A/N: short chapter is short! But I decided to post what little ficlet I have anyway, because I just finished completed my NaNoWriMo the other day and it's time to get back to other pieces I've neglected for entirely too long. This is mostly here to show you that, no, I have not abandoned CoBA outright just yet ;) I promise to more active for the month of December! Thanks for all the love so far, you guys!

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Of course, it was 8PM exactly on Thursday night when Naomi Misora's doorbell rang.

And here I was thinking I'd get lucky and he wouldn't show up, Naomi thought with a sigh as she stopped her pacing and made a beeline for the door. She kept the chain in place but let it fall open an inch so she could peer out into the hallway. An enormous scarlet eye peered intently back at her through the space provided, and Naomi involuntarily took a step back.

B leaned back so that she could see the palely mottled skin of his face. He grinned crookedly at her.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you." He certainly didn't look sorry; Naomi all but slammed the door on his face. Her hands were trembling as she undid the chain before reluctantly opening the door again. B stood slouched and barefoot before her, hands stuffed deep into the pockets of his jaded denim jeans. Naomi's chocolate-colored eyes swept over him, taking in his every facet - the deliberate disarray of his hair, the overly hunched shoulders, the traces of dark circles under his eyes. His skin was paler than usual, the burn scars less visible than she remembered them being from their encounter several days prior.

"You try too hard," Naomi said, shaking her head disdainfully at him. "You don't look like L - you look like a caricature of him. His posture isn't that bad, and he has a perpetual case of bedhead; his hair is not purposely styled to look like that."

She had hoped to wipe that leery smirk off of his face, but her nitpicking was met with no discoverable difference on Beyond's behalf. He gave her a half-hearted shrug, still smiling. "If L is a freak, then B is a super freak."

"If that's the case, then you should probably be thinner, not wider. You're too fat to be L."

That worked. Naomi felt a smile of her own blossoming as B's immediately disappeared.

"Are you wearing foundation?" Naomi asked sweetly as she stepped aside, inviting Beyond in. He shuffled past Naomi without so much as a glance in her direction, and the former FBI agent internally cheered.

"You didn't decorate this place yourself."

Naomi slid the chain back into place and turned around. "Excuse me?"

"Did Raye decide on this furniture?"

"I'm not very good at home décor," Naomi admitted tentatively. Something about the way Beyond smiled in response made her skin crawl.

"Really? You know, you say that, but I'm getting a very different picture here. Did you know that something as trivial as the way the furniture in someone's apartment is arranged can say a lot about the person?" Naomi found herself shrinking away from the dark-haired man, back pressed suddenly against the wall as she gave him a wide berth to pass.

"Raye is unnaturally neat for a man, isn't he?" Beyond asked casually, taking in the open expanse of the living room, completely devoid of any debris or clutter.

Beyond was right. Raye as neat as a pin. Still, she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that he got it right on the money. "I guess so."

"No personal effects, hm? No pictures, family portraits, anything?"

"There's pictures," Naomi corrected, pointing out the row of silver frames on the mantle above the fireplace.

"I meant of yours," Beyond said sweetly, but he obediently shuffled over to the place indicated anyway, stooping down to gaze critically at the tiny smiling faces staring back at him. "I don't see any of your family, Misora. Or am I allowed to call you Naomi yet? Are we on those terms?"

"We aren't, but I don't recall that ever stopping you before," Naomi spat.

"I was merely trying to be polite. We are in Raye's apartment after all. I wouldn't want to offend his lovely wife-to-be on his own… territory."

The sneer he wears caused Naomi to get her hackles up. "It's not just his, Beyond."

"You might live here, but I certainly wouldn't call it yours," Beyond countered. He clicked his tongue as he turned away from the pictures on the mantle at last, smirking faintly at her from across the room. Naomi is suddenly conscious of the fact that she remained right where he had left her, backed up against the wall like some kind of cornered animal. Her obvious unease was not lost on Beyond, whose smile grew as Naomi's frown deepened. She stomped over to where Beyond was standing, just to prove she was not afraid of him. Beyond did not seem quite convinced of this show of bravado, and he chuckled as she stopped two paces to his left, glaring at him.

"This is a man's apartment. This is Raye's. Do you know how I know that, Misora?"

It is not, Naomi thought, but she knew it would be pointless to argue anyway. Beyond seemed determined to get a rise out of her, but she decided to humor him anyway, knowing that without her compliance, they would get no where fast. Beyond had a way of making her dance in a circle anyway; she had no doubt that he would simply find a way to steer her back in this direction if she refused to play the game. Right now Naomi just wanted Beyond to say his piece and then be done with it so she could lead him into the second bedroom and beat his ass.

You're really going to get it now, Beyond. I promise.

"How do you know?" Naomi asked in a resigned voice.

"Because it's entirely too white."

Naomi looked down at her black sweats and frowned.

"So Raye controls every aspect of your life, it seems," Beyond commented, glancing around to take in his surroundings again. Naomi glowered beside him as his gaze lingered on the cream-colored couch, the glass coffee table, the beige leather couches. "I'll admit a certain curiosity, Misora. Did you decide to quit the FBI because you were getting married, or because it's what Raye expected?"
"That," Naomi hissed icily, "is none of your business."

"Ah. I seemed to have touched a nerve," Beyond said delicately, although he looked deeply satisfied with his reaction. "Well, judging by your reaction, this will make for a much more interesting fight, wont it? I bet you're determined to take it out on my hide now, aren't you?"

"Definitely."

"You should thank me for piquing your ferocity." When Beyond smiled this time, it wasn't like the others. This was no wry smirk, no condescending simper. This was a full-fledged grin, open-mouthed and showing rows of tiny, white, pointed teeth. "Now you might actually stand a chance."