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

CHAPTER 4
OBLIVIOUS

When L woke late that afternoon, having had what he considered way too much sleep, every muscle and bone was stiff and ached unbearably. Sure, he was used to sleeping in chairs, but usually alone in his usual crouch, definately not laying underneath another warm human body that seemed to be clinging to him like life depended upon it. So when the insistent knocking didn't go away (how impolite) he started to tell whoever it was to just come in already or piss off.

"L, no one has seen Mello all afternoon. We're worried. He missed lunch. There was chocolate cake on the menu today." Watari called through the door.

The twelve year old suddenly stirred at Watari's voice. L, being oblivious to normal social customs and taboos, couldn't think of any other reason for the blond to suddenly bolt out of his nest of blanket and detective, and immediately assumed it must have been the mention of chocolate the woke him.

"Shit. Shit. Shit." Mello mumbled quietly.

"I'm sure they saved you a slice. If not, we could make some more. You and Watari that is. I'm not supposed to mess around in the kitchen by myself. Or, really, with a chaperone even..." L smiled, remembering how angry Watari had been at the destruction of kitchen and their clothes. To be fair, the caretaker had not specified the amount of force that one should use to open a bag of flour. So, really, it wasn't L's fault at all. Just a simple misunderstanding, surely not deserving of such a harsh punishment. Especially when he'd been denied a fair trial.

"L!" Mello put a hand over his own mouth, he had not meant to be that loud. "This doesn't look good, you know."

"Watari will not mind." Other than the flour incident, Watari had never really banned L from doing anything that he wanted, even as a child. Now that he was an adult, his surrogate father had even less room to scold, and was most likely kicking himself for allowing such leniency now that he'd been subject to the results. Not that scolding him would have done any good. But he could have at least put forth a bit more effort.

"Right. Right, of course. We just lie. I was studying with you and I fell asleep."

"That is almost exactly what Mello and I were doing."

Mello gave a nervous laugh. "Thank god you're such a fantastic liar."

L looked confused. Then shrugged off this sudden strange behavior, headed back to his desk, and resumed his work.

Mello opened the door for Watari, only half pretending to yawn and rub the sleep out of his eyes as he did so. Watari ruffled the child's hair, then picked him up. When Mello had been very young, he would throw fits whenever he wasn't being held. Then, just a couple of years later, decided that he was too tough for such childish things as hugs and kisses. That is, until his fondness of chocolate manifested. He was always especially affectionate to the ladies that served lunch and dinner, to scam extra servings of whatever chocolatey thing might be on the menu. And Watari, being a sucker for this behavior, and seemingly starved of a proper father-son relationship with the quirky L, always had a bar of the most expensive chocolate. The price was relatively small, a hug in return or a promise to behave for at least the next few hours. The latter was a promise that was broken more often than not but Watari always managed to be looking in the opposite direction at these times, prefering to let Roger take care of the disciplining.

"You should know better than to keep the children up at odd hours. They need sleep to keep their minds fresh. Mello and Near already strive to be just like you. I don't want them trying to develop insomnia next." Watari scolded but L wasn't listening, already deeply absorbed in his work.

"It's alright Watari, really. I couldn't sleep anyway. I guess I was too sugared up from last night. Where's my chocolate bar?" Watari pulled out a large bar, handing it over. He wondered if Mello had just come to expect it, or if he could actually smell it out. He shook the thought away as being far too ridiculous, even where the barefooted blond was concerned.

"You could have at least made him change into nightclothes and brush his hair. You look a mess child." From another pocket, the old man produced a small comb, trying to untangle the fine blond locks. The boy used to make quite a fuss at having his hair brushed, screaming when a comb tugged at a mass of knots. L was the only one of them to ever get Mello to sit still for it. It was odd how good he'd always been at it, considering the fact that no one had seen him so much as attempt to finger-comb his own in at least a decade.Watari frowned. He still saw the raven haired twenty three year old as a small child. This suddenly made him feel very, very elderly.

"Cheer up old man." The child must have been psychic. It was eerie.

"Go upstairs and change Mello. Then I might be convinced to have your lunch brought in here so you can get back to work. I suppose your reason for sleeping the day away was better than your roomate's."

"Matt passed out with his gameboy?"

"Your friend had yet to go to bed at 10:00am today, when the others were heading outside to play. I had to lock his toy up in Roger's desk." Mello made a mental note to retrieve the contraband for his friend on his way to their room. The redhead may have be a true insomniac. His sleeping patterns were the most similar to L's out of his three successors. His friend had once observed, upon hearing Mello complain about his need for sleep being imporatant to his studies, that each of the three shared at least one characteristic of their idol. Mello, stubborn and obsessed with sweets. Near, obsessed with puzzles and socially oblivous ('socially /retarded/', the blond had corrected). Matt, calm under pressure and prone to going days without proper sleep.
Mello bounded into the room, full of energy despite having stayed up until daybreak and slept in a chair. He knew though, that the reason for his limitless energy today was due to the moments between the uncomfortable nap. He'd kissed somebody for the first time. Not just anybody either, L somebody. He wanted to tell the world. At least he wanted to tell the older boys who bragged about such things. Mello had always thought it was so stupid. Why waste time mashing your lips against somebody else when there was studying to do. There was a number one spot with his name on it, he didn't have time to worry about some girl, or whatever. Matt had been his sole supporter in this, though Mello sometimes wondered why. He reasoned it as Matt feeling about his games and computers the way he felt about work and beating Near.

The redhead was apparently dozing sprawled on his back on the bed, head touching the floor. It was a strange way to sleep for a normal person, but Matt did it often. Mello's thoughts again drifted to L. He set the pilfered handheld game on the sleeping boys chest, then rummaged through his bureau for clean clothes. He found himself carefully picking through items that were mostly the same, chosing the newest and best fitting from each drawer. The bottom drawer held pants, of course, the middle shirts, and the top socks and underwear. Items were carefully folded and tucked neatly into each drawer, arranged by oldest to newest, warmer winter type items on the left and thinner summery items on the right. Matt's clothes were tumbling out of his closet in a pile of both clean and dirty. Roger was sure to send someone in here on a laundry raid any day now.

While he was dressing, Matt had woken, probably enticed by the weight of the game on his chest. It was switched on immediately, Mario theme music cheerfully sounding over the noise of both television and radio that had been left on since last night.

"Where were you? I waited."

"Working with L."

"All night?"

"Duh." Mello turned so his friend could see his eye roll. He stood shirtless, one hand on his hip, black t-shirt hanging from the other. Having grown up together, it wasn't the first time either boy had seen the other without clothes on, and certainly with less than now. Though, this time, he couldn't help but notice that the redhead was actually staring at him. What? was there something on his face? "What are you looking at?" he asked just as a musical cartoony death sounded. Then, "You just died you know." when his friend failed to respond. Matt sighed, shaking his head and returning his attention to his game. "I'm heading back there. Probably won't be back again tonight. We'll crack the case in record time. Just me and L."
Mello hoped this was enough explanation to keep his friend from asking questions. He had no intention of working. L might kiss him again. He might...well, Mello wasn't exactly sure what he might do. He had a general idea of what people did with their...whatever they might be. What were they? 'Please god don't let this have been a dream,' he thought. Or a sin. It couldn't possibly have been that. It felt too good. Natural.

"Have fun then." The usual bored monotone sounded a touch...icy. Mello brushed it off. Matt was moody sometimes. Probably from the lack of sleep. Or maybe he had one of those eyestrain headaches. Roger was always warning that those goggles would have to be made prescription before the boy was 18 if he didn't quit staring at computer screens all the time.