Chapter three: The potion.

I let both my arms hang limp at my sides though I still hold the knife and I head over to my desk. I put the knife down on it and I grab the two papers stapled together that is sitting there on the wooden top of the desk in my room, only moving one hand to do so. "The answer lies right here. In what started as an innocent project." I turn to face Mello again but my eyes stay on the paper. "Sometimes I hate that he had to come up with it but sometimes I am grateful because without it then I would not be here." I look up to Mello who is taking in everything he is seeing as well as hearing.

He makes a move to move closer to me to grab the papers but I move closer to him and I keep the papers from his grasp when he tries to grab it from me only trying once.

"Are you sure you want to know?" I raise an eyebrow. "Are you really sure you want to know how this all started?"

"You make sound as if it'll be scarring." Mello snorts almost in laughter.

I shrug. "Maybe I am making it sound that way but once I let you know then you cannot share this information since I do not appreciate others poking into this as that is not needed."

"Just give me the damn paper you freak." Mello growls.

I narrow my eyes at him and I turn away going back to the desk putting the paper back. "No." I say plainly.

Mello growls a little louder. "You fucker."

I glance over my shoulder at him. "It looks like you want to hit me." I say a little smugly.

"Damn straight." Mello snarls.

I chuckle. "But even if you do hit me you must remember one thing." I turn to face him and tilt my head coyly as I slightly lean back against the desk putting my hands on it's surface. "It wouldn't be just me you are hitting."

Mello clenches his teeth and clenches his fists. "Give back Near this instant. I am sick of you." He growls a little lowly but loud enough for me to hear.

My face falls to a frown and I narrow my eyes slightly. "You really think I am just going to do as you say? You crack me up when you are being a baka. Oh wait you seem to be dumber than my observations told me and what Near's mind told me so I should just say idiot instead of baka so you can understand me."

Mello snarls and marches towards me but only makes it half way when I speak again.

"You know that you can show me you are smarter than you are coming out to be. Just do the right thing and join me. I promise it truly is fun." I hum softly after speaking.

"You really think I am going to join some fucker like you? You crack me up." He smirks slightly. "You are the baka here."

I clench my teeth and I let my eyes fall under the shadows cast from my bangs to make them seem to be glowing softly as I stare at him and I stop leaning against the desk pushing myself up to stand. I go over ways to kill him in my head and prepare to move to grab the knife. "How dare you." I growl and am about to move to grab the knife then kill him but am stopped when I feel something inside me push me down as if trying to gain control over my body. I growl again and look down to the ground shaking my head as I take a step then another back.

"Brend? Or Near? What is going on?" Mello demands.

I snarl. "Don't you dare try to regain control." I talk to myself out loud then I glance to Mello angrily with blood red colored eyes still. "I will not give in and you will speak to me!" I tell him voice full of anger but it also sounds like my voice is strained with something as the battle on the inside continues but I do my best to stay in control.

Mello understands the instant our eyes meet and he moves a few steps closer. "Brend. Just let Near come out." He tells me. "Let him have control over his body."

"You do not control me!" I snarl and clench my fist then I slouch slightly as if in slight pain and I raise my hands towards my head but stop myself from gripping my hair that was caused by the battle inside of me. "You are not helping." I growl to myself. "Just stop trying to come out."

"Near." Mello speaks. "Don't let Brend win."

I lower my hands to my sides again and I rise to stand normally as I stare at Mello. "Do not get involved this does not concern you." I tell him.

"It does." He growls. "You are nothing but a fucker taking over Near's body and you should just disappear."

I am about to reply when suddenly I start to see darkness. "Damn it." I growl. "I'll let him win this time." I then only see darkness that also comes with silence.

Mello's P.O.V.

I see Near's eyes start to close and he starts to sway ever so slightly as if about to faint. I know that the fight inside either is getting too intense or Near is winning as I saw an internal fight when I looked into Brend's eyes.

"Damn it." He growls. "I'll let him win this time." He suddenly faints after that.

I rush over to him catching him before he hits the floor. I may not like him for being number one and always winning against me but for some reason I grew an attraction towards him over the years. I hated it for quite a while but eventually accepted it after not being able to get rid of it for years. I found it doesn't bug me like it used to. "Near?" I shift him in my arms to pick him up bridal style and I bring him over to the bed. I lay him down on it. 'I wonder if he actually won or if Brend is still trying to win.' I wonder in my head. I glance to the desk remembering the paper but I look back to Near and am torn between waiting for him to wake up staying right beside him just in case or finding out what made Brend. I luckily don't have to ponder on it at all as Near starts to stir.

He groans and his eyes scrunch up like someone waking up but not wanting to.

I move to my knees beside the bed and wait for Near to wake. I am glad that I closed the door as I may have accepted my feelings with myself but I am not up to showing it to everyone, not to mention that they would think I have or am doing something horrible to him if I was caught in here especially with him out cold. I push that thought aside as his head shifts slightly so his face is looking up instead of facing me and I think he might have gone back into unconsciousness instead of deciding to wake up. I notice that Brend must be keeping him up or that Brend comes out a lot at night as Near looks so tired but he had hid it so well. I hate Brend even more than I did before.

Surprisingly I hate Brend even more than the guy that always seems to be hitting on Near by talking with him and always having to do a simple touch like a hand on Near's shoulder despite constantly being rejected by Near.

I'll say it's not a surprise that the boy, named Tory at least in alias, has ended up in the infirmary quite a bit.

Near doesn't seem to be waking at the moment and he is pretty tired so maybe I should just let him rest then I can check out the paper.

I glance back to the desk. I want to find out how Brend happened so I can start looking for ways to get rid of him.

Near groans causing me to look back to him and he shifts his head in a tiny slow shake before his eyes open half way as he finds himself staring at the ceiling.

I know it is Near as he has his normal wonderful stormy grey eyes. "You're awake." I say a little relieved that he is ok, other than being tired, well as far as I can tell.

He looks to me and blinks opening his eyes to half way then he blinks once more as his eyes open fully. "Mello." He shifts and starts to sit up but stops only to bring a hand to his head with a groan as his eyes scrunch closed indicating a headache.

I move my arms around him so I can gently guide him back to lying down and I get ready to get him to lie down again. "You should lie down some more."

"The headaches go away in about a minute at most usually." Near tries to assure me as he opens his eyes again but watches his wrist instead of looking at me.

"Do they always come after changing back?" I ask him.

"No. It only happens when I try to fight for control like that. Usually he just lets me have control at some point after changing so I usually just wait for that as there's not as much risk of something going wrong. Like possibly Brend pushing me back far enough that he will stay out longer while I can't do a thing as he wreaks havoc. So I'm fine." He explains and let's go of his head. He seems to remember why he was fighting Brend in the first place as Brend came out with me here and most likely knowing Brend a lot better than me he probably already decoded what happened. He looks to me with eyes that look terrified and he grips my shirt. "Mello! Whatever Brend said don't listen!"

I blink surprised he doesn't seem to know what actually happened. "It's alright I didn't accept his offer." I assure him. "But do you really not remember what happened?"

Near let's go of me looking relieved and I gently guide him to lie down again letting go of him when he is lying down. "I don't remember right away as whenever one comes out it takes a moment for the other to settle enough inside so I don't remember what happened after I changed well I don't remember right away. I'll remember just give it a moment." He glances past me to the desk and it takes about two seconds then his eyes widen as the memories appear to come rushing back to him.

"And there it is." I confirm as he calms down but I see a faint hint of a blush on his cheeks. I smirk. "Yeah Brend really was trying to seduce me." I confirm.

"I'm sorry if he caused you any trouble." Near says and is about to sit up again but I put a hand on his chest keeping him from getting up.

"Just stay lying down right now. Brend keeps you up at night I can tell so rest right now. Your body probably really needs it." I tell him.

He shakes his head. "I'll be ok." He sits up and my hand slides off his chest to fall to my side. "You know about Brend now so I might as well not keep you in the dark." He moves to get up and I get to my feet not sure if he's going to fall from exhaustion or not.

"Brend knows he needs energy as well so he does give me some time to rest some days." He assures me as he stands.

"I think you should rest though." I tell him.

"I'll rest later." He goes over to the desk and I hover by him. He glances to the knife and becomes tense so he quickly grabs it opening one of the desk drawers throwing the knife in before slamming it shut. He relaxes with a soft breath of relief that could have been easily missed. He grabs the paper, letting go of the drawer handle, and turns to me with it in his hands. "This is the potion that started it all."

"Potion? Well I guess I should have seen it coming with the toys and such." I hum softly.

"I just had to pick a word that would not confuse the people who are dumber than us at this place so I ended up going with potion. Plus it seemed fitting." He shrugs it off and offers the paper to me.

I take the paper and look at it. I notice there is more as there is a staple on the corner. I find the front page is the how to make.

"The potion was meant to bring out the strongest emotion within someone. I was making it for the Whammy's project. Everything was a success and I finished it by early evening. I just needed to test it. So I decided to drink it." He explains.

I look up from the paper to look to him. "You actually drank something that you weren't sure how it was going to react?"

"Everything seemed fine and it was all a success besides I wasn't just going to ask someone to drink it. I drank it to complete the final test before deeming it a success so I could use it for the project. It failed as you can guess." He clarifies it for me.

"I see." I nod.

He was only making it sure it worked as a final test and with everything pointing to it actually working he would have had no doubts with himself about it.

"So that's when Brend first showed up." I say piecing it together easily.

"Pretty much." He starts twirling a strand of hair. "I only managed to drink half of it before I ended up fainting. I woke up when it was night. However I didn't wake up as me. I woke up as Brend." He shivers at the memory. "Let's just say it's something I won't forget but something I wish I could. I wish I could forget everything Brend ever did and act like he never came to be but that wouldn't be possible until Brend is no longer a part of this planet…. Though even if I manage to stay alive after getting rid of Brend I doubt the horrifying memories will ever go away. That damned knife is from the first time I changed to Brend." He looks away ashamed. "I never wanted to hurt anyone." He says softly.

I feel so sorry for him and I really want to just hug him but I still have my pride as I am not just some sissy who hugs people out of pity… even if it is Near… Gotta focus! "We'll get rid of him. We just need to find a way how. Besides keeping it all inside won't make you feel better. It may or may not help us get him to dance in hell where he belongs but you can tell me whatever he has done." I don't look at him as I pretend to focus on the paper in my hands.

Sounding even just a little sappy is not like me at all. DAMN IT TO FUCKING HELL!

"Thank you Mello." His voice is full of gratitude which catches me a little off guard and I look to him.

Our eyes meet and my heart melts as I stare into those adorable grateful eyes staring back into my own.

"Yeah whatever." I try to shrug it off acting normal but I look away trying to keep my slight blush from his sight.

Suddenly I am hugged and I almost jump.

I quickly look to him completely surprised.

"Really. Thank you." He looks up at me and let's go taking a step back.

I seem to have fallen in a trance that has me just completely lost in thought though they all consistently revolve around 'He hugged me. He actually hugged me!'

"Mello. You're blushing." His voice snaps me back to reality and I blink.

Am I?

I glance away. "It's just that I am feeling a little warm. Your room must be warmer than mine." I lie.

He giggles softly, Giggled!

I snap my head back to him.

He smiles at me looking happy.

I feel my heart skip a beat at seeing him happy…. Did I really just make him giggle and be happy?

It has to be the side effects of the potion… late side effects right?

His happiness doesn't last as a thought crosses his mind.

I feel the urge to take whatever thought crossed his mind that made him no longer happy and destroy it sending it to the deepest pits of hell only to bring it back so I can kill it again only to send it deeper into hell.

"I doubt there is actually a way to get Brend to no longer be a part of this world. I have tried and tried using the potion then any other way I could think of but nothing works. I have come up with the last solution not too long ago." He tells me.

I put down the paper. I can look at it more later after I hear his way to get Brend to forever be gone from this world. "Let's hear it."

He looks me right in the eye for a moment but glances away showing that he is hesitating to tell me. "The only way left is for me to die. Since he needs my body as well me to survive as far as I have found out then if I die both of us die."