Author's Note: Like the summary says, just a memorial after 5 years of Mello, Matt and Light's deaths. Halle and Matsuda are the respective main characters here, so they each have their part for the people who were important to them.

Halle's part takes some references from my Mello's Life fanfic, but it can be perfectly understandable without it. I was going to make this a single chapter but it's late and I can't finish, so I'll have to post Matsuda's part as a second chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note or any of its characters. The characters of Thomas and Amie in here are my invention.

January 26th, 2015

Halle Bullook heard the familiar ruffling that told her a certain little lady had decided to sit up on her bed and was now turning around from side to side in some personal play. She opened the door and pretended to sternly cross her arms over her chest.

"What did I tell you, Amie? It's too late, you need to sleep!"

The 2 year old baby turned her head from inside the crib with a downright adorable smile, her huge brown eyes sparkling from the light that entered the room now that Halle had opened the door. The baby lamp sent stars spinning slowly through the walls, but Amie didn't pay them as half the attention as she should.

"Come on, I'll read you some more and that's it, you go to sleep right away, yes?"

Amie gave a big reply in the adorable personal form of language babies had, but not even after two more book pages, she was soundlessly sleeping after the long day they had. Halle brushed some of the light blonde hairs away from her face and kissed her daughter on the forehead before existing and leaving some inches of the door opened.

Her husband in everything but on paper was expecting her on the kitchen, smiling when she returned.

"How much did you have to read for her to fall asleep?" Thomas asked, bitting a snack that would be his supper.

"Two pages in and she was out," Halle replied with a sigh, sitting down on the other side of the table. "Which makes it a total of sixteen pages now. I swear she takes after me on that. The more tired I am, the less I can sleep."

"It is kind of impressive how tired you can get from just walking around all day."

"Just? I don't want to go through another day like this. Shopping with you two is a nightmare!"

"But at least we'll just have to go for a trip when we vist my mother next month, right?"

Halle looked at the callendar hanging on the kitchen wall and sighed. January 26th, Amie would have a party in the kindergarden just two days later, and then the six month check up in the first of February.

January 26th.

It hit her so suddenly that she felt dizzy. January 26th. Today was the 26th and she had simply not noticed it.

"Hal? Are you listening to me?"

Halle jolted up, realizing Thomas had been talking and she hadn't heard a single word.

"Is anything wrong? You look worried."

"This day, I..." her mouth was so dry it made the words hard to come out, and she didn't realize how thankful she was for that until the sounds actually passed through her lips. As they did, the weight of the words crushed her and she felt physically sick. "I forgot."

I forgot. How could I forget...?

"What? Did you have a work appointment?" Thomas asked, oblivious to the motive of her shock.

"No, no I... this day is important. I once knew two boys who died on this day."

Thomas's mouth opened as if to say something, but then closed in a silent acknowledgement. Halle stood up and walked to the counter, not sure what she was looking for there.

She never... this had never happened. It was a recollection moment, every year, she would wake up on this day and the memories would return. It never started with their death; it never started with the sight of a body of a teenager pierced by so many bullets beyond count, it never started with the hell that came from the abandonned church and consumed everything and everyone inside. It never started with the shock and the downright anger that the faux protection of that location forlorned Mello in the end as well and allowed his life to be erased with a swift pen stroke and his body to be burned to cinder.

She would remember how Matt appeared to be such kind young man - or rather, boy - with such a worry over his childhood friend it was enviable when compared to other teenagers his age. Such a thin frame, with that fire colored locks and huge goggles. He was adorable even, when he slept in a curled fetal position like a cat on her carpet, refusing to leave her couch's side where Mello slept in. He would not have been the type of friend she would have had in high school or college, escaping to his refuge of videogames and hiding his extreme intelect as much as he hid his blue eyes, but she felt a huge empathy for the boy in the days he lived in her apartment when both nursed Mello after the explosion.

And Mello... the first thing she would remember on this day was not an actual scene but a feeling. A sense of comfort that allowed her to smile even when having proof Mello was dangerous. She remembered how inspite of everything he had done and how he was supposed to be an adversary to Near, she would look at him and feel a strange sense of protectiveness of him, for he somehow reminded her of a child, a mixture of a spoiled brat and of a broken war child. She remembered how conflicted she felt for that, since she knew Mello wasn't an actual child and threatened her several times after killing many of her coworkers. She remembered the frustration, the anger and the desperation she saw and heard on Mello just the day before he took all that emotion and made his final attempt to beat Near in that sick version of a game both ultimately saw their lives as. In a way, she loved Mello and she knew it, but no words were ever said from neither side. They didn't felt like they needed to be.

It was a respectful recollection, a painful day that slowly turned into bittersweetness as the years passed by. And today, nothing had happened. She didn't pay them the respect they needed, the remembrance they deserved. She simply lived her life as if they hadn't existed.

How could that be?

"I can't believe I forgot."

"Hey," Thomas approached and kissed her on the shoulder. "Don't feel so bad. This doesn't mean you've forgotten them, just that you've... moved on."

The horrible knot in her gut didn't diminish in the slightest.

"Then why do I feel so awful?"

"You feel like you've let them down, don't you?"

"Let them down? I guess you can say that, but it sounds so... it's worse than that. I can't believe I forgot."

"Were they collegues of yours back from the Kira Case? Oh, you did say boys, I'm sorry..."

Halle had never talked about Mello to her husband. Everyone who fought against Kira had to erase their existeances from the world, Wammy's children more than anyone else. Halle now had a family and a clear existence, an existence she had never completely abandoned during the Kira Case, but others were lost in anonymity and she hadn't brought them back.

Why?, she wondered to herself. Maybe she wanted to save those precious moments all for her, maybe she feared she'd lose them if she shared them with someone else. Maybe she never considered any of it before.

"No... they weren't collegues, but we were all involved in the Kira Case. They were both killed because of Kira. I had them in my apartment when Mello was injured. We all knew our lives were in danger, it was a risk every single one of us was willing to take - even Kira himself knew that. But when they died... I wasn't ready. They shouldn't have died."

"What was the other boy called?"

"Matt. Mello and Matt. I never even knew their real names."

Thomas kissed her again, this time on the head.

"I'm so glad you helped bring that monster Kira to justice." He then held her close. "I know you're hurt for thinking you've forgotten the date, but Hal, you didn't. Mello and Matt, and the other people who certainly gave their lives for their jobs, they gave us this future. Mello, he gave you the chance to live a life so much you were able to get immersed and enjoy it."

"And forget them?"

"I'd say, remembering them so much in your heart that you aren't even noticing it anymore. They are simply a part of you now and you don't need a date to bring them back."

Halle listened the words and though she feared their good intention wouldn't be able to reach her, it actually did have an impact on her. The knot in her gut seemed slightly better and she felt she could breathe more easily.

Near didn't call for her like it happened frequently, even when it was her night off, but the expectation of going to the headquarters made her think. Did Near remember it too? Of course he did, this was Near she was talking about. But he would never talk about it with her or anyone else. Maybe only Rester would be close enough for the genius young man to talk about something rather than case investigations.

She had to wonder if Near feared he'd lose his memories too, if he talked about it out loud. In the end, maybe both reactions had the same result, as neither would ever abandon such important people.

.

Author's Note: I posted the final chapter of Mello's Life fanfic on January 28th 2010, 14:20 - around the time Light dies in the manga. Without realizing, I started the draft of this fanfic at January 28th 2015, 14:20
This is when I say this outloud laughing my mind off: holy shit

I wrote a fic on Near's side of these circumstances - called Remembrance

Thanks for reading hope you can leave a review