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Author of 31 Stories |
Title: Captivation
Rating: M
Categories: Angst/Romance
Beta: Mikanis
Pairings: Basically combinations of B, Raito and L.
Warning(s): AU, dark stuff, lemons (although I don’t think they get too explicit), extreme mind games and manipulation. Spoilers for Another Note (B) and L’s name.
Summary: AU. Beyond is interested in L. L is interested in Raito. Raito isn’t interested in anything…until he meets B. By the time he realizes he’d rather be bored, it’s too late. Yaoi.
AU: There will still be a Death Note, eventually, but the changes are apparent, especially because L is in Japan before the Kira case, and B works for him…among other things that will shown as the story goes on. This first chapter is set July 2002, the same as the BB murder cases, but those murders don’t happen.
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There is no great genius without some touch of madness. Lucius Annaeus Seneca
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Beyond Birthday loved to laugh.
He wasn’t a typically humorous person, so most of his laughs were feigned, however he really did enjoy it. It was fun. The reason it was so amusing was lost to him, but it seemed as though the breath that left him when he laughed was full of poison. And as he expelled it with harsh chuckles, his spirits healed and lifted. Oh yes, Beyond adored laughing.
It was probably the most human thing about him.
The rest of him was alien, from his uncombed hair, large dark underlined eyes and the way he jumped around on all fours in crime scene. He didn’t usually care what people thought of him, and that was probably for the best, because what people generally thought of him wasn’t very nice. They thought he was a freak, although he really wasn’t acting like himself most of the time.
Instead he copied L -his employer.
Upon L’s departure from Whammy’s, the place where B had bee raised, Beyond had demanded to accompany him. L had refused quite a bit before Watari had talked him into hiring him as his assistant. Beyond was grateful to the old man, such a kind old man -sort of weak, really, now that he thought about it. If he’d been smarter, like L, he would have seen that it wasn’t just admiration driving him to follow him, to dress like him, to sit like him…
It was true that it had started as admiration, but soon it turned into something else. Some sort of twisted fixation, no, more like obsession. The reason he’d sought to look like L had to been to be him, and he still wanted to pass him, defeat him, dominate him…
Now, though, in an entirely different way.
L was only a few years older than him, so it seemed arbitrary to think of him like some sort of mentor. He was his boss, he worked for him, they ate lunch together at the same Café everyday, but that was as far as their social relationship went, and L made sure Beyond knew it. It was irritating, sometimes, and it had made Beyond break one or two (alright, three) jam jars against the wall of his hotel room.
Empty jars, of course. As if he would waste jam in such a manner.
But now, at the age of nineteen, B dressed as L out of habit more than anything. And to look in the mirror and see that face that he dreamt and thought about more often than not. He would, eventually, get what he wanted. He’d never openly made a pass at L (it felt very juvenile to call it such) -but he was fairly certain L knew exactly what he wanted from him.
Sometimes B really hated L. Sometimes he wanted to wrap his fingers around that slender throat and watch as the lips opened, gasping for breath. To peer into dark, obsidian eyes as the last of the life seeped out of them.
Only sometimes, though.
He imagined it would be an interesting experiment, to bring L to the very brink of death, observing the light fading from his intense, charcoal orbs… not that were was much there to begin with. They were remarkably dull eyes, beautifully dark, but listless, like a sharp pencil that was used too much and eventually worn down to the core.
L had seen a lot in his life. He was not haunted per se, not weary or tired but…uninterested. He’d seen it all, figured it all out, seen that crime, watched that footage, solved that case, got the T-shirt…
Beyond giggled softly at his joke and walked down the street. He ignored the stares he got, each person‘s eyes following him so conspicuously. Beady eyes, large eyes, eyes with eyeliner, sagging eyes, squinty eyes and even some blue eyes…but no eyes as wondrous as his own. No, no pair of eyes could ever match his -which allowed him the most intimate of details about a person with only a glance in their direction.
These people didn’t really matter at all, and so he let them gawk at his appearance -L’s appearance, his white shirt stained pink near his left biceps in a way that remind passerby’s of blood. Upon closer inspection, one would notice that it was not blood that tainted the white cotton, but strawberry jam.
But strangers believed what they wanted to believe, and such a person, with such a stain, would most likely some sort of serial murderer. Many of his fellow pedestrians moved to the opposite side of the sidewalk, which was actually convenient for him.
People thought he was crazy -which was just as well, because he wasn’t denying it.
He recalled seeing people look at L in much the same way, and Beyond smirked at the thought. L didn’t care what other’s thought of him either. Such a socially inept man, and yet so very eye-catching.
L was interesting in all his apparent disinterest. Beyond had once found him fascinating, and aspired to be like him, but soon that had grown into something far more warped as it twisted into his brain, sinking its claws into the depths of his ambitions and forcing him to want more. He wanted to look down at L, see him writhe in the pitiful rays of his defeat. L was so very calm...he wanted to break that collective face.
He simply wanted to break L. Beyond wanted to watch as the so-called greatest detective in the world shattered into a million irretrievable pieces and lay on the ground pathetically, awaiting someone to put him back together. And, of course, who better to piece him back together than the one that broke him in the first place? L would be completely and utterly dependant on him…
And how wonderful would that be? To have the previous top detective in the world in his grasp, his submission at his beck and call…? Beyond thought it would be a marvelous thing -so very satisfying, to top the top, best the best. Beyond laughed again, and once more attracted stares.
He finally reached his destination, a Café that he and L had been eating lunch at for the past month or so, ever since they’d traveled to Japan. L was working on a robbery case, around 2,000,000,000,000 yen at stake, and Beyond was tending to his other cases, and helping with the main case whenever his work load allowed it.
L may have been persuaded by Watari to take on B as his employee, but he couldn’t deny the efficiency that B provided, and so he didn’t complain. L wasn’t one to whine, but unanimously wasn’t one to suffer silently either. He weighed the pros and cons of having B work with him closely, and seeing as the only con was his continuous discomfort, he decided it was only fair to the world if he endured the man’s presence for the sake of bringing more criminals to justice.
B was fine with that. Although he’d rather see L groveling at his feet, toleration was a start.
The door to the café opened with a sharp ding of a bell, as Beyond entered, slouching in and walking smoothly into the establishment. He looked over to the spot that L sat in each day of the week, except for weekends. For most other people the weekend was break time, but for L, and thereby Beyond as well, they worked twice as hard, inhaling caffeine and sleeping little -if at all.
L was there already, knees drawn up to his chest and his hands resting on his the tops of his knee caps, looking out the window. B approached the table and sat down across from him, noticing that his drink was waiting for him. L drank tea, while Beyond preferred coffee, but the amount of sugar they poured into their drinks were equal.
“Thanks for ordering my drink, L,” Beyond smiled at him gratefully, and L’s eyes flickered from the window over to him briefly. He nodded and then redirected his stare.
The position their table was at had a perfect view out the window, if one sat in L’s seat. In Beyond’s place, he was looking completely in the opposite direction. Beyond didn’t like silence, he enjoyed conversation, while L was not one to talk unless there was a real object of discussion. L didn’t like to waste words, as well as time.
Many times when he attempted to converse with L about cases, he saw and felt a distinct air of disinterest coming from him. When interested in a conversation, Beyond noticed that L’s toes would rub against each other and he would lean forward a fraction of an inch. He only knew this after years of watching the man, and whenever he tried to talk to L at this café, at this time, he always seemed to have something else on his mind.
Yet another reason he looked and acted like the best detective in the world. Perhaps having the same appearance and movements would eventually allow him insight into the mind of L Lawliet (which, Beyond thought, was such a pretty name) because he really did want to know what was going through that brilliant mind of his. He wished his eyes could see more than just a name and lifespan, but thoughts as well.
Beyond thought it would be marvelous for when he defeated L, to read the submissive, broken thoughts that the man’s pride would never allow him to say out loud…
It sent pleasant shivers up Beyond’s spine.
Alas, he could not read thoughts. Names and lives were all he’d been granted, and as far as he knew, he was the only one who saw such things. It fueled his ego that such a gift would be reserved for him, and only him. Through a red tinted world, he was given more information than any other person, and while he had not yet figured out what to do with his talent, he knew he was destined to be greater than anyone else in the world.
Even L.
He remembered the first time the first time he realized what the numbers meant. They’d always been there, posted above everyone’s head like a billboard. There were numbers that made no sense when he wrote them down on paper, but somehow, when he was looking at them, made all the sense in the world. It was a continuous countdown, each person’s different, and at the age of six, Beyond had always wondered what it could possibly mean.
Every time he’d tried to bring it up, adults thought he was making up stories. One teacher got the nurse to check his eyesight. There was nothing wrong with his sight -in fact, it was better than 20/20, so when no one else seemed to understand what he was talking about, Beyond came to the conclusion that he was the only one capable of seeing the names and numbers.
One day, while inside a store, Beyond looked up and saw a man with only twenty-two seconds left, and declining rapidly. Intrigued, for he had never seen anyone with such a small number, Beyond followed him until the countdown reached it’s end and the man started to cross the street, foolishly jaywalking. Beyond had watched in fascination as the man jogged across the street, suitcase in hand.
3...2...1...
The man, Joseph Walker (Beyond would always remember his name), was quite abruptly hit by a car and fell to the road, bloody and unmoving. Dead. Of course, at the time it was only a speculation, Beyond had went searching for other people with very little time left, and soon the theory was proved. Beyond liked to call it a death clock.
Another thing that was different about L was that his death clock fluctuated more than anyone he’d ever known. Whenever there was a particularly serious case, where his life was on the line, it would stoop low into only a few months, or sometimes weeks. But then, when the case was solved, it would spike back up into several years. In such a dangerous job, there was quite a bit to fear, and so it wasn’t surprising.
But no less interesting in its predictable unpredictability
“How is your case going?” B asked after a while of sipping on his coffee. Without moving his eyes, and continuing to gaze out the window and over B’s left shoulder, L answered simply.
“Fine. Yours?”
“I solved it this morning,” B shrugged flippantly, “So I decided to take a break and go to an anime shop -I found this one you’d really like.”
“I don’t think I would, B.”
“Oh, come on,” B gave a slick little grin, “You can’t be cooped up with your cases all the time. You should do something relaxing.”
“I come here for an hour five days a week,” L suggested, giving a small shrug and still, in the midst of their talk, his eyes did not travel to B once. B felt his eyebrow twitch slightly for a second, but schooled himself once more and smiled wider still.
He moved his head subtly to the place were L was staring at. L blinked, lids closing quickly over large black eyes before snapping back open and then looking at him sharply.
“Is there something B needs?” L asked coolly, in the most infuriating way. No matter how irritating the lack of reaction was, B just grinned.
“Actually, I was wondering if you’d want to watch an anime with me tonight,” B said easily, pretending not to notice that his spiky, black hair and makeup covered face was blocking L’s view. He was not naturally as pallid as L was, so he used off-white cover up to make his face and neck several shades paler.
“Again, B, I do not enjoy such frivolous entertainment.”
“But I think you’d really like this one, L,” B continued, staring directly into L’s dark eyes. He knew that L knew what this was now. It was hidden beneath a friendly request, but it was really just an attempt to get L to bend to his will by accepting, so that he’d move out the way of his precious window. “It’s about a detective and everything, and the art is really great. You’d appreciate it.”
L continued to look at him, and then his eyes darted over to the clock. B’s brow furrowed slightly, wondering why it mattered what time it was. L’s chest seemed to dip a bit and Beyond’s grin stretched from ear to ear. L did not sigh often, and the slight deflating of the chest was a sign of surrender. A moment later, L turned back to him, the crease in his eyebrow the only sign of frustration.
“I shall watch the cartoon with B if he moves his head,” L agreed finally, his fingers scratching at the faded knees of his pants.
“It’s not a cartoon, L, it’s anime, there is a difference,” B replied, suddenly no longer happy that L had apparently fallen to his whim. He said this not so much to defend the show, but to release the pent up irritation that he’d just noticed.
“Nonetheless, if B moves out of the way, I will watch whatever show he chooses tonight.”
Beyond was suddenly furious. Although on the surface it appeared to be his victory, underneath it meant nothing at all. Because L didn’t acknowledge it as a worthwhile game, it barely hurt him at all to give in, because whatever he was looking at was more important. It pissed B off.
What is he looking at?
B demanded internally, and turned in his seat to look out the window to see what was more important than him.There was nothing. Just people walking passed. Hundreds of Japanese people walking passed, mostly young adults, teenage and children on their way home from school. He turned back to L to asked his question out loud, but found L peering intensely behind him. His toes were rubbing together, he was leaning slightly forward -he was interested…?
His eyes, which drowned his pupil in a sea of deep onyx, were slowly moving from one side of the window and toward the other. Following something, B easily figured out.
Turning quickly in his chair again and copying L’s line of sight, he found the object of L’s interest.
A boy, around sixteen years old, perhaps younger, was walking passed the window. He looked proud, had excellent posture and was dressed in a pristine school uniform. He was good-looking kid, with nice, straight hair that was almost the exact opposite of both his and L’s black mops. In fact, everything about his physical appearance was the polar opposite of L’s, and therefore, B found him uninteresting.
Turning back to L, and watching the detective watch the boy through the window, he recalled that at this time, for the passed few weeks they’d been having lunch at this place, L did the exact same thing. Replaying the days over in his mind, he found that it was a constant thing, and that the boy was the distraction that caused L to not be involved in any conversation B tried to start.
No longer angry, B bit on the tip of his thumb, another habit he’d picked up from L. Now he was only curious -did L know the boy? No, the chances of that were amazingly low, because he doubted that L would stare at a stranger so unnoticeably if they knew each other and was so curious about him. But, that meant they were strangers, and he had never known L to pay attention to an unfamiliar person.
Especially just a generically attractive adolescent boy. There was nothing special about him that could be seen from a distance, and yet L was apparently coming here every day for only the purpose of seeing him.
B didn’t get it.
However, it was unthreatening. No matter whom the child was, L would lose his interest soon. He wasn’t even positive that that was the real reason. Perhaps he found a different person to look at every day, and today it just happened to be this boy -maybe it was some sort of personal game. B would experiment, and take mental notes on what L was looking at each day.
Over the next few weeks, B would come to find that it was indeed the same boy L watched each day.
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There were very few things that caught L’s interest. He only took the most difficult cases he could find as to relieve the curse of monotony that his genius forced him into. He wanted to serve justice, but he didn’t want to die of boredom doing it.
Whammy’s was an orphanage that Watari, his assistant and sponsor, owned. B was the second student there, although now there were quite a few others, but B was at the top of the list to succeed him, followed quickly by a young, brilliant but introversive boy named Near and a loud, coarse boy named Mello. At one point, B had run away, and L had been secretly relieved. But B had returned and demanded to travel and work with L, claiming that if he was to be L eventually, he’d have to get used to it anyway.
Watari, while extremely intelligent, liked to assume the best of people. If a person never did anything wrong, they were a good person, no matter what darkness lurked behind eerie smiles and seemingly kind words. Watari had agreed with B’s argument, and L had reluctantly allowed B to accompany him.
He wasn’t sure why he disliked the younger man. It wasn’t as though he’d done anything horrible, or said anything cruel. Quite the opposite, really. He attempted to flatter L with his imitation of him and constantly complimented L on his deductive skills.
Perhaps it was that goofy smile he always put on to look innocent, perhaps it was the almost perfect way he replicated L’s appearance, down to the way his walked and talked. Perhaps it was that, behind those extolling comments on his reasoning ability, he was patting him on the head as though he were a child that had gotten a gold start on his report card. As though he were the adult in the situation, and that L needed his praise.
It irked L down to his bones that B was so very condescending in everything he did. Even the claim that he wanted to watch a television show with L was false. He was just trying to get L to look at him, interrupting the only relaxing activity in his day. Because, in B’s mind, L should look at him whenever he wanted him to. He never said it, but it was implied with every one of Beyond’s words and actions.
As though L should never have anything better to do than bow to his will. It was pure arrogance.
And while L understood and sometimes even condoned arrogance, this was not that kind. B had done nothing to engage L’s respect or curiosity. L knew all there was to know about B, and therefore he was uninspiring. B expected L’s attention, his respect, without earning it, and that was something L could not agree with.
The boy that walked passed Saito’s Café at the same time Monday through Friday, on the other hand, was something else entirely.
The first time he’d seen him, he just been trying the café out. He had just arrived in Japan and was conducting tests to see which bakeries and cafés served the best cake and tea. He’d been sipping the, admittedly average, Earl Grey tea when the young man caught his eye. He hadn’t seen anything particularly fascinating about him at first, the cake was only so-so and the tea was mediocre at best.
He’d returned the next day.
At first he hadn’t admitted that the reason he’d came back was to see if the boy would walk by the café again, but once the teenager had, and L’s eyes had followed him as though he were a sniper and the youth was his target, it became obvious. He decided to continue to sit at the table, each day, just to figure out what was so interesting about this boy that couldn’t be older than sixteen.
Once B realized he had a routine worked out, he joined him. While they looked quite a bit like each other, so much so that the first day B have accompanied him to Saito’s Café the waitress had asked if they were brothers, they had different personalities. L was quiet and contemplative, while B was almost as animated as the cartoons he watched and comics he read.
Not that L believed for one minute that B could truly enjoy such drivel. L did not like him, but he did not deny that B nearly matched him in intelligence. The brightest person L had even come across, beside himself, and if he couldn’t stand it, he doubted Beyond could.
The boy walking past the café each day, at almost the exact same time, like clockwork, didn’t seem the type to watch cartoons. In fact, each time L had seen him he had a book bag full of thick books that could only be for school slung over one shoulder. Despite the weight of the packed bag, the juvenile’s posture was never anything less than ruler straight, his chin level with the ground.
His eyes were always directed straight ahead in a tightly controlled way, his gaze not straying anywhere as though he had eyes for nothing but his destination. As though the people, and his surroundings, weren’t good enough to even look at. His entire body screamed arrogance, but not an unwarranted kind, or the annoying kind, like B‘s. A majestic sort of confidence than a king might have. But this was no monarch, only a teenage boy.
It was interesting. He was interesting. The boy held his attention for every second it took for him to walk passed the Café and disappear as the window ended. It was enjoyable to watch him for the seven seconds it took him to pass, every workday in between 3:48 and 3:51 p.m.. Not enjoyable enough to approach the stranger and start a conversation, or even look up the boy to find out who he was.
Just amusing enough to sit in this café each day and observe him, attempting to steal a little more information from those few seconds each time.
It may have been a bit strange for anyone else to simply watch someone for months at a time, without attempting some sort of contact. L was not anyone else, and was content with watching the boy from afar, because he knew if his curiosity was fully sated, he would lose interest in the boy completely. He would no longer have those seven seconds and the minutes of building apprehension as he waited for him to arrive.
So L kept his distance. For once, this was a mystery he did not want to solve.
He felt slightly smug when B realized, after weeks of observation, that he was indeed watching the teenager walk past each day. He saw his growing irritation, and it made L feel good. B deserved it for being around him constantly, making him uncomfortable with those stares of his. They conveyed more than L wished to think about.
B was a slow and steady worker. He thought that over time, if he could get L to grow attached to him, then he would be able to…do whatever he wanted to do. L was fairly certain what that was, and the idea did not appeal to him in the least. Beyond seemed the type to plant seeds of doubt and watch them grow until the roots effectively strangled the individuality out of a person.
It was several more weeks until B brought up the subject of the boy again. L thought it probably hurt his pride to think that the man he spent all his energy trying to be better than was interested in someone else, even platonically. A complete stranger, that had had no chance to prove himself, was more interesting that Beyond. It was quite satisfying to see B twitch in his seat as he tried to catch L’s attention, only for L to ignore him and look out the window.
“I don’t get it.”
L blinked and looked over and B with an eyebrow cocked underneath messy bangs. He scraped his nails against the ridges of denim fabric on his jeans and tilted his head. There was still seven minutes until the young man was supposed to be walking pass, so he had time to humor his look-a-like.
“What don’t you get, B?” L asked, rolling his eyes up to the ceiling slowly before moving them over to his companion, who looked irritated by the mock-ignorance.
“You come here every day to look at some boring kid that is obviously predictable,” Beyond imitated him, looking up at the ceiling. He looked annoyed, while L’s face was a perfect picture of apathy.
“You think he’s predictable?” L inquired, eyes darting to the clock quickly before shooting back to B, who continued looking upwards. Six minutes.
“Of course!” B snorted, “ He walks home the same way and the same time every day of the week. If that’s not the most repetitive thing ever, I don’t know what is.”
“Perhaps this is the fastest way home,” L suggested easily.
“He never stops on the way home to get something to eat? Buy something at a store? Go to the bathroom or meet someone? I mean, it’s been almost two months and he hasn’t stopped off anywhere once.”
B turned his eyes back to L and, more suddenly that L thought should have been possible, his faze relaxed into a smile and B laughed.
“Heh heh heh…!” the corners of B’s eyes wrinkled as he laughed one of his many varieties of laughs, this one a rather high-pitched, short and harsh chuckle.
Now L was becoming irritated. “What?”
“I just find it funny!” B continued to emit sniggers, and each of the sharp sounds grated on L’s nerves although he did a good job at hiding it. “I never thought you’d be interested in someone so boring!”
L looked at the clock again quickly. Three minutes.
“I do not find him boring at all,” L countered simply, calming himself. Showing his annoyance would be defeat, so he looked back at Beyond blankly. “The fact that he’s caught my attention without any provocation further proves that he must really be special.”
They were throwing the tension back and forth between each other, and now it was Beyond’s turn. In order to throw Beyond off, L insulted him vaguely, without any real mention that he was the person trying to ’provoke’ his interest, making a joke of his attempts to attract L’s consideration. His beaming smile slowly faded and then diminished completely.
“You can’t be serious!”
“I can’t?”
“No, I mean look at him,” Beyond gestured toward the window several feet behind him, although there were still two minutes left until the young man would pass. “He’s just some spoiled little kid from a great academy. Sure, he’s good looking but that’s the only thing that sticks out -”
B paused, his hand freezing the air. L expected him to smile again, but instead the younger man focused his large, crimson eyes on him coldly.
“Are you attracted to him?” B asked scathingly. L was unaffected; there was a forty-five percent chance this was where B’s mind would jump, considering his obsession with L, and his tendency for jealous reactions.
“That is quite presumptuous of you, B,” L stated easily.
“So you’re not denying it!?”
“I am, actually,” L took a sip of his tea and glanced that the clock on the far wall. One minute. “Denying it, I mean. It would not only be hasty and improbable of me to develop romantic feelings for him, but also quite unorthodox, considering his age.”
“This is Japan, the age of consent is thirteen,” B pointed out, scowling.
L withheld a sigh. This was an unnecessary argument. Not only was what he was being accused of untrue, but even if was, he had no responsibility to defend himself against B. If Beyond felt he deserved an explanation, it was due to his own obsessive illusions, and in no way related to L. He looked at the clock again, and then out the window, ignoring the comment.
Beyond scooted over to once again block his view. L’s patience was wearing thin.
“B, I suggest you move,” L said without looking at the man. He merely tilted himself sideway to get a better look out the window. B moved over again to better cover L’s line of sight.
“Why are you so intent on watching him?” B demanded, wide eyes narrowing.
“Why are you so intent on not allowing me to watch him?” L retorted and then stood quickly, his crooked back cracking as it rapidly went from hunched over to straightened out…as straightened out as L’s spine would ever get after almost twenty years of slouching, anyway.
Just as he stood, finally looking out the window, the youth walked into view. He walked quickly, swiftly, but not hurriedly, with a silky sort of grace that could only be managed with a straight back.
B watched as well, now no longer trying to figure out was the source of L’s amusement was. It didn’t really matter anyway. All that mattered was transferring that interest from the unimportant boy and onto B himself. He would have to catch L’s eye the way the teenage snob had, without any apparent incentive.
It was apparent to Beyond just what he had to do. It would take a while, depending just how trusting the little brat was, but Beyond was a patient man. He could wait however long it took, as long as he died knowing that he was better than L. That L was beneath him, in every way.
To gain L’s friendship so that he could eventually crush him, he would first catch his interest, and he’d found the perfect tool for it, in the form of an adolescent named Yagami Raito.
As he made this decision, L’s lifespan dropped dramatically to only two years and three months.
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Quite the cryptic ending, yes? That'll all be explained...eventually...In the next chapter, B and Raito meet. To clear up any confusion, Raito is 16 at this point, in August, and will turn seventeen the upcoming February. It never say's B's age in Another Note, so I made him three years older than Raito. The BB murders never happened, so no real spoilers for that book except for the B character. Who I love.
About the Seme/Uke combinations...well, you might know I'm a die hard LxRaito fan but, believe it or not, L will be uke in this some...just not to Raito. :P
Please, please, please, PLEASE review. I'm so excited about this story, I'm jumping in my seat, so feedback would be appreciated so much that it's only a smidge from worship. So please?
Nilah