Chapter six:

The man was nice and allowed them to have the first set of clothes for free.

It helped that he so happened to have pretty much the same as what they were already wearing at the time though these clothes are brand new ones.

"Thank you." Near says as he and Mello stand there changed in fresh clothes.

"No problem." The man waves it. "Happy to help."

With that Near and Mello head on out and are approached by a brunette woman.

"You're Mello and Near am I correct?" The lady asks in which the two nod. "Good." She extends a hand. "My name is Alice." She introduces herself as her fire orange eyes shine in kindness.

Near takes her hand and gently shakes it. "Nice to meet you." He says then they drop their hands after a gentle shake.

"What do you do around here?" Mello asks mostly out of curiosity.

"Well I use my powers of heat to help with things like baking." Alice explains. "I just was wondering if you were hungry when I heard that you had recently arrived."

"No. I'm good." Mello says. "We ate earlier."

Near nods in agreement.

"Okay. But if you need food you are welcome to the Lava lamp bakery. It has a painted picture of a lava lamp on the sign by the door. The paint might seem to have run a bit with a few drops going down but we did our best when we made it."

"Thanks." Mello nods as Near twirls his hair and Alice heads off with that. "Right. With that done let's head on our way."

Near nods in agreement so they do that. He walks along with Mello as they look around their new home a little more.

Until they are approached by another lady this time in a cloak with the hood down.

She has wavy strawberry blonde hair and beautiful emerald green eyes. "Greetings." She says at the two that slow to a stop in their walking. "I am Amy and I am the lead of power training. We also have some rooms that you two can stay in one of them until you get your own place down here if you want." She tells them. "But I was hoping to talk to you about training your powers."

Near's eyes flicker away and he begins twirling a strand of his hair.

"It would be best if we begin as soon as possible." Amy tells them. "Just to help get a good grasp to help prevent them from going out of control."

Mello glances to Near at this. "She has a point." He says and Near meets his eyes. "Especially with what you can do." He then smiles. "Hey. Plus I promise I'll be there watching so I'm not going anywhere." He gently nudges Near and gets the smallest smile from him.

Near nods and turns to Amy who patiently smiles. "Tomorrow?" He offers. "Today I just kind of want to adjust to our new surroundings."

"Alright." Amy nods. "Tomorrow. Did you two see where the training area is?" She asks.

"Yeah." Mello says remembering where that was that he saw it.

Amy nods glad to hear this. "Alright. Well I will be there for most of the day. Come when you are ready tomorrow and we can get started." She tells them. "For now come with me and I'll take you to where you can stay until you find your own place." She leads them to a two story building with the stairs visible yet with no railings as they go up the wall. "Up the stairs is where the rooms are located." She says. "Just go straight through the first floor to the back and you'll find a way to the stairs. Up the stairs and you two can have room three which will be on your left."

"Thank you." Mello says and Amy nods only to head off elsewhere. He turns to Near. "What do you say?" He asks as Near meets his eyes. "Shall we go and check it out?"

"Sure." Near responds with a strand of hair wrapped around his finger as he rubs the strand between his finger and thumb.

They head inside and find a nice white front entrance way. They head around finding a living room with only a rug and a few couches to their right, an open space to their left and as they move further towards the back the dull kitchen comes up on their left with a table that can seat at most six people as there are six chairs around the rectangle table. They spot the way to the stairs just past the kitchen so they climb up with a hand on the wall.

Near walks ahead of Mello as they climb the stairs then they enter the second floor of the building.

It's a kind of narrow hallway with many doors like a hotel though obviously there is only one hall way of rooms here.

They find room three, with the bathroom being right across as the sign says washroom, and open it finding it unlocked though they aren't sure if there really is any locks in any place down here. They move further into the room and look around finding that it definitely kind of looks like a hotel room… A run down one…

The bed is a double bed with a metal frame as well as made with clean sheets that seem typical of this place and there is a small dresser opposite of the bed and a few coat hanger hooks by the door on the wall. There is also a small side table with an unlit candle placed there in a little holder that can be picked up and moved. It is the only candle that is in a holder as the rest are just resting where they are placed though they are tall enough to not have to be worried about it lighting the place on fire so soon.

"It's better than nothing." Mello shrugs and goes to try to the bed finding that it isn't too bad.

Near examines the room a little with his hands at his sides as they have been like that since they started to climb the stairs. He nods and turns to Mello who flops down onto the bed. "It looks fine." He agrees.

… That night….

Mello blinks awake seeing darkness only broken by a single candles light… Wait… He sits up and looks to the small table only to see the candle with the holder is gone. "Near?" He pulls the covers off after checking Near's side of the bed is empty. He heads out and turns spotting a light coming from the stairs. He tries there and he spots Near sitting on the edge of one of the stairs with his feet dangling off the edge.

The candle is placed on a lower step next to him.

Near seems to be staring off into the darkness that is only broken by wherever a candle is lit if its light is visible from the outside.

"Near?" Mello moves over to where Near is and he sits down but on the other side than where the candle was placed.

Near turns to him. "Hey Mello." He greets turning back to the darkness.

Mello glances to the darkness as well. "Can't sleep?"

"I guess." Near glances down and Mello's eyes flicker to him.

"What's wrong?"