Chapter two. I'm prepared to dodge thrown objects.

Once again, I don't own Death Note.

"Ooh! Mommy, can we go to the mall too?" I asked eagerly as we went down the apartment stairs.

"Maybe." He answered absently. We came to a stop in front of the motorcycle for some reason.. Mom looked at me. "We should probably take the car…" I nodded and we made our way to Dad's red camero.

"Can I drive?" I asked, making the sweetest puppy eyes I could. Mom just gave me a look that plainly said no.

As he drove us, I randomly rambled on about what kind of tacos we should get, and somehow that led to me talking about Kingdom Hearts, and that somehow led to a rant about how many people thought I was a pyromaniac. "I'm obviously not a p—Oh my gosh! Look! That car's on fire!" I squealed happily, pointing out the window. Mom stopped the car and looked where I was gesturing to. Sure enough, he found that I was right.

The back of a black car was burning, and there were two oddly familiar men standing around it, along with several fire fighters. "Hey Mom, isn't that Uncle L over there?" I inquired. He squinted.

"Hey, you're right!" We ran out of the car as fast as we could to them.

"Uncle L! Uncle L!" I cried, wrapping my arms around him. "Ri-chan, when did you get here?" He wondered, returning the hug. "I don't know, Mom and I were going to Taco Bell… How'd your car catch on fire?" I asked curiously.

He sighed. "Ask Mr. Look-what-I-cha-do-with-a-lighter!" He said, jabbing a thumb in his serial killer of a boyfriend's direction. The fire department was currently trying to put out the fire.

"What'd you do this time BB-kinz?" I chuckled.

Beyond shrugged cheerfully. "I don't know, I was just messing around with a lighter and suddenly… BOOM!" He waved his arms around for emphasis. "We got out just in time." L mumbled. I giggled and watched the flames dance on the top of the car. In the background, I heard Mom say, "Only Rikay would laugh at a burning car…"

The fire department was having a bit of trouble with the fire over there, not that any of us did anything about to help.

Mom seemed to remember something all of the sudden. "Rikay, why don't you tell Uncle L why you got detention yesterday?" I gulped.

The fire on the car didn't seem to want to go out, I noticed.

"Well, you see… I… kind of… well… I…" I stuttered, then sighed. "I kicked a guy somewhere that hurts really bad." I muttered. Mom stared at me disappointedly and Beyond had to stifle his laughter. Uncle L was having a bit of trouble hiding his amusement, too. "Why?" He asked shakily. I sighed again.

The fire on the car kept getting bigger, I saw as I glanced at it.

"He was being a bastard to my friend, Lacey, and when I told him to cut it out, he started being a jackass about it and talking shit about Lacey and I, so I thought he needed to be taught a little… lesson..." I explained uncertainly. Uncle L glanced at Mom. "And you let her talk like that?" The flames on the car were spreading to the grass growing between the cracks in the sidewalk.

Mom shifted uncomfortably. "So?" He crossed his arms and looked away. Beyond couldn't hide his laughter anymore and bust out in hysterics, falling to the ground and wiping tears from his eyes. I smirked, but that disappeared as soon as I saw Mom's expression.

"You know Matty and I have to go to a Parent/Teacher Conference on Monday, and you have to come with us." He said.

Putting on a 'flawless' act of pain and suffering, I dropped to the ground dramatically, clutching my heart with one hand and raised my other hand and waving it around. Unfortunately, Mom just sighed and told me to get up. "I'll never know how you can always see though that one." I muttered sarcastically.

After we finished talking to them, we went and drove to Taco Bell, leaving them to deal with the ever-growing bonfire sitting on the top of their car. I wanted to go inside the restaurant, but Mom refused to. It's kind of obvious why.

As we drove back, we passed the mall, causing me to get really excited and beg if we could go in. He gave me that 'no' look again. Until, that is, I said one sentence.

"There's a candy store with an entire section just for chocolate." The brakes screeched as we came to a stop, and suddenly we were speeding toward the mall. I grinned smugly as we walked, well, more like ran inside. Mom used his 'super chocolate detecting skills' to immediately find the specific shop I was talking about.

His 'super chocolate detecting skills' were obviously shining through when he stopped a few times along the way to look at the large maps of the mall on some of the walls.

Seeing Mom with his face pressed up against the glass like a little kid was really amusing. I took this chance to ask for some money, which he gave to me, distracted by the glorious chocolate. I skipped to the closest Hot Topic I could find and bought myself two pairs of fingerless gloves, three colorful pairs of knee-high striped socks, and a spiked black bracelet with a matching choker.

I passed a toy store as I walked back to where I had left Mom, and something caught my eye. "Uncle Near?" I muttered to myself, doing a double take.

Sure enough, it was the white-wearing, toy-loving albino himself. "Uncle Near!" I repeated, but louder. He looked up. "Hello Rikay. Where's Mello?" He asked as I approached him. I cocked my head. "How'd you know Mom took me here?" I asked. Uncle Near shrugged.

"Simple. Matt doesn't get distracted easily unless there's videogames, so he wouldn't get you the money to do that. There's a game store right across from here, so I would've seen him, and besides, he's too protective of you to let you go around by yourself, which also rules out the possibility of you coming here without any adult supervision." He explained, causing my eye to twitch from all the words.

"I guess that makes sense…" I murmured.

"You didn't answer me." Uncle Near said.

I looked at him like an idiot for a moment then remembered. "Oh yeah! Mom's in the candy shop, staring at the chocolate." I said. Suddenly, as if on cue, a large BANG! and several people shouting was heard. I looked back at Uncle Near and laughed nervously. "Well, he was…" I said, then ran off to go see what happened.

"Mom, what the hell did you do?" I asked as I ran into the store. He was struggling against several security guards and yelling his head off.

"Let me go right now!" He screamed. I saw his favorite gun (The one with the rainbow painted trigger) lying on the floor and I rolled my eyes. One of the security guards recognized me. "Oh, hey Rikay!" He said cheerfully. I grinned.

"Larry! How've you been?" I asked. "Great! By the way, this lady with you?" Larry inquired. I nodded. "Don't you recognize him? That's my mom, you know, Mello?" I gestured to him.

Larry looked at me dumbly and then back to Mom. "Oh! Mells, I didn't realize it was you! It's okay Drew, let him go." He said to the other security guard. Mom stumbled to the ground before picking himself off and dusting off his shoulders. "Hrmph." He said, crossing his arms and turning away. "I just wanted the chocolate."

"Sorry Mells, I really didn't recognize you in that outfit." Larry apologized. Mom just glared.

"Here, you know what, just to make it up to you, have some chocolate on the house." Larry offered.

Mom turned around, eyes shining. "Really? Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" He cried. I chuckled when I finally noticed the giant hole in the glass of the chocolate container thingy. "Nice job Mommy." I rolled my eyes, grabbing his hand and dragging him out of the mall.

As we drove back, something crossed my mind. Something important. My eyes widened and I gasped. "Mom. We forgot about Dad." He turned toward me, mouth open wide. "Oh god. He's gonna be so pissed. How long has it been?" He asked nervously.

I calculated how long we'd been gone in my head as fast as I could, then it my lip. "An hour…" I whispered.

"Oh shit…" We muttered in unison.