Chapter Text
It was a three hour drive to New York City from Star Lake. L was determined to make it in two.
The sun had crested the horizon just before they left the town proper, gilding trees in soft rose gold tones that would have been a sight to behold. If they weren't about to be on the run for the...well, perhaps the rest of their lives.
"We should do this again sometime," L called back, not taking his eyes from the road before them. they hadn't hit any traffic yet, but they were bound to come across some large trucks sooner than later before finding their way into New York traffic.
"What?" Light's grip around his middle was nearly painfully tight, he hadn't let up since they started. L was certain that he'd even out once he got used to being on the bike.
"Take a morning drive," L said, glancing up at the trees. They couldn't hear much over the motor, but it was such a lovely day, there were bound to be birds out.
Light pressed closer to him and may have said something into L's shoulder. He wasn't certain. But he'd take it as a yes.
The countryside was actually quite lovely, now that L had no choice but to watch it pass. Trees and hills, and the occasional cow or so. It was peaceful and not the worst place to visit. He couldn't imagine being there long term. They probably only had dial up out here. How was Light planning on surviving?
They hit real traffic just outside of the city, L dodged and wove his way around the cars, secretly happy that Light kept clutching him closer. They made better time than he'd hoped, it was probably early enough for Watari to still have some scones in the oven.
L had to keep up appearances. He had to make it look like he was still doing everything by the book. He had booked the penthouse at the Plaza. His usual. He even took the children up there when they first arrived. Later in the night they had all left from different exits wearing disguises.
It wasn't uncommon for L to hold up in a place long term. Book a room and not leave it for months. They could get all their food from the hotel. No one would be any wiser until they were gone.
Watari had found them a discrete bed and breakfast just outside of Brooklyn. They rented all the rooms and were paying the owners quite nicely for their time.
"This is it?" Light asked as the pulled to a stop in front of a quaint, blue and yellow Victorian.
"Of course," L walked the bike to the small shed the owners had told him to stash the bike in. The town car was parked in the back. From the outside of the house no one would be able to tell they were staying there. "It's low profile, we can leave as soon as we're ready without having to employ anymore disguises."
"Sure, that makes sense, it's just..." Light looked around with a shrug, "not what I had expected."
L could probably go on for hours about expecting the unexpected is the number one rule to detective work. But they really didn't have the time for that. Now that Light was safe they needed to plan their next move. L had a few suggestions where to start.
The house was quiet when they entered. The lingering scent of sweet pasties and coffee filled the air along with old polished wood and a hint of smoke, as though a fire had recently been lit. The heavy drapes on the windows were pulled back, but the gauzy curtains underneath kept prying eyes out while letting muzzy warm light in.
It was quaint. Homey in a way that had never been normal for L, but which he had been aware of from afar. The house they grew up in was old, and full of country charm. But L's childhood had been nothing but screens and dark rooms.
He didn't grudge it. It was just…
Standing in the entryway with Light at his side, the morning sun reflecting off his lovely features, sending his golden eyes aglow. L realized that there was far more to life than the work.
For all of three seconds. Then the screaming started.
~~~
They were at a bed and breakfast.
They were at a small bed and breakfast in a little Victorian house outside of Brooklyn, and there was definitely a murder going on upstairs.
Light stopped in the doorway, paralyzed by the noise. After the breakneck bike ride, which he was never, ever, doing again, thank you. Light was having a hard time finding his baring. The ground had seemed to spin when he stepped off the seat, and he still couldn't feel his face. Now...this.
Beside him L huffed, guiding Light forward so he could close and lock the door, and then turned to march up the stairs. Light followed slowly behind, but only because there was nothing else to do. The scene that met them, right in the middle of the upstairs landing, was not quite a murder...but it was close.
A thin blond boy with hair to his shoulders had a stockier brown haired boy in a choke hold. Both were red faced and screaming, the browned haired boy was standing on what looked like the crumbled remains of a candy bar, the blond boy held a set of batteries in the fist that wasn't currently strangling the other. Light stayed back from the top steps, the scents of young furious alpha and beta too pungent for his already fraying nerves.
"-batteries!" The brown haired boy yelled, he had been saying something else, much too low for Light to catch before hand.
"You stole my last one! You knew it was the last of the Belgium, and now I can't find it anymore."
"So you took my batteries? How is that fair?"
"Enough," L's voice cut through their bickering, both looked up sharply at the tone, two sets of blue eyes - though the brown haired one's were slightly green through a pair of tinted goggles - to look at L in first confusion, then, oddly enough, joy.
"L!" They both yelled, springing apart from one another, quarrel seemingly ended. They rushed forward but didn't touch L, simply gathered around him like a pack of eager puppies.
"You're back so soon!" The brown haired one said.
"Did you get him? Oh," the blond one leaned around L's shoulder to take a look at Light, "is that him?"
But Light's attention was grabbed when a door at the end of the hall opened and a small child with white hair and pale eyes poked their head out to stare, unnervingly, at them. "Has the fighting stopped?"
L pushed the other two to the side so he and Light could stand on the landing, "yes, Near, the fighting has stopped. You can come out now." The child obeyed, though Light still didn't get a good look at them as they left the room, as they took a considerable amount of blankets with them, draped around their shoulders like a giant cape.
Or a turtle shell.
Something in Light's chest flipped over at the sight of the child. He met L's dark gaze and got all the confirmation he needed. This Near was gamma. L wasn't just helping Light avoid a system bent on oppression.
"Light," L said, once all the children were standing near, if not beside each other. "Let me introduce you to Miheal Keel, known as Mellow, and Nate River, known as Near. They are the candidates for taking over the position of L when I am gone." he pointed to the blond and white haired children respectively, "and this is Mail Jeevas, or Matt, another student at Wammy's House."
"Umm, hello?" Light had never dealt with children before. He wasn't sure what one did with them. They were all looking at him as those expecting something. Large eyed stares. Calculating. He turned to L for help.
"It was Near who tracked your position actually."
"Oh, that's really impressive, actually." Light turned to the child, who seemed to decide to make themself as comfortable as possible and sat down in the nest of their blankets on the floor. "How did you figure it out?"
"It was quite logical that once you departed the plane you would begin search of more suppressants. Even if you did still have a stock, which I calculated to be unlikely, either way you would need more eventually. Star Lake is close enough to the border to be one of the stopping spots for smugglers from Canada. The pharmacy that was busted just last night had been under scrutiny before, but had always, until now, passed surprise inspections. It was simply bad timing on your part that the American Substance Control and Safety decided to spring one on them in the middle of the night." Near said all that in a lazy monotone, absently twirling a finger around a bit of curly white hair.
"Yeah, bad luck," that was certainly impressive work for someone so young. The kid didn't look older than twelve. In fact, "did you leave them here alone," Light asked, turning to L. It was all he could do to keep his hands from either planting on his hips or poking L in the chest. But really, the oldest one looked sixteen at most!
"No, I didn't," L said thoughtfully, then, "where's Watari?"
"He stepped out," Matt piped up, snatching the batteries from Mello's lax hand. He didn't seem interested in continuing their game now that L was there. "He had a phone call with Roger and then said he needed to go, 'lay some tracks', and left."
"He did say that if you arrived before his return that he left food for you in the oven," Mello added, looking forlornly down at the crushed candy bar on the cold wood floor.
"Good. Let's go get some breakfast," L gentle turned Light and began leading him down the stairs, he called over his shoulder to the children, "join us in the kitchen. But clean up that mess first." Matt and Mello began to bicker again, but Near, having had no part in their mayhem, picked themself and their blankets up and followed L and Light down the stairs.
Light gave L another look, but L just shook his head. That was fine, Light could wait until they were alone to say anything, but he was going to get some answers on what L was planning here.
In the kitchen Light took a seat at the wooden table while L got them some pastries from the oven and made a fresh pot of coffee. Near somehow managed to fit both themself and all the blankets into a single kitchen chair, and then, seemingly from nowhere, they pulled out two little wooden dolls and sat them on the table facing one another. The hair on one was painted a dark blond and the other was black and spiky, and Light felt very much like they were supposed to be him and L.
The other two traipsed into the kitchen right as L set food and coffee on the table, taking a seat right next to Light, he started hastily scooping sugar into his own cup.
"So," Matt said, sliding into a chair, "is this when you explain why we left the penthouse, why we can't contact Roger, why you threw our stuff out the plane, and just over all are acting odd?"
"Or why the omega that has half the globe on high alert is currently sitting at our table eating scones instead of being shipped back to Japan to his father where he belongs?" Mello had thrown himself into a chair between Matt and Near, sprawling out so that he was taking up all available space.
Light bristled at his tone and implication. He wasn't a child, and he had plenty of years of practice dealing with little alphas just like him. He schooled his face and refused to break eye contact with the little weasel.
"He is here because he is an adult who is capable of making his own choices," L said flatly, also leveling a glare at Mello before focusing on Matt, "Yes. It's time we laid everything straight for you. At the end of this conversation you will have two choices. Come with me, or, Return to Wammy's." The children exchanged curious looks before focusing with laser intensity back to L.
"During my acquaintanceship with Light certain aspects of our job, and society as a whole, have become clear to me. Namely our treatment of omegas."
Mello scoffed, kicking a leg up to rest on edge of Matt's chair, "I knew it."
Unperturbed, L simply arched an eyebrow, "knew what?"
" Knew you chased off after that omegan...hussy-con artist, and you come back all, we can't turn him in because I love him now. I called it like three days ago."
"He did say that," Near said from their little blanket mound, "though I would like hear what you actually have to say, L"
"Of course," Mello cut back in, "we all know why 'he' wants to hear it."
"I haven't presented yet." Near said lowly, as close to anger as Light had yet to see them.
"As if we don't all know."
"It is true," L said over them both, once again wrangling them in, "that we have, for some time, assumed that Near would be an omega. Plans have been made for that eventual outcome."
"Why not just test him and find out?" Mello asked, crossing his arms over his chest, "save us all the trouble."
"Plausible deniability." It was Near who answered, fingers back to playing with a strand of hair, eyes far away as they said, "tests are part of public record. If you buy one in the UK you must submit the results within 30 days or risk an inspection and arrest for withholding information to the Dynamic Data bank. So long as no tests were performed you could claim that you had no idea what my presentation might have been after the fact."
"Yes." L said, simple and without hesitation.
Near dropped their hand back down to their lap, fixing L with piercing pale eyes, "may I ask what the plans were for if...when I presented as an omega?"
Sighing, L ran hand through his hair, but he didn't falter. "That is your right. Roger and Watari have made plans with the Kensington Temple. You would go there after presentation, it would put you line to be...bonded to a potential powerful and influential alpha. In the very rare occasion that the House might need your expertise, it would be arranged that you could help on certain cases. But otherwise..."
"You were going to get what work you could out of me for the next few years, then just walk me out the door?" Near tilted their head, frown deepening, "was I ever in the running to be L then?"
"There was always chance," L began, then stopped. Light knew he would just be lying to himself if he continued. Near was just like he had been as a child. Except that Light's mother had helped him shake those habits long ago. At a much younger age than Near was now. Something akin to pride flashed through Light's chest as L took a deep breath and confessed. "Yes, that was the plan. And I am eternally sorry for my part in signing off on a future you would have had no say in."
It was something that Light himself would have had a hard time forgiving. He was still rather angry at all the harm L had caused others like him. But after several thoughtful moments Near nodded their head and said, "I can forgive you, L. What is your plan going forwards?" Near asked, blinking owlishly between L and Light.
Light turned to L as well, "I've been wondering the same thing."
L ran a finger over his lips, "most countries around the world are set up so that if an omega can work it's only in something along the lines of child care. They have to have permission from a legal guardian to do so and can't be compensated for their work. And that's only the few countries that allow them to work at all."
"Except Canada," Light added, "not that they're much better. You still need permission from a guardian, or alpha, and the roles are still limited. But I've seen a few more headlines recently about omegas gaining positions as nurses or shopkeepers. Anything other than babysitting like everywhere else."
"So what, you want us to take Light to Canada so he can live the rest of his life as a shopkeeper? Or were you planning on trying to pass yourself off as a beta for a little longer?" Mello asked in scathing tones.
"I had something else in mind." L took a long sip of his far too sweet coffee.
"Well?" Light prompted, L just smirked. The asshole.
"I thought we could 'set up shop' there, as it were."
"Set up shop?" Light frowned, "As in?"
"As in simply move L's base of operations to Canada. There's no extradition between Japan and Canada, so the NPA couldn't demand your return. L isn't a trademark of Wammy's, it's just my name and alias. I still have my connections and even if authorities wanted to distance themselves from me for working with and protecting an omega, they will eventually need our help in solving crimes. Until then I have plenty of assets to get us all set up."
Light could only gape at him, unsure he'd heard correctly. Mello sat up, palms pressing flat to the table as he leaned forward, "So, you really are going rogue?"
"He did say he was," Near said calmly, twisting at their hair.
"Anyone who wishes to return to the orphanage, may." L was as calm and composed as ever, he sipped noisily at his coffee once more.
"And what's stopping one of us from returning and turning you in, huh? I could go back and tell Roger and the authorities everything and once you were out of the picture I would be the next L."
"Quite a few things, I should say."
Light jumped, just a little, as a tall beta man entered the room. He wore a long black coat and matching hat and spoke with a British accent. In one hand he held a cell phone, in the other was a plastic grocery bag he sat on the counter.
"The first and most obvious being that once we seek asylum in Canada that we wouldn't just be handed over to any authorities. A mission to retrieve us would also be foolish. You have never gone up against L when he does not want to be found."
The children had all turned wide eyed to the man, following him as he unpacked the little bag, which seemed to be full of sugar cubes, instant coffee, and mini cupcakes. L filled in the silence after the man's little speech.
"Light, allow me to introduce Quillish Wammy, founder of Wammy's House, an orphanage for gifted children. Watari, please meet Light Yagami."
"It's a pleasure," Watari said with a kind smile and little bow of his head towards Light.
"Yes...uh, it's very nice to meet you too."
"Now," Watari said, closing the last cabinet with a sharp crack, "I need to get started on lunch if we're to eat at a decent hour. I would think that L and Light would want to freshen up from their trip. And the rest of you have things to think about. So go, get out of my kitchen." He rushed them out of the kitchen, handing L one last scone before he could complain or ask for something else.
The children dispersed once they were released, Mello tromping off somewhere downstairs with Matt sluggishly following at his heels, Near took themself, and their blankets, back off upstairs.
L nibbled at his scone in a very disgruntled manner in kitchen doorway, watching Light with unblinking eyes. Light could only give a weak laugh and shrug, "this is really not what I expected."
L's lips twitched into a smirk, he walked past Light towards the stairs, "come on, I'll show you your room."
It was just a cutely quaint as the rest of the house. The linens on the bed were white and ruffled, as were the curtains. Everything was made of dark polished wood, though scuffed and knicks here and there told of a long life. There was a bathroom connected to the room, and even though Light hadn't been living rough by any means, had even had a nice hot bath the night before thanks to L, the sight of it alone was enough to loosen some of the tension he felt.
He opted for a shower, he could run a bath later, relax after the day had ended. There was still too much for him to think over. To worry about. He was further from the border here and even if he was no longer alone the distance ate at him. The United States did have extradition with nearly all other countries, they were also fiercely protective of omegas. If his father, a police chief and distressed father, found out he was here and where, he wouldn't have any trouble getting Light shipped off back home.
He wasn't safe here. He wasn't in the clear. He trusted that L had a plan and that if everything went well the plan would most likely work. It wouldn't be easy, but any hope Light had for an easy life flew out the door when he had to go on the run. So...
Light combed out his hair, distantly missing the length, he dressed in another pair of khakis and soft cotton shirt, he would need to do laundry soon, he only had what few articles of clothing he could carry. He reached back into the bag for what was surely the last of his clean socks, and his hand brushed against the hard egde of a box.
The suppressants rattled merrily in their foil wrapped bubbles. This was it. From the actual source. The box was bland, solid white with only the words 'Suppressants: Omega: 500mg" written in stark black letters. They would be shipped off somewhere else and placed into different boxes, or perhaps painted with a different logo in some factory. He wasn't actually aware how they were prepared to be sent out.
He probably should have known, seeing as how much of his life had depended on it.
They were such small things. It was ridiculous how much he had relied on them. How much time Light had dedicated to suppressing - not just with medication but with great mental effort - literally everything natural about himself.
His fingers tightened on the dull white cardboard, sending thin creases throughout. His only options in life shouldn't have been to hide, to cause himself massive pain both physical and mental, to go against every instinct he ever had until he didn't know his real self anymore, or become the pet of some knotheaded alpha.
It shouldn't have to be anyone's option in life.
There was a soft knock at the door, Light didn't look up from the box in his hands, "come in."
L's shaggy head poked through the cracked door, "Watari said lunch will be ready soon." When Light didn't answer he entered the room, closing the door softly behind himself. "Light?"
He took a deep breath, still looking to the box, "I don't want Near to have to go through what I did."
L was barefoot, of course he was. He padded silently over the floorboards and worn rug to stand in front of Light, "they won't...he won't," he corrected after a short pause. "I'll make sure of it."
Light shook his head, it wasn't as simple as that. It wasn't as simple as saying you could make someone safe and then it happening.
"I don't want him to grow up afraid of who he is. I don't want him to think he has to pit himself against alphas and betas just because they think he can't be capable of taking care of himself if he can't also punch their lights out...I don't want anyone to live like that."
"Neither do I," L said gently, his feet shifting his weight from one to the other as he spoke, "It'll take time, of course. A lot of effort. But there are people out there who will want to help omegas get the freedom they deserve."
Light nodded, it still didn't feel...right. "What would you do...if I chose to return to Japan?"
L didn't laugh like he could have. It was a silly question. Light wasn't going back, L knew that. But he was serious when he answered. "I would keep going to Canada. If you chose to return home to your father, if Near chose to return to the orphanage, I would keep going. I'm finished being a party to the suffering of others."
A knot that had been trying to strangle Light for the last few weeks loosened at the words. It didn't fix everything, but it helped. Without a word he handed the slightly crumpled box of suppressants to L.
"Light?"
"I'm also done," he rose, facing L. The inches between their height felt like nothing as resolve took hold. He felt bolder, surer, than he ever had before. "I'm done hiding. I'm done trying to be something and someone I'm not. If we're doing this...I want to do it. All the way."
L looked to the box in his hand and then back to Light, dumbfounded. He blinked at Light as though seeing him for the first time, then he squared his shoulders and took Light into his arm.
L was warm, and solid, and so very gentle. Light hadn't realized how desperately he needed to be embraced, to be held, to be protected, until that moment. The kiss was something of a surprise, but not an unwelcome one. L tasted like coffee, chocolate, and hope. It wasn't long, or overwhelmingly passionate. There was no ripping off of each other's clothing, or throwing one another against a wall, or any of the dramatic happenings from TV and movies that was the whole of Light's experience in the field of making out.
It was so much better.
L held him like he was the most precious thing in the world. And instead of fear, or unbridled anger, it soothed a part of Light's soul he had buried deep, deep down. One of L's hands drifted to his lower back as the other went into his hair to cup the back of his head. Light wasn't even sure what his own hands were doing, too lost in the sensation of L. His hands, his lips, the way his tongue explored his mouth with gentle care.
When L pulled back Light felt if he could drift away at any moment. He was slightly out of breath and sure that his cheeks must be red, his eyes probably glazed, but L looked at him as though he were the world. "It'll be hard," L said, swiping a finger over the apple of Light's cheek.
"Yeah," Light laughed softly. Hard was perhaps an understatement. He would go through heat for the first time. If he thought living as a beta was bad it was going to be nothing to actually being an unbonded omega. But oddly, for the first time that he could remember, he wasn't afraid of the future.
"We'll get through it though. Together."
x
"So, what you're saying is that you, specifically, are above the law?"
"What I'm saying is that I Lived for years as an alpha. Living alone. Holding down a demanding and stressful job as a lawyer. All to such an extent that only my mother was aware of my true presentation. My father and sister whom I lived with during the start of my cover up had no idea. I think we agree that that alone shows what omegas are capable of. The laws in place that say they can't be trusted to fend for themselves, go shopping alone, pick up and handle their own medication, go to classes with beta and alphas, hold down high risk jobs alongside everyone else, are simply there to keep them oppressed and have no true weight on what an omega could actually accomplish and handle."
Light was composed, calm, and unwavering. He was beautiful. They set him up in one of the free rooms the kids had taken to calling the library. He was in a broad backed leather chair with a full bookcase on one side and an open window looking out over some nondescript rolling hills on the other. He wore a soft white button down, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and a pair of pressed khakis.
There was nothing delicate about the set up. His features were sharp, his eyes bright and intelligent. They had planned the setting to highlight that if one didn't know, they wouldn't simply assume that Light was an omega.
There was a camera set up before the chair and a laptop open on a nearby table so that Light could see the interviewer, a hard hitting, hot headed beta with a knot complex who by this point was a bit red in the face as he tried to wrangle Light into a conversation he couldn't get out of.
The idiot had no idea what he was getting himself into.
Light tilted his head, a smirk finding its way to his lip as the interviewer began turning purple in the face. "I'm not trying to say that all of that is within the capabilities of everyone. Omega, beta, alpha, passing the bar and holding down a full time job as a lawyer is something of a trial for anyone to manage," except someone like Light, of course, "what I am saying is that if I could do all that plus find and secure illegal suppressants and maintain my false identity to the extent that I did for nearly two decade. Then your average omega can certainly be trusted to pick up their own medication at the drugstore."
L smiled to himself as he backed out of the room. Light more than had this handled. He'd been subjected to many an interview, both in person and virtual since they set up shop nearly three years ago. Crossing the border had been the easy part with L's private jet. He had bought a sizable cottage in the country under a false name and soon they were set up. He released an official statement. His stance on omega rights, his terms for future work. And that Light, fresh out of his first heat and ready to face the world, had stepped into the spotlight as the head of their Omega Rights campaign.
Everyday L found himself slipping further in love. It had taken a few months to realize it was happening, of course. To understand it wasn't just that Light smelled like strawberries and fresh baked cake when his actual scent came through. Or that he proved every day to be the bravest, smartest, and most compassionate person L had ever met.
Light was a piece of his life that L hadn't realized he was missing. The extra know how on a tough case. The one who was there to push L when he needed it most. They had leaned on each other so much these last few years. Through interviews and being on the run. Through the pandemic, which admittedly hadn't hit them as hard as it could have. With them being tucked away in their country home and base.
L wasn't sure what life would have been like if they hadn't made it here, and he was glad he wouldn't have to find out.
In another room, full of computers, the windows blocked out completely with thick curtains and tinted static film. Near and Mello sat before a bank of computers, eyes glued to the main screen in front of them as they sorted through evidence and photos from a murder scene.
"Did you catch the tattoo?" Mello asked, quickly sorting through several pictures to bring up first one close up of a tattoo of a kriss blade on a victim's arm, then a second from the latest victim.
Near hummed, "yes, same wrist, exact same tattoo. But only between the two of them. Still, it might be a lead to how they are all connected."
Mello choosing to follow L to Canada hadn't been so great of a surprise. As much as they had been conditioned to want to take over L, the children really just wanted recognition and the ability to flex their skills. L gave them that in spades. He didn't even touch their cases unless they asked, and he made sure that they received full credit for the work they did.
What was surprising was how willing Mello had been to put aside the rivalry between him and Near. Without the title of L dangling over them the two were able to work together without all the competition. And when Near had presented as an omega Mello had left off their current case work to help soothe him with scent and gentle touches until Near was able to pick the work back up.
L ghosted from the room, unseen, leaving them to it. Watari kept the dining room outfitted for meals. He was willing to put aside many things, but he had insisted upon their arrival to this one ritual. He however didn't mind the rest of the rooms getting less than traditional use. He and Matt had set up a workshop of sorts in what would have been a family room. Several long tables littered with lamps, tools of every shape and size, pieces of fabric, packets of carbon, and vials of vicious looking liquid, filled the room. Matt was hunched over one, carefully pouring a thick, gruesome green liquid onto a strip of cotton cloth. L thought they were testing chemically treated face masks, though they switched projects so often it could very well be something completely different.
"Watari went out to the garden to get carrots for dinner," Matt said, not even looking up as the thick goo settled onto the cloth and stayed put.
Carrots....
"How's the project going?"
Matt grunted, "good."
L nodded, Matt couldn't see him, and then walked through the room. His destination was a large patio that overlooked their backyard. Several sprawling acres of hills, trees and the little greenhouse and garden Watari had set up. L walked out into the fresh spring afternoon. There was still a hint of chill to the air, winter was still hanging on for dear life, but the snow was gone at least.
L leaned against the porch railing, taking in the hills, the birds in the trees, the clouds as they made their lazy way across the sky. He had never been able to lose himself to such things before. There was always a case. Because if there weren't, if L had ever stopped, there was nothing there to fall back on. Nothing but the voice saying he needed to do more. Work harder. There were people out there that only he could save and any time not spent slaving over a computer finding criminals was a moment someone else got hurt.
It was still mostly true. If he let himself dwell on such things. But now...
Arms snaked around his waist, pulling him close as a bony chin fit into the curve of his shoulder. "What are you thinking about so hard?"
L smiled, bringing his hands up to hold onto the arms holding him, "funny enough, I was thinking about you."
Light laughed and squeezed him tighter, "not so funny. I am amazing."
"You are." L turned and wrapped Light up until he was leaning on L's chest. "How was the interview?"
He laughed, though his sweet scent went a little acrid with exasperation and annoyance. "They're just worried. The vote's in a week and if we win they won't be able to make choices for omegas any longer. They are just trying to find a way to discredit me and everyone else on the campaign."
L held him tighter. In a week they were voting to give omegas the right to vote. Essentially giving them the right to choose their own paths. On the docket were also bills that would allow omegas the right to live alone. Of course it was American votes, but they would lead the way for other countries to take a bigger stand. One hurdle at a time.
"They're afraid, and that can be an awesome force at getting what one wants. But this time," L kissed the top of his head, savoring the scent of happy contentment that was there, "this time I think they will just have to keep being afraid." There were enough betas out there to win the vote, and more than a few alphas that were of the same mind as them. It had taken three years of proving that omegas were capable, but they were finally starting to see some results.
"Come on," L straightened up, pulling Light with him, "it's about time for dinner. Watari's making carrots." He couldn't quite keep his disgust from showing.
Light laughed, taking his arm to go inside, "you know it isn't just carrots. When has he ever made you eat just carrots? And I'm pretty sure I saw him prepping a roast this morning."
"Oh thank god."
"You don't believe in god."
"Thank science."
Light shook his head, "I have no idea what it is I see in you."
L stopped them in the doorway, admiring the golden light of the setting sun as it shone over Light. He wanted to say something funny. Some quip to have Light laughing again. Perhaps he had been thinking about the past too much that day. All he could think was.
"I have no idea...but I know that I am eternally grateful for whatever it is."
He wasn't certain who leaned forward first, only that soon they were lost in each other. Light fit perfectly in his arms, in his life. He was a missing piece to the puzzle that was L. They lost themselves, as they so often did, kissing in the doorway as the sunset. Breaking apart only when the kids came down for dinner, yelling and laughing as they set the table.
Hand in hand they turned to join them. Their strange, mishmash of a family.