Chapter Text
With the word of his sexuality making the rounds and the knowledge that his “police officer father” had just died Sudou, being the douche that he is, had elected Light Yagami (or as he had taken to calling him the “homo orphan nerd”) as a prime new target. So Light was glad to see Fujiwara-sensei was already present when he made his escape into the chem. lab thus depriving Sudou and his pal’s a chance to try something on him. Though part of him was almost disappointed—his Capoeira lessons with L had been coming along smoothly and he would’ve liked to have the opportunity to show them that he was not to be crossed but then his more rational side immediately scolded himself—he sincerely doubted he would have been able to take on all five of them at once, especially while he was still recovering from the effects of his confinement.
Light sat at his usual desk by the window that gave him a strategic view of the entire room and then took to idly twirling his pen until the bell rang and the rest of the students came pouring in. Sudou and his buddies sneered at him and occasionally threw wads of paper in his general direction but wouldn’t risk doing anything worse—not with the teacher watching them like a hawk.
Light suppressed a sigh and mentally prepared himself for yet another boring lesson. Though, the teen genius mused to himself, he should try to put things in perspective—Light supposed that school was slightly less torturous than being chained to a chair. Well, no—at least then he’d had L to talk to… Now he had to play the stifling role of a “good kid”—just sit down, shut up, and pay attention.
In the time since his confinement the detective had spoiled him terribly and not even in the ways that he obviously intended to—even though L kept shoving his sweets at him Light would never be a sweet tooth like L. That just wasn’t the way he was wired. He’d accept fruits well enough—it was even kind of… cute when L offered him cherries or strawberries. Sometimes, out of politeness, he would take the hard wrapped candies and pocket them. But he’d often had to decline the multitude of cookies, cakes, cupcakes, scones, doughnuts, and whatever else that the detective kept pushing under his nose. He couldn’t eat everything L gave him—Light was sure that if he ate as much as L did then he’d end up as fat as a sumo wrestler. The teen wasn’t sure why L kept pushing his sweets on him—if it was out of guilt, some twisted amusement, or if it was just the detective’s way of expressing himself. Or maybe the detective just liked to see him flustered when he wasn’t quite sure how to respond. Or, probably, it was some mix of the above. In any case, Light knew that L would never succeed at spoiling him with his candy though certainly not for lack of trying.
No, L spoiled him with his intelligent conversation and total disregard for social conventions. Light didn’t think he could survive now in a world without L in it nor would he particularly want to. He could just… be himself around L and that was truly a scary prospect. As the detective began to slowly chip away at his façade Light was beginning to realize that he’d spent so long playing the part of the perfect son that now he wasn’t even sure who he knew who he was or who he wanted to be. He knew who he didn’t want to be—Kira. Light supposed that was a start.
Yeah, that’s really setting the bar high—not wanting to be a mass murderer.
He scoffed to himself before refocusing his attention on the blackboard and making an effort to pay attention to class. With Rem silently leaning over his shoulder, Light watched and listened to his chemistry lesson impassively, trying not to let his annoyance be known as Fujiwara-sensei insisted on yet again warning them all on the dangers of handling chemicals unprotected. After hearing it so many times it almost as if he was watching looping footage; it was just as repetitive and while the repetition was amusing at first it got boring real quick. Yet, despite his obvious boredom, Light got the feeling he was still the only one paying attention… again. Case in point would be the gossiping girls sitting in front of him and that one kid in the back of the room that was obviously playing Pokémon. Well Rem appeared to be watching the proceedings with clear fascination but it’s not like she was going to get credit for taking the class.
The Shinigami-possessed teenager suppressed yet another sigh and leaned over his desk, his cheek resting harshly against the heel of his hand as he stared bitterly at the blackboard through the cage of his fingers and wondered if it was even worth it to keep trying seeing as he already knew about today’s lesson. Then he reflected that one of the upsides of being one of the few who actually paid attention in chemistry class was that he had learned how to make pyrotechnic devices so he supposed it might just be worth it after all—the teacher wasn’t nearly as cautious about obscuring certain “forbidden knowledge” than he thought.
“Now it’s come to my attention that there have been certain… shenanigans involving my lab…”
Fujiwara began what sounded like the start of yet another lengthy lecture on safety that would go over most of the hooligan’s heads. The teen squirmed in his seat before settling in for the long-haul.
“Shenanigans? Really?” came the great detective L’s ever-helpful commentary over the comm.
“Quiet, you,” Light hissed, barely audible, into his shirt collar.
“Yagami, do you have anything to add for the class?”
“No, sir—I was just informing Sudou over there that he should really pay attention,” Light said while smiling serenely.
“Huh?” queried the jock upon hearing the sound of his name.
“Very Good. Everyone should follow Yagami’s example.”
“Suck up, ” snarled one of Sudou’s pals and everyone within their immediate vicinity snickered at Light’s expense but out of long practice Light didn’t pay it any mind.
“Quite the charmer, aren’t you Light?” L observed. “Nice work deflecting suspicion off of you.”
Light gave a small, self-satisfied smirk at the praise.
“You’d make an excellent con artist,” suggested the detective and Light’s smirk turned into a scowl. He suddenly wished that his boyfriend was within hitting range.
“…This is most unacceptable!” the teacher declared from the front of the classroom before picking up a jar of some unknown substance.
Rem’s gasping behind him alerted Light to the exact moment when Fujiwara’s finger slipped into the unknown fluid he was holding as he kept on talking.
“Uh, Fujiwara-sensei…” Light began tentatively but was completely ignored.
“…this will not be tolerated!” Fujiwara snapped while slamming his hand onto the counter for emphasis.
The classroom gave a collective screech of horror when the professor’s finger shattered off and broke into a million pieces.
“Impressive,” L said over the wire in his usual apathetic tone as Light stared on at the carnage in shock. Not that the rest of the class was doing much better—in fact, Light was pretty sure that one of Sudou’s buddies had just fainted behind him.
“Don’t you see, Light-kun? He staged the whole thing,” observed the detective, completely spoiling the surprise when the professor threw the mangled remains of the fake plastic hand onto the counter top and Light quickly noted that it was filled with theatrical blood.
“Yes, the shock value of the demonstration got the class’s attention far better than anything he could ever say. I approve,” again came L’s voice in his ear. It sounded like he was chewing something. Light frowned; though he supposed he should be used to L’s masticating by now.
Light wasn’t at all surprised that L could obviously see the proceedings. It wouldn’t surprise him if L had plastered his school with surveillance cameras. Hell, it wouldn’t surprise him if the voyeuristic detective had replaced the buttons on his school uniform with mini-cameras. For a moment Light wondered which one it was but then realized that, knowing L, it was probably all of them.
“Now that I’ve got your attention…”
Light just rolled his eyes—Fujiwara-sensei was quite a character. He imagined he’d get along quite well with Ryuuzaki if they ever met in person.
Then again, maybe not. If you put them both in the same room they’ll probably try to out “ego” each other, the teen scoffed.
That’s when Light realized that that was pretty much described his and Ryuuzaki’s relationship and so had to spend the next five minutes trying to flush away the brain-scarring mental images of his boyfriend coming onto his chemistry teacher.
“…And that, class, is why you never stick your hand into an unknown substance and why you never, ever enter this lab unprotected!”
The now alert students cringed as the teacher shoved the beaker that the fake hand had been dipped in forward so that it sat quite prominently in the middle of the table.
“This is liquid nitrogen. Some of you may be familiar with it from the Terminator film series. Anyone? No Terminator fans? Oh well. As you can see…” here he held up the shattered remains of the fake hand with a pair of tongs, “this is why you don’t play with it. Understand?”
A collective shudder ran across the classroom.
“Good. Now I’d also like to remind everyone to be sure to wear your safety goggles….”
“Goggles are for pussies!” scoffed one of the delinquents from the back of the classroom.
“Pussies like Imagay!” Sudou sneered in agreement.
Light didn’t dignify that with a response.
Naturally, the news that Yagami-san had a boyfriend had spread across the campus like wildfire and thus his esteemed peers had created a new nickname for him that had quickly became popular among idiots who thought they were clever.
“Sudou, this is your final warning. I will not tolerate bullying in my classroom or such blatant disregard for proper safety procedures.” Fujiwara said sternly.
“Yeah, whatever.” The jock scoffed and slouched back in his chair, arms folded across his varsity jacket.
“Now, for the benefit of those who still don’t get how serious this is imagine this egg is one of your eyeballs—this is what will happen to it if you don’t wear your safety goggles,” Fujiwara said while spontaneously dropping said egg into a vat of sulfuric acid.
***
“Light, remember to wear your goggles!”
Light felt his left eyebrow begin to twitch as Rem nagged him for the third time in the last five minutes.
***
After a period of torture (and he would know) the bell finally announced the end of chem. class, his last class of the day. Light silently congratulating himself for surviving the entire day back without any major issues…
But of course that would be too easy.
Just as he was getting up to leave Sudou “accidentally” bumped into him from behind, spilling the contents of Light’s messenger bag spilled all over the floor and, naturally, this all occurred after the teacher was preoccupied with cleanup so Sudou would escape justice once again. The teen genius scurried to get his things back together, attempting to salvage what was left of his papers before they got too trampled on by the uncaring feet of his classmates. He’d just about got his stuff back together when he heard the door slam shut with an air of finality.
The click of the lock signally that he’d accidentally been locked in.
Light began to sweat a bit as he glanced around the emptied classroom and observed all the chemicals and equipment that had been improperly stored. After that long lecture about safety procedures it just didn’t make sense that Fujiwara would leave such a mess lying about.
He felt his stomach drop at the realization. Unless he’s being controlled …
Light startled at the sound of footsteps. At first he’d thought he was alone in the room but now this was obviously not the case.
“Who’s there?!”
Light sincerely hoped it was just Sudou or one of his pals playing a prank and that he’d been wrong in his conclusion…
That was when an all-too familiar figure stepped out of the shadows near the door.
“You?!”
The light reflected off his lenses menacingly when Yamamoto readjusted his glasses.