This was written for the Nia-Bozu's contest on DA, but I figured I'd share with you wonderful people here! Enjoy, and I promise Kept Secret will be updated soon (like, within the next day... or you can come find me and beat me ;;)

(Oh, I don't own Death Note, Near, Mello, or L...or Whammy or Watari or ...you get the picture)

Near hated Christmas. The whole point of the holidays was to celebrate with your family, and since Near understood this well and also knew that he didn't have a family, he had decided long ago that he would just not enjoy this day any more.

Of course all of this had nothing to do with the tradition at Whammy's House to have a large party on the Saturday before Christmas where all the well-to-do people of the town were invited to meet the orphaned children in the desperate hope that some might be adopted. On the day of the party, some of the older kids were challenged with the remarkably hard task of dragging Near from his room – and removing all the toys from his hands, pockets, and the cuffs of his pants. Things got even worse after that; at least three kids were needed to wrestle Near into dress clothes and, the most horrible torture instrument of all, shoes and socks.

The whole premise of this night was stupid anyway, in Near's opinion. L would never let him get adopted, so he had no clue why he had to go anyway. He'd be much happier upstairs in his and Mello's room doing one of the single color puzzles that he loved so much.

He plopped down on the bottom step, unconsciously toying with a lock of his hair, which had been brushed out and flattened, much to his annoyance. And he was determined to mess it up as much as possible before the rest of the guests arrived.

The only thing that made this whole holiday party bearable was L, but the detective had not made it for the past three years, and Near was too smart not to recognize patterns like that. Last year, he'd finally made up his mind to stop getting his hopes up, and he wasn't going to restart now. He scuffed one shoe over the other, glaring at the evil patent leather that his feet had been shoved into. This is stupid.

"Near?" The familiar drawn out voice brought Near out of his self-imposed sulk.

"L!" Near flew off the steps and into the older man's arms, knocking him off his feet.

Near felt a strong grip on the back of his collar, and he was pulled back. As his butt hit the floor, he glared up at Mello, who seemed much less uncomfortable in his black suit, but Mello ignored him, releasing his shirt and pushing past him to babble happily up at L.

A pale hand entered the edge of Near's vision, and he glanced up quickly to see L extending a brightly wrapped present to him, a candy cane already snagged from the bowl at the door and stuffed in his mouth. Near snatched it, fingers running over the outside of the paper, trying to figure out what the packaging enclosed. Behind him, Mello let out a happy shout as he tore aside the paper to reveal a chocolate variety pack. The large box was dropped onto the floor, and Mello wrapped his arms around L's waist, thanking him profusely. Stupid Mello.

Near slowly opened the package, trying carefully to keep from tearing the paper. His eyes lit up as the wrappings fell away, revealing what lay beneath.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Near crouched down at the base of the Christmas tree in the great room of the house as Mello dragged L off to show him some new game he'd invented, and Whammy and Watari walked the last of the guests to the door. The toy L had brought him should have held all of his attention, but he was so tired that he could barely keep his eyes open, and he slowly slid from crouching to lying flat on the warm floor, cuddling the nutcracker against his chest. The dark eyes that were so at odds with his skin and hair color closed and opened briefly, and then sleep overtook him.

When he finally opened his eyes again, the nutcracker was no longer tucked under his arm, and Near pushed himself into a sitting position, blinking up at the larger-than-life nutcracker who looked decidedly like L in a fancy uniform. The intelligent voice in the back of Near's mind pointed out that none of this made any sort of logical sense, so therefore, this must be a dream. But for some reason, the front of his brain couldn't seem to catch up.

The nutcracker, who was L but not L at the same time, held out a gloved hand and pulled Near to his feet, spreading his arms to show him the enormous Christmas tree rising high above them.

"Excuse me." A bored voice interrupted them from behind. Near spun around – recognizing the voice - and almost swallowed his tongue.

"M-m-mello…?"

"What are you looking at?" The vision in a floofy, pastel, sequined tutu demanded, looking more than a little miffed when Near shoved his fist into his mouth to keep from laughing out loud.

"Is that really you, Mello?" Near gasped around the giggles bubbling up through his throat, stretching out a hand to poke at Mello's side.

"Mello?" The brows under blonde bangs drew down in confusion. "I'm the sugar plum fairy, and I'm here to welcome you to the land of sweets."

A lever popped out of the nutcracker's back as his jaw dropped, and he pushed quickly past the sugar plum fairy, racing forward along a road paved with peppermints, head swiveling back and forth as he took in the chocolate mousse river appearing beside them, the candy cane light posts, lollipop signs and gumdrop trees.

Near dropped to the floor, both hands covering his mouth as uncontrollable and uncharacteristic laughter leaked out between his fingers. Somehow, the sight of L skipping happily along a candy street with Mello flouncing along just behind him was just too amusing for him to keep up his normal, unemotional façade.

The more detached part of his mind noted that he was clearly asleep and that if he listened closely enough, he would hear the real L and Mello talking in the other room, and as the image of the dream slowly faded to darkness, their voices became louder and louder.

"Mello, have you seen Near?" That was L, sounding curious.

"I don't know." Mello sounded like he was pouting, but he seemed to be getting closer to Near. "He's probably off playing with the toy you got him."

Near curled tighter on the floor, and opened his eyes to slits as L knelt down next to him. Mello remained standing just behind his shoulder, arms crossed and glaring into the distance.

"What are you doing out here?" L ran his thumb over his lip. The dark circles under the detective's eyes spoke to the fact that he rarely – if ever slept – and so he couldn't quite understand Near's presence beneath the tree.

"…was dreaming…" Near muttered sleepily, still refusing to completely open his eyes.

"Dreaming about toys?" Mello scoffed.

"Mmmhmmm….. L was the nutcracker and you were the sugar plum fairy and you went to the land of sweets…" Near felt a giggle threaten to escape his lips and turned his face away from them.

"WHAT?!"

Near yawned hugely as scrawny, but strong arms wrapped around his tiny frame and lifted him carefully into the air. He half-listened as Mello carried on about the vast injustices of Near's dream.

"… and do I really look like someone who wears pink?!"

"And sequins." Near pointed out sleepily, setting Mello off again. He nestled deeper into L's arms as the detective started up the stairs, heading for the bedrooms on the floor above. The incredibly blank look on the normally intelligent man's face made Near giggle. It seemed that L's brain was taking a short detour to speculate on the existence of a land of sweets and just what exactly it would take to get him there.

He let his head fall back against the soft white fabric of the sweater L always wore, confusion racing across his face as he tried to puzzle out the strange feeling burning brightly in the center of his chest.

But every time he thought the pieces were coming together to form a picture, they slipped out of his grasp.

What is this?

Then, finally, everything clicked, each little piece sliding together and interlocking, and understanding finally dawned on Near.

Home.

Without really trying or even noticing, Near had become part of a family. He had found people who cared as much about him as he did about them, and he blinked in surprise at the realization.

He freed one of his arms and let it fall to L's side, grabbing hold of Mello's hand as the blonde-haired boy punched his fist into the air to accent the statement that he was 'never going to do pirouettes, no matter how much Near's messed-up mind wanted him to.'

Both L and Mello stopped dead, but Near offered up no explanation for his strange behavior. If they hadn't figured it out yet, they would eventually. After all, they were just as smart, if not smarter than him.

When they both came to the conclusion that Near wasn't going to tell them anything, L and Mello continued up the stairs. Mello muttering 'mental' under his breathe. Near buried his face in L's chest to hide his happy smile.

Maybe Christmas wasn't so bad.