Mrs. Lawliet: Psh, don't be sorry. It's fine; I'm glad you found your device~

Reader: Indeed, isn't being alive wonderful? Well, I guess will see how BB does this time, haha~
Yes, L has figured out the SOPHIA pattern. :3 He figured out in...chapter 24. Yeah.

Oh boy.

Fluff.

"Damn it…," Matt muttered as the screen went black again.

"What's wrong?" asked Sierra quietly. She was curled up on the old white couch, her knees to her chin. It was becoming a normal position.

"L's got this hidden virus that goes off whenever you try to hack into the system… I have to override it if I'm going to get our surveillance system working. Aaand… considering we're doing the kidnapping thing tomorrow, I should probably get that done today. Mello'll be pissed if I don't." He heaved a sigh.

"Is there any way I can help?" Sierra asked.

"Nope. Sorry… I just can't see what you can do here."

"I thought so…."

Matt looked at her, then took the cigarette out of his mouth and smothered it in an ashtray. "Hey, you're keeping me company, aren't you? Just be glad you don't have to do any of this boring work." He stretched, leaning back in the roll-y chair he sat in. "Hey…."

"What?" she responded.

He seemed to stare at the ceiling, though for all Sierra knew he could be staring straight at her. "I dare you to tell Mello your deepest secret," he said matter-of-factly.

Sierra just looked at him a moment and blinked. Then the old rebelliousness and stubbornness to not do what other people told her to flowed back and she uncurled herself and stood. "What the hell?! No!"

Matt laughed. "Well, you're suddenly lively."

"Well, yeah! No way in hell am I just gonna walk up to Mello and tell him my deepest secret!"

"Then don't tell him. Write it down and give it to him."

"Still no, Matt," she scowled.

He held up a gloved finger. "You yourself said – back on May sixth – that you would never back down on a dare. And I've finally come up with one forty-six days later. So here you go."

Her scowl deepened.

"Well, I'm right, aren't I?"

"…Meh," she muttered, crossing her arms and sitting down roughly.

"Think of it this way, Sierra: won't he learn about it soon enough anyway?"

She felt the color drain from her face.

"And besides," Matt continued, "it can't be that bad. Like, I know mine's pretty pathetic and wouldn't be a big deal to anyone but me." He shrugged.

Now she was feeling her face heat up. "Well, would you tell someone that secret?"

"Psh, no."

"Exactly!" she cried. Her voice cracked.

"Look, he's going to find out anyway, and it's not like I'm listening." He smirked. "I'm just the little genius who thinks he might know, and that in itself makes me happy enough." He leaned back further in his chair, bringing his arms back to allow his head to rest on them. He tipped too far, though, and fell backwards. "Shit!" he yelped as he went down.

Sierra laughed.

The day slipped by slowly (unlike that roll-y chair that Matt had been in), but Sierra would keep her word. Matt had been right: she never, ever backed down from a dare. It was like a challenge, and she simply did not back down from a challenge. And as the day began to wind down, she began to get on edge for the mere reason that she would have to tell. 'Before you reach the final stage, too, alright?' Matt had added, and she'd only rolled her eyes. But that mattered. It mattered so much, all because of what it was, and she realized that just two days ago she'd nearly killed herself, and here she was worrying about little things like this again. (Though she had started feeling at least a bit better after Sunday night; she didn't know why….) She sighed at how stupid it seemed. She supposed it was just one of those things that couldn't really be helped.

She supposed the question was how long she could hold it off. How long did it take to reach the final stage after you started feeling the other's pain? Oh, God, how long had it been? A wave of uneasiness swept over her, then eased quickly. It would come when it would come, wouldn't it? It's not like they could do anything about it at this point. Well, she had to find out when the mind sync would reach its ending stage.

So, she called me.

"Hello?" I said, answering the phone. I had been on my way to Light's, because after all we'd just hit upon something: the pattern of the victims. And if we were right, it was possible that there was still one left…. One more. Maybe.

"Hey," Sierra answered. She brought up a smile. She hadn't talked to me in awhile. But then the smile didn't feel quite right, and so she stopped. "It's Sierra," she informed me.

"Yeah, I haven't heard from you in awhile. How are you?"

"Great!" she beamed, despite everything that had been going on with her.

"I hope so…. God, you know I'm worried about you, right? You better know. Jeez, Sierra, you need to call to give me updates more often. Do you know how many things could happen?"

"A lot," she answered. "But I'm fine!" Yes, she was getting her mask back just fine. "How are you, though?"

"Oh, I'm doing alright."

"What about Anna? Is she alright? Sam? What about Near and Matsuda and L and—"

"They're fine, Sierra, they're fine," I laughed. "Everyone's doing good…."

Sierra found herself realizing how much she missed everyone. "Can I talk to Anna?"

"Uh, no… I'm not with her right now."

"Where are you?"

"I'm on my way to Light's."

"Oh!" she squeaked.

I frowned. "We're…. Ah. Did you hear about Misa?"

The grin disappeared. "Yeah," she answered softly.

"Yeah…." There was a pause. "Sierra… we all miss you, you know."

She smiled ever so slightly. "I… I know." She blinked. "Oh right! I called to ask you something!"

I chuckled. "And what's that?"

"Well, Mello and I started feeling each other's pain…."

"What?" I asked, surprised. "When?"

"Uh… I think last Wednesday. My question is how long it takes for the final stage to be reached…."

"It usually takes about a week, Sierra… so it'll happen soon."

Sierra laughed weakly. "Oh, that's great. Real great. So according to that it'll happen tomorrow?"

"Yeah, but 'a week' is really more of an approximation than a definite thing, so…."

Wait, tomorrow we're kidnapping her, Sierra thought blankly. Oh, that'll go well. "Well… that's nice. That'll be so creepy…. Natalie, I don't wanna reach the final stage!" she wailed.

"I know, I know," I laughed. "But I can assure you it's not so bad once you're used to it."

"Ehh…."

"It'll be fine, Sierra," I assured her.

"But… it just doesn't… work."

"It will. I promise. It's how the Bond works. It can't go any other way…."

"Still creepy, Natalie. Reeaallly creeepyyyy…."

"It won't be."

"I know, but still!"

"Hey, at least you're warned about it. Light and I had no idea, you know."

She frowned. "Well, that's true. Um, I should probably get going, though."

"Alright, that's fine. It's getting late anyway…."

"Yeah," Sierra agreed. "Well I'm glad all of you are doing alright, and I hope I see you again soon! Bye!" she squeaked, and flipped the cell phone shut. She stared at it a moment, then looked out to the wall of windows. A waxing moon hung in the sky. "I guess it's today then," she sighed, and went over to her bedside table to set her cell there. She opened the drawer and pulled out a piece of paper and a pen. No way in hell was she saying it aloud, so she was taking Matt's suggestion and writing it down for him. Hopefully he wouldn't be stupid and say "What?" anyhow, because then she'd have to say it aloud either way. She huffed. Stupid Matt, making her do this in the first place.

She went out of her room and turned to the left, towards Mello's room. She frowned deeply at the closed door, and knocked. You know you can come in, Sierra, Mello thought to her, as if it were obvious.

"Well, meh," she muttered, and opened the door.

Close the door, would you? The light's annoying. She did so. "Sierra, do you remember what happened on Sunday night?"

Sunday night? she thought confusedly. No, she hadn't done much. Sunday was the day Mello had actually given her a hug, the day she'd nearly let go of that railing, the day she had lunch with Matt on the roof, and after that not much had happened…. "What are you talking about?"

"I didn't think you did," was his response. He sighed. He was sitting in an alcove with the window in front of him, walls on either side of him, nearly enclosing him. Technically, he had a wall of windows just like Sierra, but the alcove was a little addition that Mello seemed to enjoy, if only slightly.

"What happened?" she asked.

"I went to your subconscious again, that's all." And I…. His thoughts trailed off.

"You what?" A fleeting thought of a hand outstretched to reach her.

"Nothing. So what did you want?" He actually looked back at her. "I'm going to guess you didn't come in here just to say hi."

She clutched the paper and pen to her chest. "Matt dared me to do something."

She felt that he was vaguely irritated. "Oh really? What'd he dare you to do?"

"Tell you my deepest secret."

He frowned. "Isn't that one of those things you don't ever tell someone anyhow? What the hell, Matt?"

"Well, I guess his logic was the fact that we're going to reach the final stage soon anyway."

He frowned. "Well, you don't have to tell me, whatever it is."

"But it's a dare. And I don't back down from dares."

He looked at her for a second, then shrugged. "Alright, go ahead."

"But I'm not saying it aloud. I'm going to write it down."

"Then come over here so you can actually see in the moonlight."

"But I can see just fine."

"I can't see what you're writing over there," he pointed out with another frown. "Now, I don't give a shit about dares, but if you're going to follow through with this, you're gonna have to come over here. It's not like I'm gonna hurt you."

"Alright," she mumbled, and began scribbling her words as neatly as she could. Thinking on how this would look, she grew even more embarrassed about it. It couldn't be subtle as if she brought it up in conversation. She'd have to just hold it up, and he'd read it and suddenly know. God damn it, which was better, saying it or writing it? Well, writing it was easier, so….

She finished writing the sentence down.

Turning the page so the letters were facing her, she began walking towards Mello. Mello, typically, was getting impatient, but that was how he always was, so it was only to be expected. He shifted to allow her to sit in the alcove with him, which surprised her but she accepted. She sat beside him with her legs curled beneath her.

"Soo…," she said awkwardly.

He eyed the paper, but didn't bring it up. "Do you know how long it takes to reach the final stage?" he asked her.

"I talked to Natalie…. She says it'll happen real soon, since it usually takes around a week for it to happen after you start feeling each other's pain."

"Huh," he responded. "That'll be interesting, won't it?" He snapped off a piece of his chocolate.

"It'll be creepy," said Sierra.

"It might be a little… unnerving, yeah."

"Yeah…." She sighed, looking at the paper. "Well, Matt dared me to tell you this…."

"You know, it's just a dare."

"But I never back down on them. It's who I am."

He looked at her for a second, then nodded. "I guess so."

"So…." She felt her face heat up just enough that she'd be blushing, so she quickly flipped the paper around, hanging her head so her hair was in her face to hide the red. "Stupid, isn't it?" she asked.

He read it once. Read it again.

I love you.

He looked away.

Sierra waited for his response. 'Wow, really? That's it?' or maybe some sort of rejection. He coughed, and she looked up. He was looking out the window, careful to avert his gaze from hers. He muttered something.

"…What?" she asked quietly, unsure whether she wanted to know.

"I…." He scowled.

Holy shit, was he going red?

Sierra blinked.

"I like… er…."

Mello, the tough guy, was awkward. Comes with being a Wammy kid, I guess.

What is he getting at? she wondered with wide, blank eyes.

"I… I love you too," he muttered, glaring out the window. There was silence for a few seconds.

"…You do?" she asked blankly.

Something shifted in his features, though she wasn't sure what. "Of course I do," he frowned, and looked to her.

"But I annoy you and you don't give me hugs and you hate me and—"

"I don't hate you!" he snapped, looking straight at her. "…And that doesn't mean I don't…." He scowled again, unable to finish the sentence.

"You…," she said blankly. Her mind didn't quite process it. It didn't seem right, knowing it was Mello. I mean, Mello, of all people. (Perhaps she'd twisted his character a bit too, hadn't she?)

"Yes," he said, looking right at her again.

"Uh…." She honestly didn't know how to respond. Okay, they'd admitted the thing neither of them could ever admit. Now what?

He hesitated for a second, but then brought his lips onto hers. And it was a conscious decision this time, not one of those kisses they always had where it occurred and a second after they had no idea what had happened. And they'd deny it as if it didn't happen. But this did; it had to because they had admitted it.

Sierra's eyes were still wide open at first, but they closed and she almost felt happy. It was nice. She awkwardly wrapped her arms around his neck, and he responded by placing his own hands on her back, holding her close. She thought about how he tasted like chocolate, but of course what else would he taste like? And she tasted of chocolate too, but also of tea, and Mello thought that maybe he liked that tea. And in that alcove, they didn't part.

"Well then," said Matt, eyeing the surveillance screens. He took a drag of his cigarette. A minute before, he'd gotten the surveillance camera's working. He'd checked to make sure all of the cameras worked, and they did. He just didn't expect to see the whole 'Mello and Sierra making out' thing. "Isn't this interesting?" he asked no one, and snickered to himself. He guessed his dare had gone well after all. He wondered how he'd let them know he'd seen everything….

Oh, Matt.

I have to say I am still not proud of any of my fluff scenes.

...One day I want to make a scene just like that, but when the girl flips over the paper, it's something completely different that just ruins the moment that the reader was expecting. xD

Fun Fact: That scene also has a name, just like the Cake Scene has a name. This was called the Alcove Scene.
Creative, I know.
So all I had to do was mention an alcove to get Real-Life Sierra to whack me over the head.

Review? For alcoves?