Bean

Chapter 27: The Fight

"Papa?"

"Mh?" L's lazy-lidded eyes looked up from his troubled thoughts, a thumb squished against his lips. He was sat hunched over in a plushy armchair upholstered in white velvet with his arm hugging his knees. Across from him was an identical chair, and Bean was in it, looking quite small. A chessboard was positioned on a table between them.

"It's your turn." Bean's chin rested in his hands, smushing his cheeks a little.

"Oh." L shifted stiffly. "So it is." He reached rather robotically to make his move, and Bean's gaze followed his father's gaunt hand.

The boy's brow lowered as though he hadn't anticipated the move. "Hnnnh..." he drew out in deep concentration as he picked up a hoodie string and ran the aiglet over his bottom teeth the way one might drag a stick along a picket fence.

Light sat behind L, his back to him as he worked on a laptop. They were all set up in the new HQ now, but the Task Force had yet to arrive for the day.

The melancholy detective's eyes wandered again, his whole demeanor likened to a loaf of bread left out in the rain. His stare was listless, and his posture was shlumped, and while this wasn't exactly the most stimulating game of chess for him, boredom was not the cause of his current state of what could aptly be described as blah.

No, it was more than that. He was depressed.

He'd never failed a case before. And if Light wasn't Kira... well, then, this just might be his first.

L was certain that he had been correct- that Light Yagami and Misa Amane were Kira. But now, it seemed as though the power had left them (or at least the memory of it had), suggesting that either Kira had been controlling the two of them, or the power worked by moving between hosts. And if that was the case, then it was going to be impossible to catch him, and that meant that everything... all of it... had been pointless.

"Papaaaaa..."

L's attention was once again pulled from his moody thoughts. He reached again to make a move but then paused, his shadowed eyes on the board. "Bean... why did you move there?" he asked slowly. He wanted to see if such a smart move had been made purposefully or coincidentally.

"Um, because-" Bean leaned forward and pointed. "You can take this one, and then I can get this one." He looked simply up at L, but a coy little smile played with his mouth.

L blinked, and even Light looked over his shoulder. Thinking two steps ahead was awfully advanced for a five year old...

"Huh." L met his son's gaze, still with a thumb pressed to his parted lips. He hovered his bony fingers over the pieces for a moment before deciding to reward Bennett's cleverness rather than counter it.

A smile spread across Bean's face as he watched, and once his pawn was taken, he reached eagerly to take L's bishop with his knight. "Hehehe!" He giggled, waving the defeated chess piece towards L in victory, his nose scrunched in a smirky grin.

Half of L's mouth quirked upwards around the thumb he was chewing on, his eyes narrowing towards his tiny opponent as though he'd really been bested. Seeing his son's gleeful happiness in moments like this felt like a faint glow in an otherwise grey and gloomy place.

"Well done," he commended, and even his dull tone couldn't conceal a hint of fatherly pride.

Light's phone chimed, and he looked down at it. "...hey, Ryuzaki, sorry to interrupt, but we should probably head up now."

"Hm?" L turned his head in the direction of Light's voice but didn't bother turning all the way around. "Up where?"

"Remember, Misa invited us- er, well, she invited me for tea."