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Light couldn’t really explain how it started, questionable thought processes from both sides had contributed to the situation, but as his captor and ultimately the person who held more power in this arrangement, Ryuzaki was, by Light’s judgement, the guiltier of the two parties.
It had been well past midnight at that point and Light had been trying to sleep, it had already been difficult enough to remove Ryuzaki from his computer screens to get a suitable level of darkness to comfortably fall asleep, but apparently Ryuzaki was unwilling to keep his mouth shut long enough for Light to take advantage of said dark state of the room. Ryuzaki’s mind never shut off, on its own, that’s fine, Light can even sympathize with him, the problem was that in a fit of what he could only assume was petty stubbornness Ryuzaki had transformed that formidable mind into the newest obstacle to Light’s sleep schedule, replacing the usual needlessly bright computer monitor.
Ryuzaki seemed to have taken it upon himself to narrate every single one of his thoughts. Out. Loud. They ranged anywhere from theories about Kira, to philosophical musings, to random facts and complaints about Matsuda’s general existence. To make matters worse, sometimes he’d go quiet for a few minutes and just when Light started to feel hope that he might have grown bored he’d open his mouth again.
Ryuzaki’s mind was utterly fascinating and in any other context Light would have appreciated the opportunity to delve deeper into it, but not here and not now. By this point Light was seriously debating doing something, anything for the sole purpose of forcing that otherwise unstoppable mind to grapple with an unknown and unpredictable experience with the smallest hope that it might slow his thoughts down enough for Light to fall asleep. If the things he was considering were any indication, Light was clearly already suffering from symptoms of sleep deprivation.
It was after the fourth time Ryuzaki broke the promising silence that Light snapped. He didn’t think, he didn’t let himself hesitate, he didn’t wait for Ryuzaki to finish the first sentence, he just turned to Ryuzaki’s side of the bed, leaned down and kissed his forehead.
And Ryuzaki went quiet, mouth still hanging partially open, eyes staring blankly into space, and finally blissful silence descended upon the room. He couldn’t believe that worked, truthfully, he’d just been desperate and done the first thing he could think of that he knew Ryuzaki couldn’t have possibly predicted. As satisfying as it was that all it took was that to shut the detective up, Light didn’t know how long this peace would last, so he quickly turned back to his own side and tried to sleep while he still had the chance. Luckily, this time there was no voice to pull him back from a half-conscious state and the rest of the night passed without incidents.
The next morning, Ryuzaki was acting like nothing of note had happened last night. Light was almost tempted to believe that it really had been some sort of weird, exhaustion induced dream, but the irritation he could still recall was of a special kind of annoyance, the kind that only Ryuzaki could incur. The frustration had been real, and if the frustration had been real, then the situation that created it really had happened. And if that had really happened then the solution must have happened too.
Had he seriously done that? And more importantly, had it really worked? Unlikely as it seemed, fact of the matter was that the room had gone quiet long enough for him to fall asleep. Had that been just a one-time fluke? Or would he get the same result if he tried again?
‘I have to test it one more time.’ Light decided, looking at Ryuzaki from the corner of his eye.
“Listen, Ryuzaki. I think we need to address the elephant in the room.” First, he needed to get Ryuzaki talking, the experiment wouldn’t be conclusive if he couldn’t also test if Ryuzaki’s speech would once again be cut off in the middle.
“You mean the fact that a serial killer is part of the task force hunting for himself? I’ve been trying to address it for quite some time in case you haven’t noticed.”
Light stood up and moved closer, pretending it was an action taken in annoyance with no further motive. “You know that’s not what I mean. I just think that some things about last night should be cleared up.”
“What are you talking about? Are you mistaking something from your dreams with-“
Before he could finish his sentence, Light brushed his hair out of his face and planted a quick kiss on his forehead.
Once again Ryuzaki’s sentence was left unfinished. His eyes went wide, staring straight ahead, Light was pretty sure he wasn’t blinking either. What’s more, there was one additional detail that Light had missed in the darkness of the night. Ryuzaki’s normally pale face was gaining an unusual pink colouring. The colour change wasn’t stopping either, it was gradual, but his cheeks were getting redder by the second.
Oh, this honestly couldn’t have gone better. Not only had Light found a reliable way to shut Ryuzaki up and make his mind break, but the detective was too embarrassed to actually bring it up with Light. This was perfect. Next time he should probably have a timer prepared just to see how long this effect lasts.
One thing Light had always been good at was pressing his advantage, so if he’s been given such an easy way of rendering Ryuzaki’s mind completely blank, of course, he would use it to its fullest potential. Through the duration of the next week Light’s general mood kept steadily improving. He’d been given a universal Ryuzaki restart button that automatically ended any arguments or accusations and caused his train of thought to derail so rapidly, he couldn’t relocate it even after exiting his near catatonic state.
Sure, he had to be careful to ensure no one else ever saw, because he really didn’t want to answer the questions it would arise. But otherwise, Light certainly wasn’t shy about abusing this newfound power. If a soft kiss on the forehead was all it took to hijack Ryuzaki’s mind, then Light wouldn’t hesitate to dish them out as often as necessary.
There was a strange tendency that Light noticed though. One would think that with Light having found his weakness, Ryuzaki would at least make an effort to keep himself in line to avoid giving Light reasons to use it, but if anything, it felt like he was becoming more obnoxious, and the number of times Light found himself compelled to shut him up by any means available was increasing.
It was evening now and Light was trying to convince his cuffmate to go to sleep and Ryuzaki was, predictably, resisting the suggestion. Light sighed and instead of continuing this pointless argument he just kissed Ryuzaki’s forehead and watched as he went unresponsive and his cheeks turned pink. Light started pushing the chair with Ryuzaki still in it towards the elevator, but he didn’t make it very far before Ryuzaki managed to pull himself together and restart his protests. Having no idea of what else to do Light kissed Ryuzaki again, this time on the cheek. Thankfully, his mind shut off again, face becoming a brighter shade of red, and Light was able to push him the rest of the way to their bedroom and just dump him into the bed before getting in himself.
It was in that moment when Light learned an unfortunate little fact. With repetition Ryuzaki had been able to slowly start gaining immunity to the brain-scrambling effect of Light’s kisses. That’s fine, Light could work with this, he was nothing if not adaptable. It was evident that the tolerance Ryuzaki had built up didn’t apply to different types of kisses, all Light had to do was make sure he didn’t repeat the same kind too many times in a row. ‘Honestly, it’s hardly even an adjustment, it’s going to be fine.’
For the next two weeks, the strategy was working perfectly, Ryuzaki would begin with his annoying, spiteful habits and Light would quickly shut the whole thing down with a kiss, keeping them varied to lessen the risk of Ryuzaki adapting.
On one occasion, Light was eating mochi, one of the few sweet treats he was actually fond of, when Ryuzaki stole one from him. Before he could so much as take a bite, Light took hold of his face, lightly squeezing his cheeks and kissed both sides in quick succession. He could practically hear the detective’s brain malfunctioning as he took the mochi back and ate it.
On another, they had just finished a game of chess. Well, this just so happened to be one which Ryuzaki won. That alone would be fine, Light can live with having lost to Ryuzaki, but then he said something about this supposedly being one of the few times when Light didn’t cheat. Damnit, it was like that childish bastard was trying to rile him up!
“Ryuzaki, just because you don't win doesn't mean I'm cheating. You know as well as I do that I don't cheat, my pride couldn't handle that. Besides even if I wanted to, do you really think for a moment that I could pull it off with the way you’re always staring at me?” Light could tell by his smile that Ryuzaki had an equally irritating response prepared, Light wasn’t about to even let him voice it. So the second he began to open his mouth Light got up and kissed his nose. Just as expected he shut his mouth again, blushing furiously and actually almost going cross-eyed for a moment in an attempt to look at his own nose. Light had to admit the sight was very adorable.
His first warning had been just how smoothly everything was going, he should have been suspicious. Honestly, it might even be Light’s own fault for not realizing what was brewing. His time of exploiting this particular weakness was coming to an end.
The incident started like any other, with Ryuzaki being an annoying little creature of pure restlessness. He’d been repeatedly poking Light with his leg and not for any real reason either, in Ryuzaki’s own words ‘he just wanted to’. Light couldn’t handle it anymore, he pushed the offending limb away and was about to kiss Ryuzaki’s nose, but before he could, Ryuzaki put his hands on the sides of his face, holding him in place, and kissed him instead. Right on the lips. The one boundary that Light hadn’t crossed.
Light sputtered for just a moment, but a moment was more than enough for Ryuzaki. He kissed him again and again, and again, all over his face. And Light could feel his cheeks burning hotter with every kiss. He tried to complain, to get some kind of coherent sentence out, but Ryuzaki just put a finger to his lips, shutting him up. “Ah, ah, ah, this is revenge that you frankly should have seen coming. Light’s been playing dirty and I’ve decided that for every ten seconds that I spent with my brain incapacitated he is to receive one kiss.” And just like that he continued his assault on Light’s face.
Light briefly tried to push Ryuzaki off but with no results. “Don’t resist your punishment, Light, you need to learn to accept the consequences of your own actions,” was the only thing he said before continuing his mission of not leaving any part on Light’s face unkissed.
By the time Ryuzaki was finally satisfied with the number of kisses he’d forced Light to endure, Light felt like his entire face was on fire and his brain had to be restarted 3 times before it regained the ability to form complex thought. And yet, his face was pleasantly tingly, something very warm and fuzzy had made its home in his chest and he found that he didn’t mind the idea of this happening again.