Note: Parts of some dialogue is added here from chapter 63. Also realize that some of the events occurring in the manga are different in the anime. I also, in my view, have put some Mello/Near thoughts that later progress into…well, something more?

Summary: Raito finds that Near, in a lot of ways, is a lot like L. Then again, he is a lot different than L too. NearRaitoNear. MelloNear. Hints of LRaito, maybe. YAOI

Warning: Some yaoi. Bad thoughts. (No, not perverted ones!)

Disclaimer: Mine. Yes it is.

S w e e t R e v e n g e

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Mello…are you behind this all? Near held the matchstick in the air with his index finger and thumb, examining it. His expression was unreadable, though if one looked closely, they would see the slightest hint of a frown. He set the match perfectly straight down aligned with the others, making sure they were exactly parallel from each other on the table. Then, when he was sure no one was looking, he slipped his hand inside his shirt, reaching for the inside pocket. Slipping two fingers in the pocket, he grabbed a thin object with his middle and index finger, and pulled it out.

It was a picture of Mello as a child.

Near frowned. Whenever he saw that picture of him, he would frown as if he were disappointed. Disappointed at Mello because his emotions often got in the way of his work.

Disappointed at Mello who gave up so easily.

But mostly, he was disappointed that Mello left Whammy's. Near knew if he and Mello had partnered up, they would've exceeded L. They both lacked a skill that the other had an abundance of. They were like yin and yang. Ice and fire. Black and white.

If only Mello didn't have so much pride…

He closed his eyes and slid the photo back in his shirt pocket. The kidnappers…perhaps Mello had something to do with them like he was somehow involved with the death of Takimura.

No, that is only an assumption; if Mello was the kidnapper, he couldn't have killed Takimura if he needed him for ransom. It is most likely Kira killed Takimura in order for the kidnappers to not gain possession of the notebook. Otherwise, the kidnappers would've not taken advantage of Takimura's death for another kidnapping. Yes, that's it…

His finger twirled a lock of platinum hair, deep in thought, and slowly letting out a sigh.

Why, Mello?...Why are you so troublesome?

--

Clatter.

"Ugh! I hate you Near!"

Small puzzle pieces flew into the air and clattered on the ground, some pelting the little white head which hung low, not in shame, but rather in ignorance. The blond child who towered over the other child raised his foot to once again kick what was left of the puzzle that lay in front. Still, the reaction he was vying for did not appear on the silent boy's face, his cold dark eyes emotionless.

The blond boy clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, eyes narrowing. How dare he ignore me!

In an instant, he reached out and grabbed Near's shirt collar. Near, however, was not surprised and stared at Mello with dark unfeeling eyes.

"Damn you Near! You just always have to be better than me, huh? Do you?"

He got no response from him. Mello glared into his eyes, searching for an answer. But it seemed that even the light in the room could not reach his eyes, the windows of his soul.

That is, if he had one.

He pushed Near hard on the floor, hoping it would break his back.

Near stopped his head from banging on the ground by landing on his elbows and bottom. A sharp throbbing wavered in the landed areas. Since his tender bones weren't use to hard surfaces, he made a noise in pain, and yet, still kept his composure.

"Do you know how much I study just even try to beat you? While you play with your toys, I have to earn my grades while you easily sit there and make better than me?" Mello yelled, infuriated. He felt like his head would at anytime overflow with blood and a vein would break. But at the moment, he was too focused and angry at the pale boy who had not even once cowered in fear.

Near turned his eyes away from Mello's flaring green ones. Mello instead grabbed Near's shirt again and twisted his small head to look at Mello. But the dark impassive eyes merely shifted away from the heated gaze set on him.

"You think you're so all that and high and mighty, Near, but you're not. You're inhuman. You have no feelings and don't care about others when they get hurt. You just sit there, playing with your pathetic toys and putting together puzzles while others suffer because of you!" Mello gave a punch on his cheek, pleased when the taciturn boy whimpered and squeezed his eyes shut.

But before the blond boy could've inflicted another blow to Near's head, there was a sharp gasp.

"Mello!"

Upon hearing the shrill voice of another, he snapped his head to the door. There stood a girl with strawberry blond hair in two pigtails, and she looked terrified at the sight she was seeing. Her light brown eyes looked unbelievably at the bruised swelling on Near's cheek.

Damn that Linda! Mello immediately unhanded Near and he fell to the floor in a "thump". He slumped, once again, on his elbows to prevent from banging his head on the ground.

"Nhn…"

The girl Linda gasped again and, frightened by Mello's savage glare, sprinted down the corridor away from the scene.

Crap, she's probably going to tell Roger about this, Mello thought. He gritted his teeth. Stupid tattletale Linda…

"I apologize, Mello," a deep yet girly voice mumbled. Mello turned to look pleasingly at the colorless pile on linoleum tile floor. Though the words Near had spoken were used in a remorseful way, the tone was not apologetic but rather neutral. (Man, Near sounds a girl…) "I honestly am. I don't know what misery others are facing because of me…but I apologize for them if I had caused them or was ignorant to them…"

"No, Near! You can't be sorry! You can't be sorry if you don't even know what you're sorry for!" Mello exclaimed. He saw the diffident face fade into a bewildered one.

Near shuffled his feet. "No, I do not know, but seeing the distress on your face, I—"

"Shut up Near. Just shut up."

Near sighed in defeat. It was useless to argue with Mello and expect him to cooperate easily with others. He slowly staggered up the floor, gritting his teeth as the throbbing from his bruises weakened him.

"This is your entire fault Near," Mello spat out. The pale boy stopped patting off the dirt from his clothes and looked up at Mello. There was, once again, the irritated fierce look Mello had countless times shown on his emotional face. "This is how you make people miserable Near. They always have to put up with your weakness and then, in the end, they get punished."

"Mello, you are not making any sense," Near said calmly. "I clearly did not disturb you in anyway at all—"

"I'm going to get punished!" Mello yelled. He angrily pointed a finger at the beaten and confused boy in front of him.

"And it's all your fault!"

Near sighed.

The memory had not been a pleasant one.

--

Raito had remembered the kidnapper's exact words: In two days, they had to arrive to L.A. to get back Yagami Sayu in exchange for the notebook.

The deputy director's daughter in exchange for the Death Note.

His little sister in exchange for a notebook that could kill people with just a name and face.

Yet, for Yagami Raito, it was not a hard decision for him to choose between the two.

He would've chosen the Death Note, of course.

But he was not like his father who cared deeply for his family much more than any supernatural notebook.

His respect for his father did not waver, however. His father was willing to risk his life and duty as a police officer in order for his daughter to live.

"Raito…"

The brunet looked at his dad's solemn and anxious face. His father's face was wrinkled, and though he did not appear as old as Watari, his physical appearance made him seem older than what he really was. White strands were scattered from his scalp in his once dark hair. Pale and sullen skin from inactivity had him looking even older.

Raito knew of the difficult situation the director was in, and he didn't let go of his calm stature. But that didn't stop him from pretending to be a caring brother and an uneasy son.

His father sighed. "I don't care if this costs me my life," he said, looking quite downcast. Raito almost pitied his dad for a moment. "But, please, save Sayu…"

He could not believe it. His dad was being pessimistic about the exchange. Not only was he giving up six years of what he had worked for, he was also giving up his life as if he had no reason left to live. It was degrading to see the director like this.

Honestly, how could he have admired such a person when he was young?

What a mistake he made.

"Don't be a fool," Raito said, surprising Soichiro. "You may be content with that...but do you have any idea what the others would do if you die?"

His son's words sunk in his head, and he contemplated on them.

The young man saw that his acting was working, so he continued. "You can't die in front of Sayu regardless." He set his hands on each of father's shoulder. "You might have to make your own decisions if you were to lose contact with me, but…"

Soichiro stared at his handsome and intelligent son in admiration. Pride and confidence filled his heart. If Raito, courageous and quick to decision making, had belief in him, then…

Soichiro sadly gazed with happiness at Raito.

Thank you, my son.

Behind them, both were unaware of Matsuda's tears flooding down his face.

What a beautiful father and son scene…

But even though Raito's brows were furrowed in concern, his thoughts were racing with doubts of the kidnappers. If the kidnappers ever so happened to pull a trick, would he be desperate enough to kill his own sister in order for the kidnappers to not gain possession of the notebook?

--

Near…I will beat you to Kira.

Mello had tried to ignore the loud cackles that came from his henchman's women and their cooing that prevented him from his thoughts. But the disgusting public display of affection was a bit too much. A curvaceous but horrendous looking woman perched a leg between Ross's legs, while the other woman, more on the chubby side, hung her arms around the man's neck, nuzzling his shoulder. The three were sprung on the tribal printed loveseat while Mello resided on the nearby sofa.

The sight sickened Mello, yet he knew he was supposed to be use to it by now.

After all, being the Mafia leader had a lot of responsibilities and had more important issues to focus on.

"Ross, refrain yourself from contracting an STD, and connect me to Zakk (1)," commanded Mello. The burly man stopped laughing along with the women and scowled, narrowing his eyes at the blond. However, Mello wasn't the type to comment back, avoiding the man's face all the while. It was inevitable to him that his statement had been offending, but he didn't much care about their reactions.

The woman, who had her leg set on top of the man's leg, glared disapprovingly at Mello, affront at his insult.

"God, don't be so vulgar; we're just trying to enjoy ourselves," the woman hissed. Yet her anger was short-lived when she gazed up at Ross with a coy expression on her face. "Isn't that right, Ross?"

The man chuckled and neared his face to the woman, but Mello, infuriated and mentally disturbed, threw his half-eaten chocolate bar at him. It flew between the man's and woman's face, stirring them out of their reverie with each other.

"Shut up and stop fooling around! Connect me to Zakk this instant, Ross!"

The larger man grimaced, refraining himself from storming over to the leader and beating the shit out of him.

"Alright, alright, Mello." The blond eyed Ross's every action, daring him to disobey him. He watched him connect a cord to the speakerphone, which was connected to a laptop. The laptop was serving as a substitute for a cell phone, only it had more security barriers satellites could not break. Then, he typed something on the laptop. A few seconds later, the speakerphone rang a few times before there was a pickup.

"Z5VI36 (2) here. What is it, R09M3O?"

"Any sign of a man that looks like Yagami?" Ross asked.

"Give the phone to me," Mello demanded. Ross willingly threw the phone to him.

"No, I have not yet, and it's already two hours past noon…"

"This is MO VIS236 C6 now speaking," Mello said into the phone. "I want to remind you that if Yagami does not appear at the airport by 17:00 P.M., you send note of it to us, and we'll do the rest."

"Yes, I understand."

"I also remind you to give the earpiece and PDA to Yagami," Mello said. "Make sure he does not use his own cell phone to contact other people. The PDA we provided for him is used so we can view the director's messages once we command him to contact L or another one of his men. Got that?"

"Yes."

"Good." And with that, he ended the call.

"Boss, why are you giving him the benefit of contacting L and the others?" Ross walked over to the two women, who looked immensely bored, and sat down between them. "I mean, couldn't he pull a trick out on us?"

"I don't think the Japanese director is that stupid," Mello said. "Even though he's giving up the notebook, I'm sure that the thought of his daughter being killed isn't worth something to take a risk on." He leaned forward, reached for, and grabbed one of the chocolate bars lying on the table.

"So, why don't we pull any tricks on them?"

Mello ignored the idiocy of the question. "Because we don't want Kira's eyes on us," he replied. Unraveling the wrapper, he scrapped the bottom of his teeth under the chocolate. It was making him tired by just even explaining his plan. "Kira killed NPA Japanese director Takimura, so if we killed his daughter or him, Kira would then track us down and we'll be their next target."

"Wow…that's smart, Mello," one of Ross's women said.

"Secondly, I don't want to get anymore trouble with the Japanese police. We've already caused Takimura's death with the deal, so we don't need some Japanese police officers ganging on us."

However, I'm getting a feeling that it's not just the Japanese police that's tracking us down…Mello thought. While Ross had commented something agreeing with his explanation, Mello drifted to his thoughts about Near and his motives.

It is most likely that little bastard is also tracking me down. Idiot Near. You can't beat me this time.

You won't beat me this time. And I'll make sure you won't be able to.

--

Ide cared deeply for the deputy director. He was having a really hard time lately.

After all, who wouldn't be? Although he couldn't pretend himself as a respectful father with two perfect children and a loving wife, it would be tormenting to have either one of those things taken away from his life.

So the situation he was in right now terrified him. He was panicking, a million thoughts a second running through his mind.

A stranger who had intercepted Director Yagami at the Narita airport led him to Gate 18, Flight SE333 when, really, he was supposed to take the next flight. Ide didn't know what the man was doing, but his instinct told him it had something to do with the kidnappers.

Immediately, he fumbled through his pockets and snatched his cell phone the instant he found it. He speed-dialed to the only person who knew what to do in this situation.

"L, a man has stopped him at Narita. Should I arrest him?" Ide asked, his voice unsteady.

"Calm down Ide. Don't arrest him yet. Just make sure you don't lose sight of him," L warned.

"O-okay…" he stammered. He speed-walked after the two men, making sure he was at least several feet behind in order for the stranger to be suspicious of him, and yet not too far to where Ide wouldn't lose sight of them.

He had calmed down a bit, but only until he saw the deputy director and the other man walk to another flight.

Cold, nervous sweat broke out on Ide's forehead.

"The deputy director just went on a different flight from his with the man," Ide whispered into the phone, since he was at least five feet behind them. He swallowed. "I'm going to show my police badge and get on the plane with them."

"Hold on, don't do that. If the man finds out that you're a police officer, it'll blow our cover. What's the flight's destination?"

"Uh…" Ide looked up at the sign above him. Gate 18…departure…

"Oh, this one's heading to LA too…" he said a bit surprisingly.

There was a pause on the other line. "That's Aizawa's flight, isn't it?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"Okay. Email Aizawa of the situation and I'll get back to you later."

"Um, alright…" Ide hesitantly pressed the red phone button. Standing there in the same spot, he glanced outside the large window of the airport. There was a plane, clearly boarding passengers.

Ding.

Flight SE333 is now boarding. A soothing voice spoke above him. He sighed hopelessly.

Damn it, what to do?

TBC.

(1) In the manga and anime (I think), it never tells his alias, so I used his real name. Correct me if I'm wrong.

(2) I honestly did not know what the freak MO VIS236 C6 was (a code name?), so I did the same thing to the others, only I made theirs up.

Kukuku, what to do now, eh? Well, I hope that wasn't as disappointing as you guys thought it would be. And I typed most of this out yesterday and today! I tried making this chapter, like, totally lengthy and understandable. At first, this chapter was just Mello, Near, and Raito's first impression of each other. But then, hey, I need a plot to this! And this isn't just going to be the whole retelling of Death Note. I am going to change some things to have it twist in a different direction.

I'm out for summer cuz I got exempt for all my classes! Yosh!

I start high school in August. –squeals-

Oh, and this whole summer, I'll definitely try to work on this story. But I'm going to be super busy in July. I have this camp shit and all. Plus I have swim team. But, I really will try to update!

P.S. I need a beta. And reviews. So please comment!