FicWad

Chapter One



"There's something... weird about him." One of Light's classmates murmured. "Look at the way he sits on the chair."

Light stole a subtle look himself. It definitely was a little unusual. Their new classmate was sitting on it in a crouch, feet up on the chair while his socks and shoes remained on the floor. Light guessed the only reason the teacher hadn't said anything about it yet, had been because their new classmate was a foreigner.

"See?" Ayato, the gossiping classmate repeated. "So weird."

Light tried to block out their discussion and focus back on his work. Sure, sitting strangely in a chair was a little unusual, and his appearance was... un-kept. But the new guy was probably just like everybody else. Another who talked of dull banter, with a blunt mind. No, if anything, the guy was probably a hopeless loser. It looked like he could hardly be bothered even putting in any effort -

"In the last test," the teacher from the front suddenly announced, jerking Light to attention, "Yagami-kun and Lawliet-kun both tied first. Akagi-san, you placed second. And Kaiyo-kun, third."

Light blinked, surprised. What had the teacher said just now...?

"The rest of you did very well. But it means that those mentioned will be offered to represent the school in a debate."

Him and... the new guy had just tied first?

"We'll have a meeting during tomorrow's lunch. Make sure that you're there."

But his grades were usually... if not, almost perfect...

The paper landed in front of Light as the teacher passed them around.

99.5%.

He'd lost half a mark on a missing comma.

'Wait no,' he thought to himself. 'Of course the other guy could have tied with him. It had been an English test and the new guy was British. It would have been easy for him.'

He glanced over.

The new classmate was holding the paper up between thumb and forefinger, frowning.

He opened his mouth, like he was about to say something, then closed it. Frowning further.

What was he... about to say?

"Yagami-kun," the teacher said, once again snapping him back. "Could you please read out the first correct translation?"

Light stood from his desk, not helping to notice that still he was the one to tell the class the correct answer.

"Follow the teachings of God," he read. "Then the blessings of the sea will become bountiful... And there will be no storms."

Light sat back down afterwards, glancing again. He hadn't even looked at him.

"Akagi-san," the teacher continued, skipping the new student, "Next?"

She read the answer out, and several other students were asked at random around the room. Then he got to -

"Lawliet-kun?"

He was one of the last.

Lawliet looked at him like he was confused.

'Or...' Light thought, more accurately, 'making a point. Fake confused.'

"Sorry?"

"The next answer." The teacher clarified and Lawliet blinked.

"I lost track of where we were up to."

Light smirked a little.

"Number seventeen."

"Oh... I suppose that makes sense."

He stood up, un-necessarily, and held the paper out in front of him in the same peculiar way he had earlier.

"Actually... I can't read my writing. I did this at 3am in the morning."

The teacher sighed.

"Do try to write neater next time."

Lawliet sat back down.

Just as Light thought. He was probably just a cocky loser.

-

The bell sounded loudly at the end of class. As usual, Light was often one of the last few to leave - the others rushed out, glad to be out of the stuffy classroom and chat with their friends. To Light, it was the same dull routine, and there was no one in particular he looked forward to talking to. Especially when most of the times conversations were about weekend plans, TV shows, and school gossip.

Light packed his books into his bags slowly, noticing the imperfect test score once again as he put it into his bag.

'Debate, huh? They haven't even given us a topic yet, or told us who we'd be competing against... And isn't it sort of unfair, to include a native English speaker on the team?

Well, the guys Japanese is probably bad. That's going to make it hard to work together.'

"Yagami-kun."

"Huh?"

Light looked up, and found himself staring almost face to face with the person he'd just been thinking about.

"Um... Sorry," Light apologized, "I was just spaced out. Did you ask me something?"

"No..." Lawliet replied. "I just thought that I should introduce myself, seeing as we're going to be working as a team."

"Oh..."

Actually, so far his Japanese is flawless - even his accent. 'He's never talked that much in class. Although we haven't had much of a conversation yet...'

"Well, nice to meet you." Light said, putting his bag over his shoulder.

"Yes. It's nice to meet you too."

"...Would you like to eat lunch together?"

Lawliet glanced away.

"I suppose that would be nice... I've just been eating by myself."

'So that's how it is...? It's not that surprising that he's been ignored. Just look at him.'

"We could sit outside? It's pretty noisy in the cafeteria so we may not even be able to hear each other talk. To be honest, I prefer to eat by myself too."

Light paused, and hesitated before he continued.

"Uh... Sorry but - "

"Hm?"

"I don't know if this is a Japanese thing, but I'm not used to people standing so close like that."

"Oh. Sorry, Yagami-kun."

Light gave a friendly smile, shaking his head.

"No, don't worry about it."

-

"You're from England, right?" Light asked, as they walked down the hall.

"Yes. Winchester."

"That's in the South...? South of Oxford?"

"Yes."

"That's a long way from here... If you don't mind me asking, how come you're in Japan?"

Lawliet seemed to stoop over a little more. "Well that's... sort of complicated. But more or less, family reasons. If you could call them that..."

"Oh. Sorry. I didn't mean to pry."

"No, it's fine."

Light glanced at him.

"So where are you living now?"

"About fifteen minutes walk from here. Near the Imperial Hotel."

Light raised an eyebrow. That was an expensive area.

"Did you have much Japanese language education before you moved here? Or have you been here before? Your accent is flawless, you know."

L blinked, and face blanked, like the compliment was completely unexpected.

"I practiced a few months before I came here. Although to be honest, no one's really spoken much to me so I didn't know if it was any good."

"No - You sound like a native."

'What am I doing...' Light thought. 'Encouraging him?'

"I guess people might just be intimidated, because they'll think that they have to use English when they're speaking to you. Maybe if you start talking to more people like this, they'll realize you can understand them fine."

"...Thank you, Yagami-kun."

Light smiled.

"No worries."

They fell quiet as they walked. Something about talking to this guy, Light felt, was different to talking to most people. Often they'd be the ones intimidated by Light, and although he was considered "popular", it was rare that someone actually came up and talked to him wanting serious conversation.

'Not that we've been... talking about anything serious. All this is, is an introduction...'

"Um..." Light began, "By the way, it's probably best to show up to school in uniform too. A lot of people are staring."

Lawliet stopped, glanced around, like he only just noticed.

"Is that why...?"

"You've got a uniform, right?"

He shook his head.

"Then maybe this afternoon you should go to the uniform office. It's inside the main school office building."

Lawliet's gaze fell back on Light.

It seemed like he'd already developed a habit of staring at him. And standing a little too closely.

"Thank you, Yagami-kun."

"Ah, really. You don't need to keep saying thank you."

"Oh."

"Anyway, I'm sure you would have had friends back home right? Who would have helped you the same?"

"Friends?"

"Ah, I didn't mean that we're - "

Lawliet kept staring at him.

"Just that - It's the polite thing to do."

'This is strange... I feel like this guy's scrutinizing me.'

"I would consider myself very lucky to have a friend like you,"

'...Huh...?'

"You seem like a very nice person."

'Is he... being sincere, or mocking me...?'

Light hesitated, then made an amused sound.

"It seems like you've already created an idea about the person that I am."

L shrugged.

"I've just spent most of my time here so far observing. I hadn't been completely incorrect... I thought there was roughly an eighty-six percent chance that if I introduced myself to you, you would talk to me. It would have been rude not to. Right?"

"What do you mean... You think I just care about what other people think of me?"

"No. I think you don't really care about what other people do."

"Then, I don't understand."

"Mm..."

He started walking again.

"I didn't mean to offend you... I apologize."

Light was silent. He didn't know whether he should accept the apology.

"Well..." he muttered. "It's not a big deal."

'In any case... he's probably right...'

"Yagami-kun?"

"Eh?"

"Do they have cake at the cafeteria?"

"Usually... Yeah."

"Then do you mind if we go there first?"

Light shrugged.

"Sure."

'This guy definitely... Isn't afraid to speak his mind at all.'

But maybe he had been a little wrong... about him being a loser.






-Author's Notes-

Hey. Hope you liked the first chapter. I've always wanted to write an LxLight high school AU, and many ideas came to me from this first chapter. If you'd like to see where this is going, please feel welcome to review or follow. Also, L won't be continued to be referred to as "Lawliet" - that's just how Light knows him now. It will change to "L" in the next chapter, if using his last name has been a bit strange! I will aim to make the next chapter longer too. Thank you for reading (: xx

B.