Realization (L Lawliet)

Two

     L awoke to the smell of food. Something sugary...yet not a sweet. He stretched in bed, sitting up. He quickly noticed by the lack of band posters that this was not his room. 

     It must be Watari's, since he had run there in the middle of the night because of a nightmare. It was highly likely that he had fallen asleep there, and Watari was too nice to actually move him back. 

     L rubbed his eyes and got out of bed, dragging himself to the kitchen. Believe it or not, he actually felt more tired the days he got sleep rather than days without it. 

     He had tried to tell Watari he didn't need sleep for that reason, but Watari had told him the story of this great scientist who only got two hours of sleep a day and ended up having severe medical problems at a very young age. The thought of heart and lung failure at age thirty freaked L out enough. 

    Even though he doubted he would live that long. The greatest detective before him had committed suicide at age 25 because of pressure from an apparently "unsolvable" case. L had solved it eventually, but he was afraid he would end up doing that eventually. After all, a bunch of little kids were already in line to be his successor. That wasn't a very positive idea. 

     "Good morning, Ryuzaki," Watari's voice reached L from the side. 

    L turned, smiling at the sight of Watari. "Good morning," he said in his usual monotone voice. He wasn't known to show much emotion, but when he did, it was usually a mental breakdown. 

    L followed Watari to the kitchen, where the source of the sweet food smell was coming from. It belonged to pancakes. The typical Sunday American breakfast, but with a twist. Watari had put put chocolate chips into the batter and had poured a bunch of strawberry syrup onto it...with wafer straws on the top. 

     L was sure nobody else would want to eat it at eight in the morning but him. Or everybody else would be sugar high for the rest of the day. 

     He had high sugar tolerance, but learned that he was very intolerant to anything else...for example, alcohol. 

    For a case, he had to do undercover at a party, and he had gotten drunk really fast. That had resulted in an almost-murder. Good thing there was this one crazy girl who had followed him and saved him. 

    He had this vague memory of another crazy, clingy girl, but he couldn't remember her face or her name. 

    L broke off a piece of the pancake with his fingers and popped it into his mouth, using his chewing to think harder about the girl he wanted to remember so goddamn badly. 

    Watari knew L's deep-thinking face and asked, "What now?" 

    "This...girl...I forgot her name...but its important." L said with his mouth full, raising a syrup-covered finger in the air. 

    Watari raised an eyebrow. 

    "Not like that. She was part of some past case." 

    "No, I'm surprised you don't remember. You tend to remember faces easily." 

    L squeezed his eyes shut, swallowing the piece of food he had in his mouth. He knew she was blond...but that was it. For some reason, blond hair was easier to remember because of the way it stood out. 

    He eventually gave up, knowing that the memory would come to him at some random time a few days later. He proceeded to finish the rest of that pancake.

     L was soon forced by Watari to explore the city, and he got pushed out of the house...and he didn't have a key.