Two years after L died, Near is still in the Wammy's. The white kid is working on to close the case what caused the great detective's death. But, beside N, in the background, there is someone else who also has big plans. For a night the two roads come together.
Always Rivals
- two years later -
The closed door was cruelly teared to open by the blonde adolescent. Before the chamber's host could have even somehow reacted to the guest's sudden appearance, the guy took a short cut through the built up masterpieces in a flash and as he reached his aim, he nailed the other deep into the mattrace.
"It's you, aren't you?" he attacked the albino kid immediately. The other tried to ease on his pressure. But it was worthless, even by their diverse physicality. The blonde boy was almost six and a half inches taller and this difference was far enough to be an underdog by him. The only possible outcome was thus the fear only. The dark grey eyes looked to the moody teenager terrified.
"I don't know what are you talking about." heard Mello the slight voice.
"Stop lying, Near!" he shouted and tightened the squeeze on the other's breastbone. His palm almost crunched the kid's bones. The other quitely wailed under the pressure and tried to escape from it.
"I'm not..." he heard the faint sound. "Please, release me, Mello." begged the younger to him. The boy for a moment seriously thought about to let the albino go, but in that case he wouldn't know the truth - however he was exactly aware of his deduction. He has just needed a final convincting proof.
"Please." heard he again the thin tone, but he shaked his head stubbornly. He rather took a sit on the edge of the bed, next to the other's laying body. It was nearly eleven at night - from every quarter in a banned hour -, but he was there, against the inappropriate period of the day and the sack time. He hesitated for a sec, and before his conscience would have distracted him from his plan, he rather took the step in aware of the other's lack of collaboration.
He drowed down the bright blanket from the small torso and as the sight of the white pyjama appeared, he smoothly took his other hand to the other's breast. The surface under his palm wasn't roundly flat, it was felt like something . It almost fit perfectly to his hand. He couldn't tell which fact befell him as a bigger shock, that one or that he was in right during the whole time, and his deduction came through. He forgot to release the other by the sudden blow. He technically counted with it, but he could have never imagined that it real.
"So it's true." he whispered stunnedly. The younger held back the breath scarily, like an already dead man. Mello after all, against the other's petrified immobility could feel the deadly terrified heart beating under his fingers. The grey eyes were similarly full of fear. The blonde guy finally took back his right hand, but he still held the other tight by his left.
"I won't hurt you, Near, I've just wanted to know it." he explained. "And I was sure, you would never share it with me - or anyone."
Suddenly some silver tears appeared on the ivory cheek. Mello just now recognised how much he had given a fright to him - her. Her . It was still weird, but it was by this time, undoubtedly a true fact. That was what he suspected for a good while as he had been noticing the small details and gossips beside the institution's walls. A black hooded boy occasionally has been breaking into the other annex's medical room, leaving only a smell of smoke after his actions.
Mello was aware of the robber's identity, and on the other hand, he knew no one else who could be enough wide boy to take part in that kinda secret stuffs, when even the smoking was forbidden here. The delinquent was beyond doubt, his best friend, the maroon haired nerd guy, Matt. The question was only with who did he made this cooperation. Who was enough scared to trust him with this action instead of revealing the truth of a hiding one inside the boy's section? Why was it more beneficial to the girl to stay here than go to the other side where she was belonged basically? He still couldn't answer those questions.
"Sss..." he tried to calm Near down as the other started to sniffling under him. "Don't cry..." he said gently. "Near..."
He wiped a tear off the pale skin by the sleeve of his black upper jumper. Near freezed under the touch.
"I won't hurt you, you stupid." he said. "Don't be paranoid." and continued to mopped the other's cheek to dry.
"I... don't... understand." whispered she confoundedly, like a dumbass, albeit he – she – substantially could have never been decieved and ambiguous, ever. Mello could credit this fact to himself, he managed to break Near in a certain level, but he exactly knew that, exceptionally, he didn't want to beat the albino, the boot was on the other leg this time.
"Firstly, you are not enough careful. Everybody knows about Matt's pretty burglaries. It's only a matter of time, even for the dumber ones to figure it out. Currently a high percent thinks it's me, I mean the hooded one. They haven't yet stepped over the fact that the guy and the user is not the same person. After they found out this in fine, you will have no time to hide it. I know what are you afraiding of and you just shouldn't."
"I have to." Near said faintly and closed the grey eyes to hold back the rest of the tears. "You don't understand, Mello. You can't see it."
"It's your past, isn't it?" he guessed. Near nodded calmly. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." he said, but then added. "Otherwise, I have to see it." the small kid freezed.
"No..."
"Near... I won't hurt you, promise." he tried, but the albino scarily shaked the short white hair.
"Please, Mello..." she begged to him and started to tremble under the blonde teenager. "Please..." she asked with new silver tears on the pale cheek, selfsame like someone who was on to convince his abuser not to hurt him. Mello didn't want to be a bad guy in her eyes, or at least, not this time.
The boy eased on his pressure, and started to nail him by his left hand into the bed less tight. "Okay, you don't have to." he said and let the stuff. "Just then stop the crying, you seem with it weaker than you really are."
The other snuffled a bit, but after a little time, she calmed and mopped the water from her skin with the white pyjama's sleeve.
"What- what do you want from me?" asked she quietly then from the boy.
"Just three small things." admitted the fringed adolescent.
"Three?" chuckled she again terrified.
"Yeah, three." grinned Mello, enjoying – in fact – approximately the third occasion that, by now, he managed to surprise, momentary, the wisest kid in the Wammy's. "We are already over the first one: finding out the identity of the hider. And if my deductions were right, it comes with the second and the third one. Second..." he said and bent closer to Near. "Don't move."
Near stayed motionlessly, almost literally frightened out of her pale skin as the older boy breathed a slight kiss on her quittering lips. It didn't make sense. He didn't want to make a point with it. He just did it, tasted her, without a certain reason.
"Mello..." Near whispered confoundedly as the blonde guy finally dragged from her.
"Don't think about it, Near. It wasn't relevant here, just a slight bay." he parried off the cuff with a headshake. "Back to the second point, I don't want you to be afraid of me. And third, let me help you. If you would like to hide it constantly, you need a better plan than the current one. Admit it, it was a hasty decision, you were too scared for the first time and nobody was there to help you, despite Matt. He is enjoying it but he is a kinda criminal right now, but for you it won't be rewarding in the long term, there are so much mistakes in your plan." he said and waited few secs to let the other think about it and seize his message. "Well?" he asked then.
The white kid was visibly still under the effect of the previous, almost meaningless action. She had to blink twice, while she managed to come back to the reality and stopped the gaze to the space with her dead grey eyes.
"You… kissed me." she whispered barely audibly, as someone who has just now apprehended the occurred thing.
Mello moaned. "Yeah, I did, and as I said, it wasn't relevant. Step over it." he said, trying to cover his impatience that the other was seemingly sticked down such a blindfold action, like that was.
"You kissed me." she repeated.
"Get over it, Near!" he snarled at her. "I won't do it again. I was just curious." he confessed.
"And?" she looked to him wonderingly.
"How do you mean 'and' ?"
"What was the conclusion?" she explained. The blonde boy freezed.
"Conclusion ? God's sake, Near! Don't act like it was your first one!" he attacked her as he put together the small pieces. The albino turned away her white head.
"It wasn't…" she mumbled calmly. The moody teenager breathed freely.
"Thank goodness. I didn't want to take your lips' virginity or what the hell, that would have been unfair from me." he said, but then he realised what the other had said. He grabbed the kid's upper on her shoulder and shaked her a bit. "How do you mean it wasn't the first?" he yelled to the albino suddenly.
Near calmly answered, twisting a little hair within her two fingers, as the blonde boy released her. "As I said, it wasn't . And as you said, it was't relevant here. I've just gave an answer to your question, as you should do too."
Mello wanted to choke her right now. Near provoked him again, beat him and on the other hand, there was that fact. It wasn't . Is it possible that Near told the truth? No, she certainly lied. But what if she didn't? Then it was a boy, or a girl ? Did Near enjoy it? Who was it? But, these questions didn't count in real, or Mello hoped that it didn't give much point to the current argument, but after all-
"Damn you! But if he hurt you, I swear…" he voiced his anger then, keeping his fist narrow. He couldn't tell why he was at the right moment so furious and angry, like someone who could kill anyone in any minute, but he was. Maybe it was just his damn inherited temper again what determined his daily existence.
"It's not important Mello, get over it." Near said coldly, almost telling with her tone the truth to the blonde, fringed boy.
"I just… can't ." he admitted to himself too.
The white kid again turn her head away from him. "Don't act like I count to you." she whispered.
"You wan' it, huh? Don't hope, Near, I still hate you. You are my enemy, not my friend, and it will never ever change. I just… I… There are things, you know, what you don't wish, even for your enemies. You won't deserve it, even if you are a stupid creepy, pure sheep within the wolves."
The white girl gazed to him sceptically. "That's sounded a little bit too poetically from you, don't you think?" she grinned. "Anyway you haven't yet answered my question."
"About what?"
"About the kiss, obviously." she reminded him. "How it was felt for you?"
"And you just says, I am poetical!" he moaned indignantly.
"Please …" Near begged to him, giving for Mello with her tone an obvious proof that she really wanted to know it for some inexplicable reason.
"You really want to know it?" he asked stunnedly.
"Yes." she groaned as someone who had to repeat herself for the tenth occasion, well, that was almost the present situation.
"You are scratchy." noted the blonde.
"And you are still ignoring the issue." she reflected. For a moment they sounded like a creepy old married couple, but their discussions were always seemed like that. Near was cold and pretentious, and Mello was the human, the heart, the living one.
"Because it wasn't relevant!" he yelled, trying to remind with his sound the other that the issue was basically specifically awkward and, well, too personal, in truth. "And I won't repeat it, ever . So I can't see why you wanted to know it so much."
"Because I exactly know, you won't repeat it!" she shouted to him. Surprising Mello with her never heard emphasis, but after that she heaved a deep sigh and continued much calmer. "Confess it, Mello, it was too long to an accidental movement. You wanted to try it, to fade your curiosity, thus my interest is based on this fact, how you felt it." she said quietly.
Mello stayed in silence for an almost endless minute, then said out what Near wanted to hear, the truth. "It was like white chocolate." the grey eyes looked to him disconcertedly, the blonde guy straightaway explained. "I never tried it, I have always aversed from it, it sounded to me extremely weird, like an intangible stuff, what somewhere exists but not in my sight, but somehow, if I confessed it to myself, a little part of me, have always wanted to try it."
Near smiled, widely, like someone who caught the other to the biggest confession in his life. "It's very impressive."
Mello moaned. "You asked…" he said, aware of his own banality and the ridiculousness of the explication. He just couldn't explain it on an other way.
Near blushed. "Sorry." she whispered and tried to hide her perplexity by her habitual hair-twining, but the blonde boy noticed it. He felt rather to distract her mind about the issue, and on the other part, there was an other stuff what couldn't let him calm, thus he took the question.
"By the way, what was your first one?" he looked to the white kid, bringing up the other side of the subject.
"Bitter and tasted like metal." she murmured quickly. Mello almost heard the added rustled sentence, 'I don't want to talk about it.'
"And that one?" Near gazed to him wonderingly, but when she answered, again turned her head away and stopped badgering her short snow-white hair. Her fingers stayed in the air, like something would frosted them.
"…better. But it made me sad." she whispered silently and slowly succeeded to galvanize life again into her hand.
"Sad?!" Mello could imagine anything, but that was new. How the hell could a kiss make someone feel sad? Well, from Near anything could have been possible, but, though- He marked to her, but the white face didn't look back, it rather gazed to the space again. But she then answered the unvoiced question.
"Because, you will go away again." well, the tone, how she said it, was sad, in deed. So, then, her note made sense in fine for the blonde teenager.
"It's true. Basically I just came back to my photograph." made Mello a clean breast of it. He has technically been on to leave without the picture, sith he hadn't found it - or at least he hadn't have a taste to break to Roger's office and then spend fucking hours to finally light on his file, thus he rather skipped this shit for an other time -, when the gossips had caught him up on the corridor and he then has winded up here.
Near sighed. "As I calculated." she sounded joylessly, or more joylessly than usually she was. She took a look at him, almost hopefully. "Before you go away again, could you do to me something?"
Mello sceptically raised his eyebrow. "I won't kiss you, Near, I've already told you that. It was far enough weird for the first time, I won't do it again even if-" he started, but the white kid cut him short.
"Could you stay with me? Please…"
Mello released Near in fine, he gazed to her, viewed her for a long time. The white kid – well, she was only one and a half year younger than him, but still, Near was a kid for him, and she always will be – looked sad, maybe, in a certain percent his absence was the reason behind it. He didn't want to know it in real, he just, after a really long, possibly well-thought-out minute, poked then gently the other on her shoulder.
"Move!" he voiced, when she made some space for him beside her. Mello positioned himself under her blanket, leaving enough private space for both of them. He couldn't tell what would have been weirder, if he would stay in crassness about Near's real gender and then share a bed with her or if there wouldn't be a lie during the whole time and he would be here too for some reason, or the current one.
For a moment, he could imagine that Matt laughed on him. He shared a bed for a night with the enemy, who was eventually a girl, or maybe already a woman – he couldn't know and well, he didn't want to think about it. Mello dragged apart from the younger a little bit more. No matter how he approached the situation, it was still unseemly. He has never shared a bed before with anyone, and Near was just too close. Over and above, they were both teenagers – at any rate in a physical view. The other stuff could have been throwed to the dogs, even if Near was just sometimes too cute and pure to her real age.
But before the blonde could have reconsidered his hasty decision, Near moved closer to him and soon he had to recognise that the younger hugged him, tilting her white head to his chest. He knew that he had no other choice than let it to her. Well, to tell the truth, in a way, he didn't want to do anything against it, at all. "All right. But if I heard a single word about it-" he started then resignedly.
The albino gently squeezed a bit the blonde's upper arm. "Mello, can't you just shut up? I want to sleep." she mumbled tiredly, killing the discussion at the beginning.
"I hate you, you know." he said badgeringly.
"Me too." she noted and peacefully closed her eyes, as Mello did a little later, but despite the girl, he couldn't sleep.
He knew, next day – few hours later - he has to leave the orphanage. But that time, unlike this exceptional occasion, he won't came back, ever. Photograph or no photograph, he has had bigger things now, bigger ones than that damn picture. Less than twelve hours and his legs will reach an other continent. He upon the whole, calculated his short attendance here as a last farewell, maybe Near felt it too, hence he couldn't blame her to ask him to stay beside her.
"Good bye, Near." he whispered to the other's ivory ear gently, however he exactly knew that the snow white brainiac hasn't heard him yet. She successfully managed to beat the blonde in sleeping too. "But in the U.S. I'll be the first." he noted simperingly.