B tried his hardest to pay attention in the forensics class, but the sunny weather after such a long period of cold kept his attention. It wasn't uncommon for him to daydream or simply let his eyes wander about the room, but they had a major test coming up.

The tests would get harder, the classes more demanding, and tension began to rise to the surface. Several students faced frustration and exhaustion. A perhaps the most. While he remained at the number one spot he struggled to do so. B began to resent him.

Their room was dead silent aside from the occasional turn of a page or scribble of a pencil. A and B were at their respective desks slaving away at an essay. A knock on the door broke through the silence. Both boy's heads popped up and one of the professors poked his head in.

"I have good news!" The professor known as Senior exclaimed.

It wasn't his name, though B very well knew what it really was, he was a Spanish man and near expert in psychological profiling.

In his head B hoped and hoped he would announce the arrival of L.

To his disappointment Senior did not.

"I've just been informed that you'll get the chance to try out your skills in a new class I'll teach. It will be a bit more hands on. One that will bring in real life criminal cases for you to analyze."

Well it wasn't L, but it was a step forward.

B jumped up and eagerly asked "When does it start?!"

A was a bit less enthusiastic, but his interest peaked.

"This coming Monday." Senior said. "You boys best get your rest and be ready with sharp minds."

Monday was only two days away.

B leaned back in his chair and with a relieved tone said "finally, something interesting."

A nodded in agreement but turned back to his papers.

B was sprawled out on the floor going over some photos and documents given by Senior, as was A next to him.

They were hunched over a photo of a corpse with its hands tied. This was a case they'd been working on for a couple weeks, a serial murder that had already been solved by police some time ago, but it was perfect practice for the budding detectives. They were just at a breakthrough that would solve the entire case for them.

"He's lucky." B said mulling over the photos.

"What?" A spat out. "The dead man?"

"Yeah."

"Call me crazy but I don't think being murdered is the same as being lucky. Would you want to be dead?"

"No, I'm just saying his death is a major clue, it means something. Don't you want to mean something?" The thought of providing such substantial evidence spoke to B on a personal level. He didn't want to just lie down and be another face in the crowd, he wanted to be something, to be someone, and frankly wasn't sure he cared how that happened.

"Well yeah, but I'd rather not get tied up and beaten." A said in reference to the dead man in the photos.

"To each his own." B said.

"What does that mean?"

"Make of it what you will."

A then rolled his eyes, he'd accepted that his roommate was odd by now.

The way he always stared above people's heads like he was reading something. The way he giggled like a schoolgirl at crime scene photos. And the way he incessantly kept his side of the room spotless.

"You know one of us could easily kill the other and get away with it. I think we've learned enough by now to be able to do so. Then we wouldn't have to fight each other for first place."

A was baffled mute for a moment.

"B…that's messed up."

"And I'm supposed to care because…?"

"Because we're supposed to be solving crimes, not committing them! And that doesn't even begin to cover how weird a statement like that is."

B shrugged and let it go.

When the end of the month rolled around and scores were posted B saw that he was barely two points behind A. Finally, it was in his grasp, if he just spent a little more time hitting the text books than the manga he could easily knock A out of top position.

But with that revelation came the realization that that brought an immense amount of pressure on him.

That day he skipped out on lunch to go over a paper he was halfway through writing. When all the other kids went out to get some sunshine he stayed in. Though he didn't feel alone in that as A opted out of playing as well. It was clear the pressure was getting to them, A in particular who seemed exceedingly tired and irritable.

"This is bullshit!" B shouted in a complaint. He threw the book that was in his lap onto the floor. "There is no earthly way possible to finish five pages in the hours between now and tomorrow morning."

"So don't sleep." A said nonchalantly. "It's what I'm gonna do."

B thought about that for a moment then picked up the book and dropped it back on his desk. Papers and open books were all over his normally straight desk. But A made a fair suggestion. Plus he couldn't let A get ahead of him.

True to his word A was up all night, and B followed. When the sun had finally shouted out that morning had come he laid his head on the desk, only intended to shut his eyes for a second or two, but he ended up falling asleep in a matter of minutes.

Unfortunately the nice morning was ruined by a rain shower.

As rain poured outside B watched through the window. A notebook and pencil were in his lap but his mind was elsewhere.

"What do you think L's name is?" He asked A.

"I don't really know." It wasn't that he hadn't thought about it, but he came up empty all the time.

"Maybe it's just L." B said as he shrugged.

"I seriously doubt that."

"Well you never know. I mean you don't have any good guesses."

Staying up all hours of the night was doable..For about 3 nights, but after that both A and B gave way to exhaustion, A before B as B had to wipe off his desk and nightstand over a dozen times to relax.

Deep in the night B slept soundly though occasionally mumbling something. A lay awake unable to fall asleep, partially due to the other's mumbling. Most of what he said was unintelligible, but occasionally he said something that made half sense.

Tired and annoyed A threw his pillow at B saying "Shut up B."

And to his endless surprise he had awakened B enough for him to say "Shut up Aiden."

A was stunned for a long while. How had B known his name? Was there some sort of top secret file he found? No, that seemed silly, but how then?

He couldn't sleep the rest of the night, he couldn't get the thought of B knowing his name out of his head.

When B came back to the room after a shower A blocked him from leaving the room again.

"You talk in your sleep you know." He said confrontationally.

"So…?"

"You said my name. How do you know my name?!"

"You were probably just hearing things."

"No, I heard you clearly. You said my name." There was a forcefulness in his voice that B couldn't escape.

"You talk in your sleep, I guess I just heard that." B tried to explain with a grin. A grin that said, you'll never know.

A stared him down, he didn't buy that explanation at all, but it wasn't an argument he would win even if he put in the effort, so he dropped it after saying "Someday I'll find out."

What B would find out after was something much more interesting.

Apologies again if there's any grammatical mistakes, no editor here, just me. I changed the rating from T to M for reasons that you'll find out later. I know I left it on a cliffhanger, I'm evil like that. I always have trouble deciding where to start and stop. As before, I know things you don't know hahaha.