Note: I forgot to say, but this fic is 5 chapters long ^^
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The damn cardboard box was small. Mello was pushing with hands, knees and feet as much as he could against the sides so his body wouldn't move too much when the box did. His own bodyweight could get it upside down and it would be really uncomfortable to stay hours feet over head. It would also be strange that the content, that was supposed to fit the box perfectly, moved.
Don't let the box give in, please...
But Mello wasn't so sure that asking God for help when this was all aimed to kill someone was right, actually. For once, he just put his faith aside. He'd deal with this once in hell. It wouldn't be long after all, before he had to account for what he was doing.
He was supposed to be flour. A hundred pounds of white flour. This was the closest he had found to his own bodyweight, and the day he went for this item delivery, while building his plan, he thanked whoever made Near so keen on pancakes for breakfast.
He stopped chocolate and most foods for two weeks to lose the four pounds that separated him from the perfect weight for this plan. The total content of every delivery was weighted in charge, and he couldn't risk the exceeding pounds to give him away.
Skinnier than ever, he fitted in the flour box with no problems, even if the position wasn't really comfortable, folded as he was. But entering the storage room of the flour factory was the easy part. One of his men left once he was in the box, taking the flour with him so no one would wonder why there were packages out of the boxes ready for delivery and closing all doors like if nothing happened.
The Mafia could always use it to cut the dope, after all, or they could as well make giant cakes if they wanted, he wouldn't be there to witness that anyway, for all he cared.
The wait was a bit of a torture, since the freight wouldn't be charged before 7am, and Mello had to be in the box before 5am, the time when employees would begin to arrive on-site.
If he had thought that waiting writhed like that was bad, that was without counting the fact that no one was careful not to hurt flour when loading the truck. He was lucky enough not to land head down.
Counting how many times he heard the safe areas' doors open and lock, Mello estimated that he was now in area two.
Two voices. There were only two men checking the delivery. They were supposed to be three but he wouldn't complain. He heard the distinct noise of the adhesive tape being removed from the box he was in, and shot the first face he saw.
While the first man fell on the floor, dead, Mello exited the box with the second one in his sight. He felt like a Jack-in-a-box. Surprise...
Ordering him to unlock the door leading to the headquarters, Mello got rid of him before getting in.
Two silenced shots later and he was crossing the corridors, still unharmed.
But although the place was safely guarded, Mello was now inside.
The actual ground gathered the domestic staff, that he avoided silently, knowing that, even if he had been unable to get a full map of the building, the SPK, or whatever Near was calling his team now that Kira had been defeated, was under his feet.
No doubt that he was followed by the cameras, and that Near knew he was there.
Mello was walking without really knowing where he was going. All he knew was that the place wasn't that big. It was only a house, and looking from the outside, you'd never guess that no normal family was living here. Not that there were much neighbourhood to witness anything anyway.
The headquarters were actually in the basement, that had been extended for the purpose, and equipped with the latest technology.
There didn't seem to be any lower ground under that so it wouldn't be long before he got to Near. Or at least he hoped so, because this place reminded him of the one that he had blown years ago, earning his facial scar.
Mello smirked when the familiar voice cracked through a loudspeaker suddenly.
"Mello, welcome."
Looking around the corridor, the blond spotted the camera and faced it.
"Always welcome, huh?"
"What do you want, Mello?" The tone was neuter, as usual. Although Near most certainly knew that there were four dead bodies lying upstairs, he seemed unphased.
No need to confess why he was here for, it wouldn't lead him anywhere, Mello thought.
"I was curious to see why you're doing so much for me to stay away from you." It was partly true, after all.
"Come in."
Would it be that easy?
A thick metal door slid open.
Mello was actually standing just right next to Near's office.
Stepping in, Mello's eyes surveyed the room. It looked familiar.
It was almost the same configuration as when the blond had gotten Lidner to lead him to the SPK's headquarters. Even the people working for Near were the same: Gevanni, the two other guys he didn't remember the name of. Lidner wasn't there. Fuck.
No one was pointing a gun at him, but Mello decided to keep his own in hand.
"Mello, I suspect that you are counting on a naivety that I don't have for me to believe that you came here without any bad intention."
"Smart ass, as always..." Mello chuckled.
"I also wonder what made you think that, knowing you're inside, I wouldn't make sure that whatever you think that I am trying to hide from you is safely kept away from you."
"So you admit that you're hiding something?" Mello smirked to the boy sat on the floor. Near was still looking like a child, time didn't seem to have a hold over him, or his childish ways.
"I never made such a statement, I was just showing you that your reasoning is wrong."
"Well then, why let me in when you could have shot me months ago?"
"Because I have no interest in doing so, you're already doing a great job at leading yourself to your death." Near replied, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
Near wasn't one for sarcasm, and Mello, although keeping a straight face, was surprised.
Now that is new, for sure...
"You know the French colloquial 'rouler dans la farine'*, is it what you're trying to do right now, Mello?"
"Damn, I hope you're not proud of this one." Mello snorted. Near was really annoying, more than he used to be, actually, "Did you let me in so you could use your poor sense of humour on me?"
"I thought that you would want to see by yourself that I am not hiding anything from you, and that you could understand once and for all that I can't be hiding anything from you for the simple reason that I don't care about you, Mello."
Surprisingly, Mello didn't feel any anger after hearing that. He was just all the more curious to understand why Near was acting different, and trying to hurt him when he never bothered before. Not so openly at least.
"I think that your tour ends here Mello." A door slid open and a tall blond woman appeared. The expression on her face was no different, Mello thought, she still had that self contented smile on.
She nodded to Near, leaving Mello cut to the quick. "I suggest that you let Halle walk you to the exit and that you leave and never come back. Not that we'd still be here anyway."
There seemed to be some kind of agreement between Near and Lidner that had Mello wonder if she had been away hiding whatever Near wanted to hide. He didn't want to give up on that idea, everything was leading him to firmly believe it.
But the occasion of being alone with the slut was tempting. That's what he was here for, seeing her brain splatter the walls, after all. Complying, Mello exited the room, following Lidner. Too bad he wouldn't be able to kill Near. But well, maybe the world needed him, after all... so it wouldn't be so smart to kill him. Even him could acknowledge that.
Lidner didn't take the same way Mello had taken to enter. They crossed various doors and corridors until they reached an elevator.
Mello quickly studied the panel of keys inside of the cabin. Three for only two floors...
But once the door of the elevator closed on them, the smallness of the cube concentrated a smell on Lidner's clothes, quickly reaching Mello's nose.
The woman smelled it at the same time than Mello, and as he turned to her, her alarmed face, realising the mistake she had just made, gave her away.
Mello's mind went, in exactly four seconds, to being reminded of Matt's cigarette smell and mentally sending to hell whoever had smoked the same cigarettes' brand near Lidner, reminding him the pain of losing the redhead, to understanding that the bitch's face could only mean one thing.
The pain was all different now, and soon Lidner was feeling it too, on a whole different level, as the air was knocked out of her lungs when Mello threw her against the cubicle's wall violently.
"WHERE IS HE?" Mello snarled, twisting her arm, making her cry in pain.
Halle knew better than deny. But that didn't mean she would give in so easily.
"He doesn't want to see you." There, if Mello still wanted to see Matt after that...
"Once again, where is he?" Mello's eyes were something she had never seen in him. She cringed, and cursed him the harder she could inwardly. She had always had strange feelings for the man, but right now, all she could see was what she had never had from him, and would never have.
She was ten years older than him, and since she had always had all the men she wanted, she thought it would be no different with Mello. He was young, beautiful, and the fact that he was seventeen when they first met didn't stop her. But she had soon to face the fact that she did little effect to him.
Now, she was getting the full extent of her inability to attract Mello. Or Matt for the matter. Yes, she had tried. Mello's eyes right now were telling all the love he had for the redhead, all the pain, all the sorrow that had built during the years after one believed that the other was dead. And she wanted to break it to pieces.
"You can kill me, I won't give you a single hint about the location of your precious boyfriend." she hissed as she felt her wrist crack.
Boyfriend?
Too happy to oblige, Mello whacked her, and as she touched the ground with the full force of the blow, he lodged a bullet into her skull. But what with the sudden idea that Matt was Mello's boyfriend? That bitch was on red alert for sure...
Pushing Lidner's words aside, Mello pushed the upper key, the one that led neither to the basement nor to the exit.
The elevator stopped, and a distinct beep resounded two times before the small space suddenly began moving. But after a quick lift and a stop, it wasn't moving vertically anymore. It was sliding horizontally.
Twenty seconds, and the cubicle finally came to a stop, the door sliding open.
Mello pushed the emergency button in order to have the elevator stay here, open. The light casting from the cubicle was barely enough for Mello to distinguish anything, the corridor was dark as hell.
He went forward anyway, trying to spot a switch or something, until he realised that lights went on along with his presence, and went off in his back once he was at a certain distance.
The same metal sliding door as Near's office appeared at the end of the corridor. Mello went back on his tracks to frisk Halle. There, keys, passes, there was probably something that would open that damn door.
He ran back to the door and got lucky with the second pass.
There wasn't much chance that Near would be going away from here soon, contrary to what he had said, Mello thought. The setup of the place was way too sophisticated for it to be temporary headquarters.
Near had probably played him for quite some time, after all. Going from places to places. But this was obviously the real thing. Where he hid the one thing Mello should not know about: Matt.
Mello's heart began to beat a lot faster than it already did. It became almost painful, suffocating him. Matt was alive. He'd known it for a few minutes now, but it only hit him now. Did Matt really not want to see him?
Mad with the pain, Mello began to cry. He began to yell Matt's name. He began to run, hammering on the walls.
He suddenly reached a small hall. It all looked like a real apartment, just that it was underground.
There were several doors, and he was only a glass door away from that small hall, still in the long corridor.
None of the passes worked to open that transparent door. Shooting it didn't work either. Bulletproof glass.
The click of a doorknob being used resounded. Mello hesitated. His first reaction was to get away not to be shot, but the glass was bulletproof, so he just stood there, staring.
His heart fell to his feet when one of the doors opened and Matt appeared.
Note: * 'rouler dans la farine' = 'to roll someone in flour', means to con, to mislead, to lead up the garden path.
