Archive of Our Own

When Light first saw the casting call opening for a genderbent version of Wicked, a fire unlike any other had sparked within him. Being the youngest and first male Elphaba was a feat that could surely inscribe his name in the history of Musical Theatre and really, it was nothing less than he deserved.

It was perfect, the first stepping stone in the long, impressive career that Light had been dreaming of since his parents first took him to his very first musical.  the spotlights reflected in a swirling dance on his father’s glasses as his mom hummed along to the tunes, Sayu too young to understand the story before her, but swayed nonetheless by the emotion in the performers.

And Light had wanted to tun up to the stage, to stand and feel the heat from the lights, to bask in the applause of the audience. To have hundreds of people fall silent and be moved by the performance on stage, by his talent. Thousands of people focused and admiring and the entire history to have his names etched in lights and glory.

And it all started with this one casting call.

He doesn’t get it.

He gets a part, of course, but not the part. Not the career making part of leading character Elphaba. Not the part heavily theorised to have the hardests vocals in all of musical theatre history.

He doesn’t get it.

And Light can’t understand it, because  there’s no way they found anyone better than him. No way they found anyone close to his talent even.

He says as much, arguing with his director for what feels like the thousand time.

“Come on, Ryuk” he tries again, following the man around as he greats the other people arriving for their first cast meeting “You know I’m your best option! I know you decided to hire me even before i hit the second chorus of No Good Deed on my audition”

Ryuk chuckles, moving the quickly filling theatre.

“Look, Light-o” he starts “there’s no denying you’re very talented, really, I know”

He waves him hands around, almost knocking over a poor stage assistant with a handful of lattes for the producers that came to meet the cast.

They’re giving Ryuk a lot of free rein, letting him gender bend one of Broadway’s most iconic musicals and take off with almost too much creative freedom, but they’re still trying to make sure Ryuk’s little pet project turns in some profits.

“But you’re…” Ryuk hesitates here, intense, creepy eyes turning back to Light without warning “You’re to pretty”

Light scoffs, full body green makeup aside, there’s more to playing Elphaba than looking the part of the outsider.

“Elphaba is about raw talent Ryuk, about feeling like an outsider because people can’t see the brilliance of the power inside” Light makes sure his voice is even, certain “I’m perfect for it”

“No, you’re my perfect Glinda, Light-o” Ryuk tells him, not for the first time “Pretty, charming and this… This that you’re doing right now? Politics. You’re Glinda, Light”

Light fights the urge to stomp his foot, he can’t believe he is being typecast in a play about the power within, about overcoming shallow first impressions. It’s so ironic he wants to scream.

Then again, he was raised to respect authority, even if it’s in the form of a spiked haired show director, so he bites his tongue and tried to calm down.

“And if I’m the better singer?” he asks.

Ryuk turns back to him, face exasperated in an oddly fond way considering Light has done nothing but bitch about it since being cast.

“It’s not about being the best singer, Light” he smirks, sharp and shiver inducing “It’s about being the right singer. I promise you’ll get it once you meet him”

Ryuk gestures vaguely around then, pushing gently at Light’s back to steer him towards the stage.

“L’s vocals are impressive, yes” Ryuk shuts him up with a wave and continues “But there’s more to it, there’s a spirit, a tension, a vibe”

“A vibe?” Light deadpans.

“Yes!” Ryuk nods enthusiastically, cross earring dangling aggressively “Trust me, you’ll get it once you see it. He’s perfect for it and you’re my perfect Glinda”

Light rolls his eyes, fight dying down but not fully dead yet. He knows Ryuk’s mind is made, but that doesn’t mean he won’t do everything in his power to steal L’s part if he has to.

“Oh, and I think you’ll get to see soon!” Ryuk exclaims, excitedly waving towards the end of the theatre hallway “There he comes now! Over here, L!”

Light hates him.

Which isn’t to say he doesn’t get it, as Ryuk said he would.

Because he does. Obnoxious stage name apart, L has a lower voice, deeper tones just rough enough to keep the signature style that has been stablished for Elphaba through the years. There’s something about his general demeanour too. Something Light has assumed Ryuk was just too stupid to put into words, but that truly is hard for him to put his finger onto.

The way he hunches on himself while standing, his odd mannerisms. Light had even assumed they were character studies at first, but the lights would go off, they’d leave the stage and still L would munch on his fingers and gaze emptily toward the ceiling.

He had to admit though, that he fit Elphaba’s character seamlessly, spewing truth and emotion into the already epic melodies of the show with incredible raw talent.

Which isn’t to say he was better than Light.

Their voices mixed together beautifully though, Light’s higher tone filling the spaces left for him by L almost without thinking in a way that echoed against the empty seats of the audience and left the crew silently watching in awe.

They were perfect together.

And Light hated him.

He doesn’t know if it’s an attempt at a joke, of to try and work on strengthening their performance chemistry, but L seems to get on his nerves with the purpose of a man on a mission.

He switches Light’s orders for overtly sugared drinks whenever the crew asks them if them need anything and insists on rehearsing barefoot. He stands far too close whenever Ryuk gives them directions and leans agains Light until he has to grit his teeth and tell L to back off.

It’s absolutely unbearable, specially because Light knows L got his part, his fucking destiny. And L doesn’t even seem bothered by it, lounging on the theatre red velvet sits in his weird little crouch and biting on his finger as he watches Light perform No One Mourns the Wicked, informing the Ozians with far too much enthusiasm about his killing.

L doesn’t flinch, eyes deep and focused, smirk widening slightly through the song as Light hits each and every note. And the gaze edges Light on, fuels him to do even better, projecting his acting and singing even further as L watches silently from the first row, empty sits seeming to multiply behind him even as Light can’t look away from his enraging face.

He doesn’t think there’s an actual problem honestly, until then. Leading performer rivalries are as common as tunes in musical theatre and L is annoying, but they do sound great together.

It isn’t until Misa’s shriek little voice carries from the dressing room to him that Light starts to actually consider it a problem.

“Oh, Elphaba and Glinda belong together, of course!” she states, excited and sure “I really hope Ryuk could convince the producers to take the leap from gender bent to gay already!”

There’s an accompanying low chuckle, and Light realizes with a sinking feeling that it’s L she’s talking to.

“I mean” Misa continues “Everyone knows they were in love, it’s too obvious to keep delaying the canon version we deserve”

Misa has been very vocal about it from day one, rambling about the representative, and keeping with the times, and how infamously repressed and in love the characters are.

Truly, she does have a point with it. They are one of the most famously shipped characters in Broadway for a reason, but everyone dismisses Misa a little because she might be a bit influenced by her own experiences.

Having had an impressive run as Glinda in a production a couple years back, she is playing their Fiyero in Ryuk’s gender bent production and is using the free time that comes with not being one of the main witches to push the gay agenda as one of the producers had called it while giving her a firm no.

In her original casting as Glinda though, Misa had started dating her co-star, a woman named Rem that had been discovered specifically to play the production’s Elphaba at the time. Now Misa believes it’s fated and that she has a personal responsibility to make a canon version of the couple happen.

“Besides, this is the perfect version to d it!” she continues “I know Ryuk is all for it, and the tension between you and Light is palpable! I die during For Good every single time, I swear!”

L chuckles again, followed by the tell tale silence that mean he’s tapping his finger against his lips.

“I wouldn’t be opposed to it either” he finally says, voice twisting with amusement “What about you, Light-kun?”

Misa shrieks, following L’s gaze to the dressing room mirror, where Light’s reflection, still frozen in the middle of the hallway, is in plain sight.

It changes things, though Light knows it shouldn’t. Because the play itself is still the same, yet Light can’t ignore that he now knows L wouldn’t mind if the one big dramatic kiss in the show happened with him instead of Misa.

It’s a tingling feeling at his spine whenever he hears them rehearsing As Long as You’re Mine, because the back of his mind is screaming and nagging and telling him that L wouldn’t mind if it were him.

Misa is always in the background of his duets with L now too, wiggling her eyebrows and making kissy motions as if it were the third grade.

And it shouldn’t, but it changes the dynamic of the cast a little. L’s teasing smirks get sharper, the glances they share during What Is This Feeling? get longer and the general tension of the scenes gets intensified greatly.

Light even grows to like Popular, which he once hated with a passion. The song he once thought of as shallow became an excuse to turn his whole focus onto L, allowed by the story even, to mock everything about him in the lyrics, while watching L’s finger raise to his lips and get chewed on, to watch his eyes narrow at some of the lines Light’s singing, to watch him perch on the prop bed in his crouch and stare with the full force of his gaze at Light’s performance.

And L’s stare is a powerful thing, an all consuming fire that edges Light on, makes him hit the notes harder. And L is perfectly silent, doing his subtle choreographed moves and just reacting to Light’s words as Ryuk directs him to lose the widening smirk he keeps flashing Light’s way.

L corners him once in their rehearsal break after Defying Gravity, where the intermission will be during the actual performances.

He stalks after Light, tugging on his sleeve softly to get his attention.

When he looks, L has his eyes wide and sparkling with curiosity.

“Would you, Light-kun?”

Light stops, too stunned by the sudden attention to catch what he’s missing, whether he was too focused on L’s finger slipping past his lips to head the first part of the question or L had actually only half asked it.

“What?” Light asks, stumped and hating the possibility of seeming dense in front of L.

L still has him by the sleeve, fabric barely even pinched between two fingers yet rooting Light in place.

“In the song” L elaborates “I asked you if you’d go with me, run away. Do you think you would have?

Light hesitates, brain stirring back to life with a shudder.

“When Elphaba asks Glinda, you mean?” Light checks with him, skeptical “In the song?”

L smirks around his finger, eyes sharp and focused, hold tightening in Light’s sleeve slightly.

“Yes, Light-kun”

He looks so earnest, so curious, that Light hesitates again, heart picking up speed as L watches the gears in his brain turning.

It’s a perfect reflection of the scene on the show, both of them standing there in the darkened stage, staring at each other, with L reaching to him and asking him to run away.

Glinda, come with me. Think of what we could do together. Together we’re unlimited.

Light’s blood is still flooded with adrenaline from rehearsal, he is still reeling from the singing.

It’s his favorite, singing Defying Gravity with L. It always gets him going, even if some of the lines hit a bit too close for comfort.

And L wants to know, wants to know if Light sees them too.

I hope you’re proud of how you would grovel in submission to feed you own ambition

I really hope you get it and you don’t live to regret it

Light gets it, he sees them and as much as he hates it, he understands why Ryuk cast them the way he did.

Together we could be tb e greatest team that ever was, Glinda

And he knows why she doesn’t go. Light resonates with Glinda a whole lot more than he’d like to admit and he know that she was right, that being political about it, that letting Elphaba be hated and persecuted was the only way to get what she wanted. It was the only way to create a better world.

And yet.

L is still staring, still waiting.

And Light smiles, soft and certain.

“Yeah, L” he tells him “I like to think I would have”

By the time costume fittings roll around, they’re all a well oiled machine. That means they’ve also become quite used to making fun of each other in increasingly convoluted ways.

That’s how Light finds himself glaring at the entire ensamble trying to figure out if the costume designer is shitting him or not.

“I think it’s cute!” Misa pipes in beside him, clapping excitedly at the offending garment.

“Of course you do” Light grumbles.

“That’s awfully heteronormative of you, Light-kun” L offers from the other side of the costume Matsuda is holding up at him “ I didn’t think you’d be the type of man who’d refuse to wear a dress”

It’s said teasingly enough that Light almost wants to fold, but the way L’s eyes sparkle in excitement doesn’t change how offending the huge, puffy, sparkly dress they’re telling Light to wear is.

“I’m not heteronormative” Light grumbles, patience wearing thin “Besides, it’s not about what type of man I am, it’s whether the good witch would wear it”

And then he shuts up, because yeah, the good witch is definitely the type of man who’d rock a sparkling gown.

Truly, he is not that opposed to wearing it. He knows he’s look good in it at least, but there’s something about the entire atmosphere that’s keeping him on edge.

Or maybe it’s how good L looks in his black suit, green tie neatly knotted and pointy hat firmly placed atop his head.

Light huffs, looking away from the way the tie shifts around L’s neck as he talks to Misa.

Light tries Ryuk instead.

“Are you serious about this?” he pleads. The director’s permanent grin os firmly plastered onto his face, just as impossible to read as ever.

“Yeah, Light-o! You’ve seen Wicked before, that’s what Glinda wears” Ryuk shrugs, grin still im place.

Light hesitates, glances between all of them, to the costume designer who is almost shaking under his glare.

L’s smirk twitches, he bites down onto a finger in what Light notices is an attempt to keep from laughing.

He fight’s the smile L’s laugh brings to his own lips and rolls his eyes instead.

“This is Misa’s old Glinda costume isn’t it?” He asks them, ruse finally clicking as everyone around him breaks into fits of laughter.

“I’m sorry, Light! They made!” Matsuda apologizes, producing a white suit that’s just as sparkly as the dress.

But Light isn’t paying attention. In all the caos of the laughing around him, he can’t seem to tear his eyes away from L’s snorted chuckle, the way his eyes crinkle slightly at the corners.

Light thinks the new costume might be even more offensive, but he reassures the costume designer, tells them all it was a funny joke and tries it on.

Truly, he hates it. It sparkles too much and it isn’t sharp and dark like L’s, but he knows it comes with the role, knows L won’t be comfortable with the full body green paint involved in Elphaba’s makeup either.

But L’s eyes take a darker edge once Light emerges from the dressing room, finger slipping from between his lips forgotten.

Matsuda rushes to take measurements and see what needs to be refitted and Light stares back at L, who is raking every inch of the suit with his gaze.

“You know, Light-kun” he starts “you should really ask Misa-san if she’ll let you keep the dress later”

Light raised an eyebrow, waits for him to make his point.

L smirks.

“I’m sure it would have looked just as great on you”

Makeup tests include just as much enthusiasm, though this time it is mostly about L complaining about the texture of the green paint they have to cover him with and how hard it is to remove it afterwards.

It does linger, staining things and clinging to L’s neck even after he’s scrubbed himself raw with the makeup remover.

Light clenches his fists to keep from wiping a streak of green from behind L’s ears and instead watches him fight it by the mirror’s reflection.

L is still complaining long after everyone but the two of them has already vacated the dressing room and it’s just L and Light silently watching one another.

“It will be lonely, won’t it?” L speaks suddenly, face sad but conformed.

Light doesn’t answer, lets it hang between them, L’s latest riddle.

“Rehearsals are almost over, then we premiere and perform, but it will be over too” he meets Light’s gaze on the mirror, face steady and grim “You and I will be parting ways soon”

Light stares back at him, does his best to hold the heavy stare, but if his voice breaks more than what is strictly required during Thank Goodness that day, he blames is entirely on overachieving.

Ryuk makes L break the habit of going down to the audience seats to watch Light rehearsing his solos. He tells them they have to start waiting backstage, like they’ll have to when they actually have an audience.

But even though Light knows L is just waiting backstage behind him, his absence on the front seats is missed dearly.

It shines through on every dramatic verse of Thank Goodness as Light plays over in his head L’s words about them parting ways soon.

I couldn’t be happier, though it is I admit a tiniest bit unlike I anticipated.

The show is about to premiere, they’re supposed to be happy, ecstatic even. But Light can’t stop thinking about how he won’t be working with L anymore.

He’s never met anyone with the same fire for success as him before, no one as willing to push and compete and strive for perfection as he himself does.

Cus getting your dreams, it’s strange but it seems a little, well… complicated.

And he knows he’ll miss him once the show is over. And yes, it’s still some ways away, but Light feels the dread of being without him already and it’s a sinking feeling, cooling him with every verse about the killing of the wicked witch of the west.

Ryuk loves the increased dramatics of his performance on the song, so Light lets his voice break and waver, lets the bittersweetness wash over him fully.

There’s a kind of a sort of… cost.

There’s a couple of things get lost…

He knows exactly what’s fuelling it, even if he won’t admit it, and he’s dreading the day he won’t get to banter with L all through rehearsal.

There’s bridges you cross you didn’t know you’d cross until you cross.

It’s easy to relate to Glinda’s struggle in the song, to feel her despair and loss at a victory that turn out to be meaningless without Elphaba. It’s easy to know how he’d feel, a star with a launched career, but without knowing when he’ll get to be cast alongside L again, if ever.

And if that joy, that thrill, doesn’t thrill like you think it will, still…

And yes, it will be lonely won’t it? Light will miss him and he hates it.

Because happy is what happens when all your dreams come true.

Light gets it, he gets her. He knows there’s no dream, no happy ending if the people you love can’t be with you now.

Ryuk is practically floating around them on the day of the pre premiere.

On the day of the pre premiere, Ryuk is practically floating around them in excitement.

He greets the producers and their sponsors from the Yotsuba group, introduces them to L and Light and Misa, who immediately pulls them aside to push her agenda of a canon Glinda and Elphaba relationship even though it’s far too late to change anything about the show.

L snickers behind her back, guiding Light deeper backstage as Ryuk guides their guests to the front row.

“Do you think she will ever give up?” Light asks him, entering the dressing room as L follows close behind him.

“Do you think she should?” L asks back, eyes intense and lost in thought.

He is standing far too close, face blank yet thoughtful and Light smiles softly, too afraid to voice out loud that he really hopes Misa keeps trying.

Light is a confident person, he’s sure in his talent and he knows he’s good.

That doesn’t mean he doesn’t spend the whole next day fighting his anxiety as he waits for the critic reviews to come in though.

When they do, he gets the news by Misa barging into the dressing room, printed newspaper in hand and triumphant smile on her face.

She shoots pointed looks at both him and L before climbing atop a rickety chair nd clearing her throat loudly.

“Ryuk Shinigami’s Wicked production is truly flawless and filled with talent” she reads, struggling to hold back a giggle “The only notable exception to achieving the viewers expectation might perhaps be the palpable heavier tension presented between the performers during What Is This Feeling?, much heavier than in more appropriate songs for the display, as one would have expected from As Long As You’re Mine, for instance”

L slowly lifts his head from behind the makeup artist applying the green paint onto him and meets Light’s eyes in the reflection.

They stare, the dressing room hanging quietly. Then Misa throws her head back and cackles.

L joins in with a snorted laughter and Light finds himself chuckling along.

The critic called them flawless, talented. If the man wants to take an issue with Light and L’s chemistry being greater than L and Misa’s, well… Light can only assume he hasn’t seen that many productions of Wicked before.

As far as Light’s concerned, What is This Feeling? is an enemies to friends to lovers song and it having more tension than the more romantic ballad is actually a perfect performance on their part.

They’re still laughing from the reviews by the time the whole cast has arrived backstage for opening night. Ryuk congratulates then on the reviews, makes jokes heavy with innuendo and winks at his leading men before waving them off to get into costume.

Light finds the whole thing funny too, but he’s too relieved about the reviews being good to pay it too much attention.

He does notice Misa pulling L off to the side, talking animatedly and gesturing wildly.

L’s nodding along, eyes wide and interested and it strikes Light as odd, but he’s getting ready to take the stage for Good News and open the show by then, so he can’t really tell what the conversation is about.

The performance is going without a hitch, the audience’s enthusiasm is absolutely contagious and Light can tell they’re doing a great job overall, so he’s just enjoying it, going through the routines he’s practices thousands of times and relishing in the applause and cheers they’re getting after every number.

Light is comfortably at his place on the edge of backstage, ready to watch from the side as L and Misa perfom their duet, when his endorphin heavy brain realizes it’s taking a bit too long for Misa to join L on stage.

“Psst, Light!” Misa whispers beside him, Light standing between her and the stage.

“Misa? What are you doing? Get in there!” he hisses, glancing nervously towards the audience.

“You get in there” she pipes back, smirking.

Light freezes, eyes snapping back towards her.

“Are you out of your mind?” he gasps, reaching for her hand to nudge her over.

“Oh, please! Are you telling me you don’t know every word of Fiyero’s songs?” she rolls her eyes, like she’s not currently stalling the whole productions.

“Misa, that isn’t the point” he hisses back, stepping towards her in desperation as the intro to As Long As You’re Mine starts filling the theatre “Get in there!”

“You get in there” she whispers, before smirking evilly and pushing him on stage.

Light gasps, tripping on his foot but managing to keep his balance just as he crosses the curtain lines, coming to a stop right in front of L, who is staring at his entrance with wide eyes.

Light’s heart is pounding on his chest, his breathing stuttering dangerously as his blood rushes through his brain, performance adrenaline sending him mind reeling as he looks at L across the stage.

For a second, Light think it will be fine. L has got this, he’ll improvise a line, they’ll skip a song, the perfomance will get back on track and they’ll fix it.

L knows the show must go on.

And then L smirks and Light knows he’s fucked.

The intro to the song is still going, the instrumental swelling, and L only narrows his eyes at him in a challenge before launching into the lyrics without missing a beat.

“Kiss me too fiercely, hold me too tight” his smirk sharpens, his gaze still trained on Light, but he keeps going as if nothing happened, as if Misa had joined him on stage for the romantic duet like she was supposed to “I need help believing you’re with me tonight”

Light gasps softly, breath leaving him softly as L steps forwards, getting closer, voice carrying and continuing with the song without ever taking his eyes off of Light.

L is smirking, teasing him and Light forgets about the play, forgets about the audience, forgets about the fact that they could get canceled if they botch this, because L is still singing and he’s still getting closer and it’s that song and Light is a strong person, but even he has his limits.

“And if it turns out it’s over too fast… I’ll make every last moment last” L’s smirk sharpens, his eyes narrow, he poses the challenge, finish off his verse without a hint that things weren’t going according to plan “As long as you’re mine”

He can feel the audience holding their breath as L’s first part comes to a close, can feel their collective excitement at what’s about to happen, but he also can’t bring himself to care because his brain is too far gone from L’s intense staring to do anything but join in on what should be Misa’s part, but not really, because it’s a duet and it’s L and that means that really, it had always belonged to Light.

“Maybe I’m brainless, maybe I’m wise” he starts “But you got me seeing through different eyes”

He can hear people gasping excitedly, can hear someone in the front row whispering a quiet what the fuck, can practically hear Misa cheering from the backstage, but it all disappears as he meets L on the chorus and the whole world is them and them singing and them smiling and them staring and their voices carrying.

“Every moment, as long as you’re mine” they sing together, voices mixing with perfect ease and growing louder with every line.

The cheers grow louder and at the corner of his vision he can see people gathering at the edge of backstage to watch them, but they keep going, they keep getting closer and they keep singing.

“As long as you’re mine!” they yell together for the finally, voices carrying over the audience’s cheers.

And Light knows they just hijacked the show, that they might get fired or shut down or blacklisted, but he know how the scene ends, he’s seen it a thousand times so he can’t bring himself to care about any of it.

Ha can only let his lips split into a huge smile, eyes dropping to L’s mouth as he feels himself saying Misa’s line without thinking.

“What is it?” Light asks, as Glinda, in Fiyero’s words.

And the theatre grows quiet, because this is it, this is where they land it, this is where they change everything, really.

And L smiles back, eyes shining at him with far too much earnestness.

“It’s just, for the first time” he tells him, hitting the line perfectly in a voice that’s just a tad rougher then it would normally be when he dramatically whispers it “I feel… wicked”

And then Light’s heart takes off fully, breath leaving him completely as L shoves a hand into his shirt collar and pull him in for a kiss, centerstage, in front of a full audience.

The cheers are deafening, the audience loses their collective mind and all Light can do is smile dumbly at L’s so completely not scenic kissing that involves a very welcomed amount of tongue.

It’s clear Misa’s fight was very well received by the fans of the show, but Light still can’t fully focus on it. He’s still too busy trying to steady his breathing when the stage lights dim and L pulls back from him, grinning widely.

Misa launches herself onto them as they exit the stage, cheering and yelling and then they’re being pushed into opposite directions and changing for the next number.

Light thinks there’s a very good change Ryuk might murder them, but the director seems oddly entertained by the turn of events.

He just claps them on the back excitedly, laughing and shaking his head.

“You sons of bitches did it! You really did it!” he rasps “Did you see that audience!”

Then he’s running over to calm down the producers and sponsors, but Light feels distinctly less scared.

Then the dressing room starts emptying, and he feels a bit scared again.

L is still fighting off the green paint, a look of utter disgust on his features, before he notices they’ve been left alone together.

The awkward silence hangs over then for only a second before L snorts loudly, dropping the makeup wipes and standing from his rickety chair.

“So” he says, voice flat in that tell tale riddle tone indicator “Do you think we’re cursed, Light-kun?”

Light splutters, completely taken off guard by the question and surprisingly amused by L’s choice of starter.

“Because of what Misa said before, I mean” L explains, lips tilting into a smirk as he looks up to the ceiling “About Wicked’s leading performers”

It takes Light a moment to catch up, and not just because L’s neck is still stained green in distracting patterns, but also because the conversation happened months ago. So when his brain finally catches up to what L is referencing he can’t help but be a bit too blunt.

“About them dating?” he stutters, voice breaking in a way that’s far too embarrassing.

L nods, smirk widening as his eyes lower to Light’s.

“I wouldn’t say cursed” Light tells him, smiling along.

L nod again, more forcefully this time, before pushing of the counter.

He fidgets with the opening night’s bouquets that clatter up the room before retrieving an arrangement of red roses.

He smiles sheepishly at Light’s raised eyebrows and shrugs.

“What?” he’s still holding the bouquet, still offering to Light, but his eyes shine with amusement, like Light being confused by his gift is somehow a fun puzzle.

“Shouldn’t I be giving you roses, leading man?” Light asks, snorting.

L shrugs again, dropping the bouquet into Light’s empty chair beside him and stepping closer to where Light is next to the door.

“Did you get me flowers?” he asks, tone teasing.

Light shakes his head, laughing breathlessly as L steps even closer.

“Alright, then I’ll just keep these” L tells him, breath hot against his face “And you can just kiss me again”

He is smirking, and Light can’t help staring at him.

“You kissed me” he corrects, but L just laughs.

“Maybe” he concedes, then inches closer, voice dropping to a singing tone “Maybe I’m brainless, maybe I’m wise”

And then Light snorts again, rolling his eyes in the same motion as he fists his hands on L’s shirt and pulls him closer.

“You’re insufferable” he whispers, letting his lips brush against L’s teasingly before pulling him in for a kiss.

L goes willingly, and they kiss alone in the dressing room, no song, no stage lights, no audience, but it’s somehow just as show stopping as before.