I have not finished the whole Death Note series. I'm watching it on Adult Swim and I missed a whole bunch of episodes in the middle of the series too. But I have been watching it from the Near and Mello arc. So I apologize in advance for any discrepencies.
Two children sat together on the floor of Wammy's House during play time, a large stack of leggos between them. The girl was simply stacking them together to make a wall, placing clear boxes here and there for windows. The boy was building something more abstract, but certainly more complex. They had been sitting there, connecting the plastic blocks together for several minutes before the girl looked up.
"Where did you get these Mihael?" She asked.
"Don't call me that." He answered grumpily. "I'm Mello."
"Did you steal these from Near?" The girl asked, ignoring him.
"Yes, I stole them from him." Mello spat, glaring at her. "Why do you care?"
The girl didn't respond for a moment as she attached her wall to a base. "Near's going to be mad, you know."
"That's the POINT!" Mello exclaimed, drawing the attention of a white haired boy from across the room. He didn't move however, and just stared at them. Mello noticed.
"You should give them back to him." The girl said, starting on another wall.
"You're using more, you should give them back to him." Mello retorted in a mocking tone, glaring at her.
"You're the one who stole them." She replied, shrugging. Mello sent her an aggravated look and went back to playing with his leggos. Why he always let this girl hang around him, he didn't know. She was annoying, bossy, lazy, annoying, a liar, stupid, annoying, a tattler, self-absorbed, and annoying.
"Arrow, why don't you go play with the other girls?" Mello finally asked, putting what was now obviously a leggo car on the ground with enough force to smash it into several pieces.
"My name is Amanda." The girl replied, "Why do you call me Arrow?"
"Because me and Near've got nicknames." Mello said. "And since you refuse to leave us alone, we call you Arrow."
"But you've got REASONS why you've got nicknames. Like L. But not me. And why Arrow anyway? I hate archery." Arrow said, starting on the last wall.
"Because." Was all Mello answered. Suddenly, he felt a tapping at his shoulder. He turned around to see what it was and he saw that he was nearly nose-to-nose with Near.
"You stole my leggos." Was all he said. Mello stood up and stuck his tongue out at the younger boy.
"Then don't leave them lying around!" He exclaimed, running off. Near sat down next to Arrow heavily and picked up the broken car Mello had built, disassembling what was left and rebuilding it.
"Amanda." He said softly.
"Yes Nate?" Arrow answered, looking up at him.
"Why do you like Mello?" He asked. Arrow shrugged.
"I dunno. I thought he looked nice when I first met him, but I guess he's not." She answered simply.
"If he's not nice, why do you keep playing with him then?" Near questioned. Arrow stood up, abandoning the roof that she was making, getting impatient with it.
"I dunno. He's kinda like my little brother, I guess. I always wanted a little sibling." She said with a shrug before turning and leaving. Near watched her go for a moment, then turned back down to his leggos.
Meanwhile, Mello had marched off down the hallway, on his way to wherever he could be alone. On the way, however, he brushed shoulders with another boy going in the opposite direction.
"Mello?" The boy said, looking up from the game he was playing. Mello turned around to glare at him before he realized who it was.
"Oh. Matt." He said stubbornly, stopping his rampaging but not losing his annoyed expression.
"What's wrong this time?" Matt asked, looking at him as he pressed the pause button on his gameboy. Mello crossed his arms and tried to look impatient.
"Arrow STILL won't leave me alone." He sighed, tapping his foot. Matt grinned at his reaction and Mello noticed. "It's not funny!" He said, scowling. Matt shook his head.
"She's just a girl. Ignore her." Matt said with a shrug.
"But she's older than me." Mello said, crossing his arms. "It's not like I can just tell her to go away."
"Yeah… she is old, huh?" Matt laughed. "At least you know she'll get wrinkles before you." Mello chuckled at the thought.
"She's already ugly to begin with." He chortled. "Wrinkles might make her look better."
"Yeah. And maybe she'll try to make herself pretty by brushing her hair more so it doesn't look like mud!" Matt added with a grin.
"Her hair IS mud, didn't you know?" Mello laughed.
"Ew, is that why she smells so bad?" Matt added. Mello nodded eagerly, but then they suddenly heard someone sniffle behind them. The boys looked around and saw the girl they had just been laughing at. Mello grinned.
"You have snot on your face." He said with a sneer. She glared at him as best she could, but her tears took away from the effect drastically.
"Shut up!" She howled, but Mello only laughed.
"Arrow is an ugly cow! Ugly Arrow! Ugly Arrow!" He laughed. He looked back at Matt and grinned. "Come on Matt, join in! Ugly Arrow!"
"Shut UP!" Arrow screeched. Matt just stood there, having turned his game back on and choosing not to tease her to her face. Mello, however, did not shut up and kept taunting her until she ran off, screaming. Mello watched her go, laughing viciously, taking a lot of satisfaction in the sight of her crying.
"Matt, wasn't that awesome? She's such a crybaby!" Mello laughed. Matt said nothing as he continued playing. Mello narrowed his eyes at the red head.
"Okay fine. Just play your stupid game, not like I care." He said before walking off in a huff.
Meanwhile, Arrow was still bawling as she sat curled in a ball in an empty corner of the play room. She was ignored and laughed at by her fellow orphans. Some even taunted her further, calling her a cry baby and mud-head. She tried her best to ignore them and stuck her tongue out at every one of them. But she never looked at any of their faces. In fact, it wasn't until a slow, gentle voice spoke up that she even looked away from the ground.
"Are you all right?" The voice asked. Arrow turned around, recognizing it. A boy was standing there, his hair was messy, like hers, only his was short and black. His shoulders hunched as he looked down at her, not that they wouldn't have been hunched otherwise.
"L!" She exclaimed, standing up and hugging him around the waist. L stared down at her oddly, as if she were some strange alien than a little girl and he awkwardly patted her head.
"I heard shouting." He said flatly. "Then I heard you crying."
"Did I interrupt you?" She asked, looking up at him apologetically.
"No, no…" L said, looking up. "I was just wondering what all the commotion was."
"Mihael called me ugly!" She exclaimed, barely letting him finish. L knelt down next to her, holding a finger to his lips to hush her.
"Not so loud…" He whispered, looking around to make sure no one heard Mello's real name. Fortunately, none of the other children liked Arrow enough to pay attention and so hadn't heard. "Look… You want to go out for ice cream Amanda?" He asked with a friendly smile. She sniffed and looked up at him.
"W-with me? Why?" She asked, wiping her eyes. L smiled a little.
"Because you're sad." He said, just to placate her. She smiled and hugged him again.
"Thank you L!" She squealed. L looked down at her, his expression voicing his wish to not be hugged by the ten-year-old.
They went to an ice cream parlor a few blocks away from Whammy's House and already received their frozen treats. Arrow was nibbling the waffle cone that held her chocolate ice cream while L was picking a cherry off of the top of the sundae he'd ordered.
"Amanda, do you cry like that often?" He asked as he separated the fruit from its stem. She nodded.
"Yeah, they always make fun of me. Mello said that they just do that to try to make me cry." She answered, licking at the ice cream again.
"Mello said that?" L asked, curious. "But wasn't he the one that teased you today?"
"Yeah, but I dunno. Sometimes he teases me and sometimes he's nice. He's like… and off-and-on friend, you know?" She said.
"Or a sibling." L piped up, looking unaware that he had even said anything. "So the other children make you cry often. Very often."
"Yeah, and I hate them!" Arrow agreed. Taking a bite of her ice cream, resulting in chocolate all over her face.
"But you don't hate Mello." L pointed out.
"Well no…" Arrow admitted, looking down and licking some of the chocolate off of her lips. "Because Mello's nice. Sometimes."
"I see." L said simply, finishing off his sundae. He stared at the wall just above Arrow's head, spoon in mouth. It was obvious he was thinking of something, but Arrow had no idea what it was.
The teenager stood up and held his hand out for the little girl's. She stood up and took it, still licking at her ice cream cone.
"Thank you L." She said, smiling at him. He looked down and smiled back.
The rest of the walk back to Wammy's House, L said almost nothing. He let Arrow talk the whole way back to the orphanage. She talked about the ice cream, how nice L was for taking her, and how chocolate ice cream had always been her favorite over vanilla. But mostly, she talked about Mello. How she liked playing with him when he wasn't being mean and how she loved the color of his hair. She also talked about how much she hated him because he was so mean and would never share with her except on rare occasions. But that was how siblings were supposed to be, she supposed.
L thought about that last comment the rest of the way back to orphanage. Siblings. He knew that Mello had to have been born an only child for a reason. Any siblings of his would have something to fear every night when they went to bed. He also figured that Mello was more than likely unaware that Arrow considered herself to be this close to him. Mello would never agree to something like that, ever.
They parted ways when they got to the orphanage. L went off one way and Arrow went back the play room where some kids were gathered in a circle around Matt, who was taking three steps at a time.
"Whose is it?" He asked.
"It's mine." Mello said. Matt nodded at him and took three more steps in another triangle.
"Whose is it?" He asked again. No one said anything for a moment and neither did Matt.
"It's mine." Mello finally said. Matt nodded again and took another three steps.
"It's mine!" Several children said at once, but Mello's voice rang out first.
"It's Mello's." Matt said.
"This game isn't fair Matt!" cried out Arrow's voice as she approached him. "You always let Mello win."
"He doesn't LET me win." Mello said. "I win because I know what to do. I'm surprised you don't get it already, you've played enough times. Jeez, you're about the only one left in this place who doesn't get it."
"These guys don't!" Arrow said, indicating the others in the circle who were nodding their heads.
"There were way more, but they left when they got it." Matt said quietly, now searching the ground for where he left his gameboy. Arrow narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms.
"Jeez Arrow, you're so dumb." Mello sneered before running off to help Matt.
Arrow stood there a moment as the other children dissipated, some departing with an "Oh, now I get it!" as they walked off to play their games.
"I HATE YOU MELLO!" Arrow screamed before running off to her room and slamming the door as loud as she could.
A couple of hours later, L and Watari were meeting in another room, discussing a certain girl in the orphanage.
"You want to take Amanda out of the running to be your successor?" Watari asked, looking at L oddly.
"Yes." L answered simply. "She wasn't one of the front runners anyway, but I think it's best not to consider her anymore and treat her as just a normal child."
"May I ask why you've suddenly come to this decision?" Watari asked, folding his hands on the desk in front of him.
"She's biased, to begin with." L replied, "I spent some time with her today for this purpose. She's emotional, like Mello, but it's obvious her intelligence isn't at his level. Still, she does exceptionally well in her schoolwork and so I thought she was worth looking into."
Watari nodded, saying nothing and waiting for him to get to the point.
"Today she told me about how the other kids tease her and make her cry. She informed me that Mello seems to be her biggest offender, yet in the same breath told me that she considers him to be like a brother." L said. Watari blinked in surprise.
"Mello? He would never agree to something like that." he said. L nodded.
"That's what I thought too. But she holds him in very high regard. So, drawing a conclusion from this, if she were working against someone that she had any affection for at all, it's highly probable that she'd be swayed by her emotions and hold back." He said. Watari closed his eyes and thought about it for a moment.
"Yes," He said after a pause, "that makes sense. Good catch. She didn't have an alias anyway."
"Actually, she told me that Mello calls her Arrow." L said, looking toward the door. "Which could have been shortened to 'A' if needed." Watari nodded in agreement.
"It doesn't matter now, however." He said, looking at L. "Once again, good catch. From now on, she'll be treated as just a regular child."
And thus, Arrow's "regular" life began.
Notice to readers. This is chapter one. The next one will not be posted until I finish my fic "Love, Heaven" (which only has one chapter left).