One-Shot Collection: L Lawliet x Reader

✞ Wounded ✞

For the first time in the two years since you had been working on Kira's case, you arrived late to the task force. Everyone was worried about you, and was even more worried when you walked through the door wearing dark glasses, making your presence known without saying a word, until you took your place next to L and turned on your computer. Light looked at you in incredulity that you were still wearing dark glasses in front of the computer, and immediately knew that something terrible had happened. Before the others could figure it out too, you got up from your seat and caught everyone's attention, who were actually already looking at you.

"Listen, I'm going to take this off and I don't want any questions, okay? I'm fine," you said, letting out a big sigh and taking off your glasses, revealing the black eye and the swelling in your eye.

"Oh, my goodness," said Matsuda, rushing over to you to get a closer look. It wasn't really that bad, but the fact that someone had hit you was shocking, no matter what the reason. "That must hurt."

"Yeah, thanks for reminding me," you rolled your eyes.

"Did someone hit you?"

"No, Matsuda. I like pain, I did this to myself," you said sarcastically.

"(Y/N) I know you said not to ask questions, but if something happened, we should know. Are you alright?" Light asked.

"As well as I can be with a black eye and a broken rib."

"Did you break a rib?" Matsuda made a pained expression, analysing you from head to toe as he wondered how you were still standing. "You shouldn't be here; you should take the day off."

"No," you knew they would say that. "It's just an eye poke, and I've checked myself. I'm fine."

"What happened to you?" Detective Yagami insisted. "Don't protect whoever did this to you. We are the police after all."

"I'm not protecting anyone. I took care of the problem. I'd like to stop being questioned, could we get back to work?"

The fact that you were so defensive gave away the fact that you hadn't quite solved the problem. You were annoyed, and you had never minded the questions, even when they were about your personal life. You were quite irritated and didn't want to be bothered, something bad had happened.

"At least let me go buy you something for the pain," Light offered.

"Thank you, Light, but I'm on a very strong painkiller at the moment and I'm sure if I take any more, I won't be able to talk coherently."

You returned to your seat and went about your day as normally as you could, listening to the others come up with theories of what had happened. If only they knew that you'd gotten into a fight with some guys who were talking about L. Normally it didn't bother you, no one really knew him and a lot of them were just talking for the sake of talking. But they had been particularly harsh, especially because they knew you, and they knew you had left the police to work with him, and they had decided to pick on you too. At first you thought that if you talked it would just be a verbal confrontation, and you talked back, but you had upset them so much that one of them had punched you and another had attacked you with a knife, cutting your abdomen and kicking you once on the ground. You had managed to attack them on the adrenaline of the moment, and to tell the truth you had hurt them badly too, but it hadn't been enough. You couldn't believe you'd been hit.

You got up to pour yourself some coffee in the kitchen, stretching and raising your arms, lifting your blouse and sweatshirt slightly so that the scar on your abdomen became visible.

"Enough," said L, rising from his seat towards you. "Please make things easy for me and tell me what happened to you so I can take care of them."

"I told you I'm fine," you were surprised at how upset he looked. "It's nothing."

"I just saw what is clearly a knife wound. Something happened and I'm not convinced that justice has been done."

"Relax, it's just a scar."

"It's pretty deep. It's clear whoever gave it to you was trying to harm you. You're lucky they didn't puncture any of your organs. This was intentional. Tell me, did someone try to hurt you for working on this investigation? Do they know you're working on Kira's case and want to stop you?"

"It's not that complicated, L," you blushed, "I just got into a fight with some guys."

"You're telling me that a man, no, at least two men fought with you?" His expression darkened, lowering his gaze as he clenched his fists, leaving your mouth hanging open. "That's outrageous. Please help me save time and just tell me who they are."

"It doesn't matter."

"If you don't tell me, I'll find the time to find out for myself," he insisted. "I should remind you that I've solved more difficult cases than this."

"But I don't want to do anything about it, all right?"

"I can't let them hurt you, do you understand?" He raised his voice, and Aizawa, who was the last one left to pay attention to the conversation, also turned his gaze towards you.

"Don't worry, I'm fine."

"This isn't fine," he moved closer to you, running his thumb gently across your cheek, just below your eye. "I know you want to show your commitment to this case and that you want to work despite what happened, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to go home."

"L, please, don't you think you're overreacting?"

"Overreacting," he repeated to himself. "No, I don't think so. I think this is exactly the right reaction for someone I care about."

"But-"

"If you refuse to go home, I will tell everyone to ignore you and not give you any information until I see fit for you to return to the case."

"Then I'll stay here to hear what I can," you folded your arms.

"Fine, and when you don't get information, please use one of the hotel rooms. You're not going home on your own, Matsuda or Light will take you personally until I can make sure your attackers are punished."

"I'm an adult, you know."

"Yes, a beautiful, intelligent adult woman who lives alone and follows the same path home every night. You have a routine, it will be easy for them to find you if they want to."

"Believe me, I won't find them again," you assured him, though you weren't sure.

"I hope you're right, but I can't risk losing you."