Chapter Text
It’s amazing how much of Light’s empire he can run from a cell phone.
All while handcuffed to L too.
Tonight, L sits against the bedhead with his laptop while Light sprawls on the mattress beside him.
“How far along do you think I am exactly?” Light wonders, palming his stomach.
“I’d guess, given timelines and that bump,” L rues, “three months?”
“Ugh, I have to do this for six more months?” Light withers.
“You might not run on a human timeline. These are all just guesses we’re playing with. You might lay an egg for all we know.”
“Don’t joke,” Light whines.
“You asked, Kira.”
“What if it’s born with teeth? And tentacles?”
“Given what we look like, masks off, would that be so bad?”
Light sighs, palming his stomach. “I can’t feel any magic from it. It just feels like a ball.”
“You don’t feel it…?” L turns his head towards Light.
“Feel what?”
“The signals.”
Light frowns. “I don’t feel anything from it. It’s like a black box.”
“Well, you are trying to kill it, maybe it senses your hatred.”
“It’s not hatred, it’s distaste.”
“You don’t want it. If it’s anything like you it probably wants to stay hidden as long as possible to keep safe. A tiny liar.”
Light shuffles onto his elbow. “Do you really feel something from it?”
“How do you think I knew you were pregnant?” L challenges.
“But you don’t want it either. Why would it tell you?”
“I never said I didn’t want it,” L argues. “I will respect your decisions. That’s all.”
“So you do want it?”
“I love you more than it,” L answers, “but if it was my decision, I would keep it.”
“Why?” Light sneers.
“Why do I do anything?”
“Ugh,” Light slumps back. “Evolution of the species, of course.”
“It probably sensed it’s got a better chance with me on side. That’s probably why it let me know it existed.”
“It’s not necessarily wrong about that. You kept its secret, you saved us both… But how could it possibly know that? It’s a ball of cells.”
“It’s also the by-product of two gods. And it’s floating in a soup of you. It probably knows a lot of things you know.”
“This is so stupid…” Light grumbles, hands over his face.
“I have to ask,” L pivots, “and I want to ask this carefully.”
“Go on.”
“If you want to destroy it, when it’s safe to do so, I won’t stop you. I’d take it off your hands, but I suspect you won’t allow me that. But I wonder if you’re… Why do you want to destroy it? Is it because you’re mad at me, or at our connection? Because you resent that the decision has been out of your hands thus far? Because you want to feel in control? All of that is reasonable, to some extent, but I would discuss it at least.”
“Are you trying to argue in it’s favour?” Light sneers.
“Not necessarily.” L placates. “It’s just not like you to jump to a decision like this. This could be an asset to you, you could manipulate me with this thing, but all you can think about is your discomfort. And I understand the discomfort but there are other parts of this.”
“What would you know? You don’t know what this feels like.” Light snaps.
“I had a cunt before I grew a dick.” L grunts.
Light freezes.
“Back in those days, the early dawn of humankind, men were less picky about consent and condoms certainly didn’t exist. You think I don’t have any idea what this feels like? Are you that naïve?”
Light hesitates. “Did you…?”
“If I was all male, all through my core, I would not accept so much agency from you in this.” L counters. “I have resented little parasites for wasting my food and slowing me down. Unwanted gifts from unwanted men. And I have dealt with them.”
Light doesn’t know what to say.
“Humans nowadays do a lot for love, and love can certainly be involved, but in my day children were tools. There were too many jobs and sometimes the easiest way to get more helping hands was to birth them.” L explains. “There is practicality you’re not exploiting here. That’s all I’m saying.”
Light fumbles. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine Kira,” L leans down to tuck a strand of his hair back. “I’m not mad at you.”
Light rubs both hands, subconsciously, along his bump.
Is L onto something here…?
He hates losing control.
He hates that this wasn’t his plan.
But he’s dealt with circumstances before. He’s turned plenty of bad situations into wins for his team. Just because he didn’t plan this doesn’t mean he can’t use it to his advantage.
Are there any advantages to be had…?
Light sprawls on his side, pretending to be asleep mostly.
He palms his stomach.
It’s not that I hate you, he admits silently. I just don’t want this. Maybe one day but not right now.
And it’s not…
Light hesitates.
He can’t resent the foetus.
How could he?
It just wants to survive.
It’s just an animal doing what animals do.
It wants to live.
Light respects that, he does.
Light breaths deeply.
His fingers twitch over the bump.
This is complicated, he rues. I understand and respect your will to live. But this is not how I want this to happen if it ever happens at all.
There’s a shiver of bubbles in Light’s gut and—
He can feel it.
That tiny little spark of magic.
The signals L spoke about.
And it’s not fully formed yet, not totally aware.
It’s not a very detailed kind of impulse it’s just the will to live and grow. It needs him and it’s determined not to give up, but it can feel the hostility of his body inhibiting it.
Light taps his navel.
You want to live.
It does.
Well, that makes sense.
Can we compromise…? Light wonders.
There’s a shiver, something sort of like trust.
And Light tugs, drawing his hand away from his navel.
“Light…?” L looks towards him, sensing the magic.
Light sits up.
He tugs, string by string, pulling the threads of lifeforce.
And then—
Plonk.
Stomach flat the marble of lifeforce slots into his palm.
L makes a sound, a fractured sound, mostly amazed. “Did you just…?”
“Got to come at it with the right intentions.” Light smirks at him.
“What did you tell it…?”
“It wants to live.” Light holds the marble between his fingers. “But it doesn’t need to be a baby to do that.”
L’s eyes dart, fascinated, between the marble and Light’s face.
“Will you come with me to the Realm of the Dead?” Light tempts.
He knows L can’t resist a juicy turn of events.
Light swings the handcuff chain between them as they walk across the grass. The moons hang over them, lighting the way. The palace is on the horizon, lit up with lamps, but the Shinigami there are smart enough not to interrupt them even if they do sense L and Light on the plains.
“I must say,” L murmurs. “You’ve really changed the Realm, Kira…”
“Do you like it?” Light asks.
“I love it.” L promises. “It’s beautiful.”
Light grins, tugging L along.
“I think here, right here.” Light brings them to a clearing.
“And you want to transmute it into a tree?”
“That’ll bloom for a thousand years,” Light nods.
“A wonderful idea,” L tucks his hands on his hips, surveying the clearing. “Their lifeforce will nourish our armies, in our kingdom, for centuries to come.”
It seems so simple, but Light suspects compromises, as with schemes, are best simple at their cores. And the little bulb of life that they made feels fizzy and happy in his hands now it trusts it’s safe from harm.
“Do you want to plant it?” Light finds himself offering.
L hesitates, taking the marble in hand tenderly. “Are you sure?”
“You planted it last time it was a seed.” Light jokes.
L snorts, “I did, didn’t I?”
Light grins.
Traipsing forward L knees to dig out a little rut in the soil and tuck the marble away.
L covers it with such…
L says he doesn’t care, but he does. Probably more so than anyone knows.
“You’ll want to stand back a few feet,” Light tugs him by their tether. “I don’t know how big this is going to get.”
“Right, right…” L falls back to his side.
“Ready?” Light supposes.
“I can’t wait.” L grins.
Light snaps his fingers, activating the seed.
Evidently, they’re still not far enough back because the roots of the tree bowl them both over.
Light splutters, finding his footing again as L helps him up and lifting his chin up he tries to follow the bloom of the tree upward but…
“Wow…” Light whispers.
It dwarfs the orchard around them, towering towers the sky like a spire. The trunk alone is as thick as a car. Considering it seems to be heavy with pomegranates it shouldn’t be so huge, and yet…
“Amazing,” L holds Light’s elbow, helping him stay steady.
“It’s so…” Light laughs, more than a little impressed.
“And to think, we made that together.”
“Yeah!” Light chirps, but— “Yeah, we did, didn’t we? Together, I mean…?”
L smiles up into the branches. “Good job, Kira.”
“Heh, thanks…” Light fumbles. “I really—Thank you…?”
“What for?”
“Well, you were yourself about the whole thing,” Light admits, “but you weren’t a jerk about this. I appreciate that you didn’t try to force me to do anything in particular, you know? And talking to you, frankly, really did help.”
“I don’t want you to be unhappy, not really.” L promises. “Inconvenienced? Sure. Irritated? Definitely. But devastated? No, of course not.”
Light hesitates.
“What?” L catches his gaze.
“It just…” Light shrugs. “It occurs to me now, more than ever, that child or not we’re connected. Forever.”
“Indeed, we are.” L tucks a strand of Light’s hair back.
Light rues the tree, rues everything he’s made…
“Do you ever think…?”
“Hmm?” L glances.
“Well, just, maybe we could make more things together?”
“What do you mean?”
“All this fighting,” Light shrugs. “It’s very productive, sure, but maybe we make the best things together…?”
L stiffens, falling very quiet.
“Forget I said anything,” Light laughs awkwardly, “I still have to—”
“You might be right,” L murmurs.
Light wrings his fingers, looking away. “You’re not so bad, not really. I like you more than I hate you I think.”
“You know I love you.”
“I do, so…” Light chews his lip.
“Would you be willing to try?” L wonders.
“Try what exactly?”
“Making things, together?” L supposes. “Working together instead of against each other.”
“Maybe.” Light rues. “But you’ve always said you wanted conflict, a reason to grow, if we don’t fight each other, who do we fight?”
“I might have an idea for that.” L smirks.
“Oh that’s ominous…”
“Well Naomi, you’ve really done it this time…” Naomi sighs, leaning back against the wall in her cell.
“This is the first and last time I help a supernatural entity that big.”
Rubbing her face Naomi ruminates.
After several weeks down here it’s easiest to talk to herself.
She gets a food delivery twice a day, but the creatures that leave her prison food style gruel don’t exactly stay to chat.
So it’s just her, by herself…
“I hope Light’s alive,” she admits. “Ignoring his dick boyfriend, I do hope he’s alive…”
Naomi groans, burying her face in her knees.
It all happened so fast. Light showed up, the spell went awry, then the other one was there crashing through her door. She’d barely called a repair guy before three more of the things showed up at her front door and stuffed her into a van kicking and screaming. Now a cell, now several weeks later…
Naomi got into witchcraft to feel connected to the world around her in a way smart phone and Instagram friendly hikes didn’t facilitate. When Raye died she just wanted to feel close to something. She didn’t realize at first she would help others or that helping others would eventually get her into trouble.
She doesn’t regret helping Light, but she would’ve salted the front door if she knew his boyfriend was so good at holding a grudge.
Speaking of…
“Knock knock,” a man-costumed thing knocks on her cell bars. He looks huma, sure, but he’s plainly not. She can feel that much and she instantly recognizes the signal.
“Hey, you’re the Baby-Daddy, right?”
“That is an ineloquent way of putting it, but it’s not incorrect.” He rues, leaning into the wall by the cell door.
“Well, nice to see you again,” Naomi supposes, “which is what I would say if you hadn’t locked me in a cell for like… a month and a half?”
“Something like that, who’s keeping count?”
“Do you have a name?”
“Names are precious.”
“Oh great, Fae bullshit.” Naomi groans, head back against the wall miserably. “Can you just give me something to call you? I don’t care if it’s fake.”
“Ryuzaki will do,” he tells her. “Speaking of; you are aware that entity you ‘helped’ was Kira? Aren’t you?”
Naomi lurches forward, “what?”
“Oh yes, that was Kira,” Ryuzaki nods. “He’s quite lovely, don’t you think?”
“No wonder my luck is shit!” Naomi slaps her hand against her face. “That’s what I get for helping fucking Kira!”
Naomi rubs her yes.
“Figures Kira is some kind of supernatural deity. I should’ve guessed that…”
“You can make amends. If you’re interested?”
“Right, you stormed into my house furious I almost killed your boyfriend, but you want me to make amends for trying to help him in the first place?” Naomi catches. “Try pulling my other leg you might have more luck selling your bullshit then.”
Ryuzaki blinks, laughing softly. “You’re sharp Miss Misora.”
“Ex-FBI. Retired.” Naomi shots him a peace sign. “And very irritable after so long under your hospitality.”
“Well, that will shortly be coming to an end.” Ryuzaki assures her ominously.
“If you’re going to kill me—”
“I might, you know too much. You almost killed Kira and knowing you can do that is powerful knowledge.” Ryuzaki tuts. “But that’s actually what I’m hoping you’ll do.”
“Pardon?”
“Kira and I intend to reveal ourselves, reveal the supernatural, to mankind on Kiyomi Takada’s broadcast in a few days.”
“You’re going to uncover the supernatural, on Sakura TV?” Naomi repeats incredulously.
“Not terribly dignified, no, but I like the sleaze of it.”
“So let me track this.” Naomi continues. “You’re going to tell humanity demons are very much real and you may or may not kill me depending on…?”
“I want you to help humanity.”
“Excuse me?” Naomi squints. “You just said I’m dangerous because I hurt Kira. If I helped mankind, I could give them a head start on kicking your asses, couldn’t I?”
“That’s what I want.”
“I’m not following.”
“Kira and I are trying to evolve our people, our species, and in tandem we seek to conquer mankind. To do this we need reasons to grow and improve. We need a challenge. We need people to fight. Our conquest of mankind will not be productive enough if they don’t have the assistance of people like you.”
Naomi laughs nastily. “You sound like an asshole. You want me to make your game more fun? These are people’s lives. Do you have any idea how many people Kira has killed?”
“Oh you don’t want to talk headcounts, Miss Misora, I’ve got several millennia on Kira so I would wager my kill count would make your head spin.”
“You’re a pig,” Naomi pulls back her lips from her teeth. “You and Kira both. You think this is cute? You enjoy fucking with humans?”
“You are inconsequential to us.” Ryuzaki shrugs. “I am trying to create sufficient training exercises and stimulation for my people. Humans could offer that but given the poor intellectual and magical capacity of your species they will need help, Miss Misora.”
“You know what?” Naomi huffs. “Sure. Let me out of this cell. I’ll march right to the NPA and tell them how to thrash your sorry asses.”
Ryuzaki grins. “That’s all I needed to hear, thank you for your support, Miss Misora.”
“Fuck you buddy!”
Naomi is promptly dragged out of the nondescript building with a bag over her head. Ryuzaki’s goons dump her at a public parks with her battery dead cell phone at her feet. Scrapping up her things and in unwashed clothes Naomi takes a deep breath.
There’s work to be done.
And, if Ryuzaki was telling the truth, she doesn’t have very long before the shit hits the fan.
Monsters, real monsters, warring with humanity?
Sounds kind of apocalyptic, doesn’t it?
“Hey!” Naomi stops a woman jogging. “Where’s the nearest police station? I need help.”
Well, whatever is going on, Naomi isn’t a joke and she isn’t going to be made fun of.
She’ll give these bastards Hell.
They’ll regret letting her live.