I sat comfortably in between the two. Mello and Near, despite their distaste for one another, were probably more alike than they cared to admit…if they even noticed. How I managed to get along with both of them equally nobody had ever really figured out, including me. One of the girls had made a big deal teasing me about it earlier that day; something about me being a flirt, or a kiss-up, or something. I hadn't really been paying attention, since she was only talking to be obnoxious, and I was busy helping (more like watching, but whatever) Near build one of his famous architecture a la dice.

I sighed as the summer night air swept through the vacant grounds, cooling off my neck. The girl's words must have bothered me more than I cared to admit, either that or Near was a mind-reader (I had to wonder, sometimes), because soon I could feel his dark eyes boring holes into me.

"You shouldn't let her bother you."

Mello took another bite out of his chocolate bar and snorted, "are you still thinking about that?!"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "I'm not bothered by it. But I was thinking about it. It actually is kinda weird to be able to get along with both of you, ya know," I laid back on the cool stone of the landing, my hands behind my head, "I mean you two being mortal enemies and all." Mello didn't even look at Near, but even from my position I could see his lip curl in disgust at the reminder that his rival was only a few feet away from him. Near's expression remained blank as always; his hand deftly twirling a lock of hair. I sighed, which caused Mello to look back at me, a smirk on his face.

"It's just because you're completely bipolar, psycho."

I sat up, smirking back at him. "I prefer the term emotionally varied." Mello took another bite of chocolate and snorted with a look of amused disbelief that I had somehow convinced myself I was sane. I smiled and leaned back on my hands. I watched as an evil glint filled Mello's eye. I looked away, and tried to ignore it, until his voice cut the silence.

"She's right, though."

I turned my attention back to him, and he smirked. "Don't deny it. Even I'm amazed at how much of a flirt you can be."

I felt anger build up inside me, but I swallowed it down. Getting heated up over Mello's words would only egg him on. He knew how much I hated being called a flirt. I don't know how he knew, but he did. He always knew exactly how to push everyone's buttons, especially mine. I took a deep breath to calm myself. "If you're going to start believing all of that crap too Mello, I'm going to have to knock brains back into you again." I turned to look at him again, the smirk still on his face.

"You're way too violent for a girl you know." A lot of smart comebacks for that flooded into my head (especially involving that stupid girly laugh of his). My face must have given away my thoughts, and he glared at me, silently daring me to voice what we both knew I was thinking. I decided that nothing I came up with would get me off without a good knock on the head, so in the end I spent my energy trying desperately to hide my smirk. It didn't work. I bit my lip, and tried to contain my laugh as his eyes narrowed. My goodness, he had a look that could make children cry. In the end, I gave up, and burst out laughing, leaving my face plastered with a huge grin. I stuck out my tongue at him, and leaned my head against Near's shoulder. I could feel Near stiffen against the action, but he didn't push me away. Mello looked like he was about to say something to continue being a jerk, when Matt opened the door behind us, his orange goggles reflecting the porch lights.

"Mello! Show's about to start!" Against Near's shoulder, I sighed. I didn't know what the show was called, only that involved a lot of screaming and shooting, and that it wasn't good to be within 100 ft. of it if one wanted to sleep. Which was unfortunate since my room was right next to Mello's. The show aired every Friday night at 11:00 pm. It had been going on for about a month now, and even though I usually didn't sleep until midnight anyway, the lack of peace was starting to wear on me. Tonight happened to be marathon, ending with a special new episode, putting the ending time somewhere between 3 and 4 in the morning. Whoopee. Matt seemed to genuinely enjoy the show, but sometimes I could swear Mello let him watch it on his TV (Matt's TV had broken recently) solely because he knew it annoyed me. I was probably just being paranoid, though. Most likely Mello really did like the show, and the fact that it annoyed me was just icing on the cake. It was unlikely that Mello would have the patience to sit through a show he didn't like; no matter how much it annoyed me. Besides, shooting and blowing things up seemed like something he would enjoy.

Mello got up and started up the stairs. I shifted my head on Near's shoulder, and watched him out of the corner of my eye. Halfway up the stairs he stopped and turned, his eyes shifting to my head on Near's shoulder. A knowing smirk formed on his face, as if I had just given undeniable proof that he was right about me being a flirt. I lifted my head to say something, but before I could think of a fitting remark, he turned again, and followed Matt into the orphanage.

I clenched my teeth, and pounded my fists on my knees. "Argh, he irritates me soooo much!" Beside me, Near stopped twirling his hair, and was silent a moment before replying.

"Then why do you insist on his company?" If you'd only been paying attention to the way he'd said it, instead of what he said, you'd have never guessed it was a question; his voice as monotonous as always.

I sighed, trying to relax. "I don't know…it's just 'cause I like him, I guess." Near raised a brow. "Not like that!" I threw my hands in the air in frustration. "Seriously, why does everybody think that? And you Near, of all people!" He shrugged, his white, oversized top fluttering slightly in the summer breeze.

"You do seem rather close."

I eyed him closely, trying to decipher his words. If there was one thing I had learned about Near, it was that he always left more unsaid than not. His dark eyes gazed, unseeing, at the winding drive leading out of the large, iron gates. He became aware of my eyes on him, and immediately his hand found a lock of hair. "You mean that even though I spend an equal amount of time with both of you, I'm closer to Mello." He didn't answer; the snow white lock twirling incessantly around his finger. Either I was completely wrong, or I had hit the nail exactly on the head, so to speak. I decided it was probably the latter. I sighed and laid back down on the landing. "I don't consider myself closer to Mello; I just know more about him than I do you, because you never tell my anything."

His dark eyes finally slid over in my direction. "That isn't true," he stated blankly. "I tell you things."

Hmm…that was probably true. Or at least he considered it telling me. But if things weren't stated completely obviously, it was pretty likely that they went over the top of my head. I rolled my head to the side so I could see him better.

"Yeah, but you never say anything straight out Near; you know I'm not good with implications." A calculating glint flashed in his usually emotionless eyes.

"Yes. I am aware." His tone of voice never changed, but I knew he was teasing me. I brought my knees up, and hugged them close to my chest, rocking gently back and forth on my back.

I smiled, "Come on Near, even you can't claim to be a social genius."

His eyes gazed back out onto the dim landscape. "Perhaps not; but you cannot claim to be either a 'social' genius, or an academic genius."

Ouch. I rolled onto my side, facing him, my knees still hugged to my chest. "Then why am I here, hmm?"

"I would be interested in your theory."

I grinned, and waited silently until he turned to face me, that same strange glint still flashing in his eyes before disappearing again.

Sometimes, he would get the same look when he solved a new puzzle, or succeeded at something he had been working on for a while. It would be there one moment, and then it would be gone again; his eyes back to being as emotionless as always. It wasn't much, but it was one of the few signs where I could tell Near was happy.

I giggled, "Because I'm smarter than the average bear?" I knew he would get the joke, cartoons being something I had forcefully dragged him into, though I refused to believe he didn't actually enjoy it. He had long ago given up on giving me the 'TV rots your brains' speech, though his was more like; "The simplicity of this form of entertainment provides no stimulation to my mental capabilities, and it would be much more logical to…" blah, blah, blah, you get the idea. The point was he had given up on trying to convince me of the pointlessness of cartoons, and had almost quit complaining entirely when I dragged him down to one of the Wammy's House's few TV's (apparently Near wasn't the only one who thought TV would melt your brain).

He only raised a brow at my response, which resulted in me prodding him teasingly in the side; "Oh, come on Near, even you can't deny I scored well on the entrance test." I had, (something I was very proud of, considering it was mostly just a stroke of luck), and although I had scored nowhere near Near (haha), or many of the other kids at Wammy's it was a solid of enough score to get me in, which is all I had really cared about.

As soon as I had stepped into Wammy's to take the test, I knew I had found someplace special. I had a hard time fitting in anywhere, and everybody at Wammy's was so accepting; probably because most of them were just as weird as I was (any time I brought that up, Mello would say it was because I had a 'genius' personality, without the brains, which essentially just meant I was weird and hard to get along with). I was not a genius by any means, but I was a great deal smarter than most people. All it took was questioning a few kids about the test before I took it (yeah, cheating) and I found out that most of the questions were trick questions, even if they weren't worded to look like it. That little bit of information was all it took, and I was able to figure out most of the rest of it on my own, leaving me with a pretty solid score. Roger had probably found out about me questioning the kids afterwards, but he had never thrown me out. Mello had refused to stop bringing it up, though, often wondering aloud how an 'airhead' like me made it into Wammy's. When I had pointed out that an airhead would never have been able to get a good score with so little information, he had changed it to something about me being a 'cheater,' which I had ignored for a while. The first time he'd brought it up in front of Near, however, I'd had it. I couldn't really deny his point, like the first time, so I went with one of my rules of life;

Rule: If someone accuses you of being or doing something that tarnishes your image, and you can't deny it, accept it and make it your own (you'd be surprised at how often this works).

So the one day when Near had finally agreed to let me 'help' him with one of his card towers, and Mello had decided to bring up the 'cheat' factor again, I let him have it. I forget my exact response, but let's just say Mello got owned. That was another time I'd thrown another one of my 'definitions' (refer to aforementioned 'emotionally varied' term, haha) at him, and told him I wasn't a 'cheat,' I simply "adjusted exceptionally well to my surroundings, providing me adequate space to surpass others." This had earned a good role eye from Mello, and the faintest ghost of smiles from Near. It was the first (and one of the very few) times I had ever seen him smile.

But back to the point; I was definitely not anywhere near as smart as Near or Mello, but I was smart. Brains didn't really matter too much to me though, and as long as I stayed smart enough to stay with my friends, that was good enough for me.

Near was silent for a while, and I figured he had gotten lost in is thoughts, as he often did. I watched him silently for a while, before prodding him gently; "Near?" He inclined his head ever so slightly towards me. "Tell me the latest about the case." It wasn't uncommon for some of the smarter kids at Wammy's (read; possible successors of L) to take on some of the 'simpler' cases (That term always made me laugh. They were always cases none of the police could figure out, they would only have been 'simpler' to L) for practice. Near had been working on one of these cases for about a week now, and I had succeeded in getting him to tell me all about it. It was one of the few things he would talk about relatively freely. I had been following this case closely. I always would ask Near for the latest developments and ask him all the questions I had about how he had figured everything out. This was how I had succeeded in 'suckering' Near to teach me logic (Haha, I wish. He probably already figured out my reason behind always asking him about his cases.) Regardless of my reasons, though, he was always willing to answer my questions. That was one of the many good things about Near; his patience was profound.

True to tradition, Near updated me on all the latest developments in the case, as well as his opinions as to what was soon to play out. As always, I frequently interrupted him (much to his annoyance,) to ask about how he had arrived at such and such conclusion, or why such and such course of action was taken. And, as always, he took my frequent interruptions in stride, carefully explaining things in more detail until I had the whole case set out clearly in my head.

I still lay on my side on the landing, legs curled up to my chest, my head on my arm. Near still sat on the first step, hugging one leg to his chest. I watched the breeze ruffling the back of his shirt, my fingernail scratching monotonously at the cold brick beneath me, and went over the case in my head. "So you think that the murderer is actually the chief of police?"

"Yes."

"And that's why he was never suspected?"

"Correct."

"But what about all of the other 'employees' there? Didn't any of them recognize his name or face?"

"It is safe to assume he used an alias when visiting such a place. He always came in late, so there are very few people to identify him. It is also safe to assume they were bribed."

"No loyalty amongst thieves, huh?"

"I suppose not."

"When are you going to confront him?"

"Tomorrow."

"I feel sorry for his family, their reputation will be ruined."

"The only family he has is his wife, and I assure you she does not require your sympathy. It is likely she is just as involved in such dishonorable affairs as her husband."

I sighed. "Oh." The summer breezed danced in the trees. Everything was so quiet at this time of night. The only sound was the crickets chirping, and the soft hum of motors on the far off road. I looked up at the moon, sitting clear in the velvet sky. Its full face looked down, as though to laugh in contempt at mankind. "The world is a strange place, isn't it Near."

He pulled his leg closer to his body. "Yes. It is."