Disclaimer: Death Note isn't mine, and neither are Dess's wonderful ideas, which are all over this chapter.

A/N: This chapter was originally going somewhere, but instead of actually going somewhere, it decided to stop while it was about to go somewhere. So next chapter will be when things start happening more. I think. If all goes well. Also, next chapter will probably be the beginning of some awkwardness, which is always fun.

Chapter 6: Confidence

Some things in life had to be designed just to keep me on my toes. I had three glorious days with no chaos on the Mello front. I would've called him cooperative, but I didn't want to jinx myself. Then again, he didn't really have much of a choice in the matter; he'd been either asleep or drugged for pretty much seventy-two hours straight.

But alas – good things couldn't last. Hell, good things couldn't even get airtime when Mello was in the equation.

I didn't realize that anything was going on until I heard the mattress springs start squeaking like a whole tribe of mice, or whatever the word for a big group of mice is. I stood up and headed over to the open bedroom door to see what was going on. "…Mello, what the hell are you doing?"

Mello didn't appear to hear me. He was too focused on bracing himself on the headboard with both hands, looking unsteady, but not about to give up.

"Mello, what the hell are you thinking?" I crossed the room. "You're going to kill yourself." I tried to grab his arm to force him to lay back down, but he somehow twisted away.

"I'm fine," he snarled through clenched teeth. I wondered how much of his wobble was from unsteady legs and how much of it was from the pain everywhere else. Either way, it was a disaster waiting to happen.

"Mello, please lay back down before you hurt yourself," I tried, giving politeness a shot since swearing at him hadn't worked.

My phrasing didn't change things, though. "No," he said, somehow managing to stand mostly upright, albeit shakily. "I am fucking sick of laying down."

I eyed him. "So you're going to stand up all day?"

Only after that was out of my mouth did I realize that I'd made a rather large miscalculation. I'd meant to make a point about how long he could stand up without actually coming out and saying he wasn't strong enough to stay standing. Unfortunately, I'd had the opposite effect.

"Just watch me," he snarled. Then he quite confidently took both hands off the headboard and took a step towards the door.

His confidence had fallen by the third step, and he followed it down on the fourth.

I thanked the gods of gaming for my good reflexes. I was sure Mello was at least marginally thankful to them as well, though at that moment he probably would've preferred falling to being caught.

"…Fuck…" he muttered after a minute. He didn't even attempt to stand back up under his own power, just letting me hold him up. "Can't even fucking move on my own…"

The logical side of me told me to use this golden opportunity to put him back to bed, but something told me not to. The fact that he'd failed again at something that seemed so simple was eating at his confidence, I could tell. He was ready to give up. As easy as that would make my job, Mello giving up would be…

Unthinkable.

I was about to say something about never giving up, or some such inspirational shit, but Mello appeared to have given himself that pep talk before I'd even opened my mouth, because Mello made another bid to stand on his own two feet, only this time he braced himself on me instead of the headboard. Once he was upright again he stopped, looking around. I wasn't entirely sure what he was doing until he almost launched off me to get to the dresser a yard and a half away.

Was he seriously going to try to leapfrog his way into the living room?

I decided he was definitely aiming to when he went from the dresser to the computer chair, which had a dangerous moment of movement before he got the wheels under control.

I drifted over towards the door and out into the living room a bit. There was a big stretch of space between the door and the couch, and I put myself almost right in the middle of it.

Mello looked around the doorframe he was holding onto, then crossed the space to use me as a support yet again. I could tell he was getting tired, but I figured he'd probably be able to make it to the couch if I didn't stop him.

Sure enough, with one more staggering hop, Mello had made it to the couch, looking exhausted but triumphant as he sat down. "…Told you."

"Yup." I sat down next to him. "And I'm sure it was well worth it."

He looked around, distaste showing on his face. "This place is a shithole," he commented.

I shrugged. "Yeah, I've been meaning to clean, I've just been busy."

"Busy playing videogames?" he suggested scornfully.

"Believe it or not, I do have other things that I do," I informed him. "Gaming's not a good source of income."

Mello turned and looked around the rest of the living room. "So what have you been doing that's been keeping you so damn busy?"

I thought for a second. "Well, I spent three days reading through Near's entire mainframe. Then I was taking care of you, and I did some hacking jobs while you were asleep."

He stared at me. "Wait, you read all of Near's files?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"Because I had no idea what was going on, and I needed to figure out what was happening."

"What else have you done on the case?"

"Nothing. I'm not exactly some sort of go-out-and-get-'em guy."

"Speaking of going out, I need you to go back to the explosion site and get a few things."

"Like what?"

"I need you to check if any of the computers are intact, and if they are, I need them back. There's two years of work on those that I don't want the police to have."

"It's been a week, I'm pretty sure the police have cleaned the place out pretty well."

Mello smirked. "Not if they didn't know what was in the explosives. They think there's something toxic there."

"But there's not, right?" If he was trying to send me into a radioactive explosion site – again! – then I had news for him. I would do just about anything for him, but going into some sort of explosion-induced Chernobyl was a little beyond my self-imposed job description.

"Of course there's nothing toxic. Well, nothing too toxic," he amended. "Just wear a facemask and gloves."

I sighed. "Alright. I'll go see what I can get." I stood up and gave him a look. "Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone," I said, vaguely threateningly. Then I pulled my boots on, grabbed my vest, and headed out the door before Mello could make any comments about how he would never do something stupid.