Remedy of the Heart

Created: 12-11-07

REMEDY OF THE HEART

“You are sick, Ryuuzaki.”

L tried in vain to stifle a cough and a sniff as he reached over to drink his usual intake of uber sugar-coated red tea. One thing he did not like was being sick. The great teen-genius detective L does not get sick. He would not let Raito have the satisfactory of proving him otherwise.

“I am not sick, Yagami-kun. I am perfectly sane,” L replied indignantly as he sipped his tea, his eyes transfixed onto the computer screen, his mind not exactly into the task. Raito saw through the façade and grabbed the porcelain cup of tea away from his thumb and index finger that held it.

“You are sick, Ryuuzaki,” Raito said as he placed the cup far from L’s reach. “And I meant it in a physical sense, though I do not doubt that your mind could be any further from that matter.”

“Yagami-kun, that’s insult on my part,” L gave Raito a pouty look, his eyebrow-less eyes staring grudgingly at him. Raito could see perfectly clear the dark circles under his eyes getting larger and darker, threatening to blind him. His nose was red and his usual pale skin was actually sporting pink due to a slight fever, and also the fact that L was trying so hard to mask his cough by constantly making small clearing noises of the throat was evidence that L was far from tip-top shape.

“You are sick, and you will take a break from all this Kira business,” Raito said as he tugged at the chain that linked both teens together. “I will not be a victim of your infectious flu!”

“How very Kira-like of you,” L grinned in his own sly way. “For all we know, you could’ve infected me with the flu first so that I will be forced to take a break from investigating Kira. I think I’ll pass.”

“If I had infected you with flu, I have to have flu in the first place now, don’t I? And I assure you, I haven’t had the sniffles since junior high.”

“Who knows? Kira had always known to be a master in hiding. You could be hiding your flu symptoms right this very minute.”

“Unfortunately I’ll have to disappoint you on that,” Raito said as he wounded a bit of the chain in his palm and, with a harsh jerk, pulled L off his chair, causing him to fall on his ass.

“Ouch, that hurts, Yagami-kun,” L said in his usual neutral tone as he rubbed his throbbing butt. He was lucky that the investigation team had retired for the day and have went back to their respective homes, so they would not have to see L in his vulnerable state. But then again, he never really cared much about his own image anyway, unlike his narcissist of a partner, who practically spent hours just doing his hair. He did and acted as he like, as long as he gave the government a fruitful result to any investigation provided him. He sometimes find it amusing that some of the government staff who were ignorant about his existence assumed him to be much older than he was. Some even went as far as guessing that he was a middle-aged man with a possible beer belly.

His musings were broken when he felt himself being dragged across the floor towards the kitchen. Being dragged by one arm ached a little, so L grabbed the remainder of the chain and began resisting.
“Where are you taking me, Yagami-kun?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Or have your flu caused you to lose your sense of sight as well?” Raito grumble as he, too, used his other hand to pull the remainder of his side of the chain and continued dragging him. A tug-of-war ensued.

“But why the kitchen, Yagami-kun?”

“I am going to give you medicine for your flu, that’s why.”

“But I don’t want to eat medicine.”

“It’s for your own good, Ryuuzaki. Do you want to die of pneumonia?”

“Flu does not cause pneumonia.”

“At this rate, it just might. Now come on, Ryuuzaki.”

“But I don’t like medicine. They’re bitter and yucky and not sweet.”

“You have to eat it, whether you like it or not.”

“You can’t make me,” L glared, determined not to be taken to the kitchen. If L was afraid of anything besides being proven that Death Gods and the world of supernatural exists (since the finding of the 2nd Kira and her mentions of Death Gods), medicine was definitely his kryptonite.

“Oh, yes, I can,” Raito gave him a challenging glare. As a boy-genius and thrill-seeker, he was not one to back down from challenges and dares. L replied his glare with a “Try!” look.

Without warning, Raito grabbed L by the waist, picked him up without much effort (due to the fact that L is inhumanly light for a person who devours sweets like eating rice) and hoisted him onto his shoulder. Ignoring L’s protests and kicking of feet, he made his way to the kitchen, slammed the door shut and forced him onto a tall stool nearby the stove as he started walking towards the fridge to look for the ingredients needed to make his medicine.

“Yagami-kun is mean,” L grumbled as he sucked the tip of his thumb, reluctantly allow himself to be defeated for the moment. “I’ll have you know that your actions deserved another few more percentage in my ratings of you being Kira.”

“What does wanting the best of your health have to do with me being Kira? And for the gazillionth time, I am not Kira,” Raito said as he took out a box of rock sugar, pears, a jar of honey, a lime, a bottle of paprika and some other spices, a pot, a ladle and a few plates from their respective cupboards and the fridge, and laid them all on the counter.

“What are you doing, Yagami-kun?” L stared at all the ingredients and utensils on the kitchen counter, reaching over for the jar of honey and the box of rock sugar but was reprimanded by Raito’s warning whack of the wooden ladle. “I thought you were going to force feed me with medicine.”

“Well, since you have the habit of branding me percentage ratings of my Kira possibility with every harsh move I make, I’ve decided to go for the softer approach. It’s an age-old remedy passed down from my great-grandmother to her daughters, and since my mother had always been more of the rebellious sort during her younger age, she decided to break the tradition and pass it down to me instead, what with me being the favourite child of the family and all.”

“Guess being a tensai does have its perks,” L commented as he sat in his usual pose: feet on the stool with his knees close to his chest, back hunched, dead fish eyes wide open and thumb in his mouth as he watched Raito did his thing.

First, Raito boiled some water in the pot and waited for it to be hot enough before scooping rock sugar one by one into it and stirred until it melted. He continued this way until the water looks thick enough, then turned the fire off and let it stand. While the water cooled, he used a knife to cut the top of the pears and scooped out some of the flesh inside until it resembled a sort of cavity within. He took a tiny pinch of paprika and sprinkled it into the cavity and did the same with the other spices. He allowed L to reach over to take the pear flesh he scooped out and put in a bowl, and even passed him the spoon he used for scooping to use.

“Yagami-kun?” L suddenly broke the silence as he ate the pear flesh.

“Hai, Ryuuzaki?” Raito responded, not looking up from his activity.

“When was the last time you got sick again?”

“Junior high.”

“Was it very bad?”

“Yes, you can say it was a bitch.”

As he used his fingers to smear the spices he just sprinkled in onto the walls of the cavity of the pear, he began to tell the tale of his junior high years when he had his flu. It was the worse flu he had ever had. At first he started off feeling nauseous, but he dismissed it as being a stomach bug as he was too busy studying for his finals to be worrying about petty health disturbances. When he started losing his appetite and vomiting every time he even drank something, his parents were worried and his sister teased him of being pregnant. The doctor diagnosed him to be having a minor gastric problem due to the stress of exams and gave him some medicine to take for it. The vomiting continued occasionally, but he managed to handle it by eating as less as possible and eating his meds on time.

When he thought it was over and done with, the constant vomiting had caused him to have a sore throat due burns from stomach acids that he would occasionally regurgitate. It was so hard for him to swallow or eat any solids, and he had so much soft food like porridge, noodles and oatmeal during that period that he’d rather not eat anything at all. The sore throat infection then led to the worst fever he had ever experienced and for the first time in his entire schooling life, he actually took a week-long sick leave and his father actually made the call to school to ask them to give him a later date to sit for his finals. During that week-long sick leave, he was bedridden with the nastiest phlegm-full cough and the most annoying stuffed nose that forced him to use the nose-inhaler almost every hour by the hour. He would sometimes take the opportunity to make some last minute study, but most of the time his mother would forbid him to stress his brain to speed up the healing process.

That and also his mother’s family remedy for all flu ailments.

“Your mother sure dotes on you a lot, Yagami-kun.”

“She does have her perks sometimes,” Raito smiled a little at the memory where his mother sat there and watched as Raito tries to finish his mother’s flu remedy.

“How effective is this family remedy of yours, Yagami-kun?”

“Usually it takes about 2 to 3 days before your symptoms finally subside, but in my case back then, because of the severity of the situation, it took me 2 remedies and about 5 days.”

So saying, Raito took the jar of honey and, with a teaspoon, took a spoonful of honey and poured it into the bottom of the pears’ cavity, forming a sort of thin layer in the bottom. He then took the lime, cut it in half, took the first half and squeezed a little of the juice into the pears before taking the other half of the lime and squeezed it a little juice into the sugar water. He replaced the cut tops of the pears onto its original position and put them in one by one into the water. L looked into the pot to see the pears quarterly submerged into the sugar water and licked his lips, tempted to dip his finger in and taste it.

“Oh no, you don’t,” Raito said as he pushed L lightly away and turned on the stove, covering the pot with its lid. “Not until it’s ready.”

“When will it be ready?” L asked, again disappointed for being denied his favourite treat.

“In about,” Raito looked up at the clock on the kitchen wall, “6 hours time. Now, it’s your turn to be bedridden.”

Without even giving the young detective a chance to protest, Raito, again, hoisted L onto his shoulder and brought him up the to bedroom they shared ever since they started this confinement period. L, probably too tired to fight, just slumped as he allowed Raito, his greatest friend and rival, to manhandle him. With one hand reaching for the cooler pads, Raito put L onto the bed, tore out a cooler pad and stuck it onto L’s forehead.

“Be a good boy just this once and stay still,” Raito said as he sat on the other side of the bed, watching him like his mother watched him when he refused to do what he’s told when he’s sick.

“You’re not my father,” L mumbled grudgingly, sucking at his thumb. “You don’t tell me around. Watari does.”

“Well, Watari isn’t here for the moment, is he? He had to go on some personal business at London, remember? And since when have you ever actually listened to him?”

L remembered, but did not want to admit that he remembered because he was reminded by the possible Kira. He turned with his back facing him and continued to suck and nibble his thumb like a little child, memories of Watari telling him last night that he had to go back to London to settle some stuff at the Wammy’s House. L left the information on Wammy’s House out though, when he told Raito Watari will be going to London for a few days. Wammy’s House was the only solace he had ever found closer to his heart and it was his personal haven. He did not want some stranger, no matter how close, to know this place he was both proud and ashamed of. Proud because it was his home and the place that him who he is today, but ashamed because it was the place that reminded him of his parents who had forsaken him to.

L couldn’t remember the last time he was sick. He had no time to be sick. All his life, he was submerged in a world where humans are at their worst and it was his job to bring them to justice. Ever since he was diagnosed as a genius, his caretakers wasted no time into putting his mind to its full potential. Advance education where only the great minds of scholars can comprehend were drilled into his brain as he was home-schooled to perfection, graduating high school at an age where he should frolicking around with his 9-year-old peers. Files upon files stacked up before him in mountainous proportion and he had to solve each and every one of them. Most of them, he did it with ease, but some of the tricky ones required him to squeeze his brain juice a little to get just the right amount of deduction to catch the criminal. The whole world’s burden seemed to weigh on his shoulder and relied on him to make things right. He remembered getting a headache or two due to his lack of sleep, or maybe a backache once or twice when he hunched or slouched too much, but anything worse than that, he managed to ignore them and pretended that it didn’t exist in his system at all.

Watari, during his servitude to him, was as fatherly as possible to him: bringing him his sugary meals, reminding him to eat decent food once in a while and would sometimes check on him to see if he was both physically and mentally well. Even though sometimes he could tell that L was sick, but knowing L can handle a little health complications, he left him be and never spoke of it unless L mentioned it, which he rarely does. He was a parent, a caretaker, a baby-sitter, a butler, a messenger all in one. He had done his part well. But unfortunately, as providing as he was, he still wasn’t related to L in flesh and blood, and even though he had done his part very well, there was still something missing. He hated to admit it, but even though he was surrounded by people who looked up to him as the genius teen detective and by Watari who catered his every whim and fancy, he still felt a little lonely.

Now here he was, sick with the flu, at the worst state he had ever been—probably the first time in his entire life—and the last person he wanted to see him this vulnerable was Raito Yagami a.k.a. ‘possible’ Kira. No, not ‘possible’ Kira, a ‘definite’ Kira, it’s just that he needed more concrete evidence to prove him so. He barely believed that Raito had nothing to do with the Kira killings, even though he saw it in his eyes during his captivity in the cell that he wasn’t lying, and the fact that Detective Yagami didn’t die despite the fact that he threatened to kill both Raito and Misa-Misa in that fake act in attempts to prove his theory, and there was no way he’d believe him again. Raito’s demeanor changes as much as a chameleon changes colour, and even though Raito is telling the truth about his innocence on this case, he wasn’t taking any chances or lowering his guard. And yet now…
“You asleep, Ryuuzaki?” Raito asked in a rather soft tone, breaking L’s musing.

“No,” L replied. “I don’t need sleep.”

“Well, for this case, you have to,” Raito said as he slowly flipped L over so that the pale boy was facing him. “Go on, close your eyes. I’m going to make sure you at least get some sleep.”

“Just because Watari isn’t here, doesn’t mean you’re the boss of me, Yagami-kun,” L complained. He had never felt so much in bad shape before and he was surprised at the nasty tone he gave Raito. Raito didn’t even flinch.

“It’s the flu talking. Go to sleep, Ryuuzaki.”

“I’m not a child.”

“If you are going to behave like one, I’ll have to treat you like one. Now go to sleep. No ‘buts’.”

So saying, Raito started patting his butt as he hummed what sounded like a lullaby. L was taken aback. Raito was really true to his words: he was treating him like a child who threw a tantrum and refused to go to bed! He can tell the amusement in his copper-brown eyes as he watched him vigilantly, his lips creased in a small smile as the lullaby music escaped from them and his hand continued patting his butt in time with the music. L tried to give him an annoyed look, willing him to go away, but somewhere inside him knew that Raito was not going to back down from a puny challenge like that. He was definitely someone who always gets his way one way or another.

‘Another percentage added,’ he thought as he tried to fight the sleepiness that was creeping into his system. The flu and his insistence to stay alert despite his failing body were taking a toll on him, and the lullaby was so soothing and the patting so reassuring. Was this what he often did at home when he helped his mother baby-sit his sister? He had shown much care to his sister before during the times when he had his house bugged to spy on his daily routines, and he could tell that they were quite close. Who’s to say that he hadn’t had his share of looking after his sister when she was younger?
As he continued to wonder what possible ‘talents’ Kira had, his eyes began to flutter shut…

--:--

“…zaki? Ryuuzaki?”

L slowly opened his eyes, only to meet copper-brown ones staring back at him. He slowly sat up and rubbed the sleep off his eyes.

“What is it, Yagami-kun?”

“Sorry to wake you, but it’s time to eat your medicine.”

It didn’t take him long to register that Raito’s so-called ‘family remedy’ was still being brewed in the kitchen.

“Is it 6 hours already?”

“Mmhmm. Come along now.”

Rubbing his toes together, he got off the bed slowly and walked behind Raito without protest into the kitchen. Raito made his way towards the stove and turned it off, then uncover the pot to check on the pears. White steam came out as soon as he lifted the lid, and L could smell a mix between burnt and boiled sugar emitted out of the pot. Raito filled quarter of the kitchen sink with running water before putting on his kitchen mittens and carried the pot and put it into the water to cool. Carefully, he took out the pears one by one and put it onto a plate. With the ladle, Raito scooped a bit of the sugar water in the pot, lifted the pear top and poured it into the cavity, and did the same with the rest of the pears. After replacing the top back on, he carried the plate of pears and placed it onto the counter in front of L.

“Here, Ryuuzaki, your medicine. Make sure you finish it.”

L looked warily at the pears. He saw that the originally green pears had turned brown due to the humidity of the brewing and could tell that the flesh within also suffered the same fate. Prodding it with his finger, the pears felt soft and a little soggy, and it dented at the slightest touch. It was almost as fragile as a strawberry. With his usual sitting pose, he continued to stare at the pears, not moving an inch, studying them feverishly as he stifled another cough and sniff.

“Go on, Ryuuzaki. It’s not going to kill you, I assure you.”

Staring skeptically at Raito’s reassuring look, L reached over to take one of the pear tops and, holding onto the stem, popped the flesh into his mouth. Within seconds, his eyes actually widened as big as the time when he listened to the copy of tapes made by the 2nd Kira and her talks of Death Gods and notebooks. Both his hands flew to his mouth and he immediately toppled off the stool and onto the solid marble floor, dragging Raito along with him. Both of them fell with a loud thud and while Raito nursed his possibly bruised arm, L was seen on the floor, tossing and turning as his hands continued to hold onto his mouth. He looked as if he wanted to puke and was trying to hold it in, and his eyes continued to have the wide bewildered look, his face actually going from pink to a slight red.

“Oi, Ryuuzaki,” Raito said as he moved towards L. “Daijobu ka?”

“You…You really are…trying to…poison me…” L barely breathed his muffled words out.

“What do you mean? It’s just medicine.”

“It’s so…so…so…”

“So what, Ryuuzaki?”

“So…So…It’s so…”

“I don’t have all day, Ryuuzaki.”

“So…sweet…”

Upon hearing those words coming out of L’s mouth, Raito couldn’t contain himself. He threw his head back and laughed the loudest and longest laugh of amusement he had ever did in his entire life as L continued to writhed around the floor, forcing himself to swallow the pear top and spitting out the stem. By the time he recovered from his ordeal, Raito was trying to catch his breath after laughing out loud for so long.

“I see you find my predicament very amusing, Yagami-kun,” L said as he glared at his rival with a vengeance.

“So…Sorry…” Raito replied breathlessly. “It’s just that…it’s actually…funny to hear the L saying that his food is sweet when he eats nothing but sweets.”

“I am not fooling around, Yagami-kun. That thing,” L said as he pointed an accusing finger at the offending pears, “is too sweet.”

“Finally met your match, eh, Ryuuzaki’s taste buds?” Raito grinned as he picked them both up off the floor. “Reminds me of the time I reacted the same way as you, but not as dramatically.”

“You too?”

“Why do you think I don’t like sweet stuff and declined your every offer?”

L stole a glance at the pears and looked away, “I’m not eating those anymore.”

“Unfortunately if you want to get better and not wanting to hear the rest of the team bugging you to see a doctor, you might as well get it over and done with.”

He was right. Oh, how he hated it when Raito was right. He could imagine not hearing the end of it, especially the overzealous but underappreciated Matsuda hounding him to no end about the importance of physical health in an investigation and pestering Watari to take him to see a doctor, not to mention the rest of the team, and Detective Yagami, who had been the leader and father figure of the entire team, who most probably want L to be in tip-top shape less he infected everyone around them, including his equivalent half Raito Yagami.

With an inward sigh, he marched towards the plate of pears and started devouring them very slowly, wincing once in a while as the over-sweetness of it all bombarded his taste buds. While he ate, he asked, “I don’t see how sugar can cure my flu.”

“To be honest, I have only assumptions,” Raito shrugged as he admitted. “I suppose the fruit itself, along with the lime juice I squeezed is for the Vitamin C to counterattack and subdue the flu while the overdose of sugar is to overflow the senses and start up the body to work extra hard to digest and dilute the sugar, and at the same time give it strength and boost the immune system to fight the flu. The spices are to stimulate the blood flow and the digestive systems. But then again, I could be wrong. Who knows what people of the olden days thought about medicinal remedies?”

“I’m going to look up on it as soon as I get better.”

“Finally admitting you’re sick, aren’t you?”

“Please do not rub it in, Yagami-kun.”

As soon as he done eating, he pushed the plate towards Raito like it was something very offensive, looking away as he tried to hold back his face of disgust. Raito poured him a glass of water to wash the taste down and washed the plate and the pot before directing his attention back to L.

“Time for bed again. And I promise you the next time you wake up it won’t be for another dose of medicine again.”

L quietly let himself be led to the bedroom and be tucked into bed again. Somehow the overdose of sugar was making him rather lethargic. He wanted to continue on the Kira case, but right now, the Kira case can be damned and go to hell. He never felt like this before when he ate other sugary food, but this seemed to cut the cake. He barely was able to contain his yawn as Raito lay beside him again and watched him like before. I guess that’s how little kids feel after having too much sugar and go hyperactive all day, L thought as he nibbled his thumb.

“Yagami-kun?”

“What is it, Ryuuzaki?”

“Why are you doing this to me?”

“Why do you ask?” Raito raised an eyebrow in surprise.

“You put so much effort into making me better,” L said, not looking directly at him. “You got me off the case for a moment, brewed medicine for me, made me rest, made me eat my medicine, and now this. Why? After all my suspicions towards you and my blatant accusation, you still did the things you did just now. Not even Watari made such an effort. Why?”

“Why? The same reason why you’re my friend.”

“Friend?”

“Remember where we first met? You told me that I was your first friend, and that you liked me to a point. I didn’t lie when I said I feel the same way too and that I’m happy to be your first friend. This is what friends do, Ryuuzaki. They care for each other.”

L stared back at Raito with a slight shock in his eyes. Friend? Care? This is what friends do? Never in his life had he ever heard such statement. He had never had a friend, thus claimed Raito to be his first and only friend whom he can converse as an equal, but he continued to hold his reserves for fear of him being who he really is and never gave a thought about truly treating him like a real friend. He found it hard to believe such notion from the boy he continuously suspected without a moment’s rest. He had to be lying. He had to! He just wanted his guard down and make him trust him wholeheartedly, just this once. He searched Raito’s eyes for any sign of deceit in his words and surprisingly found none. He closed his slightly welled-up eyes and let his bangs hide them from Raito, not wanting him to see his tears of denial and defeat, and the hint of vulnerability and shameful sadness.

“You’re just saying that,” L said, masking his choked voice.

“No, I’m not. Now go to sleep. You’ll feel better tomorrow.”

Raito went back to fatherly mode as he hummed the lullaby again and pat his butt to make him sleep. L smiled inwardly as he let his tears flow and stain the bed, his bangs still hiding them from the ‘definite’, no, ‘possible’ Kira. It wouldn’t hurt being a child again, if it’s only for a day. It does feel nice to not be in control for once. If all doubts of Raito being Kira be cleared 100 percent, and that he was not the person he feared to truly be, he could get used to this treatment.

As L let the Dream World to return once again to harbour him into whatever La La Land it may take him, he could’ve sworn he felt Raito’s peck on his forehead.