L leaned against the bedpost, looking at the wall across from him. Light was lying on the bed, reading a book. He bit his lip angrily. These two. . .
The door crashed open, and Beyond strolled in, pinching a sheet of paper in between his thumb and forefinger. Light glanced up, before looking down again, evidently bored. Beyond skipped forwards, waving the paper before L's eyes. "You know what this is, Ellie?"
L glared at him without responding, and Beyond giggled. "No? I'll tell you," he folded the paper and tucked it into his jeans' pocket. "A case." he grinned at L's furious expression. "That's right, Lawli – I'm taking a case." he cackled like a madman. "A case to find the missing crown jewels, at that!"
L yanked on his chain, jolting forwards. Light started, but Beyond remained still. He cracked a grin. "You don't scare me, L – you never have, and you never will."
"That carelessness will cost you your life one day," L hissed. Beyond cocked and eyebrow mockingly.
"No, Lawli," he purred. "If anybody's dying here," his eyes flicked to a point just above L's head, and he sneered. "It'll be you."
xxx
Matt wobbled on Mello's shoulders, holding up Near, who clung onto the windowsill, peeking over it. "What do you see?"
"Um, L – argh!" Near's fingers slipped off the edge, and he fell on Matt. Matt squawked, flailing his arms and tumbling off the empty platform, dragging Mello with him.
The trio landed in a pile of pillows that they, thankfully, as geniuses, had thought to place underneath the platform where a gargoyle had formerly stood (the gargoyle had vanished mysteriously a few nights ago – nobody seemed to know where it had gone, thought a few interesting theories had surfaced).
Mello sat up with a groan, rubbing his rear. "Ow, Near! Why'd you have to slip?"
"It was an accident!" Near protested, picking himself up.
"Forget it, what did you see?" Matt asked, untangling his limbs from Mello's.
"L was leaning over something," Near said, standing up and stepping off the cushions. "He seemed pretty happy. He was waving a piece of paper around, too."
"L? Waving a piece of paper?" Matt asked incredulously. "That's impossible."
"He'd normally never print something out – security, and all that," Mello said. "And he doesn't seem like the type of guy who'd have a secret meme collection."
Near sighed. "Results inconclusive – this is harder than I thought."
xxx
That night found the three successors with their ears pressed tight to L's door – Matt and Mello sharing the crack between the door and the floor, and Near standing on Mello's back to hold his ear by the keyhole.
"Nothing but a whole bunch of typing," Mello sighed, standing up, effectively knocking Near to the ground. "This is pointless – are we seriously investigating L because Rue had a 'feeling'?"
"L investigates based on gut feelings," Matt pointed out.
"Because he's had over a decades' worth of experience in the field!" Mello threw his hands in the air, exasperated. "Seriously – all we're doing is embarrassing ourselves and getting hurt."
Near pouted. "But I was having fun," he said sadly, looking at the door.
"Too bad, cotton fluff," Mello said, crossing his arms grumpily. "Face it – Rue's just a kid, and the gut feeling could have been anything from an ulcer to a bad curry."
Near looked down sadly, and Matt sighed. "It's okay, Near – we'll get some cases later, when we're older."
"I guess," Near said, sounding disappointed, as the older boys led him down the stairs.
Inside the room, Beyond sat, crouched on L's chair, a grin on his face. Did they honestly think I wouldn't hear them?
Sorry for the short chapter – I'm currently on vacation, and have been working on both this story and Angel of Death (which is now up ;)) in my spare time, which is very little.