"Roger?"
"I'm afraid L is dead."
Mello and Near stared at the old man on the other side of the desk in horror. Well, Mello stared, Near hardly glanced up from his puzzle. Mello rushed up to the desk and leaned over it until he was nearly nose-to-nose with Roger.
"Was it Kira? Did Kira kill him?! Tell me!" He demanded.
"Probably" Was all Roger said in response, not even looking the fourteen-year-old boy in the face.
"H-he promised me he'd find Kira and execute him… Now you're telling me he's been killed?!" Mello cried, grabbing Roger by the shoulders.
"M-Mello!" Roger protested as a loud clattering sounded behind the boy. Mello turned to see that Near had dumped his puzzle on the floor, having just completed it.
"If you can't solve the puzzle," He said in quiet voice, starting to fit the pieces back together in the frame, "then you're just a loser." Mello stared at him for a moment before turning back to Roger.
"So which one of us did L pick? Me or Near?" He asked in a noticeably calmer voice, though still placing his hand on Roger's desk aggressively.
"He hadn't chosen yet." Roger answered with a sigh. Mello removed his hand and stood back slightly, staring at him in shock.
"And now that he's gone, he won't be able to." Roger didn't look up as he continued "Listen, can't you two work together?"
"All right. Sounds good." Near answered, still working on resolving his puzzle once again. Mello grimaced, his eyes locked on the boy. How could they expect him to work with Near? The two were completely incompatible. He turned back to the man sitting behind the desk.
"It'll never work Roger." He said, trying to keep his voice calm, though couldn't hide the fact that it was still shaking slightly. "We can't do this together. You know I don't get along with Near. We've always competed against each other." There was a pause. The room was silent except for the sound of the puzzle pieces clicking together.
"You know what?" Mello said suddenly, causing Roger to look up at him, "It's fine. Near should be the one to succeed L. He doesn't get emotional like me. He uses his head like it's a puzzle. And as for me, I'm leaving this 'institution'." He said, turning around.
"Mello, wait!" Roger called, standing up.
"Don't bother. I'm almost fifteen. I'm going to live my own life." And with that, Mello walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.
Arrow had been listening on the other side, her ear pressed to the door. When Mello opened it, she nearly got hit, but managed to step away just in time. She followed him as he stalked down the hallway, looking very disgruntled. It wasn't until they got to his room that she said anything at all.
"I heard everything." She said, looking down. "L's dead… he was so young…"
"Kira killed him, it doesn't matter how old he was." Mello said softly, rifling through his drawers for clothes he was going to bring with him.
"Mello, don't leave…" Arrow said quietly as she watched him.
"Why not? You said you heard everything, didn't you? Let's go." He withdrew a duffle bag from under his bed and started piling clothes in it.
"What, you mean I'm coming too?" Arrow asked, blinking in shock.
"Of course. You just turned 18. You can rent us a flat or something. Matt and I aren't old enough to do that. Besides, you already have a job." He said, not even looking at her.
"As a Barista. You're bringing Matt too?" She crossed her arms and shook her head. "Does HE know about this?"
"I'm gonna tell him once I'm done here."
"Mello…" Arrow shook her head. "Where are we gonna get the money for a flat? I don't have nearly enough saved up, then there's food and bills and everything else…"
"We're leaving." He said definitively, "I've been saving up for this for a while. It's not like I decided this on the spot. Today just…" He sighed as his packing slowed, a black shirt not unlike the one he was wearing clutched in his hands. "Today just tore it."
"I understand." Arrow said, looking down. "I'll go pack my things then." She turned and put a hand on the door knob, pausing when she heard Mello speak.
"Thank you." He said. She smiled and left for her own room.
--
Matt sat in his room, his gameboy turned off as he stared at his hands. His nails were hardly even there anymore, just stubs of keratin left clinging to his skin. Even still, he was currently chewing on the nail of his left pinky. He had tried to stop many times, but he'd been biting his fingernails as long as he could remember. It was, as far as he could think of, a nervous habit.
And today, something in the back of his mind made him more nervous than ever. He couldn't even concentrate on his games, all he could do was stare at the ceiling and chew off what little was left of his fingernails.
A knock on the door made him jump. He looked over at it and bit his lip.
"Come in." He said, his voice a little shaky. The door opened and Mello peeked in.
"You decent?" he asked. Matt smiled a little and shook his head.
"Come in." He repeated, sitting up and taking his finger out of his mouth. "What happened?"
Mello's face did not look cruel and calculating as it usually did when he was planning some mischief. It also did not look awkward and unsure as it did increasingly often when he came to visit Matt these days. In fact, Mello's face did not look like it had much of any expression at all, he just stood in the doorway and looked Matt straight in the eyes.
"Get packing." He said in a calm and sure voice. "We're leaving this place."
"W-what? Mello, what do you mean?" Matt asked, cocking his head.
"We're leaving Whammy's House. You, me, and Arrow. So pack your crap." He said, leaning against the doorframe.
"Why?" Matt queried, not moving.
"L's dead." Mello told him, looking down. "Near's replacing him. Roger suggested that he and I work together, but…"
"That would never work." Matt said, with a bit of a laugh before looking back at his hands. Mello noticed.
"Stop biting your nails. It's disgusting." He said, looking at his own hand.
"Sorry." Matt replied, looking down in shame. Finally Mello got off of his place in the door frame and walked over to Matt, grabbing his bag from under his bed before walking over to Matt's drawers and dumping the clothes from there into the suitcase. Matt sat where he was and watched him. There was something in Mello's face that made him realize that this wasn't just Near or even L's death. No, something else was pushing Mello to leave like this. Something that Matt had seen coming for a long time. Something that he felt as well.
Once Mello had shoved all of Matt's possessions into his suitcase, he panted a little and sat on it to close it as best he could.
"I think this will last you. Right?" He asked. Matt shrugged.
"How long will we be gone for?" He responded. "I mean, aren't we gonna have to come back eventually?"
"No." Mello said simply. "We're never coming back. Ever."
"But how are we-?" Matt started, but Mello stopped him by raising his hand.
"Arrow. She's eighteen, she can get us a place to live, a good job… We'll have to get jobs too, mind you, if we're going to make it, but Arrow's legal, she can do most of the stuff that we can't because we're too young."
Matt was silent for a moment. He brought his middle finger to his lips, parting them slightly, before Mello grabbed his hand.
"That's disgusting. I told you not to do that." He said again. "If we're gonna be living together, I don't want to have to look at your nubby little finger nails."
"It's hard to stop, Mello. I've tried, I honestly have, but it's not easy." Matt mumbled, choking back tears and unable to explain why.
"You could always invest in a pair of gloves." Mello told him, holding his hand gently and trailing his thumb lightly over the length of his fingers. It was a subtle motion that put Matt oddly at ease.
"It'll be harder to play video games though." He said quietly.
"Like we'll have money for more games." Mello scoffed. Matt stared at him, slack-jawed, and Mello noticed. "We're all going to have to make sacrifices."
They sat there in silence for a few minutes, and Mello never let go of Matt's hand. The silence was far from awkward, however. Both boys knew that there was nothing that needed to be said at this point. They were running away together, something that they had both secretly fantasized about for years under sheet-and-pillow forts with "No Girls Allowed" signs propped up in front. The object of their childhood dreams was finally coming true. Arrow wasn't even a part of it. No, this had always been about the two of them.
"Come on. This bag won't move itself." Mello finally said, and he stood up, pulling Matt with him. The red-head nodded and squeezed his hand gently.
I've been distracted, sorry guys /
The first little scene is composed of dialogue from the anime series. I didn't come up with any of that. And don't worry, it won't happen again. This chapter just called for it.