HARRY POTTER
SLEEPING MEMORIES [gen]
Harry likes to sit in his pajamas on the window ledge with one leg propping him up toward the moonlight. It makes him think of things he'd rather forget, like times not so very long ago. But he sits and watches the stars twinkle like Dumbledore's eyes and remembers, because he knows he must. The stone is cold and little bursts of cold seep through the cracks in the windowsill, making his breath puff at odd intervals, syncopated with the angry howl of the wind tearing through the same night sky. Harry thinks of people long gone, and not so long gone, and remembers them. And as the sky begins to brighten with the faraway cast of dawn, he remembers other things, like the people he's come to love. It is not as helpful as sleep might have been, but it is, at least, not as futile.
DISTRACTION [Snape/Lily/James]
Severus Snape conjured up a line of chocolate birds to fly at Lily Evans's head. They flew off and twittered and chirped around her head. He was pleased to see that one flew in her ear while several got caught in her hair. She was sitting next to James Potter, happy as could be, and Severus was stuck back here with some boy with a giant wart on his chin that had 19 hairs growing from it. Severus had counted in disgust, one day. There was, after all, more than a bit of free time for aimless watching of things in Potions class. However, Severus would not have counted that bloke's wart hairs if James Potter hadn't been in the infirmary after the previous day's Quidditch match. Still watching James, Severus smirked in an uncharacteristic show of glee as Lily tried to swat away one of the chocolate birds and smashed it against James' face. Perhaps now the other boy would finally turn his attention toward *him*. Unfortunately, though, James appeared he be enjoying the chocolate. Severus scowled. "But I brewed that myelf!"
Hairy-chin-wart asked, "What did you say?"
Severus scowled. "Oh, skin your shrivelfig."
FOR THE VEILED ONE [Harry Potter, Harry/Draco]
Trelawney moved through the classroom, collecting the apple pips that everyone had removed and cleaned. "It is time for Samhain and the Eye is watching closely." She drew near a fire that was roaring bright in the center of the room. "Apples are very important to the Veiled One. These seeds we will name to bear witness to love. I will drop these on the fire. A girl will come up and if any of these boys is to be for her, his pip will pop upon her word."
She dropped the seeds on the fire, naming them for the boys in Hogwarts 5th and 6th years and began to motion for a girl in the back to come forth. Before the girl could take a single step, two of the seeds exploded in the fire. Trelawney cast her gaze on them warily. Pips had to dry first... but this was... "Obsession." She looked around the classroom. "Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy have become inexorably linked by this. They will be good for no woman now."
There was a low groan from a handful of girls in the room. Elsewhere in the castle, Harry was not thinking of Quidditch, but of a boy who made him wary and passionate. Draco was sitting in a cupboard in the Room of Requirement, his wand in hand, wondering if Harry would be able to stop him. He heard a crash outside the room and gripped his wand again. Harry's voice echoed through to him and he stayed still, in the cupboard, wondering if the stories of Harry doing much the same for years of his life were true.
SLAM DUNK
THE KINGDOM OF THE COURT [RuHana]
Sakuragi isn't certain when Rukawa's fangirls stopped annoying him. It might have been when they stopped coming as often, or when Haruko could still talk to him when Rukawa walked by, or maybe when Rukawa slammed him against the side of the lockers and pressed his lips hungrily against Sakuragi's. It might have been the next day when he saw Rukawa with a bruise still lingering on his cheek, though Sakuragi wasn't sure if it had been from the previous day, or the makeout session they'd had on the roof in the morning. Either way, Sakuragi was still a genius.
SWIMMER'S BUILD [RuHana]
Hanamichi stretched his arms out before positioning himself on the diving board. The whole gang had come to the pool for the day. But Haruko-san had fallen ill from the sun and heat and was now all covered up and sitting in the shade. As Hanamichi was about to take a dive in, Rukawa came up to the board next to him. While Hanamichi had worn board shorts, Rukawa was wearing a Speedo. Hanamichi glared at Rukawa and prepared his shoulders. Rukawa tucked his hair under a swimcap and got into position. With the sun glinting off of his body, Hanamichi couldn't help but admire the way Rukawa looked as he readied himself to dive in the water. His shoulders were broad and his waist slim. His body was relatively hairless and he was firmly muscled. As Rukawa jumped into the water, doing a few twists and turns and going into the water with almost no splash, Hanamichi stretched his neck and jumped once himself and fell into the water with his knees pulled up against his chest for a textbook-perfect cannonball.
STAUNCHING THE BLOOD FLOW [Mitsui/Hanamichi]
"Hana-chan?" Mitsui nudged Hanamichi with his toe. "Are you okay."
With only a second of hesitation, Hanamichi jumped to his feet and laughed loudly as he stood in his 'tensai' pose. "Of course I am okay! I meant to do that! A genius is as a genius does."
Mitsui walked over to the bleachers and grabbed a handkerchief out of his duffel bag and walked back over to Hanamichi. He folded up the handkerchief and pressed it against the cut on Hanamichi's forehead. "At least stop the bleeding so that no one slips in it. Falling on the court because of sweat is bad enough."
Hanamichi was quiet for quite a while as he held Mitsui's handkerchief against his head and watched the boy play.
KYOU KARA MAOU
CHANGE IN THE COUCH CUSHIONS [Yuuri/Wolfram]
Yuuri yawned and shifted on the loveseat he was sharing with Wolfram as they discussed business with Gunter, Gwendal, and Conrad. He heard a jingling sound and shouted as he felt all of the change in his pocket slide out. He immediately stood up and, ignoring Gunter's concerned statements, began pawing the gap between the cushion and the backrest. Wolfram glared at him, stood up next to him, nudged him over, and picked up the cushion to show all of the various denominations of yen that had fallen from Yuuri's pocket, including his lucky 100 yen coin. Without a word, Yuuri picked them up, put them back into his pocket, and grinned sheepishly. Wolfram put the cushion back in place, flounced down upon his own seat and patted the cushion beside him. Yuuri grinned and took his rightful place as king.
IN A DIFFERENT REALITY [Murata/Yuuri]
Yuuri walked out of the bathroom with his face and shoulders wet and smelling stagnant. Murata was there with the cops who promptly grabbed the guys who had held him down. Yuuri sighed and sat down on the sidewalk, wondering why he hadn't thought to go get the police when he saw Murata being bullied. But, there was just something about Murata that made him want to dash in and be the hero. He felt the need for justice and wasn't sure why as he didn't feel it was in his character to care. When his face was being flushed, he'd had a very strange and long hallucination which he hadn't quite come to terms with yet and he wondered whether it had anything to do with the fact that saving Murata from the same fate had given him a rush he thought he might be able to get used to.
CARDCAPTOR SAKURA
SWEETNESS [Suppi and Kero gen]
"Suppi! Nooooo!!!!" Kero flung himself between the other plush creature and the plate he had been heading toward. "You do not want to eat that."
"But it's not sweet, is it?" Suppi reached around Kero and touched the food on the plate then stuck his finger into his mouth. "Hey, that tastes pretty good! Let me-"
Kero turned around and whacked Suppi with one of his wings and grabbed the single ball of takoyaki that was left on the plate and shoved it, whole, into his mouth. He chewed, and chewed, and chewed some more until Suppi eventually kicked him and walked away.
When he was finally able to swallow, Kero sat down and rubbed his shin. "I should know better than to eat cold takoyaki. The octopus gets rubbery." He slumped back against the table and decided that next time, Suppi could have it.
QUESTIONS [Nakuru/Touya]
"Touya?" Nakuru put on her cutest smile and clutched her bag behind her back. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Aren't you already?" Touya finished putting up his notes and looked around for Yukito, forgetting for a moment that the boy had been absent that day... something that no longer really concerned him because he'd see him soon enough. "Oh, alright. Ask."
"Could I... walk to school with you tomorrow?" Nakuru's eyes opened wide as she asked, grinding the toe of her shoe against the ground.
"Sorry. I already walk to school with someone."
"Ah. Yukito?"
Touya smiled brightly and Nakuru felt it warm her. "No. My sister."
SHOUJO KAKUMEI UTENA
THIS MAN'S WORLD [Saionji/Utena]
As Saionji accepted his meal from Wakaba, he thought of her friend, Utena. Utena wouldn't be the type to make him dinner and welcome him in, let alone forgive him. She would have put the Sword of Dios to his throat and possibly nicked it just enough to make him talk and explain. Wakaba was just happy to have him. She didn't know a lot of things and didn't care about even more, and Saionji was happier for it. The time he spent with her let him remember what it felt like before the letters from the End of the World started arriving. It let him remember humanity and dignity and reminded him why he shed them before. They didn't agree with him, and he certainly didn't agree with them. His life was his own, but he'd use it to find the castle. He'd use Anthy and make his way to eternity and cast everything else aside. Then, he'd be happy because there would be no one else to disappoint since he'd grown used to it in himself.
DISTRACTION [Utena/Juri]
From the first time they met, there was a pull there. Two girls who held their heads high, searching for the end of a foreordained destiny, came together in a single contest that masqueraded as something between love, ownership, and outright battle. Utena was quick to push against the gravity between them, the feeling that they could be something together, more than they were when apart. Juri was distracted, though, by something else from another time. Utena wondered if that was what held her back, and whether she could be the person to become the new distraction, only to realize that she wasn't sure she'd mind being more.
DEATH NOTE
FLUFFY
Raito looked up from his copy of "Break No Bones", the latest of Kathy Reichs' thrilling forensic anthropology mysteries, and swore to himself that he did *not* see L dipping his fingers into a box of sugar cubes. He looked back at the book and read exactly one word, "the", before looking back up and watching L place the sugar cube into his mouth. He let it sit on his tongue, dissolving and melting in the warmth, and then seemed to swallow it all at once. His Adam's apple bobbed with the effort and Raito watched the contractions of the other man's throat before vowing to brush his teeth at least twice after the next time he kissed L.
ANGSTY
L lay in the darkness of his bedroom with his knees pulled up to his chin. This whole affair was getting dangerous. If Raito *was* Kira, then he was sleeping with Kira. And if he made him mad? Then he was going to be even more of a target than he already was. And if Raito wasn't Kira? Then Raito could be in even more danger, especially since his name was even easier to find out. Life was dangerous, though. Always. It didn't matter if you were trying to live it honestly or not; you were just as likely to die. L knew he would die, and knew it would come sooner than he'd be comfortable with, really, but as long as he didn't regret his life until then, did it matter? He pulled out his emergency stash of jellybeans from the bedside table and began shoving them into his mouth. He'd always had a fondness for sweets. And if he was going to die, he was damn well going to die happy.
OTHER & CROSSOVERS
KYU-TO, KAWAII, MABUI, KAREN [*Koi Cha no Osahou*, femmeslash]
Hasune Kotoko loved cute things. No one would know it from looking at her, though. At her all-girl's school, she was a prince of sorts, and everyone looked up to her. But her Inner Self kicked up her heels and acted like a four-year old whenever she saw anything cute. It had, fortunately, not been a big problem in her life until karate one day. Her opponent stood there, a glare on her face, and bounced on the balls of her feet ever so slightly. That girl was just so... cute! Kotoko nearly couldn't take it. She told the girl as much, not realizing until afterward that she hadn't even delivered the information with a smile. It ran in her family to be a bit unable to do such things as express emotion with her facial features. The time would come when it could all be explained, but until then, Kotoko would have to suffice with pinning that cute thing to the ground, even if that wasn't what one normally did in martial arts. If anyone found it strange, she'd blame it all on her brother.
PRINCE [*Eyeshield 21*, SakuShin]
Sakuraba watched Shin practice whenever he could. He followed him around on the field because wherever Shin was had to be where he was needed. It wasn't the way he looked without his shirt on, or how well he was hung, even after a shower. It wasn't his speed and strength and endurance. Then again, it was perhaps all of those things that made Sakuraba's pants a bit tighter when he posed for pictures in his football gear. But Shin was out of his reach. He wasn't fast enough to catch the prince, and so he played the role himself.
CONCENTRATION [*Naruto*, NaruSasu]
Naruto hated Sasuke from day one. Sasuke was too sure of himself, especially for as often as he failed. He just didn't know what Sakura saw in him. But whatever it was, it was something that Naruto didn't have. He wanted to think that she just had bad taste in men, but there were times when he saw Sasuke concentrating on something particularly hard for a moment. There was something there that he wasn't seeing, and he knew it. So he had a plan. Like a good ninja, he would continue to watch, and wait until he saw an opening.
CARING [*Shaman King*, Manta/Yoh]
Manta, having been with Yoh for a while, was still not sure why he stuck around. He had been cut open and left behind and forced to cook and clean. He was subjected to the kinds of things he's always run from and the people he'd always disliked, and for what? So he could cheer on a boy who didn't seem to care about much of anything? But Manta would do it. He would follow Yoh whenever and wherever he could and do those small inconvenient things because even if this life was sometimes hell, it was certainly never boring.
SHOWER [*Initial D*, Ryousuke/Takumi]
Ryousuke could hear the water running in the bathroom. But he was trying to ignore it. Takumi was in the shower, and all because they'd been racing in the rain that night. Takumi, of course, didn't know any better than to stand under some cover while watching Keisuke race. By the time he had gotten back in his car, he was shivering and soaked through and sneezing little cat-like sneezes. Ryousuke had allowed him to follow him home because his house was quite a bit closer. The boy needed a hot shower and warm, dry clothes, and the sooner the better if he wanted to stave off illness. So he was now wrapped in the spray of hot water in Ryousuke's shower at 2:30 in the morning. The water was dripping down in tantalizing rivulets, tracing every curve and plane before going down the drain.
Ryousuke paused and tried to calm his thoughts. It was just Takumi, and just a shower. But when Takumi came out of the bathroom only wrapped in a hand towel with Ryousuke's initials on it (holding it closed on the side), with wet hair and little beads of water still clinging to his skin, Ryousuke remembered that his towels had a funny smell to them earlier that day and he'd sent them all to be washed. He was suddenly very glad to sometimes have a bad memory. The consequences were more than he could ever have planned for... especially when the towel slipped from Takumi's fingers.
ICE [*Gundam Wing*, Heero/Trowa]
Heero poured another cup of water over his head, wiped his hands and face, and continued typing. All of the fans were currently pointed at his computer and while he could probably spare one for himself, he couldn't be certain, and wouldn't chance it until this missing report was finished.
He heard the door open and glanced up. His fingers paused over the keyboard and he was suddenly hyperaware of every drop of water on his skin. Trowa had a cup of ice cubes in his hand... ice cubes that he was pulling from the cup and running across his face and down his bare chest and up his neck and across one quickly-hardening nipple. Heero glanced back at the computer screen, grabbed one of the fans, and turned it to face him. Mission report be damned; if there wasn't anyone to write it, it wouldn't get written anyway.
SUICIDE NOTE [*Full Moon wo Sagashite*, Izumi-centric]
Izumi knew that there were faster ways to kill ones self than to jump off tall buildings. It took awfully long to fall to the ground. But it was the best option for what he wanted... to defile his own body as much as possible with something simple. Hitting the ground face first in one's underwear had that effect.
Three days later, the service was held. Izumi's girlfriend cried no tears and held the hand of the man next to her to the disgust of several people in the room. His agent was there as well, her face red and sopping wet. The woman with her held her up by the shoulders. "It isn't your fault, Makoto. He needed to be told."
There was no inquiry into the death. It was suicide, plain and simple, and no one questioned it... not after that headline in the paper: "IZUMI, FAMOUS UNDERWEAR MODEL, FIRED: CAN NOT FILL PACKAGE OF NEW PRODUCT".
OBSERVATIONS [*Hikaru no Go/Prince of Tennis*, Akira/Hikaru, Inui/Kaidoh]
"Probability of tengen, 81%." Tengen it was.
"Probability of boshi, 94%." Boshi.
"Probability of aji, 79%." Fukure.
"Shindou! What was that? Aji. Aji!"
"You would have just used an ajikeshi and I couldn't have opened this section. See?!"
"But you've cut off any chance for a kaketsugi in the next ten hands!"
"Probability of frequent sexual relations between one Shindou Hikaru and one Touya Akira, 100%."
They at least had the decency to pause to blush as they watched Inui leave. He'd been gathering data to work on his computer program for go. Whoever managed it would be set for life. But, for him, it would just be a start toward a successful life as an evil genius with Kaidoh as his not-quite-so-evil henchman. But, he couldn't get any information about go from a lover's spat, just like he couldn't get any sex from Kaidoh when he started talking about go... or, really, evil.
PUFF [*Tsubasa Chronicle*, Kurogane and Mokona gen]
Fai and Li were speaking in low voices on the other side of the table, Li looking up at Sakura every now and again. Kurogane, forced to sit next to the manjuu bun, scowled at Fai and his stupid smiling and Li and his... not getting called by stupid nicknames.
Mokona jumped onto the table in front of Kurogane, attempting to get his attention. Kurogane, however, had stopped paying attention to much of anything. He was just sticking food in his mouth and chewing, sometimes even stopping to swallow.
"Kurorin! Kurorin!" Mokona hopped higher and suddenly made a very loud noise which broke Kurogane from his distraction. "Mokona is not food."
Kurogane spit out Mokona's ear and put him back on the table. "You look like it. But, you look like dessert. Hey! Don't eat..." He scowled as Mokona swallowed his fruit tart and sent it to the Time Witch. "Just for that, you are dessert!"
Fai smiled even more when he saw Kurogane chasing Mokona around the table with a fork in one hand and an empty plate in the other.
RHYTHM [*BECK*, Koyuki/Saku]
Koyuki watched Saku's eyes open slightly in the middle of a particularly rabid percussive fit. The rhythm pumped through the veins Koyuki saw standing out from Saku's forearms and he watched the firm but loose grip that Saku kept on his sticks and it suddenly occurred to him that Saku had never given him anywhere near as much trouble as Maho had, or even Ryuusuke. He turned his mind back to his guitar and the new kind of strings he'd fitted it with the night before, delighting in the feel of the cool metal under his fingertips.
RUNNING [*Spirited Away*, Haku/Sen]
Sen put her foot down when it came to Haku meeting her parents once she found them. "They'll think I'm going to marry you or something." she said as she watched her own toes wiggle in the loose soil.
Haku let his hand flow through the air to touch her hand. "Well, aren't you? We're young, but we could wait."
Sen felt her hand turn cool by his touch. "You're a silly, silly boy. But, if by some mistake you mean it, ask me again when you find me when we're older. If you can't find me, you can't keep me."
"Will you run if you see me coming?"
"Only if you're not coming for me."
SCENERY CHANGE [*Harry Potter/Kyou Kara Maou*, Harry/Wolfram, Yuuri/Draco]
Harry looked at Wolfram and couldn't help but reach out and touch his glowing golden hair. "You're... very pretty... much moreso than Draco."
In the meantime, Draco was looked through the closet in an alternate world for something to wear. "You! Yuuri? You're the king, right? What would you like me to wear for you?"
Yuuri blushed. "I don't know. Wolfram always wears *that*." He pointed to a very-sheer sleep shirt that Draco had dismissed as a scarf. Draco grinned wildly and started to change his clothes. "Yes, your highness."
Back with Harry, Wolfram grabbed Harry's hand and looked around. "Where is this? Who are you? Where is my Yuuri? But, more importantly- ooh! I can see myself in your glasses." Wolfram made a pouty face and Harry resisted the urge to fondle the boy, if even momentarily.
"You touched something in your world and Draco touched something in this world, and they're linked, so you switched places, and you really are quite pretty."
Wolfram blushed. "Thank goodness you have dark hair. My type of guy has dark hair and can do magic. Also, he's well-off, and practically a king."
Harry nodded. "I'm your guy, then. I don't know if you had someone else in mind, but he obviously doesn't appreciate you or else he wouldn't have let you go."
In the meantime, Draco adjusted the shoulder of the shirt. "You mean that he slept in bed with you, wearing *this*, and you didn't know he wanted to have sex with you?" Draco stretched out on the pillows. "Poor sod doesn't know what he's missing."
Yuuri was too blissed out to reply.
Elsewhere, Conrad was busily conversing with Minerva McGonagall. "It would be nice to have my little brother back, but as long as they're happy?" A moan echoed on each end of the conversation. "Tell you what, I'm going to go see if the garden needs weeding. I'll just call back later."
Minerva looked up from the furthest fire in the West Wing, knowing that Harry and his guest were bunkered down quite far into the East Wing, and decided that weeding in the garden was the right idea after all.
HARRIET POTTER AND THE CHANGING OF THE ROBES [slight Snape/Harry] [Ranma 1/2 fusion]
Harry looked down at his chest, and then up at Snape who had been the reason he'd fallen into the small spring in which he was currently waist-deep. "I've got tits," he said, his voice marginally higher.
Snape read the sign next to the spring. "Congratulations, Potter. In your clumsiness, and your inability to shield against a simple charm, you've fallen into the Cursed Spring of Drowned Girl here at lovely Jusenkyo. Until you're cured, you'll have to splash yourself with hot water to return yourself to your male form, but will return to your tits whenever you are splashed with cold water. Quite a brilliant curse, really."
"What's the cure?" Harry asked.
"I assume there's a spring of drowned boy as I'm seeing spring of drowned everything else here... oh, look. Over there. The dried-up one. I suppose we'll have to return when the rainy season comes again.
Harry finally stood up, a look of horror on his face. "But, Profesor...we live in England. It's always rainy season there, and... Quidditch! Will I have to switch changing rooms if I get rained on during the game? Or, god, will my tits affect my flying?!"
Snape smirked. "No use thinking of that right now, Potter. I rather recommend that you first consider finding different clothes. That shirt, in particular, is now entirely inappropriate."
Looking down to see the shirt straining against the buttons, and his nipples hard and obvious through the wet shirt, Harry covered his chest. "You could have at least sent me into the spring of cursed lion. Then I could skip out on ever learning to be an Animagus."
PLEATS [*One Piece/Magic Knight Rayearth*, slight ZoSan]
Luffy looked up at the armor he'd just gained. "What?" He nibbled on the arm band. "This meat has gone bad."
Sanji dried doing a few kicks. "It isn't meat. It's armor."
Zoro was too busy trying out his new sword to care. They were attacked by several monsters, all of which Zoro dispatched without really thinking. Suddenly, his armor changed... and he was wearing a knee-length pleated skirt. "Shit, this isn't funny." Zoro looked at his legs that were pale white and hairy. "This Grand Line business is making me sorry I didn't just up and die."
Sanji looked at Zoro's legs, and then back to his own, still clothed in his black pants. "I wish you had, too. By the way, I'm not fighting. I don't think I'd be comfortable kicking in a *skirt*. You manage well in a skirt, Zoro."
Tugging at the short hem of the green garment, Zoro picked up his new sword. "At least I'm man enough to wear a skirt!"
Sanji's own armor changed shortly after he sent Zoro soaring over the bodies of the monsters he'd had to kill into order to get to the other man. The nosebleed he came back with came from the last kick, but whether it was the impact or the sight of Sanji's underwear, no one could be sure.
THE MOMENT OF TRUTH [*Ouran High School Host Club*, Tamaki/Haruhi]
Upon seeing Haruhi without the shield of glasses, Tamaki had been immediately attracted. There was something in the slight build and quietly sarcastic nature of the supposed boy he made his slave that made him want to reverse the positions. When it came to his attention that Haruhi was not a he after all, things changed and there was no longer a stigma associated with admitting his affection, even if Haruhi didn't really *get* it. Tamaki stopped sometimes afterward to wonder whether he would have done all the same things (perhaps without the dresses) had Haruhi actually been a boy.
INTERNAL OBSERVATION RECORD [*Off*beat*, Tory/Colin, Paul/Tory's Mom's Cooking]
April 7th, 12:37:15. Colin raised an eyebrow in Tory's direction and shrugged his shoulder, apparently to make his backpack more comfortable. He had a tiny stain on the hem of his shirt.
April 7th, 2:47:12. Tory left class early with the excuse of an overdue library book. He stood waiting outside of Colin's classroom with said book open in front of him. Colin glanced at it when he opened the door, nodded at Tory, and walked away slowly while leaving Tory to run after him and once again forget to actually turn the book in.
April 7th, 5:33:47. There are leftovers for dinner, but Tory manages to give them to Paul in exchange for a candy bar and use of his digital camera. Tory leaves Paul to eat and walks next door.
April 7th, 5:45:29. Tory is just about to get up the courage to knock on Colin's door when it opens. Tory stammers something of a hello and hands over the chocolate bar. When the look of surprise shows on his face, Tory snaps a picture to add to his collection. When Colin smiles slightly in response, Tory feels his finger twitch against the button again. When Colin invites Tory in, he nearly drops the camera.
April 7th, 6:55:04. Tory downloads the pictures from Paul's camera onto his computer and licks a streak of chocolate off of his bottom lip, happy to have made progress at last, even if it had nothing to do with Gaia.
SCAPEGOAT [*Death Note/Gundam Wing*]
"This is the guy," Raito said, pointing at the picture amid the reams of paper on the desktop.
Chief Yagami slowly tapped a few keys to input information onto the computer they were using to organize their investigation. "You think he's Kira?"
"He's there with the criminals, although the police have been unable to pin him to any crime. He fits the profile of Kira that we constructed, although he's slightly lower class than our average estimate. He wears a long braid in his hair, indication some vanity and has been heard saying that everyone he gets to know has to die. He also refers to himself as a shinigami which matches up with the notes some of the criminals wrote before their deaths. I think we have a lead if not our Kira." Raito tapped the picture again and looked up at L who was carefully mulling over the case and the strawberry off of his cake.
"Duo Maxwell. We've tried to bug him and keep surveillance on him, but we've had no luck so far. His background in the criminal world is pretty well talked-about, even if we can't find proof yet, so it makes sense that he's Kira since Kira has managed to evade us so far as well."
Yagami paused with his hand reaching for the computer's mouse. "Do you want Matsuda and I to try to tail him?"
L shook his head and wiggled his toes where they rested along the edge of the seat. "There's no need. I've already called in someone who should be able to help. His name is Heero. He's never failed a mission yet."
Raito spoke after a moment of silence. "So, this Heero guy is coming in solely to look for Kira? Or, to look for Maxwell?"
"Why do you want to know?" L said, leaning in slightly closer.
"I always want to know if I'm going to get a chance to meet new people." Raito smiled his usual grin and watched as L responded in kind. He wondered briefly whether he or Maxwell was more likely Kira in L's mind now. Raito made a point to keep an eye on Maxwell and kill off more of the criminals surrounding him. Sometimes, L caught on to too much, and a good scapegoat was often hard to find.