Tu n'es pas, tout ce qu'on dit de tois [March 23]

[dead_black_eyes]

Characters: L Lawliet and Kadaj (Appearances by Gamzee!)
Location: Apartment 3-B in Unit 7 in Death City Heights (aka L and Gamzee's apartment)
Rating: PG-13 for probable language
Time: 23rd March
Description: L's assignment is getting trying for both supervisor and supervised. A sprained ankle doesn't make things any easier. Pink kitten cross-stitched samplers are L's way of ensuring that he does not suffer alone.



L did not consider himself a sadistic man, but some people had a way of aggravating and intensifying the trait to the point where he had to acknowledge it in himself. Kadaj was one such individual; since Light's departure, L had itched for someone to dominate, some unfortunate criminal to either condescendingly correct or drive to despair.

Kadaj was no Kira. Blatantly destructive and violent, the young man was broken in ways that even the best state-funded sanatorium wouldn't be able to fix. There was no real mystery to Kadaj from L's critical perspective, but he was emotional, and reactive, and many of the things that the detective had always longed to see if he had managed to grind Light down to such a point. Essentially, whether his supervisors realized it or not, they had given one of Shibusen's human monsters a hapless toy, and L intended to put Kadaj through his paces as a tether ball, a chew toy, and a good old fashioned rubber band. It was all about finding the stretching threshold and the breaking point, and L was happiest (if one could call it that) when he could turn his legendary, unnerving focus toward such an end.

He hadn't been without distractions, however. Two days before, he had accompanied Takuto on a near-fatal mission on little more than an idle whim. He regretted it now; he had sustained injuries, and while they were well worth saving his life and Takuto's, his appearance was battered with assorted bruises and scrapes, and his mobility was hindered by a nasty sprained ankle. Going to Stein and Death the Kid's classes the day before while insisting on not carrying crutches had likely damaged the ankle further... So today, L was restlessly attempting his typical vigilant perch with his left foot propped up on some pillows, with an ice pack sitting atop his foot like a triumphant victor. It wasn't the most effective position in which to babysit Kadaj, but L wasn't giving it any less attention or effort.

Comments

10:00 AM- Sewing

[dead_black_eyes]

Said sadism had interesting ways of manifesting in the oft-detached detective. He knew people well enough to know what would wear them down and grate on them, and for someone like Kadaj, one such "rehabilitation therapy project" had held a special allure.

The cross-stitch sampler featured a pair of vapid, dead-eyed kittens and a ball of yarn. The kittens were intended by the manufacturers to be orange, but L had removed all three shades of the color from the package, replacing them with three varying shades of pink.

Understandably, it was slow going.

"You dropped another stitch," L announced, "but it happened ten minutes ago. I'm afraid you'll have to undo the last three rows and start that section over."

12:00 PM- Lunch

[dead_black_eyes]

Hunger set in with a vengeance after particularly strenuous activities. L knew this better than anyone; he was, after all, known for his tendency to push himself to the full extent of what his body was capable of until he was literally passing out from exhaustion.

He was tetchily thinking that Kadaj wasn't worth suffering for by this point, however.

"Enough," he finally sighed, reaching out and plucking the sampler out of Kadaj's hands. "I'm hungry, and I want flan. We're going to go to Death By Pastry to obtain some."

He carefully brought his leg down, wincing slightly as his foot touched the floor.

He stared expectantly at Kadaj.

2:00 PM- Chess

[dead_black_eyes]

Back at the apartment, L was glad that his "shift" was just about over. Soon, someone else could take over watching Kadaj and he could privately nurse the exhaustion that four long hours had planted in his mind and his bones. For now, though, he had to maintain the illusion that he was far from cowed.

L was at his best when he'd been pushed to the edge, after all.

Sitting across from Kadaj, his foot back on the stack of pillows, he set up his chess pieces with sharp, striking snaps of marble against marble. He didn't plan on winning quickly. He planned on dragging it out, making Kadaj think that he had a chance, and then wrenching the victory away from him at the last second.

He half expected Kadaj to flip the board well before that point, of course... but it was the principle of the thing that counted.

4:00 PM- Exhaustion and Introspection [L + Gamzee]

[dead_black_eyes]

Finally, after the worst afternoon in L's recent memory, Kadaj was gone and he was able to finally enjoy relative peace and quiet. He turned the television on to his favorite channel, snow, and his still-unnamed horror cat hopped up onto his chest because it was guaranteed to be warm and immobile for the next hour at least.

L propped his foot up again and reached for the bowl of hard candies on the coffee table. His arm was too short by several inches.