Want it. Take it. Love it. Keep it.

A/N: Matt visits Mello. And Near is curious.
Evermist: Your reviews really are the highlight of my day. Every time I post a chapter, there they are, waiting patiently to be appreciated...Leather straps /are/ a bit over overkill, aren't they? The bastards...
chelzi: WOW. You reviewed, like, every chapter...just WOW. That's so fricken cool, you have no idea...I'm glad you're liking it as much as your sister. You're both beginning to spoil me....Oh, and sorry about the religious themes in chapter 7. Since Mello is a Catholic, I figured I had to throw it in somewhere but there wont be much more of it. Keep reading. Keep enjoying. Much love! : ) THANK YOU!

CHAPTER 17
WATCH OUT, HE BITES

The room was cheerfully sunny, every shade drawn open to allow natural light to illuminate the room. When the teenager complained that the light hurt his eyes, and the bastard who was trying to blind him better not come within ten feet of the bed or suffer the consequences, a falsely cheerful voice replied that sunlight was proven to aid in healing. Mello knew enough about natural healing techniques to know that yes, this was true, but only because sunlight made most people happy, and a pleasant mood helped the body to recover. He relayed his opinion, spicing his analyisis with as many colorful words as he could come up with, adding that he wasn't in pain anyway.

He was ignored.

Again.

Though from where he lay he could see the nurse carefully watching him, like he might be afraid that the boy would suddenly spring from the bed, to attack, or possibly flee. This was currently impossible, seeing as how he was again /attatched/ to the bed by a single pair of handcuffs. He could have excaped from his prison, if only his regular clothes were with him. He was an expert at picking locks. Mello lifted the white sheet, seeing that he was dressed in a long nightgown, could feel his exposed back pressed against the sheet where the hospital gown flapped open, loosely tied in the usual fashion.

They'd /undressed/ him. While he slept.

"You have a visitor. I've already warned him that you need rest. He has one hour." The voice attempted to be stern, though it was difficult to command authority when one cowered at the other end of the room, separted from his charge by a row of empty beds. The nurse could not be blamed. From where he lay, Mello could see the bandage wrapped around the man's hand. He recalled the last time he'd awoken, to find this man 'checking on his injuries'. He'd made the mistake of getting close, patting the boy on the head, telling him that /he/ would not hurt him, to please relax. The nurse was anything but relaxed when his patient grabbed the comforting hand, biting the spot between thumb and forefinger until several of his teeth met, then spitting blood in the face that had widened in sheer terror of the small blond.

He'd expected the visitor to be Roger, coming to pry a statement out of him, or perhaps to inform him that L had finally been arrested, was sitting in a prison cell at that very moment, awaiting death sentence for a crime he hadn't committed. Mello felt a surge of joy, despite his terrifying thoughts, when the visitor turned out to be Matt, of all people. The redhead slunk to the bed, goggles on, burrowed down to his nose in the fuzzy vest. The nurse never once pried his cautious eyes away as Matt pulled up a chair to sit near the head of the bed.

"Close the curtain."

"He told me no. Has to keep his eyes on us. Not sure who he doesn't trust." The younger boy smirked, standing to do as his best friend had instructed.

"Have you seen him?" He could still picture the detective handcuffed in the back of a police cruiser, sitting in his odd way, swearing that he'd done nothing wrong, it was a mistake. He imagined him dumped into a cell, surrounded by common criminals. If they didn't execute him, surely he'd run into the wrong person, someone he'd convicted himself, only to be beaten to death in his cell, as a suspected child molester, his pleas for help ignored. Nevermind that Mello's concerns were completely unfounded as the detective was more than capable of defending himself. The blond couldn't help but be paranoid.

"L is locked up in his room. Watari shut him in himself. Saw it with my own two eyes. He's making an awful racket in there. Think he's broken a few things."

So they hadn't pressed charges yet. They were probably waiting on his statement. Mello suddenly had a sickening thought.

"You aren't here to get a confession from me, are you? Because I swear, if you're siding with them I'll..."

"No! They asked me to talk to you yeah, actually as I was headed here. Roger stopped me, said if anyone could convince you to tell the truth, it'd be me." Roger had begged, bribed, reminded him that no action on his part would only further injure his friend, who at the time was too terrified to accuse the detective of the rape. "He didn't do it, did he?"

"I'm not sure I want to talk to you if you really don't know the answer." This was embarrassing. He wondered how many of his schoolmates knew now. The details were all wrong, but the fact that anyone might know that he'd been brought here as a rape victim, however untrue, was totally humiliating. Mello imagined the discussions, the argument over whether it was true, whether L was capable of such a thing. Most of them were afraid of the detective, but there'd always been debates on his personal life. Whether he had a girlfriend, if he'd ever even had sex, what kind of person he might be like on his days away from Wammy's, if he was really that strange and creepy, or if it was just an act. Such discussions had grown in frequency the day L had taught a class, pausing sometimes to pop a whole cherry into his mouth, spitting out the core and a perfectly knotted stem. Though L, not knowing of the sexual innuendo such an action brought, was fairly confused by the roar of whispers that had errupted throughout the room. Mello's classmates were a bunch of perverts.

"You know it looks really bad. I /know/ he's not like that. He's a little weird, but he's not a pervert. Well..." So Matt still had a bit of a problem with the idea. He couldn't imagine relating to someone that much older than him. It was ten years after all. L had finished schooling, begun a career. Their lives were at totally different points.

"L loves /me/, not my body. He doesn't see me as a thirteen year old with a nice ass, he sees me as myself, someone at his intellectual level, which is difficult for either of us to find. We /talk/, we debate, we /make love/." It was easy to forget his surroundings when he thought of things like this. He didn't consider how embarassing it was to be handcuffed to a bed, dressed in a flimsy gown, covered with only a sheet. Every thought of L made him forget himself, his insecurities. His raging hormones sometimes made him forget the philosophical debates, the careful analyzations of the criminal mind, the late night plans to help change the world, but these things did mean even more than the physical. He knew that this was not a passing infatuation, but a deep connecting of two minds that were so far advanced very few understood either. No one else could possibly be a more perfect match.

"I'm sorry about my birthday. I didn't see it then. But the way you talk about him, you must really love him. Your eyes, when you talk about him..." The redhead was again feeling very foolish, having thought for even a second that he could be what the detective was.

"They won't let me explain. I just want to see him. He makes everything right."

"He's L, I know he'll figure out a way."

The curtain slid on it's track, opening as far as it could. The male nurse rested a hand on Matt's shoulder, still keeping a safe distance between himself and his patient. Mello glared, daring the man to come further.

"It's time Mello here had some rest. I'm sure he's tired. The medicine should be seeing to that." He must have heard the conversation, it had barely been a quarter of an hour before the interruption. "This conversation is definately too exciting for him in this state."

"Can't even give me a little fucking privacy can you?" The nurse just smiled.

"Yes, see, he's already much too aggitated. I'm very disappointed in you, young man. I asked you to please not mention the situation at hand. I thought you could give this poor thing a little sense of normalcy, but you did exactly the opposite. You're going to have to leave now."

The redhead was ushered out of the room, still being scolded for disobeying the nurse's requests. Mello's protests were ignored. Once again he was alone, but at least now he knew that poor L was alright, still in his room, only a moments walk from this bed, if only he could get to him.

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There was no way he was /over/ Mello. The blond was just too perfect, too pretty, but the redhead knew defeat when threw him over the edge of the battlefield, landing in the sea of boiling lava, screaming no when the screen went blank. He tried not to imagine his mentor, who'd stolen the boy's affections, as a giant dinosaur, spiked tail taking his feet out from under him. He pushed the image away, wondering if Mello was right, and he should be spending more time sleeping and less time playing Mario'64.

Now the redhead was feeling selfish. His best friend was miserable, and all he could think about was how unfair life was. How he should have made the move earlier. But he'd also said that it gave him the greatest joy to see the blond happy, and damn it he hadn't been lying. This was so confusing.

As if to further complicate the afternoon, just as Matt was preparing to lay down for a short nap, a soft knock sounded on the other end of the locked door. He ignored it, of course. It couldn't be the only person worth answering for, so it didn't matter. Another knock. Then another. Each grew slightly louder until it was impossible to ignore. He groaned, wondering who the idiot was who couldn't take a hint.

"Near?" The smaller child stood there, dressed as usual, white pajamas, no shoes. He looked much younger than his twelve years. If the older boy remembered correctly, very little had changed about the rabbit's appearance for several years. Not a centimeter had been added to the five feet, though he slouched a little, his small body used to being curled up on the floor rather than standing. On the rare occaision that he did stand, Near almost always looked like he expected someone was about to hit him, knock him down. Matt supposed that this was to be expected with the way Mello often treated the youngest of the three successors to L's throne.
"May I come in?" Near had not waited for a response, simply shuffling in the room as the owner of the space stared in shock. The white haired boy had already made a place for hiimself on the floor, pulling one tiny action figure out of his shirt pocket, setting it at his feet.

"Yeah, sure man, make yourself at home..." Matt must have indeed fallen asleep. He wasn't on bad terms with the boy, and in fact sometimes protected him from Mello, taking some of the aggression for himself to save the weakest of the three. Aside from this, however, the two rarely spoke, after all, he was still /best friends/ with the twelve year old's greatest rival. They also shared very different interests. "What do you want?" He asked, not intending the question to be rude in the least, only rationalizing that Near would not be visiting unless he /needed/ something. He'd never been one for social calls.

"There is a problem which I for once can not solve." Near never made eye contact, keeping his attention on his toy. The older of the two switched on a handheld game, waiting for the albino to get to the point. "I believe Matt can help me. I would have gone to the source for my answer, but both are currently under lock and key, one of which is more likely to hit me than answer a question, however sincerely curious I may be."

"Shoot." Near looked to Matt, finally, confused. "I mean, go ahead, ask. I'll answer if I can."

"I do not enjoy admitting ignorance on any subject, but the curiosity has finally gotten the better of me. I must ask why my rival and our mentor have gotten themselves into such a mess."
"You must be the only one in the building that doesn't know what happened." Everyone was talking about it, adding their own imagined details in place of missing pieces, some closer to the truth than others. A few kids even swore that L had tried to /kill/ his partner, and that the detective was going straight to the chair without a trial, on request from Wammy himself.

"That is not what I am asking. I know that L has been accused of committing an act of rape, Mello being the victim. I also know that justice himself would never do such a thing, no matter the circumstances. He is above the common animal." Near abandoned the toy he had been playing with, taking to twirling his hair around his finger, a nervous habit he'd had since he was a small boy. Matt had always wondered how curly the white strands would be if they weren't always wrapped around those tiny fingers.

"Yeah, duh. So what is it that you wanna ask?"

"I /want to/ ask..." Near paused, he couldn't help but correct the abuse of language. Matt seemed to either not notice, or not care, simply gesturing for the younger boy to continue. "Why have Mello and L engaged in a sexual relationship? Mello is far too young by most standards, and L should be concentrating on his work." Matt took a breath, prepared to explain the situation to Near the best he knew how. "No, wait, that is not exactly what I meant. Why does anyone engage in such a relationship? I understand the needs for procreation. I also know that many individuals engage in sexual behaviors without the intent to procreate. It seems to only cause trouble."

Both boys had seen their fair share of examples regarding the subject. Teens were often sent to couselors, explained the dangers of sex at their tender ages. One year, when the boys were still very small, a girl had suddenly left Wammy's, all her belongings packed and sent away in the space of a few days. She returned a year later to visit Watari, holding a small child. She was offered a chance to return to the school, even after it had been her obvious decision to leave. She declined, saying that she was now more interested in raising the child than trying for a chance at world famous detective.

"Near," Matt sighed. "Sex feels good. That's it. It just does. It's like..." Matt couldn't quite think of an example that the younger boy might understand. As far as he knew, Near didn't drink, or smoke, or have an obsession with cake. He didn't play sports or video games, or even watch much television. "How do you feel when you finish one of your puzzles? Or...beat Mello at something?"

"Accomplished." Near wasn't helping. Not at all.

"How about excited? Happy? Do you feel the need to do it again? Does it make you want to get out of bed early in the morning?"
The smaller boy was quiet for a few moments, thinking, twirling his hair. "When L allows me to work on a case, especially by myself, I sometimes feel that way."

"That's it then. You understand." Matt hoped the conversation would end soon. He couldn't place it, but he felt a little strange having this conversation with /Near/. It was part guilt, because Mello would be livid if he saw Matt behaving in a friendly way towards Near, but mostly it was just embarassing. He was glad Near already knew the mechanics of sex, and he hoped to any god that was listening that he'd never have children (unlikely to happen. Just one more perk to being gay!).

"I should thank Matt. He has always been very kind to me. Unlike his companion." This was true. The redhead was always put off by the twelve year old's cold apathy, but when Mello would stuff him in his locker, or push him down, pulling his hair, Matt saw a different side of the child. Near was frightened of Mello. He stood up to him, being as strong willed as their mentor, but he was a very weak child. He bruised easily, he was always sick. So when his blond friend wasn't looking, Matt would help his victim stand back up, gather his things.

"I would like to ask one more question of Matt." The thirteen year old shrugged. "How does one know when it is a proper time to act on such feelings?"

"I don't know. I guess you just do. You go for it and either it happens, or you get burned."

Near was smiling, if you could call it that. It was more smirking, except for when you noticed his eyes. The usually lifeless blackness shone, it meant Near was planning something. He slowly picked himself up off the floor, shuffled across the room to where Matt was sitting on the bed. When they were face to face, the younger boy's smile melted away. He looked somewhat nervous, then shrugged his shoulders in what Matt supposed was Near's way of saying 'what the hell', before he planted a quick, close-mouthed kiss on the redhead's lips.

"Wha-"

"My actions seem to have not caused either of us to be set aflame."
Had that been sarcasm on Near's part? Better yet, had Near just kissed him? The boy in question was already gone before a very shocked Matt could ask. He wanted to run to his best friend, then broke into laughter when he thought about it. Mello's face would be priceless, but the consequences would most certainly be dire. Especially if he offered insight into what he was currently feeling. He had enjoyed that, hadn't he?
Nah.

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...Matt and...Near? Huh? You don't supposed they'll...Nah...Right?