A/N: Okay so this is technically the second chapter to this series. I'm kind of worried about it only because, yeah, I have everything planned out as to what I want to happen and I've visualized it and I have the ideas to back up each chapter. But, for this to work I need Mello to be slightly OOC (very much so when I first write it because of my hindrance) in order to make up for Near's inexperience and his emotionless self. That whole thing annoys me to no end, oh well we'll see what happens.

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note, but I do wish I owned some of the character. I could do some VERY interesting things with them.

Note: Because this whole story is going to be set in Near's point of view (or if everything goes the way I'm planning then it will) this will be the last time that I put a note of it being in his point of view before the chapter. So… if you get confused for some odd reason later on, I already warned you.

Chapter 2: Thunderstorms

Near's P.O.V

It's been three days since that 'last night', the night I shared with Mello. The rest of that night had been rather quiet, every once and a while Mello would kiss me, my forehead, my cheek, my fingers, and every other part of me. He continued telling me every so often that he really did love me, as though he believed that I doubted him.

It wasn't until later on that I did begin to wonder about that.

Mello has never liked me, not in the least bit, what could have possibly pushed him to liking me at all? Not only that, what had thrown him into feeling such a strong emotion for me as love had proved itself to be?

When I thought about those questions I felt myself unconsciously drift away from him, trying to protect myself in case he was lying and just trying to break me down somehow.

But thankfully nothing of the sort happened.

He was right about that 'one night' thing; at dawn I knew it was over. When the morning sun began to flood into the room a great pain had surged inside of me and I felt like I wanted to burst into tears and beg for this to not end.

It's simply amazing what love can do to a person. I never thought I would personally experience it, but I had. In a single night I had completely fallen for the blonde boy I had previously thought hated me.

I wasn't completely positive what it was that made me fall for him so quickly, maybe it was this different, loving, side of him that I'd never seen before. Maybe it was the warm feeling I got when his hands even slightly grazed my skin that made every rational side of me cease to exist.

Though needless to say we finally had to part.

He had kissed me lovingly one last time and stared searchingly into my eyes for a long moment, somehow saying everything I needed to hear at that moment while not saying anything at all. Eventually I somehow managed to tear myself away from him and go back to my own empty, lifeless room.

I lay down on my bed and commenced staring at my closed door, silently wanting and begging for it to slam open and for Mello to be there. I wanted him close to me, I wanted to feel his warm hands caress me and feel his soft lips touch any part of me again.

But it never happened.

I laid there until the afternoon, listening as life continued outside of my room. But still nothing happened, and just like always everybody left me in my solitude.

Finally, by late afternoon I somehow told myself that I needed to try and go on and attempt to feel like I hadn't fallen as hard for him as I had. For the rest of that day I sat in the common room with a few of my robots and tried to keep myself occupied.

It didn't help the new gaping wound in my heart when a certain blonde I had recently fallen for ran by the room every now and then. I would watch him for the brief moment he was there and notice how normal he looked. He didn't appear as broken as I felt beneath my normal stoic mask. I told myself I needed to try and heal as quickly as he seemed to.

And somehow that's how I made it through the next three days.

But now, it's night again and I've been deprived of the ability to fall asleep for one main reason. And surprisingly enough it wasn't because of Mello.

There was a storm raging outside. Every few moments a flash of lightning lit my silent room before it was filled with the loud bang of the thunder, then followed by the violent rain that pelted the window that continued to drench the outside area.

I hate thunderstorms.

It's stupid and childish, I understand. But I have my own personal reasons for disliking the natural phenomenon so much.

Every time the light flashes, illuminating my room for a heartbeats time and the thunder follows close behind my already closed eyes squeeze shut and I will myself to stay exactly where I am in my bed.

My hands clutched the white sheets; I hoped and begged that I didn't open my eyes to see the blood that had at one time been around me. The blood that had flooded me and that I had finally drowned in.

I let my eyes slowly slip open; they rested on the far wall, seeing nothing out of the ordinary on the floor, around the walls, there was nothing but my room.

Another flash of light followed by the bang and again my eyes snapped closed; I could feel my body further tense away from the sound. I knew I would continue to repeat this process until it finally passed. I did it every time we had a storm.

But this night was different; I was no longer on my own. Well… I may not have the option of being alone anyway.

I didn't take any more time to wait and decide. This was a necessity tonight; surely he would understand.

After another crack of thunder I snapped my eyes open and made sure nothing was there then moved out of the confines of my bed and out of my room that, for once, wasn't as safe as it normally felt.

I shuffled down the hall quicker than normal, desperate to be out of this open and vulnerable space. The longer I stayed in the hall the more I felt like I was at risk of my memories catching up to me and reappearing here; one of the places I had thought I was safe for so long.

Once I reached the door I instantly opened it and closed the door behind me, desperate to close out the darkness and fear that had come over me in the hall.

The room was silent and still, almost as still as my own room had been minus the two breathing bodies in the beds.

After another moment of trying to silence my heavy breaths I moved over to the far bed that was closest to the window; to where my own safety lay.

A blast of light filled the room and before I could catch myself I was shaking his arm, "Mello." I whispered, trying desperately not to wake up Matt in the other bed.

He turned away from me without opening his eyes. "Mello!" I said just a little bit louder and pushing on his arm again.

"Go back to bed, Matt, let me sleep!" He said in a heavily drowsy voice.

"Mello." I tried again, hoping maybe he would be conscious enough to register my voice.

"Dammit!" He threw my hand off in a sudden movement, which surprised me and made me step back once. But just as I did he turned back towards me, eyes open this time. His mouth was open to say something more but he stopped suddenly when he saw me.

He sat up with only a brief look of protest on his features, "what are you doing here, Near?" He asked quietly, eyeing Matt once to make sure the gamer was still asleep.

I looked down; I didn't have words to convey how thunderstorms frightened me without sounding half my age. I didn't want to sound so weak in front of him.

His head turned to the side in confusion as he tried to meet my gaze again and I knew he hadn't caught on. "You do remember what I said the other night, right?" He finally asked

Just then another flash lit the room and instantly my hand shot out and grabbed his where it sat on top of the blanket. I tried to tell myself, as I squeezed it in the hopes of getting some kind of comfort, that he would finally understand.

When I looked up again he watched me with just as confused blue eyes.

I mentally gave a heavy sigh, this is why I'm number one and he's number two. He can be so oblivious sometimes.

I then pulled on his hand, stepping back once, "come with me."

He sighed but stood anyway; I could see the fatigue in him. "Where to?" He asked.

I didn't reply; I simply pulled him on to the door and out into the dark hall. But once the door was closed again and the darkness surrounded us somehow it didn't seem quite as dark because he was here.

I felt as though I would be safe now because he was here to chase away all the memories that always seemed to find a way to appear before me.

Again the sudden flash of light followed by the crash of thunder filled the long hallway; I clung to his hand again with my own.

"Near?" He asked. I didn't even have to look back at him, I could hear in his voice that slowly he was beginning to rest on the truth.

I pulled him into my silent room and closed the door afterwards; still I never let go of his hand. It seemed as though if I let go of him for even the slightest of moments he too would slip away from me and I would be alone again.

I wasn't sure if I was strong enough to get myself out of that again.

I finally had to turn back to him and meet the tired, questioning look he held. I couldn't answer him with words. I would rather he figured it out on his own so I didn't have to admit it myself.

I pulled him over to my bed, feeling like a little kid pulling an adult around in order to show them something they'd found, and forced him to sit down on the side. Only then did I let our hands disconnect and it was at that moment that I felt strangely empty.

Another round from the thunder broke the silence between us; before I could stop myself I lunged forward into his arms and crawled up into his lap. My arms wrapped around his neck, my legs on either side of him and my face buried into the crook of his neck.

I felt him tense beneath me for only a moment before he relaxed and his arms wrapped around me.

"One more night?" I asked quietly.

"You're afraid of thunderstorms, Near?" He asked; I just barely nodded into him.

He laughed once as he nuzzled into me, sending a wave of comfort throughout my body. At that moment I was so glad I had went and got him. The crashes outside didn't bother me so much now that I had him in my arms.

I closed my eyes and inhaled his addicting scent, memorizing it all over again.

He finally sighed, "fine, just for you." He said.

I exhaled in relief and softly kissed the skin of his neck before moving up close to his ear, "thank you." I whispered.

"Why are you scared of something like thunderstorms? It's not like anything's going to happen so long as your inside." He asked me, the one question I had hoped that he wouldn't ask me and yet at the same time knew he would.

I didn't say anything. I couldn't. Sure, I may have fallen for Mello but I would never admit why I was afraid of thunderstorms to anyone. It was just a promise I had made to myself years ago.

"You know," he finally said with a sigh, "part of being in love with someone means that you trust them."

Trust him? Trust Mello? But… after all the pain he's put on me physically and all the times he's screamed at me about how much he hated me. How was I supposed to trust that with something like this? Did that mean that I really wasn't in love with him? I hoped not.

"Fine!" He finally said in an annoyed tone, like I had somehow argued my way into a victory over him, "you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. Okay?"

I nodded and kissed his neck again to show my gratitude without having to speak again.

He then pulled me back so I was looking at him then tightened his grip on me so there was hardly any space between us. "You're so fucking addicting, you know that?" He asked; kissing me before I had a chance to respond.

I knew my body temperature sky rocketed just by the feeling of his lips on mine again. I tightened my grip around his neck and pushed further into the kiss; I wanted so much more of him than he was giving me.

I cringed as another bang of thunder shook the whole building, my arms tightened again but this time it was for a different reason.

Mello smiled into the kiss then pulled away with the grin remaining. He moved away from me and slid back on my bed, pulling me with him the whole time until we were finally at the headboard.

He pulled me so I was sitting in his lap again. I felt oddly (yet completely) safe in his hands, those same hands that had been known to hurt so many people. It was almost strange, even now, to feel how gentle they were.

"You really are addicting, Near, as much as I know I should say no to you, I can't." He finally said.

I looked up at him, "are you saying you love me?"

"That's just the reason why I can't."

"Oh." I simply said, purposely letting my voice trail off. Every minute I was with Mello I felt I was getting just a little bit better at showing him that I loved him. This was a teasing thing I've seen girls do to get what they want; if Mello's as predictable as I know he is he'll fall right into it.

"Yes Near! I'm saying that I love you, okay?" He asked, slightly annoyed again.

I gave a small smile as I nuzzled closer to him, he'd fallen right into that one, "that's good."

"Are you going to say it back?" He then asked.

"I love you, Mello." I said easily and meaning every word of it.

At the same time, though, I was trying to fight off the thought of how many more of these, 'last nights' we would honestly have. Logically, I knew we couldn't just give in and let a real relationship grow between us (not with the whole successor predicament hanging over us) but there had to be some way to make this work. There had to be some kind of answer to it.

"That's good." He said, the drowsy tone returning to him.

I looked up and noticed his eyes already closed again; he was incredibly cute when his eyes were closed; even more so when he was asleep. I reached up and gently pecked his lips before resting in his arms again; silently wishing him a goodnight.

Yes, love was becoming an easier emotion for me to show. But in the back of my mind I wondered how much pain it would inevitably bring about.

A/N: Okay, so not exactly the best end to the chapter and certainly not the kind I was searching my sleep-deprived mind for. But whatever, the more I wrote this I was thinking, "wait this is a chapter… so why is this feeling like a one-shot?" Anyway, there'll be a couple more time jumps in this story but I swear that it won't really affect the story that much; it shouldn't feel that jumpy.

Next chapter soon!

Please review!

-Forbiddensoul562