Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note.

Credit: Original idea by Yami Yugi Alexander the 4th.

Chapter 26

Manipulation

Yagami had called his son to come help, it was probably going to be about half an hour before he got here so naturally L tried to con me into leaving the room.

"If you want to go out with Mello, now would be a good time, we can handle things here."

"I'll go if you tell me what you're going to do when Yagami-kun gets here." I bargained.

"I'm going to have him watch the second Kira's video and see if he comes to the same conclusions I did."

"And then?"

"Then I'll have him pretend to be Kira and send in a video to call off the broadcast in three days."

"Good idea but what if he doesn't figure out there's a second Kira?" not likely, he probably know that much by now.

"Then I'll tell him and carry on with the plan, I know what I'm doing." He sounded like a pouting child.

"Ok, but you'd better be here when I get back." I warned.

"Or what?" he smirked.

"I'll figure it out later." I frowned.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Mello had been too happy to get out, it was probably because L had told him to get me out of the room... the world is against me.

We walked down the street towards a small café, they had really good cake. Watari hadn't been told to drive us, L probably wanted him there to help, or at least close by. Walking was fun though... I don't mind.

Right about now, Raito would be walking in the front door, and I was having lunch with Mello. But L can take care of himself.

"Destiny, can you at least try to pay attention?" Mello sighed.

"What were you saying?"

"I was asking if you want to go to the park or somewhere else." He grumbled.

"Oh, let's go to the park, you promised me ice cream." I reminded him.

I need to focus on Mello, L isn't my date.

We were walking around in circles through the park, sadly no ice cream stands had come into view yet but the conversation was much more interesting.

Mello had insisted that we eat somewhere more private, L's paranoia was rubbing off on him too. I couldn't think of a good way to say that I wanted to disobey L so I agreed but since dinner wasn't for another few hours we continued to map out the park.

"We've passed this tree before." Mello insisted.

"No we haven't, all the trees look the same!" I was not lost.

"Destiny, we're going in circles."

"I'll prove we're not." I stated, breaking a small branch off the tree and leaning it up against the trunk. "Let's keep going." I ordered.

Mello followed, it took us ten minutes of circling to arrive back at the same tree.

"We're lost." Mello pointed out.

"I doubt you could lead us out." I sniffed, it would be dark in about an hour.

"I bet I can." He challenged.

"Then do it." I accepted.

"Fine. Follow me." He walked off.

Ten minutes later we were back at the same tree.

"Told you." I bragged.

"You're right, all trees do look the same."

"This park isn't that big, we just need to keep walking straight until we get out." I suggested.

"Right, let's go that way." he pointed off into the trees.

"We just came from that way, let's go in the opposite direction."

"That's where we've been going, and how far has it gotten us?"

"Our strategy's different now, we can get out no matter which way we go." I reminded him.

"Fine, we'll go that way." He allowed.

We didn't end up back at the same tree again, that was a start, but I was starting to get the feeling we were walking through the longer side of the rectangular forest.

At last we came to and opening and slid out of the trees into a street. It was a quiet street so we weren't going to get hit by a car but we didn't know where we were.

"Let's walk along the outside of the park until we get back to where we went in." Mello suggested.

"Good plan." I agreed and we started to walk back towards the tall buildings that marked the center of the city.

Half an hour later we found where we went in and made our way from there to a nice quiet restaurant. We were seated and given menus to look over before we were left alone.

Luckily, even though we were lost, we had managed to beat the dinner crowds and get a table right away.

"What are you getting?" I asked, Mello looked up from his menu.

"I'm not sure, I've never really liked sea food." He admitted. "What are you getting?"

"Cheesecake."

"Figures."

It wasn't awkward talking to Mello but after getting lost in the park it was a little hard to think of something we hadn't talked about yet.

"Do you think my dad's ok?" I asked after a little while.

"I bet he's fine." Mello smiled, reassuringly.

"Yeah, but I just keep worrying about him." I sighed.

"He's probably eating cheesecake too, you know?" Mello joked.

"Yeah, he wasn't too happy last time I was there to eat the last slice of his cake." I laughed.

Mello laughed too, silence over.

Our food got there quicker then I'd thought, Mello had ordered a chocolate cake after giving up on the menu.

"Try this." I offered, holding out a fork–full of strawberry cheesecake.

"I don't really like cheesecake." He admitted.

"You'd like it if it were chocolate." I pointed out.

"Ok, I don't like strawberry cheesecake." He corrected.

"Fine, then I get a bite of your cake." I sniffed.

He paused, obviously torn between giving up his cake and eating mine.

"Fine." He gave up and took the fork from me.

The look on his face was priceless as he brought the cake to him mouth, I almost laughed out loud at him. He chewed slowly, making a show of frowning at the taste.

"You like it." I laughed.

"It's ok." he handed me my fork back.

"My turn." I smiled, holding out my hand for a piece of his cake.

"Hey, you said I wouldn't have to give you a piece if I ate yours!" He complained.

"No, I said you would have to give me a piece if you didn't eat mine. I never told you that you wouldn't have to give me a piece if you did." I clarified.

"No way, that's not fair."

"Once is once, you got a bite of mine so I get one of yours." I smiled at him.

He frowned but handed me his next bite. It was really good and Mello snatched back his fork before I could pull it out of my mouth.

He dug into his cake with relentless force after that, like he was trying to eat it all before I asked for another piece.

I laughed when he got hiccups.

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Author's Note: I really meant to update before I left, honest, but two days wasn't enough to write five chapters. Mostly because I was lazy. Then I left for a two week vacation and I didn't have a computer! I swear I went through withdrawals! Band camps starts this week but I will try to update! Thanks for reading and thanks for the reviews!