Authors note: Oh yay, another chapter. Read, review and enjoy.

Near was a friend of mine

Matt didn't like large places. Larger places meant more people and more people would mean that he would have to interact. He didn't spend all his time in cyberspace because he wanted to meet people face to face. It assumed that they wouldn't expect much out of him. He only believed that because by now everyone here should have seen how strange Near was and if they hadn't at least they would hear rumors. He inwardly begged that this wouldn't be as strenuous as his conversations with Mello but Near and Mello were one in the same. As stubborn as Mello was, Near was just as deadpan and condescending. He dealt with it at Wammy house. He could deal with it here. At least, he hoped that he could.

The damn door didn't open like it was supposed to. Automated doors were automated. That meant that once he got close enough they should have opened on their own. Instead he was stuck on a busy street while people flooded around him looking as him as if he were insane. He smiled awkwardly at a young woman who eyed him wearily from a café at the other side of the street. She didn't return it. He turned quickly putting his head down wishing that he would have somehow gotten the number before running out on Mello. It was clear that the blond and he wouldn't be talking anytime soon.

Minutes passed before the door actually opened on its own. He was greeted by an icy chill of air conditioning but there was no one on the lower level. He stood a firm step in not wanting to show fear at the first opportune moment but the longer he stood here the more he thought that something was going to jump out at him. Something did come, someone actually. A young woman with blond hair appeared from a side room watching him with interested but cold eyes.

"Who are you?" She questioned aloud as the door slid shut behind him. He didn't mean to but he took an involuntary step forward. "Strangers aren't welcome in this business. It's by appointment only."

He smirked, "Swanky business Near's running here in that case." His voice was light but he could tell by the way her shoulders tightened that he was in the right place. "I'm Matt, Near called me about two hours ago and requested that I come in."

She nodded a gun sliding out from nowhere. Somehow it wasn't nearly as frightening as when Mello did it, or as hot. He cursed inwardly. Mello should be the last person he was thinking about at a time like this. He held his hands up in surrender. "Where's the blond?" She questioned stepping forward her gun still raised. Her finger wasn't on the trigger though which was a relief.

He cocked an eyebrow, "Right in front of me." He gestured to her blond hair. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know that she was speaking of Mello. She frowned but didn't respond. "Mello didn't come here with me." He said. She was such a killjoy. "We're not on speaking terms right now."

She nodded lowering the gun as if that changed everything. She gestured with her hand. "Then come along." She turned heading back through the side door where he had watched her appear from. There they stood quietly waiting for an elevator to take them up.

If the hallway was weird standing in a closed space with her was worse. Matt's claustrophobia kicked in after only a few seconds and he couldn't figure out why. He busied himself with his hands in his pocket hoping she wouldn't try to break the tension by talking. He wasn't lucky enough. They still had fifteen more floors to go.

"Why didn't Mello come with you?" She questioned aloud and he instantly felt the prickling of annoyance in his ears. He pushed it down and shrugged. "Near said that he would come with you out of spite and I've never seen Near wrong." Her eyes had narrowed into close slits as if she were trying to read him.

In a slow casual move he pulled his goggles over his eyes. Checkmate. "He's busy." He replied his eyes sliding over to the indicator. Seven to go.

"He's still in the same business?" She asked airily. She was doing a terrible job not hinting that she had met Mello before and apparently they had something going on if she was so worried about him.

He leaned back. "We don't talk about his business." He replied just as lightly but he caught the flash in her eyes. She was taking him as a challenge. He wasn't going to fight her for Mello. She didn't understand the tree that she was barking up. The pretty box of Sex and Christianity tied together with a beautiful blue bow the same color as his eyes.

Deep down he could feel something stirring the more he thought about it. The secrets that he had been keeping all these years. They threatened with each passing second to rear up and swallow him whole. He couldn't breathe for a second. The elevator spun, closing and opening with his breathing and then it all stopped. It was only then that he realized that she was speaking to him.

"…Mafia." She frowned. "I'm surprised that he won't discuss those things with you. I guess you're not as close as I thought." He couldn't ignore the smirk that passed over her lip is he tried.

The door dinged and slid open. "Guess not." He mumbled pushing past her to get into the huge open room. To the right were computer monitors, hundreds of screens lined up flashing things from news programs to code. His eyes scanned over the chair turned towards them but it appeared to be empty. Besides himself and the blond woman there were three other people in the room. Two of which were armed to the tee the final was crouched in the middle of the floor stacking blocks with something in his hand.

Near didn't stop when Matt stepped into the room but he did glance up to show the other occupants of the room that he had been invited. "Matt." He said softly in his blank voice continuing to stack. "You did not bring Mello?"

Matt snorted, "We both know Mello brings himself. I couldn't bring him if I wanted." He watched a ghost smile curl over the others lips. The boy looked the same. Long white pajama sleeves and bottoms brushing over his hands and feet, white hair that brushed his neck and curled upward, and dark eyes that were circled dark with lack of sleep.

He nodded slowly finally setting his toys down. He looked up at Matt his hand instantly flying up to curl in his hair. Just like that Matt knew that they were down to business. "What was your expertise at Wammy house Matt?" His soft voice floated over watching with boredom but Matt knew better. The genius was working as it always was whether he was tired or bored.

"Hacking Near you know that." He didn't take any steps further into the room. Mostly because if something happened he wanted to be as close to the elevator as possible. He hardly believed Near would kidnap him but sometimes things between Near and Mello got out of control. He didn't want to transport back completely to those years at Wammy house. "What do you care about it?"

"I attempted to hack into a system that I believed belong to Kira." He said bluntly. "There I encountered two problems." Matt felt a growing uneasiness in everyone in the room but Near. The boy didn't seem to notice because he continued. "I encountered another hacker within the system that I had to evade off and moments after encountering said hacker another of a higher caliber came through and attempted to remove me from the system." Matt swallowed. "It was simple to remove the first hacker but the second that I can only assume the computer belonged to was of such a high caliber that after hours I wasn't any further in than when they began to attack me." He finger curled slowly, surely.

The red head didn't move. He knew he looked nervous. He knew it now that it was Near he had been battling but there was no way that he could have wound of working for Kira. Or was there? He had no remembrance of anything while he was…away locked in the recesses of his mind. He paled, oh hell. "I see."

"There are, of course, many hackers in the world and some of which are a very high caliber. Although, I attempted to reenter the same system the next day only to find that someone had completely rewritten the whole system. You are the only person that I know that is capable of something like that. It was you, wasn't it Matt?"

Matt shrugged, "What can I say, I'm good."

Near didn't seem to find it nearly as humorous. "Indeed. You do not deny working with Kira?"

Matt frowned, "No, I'm denying that. If I do I didn't know." He winced at his own words. In front of Mello it would have gained him nothing but a slap and a painful pin to the floor.

Near didn't do anything before cock his head to the side. "I see, in that case you won't mind being my person wire?" He questioned as Matt frowned. "If you're not working for him then the least you can do is agree."

Matt folded his arms over his chest. "And if I refuse?" He questioned aloud.

The smirk on Near's lips grew greatly. "Then you'll force my hand and I'll reveal your secret to Mello. I'm assuming that he still does not know?"

"He knows enough."

He nodded standing up and sliding across the floor. Matt watched wearily. He wasn't used to this. He reached forward onto the control panel pushing a flashing button.

"Near." Mello's voice broke the tensioned silence.

"Mello." Near answered softly.