Loathing Chapter 3
A/N: If you guys would like me to create a spoiler forum for this or any of my M/M stories, I will do so on the forum section of the He Moves Me Differently website. Please tell me in a review or a PM so I can hook you up on where to register and shiz. Also, the site which previously existed only to discuss the fan fiction of MRS-Jeevas has just expanded to include all general M/M fanfiction so if you'd like to drop by to discuss fan fiction in general, other people's works, post your own M/M stories, ect...please join us. If there's something you'd like to discuss and there isn't an area for it yet, it can be can probably be added, just come talk to me here or there (Mistress9 there). Please? We haz yaoi.
Warnings: Some limey B/A in this chapter.
It had been two weeks since Near had arrived at the orphanage and he could feel himself adjusting just a bit more. Mr. Ruvie talked to him every day. They were counseling sessions to help Near adjust to his new life, but in the outside hours he found a particular room soothing: the room with a grand piano. He couldn't play but he certainly had an ear for music and once a day he listened in rapt attention as the oldest boy of Wammy's played an aria. Near felt very comfortable around Adam and listening to him play made him feel blank and clean. Serenely so, like a holy ghost.
On a particular afternoon, Near opened the door the piano room to find that Adam was already there—but he wasn't alone. There was the other one, Beyond Birthday who was a completely wild card. Near didn't know what to make of the other teenager. His hair was dark and messy and he walked with an unnatural gait as if someone was pushing his shoulders down and forcing him to slouch. He was friendly at times and altogether distant in a way that made the young boy feel ill at ease. It wasn't that Near disliked him, but his impression was that he should maintain his distance.
The older teens hadn't acknowledged Near's entrance with their focus on each other. Beyond was leaning over the older boy with his hand over the other boys mouth. The meeting seemed private enough that the white haired boy was sure his presence would be unwelcome. And yet, he had as much right to be there as anyone else. Thus he retreated just behind the door, leaving it ajar at such an angle to overhear without being seen.
"C'mon. Tell me, A. I know you know."
"Really, there's nothing to tell, and stop calling me A. I'm not a letter. No one's told me such nonsense."
"Bollocks you haven't been made into a letter! Don't think for a minute that I don't know about it. Smartest kid in the whole place and first in line to be L. I saw the ranking when I hacked Roger's computer. You beat me to it after all."
In a moment of dejection, the dark-haired teenager allowed the older one to push him off, "I don't want be L, Beyond Birthday, you know that!"
Adam stood tall, his back to the baby grand, and he was careful not to press into the piano's keys. Beyond had slid to the floor with his head bowed deep. He threw his hands around the other's jeans and cried up in plea.
"Just fucking tell me what he looks like. Don't I deserve at least that much from you?" He pressed his head against Adam's leg and made to kiss his thigh, "or was the other night just a lie?"
Adam tensed at the contact, his eyes like a deer caught in headlights, "I don't know what you're going on about."
"Are telling me it was all a lie, that you faked it when you screamed my name as I did this to you?" Beyond's fingers slipped into Adam's jeans, "You liked the feel of my hand, didn't you? Would you like more? Can I blow you?"
"You, can't. Shit, Beyond not here." Adam tried to swat Beyond away but he seemed utterly captive to the younger teen, "Oh God, please not here, someone will hear us!"
"C'mon, Adam Ruvie, I've kept your secret haven't I? Can't you humor me a little?"
"D-don't just say that name! Damnit, B. Stop touching me-aaahhhh!"
"Stop struggling or I'm going to choke on your dick, damnit."
"Fine! Just—mmmnn! Yeah, like that! Ugh! I did meet L. "
"What did he look like?"
"He...Christ, where did you learn to do that? Ahhh! Black hair! White shirt! Fuck."
"I'm listening. Consequently every second I have to fill this silence with my voice is a second I could be putting my mouth to better uses..."
"Whatever, don't stop now, damn you!"
Near was frozen in place. It felt very wrong to be there, eavesdropping on such an intimate conversation, but his feet would not cooperate with his brain's escape plan. If he moved they might not notice him, but he wasn't sure he wanted to risk getting caught. Adam might stop being nice to him if he knew that Near knew personal information about him. That was one of the cruelest rules about Wammy's House, that they couldn't know such details and Near had garnered two bits of vital information. The oldest child in the institution was Roger and Bea's relative, if not their son, and he was the most intelligent with the best chances of becoming the next L. Yet thoughts of how and why that information was pertinent slipped the young boy's mind as he watched the teens from his vantage point. Adam's face was bright crimson and Beyond Birthday was bent over the older boy's pants making a suckling noise. Near realized in shock that the younger teen was suckling the other's groin. He knew that other boys touched themselves there. He was no stranger to the idea of masturbation, even if he'd not tried it yet himself. But this was different. Beyond was using his mouth instead of his hands, and not on himself but on someone else.
Near didn't know how to react. He just watched until the entire exchange was done and Adam slid himself to the floor and met the other boy in an agonizingly slow kiss. Near knew he was the point where staying proved the most risky but he couldn't be sure of his timing. It wasn't until he was absolutely certain that their lip lock would keep their eyes averted that he moved, but he hadn't anticipated Adam slipping his lips to Beyond's neck. When Near was almost out of their sight line, Beyond turned right in his direction with an absolute Cheshire grin. For the briefest moment he winked right in the direction of the boy, and Near's fright overtook all other instincts as his feet bounded down the hallway taking him as far from the music room as possible. He found himself at the foot of the grand spiral staircase, unsure of what he'd seen and how much trouble he could be in for it.
At the sound of footsteps, he whipped around, heart racing like a deer caught in the headlights. He just knew it was the teenagers after him.
"Mello," he released a breath in relief at the sight of the slender blond instead of Beyond Birthday or Adam.
The blond boy wasn't directly nice, but he was friendly in his own right. Near decided early on that he liked Mello despite his foul mouth and quick temper because Mello gave off a feeling of comraderie.
The blonde boy looked ruffled and so Near gave him his full attention, apprehension leaving him, "Hello, Mello." he repeated
"Do you know where Matt is?" Mello rubbed his fingers through the silky strands of his hair, "It's Thursday, and we have a project to attend to, but I cannot find him in his usual spots. Have you seen him?"
Near shook his head, "No. I haven't. Is it urgent?"
Mello opened his mouth to speak, but seemed distracted. It was a full moment before he continued, "No. Not urgent. Just...annoying. If you see him, you'll tell him that he better not forget" Mello paused for a second as if sizing Near up and he supplied his word with care, "our agreement?"
Near nodded, unsure why the other boy was so cryptic about something as dismissive as a project. Unless there was some hidden code in the message that Near hadn't been privy to. Mello took the stairs two at a time and went off on his quest for the goggled-child, leaving Near alone with his thoughts and his fears.
Near took a few steps up the staircase and stared up at the central chandelier with all it's glittering jewels and lights and began to feel peaceful again. An instinct was budding within the mind of the small genius, one that wish to arrange and rearrange the geometric patterns with mathematical precision. It wasn't conscious and it wasn't crude. It just felt right. Near made note to ask Mr. Ruvie for a batch of modeling clay. It might settle the growing twitch of his fingers. He settled for absently stroking his own powdery locks and his brain reconstructed and harmonized every light of the chandelier.
"Hey Nate." His heart nearly dropped with the recognition of his name, and from the voice who had spoken it.
The boy whipped around, to face the glittering eyes of Beyond Birthday. His heart pounded in his chest but he tried his best not to alert the other to his panic.
"Did we get a new boy or have you forgotten my name? I'm Near" He stated, hoping his fingers weren't giving him away with their Judas tremble.
The teenager merely laughed and leaned close to the white-haired boy, "Sorry. I mean to say Near and it half came out as mate. Slip of the tongue."
Near sighed in relief. He may have broken a few rules in his naivete as the newcomer, but revealing his true name hadn't been on that short list. It was an allowable enough mistake for Beyond to have made. And Near would take this conversation over the potential one about the piano.
"What I wanted to say was, go catch up with Mello. Tell him where Matt is."
"If you know where Matt is," Near paused, uncomfortable with the intensity of Beyond's gaze, "Why are you telling me instead of Mello?"
Beyond affected indignation, "I'm just trying to help my newest foster brother create deep meaningful friendships with the ones closest to him in age. Consider it my way of nudging you towards good friends. In exchange for..." The teen placed his fingers over his lips, "some discretion? I'd be rather embarrassed if word got around about Adam and I."
There it was. A favor for a favor. That was how the world worked, Near knew that much already. Before he could make a reply, the teen grabbed his hands.
"You haven't experienced it yet Near, but love is such a magical mistress. And I am in love. Very much so!" Beyond moved his finger down the white pajama top and rested his index directly above Near's heart. "It's enough to tear me apart."
Near shuddered at the way the other whispered the last three words. He couldn't deny that Beyond Birthday was effortlessly scaring him. He also couldn't follow the line of logic as where love connected with what he'd seen in the music room.
"I saw nothing." He answered, finally, knowing there was really no other answer to give.
Beyond brightened visibly, "Great. I knew you were a trustworthy fellow. Run along and tell Mello that Matt's in the upstairs maths broom closet going heels-to-Jesus."
Near frowned, he'd not heard that phrase and wasn't able to place the precise meaning, "He's...praying?"
Near had often seen Mello with a rosary in his hand so he assumed the blond boy was Catholic to an extent, but the redhead had never expressed such displays of religious sentiment.
Beyond smiled altogether too deeply, "Praying? Why yes, praying is exactly what he should be doing."
The ensuing choking of chuckles only made Near feel like he had missed something, but he supposed there would be no harm in following through with the errand, especially if it separated him from Beyond.
The raven-haired one walked towards the kitchen, intent on stealing the chocolate supply before Mello could get to it. For a moment he paused and considered the pieces he'd set in motion and smirked. He decided to play a little game with himself and bet on the outcome of his exchange with the newest Wammy's child. If things didn't play out to his predictions, he'd give up his jam for a week.
Not that that wouldn't also have interesting results.
"Like lambs to the slaughter," he quipped to no one in particular.
Fuck what I said last chapter. The characters are doing whatever they want at the pace they want. Next chapter is inteeeeense. Beyond is such a manipulative little shit! Can you imagine what BB is planning? With what he's doing to Adam and what in the world could he gain out of leading Near and Mello to that closet?
Also, notice that BB claims to be in love but never mentions who it's with? *shivers*