August 23, 2002

4 years, 3 months, 0 days prior to Incident

Sakura stared.

The boy stared back, twirling a lock of hair with his finger.

She stared some more, her hands curling into tight fists on her thighs.

The boy calmly met her gaze, his face expressionless.

Sakura finally gave into the urge.

Her hand reached out to ruffle the fluffy white hair.

"You have a cloud on your head," she informed him, her fingers eagerly combing through the silky strands.

"... I see."

Sakura wasn't sure what it was that he saw, but she could do this forever.

Matt wondered if maybe he'd stayed up too late playing on his handheld last night. There was no way what he was seeing was actually what he was seeing… right?

He was dreaming. Yes, that was it, this was just a lucid dream -

"What the hell are you doing here!" Mello roared.

There was still a chance that this was a dream. Sure his ears were in pain, but that was from experience and expectation. He expected that Mello would explode if he ever saw Near, and he'd experienced the pain of having his friend yell in his ear more than often.

Dream, dream, dream, dream...

Aww, come on! Why does Near get to have a cute girl play with his hair, but not me?

This was an awfully sucky dream.

Dream-Roger stood up. "Boys, there you were! We couldn't find any trace of you for a whole month, so we finally had Near take a look; he tracked you to this apartment. The young lady was kind enough to inform us where you'd been."

The aforementioned boy was sitting on the floor playing with a blank puzzle, with Sakura sitting on the couch directly behind him. Near's back lightly brushed against her legs as the pinkette's fingers playfully twisted his white curls into twin devil horns.

Matt stiffened at the sudden waves of unadulterated hatred crashing around him.

Was it Mello? Or Backup?

Matt glanced behind him.

It was both. Mello for obvious reasons (Near) and B for different but equally obvious reasons (Sakura was intimately touching another male). All straggling hopes of this being a dream were dashed into a million pieces. This level of loathing was unduplicable.

Mello's roared, "I'm not going anywhere with Near!" didn't send half as many shivers down his back as B's silkily murmured, "Who said you could touch him... Sa-ku-ra?"

To Matt's horror, Sakura glared at B and gave a lock of Near's hair one last rebellious twirl. She then turned to Roger.

"Sorry, I'm being an awful host. Would you like some more tea?"

"That would be wonderful, thank you."

Sakura picked up a teacup and a empty glass off the coffee table. As she went off into the kitchen, Roger continued his earlier lecture, but in English. "You have to, Mello. Running off to Japan without a word, what were you three thinking? Do you know how worried we were? What made you think this was a good idea? Imagine what Watari would say about this! L would be ashamed of having you as his successors."

Matt didn't particularly care how ashamed L would supposedly be, but Mello was obviously furious at the words. B, on the other hand, was glowering in the direction of the kitchen. The gamer decided that he'd never seen anything as demonic as B looked at that moment, and was more than relieved when Sakura stomped back out.

"Here," she said, shoving a jar of strawberry jam at the demon - er, at Backup. She made her way to the coffee table and placed her tray - bearing five different beverages - down, sliding a steaming cup in front of Roger and a tall glass of ice tea in front of Near. She grabbed a watermelon smoothie for herself and plopped right back to the position she was in when they'd first come in, playing with Near's hair again without a second thought.

Matt cautiously watched as B stared intently at Sakura, the jar gripped tight in his hand. The psychopath was clearly determining whether or not he was still mad.

Luckily for the health of everyone involved, he settled on 'not mad' and went over to sit beside Sakura, leaning against her as he popped the jam's lid open.

After Roger-san finally convinced Mello to board the same place as Near, and Sakura had dealt with Beatus's reluctance to leave with the assurance that he could come next summer, the motley collection relocated to the front entrance of Sakura's apartment building.

"Matt, Mello, I really am glad we met. Feel free to come visit next year too."

"You aren't so bad yourself," Mello told her, smirking. He waved over his shoulder as he got into the waiting car.

Matt grinned and surreptitiously handed her a mobile. "Unattributable, unbillable, untraceable, untappable, unstoppable, all that good stuff. The only number in there is mine. Feel free to hit me up." He winked and got into the car as well.

"Don't call him. No, on second thought call him often, and ask for me." Beatus glared after the goggled boy from where he was draped over her, before squeezing her tight. "Chibi-chan, I'll miss you!"

"Me too," she said. Surprisingly, it was only half a lie. He grinned at her - really, he was getting better at that, it only made her a little queasy - and sauntered off.

And then there were two.

Near stood in front of her, his feet clad only in socks despite standing on the cement sidewalk.

"Goodbye, Fuyuno Sakura."

She blinked.

He knew her name?

… Of course he did. The trio had called her name several times, and her family name was in the intercom system. It wasn't exactly a difficult stretch.

"Goodbye. I hope we'll meet again someday, Near-san."

"Hope will not be necessary," he told her, before padding towards the car.

The black vehicle drove away, and Sakura stared after it, wondering what Near meant.

Fuyuno Sakura - age 12, 2nd year junior high

Matt - age 12, education unknown

Mello - age 12, education unknown

BB - age 15, education unknown

Near - age 10, education unknown

AN

Near's birthday would have been the next day. He's one year younger than Sakura, not two. And he may have looked like he wasn't paying attention to the interaction between Sakura and B, but believe me, he was. Very much so.

SHEEP BOY GOT THE HAIR FONDLING TREATMENT WHOOO

The five beverages: Earl Grey tea (Roger), sweet ice tea (Near), Mountain Dew (Matt), chocolate milk (Mello), watermelon smoothie (Sakura)

She's much more subtle about her food cravings than Mello or BB or L, but Sakura seriously loves watermelon. A lot. None of that stereotypical strawberry or cherry stuff, it's watermelon all the way!

Reviews

Candy Dream: That's precisely it! Lots and lots of tsun tsun. XD

animagirl: Thanks! There's no specific end pairing - or at least I won't decide on it so early on - but rest assured, there will be LightSaku.