(Y/n) couldn't honestly say she was surprised that L resorted to such an over-the-top scheme before he finally released Light and Misa. Over the span of time she'd spent with the detective, she'd concluded that he had more flair for being dramatic than he would probably care to admit.

She wasn't quite sure if she found it annoying or entertaining, but it didn't matter while she was busy tracking the car her father was driving out to the edge of the city under the rouse they'd concocted to test Light and Misa one last time.

There was no point in the gimmick, really. (Y/n) now knew of the pair having forfeited ownership of their respective Death Notes. They had no recollection of their time as the Kiras, and while she could admit how it might be frustrating from an investigator's point of view, it was all incredibly convenient for (Y/n).

Aizawa came to a pause behind her after a brief moment of debate. He couldn't say he was particularly close to the woman, but she was the daughter of his senior, and (Y/n) had grown on him over the years of her meeting him whenever she visited her father's workplace while she was still in school or the few times Aizawa had visited the Yagami home. He felt some need to make it known that she was by no means alone even while her brother and father were facing so many trials due to Light being a suspect.

He didn't quite know what to make of the Yagami boy, either. Light was certainly an impressive and capable young man with a bright future ahead of him if he stuck through college with the same brilliance and charm as he exuded now. But Aizawa wasn't a trained detective for nothing. He would be a pretty useless police officer if he never got around to noticing the fact that sometimes, Light's behavior just didn't add up. And ever since L so blatantly accused the boy, Aizawa had become a little wary of Light and had become significantly more aware of the teen's anomalies.

Nevertheless, Light was still (Y/n)'s brother, and they were both children of a man that Aizawa greatly respected, so he sucked up his own awkwardness and hesitantly patted (Y/n)'s shoulder as reassuringly as he could.

"This whole ruse will be over soon enough," he reminded. "You don't have to worry anymore."

And while she didn't say anything, (Y/n) did shoot him a somewhat grateful smile, giving Aizawa his cue to leave.

(Y/n) wasn't worried, per say, but she did appreciate the gesture. Hopefully, to an outsider, she came off as an anxious sister rather than a more or less apathetic profiler at the moment, because (Y/n) was far too exhausted to bother with maintaining spot on expressions. She wouldn't have put in even the minimal effort she was putting in now if it weren't for the fact that every now and then, L's gaze would wander over to gauge her reaction to the whole gimmick.

"What do you think will happen?" L asked her quietly, not looking away from the screen displaying the sequence of events taking place in the car, taking extra care to study Misa and Light's reactions to being faced with Soichiro pointing a gun at them.

She exhaled slowly. "Absolutely nothing," she replied honestly, because she knew for a fact that neither possessed the power required to hurt her father in the way L expected them to. The worst thing that could happen would be Misa reaching across and maybe scratching Soichiro's face with her long nails, but that really was the extent of it.

"You're very confident," L observed, but she only hummed in response, watching Soichiro pull the trigger with baited breath despite her surety, her shoulders finally losing some of their tension when nothing happened followed the firing of the blank.

"This proves their innocence, doesn't it?" Matsuda questioned from not too far behind them, his tone shaky from the excitement of it all. "The Chief is safe and sound, so that proves that Light and Misa aren't Kira."

L tore his unwavering stare away from the monitor, lazily glancing over Matsuda as he hummed thoughtfully. "For now," he answered vaguely, busying himself with a strawberry shortcake and completely ignoring Matsuda's crestfallen expression.

"What do you mean 'for now'?" Aizawa demanded, furrowing his brows in the same slight irritation he seemed to take on whenever he interacted with the renowned detective.

Taking his own sweet time to chew and swallow, L elaborated, "Light and Misa seem to no longer possess the powers as Kira. However, I am of the belief that they did possess them at some point in the past and have somehow managed to lose them sometime in the period of their captivity."

While Aizawa huffed in frustration with L's unwillingness to let Misa and Light off the hook, (Y/n) watched the raven-haired man and wondered what it must be like to always know the truth of the situation but never have enough evidence to prove it.

She couldn't imagine the level of aggravation L must have to face on a daily basis with the Kira case, where something as unimaginable as the supernatural influenced most of the course of events. She had to hand it to him: L was one hell of a determined and stubborn man.

"So, you plan on continuing your investigation of them, or do we look for a new angle on this?" Matsuda asked, sounding mostly resigned to L's relentlessness.

"We'll continue monitoring both of them closely, but other than that, I'll admit that we're going to have to approach this case from square one," L replied, frowning at his shortcake. "Please, begin looking for any patterns with the recent Kira killings."

Neither of the two NPA officers looked overly pleased about their newly received instructions, but they trudged away to their respective workstations to do as asked. Mori was away, working on making arrangements for Soichiro, Misa and Light's return.

(Y/n) glanced over at the raven-haired man, finding his gaze already fixed on her almost expectantly.

"You must be upset," she commented, leaning back in the chair she was occupying. When L only raised an eyebrow at her, she continued, "Light and Misa passed the test, after all."

L hummed around a mouthful of his dessert. "I was hoping for a different reaction," he admitted easily, "but I am not surprised. There was an extremely evident behavioral change in the both of them, that while having occurred at different times, seemed to have the same basic effect on them."

"You aren't letting them go," she stated.

"No," he agreed, gauging her reaction, or lack thereof, to his admittance. "Does that annoy you?"

(Y/n)'s lips twitched slightly. "No," she replied evenly, "I didn't expect you to."

For some reason, her response managed to get her a delighted (L's version of the emotion, at least) smile from him. "Would you like some?" he asked randomly, extending a bite of the strawberry shortcake towards her.

Her eyebrows rose at that, a deadpan look coming over her face. "I'm not having you feed me," she stated clearly.

L's smile widened. "I did not think (Y/n) would be sensitive about these things," he mused aloud, obviously gunning to piss her off.

She knew what he was trying to do, and she also knew that regardless of what she chose to do now, L would think it a win for himself. If she was going to lose, she may as well get some shortcake out of it. So, with narrowed eyes, she leaned forward and closed her mouth around the fork, swallowing the sweet treat and mentally declaring it worth it. "You're immensely irritating," she informed L. "You know that, right?"

"I'm aware," he admitted easily. "I enjoy getting you to react."

(Y/n) stared at him for a long moment, silently judging his forwardness and bursts of immaturity. "Irritating,"she muttered to herself, shaking her head as she stood up and walked away to her own laptop.

L watched her leave, stuffing another large bite into his mouth, wondering if it was the taste of a small victory that made the dessert just a little bit sweeter all of a sudden or if he was just imagining it.