The Little Things Give You Away

By AishiExcel

Don't own anything. Half credit goes to Nikkiacat.

I was so happy when I opened my email inbox the other day and found the inbox bursting with alerts, reviews and faves! It makes me feel so special to know y'all care. Especially the reviewers. I hate to play favorites, but I love reviewers more than other readers. Is that wrong?

Anyways, as a reward, here's a fairly quick update! Just to say how much I love you.

Light hastily made his exit once he had exchanged numbers with Ryuzaki. The "doctor" ambled off muttering about charts and Light grabbed his tie, jacket and cell phone and hurried out of the room.

Okay, so it wasn't very friendly to rush out of the room without saying goodbye, but Light was a little rusty on this whole 'friend' business. And he doubted a gauche, manner-less person like Ryuzaki would be offended by lack of social courtesies like that.

He hurried to the waiting room and dialed the number for a taxi to come and pick him up. But before he could hit 'dial' he noticed something out of the corner of his eye.

He couldn't be sure from this distance, but wasn't that blonde in the chair…?

He closed his phone and shifted slightly so that he could see the blonde's face better. Sure enough, it was the singer from the banquet-what did Matsuda call him? - Oh, yeah… Mello.

Light wasn't sure whether to talk to the singer or not. Matsuda had talked about featuring the band in an episode, so it might be useful to make a connection with him now. On the other hand, Light was too tired and he really wanted to go home-

Before he could make a decision, the singer spotted him out of the corner of his eye. "Light Yagami?" he asked.

Light winced. Looked like he had no choice now.

"Yeah, the one and only. Aren't you Mello? The singer from that band last night?"

Mello laughed. His laugh was rather immodest, and had an edge of challenge about it. It was one of those laughs that always sounded mocking, no matter what the context.

"Yeah, that'd be me. I have to admit, you stole the show from me last night. After finding out Light Yagami had collapsed, nobody even stuck around for the second song."

Light should have felt guilty, but he didn't really care. Was he to blame for the fact that people had nothing better to do with their lives than obsess over him?

"Sorry about that," he said, trying to sound good-natured. "I guess it was an inconvenience to everyone that I passed out."

Mello shrugged. He wasn't dressed in the tight leather he'd been wearing last night. Instead he was in a rumpled t-shirt and baggy jeans that looked like something Ryuzaki would have been comfortable in. His hair was messed up, too, and it looked like he'd hardly slept. Had he been here all night?

"What brings you to the hospital?" Light asked, fishing for some bit of trivia that he could use to connect to Mello.

"Oh. My brother had an operation. I'm waiting for him to come out of the OR."

"Your brother? The other guy who was onstage last night?"

"Who, Matt? Oh, god, no. My little brother. He's been in and out of the hospital for a while now. I don't even remember what this procedure he's having is called."

Light stored away this fact in the back of his mind and nodded. "Oh. I see. I remember when my sister was in the hospital. This one, in fact. It was pretty rough on all of us."

Mello shrugged. It was a very condescending gesture, as though the blonde was saying, "Poor you."

Light sensed Mello didn't care, and so he changed the direction of the conversation. "So. I heard you might be featured in an episode of my show. That's pretty cool."

Mello shrugged again. He was… cocky. It quickly grated on Light's nerves.

"I suppose it is. Our band needs all the publicity it can get if we're going to end up number one."

"Number one?" Light shifted his jacket and tie into his other arm and pushed his hair out of his face. "Not every band can be number one. It's a hard spot to obtain."

Mello turned a "no-DUH" gaze his way. "Of course it is. But I have to have it. You know what I mean, right? You must feel it to. There's a pressure to be the best and stay the best when you're famous. Otherwise you end up as a has-been with a VH1 reality show, making a damn fool of yourself in rehab."

Light REALLY didn't like his attitude, but he shrugged and agreed. "I suppose so. But even being in the top 40 is an accomplishment."

"Not good enough for me," Mello said with a small smirk that quickly widened into a grin. "There's only Number One and then everybody else."

Light's smile grew tight. If he wasn't mistaken, there was something like a challenge in those words. Was Mello challenging him? Did the singer think he could replace Light on all those magazine covers?

Bring it on.

Mello sensed the conversation trailing off and changed the topic. "So. Misa Amane, eh? You lucky, lucky bastard. I'd give an arm and a leg just to have her."

Light smirked. Ah. He had a chance to brag now. "I guess a lot of guys would. It makes me feel really lucky, you know? Someone as beautiful and famous as Misa could have anybody in the world and she chose me."

Mello's smirk diminished a little. "The media sure loves you, too."

Light, in turn, only grinned wider. "I guess so. They keep calling us the next Brad and Angelina. Maybe if Misa and I weren't dating we wouldn't get stalked so much."

The underlying message was clear: Not only am I famous, but also I have a beautiful girlfriend who makes me even MORE famous. Bask in the jealousy.

Mello clearly picked up on it and was, quite obviously, basking in the jealousy. "You're a lucky bastard," he repeated.

Light realized it then. He'd made himself an enemy- maybe even a rival.

For some reason, he couldn't be happier about it.

"Well I best be leaving you," Light said cheerfully. "I have to catch a cab. Hope your brother's operation went well." He flipped open his cell phone and, before he left, called out over his shoulder.

"See you at Number One, Mello."

In one day he'd picked up a friend and an enemy, although the lines between both were a little blurred. Well one thing was for sure. He wasn't bored anymore!

Sorry, everyone, it was a short chap and there was barely any L in it, if any :( But I promise he'll be back in all his weirdness next chap. So yay! I finally got to bring Mello into the story! I love writing him, just because he can be such an ass sometimes XD

This weekend I'm going to a water park, woo! I'm super excited because I have barely gone swimming this summer, but this time I'm putting on twice as much sunscreen…. No risking another sunburn like the last one…

Review, review, review folks! If you do, I'll love you forever. And I'm sorry there was no song this chap, either. I just decided I'm only going to add songs when I have a really good one that fits the chap. Otherwise it's just too much work XD

Anyways! Review! Mwah!