Chapter Two: Why Are they Mom and Dad?
Near entered the room, his dice still on his hand. He twisted them around like stress balls, and it was rather hypnotizing to watch. Still, Shay wondered what he was doing inside her room. Near would just usually keep to himself and pay others no mind. Shay sometimes even thought the only person Near talked to was L and her, Mello even during rare instances.
"I have a question" Near answered, taking a seat on the bed. His white pyjamas made him look like he just got out of bed, but the panda eyes made you think otherwise. "Why do you think that L and you are the closest thing we have to parents? Isn't it that Wammy is our guardian?"
Shay was shocked by the question that was thrown at her, and she could not believe that it was Near, of all people, who was asking her this. "Well, I'm not really telling you to view me as your mom Near," Shay began to explain. "I know I'll never be your mom or replace your real one, but I take care of you and do what I best to make all of you guys happy, sort of like what a mom would do."
Near seemed displeased with her answer. He never did have a real mother, and he never looked at Shay like his mother, so who was she to claim she acted like one when he couldn't even feel the motherly love that was she says she would give everyone. "State me an example" He said, "Of when you and L acted like my parents or even did anything a parent would do for their child."
Shay knew what Near meant. He wanted an example of when both her and L treated him like a son or a child that they loved. Shay could state an example for L and for her apart, but one with them together was hard to come up with. But there was one fond memory that came to mind.
It was the twenty-fourth of August and it was a rather cloudy and rainy day in Wammy's House. Everyone one was indoors, even Matt and Mello, and they acted like they were all deprived of a good time. Some kids were locked inside their rooms, playing video games and other games of such, and some were in the living room watching TV. Matt and Mellow stared out the window praying that it would stop raining. They had planned to go swimming in the lake today, stupid rain just had to fall.
The two oldest of the house, however, were both making their way towards the kitchen on this not-so-fine day. Shay was just about to reach for the handle of the door, when a hand reached it before hers. "Oh, excuse me" Shay said, as she almost bumped into the person. She was shocked to find L standing there.
"You're down early" She stated, noting that L seemed a bit not like himself today. She didn't know what made her think that, but she just did. "You usually don't get out of your room till lunch, and breakfast just finished, something wrong or something?" Shay continued to ask, L looked annoyed.
"Are you going into the kitchen or will you just continue asking me such non-sense?" L suddenly asked, making Shay's jaw drop. "Uhm…yeah, I am" She stuttered out, L opening the door for the both of them.
Shay entered the kitchen, deciding not to pay L much mind, and went to do the task that she came to the kitchen to do. She took out a recipe book, a mixing bowl, a baking pan, a whisking machine, a pipe bag, and other ingredients for baking that she needed. L watched in fascination. "What are you doing?" L asked, curious as to what Shay would be making, and why she was even baking. She usually wouldn't put much effort to make sweets.
"I'm preparing to bake a cake." Shay answered, beginning to measure all the things she needed for a good cake. She took out some cocoa, indicating that it would be a chocolate cake. L seemed even more confused. Did Mello request for a cake? Did one of the kids suddenly crave for it? Shay wouldn't just do this thing out of boredom.
"Why?" L asked, looking at her with a confused expression. Shay felt proud that she was one of the very few people who could confuse the famous L. "Well, it's August twenty-four" Shay answered, as if it would explain everything, and to her, it did explain everything.
"How does it being the twenty-forth of August explain your sudden urge to bake an old-fashioned chocolate cake?" L now asked, and Shay shook your head. She found it odd how the kids respected and adored him when he knew nothing, absolutely nothing about them.
"It's Near's birthday, L" Shay exasperatedly said, making it sound like she thought he would at least remember this kids birthday. He was one of L's favorites after all, Near. "He's nine today." Shay added, taking out a candle from the cupboard that was shaped like a nine. L was still trying to make sense of the situation.
"So, Near asked you to make him a cake?" Shay wanted to knock the living day lights in to L. Truly, he was the smartest man in the world, and he didn't get the concept of a birthday cake. Anti-social is what is called to the people like him. Smart Idiots is the popular term.
"No," Shay was not mixing the ingredients together as L sat near the bar watched her bake. He also stared, seeming to want it, at the chocolate that she was melting for the frosting inside the cake. "It's because I wanted to make him a birthday cake, like what most people get on their birthdays. We used to get one too when we were kids L, Wammy would buy us some." Shay explained, making L remember those horrid cakes with the cartoon characters that Wammy would give them on the date of their birth.
"Near is far too intelligent and uncaring for such a stupid object, might as well just give it to Mello, he would appreciate the chocolate." Shay knew what L said was true, Near might not appreciate what she did, but still he was a boy, and he was a child. Even L, himself, loved sweets. Who was Near to not?
"If I remember correctly, you love cake, are you just trying to make me give this to you L?" L seemed confused by the question. "You would really steal Near's birthday cake? That's a new low L, I thought much more of you." L did not react but just scowled at her words. It could be true, it could have been not, but Shay was proud to irk L, for he always did it to her with a passion.
The silence continued as Shay and L were just there in the kitchen together. Shay baking as L watched and waited for Shay to offer him some of the sweet things that surrounded them. He was lucky enough that he asked her about the consistency of the chocolate, which was far too bitter for his liking.
"What kind of chocolate did you use?" L asked, scrunching his nose up in disgust. Who would ruin such lovely sweet chocolate? "Dark, Wammy said that whenever he saw Near ate sweets it would be dark chocolate, so I thought I'd use it instead." L advised her to change it to milk chocolate, and him being the expert on sweets, managed to convince Shay to do as he was told.
"That's it?" Near asked as Shay finished her story. "A birthday cake? I guess I wasn't expecting more, nor was I expecting less, you two aren't suitable to be parents." Shay felt a pang of guilt cross her, but she didn't let it show. As long as she did the best she could, it would be worth it enough.
"You don't know the first thing about us, let alone me, but to be honest I did appreciate that you made the cake look like a dice. It...amused me." Shay smiled. "That was L's idea, not mine, said that if you wouldn't eat it might as well enjoy looking at it." Near shrugged.
"Well, I gotta get back to researching about this Kira, and you have to go and play and learn, and do whatever it is you want to, but don't you dare go on the plane with Mello and Matt or I will take away your dart board." Again, Near just shrugged and stood up from his sitting position on her bed. He turned the knob of her door and was about to exit when he looked back. Shay had already gone back to her work and was looking and reading through articles about this Kira like there was no tomorrow.
"Sadly, you're right…" Near whispered, his face not changing at all as he spoke. His blank stare with those panda eyes, and his white hair gave him a look of numbness, and that was indeed what he was. Numb to everything around him unless it was in need of his attention. "You are the closest thing to a mother in this place."
Near to his room where his dice awaited him. He needed to relax his mind, and he need a good puzzle to do so.
"He's struck again Watari." L said, staring at the TV screen present in front of him. He was slouched down on his white soft velvet chair, and observed as this Kira continued to kill all the people present in the wanted list of the whole of Japan. Dropping dead due to a heart attack, L wondered how Kira did it, but no, he would solve it soon enough, and he will be triumphant in defeating him. "A rapist this time, I'm sure the girl's family is delighted." He continued, putting a chocolate bonbon into his mouth. Sweet.
"I'm sure they are L." Wammy answered, placing a cup of tea in front of L before sitting down and joining him in watching the most recent update about Kira. "What do you plan to do now?" He continued, taking a sip of his own tea. One that was not over flowing with sugar cubes.
"We wait," L answered. "First for Shay's report, Second for more of his attacks. We need to figure out how he possibly gets his information. There is no other way unless he is hacking into the Police Data Base which I am sure is what he is doing." Wammy sipped more of his tea and nodded.
"Speaking of Shay," Wammy suddenly began, making L roll his eyes. He already knew where this was going. "Weren't you a little too harsh on her? She was, after all, just thinking about the kids that you made her promise to take care of. Most of all Mello and Near." L just shrugged.
"Harsh it may be, but I only speak the truth." L listed and jotted down something he heard from the latest Kira report. "Beside the point, it is true that I do not look at those kids as she does. She looks at them as if they are her responsibility and her children, I, on the other hand, just got voted as a father by default for I am the only father figure present. Quite irritating."
"Now, L, why would you say such things?" Wammy seemed shocked to hear the words come out of his son's mouth. "Don't you enjoy spending time with them? Telling them your stories, talking to them about the outside world, maybe even just spending time with Near and Mello. Do you just do it for the sake of things?" L continued to write as he nodded. He didn't think it deserved a proper answer.
"My, my, how you haven't changed L, maybe you should spend some time at home before we fly off to Japan. It would do you some good to spend some time with them and -"
"That is not important right now," L said, cutting Wammy off. "What I need is to solve this case before it gets any worse, and you are to help me am I right?" Wammy nodded, sighing at L's tactics. Of course, once again, he uses a case to avoid discussing his own issues in life.
L's phone suddenly began to ring, and L got irritated. This is why he hated talking to Shay. He had told her to always just call Wammy's phone, but of course she would just call directly to him. He picked up the phone and was about to reject the call when he realized it was not Shay who was calling him on his phone. It was Mello.
"Why would Mello be calling you at a time like this?" Wammy asked, looking at his watch that was set in English Time. It was currently four in the afternoon in England, and usually Shay would have all of them in the library and reading to them works of literature.
"Maybe Shay is focusing on the case and has forgotten her schedule with those kids." L answered. "And she says she's the mother of those children, I truly feel sorry for them." Wammy frowned at L's offensive words. The phone just continued ring, waiting for L to answer it.
L just shrugged and flipped his phone open. He held it to his ear and spoke. "Mello, what is so urgent that you are contacting me on my phone?" Heavy breathing answered him.
"L…Matt and I are in trouble," He answered. L put the phone on loudspeaker so that Wammy could hear as well, and Wammy got worried at what Mello said. "Shay allowed us to take a short ride on the plane and we…ugh…"
"What happened Mello?" Wammy now asked, making Mello, and Matt as well, gulp. It was obvious that he was afraid, for why was he calling L? Why did he not contact Shay like what he was supposed to do.
"We crashed and we think we're somewhere in Surrey, and we have no idea how to get back to Winchester."
SECOND CHAPTER IS UP!
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Anyways, in this chapter we get to see L! Yey! And we get to see a side of Near and probably others, anyways that's all from me right now since I just got home from school and typed this up! Have Fun!
I own nothing but the plot. Everything else belongs to the creators of Death Note! (I LOVE THEM TO DEATH)
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