Another Life | Lawlight

Chapter 18

"Throughout my entire life, I've always been different. My eye colour, my intelligence, and my childhood, but what's I've kept a secret is that I've always been able to see people's names and lifespans. It's how I chose my victims; I saw they were at the end of their lifespans. I knew my attack would be successful and my victim would die. I didn't make any deal with a Shinigami to get these eyes and I don't know why I was born with them because both Kira and I know that L doesn't have them" Beyond explained trying to ignore the blank looks he was getting from the rest of the task force.

"You expect us to believe that," Aizawa said.

"I honestly don't care if you don't believe me, Kira does, and that all that matters to me. Amane suggested that the reason she thought I was Merikh is that she couldn't see my lifespan and that someone who owns this death note, you can't see their lifespan. The thing is, I've never been able to see my lifespan, I can see Kira's, my brothers, and everyone in this room but I can't see my own. And that's the same with Amane when she first approached me, I can't see her lifespan" Beyond added.

"So that could mean if we could find the first Merikh by using B's eyes because he couldn't have a lifespan" Matsuda cheered.

"That's right Matsuda but we're only using B's eyes to confirm Merikh's identity," Light said, "There are too many people living in the Kanto Regin for B to just sit at a computer and look at pictures all day until we find them. We need to narrow down the list and then I will let my best friend look at the pictures and only then".

After Beyond's secret had been revealed, and his best friend went to hide in his room. Light decided that he should probably avoid pissing off the rest of the task force, so he too took a laptop and went to work in his own room. It was definitely more peaceful, and he didn't have to worry about his father nit-picking at everything he did. Honestly, sometimes Light felt like blurting out his true identity to his father just so the rest of the police task force members who seem to hold Chief Yagami in such high regard, what they would think about him because of how he is treating his own son.

So, the next best thing was to hide away and force them to endure L's unique personality along with the extremely long hours L worked and the fact the L probably wouldn't let them sleep until five am if they were lucky. Light suffered that through part of his childhood now they could experience that during the Merikh case.

Light had little he could really do, Merikh was still killing criminals on the hour with a larger quantity of criminals dying in the evening, sometimes after five other days after eight or even later. So, however, Merikh was he worked odd hours unless and Light was only speculating here, there might be two Merikh or well two people being the first Merikh. It would explain the odd hours. So, instead Light looked at the news to see what new criminals were being broadcasted and how long it took until the criminal's names appeared on the news for when they died which was when noticed Light noticed that another business executive had died in an accident. This was odd because Light was sure that this was the third business owner to die this week and all of them had died by accidents, one was hit by a car, another slipped on his balcony at home and fell to his death whilst this third one had a loose slab fall on his head?

Now that he thought about it, he remembered Roger mentioning that business people had been dying around the time Merikh started to be recognised, but because Merikh used heart attacks and seemed to only be killing criminals, the NPA and other police agencies had dismissed them. Unless, Merikh had an ulterior motive all this time and in fact, he's been going after high-up businesspeople and used criminals to hide this or if Light's theory was correct and there were two people behind the first Merikh, then one half was killing criminals whilst the other went after businessmen. If that was true, then Merikh could be twice as hard to find.

Light pushed his laptop to the side and flopped back on his bed, barely paying attention to when the bedroom door opened. He knew he it was, only one person would dare come in here and that was L.

"What Beyond was saying about his eyes... was my brother being honest," L asked. It had been on his mind ever since. He had never suspected that there was something different with his brother. Yes, Beyond acted like he was unhinged, but L wasn't perfect either. Yes, his red eyes always creeped people out, but everyone just slowly got used to them after a while. But to think all this time Beyond had these eyes.

Light nodded, "Beyond told A before they started dating and then I found out after Mr. Johnson died. He didn't tell you because I think he was scared with how you would react".

"Yet he felt comfortable telling you," L said, "I don't mean to sound rude Light but after everything we've been through together, it hurts a little to know he still kept something as big as this from me".

"I only found out because I pressured him to tell me" Light explained, "And I don't think he didn't want to tell you, at first I think he just wasn't sure how he could after not saying anything for all these years and then A took his own life because of B's eyes and B became scared that if he told anyone else that they would end up like A. L you can't blame him for not telling you. You're his brother and as much as he would hate to admit it Beyond loves you and it would kill him if you died because of his eyes".

"I... I understand... I guess I didn't consider my own personal worth and effect on Beyond's mental state" L said sitting down beside Light and wrapping his arm around his husband pulling him close.

"And that's fine," Light said snuggling closer to his husband, "You're allowed to make mistakes L, you're human no matter how the people downstairs see you as a computer or a robot. You have needs and feelings too, just like Beyond".

"I guess you're right," L said, "Thank you for being there for Beyond when I wasn't".

Light smiled, leaning up to kiss his husband's cheek before saying, "You're welcome, after all, who else am I meant to complain to when you annoy me!".