AN: Hello, my fellow non-Death Note owners! (Of both the series itself and the possessed notebooks.) *Thinking*… If you DO happen to have a Death Note, please tell me and I'd really like to see it. We can confirm our Shinigami at the Tokyo Dome at the game on Saturday, March thirtieth. *More thinking* …That's almost a year from now! No fair! I want my Death Note NOW!!! *Goes to sulk in a corner*
*Comes back* Ahem. As you can tell, I just had A LOT of sugar. Chocolate, actually. I wonder if that will improve my story…let's find out!
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L was bored.
His captors didn't speak to him much, and there was little to analyze from the few things they did tell him. His food was gone, to be replaced by more tomorrow. His room, his cage, was a blank canvas of nothingness to him. Sleeping was out of the question. It was just boring.
"I have a question," L said, surprising even himself with the first thing he had said directly to his kidnappers.
It also seemed to surprise his captors. They took a few seconds to respond. L heard some shuffling before they finally spoke in their synthesized tone. "….Yes?"
"Can you tell me when the people I'm bait for are getting here? Or is it the person I'm bait for?"
It was a simple trick, really. Hopefully, the dumb kidnapper would answer all of his questions and give him a base to work and build a plan off of.
"Uhh…it's the people and…"
There was a different voice. Lower, it seemed, than the first one. This one was also more distant. "You IDIOT!!! Don't answer the questions! That's exactly what he wants you to do!! Do you WANT him to escape before he…they come? AND TURN THE DAMN MICROPHONE OFF BEFORE I RIP IT APART!!!"
There was a small click, then silence.
Exactly as planned, L thought happily, I got them against each other. Smarty doesn't trust Idiot to talk to me. Perfect. This will definitely give me a base for a plan.
Suddenly, L had something to do.
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"Hey! Hey! Jump the goomba there! No, not that one! THAT one! Right there! No, no! …Why'd you die?"
"Because you wouldn't shut up! I appreciate the attempt at help, Mello – it's way better than you shooting at me – but that was the last level. Can you NOT interfere with my gaming from now on?"
"Don't get so snotty with me. You know how I feel about that," The blonde said coldly, his hand reaching for his gun.
Matt felt white-hot anger rising in his chest, about to explode out in a scream, before he thought of a better plan. "Whatever. Look, I'm going to go talk with A for a sec. I'll be right back."
"Sure. Just stay away from Near."
"Oh, don't worry about that," Matt replied with a smirk. He fell behind Mello, and soon was standing next to A.
"Hey, man."
"Oh. Hi, Matt."
"You'll never guess what Mello was just talking about."
"Hmm?"
"He was saying stuff like, 'Why do we have to go rescue L? We're so much better off without that sweet-eating freak.'" Matt's voice began to build as he lit a cigarette. He was getting a bit too excited about this. "And don't forget, 'I feel bad for poor A, who has to inherit the stupidity of L's name." And 'I never wanted to be number one to win L's title, oh hell no. I just wanted to prove that I was better than Near.' Oh, and 'Why don't we drop Light here off and tell them instead of the reward of getting L back, they can keep him.'"
A tick began working in A's cheek. He was terrified of living up to the splendor of L's grand title. L's name was the most amazing thing to ever exist to him. The one thing he could never tolerate was someone disrespecting L. Mello looked like Satan delivered fresh from hell to him right now. How dare he!
But, wait. There must be a logical choice here. Mello loved L just as much as A did, he thought. So him verbally bashing L was uncharacteristically illogical.
"..Are you sure he said that? Those exact words?"
"I quoted that, word for word."
"But that doesn't sound like Mello to me."
"Well, it is him. Sorry. I know you don't like stuff like that. I just thought I should tell you."
"Yeah. Thanks."
"You're thanking me?"
"You know, for delivering the news."
"Oh, yeah. No problem. Anytime."
"Umm…I want to think. Mind if I walk alone for a bit?"
Both Near and Matt shook their heads. A fell behind, and Near leaned over to whisper to Matt.
"I heard your conversation. Well, snippets, anyway. I didn't hear a single thing about him hating L in there. Why'd you make that up?" Matt shrugged, not wanting to get into details. I mean, he was MATT, for goodness sakes! He couldn't admit he'd lost a video game…again. "Was it to upset A?"
"Oh, heavens no! Mello…screwed my game. I lost. I told him to get lost and let me play, and he almost shot me."
"And this is different than usual…how, exactly?"
"Well, it was the last level and…" He thoughtfully blew a smoke ring. "Think of it as if you were putting together a puzzle, and just before you put in the last piece, someone walks over and dumps it on the floor."
"Ah. I understand. That must be very frustrating."
"You have no idea."
"So, why did this inspire you to sadden A?" Near continued on. He was beginning to sound a bit like a therapist.
"I just wanted to spread some ugly stuff about Mello…I was mad, get it? And I figured while we'd all be mad if someone was trashing L, A would be the most upset and most likely to be offended and/or take it personally, which makes planting the rumor so much more fruitful."
"Ah."
"So, how many more days till we reach the freaking place where they're keeping him? I mean, we've been walking for seventy-two hours; it can't be that much longer…can it? I miss my Xbox."
"We've covered about two thirds of the distance we need to…and if we've been walking for seventy-two hours...we have thirty-six hours left."
"Ugh, that long?"
"Calm down. We will get there faster than you think."
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AN: You heard it! This will be over faster than you think. I have it all planned out: One more chapter of rumor-spreading, one of arguing, and either one on a rescue by the team or a solo escape by L. I haven't decided yet. Maybe a short epilogue-thing, but that'll be it. I can't do longer than that. My attention span won't allow it.
The sugar is wearing off. I'm beginning to feel like crap. Does anyone know if you can get a hangover from a sugar-high? Man, I feel TERRIBLE all of a sudden…reviews might make me feel better. Flames will make me go *makes puking sound* though. Please don't do that unless you want me to *makes same sound* all over you.
Maybe there is some sugar left after all…hmm…
I'm going to go Google "sugar hangovers" now…
