Light pushed back from his computer with a stretch. As he rolled his stiff neck, every joint seemed to crack. His back was even stiffer. It would be hell when he stood up, he knew.
Tiredly, he sighed. At the sound, L glanced over from the computer beside him.
“Need a break?”
“Bed, more like,” Light groused, rubbing at his eyes. “It’s well past midnight. I don’t know how you can keep such a crazy schedule.”
L blinked at him owlishly. “I’m an insomniac, Light-kun.”
“Yeah, I get that. But I still don’t know how you manage it.”
L’s too-wide eyes returned to the screen. In its glare his dark pupils glowed faintly blue. His pale spindly fingers tapped away at the keys, arched strangely high above them, like a pianist’s.
But then, everything about L was strange. Barefoot, he sat knees-to-chest in his typical contortionist’s crouch. His long toes wiggled at the edge of the chair, curling and uncurling asynchronously like he was performing some bizarre body trick. With one hand still tapping away at the keyboard, he took three cubes from the sugar bowl beside him. Balancing the glittering stack on a fingertip, he popped them up into his mouth one-by-one.
There were times like this when Light caught himself just staring at L as if he were a circus act, grotesquely fascinated by him. L was a singular person. Light thought he understood L better than anyone, but that didn’t mean he had him figured out. Since Light tended to figure most people out in a matter of seconds, the enigma of L chafed at him to the point of resentment. Sharpening his stare upon L, Light couldn’t even figure out if L was ugly or not. More frustrating, he couldn’t see why he kept wasting energy trying to decide this.
“It’s more peaceful working at night, don’t you think?” L had let the conversation hang in awkward silence for so long that his question had the quality of a non-sequitur. “But if you’re worn out, Light-kun, I understand.”
Light bristled. There was a subtle challenge in that statement, or at least Light perceived there to be. Never one to be outdone, he gave his head a stubborn shake. From the sofa where he was lounging, Ryuk chuckled.
“No, I think I just need a break, after all.”
L nodded, still addressing the screen. “I could use a break, too. Would you like to play chess?”
“Chess?” Light scoffed. “How are you not bored with that yet? We always end up in a draw.”
“Let’s make it more interesting then.”
“A wager, you mean?” Light frowned in distaste. “I don’t gamble, Ryuuzaki.”
“Not with money,” L clarified. His deadeye gaze fixed on Light, unblinking. “Have you ever played strip poker, Light-kun?”
Light’s features screwed up. “What?”
“Strip poker.”
“I heard you the first time,” Light said irritably, ignoring Ryuk as he pondered the phrase aloud. “What I don’t get is why you’re asking me such a thing.”
“I haven’t played before myself, but I think the principle can be adapted to chess easily enough,” L explained, popping another sugar cube into his mouth. “In lieu of cash bets, we’ll stake our clothes instead. For each piece captured, an article of clothing must come off. The first one naked loses the game.”
Light’s glance cut away. “You’re missing the key point of strip poker, Ryuuzaki.”
“Oh?”
“The point is to play it with girls because they’re generally worse at poker, and it’s a free pass to ogle at them naked. Two men playing strip games together is just…weird.”
L stared at him. “You find it homoerotic, and that makes you uneasy?”
“It doesn’t make me ‘uneasy’,” Light said tersely, “I just find it strange. Most men would.”
“I suppose I’m not like most men, then,” L mused aloud, as if this were some great revelation. “To me the aim is to humiliate your opponent. It needn’t necessarily be sexual.”
Light flushed, goaded by L’s infuriating nonchalance. It was a feeling that intensified as he watched L prod at his pale lower lip. From the couch, Ryuk sat leering at them both. The prospect of humiliating L was one Light found he could certainly get behind.
“You’re right, Ryuuzaki,” he said, smiling darkly. “Let’s play.”
L smiled back.
“Well, I’m out,” Ryuk said. The shinigami shook his head as he rose and flew toward the window. “That game’s too hard. It gives me a headache, and I can never keep the rules straight. I’ll see ya later, Light.”
Together L and Light left their desks and headed for the breakroom. At this time of night, it was as deserted as the central command room, all the other task force members having retired long ago. The chess table lay off to one side, adjacent to the lounge area. At the rear of the room was the snack counter, to which L shuffled over in order to replenish his coffee cup for the twentieth time that day. When he returned, they flipped a coin to decide their color.
L caught and checked it. “Looks like I’m white again.”
Statistically, this gave him the advantage. But Light was undeterred. With the board set, they took their seats. Steepling his fingers together, Light peered across at L with glinting eyes.
“Before we begin, there’s still something we need to decide.”
“Yes?”
“What prize the winner gets.”
“How about a favor of his choosing?” L suggested.
Light smirked. “Deal.”
With that, L made his opening. The King’s Gambit, Light recognized narrowly. It was an odd choice, an opening that left L’s kingside vulnerable and would place him on the defensive for the rest of the match.
Light couldn’t help but read insult into it, as though L were taunting him with the implication he intended to win even at a disadvantage. Very likely, L realized that Light was edgy from lack of sleep and was deliberately trying to provoke him into making some blunder. The only other possibility was that L intended to throw the match—but that was absurd.
Warily, Light accepted the gambit, capturing L’s pawn and instigating the first strip of the game. L removed his bulky, long-sleeved t-shirt. Beneath it was a thinner long-sleeved shirt. Light thought he could make out the shape of another one beneath that.
“Just how many shirts are you wearing?” he bit out, glaring.
“Three,” L replied. “It was cold today.” His gaze roved over Light’s front, taking in his collared shirt and undershirt. “I’m happy to remove another layer, if you think it’s unfair.”
“No,” Light snapped. “Forget it.”
L made his next move. The rest of the opening phase proceeded without much event. They castled, developing their positions symmetrically and without much exchange. Light lost his outer shirt. L lost his second t-shirt, then the short-sleeved undershirt beneath it. Then the middlegame began. Barefooted and barechested, L’s only recourse was to go on the attack.
“Your undershirt, Light-kun,” L said, after he’d pinned Light’s knight and captured his bishop.
Light’s lip curled. “Don’t jump to conclusions, Ryuuzaki,” he said, unbuckling and removing his belt instead, as L’s huge eyes watched it slither free.
L pressed his offensive advantage, forcing Light to shed his undershirt after all. If L’s eyes lingered on his bare chest, Light supposed it was only because he was relishing his success. Enjoy it while you can, Ryuuzaki, Light thought with a sneer. He had four articles of clothing to L’s remaining two. L might be on a warpath at the moment, but it wasn’t sustainable. His defenses had weakened. Light only needed to wait for his opportunity to strike.
It came to him as he was stripping off a sock. The path to victory flashed clear in his mind, a lightning strike of inspiration. Baiting L with a gambit of his own, he instigated a trade of queens. As Light shed his second sock and L shucked off his jeans, the endgame began.
“Resign now, Ryuuzaki,” Light said haughtily as he made his pivotal move. “I’ll collect my favor from you, and you can keep your dignity.”
But L just smiled his thin, deadpan smile. “Thank you, Light-kun, but I’d like to keep playing if you don’t mind.”
Light smirked back. “By all means, go ahead.”
L went, his spidery fingers closing around a piece Light hadn’t expected, moving it forward in a way Light hadn’t accounted for. His face fell as L’s knight came to rest on its square. Light’s key rook was as good as gone. In one fell stroke, his winning strategy had completely fallen apart.
“Everything okay, Light-kun?”
Light ground his teeth, his clenched fist shaking in his lap. “…Of course.”
But it wasn’t okay. With baleful eyes, he watched L collect his rook in short order. Rising abruptly from his seat, Light ripped at the button of his pants. His zipper tore open of its own accord as he shoved his pants down his hips and kicked them aside. L eyed him closely as he slammed himself back down into the chair. The captured rook that had been dangling in L’s fingers slipped to the floor.
“Oops,” L said, descending after it. For more than a few seconds he rooted around beneath the table. “Hm, where did it go…?”
Light exhaled, pinching at the bridge of his nose. “Search for it later, Ryuuzaki. It’s your turn.”
Might as well get this over with, he thought grimly.
“Ah, here it is,” L said.
Light started as he felt a feathery brush against the inside of his thigh. Drawing back, he saw L wedged between his legs, scrabbling for the rook that must have rolled beneath his seat. When L’s smooth shoulder grazed his calf, Light’s breath hissed out of him.
“Ryuuzaki!”
“…Got it,” L said, unfazed, crawling out in reverse.
His messy hair brushed Light’s leg again as he withdrew. One hand braced to Light’s thigh, L drew himself up onto his heels under the table. He blinked up at Light, unperturbed in the face of his heated glowering. In L’s other hand, he held the rook aloft, looking perfectly innocent despite the fact he was still kneeling between Light’s splayed legs, his hand and mouth a few scant inches from Light’s twitching groin.
“You…” Light grit out. “Stop messing around.”
“Yes. I’m sorry.”
L returned to his seat, not a moment too soon. Between the skim of his touch and the stir of his breath, Light had gotten hard. How could he help it, when he’d been encroached upon so intimately? He hadn’t jerked off since yesterday. He was just pent-up, he figured.
Sitting knees-to-chest, L was pondering the board. Light couldn’t imagine what there was to ponder. To his mind, L’s victory in this game of strip chess was all but assured. They were both just down to their boxers now. L only needed one more capture to win. Granted, he couldn’t make it just now, but that was beside the point. In terms of move count, Light was hamstrung.
But L kept pondering, rolling the captive rook against his lips. When he took the crown of it into his mouth, Light’s eyes sharpened upon him. L had an oral fixation. Light had discovered this about him early on. Looking at him now, he probed at the fringes of his own fixation.
“Your move, Ryuuzaki,” he prompted unnecessarily.
The rook’s crown gleamed as it popped from L’s mouth. “Yes.”
L unfolded his legs, let them slide beneath the table. Still teasing the rook against his lips, he brought his other arm across his chest at a slant. It might have seemed he was just resting his hand in his lap, but Light knew better. The flex of L’s forearm was telling.
“What are you doing?” Light asked lowly, anyway.
“Thinking,” L replied, but his hooded eyes were fixed upon Light now, not the board.
“Thinking.”
L nodded.
As if changing the subject, Light asked him, “What’s your hand doing there, under the table?”
“Itching a scratch.”
“Must be a bad one.”
“Yes, Light-kun,” L said huskily. “It is.”
Light’s mouth rose sardonically at one corner, resisting the urge to give himself a ‘scratch.’ Throbbing between the legs, he kept staring down L instead.
“Make your move, Ryuuzaki,” he said.
L’s hand rose from his lap. The move he made was nothing short of a blunder. Pressing his palms flat to the table, Light stood, his eyes still fastened darkly upon L’s. He circled around the table, his erection on full display. L’s shadowed eyes trailed over it, before coming to rest on Light’s looming face.
“Your move, Light-kun.”
L didn’t even look as Light’s king took his knight. Light didn’t look either as the captive piece toppled to the floor. Because L was hooking his fingers into his boxers and tugging them down. His blushing cock springing forth was all that Light cared to see. Diamond-bright at the tip, it transfixed him.
“Are you humiliated, Ryuuzaki?” he murmured.
“Not particularly.”
“I didn’t think so.” Light turned from him, padding over to one of the sofas nearby. Pulling down his boxers, he reclined upon it. “Come here,” he said, giving his cock a stroke where it bobbed above his stomach. L slunk over. “Kneel down and open your mouth. I’m calling in my favor from you.”
L knelt down between his knees. His big round eyes gazed up at the length of Light’s cock, hovering before him. Apprehensively, he swallowed. Light savored the sight.
“Within reason, Light-kun.”
Light sliced him a smile. “You left that part out.”
“…Did I,” L murmured, as Light pushed into his open mouth.
L gasped around him. Light groaned. Whatever this was between them, he didn’t care to overanalyze it. All he cared about was the feel of L’s tongue slicking over his cockhead as he took him in, skating against the sensitive underside of his shaft. One hand in that spiky dark hair that was so soft to the touch, Light urged him forward. When he hit the hot back of L’s throat, it was heaven and hell all at once.
“Pick up your cock, Ryuuzaki,” he growled, thrusting into L’s gagging throat a few strokes before easing off. “Fuck yourself while I fuck your mouth.”
L stared up at him, his dark eyes flared and sheening in shock. Distantly, Light was shocked himself. He’d never spoken like this before, like some snarling, horny lowlife. But then he’d never been this turned-on before, either.
Awkwardly at first, L started pumping himself. The rampaging course of Light’s cock in his throat kept distracting him. But at last they fell into a rhythm of sucking and fist-fucking, until both of them were shaking, straining, on the ragged edge of falling apart. At the brink, Light gazed down at L. L gazed up at him back, struggling to breathe.
Not ugly, Light decided, just as his balls began to boil over. Not ugly at all.
“You want my cum, Ryuuzaki?”
L nodded faintly.
“You’re going to take it all? Every drop?”
L nodded, more urgently.
“Get ready then,” Light panted out, his nails scraping L’s scalp as his eyes screwed shut. “I—”
Loudly, Light swore as he exploded in L’s throat. L’s own shouts were muffled in the flood. Light felt the hot jet of L’s cum hit his thigh, sticky and searing. Pulling gingerly from L’s mouth, Light cradled L by the nape as he coughed from his ravaged throat. On weak knees, L pulled himself up and collapsed onto the sofa beside him, coughing raggedly still.
For a while they just sat there together, side-by-side. Just waiting for their breathing to even out and their pounding heartbeats to slow.
L’s face lolled toward him, his bagged eyes looking sleepy for a change. “That was fun, Light-kun,” he said hoarsely. “We should play again sometime.”
Light smiled slightly as his lids slid shut. “You bet.”
Death Note © Tsugumi Ohba & others (not me)
Full disclosure – I don’t know shit about chess XD But the plunny of these two dorks playing ‘strip chess’ just came to me, and now it’s out of my system. Have a great weekend, y’all! <3