The Puppeteer

Cotton Candy

28th May 2007:

"You're finally here, Miss Ikari," L mumbled, stirring the nine cubes of sugar he had added into his tea while staring at the various plastic pouches placed on the coffee table in front of him.

"Ryuzaki.." Kiyo started, her voice tired, but was immediately cut off by L.

"In fact," He said, "I was wondering when you would finally find some time that did not include being spent with Light Yagami. I suppose you have finally found it?"

"L, you know I have to handle University as well. You don't need to study and pass and worry about your attendance, but I do," She exasperatedly said before pulling a chair and sitting right in front of him, "Is it wrong for me to take help from the only genius in our school?"

That made L pause in his actions as he looked up to meet her eyes, "Perhaps you are forgetting that I am also a student at To-Oh. If you did need help, you could have come to me."

Maybe L was upset, so what? Could he not act upon his emotions? Did he not have the right to be mad at the girl that hadn't even so much as said a word to him in almost two weeks? Was he not allowed to hold grudges? Was he not allowed to be petty?

"Oh, are you now?" Kiyo asked, sarcasm dripping from her words as she leaned back into her seat and folded her arms over her chest, "If you are a student, then tell me, Ryuga, when exactly was the last time you attended a lecture? Do you even know the name of a single chapter we have done in any subject?"

That, obviously, our dear detective had no answer to.

Okay maybe he didn't know what was going on at To-Oh, maybe he didn't know the name of a single chapter, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't have been able to help her if she had just come to him in the first place. He was a fucking genius for god sake! He could have learned and explained the whole topic to her within an hour!

But Kiyo chose to go to Light fucking Yagami who, mind you, was possibly a mass murderer.

L didn't say anything as he continued to stare at the coffee table, still stirring the already dissolved sugar in his tea. He could see the guilty expression on Kiyo's face, but he chose to ignore it, much like she had been ignoring him. Yeah, that's right. That's what he was going to do. He was going to ignore her till she begged for forgiveness. He didn't care if she called him mean and grudging, he was going to treat her just how she treated hi-

"Okay look, come with me to Uni today? We'll spend the whole day together and we'll have a lot of fun. I'll even buy you all the cakes and chocolates and sweets that you want, I promise!"

And L just couldn't hold back the childishly happy smile that forced itself onto his face.

-----------------------------------

L had positively never had so much 'fun' in his life. Possibly because the concept of 'fun' was somewhat foreign to him, but he mostly gave the credit to Kiyo. How could he not, after everything she had done for him that day?

True to her promise, Kiyo spent every single minute until then with L, buying him every single sweet treat he asked for without question, and now, at noon they were both sitting on a bench in To-Oh, munching on a humongous rainbow cotton candy. The cotton candy was big enough to almost completely hide L when he sat in his usual crouching position with his knees to his chest, and it made him let out unprecedented bursts of excited giggles that not only surprised but also amused the girl sitting next to him.

"Ryuga," Kiyo suddenly said, pinching out a piece of the candy and stuffing it in her mouth before L could slap it out of her hand and eat it himself - like he had done almost ten times by now. He scowled at her slightly before turning back to the fluffy cloud of sweet in his hands and humming in question.