Chapter Text
“… …You beat me, Yagami-kun…”
The moment L allowed that small act of conceding following their ‘casual’ tennis match, squeezing their hands together in seemingly mutual respect, Light set his brain’s gears into motion.
“That’s the first time I’ve played for real in ages, Ryuga,” Light admitted, squeezing against L’s palm again. His hand was surprisingly smooth, now that Light was paying closer attention, though L’s fingers were slimmer than expected. “I think both of us worked up a sweat. How does grabbing a drink somewhere sound?”
L slipped his hand away to stare holes into Light’s face. Never directly in his eyes, always somewhere else on Light Yagami’s features like his cheek or nose.
Interesting, Light thought.
“Very well. Some coffee with our conversation sounds nice. We can talk about anything you want.”
Light refrained from smirking.
“However, before anything else, I will tell you this, Yagami-kun,” L continued, wiping his hand down his jeans. “I highly suspect that you may be Kira. If you would like to continue talking, knowing this, then you may go ahead.”
I may, huh? Light stifled a laugh. “And here I was, hoping I’d just be able to take you out for coffee.”
L paused at that, blinking slowly as though he was repeatedly processing Light’s words in his head.
You didn’t expect that, did you, Ryuga? Light thought, still smiling at L. Light Yagami, going after the world’s greatest detective. If this Ryuga really is L, then there’s no time to waste. L has never shown his face to the public until now. But is he doing this show and dance out of respect for me, the dutiful eldest son of Soichiro Yagami, or because he suspects that I am Kira?
No, hold on, romantically pursuing him is a ridiculous idea. There are too many open ends that must be answered before I can continue. L may not even be gay. However, from the brief moments I’ve watched him, he hadn’t expressed an interest in any of the women around us. Just like me. He could be asexual. But surely, he’d let me know that if he understands my intentions for him. If that happens, then I’ll act like any other wounded closeted boy would. If that happens, I would simply move on to another plan.
Wait. It’d be strange for me to be interested in someone like him, wouldn’t it? There are plenty of men more attractive than Ryuga... No, it would make sense. He seems to be an acquired taste. I’ve overheard a handful of female students fawning over him. If he lost those bags under his eyes, went outside more to get some color into his skin, then he’d definitely look more conventionally attractive. Yes, it will make sense. If anyone asks, I can say those extra features just add more character to him, and him scoring as high as I did on the entrance exam just further piqued my intellectual interest—
“Am I reading this right, Yagami-kun? Are you asking me out on a date?” L asked.
Light shrugged. “Not a date, necessarily. I’d like to get to know you better at the very least, Ryuga. It’s not every year that To-Oh gets two freshman representatives.”
“Yes, I have heard people whispering about us.”
“So,” Light said, picking up his bag, “coffee then?”
L’s expression didn’t change, other than the brief flash of teeth digging into his lip. “Do you know a place, Yagami-kun?”
Light Yagami… you’ve certainly thrown me off here, L thought.
When Light lightly jogged back to him fully changed, starting a casual conversation about the exam with him on their way to the coffee shop, L remained cautious and made sure to say less than enough before he had the opportunity to test the student.
Light Yagami masked himself to be a perfect model of various archetypes. The perfect student, the perfect son, the perfect friend, the perfect boyfriend. L confirmed this very fact the moment Light stepped foot into the Yagami home just hours after it was fully rigged with cameras and microphones at all angles. Memorizing all sorts of social cues didn’t go to waste, and L was rewarded for it through the observation of the NPA chief’s eldest son. It was as though Light refused to let a single flaw slip through him, as though being human was something wrong to be, replacing chances for mistakes with satisfactory yet saccharine ‘outcomes.’
This posed no concern among any of the Yagami family. In fact, Soichiro reacted as though his son’s intelligence and success was just a matter of fact when L pointed it out.
How could you live such a stifling life, Light Yagami?
Light was indeed successful in his image upkeep, until he entered his bedroom.
L remembered that night, when he was side by side with Soichiro, watching Light Yagami reach down to slip a magazine from the bottom of his bookshelf. He remained silent even when Yagami’s eldest child flipped it open to a random page, to a full two-page spread of a slim young man, his legs spread and straddling another man’s hips to take his cock in. It took Light squirming against his mattress and slipping his hand down his pants for L to immediately switch video feeds. Even though Light Yagami was soon approaching 18 years in age, this was a line L preferred not to cross.
He didn’t dare make eye contact with Soichiro.
“This… is the last thing I’d imagine my son doing,” Soichiro had stammered out.
“Which thing, Yagami-san? How your son hides his books? Or consuming the content of said books?”
“The… second one,” Soichiro said. “I thought I made it clear to him that he can talk to me or his mother about anything. But, this—”
“Being gay is still a sensitive subject in many countries, Yagami-san,” L explained, biting at the tip of his thumb. “I believe Japan is among them. Revealing this to one’s parents can be difficult to accomplish anywhere.” A beat. “Light Yagami-kun does have a flaw after all.”
“What?” Soichiro was fuming at him now. “My son is not flawed because of this! Just because he’s gay doesn’t change anything—”
“That’s not what I meant,” L said. “I meant that even your son has things he feels he must hide from his parents.”
Now, L was wondering if Light was actually using his sexuality as yet another weapon to manipulate the course.
He could have started masturbating as a way for us to turn his cameras off, even if it was just for a moment. And even then, that brief moment was long enough. We gave Light five minutes before we turned his cameras back on, and he was already studying by then. The criminal on the news at that time was murdered not a minute later. Kira could use that to take advantage of free moments to kill… or is Light Yagami truly so obsessed with being perfect that staying closeted is preferable to the opposite?
Asking me out to coffee was incredibly unexpected of him. Is he intending on seducing me so he can unveil my identity? Does he think me so naive? I don’t even need to mention the large age gap between us. He may be eighteen now, but pursuing a man in his twenties is incredibly irresponsible of him. Being in university may give him that flexibility of being out while still being closeted at home, sure. But out of all the men on campus, I am his first target? It is all just so careless that it’s further justification of my suspicion of him being Kira.
No, it’s best that I go along with this. If he is truly just closeted and curious, then this will simply be a strange first experience for him. I will learn how to let him down eventually if his suspicion is cleared. If he is Kira, well, then if we both go far enough in this charade, he may end up vulnerable enough to prove to me that he is indeed Kira.
It’s just a matter of who becomes the fool first.