Mello was bored.

For the past three hours, L had taken Mello, Matt, and Near to various monuments around D.C. L had read every single stinking inscription and then given them an in depth review of each person that the monument had been made for. They were currently at the Jefferson Memorial. L, of course, was reading the signs that were scattered throughout the memorial. Near, being the kiss-up that he was, followed L and commented on the historical building. Matt was sitting on the steps outside, playing a video game.

Mello hated history. Especially American history. It was such a dull subject. The only thing that could bore him more was Middle Eastern history. Mello shuddered at the thought.

Mello stalked over to L and let out an exasperated sigh. When that triggered no response from the detective, Mello cleared his throat loudly. No response.

"L!!!!" Mello screamed at the top of his lungs.

L, along with everyone else in the museum, whipped around to stare at the blonde.

"What is it?" L hissed.

"I'm bored." Mello moaned.

The detective hissed through his teeth, "There was no need to scream."

"You weren't paying attention to me."

A hand was suddenly placed on Mello's shoulder. Startled, the blonde turned around to see a security lady looking at him with disdain. Her name tag read, Nina.

"Is there any trouble?" she asked in a polite, authoritative voice.

"No, we're fine." Mello growled, resisting the urge to bite the lady's hand.

Nina looked at L for a second opinion.

"Were' honestly fine." He assured.

Nina grimaced then sighed, "All right sir. I'll be watching you though. It's not every day that we have a teen come in with his children."

With that, Nina walked off with L gaping at her back. "B-but they're not mine." He stuttered.

Mello smirked, "She's probably wondering about the poor girl that lost her virginity to you."

L threw him a look that could have melted a block of steel, "Zip. It."

"Whatever. Can we go now?"

"NO!"

Mello frowned and stalked off. Obviously L wasn't going to be convinced. This meant that Mello would have to take matters into his own hands. He absently wondered around the monument wondering what to do. Nothing too bad; he didn't want them to get arrested, but it had to be something that would get them thrown out. Chocolate always helped him think better, so he pulled out a bar of it and broke off a piece.

"You're going to die."

Mello whirled around, dropping the chocolate. Behind him was Nina, looking at him with a mix of curiosity and seriousness.

"What?" Mello asked, his voice slightly quavering.

"If you keep on eating all that chocolate," Nina pointed to the discarded bar on the floor, "you will have a heart attack."

Mello took a step away from Nina, "Okay…"

Nina stooped down and picked up the chocolate bar. She examined it for one second before handing it to Mello. The blonde took it carefully, no longer in the mood to eat it. He glanced back up at Nina to see that she was staring at him. A long silence ensued before Mello slowly backed away and walked off.

Ten minutes later Mello finally had a plan to get out of the cursed monument. All he needed was an audience, and by the looks of it, everyone was in the exact center of the room.

Mello casually walked over to the crowd and waited until there were a few people who were glancing at him. Satisfied, Mello unzipped his pants, pulled them down, and relieved himself.

What happened next was chaos.

Seven security guards seemed to converge on Mello, pulling his pants back up and hauling him out of the monument. Mello was able to see L and Near being carried off to. Security guards were yelling into their walkie talkies, "We don't believe it to be a terrorist attack." This made Mello laugh. Ya, he could see it now on tomorrow's news. ELEVEN YEAR OLD TRIES TO DESTROY JEFFERSON MONUMENT WITH HIS PEE.

When the security guards got out of the monument, they dumped the three onto the floor. Mello felt L grab his shirt and drag him away. Near was on L's back, throwing Legos at the security guards who gave chase. Mello watched as one Lego sailed into a guard's mouth. L was yelling for Matt who came running up to the three "convicts" with a look of confusion on his face. L didn't stop running; he simply grabbed Matt's arm as he ran by and started dragging him too.

"Where are we going?" Matt yelled.

"Away from here!"

The four eventually managed to lose the security guards. Well, technically, the guards had given up chase. They had bigger issues that an eleven year old who peed on their monuments. Despite this, L hadn't stopped running until he reached a large, grassy stretch on the edge of the Potomac. He set down the younger orphans before collapsing on the grass. The three children had waited silently for him to sit up and say something. When he did finally say something, it hadn't been the harsh response that they had been expecting. L had laughed and congratulated for becoming the world's youngest petty criminal. Mello had objected at the word "petty", but was nonetheless happy that he wasn't going to get in trouble. Near had smile and crawled into L's lap where the two had started playing some weird game about chemistry. Matt, who by some miracle still had the picnic basket, invited Mello to play a game of Frisbee. Mello readily agreed, surprised that Matt wanted to play something that wasn't a video game. It was fun to play with Matt despite the fact the fact that he rarely caught to Frisbee and rarely threw it correctly. Mello started to really enjoy himself and laughed out loud just for the heck of it. After an hour of that, the two boys came back to where L had spread out the picnic basket and laid out the food. Mello gaped at the two foot high chocolate pie that L had brought, and ate all of it before L could protest. Matt loaded his plate with potato salad and barbeque, and tried to convince Mello to eat some of it. L was feeding Near some fruit while intermently eating his own fruit.

While they were eating, the sun had started to set and now it was dark. L produced a small lantern and lit it.

"Won't that attract moths?" Matt asked.

Mello scoffed, "Don't tell me that you are afraid of some little moths, Matt."

"No," Matt said defensively, "I'm just… worried about Near."

"But I'm not scared of moths." The albino nine year old whispered.

"There's nothing wrong with being afraid of moths, Matt." L chided gently.

"You don't need to worry, I'll protect you." Mello said, picking up a stick, "they won't be able to het passed me."

Matt smiled, "Thanks, Mello." He said.

At that moment, fireworks exploded over head. L and Near gazed transfixed at the colorful lights. Mello however was frozen in place. More fireworks went up, and the blonde winced at the sound they made when they exploded. He covered his ears with his hands and squeezed hi eyes shut. Just block it out, just block it out. But the sound was too loud to be blocked. Mello hated to admit it, but the loud sound scared him. He shivered, knowing that there would be at least a half hour long barrage of fire works.

Mello suddenly felt himself wrapped in a hug. He tentatively opened his eyes to see that it was Matt who was hugging him. "It's okay, Mello." The ten year old told him, "I'll protect you."

Mello felt tears in his eyes. He was unused to people caring about him, and Matt's concern caught him off- guard. Mello hugged Matt back, and choked out a small whisper.

"Let's make a promise," Mello felt Matt's head nod, "let's promise to always be there for each other, no matter what happens. Promise that we will always protect each other."

Matt pulled out of the hug, "We can be each other's guardian angels."

Mello nodded, "It's promise."

"Until death do us part."