Misa's Spelling Lessons – Part 2

Alternate title: "Not you again!"

Characters/Pairings: Matt/Mello, Takada, Sidoh

Rating: K+

A/N: So here's the lovely second part to Misa's Spelling Lessons! Makes more sense if you read the first part.

Disclaimer: Eh… well, the whole reason I'm writing this is because I don't own Death Note but wish that this could have been how it turned out…

XXX

Sidoh craned his neck through the portal. The hole was barely large enough to fit his head, and he had to extend his long arms holding his notebook through the hole in front of him so he could write while watching the humans. Being a Death God was such a pain. The other Shinigami wouldn't even lend him a pen to write names when he got his notebook back, so he'd wasted two months figuring out how to make one. Now his time was really running out, and he had to act quickly.

Some motion caught his eye, and he noticed a ring of black cars surrounding a red one. The people in the cars were all holding those metal killing devices, guns, Sidoh thought, which were so much more convenient than notes. Then Sidoh had an unusually inspired thought.

The ones in the black cars look like they want to kill the one in the red car. So what if I killed them all at once, just to make the red one think he'll survive, but then I'll actually kill him? What fun…

Sidoh began to write down the twenty-four names as fast as he could. The red one was saying something, probably begging for mercy, but even as he spoke, the ones around him slowly began to fall, struggling against their doom. Some even fired a few poorly aimed shots before they toppled, but their target easily dodged them.

As he looked around in amazement, Sidoh cackled and wrote his name down. Forty seconds now…

Forty seconds later, he was still standing. Sidoh was so shocked that as he leaned forward to get a better look at the still-living man, he dropped his notebook right through the hole and into the human world. Again.

XXX

"Breaking news in the Takada kidnapping incident, listen up everyone! The kidnapper's accomplice has escaped from Miss Takada's bodyguards! What's more, all the bodyguards have been killed. Apparently they all just dropped dead at the scene before they managed to secure the criminal…"

Mello's eyes prickled suspiciously as he observed the mini TV screen in the truck. The twelve squad cars were huddled in a circle, with their late occupants toppled every which way beside them. Two cars had been knocked into each other, the only indicator of Matt's miraculous escape. To be honest, he hadn't been certain that Matt would survive, and he asked himself again, how could he have put Matt in such danger? If there hadn't been some god watching over him, God in heaven or god of death, who knew, his lover would have died… for nothing.

Mello shook his head and tried to blink away the tears. Concentrate… Matt's alive and will hopefully stay that way; I've got to play my part. Takada's shivering in the back was eating at his nerves, but he just had to keep driving and get it over with.

In the church, and Mello couldn't help but parse the symbolic meanings of the location as he waited for Takada to pull herself together and write his name. He dutifully counted forty seconds after she finished writing and prepared to steal the Best Actor award from that damned Light Yagami.

First came the initial jolt, a dramatic gasp, a sudden stiffening of all the muscles. And then, more wheezing and choking in an attempt to get oxygen from a heart wasn't supposed to be beating any longer. More tremors, more rattling last breaths, and… cut. From his slumped position over the steering wheel, rosary dangling forlornly, Mello thought he should at least win Best Picture for the movie of life. Or was it farce?

Takada sighed in relief, and though Mello's pose prevented him from seeing her in the mirror, he could faintly make out her ragged whispers as she called Light and told him of Mello's "death."

"Yes… I'm going to stay put and do as you told… please hurry, Light…" She ended the call and began another one, to Mikami, Mello supposed. "Send me as many names as you can of those who are to be brought to justice."

It was time for Mello to make his move. Soundlessly rising from his seat, he stormed into the back of the truck and smiled grimly in spite of Takada's screams.

"I'll have to confiscate these," he said, pulling the paper and cell phone from her limp grasp. "I'm not going to hurt you. I've already proven my capability by kidnapping you, defying death, and looking gorgeous even in that god-awful delivery boy uniform. If I wanted to hurt you, I could and I would have already."

"N-not you again… I saw you die!" Takada whimpered.

"Well… shall I say that the Death Note's encountering some technical difficulties when it comes to my name? It's not your fault. Just sit tight, and Matt will be here soon to pick us up." I think.

Mello returned to the front to watch Takada. It was through the rearview mirror that he saw the change in her occur, just twenty minutes later. Her eyes suddenly went blank, all tension drained out of her body, and she stood, though she still kept the blanket wrapped around herself. She walked zombie-like towards the front of the vehicle, climbed over the barrier, and started to open the door opposite Mello.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" he demanded, but she ignored him. He leaned over and tried to pull her away from the door, but recoiled when she aimed an elbow jab at his face with more force than he thought the delicate woman possessed.

She's being controlled by the Death Note, Mello realized. But what is she going to do?

Takada dragged a jug of gasoline over to the truck; Mello, watching in horror, needed no further clues. He leapt out of the truck and started running.

XXX

Matt watched the figure in black stop short. "Glad to see me, phoenix?" he inquired.

"As glad as you are to see me, mockingbird," Mello retorted, getting in the passenger seat.

"What should I take that to mean?"

"To kill a mockingbird, the most innocent and kind-hearted of all birds, is an unforgivable sin," Mello said quietly, staring at the dashboard as Matt stepped on the gas again. "And I almost did."

"Cheer up, Mello." Matt reached over to cup Mello's chin in one hand (who needs two hands to drive, huh?) and turn his head to see his eyes (on second thought, who needs to see the road to drive?). "I'm alive, I'm most certainly not a mockingbird, and did we just leave Takada behind?"

"…yeah."

"Should've known. Every day is a day for surprises, right Mello?"

"Right. Care to explain how you survived?"

"Look in the glove compartment."

Mello looked and swore as he retrieved the thin black book that said DEATH NOTE. He glanced up just in time to see a black and white winged figure descend into the road directly in front of them. In perfect synchronization, they said, "Not you again!"

A/N: Yeah, I know. Funny… or not? Some serious moments, but the overall concept of Matt and Mello being saved completely by chance is just ironic. Anyways. Review please?