Chapter eight:

"There's gotta be something around here." A male sighs as he digs through some shelves. "But the question is where." He continues to search until a book falls down onto the ground with a loud thunk. "Huh?" He turns to look and sees a book that has some dust on it while there is some dust floating around showing it hasn't been touched in awhile. He bends down and picks it up looking at the front cover. "What's this?" He frowns at the dust and tilts it away from him only to let out a big huff of air blowing the dust off. He tilts the book back to him when done and opens it flipping through it as he skins the pages. He stops on one page and takes a closer look before pulling back beaming. "This is it! I found it!" He slams the book closed then turns hurrying away from the shelf sneaking out of the building then tries to not bring attention to himself as he walks hurrying away.

Later...

Near is in his home looking at a map of the kingdom as he thinks. He almost jumps when there is a knock on the door. He turns wondering who that could be. He gets up and heads on over to the door opening it to find Matt who has a book clutched to his chest. "Matt." He begins his greeting but an excited Matt cuts him off.

"Near! You'll never believe what I found!"

Near blinks feeling rather curious about what it could be though he knows it has something to do with that book. "Alright come on in." He lets Matt in and the two settle in the living room as Matt sits on the floor with Near moving to do the same. "What have you found?" He asks as he begins to twirl a strand of his hair.

"This!" Matt proudly holds the book out to show Near.

Near asks silently 'what about this book?' But remains silent to wait for Matt to tell him.

"You see." Matt pulls the book back to himself and quickly flips through the pages as he continues to speak. "Within this book I found something that may help with our dilemma." He says. "Something that can be extremely useful considering our situation."

Near tilts his head as he watches Matt flip through a few more pages before stopping.

"Ah! Here it is!" Matt says as he stops. He looks back to Near with a smile. "My idea that it was just taking awhile was false." He begins. "So when I tried to figure out what we could do I came across this." He shows Near who takes a look soon noticing what Matt is talking about.

Near looks up to Matt. "Do you think it will work?" He asks.

Matt nods. "I believe that it will." He assures Near pulling the book away. "I bet Mello is here but we just can't see him." He says. "So he should know about this."

"But who will be the one we will use?" Near asks.

"Well as I was hurrying here I was thinking." Matt places the book on his lap. "Mello trusts me and he trusts you. I think that if anyone were to do it then it would be someone close to you both. Also I'm not sure if we should let the others know just yet."

"I can see your point." Near says quickly understanding what Matt is trying to say. "I will go to sleep and talk to Mello about this."

"Ok. I'll go get all that I can ready and you let me know tonight." Matt says getting to his feet.

"Ok." Near agrees and Matt leaves with that. Near gets up and heads over to the couch laying down closing his eyes. He manages to get to sleep rather quickly as he has been falling asleep quite well lately probably due to the fact that he meets up with Mello in his dreams.

"Near."

Near's eyes open to half way then as he looks to look to Mello his eyes open the rest of the way. His eyes meet Mello's and he quickly moves forward hugging Mello while stealing a kiss from the other as he closes his eyes again.

Mello kisses back with his eyes also closed and he wraps his arms around Near's waist.

Once they break apart they look into each others eyes lovingly with their foreheads leaning against each other.

"Mello. There is something I must talk to you about."

"I heard." Mello confirms. "And… though I am still a little protective about someone doing this… It might work…"

"But it won't be someone else. It'll be you." Near tells him.

Mello smiles. "Yeah. Guess you're right as long as it really does work." He confirms.

"Who do you think we should use?" Near questions. "There's no avoiding that part."

Mello looks slightly thoughtful before giving a slight sigh. "Well. I think Matt's right. He's the only one that I can think of in trusting him to do this. I trust him to not steal you from me, I trust him to not try to keep you after the whole thing is over and I believe that Matt will be the one that will let me remain in control of the situation for the amount of time that is needed."

Near nods. "We thought that it would be him and don't worry. I'm yours and yours alone. Always and forever."

Mello grins and gives Near a small kiss as Near returns it. "I love you Near."

"I love you too Mello." Near responds without hesitance.

"Stay here for a bit. We can be together here and give Matt time to get anything needed done." Mello suggests.

"Ok." Near says in agreement and cuddles against Mello happily.

Mello holds him close.

Later…

Matt and Near now sit in the living room on opposite ends of the three seater couch.

Matt has everything he needs on the coffee table and the two are staring at them. He finally turns to Near. "So… He confirmed our idea?" He asks knowing he should ask before doing anything.

Near nods. "He did and he agreed with letting you do this." He informs Matt.

Matt takes a deep breath. "This is kind of making me nervous to think what will happen." He admits rubbing a hand against the back of his head.

"But we trust you Matt. So we know you can do this." Near assures him.

Matt smiles lowering his hand to his side. "Thank you. Both of you I you're listening Mello." He turns to the water bottle of light green liquid. "Well… Guess we should do this. People will think that we are planning or something so they won't disturb us…"

Near nods. "Let's do this before we take too long and people suspect that something is up." He says knowing that if they take too long people might start asking questions and right now they don't need to worry about that.

"Yeah." Matt agrees picking up the water bottle leaving the other items that is a small bottle of lube that has a special ingredient mixed in to make sure that it keeps up with the spell and the book just in case something goes wrong so they can try to find out what happened. "Well. Here goes nothing." He opens it bringing the bottle to his lips tilting his head back to drink the liquid not stopping until all of it's gone.

Just like the book said.

He lowers his head putting the water bottle on the table with the cap being set next to it. He leans back with a heavy sigh.

They remain silent as they wait to see if it worked.