#owl-mug

L’s expression didn’t shift an inch as B grinned at him.

“Oh, come on,” B prodded. “Don’t tell me you can dish it but can’t take it?”

“I was making an observation.”

“Ah, so you’ve grown boring in your old age. Got it! Well then. To what do I owe your company?” B preened, wriggling his shoulders and rolling his neck as he relaxed against his chair. What a day to not have burned to death! L was here – exactly where B wanted him. This could only mean one thing, right? He’d finally intrigued the old man? Oh! How sweet that admittance would be.

But L just tapped the pads of his fingers against his denim-clad knees, which were hiked up against his chest as usual. Some things never change, B mused. The man that had been occupying his thoughts for years, now materialized across from him, still looked just like the child B used to pester at Wammy’s. Probably still acts like one, too, even if he won’t admit it. B stifled a laugh to himself.

“You’ve caught me in an act of charity,” L finally said. “Your stunt concerned me.”

“An act of charity!” B echoed, letting out that laugh from earlier with a wave of his chained hands. “Oh, L, you’re as hilarious as ever. That’s a good one. But yes, seeing you is a good start, I’ll admit. And your concern isn’t warranted! I’m fine, really.”

L raised an eyebrow as he looked B up and down, eyes raking over his scars once more. He didn’t so much as crack a smile. “A good start?”

“Yes! Now you get to tell me all the things I want to hear.”

“Like what?”

B began to count off on his fingers. One: “How much fun you had solving the case,” Two: “How much it thrilled you to mark me down as a suspect,” Three: “How challenging it was, how it was the most challenging case you’ve ever had, actually,” After a moment of hesitation, he tallied off a fourth finger. Yeah, those were two different compliments. And then a fifth: “How sad you are to know that you’ll never be able to see what happens next, now that I’m stuck here,” He pushed his hands forward, one hanging limp and one with its palm out toward L. He wiggled the fingers of that displayed hand and grinned, self-satisfied. “That’s five things you could say to me right now. You can add more if you want, though. I won’t mind.”

L watched B’s waggling fingers, his own thumb prodding at his lip. “I could say those things. But then I’d be lying.”

“You’ve never had a problem with lying,” B stood up to lean across the table, the hard edge digging into his hips, and push his hands closer to L. He stopped only when the table wouldn’t allow him to bend any further. Despite his strain, the action garnered no reaction. With an exasperated huff, B quickly gave up and tipped himself back into his chair, letting his hands drop into his lap.

“What if I’ve changed?” Came L’s response. He still wasn’t displaying any good tells – none that B recognized, at least. But even so, his statement was a difficult lie to buy.

“Pssh, I’ve known you since we were toddlers. You’d lie about everything from whether or not you’d already gotten desert to what color underwear you were wearing. You love lying too much to just stop,” He chattered with a smirk. Yes, he knew L – and L knew he knew him, so he’d give up the game eventually. Surely.

And he almost missed it, but the corner of L’s lip quirked up behind his thumb for half a second. Beyond’s smirk shifted into a genuine smile. There he was, the real L, coming out to play.

“Alright, so I’m still a liar,” L conceded. His face remained blank but now there was a glimmer of something in his eyes – amusement? Affection? Would Beyond be so bold as to dream it so? “But I’ve always been honest with you, haven’t I? Ever since we were toddlers?”

Ugh. Beyond groaned and sunk further down in his chair. Obviously, this approach wasn’t working well enough. He’d have to find another way to pry the words out of L. “Alright, fine,” He said. “I don’t want you to repeat any of those things back to me anyway. I want to hear what you really thought.”

“I told you that already. I’m concerned that you set yourself on fire.”

“Bullshit!” Beyond shouted. His legs kicked against the concrete floor wildly as he scrambled to push himself upright again. “The Great Detective L gained a sense of empathy? Don’t make me laugh.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I don’t know who you’re talking about,” L replied cooly. “I’m Ryuzaki.”

“What?” B’s face twisted in confusion. This…is what L was going to argue with him about? Damn. The conversation was leaving B with fucking whiplash. “No, you’re not. That’s my alias,” He insisted, stomping his foot to punctuate his point. Fucking bastard – can’t he let B have anything?

“Not anymore. I defeat you, I take the name. That’s how it worked with Coil and Deneuve, too,” L calmly responded, and he had the audacity to look smug while doing so. It was the first authentic expression he’d shown all day and it was while trying to gloat in B’s goddamn face. It was probably purposeful, probably just to piss him off.

Well. It was working.

“You didn’t defeat me, this wasn’t some sort of battle. And even if it was you’d be missing the important detail that I’m not a fucking detective,” B sneered. “You wish you’d won something. But since you didn’t, you don’t get to use Ryuzaki. It’s mine.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, were you not Rue Ryuzaki, the private detective investigating with Naomi Misora?” L’s eyes widened as he feigned innocence. “Misora was working with me and she solved the case first. By proxy, that means I solved it first. I did, in fact, win.”

“‘I did, in fact, win,’” B pitched his voice as high as it would go and mimicked L with his lip curled. As L reacted with an incredibly mature roll of his goddamned eyes, B’s expression shifted to a pout and he slumped back in his chair. “Sounds more like a victory for Naomi, technically. Maybe she should be Ryuzaki.”

“Oh, well, she’s not a detective. She’s police. She doesn’t qualify for it.”

B groaned and dropped his forehead to the table, then let his lead rock so he was resting on his cheek instead. The metal was cold against his flushed skin as he glared up at L. He’d forgotten how horribly grating conversation with the other could be. “Fine then. What do you want, Ryuzaki? Because if all you’re here to do is brag I’ll start screaming and tell the guards you tried to attack me.”

“No, you won’t, you want me here too much,” L’s thumb was pressed against his lips again and he was definitely smiling behind it now. A small smile, but B saw it nonetheless. He knew how to read L after all those childhood years together. And right now? This bastard was fucking amused. But not in the way B wanted him to be.

“I didn’t ask for you to come. You showed up on your own. To gloat,” B complained. “If I wasn’t cuffed right now, I’d wipe that fucking smile right off your ugly face.”

“Ugly? Is that why you put so much effort into impersonating it?”

Feeling something akin to rage, Beyond squeezed his eyes shut and pushed himself upright. How hard was it going to be for L to just give B what he wanted? Why else would he even be here? He slammed his hands flat on the table and the sound of the chain clanging against the surface was loud enough to make L flinch. Ha, little victories.

“What do you want?” B demanded again. “You couldn’t be bothered to come and see me when I was literally killing people. When your associate was in danger. So why now, huh? Because you haven’t said anything yet that couldn’t have been said over a phone call, monitored or not.”

“Wrong,” L deadpanned, then proceeded to dodge the question again. “I have alluded to things that wouldn’t have been safe to say in that sort of scenario. For example, the fact that I have three aliases.”

In response, B let out a strange noise that was a half scream, half growl – then somewhere in his brain someone flicked a switch – and the exclamation morphed into a laugh. He fell backward, clutching at his chest as best he could and cackling at the ceiling. God, they really could bicker for ages, couldn’t they?

“You haven’t changed at all,” He mumbled fondly as his amusement faded, slumped against the back of his chair once more. “So…what? You just want to catch up, then? Did you miss your dear old friend Beyond?”

“Truthfully…” L started, dark eyes skimming upwards towards the ceiling (like they always did when he said something he didn’t want to admit, B noted). “There’s been one part I left out so far. I came to congratulate you.”

Oh? B allowed himself a grin. Don’t get too cocky yet. That didn’t work last time. “By all means then…” He drawled. “Please continue.”

“Don’t flatter yourself. You wanted my attention, and you got it. And not for empathetic reasons. Congratulations,” L said. His eyes remained glued to the ceiling.

Giddiness bubbled in B’s chest. All he’d ever wanted was to get this stupid man’s attention, and his continuing lack of success at doing so always led him to attempt subsequent measures more and more drastic than the last. But he’d finally done it. He’d finally done it. And L was finally admitting it. “And what exactly caught your attention, if I might ask? The puzzles? The gruesome bodies?” He twisted his fingers into a cradle that he then dropped his chin into. His toothy smile was fat, satiated.

“None of those things, actually,” L’s gaze finally dropped from the ceiling and returned to meet B’s eyes as he delivered the blow. “I didn’t care for your puzzles and I have no interest in excessively violent scenes. You surprised me when you decided to set yourself on fire, that’s all. It was a move I didn’t expect you to take.”

The giddy bubbles in B’s chest popped, and his grin twisted into a frown. So, L had been telling the truth. Despite everything B had done up until that point, up until the fire – he truly still hadn’t gotten L to spare him a second glance. The attempt on his own life had been a last-ditch effort to catch the man’s eye, he’d admit that, but he hadn’t really thought that everything he’d done so far was insignificant. He’d just been…trying to put the final nail in the coffin, as the saying goes. That was all. Even though he thought he was going to die, at least he’d been embracing death believing he’d succeeded.

Clearly, though, he’d been wrong. But the fact that L had turned to look at all…that was some sort of silver lining, right? Not that B was ever very good at looking for those.

“So, this is a pity visit, you freak. You’re coming to see dear old Beyond, who tried to kill himself in the aftermath of his ‘idol’s’ rejection, hm? So I am a fucking charity case, huh? That wasn’t a fucking joke?” B snapped. Yes, L’s head had turned, but not because he’d noticed B’s exceptional smarts. It’d truly just been because he felt bad for B.

That was almost worse than getting no attention at all.

But L sighed, exasperated, and pressed his thumb back against his lip so hard that the top one lifted. “This is not a pity visit, B. You did something I didn’t expect. It caught my interest. I thought that’s what you’ve wanted all along?”

“I want to defeat you,” B corrected. “I’m going to be better than you. I don’t need your praise.”

“I thought this wasn’t a battle?” L cocked his head and the tease hung in the air. But B just glared at him. He was tired of bickering. After one long minute, L breathed in deeply. “Oh well. Alright then. It’s not like I had much praise to give, anyway,” He furrowed his ugly thin brows and tilted his head towards the ceiling in fake concentration. After B continued to give him the silent treatment, he let his eyes flit curiously over in the other man’s direction.

Nothing else to say? The eyes taunted. Still, B gave him nothing.

L held his gaze for a moment before looking back to the ceiling. Humiliatingly defeated, B scowled and lowered his head so that his fingers could scratch at his hair. This was the most excruciating conversation he’d ever had.

“Well, I should probably head out, then.”

Good. Still looking down, watching bits of dandruff fall onto his lap, B heard L shift in his chair. The other man’s feet hit the ground with a soft thump. “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out,” He mumbled. He then shifted his head, tilting it so that one eye peeked up at L through strands of wavy hair.  “Actually, I take that back. I hope you trip and fall on your flat ass.”

“Mhm, same to you,” L shrugged, hands in his pockets as he approached the private visiting room’s door. But as he placed a hand on the doorknob he paused abruptly, throwing his pointer finger in the air like he was fucking Einstein having a fucking Eureka! moment. Christ, what is it now? B grimaced, but L didn’t keep him anticipating for long.

“Oh, by the way…your release date is a week from now.”

“My fucking what?” B twisted his head further to the side. Both of his eyes narrowed at L’s back, the other man still holding that stupid pose. What a sick fucking joke - B was sentenced for life.

“Plans changed. You’re getting out in a week,” L finally turned and his owlish eyes bored into B’s once more. There was most definitely something excited in them, this time. The joy of a kid reuniting with a long-lost favorite toy was impossible to mistake.

And of course B didn’t miss it – he knew L back to front, remember?

As his heart began to beat wildly, he grinned. “There’s the L I know,” He crooned.

“Hm? Oh, this has nothing to do with me,” The detective shrugged. Beyond watched the shape of his mouth as the lie rolled off L’s tongue with expertise. “Just try not to get into too much trouble once you’re out, yes? You’ll be under parole.”

B chuckled, flames igniting in his chest. Fragments of plans ran through his head, all the things he could try, all the ways he could make L’s life hell. “Oh, never. Of course not. I’m perfectly well behaved,” He sat up and rolled his neck, setting off a chain reaction of crackling pops! following the movement.

Wonderfully, excitingly, L was grinning back at him now. “I’m well aware. But if something were to happen…” L rolled his eyes back to the door, the delicate muscles in his fingers tensed in anticipation of turning the knob. “Don’t get caught by anyone other than me.”

“Ha!” B barked. Violent laughter took over his body as the door slammed shut behind the detective, now vanished, just like the figment of B’s imagination he almost believed the other man was. But no – that was L, the real L, the L he grew up with and loved so dearly.

And his L was ready to play with him again.

Of course not, Lawliet, He thought smugly as a guard replaced L’s presence in the room, gripping B’s arm tight and pulling him up out of his chair. Anything I do will be for you.