Diclaimer: The Death Note manga and characters were created by someone else. I don't own them. I do own this story and Naru, however.
Chapter 4:
Near couldn't take it anymore. He had to get out.
"Finish unpacking. There is something I must do," he told Naru before exiting the room. Immediately his heart slowed down to a reasonable pace.
For the first time in his life, Near was confused.
When he had heard her voice over the intercom, he had been more than surprised: he was in utter shock. The girl who had claimed all those years ago to wanting nothing to do with him was coming to work for him?
But nothing could've prepared him for actually laying eyes on her.
After the fight he had seen her grow up whether he wanted to or not. They had been confined to the same orphanage, after all. They never again had dared make eye contact or small talk, however. Sure he had glanced at her occasionally, hoping to find her looking back at him as if to say, "all is forgiven," but such was never the case.
When he opened the door to find Naru standing there looking like an angelic vision from another world, he realized that he had never really looked at her after the fight. She had changed, a lot. No longer was she the girlish, short thirteen year old he remembered so well. She stood at 5'2'', her silky black hair falling to her waist gracing her slender frame. She was older now, so obviously more matured, so much more…Near could not decide on the appropriate word. Luckily for him, his trained emotionless state gave nothing away.
As they began to talk for the first time in three years, he found his heart begin to pound uncontrollably. And there was something in his throat that he couldn't explain. Was he nervous - nervous to talk to his old friend? But she had apologized, nothing to be worried about now. So why did he feel like the world would end if she left him? Naturally he was overcome with fear when she said she wanted to be right in the action with a code name. He couldn't understand why he would feel so scared about something like that, but he wanted nothing more than for her to be…safe. When his heart felt like it might jump right out of his chest, he knew he couldn't take the strange feelings anymore and left the room.
He entered his electronic covered, high ceiling workspace and started to build. His tarot card towers had never reached such unbelievable proportions. He sat there for what seemed like hours and just let his mind wander, trying to understand why he had felt the way he did. His emotions had never been so hard to control. Finally his towers covered the entire warehouse sized workspace. He was out of cards and just as confused as he had been when he had started.
Near was startled from his trance when Rester entered the room,
"N, we've just had contact from L. He needs to speak with you about the kidnapping right away! Should I set up the monitors?"
Near glared at Rester from the corner of his eyes.
"Not now, Commander Rester. More important right now…" he sighed, "I have a problem."
Rester knelt down next to Near.
"Is this about your friend?" He asked. Near's eyes widened.
"Yes." He whispered.
"If you are finding her to be a distraction, you can always ask her to leave."
Near struggled not to yell at Rester for even considering her absence.
"No, I do not want her to leave. That is the last thing I want to happen right now."
It was becoming increasingly obvious to Near that Rester could not help him anymore than he could help himself.
"Get L on the monitors…I will speak to him now I suppose."
Near went back to ignoring him and Rester did as he was bid, a little insulted.
"Odd boy…" Rester muttered to himself as he set up the screens. It was true, even if Near was not aware of it. He was nothing like most boys his age, that was for certain.
"I'm out to get groceries, Near!" Naru called out. It was a bright and sunny Saturday morning and nothing could dampen the excellent mood Naru found herself in. The past two weeks had been filled with grueling work on the never-ending Kira case, but Near was always close by for good company, either building something or creating Kira-related scenarios with his toys. Halle, Gevanni, and Rester stopped by often too and they were always a pleasure to talk to. She did savor the few moments she would get to herself when she went to run errands such as doing Near's shopping, however, as Near never left the building except on rare occasions.
Naru hummed happily to herself as she waltzed down the street to the grocery store. The wind blew her hair in all directions, the cold feeling so good against her skin…the hum of traffic beside her calming her and –
She suddenly found herself face down on the cold, hard cement. Her arm stung and bled slightly as she scraped up against it. After a moment of pain, she stood up angrily and stared hard at the ground. There was a large bag just sitting right in the middle of the sidewalk. She tried hard to control herself and not fling the annoying bag into the street as she picked it up and opened it. Inside was…chocolate? There were at least thirty bars of chocolate inside, all the same brand. It was perhaps the most ridiculous thing Naru had ever seen. What kind of person carried thirty chocolate bars around with them? Not knowing what else to do with the strangely discovered confectionary, she carried it with her down the street.
She hadn't walked two blocks when she heard yelling coming from behind her. She turned around to find a tall, skinny boy with red hair and orange goggles running down the sidewalk. He donned a fluffy tan vest and a red and black striped shirt.
"Hey! That's my bag you're holding!" The boy yelled at Naru. It took her a moment to realize what it was he was referring to. He ceased running and held out his hand.
"Give." He demanded.
Naru could only stare at the boy. There was something so familiar about him, something she couldn't quite place…then it hit her.
"Matt!" Naru cried, "Is that you?"
The boy lowered his hand slightly and gave her an odd look before replying,
"Um…have we met?"
"It's Naru from Wammy's House, remember?"
Matt slapped his hand to his forehead and grimaced slightly in embarrassment,
"Ah, dude…Naru! Didn't recognize you there, sorry! You look…different."
"Really? In what way?" She handed him the bag of chocolate when he didn't reply, "What are you doing all the way in New York? I thought you left with -"
Then it hit her. The chocolate…Matt…"I-is…Mello…here? Is Mello with you in New York, Matt?"
Matt avoided Naru's insistent gaze and examined the cigarette he held in his hand.
"Um…Mello is…I don't know where Mello is. Sorry." He coughed unnaturally into his fist and smiled apologetically.
Naru decided she didn't believe a word of what Matt was telling her. There was no way he didn't know where his best friend had gotten to. If Matt was in New York, so was Mello.
"Oh…ok," she decided to ignore his dishonesty for the time being, "Well why don't we meet up someplace to talk? You know, catch up on the past three years? There's a café a few blocks from here we could go later."
Matt took a long drag from his cigarette before responding again,
"Yeah, sure. Now's a bad time though 'cuz I have…um…things to do, but tomorrow after lunch?"
"Yeah. Here's my number in case you need to reschedule." She handed him a slip of paper that she had just scrawled a number across, "Good to see you again Matt!"
Matt raised his hand in recognition and walked off back the way he had come. Naru followed suit walking in the opposite direction. She decided to follow her gut and not tell Near about her encounter or who she was meeting tomorrow.
After all, there were some things that he would just be better off not knowing, especially when he would just prevent her from going anyway.
