Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note or any of the characters, obviously.
She's pretty cute, that Japanese girl, with a nice body and an outfit that looks like she just stepped out of one of his RPGs. Goth loli dress that leaves just enough to the imagination, personality that's childish and innocent but sexual - she seems kind of stupid at that, but it's okay, because too smart and every word becomes loaded with possible second meanings. Not that he's ever talked with her, but it's nice to imagine it, if he were just a normal guy and she a co-worker or something and not Possibly-Second-Kira. So he watches her through his binoculars and wonders whether that blonde hair is real. It looks real, the way it shines - soft and silken and he wonders if maybe she's half-European or something, 'cause he doesn't think Asians get blonde hair that looks like that.
(He likes blonde hair, likes the way it looks as he runs his fingers through it, like rivers of gold or spun wheat or the sun. Sometimes at the Wammy House he'd wait 'til Mello was sure to be asleep, and then sneak over to pet those soft, yellow strands. He suspects that Mello might have known, but the other boy never brought it up.)
Ridner takes his breath away, the first time she saunters into their hideout with sleek confidence. Beautiful and intelligent, all the way on the other side of the spectrum from Misa. She's playing both sides, N and M, and in a way she's like Mello with more self-control. Not exactly on Mello's level, sure, but few are, and she's like a golden queen with looks and brains. The self-made heroine - he fantasizes what he'd do to her given the chance, except in the end, they're all just fantasies because everything goes back to Mello.
Mello who never asks but expects, but who came up to him anyway, burnt skin still peeling along the left side, scabs of blood where long fingers had scratched in irritation. (He'd applied salve later and wrapped it, and if he purposely brushed blonde hair back once too often, who could really tell?) He'd gathered his life savings and his games and he'd followed; he will always follow, because everything comes back to Mello. In the orphanage it was L and Near and Mello, but Mello was closest, the boy who picked fights and played with them and the one he can just reach out to touch spun wheat. "Hey Mello." Mello turns to look at him in the middle of licking half-melted chocolate, and there's a stupid kind of joy that Mello looks at him. Mello's real, not just a character, and in this game they're playing there's no save feature but he trusts Mello to never hit 'Game Over'. Mello snorts when he doesn't say anything else, goes back to making preparations and ignoring him when he tugs at strands of blonde hair.
(Mello probably does know, he thinks.)