So… yes, this actually is the same fic. XDD I know it seems really different from the first chapter, but that one was more of a prologue - most of the fic will be about L solving the mystery, and since I love the Wammy Kids, I decided to set it in England so that L could work from there and I could include his heirs. XDD This won't be all fluff, though - as the mystery starts to develop, there will be dark parts, and hopefully that'll make it interesting. Anyway, I hope you enjoy! :)


"No, Watari." Mello crossed his arms and glared up at his caretaker, scowling petulantly.

"Mello." The elderly gentleman sighed, looking as though his patience was wearing thin. "He didn't ask for this either, but you know the rule about going into town alone. You and Matt will hardly notice him; all you have to do is let him follow you around."

Mello's glower deepened. "We're not bringing Near."

"You are bringing Near," Watari corrected, "if you want to go to the Halloween Fair at all."

Mello knew when it was time to stop arguing. Sulkily, he nodded, then slouched out of the room to find his best friend - who turned out to be in the playroom, playing Super Smash Brothers with several of the other children.

"Watari says we have to bring him," Mello explained when his redheaded friend had triumphed and handed over his controller to another contender. He didn't have to say who he was talking about; it would have been obvious even without the frustrated jerk of his head towards the corner where the resident puzzle champion was currently reading a book and twirling a lock of white hair with his free hand.

"You know, if you sound too happy about it, Mello," he remarked without looking up, "I might worry that you have some ulterior motive."

Matt pretended not to notice Mello trying not to smile.

"Anyway, come on," the blond boy said. "We don't have all day."

"Actually, Mello, we do—"

"Just go to your room and get some shoes. And some real clothes. You're not planning to go downtown in pajamas, are you?"

Near blinked at him. Mello introduced his palm to his forehead. "At least put some shoes on."

Obligingly, Near shuffled off in the direction of his room and returned a few minutes later wearing scuffed white sneakers. They made a strange contrast with his pajamas.

"Let's go!" Mello exclaimed enthusiastically, leading the way out the door. He was excited about being outside, having an adventure - he and Matt had only been deemed old enough to go out by themselves a few years ago, and it still always felt daring and independent to walk down the slightly grassy lane away from the orphanage and enter the bustle of the nearby town. Today, their destination was the empty lot a few blocks away from the town square, where the Halloween Fair was set up every year at the beginning of October.

When they entered the Fair, Mello felt the usual rush of excitement and anticipation that tended to visit with Halloween. There were orange and black decorations all around, and booths selling candy apples, and costumed volunteers wandering around and working the games… for the first time, the atmosphere of the season felt tangible.

The first table they reached had a large estimation jar filled with candy corn and a clipboard for writing guesses. Squinting and biting his lip, Mello considered before jotting down 500 and a false name. Matt guessed six-hundred and handed the pen off to Near, who stood twirling his hair and examining the jar for a moment before writing 3200.

"Three-thousand?" Mello demanded incredulously. "No way there are that many in there."

Near shrugged, and Mello rolled his eyes before leading onward. At one of the booths, they bought candy apples, and they then spent the next few minutes wandering around trying to eat them without getting their faces sticky - which was, of course, impossible.

After an expedition for napkins and another to find a drinking fountain, they returned to wandering, browsing the crafts fair section for interesting booths. As Mello was stooping to examine a particularly realistic-looking pencil sharpener in the shape of a human skull, he felt a tug at his sleeve.

"What is it, Near?" he asked, distracted by trying to figure out whether you were supposed to stick your pencil into the eye socket or the nose hole.

"Don't look," Near implored quietly, "but there's a man back there who's staring at you."

Mello's first instinct was to whip around, but somehow, he managed to stop himself and instead reached for a mirror whose frame was designed to look like it was made out of bones. Carefully, he lifted it on the pretext of checking the price tag and took a quick look behind them.

About fifty feet back, hovering in the shadow of one of the booths and looking straight at him, was a man dressed in a hooded black cloak and wearing a grim reaper mask.

Mello put the mirror down. "Come on," he said in a low voice, trying to keep it steady. "Let's go." He wanted to grab Matt's hand - or even Near's, though he would have walked up and introduced himself to the stranger before admitting to that - but instead, he just clenched his fists and started walking away from the booth slowly, his two companions following in a slightly closer-together group than they had been earlier.

"Is he gone?" Matt asked quietly after they had passed a few more booths and crossed an aisle.

"No," Near said. "I think he's following us."

Mello felt his breathing going shallow and tried to relax. After all, they were in a place full of people. Nobody could do anything to them here - and if the man looked ready to follow them home, they could always call Watari instead of walking back alone. All of the children were required to carry cell phones whenever they went out, and all of them had his number on speed-dial in case anything ever happened. In a way, it was even surer than calling the police, and a good deal more comforting. But Mello hoped they wouldn't have to resort to that - the strange man was probably just walking the same way as them. Probably. He risked a glance over his shoulder on the pretext of checking to make sure Matt was right behind him and saw that the dark figure was still trailing them, moving slowly but steadily from stall to stall, death's-head mask shadowed by the hood of its cloak.

"I have an idea," he murmured once he'd turned again, trying to sound much braver than he felt. "Once we go around that corner, he won't be able to see us for a minute. It'd make sense to turn right and try to get lost in the crowd around the stage, but if we hurry, we can duck under the back of that tent and into it before he realizes where we've gone - that way we can lose him."

"Okay," Matt agreed, his voice unusually small. They were getting close to the corner now. Just a few more steps… two… one… and they were around it. Forgetting his earlier resolution, Mello grabbed one of Matt's hands with his right, and felt Near latch onto the left - and then all three were sprinting for the tent. Matt immediately knelt down and lifted the edge of the canvas, and Mello practically pushed Near through before dropping to his hands and knees and crawling through himself. Matt followed, the edge of the tent fell, and they were inside.

For a moment, they simply sat there, breathing hard, and then Mello dove for one of the eyelets in the canvas and pushed his bangs out of his eyes to peer through it.

"Do you see him?" Matt whispered. There were a pair of hands clenched around Mello's elbow, but he wasn't sure whose they were.

"Yeah," he replied softly. "I don't think he saw us. But he's looking around - he was definitely following us. Now he's looking the other way. Now he's going towards the stage. There he goes; I think he's gone." He let out a deep breath and heard his two companions do the same.

"I wonder why he was following you," Matt mused.

"Dunno," Mello replied thoughtfully. Now that they were out of apparent danger, the fright was fast becoming an adventure. "Probably just some random creep. You know, the kind Watari's always warning us about."

"Maybe it was Watari," Matt suddenly theorized, "spying on us to see if we were misbehaving. That would explain why he was looking at you, Mel."

Near paused. "Considering the history you two have," he remarked thoughtfully, "I can almost believe that."

Mello snorted. "What are you talking about? We do our misbehaving at home; not when we're out in public."

"I dunno," Near shrugged. "There was that time you tried to build a fort in the public library. And that time you started a food fight in the ice cream shop. And that time you told Watari you were going to The Jungle Book 2 and then snuck into The Ring instead."

"So?" Mello scoffed. "That movie wasn't even scary."

Near raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure," he agreed. "That must be why you insisted on sleeping in L's room for the next week."

Mello scowled. "Like you wouldn't have for a month!"

"I didn't say I wouldn't have," Near explained. "I was merely pointing out that you—"

"Hey, guys, look!" Matt broke in quickly. "This tent is the exhibit for the pumpkin-carving contest. Wanna look at the entries?"

Exchanging a last pair of slightly resentful glances, Mello and Near complied.

Actually, the pumpkins did turn out to be quite interesting. There were great variety of them, from classic carved faces to strange and indecipherable modern art. Matt particularly liked one with Bowser's face; Mello one that had the tragedy mask on the front and comedy on the back; Near one that was painted to look like a small round house with windows cut in the sides for yellow light to spill out. They all liked the one that was made to look like Cinderella's carriage, complete with wire vines for wheels and little toy mice harnessed to the front. And they all loved the withered zombie-lantern, a red bulb inside making its eyes glow, that was feasting on the seeds-and-goop brains of a healthier-looking pumpkin. By the time they left the exhibit, they were all in considerably better moods.

"Hey, look!" Matt pointed. "One of those big inflatable obstacle-course things! I'll race someone!"

"You're on," Mello said, itching to burn off some energy. Near watched with a vaguely amused expression on his face as the two pulled off their shoes and lined up at the start of the long structure, fidgeting and preparing to run.

At last, the volunteer supervising the course gave them the go-ahead, and each leapt forward into one of the twin tunnels at the beginning. The passageways were fairly narrow, but Mello was small enough to scramble forward quickly on all fours, emerging before a set of vertical rubber pillars, followed by a set of horizontal ones. Attempting to dive through the latter, he got caught halfway through, and by the time he managed to extricate himself, Matt had already gone over the top and was starting up the climbing slope that led to the final slide. Anticipating defeat, Mello dove forward in time to grab one of Matt's ankles and yank him backwards. With a cry of dismay, the redhead lost his balance and fell backwards, ending up sprawled on the springy floor. With an evil laugh, Mello began to scale the slope himself, but before he could take more than a few steps he felt arms go around his waist from behind, dragging him away from it. From there, naturally, it degraded into a wrestling match made all the more fun by the unsteady floor and walls.

At last, when they were both worn out, the two simply lay there getting their breath back and laughing. Their several-minute struggle had ended in a draw of sorts, and, declaring a truce, they climbed to the summit of the slope and went tumbling and sliding down the other side before emerging from the end of the course.

"That was fun," Matt laughed as they started walking back to reclaim their shoes.

"Yeah," Mello agreed. He smirked. "Near probl'y thinks we died or something by now."

As they turned the corner and arrived back at the front, however, the white-haired boy was nowhere in sight.

"Oh, you're kidding me," Mello groaned. "Where did he go? We were barely gone for five minutes!"

"You don't think…" Matt looked nervous. "That creepy guy?"

Mello's eyes widened. "Oh, hell, that had better not be it."

"Let's go look for him," Matt suggested. "If we come back without him, Watari'll kill us."

Mello nodded agreement and went to collect his shoes, muttering to himself as he did. "Stupid kid… can't believe we can't leave him on his own for five minutes…" He was annoyed. Really, really annoyed. That was the strange, clenching feeling in his stomach - obviously not fear, and certainly not worry.

It was nothing, however, compared to the annoyance he felt when they found Near calmly browsing through one of the crafts booths.

"What are you doing?" Mello snapped. "We thought you were dead! We thought that pervert got you or something!"

"I'm fine," Near told him calmly. "And I'm looking for a birthday present for Lawrence. That's why I wanted to come here in the first place."

Mello raised an eyebrow. "Who the hell is Law— oh." Obviously, it would be stupid to start talking about L with the owner of the crafts booth hovering near enough to overhear their conversation. "That Lawrence."

"Yes," Near agreed calmly. "But I haven't really found anything that fits."

Mello shrugged. "I usually just get him chocolate. But hey, you've got a whole month. That's plenty of time. You could even make him something; grownups love handmade stuff."

"That's a good point," Near admitted. "Perhaps we should go; I think we've seen most of what's here. At least that way we won't have to encounter that man who was following us again."

"Let's stay a few more minutes," Matt pleaded. "It's almost time for them to announce the winners of the estimation jar. C'mon, let's go see."

They were just in time - as they arrived, so did a tall, kindly-looking man dressed as a wizard. He spoke briefly with the volunteer who had been running the table, accepted a slip of paper, and smiled around at the assembled crowd.

"Well, there were lots of good guesses," he told them, "but the closest by far, and the winner of the estimation, was a Mister Neil Roberts! Is Mister Roberts here?"

Before Mello had a chance to wonder why he felt like he'd heard the name before, Near shuffled forward.

"That's me," he said calmly.

Oh. That's where he'd heard it before.

"There are three-thousand, one-hundred and sixteen pieces of candy corn in the jar," the man in the wizard costume was explaining, "so Neil's guess of three-thousand two-hundred was by far the closest." He smiled and patted Near on the shoulder. "Congratulations, Neil. Do you have someone with you to help you carry it home?"

Near frowned faintly in confusion. "Carry what home?"

"The jar of candy corn," the man said. "It's the prize. Are your parents here?"

"We're with him," Matt said quickly, stepping forward and pulling Mello with him. "Hey, Neil, nice job. Ready to go?" Near nodded, and the three started off towards the exit.

"Hey," Matt wondered as they emerged, "what are all those police cars doing in the parking lot?"

Mello shrugged. "Dunno; maybe something happened in a different part of the Fair. Let's just get home."

"You're eager to leave," Near remarked.

"Damn straight I am," Mello replied calmly. "I forgot to bring chocolate, and I haven't had any since before breakfast."

Matt sidled a half-step away.

As they sat on the curb half a block away, waiting for Watari to pick them up, Mello glanced over at Near and saw him smiling.

"You don't eat candy corn," he pointed out. "What's got you so pleased?"

Near's smiled widened. "I think," he decided, "that I just found a birthday present for L."