Same old equation. Near, kitchen, water boiling for tea, pouring it cautiously. Jasmine.

Toast, and this time- gasp, shock, novelty- this time, cherry tomatoes. Look at Near, living on the edge.

*Who do you turn to when you're upset? Your parents. Most people do, anyways. Who has Near always turned to when he was upset? Himself, of course. But no number of breathing or sensory exercises seem to be cutting it today ( Read more... )

*When there is trouble, where is Near to be found? As usual, in the kitchen, with a cup of nice hot tea.*

*There's also soup on the stove. Even geniuses need to eat some time.*

*The best part about having helped A find a room is knowing where to find him, and being able to go up to his door and knock. Like Near is now.

Not that he's admitting he missed him or anything, but it feels like they haven't talked in a long time.*

* Just after dying, Near appears in the hallway, out of breath and shuddering from imaginary pain. Being ripped apart alive is something he doesn't want to get more used to than he already is.*

Right.

*Nothing to do but wait and hope that the other two make it out.*

*Near is asleep on the bed.

Well, Near's body is asleep on the bed. This is because Near (who is now Mello) has fed it codeine and put it to sleep. It won't be waking up any time soon.

Near-as-Mello is sitting on the foot of the bed, staring at Mello-as-Near in rapt concentration. And at the lamp (light casts halos like that?) and the ( Read more... )

*As emotionally satisfying as picking a fight with Mello may have been, Near now hurts. Everywhere. Okay, not everywhere, just his stomach a little and his back, everywhere. Which is why he's still in bed at noon, curled up, breathing deliberately and slowly. Someone is bound to come home soon and be able to help him into a hot bath.*

Oh, wonderful, Mello, resort to violence in the middle of a hallway in a mansion full of law-enforcement types. Particularly with a blind seventeen year old who is half your size. You know that psychologists are currently theorizing that bullying behaviours occur where there is a defecit of social skills in the perpetrator themselves ( Read more... )