In the end, the best option would be to just get away. It was only for her sake. Personally L realized that he wouldn’t be bothered by his actions tomorrow. And it wasn’t as though he had to worry about her becoming a liability as this was only going to last for a day and any of his enemies here were probably preoccupied with these matters as well. This was perhaps, the only time when L could comfortably be in love with someone and not have to worry or care.
The only thing that stopped him was the fact that if he did give in to his feelings for her, she could be cross with him tomorrow. She was important to him outside of this situation. She could be useful with her powers against Niflheim, and even though he would not admit it fully to himself, he found that liked her company. It would be a shame to lose that to a day like this. No matter how much it was hurting him right now, he wasn’t going to give in unless he knew she would be comfortable accepting this tomorrow.
He would feel guilty about this when it wore off though, and he knew that there wasn’t much he could do to make it up to her. But this was just the way it was going to have to be.
L tried to move quickly after he got inside but apparently walking and thinking at the same time was not his strong suit. He miscalculated the last step on the stairway to his room, slipped and fell down the steps letting out a small yelp in both surprise and pain. He rolled about halfway down before his hand caught hold of the railing.
Descent stopped, L lay on the steps for a moment, slowly checking for physical damage by moving his arms and legs. He was sore, there was likely going to be some bruising, but other than that he seemed alright… until he got around to testing his ankle where he felt the most amount of pain. He winced as he tried to move it.
So much for getting out of here in twenty minutes. It was very doubtful he would be able to walk very far on it. And judging by the pain, it was going to swell.
Sighing at his luck, L pulled himself up, using the railing for support. He needed to put some ice on it, but if he went back down stairs he ran the risk of running into Rachel again, so he just started ascending again slowly in the direction of his room.
Once he slipped through the door, L slowly got to work packing to leave. With his ankle twisted, he may not be capable of getting out of here at the time he said he would, but he was still planning to leave.
While he was disconnecting the cameras from his laptop, he saw Rachel come back inside. He thought he noticed her eyes were red when she passed by near the camera. Had she been crying? The thought just made L feel worse about the situation. He hadn’t had any desire to upset her. He was just… acting as he was supposed to.
He finished disconnecting the cameras, packed his laptop, and change of clothes into a backpack he found in his closet, and waited in his room for some of the swelling to go down before he ventured down stairs to collect the remaining things he needed from the kitchen.
L didn’t emerge from his room that evening. Thanks to the fact that he had disconnected his cameras, he had no way of knowing Rachel had left her room as well and that their paths would be crossing again. If he had, he would have avoided the kitchen and hoped to find the things he needed out in the Emptiness
Instead, stepped into the kitchen to grab some snacks and make a thermos of tea and nearly bumped into her as he entered. He wanted to turn around right then, but L thought he owed her some explanation as to why he was there still.
“I’m sorry. I was delayed” He said scratching the back of his neck.