A/N: Last chapter for the night! Goodnight and good morrow! (I may post a short chapter tomorrow, but I have a doctors appointment and I have to work right after so... we'll see.)

Hope you enjoy!

(Mello P.O.V)

I was going to lose it. I knew I was. Three hours talking about nothing more than movies and parties was getting on my last nerve! Not to mention their son, who was about my age or older, kept talking down to me like I was a moron! Like I'd come from the loins of someone who couldn't tie their own shoelaces!

…

Okay, to be fair, I sort of did come from that. But nobility didn't have time to tie their own shoes! I still learned how!

I calmly took a breath and thought about how I was doing this for Light. None of us wanted him to leave, so it was best that I keep my mouth shut and not say a word unless asked a question. Sometimes those questions were hard to answer though.

Light's aunt and uncle, Katarina and Haruo, and their three children, Jiro, Kaede, and Chiyo, had been by for at least four hours now, having given plenty of time for others to show up. There was still no sign of Light's grandmother, but I had a feeling she'd be by soon.

Until then, we had to endure this hell.

When they stopped talking about movies and actors, we came into question as well as Ryuzaki. Of course… Light couldn't answer the questions as flawlessly this time.

"So Light," Katarina began, "where did you meet your partner here?"

It seemed like the entire house was just as curious about this as they were. Of course, that meant all eyes were on Light so the question itself had more peer pressure than it first meant to be.

The brunette answered simply enough. "I met him in school. After graduation I decided to go with him to England…"

"And that's when you met these three." Her husband interrupted, looking at us.

'We have names, you know!' I screamed in my head.

I swallowed down my pride and pulled out a charming smile.

"That's right! My name's Mello, by the way, if you've forgotten."

Matt did the same and smiled back before introducing himself. "And I'm Matt. Sleeping beauty in Light's arms here is Near, but I doubt he'd be able to tell you for himself."

Lucky cunt.

Near had nodded off a while ago in Light's arms, the brunette still holding him all this time, and I'd give anything to be doing the same. Instead I was forced to endure this torture.

Light smiled happily at the sleeping snowflake in his arms. "Poor kid must have overworked himself. I've never seen him nap this long."

'Probably faking it.' I growled in my head.

"Aww, well I'm happy to see you have such a… loving family." Katarina said not so smoothly.

I didn't like the way she'd said that.

Light stood from his seat and excused himself to put Near into a bed upstairs. If he was going to nap through this, it might as well be in comfort.

Then the questions were directed to Matt and myself.

"So, what happened to your parents?" Their youngest son Jiro asked.

The question made me mad, but what appalled me was that no one corrected the little asshole to not ask questions like that. It was rue, disrespectful, and completely out of line! I could even see L holding back his comments at such a horrid question.

I decided to be snarky without actually being snarky and put this kid in his place.

I shrugged, still smiling. "I don't know what you mean. Light and Ryuzaki are right in this house are they not?"

"I mean your real parents, dummy." He laughed at me.

"Dummy? Jesus kid, you have no idea who you are messing with are you?'

I took a breath. "Light and Ryuzaki are my real parents. More than my birth parents ever were. But you wouldn't know much about being an orphan or even the slightest bit of empathy towards such because your mommy and daddy were always there right?"

He took a pause at this, but his parents didn't seem to understand how insulting I was making this seem.

'Kid, you should have kept your mouth shut.'

I saw both Matt and L brace for impact with slight smiles on their faces.

"I mean, my birth parents were gone from my life long before I met Light, but Light and Ryuzaki were always there for every birthday, every good grade, and every time I needed someone to talk to! Your parents do that right? They sit down and talk to you? Mine do all the time! Plus we hang out and play games, Light reads to me and holds me close when I need to be! I mean, being a child star must mean you don't see your parents too much, and with them always producing movies I bet that time is cut in half, but I'm sure when you see them there's lots of love and care! Right!?"

Hook, line, and sinker. The brat was on the brink of tears when he nodded his head and avoided my eyes.

Of course it wasn't real, I could see it in his eyes that he and his siblings never saw their parents. Lifeless, soulless eyes with no purpose of love or caring. He was a forgotten child, him and his brother and sister. None of them had seen or spent time with their parents, not like how Light had cared for us. Light was a real parent.

The topic changed quickly and their daughter Chiyo asked us about where we were schooled.

Knowing that we couldn't say the Wammy house without raising a few brows, I came up with something quick.

Matt, Near and I learned in a school that halved as an orphanage. Ryuzaki was an intern there when he adopted us after meeting Light. After that we were schooled at home by the best teachers Light could get for us."

"We've already graduated from the high school homework." Matt added. "It was boring anyway, but now we get to learn advanced calculous and the reactions of dry ice to water. Plus we're learning how to turn copper into gold, but it's basically just a formula to change the pigment of the copper to a more yellow colour. Virtually worthless, but fun to do."

"We should really change that copper statue into gold when we get home too." I added onto the conversation. Now that things were more interesting to me, I wanted to keep talking.

"You will do no such thing." Light demanded as he came back from downstairs, sitting in his previous spot beside me. "However, that ugly bronze figurine can be destroyed to your liking."

"Light, I got that from a friend in Ghana." L countered.

All three of us cocked our eyebrows at him. We knew the truth of the matter.

He grumbled. "Fine, I took it from a dealer while on a case, but it's still valuable to me!"

"Then can we turn the swimming pool into a Jell-O pool!?" Matt asked excitedly.

"No!" I demanded. "We have to do the experiment with dry ice first, then we can…"

"But that's no fun!" Matt whined. "The ions in the dry ice and chlorine is just going to make it bubble and spew. We might as well just make a papier-mâché volcano with baking soda and vinegar!"

"Ha! Child's play! Don't ever mention that disaster of disasters to me again!" I demanded.

We continued to rant on and on about ions and reactions until finally we noticed how quiet it was around us. Looking up we could see all eyes were on us, most in shock and others in questioning. The younger cousins in the group started giggling, while the ones in our age group started whispering about us.

Well, I was going to behave…

…but I decided to do a little social experiment.

I cleared my throat. "So, show of hands, how many of you believe in ghosts?"

A few moments passed before about half the people put up their hands.

"Okay, so how many of you do not believe in ghosts?" I asked.

The other half raised their hands.

Perfect.

"Alright, so this means half of you are morons. Try to figure out which half."

And just like that the fighting began. It didn't get loud or violent, but it got eyes off of us.

I turned to Light with a bright smile on my face. "Well, that worked!"

The small grin on his face said it all. "You get one of those, Mello. Only because it was well timed and executed nicely."

"But, you broke the deal." Matt piped in. "Prepare to tuck me in and warm up that singing voice!"

"Uh, the deal was that I behave and act nicely. I didn't say I thought they were morons, whoever the morons are. I simply did a small social test."

Matt crossed his arms and slunk into his seat. "Fine, but next time is the line you cross."

"What 'next time'? There wasn't even a 'this time'!"

Light pulled me into a hug. "Let there be a 'no time' though, okay? My grandmother still has yet to arrive and I know she won't go easy on you."

"Okay Light." I sighed out. "I'll behave for your benefit."

Another kiss to my head and I pushed him away. I was not a kissy type of person, and Light knew this more than anyone. Still he had the nerve to kiss my head just to watch me squirm! He was a real parent if ever there was one.

The fighting came to an abrupt stop when a knock came at the door. It wasn't long before a very tall, thin, elderly woman walked in with a long leather and fur coat. She looked as if she'd had a little work done in her lifetime, but aside from that she was just plain creepy anyway. I knew just by one look at her that this was Light's grandmother. And the very sight of her was chilling me to the bone.

For the first time in a long while… I was afraid.

I felt Matt cringe into me. "Dude, that lady is scary."

I nodded at his whispers, unable to speak myself.

The woman hung her coat nearby and strode over to a few relatives that greeted her warmly. She greeted them back, asking them how they were, smiling at her grandkids and other younger folk. But she didn't caught sight of us until meeting with the movie star family, giving them praise and love… and her happy-go-lucky face changed into one of despair and intensity the moment she caught sight of Ryuzaki.

Light slowly stood from his seat, almost guarding us by blocking her way to us. "Grandmother! It's so nice-"

"What is he doing here?" She interrupted, looking at Ryuzaki. "Light, your father said you gave up this… phase a long time ago!"

He took a breath. "It's not a phase, grandmother. And I didn't leave him. I haven't been studying abroad, I've been living happily with my family for the past few years. Ryuzaki and I have a great life together and I'm sure-"

"Family?" She interrupted once more, looking beyond Light to see us. "That frumpy little blonde girl, and the out-casted Muppet?"

"Frumpy?" I questioned to Matt.

"Out-casted Muppet." Matt said quietly, a little hurt in his voice. "That's a new one."

"Not to mention the disgusting freak sitting like a mutated frog!" She pointed out to Ryuzaki.

The man said nothing though. I could tell there was much he'd wanted to say with the way he tightened his jaw, however.

The elder woman shook her head. "Honestly, is there anything more you want to tell me?"

"Light?" Came the small, familiar, voice.

Near. He had the worst timing some days.

The little fluff ball ran to the brunette, burying his head into his chest when Light picked him up. I could tell he had a headache again.

When Light asked, he confirmed it, and asked me to take Near back upstairs to a darker room while he got his pills.

Right as I took the kid's hand the woman scoffed. "And you've got another freak to add to this little show you call a family! Light haven't we taught you better!?"

"Grandmother-"

"What a waste of skin you are to be treating these outcasts, these vermin and rejects of society like they have any notion of worth! Light, you graduated from a top of the line private school, you were a top model student, your grades were through the roof, and you had the respect of every authority figure in Japan, and you gave it all up for the likes of this!? How could you make such a fool of yourself!?"

She looked down at us. "Disgusting little rats, they are. Probably from broken homes. I bet they're coke children, diving in and out of rehab because they're mother's had no sense of control." She then looked up at Light, who was hanging his head in… shame. "And you had the nerve to bring them here."

I decided not to listen to anything more about this and dragged Near along with me back to his room. Matt followed close behind. I suppose he was hurting just as much as we were.

The darkened room that Near had slept in was Light's old bedroom. It kept out the voices from downstairs, but it was like we could all still hear her words echoing in the room off the walls and into our ears. I could get that she was disappointed in Light for not going through with earlier plans, but did she have to insult us in the process? What had we done to her!? We were just the kids in this mess, we had nothing to do with Light coming to England!

I tried to occupy my mind with something while trying not to think about her words. But how could I not? She'd called us a mistake! A disgrace! Rejects! How could she say all this right in front of us!?

I fiddled with my hair, not really caring how it looked anymore. Was I really frumpy? Uninteresting and ordinary? Like a blank, white, wall?

There came a small knock on the door before Light walked in carrying a tray. He plastered a smile on his face despite the fact he knew how we were feeling. I could tell he was hurting as well from what the woman had told him.

He set the tray down on his desk and sat between Matt and me. Near was on the bed hugging his knees.

He hesitated for a moment before looking up at the fluff ball. "I brought you your medication, Near. It should help with your headaches."

He replied with a small and quiet thank you before hiding his eyes behind his knees.

The man sighed heavily. "Guys, don't take what she said to heart. My grandmother… she's a very pious woman and me having a family like this isn't considered natural to her. She doesn't understand it the way I do. But rest assured that I don't give a rat's furry ass about what she thinks of you…"

"And that's why you stood up for us, right?" I said angrily, still thinking about the way he just hung his head in shame. Like we didn't matter to him enough to speak against what she was saying.

Light dragged me into a hug and held me close. "Mello, I can't change her mind about you guys. It's just a futile attempt to think that I can. I couldn't then, and I can't now. The most I can do is stand by you and keep you safe and close to my heart. Her words mean nothing to me if I have you all as a family."

After a bout of silence the three of us immediately jumped up and hugged the brunette as tightly as we could muster. As much as it pained me to see Light not even take a moment to stand up for us, I knew it would only hurt his relationship more with his family if he did that. But dammit if I could just do something to that bitch! ANYTHING!

Light hummed happily. "Tell you what, we'll take the day off tomorrow from the reunion and go check out the sights together. I don't believe you've seen the schools I went to, and I think you'd be able to give those professors a run for their money."

"Are there labs there?!" Matt asked excitedly.

Light thought about this for a moment before saying, "Yes, but you aren't allowed to touch anything poisonous, gaseous, or create explosions."

Matt pouted. "Why not just take away fun altogether?"

I could tell Light rolled his eyes without even looking. He then stood up and grabbed the tray from off the desk.

"I decided to bring you guy's dinner since I probably thought you might not want to go back downstairs. After you eat we'll go home and forget about today like it never happened."

We agreed to this and began to dig in. Halfway into our food we asked where L was, to which Light replied with,

"Getting some fresh air."

I cocked an eyebrow at him. "You made him go outside to stop him from starting a fight, didn't you."

He chuckled slightly, patting the ground to signify that I sit in front of him. When I did, he began fixing my hair yet again.

"You know me too well, kid." He paused. "And by the way, you aren't frumpy. Just like Near is not a freak, and Matt is not a rejected Muppet."

"With my hair Light," Matt said happily, "I could be!"

He then started to mock-play air drums while whipping his hair wildly, making the sounds of the drums with his mouth. Once he was done, his goggles were across the room and his hair was all fuzzed up from the whipping.

He nodded to himself happily. "That's right bitches! All hail Matt! Master of the drums!"

"You couldn't even play the recorder," I reminded him, "oh great master."

He scoffed at me. "Uh… shut up, Mello!"

"You shut up!"

"No you!"

"You!"

"YOU!"

"Ladies," Near said sarcastically, "you're both beautiful, strong, and independent. Now let's finish up our dinner so we can get the hell out of here."

Light groaned slightly, leaning his chin on my head. "All of you watch your language!"

A unison 'sorry' was the last thing said before getting back to our dinner.