One-Shot Collection: L Lawliet x Reader

✞ The lost father ✞

You were the first to arrive at headquarters every morning, and the last to leave after staying up a couple of nights with L. Your punctuality was not only impeccable, it was one of your most notorious characteristics, so when you contacted Watari that morning to let him know you were taking a day off, L knew something wasn't right. You had taken a day off before, a single day that you had asked for a month in advance. Possibly you'd had some kind of emergency that made it impossible for you to work, so L asked Watari to investigate immediately, but they didn't find anything particularly suspicious and discovered that you hadn't left your apartment since the previous evening when you came home from work.

He tried not to think too much about it, but he couldn't help but be curious. What was so important to make you take a day off? His mind couldn't process it, and he was dying to ask you. But he didn't need to, Matsuda had been thoughtless enough to call you and ask directly what your reasons were for not going to work on a busy day like that, all while putting you on speakerphone so the rest of the team members could listen in. You took a few minutes in silence, thinking about lying to him, but there was no point, you told him the truth.

Your dad, whom you'd never seen before in your life, had come looking for you the night before, supposedly to apologise for being distant for all those years, and to ask you to let him be a part of your life. Of course, although that had been a rollercoaster of emotions, things hadn't gone well, otherwise, you would have had no problem with going to work, and although you didn't want to go into too much detail, Matsuda wanted to know the whole story, and probed further into why that had turned out negatively. You thought about hanging up, but you were too polite for that, and just told him that you just wanted a favour, leaving aside that he had asked for something much worse.

Somehow your dad had managed to find out that you were doing well on your own, that your mum was gone and you were on your own, so he thought it wouldn't hurt to lend him a couple of thousand dollars to pay off some debts he had on top of his head. But you weren't stupid, you knew he was a criminal, that's why he hadn't been in your life since you were born. He spent most of his time in prison, when he got out, he always fell back into bad habits and went back to prison, that was practically his life. Most likely he wanted your money so he could disappear again, and because you refused, you had a rather heated argument about it. In the end, rubbing salt in the wound, your dad had the nerve to ask for at least one of your kidneys, because of a serious illness he had. Because of his criminal past, no one who was a match for him wanted to donate anything, so you were his last option. At first, you thought he was lying, but you did some research and found hospital records that confirmed what he had told you. You had taken the day off because, no matter how hurt you were, you were, in fact, considering helping him.

No sooner had you finished explaining this than you hung up the phone, not in the mood for further questioning, let alone listening to the pitying comments of Matsuda, who had belatedly realised how insensitive he had been. Even L had noticed, and that was saying something.

Speaking of L, as you had started to provoke in him a few months ago, for some reason he couldn't remain untouched by the situation. He was an orphan, so he knew what it was like not to have parents, but he never thought of a scenario where they would seek him out to do something like that to him, and it angered him that it made you feel bad enough that you couldn't concentrate on a job you were excellent at. He empathised with you and wanted to find some way to cheer you up, but he didn't know how to do it without giving away his feelings about you to the other team members.

He knew who your dad was, he had investigated him when you joined the task force, and he knew he was a criminal and also where he had been all that time, but he didn't want to tell you anything because you clearly weren't interested. Besides, he was in no danger of being killed by Kira because he was one less criminal. Yes, a human scum, but at least he hadn't killed anyone, yet. L didn't want you to have to go through any medical procedures for someone like him, so he instructed Watari to look for someone who could take your place, and he even thought about asking for some kind of restriction to the region where you lived so you wouldn't have to deal with him again, but he wanted to respect what you decided.

However, he knew that was not enough. There wasn't much he could do, of course, but he wanted to do something to cheer you up. You were his best and only friend, it wouldn't be so strange if he tried to make a nice gesture toward you, would it? To tell you the truth, he didn't care, he just wanted to make sure he could see you the next day at your place, he didn't like to see it empty and he wasn't going to let it be that way any longer than necessary.

You received a comment on your personal computer. You knew it was from L because he was the only person you knew who could do something like open a new encrypted window while typing text on it.

"This is the first time in my life I've eaten someone else's slice of cake and I don't feel happy about it." you laughed "I'm not going to pretend I know how you feel, but I have a good idea if you didn't feel good enough to come to the headquarters. I'm not good at sentimentality and I'm really not even going to try. I just want you to know that I would never walk out of your life, no matter what the circumstances."

Your heart pounded hard against your chest. L had every good, valid reason to actually disappear from your life, especially once the case was over and he had no reason to see you. Still, he was actually confessing to you that even then he didn't plan to stop looking for you, and that filled your heart with hope.

"Remember you were talking to Mr. Yagami about buying the house where you grew up? Consider this a thank you from me for all you've done for the Kira case," he attached a file. It was the deeds to the house, in your name. He wasn't serious. What the hell was going on? L bought you a house? "Please take it. I don't want to go through the paperwork again. You've earned it more than any other prospective buyer." Of course, he hadn't been in charge of the paperwork, and to tell the truth it hadn't been complicated for someone like him, who owned properties all over the world. He just didn't want you to turn it down, though he knew that when you returned you would have a rather lengthy conversation about it. "P.S. Matsuda is an idiot. Please take as much time as you need, but when you get back give him a hit on the head for me. I'll have the sweets you like ready in case you want to come back soon. You're a valuable member of the team, and I can't solve this without you."

The tab closed, and you were left alone with your thoughts. You didn't know what you'd done to deserve it, but you were going to work really hard every day to do it, and you were definitely going to dare to kiss L after this. You didn't need anything else; you knew you could handle anything as long as you had someone like L in your life.