He could speak French now; almost seamlessly,
except that his timing was poor,
and if he wasn't paying attention, tenses would get confused and his grammar was practically non-existant.

But Roger's greatest frustration with Near was that he couldn't convince him to wear shoes,
as Near was too embarrassed to admit that he hadn't learned to tie them.
He also wasn't the cleanest student by far, and would not only leave his toys lying anywhere he might have been,
but classwork, books, any snacks he might have gotten a hold of, and even once a piece of sea-glass that he had found lying on the floor of Austin's room.
It was unfortunate with Roger's old age and failing sight,
that he only saw the classwork, books, and snack foods.

Near was a creature of habit - moving back to the same spot he always had in the main study to sit,
and it's assumed that he must have been either observing or reading there.
Either way, he had obviously forgotten about the glass in the floor.
It's not that he would have been seriously injured if Mello hadn't found him that morning,
barely five minutes after he had stepped on the glass,
and he must have been the quietest child there that day, eyes glazed over while examining his own wound in awe - "Mello. Faire mal. Au secours."
(ahem, "Mello. It hurts. Help.")
Mello was about as familiar with French as he was with hearing Near ask for help -
so to hear both in the same breath was overwhelming for him,
and he decided to scream (very loudly), pointing and shouting at the offending gash in Near's foot,
like it might bite him if he got too close.

Roger insisted that he stay in medical for the next couple of weeks. Had it been a clean broken glass from the kitchen, things may have been easier.
But sea-glass would probably cause an infection - especially if Near found it in the room Austin shared with Matt; God only knew what was growing in there.
Near's time in bed gave him a chance to re-acquaint himself with his old love of puzzles,
and he went through them quickly and with such precision, that Quillish's visits became more and more frequent.
He brought arm-fulls of the most challenging puzzles he had - some even L hadn't been able to piece together so quickly.
But Near completed them all differently:
sometimes row by row, like he could already see the picture in his head;
Sometimes he started in the middle, which seemed impossible. And once,
Near even put one together while glancing mostly out the window;
his favorite one, a red barn with an old woman watering flowers.
5,000 pieces in under an hour in a zig-zag pattern. And nobody had bothered to count how many times he had already solved it, by then.

He stopped talking for a little while after that, and really there was no reason for it,
accept that he was tired.
It was redundant, constantly explaining why or how he did things; sometimes with children years above him listening intently.
Near was sure that they never understood half of what he was saying.
He was also sure that they would take the next available opportunity to spit whatever they had just heard into Roger's ear, all smiles and bright eyes.
That was the one thing he and Mello both understood,
and agreed on.
Wammy's was a warzone - the rules were to win, and professors were just fine with the means as long as there was a winner.
The faster you learned that, the closer you were to getting rid of those who didn't - and that was the goal, ultimately.

One morning, Austin didn't come to class - and Matt refused to talk or look anybody in the eye,
leaving the lesson early after telling Roger that there wasn't any point in learning "this shit" if that wasn't even good enough.
If Austin hadn't even been good enough.
Mello left second - and if Near hadn't known better, he might have thought that he was throwing a tantrum;
fists balled tightly, while muttering something about
"Bullshit. This whole fucking PLACE is nothing but a factory."
He even tried to hit Roger, when he tried to keep Mello from walking out.
By the time the lesson was over - almost three hours of politics and punnet squares,
Near walked out into the hallway to find Matt slumped against a wall, tracing stick figures on the brick with an eraser,
and Mello still muttering angrily - this time in a different language.
"Mello?"
When Near spoke, Mello was suddenly very quiet.
"Don't lose. Ok?"

And Matt was the only one that smiled.