L: Tawnyshine does not own Death Note or any of its characters, plotline, or-
Tawny: COME ON, L! You're being so MONOTONOUS! Put some FEELING into it!
L:... -sigh- Tawnyshine owns nothing to do with Death Note except for her own plot. Yayyy. T_T
Tawny:...
L: Can I go now?
Tawny: No. Because until you do a very enthusiastic, very energetic disclaimer, you shall see NO MOAR SUGAR for the rest of you little anime-ass life :3
L: O_O" TAWNYSHINE-KUN DOESN'T OWN ANY OF US! ! ! :D BECAUSE IF SHE DID, I WOULDN'T BE A PANDA! ! ! AND IF SHE OWNED DEATH NOTE, THERE WOULD MORE THAN LIKELY BE A WARNING BEFORE EACH EPISODE THAT CLEARLY STATED THAT ANY YAOI FANFICS WILL BE BURNED. AND-
Tawny: … Uh, L...
L: AND SHE DOESN'T OWN PLOT EITHER. (sugar) SHE OWNS NOTHING! NOTHING I SAY! NOTHINGGGG! (sugarrrr)
Tawny: L! ! ! That's good!
L: SHE WANTS TO OWN MATT AND MELLO THOUGH. CAN'T SAY I'M TOO HAPPY ABOUT THAT BUT (sugarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr) WE MUST SACRIFICE (SUGAAARRR) WHAT WE MUST.
Tawny: L.
L: What?
Tawny: -chunks peppermint at L's head- Knock yourself out. -mumbles about how L should have diabetes by now-
L: THANK YOU TAWNY-KUN~
Tawny: Oh, and by the way, I've never had to think of so many different ways to describe a splinter before...
Chapter 14: Splinters
I woke up with a very stiff neck and the smell of white chocolate in my nose.
Oh yeah.
And Eko was still sleeping in my room.
Since it was about six thirty and it was Sunday, I'm was sure I was the only one up. Careful not to disturb her, I stood and made my way over to the door. I stretched, absent-mindedly noticing that she had changed from her PJ's to jeans and a jacket. I raised my eyebrow, walking back to my bed to sit down, remembering that she had been crying the night before. What was wrong?
A shiny thing caught my attention, poking out of her pocket. She wasn't under the sheets- she probably kicked them off in the night (my side hurts)- so of course I could see into her pockets. The shiny thing, which I now realized was a white chocolate bar wrapper, wasn't what continued to hold my attention. There was a folded up piece of paper, clipped with the end of a mechanical pencil so that it wouldn't come unfolded. I glanced at her face, reaching forward and tentatively getting hold of the corner of the page, slowly pulling it out. If she woke up at this moment, she'd probably get Linda, or possibly worse- Cizia... shudder...- to beat the shit out of me for looking at her stuff. Then again, she'd have to explain why she was sleeping in my room in the first place.
Upon pulling it out a little further, a wad of $20 bills came tumbling out of the pocket. I narrowed my eyes and just lifted the paper out, less cautious. I wanted to see what this was.
Looking down at the paper, I realized what it was. A letter. To Roger.
When students write letters to Roger, it's never good.
Ever.
I unfolded it, and grimaced when I saw that she had attempted to mark this out with a huge 'X' over the whole thing. That wouldn't stop me from reading it. Roger, it began in Eko's scrawl, shakier than it should have been...
I am so... so sorry. I like it here, I really really do... but I think that's the problem... I love all my friends here... I love the teachers, the classes, I love the idea of succeeding L... But I think I might-
Something unintelligible was scribbled out, and I'm assuming her eraser was like... dead, or something. I stood up and walked over to the desk, putting the letter on it and standing there, reading.
-think I might like somebody a little too much. I can't stay here. Every time I think about A dying, I think it's my fault. I know that Beyond wouldn't have killed A if I hadn't upset him that morning. I miss my brother. I miss my mum and dad. I miss my friends. I have money- you don't have to worry about me. I'll catch a train or something back to my town. I'm sorry.
~Eko
I stood there, reading the marked up letter again. It was crossed-out... does that mean she wasn't going to give it to Roger? And does that mean she wasn't going to go? And what about the whole yarn about her believing it was her fault BB killed A? Everybody knows it wasn't. I left the letter on the desk, and went over to sit on the bed again, grabbing a chocolate bar on my way over.
'I think I might... like somebody a little too much...' What did that mean?
I poked her shoulder. "Eko..."
Nothing.
A little less gentle, I shook her shoulder. "Eko!" she stirred, blinking and groggily looking up at me. "Morning," I greeted her. She blinked, yawned, and lay her head back down on my pillow. But just before she got her eyes closed, she sat up, blushing, hurriedly standing up and brushing her hair out of her eyes.
"I-I'm sorry!"
"Eko, you're fine. I honestly believe you were that scared of the storm." Among other things. "I also trust that you weren't taking advantage of my trust, and with that, incident: over with and gone."
"... I... guess so..."
"... Storm's over."
"Uh, I'll just go, now..."
She side-stepped to the door. Just as her hand turned the handle, I interrupted her.
"It's not your fault, you know."
She turned around, and the look in her eyes was deep... like she wasn't sure whether she was grateful for the reassurance or if she was pissed that I had looked around in a pocket that she was wearing. Either way, she rolled her eyes and disappeared through my door while I was left to brood.
… Really, Mello? Really?
I strode up to the brunette that was emerging from Mello's room. Who's face I saw... uncalled for.
"... Eko? !"
She cringed.
"What the fuck?"
"... It was stormy..." she tried to step around me.
"No," I stepped in front of her again. "Why were you in Mello's room?"
"Why are you up?" she side-stepped again.
"I'm always up at this time! Why are you up?" I followed her movement.
"Mello woke me up!" Side...
"Why were you in Mello's room in the first place?" … Step.
"It was storming, and I was- Oh!" her hand, which was on the banister of the stairs, was now brought to her mouth, for she was now bleeding profusely. "Great," she mumbled.
"Lemme see," I held my hand out for hers. She raised an eyebrow. "What? I've got more time in medical class than you do in breathing. Lemme see."
She looked me in the eye with a glare that could shatter bones, but I wasn't intimidated, because I knew she would let me heal that splinter.
…
It's how my mind works, mmkay?
I looked at her finger, which actually had a pretty big splinter in it. I moved my hand to pluck it out (it wasn't that deep, I could have easily just nabbed it right there) but she pulled her hand away, possibly getting that splinter forever lost in her finger unless we used tweezers. Or I just ripped it out with a needle, but that was painful.
On top of that, she flinched because (proving my theory!) it did in fact go deeper into her finger. And I'll bet it hurt. I nodded my head as if to say told you so.
"... Fine. Get it out. But please don't make it hurt too bad!" she thrust her hand in my face and I had to step back to focus on it.
"That ba-" It was already swollen.
Super swollen.
"... you're going to need some peroxide on that. What, are you like... infection prone or something?"
"I don't know!" she said exasperatedly, following me down the hall to one of the bathrooms. It was a staff bathroom, not one of those bathrooms for students that segregated the genders. Otherwise, how could I possibly get this out in the same room as her?
She hopped up onto the counter, leaning her arm on her leg, her hand outstretched so I could extract the offending wood. Buying her attention away from her hand, I decided to further press our previous conversation... subtly.
"So what's your reading on him?"
"Excuse me?" she winced as I poked her finger with a peroxide-soaked cottonball.
"You know. What do you think of Mello?"
"... Well, he's optimistic."
I snorted. "Go on."
"He's definitely got a good sense of humor." I nodded, agreeing, letting her go on. "He's honest... smart..."
"Yeah, stop flattering him, get to the bad parts," I laughed.
"Well," she chuckled, "He's irresponsible. Careless, very careless... Unless it's competitive. Then it's life or death... OW! What the hell are you doing to my finger? ?"
"Ow!" I heard as I passed the door. I paused and backed up, listening for more. "Matt! That hurts! !"
…
Was that Eko's voice?
"It does not hurt."
"How would you know? It's in ME!"
"Look, do you want this thing out or not?"
"... well yes, but- OH dear God, don't do it that way!"
"Well, I have to, it's stu-"
"I don't care, do it some other way!"
By now, Font had been attracted from his room and was standing by me. I stepped a few inches away from him.
"This is perfect," he said. "Linda, go get Mello, I'm not missing this!" But Mello was already walking down the hall, and had stopped only to glare at Cizia, who had purposely bumped Near into him in order to get him to stop.
"If you touch me with that little creep again I'll-"
"MATT STOP!"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"I'm so proud of him," Font sniffed. I cuffed him behind the head. "What the hell?"
"Do not encourage this behavior!"
"No, just look, see, it's almost out. Just a little bit..."
"... wow. I've never had... one that big in me..."
Mello choked on his chocolate bar. "She's had more than one? How old is she? !" he whispered.
"See, that wasn't so bad was it?" the door opened, and a path opened up for them to walk through. Eko for some reason was sucking her finger. Matt froze. "... can I help you?"
Font walked up to him, clapping his hand on Matt's shoulder. "You did good buddy. I am so... so proud to call you my bestie-"
Matt held up a small, thin, long wooden splinter.
"... Disownage," Font turned on his heel and walked away.
"... what?" Matt, stupidly clueless, had no idea. I sighed, scooping Matt up in a hug. "Seriously, what the fucking hell?"
"It's not important now, Matt," I said, just glad he wasn't a rapist.
Mello, on the other hand...
"You scared me!" he accused, gripping Eko's shoulders. I stifled a chuckle.
"... W-whadaya mean?"
"... Never... mind..." he released his grip on her shoulders and walked away, leaving Near (looking petrified by the way), Zuzu, Matt, Eko and I in the hall.
"Well... I've got homework to do, and Near can come with me~" Zuzu declared, dragging Near practically down the stairs by the neck. I shuffled away, not really wanting to be the one to explain.
"... what?" I heard Matt say yet again.
A/N: I do hope this makes up for the missingness that ensued when I was gone.
AIYE LOFF CHU AWLL~~