Chapter 21:

Kira Notes

It's now been two days since Mello caught me speaking with Near in the park. He was still refusing to speak to me directly. Instead of becoming depressed like usual, I was becoming pissed. I understand I was "betraying him", as he sees it, by sneaking off to see Near, but our meeting was important. It actually involved the case. If he'd listen to me, he'd know that by now! But, whatever. If he wanted to act this way, fine, then! He can do as he pleases…

We all sat in the living room. Matt's eyes were glued to the laptop that showed the feed to Takada's room. I sat beside him, doing some little random searches on the television starlet. She had apparently written in a blog a few years ago that she and Yagami had actually gone on a date. On the way to their destination, though, a man had taken control over the bus. He went mad, shooting and shouting at something at the back of the bus. As he ran out when it stopped, he was hit by a car and killed. She went on to talk about how calm Light seemed the whole time…interesting…

"Whoa, we've got some action now! Did you hear her say that, Sis?"

"Huh? Hear what?"

"She and Yagami are meeting up today at around three."

"Only your supersonic hearing could catch that."

"Supersonic, huh? Just keep that in mind when you get a guy and I'm over…"

"Mail!" I squeaked, blushing like mad. I shoved him as he laughed at me. I turned my gaze to Mello when I thought I heard him growl slightly. My suspicions were confirmed by Tease glancing between us, stifling a giggle. When he and I locked eyes, I turned down to the screen, watching as our subject tidied her already clean room.

"Think they're secret lovers?" Tease thought aloud.

"…What?" Mello asked.

"Takada and Yagami. Do you think they're secret lovers?"

"I don't know. I doubt it, though. He's not what women want. Excluding Misa, at least."

I quietly scoffed with a chuckle at his comment. Like he knows what women want at this point.

"Do you find something funny?" He asked in my direction.

"…Yes. Your comment. There's no given prove he's Kira, so there is a possibility he is utterly innocent. If so, he's rather cute and definitely a man I would go for." I was lying, of course, but he didn't have to know that.

"He is Kira, though." He barked.

"Putting aside Watari and L's deaths, where's the prove?" I challenged.

He only stared (more like glared) at me. For once, I had left him speechless in anger. He always had something to say when pissed. Astounding! He growled lightly before storming out. I felt my lips twitch into a smirk. I felt…good about pissing him off. Yeah, I also felt shitty, but I was mainly satisfied.

All was quiet as I gently typed the keys on my laptop. Tease scooted close to me.

"Seriously? Yagami?" She whispered.

I looked at her, shaking my head with a small smile. She nodded her head, understanding the bluff. She sank back into her spot on the couch, spacing out to think of only God knows what. Matt sighed as he stretched his arms above his head, pulling them back to lay them across Tease's legs.

"Your little war is going to drive someone insane. You know that?"

"It'll be settled eventually. Until then, be a man and suck it up." I stuck my tongue out at him, giggling when he only stared at me like I was the biggest idiot he knew.

From the other room, we heard Mello call to Matt, "What was the time you heard for their meeting?"

"About three."

He came back in the room, stopping beside me. "What's your plan on listening in?"

"Wait, isn't that what the camera is for?" Tease asked.

"For any other occasion, such as simply seeing her take the notebook out and write in it. The feed is too choppy and the audio quality isn't as good as it could be for her little visit with Yagami."

"So, how are we going to get in on the action? We can't just go knock on her door and ask to watch every little thing the two of them do." Tease pointed out.

We all fell silent. It seemed none of had thought that through. How exactly were we going to hear and see this interaction?

"The air vents…"

They all gave me skeptical looks. Matt raised his goggles to his head, an eyebrow arched high.

"The…air vents?"

"Yeah, yeah, think about it! All of the vents are connected, aren't they? If you can find the layout of the ventilation system, I can copy it down and figure out which room is Takada's. Then, we'd have easy access to her."

Tease and Matt shared a look as they thought it over. Mello stared off at the ground in thought. Matt looked back at me, his lips turned in a smirk, and held out his fist. I smiled in return, bumping my fist with his.

"Not bad, Sister. Not bad at all." Matt mumbled as he pulled his laptop toward him. He pushed his goggles back into place just before placing his fingers on the keys.

Flopping in a chair close to him, I announced, "Time for him to hack the system."

I watched as my brother's body trembled with each hit to the keyboard. Tease leaned over, watching his fingers move at an inhuman speed and multiple windows appear and vanish on the screen. Mello took a very hesitant seat beside me. I didn't expect him to do that. And I definitely didn't expect him to speak directly toward me.

"…How did you think of that?"

I shot him a quick glance. "I saw it once on an episode of 'The Suite Life of Zack & Cody'. Thought it could actually work."

After a moment, I heard him scoff at me. Ignoring his attitude, I moved next to Matt again as he demanded for someone to 'copy the damn map before the bloody bastards catch him'. Tease threw a pad of paper at me. I snatched a pen off the coffee table and copied as quickly as possible.

"Hurry, please. They're trying their damnedest to kick me out."

"I'm going as fast as I can."

"Well, go faster!"

"Don't nag me!"

Before I could tell him he was safe to retreat, the laptop crashed. We both simply stared wide eyed at the blackened screen. Matt's head dropped with a groan. I blinked a few times.

"Well…at least I finished the map."

"Yeah…there's one plus…" He pushed the laptop away, rubbing his temples. I ruffled his hair before getting up and checking out the map. Mello appeared behind me, peering over my shoulder at the sketch.

"Where's the starting point?"

Instead of answering, my brows furrowed. I tilted my head toward the area where the ceiling and wall meet, looking for our entrance. Mello followed me from room to room while I looked like an utter moron. I finally found our way in in the boys' bedroom.

"Found it. Between your beds."

"It's already two. They'll be meeting soon. Let's get started." He mumbled more to himself than me. I sighed, collecting all of Matt's cords and moving them, as well as Mello's chocolate bars and wrappers. Whoever gets to go up in the vents will need the help of the nightstand.

After twenty minutes of doing I don't know what, the boys were finally setting up. Tease and I remained on the other side of the room. When Mello sat on the nightstand and Matt collapsed onto his bed with another laptop, we knew they were ready for us to be apart of the plan.

"So, who wants to crawl around in a vent?" Matt asked, smirking.

"I'll do it." Mello volunteered. Matt sighed and placed his head in his hand as Mello removed his leather vest, revealing his scarred, toned chest. For some reason, he kept the rosary on. I locked eyes with my brother, knowing exactly what he was thinking. I voiced his thoughts before he could the chance.

"D-do you think that's a good decision? I mean…the metal in the vent would surely rip at your scar, wouldn't it? It's not totally healed yet."

He shifted to look at me. I dropped my gaze to carpet immediately. It was beyond uncomfortable to be under his gaze now.

"I can try."

"I don't know, man. I think E's right on this one. Crawling around up there can't be good for you."

"Fine, then!" He shouted. "Why don't you go up there?"

"Can't." He pet the machine next to him. "I already have a duty to attend to."

"Envy, you could go up there, right?" Tease said, a pleading look in her eye. Something told me she just didn't want to go in there because of the bugs…

"…I can't."

"Why not? You'd be better than any of us at it with how quiet you are."

"The vent's too small." Mello interjected. His voice was low, but stern, basically indirectly telling her to drop the idea. All fell silent for a moment.

"…Did you just call her fat?"

"No, you moron! If she climbed in there, her claustrophobia would make her have a panic attack!" He barked.

"Oh…right…" She turned to me. "I'm sorry…I forgot…"

"It's ok. I promise." I gave a small smile before it turned into a smirk. "But guess who the only one left is~"

"Ah, hell…"

"I'll help you up." Matt offered.

"Of course you will." I smirked.

He stuck his tongue out at me before getting up and pulling two objects out of the drawer of the nightstand. Both of them were cameras. One was Tease's necklace cam, while the other was a slim black one that stretched out pretty far and could bend.

"Before you go, T, you'll need some things."

"Like?"

"This earpiece, for starters. It's so you can hear us give you directions to her room and all that jazz." He showed her the device before helping her put it in.

"What else?"

"You'll also need a camera. You can have one or two, it doesn't matter. It might be better if you take two, though."

"Two it is, then." She smiled.

"Alright." He held out her necklace. "With this, I'd rather you wear it around your neck so we can see where you're at all times. You can wear it around your wrist if you please, though. Now this one," he held up the longer camera, "is a snake camera. It can bend every which way. This one is preferred for stuff like this. Somehow, no one notices them if they're used right. Don't let them see this under any circumstances. I can't stress that enough. If one of them sees this, we're caught."

"Right…got it. Let's do this!"

Mello moved out of their way, standing next to me, as Matt helped Tease climb into ventilation system. I glanced over at my laptop (why Matt was using it, too, I don't know) to see Light being greeted by Takada with a kiss on the cheek.

"We need to speed this up a little. Yagami's there already."

"They won't discuss business right away. She's got time." Mello assured.

As soon as Tease's tiny frame was swallowed by the darkness, Matt dashed to his other laptop and pulled up the window to her necklace cam. From the speakers her serious voice asked for the directions.

"Keep forward until forks off, then go to you right." I said into his microphone well glancing over the sketch. I pointed at where she'd end up and where the destination should be so he could tell her where to go.

He continued to give her directions. Mello opened a chocolate bar, making me jump in the silence when he'd violently snap a piece off. I kept my eyes trained on the couple, though. The feed may be choppy, but I could still the slightest glint in Light's eyes, a glint that just screamed 'I'm using you'. Why could I see it so easily, yet she was so blind to it? Oh, right. He's made her fall in love with him. She's choosing not to see it, not to believe it.

"So, Miss Takada…" Light's voice poured from the speakers. Matt had pulled up a new window for the snake cam that was now pointed at the couple. Tease had successfully found the right vent! I was thankful for this. This camera gave us a much cleaner view, and much better audio. Though, I wasn't necessarily focusing on the audio much. I was more interested in what the two were doing. Light was speaking, but he was also writing on a notepad. He held the pad out to her while continuing to speak. She took it, writing a reply as she kept up with their verbal conversation.

"What are they writing to each other about, I wonder?" I mumbled to myself.

"Let's find out." Matt tapped a key, zooming in on the scene.

"Point the camera a little to your left." Mello commanded.

She did as told, landing directly on the notepad the newswoman's hands. Matt whispered a quick 'nice work, babe' before reading with us.

" 'When did you last have contact?' 'Last night, after you called. I gave him all the information.' " I read aloud. "Who the hell are they talking about?"

"The third Kira. When we went to the twit, he said Takada was just being used as a bridge between the two, remember?"

"Right…But who is the third Kira?" I sighed.

The two continued writing notes and casually talking for almost thirty minutes. I tapped Matt, telling him to let Tease come back.

"What do you mean? Those two could-"

"You know as well as I do that they're not going to discuss anything important tonight." Besides, I haven't called our old friend in awhile and I'd like to do that before it's too late."

Mello shot me an irritated glare. I pulled my phone out, looking for the certain number.

"You do think he'd be alright with it, don't you, Brother? He might not be too keen on me calling after all this time…"

"Oh, just do it. He's always loved you. Out of us all, you were his favorite. I bet he misses your calls."

"You're right…I'll call him, then. Now, tell her to come back here before some bug comes along and bites her."

I heard him talking her back as I took off out of the room, into mine and Tease's room. I was reaching for the call button when Mello barged in.

"You're really going to call him?" His voice was dangerously low. His eyes were in a menacing glare. I kept my back straight and eyes forward, though. I didn't want to show that I was frightened under his gaze.

"Someone has to. None of us have spoken to him in a long while. I'd like to make sure he's doing alright." With the look he's giving you, dear, he might assume you're talking about Near…

"I'm that twit is fine!"

"…Mello. Who am I walking about? Do you know?"

"That obnoxious lamb, Near." His voice almost literally dripped with venom at the mention of his name.

"Wrong. Don't jump to conclusions."

"…If not him, then who?"

"Roger. I used to call him at least once every month after we left. It's been much longer than that now, though."

He dropped his gaze, a scowl still present on his face. I sat on the bed, pressing the call button. The moment I began talking with Roger, he stalked out of the room.

.::/ Mello's P.O.V. \\::.

The moment Envy began speaking with Roger, I fled the room. I embarrassed myself by assuming she meant Near. I had good reason to jump to the assumption, though! Didn't I? Yeah…yeah, I did.

"She calling Roger?" Matt called as I passed the room.

"Yeah. They're talking right now."

"Hey, you alright?"

"Peachy." I continued on into the living room, collapsing onto the couch. I closed my eyes, rubbing my temples. I really hate fighting with Envy…why did I get so jealous? Why can't I just apologize to her already?

I snapped my head up when I heard thumping. Envy appeared a moment later, a wide smile painted in her beautifully pale face.

"Where's Brother?"

"Still…in the bedroom?"

She turned, still happy as ever, back to run to the room. With a sigh, I laid back again. Lord only knows what's gotten her so hyped up this time…

"Mello~" Tease sang in her sweetest 'I-really-want-something-from-you' voice as she bounced beside me.

"…What?"

"Is there any way we could continue this investigation…in England?"

"What?" I asked, a little harsher than I meant, as I sat up. I saw behind her the twins peaking out past the corner. Matt looked a hopeful. Envy looked like she was about two seconds from breaking down and begging. I couldn't stand my ground.

"…Pack tonight so we can leave in the morning." Man, I'm getting soft…

Envy squealed in excitement, clapping and jumping like a little kid. Tease thanked me, running off to go pack. Matt smiled, offering to go get the tickets before something 'sucky' happened.

"I need to let Roger know." Envy thought aloud, still smiling.

"Envy, wait." I need to apologize now before it's too late.

"Yes?" She paused, looking me straight in the eye. One would think it's impossible for a teenage girl to hold such innocence, the innocence of a child, in her eyes.

"…Ask Roger if we can stay with him." Not only are you getting soft, you're weak, too!

"Right!" She skipped off to call the old man. With a frustrated groan, I fell backward and covered my face with a pillow. Why couldn't I just say 'I'm sorry for being a jealous asshole' to her! Maybe Matt's right. Maybe I am a little too high up on my own pedestal…

.::~Author's Note~::.

I…am…so…sorry! I'm a horrible person for making you all wait so long! TT3TT

I've just lost A LOT of inspiration with this…I feel like it went from 'Hey, this is pretty good with potential!' to 'Wow, you really suck. Just give up now.' So…yeah…if it count's for anything, I still have ideas and my summer vacation is about three weeks away, so I /might/ be able to get 22 and some others typed up… ^^;; Please, loves, I'm /begging/ for reviews. I need to know if this worth continuing or not :/