The last part was short, so here's a bit more - enjoy!
While no more than a year or so had passed since the last time L visited, it seems to Mello like ages.
L never slept. That's how it seemed, anyway, and when finally, late one night, uninvited and out of bounds, Mello walked in deliberately in a gesture of the most humble and desperate defiance, he all but held his breath to see him asleep.
Lying down, no less.
It was irresistible, and, the living blaze of fire he was, Mello fell to his knees before the mattress, yellow locks cascading across the older boy's lap.
He never forgot, he never forgot the rigid surface of L's bony knuckles, knobs and joints and delicate white skin sliding cool and hard against the tremulous membranes at Mello's lips, it was pure infatuation, devastating and overwhelming and hopelessly alive.
"You should be in bed, Mello-kun."
The slender digits traveled lightly through Mello's cascade of hair with gentle affection, and it was all the boy could do to hold back from grabbing the hand and kissing his fingers.
"J—just tonight."
He was never so humble. Indeed, this was the rare and important exception and, in fact, the very reason for his rigid pride.
He had never wanted anything so much.
He had never admired anyone so much.
His entire life was directed for the very purpose of following in L's footsteps – should he be so lucky.
It was rare that he had L to himself like this. A single word of encouragement, a single reaffirming gesture and Mello was smitten, glowing with confidence and genuine enjoyment, and in his heart he liked to believe that he really did stand apart, that he really will surpass Near in the race to win L's approval.
"Okay then," L replied, "climb in."
Blue eyes opened wide in gratitude as Mello nodded quickly, sliding his delicate limbs onto the bed.
He wasn't going to sleep.
He didn't want to waste this.
He forced himself to stay awake that night, staring at L's sleeping form beside him, and he could care less whether he got in trouble for this later. It would be entirely worth it, and when L was decidedly asleep, Mello leaned in and kissed him, hard and full and desperate, and he thought he never wanted to possess anything so badly.
--
More so than any case before it, the Kira investigation is entirely risky to L and the others. Indeed, he would have died along with police chief Yagami and the rest of the task force had the notebook not been rendered useless against him.
If L were to die, there is to be a successor.
This was a mutual decision between L and Watari, and this was the reason for the murderous competition between potential candidates.
There was no reason, however, for there to be only one successor, and this is why mortal enemies Mello and Near were assigned a project together.
More accurately, the mortal enemy was Mello – Near, to his perpetual aggravation, was unnervingly unaffected and effortlessly ahead. For Mello, this went beyond the need to follow L and into the very desire to be unique to him: to follow through on the mutual understanding and unspoken connection he so passionately believed they could achieve.
L was everything he wanted to become and everything that, with jealous possession, he desperately wished to have.
Dry and cerebral, Near did not succumb to the chaotic force of the living, breathing combustion that was Mello, and instead pinned him down with viciously silent, poignant words at every advance.
L is mine, the older boy would grit his teeth and think, and while truly, he has no idea as to the goings-on of the secret investigation, he finds himself almost envious of Kira for having attention from L that he, himself, never had.
To be continued...