Mello watched with impatience and anticipation, staring down the white-haired boy from his place in the afterlife. It wasn't something he did on a regular basis, watching this guy, this Near guy, but today was different.
Today Near was reading his book.
He watched as Near's eyes flicked over the pages, turning each of them quickly, taking in the pages with speed most people would be awed at. Not Mello, though – he could read even faster than the albino twit could, something he took pride in but rarely acted upon since it ruined the reading experience. Grinding his teeth he leaned forward, looking over Near's shoulder and causing the albino to shiver and glance to the side. Of course, he couldn't see the blonde standing there beside him, since he was a ghost of course. Dismissing it as a breeze from the open window across the way he went back to reading.
Mello watched for about fifteen minutes for a reaction of some kind, a grin spreading across his face as the albino boy's eyes widened just slightly here and there, or his blank expression twisted into a smile or a frown or a rare little 'oh…' of thoughtful unsureness.
After a long moment Near turned to face Mello, placing the book down on the table. He wasn't looking at the blonde, though, but rather the dark haired man that seemed to be perpetually beside him.
"Well?" Gevanni voiced Mello's insistent thoughts, though his voice was much kinder than the blonde's would have been. Near gave the book a blank glance.
"He misspelled L's true name on page 151," he said bluntly, dark ebony eyes glinting. For a second, it was as if he knew Mello was watching, a contempt little smile touching his lips for an instant.
Mello gasped in disbelief, grabbing his own ghost-copy of the book through his memories and flying through the pages in his mind. Sure enough, there it was – Lawleit instead of Lawliet. Of all the things to misspell... The blonde slammed his foot uselessly against the table, screeching though nobody living could hear him.
"DAMN IT!"
Somewhere, a redhead started laughing.
A/N: I saw that he did this while rereading Another Note and i couldn't resist. XD Sorry that i'm taking away from the time i should be working on Heartburn with, but I'm kidn of having some writers block on the story and… yeah. Don't worry, that's WAY far from being anything permanent. I know w hat' going to happen, I'm just on a lazy-streak as far as actually getting it down on a word doc. Patience! For now, enjoy this pointless blah.