"You have nine pigs. You must construct exactly four pens and each must contain an odd number of pigs. How do you do it?"

I looked down; it had been almost four years since I arrived at Wammy's House, and despite seeing it every day, Near's stare still made me uncomfortable. His pen hovered over the tally sheet, waiting, protecting its spawn: four little red marks, each a reminder of a separate disappointment.

In almost four years, my logic hadn't improved much, either.

"Maybe…" I muttered, tapping my ring finger to my thumb. "Maybe kill five pigs?"

The pen scratched against the paper, slashing fluidly through from corner to corner, rounding my failure count to five. I frowned.

"Try again." Near said, resuming his initial position.

"I'm not going to get it, Near," I said, my tapping slowing down. I watched him reach up to twirl his hair.

"Try. Again." It was too monotonous to be mean; in his tone, it was just demanding. My frown deepened.

"My improvement isn't going to further you in the competition, Near." I said. He remained stoic; the only verification of my hunch was a slight widening of his eyes.

"I'm not sure what you mean."

"I know that L told you to tutor me, and I know that you think that my improvement under your supervision will make him more likely to choose you as his successor, but you're wrong," I explained. "L doesn't care who teaches me logic as long as I learn. He doesn't even really care who succeeds him, as long as he knows that whoever it is will protect the world as well as or better than he does.

"… Your point?" He asked, the slightest shift in his eyes again betraying his stoic air.

"Just, don't be hard on me when I don't get something. Or yourself, for that matter. It doesn't help either of us."

He fell silent, twirling his hair and staring blankly at me. He didn't blink for a long time and it made me even more uncomfortable. Then he stood and walked over to the toy chest at the end of his bed, where he rummaged for a minute with his back to me. When he returned, he held a slim black square.

"This is the Black Box," he said, setting it down on the floor before me. I noticed that each side was lined with seven little indents. "Inside there's a grid, where I've hidden three marbles. Tell me where they are."

"… Is this punishment?" I asked, sure that this box was some sort of torture meant to put me in my place.

"No." He answered plainly. "You clearly need something tangible if you're to improve. So here's something tangible. You have eight moves."

"I don't even know how to play this game!" I cried, resisting the urge to swat the box away from me.

"Figure it out." He emptied two boxes of dice onto the rug, ending the conversation. I groaned angrily and turned my attention to the puzzle.

It appeared that each indent housed a small light. Curiously, I flicked one of them on; it beamed through the box and appeared in the indent on the opposite side.

"Seven moves," Near reminded, not looking up from his growing tower. I shot him a brief glare, tapping my ring finger to my thumb again as I tried to figure out how this game was supposed to work.

If the light goes straight through, I thought, then there can't be a marble anywhere in this row.

I thought about where Near, always so far ahead, would have placed the marbles; part of me said that he'd pick the hardest areas, like the corners, but another part said he'd choose something easy, like the center point, anticipating my initial assumption. Hesitantly, I hit a middle indent, grinning when no light appeared.

"Six moves."

"Would you stop that?" I asked. I flicked on the light that would bisect the center point, feeling immense disappointment when it reflected on the opposite side of the board.

"… Five-"

"Shut up!"

"How'd I do?"

"… You only found one, Lucky…" I frowned at his lackluster reaction, crossing my arms over my chest. I'd worked for an hour on the stupid game, I'd even figured out some of the objectives by myself, and he wasn't the least bit impressed.

"It's better than none." I said bitterly.

"Not by much."

Before I could burst and rip the little white genius a new one, someone knocked on the open door. Beyond stood in the doorway, slouching, grinning. I cheered up immediately at the sight of him.

"Emergency phone," he said, marching into the room. Near frowned at the intrusion but said nothing as Beyond grabbed my wrist and dragged me away. I waved at the white-haired boy before he was out of sight, content at the fact that he returned it.

"What's he calling for?" I asked, struggling to keep up with Beyond's long strides.

"Your people power," he said, swinging me to a stop in front of Roger's office door. He jabbed his index finger into my forehead. "Lucky logic."

"It's not logic," I said, pushing his hand away to hide my shock. L wanted me to help him with something? "If it was, I'd have a much easier time."

"It's your own version," he encouraged. "It makes you special."

"A lot of things make me special," I teased. He scoffed playfully and opened the door.

"Humility is apparently not on that list." I rolled my eyes, following him into the room.

"Ah, Lucky, there you are," the crotchety old man piped, gesturing to the chairs in front of his desk. A laptop faced them, an ornate black L centered on the white screen. "Please have a seat."

"Hello, Lucky," L's voice came, distorted by whatever modifier he was using.

"Hi L."

"How are your lessons?"

"Bad. The usual."

"Did Near give you the Black Box?"

I hesitated, feeling shame lap at me. "Yeah…"

"… And?"

"I found one marble!" He sighed, heavy and disappointed. I bit my lip to quell my emotions and felt Beyond shift behind me, gripping the back of the chair I sat in. I glanced up at him; his grin was still in place, but something was off. I felt my forehead wrinkle in confusion.

"I'd like your opinion on something." L's voice came again, bringing my attention back to the situation. "I'm sending you a video. Please explain it to me."

Why does everyone here have a problem with context? I thought, watching as the video window popped up on the screen.

What seemed to be some sort of security tape began to role. It was a front view of a check-out line, showing the profile of the customer and the cashier. The customer's arms were crossed over his chest and he sported a sour expression. A cart rolled up behind him in the line and I noticed his mouth twitch ever so slightly.

"He's… A pedophile," I stated. The video paused.

"What makes you say that?"

"His mouth."

"… Explain."

"He's all sour until that cart pulls up. The lady pushing it eyes him, he sees that, you can see in the tape that he sees that, but he doesn't break character until the baby in the child seat- Aww, she's so cute! Look at those gorgeous little cheeks!"

"Lucky… Lucky!" L called, stopping my rant. "Focus."

"Right, sorry. Anyway, he does that little lip twitch thing, and then slowly lowers his arms. And that baby's all smiles when he does that and his lips twitch again!"

"So, how does that make him a pedophile?" Beyond asked. "Even you went a little ridiculous over her."

"It's what he does here that seals the deal," I said, pointing to the corner of the screen. He was almost out of the shot now and the woman with the baby was checking out, but there was a sliver of a small white screen in the corner. "That's his phone. He's taking a picture of someone else's baby. I'm pretty sure only pedophiles do that."

"How did you notice that?" Beyond muttered.

"I was looking for it." I answered with a shrug. "So, how'd I do?"

"Fairly well, all things considered," L said thoughtfully. I could practically see him bring his thumb to his lips. "You're dismissed."

"Wait, was I right?" I asked, yelping as Beyond pulled me out of my seat. "Did you get him? Is that baby okay?!"

I struggled against his grip on my bicep, failing to get away. He pulled me down the hall, towards his room, and I raised an eyebrow.

"I've still got lessons, Beyond."

"Not anymore you don't," he said. "We're playing hockey."

"You mean hooky?"

"Yeah, that."

He wasted no time setting up the chessboard on the window seat, and we began to play, taking incredible pains to calculate each move. As the game crawled to life, I felt myself relax; chess, especially with Beyond, did wonders for me.

It had always been difficult for me to understand why so many of the orphans disliked Beyond. Yes, he was weird, and yes, he could be a little creepy, but in a building brimming with genius, even I was hard pressed to find someone completely normal. On top of that, he was incredibly mild; always grinning, always placid. Were his eyes, bloody and sparkling, really enough to cause others to cast him away?

Near was constantly tensed in his presence, and neither Matt nor Mello could be around him for too long. Well, Mello couldn't really be around anyone for too long, but even Matt, the sweetest of my friends, grew aggravated when Beyond was around. I highly doubted that there was something that I was missing in the assessment of his character, and that only made all of the hatred he received more confusing.

"Lucky, can I ask you something?" I blinked slowly and turned my gaze to my friend, who did not look at me. His eyes were trained on his two black knights, situated two spaces in front and one space to the side of his king and queen.

"Sure."

"Have you ever hated L?"

I physically recoiled at his question, my face screwing up in confusion. "What?"

"Have you ever, just, hated him?" He looked up at me, an odd glimmer in his eye. I'd never seen that sort of look about him before, and I immediately felt worried.

"No," I said honestly. "My relationship with him is generally positive. Why?"

"Just wondering."

"Beyond," I pressed, reaching across the board and letting my hand hover over his king. He looked from my poised fingers to my face with a hollow grin. "What's wrong?"

He grabbed my hand and held it above the board, pressing our palms together. His hand could have swallowed mine if he wanted. He stared intently at them, curling his fingertips over mine.

"Sometimes I hate L," he said quietly. "A lot of the time."

The tension in his hand transferred to mine, accentuating the strained air he'd suddenly acquired. He wove our fingers together and squeezed my hand. His grip was too tight.

"Why?" I whispered. His gaze snapped from our hands to my eyes, sending an eerie chill across my back. His grip tightened on my hand as all of his normal emotion suddenly returned to his features, the genuineness returning to his grin. I bit my tongue.

"It's not important, Lucky." He reached over and gleefully knocked over my king, biting his lip to keep in his laughter. "I win!"

"You cheater!" I cried, choosing to play along with his sudden return to normalcy. I stowed the previous events away for later analysis as I flung the chess board from the seat, demanding that he pick up the scattered pieces. Our interaction returned to normal.

"I'm worried about Beyond."

From the other end of his bed, Matt snorted, not looking up from his Game Boy. "Everyone is worried about that psycho."

"I'm serious," I growled. "Something's wrong."

"Come on, Lucky," he said. "Psycho. I just said it. It's most likely true."

"He told me today that he hated L."

"You're worried about that?" He said, waving his hand absently. "That's normal. Near doesn't really like L either, and even Mello's not too keen on him."

I blinked, nibbling on my lip as I processed the information he'd just given me. He glanced up at my silence and sighed, pausing his game so that he could address me.

"Lucky, we're here to succeed L, not befriend him," he explained, his gaze turning sympathetic as my eyebrows furrowed. "We're not really here to befriend anyone. Generally speaking, we're a bunch of freaks; most of us aren't capable of compassion on the level that you are."

I frowned, once again feeling out of place in the orphanage. Since my arrival, I hadn't been concerned with succeeding L; the fact that my life was a competition, and a fierce one at that, often slipped my mind. Every once in a while, something like this would happen, and I'd be pulled from my immersion in the life I wanted to live into the life I was actually living.

"Hey," Matt said, waving his fingers in front of my face. I came back to reality, noticing his concerned look. "You okay?"

"… I don't know, Matt." I said, looking towards the window. Outside, a pair of brown warblers flitted about, chirping sweetly. "Sometimes I wonder what it's like out there. There's got to be something more than this."

"Okay then, Little Mermaid," he teased, earning a glare. "If you want to go out there so much, why don't you just ask Roger? We're allowed to leave, you know."

I felt a blush rise to my cheeks, and turned away from him, seeing his face fall from the corner of my eye. "Oh my god… You didn't know, did you?"

"Shut up."

"You didn't know we could leave!"

"Shut up." He burst into laughter, crossing his arms over his stomach as he dissolved into his fit. I gritted my teeth angrily and snatched his Game Boy, putting an immediate end to his giggling. His face grew deathly serious as I hovered over the off switch.

"Lucky, don't you da-" I flicked the game off, sticking my tongue out at him and diving towards the door. "I'll kill you!"

He crouched on his bed and launched himself at me, taking me to the floor just as I reached for the doorknob.

Hooray for time skips! Again, there were some things that I couldn't tease all the way out, but overall, I'm really happy with this chapter! The next one is in the works and should be up soon, too, so I'm also happy with the progress that I'm making with this story. And then there's you guys! I know I'm getting a little ahead of myself to be happy with six reviews, but I'm so excited that I've received six reviews, so thank you so much for that! I hope that you guys continue reading and liking this story!

Love,

Marie.