A few days later I was sitting in the lunch room, just watching Mello. It was a bad habit I was starting to pick up. I found my self doing it unknowingly. Mello grinned and gave me one of his signature looks. I could feel a hot flush working it's way up to my cheeks.

" You know he's just messing with you." A small, apathetic voice said.

I looked in front of me to see a small, pale, snow-haired boy looking at me with large lifeless, gray eyes. He looked more like an angel than Mello did. Except he looked tortured. I heard of this boy. Supposedly, he was the top genius in Wammy's. Yeah, I knew him.

He was Near.

"What?" " Mello only wants to use you as a toy. Nothing more."

" How would you know that?"

" I listen to everything. It's very vital that I do. One could miss out on something very vital by not listening, no matter how stupid and insignificant the conversation is."

I looked back at Mello, who was now glaring at Near and me.

" You heard this…directly from Mello?"

" Mello wasn't talking directly to me, if that's what your asking. But yes, I did hear him telling some of his friends what a 'Great toy you would be'. You can make of it what you want, Matt, but the message is still pretty clear."

Mello was still glaring, but now I was glaring back. A toy. Great. I don't know if I should be happy that I've been promoted from not deserving to look at him, to being known as his toy. Something that he uses for his own personal satisfaction, only to be thrown to the side when he finds something new and shiny to play with.

"Wait," I said, turning my attention back to Near. " Why do you care what Mello thinks of me?"

" Simple." Near said in a low voice. He turned his attention to a strand of his hair, and began to curl it widely. " I find you…very attractive Matt. It upsets me that someone would think of you as a toy."

" Attractive?"

" Yes." He said, putting his hair down and picking up his tray. " I wish I could talk to you more, but I have to go." His eyes wandered to the clock, which signaled that their was five minutes until classes started.

" Yeah. Bye." I told him, my farewell not as pleasant as I wanted it to come out, but that was the least of my worries. The only thing I was worried about, was not being a toy…

AN- Sorry for the late update again. I was on punishment and my laptop was taken away. And sorry for the short chapter. And since I've been super mean, I promise to make the next chapter longer and I'll update it quicker. Ah, Near creeps me out a little. But I love him, and had to add him in. Unfortunately, he's not going to be all good in this story… -Kikyo1027