Disclaimer: Don't own DN, didn't happen. Although, if this had indeed happened, it'd be an indication of why Mello hates Near so damn much.
Summary: Mello would have been a better friend to Near if only the younger boy had told Mello what the hell 'the wiggles' were. Two-shot.
The Wiggles
By Dale, Candy Apple Heart Attack
Mello had been to the SPK headquarters the week previous to retrieve the only remaining photograph of himself and to exchange some information with Near on the Kira case. Mello hadn't liked being in the building then, and if that was so, why in the hell was he there again?
He was there because Near had tracked down Mello's private phone line and had insisted the blonde came to see him because he had vital information to pass on to Mello. The blonde had gracefully told Near to sod off and shove that information up any hole he fancied, but the white haired boy had insisted through his robotic monotone that the information he had to share with Mello would be worth the blonde's physical and mental discomfort of having to be in a room with him.
And thus, Mello had grudgingly agreed to meet with Near and there he was, waiting impatiently for the younger boy to stop building his dice tower, turn around and say what he had to say to Mello. If the blonde hadn't been so sure that kicking the dice tower would delay what Near had to say, he would have punted the dice straight to hell. Maybe his foot could stray enough to kick Near in the face and make him bleed all over his immaculate pajamas…
But that would certainly delay things. And heaven forbid, Near's blood would stain his leather pants and his boots.
Faced with the possible outcomes of forcing Near's attention to focus on him, he admitted that waiting a few more minutes without exerting violence upon Near would be the best course of action. If he shut up and controlled himself, he'd be out of the building quickly and full of new leads, instead of having to clean up and dispose of a body without three of the best FBI agents around finding out.
Nevertheless, he could always ask to be acknowledged in a rather polite manner…but the thought of politeness towards Near was enough to make his tongue want to squirm all the way down to his intestines and implode there.
But what the hell, he was already uncomfortable being in Near's presence, so might as well talk to him.
Although the thought of how joyous the sound of his boot connecting with the twit's nose and shattering bones would be did wonders for his enthusiasm.
"Near?"
Mello's voice was clipped and curt. He didn't want to sound annoyed, but he didn't want to sound weak and acquiescent. Near did not turn around nor gave any sign of having heard Mello, but the blonde knew the little twerp had heard him. Sure enough, Near finally addressed him.
"Yes, Mello, I am aware you are waiting for me to speak and I shall arrive to the point shortly. But first, I will finish this tower, if you don't mind…"
Near knew how much Mello 'minded' waiting for anything, especially for anything that Near might have to offer. The younger boy was just being a smug bastard by saying so. The younger boy's fingers kept grasping at the small spotted blocks and arranging them in complex patterns, one upon the other. Now, Near was moving his hands with slow and precise movements as he was building the top-most part of his dice tower. His concentration seemed unbreakable and his movements seemed planned down to the last millimeter. Mello would have watched him work more closely if he hadn't been so busy being irked by the sight and sound of Near existing.
"You know I mind. I have things to do that do not involve childish entertainment…" Mello commended himself for keeping anger out of his voice.
Near placed three more dice and admired his tower for a mere second or two. He turned around slowly to face Mello and greeted the elder boy with his trademark placid face and poker stare.
Mello fixed Near with a stare of his own and banished the wonderful thoughts of mauling Near to the back of his mind before speaking.
"Tell me what you found so I can get going. I have somewhere to be and I cannot afford to waste time on an unnecessary play date."
Smooth, thought Mello. He found himself growing confident that he could be cutting without resorting to the blade tucked in to the side of his boot. Wit was definitely on his side today.
Near ignored his jab and he began to talk.
"Based on what you told me about the Shinigami's notebook and the surveillance Rester and Gevanni have set up regarding Light Yagami…"
Near never quite finished his sentenced; His frail frame double over in a sudden contraction and his face quickly changed from its stony look to one of stone cold terror and unpleasant surprise. Mello could see the boy's skinny back bow and his body go taut as if he was in an incredible amount of pain.
Mello was shocked to see the boy react in that manner and he wondered if the pain Near seemed to be feeling was coming from actually moving his facial muscles or any other movement out of the norm for him. The blonde was fascinated by the sight and couldn't decide whether he should be amused or alarmed.
Another convulsion shook Near, causing his back to arch backwards until Mello thought Near's spine would snap like a twig beneath a shoe. Near's legs shot out from underneath him and crashed against the dice tower. The edifice came tumbling down on Near's lap and legs, the little blocks rolling down around his body and away from him, as if running away from the same fate that had befallen their master architect.
Mello finally snapped out of his confusion and approached the writhing boy swiftly, and in moments, Mello's hands were reaching for Near's shoulders, gripping the trembling body and offering some support to the white-haired boy.
All those times that Mello had imagined what Near's face would look like with some emotion shaping it and he was finally seeing it…and he wasn't very sure he liked it as much as he thought he would. The discomfort of seeing Near's pain was beyond him and that made him wonder whether he really hated Near as much as he said he did or if it was an excuse to hide the possibility that he actually cared about the boy.
"What is it?"
There was no way Mello could disguise the concern written on his face and peeking out of him through his words. His mind was still fixated on the idea of hurting the boy, but the way his hands were shaking the boy was nothing if not careful. The blonde racked his brain a mile a minute trying to figure out what could be wrong with the boy in his arms and the thought that came to his head stopped him in his tracks.
This was no heart attack, but it could certainly be Kira's doing. As much as Mello wanted to push that thought from his mind, the whimpers and gasps coming from Near wouldn't let him ward that thought off. The boy's gaze snapped to Mello's and the blonde forgot to breathe for a second or two as he watched Near gather his strength agonizingly slow, trying to speak. Mello even leaned forward to listen to the boy as if proximity could somehow aid the younger boy.
"…the wiggles."
That was all Near said before another stab of pain knocked the air and the fight out of him.
"What the hell...?"
To add insult to injury, Mello was now confused aside from being worried. As with everything he could not understand, Mello's confusion quickly changed into anger and he found himself shaking Near again, but not of out worry this time. He was shaking the boy as a way of demanding answers.
"Oh, God, the wiggles."
"What the hell is that, Near? Is this some sort of sort of stupid game?"
So, maybe Kira wasn't behind this, after all. By the way Near sounded, it was possible this wasn't the first time he was seized by the mysterious pains. The blonde's anger didn't last long though; Near's jerky movements became more frenzied and the boy was beginning to struggle violently in Mello's arms. His words were also becoming agitated, jumbled and sharply punctuated by breathless gasps.
"Oh, God, I've got the wiggles…the wiggles…no, no, no…"
It was true that Mello had seen some grisly thing in his short lifetime, especially during his time with the mafia, but being so up close to a pained Near was baffling, for lack of a better term. The rapid decay of the snow-haired boy was happening right before the blonde's eyes and he didn't like it one bit. Near's eyes were full of tears and glints of terror, but their focus was fading fast, lending the young boy the appearance of wasting away and sinking to a place where Mello could not reach him to get him out.
"Near?"
The worst case scenarios were mixed up inside Mello's head, making it difficult to breathe and make a quick decision regarding Near's almost non-existent well-being. He didn't want to think the runt was dying…but if he were, why the hell was he so reluctant to let him die?
"I'vegotthewigglesI'vegotthewigglesI'vegotthewiggles!"
Thiskidwasn'tdyingthiskidwasn'tdyingthiskidwasn'tdying. A voice inside Mello's head kept whimpering in the same pitch as Near. The blonde sought desperately to get back to familiar territory – he needed to get angry, furious, miffed…anything. Anything that would allow him to get a grip on himself and the situation.
"Damnit, Near, It'd be a great help if you told me what the fuck 'the wiggles' are, you know…"
Mello hoped 'miffed' would work.
"Help me."
Near whispered fearfully and breathlessly painfully close to Mello's face. There was no way Mello could be anything but afraid for the boy's health when he spoke in that voice. Heart breaking wasn't the word, but it was the first word that came to mind.
"Near, what is it?! Talk to me, damnit!"
The blonde it was pointless to ask him since all Near had said were two words that, for the life of him, didn't make sense to him at all. Just what the fuck were 'the wiggles'?
"The wiggles, Mello…h-help me…"
There had to be someone who knew how to fix Near, someone who could tell what to do with the boy…anyone that could tell him anything…
"Aw, fuck this. Near, stay put and I'll be right back."
Despite Near's nearly incoherent mumbling and groaning about Mello staying with him, but the blonde made up his to find someone. This really was beyond him and he fully admitted he couldn't deal with Near like that…at all. He'd never been able to handle the boy, and thus he always walked away from him. Anger and hate were always the best excuses to walk away faster.
But this time, he'd come back to Near of his own volition and not because he had to. Setting Near carefully on the floor, he scrambled out of the room in flash; the resounding thunk of his heavy boots pounding the ground all the way down the corridor being his sole follower.
If there was someone who could deal with the problem, it was the Rester guy – he seemed to be the closest to Near out of the other SPK agents and, after all, he was the boy's right hand man. The manpower to Near's mastermind.
After turning, running and shouting, Mello stumbled upon a room with several computers, other equipment and Rester. The blonde had never liked those shmucks Near called FBI agents, but he had never been so glad to see the burly blonde man ready to spring to action in the blink of an eye.
"Rester! Rester!"
Anthony stood up quickly at seeing Mello burst in so suddenly. Upon noticing that Near was not with Mello, there were several scenarios running through his head, and he didn't like them one bit. Mello could tell Rester wasn't happy to see the young blonde from the hardened look on the older man's face. It was look that at any other moment, Mello would have drawn his gun at and shot him. But now was not the time to shoot anyone because there was no time to waste.
"What is it, Mello?"
Apparently, Mello wasn't the only hostile person in the building. Any move coming from Rester screamed 'I'll fucking kill you without a second though if you give me a reason to', and Mello didn't like it, but he had to shrug it off. He was never good at keeping calm, so he just spat out what he was dying to say.
"It's Near! Something happened to him!"
If Mello had been in the mindset to shoot anyone at any moment, he could have reacted accordingly to Rester charging toward him and grabbing him by the neck. From one moment to the next, Mello's feet were not touching the ground and his trachea was wilting beneath the force of Rester choking him. Mello had no time to react accordingly before the commander was shouting at him, demanding answers the American way.
"What'd you do to him, you punk?"
"W-what? I didn't do anything to the kid for once in my life! Let me down, damnit!"
As disgraceful as his rebuttal was, he couldn't say anything else. It was rather difficult to fight someone when they were cutting off his air supply. However, Mello's fighting spirit made up for his sudden lack of wit. He brought one knee up and kicked Rester on the stomach. Rester released him on reflex and fought the urge to wince and grab at his stomach. Both blondes were battling their restraint and were ready to jump at each other's throats, but Rester regained his composure and snapped back to reality.
"Do you know what happened then?"
"I'm not sure…All I know is that he was fine one minute and then he was screaming and thrashing around the next. He kept saying something about 'the wiggles' or something like that…"
The mere mention of 'the wiggles' had been enough to make Rester's hardened look crumble into abject horror.
"Oh, boy."
He liked Rester's terrified look even less than his usual. Those wiggles couldn't be good news, gauging from the reactions he was getting from near and the commander.
"What? What's wrong with that kid?"
Mello was really starting to get pissed about being out of the loop. He was just trying to help, but no one would tell him what was going on. The people working for Near were just as useless as the boy employing them. As much as he was angry, he was still worried, which in turn angered even more.
"You say he was talking about 'the wiggles'. Are you sure?"
How condescending, how paranoid. Why would Mello joke about something like that when he didn't even know what it was?
"Yeah, that's what he kept saying."
Standing at the threshold of the computer station, Gevanni and Lidner had their mouths hanging open with disbelief and something like apprehension. The young brunette slipped up and cursed, startling Mello and Rester.
"Shit. Where is he now?"
Mello's eyes focused on Gevanni, then Lidner, then Rester.
"He's in the interrogation room…that's where I left him…"
In turn, Anthony shifted his heavy gaze from one agent to another and then to Mello before telling them all
"We have to go get him."
Mello nodded and the four of them took off running towards the interrogation room, expecting hell and then some.
AN: Gah, stupid FF didn't save my author's note. Fuck writing it again.
All I have to say is, keep reading! it's worth your while and you'll Near in a whole new light...Lol. Next update in a couple of days, max. maybe tomorrow.
Chip, it's for you! And the people who read our stories, of course. :
Suspense, suspense! See y'all at two!
-Das Dale.