Okay, so I changed the previous chapter a little but. Not much and it's not necessary that you re read it, but it's just a couple grammatical things that I found and a couple of sentences added and rephrased.

Rylie

For two weeks, I found that I could not get the boy with the auburn hair and orange-tinged glasses out of my head. I hadn't caught his name, but his face stayed in my mind. I went back to Game Stop a lot in my free time, hoping to see him, but he was never there. I started to think that I had imagined him. He looked like he had belonged in a video game, I reasoned, perhaps he was only visiting our world and had gone back home.

While I knew this wasn't the case, it was an entertaining thought to have, and I liked the image of him off fighting in some video game world. It suited my image of him, barebones as it was. And strangely enough, I also liked to picture myself off fighting alongside him. Anywhere that wasn't here.

"Hey sweetheart, mind getting me a beer?" A grimy hand reached up to cup my ass, and I felt my self stiffen, clenching my jaw.

"Of course, sir," I said, nicely as I could, moving away but turning around to flash a smile at him (ah, the things this job made me do.). I moved behind the counter, rummaging in the cooler for a beer. Just four more hours to go.

Matt

"Damn it all to fuck!" Mello announced, busting into the safe house.

Matt didn't even look up from his game. "What's the issue?" he questioned. Fits from Mello were relatively common, it didn't take much to set him off. The mere thought of Near provoked him. And he thought of Near a lot.

"Near," he growled. Point proven.

Of course, most of Mello's issues did, in one way or another, come back to Near, the albino genius who had one-upped Mello in their stressful quest to become L's successor. Matt sighed, switching off the PSP and shoving it into his pocket, remembering what had happened to it the last time it was out with Mello in that kind of mood. "Care to elaborate?"

Mello grunted and kicked the sofa where Matt was sitting. "I really hate that goddamned kid."

"Mm," Matt mused, "I had assumed that's why we're here." He lit up a cigarette. "What are you going to do if you figure out you can't beat him?"

The second it was out of his mouth he regretted it. Mello's sole purpose of living, he knew, was to beat Near. To prove his worth, his superiority. What killed Matt was that, compared to anyone else, Mello's intelligence was way beyond superior. Even with his emotions clouding his thinking, Mello's guesses turned out right 99% of the time. Matt was smart, too, third in line behind Mello and Near to become L's successor, but he lacked the fire that Mello thrived on. He sucked in a breath as he felt the cool metal of Mello's gun brush his forehead, a reminder of who he was working with.

"Care to repeat that?" Mello asked, tone scarily calm with just a hint of the underlying anger threaded through the seams of his voice.

"Hey, buddy," Matt said, "put the gun down, man." Matt wasn't nervous, he knew Mello wouldn't shoot, Matt was the closest thing he had to a best friend after all. All the same, it still wasn't a particularly comfortable position to be in.

"I will beat Near, and you know it," Mello said roughly, before lowering the gun and taking a step back. "Get out."

Matt sighed, stood up, and walked to the door. The demand's purpose was obviously to give Mello some time alone to think, but Matt was more than happy for the excuse to get some fresh air. He'd been purposely skipping his video game trips because-

Regardless, he hadn't been out in awhile.

He looked back over his shoulder when he reached the door. Mello was sitting on the sofa now, resting his head in his open palms, blonde hair covering his face like a shield. "Mel," he said, softly. But Mello didn't stir, and it appeared he hadn't heard.

Matt shoved his hands into his pockets as he walked, having ditched his car a couple blocks back to enjoy the outdoors. He looked back up at the sky, and blew out a puff of smoke, watched it dirty the air around him before disappearing. He leaned against the wall of the red-brick building right beside him, let his eyes glaze over and his thoughts roam free. He knew that being completely off guard would and could possibly get him killed someday. But he needed it. This time to think of the case and Kira and Mello and Near.

No. In truth, Rylie had been in the front of Matt's mind since he had met her two weeks earlier, and the times she wasn't in the front of his mind, she had a very prominent space in the back. Her face occupied his dreams, the sound of her voice, the texture of her skin; all things that he definitely imagined but enjoyed nonetheless.

"Who's Rylie?" Mello had asked one morning, and Matt could feel his face heat up. He quickly averted his eyes and looked away, though he still knew that he couldn't lie well enough to fool Mello.

"Who's who?" Matt had questioned innocently, keeping his eyes on the PSP game.

"Rylie," Mello repeated irritably, "you kept saying that over and over again in your sleep. Who is it?"

Matt shook his head. "I don't know any Rylies. I guess my mind just works in strange ways, my friend." But he couldn't deny that his throat burned at the words. It was, after all, Rylie he was thinking about when he was driving the several miles from the safe house, tapping his fingers against the steering wheel and maneuvering endless streets, all the roads that turned in on themselves. And it was still Rylie that he was thinking about now.

He knew he couldn't see her again, and he also knew that it was highly illogical for him to want her so much after just one meeting. And above all else, he knew that more than he wanted her, he wanted her safe and away from everyone he associated with, which meant not even giving himself the chance to get to know her.

Matt didn't consider himself a bad person, exactly- but he was exposed to many, and he wasn't exactly a good person, either. He'd follow Mello anywhere, and 'anywhere' just ended up being the mafia. He spent his days surrounded by big, burly men with guns and skinny prostitutes with even thinner clothes draped over their arms and laps like accessories. He'd tried them out a couple of times, just out of curiosity. It took him a while to be able to hide his disgust from the other men.

Being around all these factors didn't effect Matt as much as they should have, and he knew it. When he wasn't busy with surveillance or hacking or planning or anything someone had for him to get done, he was on his PSP or talking to Mello. He wasn't in as threatening of a position as most of the other guys were in, but he knew that rationally, what he was doing wasn't safe.

He let his eyes close. Thinking about that too long could give a guy a headache. So he just let his mind go blank, letting Rylie's face take up as much space as she needed. Because he knew that no matter how smart he was, even if he had the intelligence of himself and Mello and Near and the original L all combined, he would never be able to make sense of what this girl had done to him.

Okay so… next chapter up Monday! Um… suggestions and criticism and just plain old comments are the love of my life. Just to let ya know, the events and timeline of this story do not dovetail with the actual Death Note's plotline and timeline. The basic concept is the same, and a lot of things do match, but for a little while some of the details will be a bit blurry. I'm giving my character's personalities a little leeway too, to allow for some romance. (Wiggles eyebrows.) Anyways, happy Friday everyone! Please review and let me know what you think! Next chapter, Rylie and Matt WILL re-meet.

-Alice