A/N: And now we have the last chapter before my exams start! Woobles. Not. -_- Let's see...will I have finished my exams by the time this fic is over...? Nope, this'll end just after my exams! Sadness. But we still have quite a few chapters left, don't worry guys! My teachers believe in prolonged torture. :)

Guess what?! Nope, wrong. :P I got another eleven reviews for last chapter! *bursts with happiness* I am literally grinng all over my face right now. Thank you sooo much to:

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and Naruto lover! So many~ The feels...

Disclaimer: I don't know why I keep doing this for every chapter. It just depresses me. :/

Chapter 15: Square One

The next morning, Mello and Matt came down at seven sharp for work. L, Light and Near had already started, it seemed, L poring over one of the curious letters in a transparent evidence bag while Light appeared to be making notes from a web page. Near looked up from his own computer screen and greeted them briefly, as he always did.

"Mello, Matt."

"Hey, Near!" Matt returned the greeting cheerfully, still somewhat high from the overdose of Mello he'd had the night before.

He nudged Mello with his elbow. They'd agreed early that morning on the blond's next words.

Huffing all-sufferingly, Mello perfectly recited the script. "Sorry for storming off before, you lot. Guess I just lost it for a bit." He shrugged nonchalantly.

"That is perfectly understandable," L told him, looking up from the note. "I am thankful Matt-kun managed to talk some sense into you."

Matt blushed slightly. Truth be told, there hadn't been much talking involved.

"In addition, we managed to do some extra research into Palm while Matt and Mello were otherwise occupied," Near said, getting up from his perch on an office chair and walking over to them. "I believe I should start with the fact that we uncovered solid evidence that Four-Field and Palm have often worked together in illegal activities, such as drugs dealing, arms dealing and so forth."

L cut in. "I have also been studying the notes posted after the kidnappings in light of this new knowledge," he stated, "and have concluded that, apart from a baiting method, they serve no further purpose as far as clues are concerned. There is the obvious connection between "sleight of hand" and the name 'Palm', which we overlooked before in our haste to convict Four-Field, and after careful consideration, I have come to the conclusion that the reference to "cleansing" refers to brainwashing of some sort, probably using the opium Palm have been gathering."

Matt frowned, confused. "But if the notes didn't serve any purpose other than that, why have them in the first place? Wouldn't they just be a liability?"

"Not necessarily." They all turned to Light at the words, seeing the brunet walk over from his computer.

"What do you mean?" Mello asked him.

"In this country, it is rare for an external investigation group, such as the SPK, to become involved in cases of this sort, which are only taking place in one city. As such, the police force would have taken this on, and most would assume that they would be the only ones investigating into it. And, if Near-san hadn't become interested in this case, they would be.

"Therefore, if we think as if we are the culprits for a second, it would be best to taunt the police force, to confuse them and harry them, those detectives who are already working on so many other cases. Also, the police force often cross-reference cases with similar ones from the past. If they did so, they would have found that kidnapping cases where hostage or ransom notes had been left were often carried out by small groups, who had a lot of time on their hands for planning, and little enough money to go to such lengths to get more; never massive industries with much more to lose.

"The fact that these particular notes have no demand for money would only confuse the police more, causing them to be frustrated with the lack of joined-up dots and to rush, therefore making mistakes. If we take that into consideration, having the notes would be very beneficial indeed, as the police would be rendered almost completely incompetent and suspicion would never be directed towards large companies such as Four-Field."

Matt blinked, completely lost.

Mello hummed in appreciation. "That makes sense," he acknowledged, the closest thing to a compliment Light would ever get from him.

L seemed to agree as well, looking at Light with an expression Matt could only describe as fondness, but only when the teenager couldn't see, of course.

"Anyway," Matt snapped his thoughts away from the circular ones involving L and Light and handcuffs, "Seeing as we have all this lovely evidence, can we fuck them over now?"

L levelled a Look at him. "For reasons stated a few weeks previously, Matt-kun, we need to look into this a bit further, to make sure there is no way either organisation can bribe their way out."

Matt had expected the answer, but rolled his eyes anyway. "Worth a shot. But how are we going to get more evidence? There's only so much you can get through minor hacking, you know?"

"And that is where you come in, Matt-kun," L told him. "Do you still have Liam Mooring's mobile telephone?"

"Who, the receptionist? Yeah, I have it."

"Would you be able to gather private information about the managers of Four-Field through it? There is an eighty percent change that the search will reveal nothing, but it is worth a try."

"Wouldn't it be better to hack into Four-Field's private files to get that information?" Matt asked, wondering why L was taking such an exhaustive route.

L raised his eyebrow slightly. "Four-Field has an extremely sophisticated security system that has been proven near-impossible to hack," he warned.

Matt had known that already. "No problem," he said, trying not to sound too smug.

L regarded him for a moment to determine whether he was bluffing or not, then shrugged and dismissed him. "Find out as much as you can about the managers, then."

Matt nodded and went to find a computer he could work on.

"In the meanwhile," L turned to Mello. "We are going to need to ask you a few questions about Palm."

Mello looked put-upon, but nodded anyway. He'd expected the inevitable interrogation from the psychologist as soon as it had become clear Palm was involved in the kidnappings.

"Would you prefer to do this in a separate room, or here?" L asked, showcasing his rare tendency towards preferential treatment when it came to Mello and Near. And Light, of course.

Mello shrugged. "Having everyone listening will cut down on time, and I don't want to spend a second longer gathering evidence than necessary. Anyway, I have nothing to hide concerning this case. I hated every minute of my time with Palm, and it'll be satisfying to finally give those bastards what's coming to them."

L nodded distractedly, his eyes shifting over to his ward, who was picking at his sleeves nervously.

Mello cleared his throat, and L's eyes snapped back to the blond, who raised an eyebrow. "Shall we get on with this, then?" he asked drily.

"Of course."

"Mello, did you, during your stay with Palm, ever have any contact with the major leaders?"

Mello swung his feet from the stool he was sitting on. "Nope."

"Do you know their identities?" L asked.

Mello shook his head. "Our section just got orders passed down to us through our main boss."

"And who was your boss?" L leaned forward slightly.

"Rod Ross. I had quite a lot of contact with him, for raid planning and stuff, but we didn't like each other."

L bit hit thumb contemplatively. "I see. And did you gather opium on these raids?"

"Yeah, I was the main guy for drug raids. Best shot, see?" Mello looked slightly smug.

L was unimpressed. "And did you know where this opium was being sent or what it was being used for?"

"No!" Mello's grasp on the edge of the stool tightened, his tendons standing out visibly. "I had no idea! I thought they were just going to sell it to whatever druggies were on the street. It did strike me that there were more raids than normal for that purpose, but I assumed Palm was building up a store for tough times." Mello was obviously displeased with himself for that particular oversight.

"No one blames you for that, Mello," L reassured the blond, before moving on to the next question. "Can you think of any places – abandoned buildings and such – where the children could possibly be incarcerated?"

Mello thought for quite a while about that one. Finally, he said, "No...I don't think so. Not in this city, anyway. The police around here are onto most of Palm's former quarters, and the few safehouses they do have are used for the gang itself, weapons and so on."

L looked disappointed, but swiftly moved on nevertheless. "Had you heard of any dealings Palm made with Four-Field before?"

Mello shook his head decisively. "No. I heard the name dropped a couple of times, obviously, seeing as they're such a large company and have such a huge area of influence. I didn't hear anything that could be a clue," he answered L's unasked question.

At that moment, Matt walked up to them. "I got the info," he told them proudly.

Light blinked, seemingly snapped out of the reverie he'd previously been in. "That was quick," he commented.

Matt shrugged. "I'm a quick guy."

Mello wasn't quite sure why the way Matt said those words made him want to kick the redhead's ass round the block.

"What did Matt find?" Near asked, putting the notebook into which he'd been copying down all of Mello's answers on the table.

Matt handed him an enormous pile of printouts as way of answer. "I got a lot of personal information on Takada and Mikami. Their history and such. It seems they struck gold with Four-Field first time, it being the first company they'd made as a pair. They're very good at predicting the stock market, and –"

L cut him off. "Thank you, Matt-kun, that is extremely impressive. However, we can read the documents without a narration." The way he said the words was not unkind, though slightly brusque.

Matt looked slightly sheepish. "Oh yeah...never mind then." He scratched the back of his head.

Mello was torn between choking L with his own strawberry laces and kissing the adorable expression of mortification off Matt's face. He decided to ignore one, and save the other for later.

"Oh!" Matt perked up slightly. "I forgot: I also found a list of Four-Field's empty warehouses. It could be them holding the kids instead of Palm, you know?"

L blinked. "That...is true," he said.

There was a short silence while Mello, L, Light and Near sifted through the sheaves of paper. Light found the list of warehouses first. He handed it to L without a word, avoiding contact both of the eye and of the hand.

If the snub affected L in any way, he hid it well. He scanned the list quickly, fished a biro out of his pocket and starred three of the buildings listed.

"These are the warehouses in this city," he said. "It is most likely that Four-Field, if they are indeed holding the children, would do so here; it is large and complicated, and doing so would also limit the disturbance to one region, making it much more ambiguous as to who the culprit is."

He passed the sheet of paper on to Near, along with the request, "If it is no trouble, could one of your personnel investigate these buildings and report back with any information that could point towards the location of the kidnapped children?"

Near nodded. "Of course, that will be no trouble." He pocketed the paper.

Chewing on his thumb and a piece of gum simultaneously, L's posture relaxed slightly. "We shall look into these warehouses in further detail tomorrow. At this moment, I believe it would be most beneficial to conduct more research as to the exact locations of the victims before they were taken."

"How would we do that?" Light asked, the first words he had spoken to L all morning.

"Recorded purchases, security cameras, places of habit, etcetera," L answered him.

Light nodded silently, appearing to be deep in thought. The youth didn't notice the look the L gave him, but Matt did. It shocked the redhead deeply; the expression on L's face was...raw. Like a new wound that had just been scrubbed with salt.

Not for the first time, Matt wondered exactly what L's feeling towards Light were.

When everyone scattered to conduct their individual research, however, Matt was forced to put it out of mind and concentrate on the glaring light of the computer monitor once again.

After a long day of work, Mello and Matt stumbled through the doors of the lift into their shared living space. They were both exhausted, far more so than the other members of the investigation team, as they had lost a considerable amount of sleeping time the night before.

The thought of their previous time together had Matt simultaneously embarrassed and wistful. A small part of him wondered how his body could possibly want more of Mello after all the blond had given him that night, while the rest scoffed at the minority, disbelieving that any part of Matt's mind could ever possibly be satisfied when it came to the object of his adoration.

Matt bit his lip. It was true he had become more bold recently, mainly through Mello's guidance, but he was still acutely shy when it came to their suddenly more...intimate relationship. It was all too new, and Matt hadn't finished finding his feet.

However, that didn't mean he wanted it any less.

Mello's voice brought him out of his ponderings. "Stop looking at me like that! It's not making resisting you until you've slept a while any easier."

Matt gulped, desire lodging in his throat. "Give up then," he suggested, his voice husky.

Mello didn't seem too adamant upon arguing, which Matt was grateful for, as it allowed him to put the blond's mouth to much better use.

Their lips locked in a feverish contest to see who could completely suck the other's soul out of his mouth first, before they were beaten to it. Matt, predictably, submitted first, clutching Mello's hair to keep the blond's mouth attached to his and letting Mello take control.

The blond did so eagerly, hands sliding under Matt's shirt to caress his abdomen. Matt shivered, revelling in the still-unfamiliar sensation of leather sliding over burning skin. This had been the extent of the pair's actions the night before, Mello not wanting to take all of Matt while his heart was still incomplete, and Matt unsure whether his own heart could take the excitement without exploding.

They were inching forward: painfully slowly, but with progress nonetheless. The thought of everything to come made Matt groan in anticipation and bliss.

The noise seemed to spur Mello on, and the blond dragged Matt to a bedroom (the closest), flinging him onto the mattress. He crawled to loom above the gasping redhead, definitely not helping to prevent a pending asthma attack as he attacked Matt's lips again, this time with a renewed fervour.

Matt could only hold on to Mello's back for dear life, reciprocating as much as humanly possible and racking his brain as to how in the world he had managed to acquire an angel such as Mello.

As Mello pushed Matt's shirt further and further up his torso, the redhead could only wonder whether Mello was going to fully remove it, or if the blond was just far too impatient.

He wasn't sure if it was normal to think so much while in the middle of one of the hottest make-out sessions he'd ever experienced.

Before he could think about it any more, though, Mello pulled away abruptly, out of breath and flushed, his lips swollen and very, very red. Matt had to concentrate excruciatingly hard on not leaning in and claiming that tempting mouth again.

After they'd caught their breath, Mello explained his sudden retreat. "If we'd kept on going any longer, there would've been no way I'd have been able to stop."

Matt pouted. "What if I don't want you to stop?"

Mello chuckled softly, pushing Matt's bottom lip back in with his forefinger. "You'd regret it in the morning," he told him, pulling back the rumpled duvet, and settling them both underneath it, kicking off their shoes.

Matt doubted it. He barely had time to ask, "Are we going to sleep in our clothes, then?" before he fell into a deep slumber, thinking sleepily that Mello might just never get his leather pants off again if he were to sleep in them.

Matt wouldn't have minded.

A/N: Yayy, M/M action again! Finally. XD

So, yeah, the next time I post a chapter, I'll probably be stressed out and panicky. But I think we may reach one hundred reviews this chapter (SQUEE), so good luck to all of you and congrats to the soon-to-be (I hope) winner of a oneshot in the Death Note verse with a pairing of their choice!