Great White

Hello lovelies. This is the first time I've gone solo in a long while, so I hope the writing's up to par. Anyway, this little concoction of mine was inspired by the wonderful fic Make Me Pretty by sesshyfanchick and after reading the latest chapter of that, all I could think was GOOD GOD I NEED MORE! After all, you can never have enough shota, especially in a fandom like this that's practically begging for it- and thus this ficlet was born. Enjoy.

WARNING KTHKS: People, this is shota, so if the subject matter offends you, turn back now. I don't want to hear anyone whine and bitch about the complete immorality of shota, blah blah. If you don't know what shota means, you probably should go ahead and turn back too.

Also, forgive the retarded attempt to make hide and seek seem smart. I just needed an excuse to get them playing it.

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Chapter one

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"Shit!"

The foul word pierced through the hush that had surrounded the entire area of the stone steps, unbothered by the background noise of thumbs madly clacking against buttons and the distant laughter of the other children in various parts of the enclosed yard.

Mello ignored his companion and propped his elbow up on the stair behind him, instead choosing to relish the feeling of the cool spring air that danced around the two. It offered a nice, if brief relief from the hot sunshine that seemed to be spreading into every nook and cranny on the earth.

It was one of those rare, coveted days that popped up only a select few times when it so pleased, when the planets aligned, and the tides rushed in, and an asteroid belt hurled a few chunks of said space rock out of its own orbit and sent them hurtling towards earth and whatnot. Yes, it was one of those days where England shed its perpetually gloomy, overcast appearance and allowed the sun to reign.

Mello fixed his gaze on the endless baby blue sky above him and let a small sigh of contentment slip past his lips. It was, after all, a practically perfect day- there wasn't even a cloud in sight. The breeze was blowing, the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, everything was picturesque. He never knew how…serene it could feel.

But of course, before the atmosphere could be completely engulfed in peace once more, a string of curses exploded from beside Mello, effectively shattering any calming aura that was about to settle over them . Narrowed eyes slid over to rest on his best friend.

"If it's that hard, just play another stupid game." The boy piped up with well known irritation poking through his tone. "Like that's gon- aw, fuck!" Matt shouted, bringing his gameboy close to his face and moving his thumbs more wildly than ever. Mello just rolled his eyes and brushed a strand of blond hair from his face with agitation.

Matt was ten, just a year older than Mello himself, but the boy cursed like a trucker three times his age. It was a remnant from Matt's life before he came to Wammy's House, and he couldn't seem to shake the habit no matter how many times Roger reprimanded him for it. Mello wouldn't be surprised one bit if Matt picked up other unsavory tendencies, like smoking or something, when he was older.

Mello pulled his gaze from the alluring sky once more when the sound of footsteps reached his ears and pounded up to the steps the two boys were perched on. The small blond turned bored emerald eyes to a few children around his age that came to a stop in front of him.

"Hey, do you guys want to play hide and seek with us?" A boy named Jase, who was apparently leading the small congregation, questioned with a friendly grin. Matt didn't tear his eyes away from his gameboy screen, and Mello just raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Hide and seek? Why are you playing hide and seek?" He leaned back on his arms with an air of condescension. Mello had played his fair share of hide and seek in years past, he knew how it worked, so honestly, wasn't that game a little too simple for them now?

Not to be put off, Jase shook his head and stretched his grin more widely across his face. "This isn't just a game of regular old hide and seek, Mello." He explained, wagging a finger in front of him. "This version requires skills." The other children voiced their agreement to this statement behind Jase.

At this, Matt pried himself away from his game and fixed the boy with a curious stare. "Skills?" the redhead questioned doubtfully, as if he couldn't put the two things together. Mello was also marginally interested as to how you could possibly apply any set of skills to something as trivial as hide and seek.

"Well," Jase began, bringing a hand up to scratch his dark hair in a thoughtful manner. "It's a test of wits, really. The ones hiding will have to use all the elements of quick thinking to locate not just an ordinary hiding place, but somewhere that you have no chance of being found." The boy nodded once and continued. "And the seeker has to use their analytical abilities to determine where the others are hiding."

Mello and Matt exchanged a speculative glance with each other. "Sounds like regular hide and seek with a lot of big words thrown in." Matt pointed out, and Mello had to agree with his friend. A few of the other children snickered, and Jase pouted. "I wasn't finished explaining. Now," he sent a glare to the ones flanking him, "The seeker has a time limit. If they don't find at least one person by the end of the time limit, they lose. If they do find someone, the person that's found first loses. We're playing two rounds."

"What happens to the losers?" Mello asked, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. Jase's grin turned slightly devious. "The losers give everyone else their allowance for a month." He informed smugly, indicating that those kinds of stakes clearly separated this game from regular, childish hide and seek. But it was his next line that sealed the deal. "But if you guys are afraid that your intellectual skills won't match up to everyone else's, you don't have to play."

Now, Jase was clearly baiting the other two. Even though Matt's forte was with technology and gadgets, he was still pretty intelligent all around, and Mello's intellect surpassed every soul standing there. In fact, Mello was second to only one person in the entire orphanage. Even so, they also possessed the vice that afflicted most boys and men: pride. It was their pride that got riled up at Jase's accusation, and pride wouldn't merely allow them to back out of this situation without proving Jase horribly wrong.

Matt pursed his lips in thought and placed a hand to his chin, pretending to ponder over his answer for a moment before standing up and stretching his arms over his head. "Ah, why the hell not." The older boy pocketed his gameboy and glanced down at his friend. "You in, Mello?"

Mello shrugged, pushing himself up to stand beside the other. "Alright." Even if he didn't need to defend his intellect by participating in this, there was really nothing else to do besides sit outside and bask in the beautiful day. It was quite a relaxing task, for sure, but Mello was still a child, regardless of how intelligent he was, and children needed something to keep them occupied.

The small group was instructed on where to hide (inside the house or anywhere on the grounds, Jase ordered,) and after a short round of rock-paper-scissors, one of the girls with them was deemed the first seeker. The others shot off in different directions when she began her count-off, and Mello turned to clamber up the stone steps and seek refuge in the house, partly to cool his skin from the hot sun, and partly because he knew he could find a less conspicuous hiding spot inside.

A few of the other children scurried away in their respective hunts for a suitable hiding place, and Mello started forward in his own search, and idea already forming in his mind. The boy quickly passed by the dining rooms and the main play areas, turning a corner and opening a door to slip into a rarely-used hallway.

Mello padded down the deathly quiet hall, his striking green eyes roaming over every door he passed to assess which one would be best to secure a superior hiding spot. Most of the children in the orphanage didn't even know about this hallway, much less the rooms. There was no need for this place to be known, since the rooms were only used for storage, anyway. Mello didn't think he had too much to worry about, put he decided to pick carefully, nonetheless. "Assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups." Mello repeated Matt's favorite phrase with a wry grin as he halted at the end of the hallway, his eyes coming to rest on the door to the right of him.

It was a small, generic room, and if Mello remembered correctly, it housed a large, empty armoire that would serve as a perfect decoy if anyone happened to search in this particular room.

A faint racket beyond the hall cemented Mello's decision, and the boy grasped the handle of the door, pushing it open and quickly sliding inside. He shut it behind him and turned to dash across the room to the small table in the corner, when something that was presumably not the hardwood floor and most certainly not solid broke apart underneath his foot and sent the boy tumbling to the ground with a curse flying from his mouth.

With a small groan, Mello rolled himself onto his side and winced. His knees had taken the brunt of the fall, the khaki shorts he was wearing offering no protection against the firm wood beneath him. He glanced to the said floor, spying a few stray puzzle pieces lying beside him.

Those small objects sent a stab of realization to his gut, and he gazed down the length of his body until his eyes came to rest on a small heap of jumbled puzzle pieces at his feet, and then to the actual puzzle, which was perfectly put together save for the rather large chunk missing from it. And from the puzzle, a flash of white caught Mello's eye that he knew only too well.

"Near, why are you doing a puzzle right in front of a bloody door!" Mello shouted in a burst of anger, quickly pushing himself up into a sitting position. The boy in question was perched in front of the puzzle opposite of Mello, one knee drawn up to his chest. If Near had been startled by Mello's sudden appearance, he only showed it with a slightly raised eyebrow as he stared silently at the other boy, his blank mask firmly in place over his features.

As his anger subsided, Mello lowered his eyes to stare at the puzzle before him, at the uneven hole caused by his foot. "Sorry." The blond mumbled, gathering the loose puzzle pieces around him and depositing them beside the damaged chunk. "It's alright." The younger boy replied quietly, reaching out to grab one of the pieces.

Mello didn't know what compelled him to do so, perhaps it was guilt, but he also began picking up pieces and fitting them into their proper place in the puzzle. Near watched him carefully, but didn't stop him. Soon enough, Mello began to fidget under the scrutiny. "Why are you in here? I've never seen anyone else in here before." He asked in slight aggravation, glancing up at Near.

The early afternoon sunshine filtering through the nearby window seemed to be drawn to the younger boy's uncolored hair, making it appear more starkly white than usual. "I could ask you the same thing." Near replied, his large, dark eyes staring Mello down.

The blond boy narrowed his own eyes and shrugged, reaching for another puzzle piece. "I'm hiding." it was the only explanation he offered. Near regarded him with something akin to curiosity. "Why are you hiding?" He inquired, rolling a puzzle piece between his fingers before slipping it into its proper spot. Mello shifted his legs and glanced at the large wooden armoire sitting beside the two of them that was supposed to be serving as his decoy.

"I'm playing a game with everyone else. You know, interacting with other children. Like a normal kid." Mello emphasized the last words to take a stab at Near's solitary, reclusive habits, to maybe, hopefully, see some emotion nudge through that mask.

The white-haired boy's face remained impassive, but he let out a soft snort, as if he found Mello's comment amusing. "Neither of us are normal." He stated simply, laying down his puzzle piece and picking up another. And Mello couldn't find a retort to that, couldn't find anything that would prove that statement untrue, because two brilliant children competing to be the successor of the world's greatest detective, housed in an orphanage specifically for such brilliant children, were far from normal.

So, Mello just settled for huffing indignantly and moving to stick the puzzle piece he had into its proper slot- only it didn't fit. The blond boy frowned and tried placing it in at another angle, but that attempt failed as well. He knew that piece was supposed to be there, the cloud pattern aligned and everything, but it wouldn't fit. Mello tried jamming the piece in a few more times before giving up and tossing it back into the pile with a frustrated growl.

"Why do you do these damn puzzles all the time, anyway?" the older boy accused hotly, Instead of immediately replying, Near just tilted his head to the side. A lock of pale hair brushed against the boy's round cheek, and Mello found himself following its movement. "It helps with deductive reasoning skills." Near explained, placing his small hand onto his knee. The movement rustled his oversized pants only slightly. He carefully moved his eyes over the pile of puzzle pieces, selecting one and slipping it into the slot that Mello had been struggling with. "Maybe you should try doing more of them."

Mello scowled at the thinly veiled insult and snatched up a puzzle piece. "What are you doing in here?" It was more of a demand than a question, and Near stared at his companion blankly. "I'm putting together a puzzle." The younger boy pointed to the nearly completed product on the floor. Mello rolled his eyes. "Oh really? I didn't notice." He glared at the other boy. " What I meant is why are you here, in this room, when you could be anywhere else in the house?" Stupid Near. Mello knew the other boy had understood what he meant, he just chose to toy with Mello instead.

Near blinked and glanced to the side, reaching up to his head and twisting a lock of hair around his finger. "This is a quiet room. It's noisy in the living rooms. It's noisy in the bedrooms. It's quiet in here." He explained plainly, and Mello was suddenly very annoyed.

He was annoyed with the way Near spoke in that simple, deceptive way, that disinterested tone, and still managed to insult and mess with Mello regardless. He was annoyed with these stupid puzzles, and how Near could fill them in with such practiced ease. He was annoyed that his eyes had grown a mind of their own and picked up on Near's most worthless movements, like how they were currently watching that curled lock of hair being twirled back and forth by a small finger.

But most of all, Mello was annoyed with the detached mask that was permanently stuck on the other boy's face, no matter what the circumstances. What, did Near think he was above showing emotion? Did he think he could just act like he didn't have any feelings? Mello was admittedly hotheaded himself, so he didn't understand it one bit. In fact, it downright infuriated Mello. He wanted to wipe that blank look off Near's face, see the emotion running across it, he wanted to, wanted to-

Before he knew what he was doing, Mello planted his hands onto the ground beneath him, leaned forward across the puzzle, and firmly pressed his lips to Near's.

It took Mello a few seconds to regain his senses, but when he did, he snapped back with a silent gasp, staring at the other boy wordlessly. Near's mask was surprisingly, finally, no longer in place, his eyes as wide as saucers and his face painted with shock. But Mello didn't get to enjoy his accomplishment, because he couldn't believe what he had just done, and he was sure his face looked quite the same way.

Before any words could tumble out between them, any recognition, any explanation, Mello had stood, opened the door, and bolted out of the room with a speed he didn't know he possessed.

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And so ends chapter one. I apologize if I offended anyone with that England thing. I'm not British, I've never been to England, and I don't pretend to really know what the weather patterns are like. (Look at me. I'm writing a fucking shota fic, and I'm still trying to be politically correct. Ahaha.)

And yeah, that may look like a lot of big words for a bunch of kids, but they are supposed to be little geniuses, after all.

Please review. If you want to see the second chapter, please review. Reviews are the red bulls that fuel my motivation. So motivate me and REVIEWPLZ.