The next day Mello had called to schedule another appointment with L, who Matt had officially nicknamed 'the zombie psychiatrist.' He had been trying to watch his temper a little since the first appointment, but he still found himself in plenty of arguments with his friend. And of course the guy was too dense to back down before it got too elevated. Still, there hadn't been any more punches thrown, and Mello thought he was doing pretty well.

Every now and then in the few days between his next appointment, Mello found himself thinking about the psychiatrist. He kind of regretted not sharing some information and finding out a little more about the man, just because he had been in a bad mood. He was mostly interested in how such a weird guy ended up with a job like that. How did he not scare all his patients off, anyway? Either way, he made up his mind to cooperate a little more the next time he was there.

"What the hell did you just say?!"

L raised an eyebrow at the blond. "I said that any time you feel angry, I want you to take a firm hold of the stress ball and squeeze it until you're satisfied."

"I know what you said! Just don't make it sound so creepy, weirdo!"

"I don't see how it sounded creepy at all. I believe now might be a good time to try it out, with the way your temper is flaring." Growling under his breath, Mello clenched the foam ball in his fist.

"Nasty pervert."

"Rest assured that if I was a pervert, I would've thought of a much more creative way of telling you what you should squeeze." L blinked blankly when the ball bounced off of his forehead. "That isn't how the stress ball is used."

"Yeah, well I like using it that way better."

"Hm. If it helps." Mello threw it one more time for good measure, satisfied at L's look of dismay when it bounced into the cake on his plate. "A perfectly good piece of strawberry shortcake…well then, are you ready to tell me any more about yourself?"

"I guess so. Do you wanna know about my parents or something?"

"If that's what you'd like to tell me about. What do they do for a living?"

"My dad's a building contractor. Mom doesn't do anything, she just stays at home."

"A stay at home mother, then? That's actually a pretty hard job, you know."

"I guess. Now it's your turn."

"Hm?"

"You have to tell me about your parents now."

"Do I, now? Well, I'm afraid there isn't a whole lot to tell. My mother died when I was born, and I don't know very much about my father. My grandfather raised me."

Mello blinked. "By himself?"

"Yes."

When it didn't seem like L was about to offer any more explanation, Mello spoke up again. "Did your mom die because of complications during labor?" L gave a nod. "Um…my mom had a problem with her epidural when I was being born. She's been in a wheelchair ever since."

"I'm very sorry to hear that."

Mello shrugged. He hadn't actually planned on sharing this much, but he also hadn't expected to have something in common with the man. "She was never bitter. Just happy that nothing else went wrong. It was hard for her to lose a lot of her independence, though."

"She sounds like she has a strong will. I think you may have gotten that from her." Although he could tell it was an offhand way of calling him stubborn, Mello felt proud of being compared to his mother. He had always looked up to her, even while the other little boys he knew were all idolizing their fathers. He briefly wondered which parent L got his all-around weirdness from. "Go on, Mello. You don't have to stop talking. I can see you have more to say. Why don't you tell me about your friends?"

"Okay. Well the friend that made me start coming here is Matt. We live together. But I guess you knew that since I told you he locked me out of our apartment."

"I see. And no more unfortunate incidents have happened since our last visit?"

"Nope. Well no more hitting, at least. Anyway, I've known Matt since I was 11. He's my best friend."

"That's very good, I'm glad you're working on your temper. And it's nice that you have a close friend. Anyone else?"

Mello hadn't exactly thought about how few friends he had before. "Uh…well there's Light. He's more Matt's friend than mine, but we're kinda close. We've only known him for about two years. And he's a few years older than us."

"And you're 20 now, correct?"

"Yup."

"You should try making a few new friends sometime. My secretary is only three years older than you, so he wouldn't be a bad candidate. That will be one of your…assignments, if you will. I'd like to give you one or two after every appointment. For this time, I want you to speak to my secretary on your way out. Introduce yourself. And other than that, I just want you to continue trying to control your temper, and use the stress ball to help. After you wash the cake off of it, of course."

Mello had already begun to frown at his so-called assignment, but couldn't help laughing a little at L's last comment. "Fine, I'll talk to him. And I guess I'll take this thing." He plucked the stress ball out of the cake, wiping it off with L's napkin. "I'll see you in another three days, I guess?"

"Yes, it would be best to keep our appointments on the same schedule. Tell the secretary that, if you wouldn't mind."

"Alright." Mello nodded, walking out of the room and over to the desk in the waiting room. He had been so annoyed the first time he came here that he didn't really pay attention to anything in the rather large room. Gray eyes peered up at him, and he immediately decided he was at the wrong place. "Uh, I need to see the secretary. I'm supposed to schedule my next appointment."

"That would be me. I'll need your name. What day and time should I write you in for?"

"Wait, you're the secretary?"

"Is there something strange about that?"

"You're…little."

"Really now. I never would have noticed if you didn't point it out. Yes, I'm small, and yes, I'm the secretary. My name is Near."

Mello coughed awkwardly, feeling a little less than eloquent. "Sorry. My name is Mello Keehl. Put me down for Wednesday at 3:00."

Near entered the appointment into the computer, reaching up to twirl some of his hair between his fingers. "I get it very often. No harm done."

Trying to think of something polite to say, Mello held his hand out. "Uh, well it's nice to meet you." Near shook his hand with a small smile.

"You too."

Mello was about to speak again when the office's phone rang. He mouthed a 'see you on Wednesday' as Near answered it and waved, walking out. As long as all his little 'assignments' were this easy, he didn't have anything to worry about.