Looseleaf
CXXIII. Chase
"You won't beat me this time!" Mello cried, ordering himself to run faster. And run faster he did, darting forward along the narrow edge of a wall, eyes wild, trained on a single person that was in front of him.
Near.
The albino was skipping - no, literally - away, getting farther by each second.
But eventually, Mello caught up to him, and the blond reached out, barely touching a strand of that damned curly white hair...
Then his foot hit a groove and he stumbled, losing his balance. He teetered off to the right once, only to have gravity pull him down to the left.
And he was falling. Falling down, down, down, into an empty blackness, and Mello flailed his arms, trying hard to hold on to something that would prevent this fa-
"Mello," Matt said boredly, nudging his best friend's head with his shoe. "The hell are you doing on the ground?"
Pausing mid-screech, Mello blinked and open his eyes, squinting up. "None of your business," he snapped.
"You were screaming Near's name," Matt mused, taking a drag of his cigarette. "Is this what your obsession has led you to?"
"You s-shut up," Mello growled, getting up haughtily and brushing himself off. "And if this gets out, I'm going to kill you." As he strode away, he thought to himself, Because L's successors aren't supposed to daydream about chasing Near-bunnies.