On the morning that the second murder was supposed to happen, Beyond and A were sitting in the far back of a bus to Wammy's after a long plane ride back to England.
"Ah…this brings back good memories, doesn't it A?"
"Beyond, we're only been gone for two months. I don't consider that to be worthy of missing."
"You're such a killjoy, A." Beyond sighed. The two became quiet as they saw the other passengers glancing back at them.
After A while, A decided that he didn't care. "Beyond…are you sure that this is a good idea?" A asked. "I think that it might make them more suspicious if we just show up at Wammy's right after they saw us snooping around."
Beyond inhaled and exhaled loudly. "Quit worrying, A. The reason we're going to Wammy's is to get rid of their suspicion. We are going to stay there from now on and we'll make sure they know it's not us."
A sighed and clutched his suitcase with the Death Note closer to his chest.
Once Beyond and A got to the corner of where Wammy's was, Beyond broke the second long silence they had. "What was the little blonde leader brat's name again?"
"Mello, I believe."
"Hmph," Beyond smirked to himself. "His alias sucks."
"I don't think you're one to talk, Beyond." A said, smirking along with him.
"Says the only person who has a one letter alias. At least mine is cool." Beyond said.
"As you say, Birthday." A said mockingly. Beyond narrowed his eyes.
By that time, they had finally approached Wammy's. Beyond was the one to knock loudly on the door. He heard a loud groan and the door swung open.
"What do you want?" The young blonde boy at the door growled. His eyes were faced to the floor and he was wiping at them drowsily.
"That's not a nice way to answer the door is it?" Beyond asked, staring intently above Mello's messy mop of blonde hair.
Mello looked up and growled at the two. "Not a nice way to wake me up either. What are you doing here?"
Mello never did get an answer to that because Beyond gently pushed him into the door and shuffled quietly to Roger's office. A slid past Mello and followed Beyond in. Once A closed the door behind him, he took a seat in the chair next to Beyond, who was perched on his feet like a bird, and looked at Roger's suspicious look.
"Where have you two been?" Roger asked. Beyond rolled his eyes and turned to face A. Beyond looked at A and blinked five times quickly, which was his signal to not interfere. A huffed quietly.
"We bought an apartment and we've been staying there." Beyond said. Roger leaned forward on his desk.
"Why?"
"It's boring around here. We needed a change of scenery." Beyond said, smiling that creepy smile that looked like a 'U'. Roger grimaced.
"I would like to know what you were engaged in when you were gone."
A leaned in closer. "Nothing." Beyond said. Roger scoffed and leaned back in his chair and 'hmph-ed'.
"What business do you have here, Beyond?"
"A and I would like to stay here." Beyond said. His mouth was still curled up in his creepy smile.
"And why should I allow you to? I know nothing of your whereabouts while you were gone. As far as I know, you could be mass murders now. That would endanger the oth-" Roger said.
"We're not murderers." Beyond cut in. "Now can we stay?"
Roger sighed. A could tell he was getting tired of Beyond. "I need both of you to fill out these forms for you to be admitted." Roger reached into his desk and pulled out a large stack of papers. He eyed them both and gave half to Beyond (Read: Slammed half on Beyond's lap), half to A. Beyond glared at Roger's back.
"Why do we have to fill these? We didn't have to do this when we were admitted before." A asked. Roger looked over at him curiously as if he had forgotten he was there.
Roger chose not to answer and A sighed to himself.
When they were done, Roger took their papers and quickly scanned through them. After several minutes, he dismissed them to look around. As soon as they hit the hallway, Beyond made a bee line for the living room with A lagging behind him.
Sitting on the couch was Matt and Near. They looked up at A and Beyond without much interest. A was positive that he heard Beyond suck his teeth at their lack of surprise.
"Where's Blondie?" Beyond asked. They both pointed towards the kitchen. Beyond walked off towards the kitchen and A sat down next to Matt, as Near was watching him more closely than necessary.
"Hello. I'm A." A said, watching as Matt pressed buttons on his game console. After a few seconds, Matt paused his game and gazed up at A.
"You're a what?"
A tilted his head. "Huh? My alias is A." A explained. Matt nodded and Near began twisting a strand of his hair.
"Why didn't you change it to something more suitable?" Near asked. A was kind of frightened by the young boy's monotone but shook it off and tried to be casual.
"I've been thinking about that but I can't seem to find an alias that would fit me." A said. Near looked away and began toying with some blocks on the couch.
"Could you describe yourself to me?" A looked confused at Near.
"I don't understand. What do you want me to describe? Like my personality, my appearance, or background?" A let his voice trail off.
"Personality."
A had to think. What was his personality? He couldn't think of anything besides the normal things like funny, nice, and friendly. "Could you base it off of what you assume me to be?" Near nodded and began twirling his hair faster.
After a few moments, Near turned his head back to face A. "How about Aflutter? It means nervous but it sounds kind of…cool, right?" Near earned a snort from Matt, who had began playing his game again.
A nodded and forced a smile at Near. "Yeah. It is cool." Near nodded quickly and got off of the couch and walked off to his room.
"So, Matt…what are you playing?" A asked, desperate for some sort of casual conversation.
"Kingdom Hearts. I'm about to defeat Maleficent." He said. A nodded and watched him as he guided a character onto a large dragon's back.
They sat silently for a while, watching the scene that was playing. After the action began again, they heard a loud thud coming from the kitchen. A and Matt sighed at the same time and walked into the kitchen.
On the kitchen floor, there was a mixture of chocolate syrup, strawberry jam, and vegetable oil with a Beyond Birthday, a step stool, and a Mello lying in it. Both were scrambling to stand up, knocking each other down. A and Matt both carefully stepped around the mess and pulled their best friends out of the gunk on the floor.
"How?" Matt asked. Mello and Beyond glared at each other.
"Blondie wa-" Mello cut in that his name was Mello, but Beyond continued as if he hadn't spoken. "Blondie was trying to get some chocolate syrup with the step stool so I decided to help him. So I told him to get off of it, but he didn't listen so I moved him and I started to climb up it anyway."
"You didn't gently do anything! You threw me off and you stepped on my foot when you were trying to get on!" Mello yelled. Beyond waved a dismissive hand at him.
"And then we both fell and all this stuff fell and then we started fighting and then you two came in." Beyond said. They all got quiet and after a while, they heard quiet shuffles in the hallway. Near appeared at the doorway with a book in hand, ignoring the situation and asked,
"Did anyone lose their book? I found it in the hallway." A immediately stiffened and Beyond simply squinted at the book. Luckily for them, it was a purple spiral notebook with scribbles on it.
"Nah, not mine." Beyond said. A paraphrased that and Mello slowly walked over to Near and took it out of his hands.
"Thanks. I've been looking for it." Matt followed Mello and Near out.
"I completely forgot about the thing." Beyond whispered as he pulled A towards their room. When they got there, A gently closed the door behind himself and locked it. He began rummaging in his bag for the Death Note.
"Remember to write that Quarter Queen drugged herself and then smashed her skull in, but the investigators do not find evidence of suicide." Beyond said. A began scribbling furiously in his notebook. When he was almost done, without him knowing, the door had opened a fraction and a light blue eye was peeking through the crack.