A/N: Oh my god! I'm sooo sorry for taking so long to get this next chapter to you! I was sick with writers' block and also had a lot of real life crap happening. Anyway, sorry again for my tardiness! Please, PLEASE leave a review! Your reviews motivate me to keep writing and update sooner! Anyway, enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: Once again, I don't own Death Note or any of its characters. If you seriously sue me over this…you have no life.

Chapter 2: A Coincidence

The next morning at breakfast Mello was sitting over his bowl of cereal, looking irritated at the letter. The glare he was giving it was almost hot enough to light the earth's atmosphere on fire.

Matt was sitting next to him, occasionally glancing over at his irritated friend and smiling to himself because he knew something that Mello didn't, for once. However, unlike usual mornings, Mello was letting his cereal sit to become mush as he was focusing on another section of the Russian hint at the bottom; trying to decipher its meaning.

He heard the sound of someone sitting down across from him. When he looked up to see who it was, he almost burst into flames with anger and annoyance.

"What the fuck are you doing, Near?" He said scathingly while directing the glare was he once giving to the letter up to Near.

Near looked up from his tray, glancing at Mello with his dark eyes, "I'm sitting down at this table with my breakfast… Is there something about that which you don't understand?" He asked in his signature monotone voice.

'Oh my god, the nerve of this kid! First he sits down, knowing he's not invited and then he insults my intelligence???' Mello thought to himself before he stood up –so infuriated with Near's smartass remark that you could practically see the smoke billowing out from his ears. "Get the hell out of here, Near." He said impertinently, "No one wants to sit with a total freak like you! Go away!"

At those words, Mello thought he spotted something rather unusual. Near's expression went from his usual emotionless state to pure, unadulterated sadness. Mello blinked sharply, not believing what he just saw. 'Did he just look…sad?' but when he looked again, the saddened look he thought he saw was gone; the emotionless look back in its usual place. 'I must have just imagined it. Near's not one to show emotion'

Near sat there, silent.

Resorting back to his normal persona and dismissing what he saw he finally said, "What's the matter, Near? Too scared to retort?" Mello said, tauntingly.

Near exhaled a slow breath before taking his tray and walking away without another word.

"Mels…you really should be nicer to him." Matt said, disapproval in his voice.

"Why the hell should I?" Mello asked, anger evident in his tone as he turned to the redheaded gamer.

Matt shrugged, "It's not like he's ever done anything to you that truly warrants your hatred towards him."

Mello's eye twitched, not believing what he just heard his best friend say. "Are you fucking stupid, Matt?" The blonde asked rudely, "He's constantly beats me academically and he constantly taunts me with that fact. You saw how he smiled at me when he beat me at last year's final exam!"

The gamer rolled his eyes, "Maybe you're misinterpreting his actions."

"Matt…whose side are you on?" Mello asked slowly him in a dangerous tone.

Matt sighed, "Never mind Mello… how are you coming on that letter? You figure it out yet?" He asked teasingly.

"Oh…no…not yet…I'm still figuring out this section." He replied quietly.

"Well, let me know when you give up." He said with a smug grin.

Mello ignored the taunt and turned back to the letter.

'"If you want a hint, think into the grey, ominous abyss that you know." What could that abyss be? It has to be metaphorical…'

Mello's thoughts were interrupted by the bell suddenly ringing, which he silently cursed for stopping his train of thought.

He looked down and realized that he hadn't finished his breakfast. He groaned inwardly at the thought of just how hungry he was going to be later.

-

While Mello was walking to class, he realized that the only thing he was carrying was the letter. 'Dammit! Now I've got to go all the way back to my room and get my stuff…'Mello took a quick glance at a clock on the hallway wall, 'Fuck! Now I'm going to be late because of this…'After a mad dash to his room to grab his things, Mello burst through the door of the classroom and sat down in his seat.

"Late again, Mello?" the teacher said in a nagging tone. Mello rolled his eyes in response. "Sorry." He said, unapologetically. "What are we doing?" He then asked.

"Had you been here on-time you would have known that we are all dividing into pairs and doing research projects focused around one of these topics." She said, sliding a paper listing all the possible Sociology topics onto his desk. "Had you been here on-time, you also would have been able to pick your partner. However, because you weren't, you will now work with Near." She continued.

It seemed that Mello's shitty start to a day was about to get worse. "You have got to be kidding." he groaned aloud.

"No, I'm very serious. Now, please kindly join Near in the back."

Mello got up from where he'd just sat down at his desk and dragged his feet across the room to Near's desk before slamming his books to the ground. "Well…I've got to work with you…" He said blandly to the younger genius. 'No sense complaining about it now.' He thought, as Near remained silent.

"What's our research topic?" He asked, looking up from the sheet into the pale boy's grey eyes.

However, when he looked at them this time, it seemed as though it was the first time ever really seeing them, or perhaps he had simply never taken the time to really notice them before. As Mello looked into them he felt like they were bottomless, and easy to get lost in.

"Wow…his eyes are like pits…pits that seem to go on forever. Wait…an abyss?"He thought, looking deeper into the albino's eyes, noting the color around them."It's got to be a coincidence…yeah…that's it, just a coincidence."

"Mello?" Near suddenly asked.

Mello snapped out of his thoughts. "Wha-?"

"Is something wrong? I told you that our project was on a person's imagination but you've continued to stare at me for the past minute…" Near said, a hand reaching up to a single silver curl on his head.

"No…I'm fine…besides the fact that I'm stuck with you…" The blonde said with a scowl.

Near ignored the insult, "Are you sure?" He asked, "You had a very disturbed look about you." His eyes looked back to Mello as if trying to analyze him.

"I'm positive, Near. And anyway, it's none of your business." He said with a glare.

Near lowered his gaze to his books. "I apologize for asking." He stated in his signature monotone voice.

Mello sighed, "Let's just get this over with, ok?"

Near didn't bother to look up from his books while replying. "Fine. I figured we should start with how humans first obtained the sense of imagination and then work our way down on how it works and so on…"

Mello groaned inwardly. This was going to be a long day.

-

By the time the lunch bell rang, Mello's stomach was practically screaming at him, begging to be fed.

After a mad dash through the lunch line, he sat down in his usual spot next to Matt at the table; Matt raised an eyebrow at the obscene amounts of food the blonde had stacked on his tray.

"Um…Mels?"

Knowing that Matt was referring to the mountain-like piles of food on his tray, Mello quickly snapped a reply, "Shut up! I didn't have breakfast this morning! I'm fucking starving!" He said irritably.

"Oh, that's right. You were too busy with that letter." Matt said with a smirk.

Mello would have retorted back, but since his mouth was too full to reply, he went with the easy option of flicking the gamer off.

Matt blew it off, used to getting this kind of behavior from the blonde. "Did you figure anything out yet?" He then asked.

Mello was silent for moment before replying, "No."

Matt raised his goggles off of his eyes so he could look more directly at Mello, "That was an awfully long pause... are you sure?"

"Yes." Mello said without hesitation.

Matt shrugged, "Ok…if you say so…"

Mello gave an annoyed grunt before continuing to shovel food into his mouth. While he was eating, his thoughts focused back on Near.

'It was a coincidence, nothing more…'He thought, trying to convince himself 'Yeah…a coincidence…'


A/N: Well…there's chapter two…Hope it isn't too disappointing…please leave a review! I'll try to update soon!

~I-Am-Justice