Chapter 13

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Second to None

Getting to Know You

Beyond Birthday POV

"So how did you all meet? I can't see Beyond as being very social" I said.

"Beyond helped me learn English. He's from Russia as well –well technically I'm Slovenian but my parents moved me to Russia when I was 4– and the first words he ever said to me were in Russian and he said 'you're pronouncing that that wrong'. I had been trying to say the Russian equivalent of 'fuck you' and Beyond whom I had been warned about as being a creepy guy to never bother instructed me on the proper pronunciation. We've been friends ever since" Mello said with a huge grin.

"I knew you were a bad influence!" I said to Beyond with a glare.

"What I bet you didn't know is that I'm a bit of a matchmaker. Even if the results took a while." I eyed him incredulously and he explained "when Matt came to the orphanage from America he had a thick New York City accent. I could sense he would be a good friend for Mello though even though they had never met so I introduced them. It was hilarious since Mello hadn't quite lost his Russian accent and Matt was nowhere close to losing his American one. They didn't understand each other at all but I translated Matt's heavily accented English into Russian and the other way around for them. Well that worked for a while and I saw they were going to be friends for a while and sensed it would eventually be more so I hatched a plan for them to bond while I 'got sick'." He smirked at the memory "I quarantined myself for two weeks even keeping my roommate out and forced them to muddle their way through. Eventually they burst into my room excited that they had held a conversation for ten minutes before they needed help and were planning to tell me to cheer me up from being 'sick' for so long. Needless to say they were pissed to find out I'd been fine. To this day there are probably awed tales about how Mello managed to give B the Creep a black eye." He snorted out a creepy laugh. "It was well worth it especially since Mello had taught Matt a bit of Russian but Matt still couldn't shake the accent" he laughed wiping tears from his eyes. "Priceless."

"It wasn't funny Beyond" Matt scolded. "Mells and I had no idea what the other was saying for days without you. It was annoying as Hell!"

"But it worked" I pointed out. "Where did you learn to punch anyway?" I asked Mello suspiciously. He grinned cheekily at Beyond in answer. "Of course" I muttered. "Boys" I added exasperated.

"Yeah well Beyond has always been a master planner. Like the pranks he pulled with us!" Mello got excited as he continued on gesturing wildly "there was one time he managed to strategically place cages of frogs in the kitchen and when the cooks came in he managed to open them all at once then Matt and I removed them. The reaction was priceless! We were blamed but since they had no proof it was us we weren't punished. Beyond always made sure there was no way to trace it to us and even firmly planted false evidence on other people." He grinned evilly at a memory and continued "namely his roommate including that one time he left a ginormous wrinkled porn stash haphazardly hidden under A's bed during the day the maids cleaned the room. They were all a month or two old since he'd been stashing them in the attic then he ripped and crumpled then to make them look used even though they hadn't been. No one even looked his way about it since everyone knew he wasn't into stuff like that but at least 3 of them were A's.'" Mello said with an evil grin. "He did it since he's found A cheating off of his homework. Anyway A was sorely lacking privileges and looked like a liar ever since. You didn't mess with B and get out unscathed." He exchanged a fistbump with Beyond at that.

Matt cackled at the memory. "That was epic! I don't think I've ever seen Roger so pissed!"

"Wait, who are Roger and A?" I asked confused.

"A was my roommate and the first child to be chosen to be in the competition to be the next L. His real name was Alexander Adams. I laid off him when I saw his numbers dropping and did try to talk to him but he had fallen in to a deep depression and wouldn't see help. I knew the exact day he decided to kill himself and knew he planned to do it on Halloween so L would be at the orphanage. I don't know why L was always there then especially since he never joined the kids though" Beyond explained. "Anyway, that night I was sure to give A space so I wouldn't be blamed. There was nothing I could do and believe me I tried. I tried to talk to him, I tried to bond with him, I tried to warn the others, I tried it all but you can't beat the death dates. Anyway that night he slashed his wrists and throat in our shared bathroom and wrote with his blood on the wall 'I am A failure'. Capital A. I purposefully stayed with Mello and Matt for a while helping them count their candy in foreign languages when someone smelled the blood. They blamed me at first but soon realized I hadn't caused it" Beyond looked sad at that, they all did. He continued "I was told L himself saw the carnage but I wasn't allowed to see him. I was pissed that he didn't even attend the funeral. It was three days after it he addressed me over the computer calling me 'Backup'. I ran away and lived in various parts of the United States for a while even at one point studying under an alias at a college -anatomy and medicine by the way- until… well you know."

I did know. But I couldn't imagine having to go through all of that when you knew exactly when it was going to happen too. He must have felt so useless. "Who is Roger?" I asked changing the subject.

"Roger is the one who joined Wammy to found the orphanage. Wammy's House. The thing is though Roger hates kids" Beyond explained.

"He's a git" Mello added and Matt nodded enthusiastically in agreement.

"British slang" I mused. "So the orphanage was in England?"

"Winchester" Beyond confirmed. Just then there was a blip on the wall of monitors to our left.

Matt went up to the main computer and started typing. "Sweeet. Turns out L is installing some video cameras in Imagay's room."

"Imagay?" I asked not sure I wanted to know.

"Yagami backwards. We have no maturity at all you will find" Beyond explained.

"Ahem" Matt spoke up and we returned our attention to him. "Problem. Unless I can hook up a device to one of the cameras I'm not sure if I can get the feed."

"It won't matter anyway" Mello said as he opened another bar of chocolate. "He won't pull anything until they're gone. Besides if he does then case closed L would beat us. Which means Light will be super careful and crafty enough to kill right under L's nose."

"We can't stalk him either since he won't be stupid enough to vary in his schedule and take more time outdoors. That would be suspicious. No he'll kill inside and do it where L can see but won't… but we know about the notebook which as far as we know L doesn't" Beyond spoke up then furrowed his eyebrows gazing at something invisible in front of him. "Scratch that we can stalk him but not to see if he's killing. No… to see if he has the notebook on him or not. If not he isn't just killing under L's nose he's hiding the murder weapon too."

"I… I actually have to agree with Beyond on this one. Really those cameras will probably hinder us too since they will waste time we can use… um…" I didn't want to say it.

"Spying?" Beyond offered generously.

"Spying" I agreed thankful to not have to admit to stalking.

"So in other words until those cameras are removed everyone but Lightbulb is at a stalemate" Matt said with a frown.

"Sounds like it. At least L won't gain anything more than he knows which is still less than we do" Beyond agreed then ate a large chip. "Matt try and see if we can follow Light without being there as much as possible through the use of whatever video cameras you can find. This is the Kanto Region so people have them all over for traffic and such. If he isn't aware of us then he will be more likely to let down his guard outdoors than in his own house."

"No problema, boss!" Matt said and I wondered where I had heard that before.

"Dammit what did I say about quoting the Shrek movies?!" Mello snapped.

"Aaaand that would be our cue to leave Naomi. Meaning before the pants come off" Beyond said as he opened the door and ignored the bickering behind him. He made sure to grab the food first. I grimaced but followed him knowing he was right.

I just gave L the worst birthday event ever :( (his birthday is on Halloween.) I feel so bad now though but I figured it would be one of the few times L might be at Wammy's. How A found that out if L never shows himself… well B knew too so it was probably a common rumor I guess.

The quote was from Shrek 2 and Puss-in-Boots said it for those wondering. The full quote is "No prolema, boss - in one of my nine cat lives I was the great cat burglar Santiago de Compostela!"

Gotta love Antonio Banderas *heart*