Constant Temptation
by Dragonrider4000 is an AU Death Note fic told in the ancient tradition of the OOC / slash mode. It begins with the standard Light and L fall in love during the Yotsuba arc but quickly deviates into something with more original content. As L and Light come to a mutually beneficial arrangement, one of L's old enemies uses all the hype over Kira to escape from prison, intent on destroying L and all he holds dear and because he keeps changing his appearance he is protected from the powers of the Death Note. Even with the combined forces of the police, Wammy's House, Kira, and The Mafia at his disposal will L be able to put a stop to Beyond's reign of terror?
Constant Temptation provides examples of:
- A Day In The Lime Light: For Sayu and Sachiko, Ryuk, Watari.
- A Million Is a Statistic: Kira is redeemable... Beyond is not...
- Acceptable Breaks from Canon: Screw the timeline. Mello's gotta be a mafia leader and he's gotta have that scar!
- Accidental Pervert: Mello, Matt, and Near just happened to start watching L and Light's bedroom activities.
- The Atoner: Light, kind of, sort of. He has no qualms about killing but has toned it down a bit for L's sake.
- Babies Ever After: Light and L adopt a little girl at the end of the story.
- Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Light is more than willing to Shoot the Dog for L's sake, as is Rem out of loyalty and a desire for vengeance, also the mafia rides to the rescue.
- Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Subverted. Light's Rousing Speech breaks Jason of his conditioning.
- Brains and Bondage: Light is very into bondage and he teaches L how to play.
- Breaking Speech: B gives one to Light after torturing his father. Light doesn't flinch.
- Brought Down to Normal: Ryuk, and for a time Light is stripped of ALL of his weapons.
- C-List Fodder: Several Original Characters and a few members of the Kira Taskforce.
- Denied Food as Punishment: B to his prisoners.
- Distress Ball: Light picks it up almost immediatly after he decides he doesn't really want to be Kira anymore.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Light explains to L that he has gotten so good at acting and secret keeping because he is gay and trying to conceal it from his extremely homophobic father... (also he's Kira but he doesn't know that at the time).
- Don't Tell Mama: The trio find themselves in a position where they have to confess to spying on L and Light...Near: Are we sure we want to do this?Mello: It's not like you to have doubts.Near: I don't usually face such definite trouble.Matt: That is the one thing we can guarantee will happen. We still in agreement over who to confess to?Mello: Light?Near: Light.
- Doorstopper: 102 chapters. It's not a fanfic, it's a NOVEL.
- Easily Forgiven: Kira, but then the ruthless crimes of Beyond and his gang are so terrifying and personal that the former Kira taskforce is willing to accept help from and stop pursuing Kira.
- Enemy Mine: L, Kira, and the mafia against B and his followers.
- Eviler than Thou: B somehow makes Kira look like a decent human being.
- Failure-to-Save Murder: Light blamed himself for being unable to protect Taro and the others from his father.
- Fan Art: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], and [7]
- Fingore: Beyond is rather fond of slowly sawing off pieces of his victims and making his victims' loved ones watch.
- Forced to Watch: B sends L live feeds of his torture sessions.
- Freudian Excuse: Light. His father arranged the deaths of his previous boyfriends.
- Freudian Trio: Mello, Matt, and Near.
- Genre Shift: Romance -> Horror -> Action Movie -> Romance.
- The Grovel: Unbeknownst to Light, L caught sight of him groveling to Misa and Rem when Light pleads with Rem not to kill L and informs Misa he's gay and can't we just be friends? And then Light begs them BOTH not to kill him.
- Guilt Complex: Light has a severe one even before becoming Kira. See Freudian Excuse.
- Heel Realization: "If I kept going now I'd be a monster!"
- Hero Harasses Helpers: L tries to drive his allies away because he's afraid they will be targeted.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Jason, but then he gets better because of Rem's Heroic Sacrifice and some of Rem's lifespan was transfered to him.
- Humanity Ensues: Ryuk is caught and punished for interfering in human affairs. This is his punishment. Ryuk decides it was totally worth it when Watari shows him how to make apple pie.
- I Have Your Boyfriend: Beyond uses this tactic against L.
- It Runs in the Family: In the right learning environment Sayu is just as smart as her brother. Also Light inherited his axe-craziness from his father.
- It's Personal: To get to L, Beyond is targeting all of L's allies, that is EVERYONE that L has ever had contact with.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: If you think Light's a Karma Houdini in the beginning of this fic... it expires rather harshly later when he really takes it for the team.
- Kid Fic: Light and L are something like surrogate parents to the trio and Eleanor.
- Kirk Summation: Light to Beyond, Beyond responds with Shut Up, Kirk!
- Lamarck Was Right: In the right learning environment Sayu is becoming just as smart and confident as her brother.
- Lighter and Softer: Yeah really, (in terms of
character interpretation at least, see Draco in Leather Pants). - A Lighter Shade of Black: Beyond's crimes are so gruesome that the Kira taskforce is willing to accept help from Kira.
- The Mafia: Mello is the heir to one.
- Mind Rape: Beyond is a master at it.
- Must Make Amends: Light after he gives up on being Kira.
- My Greatest Failure: When Rem fails to protect Misa from Beyond.
- Light's motive in becoming Kira is RetConned to be much more personal. He seeks to bring justice to the world because his father killed his past boyfriends and he could do nothing to protect them.
- Normally, I Would Be Dead Now: Thanks to the S&M games he used to play Light has a very high pain tolerance and while he's not Too Kinky to Torture it does allows him to get through his ordeal with Beyond.
- Not So Stoic: Light after he kills his father.
- Overlord Jr.: In this ficverse Mello is the heir to the British Mafia.
- Past Victim Showcase: After B tortures Souichiro. And later after B tortures Light. Both times the protagonists are Forced to Watch via video feed.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Souichiro Yagami is made into a raging homophobe.
- Polyamory: Mello x Matt x Near.
- Promotion to Parent: Light and L are Parental Substitutes for the Wammy's kids.
- Punch a Wall: Mogi after the taskforce learns that Light really was Kira all along and that L was protecting him from prosecution.
- Redemption in the Rain: a certain scene from episode 25 is brought to mind when Light decides L is more important to him than his crusade.
- Revenge by Proxy: Beyond targets everyone L has ever had any form of contact with in order to draw him out.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After Beyond brutally murders Misa, killing Beyond becomes Rem's only goal.
- Sex–Face Turn: Light with L. Upon regaining his Kira memories he realizes he's about to kill his lover and become the very thing he's sworn to destroy.
- Start of Darkness: In Back Story, Light's motivations are made more personal than just a crusade against criminals and evil in general.
- The Stoic: L and Light. When Beyond takes Souichiro Yagami hostage, and is giving Light, his father, and L "The Reason You Suck" Speech and how he's going to force them all to watch as he gives Da Chief a slow, painful Cruel and Unusual Death Light's response is to apathetically examine his fingernails, snark back at Beyond, and then screw up Beyond's carefully laid plans by Cutting the Knot. Protip: When your victim for Mind Rape is a Sociopath with daddy issues who can kill from a distance, holding his father hostage isn't going to give you the result you're looking for. However Light breaks down in a Not So Stoic moment immediately afterwards.
- True Companions: L and his allies. He has more friends than he thinks.
- Villainous Lineage: Apparently Light got his warped morals and Axe-Craziness from his father...
- Villains Out Shopping: When not purging the world of evil, Kira enjoys teaching math to young genii and playing harmless S & M Bondage games with his life-partner.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Light with his father, Beyond with L.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Light/Kira before his Heel–Face Turn.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Light/Kira is retconned to be one.
