Light x L

Family

Dinner that night had been relatively insightful, at least to Light. The rest of the family had struggled to keep a conversation flowing , their opinions would frequently clash and the table more represented a court room than anything else. Finally one of their heated discussions marked the end of the dinner. The argument, which Light had remained gracefully silent on, began when Mrs. Yagami complained about Soichiro's tendency to drown himself in alcohol when he hit dead ends at work. She argued that there was no reason for him to bring back his worries into the house and spoil it with his undignified negativity. 
"Soichiro, I know you have a passion for this. But, look around this table, look at our children. You're taking us onboard a sinking ship." she tenderly caressed his hand which was laying solemnly on the table as she spoke, "-and I know... God I know this is hard on you. That's why I beg you to stop working on this case. I can't live with myself if something happens to you, and forgive me for saying this but I can already see it happening." By now she had a lonely tear running down her soft face, her grasp on her husbands hand so tight that her knuckles were whiter than snow. Her fear was obvious, and while she showed it respectfully, she was straining for him to listen to reason. 

Light snuck a glance at Sayu, he didn't know what he was expecting from his sister, however he was still surprised at her uneasy expression. Sayu had always been overly optimistic, open-hearted and extroverted. She reminded him of maple syrup; it tastes exquisite with pancakes which cancel out its sweetness, but if taken like a  shot, it was sickening. Sayu perfectly embodied this, she was sickeningly sweet and always knew what to say, which made it all the more concerning that she hadn't spoken a word since the argument had first broken out. Her positive twist and advice always cheered the family up in times like this, but not always; she can't be the cement keeping the bricks together all the time, and the scene before them highlighted that fact. It reminded Light of those summer nights when she'd throw herself onto his bed and rant about her new love interests, worldly issues, and celebrities she'd never meet. He smiled as he remembered the stages of her ranting, firstly she'd profess her undying love for the individual, afterwards she'd plan the wedding, and then she'd cry herself to sleep over the fact that they were unattainable. The reason he was reminded of this must have been because he'd never seen this side of her before. He had scanned every way she reacted to every situation but this reaction was simply not in the book. Light shifted uncomfortably, while he had mastered faking emotions a long time ago, he had not mastered controlling them just yet. She was sitting painfully stiff and had her arms positioned directly at her side as if she was receiving an order, her head was fixed onto her lap and her eyes remained glued down. It was as if she was trying to go into a shell but did not have one to hide herself in.

He continued to study her actions until he zoned back in to the climax of the argument between his parents.

"You always do this! You paint me as the bad guy with the beer can, the wife beater, the unthoughtful husband!" his fathers voice boomed over his mothers feeble attempts at reconcile "I do my job because I love you. Why can't you understand that this maniac is killing anyone who he so chooses, if someone stands in his way one day, they're dead by the next. With that, how can you expect me to let him massacre those people knowing one day it might be one of you dying of a damn heart attack?" Soichiro motioned to the group of people at the table to exercise his point. His blood shed eyes finally fixed themselves to his wife's shivering form before he reluctantly tore them away and retreated into his office. Immediately after his father was out of sight, Light ushered his mother into her bedroom and while she insisted on helping him clear the table, he simply knelt down and kissed her forehead before taking the job on himself. Sachiko wasn't in the right mind to do anything other than sleep out her worries so she decided to take Light's show of humane decency and leave him to finish the task. Sayu - after forcing Light to place her back on her wheelchair also retired to her room for the night. He had carefully moved her frail body from the dining chair and placed her on the contraption. Taking unusually long to do so. She remained silent. Other times when Light had to do this she'd comment on how he was taking too long and insult him before bursting into uncontrolled laughter when he got fed up and threatened to leave her on the floor. This night however, her usual self was nowhere to be found. Her smile was still missing and Light frowned when he couldn't even see her force one as she closed her bedroom door. 

Ryuk was as unbothered as ever as he watched the dysfunctional family mark rooms as their personal territory. Light was left with the uneaten dishes to pack and put into the refrigerator. Usually Light didn't particularly enjoy having to scrape and wash the dishes after eating, but today he found it to be a perfect environment to reflect on his family's role in his master plan. While he would much rather have his personal loved ones uninvolved in his scheme, with his father's occupation and family involvement in it there wasn't much room for that.  He did truly care for his family, heck, he might've even called it love, but this opportunity was far too good to pass up. Even the endangerment of his family's wellbeing was a risk he was willing to make. A calculated risk, of course. Light pardoned the risk by offering excuses to himself. His mind travelled to his fathers device, he knew he could easily hack into it and there was certainly bound to be information on the Kira case in his files. He contemplated the risk of making this decision, knowing that if he used the information on that laptop suspicion on families and personal in the police department would increase and cause unrelenting tension. He decided that he needed to have an upper-hand in this fight, so he finished his kitchen duties before knocking on the door connecting the living room to his fathers office.

"Come in." Soichiro sighed, he wasn't in the mood for discussion after dinner and was mentally praying that this wasn't female company. Light calmly entered the room and inspected the empty wine bottles surrounding the desk, there was one open resting beside his fathers hand. The room had the thick scent of alcohol - like always - but it was apparent that this was a new drinking spree Soichiro had embarked on. Not that Light blamed him of course, with the events that had taken place earlier and emotions that had been released the average person would begin to crumble. His father just coped by drinking to live through it all. Everyone needs a way to move forward.

"Mother wants you to go to bed." It was a lie, like most things Light spoke, but a necessary lie. Indeed, his father did have his suspicions,

"Why would she want me even near her after that?" he regretfully waved his hand in the relative direction of the kitchen. Face frowning as his eyes rested on the bottles he had consumed. He wallowed in his own self pity, once again realising that as always, his wife was right.

"Because she loves you." Light said and watched with amusement as Soichiro instantly and wordlessly placed his bottle onto the desk and stepped over the empty ones to go and reconcile with his wife. Light didn't feel bad, after all, he was helping both his parents and himself. He traced the sides of the table before lightly brushing over the edge of the desk. The thick line of dust was an indication of how his father had spent barely anytime in this office and stayed at work most nights. He cleaned his fingers on his shirt and then found the object he was searching for. The laptop which would play such an important role in his plan lay unprotected in the middle of the desk. He carried it back upstairs to his room and situated himself at his table. Opening the lid of the device the screen lit instantly. Ryuk eyed the password lock and scoffed,

"Well, what are you going to do now, Mr. Yagami~" he slurred mockingly. Light paid him no mind and simply stared at the screen thoughtfully. After a few minutes his fingers positioned themselves onto the keyboard and he began to type. To Ryuk's utter shock and embarrassment, the screen flashed with a 'Welcome Soichiro!'