A/N: Bad news guys, alot. My dad lost his job, and so my family has to move out of our house within the next two weeks. Also, we're low on money, so I won't have internet access comfortably for at least a month, maybe two. So this is going to be the last update for awhile. I'm sorry, but I wanted to give you all a new chapter as a farewell, for now. I'm copying this down for my other In Progress stories as well, so hopefully everyone that cares will know.
In other news: Annoying Group Therapy Counselor has a name now. I had a moment today in which I remembered Petey, the longest-living beta fish I ever had. RIP
Disclaimer: Still don't own.
Chapter 9: Group Therapy Take Two
"Is there any reason that you ripped off his fingernails and shoved them into his ears?" Dr. Pheesh questioned, a tad warily, and from the safety of behind her desk.
"Of course." Mello scowled. Dr. Pheesh waited. She was not rewarded.
"Well?" She caved finally.
"Well, what?" Mello retorted.
"Why aren't you telling me the reason?" The psychiatrist asked exasperatedly.
"You didn't ask for it." Mello replied dismissively.
"What? Yes I d-" She was cut off.
"No, you just asked if I had one." Mello pointed out. Dr. Pheesh resisted the urge to just down the whole bottle of aspirin. It wasn't easy.
"And how exactly are you involved in this?" She turned to Near, hoping he'd be more forthcoming than the ferocious blonde.
"Marginally." Near responded simply. 'Three more months, three more months, three more months...' Dr. Pheesh took a deep breath.
"You know what? I don't care. I don't care why you did it, because clearly you are not going to tell me. I am assigning both of you to the newest program for building healthy relationships with your peers." The psychiatrist was on the brink here.
"But no one here is on our level, thus there are no peers available to us here." Mello told her.
"SHUT UP AND GET OUT OF MY OFFICE!"
She was extremely insulted (and a tad disappointed) when the orphans appeared unmoved by this outburst, and simply rose and exited in their usual unconcerned manner.
"Group therapy? Again? I thought she said this was new." Mello grumbled, as the eight children chosen for this activity, himself and Near included, assembled themselves in a circle around that same damn annoying counselor.
"This is a new exercise." The counselor explained, "it is still group therapy, but there are specially designed new aspects to help you make connections with your fellows."
"How many times did you have to read that sentence before you memorized it?" Mello rolled his eyes.
"Do you always have to be negative?" The counselor shot back.
"Lemme think... Yeah." Mello quipped. The counselor huffed irritatedly.
"Anyway," He cleared his throat and made an effort to recover his fake-happy-smile. "I'm Mr. Behta, and I'll be the supervising counselor for most of your group therapy activities."
"Can we just get on with this?" For once it was not Mello who had spoken out. It was Angela. She however was far more easily quailed by the look of ticked-off-ed-ness sent her way by Mr. Behta.
"Today's activity is known as 'Trust-Fall.' You will all be assigned a partner- no you can't choose- and this is what you will do: Taking turns, one of you will stand behind the other, who will then allow themselves to fall backward. You must catch your partner, and then once you have successfully completed this five times you will switch places. The point of this exercise is to build trust, since you will have to trust that your partner will catch you, just as your partner will have to trust you." The counselor explained. "Now, Ben you team up with Sara, Lexi goes with Tara, Angela your partner is Near, and Mello you're with Crystal." Mello considered protesting this, but figured that Near would have a better chance of catching the young female Angela than himself. After all, expecting him to catch a boy almost a foot taller than him was just unreasonable.
"Ok, so do you wanna go first or should I?" Crystal babbled happily.
"Does it matter?" Mello drawled.. Crystal took this as permission for her to decide.
"Alright, you catch me first!" She giggled. Mello rolled his eyes.
"Sure, whatever."
"Is everyone with their partners now?" Mr. Behta questioned needlessly. "Good, now begin!" The airheaded Crystal immediately dropped backwards, and Mello caught her pretty much on reflex. She grinned up at him, and he was tempted to remove his arms and let her fall the rest of the way to the dirt. She stood up again.
"Ok, four more times!" She spouted.
"Really? Cause five is such a hard number to count down from." Mello said sarcastically. The sarcasm was lost on her. Once more the girl allowed herself to fall back, Mello caught her this time without looking. She was light enough that it was easy, so he had glanced over to see how Near was doing. Apparently that duo had decided that Angela would be the first 'catcher' since Near was getting ready to fall back. He didn't appear to be having an easy time letting himself do it naturally though, and Angela had the exasperated look of someone who's partner hasn't even started yet when everyone else is on their third go. Finally Near managed to override years of pure concentrated distrust of other human beings and began to fall back. Mello caught Crystal for the fourth time, and that's when it happened.
Angela was not paying attention. She had pretty much given up hope that Near was ever going to actually fall, and so had reached into her pocket, presumably for some gum. Then she noticed that Near actually was falling, and scrambled to catch him. In the process her hands caught on his shirt, pulling it up, and effectively... well lets just say that if Near was female Angela would've had quite the handful. As it was, he was looking extremely uncomfortable and squirming quite a bit to get back on his feet.
This did not go over well with Mello.
Not at all.
Shoving Crystal back onto her feet, Mello charged, snatching Near out of Angela's grasp and hollering in her face before she could even work up a proper blush.
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, TOUCHING HIM LIKE THAT!?"
Angela had the distinct impression of running very fast as a few stray hairs were blown out of her face by the force of Mello's voice. She attempted to stutter out a reply, but that wasn't working so well.
"Mello! What happened was an accident, and while Angela really should have been paying attention, there's no need to-" Mr. Behta didn't have the chance to get into full swing.
"THERE IS SO! SHE NEEDS TO WATCH WHERE SHE'S PUTTING HER DAMN HANDS!" The only reason Angela wasn't a smear on the dusty ground right now was that... well, Mello didn't hit girls unless they hit him first. Mutilating Randy had been one thing, but with a smaller, younger, weaker female Mello was not going to bring the pain until she made an attack. This did not mean he wasn't going to shout at her until his lungs turned blue.
"Um... Mello..." Near tried, feeling both chagrined and rather flattered, though he let neither show.
"Really, now, you need to calm down." Mr. Behta interjected again, which was rather stupid since while Mello might listen to Near, he certainly wasn't going to heed the dumb counselor. "I don't see why it should even bother you so much that-"
"BECAUSE HE'S MINE!" Mello snarled. "NO ONE ELSE GETS TO TOUCH HIM!" He brought his face very close to Angela's, and suddenly his tone turned low and deadly. "Un-der-stand?" This was the tone of someone who if they were not un-der-stood, would be willing to throw aside a belief (such as not hitting girls) in the name of recompense.
"Y-yeah, sure. Got it." Angela squeaked, feeling that the continuation of her life hinged on giving Mello an answer.
"Good." Mello whirled around, totally ignoring the dumbfounded expressions of the other people present, and proceeded to head straight for Dr. Pheesh's office with Near in tow. Mr. Behta let them go. Some things just shouldn't be interfered with.
TBC...
A/N: lol I think I actually freaked myself out a little there. Mello equals way overprotective. Don't even breathe on Near too much or Mello is gon' get you! xDDD
Yeah, I don't think older, gun-toting Mello cares much about gender. He'll shoot you anyway. But the way he let Takada change under a blanket sort of suggested to me that he had a little 'RESPECT FEMALES' programmed into him. Hence the 'he does not hit girls' thing I put in there.
Review pleeeeease! And help relieve the torment that is eating at my soulllll! I'll have the next chapter up as soon as I have internet access back.
