Chapter nine:

Mello supposes that he does kind of owe Near for reintroducing him to the woman who had been there for him all those years. So he wouldn't want to really owe Near anything if he can help it. He lets out a quiet breath as he comes to this realization. He glares at the bullies who stare back at him. "Hey! Near is mine to target!" He hisses narrowing his eyes in warning. "Go find someone else to fucking pester!" He knows that he can't be seen as just actually defending Near since it'd send rumors flying. He doesn't need to also deal with that. "And send word to anyone else that dares to step on my turf! Only I get to go after him! Got it? There's plenty of other prey for you to find!"

One of the boys, named Chase, with messy light brown hair that leans towards being dark blonde and mahogany eyes is the one to step forward to speak. "What in the world makes you think you have the right to claim him as a specific target?"

"We could settle this the old fashioned way." Mello offers with a smirk and cracking his knuckles. He can remember the last time that Chase had tried to fight against him, with another known bully named Coney watching it go down, with Chase getting his ass kicked so embarrassingly that Chase stayed so far away from Mello that he spent a lot of time in his room until a month later.

Chase starts to open his mouth before closing it as if the memory of the last time is now coming back to haunt him. His eyes widen a little before he lets out a silent breath to try to calm down. He rolls his eyes trying to hide his nervousness at thinking of trying to fight the blonde once more. "Ugh. Whatever. There's more interesting targets anyways. Come on guys." He gestures with his hand for the other two to follow and he leaves with that.

The other two indeed following after him probably seeing him as a leader as he is higher ranking in the test ranks than they are.

Once they are alone Mello turns to look to Near. He can tell that the other is about to thank him for what he had just done. "Don't, you don't need to give any sort of thanks." He tells the other who gives him a blink at hearing this. He also finds that when the other tilts his head it is kind of cute. He won't let the other know this in anyway though. "Just making things even between us for last night." He adds a little quieter to ensure that no one else can hear what he just said. He turns away and leaves the room heading elsewhere in the orphanage, not actually sure where he is heading. He pauses as a voice comes from behind him.

"Something you wanna share there Mello?"

Mello turns around to spot a boy a little older than himself hiding partially in the shadows. "I have a feeling you're exactly where you want to be Coney." He mentions to the boy who chuckles then steps out into full view. "Hiding in those shadows waiting to pounce on anyone that you pick out."

"Perhaps." Coney mentions causing the blonde to narrow his eyes at him. "Though this time your actions may have intrigued me." He admits leaning closer towards the blonde allowing his yellowish green eyes to be closer to the blondes blue ones. "You're hiding something. Aren't you? Don't think that I haven't been keeping an eye on how everyone acts around here."

Mello snorts at this and leans a little closer to the other male to show that he isn't intimidate in the slightest. "Oh yeah, you never let anyone forget that you creepy stalker. You just love watching from your little hiding perches to wait for an opportune time to pounce. Oh if only your so called confidence could spill over into your ability to talk to girls. Heh, no one can ever forget the way that your last relationship attempt with the only girl you've ever tried to be with ended up."

Coney growls at this narrowing at the mention of his failed relationship with Scarlet, who loved to dye her hair a bloody red color hence her name, who tended to brutally put him in his place so much so that some think Coney's dignity never fully recovered. His not so secret foot fetish seeming to have been awoken by Scarlet making him lick her foot to show submissiveness.

Scarlet left the orphanage on her own accord, giving a whole lecture to Coney about how much she saw him as nothing more than a stupid whiney baby, after Roger told her that if her behaviour doesn't stop then she will be sent to another orphanage.

Whammys has it's limits on how orphans treat each other within it's walls, thus an abusive relationship that Scarlet forced Coney to endure was crossing a line that almost no one has ever crossed in this orphanage.

Scarlet's departure didn't surprise anyone since she made it clear that she had always thought of herself as being better than everyone else.

Mello thinks that he did once hear a rumor in town that Scarlet is now involved with organized crime becoming a big name in it. Though he never really cared to find out if that was true or not.

"You listen here!" Coney hisses at Mello with narrowed eyes. "Just because my only relationship wasn't that great doesn't mean that I can't kick ass."

"Bring it then." Mello shifts his left foot back as he gets into a stance to be ready to fight.

Coney pauses at being called out like this. He stares at Mello and charges at him before backing off to try to see if the blonde is truly serious about this.

Mello hisses out not backing down to show Coney that he truly is serious about doing this.

Coney pauses at this staring at Mello before snorting. "You're not worth it blondie. I have better things to do." He turns and leaves going down the hall, pausing by the corner to look back to the blonde genius who relaxes his fighting stance. "You don't hide that you secretly want to start a relationship with Near very well." He teases as if a final jab at the other to anger him before disappearing around that corner.

Mello turns away and continues where he was going. His gaze down, being able to navigate pretty well as he knows all of the halls like the back of his hand, as he can't help wonder to himself if he does actually want to start a relationship with Near.

How much truth was in Coney's words? Even though Coney didn't know that there could have been any truth to those words that he had jabbed at Mello.