Grieving

Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note. Yeah.

Hal moaned as he pressed his bare body against hers. With each caress, her mind was thrust deeper into an immaculate fantasy world seeping with the aroma of chocolate. She wanted to stay in this world forever, and she just might've had her phone not rang.

At first, she tried to ignore it, but as his movements became more reserved she realized she must answer it. With a sigh, she reached onto the night stand.

"Hello?" she absentmindedly answered as she watched him grabbed the half-eaten chocolate bar next to her and sit up.

"Hal!"

"Jeremy?" she grabbed the clock. It was nearly midnight—an hour after her scheduled date. "Oh, I'm sorry. I got caught up with work." She glanced up at him as the chocolate bar slowly began to disappear, but as soon as his eyes caught hers she looked back at the clock.

"This is the third time this month, Hal!"

"I know. I know. And I'm working on it. But you know work is my first priority."

"Hal, you've been acting strange this whole month. I'm starting to get the feeling that you don't want this marriage to happen."

"No, Jeremy, I've just got a lot on my plate right now. You know I love you."

"So you tell me."

"Look how about we have breakfast tomorrow at the little shop on the corner of Main Street. You love that place."

Jeremy sighed, "Just don't stand me up, again."

"I won't. I promise."

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight," she said before throwing the phone on the floor. With a sigh, she watched his tongue glide over the chocolate. He ate it more gently than Mello. Much, more gently.

As Near crumpled the wrapper, she forced him into a reclining position and began to stroke his hair. She couldn't feel it through the leather gloves, but she didn't need to. Leaning down, she kissed him dominantly. When she went down for another one he grabbed her necklace and held her in that position.

Hal lost track of time as he stared at her. He avoided her eyes, instead focusing on her body. Although she could not say she knew Near well, she knew him well enough to understand that as his eyes outlined her body making special note of her leather gloves and blond hair, he was not looking at her. Rather, he had escaped into his own fantasy world. A world founded on the same entity as hers.

Letting go of the necklace, he pushed himself up and kissed her more forcefully than she had done to him. She caressed his face as he played with her hair. Then they both stopped.

Rolling to the other side of the bed, Hal wrapped the blanket around herself and stared at Near—L, she reminded herself. He had to be at least five years younger than her, probably more. With his overabundant collection of pajamas and his abnormal fetish for toys, she really couldn't see anything that would ever attract her to him. And to her knowledge, there was nothing about her that would attract him. But here they were in bed together…again.

Before Hal had time to further think about this, Near stood up and declared, "I have to catch a flight at 1:30."

Hal took a sharp breath as she felt her pseudo reality crumble. Their fantasy fulfilling secret meetings had started very abruptly, and she knew from the beginning that they would end even more abruptly; however she still wished it could go on for just a little longer. At least until everything with Jeremy was finalized.

As she watched Near slowly get changed, her mind wandered to that day nearly one month ago when she had run into Near while passing the old SPK headquarters. That day was unbearably sunny and all-together quite chilly, she recollected. It was the first time she had seen him eating chocolate, and the first time he had seen her in leather.

Over the weeks, the events leading up to their first time had been jumbled in her mind. Now, all she could recall was a tear-filled car ride leading to the most satisfying sexual experience of her life. This eventually lead to six other satisfying sexual experiences, and no sex from her fiancé, she noted scornfully.

Sighing, she closed her eyes and tried to reason with herself. Two years. It had been two years since Mello had been killed, but she still hadn't finished grieving. She had gone through all the stages of grieving in what seemed a never-ending cycle. She had cried, and yelled, and vented. She had attempted to totally move on with her life yet still thoughts of that psychotic blond filled her mind. It was no surprise that when she saw Near that day, sitting insouciantly with a bar of chocolate in his mouth she had given up all proper rationalizing. But in minor condolence, she had to admit that Near had done the same thing. Maybe, they had more in common than she cared to notice.

Opening her eyes, she was surprised to find that Near had left without a word or a sound. Standing up, she went to make sure he had locked the door on his way out. When she reached the door, she vaguely noticed something tacked to her door. Turning the light on, she began to weep as she realized that it was a picture of Mello, probably cropped from the SPK video-system. Grabbing the photo, she fell to her knees but not before noticing that someone else's tears had already stained the photo.

A/N: Just a random idea I woke up with after listening to Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too by Say Anything while I took a nap. I've been trying to come up with a fic focusing on Hal and her feelings towards Mello and now I finally have. Please R/R.