"Ouch!" Near shouted, rubbing the forming bruise on his arm. He looked up at Mello questioningly.

"I told you, don't sit by me."

"Where else am I supposed to sit?" The car was large, but there were only three seats back here and Mello had chosen to sit smack dab in the middle.

"I dunno. The roof?"

Roger poked his head into the opening, "Slide over Mello and keep your hands to yourself."

Typical. Adults always said the same things. Don't hit. Don't run indoors. Don't light fire to Near's hair. It was all so typical.

The doors slammed shut and the engine started as they pulled from the drive. Mello watched as his home faded away into the distance.

"Want to play a car game?"

The blonde's eyes rolled over to glare at Near, "No."

"I know some good ones. I looked them up in the library before we came, just in case."

"I'm seriously thinking about throwing you out of this cab."

Near reached into his bag and pulled out a robot, "Did you know that the word taxi is spelled the same in English, German, French, Swedish, Dutch, and Portuguese?"

"Help me," Mello whispered, banging his head against the door, "Someone kill me now."

The robot now soared through the air outside of the window and Near, completely disregarding his companions aggravation, stated, "Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour, but it's not the best way to work off all those chocolate bars."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"This is it? This is where I'm supposed to spend the next few weeks?!"

Mello looked around in horror. The cabin was largish really, but there wasn't much else about it that could be said in its favor. There were two beds, small and dusty, with two desks alongside each. As far as other furniture went there was a small loveseat in the corner facing nothing. In fact if you sat in it the only thing you would probably have a good view of was the bathroom. This was not going to work

"No. There's been a mistake."

"No mistake," said the woman in a cheerful, yet extremely irritating, voice, "This is your cabin. Cabin 3. Every cabin is full and this one was assigned to the pair of you. Would you like to see the registry?"

If she says cabin one more time… Mello clenched his teeth, changing tactics, "At least make it just mine. Come on, you can't leave me here with… that."

Near walked calmly over and placed first his small suitcase, and then his massive hard case full of toys, onto the bed on the left. He sneezed inaudibly when the dust he stirred reached his nose.

Hatred and anger were plastered on Mello's face, "Actually a registry would be just great. Maybe I can find a solution to this… problem…"

The woman smiled in what looked to be a sweetly sadistic manner as she turned and left the room, "Remember to stay in your cabin."

In the corner of the room, Near began to unload his various toys and set them up on the shelf above his bed. Mello watched in disgust as he meticulously placed the each toy, arranging them first by size and then by color. It was sad really.

Mello trudged over to the other bed. He looked down at it for a moment. The green blanket was stained, dirty. He wasn't a particularly neat and tidy person himself, but he at least wanted things to be sanitary.

"Ugh."

He turned completely around then, dropping his suitcase down on the bed opposite him, right on top of the toys yet to be stacked. The smaller boy gave a slight yelp, but whether it was from surprise or the fact that the bag seemed to have just decapitated one of his favorite toys, even he didn't know.

"Mello… my, uh, toys…"

"I want this bed."

Near reached up to twirl his hair, "I…"

"Move," the blonde demanded as he forced him aside. With one sweeping motion he knocked every toy from the shelf and the bed onto the floor, "You sleep over there now."

And he laid down on the mattress possessively, daring anyone to try and take it from him. No one here did.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It was quite, but Near wasn't sure how he really felt about it. He was used to being alone, that was true, but he wasn't alone, was he? Right there, across the room, was Mello. He was still grumbling to himself, muttering something about murder to all.

"I have extra toys," Near said, breaking the silence.

Mello looked up at him, giving him a devilish glare, "Yeah, so?"

"Well… you can play with them if you want."

The older boy snorted, "What am I, five? No I don't play with your stupid toys! Play with them your own damn self. Just leave me alone, will ya?"

Near shrugged as he crouched lower over his card tower. It had been three days. By now it was painfully obvious to both boys that they weren't going to get out of this anytime soon. They saw no one but the counselor and each other. When they said isolation they meant it.

"What's the frikin' point to this anyways?! Why are we here!?"

The boy looked up from his cards, hit by the sudden shout, "…Roger says-"

"I don't care what Roger says! Roger's full of crap!" Mello paused for a moment, but continued on grudgingly, "What do you think?"

Near's tower fell over, "I'm sorry?"

"Oh come on! Don't pull that crap with me; I know you heard me the first time. I've been racking my brain for two days and keep coming up flat."

"Well you know that your anger affects your reasoning abilities," Near stated calmly, "It would be easier to see your goal if you weren't clouded with emotion."

A pillow hit him hard in the back of the head, and Near jolted forward in place. He turned to look at it. Then he turned to Mello, throwing the pillow back onto the bed.

"Was that helpful?"

The pillow hit him in the face this time. Mello smirked.

Near lifted it from the ground and went to throw it up there again, but thought better of it. He laid it flat on the floor and placed his robot across the top.

"Answer the question," his companion demanded.

The card tower began to grow again, "The reasoning is obvious, isn't it? They're trying to bond us. To make us work together as one."

Mello spun around and grabbed a fresh bar of chocolate from his end table, biting off a huge chunk, "You can't be serious."

"You've come to the same conclusion."

It was true. The older boy had, in fact, thought of this already. His mind had just automatically rejected it. He hadn't wanted to believe it.

"It's not gonna work," he stated harshly, "You and I will never be one."

The sixth layer of cards began to wobble slightly, and Near reached out a hand to steady them, "Then we might be here a while."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Lightning flashed brightly through the window.

"One… tw-"

Thunder shook the floor boards. Near jumped in shock. He pressed himself further into the cushions of the couch.

"Mello, it's less than two miles away! The storm's getting closer!"

"Ugh! Be quiet," said the other boy. He repositioned himself into a more comfortable position on the bed, pulling the book in closer to his face. "I'm reading."

"But look how dark it is out already! The clouds are building really fast! What if the power goes out?!"

Resting the urge to strangle his roommate, Mello spat, "Then we'll be sitting in the dark, won't we?"

Another crack split the night and Near jumped, his foot colliding with a box of Lego's that spilled loudly across the hard wood floor.

"Ah! Did you hear that?!"

Mello's head fell back against the headboard, "Of course I heard it, moron, it's not like I'm deaf. Though I will be if you don't stop screaming."

"I can't help it. It's really loud…"

"Why don't you try doing something to distract you," Mello suggested. He'd suggest just about anything right now if it would make Near shut up, "You know, get your mind off the storm."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. Play with your toys."

Near looked over at his assortment. He'd brought plenty to keep him busy, but they didn't seem very appealing right now. He forced himself onto the floor none-the-less and started to create a fortress for his robot to protect it from the storm.

Another bolt struck and this time Near actually toppled forward onto his fortress, the pieces scattering beneath him.

"This isn't working. I can still hear the storm."

Mello pressed his nose into the book, trying to pretend he was so absorbed in it that he didn't hear. It wasn't going to work. It hadn't worked the last three times he'd tried to read this sentence. Not that it mattered. He'd read it so many times he knew what it said.

Near inched slowly toward him, "Um…"

The blonde glanced up warily. Why was Near getting closer? "What?"

"Well… the storm is too loud. Could you… maybe…"

If looks could kill… Near would have died a slow and painful death before he reached the edge of the bed.

"Could you read to me?

"What?!"

"Just to block out the sounds!"

Mello looked down at the book in his hands… Why was he holding this book when Near asked him such a stupid question? What if he tried to look at it? If he just glanced close enough to see the scribbled handwriting…

"Piss off."

"You don't want me to see what you're reading," Near stated, his voice a little weak from the storm.

"You talk too much when you're scared, you know that?"

The boy shrugged, "I voice my fears only when I'm attempting to minimize them. By concentrating intently on the words that I hear they become hard fact to me. Easier to analyze and block out."

The lights suddenly flickered and died, sending the boys into pure darkness. Mello felt the bed shift as Near clambered onto it in fear. At least he hadn't screamed this time.

"Shit," Mello grunted. He snapped the book closed and plopped it onto the bedside table perfectly, despite the dark. "I just can't catch a break, can I?"

He waited for some sort of response from the know-it-all at the end of the bed, but he had grown surprisingly quiet all of the sudden. Mello lay down, stretching his feet out under the covers, and kicked Near off of the bed.

"Go to sleep. When you wake up the storm will be over and you can stop bugging me."

A flash of lighting caused dark shadows to play across room, across Near. The boy was sitting on the floor, his knees pulled to his chest and his back against his bed. His face was blocked out, hidden behind his hands.

Mello rolled his eyes, but honestly he felt a little bad for Near. He was away from his normal surroundings, cast out into the middle of no where, with a boy who very obviously hated him and now this stupid storm had him almost in tears.

"Would you stop already? Take a breath or two. It's not like you're gonna die."

"C-Can I sleep with you?"

Mello's head fell forward a little in surprise, "Huh?"

Another flash showed fear on the boy's face. Was that even possible?

"Do you have to? Seriously, is it absolutely necessary? Can't you just, I don't know, find a suitable teddy bear to cling to?"

More silence.

"Shit, first I couldn't get you to shut up and now you won't say a damn thing."

"…"

"Whatever! Just don't touch me, don't look at me, and don't get under my covers. Got it? Oh, and don't even think about crying. I don't want to be rolling around in your tears all night."

Near wasn't going to wait for him to change his mind. He jumped to his feet and scrambled onto the bed. He could feel Mello's warmth left on the spot where he'd laid, but now the older boy had forced himself up against the wall.

"Now go to sleep!"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\