A pleasantly warm breeze fluttered the leaves of the trees that lined the campus quad at Toho University. Sunshine spilled through the branches, sprinkling dappled patches of light over L's white t-shirt and unruly hair as he sat hunched over on a bench, his shoes having been removed and placed neatly together on the ground.

He was well aware that Light would be passing this way in approximately one minute, likely with his girlfriend, Kiyomi Takada. A bold move, L thought, to be dating Miss Toho herself. It was as if Light were flaunting his inconspicuousness, purposefully putting himself in the spotlight to prove that he had nothing to hide. Naturally, this only made L more suspicious...

His reason for being here today was two-fold.

First, it was something of an experiment- to observe Light's behavior when he showed up unexpectedly asking to spend time together again. Perhaps if he was caught off guard, he would reveal something... it was a bit of a desperate move, but then, L had his second reason for being here today.

Agent Mogi had uncovered the identity of the mysterious blonde woman, and it had turned out to be none other than the famous pop idol, Misa Misa. So why would Light flaunt his relationship with Miss Toho but keep his relationship with a pop star a secret? In truth, there were a myriad of explanations, but the one L was trying to prove as truth was that Light Yagami was Kira and that Misa Amane was the Second Kira.

In the meantime, back at the hotel, Watari was supervising Bennett's schooling. The small boy sat at a table watching a pre-recorded video on a math lesson that was three years above his age group. He had a little whiteboard in one hand and a collection of dry erase markers that he had lined up neatly on the table in the order of the color spectrum. Naturally, he was nibbling on a hoodie string as he concentrated on the word problem. Right now, he was using the purple marker, and the young lady on the screen was speaking.

"Monty had 48 stamps. His brother had 16 less stamps. How many stamps do the brothers have altogether?"

Bean tapped his lips with the marker, then wrote down some numbers. His writing was smallish for a child, and rather messy.

"So first, we have to find out how much the brother had..."

"Thirty-twoooo..." Bean murmured to himself.

"Now remember, LESS means that we subtract! So we have to take 48... minus... 16..."

Bean sat and waited patiently for the teacher to catch up with him.

"...which is 32! So Monty's brother had 32 stamps."

He started writing again.

"Now, we have to figure out how many they had together!"

The purple marker circled the number 80 on Bean's whiteboard.

"So we have to line up... 48... plus... 32..."

Bean dropped his head back and stared at the ceiling, thoroughly bored.

Watari observed all of this and began to chuckle. The boy was solving the problems faster than the teacher could teach them. The problems were simple enough... but Bean was only five and a half, and the concept of multi-step word problems had only been introduced to him yesterday.

"...so we have to carry the 1..."

Bennett's legs swung back and forth as he waited.

"...and plus 3 is 8, so the answer is... 80! Monty and his brother had 80 stamps altogether. Let's try another one!"

"Bean," Watari spoke up around an amused smile, and the boy looked over. "You can be done with math for today."

Grinning with some relief, Bean sat up, more than happy to exit out of the video with the nice lady who did her math problems way too slowly.

**********

About an hour later, the door opened, and L made a beeline for his monitors. "She's here," he muttered to Watari while Aizawa, who had driven L to and from Toho rejoined his comrades.

"Very well." Watari stood from the desk and exited the room.

"Who's here?" Bean asked with pointed curiosity while the teacher on the screen talked about liquids and solids and other states of matter.

"No one," L responded, but he knew that was a lie, and he did try not to lie to Bean when he could help it. "Er... I mean, no one you're going to see, Bean. Go back to your schoolwork."

"I'm done. She's just giving us an assignment."

"Then do the assignment." L was setting up a little microphone and a sound board of sorts in front of his screens.

"But it's a science experiment." Bean turned to sit on his knees backwards on the chair while his hands held the back of it. "I need help."

"Watari will help you when he is done." L was trying to locate a cord, muttering under his breath as he did.

"But I wanna do it with you." Bean's words were so small and heartfelt as he tipped his messy-haired head.

L stopped what he was doing and pinched his eyes shut momentarily. He loved his son fiercely, but gone were the days when his time and undivided attention and even his train of thought were his own. It was part of being a parent, and despite the fact that he wouldn't change it for the world, there were days that it was hard...

"...I will do it with you before you go to bed tonight, but not now," L compromised. "I have to set this up, it's very important."

Bean seemed disappointed, but he thought about it and accepted his father's answer. "Can I play the Wii?"

"Yes, but keep the volume down, please." L finally located what he was looking for and moved to plug it in.

"Okay!" Bean started to scamper off, but L turned around.

"Bean?"

"Hm??" Bean spun around on one sock.

Sighing, L crouched down. "Come here."

The little boy didn't hesitate for a second, padding his little feet over to be wrapped in his father's arms.

L only held him there for a few seconds before letting go, ruffling his son's hair as he rose back up to stand.

Bean grinned with a small giggle, putting his hands to his hair before turning to skitter off to the other side of the big room where there was a tv set up on an entertainment stand in the corner.

Matsuda had observed the exchange, and he stood up to follow after the boy. "Hey, can I play?" he asked brightly as he approached. It wasn't as though he'd done much today other than fetch coffee.

Bean looked up, then smiled, a dimple appearing just under his left eye. "Da, you can! I already made you a Mii."

Matsuda blinked. "You did??" He felt so... flattered.

"Yeah." Bean stood up as the screen turned white. "I made everybody."

"...oh." While it was still cute, Matsu felt a smidge less special.

The iconic menu music began to play as awfully familiar-looking Miis wandered the Plaza. Bean had made Anya and Matt and Mello as well, and of course Matsuda didn't recognize them, but it was easy to point out Bean, L, and Watari, as well as Chief Yagami, Mogi, Aizawa and Matsuda himself. Ukita was even happily milling about, and Matsuda felt his chest tighten a bit.

"Where's Light?" he asked.

"I didn't make him," Bean answered simply as he looped the wrist strap over his hand.

"Oh, well, maybe we should!" Matsuda suggested. "Since he's part of the Task Force now."

"Nah." Bean handed Matsuda the other Wiimote.

"Oh... kay." Matsuda looped on his own strap as Bean pulled up a game of Mario golf.

**********

Evening fell, and the Task Force was gone for the day. L sat with the monitors off now, thinking over the interrogation of Misa Amane that had just taken place... either she knew nothing, or she was a convincing actress, but either way, L didn't feel any closer to his proof than he had this morning.

"Papa?"

"Hm?" L's staring eyes remained fixed on the desktop as he gnawed on the end of his thumb.

"Are you ready?" Bean tugged on the ends of his sleeves and went up on his toes in his eagerness.

"...oh, is it bedtime?" L was terrible with time. He glanced to the clock, but it was far too early for Bean to be wanting to be tucked in.

"Nooooo, for my experimenttt!" Bean jumped a little.

"Oh. Oh, right." L pushed against the desk's edge with his hand to swivel, his gaze meeting that of the small boy before him. "Yes, I'm ready. What do we have to do?"

"Um, we have to mix corn starch and cold water and record our findings," Bean explained, all important and scientific.

"I see." L stood up and reached for his son's hand, which Bean took happily with some more bouncing excitement.

Once they were in the kitchen, Bean watched as L located the corn starch and took it down, along with a wide-rimmed mixing bowl.

"We need one cup," the bright young student piped up, and he turned to reach up to the counter for the paper he'd printed out. "See, this is where we record our findings."

L plucked up the paper by its corner and read the directions in about a second flat before nodding and handing the paper back to Bean. "Alright. Seems simple enough."

Bean took the paper back before scampering over to get the step stool. He pushed it against the counter while L fished through a drawer for a measuring cup.

"Can I measure?" Bean asked as he climbed the steps to stand eye-level with his father.

"It's your experiment," L chuckled, the back of his hand sliding the measuring cup over. He opened the tub of corn starch and then slid that over too.

Bean grabbed the measuring cup and dug it into the plastic yellow tub. The substance looked like flour, but it had a finer, silkier texture.

L leaned over to peer inside. "Careful. Try not to-"

The overfilled measuring cup caught the lip of the tub, and white powder poofed everywhere.

"Pffft!" Bean sputtered as L quickly took a step back. There was corn starch all over the counter now and all over the front of both of them. "...sorry," Bean uttered meekly.

L just made a low sound in his throat, his eyes silently chiding the child. "...alright, put it in the bowl."

Bean complied, impishly holding a hoodie string to his teeth as he dumped the contents of the measuring cup, another white cloud puffing up as he did. "Now we add cold water! Slowlyyyy," he emphasized as his teacher had earlier.

L nodded and filled a drinking glass with water from the refrigerator before turning and handing it to Bean. Soon, they had created a mixture of a strange sort of gummy liquid.

Bean rolled up his sleeves and hovered both hands over the bowl, then hesitated. He decided to start with one hand, and he carefully sunk his fingers into the cold concoction.

"OOohhh!" he exclaimed, his voice vibrating with giggles.

L had his hands in his pockets now, just observing. Some powdered corn starch still dusted his hair.

Bean squeezed his hand, taking a fist full of the mixture. It hardened, its appearance cracking like dried clay. Then he turned his palm upward and opened his fingers, and the white lump liquified, flowing and dripping off his hand like milk. His blue eyes widened.

"Woahhh... Eto tak kruto..." he breathed, meaning "this is so cool" in his own Russian tongue. Then he dug both hands into the substance to do it again. He laughed. "Papa, look! Try it!"

L cringed. He hated feeling anything sticky or runny or tacky on his skin. "I'm good just watching," he muttered distastefully, even if was enjoying watching his son have a good time.

"Awwww..." Bean pouted a little. "Pleaseee? Just once? It feels sooo weird!"

"That's what I'm afraid of..." L sighed and stepped forward, reluctantly dipping just his index finger and thumb into the mixture, pinching out just a little bit. He rubbed it together against his fingertips, bristling at the way it felt.

"Nooo, you do it like THIS." Before L could protest, Bean took his Papa's wrist and dunked his whole hand.

L instantly winced, his arm going rigid as one eye squinted. "Nhh!"

"Then you squeeze it tight, like this!" Bean demonstrated with both small hands.

If only to appease his boy, L forced his hand to close, feeling the thick liquid morph into a solid in his palm. "I see..." His voice was stiff.

"Now..." Bean rotated his palms upward, opening his long little fingers as the white fluid trickled back into the bowl, and L did the same.

"Interesting stuff," L remarked, dying inside. "...can I wash my hand now?"

Bean giggled and nodded, but he continued playing with his science experiment until it was time for bed.

And long after the little learner was sound asleep, L sat monitoring his own experiment... only his was far more unsettling than corn starch and water.