Perceptions

Near awoke to the flashing of computer screens . His eyes adjusted and he saw around him his spilled dice. He figured thay he was still in the headquarters of the Kira investigation. Near regained his memory of the eraser and the DeathNote. He remembered he killed Kira and filed the report. He remembered erasing a name. Then he remembered being knocked out by.

"L" Near said raising his head to see L sitting weirdly in a chair staring at a computer screen. On the screen was the report Near had typed.

"Near" L said with his finger in his mouth, not looking away from the screen.

"Kira is dead?" L whispered.

Near sat up and perched himself on his elbows. He felt a sharp pang in his head.

"Mello and I solved the case after you passed away." Near stared coldly at L's back. Emphasizing when he said passed away.

"Yes, how is Mello?" L didn't even seem to notice Near's tone.

"He was killed by Kira. Like you" Near sat up so he could twirl his hair.

"That's a shame." L was completely avoiding Near's press on the subject.

"L?"

"Yes?"

"You were killed by Kira."

"..."

"Reading the report you most likely have figured out what happend and who Kira was"

"Light Yagami" L whispered.

"He was brought to justice." Near said as he closed his eyes.

"I see" L read over the report for the 12th time.

L continued letting his mind trail off. "It's strange...Light-no Kira is dead. Yet I still want something. Revenge maybe. I need to see him again. See him fallen and bring him to justice myself." L was to a whisper again now "Time seems to have really ticked away since I left. You're much older now. Light must be my age. Strange." L was obviously thinking of something Near couldn't see. Near was of course getting inpatient.

"L, you're alive now. How is that?"

"You tell me. I woke up wondering and wondering. Where am I? Who am I? Who is Kira? Then I thought. Thats right, Light is Kira. The last thing I saw before I died was Light looking down on me with an evil triumphant glare. Then I remembered where I was and I knew. I had to find Light. All I found was you though. Congratulations Near."

Near didn't know how to respond to that. But thinking back he remembered erasing the name...perhaps...

"L" Near said getting up.

"Yes" L looked to the side seeing Near walking over.

Near slowly picked up the white eraser off of the DeathNote. He handed it to L.

"The Shinigami gave me this, and I used it to erase a name in the notebook. I think I erased your name which may have brought you back to life" Near was breathing slowly. It was a scary thought but the fact remained that L was right infront of him. And right now this was the only logical explanation.

L took the white object and rubbed it in between his fingers.

"The Shinigami have powers beyond comprehension as you may have witnessed. This is not far from possible" L evaluated, doing the thing he always did with his finger and loosing himself in his own world.

"That's absolutely crazy, could that really be what happened? Seems rather impossible..." Near thought.

"Near" L snapped Near out of his thoughts.

"Yes?"

"You were staring at me a long time" L looked at him wearily. This scene was all too familiar, L secretly wanted to say 'oh, is it because I'm the only one eating cake at the moment?' But he didn't

Near looked away and grabbed the eraser. L gave him a look when Near took it but Near ignored him and sat in the corner with the DeathNote. He was unsure of the the possibility that this eraser had powers and had to test it for himself. He decided he was going to write a name in the DeathNote. But this name going to be was someone who was already dead.

'Mihael Keehl' He wrote and whispered his comrade's name.

"Mello" Near let this name sit before he took the eraser and erased the writing. L was watching and wondering what Near was up to. Then the albino boy took out a transever and gave orders to Giovanni. The night break was over and today was another work day.

"Giovanni? I want you to send an investigative party around Mello's grave. Search for anything abnormal and report back to me. I want no questions asked. Is this understood?" Giovanni replied immediately that he would start the task right away. Near slipped the transever back into his pocket.

L finally understood what Near was doing and well...he wanted to bring Light back to life. L had lied when he told Light he was his friend but...he felt like he needed to see Light again. So this was what it was like to miss someone? Strange. L looked back at Near. This was strange too, he was actually very proud of Near. He remembered the days of visiting the Wammy house and teaching the kids who all looked up to him. Near, Matt, and Mello were his top and favored students. He had grown a slight attachment to them. Maybe it was the fact he knew they would be filling his position, almost as if they were his own children. But that...that was a crazy thought.

And...after the crazy, confusing thought...L still wanted to see Light.

"Near?" L swore he had repeated Near's name at least a thousand times in the last 15 minutes.

"Yes?" Near put the DeathNote on the counter.

"Do you mind retrieving me something sweet? I just remembered that Watori died" L stared at his feet. Watori WAS his best friend, his mentor, and everything else you could hope for. L felt a pit in his stomach.

"Uh...I guess so." Near said getting up and giving L a suspicious side glance before exiting the room.

As soon as Near was gone L scrambled out of his chair and lifted up the death note with two fingers. Judging by the Kira report he knew Light's name was not in either of these notebooks. But, he had saw what Near did.

L picked up a pencil and stared at the blank page...he quickly scrambled the words-

"Light Yagami" and as fast as he wrote them he erased them with the little white eraser.

He was certain if Light was brought back to life he would come back to HQ. It's just who Light was...

L placed the book and eraser back and sat in his chair again, just in time because Near walked in seconds after holding a few chocolate bars. He handed them to L.

L stared at the chocolate bars a few seconds. He actually wanted cake...not choclate.

"Why did you aquire these? I don't recall you ever favoring chocolate" He said recalling the time Near had pushed away fudge Watori offered when he visitied the Wammy house.

"Mello left them here a while ago" Near said twirling around. More or less L ate the chocolate anyway.

L and Near spent a huge amount of time just staring at each other. Not saying anything, not moving, just...staring. Near twirled his hair while L sucked on his thumb. It was actually kind of creepy, but both were working on evaluating the other. Near eventually became bored and started playing with his race car. Neither of them knew what to do with the other

...

A G appeared on all the computer screens and Giovanni's voice ran through the room.

"N! It appears something is happening near Mello's grave site. A figure is just walking around in the dirt. The figure looks like a boy but we're not certain. Should we get a closer look" L widend his eyes as he listened.

Near spoke into the microphone "Yes, investigate this figure. If he turns out to be a human male bring him to me understood?"

"Sir? What did you do?" Giovanni asked.

"That's none of your concern, I said no questions asked understood?" Near almost growled and empathized the last word.

"Understood" the other line answered. Then the screens went blank. L couldn't beleive what he was hearing, this meant Light would come back to life! L just had to wait, and patience was his middle name. L started thinking about what would he do when he saw Light. He couldn't choose between greeting him solemnly like he greets everyone, or strangling Light's neck. Honestly...he liked the second idea, and he started fantisizing about the event.

Near turned around actually, well kind of, smiling. He really did miss his friend. Even if they were enimies they were still friends. I guess that's kind of weird but it was how both of them felt. Near thought about how the first thing Mello would do was bite into a giant chocolate bar, the second was beg to bring Matt back. Near was contemplating wether that was a good idea.


The door slid open and Mello walked in with Giovanni holding his hands behind his back. Mello had his head held down and his hair messy. He looked tired and dirty and overall a mess. He wore some clothes that looked like they were forced onto him and they too were ragged. Giovanni pushed Mello into the room.

Mello looked up a little bit, his face looked half asleep and half scared. While his eyes said that he couldn't tell if he was dreaming or not. Near similed no I mean it he actually smiled. Not a big smile, it was very tiny, but it was a smile.

"Mello" Near greeted. That seemed to snap Mello into reality and as soon as he realized he was infront of Near Mello's eyes widened impossibly large to the point where it was comedic. Mello gasped

"NEAR!?" He yelled.