," L's words came out muffled due to the marshmallow he hadn't waited to swallow. "But apparently everyone agrees that you're not Kira after all."

"That doesn't mean you should give up." Raito leaned forward a bit in his seat, staring at the cuff around his wrist. "What if everyone else was biased?"

"Is that a confession, Yagami-kun?"

"No. I'm just saying . . . " Raito sighed again and muttered. "You can't just give up."

"I never said I was giving up." L answered bluntly, jiggling the chain that connected them while reaching for another marshmallow with his free hand. "Why do you think I keep this on? I have a good reason to want to catch Kira; I won't be chased away so easily."

Raito's eyebrows tweaked with interest and he looked up. "A good reason?"

"Yes." L's voice never swayed from its continuous droning tone. "For once I find myself feeling emotionally involved in this case. I normally wouldn't allow this, as it causes problems, but this time it's important."

Raito shifted a bit in his chair, feeling almost excited at the idea that the odd creature known as L actually possessed emotion. "What is it?"

L's dark eyes glanced down at him for a moment before flickering back up to his screen. "I can't tell you. If you were Kira it would be enough information for you to discover my name."

"Really?" This interested Raito even more. It also seemed at times that L lacked a real name along with emotion, and the sudden mention from L himself of the existence of both made him curious.

"This is a dangerous game Kira has started." L mumbled quietly, a strange little smile forming at the corner of his mouth. "If I'm not careful, I'll die."

"Ryuuzaki . . . hypothetically, if there was some kind of way that you would absolutely know that I wasn't Kira, would you tell me your reason?" Raito asked again, still looking at L with intense curiosity; he had been so bored lately that the only thing to entertain him were questions like these.

"Hmm," L popped another marshmallow in his mouth, a thoughtful look taking over his face. It took long enough for him to work out the answer that he actually finished chewing and swallowing his marshmallow before he replied. "No."

Raito's face fell a little in disappointment. "Why not?"

"Because you could still use it to find my name." L answered, his wide eyes gaining that blank kind of look as he stared straight at Raito's face. "You could be an ally of Kira's and release the information, or Kira could control you and force you to give away my name."

Raito chuckled a bit. "You're paranoid, Ryuuzaki."

"Maybe," L answered without very much consideration to the statement. "But being paranoid keeps me from getting killed."

"Alright, fine." Raito sighed heavily and blinked at his screen again. "What's something that couldn't possibly give away your identity?"

L was silent for a minute, as if carefully thinking over this question. After a long hesitation, he turned his swivel chair so that he was facing Raito and stated. "I'm a Buddhist."

Raito blinked and then smiled a little. "Really?"

"Yes."

"Hmm, I would have thought you were an atheist . . . "

"Is it because I use logic and reason more than anything else?" L's eyes seemed to shine a bit with amusement. "I have a spiritual side to me too, Yagami-kun. I decided on Buddhism when I was a child, though my family didn't quite agree with it."

Raito blinked again. "You have a family . . . ?"

L's eyes turned to him and that coy smile played across his lips again. "Don't you?"

"Yeah. It's just . . . " Raito had never once thought that L had a family somewhere in the world.

"I assure you, I am human." L grabbed the bag of marshmallows off his desk and turned his attention to Raito fully; apparently he felt the need to give his eyes a short break from staring at screens. "I'm enjoying this conversation, Yagami-kun. Is your family large?."

Raito smiled a bit. "I just have a little sister."

"Sayu?"

"Yeah." Raito played with the chain between his fingers absentmindedly, unaware that L's black eyes were watching every movement. "Were you an only child?" He asked quietly.

L took a second to analyze the information he could choose to release or not. It didn't seem it would cause any harm. "No."

Raito felt almost as though he were reading a diary; such simple information and yet it seemed so secretive and private. "Can I ask how many kids were in your family?"

L blinked at him, wondering over his use of the word 'were'. "Four." He answered bluntly.

"Are you the oldest?"

"Second eldest." L replied, popping a marshmallow into his mouth as he inspected Raito's facial expression. "You enjoy knowing these things?"

Raito nodded a bit, smiling slightly. "It's nice to learn things about your friends."

"Why did you say 'were', Yagami-kun?" L suddenly blurted, his eyes wide as he looked at him. "When you asked how many children, you said 'were' instead of 'are'. Why?"

" . . . I don't know." Raito answered in a confused tone. "I guess I didn't think your family still existed. It's kind of hard to imagine."

It sounded like L had hummed to himself, but it was so quiet, Raito might have only imagined it. He watched as the detective turned his swivel chair again so that he could face the screen, but those dark eyes didn't turn away until the very last moment.

Raito felt a nagging feeling in the pit of his stomach that ran in two different directions. One begged for him to question L further and try to unlock some of the mysteries in this dark man, and the other told him to shut up and leave him alone. L kept virtually everything about him a secret, and he had his obvious reasons for that, but it also made curiosities grow . . .

Who was he really?

L said he had a family. Maybe he didn't just mean parents and siblings. What if he had a girlfriend somewhere, or even a wife? What if he had kids of his own? L didn't look much older than Raito, but then again he didn't know his age either, it could have been very possible for him to have children somewhere in the world, most likely not even beyond infancy yet.

Maybe that was his reason? Maybe he wanted to go home?

Raito couldn't help but squeeze one last question out. "Do you miss your family, Ryuuzaki?"

"Yes," L breathed out in a near instant response. "Very much."

XxXxXxXxX

Raito opened his eyes slowly only to find that it was too dark to see anyway. The room was silent except for the quiet hum of L's laptop and the tapping sounds of his slender fingers striking the keyboard. Raito sighed quietly and rolled over to see the sight that had become uncomfortably familiar to him.

L had seated himself on the floor on the opposite side of the bed, the chain that bound him to Raito almost tight from the distance. His dark hair swayed as he turned his head, probably reaching for whatever sugar-based snack he had brought with him tonight. Raito wondered if perhaps he only ate so many sweets just to keep him awake; it didn't seem as if he ever slept.

"Ryuuzaki . . .?"

He watched as that dark hair swayed again, and wide eyes rimmed black with exhaustion stared straight back at him. "What is it Yagami-kun? Do you need to use the washroom?"

"No," Raito answered slowly, taking an unconscious note of the way it seemed L could wait minutes before blinking. "Why are you still awake?"

"Oh, did I wake you?" L chirped back innocently, his head tilting slightly as if to capture Raito's face from another angle. "I didn't think I was being noisy."

"No, I woke by myself." Raito used his elbows to pull himself to L's side of the bed, peeking over the mattress to look at the screen of L's laptop. "You're working?"

L nodded slowly, his eyes fixed on Raito's face. "Of course; what else should I be doing?"

"Sleeping. It's 4:30 in the morning, Ryuuzaki."

L simply shrugged his shoulders and turned back to his laptop. "And while we sleep, people die. I told you that this case is important to me, Yagami-kun. I won't rest until we've at least taken another step; I have to find a clue . . . "

"Well, you won't find anything at this rate. You can't possibly be thinking clearly if you don't sleep." Raito sighed and stretched his arm over the mattress, his finger hovering dangerously close to the laptop's power button. "Now I suggest you save whatever you've done."

L's eyes widened in alarm. "But, Yagami-kun-!"

"No 'but's. It's time to sleep." Raito scolded, inching his finger closer. "Save it."

L immediately obeyed, in fear that Raito would actually destroy the progress he had made. If he really was Kira he would have no problem with him losing gathered information and would most certainly push the button. No sooner had he saved his work than the screen went blank and L sat there staring at the dark screen as if waiting for it to suddenly spring back to life.

"You turned it off . . ." He cooed mournfully.

"So? You saved it." Raito answered, pushing the laptop shut and then rolling back to his side of the bed. "It'll still be there when the sun comes up, so go to sleep."

"Yagami-kun, I wish you would remember that I am the head of this inve-"

"Go to sleep!"

L said nothing more. Instead, he grabbed his bag of chocolate mints and placed it on the night table before crawling into the bed. He was especially careful to keep to his side, making sure not a single part of him met with Raito's person, and stared at the cuff on his wrist.

He didn't speak when Raito told him to lay his head on the pillow, and when Raito pulled the blanket over him he didn't thank him. He didn't speak when Raito's feet brushed against his, and when Raito exclaimed that L's feet were cold he didn't mention that Raito's were warm. He didn't speak when Raito hummed sleepily, and when Raito said "Good-night, Ryuu-kun." he didn't say good-night back.

He didn't speak . . .

But he smiled.

XxXxXxXxX

When Raito woke again it was early morning. He found himself alone, as he did most mornings, and L had attached his end of the handcuffs to the bedpost. He looked up to find the familiar security camera sitting atop the dresser, watching him. Later L would remove the tape and watch it carefully before returning to his work.

What he did during this small amount of time when they were apart, Raito didn't know. He knew that L showered most mornings, as he sometimes could hear the water running and L would return with damp hair, but surely he did other things too.

"Ryuuzaki?" He called out curiously, and in a near immediate response L's head appearing in the doorway, the rest of his body hidden behind the wall.

"Yes, Yagami-kun?"

"I have to use the washroom."

"Oh, just a minute." L answered quickly, brushing a strand of wet hair away from his face. "I'm getting dressed."

Raito's eyes turned down to see the end of L's jeans around the heel of his foot. He found it so strange that even if L only lacked a shirt he still wouldn't allow Raito to see him; it made him so curious as to what was hidden beneath that ever-present white sweater.

Waiting patiently, Raito picked at the cuff around his wrist until L came in with a key in hand. After he had secured the other end of the cuff onto his own wrist, L accompanied Raito to the washroom and the awkward procedure began again.

Raito found it horribly difficult to follow his simple daily morning routine once he had been handcuffed to L, mainly because when making use of the toilet L was standing right behind him; he would turn around most of the time, but it barely made a difference.

He would often hear surprised little yelps while he was in the shower. He'd bring up his hands to wash his hair and it would tug on the forgotten chain, nearly pulling over L who would be standing on the other side of the curtain. Though the worst of it was in he would step out of the shower, totally and completely exposed, and L would be standing there with a towel in his arms and wait curtly for Raito to wrap it around himself.

Finally, after all was said and done, L headed for their workstation with Raito begrudgingly trailing behind. It was a day off for everyone else, so only L and Raito would be working that day. Raito really wished he could have joined the others on their short vacation, but such luxuries would not come about as long as he were attached to this odd, restless creature that claimed himself to be human.

The only luxury around him now was an endless supply of sugar.

"You look tired, Yagami-kun." L's soft voice commented and Raito turned to see his wide eyes staring at him curiously.

"Yeah, well, somebody woke me up in the middle of the night." He teased in reply.

L simply blinked. "You said you woke up by yourself." Then his eyes suddenly got a little wider as if he had been struck with some shocking realization. "Was it only sarcasm?"

"No, you didn't really wake me up." Raito answered with a sigh, plopping himself down in his chair as L cautiously lowered himself in his own. "I'm just tired for the sake of being tired, I guess."

"Oh!" L suddenly turned his chair and opened a drawer in the desk, whipping out a bag of strawberry candies and holding them towards the younger boy. "Have some, Yagami-kun. It might help."

Raito stared at L with wide eyes, blinking. "Is that seriously where you get all your energy?" He asked slowly. "You just run off of sugar alone?"

L simply shrugged his shoulders and popped a candy in his mouth. "They keep me awake."

"You're kidding."

"Why would I 'kid'?"

"You're insane!" Raito snapped, grabbing the bag of candies and pulling them out of L's grasp. "You're gonna kill yourself like this!"

L's eyes stared at the stolen candy distractedly. " . . . Those are mine . . . "

"These are actually what you're living off of right now." Raito sighed and tossed the bag to the other side of the room. "You don't sleep, you don't get any exercise, and you don't eat anything with any nutritional value whatsoever. You're not going to live past 30 if you keep this up."

L blinked at him with a bit of a surprised face. "But I'm fine."

"Haven't you ever heard of osteoporosis? Anemia? Scurvy?"

"Ah, I don't have to worry about scurvy." L interrupted him quickly. "I eat plenty of fruit."

"I don't care." Raito answered, rolling his eyes and getting up from his chair. "You need to take a break from all this work and take care of yourself. You'll never catch Kira if you're dead!"

L's face took the same panicked look it had the night before when Raito turned off his laptop. "But I can't catch Kira if I don't work!"

"You can work later; right now we're going out." Raito said sternly, grabbing the chain of the handcuffs and pulling on it, dragging L's swivel chair with him as he walked.

L quickly turned in his chair and grabbed the desk, holding on to it tightly to stop Raito in his tracks. "Yagami-kun, I don't want to go out. I want to stay here."

Raito felt his eyes twitch. L was reminding him of a child clinging to the doorframe when his mother tried to take him off to bed. The only difference was that this child was clinging to his workstation when it was time for some recreation.

"Well, I want to go out, and considering we're handcuffed together, you have no choice but to come along."

Raito pulled again but L clung to the desk to prevent himself from being dragged. Raito felt his patience running thin very quickly and he gave the chain a harsh jerk that pulled L right off his chair.

If L was going to behave like a child then Raito would just have to behave like a parent.

He glared down at the pale detective sitting on the floor and staring up at him with a shocked expression. "Get your shoes on right now." He ordered in a low voice.

"Yagami-kun, I really don't think-"

"Now!"

"Okay!"

XxXxXxXxX

Hi everybody! It’s me :) I actually wasn’t supposed to start this fic yet because the votes didn’t ask for it, but don’t worry, I’ll start one of the others too. We have a small problem though—the votes ended with a tie between Chatroom and What You Don’t Know . . . So I need you guys to vote again, but only for those two! And then majority rules, so you can only vote for one of those two, okay? I started this one early because I really wanted to and because one of my friends practically foamed at the mouth when she found out that I had an upcoming Death Note fic XD

For those of you who don’t know me (I’ve only written one Death Note oneshot before) this is gonna be interesting, I promise!

REVIEW PLEASE