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CH. 3 Explanation
Light stared as the three boys filtered in to the taskforce's main HQ. The goggled boy appeared to be carrying both of the other's bags, and was having a rather difficult time of it. The taskforce members watched in silence, making no move to help him with his luggage. Aizawa had come up shortly before them , and Light had only briefly filled him in on the situation. He now stood in the corner, arms crossed and looking quite sour.
"We will have to check those bags before you bring them in," Light said coldly.
"But we've already brought them in," The blonde said.
"Well we'll have to check them now then." This time it was Matsuda who spoke. He stepped forward determinedly, holding out his hands to the goggled boy, who was huffing heavily. The boy ignored him and broke into a violent coughing fit, dropping the duffel bags and doubling over with his hands on his knees. Matsuda looked rather taken aback. He paused, looking at Light for direction. The blonde rolled his eyes.
"That's what you get, Matt. I'm amazed you're not coughing up blood."
The goggled boy simply continued coughing, red in the face, and gave him the middle finger.
Matsuda cleared his throat and gingerly reached for the duffel bags. None of the boys made any move to stop him, and when the detective straightened with the luggage clutched in his hands, he had a triumphant smile on his face. With his head held high Matsuda walked over to the couch and set the bags down. Soichiro and Mogi gathered around the duffel bags, and Matsuda reached up to unzip the first one. There was a sharp intake of breath from all three men as its contents were revealed. The blonde rolled his eyes once more and took another bite of chocolate.
"What's this?" Soichiro asked the boys, pulling out some sort of model robot.
The white haired boy, who had not spoken until then, raised his hand. "That is mine," he said serenely. Soichiro frowned suspiciously and turned back to the bags. Mogi had opened the other three now and was rooting around inside them.
Light, however, was paying no attention to the impromptu baggage check. He was glaring intently at the face of the blonde, who did not seem to be aware of his gaze.
After several minutes of looking through the duffel bags and pulling out various random items (including clothes, toys, toiletries, cigarettes, more toys, candy, and video games) the taskforce members turned back to the three intruders. Matsuda walked forward suspiciously and handed them the bags.
In this time, Light had not taken his eyes off the blonde. Finally he stood.
"Now. You claim you are L's… children, is that right?" Light asked.
The blonde boy flopped down on the couch nearest him and motioned for the two others two follow. Only the goggled boy did; the small white-haired one stayed where he had been sitting on the floor.
"Well, yeah," he said. "We are L's children. I'm Mello, that's Matt," Mello gestured to the boy sitting beside him on the couch, "and the stupid pale one over there is Near," he concluded with a flourish of his gloved hand. Near gave a small nod.
"Now," continued Mello, "obviously those aren't our real names. There's absolutely no point in me hiding that fact. And I promise you that we will never tell you our real names because we're not idiots." He took a bite of chocolate. "And it would be nice if you left our building soon, like maybe the next couple weeks or so."
Light raised an eyebrow. "I can assure you we will not leave. This building belongs to us."
"No," said Mello, clearly starting to get annoyed. "It belongs to us, actually. See, we're L's kids. His sons. And therefore his sole heirs and beneficiaries. And this building belonged to L, not the NPA, when he was alive. So we get the clubhouse."
"What proof do you have that you are his children?" asked the chief.
"Yeah," added Matsuda, "you don't look anything like him." Light resisted the urge to hit his co-worker.
"The fact that we were able to get into this building should be proof enough." The taskforce members turned in unison to stare at the small white-haired boy, Near. "L knew the way to break into this building. And, we know. This is not a coincidence," he said. He was sitting with one knee up and the other one tucked himself, curling a lock of snowy hair calmly around his finger.
"Yep." This time it was the goggled boy, Matt, who spoke, not bothering to look up from his game. "There are only a few back doors to get in here. Security-wise. Once you know L's basic password thing… uh, code I guess, it's all kinda similar. But I won't tell you how because – "
"Because I'd kill you," Mello finished for him.
"That still doesn't prove anything," the chief said. "The possibility that you are simply very skilled criminals is slim, but not non-existent."
Mello sighed. "Well, fine. But you are all overlooking one very, very important thing. Something I'm sure Yagami-san has noticed by now."
Near nodded. "Yes. A very crucial point."
"And obvious," Matt contributed.
"Yeah yeah," Mello said sarcastically. "Important, crucial, and obvious. Good vocabulary. Have a cookie."
"What are you talking about?" Matsuda asked, puzzled.
"Yagami-san knows," Mello said with a wry grin.
Light had so far been putting on a perfect face of calm. When Mello spoke to him, he did not falter once. "Yes," he said evenly. "There is something about you three that I cannot ignore. But... I would like to hear it from you yourselves."
Mello's smile widened. It was by no means a happy smile, and to Matsuda it looked downright insane.
"Well," he said slowly. He unwrapped the rest of his chocolate bar carefully and crinkled the tinfoil into a ball in his hand. "You see, we know that L is dead. And we knew he was when he was killed."
Matsuda still looked puzzled.
"Therefore, we obviously and without a doubt have some connection to L. And who's not to say we're his sons? I think that is why Yagami-san let us up today."
Light nodded coldly. "It is impossible to overlook the fact that you knew of L's… death.
"Murder," all three boys corrected.
Light resisted the urge to scowl. "Yes, murder," he agreed. Matsuda sighed forlornly.
For several moments, the only sound in the room was that of the steady noise of Mello licking his chocolate bar and the muted beeps coming from Matt's DS. Finally Matsuda broke the silence. "So… what are you, um, doing here?"
"We are here to catch Kira," said Near. Mello and Matt nodded solemnly.
"Yes," the blonde confirmed, "and if you refuse to leave… then we'll just have to move in anyway. We will help you with your investigation if you want, but if not then I'm sure we can manage to stay out of each other's way."
"Why are you so sure that we'll let you use this building? And the 'we're L's kids!' excuse is getting old," Light said sourly.
Mello shrugged. He seemed to be in a different mood then; calmer and more thoughtful, licking the almost-done chocolate bar slowly. "Because without L I doubt this investigation will go anywhere. We're offering to help you, Yagami-san. I think you would do best to accept."
"I'll need to discuss this with the taskforce," Light replied, and Mello nodded understandingly.
"Please," Near said at the reluctant expressions on the men's faces. "Don't worry about us. Rest assured we will not attempt to steal any information or vandalize your property while you are elsewhere."
Soichiro, Mogi, Matsuda and Aizawa still looked suspicious, but Light nodded calmly and led them out of the room. In truth, the teenager was more than reluctant to leave the boys, but the need to talk alone with the other taskforce members outweighed his suspicion.
After the five men had left, Near, Mello and Matt sat in silence. It was only when they were positively sure that they were not being overheard that Matt spoke. "So," he said slowly in English, not looking away from the game in his hands, "what next?"
"We see if they'll let us stay," Mello replied.
"And if they don't?"
"We'll stay anyways."
"So either way… but what then?"
"Matt…" Mello looked at him pityingly. "How many times have we been over this?"
"I wasn't paying attention."
"Obviously…"
"But, what then?" Matt repeated, taking his eyes off of his video game for the first time since he had sat down and turning to Mello. The blonde grinned evilly.
"Then," he said, swallowing the last bit of his chocolate bar, "let the games begin."
XXX
AN: Bleh… this chapter is shorter than I would have liked. I've already lost the spark for this. DAMN IT ALL TO HELL!
BUT. I will keep on going because I WILL FINISH THIS GOD DAMNED FIC IF IT KILLS ME! And if it takes all of eternity… D:
Um… ideas are MUCH appreciated. And REVIEWS. Maybe if lots of people say nice things, I will get back that stupid thing that causes me to write. The opposite of writer's block, I dunno… TT.TT
I NEED IDEAS GAIZ! I AM OUT!