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Chapter 6 Dance Marionette

Mello gaped at that black lacy Lolita abomination, that hookerware, that left nothing to the imagination-his jaw must have been catching flies for a full minute. The silence that fell over the room was deafening—it was the lull before the storm.

"FUCK NO!" The blonde screeched.

Mello recoiled when Light sent him a glare that could have melted titanium. Mello realized, enviously, that Light didn't have to shove or shout or say a word in order to be absolutely terrifying even to someone like him—most people found him to be very intimidating but now Light, the same Light that had let Mello toy with him; that had been moaning and crying minutes before (that was the key words here—he let him "If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead") had Mello frozen in fear. It was then that Mello began to grasp the meaning of true power. Light could just flash a molten glare of those red-gold eyes and expect that His will be done and woe be to anyone that went against his plans.

Mello slouched rebelliously against the doorframe, his arms folded across his chest and managed to hold Kira's stare for a good minute before succumbing to the urge to fidget awkwardly and glance away.

"Please tell me you're joking."

"I'm not."

Mello got in his face to shout "I'm not wearing a fucking dress!"

Light remained impassive in the face of Mello's theatrics. "Is that your final answer? You'd throw away everything I'm offering you just based on an emotional response? What a shame… I guess Near was right about you…" Mello tensed and then glared at the brunette hatefully. Light casually checked his watch. "The taskforce will be arriving in any minute. If you're going to make a decision..."

Manipulative asshole! Mello gritted his teeth. But then that was hardly new information. He might as well have deduced that the sky was blue.

Though Mello hated to admit it Light was right. He was letting his emotions get the better of him again. And didn't he decide he'd do anything to have this, the ultimate position? He had already decided he'd do it even if it meant murdering someone! Did he really want to reneg on this admittedly generous deal over… a dress? Really? That was all it took to get into Kira's good graces?

No way! I want this! I'm doing it!

Mello turned his angry glare at the stupid dress. (Maybe if he stared at it angrily enough it would erupt in flames.)

It was just a piece of clothing! He shouldn't be… he WASN'T afraid of it! He was Mello, M, L's True Successor! A totally macho guy! (What happened with Matt DID NOT COUNT!) At fifteen he took over the meanest gangsters around (again, how he got into the mafia DID NOT COUNT!) He proved himself! He brought in the head of a rival mob boss that even Kira couldn't touch! And now he had Kira at his mercy! He was not afraid of a little dress! He was secure enough to know that he was the one who wore the metaphorical pants around here…

Light sighed again. "Perhaps I was wrong in choosing you for this. You no doubt you lack the subtlety to pull this off. Fooling the top cops everyday takes skill, you know."

Oh, it's on now!

Mello huffed as he strode over determinedly and aggressively; snatching the lacy abomination from Light's hands.

"Well Kira," Mello snarled, "to make this up to me. You are in for a very, very sore ass."

Light smirked as the blonde stormed off, slamming the bedroom door in his wake. "It's a deal."

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"Now, you're a bit taller than she was but then she often wore high heels or platform boots, and also, since you're going to be playing her, she would often sit around or lie around so the height difference shouldn't be too obvious…"

"This will never work!" Mello cursed again as he again struggled into Misa's red and white candy-striped stockings. After he managed to get them on the first time Light had oh-so-helpfully pointed out that he really did need to shave his legs and now Mello had to rush to get the damned dress on—they were really pressed for time!

"You need to pitch your voice higher," Light instructed.

"You know—it might be better if I don't speak at all." Yes, he was a thin blonde that dressed in leather but his voice would be a dead giveaway! Light had some of Misa's commercials playing in the background but Mello still didn't see how he expected him to master his imitation in minutes!

"That would be too out of character for her. You don't want to act too docile or too nice. Misa was screechy and annoying. She was hyper, energetic, overly-cheerful, and a total nympo always suggesting that I drop whatever I was doing and have sex with her…"

Mello looked at Light askance. "Are you sure you didn't kill her?"

The mass murderer gave another long-suffering sigh. "No. I hated her but she was useful."

Mello stared at the accursed corset again. "This is NOT gonna work! They'll see that I'm not her! They'll see that I'm a guy!"

"It will work, I promise. You really do look a lot like her." When Mello shot him a murderous glare Light quickly amended "I mean that in the best way possible. You are very beautiful."Mello gasped, caught off guard by the sudden sensation of Light's long fingers trailing along his cheek. "You have the same bone structure—large eyes, high cheek bones. After your surgery I think we can get by with just a little makeup but until then you can manage with this." Light said as he handed him a black veil. "If anyone asks why you're wearing the veil today Misa can cry in mourning over the loss of J-rock signer Kuro Komori. Misa was a big fan of his work. He died yesterday of a sudden heart attack. Rumors are already circulating that either it was drugs or Kira." Light gave a mirthless smile. "It was probably drugs."

Mello shuddered. It was beginning to sink in that now that he was working for Kira he was an accessory to his crimes… No, I'm NOT working for Kira! I'm just using Kira as a shield, that's all! A shield that's too deluded to realize he's being used as a shield is still a shield—and a very effective one at that.

"But surely they'll notice if I'm wearing a veil every day!"

Light rolled his eyes. "You won't be, we're going to get you your surgery really soon but in any case, do you really think any of them will be looking at your face?"

"Uh yes. That's another thing. It's not like I have the chest…"

"Hold that thought," Light said as he rummaged out a box from his closet. Mello arched an eyebrow; inside the box were some very realistic fake boobs.

Mello began to speak but Light cut him off. "Don't ask." He grumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Alright, see now? Now I'm curious…"

"Misa had her friends over for a costume party not long ago and… well… really. Don't ask."

"They're very realistic," Mello commented as they squished in his grip. "They feel real… They aren't real, are they?" Mello innocently asked the serial killer.

Light gave Mello an indignant look that read something along the lines of 'What kind of sick bastard do you think I am?' as he replied "Of course not, one of the premier special effects guys left them behind."

"Special effects guys?"

"Misa's friends from work—she had them all come over for a costume party and…" Light sighed again. "So imagine a production crew-big, ugly, hairy-looking guys—all rolls of fat, covered in acne scars, balding—and all these unattractive guys, they get the bright idea to dress up as the cast of Sailor Moon for Misa's costume party—and then they all start undressing to show us just how realistic their costumes are…"

"Okay, you're right. That's too much information."

"Told you so..." Light shuddered. "And to think I had almost succeeded in erasing that image from my brain."

Mello felt a stab of sympathy for poor Kira—if this was the sort of thing he had to live with for five years it almost made up for the fact that he was the crazy mass murderer who killed his mentor—though it didn't make up for the fact that Light was now dressing him in those fake boobies. It was seamless how they seemed to merge into his skin. You'd have to look very closely to see that they were fake (and if they were that close that means they had already lost.) Mello nervously glanced at the mirror and then immediately regretted it.

"I look like a girl!" Mello wailed in indignation.

"Well yes, that's the idea."

Mello was unaware that he had begun to hyperventilate. His insecurity level was such that he was overtaken by the irrational impulse to pull down the lacy undergarments just to reassure himself that his dick was still there.

Light stopped him, grabbing his wrist. "We don't have time for this foolishness!"

Mello glared at him venomously but it did nothing to stem his rising panic.

Light released Mello's hand and gave one of his fake boobs a squeeze.

"You don't feel that, do you? So you see it's not real."

"I know that!" Mello snapped.

"Good."

Mello gasped as Light kissed at his neck looking very much like an attentive boyfriend giving his girl attention.

His girl. I'm his girl. I have to play his girlfriend. The ramifications seemed to be just settling in.

Light seemed to sense his concerns as Mello shivered in his arms.

"I typically didn't touch Misa. Any drastic changes in our behavior would be suspicious. However for this to work without arousing suspicion you need to act the part of Misa. At least while we're being watched which will be, admittedly, most of the time."

"Yeah… of course they aren't real!" Mello exclaimed, more to himself than to Light as he tentatively squeezed at his fake breasts himself and was reassured by the fact that there was no sensation. Meanwhile the image in the mirror looked like a girl feeling herself up. The "girl" in the mirror blushed. No doubt it would have been an evocative image if either of them was straight. "And… and now that I notice it, they have a distinctively plastic smell… but that could be a problem..."

"You're right. Good thinking, Mello. Misa always wore heavy perfume." Light retrieved the perfume from Misa's dresser. "This should be sufficient to cover up the smell."

Mello took a whiff of the very girly scent of flowers and fruit and glowered at Light.

"You owe me for this, big time."

"I know."

Mello gave the perfume bottle a spurt and that girly scent fell over him in a pale mist over his neck and chest. He already felt his skin being defiled forever with that scent. Mello seriously considered washing it off with acid when this was all over. Mello yelped in surprised when Light bent forward, burrowing his face in his fake breasts.

"The hell!"

Light sniffed.

"I'm afraid that's not enough. I still smell the plastic."

"Fucking pervert!" Mello snarled but sprayed more of that putrid perfume, that Elixir of Evil onto his person.

Light sniffed again. "Nope sorry, still not enough."

Mello growled in frustration but he knew that he couldn't allow for any flaw in his disguise. In exasperation Mello dumped the whole bottle over his head. Light finally gave him the thumbs up.

Mello grunted as he grudgingly let Light lace up the lacy black corset dress after trying, and failing to do it himself. He shivered despite himself as Light's fingers brushed against his back as he fumbled with the leather strings. Mello stared at the stranger in the mirror. He was actually wearing more layers of clothes than he usually did but he still felt naked under Light's stare. The plunging neckline of the dress put his perky "new breasts" on display. The lacey skirt just barely covered his crotch, and the knee-high boots and stockings drawing attention to his skinny thighs. He looked sexy, he felt sexy, it was all this damn lace brushing in intimate places—and the fact that Light was pressing up against him, breathing down his neck… As Mello's thoughts idly wandered he found himself wondering how Light would compare to Matt as a seme… and he promptly crushed those thoughts to dust.

This damn dress has to die!

"You're perfect." Light assured him as he gave him a peck on the cheek.

Mello remained stock still as Light ran a brush through his long blonde hair, pinning it back into a pair of girlish pigtails with a pair of black barettes with white plastic skulls on them. Mello eyed the offending hairpieces.

"It's kind of obvious, isn't it?"

Light shrugged. "This is her style."

As a finishing touch Light put Mello's leather jacket on over the lacy, racy abomination. Mello immediately felt better about this whole deal. At least he was afforded some protection against prying eyes. Mello surprised Light by affectionately leaning back into his chest.

"So uh… any additional tips for um, playing this… part?" Of course Mello had a general idea, having done some observation of the Second Kira suspect but he wasn't sure he wanted Light to know what he knew.

Light thought for a moment before giving Mello the cliff notes on Misa, going as detailed as possible...

"…She liked sweets but was worried about her weight. She's a model you know, and as a celebrity she had her persona to maintain. She always played cheerful and bubbly but she was, well, out of her freakin' mind."

Mello stifled a giggle. He found that descriptor to be ironic given the source. It became harder not to laugh as Light kept going.

"She was delusional! I could even tell her how much I despised her but she'd pretend not to hear. She had very selective hearing and she thought that the world revolved around her. I swear she must have imagined herself to be the heroine of some stupid bodice-ripper romance novel! She was selfish. She didn't care a thing about justice! Only her own happiness! Misa-Misa always got what she wanted and never took no for an answer." Light sighed again. "I guess I can kind of see where she was coming from. Her parents were killed in a robbery right in front of her—I guess that sort of messed her up for life." Mello scowled at Light's lack of empathy and had to restrain himself from decking him one. He wasn't about to give Kira any clues to his past or let on that the same thing had happened to him (though it wasn't exactly in a robbery—Mafioso like his parents tend to have enemies.)

"But that doesn't change the fact that she acted like I was her fucking property and she would kill anyone else if they got too close to me. She was totally obsessed! But… but because of that… She really would do anything for me… and that was very useful. However she was quite obnoxious about it! She'd cling to me and feel me up at every opportunity—even in public!"

Mello's face broke into a shit-eating grin. "I think I see what I have to do now…" He had just been given a license to annoy and feel up Light in public.

Light scowled. "Don't overdo it."

Mello looked at him innocently "Oh come on, you want it to look genuine, right?"

"Yes… however, she also was more restrained about her pushy behavior when we were being watched. So again, don't overdo it."

"But Light-kun~!" Mello whined in his best Misa imitation.

Light visibly shuddered. "Don't worry; you've got the voice down pat."

Just then Light's cellphone rang indicating that Aizawa and Mogi were outside, ready to work.

"..And not a moment too soon—it's show time." Light noticed that Mello looked nervous. "Relax, you'll be fine."

"Easy for you to say! It's not your ass on the line if I get caught!"

"Yes, it is. We're in this together, Misa darling." Light said as he went to open the door.

The former mobster made sure his veil was in place and then bolted for the couch, as they had discussed he might do. He pretended to relax there, lying on his belly and idly kicking his legs up in the air like he had seen Misa do during his surveillance, Mello idly turned a page of Misa's fashion magazine as the cops came in the door.