Title: Acquaintances, Friends, Family, Lovers

Authoress: kittykat2892

Rating: T-T+ (Rating is subject to change at any time from T to M, so if this happens be aware. I will warn you when it does.)

Full Summary: So we all know about Wammy's House, and about the orphans in it. How they're trained to be the next L. We also know that Near and Mello are the top two prodigies at the House, so of course they jump at the chance to be on the field with their role model, L, on the Kira Case. Somewhat AU-ish, I guess. I'm not exactly sure. MelloxNear

Disclaimer: This one disclaimer is going to suffice for the whole story, so I do not own Death Note. Tsugumi Ohba owns the ideas, Takeshi Obata draws it, and VIZ Media probably owns everything else.

Warnings: Spoilers. This will go throughout the whole Death Note series with some twists. The major, of course, being that Mello and Near will personally be helping L with his investigation of Yagami Raito...The Prolouge is happens a few weeks before Ch. 11, One. That's when the NPA members that're investigating Kira meet up with L, for those of you who don't remember (cuz I sure didn't and had to look it up...).

A/N: Hmm...I've been re-reading volumes 10-12 of Death Note for the past week, I think, cuz I've been really bored during school, and have recently become obsessed with Near (thanks to the anime finally letting us hear his voice, but that's beside the point). It's been getting me mad at the 12th volume how one mistake cost him the game (I'm not gonna say which him, in case we have some...people, who continue to read this, even though they have not read all of the series)...

Okay. Those people gone? Yes? No? Well, if you aren't, I tried, so don't blame me for spoiling it for you. Neways, it kinda made me mad how much Mikami screwed it up for Raito (cuz you know it's his fault), and I'm thinking of doing something with that, but that's for another rainy day (quite literally, seeing as how it's raining where I live today). Neways, I just wanna write something to do with Near and Mello. (smiles brightly)

BTW, this fic might be kind of hard to follow, because I'm going to be writing it in two different people's point of views, and maybe sometimes even three. The story will be told through both Near and Mello's eyes, along with a random chapter of L here and there, probably. But just know that just because I change the POVs it's told in, the story is still the same. You're just seeing the story from different people with a different thought track. (smiles) Though if you do have any questions at any time, please feel free to review and ask me about it. I'll answer if I can without screwing up the plotline.

Prolouge

The Summons

The day was December 20, 2003. Christmas was just around the corner, and everyone was getting in their last minute Christmas shopping. The streets were crowded with the hustle and bustle of normal peole leading normal lives. Yet their lives were no longer normal. Not with a murderer such as Kira on the loose...Yet in some places, the days went by just as they had before Kira appeared.

Just a seemingly normal day in the Wammy House. Children of pretty much all ages were enjoying themselves in one way or another. Most could be found playing outside in the courtyard of the House, despite the extreme cold of a December day. The children just bundled up and ran out almost immediately upon seeing that there was snow. The laughter of the younger children could be heard throughout the halls of the orphanage, and to the elder adults, it made them happy that the children were enjoying what little childhood they had before they entered the world and saw it's true colors.

The elder children, all in their teens, were either in various areas in the yard away from the younger kids, just talking, or out in the middle of the younger kids, playing with them...If the elder kids were nice enough to give the younger ones their attention.

The only one who wasn't outside on such a nice day was none other than the white-haired, toy-loving teen called Near. No, that's not his real name. Hardly anyone knows his name. But that's beside the point. This boy was probably one of the strangest in Wammy's House, other than a couple of others. Near hardly ever spent any time outside or any time socializing with any of the children his age. Really, the only children he spoke to at Wammy's were Mello and Matt. Most of the adults at the orphanage found this weird, seeing as how Near was younger than both boys, but they never questioned why the three hung out...Even if Mello seemed to hate being anywhere near the younger boy.

But Near was always holed up in his room, or in Mello's, whenever Mello could stand to be around the white-haired boy. At this moment, Near was indeed holed up in his own room, a small portable heater turned on medium. Near really didn't like the cold months, and he really didn't like snow at all. No matter how many times anyone tried, he would always refuse to go outside during winter. Not until spring, did he leave the shelter of Wammy's House unless it was absolutely necessary.

Near, instead, liked to play with the toys he had stashed around his room. At this particular time, he was playing with dice, stacking them together to make a village made of dice. To most people, this was a pointless way to spend your time, but to Near, it was a mind game...

Near's POV

Hmm...So how I can I make this work? How can I make the die correspond in a fitting pattern...? I stared at the dice around me, eyes stopping here and there as I rolled the last one around in my fingers, the index finger and thumb of my other hand playing with a strand of my hair. That was a habit I had acquired a few years ago, whenever I started thinking. L-sama bit his thumb, Mello ate chocolate, I played with my hair. Yeah, I guess that kind of makes me sound like a girl...Mello says it does, anyways.

Speaking of which, Mello hasn't come barging in my room to bug me yet...

As if he had read my mind, my door was thrown open and slammed against my wall, bouncing back a little. I sighed, shaking my head, as I finally figured out where to put the die, placing it where it belonged, before looking up at Mello.

Of course he had that ever present bar of chocolate in his hand, his eyes fixed in a glare as he stared at me. I just calmly gazed back at him. I had learned in past experiences that not reacting to anything he said would get him angry. So therefore, I had learned to acknowledge what he said in some way, no matter how little. I don't think that it mattered to Mello how he was acknowledged, as long as he was acknowledged.

"What do you want, Mello?" I asked quietly, never taking my eyes from his, still twirling my hair between my fingers.

Mello just sneered at me before biting some of the chocolate off with a low 'crack.' "The old man wants to see us in his office." He replied, and I blinked in slight surprise. Why would Roger need to see both of us? I know that Mello usually gets sent there at least four times a week, because of his pranks, but the only time I get called there is for Roger to move me up to a higher level in the orphanage (sort of like a grade system).

I nodded, though, and slowly got to my feet, letting my arms fall to my sides. Mello just rolled his eyes as I stepped over the walls of dice I had been playing with for the past four hours.

"How can you stand to sit still for so long doing absolutely nothing?" Mello asked me in a harsh voice. I just shrugged as I stopped to stand in front of him.

"I'm actually doing something, but I'd rather not explain it to you, Mello...It's complicated." I said, glancing at the doorknob. I knew that this would get a rise out of him.

"What?! Are you calling me stupid, you brat?!" He hissed in anger, and I shook my head, sighing.

"No, Mello. I'm not calling you stupid. If I explained it to you, you would more than like understand it. It's just too long an explanation. Besides, Roger wants to see us." I explained, looking up at Mello.

Mello scowled before he shrugged, biting the chocolate in his hand again.

"Fine. I guess you're right. Let's go, before the old man gets ticked at us." Mello turned and strode down the hallway, and I followed, sighing. The blonde was sometimes to difficult to be around.

We passed through the hallways without any scenes, except for one, where one of the girls that Mello knew ran up to him to talk with him.

"Mello-kun! I need to talk to you!" The brunette said breathlessly, hands on her knees as she tried to regain her breath. She'd been running. I wonder why. Was it really so important for her to talk to Mello before we went to see Roger?

"What is it, Ami?" Mello asked quietly. I wasn't exactly sure if Mello liked this girl, but he was always kinder to her than pretty much everyone else in the orphange...Except maybe for Matt...But then, he could have his moments with Matt, too. Mello was just a ticking time bomb that could go off at any given moment.

Ami looked up at Mello. "I-I overheard R-Roger talking with someone...Th-They said something ab-about the two of you l-l-leaving." The brunette panted, still not having caught her breath.

I raised an eyebrow in amusement. Mello and me? Leaving? I highly doubt that. Where would we even go? It had to be something else. Ami probably heard wrong, was all.

Mello was thinking along the lines that I was thinking.

"Ami. You probably just heard wrong. Why would someone randomly come up here and say that they wanted to take me and this brat away with them?" Mello asked, jerking his thumb over his shoulder at me when he said 'the brat.' I sighed, shaking my head. That really gets old after awhile. And I'd been hearing it for God knows how long. Years.

Ami looked doubtfully from Mello to me, and back. When she looked at me, I tried to smile. I never smiled, so it really didn't work out all that well, but I continued nonetheless.

"He's right. Besides...Roger should know better than to put Mello and me together. One of us would be dead within the week..." I said, glancing at Mello, who sneered at me.

What I had said relaxed Ami, though, because she smiled, nodding, as she stood up straight. "O-Of course...Now that I think about it, it can't be true." Ami glanced at Mello, blushing slightly. "I-I'll see you around, okay, Mello?" Mello just nodded, and Ami ran off, her spirit lighter than it was before she spoke with us.

"She likes you." I said simply as we continued walking down the hallway. Mello glanced at me, his eyes cold.

"If she does, then she's living on a false hope." He said scathingly, before turning and opening the door into Roger's office, barging in without knocking.

I just sighed again, rolling my eyes, as I reached back up to my hair. Mello was so untactful, so emotional. Those traits would get him killed one day...If he didn't kill himself before then with his guns that he hid in his room out of sight from Roger and the others.

I slowly walked in and stopped to stand beside Mello in front of Roger's desk. I glanced around in boredom before deciding that I had stood up long enough, instead sinking down to sit with my right knee up to my chin, my left leg in the arch that my leg created in that position.

"So I brought the brat. Now what is it that you need to tell us, Roger?" Mello asked, crossing his arms, having finished his bar of chocolate while we were talking with Ami.

Roger glanced disapprovingly at Mello for calling me a brat, but I just shrugged, and Roger let it go. I had heard it since we had first met. What's yelling at him now going to do about it?

"Well. Since both of you are here...We have a guest here that wishes to speak with the two of you." Roger explained.

I blinked in confusion. A guest? To speak with us? Usually no one was allowed into the orphanage...Except for two people, that is...Could it...Could he be here?

Mello must've been thinking along the same lines, because he was looking around the office in excitement.

"Someone to speak with us? Who?" I asked quietly, since it seemed Mello was going to go about it rashly and not even ask.

"You should know who it would be wanting to speak with you, Near." Came a quiet, monotone voice from behind us. Mello turned his head, blonde hair flying to land on his left shoulder before it returned to its original position.

"L!" Mello muttered, eyes wide.

I sighed, shaking my head slightly at Mello's reaction, before calmly turning where I sat to look at my idol.

L still looked the same from the last time I had seen him...Which would probably have been before he left the orphanage when he had turned eighteen. The only thing that had really changed about him was that he was taller, the bags under his eyes were more pronounced, giving him an almost freakish look, and his skin was extremely pale. But that was only to be expected. L was the greatest detective in the world...Actually, the greatest three detectives in the world. Of course he would be an insomniac...And never get outside to make his skin darker. Common sense.

"Hello Mello. Near." L said, smiling slightly at the two of us.

Mello smirked at me, gloating over the fact that our idol had said his name first. I just sighed. Childish. And Mello was supposed to be older than me, too.

"So what's this about, L-sama?" I asked quietly. I was tired of just sitting here, doing nothing but twirling my hair around my fingers. I was bored, and I wanted to go and start playing with the dominoes back in my room.

L just put his hands in his pockets before walking in, shutting the door with his bare foot.

"I came here to ask a favor of the two of you. You don't have to accept if you don't want to." L explained as he scratched his left leg with his right foot. I raised an eyebrow.

L smiled slightly, his fatigue showing through. "I was wondering if the two of you would like to come with me to Japan to help me try to solve the Kira case."

The two of us just stared at L in silent shock. The chance...To go to Japan with our idol...And help him solve the Kira case?!

"I-I'll definitely go, L!" Mello shouted, trying to get the first word in before me so that L would take him instead of me. I just rolled my eyes before looking up at L.

"I, too, would like to come with you, L-sama." I replied, much more quietly than my fellow prodigy did. Mello glowered at me, yet he was cut off from saying anything by L.

"Good. I'll have Roger and Watari arrange everything. You'll leave in...Hm...In about a week. So be packed and ready to go by the 26th, at the least." L explained, waiting until the two of us nodded, before looking up at Roger.

"Leave it to me, L. I'll make sure everything's taken care of on this end." Roger assured L. The dark-haired man nodded, and he smiled at Mello and me before he left, closing the door softly behind him.

I just stared at the door. I couldn't believe it...I was actually going to be going to Japan to work alongside my role model, my idol. It didn't even matter that Mello was going, too. I was just thrilled for the chance that had been given to me.

Owari Prolouge

A/N: So there's the prolouge. This is actually longer than I intended it to be, for a prolouge, but I guess that's alright. But neways, I don't have any set time for updates, though I will say this. I will try my best to update within at the most two weeks, at the least, a few days. It depends on my free time, and if I've updated my other ongoing fic, as well. I update only when I am able to actually sit down and write. But for now, this is what we got. I hope this will peak your interest a little, cuz I'm not sure if anyone's tried to do this before...If they have, then I hope I don't make this too cliche.

BTW, sorry for the long opening. That's just how I am. I've got to explain everything in the first chapter...(sighs, shaking head)

Ja ne!