The main room was huge. Much bigger than their cabin's really and much nicer built. Near was laying sprawled on the sofa, feeling the heat of the fire lick at his heels.

"Where are my socks?" He asked calmly as he rubbed his bare feet together. They were uncomfortable. Awkward.

"I'm washing them," the counselor replied.

"Will they be white?"

"As white as they can be."

"So… off white then."

"…I suppose."

"I'll get new ones."

The woman stood, brushing distain from her pants as if it was dirt. Near knew that he had irritated her. Why was everyone always so angry with him? If he was quiet, they got mad. If he spoke, they got mad. What was he supposed to do?

The sounds of the storm were getting louder above his head and he pulled his feet in close, ignoring the flames now. He squeezed his hands against them to warm them instead.

"So…" the counselor started as she poured another cup of hot tea.

Near knew where she was going with this already. He cut her off so he wouldn't have to hear her grading voice again, "Yes; he threw me out. I was doing something I wasn't supposed to do, and no, I won't tell you what."

She stopped on her walk back across the room and closed her eyes. Yep. She was definitely frustrated. He had a way of doing that. People always got frustrated with facts.

"Knowing Mello the chance of his anger having subsided to a safe level by now is about eighty-six percent; ninety-one if he has chocolate. So I can probably go back without any serious worries." Maybe some not-so-serious worries though. "Could I get a ride?"

Her eyes were still closed, squeezed so tightly that there were wrinkles on her forehead. It didn't make much sense really. She got frustrated a lot faster than most. He wondered if it was because she was too simple minded to take in the facts that quickly or if she just didn't really like her job… There were high odds of both.

She eased herself into a chair that he was positive was quite a bit farther than the one she had been aiming for a moment ago, "He locked you out…"

"Mello doesn't needlocks to keep someone out."

"I see…"

"Do you?" He asked.

"Yes!" She snapped.

Near sat back a little, but he wasn't shocked; he was just very bored with the conversation. He needed something to fiddle with. All of his toys were back at the cabin and he felt very fidgety with nothing in his hands.

"Do you have any toys?"

"No."

"What about cards?"

"No."

"Maybe-"

"Come on!" She shouted and he followed her out the door.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Mello was sitting on the bed with Captain Blast-Off in his hands as he thought. It was obvious that Near wasn't right outside anymore, but if he'd ventured off on his own… would he get lost? No… Near was too precise to have miscalculated the way back, even if he couldn't figure out where he was going… He wasn't being stubborn; his efforts would have faltered long ago. The only explanation that Mello felt he could believe was… maybe he was hurt. Maybe he'd gone out to find his way to the main cabin after all and tripped and broke his leg or something…

It'd be like him wouldn't it? He'd probably be expecting Mello to go out there and save him too! Well he wasn't about to play into Near's hands. Let him get himself out of this mess.

Mello threw the toy back onto the ground amidst all of the others. There were so many. He found himself strangely drawn to them as he knelt down. It wasn't because they were toys; it was just that they were all so… different. Every one of these toys was different from the one next to it. There was the astronaut, the cowboy, the action hero; a set of dinosaurs, robots; there were even a few boats and cars.

"How many damn toys do you need, Near?"

He looked up. Near wasn't there to answer. He growled to himself inwardly, but his eyes continued staring out of the still open door.

Finally he stood, "Stupid twit. I'm gonna get all soaked and you probably won't even give a shit that I came all the way out there to save your ass. I swear, I will smother you in your sleep if you're just walking around out there trying to piss me off…"

"I never intend to make you angry, Mello," Near stated as he walked into the room. He stood there for a moment letting what little water hadn't absorbed into his clothes now fall to the floor.

Mello felt his eye do something weird and he prayed that it wasn't some sort of permanent twitch or some crap like that. His hands went up into a strangling position on their own as he began to grind his teeth.

"You are so-"

The counselor chose that moment to appear, shaking her rather large umbrella outside of the door. Before she could turn and say anything, Near cut in.

"Are you aware that if your umbrella is still outside when you do that, it is still in the rain and still gathering water?"

The look on her face made Mello finally feel like he wasn't the only one that wanted to kill this boy. His hands lowered anyways. Chances are if she saw the urge to kill in his eyes things could only get worse when it came time to dole out punishments.

She turned to him then, trying her hardest to ignore the younger boy. The trip here had been enough to make her rethink her job, her prospects of reproducing and her will to live. She did, in fact, feel like strangling him too.

"Alright then, Mello. Want to explain what's going on here?"

Mello brushed a hand through his hair as he thought. He could go with the witty answer or he could be polite… Polite had never been his strong suit. "As of this moment we are standing in the cold, letting the water slosh into the already damp cabin. If you would back out and shut the door maybe we won't all get hypothermia. After all, you wouldn't want two young children such as us to go back home and report that this camp had a knack for making you deathly ill, would you?"

"It's true," Near stated, "Our body temperature is going down as we speak. At this rate we'd-"

The door slammed shut. There was a slight splintering sound from it; after all it had taken quite a bit of abuse today.

Mello turned to his roommate, "Thanks for the backup."

"Our chances of getting out of punishment were higher that way."

"Right, but that doesn't mean that I'm not going to kill you."

"I expected not."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Near was half asleep in the bathtub when he heard the shuffle of feet just outside the cabin. The counselor had long since given up talking to them, but she still delivered their food, merely knocking on the door before running back to her cart. How would they even know when or if he and Mello actually got along?

He clambered out of the tub, his socked feet almost slipping on the tile, but he regained his composure before knocking on the inside of the bathroom door.

"Mello?"

"What?"

"Can I come out now? I'm restless."

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

Near looked around the room, twirling his hair as he thought. There really was no reason for the older boy to let him out. He had nothing to offer; their tastes were so dissimilar.

"Can I at least have something to eat?" There was silence outside in the main room. "Mello?"

The door opened and a hand reached in, grabbing him by the shirt. He was roughly dragged over and thrown onto the couch.

"Sit there and shut up."

A hamburger was thrust in his face and he took it gratefully. As he chewed the food he reverted back into his silence. He was out of the bathroom. That was something.

Mello sat back down at the desk and resumed his sketching. The face he had been trying to draw was beginning to look a little rough. He always had trouble with the eyes. They were too… intricate. He just couldn't pass them off, make them simple. They had to hold the emotion that he saw.

"Damn it," he snarled as he crumpled the paper, throwing it over his shoulder. He snapped the pencil in half, throwing it too.

"Ow."

"Shut up," Mello said in annoyance.

Near looked closely at the boy and then back down at the paper. He was tempted. So very tempted, but at the same time this is what had gotten him into trouble the first time. Even so he couldn't let it go.

He reached out and grabbed the ball of paper, slowly unwrapping it. He looked down at the picture and asked calmly, "You can draw?"

"No. Obviously. You can't even tell who it is."

"It's Matt."

Mello turned around, "Huh?"

"Well," Near said, turning the picture around to face the artist, "It's very detailed. You can tell it's him. Look at the flow of the hair and the shaping of the chin. There's no mistaking it."

The blonde strode across the room and took the paper, "Yeah? You think so?"

"I do," the other replied, taking another bite of his lunch.

"Huh."

"Can you draw me?"

Mello looked over, "What?"

"I said: can you draw me? You know I've really always wondered how people see me. A mirror shows the exact reflection, but an artist rendering often shows the artist's actual opinion. It's strange really."

A smirk formed on Mello's lips, "Are you sure you wouldn't mind being drawn with a noose around your neck?"

Near finished his meal and pulled his leg up onto the couch, resting his hand on it, "If you don't want to, you don't have to."

"No. I don't want to."

With a moment's hesitation, Near lowered himself onto the floor and tentatively picked up a toy. He tried his hardest not to look up to see if the attack was coming, but after a moment Mello moved back the desk where he grabbed a fresh pencil and commenced to cursing the paper. That was good. Maybe three days in the bathroom had been enough after all.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The book was still laying on the floor, but now it was under the bed. Mello hadn't really looked at it since that whole incident with Near. It was like a monster down there. A monster under the bed that was just waiting for the right moment to swallow him whole. He was trying hard to forget it existed.

"Vroom… Vroooommmm! Errrr! Pshew!" Near muttered as his car crashed into the dominoes stack and it all tumbled down around it. He pushed the car to the side, lining it up with the others, and began to rebuild the tower.

Mello was laying face down on the bed, which seemed to be the only place here that actually felt a little like home, listening to the sounds of play around him. Oddly enough it had stopped driving him nuts after the third week.

"This officially sucks," he said into the pillow.

"I would have to agree," Near stated as he stood and strode over to his own bed, "But they aren't paying close attention to us. In fact all of the encounters between us seem to have been overlooked, which leads me to believe that there are no cameras in this room at all."

"Yeah, I noticed that too, but just because they aren't obvious doesn't mean they aren't here at all. Think about it, all of the crap between us is mild… at least in comparison with the stuff from the past. Even if we were back at Wammy's, I would barely get sent to my room for that stuff." He stood up and walked over to sit next to Near, leaning in close, "So we have to be very careful. We don't know whose watching or listening."

Near nodded in agreement, whispering, "You're the mastermind when it comes to this stuff."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\