Lawliet sat at their lunch table, his mind for once not going a million kilometers a femtosecond. It was traveling at a crawl and that was needlessly frustrating. His friends were having no trouble with filling his brain with inane nonsense. At the moment, B and A were in a heated debate over who had the claim on A's jam sandwich.

"B, stop it. It's my sandwich, not yours." A said in a voice that trod the fine line between annoyance and kindness.

"But A, you weren't eating it and besides it's JAM!" B gave A his best puppy dog face, a look that would've slain most, but A held his ground.

"B, you've had enough jam today. Now please, let me eat in peace."

"But A!"

"B, no," A said putting his hands on B's shoulders to try and calm him down.

"B YES!" B yelled as he clasped his hands on either side of A's face.

"Oh for fuck's sake would the two of you just fuck already!" Mello shouted. He and Matt were walking with their food to the table. Matt was pulling off some impressive multi-tasking; he was walking with Mello, carrying his tray in one hand and playing his game in the other. How he didn't walk into things constantly, Lawliet would never know.

A gave Mello an impatient look, opened his mouth to say something but thought better of it and closed it.

"What are the love-birds 'fighting' about now?" Matt asked. Mello and him sat down directly opposite of B and A. He still didn't look up from his game.

A gave Matt a pointed look but ignored the 'love birds' remark. "B is currently trying to steal my sandwich."

"Make that successfully stole." B said with a mouthful of his stolen treasure.

A spun around to face his friend who was eating his sandwich and smiling. "What the…" he turned to face Lawliet. "Why didn't you stop him?"

"As you pointed out, it wasn't my sandwich, so it isn't really my problem."

"Here you can have my sandwich, I don't want it." Near, who had been entirely silent the entire lunch period passed his sandwich across the table to A.

"Thank you Near, for being the only polite person at this table." A said and gladly took the sandwich.

Near nodded thoughtfully but didn't say anything. He just laid his head down on the table.

"Matt eat, you're thin enough and I need my partner in crime." Mello smacked him on the back.

Matt paused his game and set the handheld on the table. He turned to Mello and then proceeded to eviscerate him. "First of all, I don't need to eat, I get my nutrition at home, you would know. Second of all, I'm too thin, you look like a fuckin' chick from behind; you remember that one time at the park. Of course you do, so I don't need to here shit from the human stick."

Note to self, never interrupt Matt's gaming session.

"Matt that was both completely uncalled for and fucking awesome!" Mello smirked.

"What incident at the park are we talking about?" B leaned forward, having finished his sandwich.

"Oh, so Mello and I were chillin' at a park up the road, don't ask what we were doing. Anyway we were just hangin' out when this dude walks up behind him and cops a feel of his ass. Mello stops dead and turns around says 'you wanna rethink that buddy?' and the guy's got the most confused look on his face, dude fuckin booked it outta there. It was the best moment ever." Matt was almost hysterical by the end. Lawliet had to admit; it was funny.

B grinned mischievously. "Wow Mello, you can't get women but men are lining up to suck you dry."

"B!" A smacked his shoulders. "Don't be so crass."

"Oh lighten up A, it's just a joke." B turned to Mello, "Besides, I feel like payback is in order for his comment about us earlier, now if you'll excuse me, I need to find Misa Ammane."

"Why on earth, would you actively seek out Misa Ammane?" Lawliet asked.

"Believe it or not, as insufferable as she can be, there isn't a woman more qualified to help me with my project."

"What, you mean your cosmetology project?" A perked up instantly.

"I still can't believe that you're in that class. Aren't you the only guy in there?"

"Yes, Mello I am the only boy in that class and I do it because I'm good at it, I've created art I'll continue to do so, now if you excuse me I have a canvas to paint." With that B picked up his bag and walked off.

"I will never understand that boy," Lawliet whispered. B was an enigma to everyone. One moment he was acting like a child and the next he was spouting philosophy. He was always a strange boy.

"He's not so bad, once you get to know him." A stared of after him.

"A, no offense, but I think you're the only one who thinks that." Near lifted his head from the table. "You are the only one who knows him though."

"Yeah, he doesn't like people." A mumbled, he was zoning out.

"The feeling is mutual." Matt muttered, more to himself than to anyone else. A still caught it.

"What's that supposed to mean!"

"A you've seen this guy, he's creepy! I wouldn't be surprised if Misa's having a small heart attack right now."

"I'll admit that B's methods are a tad off-putting but he'd never hurt anybody." A looked like he was about to either sob or hit something.

Lawliet stepped in before things got any more uncomfortable. "What Matt is trying to say in his own stupid way is that B can unnerve some folks and while we know he's a good person, the rest of the world might have a hard time believing that."

"I find it rather funny that we're having this whole conversation behind B's back. What good friends we all must be." Near, he always comes in with the most unhelpful of logic. "I'm going to the library."

"I'll come with you." A huffed, and with that the two stood up and left the lunch-hall.

When the two were gone, Lawliet reached across the table and smacked Matt. "You are absolutely tactless."

"Hey it's true."

"It's still unwise to test A's patience. You might wake up with either of them putting a knife to your throat."

"Speaking of people it's unwise to fuck with, Light Yagami is heading' over here." Mello was looking over Lawliet's shoulder. "He doesn't look particularly amused."

Lawliet braced himself; he'd always admired Light for his composure and social skills. And while Lawliet had a firm grasp on the former, he was thoroughly lacking in the latter. He looked in his periphery to see Light was indeed heading in his direction and he did look quite upset. When he got to their table, he tapped Lawliet on the shoulder.

"May I speak to you in private for a moment?"

"Sure," Lawliet stood up and pushed his chair in and followed Light. He led them out of the cafeteria and into the adjacent hallway. He stopped and turned around to face Lawliet.

"What's wrong with your friend?"

"If you mean B, than I must ask for your patience as I go through the extensive list."

"I mean it, he essentially kidnapped my girlfriend!"

Lawliet put his hands up in a calming gesture. "Wait what, when?"

"Just now! He came up to us, demanded she come with him, and when she said that she wouldn't go with him until lunch was over, he grabbed her by the arm and dragged her!"

"Oh my," Lawliet had heard stories about B's anger, but this'd be the first time he'd been s open about it. "This is unusual, even for him."

"Should I be worried?" Light's voice lowered in concern.

"I don't believe so, B may be quick to anger but I don't think he'd harm her," Lawliet didn't whole-heartedly believe that but for Light's sake, he didn't mention that fact.

"Good," Light let out a breath. "Just tell him if he tries that again, there'll be hell to pay."

"I'll ask A to talk to him about it."

"Why can't you do it?"

"B doesn't hold many people's opinion in high regard, which includes mine." Lawliet sighted. "A's is the exception to that rule."

"You ever wondered why?"

"No, they've always been close." Lawliet was lost in his own thoughts again.

"Are they you know, a thing?" Light asked.

"Not officially, but if the idea's never crossed either of their minds, than my name isn't …" Before he could finish however, the bell rang for class.

"I have to get to class, see you around." Light walked past him and headed towards his class.

"Well, looks like we missed an interesting conversation." Mello's voice broke Lawliet out of his trance.

"Hmm, what," Lawliet for once, didn't get the joke. Though he had enough insight to know it was probably at his expense.

"Never mind, hey listen, just keep it low-key. We wouldn't want Ammane catching' wind of this little moment now would we." Mello clicked his tongue and winked. Lawliet was starting to get the joke, and he didn't like it.

"I'm gonna go find A." Lawliet walked towards the library.

"You two have the same class, just wait for him there." Mello's words were lost on him. Lawliet needed to talk to A about this, not just what happened in the cafeteria, but just B in general.

Lawliet caught up to A on his way to their class, he looked like he'd been crying. This wasn't a good sign. "A, are you alright?"

"Do I look alright?" A snapped, then realizing how cruel that came off added. "No, I'm not."

"I'm guessing you saw what happened?"

"I saw him dragging her away; he looked like he was enjoying himself. She was struggling to get away from him, and I did nothing to help her." A started to cry again.

"A, it's not your fault, you couldn't do anything." Lawliet put his hand on A's shoulder but it was swatted away.

"Save it, Near already talked to me about it." Lawliet made a mental note to thank Near later.

"You know you've got to talk to him about this, he won't get better if-"

"Don't you think I know that? I just can't bare to see him upset and mark my words, if I talk to him about this, he'll be angry."

"But he might actually listen to you," Lawliet put his hands on A's shoulders and held him at arm's length. "A, I can think of no one more qualified to help B."

"Okay, I'll do it." A's voice sounded small.

"Good, now let's get to class," Lawliet putt his arms around A's shoulders awkwardly and walked with him to class.

Their class was Pre-Calculus, a class neither of them had trouble with. It was a class they could zone out of and still have a better grasp on the subject than most. Lawliet supposed that was due to the tow of them lacking 'a life' so to speak. Lawliet didn't hear him come in, but when A and Lawliet turned to leave, there was B, leaned up against the classroom door. The moment he saw A, he grinned. When he saw the redness of A's eyes and the flushness of his face, B's smile dropped. He came over and gave A a short but none the less sincere hug.

Lawliet felt like he was interrupting a very private moment, like he shouldn't be there. Before he could dwell on the matter too much however, they broke apart and walked off. Lawliet had to jog to catch up. B turned around and gave Lawliet an accusatory glare.

He knew what'd happened and he was pissed.