A/N: I know it's been a while but I've had to do some things and get over a few other crappy situations before I got back into writing again.
Hope you enjoy and reviews are always welcomed!
(Matt P.O.V)
I felt really sorry for Light now. His family was not speaking to him, his grandmother had embarrassed him completely, and the only people that were standing by him at the moment were us and his immediate family. Sofu and Nan were still happy to have him around, and Sayu was ecstatic to have her brother around for a while, but everyone else aside from Kass was treating him and the rest of us like we were the plague. I even heard a few people talking about him and how he'd made a mistake in taking us in.
I didn't say anything about this, however. I knew Light wanted us to behave and treat them how we'd like to be treated, but it was getting difficult to ignore now. Especially since people referred to us as 'them' or 'they' like we had no titles.
It also didn't help that Light wasn't standing up for us while all this was going down. He just stood there, hands in pockets and eyes to the floor, like he was ashamed of his choice to be our guardian. Of course, he wouldn't feel this way if his grandmother hadn't said anything beforehand. But that woman just had to waltz in on our happy family and make everything a nightmare.
I sighed a bit, playing with my shoelace. We were outside sitting on the porch and waiting for something to happen. It was a nice day for a cookout, but only for those who were considered family members. The three of us were just nuisances.
Mello leaned his head on my shoulder. "Should we just escape and go home?"
I shook my head. "Nah, Light would worry."
Near scoffed at this. "Yeah right. We all know Light doesn't care about us right now. He'd probably be glad we left. He could have all the time in the world to spend with his real family."
"We are his real family!" I reminded him angrily. "Maybe things look bad right now, but Light cares about us very much. Or are you forgetting all the crap he's gone through just to keep us safe and warm?"
Near cringed inward a bit. "I'm sorry… I just…"
"I know you're angry. I am too. But it doesn't matter for the moment. What matters is Light's happiness."
"Yeah… but he could at least acknowledge us more." Mello growled out. "All he's been doing for the past hour and a half is trying to fend off people asking him questions about us and Ryuzaki."
"Can you really blame him though?" Near asked quietly. "Light had been straight as an arrow before being with Ryuzaki, and now he comes home with us for a family? Of course people have questions. It shouldn't matter though. We're still a family no matter what they ask him, and there's nothing that can change that."
"You seem more upbeat about this now." I commented, looking past the blonde mesh of hair on my shoulder to see Near looking away from us.
He shrugged. "Light seems just as tired about having to deal with them as we do. I'm almost grateful for their incompetence. It makes us look better in comparison."
I nodded at this. "Yeah, I almost agree with that. At least this is only for a few more days and then we can-"
"Hey freak show!" Came a low, rude voice.
The three of us looked up to see one of Light's youngest cousins standing near us, arms crossed and eyes unimpressed, with two other boys standing behind him. We'd forgotten his name, but he hadn't forgotten us.
This one liked to pick on us the most. He called us all kinds of things when the adults weren't looking. Coke-heads, freak show, outcasts, damaged kids, and a whole lot of other things that made all three of us cringe. Back at the Wammy house we were never treated like this, but in the real world where people weren't used to others of our genius we were looked down upon. And all this made me wonder when intellect would stop making people like us feel inferior. It wasn't fair to be born with the ability to see things differently and live life with more intelligence than most, and have it thrown back in your face as being weird or abnormal.
I felt Mello growl under his breath but he said nothing. I knew he was just as pissed about this kid as we were.
The kid scoffed at us when we said nothing. "Hey, I'm talking to you!"
"What do you want?" Near asked angrily. It was a rare sight to see Near angry at anybody, but it was somewhat scary nevertheless.
The kid didn't take kindly to Near's tone and stormed up to him to grab his shirt. "You got something against me, freak!?"
Mello immediately took a stance. "Leave him alone!"
The dark-haired kid before us dropped Near immediately and went after Mello, grabbing his shirt instead.
"I don't take orders from little girls." He growled out.
Mello's nostrils flared. "Say that again. I dare you."
I instantly grabbed Near and backed away with him in my arms. If there was one thing Mello hated more than anything, it was being called a girl.
The blonde waited patiently as the kid sneered at him.
"I said, I don't take orders from little girls, fag."
The blonde said nothing as he slowly backed away from the boy, having his shirt being let go, then took a breath. I feared greatly for what would come out of his mouth…
…but was more than impressed to see his response.
The blonde opened his eyes to gaze at the boy, his stature falling into a flirtatious and inviting stance. "Then tell me, who do you take orders from? I mean, we both know I'm too small and fragile to be bossing you around, so who can? I'd like to know who has the ability to make such a… strong and reliable man like yourself quiver in fear."
Mello got dangerously close to the boy, who tried to back away only to meet another boy behind him. He looked scared to see another male coming on to him so heatedly like this.
Mello was playing the game well.
The blonde gently touched a finger to the boy's chest. "Isn't there anyone who can dominate you, big guy? Anyone at all?"
The boy blushed before trying to back up again, making himself and the boy behind him fall onto the deck in embarrassment.
Before he could run away, Mello had one last piece to his performance.
He kneeled down and placed a kiss on the boy's cheek. "I think I have my answer."
And with that, the kid and his friends ran off in the other direction screaming for their parents. They'd be back, there was no doubt, but what were they going to tell them? Mello kissed his cheek? I'd love to see how he got in trouble for that.
He made his way over to my side, rubbing his mouth of whatever germs he thought he caught from the kid. "Well, that's one problem solved."
I grumbled slightly. "You will sing me lullabies by the end of this reunion. I swear it on my grandmother's grave."
"Well, maybe I'll do that when you carry me into bed and tuck me in." He countered.
Near grumbled as well. "Either way I've lost my twenty. It's down to you two now."
"Then let us continue the game!" I said happily, then turned to Mello. "But before that…"
I leaned into him, cheek present and waiting. Like I'd allow him to get away with that one kiss.
The blonde did nothing but say, "You got graphite marks on your face."
He then took Near's hand and led him over to the food table to get him something to eat before he took his medication.
I furiously wiped my cheek clean before following. I sometimes hated my artistic abilities. Especially when I wound up with marks on my face and hands due to the supplies. But Light told me I was playing too many video games and needed another alternative to my boredom. So, art it was. Despite my lacking talent for it, I was actually pretty good…
…not the greatest…
…but good.
Once Mello got the food Near had asked for, the albino being too short to even see over the table, we took our seats on the patio once more with Mello in the middle, Near on his left, and me on his right. We would have joined in on the conversation had there not been a 'kids table' in place, but even then we preferred to stick to the outskirts of the party than bother anyone. We were loners at the Wammy house, and we were loners here.
It's just the way we worked.
I sighed slightly, wishing my Gameboy had been charged. "What should we do to pass the time before we get to go home?"
Mello shrugged. "Light has a computer in his room. We could play some games."
Near shook his head. "Light wants us to stay here and 'mingle'."
"He didn't exactly say 'mingle', though." I suggested. "He said, 'Stay in sight where I can keep an eye on you three'."
Mello seemed to read my mind. "He did say that, didn't he."
Near caught on only a moment later. "The rules are simple: No biting, clawing, scratching, eye-gouging, ribbing of clothes, skin, or limbs, no hair pulling – Matt – no 'cup checks' – Mello – and absolutely no swearing in the presence of elders. Since we're in Japan, I'll allow English back talk or threats."
"What about Russian?" I asked.
"I will allow Russian."
"Good!" I said happily as I stood up to face Mello. "You ready to start, Suka?"
The blonde merely scoffed, flinging out a hand signal from his chin. "Kiska."
I immediately took offence. "Excuse me!"
He giggled at my reaction. "That's right, I know Russian too! Or did you forget?"
And the fight began.
With Mello being somewhat shorter than me I had an advantage against him. But Mello had had martial arts lessons, plus the fact that he was faster than me and he knew how to use my own skills against me. Of course, our fight didn't go unnoticed by the others around us, but after L and Light both said that this was normal, they seemed to take bets on who would win or lose.
Mello had me pinned for a bit, but that changed almost immediately and the fight just continued.
Against the rules, Mello bit and scratched a bit, but it was only because I pulled his hair first. It was normal that we fight like this anyway since it let out some steam.
Back at the Wammy house it was a running gag on when the next fight would start or who would win. Hell, Light met us while we were fighting, and even he agreed that it was better for us than keeping in all the pent up anger or stress. Some kids just needed to brawl for a bit, shake hands, then go to class. And we were those kids.
Light's aunt and uncles started cheering us on when things wouldn't calm down, and even Near was raking in some coin from the betting sides on who would win. Surprisingly, most of them were too sure I'd win.
They really didn't know Mello too well.
Right as Mello pinned me again, Light's grandmother immediately demanded in a screech for everyone to calm down and a silence filled the air.
The woman was scary when she was angered.
The blonde immediately let me go when the woman made towards us. "How dare you ensue a riot like this!? Honestly, where is the decency!? You are two young men, and you should act like it!"
"Grandmother," Light spoke up, "they were just having fun. They always fight like that in England."
"They aren't in England, Light! They are here, in your country, where they should act like mature adults! Stop with this attitude where you have to excuse their actions like that! They barely have any right to be here as it is, and they want to ruin their reputations more than they already have?! What a waste of time!"
"They're kids, Grandmother!" Light raised his voice to her angrily. "They fight, they have fun and get dirty, that doesn't mean they're a waste of time…!"
"Don't you dare talk back to your elder like that!" She demanded. "You're lucky enough that I'm still speaking to you after you lied to me about this horrendous company you keep with you! That grimy frog and his pathetic and unwanted coke children… how could you of all people choose that over what you had before?! The spotlight was all on you and you threw it away for this god-awful disgrace you call a family! How could you be so incompetent, so stupid and utterly…!"
"Shut up!" Came a small voice from behind us.
I looked back to see Near, tiny hands balled up into fists and his eyes watering slightly. Never had I seen him this angry, and never had he turned this shade of red before.
The woman growled a bit. "How dare…!"
"Oh shut up! I don't care what you say about me, but when you bring Light into this, that's when I draw the line in the sand!" He practically screamed.
Mello stood up to pull him away. "Uh, Near… I think you should really take your meds now…"
"NO! This woman has been nothing but a pain in the arse since we got here! It's bad enough people ask us all these ridiculous questions about where we came from and who our families were, without even realizing we're still dealing with having to fit in and forget who we are! Who CARES who our families were back then!? Light and Ryuzaki are our family now! They love us, they care about us, and they gave us a home!"
The little kid started crying even more, rubbing away a few loose tears, before looking at Light. "But none of that matters right now, does it? You won't even take two minutes to stand up for us and tell people we're your kids and nothing can change that! Well fine! I don't need you, NONE OF US DO! Just stay here and be happy! Happier than you ever were with us!"
When the kid started choking up and was unable to speak anymore he ran off and out the gate before any of the adults could catch him.
Mello looked back at the insensitive lady angrily. "See what you did!"
The blonde ran off to find Near right away, and I followed suit, not even caring that Light tried to stop us.
Near was smart, but he was a small kid in a big world. If we didn't find him… something else might have.
Light wasn't fast enough to catch us, and we later lost him after we turned a corner. We'd find Near in no time, but getting him back home would be a real challenge.
Hell… I barely wanted to go back to them now.