A long time ago, now, they'd played tennis. Even innocuous conversations often take L back to that game, the connection between the eye, the mind, and the body in one fluid, responsive line that demanded action and reaction. Right now, Light is reacting, as only Light can react. He watches, waits, reflects as he gets insight to the process through the closest connection two individuals can share in this world.
"No; I'm sure it's a fairly unique perspective," he agrees mildly, while inwardly bracing. There's an opportunity to needle at a perceived vulnerability, here... one that Light is notably not taking. Something for him to mull over on his own side, perhaps. Instead, the conversation moves forward (or circles back) to their mutual and concerning acquaintance.
"'Involved?' We haven't slept together," L says bluntly. "And he doesn't know I was medicated, by the bye; he attributes my attitudes toward the subject to a moral judgment of some kind, and I believe that his heckling is projection, on his part. He wants to believe that any desire for companionship is motivated by lust, and that anyone not currently engaging in coitus wishes they were, especially those wearing a gloss of disinterest. If everyone has a tendency towards perversion, after all, he has no reason to feel there's anything wrong with his."
He's not saying everything, of course. They haven't slept together; it doesn't mean that his body hasn't responded to Niles' behavior, especially in particularly tense and dangerous moments. And those had certainly not gone unnoticed by the chimera, who only found L's denial and willful suppression amusing.
"I appreciated not having to think about something known to make humans weak, and stupid... but when all of that came back, and I experimented with acting on it, it's not as if I became an animal incapable of control. I think that deeply bothers him."
A pause, then a verbal twist, maybe a joke to shift the mood.
"You're relieved to know as much, though. Surely."
no subject
"No; I'm sure it's a fairly unique perspective," he agrees mildly, while inwardly bracing. There's an opportunity to needle at a perceived vulnerability, here... one that Light is notably not taking. Something for him to mull over on his own side, perhaps. Instead, the conversation moves forward (or circles back) to their mutual and concerning acquaintance.
"'Involved?' We haven't slept together," L says bluntly. "And he doesn't know I was medicated, by the bye; he attributes my attitudes toward the subject to a moral judgment of some kind, and I believe that his heckling is projection, on his part. He wants to believe that any desire for companionship is motivated by lust, and that anyone not currently engaging in coitus wishes they were, especially those wearing a gloss of disinterest. If everyone has a tendency towards perversion, after all, he has no reason to feel there's anything wrong with his."
He's not saying everything, of course. They haven't slept together; it doesn't mean that his body hasn't responded to Niles' behavior, especially in particularly tense and dangerous moments. And those had certainly not gone unnoticed by the chimera, who only found L's denial and willful suppression amusing.
"I appreciated not having to think about something known to make humans weak, and stupid... but when all of that came back, and I experimented with acting on it, it's not as if I became an animal incapable of control. I think that deeply bothers him."
A pause, then a verbal twist, maybe a joke to shift the mood.
"You're relieved to know as much, though. Surely."