"I don't want to leave, Mello. Not if it means we can't stay here together anymore."
Kenna was staring out the window, her face concealed in sadness.
"We can stay together after we leave."
"Not if you become the next L."
Kenna looked at him.
"If you do, you can't be with me anymore. You'll have to be everything, everything that L is."
Mello sighed.
"What if I took you with me, and never left you here?"
Kenna laughed sadly.
"Being L, Mello… you wouldn't be allowed. Even I know that."
Mello looked at her. She was too young to understand he'd do anything to keep her with him.
"Then I'll change the rules."
Kenna looked at him.
A small smile came to her lips.
"Thanks, Mello."
Mello looked at the papers on his desk.
It used to be simple, him and Kenna. Now it was so cluttered, like his desk. Papers strewn this way and that, some forgotten, some lost. Emotions and memories strewn this way and that, some forgotten, some lost.
Mello bent down and picked up a few papers.
He wanted to bend down and pick up everything he had lost, pick up everything that had been dropped as this hate overwhelmed his mind, as this sickening plague overthrew him.
He wanted to go back.
He wanted to stop hurting her.
Kenna smiled up at Mello.
"I love you."
Mello smiled, kissing her lightly.
"I love you, too, Kenna."
She brought her hand to his face. The other tangled itself in his hair.
"I'm glad."
There was nothing else to say. There was nothing else that could be said.
Mello kissed her, and passionately took her, and held her, whispered her name, over and over, and lay with her, whispering promises of forever in her ear.
Kenna sat up, looking down at him.
"Would you give this all up if we could be together forever?"
Mello looked up at her.
"Yes."
"Would you give it up right now?"
Mello laughed.
"Of course I would."
Kenna bit her lip.
"Would you give up defeating Near?"
Mello sat up, bringing his hands to her hair, smiling.
"What am I to you, Kenna?"
Kenna closed her eyes, basking in Mello's affection.
"You're my everything."
"Then I've already beaten him, in one way."
Kenna opened her eyes.
"He'll never be someone's everything. He'll never have love, emotion-filled passion with another human being. I have you. Therefore, I win."
Kenna smiled.
"Am I a trophy?"
Mello let out a deep laugh, rich with bliss.
"I'd say I'm yours."
Kenna cocked her head.
"How?"
Mello smiled.
"Because you hold all I am, right in your hands, Kenna."
Kenna smiled, and kissed him lightly.
"Kenna Miller."
Mello closed his eyes, and pressed his forehead to hers.
"Hm?"
"My name. My real name, its Kenna Miller."
Mello smiled.
"Mihael Keehl."
Kenna smiled.
"I like that name."
"Does it suit me?"
"Yes."
Mello laughed.
"Really?"
Kenna let out a low chuckle.
"I don't know."
Mello looked at her.
"You're beautiful."
"I could say the same."
Mello kissed her, pushing her back onto the bed gently.
"I will never hurt you."
"I'll forgive you if you do."
Mello kissed her neck gently.
"I will never leave you."
"You'll find me again if you do."
"Will you wait for me?"
Kenna looked him dead in the eyes.
"Always."
Mello stared at the door, praying for her to walk in.
He had remembered all the times they had been together.
All the times he had been happy.
Kenna sat in his lap, wearing merely his oversized pajama button-down. She played with the cross hanging on his neck. Mello pushed the sleeves up, freeing her hands from distraction.
"Are you religious?"
The words were quiet, absent.
"Yes."
He stared at her thoughtfully.
"Are you?"
She seemed to search for an answer.
"I don't know."
Mello smiled.
"Is that your answer for everything?"
Kenna giggled.
"No."
Mello grabbed her hand, bringing it carefully to his lips, gently kissing the tips of her fingers, enthralled in her words, waiting for her to speak, his eyes focused on her pretty face.
She pushed her tangled hair away from her face.
"I'm undecided on pretty much everything. I don't know what to expect from anything, anyone. For myself. I have no idea. I have no expectations beyond us. I have no expectations beyond happiness, love, excitement, adventure, life. I'll decide when I can make fair judgment."
"Why can't you make fair judgment with religion?"
His words weren't pushy or offended. They were honest, genuinely interested.
"I have respect for people who are, I believe that you should have faith in something. I honestly cherish the connection, the pure bond between people and their Gods, but I can't… I can't find comfort in something I can't see or feel. I find refuge in love, I find faith in love, comfort in love, everything in seamless love."
Mello closed his eyes, bringing her hand to his face, gently holding it there.
Kenna moved her hand to his chest, feeling his heart beat slowly, carefully, fully.
"I believe in this. In love, in passion. I believe in the heart. I believe in decisions, emotion, the human mind, the way we all look at things. But mostly, I believe in us, Mello."
"Mihael."
"Huh?"
Kenna cocked her head.
"Please say my name. Quietly. Honestly."
Kenna smiled, bringing her lips to his ear.
"Mihael."
Mello sighed, tears falling from his eyes slowly.
"I love you."
Kenna kissed him.
"I love you, too, Mihael Keehl."
Mello chuckled.
"It sounds so good coming from you."
Kenna wiped his tears away.
"That's because we love each other."
Mello nodded.
"I know. I just needed to feel it. Just a moment longer."
Mello let himself remember.
He pushed himself away from the desk, burying his face in his hands.
He was losing. Not because of Kira, but because of Kenna. He was losing.
He couldn't lose.
Not now.