A/N: Okay, okay, I know it took a long time but I worked all weekend and wasn't home… WAHH, don't be mad…
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Azure Paler than the Sky.
six.
… to no one."
Mello and Near paused and stared at L for a long moment, waiting for him to continue.
L frowned. "What're you looking at me for? I just said neither one of you have been chosen. I honestly can't pick and realized that during the first day. With Mello back on track, it's a complete toss up."
"S-So you're just not gonna pick?" Mello shouted in disbelief.
"I didn't say that."
Near tilted his head, confused. "What are you saying?"
L rolled his eyes upward in thought. "Well," he said, picking up his cupcake and taking a bite, "let me put it to you this way. I'm at a loss for the right one to pick as of right now. Still, I need some help and I refuse to work with anyone else. So I've decided to have the both of you help me and afterwards and from what I experience with the both of you, I will make my choice based on that."
The boys exchanged glances.
"What do you think?" L licked his sugary thumb.
"What do I think?" Mello asked, incredulous. "So your brilliant plan is to use us both up and then take whoever you want at the end, huh?"
"Mm. That sounds about right."
"What… why you… grr…" Mello found himself without comment and so he settled down into his seat and scowled at the older man.
Near continued to sit beside him, soaking this all in. Well… if this is his decision, at least we can put off having to go through this contest… but with the way he put it, will this mean we're still competing even as we work? That amount of pressure… I'm not even sure if he WANTS us to do well in classes. And just how are we supposed to compete this way? Will he-
"-just to let you know, L, I don't care what you say, I'm going to win," Mello said, standing in front of the loveseat. His fist was raised toward the older man and his blue eyes were glistening with excitement.
L smirked a little. "Good, Mello."
Near looked up at the blond, blinking. He really is pumped up about this…
"And what about you, Near?"
Near turned to see L staring at him. He blushed a little and raised his hand to a lock of hair that curled at his earlobe. He tugged on it gently and said, "Yes, I'll try my best."
"Good, good. Now, as for when we'll be starting, I think October will be a good month."
Mello blinked. "We have to wait till next month? Why?"
"It's my birth month."
"… Yeah, so?"
"I'll be cheery."
"… Right," Mello groaned.
"Then it's settled," L said, standing up. He regarded the two of them. "Please be prepared to work because I will not tolerate laziness nor lollygagging."
Mello, who was on his way to the door and currently had the doorknob in hand, turned around to frown at L. "What do you mean, laziness and lollygagging? This is like volunteer work, shouldn't you be nice or something?"
"No," L said simply.
"Fine! Come on, Near!" Mello made a dramatic exit, slamming the door while Near was still seated on the couch.
Near blinked at the closed door and got up, wondering slightly how long it would take Mello to realize he was not right behind him. He shuffled over to the door and opened it, turning around to bid goodbye to L.
"Thank you for-"
He quieted when he realized L was standing next to him and made a small noise in the back of his throat when L placed a comforting hand atop his head. He patted there for a moment before taking his hand and shoving it back into his pocket.
"Take care of Mello, Near. Don't let him walk out in traffic."
Near smiled a little and nodded. "Yes, okay."
The door shut behind him and when Near was out in the hallway, he looked down the corridor and saw Mello there, tapping his foot impatiently.
"What're you, waiting for October?" he yelled.
-
The journey through the rest of September was an uneventful one. The campus was a quiet place and most of the faculty were extremely happy for that. After all, none of them wanted rambunctious students running amok on campus but then again, it was boring and more of the teachers found it hard to concentrate on their lesson plans. It grew to be problematic. Especially for one sculpture professor who already had a large distraction in the form of a beautiful brunet student who he spent time trying to get to know.
But it seemed that every time Mikami caught Raito while he was alone in the hallway or on his way to his room, Matsuda would be running up with one gift or another for the man. This was highly frustrating. But Mikami was not a professor for nothing and he learned Matsuda's silly tricks after the first couple of times.
On one day when there was no class, Mikami saw Raito walk across the courtyard. Amongst all of the students, he stood out and Mikami noticed how beautifully his amber hair shown in the sunlight and one particularly frisky lock of hair kept bouncing in his eyes. Mikami was in the shadows of the building and saw Matsuda running up behind Raito with a bouquet of what seemed to be corner-store flowers.
Mikami moved from the shadows then to get closer without being seen.
"Raito! Raito!" he called, running.
Raito turned on his heel after hearing his name and his inquisitive expression immediately faded into despondence. He stood there as Matsuda caught up with him and practically shoved the bouquet into Raito's arms.
"M-Matsuda, what's-"
"Come on, Raito, I told you. Matsu," he earnestly corrected.
Raito cleared his throat. "Matsuda. What are these flowers for?" he asked, studying them. Upon closer examination, most of the petals had fallen off and they all seemed to be half dead.
"For you. I just was thinking about you, you know, so… I-I know some of the petals fell off but that's cause I was running and I thought about taping-"
"Excuse me, am I interrupting?"
Both Raito and Matsuda turned around to see Mikami standing behind the brunet with the most fantastic bouquet either of them had ever seen. Thirty roses in colors of red, white and yellow were swirled around each other, each of them in full bloom. Raito gasped delightedly and Matsuda looked like he'd just been shot.
"Oh, Teru," Raito sighed, taking the flowers that were handed to him. The bouquet completely squished Matsuda's and the rest of his petals fell off.
"I just happened to pass a flower shop today and I thought of you," Mikami said, watching Matsuda's expression drop out of the corner of his eye. "I hope you like roses."
"They're my favorite flower," Raito hummed. He looked up at Mikami. "How about we go back to my apartment? If you don't mind… I could make us lunch."
"That sounds great."
Matsuda stood there, mouth wide open as the two of them walked towards the dorms. He thought, no way can I let him be alone with dear Raito! I'll have to join in too! And he ran in their direction. He ended up eating lunch with the two of them as well and Mikami suffered in silence throughout the meal.
So it went. However other couples on campus were not nearly as dysfunctional and in the time that they were waiting for their almost -apprenticeship to begin, Mello and Near got along quite famously. They grew to become well-known in the dorms for screwing all the time. This was a product of not only Near's newfound love of not showering after sex but also his vocal ability and Mello's strength.
Matt usually sat next door while they were over in Near's apartment and played videogames or hung around with either Raito or Matsuda when they came over. Naturally, his company left relatively soon when they heard Near's mewls and cries from across the hall.
"Thanks so much for the food, Matt," Matsuda said as he headed for the door. Raito was close behind.
"W-Wait, guys, you don't have to go," Matt called, sweatdropping.
"Ooh, yes, we do. Bye."
The door shut.
Matt sighed and sunk back into the couch. In all honesty, he was happy for his friends and that their relationship was doing so well. They both deserved happiness, and in Matt's opinion, they were getting a large, sticky amount of it. This was all well and good, but when Mello came back to their room at night to sleep and hadn't taken a shower beforehand, Matt woke up smelling the way he did.
Not that he minded but others were starting to whisper of a suspected threesome.
So the day that Mello and Near had once again scared off Matt's company, he decided to do something about it. He left the dorms and went out for a while in order to give Mello and Near some time to themselves. He didn't return until around seven that evening and as he came down the hallway, all noises had ceased. Matt had decided to wait until Mello came back to their room for the night until trying to talk to him.
He approached their door and opened it, greeted by two loud gasps. Matt blinked over at the two on the bed, both wrapped up in each other. Mello was glaring over his shoulder at Matt and Near yipped and hid beneath the blankets.
"Matt!" Mello yelled. "You pervert, get out of here!"
Matt sweatdropped. "Dude, this is my room too! And my bed!"
"Only half of it's yours!"
"Then stay in your half!"
"Matt," Near groaned, still hiding.
Matt sighed and walked towards the door again. "Okay, okay, I'll just… go hang out in Near's room for a bit…"
"Come back in an hour," Mello said.
"… An hour?"
"GET OUT!"
The door slammed shut.
After that, Matt decided he really didn't care. Mello and Near could do what they wanted, when they wanted and, for the most part, where they wanted, but Matt did make them a 'occupied' sign that they were free to hang outside of any room they happened to be using. Of course, it was soundly rejected.
Other than the sounds of fornicating teenagers, the campus was indeed too quiet to be properly enjoyed. This is why, on the afternoon of the first of October, Dean Wammy held a teacher's meeting in his office. The heat of the summer had almost completely gone and the wind replaced it, gently rustling the multicolored leaves that had just started to fall from the trees and collect in the gutters. They made scraping sounds under the ratty tennis shoes L wore as he crossed the courtyard to the main office.
Even though L was not one for heat, he was already missing the summer weather as it permitted him to go barefoot. Now as it got messier to go out, he was forced to wear the only pair of shoes he owned. Raito had always gotten on him for his lack of interest in style, L noted as he remembered that Raito would not be invited to the teacher's meetings any longer.
He opened the door to Dean Wammy's office once he was inside the building and, not surprisingly, everyone had shown up already. Mr. Wammy looked up from his desk and smiled kindly at L, motioning to an empty chair in the circle. "Please," he said, "sit."
L did so, crawling up in the chair in his usual manner and only received a funny look from Mikami in the process.
"Well, shall we begin?" Wammy asked, looking around. "Thank you all for coming, first of all. I hope no one's been unconvinced."
"Oh no," Takada sighed, looking upward, "the exams are a few months away and there really isn't much going on right now."
"Yes, I've noticed how solemn the students seem lately… perhaps… they are bored?" Wammy wondered.
"It's possible."
"It's a university," Mikami stressed, looking around. "It's supposed to be a quiet place where the students can study."
"These are art students," L coughed, "and rarely do any studying. They need excitement or their work will fail."
"We can't just have them run amok."
"Who said anything about amok?"
Mikami frowned. "It's up to the students to make their own excitement. They're in college now, we can't baby-sit them. We've got our own troubles."
"Like obsessively stalking students…"
"What was that?"
"I've got an idea," Wammy interrupted, sending the two a questioning glance. "Suppose we let the students have something that is just theirs? I've heard of other colleges having radio stations of their own, maybe…"
"Oh," said Misa, sitting at his side. "That sounds like fun!"
All the others nodded.
"Wait just a minute," said Mikami, "who will man the broadcast? It should be someone responsible."
Wammy nodded. "True."
L raised his hand. "I know someone who would be right for the job. He's very friendly and somewhat outgoing. I think he would be quite entertaining."
"Who?" Takada asked.
"Actually, someone from the photography department. Matt Jeevas."
"… Matt?" asked Mr. Gerri, chuckling. He sat across the room, his legs crossed as he thought about his student. "Well…"
Wammy looked at him. "That sounds like a good choice to me. I've never had any complaints about Matt and he seems to be a nice person. If he wants to accept the position, it's his."
Mikami sighed.
"The next thing I'd like to discuss," Wammy continued, "is banning chicken fingers from the cafeteria."
-
"Come on, Near!" Mello shouted, racing out of the smaller teen's bedroom. It was the day after the teacher's meeting and time for L's first class of the week. Mello was only too excited to see if today would be the day they begin to help L out and, despite Near's quiet nature, he was quite excited as well.
"I'm coming," he said, pulling his shirt on over his head as he exited. He shuffled quickly to catch up with the blond and the two of them made their way to the painter's building and their classroom. By the time they got there, the last of the students were coming in and L wasn't surprised that they, on this of all days, were not late.
"Hey, L," Mello greeted, coming over to stand next to the man. "S'up?"
"You seem quite happy, Mello. Good morning. Hello to you, too, Near."
Near smiled. "Hello, L."
"Yeah, so, when do we start?" Mello asked, impatient.
L blinked. "Start what?"
"… What do you mean, what? Helping you out with painting and shit!"
"… Oh, yes, that's right. Almost slipped my mind."
"HUH?"
L smirked. "Take your seat, Mello, I didn't forget. After class, we will talk more about what will be going on today but for now we have class."
Mello perked right up. "Ah, you joker. Why should we have to go to class anymore anyway? You admitted yourself, we're the best there is!"
"I don't remember saying that," he responded, lifting an eyebrow.
Near sighed. "Come on, Mello, let's take our seats."
"Fine, fine," Mello droned, following Near. "He'll probably go easy on us anyway now; after all, we're his right-hand men!"
Near sat down. "Mello, please don't jinx us. Keep your voice down."
"My voice is down."
L had hear Mello's proclamation all too well though. Easy, huh…?
When everyone was seated and settled, L cleared his throat to garner attention. "Today we'll be doing a mixture of confidence building and becoming familiar with the things you paint. Now, most of you paint nature scenes a lot, which is cliché but fine for now. We'll be taking a little fieldtrip outside. Everyone up."
Mello smiled to Near as they got up again. "See?"
Near shook his head.
When the class made its way outside and past the stone courtyard, Mello was shocked and appalled to learn L's plan for their fieldtrip. He made each one of them stand out in the field with their arms out to their sides, waving in a leaf-in-the-wind motion.
Other students walked by and jeered at all of them as L sat in the grass and called, "More whimsical, Mello!"
Mello howled sadly, "Ah, L, you really suck!"
-
to be continued.
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A/N: So, any thoughts? I promise the next one will be sooner, okay?