A white-haired boy walked down the street, carrying a toy, hunching over a bit. He wasn't smiling, but his eyes were bright.
"Near. Where do you think you're going?"
Turning around slowly, the young boy stared at a dirty-blonde or light brown haired teenager.
"Yagami, what are you doing here?"
The teen stuck his hands in his pockets and took a few steps forward before Near put his hand out to stop him. "What do you want, Light?"
Light Yagami sighed. "I want to talk."
Near put his hand down and Light made his way over to the little white mess.
"You know, Near…"
Near put his hand up again and shook his head. "I do not wish for you to apologize when you have done nothing wrong. I am figuring out who murdered Mello."
Light flinched. He still couldn't believe he had found Mello's body bloodied, bruised and dead that one day he visited the park.
"I wasn't going to apologize. I was going to tell you not to be so hard on yourself."
The orphan turned to face him slowly, and then blinked. He didn't say anything. He just stared.
After about 5 minutes, Yagami couldn't take it anymore.
"Why are you staring at me?"
"I am looking for signs of intelligence."
Light threw his hands up, squinted and shook his head. "What?"
"Please listen, Light; I have known Mello since we lived at Wammy's house. We were both L's successors. He meant a great deal to me, even if we were not close. I am upset." Near sighed. "Of course I am going to be hard on myself. We were not close, by any means, and he surely did not like me, but we were raised together, by the same man. If I do not catch his killer I will not be able to live with that knowledge, so of course I need to be hard on myself."
Light nodded; sometimes you just couldn't beat the brains.
Near looked down at his toy, a robot, and didn't move. Light couldn't see his face but he knew tears were running down it.
Setting his hand on the little boy's back, he whispered, soothingly, "Near. We should get going. L will be wondering what has happened to us."
Near nodded and, still looking down, followed Light back to L's headquarters.