Monkey: Well, I wanted to write two more chapters, but I figured I should finish this story already so I could move onto the final installment of this series (that I will eventually get started on).

Disclaimer? Disclaimed.

"Alright, can someone tell me what the hell is going on here?" Light asked, staring down at his kids. He placed his hands on his hips and waited for someone to say something. None of them moved to answer.

It was the last day of the bet and things had been getting rather hectic in the morning. They still couldn't figure out who was the preferred child and unfortunately for them, Light finally noticed their little competition.

L opened his mouth to speak but the boys all turned to look at him. It seems they had started to develop their daddy's patented look. That was going to be a problem in the future, he just knew it. Sometime later, he and Light were going to have a talk about that. He stared blankly at them. "Light, I think you can figure this one out."

The brunette shook his head. "For some reason, I thought the three of you were doing something as idiotic as competing with each other for my attention, but that's just silly and you guys are smarter than that, right?" He looked at them expectantly, waiting to be proved wrong.

The boys stayed quiet.

Light blinked in surprise. "… You didn't, tell me you didn't."

Mello was the first to speak. "We just wanted to know who you liked more."

"Yeah, we weren't doing anyone any harm." Matt added.

"It was only for the week." Near finished.

Light brought a hand up to cover his face then slowly brought it down. "What on earth made you three think that was a good idea? There are no favorites in this family!"

"Oh come on, we all know Near is your favorite," Mello spoke, defeated, as he plopped down onto the couch.

"Now that's not true," Light began, taking a seat by him and letting Near climb into his lap. "I'm serious when I say we don't have any favorites. We love you all equally."

"That's a lie! He's the favorite!" Mello pointed an accusing finger at the albino who just stared at him. Near didn't know what to say now that their daddy knew what was going on. He would've liked to be the favorite child, but somehow it felt wrong now.

Matt nodded in agreement with Mello and sat on the couch beside him.

Light frowned. He was hurt to think that his children were actually fighting over who he liked most. Didn't they think about his feelings? He didn't like seeing his kids compete over everything. He knew a little competition was healthy, but with these three, it always seemed to get out of hand. Like this time for instance.

It was bad enough all three had genius IQs and were constantly trying to prove who was better at what, now they were trying to find who he loved the most?

L watched them as he sat on the couch opposite of them and smirked until Light turned to face him.

"L. This isn't funny."

"Yes it is."

"L," Light warned.

The raven hair detective brought a thumb to his mouth and gave in to Light, again. Yeah, he definitely needed to have a talk with Light before their kids picked up a thing or two. "There are no favorites between you three."

It was obvious who held the power in their family.

L didn't mind, really. They both knew what went on behind closed doors and who really held the power in their family. But he would let Light have his moments.

"But there has to be! It's obviously Near." He narrowed his eyes at his younger brother. Matt also stared at Near and the youngest found it strange that they both thought he was the favorite. Why then, go through all this trouble?

Light looked down at the little albino in his lap. "Do you think this too?"

"Not really."

"Liar!" Mello jumped off the couch and turned to face the youngest boy. "He's always holding your hand, picking you up and carrying you everywhere even though you're old enough to walk. He stopped doing that to Matt and me a long time ago!"

Light looked at them before realizing what they were saying and blushed a bit. L smirked and decided to speak.

"Ah, there is a reason for that."

"L," Light warned.

"What?" L asked innocently. "I merely want to satisfy their curiosity."

Light was at the mall with a baby Near. The tiny albino was about almost year old and he had recently arrived to L and Light's house a few months back. The baby liked the house, as did his brothers, but his brothers were busy with their grandparents and L was off doing detective stuff while it was Light's day off. He had decided to go to the mall and take Near with him so he could buy him more toys since he seemed to have a strange liking of toys, much like his brothers had of chocolate (though Light was wary of giving Mello too much chocolate at such a young age) and video games (and it didn't matter how young Matt was, he really enjoyed pressing all the buttons and playing for hours).

They were at the food court and Light was too busy trying to order food while the creepy older male cashier kept hitting on him to notice that Near was getting a little fussy. The baby was bored and so he somehow unstrapped himself and carefully and quietly got out of his stroller without Light noticing since the latter was already planning how to murder the cashier in his sleep.

Well once that hard task was over with, Near began crawling away over to where he saw really big, fluffy, colorful stuffed animals. He wanted one. They were bigger than he was, he really wanted one.

No one seemed to notice the baby until Light finally looked into the stroller and saw he was missing a baby.

Can anyone guess how he reacted to this?

That's right!

He panicked, paled, and felt his heart stop.

"Near? Near! Where did you go?!"

Not to mention, how did he go?

He left the stroller after looking all around it for the baby and began looking everywhere in their immediate area. He finally found the baby a couple minutes later. Even by then, he was completely freaked out.

Near was climbing on top of a giant green stuffed dinosaur that was as tall as Light.

Light felt his heart stop again when he saw how dangerously close to falling Near was. Light rushed into the toy store and quickly caught the toddler as he reached the head and slipped.

"Oh my god! Near! Don't ever—how did you—oh I'm so glad you're alright!" He hugged the baby close. Near had a tight grip on his daddy's clothes and giggled a bit. He didn't know what happened, but he thought it was funny.

Light brought him back to the food court where his stroller was still miraculously there, thanks to a young girl who saw him run off calling for his kid and decided to watch over his things. The brunette thanked her graciously and strapped Near in, checking to make sure the smiling baby wouldn't get away again. With the baby in his sights again, Light felt his heartbeat return to normal and he went to go get his lunch, though he ended up just playing with his food and keeping an eye on Near who was busy clapping at invisible shows.

L hugged him and told him things were alright when Light got home and told him what happened and Light swore he would never let anything happen to Near again.

Unfortunately, the toddler had other ideas. Every time they went out, the toddler found some way to get away from Light and even L a couple times. It was even worse when he was with his grandparents or with Sayu. It wasn't until they noticed that Near stayed with them whenever Light held him the entire time that they realized that was what they had to do. They would always keep him close by—well Light would.

Near looked at the brunette who looked really sad. "… I'm sorry daddy."

Mello on the other hand was cracking up. "Damn! And I thought I was the bad child!"

Near cuddled more into Light who let him do so. "I'm sorry Near. I just didn't know why you kept leaving. I thought you didn't like us."

"I think Near just had an adventurous side to him in his younger days." L said.

Light sighed. "Well, now you guys know why I find it a little hard letting Near out of my sight. It doesn't mean I favor him over you guys, I just don't want to lose him." He looked down and felt his sight get a little blurry.

Before he knew it, three little blurs pushed him back with a hug. He blinked a couple times and put his arms around the children in his lap. "I love you."

"We love you too," they replied.

Light looked up and locked eyes with L. The detective shook his head. Light narrowed his eyes over the boys' heads. With a reluctant sigh, L came over and joined them on the couch. The kids let go of Light and cuddled in between their parents.

"Now, are the three of you going to stop this nonsense about who I love more?"

Matt was the first to nod. Mello slowly followed and Near finally agreed after.

"Besides, it is obvious he loves me more." L spoke up.

Light reached over and tried smacking the back of his head but L easily ducked out of the way with a smile.

"Face it, Light. You love me."

"I love the kids more."

"Your words wound me."

"Sticks and stones."

"That is beyond even my likes."

"I hate you."

L leaned forward and pecked him on the lips before hopping off the couch and heading towards the kitchen. "Light, did we have any left over cake?"

"No, you ate it all yesterday." The kids moved around Light to let him stand up and follow L into the kitchen. "Drop that tub of ice cream. I'm not letting you eat that after all the cake you had yesterday."

"But that was sugar for yesterday, I need some for today." L searched for a spoon.

"How about some fruit?"

"Only if they are covered with sugar or chocolate syrup."

"Dammit L."

The kids grinned at their interaction. Well, this competition ended without a definite result, but they really enjoyed the fact that Light, and even L, cared about them so much. And the kids loved them back just as much, if not more.

That night, Light went to bed and managed to—for once—convince L to join him for a little rest as well. Not an hour into their sleep, their kids came in, asking if they could sleep with them. Light happily agreed despite L fearing they wouldn't all fit with the kids' stuffed animals they brought with them and the kids climbed into bed and laid down between their sleeping parents. It was moments like these they had to treasure now because there will come a day when they can no longer do things like that. But until then, this was probably the best sleep the family had had in a long time.

They could only imagine what the kids' teenage years would be like. Not to mention, what Light and L would be like by then. Their family was full of dysfunction, but that's what made things so interesting.

Monkey: So I figure this seems to be a rushed chapter, but I actually had the flashback part written since I finished the second chapter (oh so long ago) and I just did what I could to wrap this story up. I tried, really.

I will see when I'll have the time to start on the final DN family fic, but I was thinking on focusing it on their teenage years. I have no clue what to write about, or what kind of shenanigans the kids-er, teens, will get into, but if anyone has anything they'd like to see, throw them at me, I'm open for ideas.

Well, to those of you who stuck around to the end, thank you for reading.

Everyone who favorited/alerted/reviewed, you are all lovely people, thank you very much.

See you guys in the next story!