My friend (CRF – anonymous reviewer) forced me to put his 'username' in the disclaimer. That's right, forced. ;)

A pretty quick update, regarding my updating patterns, isn't it? Well, I felt motivated, but I really shouldn't be writing to this, right now. I've got SO many essays to write.

…

I hate being a senior.

Also, with Fanfiction's new allowance of 'Book Covers', I decided to upload one which is an image that a Deviant Art friend (MasuyoAraki) commissioned for me of Hood holding a doll of Beyond.

Song: State Of Love And Trust – Pearl Jam

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Chapter 27: Piece To The Puzzle

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Beyond found himself facing the mirror on his desk, again. Only this time, it was cracked and broken, giving barely a decent reflection off of it. Hood stood behind him, completely unsure of what to do while she observed his messy black hair that definitely needed a wash. She had almost backed out of cutting his hair for him after he sat down with a thump and told her where his knife was located; in his pants. Not in his pockets. In his pants, between his hip and the waist band of his jeans that barely clung on to him anymore after all the weight he seemed to have suddenly dropped.

She couldn't help but to blush while Beyond continued to coax her to get it for him.

"Why can't you just pull it out for me?" She argued, voice slightly choking up out of embarrassment.

"I'm not touching it." He told her. "I already told you, I can't trust myself right at this moment."

Pervert. "You set this up, didn't you?" Hood hissed, hands gripping tightly onto the back of Beyond's chair.

"Somehow, I wish I did. Your reaction is priceless. Now come on, I won't bite." His menacing smirk sent a shiver up her spine, leaving an unpleasant feeling to settle in her stomach.

With a deep sigh of defeat and the thought 'how bad can it be?' echoing in her mind, she reached across his body, subconsciously leaning down till her face was right beside his and lifted up the hem of his shirt and the first thing she saw was the red enamel casing of his switchblade contrasting against his pale white skin.

Her eyes slid across, checking his expression which gave away nothing of any of his thoughts to her, as much to her disappointment. Lightly, her thumb and forefinger gripped onto the sides of the knife's casing and she went to tug it out until Beyond tightly grabbed onto her wrist, rendering the limb immobilised.

"What's the matter?" She asked him, when he said nothing and his expression remained blank. She couldn't see his eyes behind his thick black hair anymore, and that was what unnerved her. She felt her blood run cold as the silence pulled on and his grip grew tighter. A sharp pain throbbed from her wrist and her hand shot open. A wince of pain made its way across her mouth. "Beyond! Let go!" She tugged at his own wrist with her other hand, trying to pry it away, but the moment she spoke, he let go.

"Can you just hurry up and get the fucking knife? Do you think I want to trust it to your care? Hurry up." He hissed.
L wouldn't do that. He'd wait. He would wait forever if he had to. He'd be still, he'd be silent. God, you're pathetic. A rhythmic voice thrummed through his mind.

There was something about the next stretch of silence that scared Hood more than the fact at how deep and almost animalistic Beyond's voice merged into when he snapped at her. The corner of his lips twitched as he stiffened. Hood kept her distance from him as he sat, still as set stone.

She was gripping onto her throbbing wrist, waiting for the pain to fade. She didn't know what to say to him. She didn't know why she even wanted to say something to him. He was sick. He was sadistic. The moment he grew bored of her, she wormed her way in front of him again and renewed his interest in her.
I'm the sick one. Hood realised.
She didn't know why she wanted to be near him. All she knew was that she felt addicted to his attention; like she needed it. It was more than just wanting. She craved it. It was everything, to her.

From his seat, Beyond stood, steadying himself against his desk as the dizziness inside of his mind turned the world askew. He ached for food and ached for sleep but ignored the urges as he took one heavy step after the other, towards her. She was gripping her wrist and her hand was slack. It wasn't busted and it wasn't broken, Beyond knew, but something about the way she held it made him doubt his judgement.

Hood lowered her eyes when he approached her, but she made no move to escape him as Beyond held his hand out, wide and open. Reluctantly, she placed her sore hand in his and he brought it up closer to his face for observation.
Instead of studying her wrist like he intended to do, his eyes wandered and he found that his eyes were caught on hers. They were dull blue in colour, but wide and youthful and her lips were pale and thin with barely a blush of red to them.

"It's not broken, if that's what you were wondering." He let his tongue swipe across his bottom lip, even though his hunger was quite suddenly forgotten. Hood said nothing in response, perhaps not fully convinced. "You can still move it, can't you?" He asked, finally getting a response from her as she nodded half-heartedly. "Move it, then." He challenged, and as he said that, she twitched her fingers, but made no move to pull away from his grip. A smirk threatened to pull across Beyond's lips but he pressed it back down, trying to keep his expression as flat as possible. To be perfect. "Good, you can still cut my hair, then."

A blush crossed her cheeks when she remembered where exactly his knife was and Beyond almost laughed. "Oh." Was all she said, as she pulled her hand out of his.

Beyond stayed completely still as Hood held her breath without realising, when she took a step closer to him and lifted up his shirt to reveal his warm skin and the enamel casing of his switchblade, yet again. She didn't even think when she brushed her fingers against his stomach and his sharply jutting hip before pulling out his knife in one swift movement. She looked up to check Beyond's expression for reassurance, but all he gave her was a twitching half smile that sent the hairs on the back of her neck to stand on end.

Beyond, one foot after the other, crouched down in his seat, cupping his knees in the palms of his hands and stared flat in the broken mirror without so much as batting an eyelash. His smirk had been wiped off completely.
Hood bit the inside of her cheek, wondering why one minute he was violent and the next, he was calm and quiet and… crouching in his seat… She knew Beyond was, well, mental, but she couldn't understand why he was acting so strange – stranger than usual.

Beyond noticed the way her eyebrows knotted together, as if she were conflicted with thought. He resisted the urge to lick his lips again. Instead, he placed a thumb against the bottom of his lip. "What's on your mind?" He asked her, void of emotion.

"Nothing." She shook her head, flicking Beyond's knife so the blade popped out with one delicious, swift noise.

"Tell me." His voice grew harder, with a razor-like edge to it. He didn't mean to sound that harsh, but if it intimidated her, then it was worth it.
L doesn't need to be harsh to intimidate someone. You're just weak.

As much to her dislike, Hood caved in. "You're just… different today." She grabbed a lock of Beyond's hair from the back of his head and severed it off with his knife. "One second you're calm and the next, you try to… you hurt my wrist."

Beyond didn't respond. If you can't control your emotions, what hope do you have? You keep slipping up. You're pathetic. You'll never be L. You'll never be better than L. You're nothing.

Hood severed off another lock of hair, refusing to remove her eyes from the knife, as if cutting his hair was the most interesting thing in the world, but inside her mind, several thoughts were brewing.

What do I expect him to do? He's already told me that he's 'angry', and that was before he dragged me out of bed. Maybe I did something that is making him act this way?
Hood began to work on severing off the next few inches of Beyond's hair.

"I'm sorry."

Hood froze. Her eyes broke away from the knife and went straight to the cracked mirror. Beyond's red eyes were locked on hers, through the reflection. He still had no emotion present on his face, and the way he spoke was completely nonchalant, as if he didn't even care; as if he was mocking her. But the idea of him apologising - Beyond Birthday of all people, - it was almost disturbing. What was he apologising for? For grabbing her wrist a little too tight? But not for anything else he'd put her through – like cutting her back up, or slapping her, or scaring the wits out of her non-stop? For being insensitive to her? For being insensitive to everybody else?
No. She didn't care about any of that. From all she knew about him, Beyond Birthday would never apologise about anything. Either something was up with him – like he had a second agenda – or he was turning into a different person… From those two options, the only one Hood found likely was the former. The latter was far too out-there to be true. Especially for him.

"Okay." Was all she said in response, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from his to return to hacking away at his hair. Was she searching for something in those unnerving eyes of his? What was it she expected to find? He was a mystery. His eyes were a mystery. Why are they red?

She nearly found herself asking that question, but a certain fiery fear inside of her belly told her not to. Forcibly, she ripped her gaze from him and with one fast movement and cut off a handful of hair. As she did so, she immediately dropped the knife to the floor, sending it scattering just as shock slapped itself across her nerves. Hood pulled away from him as a stinging pain made itself evident as blood began to seep out from the slash mark across three of her fingers.

"You better not have broken that knife of mine!" Beyond growled, jumping from his seat before hesitantly picking it up with his thumb and forefinger and folding it as carefully as he could before he even considered seeing the wound on Hood's hand. "That's the last time I let you hold it for me." His voice lowered into a grumble as he placed it on the centre of his desk before padding over to her. "Let me see." He sighed, holding his hand out for her. Gingerly, Hood placed her hand in his, relishing in his comfort while it lasted.

"It's nothing, really." Hood attempted to shrug off, wincing at the throb the knife-wound gave off.

Beyond couldn't help it. He licked his lips again before letting his tongue descend down upon a drop of blood rolling down the length of her middle finger and followed it up by placing the tip of her finger in his mouth.

Hood attempted to pull her hand away from him as disgust pooled through her, but what was she to expect with someone as weird as Beyond? A blood fetish was certainly something new to add to the list.

Beyond held her hand firmly, swiping his tongue across the wound on her finger once more before pulling away and copying the action with her forefinger. His tongue felt soft, as strange as it was to Hood. He flicked away the blood across the slash on her finger before letting her remove her hand, completely forgetting about the third, still bleeding finger. Hood wiped her hand on her jeans, making a mental note to wash her hands as soon as she could, whenever she got the chance.

Beyond didn't miss Hood's reaction, clearly etched out on her perfect, fine features. You're a freak. A voice inside of him screamed.

A smirk pulled across his lips as he put away his sketchy 'L' persona and grabbed onto both sides of Hood's face, weaving his fingers in her hair as he forced her mouth open with his tongue and bit down on her bottom lip and soon biting the tip of her tongue. She struggled underneath him, trying to pull away from his embrace, but Beyond held her head tightly between his hands, keeping her from leaving; keeping her from running. He kissed her again on the lips, hard and rough, surely enough to bruise his mouth and hers as he pushed her backwards. Hood took steps in the direction he was pushing her so as not to trip and soon found herself shoved up against a wall, with no escaping. She felt the scars on her back sting at the impact as Beyond pinned her by holding his hand around her neck, only a squeeze away from choking her.

She wasn't given the space to even consider kissing him back or pushing him away as Beyond held her stiff, attacking her mouth with his, attacking her neck, attacking her jaw. He was hungry and animalistic and deep down, Hood knew she didn't want him to stop; but the moment that thought passed through her mind, Beyond hastily pulled away from her. Hunching his shoulders, he trudged back into his seat, crouching low as if he were a scared little child, but Hood knew that the notion of that was utterly ridiculous.

"We cannot let ourselves get distracted by lustrous activities." His voice was flat. It wasn't his voice he was speaking through; there was no malice behind it, no dark undertones, and there were no silent growls hissing at the ends of each word. It was flat and it was monotone. "Now come, finish cutting my hair, and don't slip and… bleed."

Hood's heart was beating a mile a minute and her hands were growing clammy. She nodded at him and slowly stepped over, picking up the knife on Beyond's desk.

She didn't understand him. He was a puzzle to her; a puzzle that needed solving. And, unashamedly, she liked puzzles.

Beyond never removed his eyes from Hood through the cracked, broken, and dirty mirror. He watched the thin, sharp numbers floating above her head as they continued to flash like blinding white lights, forming and melting and merging together until they became smaller and smaller, more worthless than the numbers they originated from, until the lifespan she had left was less than half of what it once was.
Beyond let a sickening smirk cross his features as she began to work on severing off thick locks of his hair.

.-.

Song; I Love It – Hilltop Hoods
(I feel like this song kind of goes with the chapter, for some retarded reason…)

Anyone get the feeling that Beyond is trying a little too hard to be L? I do. Definitely.

Anywho, anyone hear about how the Fanfiction Moderators are DELETING ACCOUNTS AND STORIES WITHOUT WARNING ON US! Well, I personally think that this is incredibly unfair. So guys, check your summaries and profile content. Make sure there are no mentions of lemons, smut, drugs, killin' yo' self, or anything remotely illegal for anybody under the age of 18. Seeing how there is no MA 18+ rating, we're technically not allowed to write lemons to post up here WHICH SUCKS!

Oh and guys, another reminder, FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK AND MAYBE POSSIBLY TUMBLR (not that I really post much stuff on there) ! I'm pretty sure there's a link to my teB360 Facebook page on my profile. There's also a poll among irrelevant information.

Also, REVIEW, MY PRETTIES!